May 20, Friday, was "Ditch Day" at Caltech. That sounds so innocuous, but it's really quite elaborate. I did an extensive writeup of just one "stack" at Ditch Day 2006 here. (There are ~40-50 unique stacks on Ditch Day.)
I didn't find out when Ditch Day was until the day before. It's a surprisingly well-kept secret each year, so even one day's notice is a privilege (or great luck). The late notice didn't stop me from changing most of my plans and waking up before dawn.Because Ditch Day is a secret, a lot of the props and puzzles are hidden until the last minute: the seniors spend all night finishing, moving, and assembling hundreds of puzzles throughout campus. Ditch Day starts at 8 am, so I arrived before 7 in order to see all the stacks and puzzles in a pristine, unsolved state.
"Officially," I was there to help the "Harry Potter" stack of Avery House. (They turned the Avery Library into the "Shrieking Shack"–a two-level maze formed from moving boxes.) I wouldn't be needed until later in the day, so I happily explored the rest of campus to check out the other stacks.
Around 7:30 am, I was checking out Ruddock House when I saw two guys from the "Leverage" stack moving this big, wooden … sculpture. I asked if they wanted any help, and they said yes. We spent thirty minutes trying different ways to carry this bulky thing across campus, until we finally got a ride from one of the campus supply trucks. When we finally made it to the designated field, the dummy collapsed! (He's doing the splits here.) Although it seemed like a fail at the time, I'm sure the participants found a way to still have fun with this guy.
Once Ditch Day started, the undergrads donned shirts for their chosen stack. Then they went puzzle-solving across campus. I ran into this stack and had to get a photo. The stack is "Indiana Jones and … the Ocarina of Time"! ("The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" is a Nintendo game from 1998 and is the highest-rated video game of all time.)
Even though I graduated in 2005, I still have some friends at Caltech. One of these is Cynthia Carlson, who works for my old boss, Steve Mayo. I took Cynthia on a whirlwind tour of Ditch Day stacks. Here we found some top-secret, fragile documents for an unknown stack.That's one tough thing about Ditch Day: we saw all these cool things on campus, but for most of them, we didn't find out what they were for. (But a few times, we were in the right place at the right time!)
This grid shows the stacks for one of the Caltech houses; the grid is to help each student decide which stack to participate in that day. Along the top is the name/theme of each stack (e.g., "Futurama"). Along the left are different aspects of each stack (e.g., tunnels, fire). Note that "Gardening" is missing from all of the stacks.
While Cynthia and I checked out Avery House, we saw a group across the street at the maintenance plant. We were just in time to see this clever puzzle!The plant has this deep shaft. A dozen boxes of various sizes had been placed at the bottom, and the students had to use a makeshift crane to bring up each box. (Presumably they needed something in some of the boxes.)
I liked this puzzle because it was well-hidden, it revealed something neat (I lived in Avery for 6 years and never knew about the shaft), and it was a great exercise in anticipation and problem-solving. (The boxes are easy to see; but how do you reach them? Which one has what I want? And what will it look like when I find it?)
Back in Avery, the Harry Potter stack ("Harry Potter and the Mysterious Legend") had moved on to another part of campus. But they had converted one of the lobby areas into a Sorting Hat area, plus the wand shop.It's amazing how effective a little calligraphy can be.
We caught up with the Harry Potter stack in front of Beckman Auditorium. They were playing Quidditch, of course.Notice, in the foreground, a tarp revealing just a bicycle wheel. Which stack is it for? And what's under there?
A professional video crew finds part of the "Jedi vs. Sith" stack.One of the great tragedies of Ditch Day is that almost all of the awesome and creative puzzles, etc. are seen by only about a dozen people (the students solving the stack). There are so many wonderful stories and histories that would bring joy to others. So, I was glad that the administration hired this film crew. But there's no way one film crew could cover even 5% of Ditch Day, especially without knowing what's where.
Back in Avery again, the conference room had been turned into a kitchen/class for "Transfiguration" for the Harry Potter stack. Transfiguration in Harry Potter is the art of transforming one thing into another (e.g., a car into a potted plant). How to adapt this into a real-life stack? Cake-making!
The students had to turn cake materials into a given animal (owl, turtle, teddy bear, cactus).Can you guess which one this is?
While the transfiguration class was in session, I saw some familiar faces in the custodial room next door. It was Maria and Enrique, two of the long-time custodial staff! In the middle is John Liu, an Avery alum who flew in from Boston just to help out with Ditch Day.
Another great thing about Ditch Day is seeing how the campus is transformed. Consider just Avery: the library became a cardboard-box maze, a lobby became a wand shop, the conference room became a kitchen/transfiguration/sculpture class, and the vast dining hall became: a life-size word search! The Indiana Jones stack used it to adapt a scene at the end of the "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," in which Indy has to step on the correct letters to spell "Jehovah" … in Latin. As with most Ditch Day puzzles, this word search had some Caltech/nerdy twists. Either way, it was totally cool. And the use of sand to cover just enough of the letters was inspired.
Again in front of Beckman Auditorium, we find what was under that tarp on the Quidditch field. It's a bicycle frame … welded to a shopping cart! Apparently the red team's bi-cart hadn't worked out, but that didn't stop them from having fun!
Back in Avery once more, I had time to wander the halls. Avery House has a mixture of not just undergrads and grad students, but also some faculty. Here is the apartment door for one faculty family, and it really surprised me! These are the Zmuidzinases–a.k.a. the Z's. The Z's lived in Avery until about 1999 or 2000, but then they moved away. It's great that they came back! |
| From Ditch Day 2011 |
May 21, Saturday, was the "Ridiculous-Obstacle-Course Race" in San Diego. The website is here. It's a 5K with a dozen obstacles thrown in.
Now before you think too highly of me, I didn't run the 5K. But I did drive 60 miles to watch some friends in it. That counts for something, right?Left to right, it's Mel, Elise, Sue, and Jeanne. We all worked together at Genentech.
I have several relatives in San Diego. This trip, I took the opportunity to visit my cousin Lance and his wife Jonelle. They graciously let me stay at their place. I also got to visit their church on Sunday.
Later on Sunday, I caught up with Mel, Elise, and Jeanne. We decided to try a famous breakfast place in San Diego. The wait was a little long, and the place may be a little overrated. However, I appreciated their chorizo, which is the red stuff at the top. What I appreciated was that it looks like chorizo, and it tastes like chorizo, but it's actually tofu. Same taste, more healthy = win!
After our big lunch, we went for a hike near Torrey Pines golf course. Just past the golf course is a nice hike to the beach, and along the way are some really unusual rock formations.Here again is Mel, me, Jeanne, and Elise. Only Elise lives in San Diego, so it was really cool that we could all get together again.
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| From San Diego, ROC race |
A better look at some of the rock formations.
So, it was a super busy weekend. But super fun.
The next weekend, Memorial Day weekend, was my church's church camp! I was really looking forward to this as a chance for people at the church to get to know each other better, and my hopes were pleasantly fulfilled.
Church camp was on the campus of Pepperdine University, in Malibu. It's nice. Here, we're worshipping in the amphitheater, which has a view of the sea. |
| From Church camp |
Church camps can be quite diverse. I've heard some are almost like academic conferences, but ours was more like church vacation. That suited me quite well! Here, I was having quiet time on a balcony with this great view.
Actually, I think the key to our church camp was that everyone was divided into pseudo-random, same-gender small groups. My group had an 18-year-old, a 24-year-old, me (34 years old), two older guys (45 - 65?), and Pastor Ken. It was a great mixture of ages and experience. We met for a few key moments throughout the weekend, and we definitely got to know each other better than we would have at church. (I'm not sure I would have even met any of the guys during church.)
I didn't take many pictures during church camp, but others did. I think this link will go to our church's Facebook photos page.
My favorite part of church camp was during communion ("The Lord's Supper") at the end. We did it in our small groups. I didn't even take communion (long, same ol' story). However, I was almost moved to tears watching each group get up, look for its members, and just be together. It was really impactful to me for some reason. (I just hope everyone got to be in a small group, like most of the organizers.)
Everyone at church should be in a small group! (Or at least get to experience being in a small group.)
So that was my Memorial Day weekend … except for one thing. The Friday before the weekend was the birthday of my good friend Glenn Mondro. (Glenn's the guy who drove with me on part of my Minnesota -> Sacramento trip.) Glenn lives in Sacramento, so I called him up on Friday to wish him Happy Birthday. Of course, we ended up talking for a couple hours, mostly about video games and how he should take a trip down to LA to visit me. I thought we agreed that Glenn would research transportation options, email me later, and we'd go from there. Hopefully he could visit in a few weeks.
Then on Sunday, while I'm in Malibu for the whole weekend, I get a call on my cell. Glenn had driven down on Saturday to LA! He ended up visiting another friend, but he needed a place to stay or he was driving back on Monday. Crazy guy.
Long story short, I told Glenn to hang around LA on Monday during the day, and later we caught up and he stayed at my house for a week. I don't have any photos, but it was a full, fun week. We played a lot of video games and board games. We also caught up with Nick McGee, another childhood friend. On Friday, June 3, the three of us watched an improv comedy show that Nick is sometimes in. The show is called Improv Shmimprov. It's sort of like the TV show, "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?" There are two opposing improv teams, and various improv games they act out in front of the audience. Improv Shmimprov can definitely get raunchy/offensive, but we were laughing throughout. Three of the funniest parts:
- A game in which one person has committed a crime and will receive a punishment, but he has to figure out what both of those are from clues from his teammates. The guy's crime was that he "broke into Narnia." There were references to wardrobes, lions, witches, "see us loose" (C.S. Lewis), Christian fables, and even Turkish delight. And the criminal is like, "It's like … the Golden Compass!" When he finally apologized by saying, "So, I broke into Narnia …," we all cheered. (The punishment was that he had to tease his hair. Go figure.)
- A game in which an everyday scene is acted out repeatedly, but each time the actors have to "step it up." The scene was three people at the DMV, and the first time, one guy mentions some bees buzzing around the room. By the last iteration, one of the other guys was transforming INTO a bee because he had to wait so long at the DMV! (And he drove a Volkswagon Bee-tle, har har.)
- A game called "Time-Travel Raptor." The game was made up on the spot, and it involved a dinosaur raptor (think of "Jurassic Park") travelling to three key moments in time and wreaking havoc. The first two times, the raptor (violently) stole the Wright Brothers' plane and then (violently) tried to save President Kennedy. The third time, two people were about to sign the Declaration of Independence. The raptor actor walks in with a finger above his mouth for a mustache, and his other hand out for a raptor claw, and we all somehow know that the raptor's impersonating John Hancock. And the raptor just signs the Declaration of Independence.
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| From Bologna |
If you look closely along the top of the photo, you can see it says, "USE BY NOV 01 2005."
Glenn left before he could try the bologna, but I tried it. Still okay! (Knock on wood!)
Finally, on Friday, June 10, I was scheduled to visit the Headington Institute in Pasadena. More info about them is on their site, but they wanted my input on designing a mobile app to promote the well-being of caregivers. (Imagine an app to help a person's physical/spiritual/emotional well-being! Intriguing.) I mention this because if you have any input or assistance for them, I'm sure they'll appreciate it.
The day before my visit to Pasadena, I learned that Caltech's Commencement would also be on Friday! Perfect timing! So I arrived a couple hours early to see if I still knew anyone graduating.
And I did! This is Habib. Habib and I both lived in Avery. We had a lot of fun hanging out together over the years. Habib, congrats on getting that Ph.D.! |
| From Caltech Commencement |
Ah, a second familiar face! This is Si-Ping, another newly minted Ph.D. Si-Ping and his fiancee, Jackie, also were in Avery with me and Habib.
Whew! That brings us to the present. See you in three weeks!
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