

Dog Daze of Summer
Once you leave your air-conditioned, climate controlled environment, it is hot out there. And no, the title is not a typo. It's been hot enough to set everyone in a daze. And this brings to mind what motivates us at the School of Hard Locks to keep striving and pushing even as the temperatures heat up, and others wilt in body and mind . As my favorite Comicon Heroes just said to me: "It's not about what's on the outside that counts, it's what's in the inside." If you hav


Food for Thought
"Oh yeah, candy! Grab some on the way into the room. I need the sugar to help me think." At School of Hard Locks, it’s not just work, work, work. Yes, we spend long hours devising new puzzles, testing them with the newest members of our Faculty, and then ignoring the Faculty’s pleas to be released from the new Escape Room. But let's face it. Everybody has got to eat. Our puzzle master, as it turns out, is also a skilled cook. And attention to detail, focus, and culinary


Pack Dynamics
You know, I spend a lot of time at SOHL and I observe a lot of groups. What never ceases to fascinate me is the family groups - we have multi-generational families come in together to try their hands at the Escape Rooms: children, parents, grandparents, cousins, all locked in together - talk about togetherness. Family groups, of all the groups I see, have the most emotions that come into play – when they come in to play with us. Yeah, you guessed it, there are teenagers who


The SLOW THOUGHT MOVEMENT
“I can’t leave my phone in a locker, what if I need it? What if I need to look something up? Are there math problems inside? I won’t have my calculator. What if someone needs me during that 60 minutes? You took away our phones, how were we supposed to figure THAT out??” This is an everyday conversation at the School of Hard Locks. So we started asking ourselves, 'Why?' Is there something we have created that is so difficult we can’t figure it out using our basic mental