Geoff Hom's blog: Finding Nemo: Ditch Day 2006

On Caltech's Ditch Day, I helped with the "Finding Nemo" stack. (See my previous post for an overview of Ditch Day.) What follows is a very long and detailed description of our adventure. :-)

The "Finding Nemo" stack was conceived, planned, and implemented by my friends Qinzi, Steph, and Chris. The premise was simple and based on the movie: Search for Nemo and rescue him. Qinzi cleverly convinced me to fly from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to help out on Ditch Day itself, since seniors who remain on campus are liable to be duct-taped to a tree. We also had help from some others . . .

The stack was advertised as "50% finesse, 40% honor, 10% brute force," and I think 100% cuteness. The students would find clues as they went along; I've included some of that text in italics. There stack was designed for 8 students. The stack started at 8 am in the Avery House "Upper Fishbowl" lounge, appropriately. The first clue was to be opened then:

Avery Upper Fishbowl 8:00 AM

NEMO: First day of school! First day of school! Wake up, wake up! C'mon, first day of school!
MARLIN: I don't wanna go to school. Five more minutes.

Wake up frosh (or should we say clownfish?)! You don’t have to go to school, because it’s Ditch Day! Put on your stripes, eat some breakfast and prepare yourselves for some fishy fun goodness!

Everyone started off with a custom-silk-screened T-shirt (with stripes!), breakfast, and some other goodies, including a "floaty fish." They also had the next clue, but they knew not to open it until the designated time (Honor!):

Avery Upper Fishbowl 8:20 AM

As any good clownfish knows, you should start the day by cleaning yourselves against the fronds of your anemone home. In other words, whack each other with the fun noodles for a while (and anyone else who could use the hygiene).

Avery Upper Fishbowl 8:30 AM

It’s time to venture out of the safety of your reef. Go to the Avery library for your next clue.

Avery Library

MARLIN: Now, what's the one thing we have to remember about the ocean?
NEMO: It's not safe.
MARLIN: That's my boy. So, first we check to see that the coast is clear. We go out and back in. And then we go out, and back in. And then one more time out—and back in. And sometimes, if you wanna do it four times—

Check around for predators. Like Marlin suggests, just to be safe, go back to the reef (i.e. the Lower Fishbowl). You’ll find your first real clue and you will meet a friendly fish guide.

Isn't that cute? Just like in the movie, they went out a little bit, and now they're going back in.

Who's the friendly fish guide? It's me! I introduced myself as someone who would accompany them and take pictures with my camera, like this pic:

From left to right, it's Jian, Caleb, James, David, Rachel, Yijia, Shuyi, and Eric. Note that the group already seems to have found Nemo . . .

Before we moved on, there was some serious puzzle solving to do:

Avery Lower Fishbowl

NEMO: What's that?
TAD: I know what that is. Oh, oh! Sandy Plankton saw one. He called, he said it was called a...a butt.
NEMO: Whoa.
PEARL: Wow. That's a pretty big butt.
SHELDON: Oh, look at me. I'm gonna go touch the butt. [sneezes] Whoa!
TAD: Come on, Nemo. How far can you go?

How far will you go to touch the “butt”? Are you brave enough? Strong enough? Smart enough?

This set of clues will lead you to the location of the “butt”. Start by deciphering each puzzle. Once you have deciphered all your clues (you need to do this before you start), make your way to the east outdoor faculty parking lot of Avery. Look for the Finding Nemo logo. It will tell you which clue to follow first and is the starting point for your search.

In the movie, Nemo and his friends thought a "boat" was called a "butt." So which were we looking for? And what were the puzzles? They were Sudoku!

Unlike regular Sudoku, each had a message encoded. Can you figure out what this one says?

The Sudoku was taking some time, so I went outside and watched the Ice Age stack free Scrat from a block of ice for their next clue.

Eventually, the Nemo team solved all the sudokus and deciphered all the messages, which were directions. However, the order of the directions would only be revealed one at a time. So we headed out to the east Avery faculty parking lot.
While we looked at the next clue, Caleb saw a senior (Grant) and chased him to the campus bounds.

The next clue led us across the street to PCC (Pasadena City College), where we saw a clue down below (down under?).
A group went down to retrieve it, and it led us to the top of the PCC parking lot . . .

. . . except we accidentally went one floor too high. :-)

The next clue was at these Pepsi machines; Caleb found it.

This led us to this butt . . . a horse's butt! But not too far away was . . .

. . . another butt! Everyone had to try to touch the statue's butt. Why? Because it was in the movie! And I was told they had to do that--before I gave them the next clue!

PCC Statue

Oh no! Nemo’s been kidnapped by the butt! You have to chase after him!

Find the small stream a few feet to the west of the statue. Starting at the beginning of the stream, race your small plastic floaty fishes down until the stream ends at a grate. If they get stuck, help them go over or under the obstacle. The first one down gets to open the next clue which is located at the end of the stream.

Last one down’s a rotten squid!

Time to use our floaty fish! This was a silly race, but that's what made it fun! :-)

Rachel won the race by a . . . waterslide?

I also had the next clue, which I gave them after the race:

End of PCC Stream

Oh no! You’ve lost sight of the butt! Where has Nemo been taken?

The clue included an overhead transparency, which we were told to keep for later. It also included a picture of some blue jeans and a pool table. That meant the "gene pool!"

The gene pool is named such because there is DNA (double-helix) tile pattern along the bottom of the pool.

There were some goggles in the pool that we had to retrieve.

Caleb opted for the brute-force method. We also found another transparency and our next clue:

Gene Pool

Still no luck finding the butt, but you do find these goggles. Unfortunately, you have no idea what the inscription says. Hopefully, you will find someone who can help you decipher them. But for now, keep up the search for Nemo. Could he already be in the land of Mann?

The goggles had a code on them that we couldn't yet decipher: like in the movie, when Marlin found the goggles but couldn't read the writing on them! The clue also indicated we should go to the nearby Court of Mann . . .

. . . where we ran into some sharks!

Court of Mann

Oh no! You’ve bumped into sharks! Big sharks... big, scary sharks. They seem really eager to talk to you about something, and they’re getting awfully close. You’d better defend yourselves.

Using the water balloons and keeping your distance (behind the line), knock the sharks down. Show them how much you don’t want to be dinner!

If you aren’t able to hit the sharks, they will swim closer to you. Take a few steps forward and try again. Look at those huuuge teeth!

When you’ve conquered the sharks, go take a closer look at what they’re carrying with them.

The idea was that one balloon probably wouldn't be enough to knock over the sharks, so it would require some teamwork. When we threw as a team, the sharks (and chair) toppled over--revealing the next clue!

Underneath the Sharks

D’oh! Looks like the sharks were just trying to be friendly and invite you to a Fish are Friends, not Food gathering.

Since we all wholeheartedly agree that fish should be friends and not food, you should attend this protest.

But first, you better rest up and recover from that whole scary incident. Go to the Health Center.

"Fish Are Friends, Not Food!" The sharks' motto! Well, first to the Health Center!

On the way, we also ran across the "Around the World in 8 Hours" stack . . .

. . . and the "Stop the Harvey Mudd Invasion" stack . . .

. . . another stack was at Millikan Pond . . .

. . . a flag waited to be unfurled . . .

. . . and we ran into some sheep!

At the Health Center, we needed to tell a joke to proceed. (Because we're clown fish, like Marlin!)

Apparently, we were all supposed to tell a joke, but Shuyi told a very good one, and I guess that was enough. :-)

The Health Center had posters for us . . . protest posters! Before we could eat a very nice lunch at Tom Mannion's house, we had to protest the eating of fish there!

These posters were hilarious.

It's me!

I can't believe we're actually going to do this . . . (Honor!)

Yep. We protested down the street . . .

. . . and at Tom Mannion's house while the other stacks were arriving for lunch.

Since we were off campus, Chris and Steph met us for lunch, as did Qinzi and her boyfriend, Brant!

Lunch was good. (Seriously, very much thanks to Tom Mannion!)

After lunch, we took a break and split up a little. Some of us met part of the "Bleach" stack. ("Bleach" is a Japanese cartoon.)

By this point, we had acquired three overhead transparencies, which seemed to be part of a map. So we regrouped (except for Yijia, who wanted to take a nap) and headed to one of the map pedestals scattered around campus.

Here, Caleb is pretending to have one bad fin, like Nemo.

We used the three overheads to triangulate (or tricircle?) our next destination. At first, we misread the map and went into Human Resources. They were delighted to see us, but they didn't have a clue for us.

Fortunately, I had some other pictures on my camera . . . like this one showing where they had placed the next clue. :-) I told the team to go and check the map again, and we were soon back on track and found our next clue:

Behind Steele House I

Ooh, that’s a scary looking trench up ahead! Still, your senses tell you that it’s better to go through it. After all, you might be able to find something useful on the other side.

If you look at the map above, you'll see a narrow passageway along building 85. That's the trench!

Unlike in the movie, we did the right thing and went through the trench. However, we still found:

Behind Steele House II

Oh no! You’ve cleared the trench only to find yourself in a forest of poisonous, stinging jellyfish!

In order to safely get out of the jellyfish tentacles, you need to bounce along the tops of the jellyfish (since they don’t sting).

By carefully stepping only on the circular jellyfish tops, make your way out of the jellyfish forest.

The jellyfish were drawn with chalk on the asphalt. We had walked right by them earlier in the day and not noticed! On our Honor, we had to jump across! At the end, we found the next clue:

South Moore Entrance

Phew! Made it! Swim towards Millikan pond, but beware of more jellyfish!

More jellyfish? I guess we'll see . . .

The Jolly Roger has set sail!

These guys are way too quick to get into the water. Well, we are fish . . .

At Millikan Pond, we found Dory--surrounded by jellyfish (plastic peanuts)! We also found this clue:

Millikan Pond

What’s this? More jellyfish? And a poor blue fish is trapped in the middle! She looks scared and about to pass out!

Unfortunately, because of all the jellyfish, you can’t just jump into the pond and rescue her. But maybe you can find some tools that can you can use to save her.

Wales are very helpful, friendly animals, even if they aren’t exactly fish. Go ask a professor whale if he can help. Be sure to be very polite, respectful, and, of course, be sure to speak to him in his own language, whale.

"Whales" is misspelled . . . or is it? They must mean Professor David Wales in Mathematics!

We found professor Wales in his office (with Claire, another friend from Avery!), and spoke to him in whale. The professor obliged us by giving us a box containing some tools and an RC boat!

RC Boat

Now that you have these tools, find some way of constructing an appartus that you can maneuver around the jellyfish and use to bring the little blue fish safely to you.

Our team was fast. It seemed like less than a minute before we had retrofitted the boat into a Dory-saving machine. However, the boat didn't have a lot of power, so saving Dory took a little longer.

But eventually we succeeded!

Dory

Hi! My name is Dory! Thank you for saving me from those bad squishies! Hey, what’s that you have with you? Goggles?

I recognize these markings! Oh, drat… what do they mean? I’m sorry, I have a bad memory.

Wait! I know what they mean! Each set of three numbers refers to a single letter, but you need a way to figure out what those letters are. I don’t remember what the numbers stand for off the top of my head… but I do have this key! Maybe it will lead us to something that can help us decrypt your goggles.

(The key leads to an item that will help you understand what the goggles say. Hint: when deciphering the key, spaces and empty lines don’t count, but all other characters do)

After we rescued Dory, Eric played Godzilla.

And my old high-school friend Tori dropped by!

The key opened a student's mailbox. It took us awhile to figure out which mailbox . . . but eventually we found the right one. Inside was a Caltech textbook: the key to deciphering the message on the goggles we had found in the gene pool. (The code was something like page number, line number, character number for each letter.)

Look! I'm an electric fish!

In the end, the message told us that Nemo was being held by the dentist at Pasadena Dental Care! We're almost there!

Oh, wait. I had one last clue to give the team:

Mailbox, Post-Decryption

So now you know where Nemo is! But you can’t just race over there to rescue him. Dentists are very territorial and defensive of their property. They also have sharp, scary tools that can hurt a lot.

Before you can enter the dentist’s domain, you have to find something that he wants. This way, you can just trade with him for Nemo. But what does he want?

This dentist has lost some tools… maybe if you find them, he’ll give you Nemo back. It won’t be easy to find these tools, though. You’d better go back to home to the northwest corner of the Avery courtyard and look around for something that’ll help.

Back in Avery (where we started!), there was a shiny, gift-wrapped box and another clue:

Avery Courtyard

If you can get this crate opened, its contents will definitely help in your search for the dentist’s tools!

You’ll need both strength and intelligence to get to the fragile contents of the crate. It would probably be best to split up into two groups.

One group should carefully pry open the crate while the other should search around to find a key to open the final layer of the crate. The key has been misplaced under a loose cement block south of the dining area of Avery house. To find the exact location, you will need to make use of the enclosed clues and the symbols located on several nearby blocks.

Once you have the contents, you will need to travel upstream to the source of the EAC, or the EAton Canyon river to find the location where the dentist’s tools were last seen. Some sea turtles have offered to give you a ride partway there. Call [# omitted] to let the turtles know when you’re ready and then go meet them in the Holliston parking circle east of Avery.

Okay. A couple people would break apart the outer layers of the box. The rest would search for this new key. Yijia was back and rested, and the key group quickly found the next clue:

Avery Courtyard – The Key Group

As you’ve probably noticed, there are variously colored fish scattered across the bricks of the walk directly in front of the Avery dining room. Only four of these symbols will ultimately lead you to the location of the brick covering the key.

To determine these four symbols, you will need to make your way to four locations on campus, depicted only by the enclosed photos. Begin with the Level 1 photo (closest zoom). If you get stuck (we mean, reeeealy stuck), look at the Level 2 photo. If you’re still stuck… you get the point. The Level 4 photo should give away the location.

Once you have discovered the four relevant symbols, use the rope to help you determine where the key is. Hint: X marks the spot.

Interesting . . . a type of photo scavenger hunt. For those familiar with the Caltech campus, I've included the Level 1 photos for fun.

I thought it was cool when the key group decided to get their bikes to speed up their search. It reminded me of "The Goonies!"

In the meantime, pirates had turned the gene pool blood red!

The photos took a lot longer to track down than the box, but we eventually got all the pieces together.

Now it was time to find the key. X marks the spot?

Ah. Use the four fish symbols we found to mark the ends of the rope . . .

. . . aha! It should be under this brick!

We opened the box and took a celebratory picture, while we waited to enter the EAC.

What was in the box? A metal detector!

In the movie, the EAC is the East Australian Current . . .

. . . but here, it's EAton Canyon! We got a ride to the EAC from three friendly "sea turtles": (from l to r) Teddy, Javi, and Brant!

Teddy was our guide through the EAC. We saw lots of nature.

After a bit of a hike, we found Chris and Stephanie waiting for us! They led us farther in.

Our task was to find dentist tools buried in the sand. This was tough; at one point, even Steph and Chris didn't know where the remaining tools were buried! But we persevered, and everything worked out in the end.

Finally, we could head back, go to the dentist, and trade the dental tools for Nemo.

However, we were already behind schedule and it was past 5 pm, when stacks usually end. So, Chris took the dentist tools himself, threatened the dentist with them, rescued Nemo, and brought him back to Avery for us! (That's our story and we're sticking to it. :-)

Nemo