Widji 2025

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.

Neon Smoke

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: