The First Easter Egg

I received my copy of 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline and started sorting through it to find the Easter Egg (a hidden website). I had this idea that the clue might end in .com but I also considered that it could end in .net or .org making it possibly very hard.

You know how they say that sometimes the mind works best if it's allow to wander while doing something else? Well, that's the tactic I employed. I was streaming some video over the net and flipping through the book to try and find the clue.

(1) I went supremely obvious with the first one. I tried the name of the game world - theoasis.com which took me to a weird website. Okay, it wouldn't be that easy.

(2) I considered how the hero of the story solved the puzzles. The one that seemed to fit the most was the "Adventure" video game clue (for the 2nd key?). I checked out that scene because I recalled it included a hidden room. I remembered incorrectly and that led nowhere.

(3) I went back to the beginning of the story. I was reading through the "video" that starts the contest. In the video, it mentioned Warren Robinett, the first designer to add an Easter Egg to a game. I went on to wikipedia to check him out. His name was spelled correctly, but I tried warrenrobi.net anyway. Nothing.

(4) In the same section, the name of the company running the game world stood out - Gregarious Gaming Systems. I tried that website. It lead me a real one with the logo for the company. I tried clicking all over it, but nothing happened. Still, I knew I was on the right track.

(5) I figured if Gregarious Gaming Systems was on the web, I could search for it on google. I did just that and it brought up two websites that seemed relevant. I was already on the one, but the other one led me straight to the first gate. In retrospect it seems too obvious, and yet it took me a while to find it. That either says something about me or them.

(6) The game was called "The Stacks" and it was a classic Atari platformer. I didn't read the entire instructions, so it took me a while to beat it. Only after reading how to avoid dying by the "flashers" was I able to collect all the parts to the console. I beat it and found the QC image.

(7) I don't have a smartphone, so I couldn't scan it normally. It took me three downloads to find a program that would scan it from my computer. Then, I had to crop, brighten, and increase the contrast so the program would read it and reveal the second gate.

The current leader board is below. At least 225 people beat me to it. I'm going to have to be faster if I want to win that car.


Leaderboard

playing games for cars

what a sweet fun life I have

when I believe it

The Hunting Game

One of my favorite books from last year was "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline. The basic idea is an Easter Egg hunt across a giant video game / virtual reality world. All the clues and answers are based on 1980s pop culture (movies, music, video games, books).

I wasn't even alive in the '80s (although neither is the protagonist of the book), but the story sucked me in like quicksand. I missed most of the references, including ones to class works that I will not mention because I am still ashamed I haven't actually read/saw/played them.

So, I read the book, liked it, and forgot about it. Until today. Ernest Cline set up his own Easter Egg hunt like the one in the book (on a smaller scale of course). I'm going to try and do it. Inside the book is a clue to a web site. Once on the site, you have to play 3 different video games (probably from the 1980s) to win a 1981 DeLorean. Thankfully I know that's the car from Back to the Future. I'm not sure how I'm going to find it, but like in the book, it sound like fun.

www.ernestcline.com

today's game challenge:
find the hidden Easter Egg
win an awesome car

Astoria, Oregon

Astoria, Oregon in summer.

A bald eagle in flight. 

Melancholia

When Haruki asked me if I had ever seen a Lars Von Trier movie, I said 'no.' When he asked if I wanted to see a Lars Von Trier movie, I said 'yes.' After watching Melancholia, I will forever change those answers around. Watching is really the wrong word. Experiencing. Yes, like brain aneurysm. 

I can appreciate Melancholia. I can be awed by it. I can be moved by it, but I can't like it. The entire movie isn't about depression. The entire movie is about making you feel how a depressed person feels. It doesn't want to you to become depressed. It wants you to understand what it means to be depressed, what it feels like, and to accept the futility of trying to make a depressed person happy.

The first part (Justine) is an outsider's view of someone depressed. The second part (Claire) is an insider's view of someone depressed. To make you see this, Lars Von Trier crashes another planet into Earth.The planet is depression -- inescapable and inevitable, overwhelming and obvious, desperate and doomed.

We can't change the whole world, but we can change our little part of it.

Melancholia IMDB

the difference between

melancholy happiness

is seen in line two 

Chelsea

Yesterday, soccer proved once again why it is the greatest sport on earth. Soccer is the sport most like life in all its glory and disappointment, excitement and waiting, opportunities and failures. In the end, like life, soccer is all about moments.

At its home stadium in Germany, Bayern Munich played Chelsea in the Champions League Final. They were heavily favored because, well, they were playing at home and Chelsea finished 6th (!) in their own league this year. Oh, and Bayern Munich is the better team and they played like it yesterday.

And they lost. Soccer is about moments. Life is about moments.

Bayern shot almost four times more than Chelsea (35-9). They both scored one goal.

Bayern had 20 corner kicks. Chelsea had 1. Chelsea scored on a header off their only corner kick.

Bayern made 3 of 6 penalty kicks (one in overtime and five in the shootout). Chelsea made 4 of 5 penalty kicks. Both teams missed their first penalty - the difference being, Bayern's first penalty would have ended the game. Chelsea's first penalty made no difference.

Didier Drogba tied the game for Chelsea with three minutes to go. He fouled Ribbery to give Bayern what should have been the winning penalty kick. He put in the final winning penalty kick in the shootout. In just over half an hour, he went from hero to villain back to hero.

We won't remember the foul. We will remember the goals.Those are the moments that will define his life. Those are the moments that define us all.

Champions League 2011-2012

the beautiful game

can be played across the earth

one ball, goals, and dreams

The Beginning

It started with a pen stroke. The idea of putting life on paper. The desire to record what happened, what is happening, what will happen. The simple act of writing, the complex art of creating. It will end with so much more.
A friend asked me the other day: if you had unlimited time, what would you do? I told her I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I want to learn and grow but that seems so selfish. I want to create and leave my mark on the world but that seems so arrogant.
So what will I do? 
I'm still young. Thirty still seems old. In a way, I do have all the time in the world. I guess I'll figure it out before it's too late. I hope.

 I think it's time to bring back poetry.

The middle matters

when every new beginning 

guarantees an end.