#SFHellscape

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Painted Ladies with APEC LASERs. Maybe more fun to pronounce than it is to look at. In tangentially-related news, there was a coyote hanging out in Alamo Square park this morning. ...

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Yesterday, my phone's camera app updated. Today, it crashes when I attempt to pinch-to-zoom. It turns out I pinch-to-zoom a lot; I guess it's my go-to move. In theory, I could still use my camera for...

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It was good to see these people again. Let's hope those test negatives were true ones. ...

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Bivalent vaccine selfie: (I applied the circly photo filter because all my vaccine selfies were starting to look the same.) ...

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Krakenwagen update: Searchers more rigorous than me found a couple of better online pix of the krakenwagen (small pics here, click a pic for link to original). Thanks to Ray Ryan and Dan Egnor for finding these an...

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Maybe the real horror was that Alien was inspired by terran lifeforms. ...

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When I went to the blood bank on Friday, I saw something funny: there were banners up declaring "Blood Drive Today." I wondered Why "today"? Why is today different from all other days? San Franc...

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a city in such decline ...

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When I popped out of the coffee shop on the homeward leg of this morning's walk, a rainbow dazzled me. San Francisco doesn't get much rain; I don't see many rainbows. This one caught me by surprise. ...

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Today at sunrise, I snapped a picture of Sutro Tower. Turns out I wasn't the only one. ...

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The dahlia garden at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers is OK. (Also I may be tinkering with figuring out how to make my blog pictures show up in Twitter by means of Twitter "cards" and a...

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I snapped a picture behind the Starbucks in case wildfire smoke blows in later and I want to remember what clean air looks like. ...

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💉💉 It's been two weeks since my second COVID vaccine dose. I'm about as immune as I'm gonna get. San Franciscans, I'm about on pace, vaccination-wise, with the median city resident over 16 years...

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I saw this sign at the Lawn Bowling Club in Golden Gate Park: Why did they call it a "decoy bird" instead of a "scarecrow"? I never saw the fake bird. I looked around and thought I spotted a co...

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New Glasses Selfie On the day my new glasses were ready, I found my spare pair of glasses. It sure would have been nice to find those a month and a half ago, yep. Anyhow, my new glasses have metal under-rims instea...

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San Francisco fans of parks and the Pythagorean theorem will appreciate this picture. ...

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Haircut Day I got tired of remembering not to brush my hair out of my face. I gave myself a haircut. The haircut doesn't look great. On the other hand, maybe it's sufficiently off-putting that folks will remembe...

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Someone left offerings to Hippocrates today, including flowers, a gavel, a slice of pizza, and water. I didn't think leaving offerings to Hippocrates was a thing(?). But apparently it is today at UCS...

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Ever wonder why the engineering department doesn't normally get business headshots? ...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even San Mateo Behold, it is photos of BANG 35, that puzzlehunt that took place in San Mateo. Well, there are photos from the second weekend, when I was GC-site-volunteering. The first weekend, I was playing&hellip...

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It's a double do-gooder shirt sticker day. (#IVoted a couple of weeks ago, but waited until today to affix the sticker.) ...

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Broke my glasses; hauled my spare pair out of storage. Can't remember whether I purposefully chose extra-nerdy frames to prompt swift replacement, but that's sure how it's working out. ...

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Haircut Day ...

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I played through Firewatch a second time. The first time through, I'd played in a very focused manner. Given a mission, I carried out that mission with no side-tracking. But that was kind of a shame,...

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It's like someone started to bedazzle this lamp post. And then someone labeled some stones for a phone keypad before noticing that there weren't enough. Or something? It's like something, that's for ...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, Maybe even Ten Places Ten Times Shinteki Decathlon 10 was on Saturday; and on the Saturday before that. And a month before that was the playtest. Ten of something like this is an impressive milestone, so I got extra clicky with my ...

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Wanted: Mnemonic for Proper Coyote Hazing What this photo is failing to show you is a coyote peeking out from amongst the eucalyptus trees uphill from UCSF Parnassus Heights, i.e., really really close to where I live. That's from my walk ...

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Copy photos from Android to Ubuntu Connect w/USB cable. On the phone, choose PTP. On Linux machine, run Shotwell. Shotwell can then import the photos. Yes, I'm basically jotting notes to myself on my blog. Sorry, here's a gratuitous ...

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Over-Engineered Walks: Pittsburg Yesterday, I walked from the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station to Old Town Pittsburg and back. This was my last walk chosen by that "Geocaching Vicinity" system. It was a good system. It was a good...

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Link: Photoset of Chicago 2013 Puzzle Hunt It's 2015. Why am I only now seeing these photos of a 2013 Chicago puzzlehunt? Because I'm a nerd even when touring (touristing?), I recognized those library stacks. ...

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Assumption school exists. The jokes practically write themselves. ...

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Larry Lane …as encountered on a walk through the Oakland Hills ...

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Link: Burmese Punks Think You're #1 Pogo Dancing in Myanmar (via Giant Robot) ...

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My modeling career continues At first I wasn't sure it was me in this image from the excellent (recently redesigned!) Shinteki puzzlehunt website. I recognized Dan and Jesse sure, but the guy behind Jesse is pretty grayed out. ...

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Updated a photo of McGrouther-Conradi tacks with an informative message I got about their history. ...

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Suppose octothorpean.org had photos of you and/or other puzzle nerd teams at various puzzle-y places. Where would be a good place for those photos? Soon-ish, Octothorpean will reward you for sending...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere and Sometimes Well-Defended Back in the Justice Unlimited game, we stepped off the end of a pier to retrieve a puzzle atop some pilings. But you wouldn't pull that stunt nowadays, of course, it's too dangerous. Those pilings ar...

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Vertical garden, Hickory Alley ...

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NYC and LI photos A week ago, I was in NYC and Long Island. I took photos. Some interesting things happened. I hope someday to write some of them down. July, maybe? Let's say July. ...

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New-to-me Golden Gate Bridge overlook by Battery Godfrey ...

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The @Shinteki logo, before it was a triangle, was a seated discus thrower. (Specifically, it was a mash-up of Rodin's Thinker and Discus Thrower statues.) That was pretty funny because ha ha who thin...

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Photo: Niantic Ave If you walk from San Francisco to the Daly City BART station, you could pass this. ...

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th;dr I was only partway through this book's intro before my wrists got tired just from holding it up. I had to stop reading it. Thank you, Kindle inventors! If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't hav...

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When we figured out that Black Bart's Hidden Hoard would take us to a labyrinth in SOMA, I was certain what GC meant, but wasn't too pleased. Though it turns out I was certainly wrong. On 8th Street,...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even SOMA As part of the Come Out and Play festival, the Idryos ran the Black Bart's Hidden Hoard Game. My team conked out early, but I got a blurry photo (and three not-so-blurry ones). ...

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WarTron Photos I took photos at The WarTron Game. Other folks took photos of the WarTron Game. Please enjoy these photos of the WarTron Game. Special Bonus: also my Portland travelog of the stuff I did before WarTr...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even the Sunset District Shinteki Decathlon 7 was awesome, so you might wonder: why is my Shinteki Decathlon 7 Writeup just a couple of photos and a few paragraphs that don't say much? Hey, gimme a break. It's been an e...

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Two steps forward, one slide back I bought a couple of clip-on lights. Also, I bought a new counterweight. To keep this whole mess from sliding forward (until all the pencils are under my elbow), I'...

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Now with carpenter-pencils clipped on. I found carpenter pencil clips for sale online, and they arrived. It turned out they weren't small enough to be "snug" on the pencils so I had to help them ou...

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I'm on my way to a new level of handiness or dorkiness... or maybe both at the same time. ...

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Link: Nourot Studio glass pumpkins Behold a link to Glass pumpkinoid decorations, photos thereof. One stop during the bay area rerun of the WHO game was Nourot Glass Studio in Benicia. On display were glass pumpkins. Of course, The ...

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a few WHO game photos Seeing as how it usually takes me approximately forever to write up a game, maybe I shouldn't wait to post these WHO game photos. ...

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I walked south and took some photos http://goo.gl/nQMb5 ...

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Photos: Kim + Ryan's Wedding I watched my cousin Kim get married today. It was pretty awesome. Afterwards, I couldn't help but notice that my camera was full of photos. You can see them if you like. Also, my mom talked to my cou...

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I went on a walk this morning. I took a few photos. ...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, including water-related places in the SF Bay Area I was sooooo sure that the Shinteki Aquarius Remix water-themed puzzly treasure hunt game thingy would send us to the Pulgas Water Temple. I remember a few years ago, back when I started playing thes...

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DASH3 NYC Photos Buddhists would say that I should live in the now, but jetlag says otherwise. I'm sleepy as if I were three hours in the future. But I guess I'm awake enough to cull and crop some photos and then sho...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even San Francisco I saw an interesting flyer on 9th Avenue today. I haven't done much with it, so it might not turn out to be as interesting as I hope it is. And I early on encountered an instruction which prevents me...

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I updated the 36 Views of Seattle's Grain Port Terminal page, swapping out one of the old photos for one that I took last month featuring that awesome covered conveyor as seen from a few blocks away ...

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Attn: Friends of Tom Lester Tom et fam. are well, and I have photographic proof (Annie's well, too, but I didn't have my camera out at the right time to prove it. Anyhow.). If you'd like to visit with the twins, now's your big...

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PhotoCity Pervasive Capture-the-Flag Photo Game Part II PhotoCity is this game where you "capture" areas of a city by photographing them. But you can't play in just any neighborhood. The game only works if you start in a place that they've "seeded". I h...

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Seattle Photos Uploaded photos from my 2011 Seattle/Kirkland trip. I should get around to some kind of a writeup soon. Ideally before I forget everything that happened. ...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even Bvrlingame Behold, it is a handful of photos from BANG23. You notice how I'm carefully staying ambiguous about whether there's a full writeup coming anytime soon? Let's see how long it takes me to finish writi...

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Photos from New Camera Since my old camera got me hypothetically (but not really) trampled by an ornery moose, I got a new camera this weekend. And I took some photos to try it out. Most of them turned out pretty badly! ...

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Green Tortoise tour photos Yesterday, I got back from a Green Tortoise (backpacker/hosteler bus) tour of some northern-USA parks, including the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Zion canyon. I haven't done a write-up yet, but the...

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Boring Photos: Cathay Bank vs Spier, O'Neill, et al Pardon me as I once again use this blog as a place to keep track of notes to myself. I'm keeping track of some photos that seem boring, and that I hope continue to seem boring. They're photos of a no...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even Justin Herman Plaza and SoMa The Shinteki folks say that they're not keeping Decathlon 6 under wraps anymore, so now I can reveal more photos on the Mystic Fish vs Decathlon 6 page, along with a couple of photos from t...

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Paranoia is Everywhere You See It, even just South of Market When Debbie talked about why she wasn't that enthused about continuing with the Games of Nonchalance, she described her experience as "creepy". And there's plenty of creepiness going on. A few weeks...

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Shinteki Decathlon Photos Behold some photos from Shinteki Decathlon 6. I played last weekend, volunteered this weekend. It was pretty awesome. I got to see some places in San Francisco I hadn't visited before. Speaking o...

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The One with the Hats Yes, I am behind on writing up games and such. And I really hope I get around to writing something more about DASH2 than one photo. But wow, what a photo. ...

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Seattle 2010 Trip Notes Remember how I went to Seattle months ago? I finally got around to writing down some Seattle 2010 travel notes. Time-saving tip: you can write up your travel very quickly if you first procrastinate f...

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Milestone: 16 Million Hits Wow, it's the site's 16-millionth hit: 207.46.13.132 - - [08/May/2010:13:51:57 -0400] "GET /frivolity/photos/old_misc_sf/sffloat.html HTTP/1.1" 304 - "-" "msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot....

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Last-minute improvised Mystic Fish Hat I can't find my usual Team Mystic Fish hat, so I jury-rigged this. ...

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Link: PhotoCity Pervasive Capture-the-Flag Photo Game Just watched a video of a recent talk by a University of Washington professor named Popovic. His schtick is crowd-sourcing difficult tasks by turning those tasks into games. (Have you heard of Rosett...

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Site Update: 36 Views, Some Different I'm finally looking at the photos I took when I was in Seattle a couple of months back. One advantage of waiting a couple of months to do this: I've had time to forget pretty much everything that ha...

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Photo: Alarm Will Sound You can never have too many photos of me. So I uploaded a photo taken by Benjy Feen in scenic Kirkland, WA. Someone looking at this photo might think that I'd just set off a building alarm by blund...

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Puzzle Things are Everywhere, with Local Witnesses A while back, I blogged about Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World, a tourist spot in New Zealand with a big maze and other weirdness. Why do I bring this up? Local gamist Chiu-Ki Chan went there, a...

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Yosemite Photos I went to Yosemite earlier this month. While I was there, I took some Yosemite photos, which I now make available to you, the internet. Thank goodness, right? I mean, the internet totally suffered...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere simultaneously I posted some notes on DASH #1. There's a photo. This would be a good time for me to mention: "playdash". (My DASH photo is not as cool as the photo of Jack o Lanterns including one with a hi...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even Stanford I uploaded a few photos from BANG 25.Labels: photo, puzzlehunts, site...

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Tiny Update: finally posted zombie chess puzzle layout photo Finally posted a photo of the Zombie Chess board layout to the directory of Zombie BANG photos. Why yes, that did take a while.Labels: photo, puzzlehunts...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even appearing simultaneously in Redmond and Palo Alto Behold, it is notes from Microsoft Puzzle Hunt 1[23]. I volunteered at the bay area simulcast. I took a couple of crappy cameraphone photos of the playtest. I dressed up as the angel of death and ot...

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Ghost Patrol Links, including Photos Yeah, yeah, you were waiting for the Ghost Patrol results, but me, I was waiting for Wesley's photos. And he posted them: Wes Chan's Ghost Patrol photos. Mostly photos of puzzles and of our team (M...

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Jack O' Lantern Hidden Message Pumpkins? This year, I can't deal with pumpkins. This year, I'm leting Hallowe'en slide. My free time goes into BANG 19. Puzzles and logistics, logistics and puzzles. That's plenty to think about....

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Site: Yet More Library Book Cart Graffiti Photos I went to Doe Library again yesterday and I had my camera with me--with some juice in the batteries this time. I snapped photos of the re-shelving carts, the ones which have been decorated. I guess...

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Site: New Photos for the Lyon St Page Last week, a few folks headed over to Pete's place to watch the movie "Appleseed Ex Machina", which was pretty good. Pete lives in the Marina district. Thus, this was a chance for me to once again ...

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Site Update: Los Angeles Photos I took some photos in Los Angeles, though they aren't exactly photos of Los Angeles. Instead... uhm, museum-goers. They're photos of museum-goers. I must have been in a weird mood that week.Labels: l...

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Just Three Shinteki Photos I didn't take any Shinteki photos. That's not quite true. I took a photo of an easel while GC was still setting up. Then Brent put a cover over the easel, like folks weren't supposed to see it so ...

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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere: Midnight Madness Photos I went to the Midnight Madness: Back to Basics Game and all I got was a t-shirt, a pencil, a card announcing an upcoming Game, eight photos, and the most challenging adventure of my life.Labels: phot...

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Site: Gratuitous Photos of 17th Street (Am I the only one who checked the coedastronomy site in case they meant March 3 Greenwich time?) I can post an admission that I'm half-done with a handful of projects, but I don't have to like it. ...

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Site Update: Islais Creek Area Photos I'm still working on that write-up of the Hogwarts Game. Today was a milestone: I finished listening to all of the audio I recorded. I had an audio recorder on me for most of the time I was in the ...

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Hogwarts Photos A few weekends back, I helped to playtest the Hogwarts Game. Then I went to a few puzzle-construction parties. Last weekend, I volunteered for Game Control for the duration of the Game. I'm workin...

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Shinteki Write-up Addendum: More Photos Pete came through with some photos, which I sprinkled into the Decathlon II report. Now the truth is revealed: I was carrying a clipboard, rocking a headlamp, and wearing travel pants with zip-off l...

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Out on the Bay Today, Yay! (4) How awesome is sailing with friends? Sailing with friends is so awesome that maybe before you set out, you're demonstrating how to work the pump-toilet and the pump-toilet isn't working quite right...

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Out on the Bay Today, Yay! (3) Can I claim to be "out on the bay" if I wasn't on a boat? If I was just on a dock? I was at Fort Mason for a game play-test. Beforehand, I went out on a dock, and I was certainly above the bay. ...

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Out on the Bay Today, Yay! (2) On the Hornblower California sunset cruise. That's the sun in the background, washing out a lot of this photo's color, sorry. You can see Fort Mason behind me if you squint into the virtual light....

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Out on the Bay Today, Yay! (1) On the ferry to Angel Island. I'm holding the camera tilty, sorry. That line of low yellow buildings behind me--that's Fort Mason. Tags: photo | nautical | foreshadowing |Labels: f...

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Site: Uploaded St Louis Photos Last weekend, I went to St Louis. I didn't emerge with any exciting stories, but it's an exciting time for St Louis--there's a lot of rebuilding going on. I took some photos of some old St Louis bu...

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Site Update: Photo, Comments, Geo Happy Pi Day! I made some little site updates, no biggie. Tom Lester took a nifty photo of me, so I added a thumbnail link at the Portrayals page. New messages on the comment page. GeoURL snapped ...

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Saw I recommend this photo. Tag: photosLabels: link, photo...

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