Crossword: 8:19
Beat Monday's time.
So I'm running the sidequests in FF4. I rush into the Odin fight, forgetting that I took Steal off of Edge earlier, and I need to steal the Darkness Augment from Odin, so I just suicide myself to start the scene over so I can equip Steal. I do so and start the fight. And then I FUCKING FORGET TO STEAL. This is why we get a New Game +.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Monday, February 26, 2018
Crossword: 9:05
Eh, weak time, but I wasn't gunning it.
Spent most of today playing FF4, and I'm only about 2 hours behind the first quest I aborted, so I guess that was time well spent? The Namingway sidequest is a real drag. You get to a certain point and he wants Rainbow Pudding. I've run into a few enemies that can have it, but drop it at a 0.4% rate. Once I have access to the moon, I can buy Sirens, and those can force an encounter in a certain place with 3 Flan Princess. They drop Rainbow Pudding at a whopping 1% rate. Like, fucking hooray, but what you really want from them is a Pink Tail, so you can get the best armor. You can only get it from them, and the rate is 0.4% again. Full completion is an absurd goal. On the other hand, people used to grind for hours to get all their Sirens because you could only steal them from Seekers in the Giant of Babil, so at least I'm not stuck doing that. I did something kind of foolish, spending 100,000 gil on a special club members card. It gets you another augment, but it's available any time, and I probably should have waited. On the other hand, the walkthrough guiding me in my augmenting has been super-helpful, and there are some way out-of-the-way places I NEVER would have thought to visit. There's one that Odin carries that you have to steal? Geez...
Eh, weak time, but I wasn't gunning it.
Spent most of today playing FF4, and I'm only about 2 hours behind the first quest I aborted, so I guess that was time well spent? The Namingway sidequest is a real drag. You get to a certain point and he wants Rainbow Pudding. I've run into a few enemies that can have it, but drop it at a 0.4% rate. Once I have access to the moon, I can buy Sirens, and those can force an encounter in a certain place with 3 Flan Princess. They drop Rainbow Pudding at a whopping 1% rate. Like, fucking hooray, but what you really want from them is a Pink Tail, so you can get the best armor. You can only get it from them, and the rate is 0.4% again. Full completion is an absurd goal. On the other hand, people used to grind for hours to get all their Sirens because you could only steal them from Seekers in the Giant of Babil, so at least I'm not stuck doing that. I did something kind of foolish, spending 100,000 gil on a special club members card. It gets you another augment, but it's available any time, and I probably should have waited. On the other hand, the walkthrough guiding me in my augmenting has been super-helpful, and there are some way out-of-the-way places I NEVER would have thought to visit. There's one that Odin carries that you have to steal? Geez...
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Crossword: 29:29
Not a bad time, and no google. The theme was a little like the Beehive puzzle the Times puts out on Sundays, where they give you 7 letters and you have to make as many 5+ letter words using only those letters (one particular letter has to be in every word, but you can repeat letters as much as you want). This has crossing words that can be spelled with each others' letters and can be clued the same way, like Pistachios and Potato Chips, Outstanding and Astounding. It's cute, although I pretty much solved them independently. I suppose if you solve SCHMEAR first, CREAM CHEESE might be easier to get, but when the clue is "bagel topping," you didn't need the help, and when the words get longer, it's much less helpful.
I'm going to talk a little about cryptic puzzles. Occasionally, I'll be doing a cryptic, and people will offer to help, or ask for a clue because they like to show off their smarts. I can sympathize. It sounds horribly pretentious, but the most accurate response is "you wouldn't understand." Here is a cryptic clue:
Circle newspaper piece about Russia's premier. (5)
The answer is ORBIT. Obvious, right?
Cryptic clues are split into two parts, the definition and the wordplay. In this case, the definition is "Circle." Russia's Premier? That's the letter "R." the "premier" (first letter) of Russia. The newspaper piece in this case is OBIT.* Put OBIT "about" R, and you get ORBIT, i.e. Circle. Other clues can involve homophones, anagrams, double-meanings, hidden words, and combinations therein (the ORBIT clue is known as a "container" clue - one thing inside another).
When I explain how clues work (and this would be considered a fairly simplistic example), people look at me weird and mentally back away slowly, so "you wouldn't understand" is almost always the truth. Even if they do understand, it takes time to get proficient. Furthermore, many cryptic puzzles are something more than just a typical crossword. Sometimes locations or answer lengths are withheld. Or you need to modify clues before you entered them. One particularly devious puzzle had clues grouped in fours, except the 4th clue was 3 blanks. In each of the other 3 clues, one word from each was extraneous to solving the clue, and those 3 extraneous words could combine to make a 4th clue.
I'm certainly not some savant. Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon do the bi-weekly Acrostic for the Times, but also a monthly cryptic in the Wall Street Journal and I can usually manage. Richard Maltby does a monthly puzzle for Harper's, and I savagely cheat. His puzzles are real bears. It's a monthly magazine, and they might very well take the whole month. When I was worse and the WSJ puzzle was new, I'd hop on their forums where other clueless people fish for hints, and usually someone was stuck on the same clue as me. But Harper's forums are locked to non-subscribers. Sometimes I get how to solve a clue but I suck at finding PTERODACTYL from POTTERY CLAD, so I use a Scrabble cheat tool (sucks when I'm looking for a proper name). But when I'm truly stuck, but I have a few letters, I go to onelook.com. You can put in strings of letters with ?s for unknown letters and it will bring up all the words that fit, and you can sort them by commonness. You can't do this with too many blanks, and it's super-cheaty, but like most crossworders, I'm obsessed with completion, and sometimes it's all you can do.
*How do you get OBIT? Newspaper piece could mean anything! You usually don't solve clues by taking apart the whole thing and putting it together piece by piece unless it's just a straight anagram. I just thought about words that meant circle and fit into the grid and happened upon ORBIT, which fit the clue. A lot of clues are solved by retroactive justification. When I'm cheating, sometimes just a thesaurus is enough. Also, it's sort of assumed that anyone doing cryptics is well-versed in crosswordese, and you'll see some words that are more uncommon outside a crossword, like ARID, figure into cryptic puzzles too.
Not a bad time, and no google. The theme was a little like the Beehive puzzle the Times puts out on Sundays, where they give you 7 letters and you have to make as many 5+ letter words using only those letters (one particular letter has to be in every word, but you can repeat letters as much as you want). This has crossing words that can be spelled with each others' letters and can be clued the same way, like Pistachios and Potato Chips, Outstanding and Astounding. It's cute, although I pretty much solved them independently. I suppose if you solve SCHMEAR first, CREAM CHEESE might be easier to get, but when the clue is "bagel topping," you didn't need the help, and when the words get longer, it's much less helpful.
I'm going to talk a little about cryptic puzzles. Occasionally, I'll be doing a cryptic, and people will offer to help, or ask for a clue because they like to show off their smarts. I can sympathize. It sounds horribly pretentious, but the most accurate response is "you wouldn't understand." Here is a cryptic clue:
Circle newspaper piece about Russia's premier. (5)
The answer is ORBIT. Obvious, right?
Cryptic clues are split into two parts, the definition and the wordplay. In this case, the definition is "Circle." Russia's Premier? That's the letter "R." the "premier" (first letter) of Russia. The newspaper piece in this case is OBIT.* Put OBIT "about" R, and you get ORBIT, i.e. Circle. Other clues can involve homophones, anagrams, double-meanings, hidden words, and combinations therein (the ORBIT clue is known as a "container" clue - one thing inside another).
When I explain how clues work (and this would be considered a fairly simplistic example), people look at me weird and mentally back away slowly, so "you wouldn't understand" is almost always the truth. Even if they do understand, it takes time to get proficient. Furthermore, many cryptic puzzles are something more than just a typical crossword. Sometimes locations or answer lengths are withheld. Or you need to modify clues before you entered them. One particularly devious puzzle had clues grouped in fours, except the 4th clue was 3 blanks. In each of the other 3 clues, one word from each was extraneous to solving the clue, and those 3 extraneous words could combine to make a 4th clue.
I'm certainly not some savant. Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon do the bi-weekly Acrostic for the Times, but also a monthly cryptic in the Wall Street Journal and I can usually manage. Richard Maltby does a monthly puzzle for Harper's, and I savagely cheat. His puzzles are real bears. It's a monthly magazine, and they might very well take the whole month. When I was worse and the WSJ puzzle was new, I'd hop on their forums where other clueless people fish for hints, and usually someone was stuck on the same clue as me. But Harper's forums are locked to non-subscribers. Sometimes I get how to solve a clue but I suck at finding PTERODACTYL from POTTERY CLAD, so I use a Scrabble cheat tool (sucks when I'm looking for a proper name). But when I'm truly stuck, but I have a few letters, I go to onelook.com. You can put in strings of letters with ?s for unknown letters and it will bring up all the words that fit, and you can sort them by commonness. You can't do this with too many blanks, and it's super-cheaty, but like most crossworders, I'm obsessed with completion, and sometimes it's all you can do.
*How do you get OBIT? Newspaper piece could mean anything! You usually don't solve clues by taking apart the whole thing and putting it together piece by piece unless it's just a straight anagram. I just thought about words that meant circle and fit into the grid and happened upon ORBIT, which fit the clue. A lot of clues are solved by retroactive justification. When I'm cheating, sometimes just a thesaurus is enough. Also, it's sort of assumed that anyone doing cryptics is well-versed in crosswordese, and you'll see some words that are more uncommon outside a crossword, like ARID, figure into cryptic puzzles too.
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Thursday: 16:16
Friday: 27:20
Saturday: 42:26 (1 Google)
Saturday was notable in that I got the 13-letter BINGEWATCHING with only the first G in place, but clearly the rest of the puzzle was not so easy. Super-low word count. Nothing horribly obscure, but unfamiliar, like CANTILEVERS.
Crushed Friday Night Magic 3-0 with a little help from Rekindling Phoenix.
That card is good.
I'm missing blog entries for a few reasons, but the biggest one is getting hooked on Link to the Past Randomizer tournaments on YouTube. I can't stop watching and I've often found myself up past 3 watching them.
Video game races can be exciting at times. One of the most thrilling I've seen was a 4-way Super Metroid race where three players all finished within one minute of each other. One misstep by any could have swung the race. Except pro Super Metroid players don't screw up too often, that's why the race was so close. They ALL got the various sequence breaks, and although one guy unfortunately died, it was more like a game of chess, where one when two players are of equal skill, it's essentially the first blunder that decides the game.
A Link to the Past is many people's favorite Zelda game. While for me, that title still goes to Ocarina of Time, LttP has a lot going for it. The games which came later owe a lot to this game. Primarily, it's that each dungeon has an item which is needed either to beat that dungeon, and/or that dungeon's boss. It doesn't always hold true in the game. Sometimes the dungeon item is the Blue or Red Mail, which is never critical to anything, or the Moon Pearl, which you need to progress later on, but has nothing to do in the dungeon. But in later games, it really holds fast. You NEED to find the bow in the Forest Temple to beat the Forest Temple, etc. If there are any other necessary items, they'll give you a separate quest for that.
Anyway, because of the way the game is somewhat linearly built, a Zelda race wouldn't have much drama. It would be almost entirely proficiency-based, and unless you're doing something like 100% completion, luck would play almost no role (or else it would play too much of a role, like in the Agahnim fights). People are amazing though, and hacked the game. First, it takes all the items (I mean ALL), and randomly distributes them among all the chests and hidden areas. There's logic in place to make sure you get enough keys in the right places to complete dungeons, and you won't find the hammer in a dungeon you need the hammer to enter, for example, but that's the only limitation. You can take the long road to Zora's domain, pay 500 rupees, which would normally get you the (needed for completion) flippers, and get 10 arrows instead, or find the hookshot in the first chest. Heart containers are in normal chests too, and a boss usually gives you something else. Bomb and Arrow capacity upgrades count as items too, so there are some extra chests in some rooms, and all the dialog is cut (it's the Japanese version of the game anyway). So in a race you play the same seed. but there are many different routes to take. Some players go the "normal" route to the dungeon after your uncle. Others wander further afield in hopes of getting a few bombs and raiding all the chests those give you access to in Kakariko. There's always a sense of excitement when you open a chest, so the game stays fresh.
Additionally, Zelda isn't as "solved" as Super Metroid. That game nearly defined the speedrun scene for a decade. The first speedrun I saw of any game was Super Metroid at a site called metroid2k2 (which should give you an idea of how long ago this was, though the site is still around.) It contained a video of a 100% 1:00 in-game time, unprecedented at the time, and even segmented. The 100% world record, single segment, is currently 43 minutes in-game. And all the professionals are really close to that every time they play. Super Metroid has been so thoroughly dominated that for the first time ever, the multi-day Awesome Games Done Quick speedrun marathon for charity didn't even include it. The Zelda tournaments are a little less cutthroat. Some people are better at abusing bomb jumps or dash-hovering (speedrun argot) but routing and gambles are generally more important than execution. People make mistakes, accidentally die, etc. They're obviously very good, but not exactly as machine-like as the Metroid pros.
It also removes most of the random elements. The Agahnim fights are guaranteed to have the same number of returnable shots in both games, the digging mini game takes the same number of digs, you always "win" the chest game on the first try.
What dungeons contain what crystals/pendant is also random, although you can see which is which on your map. If Turtle Rock contains a pendant instead of crystal, it's possible the Ice Rod isn't needed to win. But if some needed item is at the Master Sword pedestal (yes, the swords are in random chests too, but you get them in progression (i.e. you get the level 1 sword first regardless or where you found it)) you need the pendants. Or you need just the green one, so Sahasrahla will give you an item (In the true game, it's the Pegasus Boots. Finding that item before the other guy is fantastic, though not necessarily needed to win the game, depending on the item in the library and a few other locations). Sometimes the races are runaways. One player might take a gamble spending extra time to get all the chests in a dungeon for no gain, while another just goes straight to the boss. Sometimes the guy who goes straight to the boss gets screwed and find himself having to backtrack later. But sometimes they're extremely close. In one race, Player 1 was pretty much ahead the whole time. He found some better items earlier, and was, it seemed, a whole dungeon ahead of Player 2. But Player 2 took a gamble, seeing what was missing, and without even sidetracking to check the pedestal, beat the pendant dungeons and got something crucial from the pedestal. Still, Player 1 had figured out that he needed to do that as well not long after, but he had already cleared Turtle Rock, while Player 2 had that dungeon to do last. Although Player 1 got his last crystal a couple of minutes before Player 2, because Player 2 finished at Turtle Rock, he was ready to go much closer to Ganon's Tower and eventually narrowly won.
Friday: 27:20
Saturday: 42:26 (1 Google)
Saturday was notable in that I got the 13-letter BINGEWATCHING with only the first G in place, but clearly the rest of the puzzle was not so easy. Super-low word count. Nothing horribly obscure, but unfamiliar, like CANTILEVERS.
Crushed Friday Night Magic 3-0 with a little help from Rekindling Phoenix.
That card is good.
I'm missing blog entries for a few reasons, but the biggest one is getting hooked on Link to the Past Randomizer tournaments on YouTube. I can't stop watching and I've often found myself up past 3 watching them.
Video game races can be exciting at times. One of the most thrilling I've seen was a 4-way Super Metroid race where three players all finished within one minute of each other. One misstep by any could have swung the race. Except pro Super Metroid players don't screw up too often, that's why the race was so close. They ALL got the various sequence breaks, and although one guy unfortunately died, it was more like a game of chess, where one when two players are of equal skill, it's essentially the first blunder that decides the game.
A Link to the Past is many people's favorite Zelda game. While for me, that title still goes to Ocarina of Time, LttP has a lot going for it. The games which came later owe a lot to this game. Primarily, it's that each dungeon has an item which is needed either to beat that dungeon, and/or that dungeon's boss. It doesn't always hold true in the game. Sometimes the dungeon item is the Blue or Red Mail, which is never critical to anything, or the Moon Pearl, which you need to progress later on, but has nothing to do in the dungeon. But in later games, it really holds fast. You NEED to find the bow in the Forest Temple to beat the Forest Temple, etc. If there are any other necessary items, they'll give you a separate quest for that.
Anyway, because of the way the game is somewhat linearly built, a Zelda race wouldn't have much drama. It would be almost entirely proficiency-based, and unless you're doing something like 100% completion, luck would play almost no role (or else it would play too much of a role, like in the Agahnim fights). People are amazing though, and hacked the game. First, it takes all the items (I mean ALL), and randomly distributes them among all the chests and hidden areas. There's logic in place to make sure you get enough keys in the right places to complete dungeons, and you won't find the hammer in a dungeon you need the hammer to enter, for example, but that's the only limitation. You can take the long road to Zora's domain, pay 500 rupees, which would normally get you the (needed for completion) flippers, and get 10 arrows instead, or find the hookshot in the first chest. Heart containers are in normal chests too, and a boss usually gives you something else. Bomb and Arrow capacity upgrades count as items too, so there are some extra chests in some rooms, and all the dialog is cut (it's the Japanese version of the game anyway). So in a race you play the same seed. but there are many different routes to take. Some players go the "normal" route to the dungeon after your uncle. Others wander further afield in hopes of getting a few bombs and raiding all the chests those give you access to in Kakariko. There's always a sense of excitement when you open a chest, so the game stays fresh.
Additionally, Zelda isn't as "solved" as Super Metroid. That game nearly defined the speedrun scene for a decade. The first speedrun I saw of any game was Super Metroid at a site called metroid2k2 (which should give you an idea of how long ago this was, though the site is still around.) It contained a video of a 100% 1:00 in-game time, unprecedented at the time, and even segmented. The 100% world record, single segment, is currently 43 minutes in-game. And all the professionals are really close to that every time they play. Super Metroid has been so thoroughly dominated that for the first time ever, the multi-day Awesome Games Done Quick speedrun marathon for charity didn't even include it. The Zelda tournaments are a little less cutthroat. Some people are better at abusing bomb jumps or dash-hovering (speedrun argot) but routing and gambles are generally more important than execution. People make mistakes, accidentally die, etc. They're obviously very good, but not exactly as machine-like as the Metroid pros.
It also removes most of the random elements. The Agahnim fights are guaranteed to have the same number of returnable shots in both games, the digging mini game takes the same number of digs, you always "win" the chest game on the first try.
What dungeons contain what crystals/pendant is also random, although you can see which is which on your map. If Turtle Rock contains a pendant instead of crystal, it's possible the Ice Rod isn't needed to win. But if some needed item is at the Master Sword pedestal (yes, the swords are in random chests too, but you get them in progression (i.e. you get the level 1 sword first regardless or where you found it)) you need the pendants. Or you need just the green one, so Sahasrahla will give you an item (In the true game, it's the Pegasus Boots. Finding that item before the other guy is fantastic, though not necessarily needed to win the game, depending on the item in the library and a few other locations). Sometimes the races are runaways. One player might take a gamble spending extra time to get all the chests in a dungeon for no gain, while another just goes straight to the boss. Sometimes the guy who goes straight to the boss gets screwed and find himself having to backtrack later. But sometimes they're extremely close. In one race, Player 1 was pretty much ahead the whole time. He found some better items earlier, and was, it seemed, a whole dungeon ahead of Player 2. But Player 2 took a gamble, seeing what was missing, and without even sidetracking to check the pedestal, beat the pendant dungeons and got something crucial from the pedestal. Still, Player 1 had figured out that he needed to do that as well not long after, but he had already cleared Turtle Rock, while Player 2 had that dungeon to do last. Although Player 1 got his last crystal a couple of minutes before Player 2, because Player 2 finished at Turtle Rock, he was ready to go much closer to Ganon's Tower and eventually narrowly won.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Crossword: 13:17
You don't see a rebus puzzle on a Wednesday very often, but this one was easy enough to push the envelope. PO was put into one box in many answers with POBOX in the middle as a revealer. Some clues made the rebus obvious, like "Salk vaccine target" with only 4 boxes. GS(PO)T was another, somewhat risque for the Times. The first one I got was earlier, but harder. I was pretty sure "Hop On Pop" was the Dr. Seuss book I was looking for, but I only had six squares. (In fact, I don't think any Dr. Seuss books would fit into six squares.) But the third square crossed a 4-letter Marx Brother (Harpo), which I wanted earlier, but couldn't fit, and I wasn't sure there wasn't some other brother I hadn't heard of. Solving two clues simultaneously like that is not the fastest way to do things, but when it breaks the theme open, the rest falls like butter. Rebus puzzles are usually easier in general, and have a higher word count, because the rebus buffs the difficulty.
I'm maybe at the 70% mark in Final Fantasy 4. I got stuck on a boss and turned to a walkthrough. While reading it, I discovered that I've been doing the augments all wrong. You're supposed to give them to temporary characters like Palom and Porom. If you give them 3, you get a Dualcast augment when they leave! Give some to Yang and it gets you a Long Range augment, which is very useful for Edge, since he doesn't use a shield. The thing is, you can't get them all on one playthrough because you don't have enough to give Edward and Palom and Porom and Tellah before they leave. You get to start over with a New Game+, like Chrono Trigger has, where you keep all your levels and gear and abilities so you can give the augments to the guy you missed if you want to be totally completionist about it. I kinda do. It would mean starting all over again, but if I want to get all the augments, it will still take playing through twice more, so why not start over right now? I mean, I feel good about my game. I'm possibly a little over-leveled, since I did a little more wandering (there are bonuses for completing a map). There is an excellent walkthrough at gamefaqs which spells out which augments to whom when, so I guess that's what I'll do. It's kinda cheaty, but it's my game. I've certainly won the fair way without all the augment nonsense plenty of times. There are extra bonus dungeons in this game too, and I'd sure like Dualcast and whatever else for that.
You don't see a rebus puzzle on a Wednesday very often, but this one was easy enough to push the envelope. PO was put into one box in many answers with POBOX in the middle as a revealer. Some clues made the rebus obvious, like "Salk vaccine target" with only 4 boxes. GS(PO)T was another, somewhat risque for the Times. The first one I got was earlier, but harder. I was pretty sure "Hop On Pop" was the Dr. Seuss book I was looking for, but I only had six squares. (In fact, I don't think any Dr. Seuss books would fit into six squares.) But the third square crossed a 4-letter Marx Brother (Harpo), which I wanted earlier, but couldn't fit, and I wasn't sure there wasn't some other brother I hadn't heard of. Solving two clues simultaneously like that is not the fastest way to do things, but when it breaks the theme open, the rest falls like butter. Rebus puzzles are usually easier in general, and have a higher word count, because the rebus buffs the difficulty.
I'm maybe at the 70% mark in Final Fantasy 4. I got stuck on a boss and turned to a walkthrough. While reading it, I discovered that I've been doing the augments all wrong. You're supposed to give them to temporary characters like Palom and Porom. If you give them 3, you get a Dualcast augment when they leave! Give some to Yang and it gets you a Long Range augment, which is very useful for Edge, since he doesn't use a shield. The thing is, you can't get them all on one playthrough because you don't have enough to give Edward and Palom and Porom and Tellah before they leave. You get to start over with a New Game+, like Chrono Trigger has, where you keep all your levels and gear and abilities so you can give the augments to the guy you missed if you want to be totally completionist about it. I kinda do. It would mean starting all over again, but if I want to get all the augments, it will still take playing through twice more, so why not start over right now? I mean, I feel good about my game. I'm possibly a little over-leveled, since I did a little more wandering (there are bonuses for completing a map). There is an excellent walkthrough at gamefaqs which spells out which augments to whom when, so I guess that's what I'll do. It's kinda cheaty, but it's my game. I've certainly won the fair way without all the augment nonsense plenty of times. There are extra bonus dungeons in this game too, and I'd sure like Dualcast and whatever else for that.
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Crossword
Monday 7:47
Tuesday 9:21
Mondays puzzle was terrible in a lot of ways. Rex Parker (real life name Michael Sharp) has blog that critiques the Times puzzle daily. You can go check him out at rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com. He hates quite a bit, and I don't always agree, but Monday was legit bad. His assessment of today's puzzle was "Challenging (for a Tuesday)" but that wasn't my experience. 9:21 isn't that far north of normal for me, and Rex was complaining it took him longer than an average Wednesday. I can see how one might need a lot of crosses for a word like "bludgeon," but I didn't. I got a quick assist from Doug Jones, since he appeared today in the news about the idiocy of arming teachers in the wake of yet another school shooting, and his name was in the puzzle. Certainly higher profile than your average senator because of the whole thing with Roy Moore. Otherwise I might cry foul on a Tuesday clue like "Alabama senator Jones."
When it comes to arming teachers, consider that the NYPD has an accuracy rate in shootings of 18%. There needs to be a Truth campaign about guns like there is for tobacco. Like the fact that if you own a gun, it's dramatically more likely for it to be used to shoot someone who lives in the house than an intruder. Your entire household's life expectancy goes down, and everyone becomes more likely to commit suicide (or at least succeed if they try). Young children in particular are very curious, and very careless. Assault rifles have one purpose: to kill people. Not self defense, not hunting, not target practice. Killing people, as many people as you can. Ditto for bump stocks and large capacity magazines. Nobody needs these. The days of a well-regulated militia are extinct. If the government comes for you, you're leaving with them, no matter how many AK-47s you have.
Monday 7:47
Tuesday 9:21
Mondays puzzle was terrible in a lot of ways. Rex Parker (real life name Michael Sharp) has blog that critiques the Times puzzle daily. You can go check him out at rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com. He hates quite a bit, and I don't always agree, but Monday was legit bad. His assessment of today's puzzle was "Challenging (for a Tuesday)" but that wasn't my experience. 9:21 isn't that far north of normal for me, and Rex was complaining it took him longer than an average Wednesday. I can see how one might need a lot of crosses for a word like "bludgeon," but I didn't. I got a quick assist from Doug Jones, since he appeared today in the news about the idiocy of arming teachers in the wake of yet another school shooting, and his name was in the puzzle. Certainly higher profile than your average senator because of the whole thing with Roy Moore. Otherwise I might cry foul on a Tuesday clue like "Alabama senator Jones."
When it comes to arming teachers, consider that the NYPD has an accuracy rate in shootings of 18%. There needs to be a Truth campaign about guns like there is for tobacco. Like the fact that if you own a gun, it's dramatically more likely for it to be used to shoot someone who lives in the house than an intruder. Your entire household's life expectancy goes down, and everyone becomes more likely to commit suicide (or at least succeed if they try). Young children in particular are very curious, and very careless. Assault rifles have one purpose: to kill people. Not self defense, not hunting, not target practice. Killing people, as many people as you can. Ditto for bump stocks and large capacity magazines. Nobody needs these. The days of a well-regulated militia are extinct. If the government comes for you, you're leaving with them, no matter how many AK-47s you have.
Sunday, February 18, 2018
Crosswords:
Friday: 26:48 (1 Google)
Saturday: 29:01 (2 Google)
Sunday: 51:06 (1 Google)
Minor Black Panther plot points spoiled below. The hype is appropriate, go watch it..
A reasonable Friday. Today's puzzle was a little tricky, although I had some duh moments, not seeing UMP for "diamond authority." That particular misdirection with the dual meaning of diamond is so common, you should think of baseball before the gem.
I saw Black Panther at 1:00 on Friday (the matinee "bargain" was still $10.95), but the theater was full. After a little mini-history, the first dateline came up: "Oakland, 1992." And the crowd goes wild. Almost the entire movie is set in Wakanda, but hometown crowds love a shout-out. Nobody cheers in New York or L.A. when they mention those cities. Unlike the last few Marvel movies, this doesn't go hard on jokes or self-parody. The only real lmao moment was the "WHAT ARE THOSE?" line. It also stands alone very well in the Marvel universe, and doesn't need references to larger plot lines outside itself. Sure, you have Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis, but their roles in previous films were minor. Extremely minor in Freeman's case. He actually gets something to do here. But the only connection to the larger MCU is in the post-credits scene, which we knew was coming. The performances were great, especially Michael B. Jordan. Women were kicking ass as well. Some of the plot is telegraphed a mile away, or at least you're not surprised that Black Panther didn't really die halfway through the movie, even if you were unaware of his presence in future movies, and another "twist" is such a ridiculously overused trope, that you also see it coming as soon as the element is introduced. I was hoping for some more music, considering how it was used in the trailer. It doesn't need to be a hip-hop Guardians of the Galaxy, but I hope the Official Soundtrack has some great songs, because the movie did not have many. Make no mistake, this is a movie about race, but it doesn't get political. Do not fear, white people, the only guy preaching black supremacy is the bad guy.
After an interlude at Friday Night Magic, I came home and watched a new Chris Rock special. Getting all woke up in here.
Friday: 26:48 (1 Google)
Saturday: 29:01 (2 Google)
Sunday: 51:06 (1 Google)
Minor Black Panther plot points spoiled below. The hype is appropriate, go watch it..
A reasonable Friday. Today's puzzle was a little tricky, although I had some duh moments, not seeing UMP for "diamond authority." That particular misdirection with the dual meaning of diamond is so common, you should think of baseball before the gem.
I saw Black Panther at 1:00 on Friday (the matinee "bargain" was still $10.95), but the theater was full. After a little mini-history, the first dateline came up: "Oakland, 1992." And the crowd goes wild. Almost the entire movie is set in Wakanda, but hometown crowds love a shout-out. Nobody cheers in New York or L.A. when they mention those cities. Unlike the last few Marvel movies, this doesn't go hard on jokes or self-parody. The only real lmao moment was the "WHAT ARE THOSE?" line. It also stands alone very well in the Marvel universe, and doesn't need references to larger plot lines outside itself. Sure, you have Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis, but their roles in previous films were minor. Extremely minor in Freeman's case. He actually gets something to do here. But the only connection to the larger MCU is in the post-credits scene, which we knew was coming. The performances were great, especially Michael B. Jordan. Women were kicking ass as well. Some of the plot is telegraphed a mile away, or at least you're not surprised that Black Panther didn't really die halfway through the movie, even if you were unaware of his presence in future movies, and another "twist" is such a ridiculously overused trope, that you also see it coming as soon as the element is introduced. I was hoping for some more music, considering how it was used in the trailer. It doesn't need to be a hip-hop Guardians of the Galaxy, but I hope the Official Soundtrack has some great songs, because the movie did not have many. Make no mistake, this is a movie about race, but it doesn't get political. Do not fear, white people, the only guy preaching black supremacy is the bad guy.
After an interlude at Friday Night Magic, I came home and watched a new Chris Rock special. Getting all woke up in here.
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Crossword
Wednesday: 14:41
Thursday: 25:34
Google Searches: 1 on Thursday
Here's the grid from Wednesday.
That's nice, but a couple of things. The asymmetry really bugs me. Especially so because of its dimensions. All the black squares obviously necessitate a larger grid, so this is 17 x 17 (yet still many fewer clues than a regular daily).
Traditionally, 17 x 17 grids, especially ones that make shapes, are diagramless puzzles, that show up in the Times on Sundays with increasing rarity, it seems. They make the clues a little easier, tell you the symmetry, and the location of the first across clue. This puzzle would have been a perfect candidate for such a puzzle, although the asymmetry would make it very difficult because it's so darn close (I remember seeing a puzzle that had something like "almost left/right symmetry" in the description, but that sounds very weaselly). And some things here don't have easy clues, like 11-, 28-, or 38-Across. Still, Wednesday had a Valentine theme also, you could slot that in for the 14th, and this could've been a tough diagramless last Sunday. I really like the diagramless puzzles, but there's no constant source of them online.
Thinking about Black Panther tonight. This movie is a Very Big Deal.
Update: Holy shit, this movie is sold out everywhere at any time I'd want to go. Like I said, Very Big Deal. Guess I'll shoot for a matinee tomorrow.
Wednesday: 14:41
Thursday: 25:34
Google Searches: 1 on Thursday
Here's the grid from Wednesday.
That's nice, but a couple of things. The asymmetry really bugs me. Especially so because of its dimensions. All the black squares obviously necessitate a larger grid, so this is 17 x 17 (yet still many fewer clues than a regular daily).
Traditionally, 17 x 17 grids, especially ones that make shapes, are diagramless puzzles, that show up in the Times on Sundays with increasing rarity, it seems. They make the clues a little easier, tell you the symmetry, and the location of the first across clue. This puzzle would have been a perfect candidate for such a puzzle, although the asymmetry would make it very difficult because it's so darn close (I remember seeing a puzzle that had something like "almost left/right symmetry" in the description, but that sounds very weaselly). And some things here don't have easy clues, like 11-, 28-, or 38-Across. Still, Wednesday had a Valentine theme also, you could slot that in for the 14th, and this could've been a tough diagramless last Sunday. I really like the diagramless puzzles, but there's no constant source of them online.
Thinking about Black Panther tonight. This movie is a Very Big Deal.
Update: Holy shit, this movie is sold out everywhere at any time I'd want to go. Like I said, Very Big Deal. Guess I'll shoot for a matinee tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Monday, February 12, 2018
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Crossword: 22:06 (wide grid 16 x 15)
Google Searches: 1
Today was a terrible day, and it probably fucked up my Sunday time, but I did Saturday last night, and pretty much kicked ass. I hate using Google to get the very last clue, since it feels like just giving up and looking at the full answer key, even though if I had looked it up first, I'd feel fine about it. It was a proper name crossing another proper name and a foreign word, so I shouldn't feel guilty. But I didn't need Google for one of the 16-letter answers (the ability to fit this name is likely the only reason it's 16 wide) Lin-Manuel Miranda. He was clued as the 2016 Pulitzer winner for Drama, which I didn't just know off the top of my head, but I think I got it off just a few crosses. Another custom-fit 16-letter (part of a triple-stack) answer was Zombie Apocalypse, which is nice and modern, as was Solo Cup for "Beer pong receptacle." It reached pretty far back, too, with a (non-Great Gatsby) F. Scott Fitzgerald character and a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
Google Searches: 1
Today was a terrible day, and it probably fucked up my Sunday time, but I did Saturday last night, and pretty much kicked ass. I hate using Google to get the very last clue, since it feels like just giving up and looking at the full answer key, even though if I had looked it up first, I'd feel fine about it. It was a proper name crossing another proper name and a foreign word, so I shouldn't feel guilty. But I didn't need Google for one of the 16-letter answers (the ability to fit this name is likely the only reason it's 16 wide) Lin-Manuel Miranda. He was clued as the 2016 Pulitzer winner for Drama, which I didn't just know off the top of my head, but I think I got it off just a few crosses. Another custom-fit 16-letter (part of a triple-stack) answer was Zombie Apocalypse, which is nice and modern, as was Solo Cup for "Beer pong receptacle." It reached pretty far back, too, with a (non-Great Gatsby) F. Scott Fitzgerald character and a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.
Friday, February 9, 2018
Crossword: 34:48
Google Searches: 1
Friday keeps kicking my ass. I was doing a lot of puzzles on Thursday, old Cryptics and such. Perhaps I was worn out by the time I went to work on it.
I did OK at Friday Night Magic tonight (2-1), although I didn't think my deck was all that good. I may lend too much weight to tribal synergies and tribal payoffs. The draft as very wobbly and I ended up with just a bunch of assorted R/W creatures and spells. A couple of pirates, four vampires, a random Human, and the rest dinosaurs, but nothing amazing. Decent removal, though it was all damage-based, and 2 Pirates Cutlasses that never attached to a Pirate, but went great with Exultant Skymarcher, of which I had two (MVP). I also had Form of the Dinosaur.
So, Round 1, I faced off against a regular, who is not known for being all that great. In fact, his deck was so not great, that he was playing multiple Negates main deck. Negate WRECKED me. I lost the first game by just confidently tapping out for Unfriendly Fire to his face (he was at 4) as soon as untapping, and then dying, but honestly, who plays around the second Negate in Game 1? Game 2 I won, though he had two Negates again. In between games, I as kidding him about how Negate might have worked out ok against me, but really not something you want multiples of. He told me he was only playing two. Game 3, he hit me early with fliers (the non-Negate portion of his deck was very good, with 4 Kitesail Corsair, Air Elemental, Curious Obsession) I fell to one, but I had an ace. I played Form of the Dinosaur, planning to get up to 15 and then take control. He had a third fucking Negate! Three Negates!
Round 2 and 3 went fine. I drew things, killed enemies, easy peasy. I drew Form twice in the third round, but both times, I was well above 15 (once at 27) against a mostly empty board when I drew it. Negate kid made the finals.
Postscript: Late in the first pack, I picked up a foil Brass's Bounty because mise. I got a second one really late in pack 2. I joked as I took the second one, my draft was going so poorly that I could only win by getting Revel in Riches in the third pack. And then the guy to my right opened it and passed it to me! But I have standards. There is no way that card shouldn't wheel, and with all the table talk, I figured it would be shipped to me, just to see if I would do it, so I took an Unfriendly Fire. But the guy who opened it took it on the wheel. What a jerk. Now, there is no way I would have actually tried that, and things turned out ok, Unfriendly Fire was naturally good, I'm not actually mad. But come on, man!
Google Searches: 1
Friday keeps kicking my ass. I was doing a lot of puzzles on Thursday, old Cryptics and such. Perhaps I was worn out by the time I went to work on it.
I did OK at Friday Night Magic tonight (2-1), although I didn't think my deck was all that good. I may lend too much weight to tribal synergies and tribal payoffs. The draft as very wobbly and I ended up with just a bunch of assorted R/W creatures and spells. A couple of pirates, four vampires, a random Human, and the rest dinosaurs, but nothing amazing. Decent removal, though it was all damage-based, and 2 Pirates Cutlasses that never attached to a Pirate, but went great with Exultant Skymarcher, of which I had two (MVP). I also had Form of the Dinosaur.
So, Round 1, I faced off against a regular, who is not known for being all that great. In fact, his deck was so not great, that he was playing multiple Negates main deck. Negate WRECKED me. I lost the first game by just confidently tapping out for Unfriendly Fire to his face (he was at 4) as soon as untapping, and then dying, but honestly, who plays around the second Negate in Game 1? Game 2 I won, though he had two Negates again. In between games, I as kidding him about how Negate might have worked out ok against me, but really not something you want multiples of. He told me he was only playing two. Game 3, he hit me early with fliers (the non-Negate portion of his deck was very good, with 4 Kitesail Corsair, Air Elemental, Curious Obsession) I fell to one, but I had an ace. I played Form of the Dinosaur, planning to get up to 15 and then take control. He had a third fucking Negate! Three Negates!
Round 2 and 3 went fine. I drew things, killed enemies, easy peasy. I drew Form twice in the third round, but both times, I was well above 15 (once at 27) against a mostly empty board when I drew it. Negate kid made the finals.
Postscript: Late in the first pack, I picked up a foil Brass's Bounty because mise. I got a second one really late in pack 2. I joked as I took the second one, my draft was going so poorly that I could only win by getting Revel in Riches in the third pack. And then the guy to my right opened it and passed it to me! But I have standards. There is no way that card shouldn't wheel, and with all the table talk, I figured it would be shipped to me, just to see if I would do it, so I took an Unfriendly Fire. But the guy who opened it took it on the wheel. What a jerk. Now, there is no way I would have actually tried that, and things turned out ok, Unfriendly Fire was naturally good, I'm not actually mad. But come on, man!
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Crossword
Tuesday: 10:18
Wednesday: 12:36
Thursday: 11:22
Google Searchs for all: 0
Been bad on updating for a few days. I plead food coma from Samoa cookies, possibly the least healthy food in the world. It's a cookie, but the ingredient list goes sugar, oil, flour, corn syrup, sweetened condensed milk (milk, sugar). The "suggested serving" is a laughable two cookies, but even only two (29g) is 150 calories with 8g fat (6g of that is saturated, 30% of your RDA).
Low point in the crosswords was Wednesday. Interesting construction, but terrible fill. Lots of crosswordese. Today's was nicer, with anagrams of famous actors. "It's-a me, Mario" anagrams to "Marisa Tomei." By far, the neatest of the bunch.
The time is on the easy side, and if I'd picked up the anagram thing earlier, it would have gone way faster, since I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out "Steady Gig" with T_YE_IGG_ in place. As a good puzzle should, it should put its "revealer" (the clue that explains the theme if not obvious) near the bottom (Hollywood Shuffle, over two clues). When I put that together, everything became quickly apparent. I've never heard of Ansel Elgort, but when you're working with anagrams, process of elimination makes it easy.
Tuesday: 10:18
Wednesday: 12:36
Thursday: 11:22
Google Searchs for all: 0
Been bad on updating for a few days. I plead food coma from Samoa cookies, possibly the least healthy food in the world. It's a cookie, but the ingredient list goes sugar, oil, flour, corn syrup, sweetened condensed milk (milk, sugar). The "suggested serving" is a laughable two cookies, but even only two (29g) is 150 calories with 8g fat (6g of that is saturated, 30% of your RDA).
Low point in the crosswords was Wednesday. Interesting construction, but terrible fill. Lots of crosswordese. Today's was nicer, with anagrams of famous actors. "It's-a me, Mario" anagrams to "Marisa Tomei." By far, the neatest of the bunch.
The time is on the easy side, and if I'd picked up the anagram thing earlier, it would have gone way faster, since I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out "Steady Gig" with T_YE_IGG_ in place. As a good puzzle should, it should put its "revealer" (the clue that explains the theme if not obvious) near the bottom (Hollywood Shuffle, over two clues). When I put that together, everything became quickly apparent. I've never heard of Ansel Elgort, but when you're working with anagrams, process of elimination makes it easy.
Monday, February 5, 2018
Crossword: 5:41
Google Searches: 0
Crusht.
Google Searches: 0
Crusht.
Winning Is Fun
I am sometimes accused of wanting to win too much. "Shouldn't the real goal be to have fun?"
Winning is fun.
I mean, yes, it's not much fun when your opponent just gets mana screwed and you roll over him. You know what's less fun than winning that way? Losing that way. Opponents often wish me good luck before we play. I never do. I don't want them to have it. I don't hope for them to get mana screwed (usually), but if there's going to be any luck involved, I want to be the recipient. (I usually do wish them luck in future rounds after our match.) My goal (and guess what, it's your goal too, even if you don't realize it) is to win. When that goal is thwarted, I have less fun. I don't have zero fun, or else I'd never play, but winning is invariably more fun than losing. So if winning is the maximum fun, then losing even a little detracts from that. So my goal is to have the most fun. By winning. Winning is fun.
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Crossword: 24:20
Google Searches: 0
This was a fairly easy puzzle with a tricky theme. It was constructed by a guy who I went to elementary school with, a grade ahead of me. It's apparently a theme that was done just 2 years ago on a Thursday, but I have no recollection. Essentially, a Y in an across answer, reads as VI going down (as a Y is a V atop an I). Once you get that, the rest falls pretty easily. You get the greatest crossword hits, a rental car company (AVIS), a shoe company (AVIA), an ancient poet (OVID) with three boxes. Putting in Ys like that helps you get the long across answers, so nothing too awful.
Google Searches: 0
This was a fairly easy puzzle with a tricky theme. It was constructed by a guy who I went to elementary school with, a grade ahead of me. It's apparently a theme that was done just 2 years ago on a Thursday, but I have no recollection. Essentially, a Y in an across answer, reads as VI going down (as a Y is a V atop an I). Once you get that, the rest falls pretty easily. You get the greatest crossword hits, a rental car company (AVIS), a shoe company (AVIA), an ancient poet (OVID) with three boxes. Putting in Ys like that helps you get the long across answers, so nothing too awful.
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Crossword: 18:38
Google Searches: 2
Not bad. Best clue, Things held in a cannonball: KNEES. Saturday usually has a lot more misdirection, but most of the clues were pretty straightforward, if not exactly "easy." But I was able to play some of the longer answers without needing too many crosses, and limit Google use by getting enough crosses on things I didn't know. Sunday is a neat puzzle, so more tmorrow,
Google Searches: 2
Not bad. Best clue, Things held in a cannonball: KNEES. Saturday usually has a lot more misdirection, but most of the clues were pretty straightforward, if not exactly "easy." But I was able to play some of the longer answers without needing too many crosses, and limit Google use by getting enough crosses on things I didn't know. Sunday is a neat puzzle, so more tmorrow,
Friday, February 2, 2018
Crossword Thursday 14:28, Friday 29:55
Google Searches: Thursday 0, Friday 2
Yeah, that's a leap. A little long for a Friday, but since Friday is themeless, it's more general knowledge, so it's difficult to set an average. I would have had trouble remembering Linda Evans without Google, but put her in a theme answer, as she was on Thursday, and I can get there (the clue gave away her initials). But when you just have a clue like the actor who played Mr. Chips, I have no recourse (Robert Donat, which I'm surprised I don't see more of - that's a useful last name).
Picked up Final Fantasy IV and the After Years sequel for $23. While it's got 3-D, voice acting, cut scenes, etc., it's a port of the Gameboy DS version of the game and it shows in the graphics and the menu (the DS has a touchscreen, which would help the menu). Doesn't bother me too much, since the other version is significantly worse SNES graphics, though the original 16-bit sprites have their charms (the redone sprites they did for Final Fantasy VI in the post-Advance versions have been controversial).
Cecil has a thought bubble that pops up whenever you go to the menu that has a hint on where to go next, though I remember pretty well. I'm at the point in the game where my party is weak af, with just Cecil, a little girl and an old man. Tellah's magic is strong even before he gains total recall, but his MP is capped. Rydia has a few more MP, but her magic strength is pathetic, and neither one can attack worth a damn. I had to warp out of the cave where you meet Tellah because I was getting my ass kicked. I can stock up on Potions, but Ether isn't even for sale. Cecil used to gain Cover when he became a Paladin, but I think that's an "augment" now. Still not totally sure how those work. I only have Auto-Potion, which I usually hate using anyway.
Google Searches: Thursday 0, Friday 2
Yeah, that's a leap. A little long for a Friday, but since Friday is themeless, it's more general knowledge, so it's difficult to set an average. I would have had trouble remembering Linda Evans without Google, but put her in a theme answer, as she was on Thursday, and I can get there (the clue gave away her initials). But when you just have a clue like the actor who played Mr. Chips, I have no recourse (Robert Donat, which I'm surprised I don't see more of - that's a useful last name).
Picked up Final Fantasy IV and the After Years sequel for $23. While it's got 3-D, voice acting, cut scenes, etc., it's a port of the Gameboy DS version of the game and it shows in the graphics and the menu (the DS has a touchscreen, which would help the menu). Doesn't bother me too much, since the other version is significantly worse SNES graphics, though the original 16-bit sprites have their charms (the redone sprites they did for Final Fantasy VI in the post-Advance versions have been controversial).
Cecil has a thought bubble that pops up whenever you go to the menu that has a hint on where to go next, though I remember pretty well. I'm at the point in the game where my party is weak af, with just Cecil, a little girl and an old man. Tellah's magic is strong even before he gains total recall, but his MP is capped. Rydia has a few more MP, but her magic strength is pathetic, and neither one can attack worth a damn. I had to warp out of the cave where you meet Tellah because I was getting my ass kicked. I can stock up on Potions, but Ether isn't even for sale. Cecil used to gain Cover when he became a Paladin, but I think that's an "augment" now. Still not totally sure how those work. I only have Auto-Potion, which I usually hate using anyway.
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