Andrew, Griffin

Neon Smoke – Update

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On February 1, I posted about a video game that Griffin and his friend, James, submitted to the National Science Foundation’s Game Maker Awards competition. According to the official timeline, judging should have finished on March 14 and the winners would be announced on April 2.

NSF Game Maker Awards timeline

Imagine Griffin’s surprise when he received this email on March 30:

Dear NSF Game Maker contestant,

Thank you for participating in the NSF Game Maker Awards. We are pausing the judging process until further notice. If an entrant was eligible for the competition at the time of their initial submission but has since aged out of the K-12 category due to delays in the competition timeline, they will remain eligible for judging and prize award. Their entry will be evaluated alongside current K-12 participants, ensuring fairness and continuity. No additional action is required from the entrant to maintain eligibility.

Please check the Game Maker Award website for updates.

Thanks,
The NSF Game Maker Awards team

Going to the website didn’t provide any additional information, though the contest pages have this information posted in the header of each page:

Also at the top of each page is a link to “Learn about NSF’s implementation of recent executive orders.”

Although it is not explicitly stated anywhere on the linked page, we assume that the competition was paused in response to these “recent executive orders.”

This is, of course, a minor thing. Griffin and James will be fine. But in our family, it felt like an ominous sign of how quickly the new administration’s priorities can directly affect us.

This may seem trite, but I am reminded of a haunting quote from The Fellowship of the Ring, in reference to the dark lord Sauron:

“His arm has grown long indeed,” said Gimli, “if he can draw snow down from the North to trouble us here three hundred leagues away.”

“His arm has grown long,” said Gandalf.

These are the words that echo through my head today.

Andrew, Maggie, Photo

Widji 2025

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I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve chaperoned our annual seventh grade trip to Camp Widjiwagan in northern Minnesota. This year was special, however, because it was Maggie’s turn to join the adventure. She’s heard about the trip for years, so she was greatly looking forward to it.

Camp Widjiwagan is on the north shore of Burntside Lake in northern Minnesota. It’s about four and a half hours from the Twin Cities. This is far enough that it is noticeably colder and snowier than the central part of the state. We left early on Monday morning and returned on Friday afternoon, spending four nights in rustic cabins in the woods.

Camp Widjiwagan is just south of the Canadian border in northern Minnesota.
This gives you a sense of the way the lakes are laid out in this region.

The only downside to the trip was that Maggie caught a stomach bug on her final day, keeping her up for much of the night. A thousand thanks to my colleagues, Cat and Mackenzie, who took good care of her in her cabin. They brought her over to the impromptu infirmary in one of the admin buildings where I was able to be with her for the rest of the night. By morning, she was over it, though I did sit with her on the bus home to try and reduce the spread of any germs to her friends. (The final pic in the gallery below is our selfie on the bus… we don’t look as sleep-deprived as we were.)

Most of the following pictures were taken by the ever-talented Bobak Razavi.

Griffin

Neon Smoke

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Griffin and his friend, James, released an early demo of their game, Neon Smoke. Griffin composed the music and created most of the art. James did most of the coding. Other friends contributed story elements and helped write the dialogue.

Here’s how James and Griffin describe the process and story on their webpage:

Overview of Process

This demo of our game, Neon Smoke, was created for the National Science Foundation’s ‘Game Maker Awards‘ competition. Over the last 4 to 5 months, we have been working on developing art, music, story, and code; as well as overall having a fun time making our silly little game.

Story

You, the player, wake up in a cryo chamber in the year 2138. After breaking out, you find yourself in a mysteriously abandoned and ruined tower. After this you meet two figures who seem friendly enough… but can you really trust them? Adventure through a post-apocalyptic world full of resources, unique characters to talk to, and robot companions. There are even arcades to play retro minigames in to collect more resources to aid you on your journey to stop the evil robots.

And here’s their video trailer:

Andrew, Photo

Cold Day

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We all have a rare day off from school today due to extreme cold temperatures. The wind chill when I woke up this morning was -36°F.

Interestingly, that’s cold enough that normally pliable plastics become near solid. Practical example: Sarah pulled out our electric pump to put some air into a low tire on the car. The power cord was stiff and difficult to work with. When she plugged it in and turned on the compressor, sparks flew and the cable was severed in half! We think that the plastic effectively snapped in the cold, causing a short circuit.

This reminds me of an experience I had during my first year in Minnesota. I biked to school one morning when it was severely cold. (I rarely biked in the winter, but there was no snow or ice on the roads, so I chanced it.) My bike lock at the time was a heavy braided steel cable sheathed in clear plastic. I normally kept it coiled around my seat stem, uncoiling it to run through the wheels and rack. On this morning, however, I could not uncoil it, it was like a solid steel helix wrapped around the post. Putting all my strength into it, it finally gave a little and then shattered. I distinctly recall the sound of the plastic shards hitting the cement like tinkling glass. The steel cable itself was unscathed, but the plastic was unable to cope.

The cold does come with some bonuses besides getting a day off from school. Our sun porch, not as well insulated as the main house, forms spectacular window frost patterns.

Window frost on the window.
Close-up. (The faint leaf shape near the center is a sticker meant to deter birds from hitting the glass.)

Next week, Maggie and I are heading up north for a week at Camp Widjiwagan. This is the annual seventh grade retreat that I’ve chaperoned for many years. We’re both looking forward to it. Yesterday, however, I checked the weather report near the camp:

Morning temperature near Camp Widjiwagan in northern Minnesota.

That’s seriously cold. Fortunately, the outlook for next week is balmier. With highs in the teens above zero, the kids will likely spend all their time rampaging through the wilderness while their long-suffering teachers tend to the fire in the cozy lodge.

Oliver, Photo, Video

Oliver’s Eighth Birthday

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Oliver’s birthday was celebrated in multiple chapters. First, he invited some friends to a ninja gym. Then, we celebrated as a family at home. Special breakfast: daddy’s waffles. Dinner: Punch pizza and cupcakes. Finally, we joined Sarah’s parents in Courtland to celebrate a third time.

The framed print above is the bespoke dungeon that I wrote about a few years ago. I finally managed to get it printed and framed. Now we just have to key it and run it as a real adventure!

The video clip below shows an example of one of the challenges at the ninja course. Marci is a pro!

Griffin, Video

Griffin’s First Drive

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Griffin passed his written test yesterday and picked up his official learner’s permit this morning. Although we’re planning on doing a bunch of test drives at Grandma and Grandpa’s house over the next few days, he couldn’t resist driving the car up and down the driveway before we left.

Our first order of business was learning that the brake pedal is not the gas pedal. (Fortunately, for our garage door, this is why the car won’t start without your foot on the brake.)

Griffin, Photo, Video

Fencing Silver Medal

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Griffin attended the 2024 TCFC November Challenges
tournament with the Twin Cities Fencing Club. This was a small, local tournament, but it was Griffin’s best showing to date. He won four of seven bouts during the pools segment. Then he won two of three elimination rounds, earning second place overall in the tournament.

In each of the photos below, Griffin is on the right side of the strip. In the video, however, he’s on the left. (Mismatched socks may be his visual trademark.)

Griffin scores his first point in this video clip.

Griffin

Griffin’s Art and Music

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I’ve mentioned Griffin’s interest in musical composition in a previous post, but I haven’t shared many examples of his other creative outlet: art. He spends much of his free time creating pixel art and composing music for various video game projects. (Indeed, he has just confirmed his first paid commission!) Here’s a sampling of some things he has been working on recently.

And here are a few of his recent compositions:

Tetracity
Flying Theme 1
Sirens
Gartic Beep 3

Andrew, Griffin, Maggie, Oliver, Photo, Sarah

Final Cabin Tidbits

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To round out this trio of cabin posts, I took a few other random pictures of the sorts of things we did at the cabin this weekend: deflating and stowing the dock, touching up some trim paint, adding some non-stick strips to the wooden dock, role-playing games, other dice games, and a marvelous jigsaw puzzle (a gift from Grummy who passed along her love of puzzles to Andrew). We also prepped the well and pump for winter and put the snow shovels up on the covered porch lest they be irretrievable if anyone visits after the place is buried in snow. (We’ve learned that the hard way.)

Lest one think that we live an irredeemably charmed life, I should also mention that we did face a few challenges. For example, although the cool weather meant that there were few bugs outside, the black flies love to hibernate under the cabin roof. When the place warms up, they emerge in droves. Herds of droves. Hordes of herds of droves. We swatted and cursed at them, but our only moderately effective solution was to vacuum them up multiple times per day.

The latest news from Sarah and Andrew.