Get-Me-Out-Of-Here Games

The Crimson Room
Recommended by my high school batchmate Shello, Toshimitsu Takagi’s “The Crimson Room” is reminiscent of Cyan’s Myst and Riven. But this game is played online and interacts with another webpage to challenge your mystery-solving smarts. You wake up in a blood red room and need to search for various objects to get yourself out. The challenge is simpler than the multiple layers and landscapes of Myst and Riven, but it’s got that “grrrrr” factor that will keep you indoors and chained to your computer for most of a morning or a day, depending on how fast you solve the mystery. Best of all, you don’t need to pay for this one. Takagi-san will accept donations via online payment if you like his game.



The Viridian Room is the next level up after you get out of the Crimson Room. Toshimitsu Takagi gets creepy here and treats us to some spine-tingling and hair-raising sound effects and gruesome things under blankets. A man, who apparently has dismal self-esteem, thinks suicidal thoughts after his girlfriend dumps him. Is he that thing under the blanket? You’ll have to find out through clues left in his diary and items strewn about his sad studio apartment. The Viridian Room is trickier than the Crimson Room. If you begin to feel that poking around the room and clicking on everything in sight is a waste of time, there are dozens of websites offering cheat solutions to get you out. Oh well! Don’t play the Viridian Room game during a chilly winter day. You might end up like its former occupant.


The Blue Chamber is easier than the Crimson and Viridian rooms, but that red telephone will really stump you. But after solving the Viridian Room, you’ll know that Takagi-san likes to work with symbols and representations. The Soul Box solution in the Viridian Room may help you get out of this one.

Martin Road Bike Route

Old Vermilion Trail, Duluth, MN
Originally uploaded by Almondigas18.

I've been looking for a training route that has wide, pebble and debris-free shoulders. I now have that along Martin Road.

Here's the route:
-From St. Marie St. beside UMD, turn LEFT on Woodland Ave.
-Turn RIGHT on E. Hardy St.
-E. Hardy St. becomes Snively Road
-Snively Road becomes Jean Duluth Road
-Turn LEFT at Martin Road (after Pleasant View Road). Martin Road will take you through rolling country out of St. Louis County and into the Cannossa County.
-When you reach Pike Lake, you will be about 16 miles from UMD.

After this, there are two options:
1. Turn back and take a RIGHT on Rice Lake Rd. This will take you to West Duluth and the Willard Munger Bike Trail.
2. Turn back and head home to UMD.

I chose option No. 2 yesterday. I wasn't ready for a whole day's ride. My water was running out and I had finished my almond butter and jelly sandwiches.

But I recommend this bike route for light training purposes. You won't run into many stop lights, the shoulders are clean and wide, and it has a good combination of flat portions and gentle uphills and downhills.



Just before Snively Rd. becomes Jean Duluth Road, there is also the option of turning RIGHT at Skyline Parkway. I haven't tried this yet. But this is another option if you'd like a more scenic but light ride.

My US Driver's License

I took the road test today at the Duluth branch of the Driver and Vehicle Services. The test was just 15-minutes long, but was packed with every safety pointer you have to have mastered to be considered a legal and safe driver. I think I did okay. I ran over a curb though and did a 90-degree back up without having practiced it. When the test was over, the DVS guy said I did well, but had three mistakes: driving over the curb, stopping too far past a stop sign and did not turn into the right lane. Pero pasado naman :)

If I had taken my exam last year, before winter, palagay ko I wouldn't have passed it. But thanks to that really long road trip to and from Indiana, I'm more at ease behind the wheel.

A far cry from the scaredy cat and cold sweat kind of driving I did in Angeles using Ouie Badelles' car. That felt like the longest kilometer of my life!

Anyhow, the red truck is mine to drive when C. is not using it. Exciting!

HFA Glee Club Circa 1988

Holy Family Academy Glee Club Circa 1987
Originally uploaded by Almondigas18.

THE year 1988 seems like a world away. A former classmate, Rolita Gonda, sent me this picture to post in our high school batch's photo album. We were seniors. It was an excellent year and a memorable concert :)

Identify that duck!

Identify that duck!
Originally uploaded by Almondigas18.

Got myself a Canon A95 Powershot :D tee-hee...

Minnesotans are avid bird-spotting people. While driving through the North Shore Scenic Drive (yes, it's called that..and it is scenic.) with my classmates, they are quick to spot owls and hawks and other sorts of feathered creatures perched on trees. And this is while we're going at 60 mph.

I still can't tell what kind an owl is even if it's right under my nose. But I know how greylag geese, mallard ducks, and Canadian geese look like. Very common species, I know. But I gotta start somewhere.

This is a photo of a display window at UMD's Biology Department. Maybe if I look at it everyday for two weeks I can give Duluthians a run for their money in Identi-Duck contests!