31 Aug 2005 @ 1:07 PM 
Just found out that despite being in the top third by seniority of both my group and the company at large (which is how office space is allocated around here), I’m back on the list of people who don’t get their own office. When my boss broke the news to me, he added "not that this is any consolation, but there were people who were tripled up before you got doubled…". Now, don’t get me wrong–I understand that space may be tight around this part of campus, and I’ve had office mates before and it worked out just fine, but this just isn’t normal.
Posted By: Scott Blomquist
Last Edit: 31 Aug 2005 @ 01:07 PM

EmailPermalinkComments (1)
Tags
Categories: Uncategorized
 30 Aug 2005 @ 10:33 PM 

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I played in a Seattle area Game a couple weekends ago. Despite not having much time outside work these days, it’s time to start writing it up before I forget too much. I’ll make it a series so I don’t feel like I have to find hours to write up the whole thing in order to start getting my thoughts out there.

Leading up to the game, all we had to work from was the web site. On it were a few simple puzzles that either indicated things to include in our applications or to be sure to bring with us. Two of the puzzles particularly stand out in my mind.

[Warning: spoilers for the puzzles posted on GalacticConsortium.com follow. If you have any intention of solving them yourself, please go there now and come back when you're done.]

The first one was the handbook entry for a planet called Waxxo. It told some story about how the people of Waxxo wear things called flibs that come in size 40 or the next smaller size of 50 or the next smaller size that’s a larger number still. We struggled for days to come up with something that met that description, and never really did. What they were looking for were t-shirts measured by interpreting their sizes (XL, L, M) as Roman numerals (which was obliquely hinted by the phrase "All roads lead to Waxxo"). Cute. But hard.

The second puzzle from the web site that stands out in my head was the handbook entry for senka, "a style of poetry popular among the inner planets". It’s like a cross between a limerick and a haiku, only weirder. The puzzle hidden on that particular page is fairly straightforward, but the invented poetry form is pretty cute.

The site started out with a staticky background that we thought for sure ought to be a stereogram, but it wasn’t. Eventually, they snuck in a stereogram. Who knows how long they had that planned.

In part 2, I’ll talk about the Friday night activities. I’ll have more things to both rant and rave about then.

Posted By: Scott Blomquist
Last Edit: 30 Aug 2005 @ 10:33 PM

EmailPermalinkComments (0)
Tags
Categories: Uncategorized
 30 Aug 2005 @ 2:44 PM 
The parking lots at work are tight right now. Apparently, there’s some maintenance going on in one of the parking garages that’s taking up quite a few parking spots, because coming back from lunch it’s very difficult to get a spot. I get here early enough most days that there are still hundreds of people who show up after I do, so it’s rarely difficult for me to find a spot in the morning.
Posted By: Scott Blomquist
Last Edit: 30 Aug 2005 @ 02:44 PM

EmailPermalinkComments (0)
Tags
Categories: Uncategorized
 30 Aug 2005 @ 12:38 PM 
Warning: getting started with DROD (Deadly Rooms of Death) may result in chronic severe productivity loss!
Not that I have time to be addicted to a game these days, because we’re coming up on the second milestone of the project I’m working on for MSN Search, but DROD is seriously the best Rogue-like puzzle game I’ve played since ZZT. And given the sound track (including the dialog), it may even be better than ZZT.
On to DROD!
Posted By: Scott Blomquist
Last Edit: 30 Aug 2005 @ 12:38 PM

EmailPermalinkComments (2)
Tags
Categories: Uncategorized
 30 Aug 2005 @ 1:27 AM 
Somehow this evening I ended up on Fandango’s web site (I think I was checking to see if The Island was still playing in my area) and I noticed that The Blues Brothers was back on the big screen in celebration of the release of its DVD special edition. The start time for this one-time deal was already past, but apparently they simulcast a live interview with Dan Aykroyd and the other writer before the movie itself, so I hurried to the theater. When I asked the ticket person if it was too late to buy a ticket for a show that started an hour ago, she looked at me funny and then volunteered to sell it at the student rate (still a whopping $7–the _real_ reason no one goes to movie theaters these days: high prices). I got in just in time to see Joliet Jake being let out of prison. Easily got my $7 out of the deal.
Posted By: Scott Blomquist
Last Edit: 30 Aug 2005 @ 01:27 AM

EmailPermalinkComments (0)
Tags
Categories: Uncategorized
 25 Aug 2005 @ 12:09 PM 

http://oos.moxiecode.com/examples/cubeoban/

Posted By: Scott Blomquist
Last Edit: 25 Aug 2005 @ 12:09 PM

EmailPermalinkComments (1)
Tags
Categories: Uncategorized
 24 Aug 2005 @ 12:31 AM 

http://www.abc.net.au/gameon/chasm/chasmgame.htm

Posted By: Scott Blomquist
Last Edit: 24 Aug 2005 @ 12:31 AM

EmailPermalinkComments (0)
Tags
Categories: Uncategorized
 19 Aug 2005 @ 1:56 PM 
Obligatory puzzle/game/thing to keep Shawn from yelling at me: http://www.planarity.net/
I’m headed up to Bellingham tonight with five of my puzzle-solvingest friends for the release party for the 42nd printing of The Mooncurser’s Handbook. Something will "go terribly wrong" either at the party or at the hotel the next morning, and we’ll be off on a quest to save the world in a 12 passenger rental van stuffed with every gadget that any of us owns. I’ll write up a detailed report once I’ve caught up on sleep early next week.
After this event, my schedule doesn’t have any puzzle-related events on it for many months. I think I just might experience debilitating withdrawal symptoms. But I have an event up my sleeve that I’m going to host sometime this fall. Stay tuned for more details.
Posted By: Scott Blomquist
Last Edit: 19 Aug 2005 @ 01:56 PM

EmailPermalinkComments (1)
Tags
Categories: Uncategorized
 19 Aug 2005 @ 1:29 PM 
A friend of mine sent a party invitation to my Hotmail address, but work is where I keep my master calendar. So I went hunting through my Hotmail calendar to find and forward the invitation to my work address. Unfortunately, I can’t find a way in Hotmail to forward calendar entries. However, I did stumble onto a pretty slick feature. At the top of any days for which MSN has a weather forecast, they put a weather synopsis. Which is great for "what days am I free to go hiking this weekend" types of questions. When you have so many things that you can integrate intelligently, it’s always fun to see what people think of.
Posted By: Scott Blomquist
Last Edit: 19 Aug 2005 @ 01:29 PM

EmailPermalinkComments (1)
Tags
Categories: Uncategorized
 12 Aug 2005 @ 6:22 PM 
When I was down in Los Angeles for the National Puzzlers’ League convention, I went on the Warner Brothers Studios Tour. In the WB Museum that they took us to at the end of the tour, they had the real live Sorting Hat. He was actually alive and everything. I sat up on a stool, one of the Museum’s staff put the hat upon my head, and with almost no thinking whatsoever, he shouted out simply "Slytherin!". I’m not quite sure what I think of that, but just in case you’re avoiding those of us from the Slytherin house, that includes me.
Posted By: Scott Blomquist
Last Edit: 12 Aug 2005 @ 06:22 PM

EmailPermalinkComments (0)
Tags
Categories: Uncategorized

 Last 50 Posts
 Back
Change Theme...
  • Users » 4
  • Posts/Pages » 192
  • Comments » 133
Change Theme...
  • VoidVoid
  • LifeLife « Default
  • EarthEarth
  • WindWind
  • WaterWater
  • FireFire
  • LightLight

Contact me



    No Child Pages.

About me



    No Child Pages.