Book Report: On the Plain of Snakes
The author traveled from the USA to Mexico. A famous author, he could access places you or I could not: Local writers gave him letters of introduction; but nobody knew what he looked like,* so he co...
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My family's doing Zoomsgiving this year. I just finished sitting in on our practice-run Zoom call. It went pretty well. There were a few times when we bumped into the usual video-meeting annoyances&m...
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I went to scenic Boulder, Colorado. I had a rough time getting around, so the resulting travelog is pretty whiny, sorry. ...
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/me flies back home from Boston OK, now Federal workers who are working without pay should definitely go on strike. ...
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Back in December, I took an overnight trip to Sacramento. Sacramento has rivers. ...
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I took an overnight trip to Monterey, which has a scenic rocky coastline and a big aquarium. I took some photos of rocks and of people looking at fish. ...
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Book Report: My Dateless Diary
It's a memoir/travelog: An author from India travels in the USA in the 1950s. Although at the time he liked America, with some hindsight, this book reminds us that "the good old days" were not so goo...
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Book Report: Three Eight Charlie
It's a memoir of the first solo woman around-the-world airplane voyage. Many of the challenges back then weren't so much the flying as the primitive airport technology and bureaucracy. This wasn't a ...
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Last week, I walked most of the way around the bay (again). This week, I wrote about it. Unlike the previous time I walked most of the way around the bay, I didn't make a point of stopping at interes...
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Book Report: The Skies Belong To Us
It's a book about Roger Holder, Cathy Kerkow, and other skyjackers of 1972 and thereabouts. Then, as now, someone mentally-unhinged seeking fame could get media coverage by threatening many lives in ...
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Puzzle Hunts and Real Life are Everywhere, even Washington DC
It's my Washington DC travelog. DASH enthusiasts might want to skip to DASH photos or not depending on how eager you are to read about art museums, technology museums, and people I know but you (stat...
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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even DC Metro
I am back from Washington DC. I have puzzler gossip. Folks there are organizing a series of afternoon hunts, a la BANG or SNAP or BAPHL. At the start of Washington DC DASH, Todd Etter and Evan Davis ...
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I'll be in Washington DC at the end of April for DASH. What should I see while I'm there? I've already seen a lot in the area on a previous trip when I put my socks on my ears. But what else should I...
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Book Report: The Art of Travel
I went out for a cup of coffee this morning and it felt like an adventure because: rain. Should I write a few paragraphs to convey the exhilaration of walking through a shower in a drought-parched la...
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Remember how I went sailing?
I went sailing a few months ago. I just now got around to posting a write-up with photos. Yes, it took me a while. If it weren't raining, I probably still wouldn't have got around to it. Anyhow: comp...
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Link: Confronting New Madrid
St Louis and environs for earthquake/disaster nerds ...
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Puzzlehunts are Everywhere, even Austin
Once again I site-volunteered with the first DASH GC who responded to an email. This year: DASH 7 in Austin TX. This was my first time in Austin, so I took a few days to wander around and gawk a...
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Further Around the Bay
I walked more of the way around the bay. You may recall that my walk most of the way around the bay last month skipped a few parts that seemed too dangerous for walking; and a part that didn't seem t...
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Book Report: Rolling Nowhere
It's a journal about riding the rails—hopping freight trains and living with hobos in hobo jungles (at least the hobos that were still around in the 80s). I don't want to hop freights; and this...
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That time I walked most of the way around the bay
I took eight days and walked most of the way around the bay. I wrote down some things that happened, took some photos. Let's hope I left out the tedious parts and included only the interesting parts....
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Trying to figure out how many days I want to stay in Austin. If I liked hanging out in interesting bars, the answer would be "Forever." But as it is, I'm browsing travel sites. ...
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Book Report: The Routes of Man
Better than a road trip, it's several road trips. Pirated lumber, mountainous roads, "the AIDS highway" years later, a Chinese road rally club, an ambulance in Lagos, … This book explores some...
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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even Musha Cay
My parents forwarded me this article about Adventure activities for travelers. Every few months, at Musha Cay, a private resort in the Bahamas owned by David Copperfield, the magician gathers his g...
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Looking over the (Google Translate of the) RebusRally #100 announement, something caught my eye: If the team has immunity (ie, at least half of the team has put rally with the team name) I wonder...
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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even Oakham
Puzzlehunters of the world, the Oakhammites of Oakham are calling us out: Well-heeled readers from further afield might also note that this event is one week before the Armchair Treasure Hunt Club...
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Link
THIS every-state-in-continental-USA driving route is even MORE optimal (if you're optimizing for Scrabble). ...
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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even Davis
Once again, I used the DASH puzzlehunt as an excuse to travel. This year, I site-volunteered for DASH 6 at Davis, California. You can read about DASH at Davis and marvel at photos and perhaps start a...
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Puzzlehunts are Everywhere, Even Davis
Davis is a ~1.5 hour train ride out of the SF Bay Area; when the Hogwarts Game put folks on a train to Sacramento, that train passed through Davis. Until recently, I hadn't spent much time in Davis; ...
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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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Link: The Augmented Detective
It's an ARG (a story you can play through by wandering around a neighborhood) in Downtown LA with artifacts to admire and videos to watch. Well, it's a potential such thing. So far, it's a Kickstarte...
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Those New York photos from a few weeks back now have some words attached. But I didn't emerge from this trip with so many anecdotes. When it's hot, I just kind of shuffle around, whine, and don't do ...
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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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Returned safely to San Francisco. Sketching out plan of restorative burrito consumption for next few days. ...
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DASH LAX 2013 photos
DASH5 was a couple of weeks ago, remember? I went to LA to help out. Along the way, I took some photos: DASH LAX 2013. One of the folks there, Francis Hsu, was volunteering in Los Angeles and then vo...
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Looking for Group: Ravenchase Great America Hunt
Are you putting together a team for Ravenchase's Great America Hunt? I wanna play. You should pick me for your team. The good news: Scurrying around all day solving puzzles seems normal to me. The ...
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Link: Can you code better than a fourth grader?
What if we're talking about a Vietnamese fourth grader? Neil Fraser went to Vietnam, and since he's a programming/educating nerd, he checked out the local computer science programs. He didn't just ch...
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Link: Library Hotel
NYC's Library Hotel is arranged by the Dewey Decimal system. If you stay on the 5th floor, that's the 500 section (science); if you're in room 500.001, that's the math room. (Why isn't the math room ...
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RFP: Request for Location-Based Puzzles from Your Hometown
I encourage you to send me a location-based puzzle from your hometown. Or a few, even. The online-puzzle-trail-in-the-making Order of the Octothorpe now has some location-based puzzles... but they...
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Link: Ravenchase Great America Race writeup
A team of west-coast puzzlehuntists played through the whole Ravenchase Great America Race last week, solving in cities from Washington DC to Boston. They blogged the race, mostly posting a writeup t...
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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even London
DASH, the pan-USA puzzlehunt, is coming to London next year. So next year when I ask the DASH GCs "What city could use another volunteer? Tell me where I'm going on vacation this year." I might end u...
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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even St Louis
You must enjoy this St Louis travelog, aka how I traveled to DASH4. And it's also my report on DASH4 itself. Remember when I micro-blogged about tornado warning sirens? I wasn't kidding. ...
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Book Report: Maphead
@KenJennings, funny Jeopardy champion, writes about maps and geography. He's into maps; he talks about why he likes them and why other people do, too. But that's not all. He talks with geography soci...
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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, so I'm traveling to DASH again
Remember how last year I had a blast in NYC helping run DASH there? I'm doing something similar this year, but this time St Louis. Once again, I put myself into the hands of fate and said I'll volunt...
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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, including NYC, NYC, NYC, and NYC
Happy 4th of July! It's USA Independence Day, a good day for us Americans to set aside our customary humility and exult in what makes our country great. So it's a good day to remember that not all th...
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Seattle 2011 Write-up
I wrote up February's Seattle trip. Astute readers will notice that it starts out very detailed, then suddenly becomes very sketchy. I started out writing something detailed. Then I got busy and back...
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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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Zine Report: Cometbus #54
On February 17, I read a tweet and a blog post. Just realized that now that Comic Relief is closed, I have no reason to go to Berkeley. -@SpectreCollie Cometbus 54, Green Day in China, and me......
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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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Seattle was awesome! It's good to be back in San Francisco, though. ...
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I Dare you to Travel to DASH
DASH is a puzzle hunt that's held in several cities. Last year, Deb, one of the bay area organizers, flew to NYC where GC was short-handed. She had fun, got to know some puzzle freaks, and she knew ...
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Zion Nat'l Park (et al.)
I'm a little slow on the updating, but as of a little more than a week ago, I'm done with that cold. It's nice to breathe easy again, but I still feel fairly busy what with playtesting on Ghost Patro...
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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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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, like Lindy Hop
Yesterday, Debbie Goldstein was at a playtest and so was I. And thus I got to hear a little about her trip to New York City. Debbie is, as near as I can tell, the force of cajolery behind the DASH ...
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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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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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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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Posted Chicago Photos
I went to Yosemite! But that was this week. Last-last week my parents and I went to Chicago. I posted some photos, some mine, some other folks'. They're more likely to interest you if you're related...
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Book Report: Fire Time
Fire Time is a science fiction novel from the early 70s. It brings you back to an earlier kind of science fiction. The author Poul Anderson drew out a solar system based on a trinary star. Then he...
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Book Report: A Feast for Crows
I was a tourist in downtown Houston. I'd brought a couple of books with me--I finished those and left them behind. So now I had room in my bag for a new book. And I'd need a new book or else I'd h...
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Texas Travelog
A while back, I asked for Texas travel advice and y'all had good advice. Where by "y'all" I mean "Curtis" Thank you, Curtis! (I think Darcy told me to go to Austin; this advice was disqualified on t...
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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, even Tampa
A few years back, I pointed out a multi-day Game shaping up in New Zealand with a bionic theme. That game never came together. But all was not lost! Eagle-eyed Justin Graham got word: The GC for tha...
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Link: USA Census Tract Data
I want to travel somewhere, but where? I like the places that I've been. I could keep going back to them. Then again, one reason to travel is to see new things. How do I keep from falling into a ...
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Dear Lazyweb: Texas Travel?
Any advice on things to see in Texas? Specifically, things in the east-ish Dallas-Houston-ish parts that might not make it into a guidebook? Maybe engineering-geekish things? If you're a friend of...
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Book Report: Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
It's a recent railway travelogue by Paul Theroux. It was difficult to read in places, perhaps because it is so recent. His trip was in 2005-2006-ish. He sees stirrings of trouble around Ossetia--s...
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Book Report: Daemon
(If you posted a guess about the secret message in the jack-o-lanterns photo, then you were right! Especially considering that was an unplaytested "I have no idea if this is possible" puzzle, I am su...
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Book Report: War and Peace
Russian novels are long. Back in high school, my English class was supposed to read Crime and Punishment. Our teacher asked for a show of hands: how many of us had finished reading the book. Mine ...
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Book Report: Uncommon Carriers
I'd read most of these John McPhee essays already, and it was nice to read them again. This collection includes the essay about riding in the hazmat truck. That essay is darned good. Look, not all...
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Book Report: Cometbus #50
Yesterday, it was too hot. In the evening, the neighborhood finally cooled off--a breeze blew through. My apartment was still too hot. So I applied my Game equipment to writing about the game--I we...
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Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, Even New Zealand Again
Ages ago, I went to New Zealand and observed that Puzzle Hunts are everywhere in New Zealand or at least Christchurch and Nelson. Now it looks like some outfit wants to run a Big Game in New Zeala...
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Curtiss H. Anderson: Three more / Lea W., one for the Road
I continue to type up these Curtiss Anderson essays which fell into my possession. Today, three of his travelogs: Kyoto Paris New England Speaking of travelogs, you might remember that the first ...
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Book Report: My Kind of Place
As a snack on Saturday, I had some hummus on good bread. For dinner, I had some more. I didn't think to put the hummus in the fridge in between, but I thought It will probably be OK. But it wasn't O...
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Site Update: New York Travelog
I went to New York for a couple of weeks. I didn't emerge with any exciting anecdotes. But you can read the travelog anyhow. The main thing I got out of the trip: the best New York pizza is not so g...
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Book Report: the Zero Game
I just got back from a business trip to New York. I stayed in a corporate apartment. When I entered the apartment and looked around the living room, I saw that previous tenants had left some books to...
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Book Report: Beyond the Hundredth Meridian
On the one side: snake-oil salesmen selling land, politicians seeking more consituents, consultants boosting their chances at government grants with Pollyannish lies of a land of plenty in need of s...
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Book Report: Portuguese Irregular Verbs
I posted a new travelog on this site, but I don't think it turned out very well. So I'm not going to link to it from here. I won't take the time to point out stuff I've done that doesn't read well....
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Link: ExistentialTraveller
In June of 2005, Tom Manshreck drove from Brooklyn to Alaska. And he wrote about it. Tags: travelog | Canada | baseball |Labels: road trip, travel...
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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: Jan 05 Road Trip Report
Just nine months after the fact, I uploaded a write-up of the road trip that Tom Lester and I took back in January. You could argue that in 2004-2005 span, I thus completed another unemployed travel...
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site update: New Zealand 2004 Travelog
Waaaay back in December, I went to New Zealand. I caught glimpses of puzzle hunts, looked at giant ferns, paddled kayaks, talked about old telegraph equipment, snapped lots of photos, rode a train f...
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Book Report: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
In this collection of essays by David Foster Wallace, I was glad to read the title essay. It's about his experiences on a cruise ship. I've always wondered if I would like being on a cruise ship, a...
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Book Report: Road Fever
What does it take to drive from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay in less than a month? Will, determination, and paperwork. A big stack of paperwork. Folders and folders of paperwork. Visits to con...
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