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Edit #1: UPDATE = Fifth message sent. See it on page 4. Sample Sound recordings from Rupert Buttermilk and Spazdsp posted on page 4 as well Edit #2: UPDATE = Sixth message sent. See on page 5. First generation of audio message can be found on page 5. See the booksafe! - page 5. Holy Carp I forgot to mention SneakyCracker made the code into a FONT see on page 3. Edit #3: UPDATE = Seventh message sent. See on page 6. Edit #4: UPDATE = Finished Audio message on page 7, Super Secret Website link found on page 7. EDIT #5: UPDATE - Eighth message telling Coop where to find the website, but no PW or Username on page 7 Message nine telling him where to find the lockbox, pictures of the lockbox, as well as pictures of the dig, the CD, Puzzle piece #1 all on page 8. EDIT #6: UPDATE - Message 10 on page 8, Message 11 & 12 on page 9, Message 13, which leads us to the Stop Sign, The Top Secret Document (Thanks Pablo Bluth), the Welcome Sign, and the Three Mysterious Numbers, all on page 9 EDIT #7 UPDATE - Next message and a link to the VIDEO CLUE as well as lockbox #2 and second puzzle peice all on page 10 EDIT #8 UPDATE - See the link to the Morse Code message on page 11! See the Final message on page 11! See the CONCLUSION of the mission with pictures on page 11 !!! EDIT #9 UPDATE - Thread Delivers on page 12. ---------------------------------------- My son loves to take the long walk to the mailbox with me. He likes to carry back the junkmail and look through catalogs and ask me about the multitudes of stuff I seem to get, and he always wonders why I’m such a popular guy to get so much mail, when he gets nothing. (it’s 70% junk, 30% bills believe me.) I decided the other day to go ahead and send him a letter. The thing is, getting a letter from his dad, from his house, isn’t really all that big a deal as far as things go, so why not make things a bit fun for him? Also …its gotta be fun to mess with a kid’s head. I remembered reading one particular strip in the Calvin and Hobbes series where Calvin was getting “mystery” letters. Calvin is so enthralled by this he yells to his mom; “This is real secret agent stuff...it's so cool, I have to go to the bathroom!” I thought I could do something like that for my eight year old, Cooper. …Maybe something in a strange-alien-secret agent-mystery code. Anyway, I thought I’d let you guys have the fun of decoding too. After all, the difference in most goons and an eight year old can’t really be that much, right? I got on MSPaint and designed a code. (earlier the other day I noticed it looks curiously like the Lego Bionicle Code – wish I had known about that, I could have saved myself a few hours) So Thursday he was very excited to get this in the mail:  no return address, … I advised him he might hang on to it to see if it may be useful in case he got some other gibberish mail, but I also told him it was probably an advertisement or a letter meant for someone else and maybe he got it by mistake. The next day he received this message (again, no return address)  Oh man o man, what have I done? I’m not sure what I’ve started here. You can guess what we talked about all weekend. Who is sending these? Maybe it’s someone who is in trouble and needs my help- maybe its some kind of test- maybe it’s a new way people are writing letters these days- I just told him it’s probably a publicity stunt for a cereal company or something and don’t worry about it. He asked me; “then how do they know my name?” “ahhh yes. …Very curious.” Bantaras fucked around with this message at 23:01 on May 15, 2008 |
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Apr 8, 2008 05:33
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All Saturday morning his nose was glued to the window watching for the mail truck. He wasn’t disappointed.  And for you goons I’ll go ahead and include today’s delivery as well:  Now what? Hmmm what to do next? Another website? Something buried under the tire swing? The thing is, I’m not really sure what we’re going after. I mean, I really am just making this up as I go. Any help from you really creative people (I myself am just faking creativity) will be applied. Just keep in mind it’s a kid. “tell him to look up tubgirl.com” and other responses are anticipated, but will be regarded as just unfunny. I do not want to turn this into a photoshop thread where we send a kid to the pedophile underground with our cleverness. I jus wanna throw some effort after foolishness is all. Give me a hand and I’ll keep posting the updates as the merriment continues.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:34
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Show him this thread. But seriously, this is awesome and I wish my father did things like this when I was a kid.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:38
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Thats really awesome. You're a good dad. My parents drew up a game for my brother when he decided he couldn't read. It was a bunch of clues to a treasure. You should bury treasure for him. Kids like to dig in dirt.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:38
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Yeah, if you have a yard, bury a treasure for him to find. You can do what one guy did and get some bones (chicken bones or cow bones or whatever), and bury those, and let him spend a weekend playing paleontologist and that sort of thing (which, incidentally, would also give you random dinosaur facts that you can send him).
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Apr 8, 2008 05:40
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This is really awesome. I would have loved to do something like this as a kid. You're a great dad 
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Apr 8, 2008 05:41
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 first person to say anything about ovaltine is a huge human being
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Apr 8, 2008 05:41
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He's eight, so maybe get him something that you could pass off as spy equipment, say a small flashlight, pair of sunglasses, hollowed out hardcover book, and an alarm clock, or whatever, and hide them around the house. Have the message say something like "You have been accepted into the _________ Agency, Agent "his name). We have placed your materials around your safe house for free usage." or something like that, and have him look for them by solving the code. I'm sure there are plenty of stores that would sell spy kits or something made for children.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:42
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I'm voting for buried treasure. When I go home over the weekend I'm gonna ask my dad why I never got any secret codes in the mail.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:47
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Buried treasure is the way to go, but maybe something small with a message saying he passed the first test and that someday soon the next one will begin. Drop him little clues and riddles like that and then lead it up to a cool present for his birthday or something. Also as has been said before, you're a really cool dad.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:49
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Stalinist Leanings posted:
wait thats not in my original messa.... man, you made me wake up the whole house and I spit Dr. Pepper out my nose.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:50
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Some sort of payoff - buried treasure, something in a bush, whatever, but make finding it really fun. Make it out away from the house, so he has to get you to to take him out to the spot (out in the woods/a park etc) and find more clues with field decoding to find the real payoff. You could layer them, have the payoff have a clue for a new place or a new kind of code, keep it going for a while and broaden his horizons, add in some orienteering or navigating work.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:53
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The buried treasure idea is excellent. This kid has got to be so excited.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:54
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This is great. If your kid likes decrypting this sort of stuff, pick up the Artemis Fowl line of books for him by Eoin Colfer. My son ate them up and even wrote messages to me with that damnable annoying code that I had to go online to figure out.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:57
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Throw him a curveball now that he is comfortable with the code. Make him one that has all the characters flipped so hopefully he figures out that he needs to read it in a mirror.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:57
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If you have any way of working in something like geocaching, it could get really cool. Send him gps coords in code, let him convince you to go looking for what's at the coordinates, and go. That'd be a swell afternoon.
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Apr 8, 2008 05:58
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You are an awesome parent. How old is your son? edit- Nevermind, he's 8.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:11
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Colbear posted:Yeah, if you have a yard, bury a treasure for him to find. It looks like something buried is the way to go here. A buried or hidden surprise would be a cool final goal. I just now need some interesting ways to get him there. The idea of actually leading him to other messages that might be placed elsewhere is a great idea! A letter that leads him to a note buried in the park. I haven't thought of that. Also, thanks for the compliments! I didn't expect that. Ramen Pride! posted:If your kid likes decrypting this sort of stuff, pick up the Artemis Fowl line of books for him by Eoin Colfer. Oh, very cool! After all this is over he will defiantly have that book in his hands! Thank you!
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Apr 8, 2008 06:14
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You should make the treasure a puppy or kitten. If you plan it right, you can put it in a box and bury it REALLY quickly before he goes on the treasure hunt. If you are uncomfortable with this, tie some straws together and attach them to the box and connect it to the air. That way your child's new little friend will be able to hold out a little longer.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:18
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DrakoDWyvrex posted:Thats really awesome. You're a good dad. Agreeed. You should drag this out until his birthday and hide a Nintendo Wii in the dirt out back or something. haha.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:18
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pandafan posted:You should make the treasure a puppy or kitten. If you plan it right, you can put it in a box and bury it REALLY quickly before he goes on the treasure hunt. If you are uncomfortable with this, tie some straws together and attach them to the box and connect it to the air. That way your child's new little friend will be able to hold out a little longer. do not bury a puppy or a kitten
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Apr 8, 2008 06:20
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You know what else could be fun if he really gets into this? Hand-write some messages in a similar code and age the paper a little and then you can show him some of the messages that you got when you were his age. Turn it into a secret club sort of thing that the two of you are members of.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:23
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^beaten sort of? You are beyond cool. I'd suggest printing out another coded message but make it look like it's really old. Tea stains, burn marks crumpling and the like, and then bury that in the ground somewhere. Your kid would be so ecstatic to find an "old" treasure map.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:24
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cowofwar posted:Throw him a curveball now that he is comfortable with the code. Make him one that has all the characters flipped so hopefully he figures out that he needs to read it in a mirror. THIS will be used in the next message. Great idea! pandafan posted:You should make the treasure a puppy or kitten. Well, he DOES want a cat. We are planning on getting him one sometime soon, so maybe we can incorporate it into this thing. If anyone has decoded the messages you can see I have started with definite feline references...
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Apr 8, 2008 06:24
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Leave some coded messages with little hints that'll make him have to pick up a book around the house and look for the hidden message, maybe written down the spine of the book on page whatever? Or with the daily newspaper, take one section in the morning and scrawl them all over the front page.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:28
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Don't bury a living animal unless you want it to rapidly stop living. You can just as easily put a kitten in a carrier or something, which you'll need anyways, and eventually give him a final note that says something like "Your reward for your hard work is waiting for you outside.", and just set the carrier on your front porch while he's decoding it.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:29
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Colbear posted:Don't bury a living animal unless you want it to rapidly stop living. You can just as easily put a kitten in a carrier or something, which you'll need anyways, and eventually give him a final note that says something like "Your reward for your hard work is waiting for you outside.", and just set the carrier on your front porch while he's decoding it. yeah why the hell would you bury a live animal? Shave a code into the cat instead. Make it say like "LOL" and it's on a cat. IT'LL BE HILARIOUS.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:32
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You really are a cool Dad  Maybe make the buried treasure contain the first Artemis Fowl book with a cute kitten bookmark?
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Apr 8, 2008 06:33
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This is the most adorable thing I've heard of in a while. I'm going to second the Artemis Fowl series, I was a teenager when I found them and I still loved them.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:34
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Stalinist Leanings posted:do not bury a puppy or a kitten Colbear posted:Don't bury a living animal unless you want it to rapidly stop living. Burying The Cat From: Monty Python's Flying Circus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0z6foGxfFc Mrs. Conclusion (Chapman): Hello, Mrs. Premise. Mrs. Premise (Cleese): Hello, Mrs. Conclusion. Conclusion: Busy Day? Premise: Busy? I just spent four hours burying the cat. Conclusion: *Four hours* to bury a cat? Premise: Yes - it wouldn't keep still. Conclusion: Oh - it wasn't dead, then? Premise: No, no - but it's not at all well, so as we were going to be on the safe side. Conclusion: Quite right - you don't want to come back from Sorrento to a dead cat. It'd be so anticlimactic. Yes, kill it now, that's what I say. We're going to have to have our budgie put down. Premise: Really - is it very old? Conclusion: No, we just don't like it. We're going to take it to the vet tomorrow. Premise: Tell me, how do they put budgies down, then? Conclusion: Well, it's funny you should ask that, because I've just been reading a great big book about how to put your budgie down, and apparently you can either hit them with the book, or you can shoot them just there, just above the beak. Premise: Just there? Well, well, well. 'Course, Mrs Essence flushed hers down the loo. Conclusion: No, you shouldn't do that - no, that's dangerous. They *breed* in the *sewers*! Bantaras fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Apr 8, 2008 |
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Apr 8, 2008 06:36
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cowofwar posted:Throw him a curveball now that he is comfortable with the code. Make him one that has all the characters flipped so hopefully he figures out that he needs to read it in a mirror. This. Maybe put the entire circle-alphabet in different colors, then have a coded message the next time in colors rather than symbols? It's more difficult but still not too hard for an 8-yr old; they're used to trying to find patterns and can recognize different color/shade patterns as well as anyone. Treasure hunts, riddles, all this stuff is cool as all get-out, but it's so hard to toe the line between too challenging and not challenging enough. Any combination of the above would work well, like riddles that lead to certain places, each having a symbol left behind, such that when the letters are jumbled correctly they spell the location where something awesome is hidden. I dunno, it really all depends on your son's abilities and proclivities; my brother at 8 would have loved word jumbles but they would have made 8-yr-old me confused and frustrated. e: pandafan posted:bury dat cat! dromar fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Apr 8, 2008 |
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Apr 8, 2008 06:39
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Another great thing about incorporating the Artemis Fowl books is that it'll give you another code to work with. I'd suggest burying the first book, and slip a message written in the Artemis Fowl code in with the message/map you give him. It'll give him even more encouragement to read the book, and to make his own key, since the book doesn't provide a direct one. edit: Oh, you're a great dad and this is a great idea. Smash Lampjaw fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Apr 8, 2008 |
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Apr 8, 2008 06:43
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This is seriously rad.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:44
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I must say, I can almost read your code without the primer now. You may want to proof-read your messages before you send them out. I am not trying to sound like a jerk, but some might find it fishy when you leave phrases like "fortyth and fortyth-first word" or "fiftyth" Also, it might be better to say "write down the [fiftieth] word" instead of "write the [fiftieth] word down" I mean, the are called PREpositions for a reason (though postpositions do exist, really). I am not trying to sound like a pedantic jerk, but I got a bit confused with those things and proper orthography would make it more official-looking.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:45
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The next one should have a riddle with the answer being the location of a key. I don't know what the key could go to though...
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Apr 8, 2008 06:47
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Heh I did a riddle sort of thing for my little sister once, maybe this will give you some direction? I started by giving her a cd with a passworded zip file in it named hotmail. The password to that was morse code on the jewel case. The zip file contained a jpg of a picture riddle ( you know, where 'A Kind A Kind A Kind' is '3 of a kind'?) that gave the username and password to the hotmail account. The hotmail account contained 1 email, a $50 gift card for sephora. She loved it and she was 15. Your welcome to use any of this for your kid. Also, props on being an awesome dad, but thats been said before.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:48
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I can't agree more with it ending with a Nintendo Wii. You are a cool dad. I agree with doing something like reversing the letters to make him work a bit. I'd do this, combined ideas from above: -Next letter should say he needs to dig somewhere obvious (Sandbox?) -Sandbox has what looks like an OLD letter (tea + burned) -Old Letter says to be somewhere at a certain time which hasn't happened yet. i.e. Be at McDonald's on 04-28-2008 at 4pm. -He leaves house, at McDonald's maybe you hide $20 in his meal or his shoe or something, son then thinks THAT was the prize to find. -When he arrives home, he sees a Nintendo Wii hooked up (you or your wife did this while you were out.) Have a note attached saying something like "You were good, way to follow the clues, this is for you! -[Some Secret Agent Guy] Please do this!
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Apr 8, 2008 06:49
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I want you to be my dad. Incorporating the cat is a fantastic way of surprising your boy. Try to write the letters as though they are coming from some secret agency, and the cat is a partner they're sending him to assist with a mission.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:53
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NonConformistBurger posted:I am not trying to sound like a pedantic jerk, but I got a bit confused with those things and proper orthography would make it more official-looking. Yeah, it's hard to proof read in code. You get towards the end and you really don't wanna put anymore time into it. I found myself jus leaving the things you mentioned for the funny enqrish factor. (missed the preposition) I always check to make sure my participle doesn't dangle though.
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Apr 8, 2008 06:54
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Mail the little guy a note in code that says 'Heat Me' and have had written more information in invisible ink made from lemon juice, after that deliver all messages in invisible ink. When he evolves into his final form he'll be ready for a job in the secret services. (also, teach him Esperanto)
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Apr 8, 2008 06:56
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