You know how, with some tasks, you get an idea? And you think, "This could be a really cool way to do this task!" You start working on it, and as you're working on it, you get another idea and think, "Hey! That's another cool way to do this task!" Of course, at that point, you have to do both. Then, while working on that, you get another idea...

That's sort of what happened here.

The First Idea: A Secret Message

I was trying to think of how I could put something on someone else's fridge in an unusual way. Especially if that person is far away. And my first plan was to enlist a collaborator--I would send them the message, and instruct them to place it on the fridge when the target wasn't watching, only to be discovered later. And while that seemed fine, eventually I hit upon an even better plan:

What if I could get the target to unknowingly place their own note?

Thus began the plan. For Minch's birthday, I constructed a piece of refrigerator art.



It had elements of many things that represented my connection to Minch: the SF0 and DC0 logos, a melding of her Rephotography completion, and of course, love. Two hearts -- one made of sparkles and shininess, one from my own hands.

To the back of this, to allow it to be stuck on a refrigerator, I put a magnetic sheet.



...but unbeknownst to Minch, this magnet contained a secret message.



Thus, when the fridge art was attached to the fridge, the message delivery was complete!



:) Minch seemed happy with the outcome. She is a lovely person.

Another Inspiration: The Magnet Puzzle

Once started, it is difficult to stop. The ideas come freely, and once envisioned, demand to be made real. In time, their clamor becomes undeniable.

And so came the next part of the plan: another message which I would have the recipient place on their own fridge. I was belatedly sending a birthday present to Flitworth, and realized I should include a note with it. Naturally, I found myself thinking about fridges and magnets. And I realized...I could provide the note as a puzzle--a magnetic puzzle, encouraging Flitworth to use the fridge to reconstruct it. From there, it was a simple matter to construct the note...



...turn it into a puzzle...



...and send it along, to be reassembled and attached to the waiting fridge.

What About Audio?

This, of course, inspired another idea--how else could one leave a note? We generally think of ntoes as written things; but what about an audio note? For this, I recorded an audio note.



Then I stored this note on a USB thumbdrive, and attached this with a powerful magnet to a fridge.

Magnetic Message Objects

Now I was thinking of different types of messages for the fridge; I'd collected, in my travels, a couple of items which I brought to give to Yellowbear. His namesake makes the first obvious, but it is also important to recognize his affinity for ninjas.

And so, with the help of crazy glue and some tiny but powerful magnets, I made the tiny gifts fridge capable, a message of friendship and care.

Still more: The Magnet as Message

And if I could magnetize messages to the fridge...secret messages, messages made of words, messages made of sound, messages made of objects...what about a message made out of magnets? Instead of using magnets to attach a message to the fridge, the magnets on the fridge could themselves be the message, their physical selves spelling out the characters.

As with several of these ideas, this one proved more difficult in practice. Tiny magnets are very difficult to individually select and position. Because they are tiny. So this message ended up being...a bit shorter than originally intended.



You will note, however, that it is made up of almost one hundred indivdual tiny disc magnets. (These magnets like to stick to each other. A lot. Do not try this at home.)

Another idea: The Rearrangeable Message

The idea for this was similar to the magnetic poetry kits that you see, but even more flexible. Instead of having a variety of words, you would have a variety of letters, providing you with near-complete freedom to create your own words. Using these letters, I would create a message for someone, which they could then transform into future messages, a message which could transform and retransform, being reshaped into several messages over time.

This also took way more effort than I'd realized it would. Hours and hours and hours of cutting individual letters. I kept having to go back and find more, because I'd somehow lost some or them, or forgotten about some letters...and, once I'd finally spelled it all out, I realized that I needed to take these letters down in a way that I could safely transport them to Myrna's fridge and reconstruct the message. As I said, this turned out to be more difficult than originally anticipated.

Still, when it was assembled, it worked out well. It was a good message. Myrna was a big part of inspiring me to move to San Francisco last fall, and also really helped me find my feet when I came. I am still very grateful.



But there was one more idea still to come...

The Finale: A Multi-part Puzzle Message

And then, I thought -- what about a message that was revealed in several parts, a message that was in fact contained in several different message, with a puzzle that could only be discovered once all the messages were together? A puzzle hunt, in fridges across San Francisco?

I knew I had to make this happen. I sneakily left fridge messages across the Bay Area, each one pointing their way to the next. I constructed a box of prizes to be shared by those who put it all together. I waited. And waited.

Sadly, the recipients did not manage to put all the pieces together, so never discovered the puzzle, decoded it, and received the treasure trove of SF0 goodies waiting for them at the end. This was disappointing, because the prize has a good helping of excellent SF0 treats.

But their loss is your gain, my SF0 friends! I will post the first piece here; when someone correctly identifies the next recipient in the chain, I will update this task with the next message. Thus, you yourself will have the opportunity to decipher the puzzle and find the treasure yourselves!

It begins, as so many things do, with Dax, a message secretly left behind after the Oakland Journey...



It reads:

Part two of this puzzle will be found in the minotaur's lair. This is the first part.

Lincoln has correctly identified anna one as the recipient of part two. Her clue is as follows:



I'd look for part 3 in the home of a St Louis transplant.

Waldo Cheerio correctly notes that this is none other than Myrna Minx. For some reason, I don't seem to have a picture of the full message on the fridge, but here it is:



Receive clue 4 by finding the bike chaser with colored hair.

Lincoln solves part 3, as well! Pish was a bike chaser at the Oakland Journey. On her fridge, one could find:



Acquire clue 5 in a musical bear's home.

And before I can even comment on it, Lincoln takes clue 4 as well -- as Yellowbear is a most musical bear indeed. On that fridge is seen...



The sixth clue can be found with Frida's Fan.

anna one leaps in to identify Minch Niddle as Frida's Fan. This clue then points the way to one final fridge. It is worth noting that, at the time of its placing, Journey Oakland was the most recent Journey...




Every clue is important. The seventh and final clue is found where the last Journey was planned and root beer floats were served.

And Lincoln identifies the final clue as belonging to the rightfully esteemed Herbie Hatman.



Your clue is the last in a series of seven refrigerator clues. Once found, put them together in order to determine who holds the prize.

Now, who holds the prize? Find them.