By Julia Colvin Bear in mind examining about King Arthur being a kid? Well, a number of Microsoft employees (and some “outsiders”) do as well and are hoping to bring Camelot to life, Microsoft style, for Puzzleday 2006. I know, you’re asking yourself, "What is Puzzleday?" and you’re a little frightened at the fact that we’re bringing Camelot to life, Microsoft style … here’s the breakdown: Puzzleday is a day long event (like the name doesn’t say it all … duh) for Microsoft interns where they form teams of 10-12 people and work through team problem solving and logic puzzles. Ultimately, they work their way up to a Meta puzzle that will incorporate the answers from the other puzzles they have solved. Sounds easy,
Office 2007 Product Key, right? Maybe … if you’re familiar with brail, semaphore, a lover of wikipedia, and fast on your feet to go gallivanting across campus. Solve the Meta and win; it’s as easy as that … maybe. We don’t want to give too much away before game day, so I’ll give you more details in my next posting. So why am I telling you about intern Puzzleday? I was lucky enough this year to be able to help out with the event. In fact, my first attempt ever at writing a puzzle was made for this event. I know, I know … what was I thinking!! It all started last November when I spent my first weekend in Seattle in a conference room for two days with friends being a member of the Puzzlehunt team Jews & Drews & Co. Puzzlehunt is very similar to intern Puzzleday; however, the puzzles are a bit more difficult, it is far more competitive, and it is much longer. I guess the similarity lies in the puzzle aspects of the event I was absolutely amazed at how carefully crafted each of the puzzles we solved was and how they were all tied to an incredible theme. Solving these puzzles took some real creativity (what can I say, I tried … I didn’t say succeeded, Alan. I said tried), creating them took even more. After asking around a bit about puzzle events, I learned of an entire puzzle culture. I am very much a newbie at this and have thus far participated in and helped out with a whopping three events, unlike many of the creators of Puzzleday who are edging triple digits in the number of events they have participated in or collaborated on. So far, I’ve learned about everything from Puzzlehunt to MIT Mystery Hunt to BANG (Bay Area NightGame) and more. I give mad props to the folks that create intern Puzzleday each year. Staple members always include but are not limited to: Jessica Lambert, Jeff Wallace, Kenny & Dana Young (plus their two sons), Derek Westcott, Irwin Dolobowsky, Josh Benaloh …sorry to anyone I missed this post. The time, work, and creative effort that go into this event are off the charts. By and large, it seems to be one of the most talked about and most enjoyed events for interns every year. If you’re an intern and haven’t signed up … dude, get with the program! If you’re thinking about checking out puzzle events … dude, go for it. Everyone else, wish me and the Puzzleday crew good luck this Saturday! It’s going to be AWESOME!!! Julia