Showing tag results for Non-Computer

Having grown up in a household where I didn't speak most of the languages my parents and their friends use, I'm quite accustomed to being surrounded by conversations in a language I have no chance of understanding. If people are more comfortable speaking in a particular language, I say let them. Some people object to this on the grounds that "The...

Whenever I go to IKEA Seattle, I try to speak Swedish with the people who work there, but it never works. Yesterday, I was heading to a colleague's office to drop off Symphony tickets. (A group of friends wanted tickets together, so the order was placed in my name, and I needed to distribute them to the people in the group.) As I neared his off...

This weekend, it was Microsoft's turn to rent Mountain Meadows Farm for the company picnic. As I noted last year, the picnic is put on by a company that just puts on company picnics all summer. In addition to Microsoft, they also do Alaska Air, Honeywell, T-Mobile, and Amazon. I decided to bicycle to the picnic this year. The route was approxim...

As part of the going-away festivities for my friend, a group of us went to The Herbfarm, the local restaurant referenced in Clue I of Puzzle #3. The restaurant is nestled in the Sammamish Valley, right next to the Willows Lodge resort and its restaurant, The Barking Frog. Less than a kilometer down the road is the Chateau Ste. Miche...

Marin Alsop has been selected to lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The development has gotten a lot of attention, presumably, because this makes Maestra Alsop (as she prefers to be called) the first woman to be named music director of a major U.S. orchestra. I saw her perform in Seattle earlier this year and thought she did a fine job. If I'...

Scientists continue to amaze us with their research breakthroughs, such as a discovery late last year that going for a walk on a nice day makes you feel better. What would we do without science?

Last night I attended the Northwest Mahler Festival's performance of Mahler's Second Symphony (The Resurrection). The concert opened with Copland's El Salón México and Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard. [Typo fixed 12:30pm] The Copland was kind of shaky, in a way that I couldn't quite put a finger on. The wind balance seemed a bit of...

When people asked me for my reaction to the most recent Star Wars movie, I replied that what struck me most was that the Republic doesn't appear to have any building codes. There are these platforms several hundred meters above the ground with no railings. For example, Padmé Amidala's fancy apartment has a front porch far above the ground. ...

Puzzle 1: This was a word search consisting of the names of the twelve streets of central downtown Seattle. The unused letters spell out the message "Issaquah year's supply hair conditioner", which takes you to the Issaquah Costco. (In the real puzzle, the secret message was much odder but relied on an inside joke.) Puzzle 2: The cryptogram dec...

(Note: This makes sense only after you've gone through the other puzzles.) In case my friend got stuck, she could call me and ask for a hint. The original plan was that I would charge her a dare in order to get a hint, but it turns out I was too nice a guy to make her do any of the following things, but here's the list anyway: