Books
My main criterion for a home is that it have enough walls for bookshelves. There are many books I want and many books I have (plus more in boxes that will come out Real Soon Now).
Puzzles
Every year since 1998, I’ve participated in the MIT Mystery Hunt, a weekend-long team puzzle competition. The winners each year write the puzzles for the next year, and I was on the winning team in 1999 (Setec Astronomy), 2001 (Setec Astronomy), 2005 (Physical Plant), 2010 (Metaphysical Plant), 2016 (Setec Astronomy), and 2018 (Setec Astronomy). I was one of four leaders of the Plant teams that wrote the 2011 Video Games Hunt and the 2006 S.P.I.E.S. Hunt, and have written a few puzzles and tested many for the Setec Astronomy Hunts. It’s the best weekend all year.
2019 Hunt puzzles I (co)wrote
- Compromised (with Sami Casanova, Marisa Debowsky, and Jesse Gelles)
- Engelsche
- Helvetica Is Only an Okay Font (with Roger Ford)
- If at First You Don’t Succeed (with Marisa Debowsky, Jesse Gelles, Dan Katz, Nancy Taubenslag, and Julia Tenney)
- Protection Plan (with Marisa Debowsky, Berit Johnson, Dan Katz, and Julia Tenney)
2017 Hunt puzzles I (co)wrote
- Modern Journalism (with Roger Ford)
- Minor contribution to The Thrilling Thespians
2011 Hunt puzzles I (co)wrote
- Charitable Collection (with Aaron Dinkin and Tracy Yonemoto)
- The Higher They Climb, the Farther They Fall
2006 Hunt puzzles I (co)wrote
- Advanced Foreign Operations (with Lanya da Silva and Roger Ford)
- Bring Us Food, Yo (with Timothy Abbott, Iolanthe Chronis, and Roger Ford)
- Editor (with Matt Cain and Aaron Dinkin)
- Feel Your Way (with Flash help from Allen Rabinovich)
- Handbook Fragment (with Kate Baker and Andrew Thomas)
- Introductory Foreign Operations (with Roger Ford)
- Joint Operations Intelligence Archive (with Roger Ford and Joia Hertz)
- Boston meta (with Aaron Dinkin and Noah Snyder) (solution only, go look at the round itself for the puzzle)
- Moscow ante (with Reid Barton) (solution only, go look at the round itself for the puzzle)
- Kuala Lumpur ante (with Aaron Dinkin) (solution only, go look at the round itself for the puzzle)
- McMurdo Station ante (with Allen Rabinovich and David Speyer) (solution only, go look at the round itself for the puzzle)
- McMurdo Station meta (with Aaron Dinkin and Roger Ford) (solution only, go look at the round itself for the puzzle)
Music and musicals
In college and after, I was very involved in the MIT Musical Theatre Guild, mostly in various tech roles. I stage managed You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Assassins, and Into the Woods; ran light board or moved sets for Children of Eden, West Side Story (PDF review), and Star Wars: Musical Edition (photos), among others; and actually acted in City of Angels. I also played piano for ten years in elementary/high school and sang in MIT’s Concert Choir.
Rock Climbing
I haven’t climbed much since high school, and I miss it. Maybe going to a gym will be a project soon. I wrote my MIT admissions essay about climbing and math – I’ll have to dig it out and post it at some point.
