The Quiet Sunday

The Language of Christianity

2011-08-02T16:50:00.000-06:00

To follow up on my recent post regarding religion, here's a more even handed video, which is a fascinating way the language of the Christian bible has changed over time to mean different things. It's very short and completely worth the three minutes it would take you to watch it.

What's Your Cereal Number?

2011-08-01T15:49:00.000-06:00

Another monday, another picture puzzle!! Ooh boy! This time we have a selection of several brand name cereals (sorry oatmeal!) and your job, should you choose to accept it, is to see how many of them you can figure out. Good luck! All will be revealed Friday.

Friday Cheat Sheet

2011-07-29T01:32:00.003-06:00

Okay, so just like last week we had two puzzles. One without any words and another consisting entirely of words. Also, my very first acrostic which I think I mentioned before how obscenely long it took me to make it. I wish I could find a way to better present those kind of puzzles online, because really if you wanted to solve it, you'd really have to print out both the clues and puzzle picture

Brooks Recommends - Sam Harris vs Rabbi David Wolpe

2011-07-28T05:49:00.018-06:00

Frankly, you either get this picture or you don't. I'm not gonna lie to you. I've always been a skeptical sort. I didn't have any traumatic experience with the church, but even at an early age I remember having doubts about the Big Bearded Guy in the sky. I remember vividly at the age of six being alone and having these doubts, but then trying to cover my tracks I would use my internal

Accidental Youtube - Bill Cosby Dreams

2011-07-27T16:21:00.002-06:00

Ah Jello! Quite possibly the most delicious thing one can make out of ground up horse hooves. Watch this video of jello squares being dropped in slow motion. It's like taking mescaline but without the accompanying paranoid delusions. Or so I'm told...

Acrostic Nature

2011-07-26T12:53:00.003-06:00

Hi everybody! Today, I bring you an acrostic I made. It's the first time I've ever made an acrostic and believe it or not, creating these puzzles are HARD. I don't know if I'd say they're harder to make than Crosswords, but it certainly took more time than creating one of my average crosswords. But they're fun puzzles to do. It's a lot like solving a cryptogram and a crossword at the same time.

Question Mark? Period-ical.

2011-07-25T12:40:00.000-06:00

So I've got another image puzzle for you folks. Below is a series of twenty covers from contemporary magazines all of which should be able to be picked up at any standard periodical retailer. Of course, just like last time, I've removed the titles to each. How many can you name? I'll give you a hint: Hustler isn't one of them. Neither is The National Review. I didn't want to be offensive.

Je parle en peu l'Francias. Pas bien.

2011-07-24T10:08:00.002-06:00

Last night I went to the Old Fashioned Melodrama, here in Cheyenne. I'm actually performing an olio act later this evening. Me and my friend Rory are doing a comedy routine that I wrote and by wrote I mean half the jokes are old vaudeville standbys. Perhaps I'll post the script later, and see what people think. But this entry is not about Le Melodrama Antique, but is about how ashamed I am by

Cheat Sheet

2011-07-22T09:32:00.004-06:00

I hear your tormented cries. "Answers!" you scream through your gritted teeth as you dance in pain and fury, "We demand answers!!" and while I don't have answers for everything, I do have answers for the two puzzles I posted earlier this week. So if you wanna spoil yourself, just continue reading this post!! First off we have the book cover image post. Here are the answers corresponding to the

Spring Thing - Wetlands

2011-07-21T15:02:00.000-06:00

Alright, after some helpful hints by some readers I decided to forge ahead and plow through the first entry early! The first game of the competition is Wetlands by Clara Raubertas. Unlike the IF Comp I'm writing this preliminary passage after playing through the game. I say that I "plowed" through this, but frankly it was more like playing morsel sized bites of it. I'd play it for a while and

Brooks Recommends - Foucault's Pendulum

2011-07-21T13:43:00.000-06:00

It can be very easy and tempting and down right fun to spend all one's time criticizing other people and the work they do. After all when people come out with things like this, it's pretty much like they're asking for it. But as much joy as I often get from hearing or reading or doling out, take-downs (thus one of my new favorite podcasts!) I think it's important to take time and revel in what is

And the word of the day is...

2011-07-21T09:03:00.003-06:00

Here is a Sudoku puzzle for you featuring letters instead of numbers! And on a completely unrelated note, here is a funny joke.

Accidental Youtube - Legal Interns Being Nerds

2011-07-20T14:12:00.005-06:00

I liked the idea behind this entry that I did a while back and so thought I'd revisit it. I even used the same website! This time I came up with the uncommon interjection "Oyez". This was the first link that came up. It is a video of a perfectly normal bailiff performing a standard opening ceremony for the Supreme Court of the State of West Moorleens (??). It's nice to know that people who

Looking at the Spring Thing

2011-07-20T10:20:00.001-06:00

The great thing about IF? The graphics. So... there are a few IF competitions throughout the year. There's the generically titled "IF Comp" which begins mid-fall but the other "big" competition is the "Spring Thing". There are several differences between these two competitions. For one, the annual IF Comp gets much more attention (at least from outside the IF community) and it gets a ton more

Crosswords - The Pick Up Artist

2011-07-20T08:41:00.000-06:00

Hey, beautiful. I couldn't help but notice you standing across the room, looking beautiful and lonely. And I remember thinking that all you needed was an arm around your shoulder and someone to talk to. What are you drinking? Looks tasty. Can I have a... No, no.... You don't have to call over the bouncer. Ha. Ha. I was just joking, see look at me. I'm laughing! You're laughing! Wow, God. It's

The IM-Personals - Part 1

2011-07-19T12:15:00.011-06:00

Remember: This is what Julie Andrews looks like Okay, so I was trying to brainstorm a puzzle idea, and it hit me that if I could find a repository of images of celebrity impersonators and then select a few that missed their marks, that it could create a pretty awesome puzzle. Well, frankly, after perusing this website let me tell you that I grossly under-estimated how fascinating looking at

Judging a Book by its Cover

2011-07-18T09:00:00.001-06:00

I'm not going to waste time talking about why I haven't updated this blog for a while, since it doesn't really matter. Actually, I hadn't even thought much about this blog until last weekend I published a new crossword puzzle (and there are more on the way!) and it occurred to me that my profile directs people to this website. So it occurred to me that I might as well give them something to look

And We're Back!... again

2010-12-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

When I was a little kid, my parents didn't believe in corporal punishment. They believed in psychological torture instead. Whenever I was bad or did something naughty, they would give me this look like I had become the greatest embodiment of human disappointment and then with a heavy sigh they would say, "Brooks, Let me see your hand"... and so I would fearfully put out my hand and they would tap

Mite – A review

2010-10-09T08:54:00.000-06:00

Believe it or not this is a stuffed dust mite. Next on the docket, we have “mite”, and “might” I say I am a “mite” intrigued by the title. Are we playing a tiny spider? Is this in reference to size (a nice contrast to the other size related title “gigantomania” (which I haven’t played yet)? I don’t know. What I do know is that it takes a certain amount of confidence to give your story such a

Ninja’s Fate – A Review

2010-10-08T11:01:00.000-06:00

I’m going to go out on a limb here, and guess we’re going to be a ninja in this one. Call it a premonition, call E.S.P. Maybe I picked up powers of “concentration” from the previous game (god, I hope not. I could live a nice long happy life without those kind of visions, thank-you-very-much). I just hope there’s not much combat. I’m not much of a combat-game kinda guy. I like to consider myself a

One Eye Open – A Review

2010-10-07T11:34:00.000-06:00

Here's another thing with only one eye. Another glulx game, eh? Well, the last one was pretty awesome so here’s hoping this one is too! It’s called “One Eye Open”. Hmmm… What are some things that have only one eye? Let’s see, there’s telescopes, victims of botched Lasik surgery, and pirates… Oh wait, no. Not another pirate game!! For the love of Graham Nelson, not another pirate game! Don’t

How to Write a Musical

2010-10-07T10:02:00.006-06:00

So I've been talking with a good friend of mine and we've been discussing about possibly adapting a play I wrote a while ago into a musical. But I'm having a difficult time getting my thoughts together. If only there was an instructional video somewhere online to help me out... Hmm... Oh! Thank god! I would never have thought of coming up with a "story", and it was very helpful to realize

Oxygen – A review

2010-10-07T07:43:00.000-06:00

At long last, I’m reviewing the first of many (nice!) Glulx games! Glulx games and Z-code games are actually pretty similar beasts, considering they both compile the same programming code. But Glulx has multi-media capacity and also allows for much larger (memory-wise) games than Z-code interpreters do. The larger the code, the more work one can (sometimes falsely) assume the writer put into the

Pen and Paint – A review

2010-10-06T11:18:00.000-06:00

On to the next entry in the IF Comp! This one’s called “Pen and Paint”. Hmm… Are we an artist? Are we a writer? Perhaps we’re locked in a room with a set of water colors and big tub of Indian Ink. Obviously the correct solution is to embrace the sweet kiss of death by downing the entire contents of the tub. Why more escape the room games don’t take the easy way out is beyond me. Note: A reminder.

Your Public Service Announcement for the Day

2010-10-06T10:03:00.000-06:00

You're welcome.