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Tukey Hunt II

December 7, 2011 in Fun, Life, Web Design with 2 Comments

Turkey Hunt II
I thought it might be a good idea to document the second annual Turkey Hunt – a scavenger hunt meets Geo-caching meets family fun activity I developed last year and decided to continue again this year. I knew that I had to at least maintain the level of complexity to fun ratio that we all had last year, but I was really trying to do better. I’ll let you be the judge…

The participants were my brother and his family and my family – not even my wife was privy to the workings of the Hunt, which meant she could play right along. We also had to do this on Friday night after the Arkansas vs. LSU game (we won’t go into detail on this subject) because Saturday was supposed to be rainy all day. Luckily, I planned for rain.

This year started with three anonymous texts to my wife, brother and his wife. Each with one word each that when you put them together kicked off the Hunt officially. The words were UNDER, WELCOME, MAT. There they found an envelope with a letter stating the Hunt was now underway should they want to play.

The Great Turkey Hunt

November 29, 2010 in Fun, Life with 2 Comments

I LOVE puzzles and this year, I decided to spice up the Thanksgiving holiday by creating a modern-day treasure hunt. Everyone was coming to our house and it was all coming together quite nicely.

It all started with a delivery by my neighbor that had a box with a letter and a bag of items inside. He relayed a story of how he came into possession of the box (great job BTW) that was very Indiana Jones/Men in Black-ish. The kids were in awe and as soon as the door was closed, they were in the box.

The letter outlined the game and had one hint on it that led to a map where 12 plastic bottles were hidden. On the back, it had what looked like notes from someone who had been tracking the treasure for some time (ala Myst). Included were GPS coordinates to the bottles and the plan was to walk the neighborhood and find these bottles, but the weather had a different idea as it rained the entire day. So, we loaded up the van and a follow car and headed out.

It was quite a sight to see – me and three little boys running around in the rain looking for little plastic bottles with only the GPS unit guiding the way. After crossing back and forth over the one square mile that made up the playing field, we finally had all 12 bottles in hand. Now it was back home to find out what they contained.

Inside each bottle was a multiple-choice Thanksgiving trivia question and each was marked with a roman numeral from 1 to 12.

I had the best time designing the game and the treasure was worth the effort and we now have a memory that will last a lifetime, which is the point of holidays I have to say. Good luck and post a comment on how you did.

Hay Maze: Evolution

November 1, 2010 in Fun with 1 Comment

I’ve always wanted to design and build a hay maze. It goes back to my fascination with puzzles and secret passages. So, when I got the chance to design and build one for our company’s Halloween carnival, I was giddy to say the least, but how to start. After a few minutes, the idea came to me to use Lego blocks to build it. So I raided my son’s collection for all of the 1×2 blocks I could find and set to work. Below is the evolution of that process.

Of course I had to do a 3D model.

Here’s the finished maze.

And the kids loved it.

The maze consisted of 100 bales of straw hay that was loaned to us by the Schaeffer’s from the Mayflower Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch fame. If you ever make it out there, make sure to find Ms. Schaeffer and hug her neck…just because she’s good folk.

The carnival was a great success and the hay maze was a first, but certainly won’t be the last. Bigger and better next year! :)

Thanks to my teammates in the Training and Development area – everyone worked hard and is still recovering from hauling hay all over the place.

Clippy Helps Disabled Bot

April 14, 2010 in Fun, Life with 0 Comments

Once again, the mighty paper clip has come to the rescue – this time for a hobbled alien robot motorcycle. As I was putting this poor fella back together from his horribly dismembered state, I realized that one of the pieces was held into place by a metal pin. Not seeing the pin, I assumed the worst – it had been lost in battle.

I was just about to resign myself to notify his next of kin regarding his lifelong limp when I remembered my friend Clippy. Maybe he could help this poor chap out. I ran to the super secret Clippy cave (drawer in the office) and sought an audience with the mighty paper clip superhero.

He graciously granted me time where I pleaded for the injured sentient two-wheeler. After a few moments of dramatic pause, Sir Clippy agreed to help and the rest is history.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

The post-op procedures involved some wire cutters and a piece of tape to hold the repair in place – a small price to pay for full mobility.

Love Affair: The Paper Clip

April 12, 2010 in Fun, Life with 2 Comments

Yes, it’s true, I have a love affair with the big paper clip that goes back a very long time. First, paper clips are incredible devices and the history is quite interesting (if you are a geerd - mostly geek with a sprinkle of nerd – like me). For me, there is no better source of high-quality wire on the planet and wire is the core ingredient of some of the most useful custom tools in my world.

From time to time, I’ll post info on how the mighty paper clip is enhancing my life and this blog will serve as a place of homage to the grossly under-appreciated paper clip – especially the big ones. Here’s the most recent save that can be attributed to the awesome Biggie, as I like to call it.

Sunglasses temple structural reinforcement
The temple on my sunglasses failed recently. The metal part inserts into a plastic piece that goes over my ear. The glue that held the plastic piece on the metal frame failed and the two pieces came apart.

I tried Super Glue – didn’t work because of the finish on the metal and because it didn’t, the plastic piece became stressed and the socket finally broke wide open making the glasses completely useless.

Next came Gorilla tape – the stuff is amazing and puts Duct Tape to shame and I though, “Surely this will hold.” And it did, but it still allowed the plastic piece to twist around the metal as the tape didn’t provide enough rigidity to hold it firmly in place. It wasn’t coming off, but it moved around too much.

Enter the large paper clip. With a pair of needle-nose pliers, I was able to create what is best described as a “splint/tie rod” to not only keep the plastic piece and the metal piece joined properly, but keep the plastic piece from twisting.

I’ve got to say, I’m completely impressed with the solution. Not because I doubted the paper clip, but because I doubted my skill to employ the mighty tool in such a way as to achieve such an elegant solution. Judge for yourself.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Stickiness – Commercials

March 23, 2010 in Fun, Marketing with 0 Comments

Stickiness is defined as something that stays with you and can be recalled from memory at a moments notice – sometimes in the most random times. Some of the best ones come from TV commercials. This morning I heard one that I hadn’t heard in a long time: “Calgon, take me away…”


What are some that you can remember?

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