Thursday 11:17
This felt extremely fast, and I thought it might be a PB, but there was an 8:59 back in July 2018. There were a number of 2-letter answers, each being an element matching with the atomic number of the numbered square. I could have searched up a periodic table to get all those right away, but it might have taken even more time to find a readable table and correspond the numbers. I don't know the elements Nd and Sm (Neodynium and Samarium? Ooookay), but the others were familiar enough. Nice design, too, with two 15-letter downs crossing two 13-letter acrosses.
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Thursday 18:10
Is it too much to ask for a Thanksgiving-themed puzzle on Thanksgiving? It's the one holiday almost nobody argues about. Anyway, the theme was Johnny Cash, and I'm OK with that. Theme answers were JOHNNYCASH, RINGOFFIRE, plus JOAQUIN and PHOENIX, who played him on film. Then there are four connected words where the word FIRE is missing (BALLS, STONE, BRAND, DANCE), so a "Ring of Fire," kinda. Pretty neat.
I usually like Rex Parker's crossword blog, but lately, it's too hateful. Some critiques are fair. He is right to call out bad crosswordese, inappropriate plurals, un-PC clues and things, even if I think he can go too far (I'm no fan of the NRA, but I don't flinch to see it in the puzzle). In this puzzle, he is right that Joaquin Phoenix is a little loose to count as a theme answer (although the other stuff is enough on its own, it's a bit thin). But his big complaint, the thing that ruined the puzzle, is that the "Ring of Fire" words were not a ring, but a square. Yep. That's the problem.
The fucking puzzle is made of squares, Rex! Even when they do some sort of more circular "ring," they usually do it with circled squares. And even then, it still won't be a true ring, more like a dodecagon at best, and this puzzle's concept doesn't lend itself to that type of thing. Also, when they do a meta-thing with circled squares, there's frequently a note about them. If the puzzle has a note, that's an automatic down vote in Rex's book. A good puzzle can usually stand on its own, but sometimes you need a little context to make sense of it. Rex is a smart guy, with a few published puzzles himself (real name Michael Sharp), but he's too judgmental, and dumps on a lot of puzzles that I like. I think Will Shortz's job is more challenging than Rex seems to think. As if the presence of a superior puzzle anywhere else is proof that the quality of Times puzzles has gone to shit. The Times puts out a puzzle every single day. The pool isn't really that large if you want to be diverse.
Is it too much to ask for a Thanksgiving-themed puzzle on Thanksgiving? It's the one holiday almost nobody argues about. Anyway, the theme was Johnny Cash, and I'm OK with that. Theme answers were JOHNNYCASH, RINGOFFIRE, plus JOAQUIN and PHOENIX, who played him on film. Then there are four connected words where the word FIRE is missing (BALLS, STONE, BRAND, DANCE), so a "Ring of Fire," kinda. Pretty neat.
I usually like Rex Parker's crossword blog, but lately, it's too hateful. Some critiques are fair. He is right to call out bad crosswordese, inappropriate plurals, un-PC clues and things, even if I think he can go too far (I'm no fan of the NRA, but I don't flinch to see it in the puzzle). In this puzzle, he is right that Joaquin Phoenix is a little loose to count as a theme answer (although the other stuff is enough on its own, it's a bit thin). But his big complaint, the thing that ruined the puzzle, is that the "Ring of Fire" words were not a ring, but a square. Yep. That's the problem.
The fucking puzzle is made of squares, Rex! Even when they do some sort of more circular "ring," they usually do it with circled squares. And even then, it still won't be a true ring, more like a dodecagon at best, and this puzzle's concept doesn't lend itself to that type of thing. Also, when they do a meta-thing with circled squares, there's frequently a note about them. If the puzzle has a note, that's an automatic down vote in Rex's book. A good puzzle can usually stand on its own, but sometimes you need a little context to make sense of it. Rex is a smart guy, with a few published puzzles himself (real name Michael Sharp), but he's too judgmental, and dumps on a lot of puzzles that I like. I think Will Shortz's job is more challenging than Rex seems to think. As if the presence of a superior puzzle anywhere else is proof that the quality of Times puzzles has gone to shit. The Times puts out a puzzle every single day. The pool isn't really that large if you want to be diverse.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Friday, October 18, 2019
Friday, October 11, 2019
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Saturday 19:52 (2 Google)
TW: Devolution into shameless pretension after crossword talk.
That's a pretty good time for a Saturday, at least compared to the last few. Perhaps the stupid pills I've seemed to be on lately are wearing off, or maybe this was super-easy. Google came through pretty big. I hate to cheat on super-long clues, but whenever I see something like "Winner of the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for poetry," I feel screwed. Sure, I know some poets, but Pulitzer winners? The only thing worse is Nobel science winners. There are always a few obvious candidates when they go for a poet, but they are not afraid to go obscure on Saturday and it was too long to guess at (it was the only 14-letter answer in the asymmetrical grid).
Unfortunately, the answer turned out to be Wallace Stevens, a very famous poet who I've studied and know pretty well to the point that he might be counted among my favorites, at least of the 20th Century. That always makes me feel kinda silly for cheating because if I could have thought harder on getting some more crosses, it would have felt more satisfying to find. But what if the answer is someone like Theodore Roethke? (winner in 1954; he has the more crossword-appropriate 15 letters in his name) That name rings a much, much fainter bell, and I would have felt fine about searching for him.
I love the alliteration in the third line, and the uneven rhythm reminds me of Gerard Manley Hopkins, another favorite. I've never really been the type to sit and read poetry for pleasure. Few are, even among other poets. I will read in order to study (if you found the above stanza confusing, you are not alone – my copy had question marks all over it. This is why school is not a waste.*), but most poetry at its core is meant to be performed, ideally by the author.
More about tonight another night
*While IMing some time ago (the fact that I call it that should give you an idea of how long ago), my friend Dan said he was interested in reading Ulysses, but wasn't sure how to go about it. He was right to ask me for help. See, my class of English majors spent an entire semester in Junior Seminar reading that book. While I had a class senior year that expected us to read a full-length novel a week (I skimmed most of them), we read Ulysses one chapter per class, twice a week. While you can get Spark Notes or whatever, you shouldn't bother. An established reading guide (The New Bloomsday Book, by Harry Blamires.
No Amazon link. Support your local bookstore!), itself 250 pages long, was actually required reading. It helped decipher some of Joyce's symbolism and Irish wit. You can get Ulysses anywhere, it's public domain by now. Any American with a middling high school education can read it. It's in English, and most of the words aren't even all that long. Many people claim to have read Ulysses because of its reputation and they're not all lying. Yet for the most part, the only people who end up studying it in depth are the English majors and because of that pace and focus, they just get so much more out of it. Without that study, I don't think I could say that I enjoyed it, or that it was even that big of a deal. I'm not sure if he ever did end up tackling the book, but Dan is hyper-intelligent, and if he picks up the reading guide, I'm sure he'll get it as well as any of us did 20 years ago.
TW: Devolution into shameless pretension after crossword talk.
That's a pretty good time for a Saturday, at least compared to the last few. Perhaps the stupid pills I've seemed to be on lately are wearing off, or maybe this was super-easy. Google came through pretty big. I hate to cheat on super-long clues, but whenever I see something like "Winner of the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for poetry," I feel screwed. Sure, I know some poets, but Pulitzer winners? The only thing worse is Nobel science winners. There are always a few obvious candidates when they go for a poet, but they are not afraid to go obscure on Saturday and it was too long to guess at (it was the only 14-letter answer in the asymmetrical grid).
Unfortunately, the answer turned out to be Wallace Stevens, a very famous poet who I've studied and know pretty well to the point that he might be counted among my favorites, at least of the 20th Century. That always makes me feel kinda silly for cheating because if I could have thought harder on getting some more crosses, it would have felt more satisfying to find. But what if the answer is someone like Theodore Roethke? (winner in 1954; he has the more crossword-appropriate 15 letters in his name) That name rings a much, much fainter bell, and I would have felt fine about searching for him.
Call the roller of big cigars,—Wallace Stevens, "The Emperor of Ice-Cream"
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
I love the alliteration in the third line, and the uneven rhythm reminds me of Gerard Manley Hopkins, another favorite. I've never really been the type to sit and read poetry for pleasure. Few are, even among other poets. I will read in order to study (if you found the above stanza confusing, you are not alone – my copy had question marks all over it. This is why school is not a waste.*), but most poetry at its core is meant to be performed, ideally by the author.
More about tonight another night
*While IMing some time ago (the fact that I call it that should give you an idea of how long ago), my friend Dan said he was interested in reading Ulysses, but wasn't sure how to go about it. He was right to ask me for help. See, my class of English majors spent an entire semester in Junior Seminar reading that book. While I had a class senior year that expected us to read a full-length novel a week (I skimmed most of them), we read Ulysses one chapter per class, twice a week. While you can get Spark Notes or whatever, you shouldn't bother. An established reading guide (The New Bloomsday Book, by Harry Blamires.
No Amazon link. Support your local bookstore!), itself 250 pages long, was actually required reading. It helped decipher some of Joyce's symbolism and Irish wit. You can get Ulysses anywhere, it's public domain by now. Any American with a middling high school education can read it. It's in English, and most of the words aren't even all that long. Many people claim to have read Ulysses because of its reputation and they're not all lying. Yet for the most part, the only people who end up studying it in depth are the English majors and because of that pace and focus, they just get so much more out of it. Without that study, I don't think I could say that I enjoyed it, or that it was even that big of a deal. I'm not sure if he ever did end up tackling the book, but Dan is hyper-intelligent, and if he picks up the reading guide, I'm sure he'll get it as well as any of us did 20 years ago.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Monday 7:24
Tuesday 9:51
Wednesday 12:30
Thursday 17:05 (one error)
This is probably a normal proportional rate in a given week, but these times are slower than my average. Monday is usually in the sixes, Tuesdays, the eights. Thursday was a rebus puzzle, with ME in one box. I picked it up fairly early, when "Show Me State" was one letter too long, but the across clues were a obscure, just a series of one or several years, all but one within the last 11 years. And why ME? (The fact that it was its own word in the first rebus clue I got was also a distraction The first across clue I got mostly from crosses was 2015, 2016, 2018: GA[ME] OF THRONES. That didn't make much sense.
When I got to the reveal clue, What each of the programs in this puzzles has won at least once: PRI[ME] TI[ME] EMMY, I made the connection between year and answer and got the rest without much trouble. Once you know you're looking for award-wining (mostly) recent television, it isn't too hard (MAD [ME]N won four years in a row (2008-11)). They did throw in the first ever winner in 1949, PANTOMI[ME] QUIZ. That one was trickier. It still took me almost till the end to see the reason behind the rebus (ME = Emmy). Not that getting this would have helped much, but just another sign of being a little slow this week. One clue that really tickled me was Chain letters?: S AND M. Perhaps that answer has been in the puzzle before, but that clue is slick. Half of nine?: ENS was less so, but I should have seen it.
Tuesday 9:51
Wednesday 12:30
Thursday 17:05 (one error)
This is probably a normal proportional rate in a given week, but these times are slower than my average. Monday is usually in the sixes, Tuesdays, the eights. Thursday was a rebus puzzle, with ME in one box. I picked it up fairly early, when "Show Me State" was one letter too long, but the across clues were a obscure, just a series of one or several years, all but one within the last 11 years. And why ME? (The fact that it was its own word in the first rebus clue I got was also a distraction The first across clue I got mostly from crosses was 2015, 2016, 2018: GA[ME] OF THRONES. That didn't make much sense.
When I got to the reveal clue, What each of the programs in this puzzles has won at least once: PRI[ME] TI[ME] EMMY, I made the connection between year and answer and got the rest without much trouble. Once you know you're looking for award-wining (mostly) recent television, it isn't too hard (MAD [ME]N won four years in a row (2008-11)). They did throw in the first ever winner in 1949, PANTOMI[ME] QUIZ. That one was trickier. It still took me almost till the end to see the reason behind the rebus (ME = Emmy). Not that getting this would have helped much, but just another sign of being a little slow this week. One clue that really tickled me was Chain letters?: S AND M. Perhaps that answer has been in the puzzle before, but that clue is slick. Half of nine?: ENS was less so, but I should have seen it.
Friday, September 13, 2019
Thursday 15:00
Such a clean time
Such a clean time
Getting Lost Again
Actor Daniel Dae Kim went to my college (Class of 1990, unbelievable this guy is over 50). He was a nobody when I was there, so no one cared. He's still not exactly A-List, but Haverford doesn't have too many stars on its alumni list, so they put him on the cover of the alumni magazine. So I decided to watch Lost again. This is maybe my fourth time through?
Lost is on Hulu, but I think the previous times I watched, it was on Netflix. I've written before about how I don't mind Hulu ads in principle. On a show like Lost, it's honestly helpful. Lost is so damn compelling and fast-paced, it's a piece of cake with no ads and autoplay to watch three hours and have it all blur together. Even though I'll still watch a few episodes at a time on Hulu, the breaks allow my mind the time to file things appropriately in memory.
I still catch new things at times, which is nice. The guy who plays Miles was also in X-Men: The Last Stand. A few of these guys pop up in Law & Order pre-Lost, too. Season 5 is a lot more interesting when you know what's up with Locke the whole time. Of course, like I said, I've been through this before, but the first few times, you're still in the "what's next?" mindset the show so expertly promotes. Familiarity allows you to take a more complete view. I'm in the final season now, which I enjoy more than most, but the repeated viewings really help understand what's going on. People who came away confused probably don't give it the second chance it needs.
But beyond its mass appeal, Lost is a show for Very Smart People™. The spiritually they throw at you at the end can turn off some VSP but I can dig it. I mean, the main character's father, who is dead but keeps appearing to him, is named Christian Shepherd! What, exactly, did you think was coming? The writers say they had the last episode written at the same time as the first one. There's an interview you can probably find online that also explains exactly what the final season is about in the writers' own words. Perhaps it could have been better as a tightly planned 4-season series or something, but television usually doesn't work that way. You can't order four seasons in advance in case the first one fails, but you want to keep making more than just four if the show is successful. I'll take it. Lost was one of the early shows to really take off in online discussions, the little easter eggs, the numerology, early memes (Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaalt!!!!!). It still feels pretty fresh, 12 years old.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Friday 18:48
Saturday 17:52
Easy straightforward Saturday with no assists. Felt like a Friday, and beat its time as well.
Labor Day weekend meant a low turnout for Friday Night Magic, so we only had six to draft. Normally, I'd first-pick Cloudkin Seer and go for Elementals, but with the lower number of players and packs, it's harder to put together, so I took Overcome. Overcome is pretty good in any green deck, although it's not the monster bomb Overrun was, especially in this format, where green's strength is in its already large creatures. The fact that I'd normally take a 2/1 flier over it (and I'm not alone) says a lot.
Still, if you do draft a lot of creatures and stay low to the ground, Overcome will win you games. I stuck mostly to green for the first pack, though random white cards came late because white is so bad, and Ajani was waiting for me in pack 2, then Vengeful Hydra in pack 3! I ended up with a life-gain heavy deck, including Bishop of Wings, 3 Dawning Angel, Angel of Vitality and 2 Daybreak Chaplain plus its best friend Gauntlets of Light. Ironroot Warlord was also strong.
What the deck didn't have was removal. No Pacifism, no Rabid Bite. Not even Vial of Dragonfire. I still won the first two matches without too much difficulty. A couple of Overcome finishes, and one time I got up to 35 life and used Ajani's ultimate to win. Alas, my deck did not cooperate in the third round, to the point where I had literally every 5-drop of the deck in my hand (nothing in the deck costs more) and was stuck on four lands. The turn before dying, I drew Blossoming Sands. If it were literally ANY OTHER LAND, I might have been able to stabilize with the three Dawning Angels in my hand, or for the previous three turns not only miss land drops, but draw the only uncastable spells as well? Such salt.
But, I did get to ultimate Ajani in limited, and that's pretty awesome. I have one in my EDH life gain deck as well, and I hope to execute that someday as well.
Saturday 17:52
Easy straightforward Saturday with no assists. Felt like a Friday, and beat its time as well.
Labor Day weekend meant a low turnout for Friday Night Magic, so we only had six to draft. Normally, I'd first-pick Cloudkin Seer and go for Elementals, but with the lower number of players and packs, it's harder to put together, so I took Overcome. Overcome is pretty good in any green deck, although it's not the monster bomb Overrun was, especially in this format, where green's strength is in its already large creatures. The fact that I'd normally take a 2/1 flier over it (and I'm not alone) says a lot.
Still, if you do draft a lot of creatures and stay low to the ground, Overcome will win you games. I stuck mostly to green for the first pack, though random white cards came late because white is so bad, and Ajani was waiting for me in pack 2, then Vengeful Hydra in pack 3! I ended up with a life-gain heavy deck, including Bishop of Wings, 3 Dawning Angel, Angel of Vitality and 2 Daybreak Chaplain plus its best friend Gauntlets of Light. Ironroot Warlord was also strong.
What the deck didn't have was removal. No Pacifism, no Rabid Bite. Not even Vial of Dragonfire. I still won the first two matches without too much difficulty. A couple of Overcome finishes, and one time I got up to 35 life and used Ajani's ultimate to win. Alas, my deck did not cooperate in the third round, to the point where I had literally every 5-drop of the deck in my hand (nothing in the deck costs more) and was stuck on four lands. The turn before dying, I drew Blossoming Sands. If it were literally ANY OTHER LAND, I might have been able to stabilize with the three Dawning Angels in my hand, or for the previous three turns not only miss land drops, but draw the only uncastable spells as well? Such salt.
But, I did get to ultimate Ajani in limited, and that's pretty awesome. I have one in my EDH life gain deck as well, and I hope to execute that someday as well.
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Sunday 49:21 (1 Google)
Slowest Sunday in months. I was a little distracted at times, but also times just staring at a clue for a full minute, totally flummoxed. Perhaps it's biorhythms, since yesterday was also slow-going. Google was inevitable. There are dead poets I know, and dead poets I know of. John Donne is the latter. In theory I read some of his poems in college, but damned if I can remember.
Slowest Sunday in months. I was a little distracted at times, but also times just staring at a clue for a full minute, totally flummoxed. Perhaps it's biorhythms, since yesterday was also slow-going. Google was inevitable. There are dead poets I know, and dead poets I know of. John Donne is the latter. In theory I read some of his poems in college, but damned if I can remember.
Saturday 30:35 (3ish Google)
One search was just a definition of a word in the clue (multimeter), not the clue itself, another was just to check the spelling of a clue I was pretty sure I had right, but wasn't fitting (wait, Wookiee has two Es and an I?) The third was direct. It was the video game character with the most magazine covers (it's Lara Croft, with apparently 1200+ according to Guinness). It's so specific, the top search result was the answer to 28-Across in the puzzle. I'd rather do a little more work than that. When I'm looking for an actor in a film, I search for the film, not "actor in Hatari."
Despite the help, the puzzle was very tough, and very good, full of great misdirection.
Unbelievable discovery in one's field: CROP CIRCLE
E-sharp?: TECH SAVVY
Opposite of a state of disbelief: THEOCRACY (❤️)
I just achieved platinum status in MTG Arena constructed, mostly on the back of Vampires. The deck has enemies, but even they stumble at times. Sure, Reid Duke can find paths to victory playing Golgari, but my opponents aren't Reid Duke. The Kethis deck went off on me while I smoked a bowl, but he played with his food a little too much, and was forced to pass after drawing his whole deck, unable to loop Oath of Kaya again. Jeez, people, put Jace in the main.
This deck is a little pricy to build in paper, plus the deck kinda disintegrates in a couple of months with the rotation, so I don't want to invest too much, but I'm having fun online, even if I'm wrecking my sleep cycle.
One search was just a definition of a word in the clue (multimeter), not the clue itself, another was just to check the spelling of a clue I was pretty sure I had right, but wasn't fitting (wait, Wookiee has two Es and an I?) The third was direct. It was the video game character with the most magazine covers (it's Lara Croft, with apparently 1200+ according to Guinness). It's so specific, the top search result was the answer to 28-Across in the puzzle. I'd rather do a little more work than that. When I'm looking for an actor in a film, I search for the film, not "actor in Hatari."
Despite the help, the puzzle was very tough, and very good, full of great misdirection.
Unbelievable discovery in one's field: CROP CIRCLE
E-sharp?: TECH SAVVY
Opposite of a state of disbelief: THEOCRACY (❤️)
I just achieved platinum status in MTG Arena constructed, mostly on the back of Vampires. The deck has enemies, but even they stumble at times. Sure, Reid Duke can find paths to victory playing Golgari, but my opponents aren't Reid Duke. The Kethis deck went off on me while I smoked a bowl, but he played with his food a little too much, and was forced to pass after drawing his whole deck, unable to loop Oath of Kaya again. Jeez, people, put Jace in the main.
This deck is a little pricy to build in paper, plus the deck kinda disintegrates in a couple of months with the rotation, so I don't want to invest too much, but I'm having fun online, even if I'm wrecking my sleep cycle.
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Sunday 24:06 (22x21)
I used to complain that Sunday puzzles don't take long anymore. I think I'm just getting better. Some people think some of today's video games are too easy, but in truth we're all just better than we used to be. The best games mitigate this with some extra challenges for the completionist - Weapons in Final Fantasy, or all 120 Stars in Super Mario 64, when you only need 70 to win.
I used to complain that Sunday puzzles don't take long anymore. I think I'm just getting better. Some people think some of today's video games are too easy, but in truth we're all just better than we used to be. The best games mitigate this with some extra challenges for the completionist - Weapons in Final Fantasy, or all 120 Stars in Super Mario 64, when you only need 70 to win.
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Thursday 13:59
Friday 21:16
Friday's puzzle managed 6 Zs in the grid, most bunched together in BUZZ, FUZZY, and JAZZ.
You know what bothers me about The Matrix? It's small because that movie is close to perfect (ugh, the sequels), but it's this. Neo sees a cat walk by, and then sees it again, and comments "Whoa, déjà vu." Every freezes, because déjà vu is "a glitch in the Matrix" when the machines change something. This would be kind of cool, an explanation of déjà vu as a glitch in this computer-generated fantasy world, since the phenomenon is still poorly understood.
Yet that's not what déjà vu is like. It's not seeing the same thing twice in a row, it's seeing or experiencing something just once, and imagining you've seen/experienced it before. When I get déjà vu, it's very compelling, even more so than when I was younger. I feel like it's a stimulus that gets lost on the way through my brain and ends up in the wrong part of my temporal lobe. So a glitch, but an organic one.
I bring this up because I was on shrooms yesterday. I've only done them once before, and it was quite pleasant. I acquired these with the intention of sharing them with my buddy Jon. He's a nerd, but generally open to experimentation. He has struggled with depression, and I thought the euphoria that accompanies a mushroom trip might be good for him. But he wimped out, so I shared them with my friend Jaret, who was with me the first time I used them (don't use drugs like this alone). I divided the eighth in what looked equal halves, but I think I overdid it.
Before I pitched to Jon, I did some research. Effects mentioned alongside hallucinations was time distortion, especially thinking more time has passed than actually has. I didn't recall this effect from my first experience, but you often bring to a trip what you expect. My first trip was exactly like I thought it was going to be. In this one, the time distortion was real.
We were watching Into the Spider-verse, which Jaret had never seen. The visual hallucinations made some scenes look really neat, as if the characters were reduced into crude polygons. But I was also having continuous déjà vu. Of course I've seen the movie before, but there were comments made by Jaret, and I knew some factoids about the movie, so we'd sometimes pause and talk. I was certain I had heard and said it ALL before, while watching this very movie, and my responses were just repeating what I'd already said some other time (verbalizing things was challenging enough without the nagging feeling I was repeating myself). Recall Jaret was seeing this for the first time, and this was the first time I'd watched it with anyone else. When the weed delivery came, I was sure I'd met the driver and been though our exact exchange before (I've never used this delivery service).
Still, it was a positive experience. On the other hand, I'm kind of glad Jon wasn't my partner as I'd advertised more of a fun walk in Wonderland, and I wouldn't have made much of a sitter in my state.
Friday 21:16
Friday's puzzle managed 6 Zs in the grid, most bunched together in BUZZ, FUZZY, and JAZZ.
You know what bothers me about The Matrix? It's small because that movie is close to perfect (ugh, the sequels), but it's this. Neo sees a cat walk by, and then sees it again, and comments "Whoa, déjà vu." Every freezes, because déjà vu is "a glitch in the Matrix" when the machines change something. This would be kind of cool, an explanation of déjà vu as a glitch in this computer-generated fantasy world, since the phenomenon is still poorly understood.
Yet that's not what déjà vu is like. It's not seeing the same thing twice in a row, it's seeing or experiencing something just once, and imagining you've seen/experienced it before. When I get déjà vu, it's very compelling, even more so than when I was younger. I feel like it's a stimulus that gets lost on the way through my brain and ends up in the wrong part of my temporal lobe. So a glitch, but an organic one.
I bring this up because I was on shrooms yesterday. I've only done them once before, and it was quite pleasant. I acquired these with the intention of sharing them with my buddy Jon. He's a nerd, but generally open to experimentation. He has struggled with depression, and I thought the euphoria that accompanies a mushroom trip might be good for him. But he wimped out, so I shared them with my friend Jaret, who was with me the first time I used them (don't use drugs like this alone). I divided the eighth in what looked equal halves, but I think I overdid it.
Before I pitched to Jon, I did some research. Effects mentioned alongside hallucinations was time distortion, especially thinking more time has passed than actually has. I didn't recall this effect from my first experience, but you often bring to a trip what you expect. My first trip was exactly like I thought it was going to be. In this one, the time distortion was real.
We were watching Into the Spider-verse, which Jaret had never seen. The visual hallucinations made some scenes look really neat, as if the characters were reduced into crude polygons. But I was also having continuous déjà vu. Of course I've seen the movie before, but there were comments made by Jaret, and I knew some factoids about the movie, so we'd sometimes pause and talk. I was certain I had heard and said it ALL before, while watching this very movie, and my responses were just repeating what I'd already said some other time (verbalizing things was challenging enough without the nagging feeling I was repeating myself). Recall Jaret was seeing this for the first time, and this was the first time I'd watched it with anyone else. When the weed delivery came, I was sure I'd met the driver and been though our exact exchange before (I've never used this delivery service).
Still, it was a positive experience. On the other hand, I'm kind of glad Jon wasn't my partner as I'd advertised more of a fun walk in Wonderland, and I wouldn't have made much of a sitter in my state.
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Tuesday 6:27 (narrow 14x15)
Timeline Trouble
When covering comic book movies, I said Fox had managed to fit all the X-Men films into a coherent timeline, but that's not quite true.
X-Men has three series, in a sense. The original Patrick Stewart series (a), the McAvoy series (b), and the Wolverine solo series (c). I counted Days of Future Past in both (a) and (b). Chronologically they would go:
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (this overlaps somewhat with First Class through Apocalypse) (c1)
X-Men First Class (b1)
Days of Future Past (past) (b2)
X-Men Apocalypse (b3)
Dark Phoenix (I haven't seen this yet but reviews were bad, so I'll wait for the video) (b4)
X-Men (a1)
X2 - X-Men United (a2)
X-Men - The Last Stand (a3)
The Wolverine (c2)
Days of Future Past (future) (a4)
Logan (c3)
Here's the problem. Assuming "present day" plot, The Wolverine begins in 2013, with Logan haunted by the death of Jean Gray as well as Scott Summers and Charles Xavier from Last Stand, to the point where he's living alone in the woods (although Last Stand is 2006, so he's taking an awfully long time to get over it). Then he's whisked away to Japan for the main plot. The post-credit scene finds him at an airport two years later (2015) (there's a cute tease with an ad for Trask Industries on an airport TV), when suddenly Magneto (presumed powerless) appears accompanied by Xavier (presumed dead). Magneto says "dark forces" are leading to a weapon that will "destroy us all." Fade to black.
Then comes Days of Future Past. The movie starts in "the future, a dark, desolate world." Since the plot involves sending Wolverine back 50 years, we can infer it's 2023. In that future, legions of Sentinels have wiped out most mutants, and the ones that remain are constantly on the run. Many humans have died also, and you see a dump truck unloading heaps of bodies in the opening sequence. But that's not where the last movie left off. Mutants may still be feared at that point, but the whole war and genocide are years away. So how are Xavier and Magneto there to ask for Logan's help in advance like that? When they show up in DoFP they already have a time-travel plan to prevent the war before it starts, but what happened in the intervening 8 years? Even a mutant who could foresee the future doesn't explain the delay. Most of the X-Men would be around in 2015 and they could have done all of that stuff before the Sentinels are killing everyone.
I get it. You probably didn't have the whole next movie worked out when you wrote the post-credit scene (although they only came out a year apart). But Marvel doesn't make that mistake. They had the movies planned out years in advance, and even if scripts weren't all done at the same time they had Feige making sure everything worked. They knew what they were doing with the Avengers, especially with Thor and Captain America. The post-credit scenes in those movies were pointing directly at the team-up. Even without a full script, they knew the Tesseract was going to be the MacGuffin, and Loki was going to be the villain, so those were the only things they referred to.
In the post-credit scene for The Last Stand, Xavier is shown to not truly be dead, and Magneto has not truly lost all his powers. But they needed something more, so they put them in the post-credit scene of The Wolverine, working together, but wrecking the timeline. Not every post-credit scene needs to point so hard the sequel, either. See Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol. 1).
But y'know, it's just a movie.
Monday, July 22, 2019
Monday 5:46
It can feel like a waste to cover Monday puzzles. This one was by Lynn Lempel, who is well-known for her Mondays (she did one just last month, and last December, and last August, etc. She's been around since the Maleska days). Light and easy, dense theme, good fill. A pregnant pause on a couple of clues kept me from a record, but under 6:00 is a good time. Not sure I've ever solved another day in under 6.
I had a whole bit on being the best, but I have errands in the morning. Perhaps another time.
It can feel like a waste to cover Monday puzzles. This one was by Lynn Lempel, who is well-known for her Mondays (she did one just last month, and last December, and last August, etc. She's been around since the Maleska days). Light and easy, dense theme, good fill. A pregnant pause on a couple of clues kept me from a record, but under 6:00 is a good time. Not sure I've ever solved another day in under 6.
I had a whole bit on being the best, but I have errands in the morning. Perhaps another time.
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Saturday 26:45 (no Google, but see below)
When bored online, generally late at night, I bounce around my bookmarks aimlessly, hoping to get inspired enough to stay in one place for a spell. One of them is Rex Parker's popular crossword blog. Right at the top of each article is the latest puzzle's completed grid. These usually go up around 9-midnight the night before the paper release or early the day of, since the puzzle is available earlier online, and I usually do them early as well.
Except on Friday. I tend to get home later because of Friday Night Magic. Sometimes I bring home beer on Friday, print out and solve the Wall Street Journal Saturday variety puzzle, watch Real Time, whatever. I might get to the Saturday puzzle, but I sometimes leave it for the morning. But before getting to it tonight, I was bouncing around and hit upon Rex Parker. Seeing it was Saturday''s solution, I quickly closed it, but not before seeing the answer for 1-Across. It was a difficult clue, "Junk dealers?" for SPAMBOTS. It's hard to unring that bell.
Did I cheat? The time wouldn't suggest so. I didn't just enter 1-Across; I tried to solve it "fair" from crosses, but it's hard to not see what you know. It turned out to be the trickiest area of the puzzle, so any cheating doesn't even help much (I used the P to solve Nebula winner Frederick POHL, but I could have Googled it), and I think 1-Across ended up as my last entry. Seeing "Settlers of Catan" as a grid-spanning answer made me smile, as well as JANK, a formation which Rex Parker was unfamiliar with ("janky" is the more common parlance but the internet shortens everything). The benefits of Magic-playing. Not the first time it's come up, like the word SCRY.
When bored online, generally late at night, I bounce around my bookmarks aimlessly, hoping to get inspired enough to stay in one place for a spell. One of them is Rex Parker's popular crossword blog. Right at the top of each article is the latest puzzle's completed grid. These usually go up around 9-midnight the night before the paper release or early the day of, since the puzzle is available earlier online, and I usually do them early as well.
Except on Friday. I tend to get home later because of Friday Night Magic. Sometimes I bring home beer on Friday, print out and solve the Wall Street Journal Saturday variety puzzle, watch Real Time, whatever. I might get to the Saturday puzzle, but I sometimes leave it for the morning. But before getting to it tonight, I was bouncing around and hit upon Rex Parker. Seeing it was Saturday''s solution, I quickly closed it, but not before seeing the answer for 1-Across. It was a difficult clue, "Junk dealers?" for SPAMBOTS. It's hard to unring that bell.
Did I cheat? The time wouldn't suggest so. I didn't just enter 1-Across; I tried to solve it "fair" from crosses, but it's hard to not see what you know. It turned out to be the trickiest area of the puzzle, so any cheating doesn't even help much (I used the P to solve Nebula winner Frederick POHL, but I could have Googled it), and I think 1-Across ended up as my last entry. Seeing "Settlers of Catan" as a grid-spanning answer made me smile, as well as JANK, a formation which Rex Parker was unfamiliar with ("janky" is the more common parlance but the internet shortens everything). The benefits of Magic-playing. Not the first time it's come up, like the word SCRY.
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Saturday 22:41 (1 Google)
Oh my stars, New York Times! Maui Wowie as an answer in your crossword puzzle? Think of the children! I have noticed that the last time they used a marijuana strain (the more general KUSH) was also on a Saturday. That's also an awkward enough collection of letters that you really had to really want it in the grid. Yet really good fill, nothing felt forced. Almost no proper nouns either.
Oh my stars, New York Times! Maui Wowie as an answer in your crossword puzzle? Think of the children! I have noticed that the last time they used a marijuana strain (the more general KUSH) was also on a Saturday. That's also an awkward enough collection of letters that you really had to really want it in the grid. Yet really good fill, nothing felt forced. Almost no proper nouns either.
Friday, July 12, 2019
Friday 21:29 (1 Google)
1-Across: Means of interstellar travel, 9 letters. Easy WARP DRIVE, right? Nothing clicked in that corner right away from those crosses, so I moved on and didn't get back to it until the end. I finally looking up the RCA Dome when warp drive wasn't working. The answer was star ships. Eh, sure, I guess. Technically, warp drive is a Star Trek-specific thing, and it would have to be clued as such. There was also an Ad ___ clue, where anyone would put HOC. Luckily, I discovered HOC was wrong right away, but hadn't really ever heard of the right answer REM. Geez, that's some Saturday-level stuff. There are friendlier ways to clue REM than that and still keep it challenging.
I've been having moderate success with Izzet Phoenix on MTG Arena. Magic 2020 rotated in, but all I did was swap some sideboard cards into Fry. But I don't see Teferi everywhere anymore; it seems like everyone is playing Elementals. Rising Reef, Nissa, Krasis. I've seen uncommon Chandra, Living Twister. Some play Growth Spiral, some don't. There are many options. But Phoenix is actually pretty well-positioned against it. You have ample removal for early Elves or Reefs, and you can hopefully pressure Nissa with Phoenix or Drake and burn so things don't get out of hand. If they can't land a huge Krasis, they can't deal with your fliers any other way. Post-board, you get Entrancing Melody for Krasis, or sometimes an animated land. I bring in 2 Kefnet as well, and they really have trouble with that.
Yet I found a new toy. You can read about it here. I've only played a few rounds, but this deck is fun as heck, and I wanna play it. I just got to Gold, and I'm going to a least try and get to Diamond this season. It's heartbreaking that Teferi is not the place to be (actually, 3-mana Teferi is kind of a beating vs. Simic), but I like this style of never tapping out. An opponent had used Narset to find Negate while I was pressuring with a couple of guys including a Cutthroat. He drew out a Sinister Sabotage with a Vraska's Contempt. then the next turn, confidently played Ritual of Soot with Negate up...right into Frilled Mystic. There is no way to express a smirk online, but I bet he could feel it all the same.
1-Across: Means of interstellar travel, 9 letters. Easy WARP DRIVE, right? Nothing clicked in that corner right away from those crosses, so I moved on and didn't get back to it until the end. I finally looking up the RCA Dome when warp drive wasn't working. The answer was star ships. Eh, sure, I guess. Technically, warp drive is a Star Trek-specific thing, and it would have to be clued as such. There was also an Ad ___ clue, where anyone would put HOC. Luckily, I discovered HOC was wrong right away, but hadn't really ever heard of the right answer REM. Geez, that's some Saturday-level stuff. There are friendlier ways to clue REM than that and still keep it challenging.
I've been having moderate success with Izzet Phoenix on MTG Arena. Magic 2020 rotated in, but all I did was swap some sideboard cards into Fry. But I don't see Teferi everywhere anymore; it seems like everyone is playing Elementals. Rising Reef, Nissa, Krasis. I've seen uncommon Chandra, Living Twister. Some play Growth Spiral, some don't. There are many options. But Phoenix is actually pretty well-positioned against it. You have ample removal for early Elves or Reefs, and you can hopefully pressure Nissa with Phoenix or Drake and burn so things don't get out of hand. If they can't land a huge Krasis, they can't deal with your fliers any other way. Post-board, you get Entrancing Melody for Krasis, or sometimes an animated land. I bring in 2 Kefnet as well, and they really have trouble with that.
Yet I found a new toy. You can read about it here. I've only played a few rounds, but this deck is fun as heck, and I wanna play it. I just got to Gold, and I'm going to a least try and get to Diamond this season. It's heartbreaking that Teferi is not the place to be (actually, 3-mana Teferi is kind of a beating vs. Simic), but I like this style of never tapping out. An opponent had used Narset to find Negate while I was pressuring with a couple of guys including a Cutthroat. He drew out a Sinister Sabotage with a Vraska's Contempt. then the next turn, confidently played Ritual of Soot with Negate up...right into Frilled Mystic. There is no way to express a smirk online, but I bet he could feel it all the same.
Friday, July 5, 2019
Saturday 35:14 (3 Google)
No records here. Pablo Casals? Ina Claire? Yikes. (The third Google was Dane Cook who was clued via an album I know nothing of.) Some things you learn by doing enough puzzles, such as bygone opera diva Maria CALLAS, "Family Ties" mom ELYSE, song "Goodnight, IRENE," Supreme Court justice ELENA Kagan, both names of ALAN ALDA. A mine opening? ADIT. Indigo dye source? ANIL. If you want to go real deep into the archives, you'll learn AMAH (Asian nursemaid) and ESNE (Anglo-Saxon slave), although Will Shortz hates that kind of crosswordese (if it ever really can't be avoided (and the rest of the puzzle had better be worth it), ESNE is often derisively clued as "slave to crosswords"). Unfortunately, while something as useful as INA is the sort of name you might expect to pick up from experience, I've never seen it clued as a name. It's always "___ flash!" or something. It ought to be, if it can, of course. Crosswords need to be careful balancing such things. Sure, a computer will figure out a cellist and a 1939 film actress no problem, but solving other clues take a human touch, too. And you don't always need to know everything. I got all 11 letters in DARLENE LOVE entirely from crosses.
No records here. Pablo Casals? Ina Claire? Yikes. (The third Google was Dane Cook who was clued via an album I know nothing of.) Some things you learn by doing enough puzzles, such as bygone opera diva Maria CALLAS, "Family Ties" mom ELYSE, song "Goodnight, IRENE," Supreme Court justice ELENA Kagan, both names of ALAN ALDA. A mine opening? ADIT. Indigo dye source? ANIL. If you want to go real deep into the archives, you'll learn AMAH (Asian nursemaid) and ESNE (Anglo-Saxon slave), although Will Shortz hates that kind of crosswordese (if it ever really can't be avoided (and the rest of the puzzle had better be worth it), ESNE is often derisively clued as "slave to crosswords"). Unfortunately, while something as useful as INA is the sort of name you might expect to pick up from experience, I've never seen it clued as a name. It's always "___ flash!" or something. It ought to be, if it can, of course. Crosswords need to be careful balancing such things. Sure, a computer will figure out a cellist and a 1939 film actress no problem, but solving other clues take a human touch, too. And you don't always need to know everything. I got all 11 letters in DARLENE LOVE entirely from crosses.
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Thursday 17:44
Friday 19:38
Saturday 12:30
I think that's a personal best for Saturday, at least without outside assistance, and compare the times for Thursday-Friday. I couldn't really tell if this was a hard puzzle or not but 1-Across was a nice long gimme ("Woman who spends money on a younger lover, in modern slang" SUGARMAMA. (Is there old-timey slang for this? "Sugar Daddy" wouldn't be considered modern, would it?)). Saturday usually has fewer straightforward things, but there was nothing too terribly misdirecting, which I would rather see, even if it takes longer. Clever clues for regular words make me smile, Will Shortz has said the best puzzles could be Monday OR Saturday, differing only in clues. But clearly, that's not actually a standard they use. Friday-Saturday are always lower word count (remember, lower word count means longer answers and more white space, so harder) than earlier days.
Friday 19:38
Saturday 12:30
I think that's a personal best for Saturday, at least without outside assistance, and compare the times for Thursday-Friday. I couldn't really tell if this was a hard puzzle or not but 1-Across was a nice long gimme ("Woman who spends money on a younger lover, in modern slang" SUGARMAMA. (Is there old-timey slang for this? "Sugar Daddy" wouldn't be considered modern, would it?)). Saturday usually has fewer straightforward things, but there was nothing too terribly misdirecting, which I would rather see, even if it takes longer. Clever clues for regular words make me smile, Will Shortz has said the best puzzles could be Monday OR Saturday, differing only in clues. But clearly, that's not actually a standard they use. Friday-Saturday are always lower word count (remember, lower word count means longer answers and more white space, so harder) than earlier days.
Saturday, June 15, 2019
Sunday 42:53 (themeless)
A themeless Sunday. Why do you do this? If it weren't for the diagramless (which was ok, but a little easy despite the asymmetry and the theme was sparse), the puzzle weekend would be wasted. Friday and Saturday are your times for themeless things, don't waste your premier day on this. It's not a horrible puzzle (although SERENE and SELENE in the same grid is unattractive), just not fun for the time it took. No aha! moments, yet not hard enough to feel accomplished for finishing it. It was just work.
A themeless Sunday. Why do you do this? If it weren't for the diagramless (which was ok, but a little easy despite the asymmetry and the theme was sparse), the puzzle weekend would be wasted. Friday and Saturday are your times for themeless things, don't waste your premier day on this. It's not a horrible puzzle (although SERENE and SELENE in the same grid is unattractive), just not fun for the time it took. No aha! moments, yet not hard enough to feel accomplished for finishing it. It was just work.
Friday, June 14, 2019
Friday 20:57 (2 Google)
Toughie.
So the last professional Magic event was won by Jeskai control, a deck I very much wanted to play. It was a large player shortly after Guilds of Ravnica was released, and I built it, but it had fallen out of favor with the new tools in Allegiances, and the deck was supplanted by Esper Control, or its sister Esper Hero. With War of the Spark, some people looked back to Jeskai, and built a planeswalker-heavy deck. Sarkhan, Saheeli, T3feri, T5feri, Narset, and more. But I like to counter spells. I want Absorb. I got lucky early in War of the Spark, and opened several copies of Teferi. I actually spent almost $40 and a lot of store credit to get the last cards I needed, and I felt like Thanos acquiring the last Infinity Stones. This deck seemed like just what I wanted - tight control with a combo finish (Ral, Storm Conduit and 2x Expansion/Explosion. It seems like that's unlikely to happen, but it does. If not, copying Banefire, or just burning them out with other spells and Ral's static ability, going ultimate with Teferi usually prompts concession). You know what other deck played like that? Zevatog, possibly my favorite deck ever.
I've played the deck in a few events since. I can't win. Or at least, I'm not winning enough. And I'm losing to completely unlikely situations, or I'm losing to my own mistakes, and losing to the very people I cannot stand losing to, at least one of whom made the same mistake multiple times. I know the deck can win. It has horrible game against mono-blue, but nobody plays that anymore, right? No, some guy won't give it up. My Gruul deck owns the fuck out of that, but can't really hang with the rest of the metagame anymore. There are new Gruul decks, and maybe I should just find one of those, but I really worked hard to make Jeskai, and I want it to do well. I don't know how to sideboard correctly, although I at least mostly know what I want in
I should play the deck more on Arena, but man it is a pain in the ass to play there. There is no way to make this any good in best of 1, since the sideboard is transformational based on match-up, so you have to play bo3, and matches take forever. Plus, I'm not entirely sure how to execute the combo correctly with full control active. They say you should never make a pet deck, but this isn't a pet deck. The meta has shifted a little but, but this is still well-positioned against most of the field. Maybe I just need Niv-Mizzet main. I board it in every single match, and it really is curtains a lot of the time.
Toughie.
So the last professional Magic event was won by Jeskai control, a deck I very much wanted to play. It was a large player shortly after Guilds of Ravnica was released, and I built it, but it had fallen out of favor with the new tools in Allegiances, and the deck was supplanted by Esper Control, or its sister Esper Hero. With War of the Spark, some people looked back to Jeskai, and built a planeswalker-heavy deck. Sarkhan, Saheeli, T3feri, T5feri, Narset, and more. But I like to counter spells. I want Absorb. I got lucky early in War of the Spark, and opened several copies of Teferi. I actually spent almost $40 and a lot of store credit to get the last cards I needed, and I felt like Thanos acquiring the last Infinity Stones. This deck seemed like just what I wanted - tight control with a combo finish (Ral, Storm Conduit and 2x Expansion/Explosion. It seems like that's unlikely to happen, but it does. If not, copying Banefire, or just burning them out with other spells and Ral's static ability, going ultimate with Teferi usually prompts concession). You know what other deck played like that? Zevatog, possibly my favorite deck ever.
I've played the deck in a few events since. I can't win. Or at least, I'm not winning enough. And I'm losing to completely unlikely situations, or I'm losing to my own mistakes, and losing to the very people I cannot stand losing to, at least one of whom made the same mistake multiple times. I know the deck can win. It has horrible game against mono-blue, but nobody plays that anymore, right? No, some guy won't give it up. My Gruul deck owns the fuck out of that, but can't really hang with the rest of the metagame anymore. There are new Gruul decks, and maybe I should just find one of those, but I really worked hard to make Jeskai, and I want it to do well. I don't know how to sideboard correctly, although I at least mostly know what I want in
I should play the deck more on Arena, but man it is a pain in the ass to play there. There is no way to make this any good in best of 1, since the sideboard is transformational based on match-up, so you have to play bo3, and matches take forever. Plus, I'm not entirely sure how to execute the combo correctly with full control active. They say you should never make a pet deck, but this isn't a pet deck. The meta has shifted a little but, but this is still well-positioned against most of the field. Maybe I just need Niv-Mizzet main. I board it in every single match, and it really is curtains a lot of the time.
Monday, June 10, 2019
Monday 5:27 (gofast, pretty lifted)
Rex Parker marked this as medium-challenging (for a Monday), so I determined to focus hard. Did the Blue Dream help? Unlikely, yet Rex was only two minutes faster than me (the margin between us by percentage is usually much larger). There were a few weird things like SLUE but I got it all from crosses. Didn't bother with the theme until I was done, since the clues were all normal, and the reveal answer was 4/5 done before I even looked at the clue. There was an odd clue "Letter you don't pronounce in'jeopardy' and 'leopard'" for THE O. Not enough famous Theos (for a Monday) I guess. You used to get the character from the Cosby Show, but that's a name I'm fine with avoiding in crossword puzzles. There's what they call the "breakfast table rule," which states that no puzzle should include anything you wouldn't discuss over breakfast. No "adult" things like porn, heroin, rape, incest, etc. in clues or answers. Murder could be clued as a group of crows; anal is only ever clued as "excessively neat."
Rex Parker marked this as medium-challenging (for a Monday), so I determined to focus hard. Did the Blue Dream help? Unlikely, yet Rex was only two minutes faster than me (the margin between us by percentage is usually much larger). There were a few weird things like SLUE but I got it all from crosses. Didn't bother with the theme until I was done, since the clues were all normal, and the reveal answer was 4/5 done before I even looked at the clue. There was an odd clue "Letter you don't pronounce in'jeopardy' and 'leopard'" for THE O. Not enough famous Theos (for a Monday) I guess. You used to get the character from the Cosby Show, but that's a name I'm fine with avoiding in crossword puzzles. There's what they call the "breakfast table rule," which states that no puzzle should include anything you wouldn't discuss over breakfast. No "adult" things like porn, heroin, rape, incest, etc. in clues or answers. Murder could be clued as a group of crows; anal is only ever clued as "excessively neat."
Friday, May 31, 2019
Thursday 12:00
Friday 18:38
I promised this a year ago.
Mental healthcare is far behind where it ought to be, and for once, it's not an exclusively American problem. PTSD is real, and obviously medical professionals can help. But even absent that, the solution can't be to lock yourself out from anything that might remotely remind you of your trauma. You need to be able to remember it without reliving it. Not all trauma leads to PTSD. Even if one does, it can be temporary even without professional help, but not if you don't deal with it. Limiting yourself to "safe spaces" to the exclusion of others only internalizes your trauma more. As I said, the Facebook post isn't even about rape (misleading CW). But even if it were (say, if the comment online was rape-y and the restaurant guy changed his menu for that) isn't that a positive story that would be uplifting to a victim of rape?
Previously, on The West Wing:
Josh is concerned about his diagnosis.
Friday 18:38
I promised this a year ago.
Triggers
So, I really like The West Wing (Aaron Sorkin is my favorite television writer). It's not quite at my Law & Order level of obsession, but I've watched the whole run twice since 2016 (it's a good antidote to Trump).
There's an episode in season 2 (s02e10) called Noël (special guest appearance by Yo-Yo Ma). At the end of the first season, the President gets shot. Also hit is his aide, Josh Lyman, but all survive. Several weeks later, around Christmas, Josh starts losing his cool. He gets absurdly irritable to the point where he even yells at the President, and punches a window, cutting his hand. Leo notices that Josh is losing it and calls in a psychiatrist who specializes in trauma (great role played by Alan Arkin). He instantly realizes that Josh is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Josh is reliving the shooting instead of moving past it. His "trigger" in this case started with a brass quintet playing Christmas carols in the White House lobby. Later, watching Yo-Yo Ma, he starts to freak out. His brain subconsciously connected music to sirens, which associated with the shooting, and caused him to break down a little. For gunshot victims, it's usually a car backfiring or some other sudden noise that triggers them but for Josh, it's music.
Stick a pin in that for now.
I like this attitude (also, I like potato skins). I don't know if this is exactly the appropriate response, but, to my knowledge, there's no charity fighting sexist comments on Yelp. My friend Jon posts a lot of things on Facebook like this. He's what some would call a "social justice warrior," but I mean that in a mostly good way. As a white cis male (like myself), some of his white knighting is a little off, but he means well. We often have spirited online discussions, because sometimes I find his brand of liberalism too far left (his support of antifa particularly troubles me), or because I just like to play devil's advocate. Anyway, in posting this, he put a little content warning at the top "CW: mention of rape."
Now, I'm not a trauma specialist. (From the armchair, I have experienced trauma, and I have experienced stress, but I'm fairly sure I have never suffered from PTSD.) But I can still understand how a depiction, or even a description of a rape could be traumatic for someone who has been the victim of one. But just the word? And in this context? The act or suggestion of rape isn't even involved! There was a story about a law school student who claimed that her professor saying the word "rape" in her criminal law class was traumatizing. In criminal law class! As in the West Wing story, you don't always know what could trigger you, but warping your reality to the point that word must not exist in your world is absurd
I'm not saying safe spaces shouldn't exist, but you can't demand someone else change their space to make it safe for you. You can't bear to talk about rape? Don't go to law school.
Previously, on The West Wing:
Josh is concerned about his diagnosis.
"So that's going to be my reaction every time I hear music?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because... we get better."
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Tuesday 10:22
Wednesday 8:16
Zoomed through Wednesday. I got the theme (It's a pretty clever one. One long vertical answer, CROSS DRESSING, crossed 5 other long clues which contained some form of salad dressing, i.e The Italian Job, Hail Caesar, etc.) early and all five theme answers were simple after that, filled with no other crosses. I didn't start particularly fast, though. On a clue for "Blue," I spent far too long looking at ER_TI_ before getting the (in retrospect, obvious) answer. Real pros just see that letter strong and don't even bother with the clue. Nothing else is even a word (You specifically need the R, though. EXOTIC and EROTIC would both fit otherwise).
I guess that's an okay number of parentheticals but I can go deeper. It's interesting to me, because at least as far as I can remember having a writing style, this has been part of it. Even in my journal-keeping days, you can find nested parentheses. My penchant for asides gave my blog its name. That's why I was particularly gobsmacked by Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace when I first encountered it (1999-2000). The book is a behemoth, clocking in at 981 pages (I actually read this in college, which is retarded considering all the other required reading I was supposed to do). But oh wait, there are nearly a hundred more pages in smaller text. The book is littered with 388 endnotes, found in the back (you need two bookmarks while reading) Some of those notes are several pages long themselves and have their own footnotes (in even smaller text at the bottom of the page). This, truly, is the epitome of parenthetical writing. I sought out a lot more of his writing after that. Some of his essays go even further, with boxes and arrows like a flowchart, pointing you away from the main text to an aside. This is awesome! This guy writes the way I want to, he's hailed as a genius!
And then he fucking killed himself.
Wednesday 8:16
Zoomed through Wednesday. I got the theme (It's a pretty clever one. One long vertical answer, CROSS DRESSING, crossed 5 other long clues which contained some form of salad dressing, i.e The Italian Job, Hail Caesar, etc.) early and all five theme answers were simple after that, filled with no other crosses. I didn't start particularly fast, though. On a clue for "Blue," I spent far too long looking at ER_TI_ before getting the (in retrospect, obvious) answer. Real pros just see that letter strong and don't even bother with the clue. Nothing else is even a word (You specifically need the R, though. EXOTIC and EROTIC would both fit otherwise).
I guess that's an okay number of parentheticals but I can go deeper. It's interesting to me, because at least as far as I can remember having a writing style, this has been part of it. Even in my journal-keeping days, you can find nested parentheses. My penchant for asides gave my blog its name. That's why I was particularly gobsmacked by Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace when I first encountered it (1999-2000). The book is a behemoth, clocking in at 981 pages (I actually read this in college, which is retarded considering all the other required reading I was supposed to do). But oh wait, there are nearly a hundred more pages in smaller text. The book is littered with 388 endnotes, found in the back (you need two bookmarks while reading) Some of those notes are several pages long themselves and have their own footnotes (in even smaller text at the bottom of the page). This, truly, is the epitome of parenthetical writing. I sought out a lot more of his writing after that. Some of his essays go even further, with boxes and arrows like a flowchart, pointing you away from the main text to an aside. This is awesome! This guy writes the way I want to, he's hailed as a genius!
And then he fucking killed himself.
Monday, May 6, 2019
Tuesday 12:49
So, this is my ranking of the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe. I've seen most of these movies 3+ times, but Captain Marvel and Endgame only once.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The Avengers: Endgame
Captain America: Civil War
The Avengers: Infinity War
The Avengers
Iron Man
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Guardians of the Galaxy
So, this is my ranking of the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe. I've seen most of these movies 3+ times, but Captain Marvel and Endgame only once.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The Avengers: Endgame
Captain America: Civil War
The Avengers: Infinity War
The Avengers
Iron Man
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Guardians of the Galaxy
Black Panther
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Thor: Ragnarok
Doctor Strange
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2
Ant-Man
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain Marvel
Thor
Iron Man 3
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Thor: The Dark World
Those clump a lot in the middle, and the top 4 are all pretty close. Endgame might get the top spot upon further viewing, and Captain Marvel might move up too.
Bonus Fox's X-Men Universe ranking:
X2: X-Men United
Logan
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Deadpool
X-Men
X-Men: First Class
Deadpool 2
The Wolverine
X-Men: Apocalypse
X-Men: The Last Stand
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Those titles are a bit much, since they don't really bother with numbers. It's impressive that they've managed to knit the various casts and timelines into a semi-coherent narrative (although you kinda have to ignore a lot of the Origins movie, particularly the parts about this Wade Wilson guy). Hopefully, Dark Phoenix is good, since as I said, I think that's the end of the road for this iteration. Fan theory: Bruce Banner and Tony Stark using the gauntlet caused a massive radiation spike across the world (they mention gamma radiation is involved, which is why Banner survives). This activates many X-genes, and suddenly mutants everywhere. I'm not sure they could get away with that, honestly, but there are a lot of people who don't want to let the current MCU go away, but want their mutants too.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Wednesday 8:39
Filling the grid took 8:39. The "full" solve took longer. The gimmick within the puzzle was state capital anagrams, and it's not my strongest suit. It took a few minutes to get most of them, but I finally had to Wikipedia a list to remind me of Lansing, Michigan (anagram IN SLANG).
Filling the grid took 8:39. The "full" solve took longer. The gimmick within the puzzle was state capital anagrams, and it's not my strongest suit. It took a few minutes to get most of them, but I finally had to Wikipedia a list to remind me of Lansing, Michigan (anagram IN SLANG).
Avengers: Endgame
Despite my other geeky tendencies, I was never a comic book geek. Sure, everyone knows Superman and Batman and Spider-Man, maybe a few X-Men, but you either followed them in the comics or not. My Saturday morning cartoons leaned more towards Smurfs and Transformers, not X-Men, so I was never really part of that. I liked the 1989 Batman movie and the first two sequels. They don't age well but I'm allowed to like that stuff when I'm 11. Childhood friend Dan Callaway had some archived classic Batman, and the Dark Knight Returns, so I had some exposure. I bought some comics around the death of Superman, but quit when it just got back to Superman as usual.
But other media got me. The first X-Men movie released in 2000. Smallville premiered in 2001, then the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man in 2002. Batman Begins came in 2005, and suddenly it was all superhero movies all the time. The Marvel Cinematic Universe started in 2008 and it's really changed the game for what a franchise could be. I started to watch YouTube videos that summarized big comic books sagas like Civil War, Planet Hulk, The Infinity War (all of these vary rather wildly from their movie adaptations, but the snap at the end of Infinity War did not come as a surprise). DC, on the other hand, high from Christopher Nolan's masterful Batman films, produced a number of terrible movies (Wonder Woman excepted; that movie was great) in an attempt to create their own universe. It's amazing how consistent they are at getting everything wrong while squandering their most bankable characters.
Marvel properties that other studios own have a spotty history, too. While Fox's handling of X-Men and Deadpool have gone mostly well (although the notable exceptions are really bad), their versions of the Fantastic Four have been disastrous. After Spider-Man 2, a high water mark for superhero movies at the time, Sony tanked it with a memorably bad Spider-Man 3 and a weak reboot attempt. Thankfully, they gave creative control to Marvel for Homecoming, and did a really great job with Into the Spider-Verse, possibly the greatest comic book movie that feels like a comic book, if that makes any sense.
While Marvel Studios has had some misses in their 21-movie-long journey to this point, it's crazy how well things have gone regardless. Thor 2 is probably the worst of the bunch but it's still something like a C, and the majority are well above that mark. Their casting has constantly been phenomenal, and they don't have trouble hiring big names like Glenn Close and Cate Blanchett to play roles. Visual styles between the various locales make each hero's identity unique, yet they still cohere nicely when they collide. The overall tone has been great. At heart, this is still a bunch of fantasy magic. You can't take it all so seriously all the time, even when the story starts out with half your friends being dead. Most of the jokes land pretty well and fit the characters. As for the score, well, Alan Silvestri is no John Williams, but you can't have it all.
Endgame is three hours long, but it sure doesn't feel like it. The story moves pretty much non-stop. Everyone assumed time travel was going to be involved (after all, there are already trailers for a Spider-Man sequel, who was dust at the end of Infinity War.), so it's good they established that as the central plot early on instead of some surprise tactic at the end. I knew Steve Rogers would wield Mjolnir at some point (this is from the comics), but it was still a joy to see. Captain Marvel was used primarily as deus ex machina, which is kinda lazy, but she's so powerful, it's hard for her to be anything else without overshadowing the rest of the heroes. Even then, she can't take down Thanos on her own, and every hero gets a shot at trying.
Aside
I read an article yesterday about Marvel and its supposed issue with female heroes. As in, there aren't enough of them in their movies, or they are relegated to sidekick/assistant status. Perhaps a somewhat valid complaint, though it's not exactly limited to Marvel. They then go on to complain about a certain scene in the final fight. After Peter Parker hands off the Gauntlet to Carol Danvers, he comments it will be hard for her to get it all the way to the van. Suddenly Wanda, Okoye, Wasp, and Pepper Potts as Rescue show up "she has help." The article said that all the girls showing up there was pure pandering, specifically complaining that these female characters had hardly any other lines in the movie. Well, of course not! Three of them had been dead for most of the time, and the other was very reluctant to get involved at all (Rescue showing up in the first place was some top-notch fan service, though).
End Aside
If I wanted to get super-persnickety, there's this: Thanos needed some ancient dwarf master craftsman with a forge powered by a star to make a gauntlet that could harness the stones, yet Tony Stark can make two in a CAVE! With a box of SCRAPS! in his lab.
I don't know where Marvel is going to go from here, but this movie is the perfect cap to Phase 3 of their plan for global domination. Disney acquiring Fox could mean X-Men joining the MCU, but it would be weird to introduce them now (where have they been all this time?) They may need to wait for the current franchises to wind down so they can reboot them simultaneously. I'm not sure there's a definitive plan for the X-Men after Dark Phoenix. I think it's very impressive that Fox has managed to plausibly put all of its X-Men movies into the same timeline, but you have to end it sometime. I think at least Jennifer Lawrence is done after this movie (I miss evil Mystique), and the absence of a Wolverine is starting to get noticeable.
Whew. Great movie. I may see it again, though I passed the no pee challenge the first time,
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Wednesday 6:37
That's a pretty ridiculous time for a Wednesday, possibly a personal best (other xword bloggers agree this was super-easy).
So I've been dutifully grinding MTG Arena for the past several months, mostly breaking even on drafts and getting my constructed rating up. I'm just on the edge of platinum with green Gruul, but every time I get just one match away, I lose. It's not like levels mean a whole ton, just a few packs and coins (not even gems) at the end of the season. But if I finish platinum, I start the next season at gold, which is good, I guess.
War of the Spark looks quite interesting, and sponsored streamers have early access on Arena. It doesn't seem like the set adds anything interesting to my deck, nor any horrible new threats (How many people remember that Thrash//Threat can target planeswalkers? (I'm quite sure I've forgotten this more than once when they've played Teferi or something)).
The reason all this is relevant is that I'm planning on playing in a MCQ ("Pro Tour" has been rebranded as "Mythic Championship") on May 11, shortly after War of the Spark will become legal. for some players of lesser income like me, that can mean card availability problems, but more importantly, much less lead time to test new ideas. Bolas's Citadel seems ripe for abuse, but who can discover how to do so in just a week? The prerelease is this weekend, and so is the current Championship! They're essentially drafting a totally new set at the same time as us. (The constructed portion is Modern, and won't include any WAR cards, though I think a few more might be playable in the format.)
So of course I should just stick with Gruul. There are things I'd like to experiment with, but I'm still learning new things with Gruul, and I play it all the time. To try something new at this point is insane, right? Frank Karsten posted a G/W hexproof deck with Paradise Druid and Vine Mare to go with Blanchwood Armor and On Serra's Wings. It already has almost all the mono-green cards I'm playing already. It goes even bigger with Carnage Tyrant and Ghalta! I LOVE that idea. It has zero removal, and considerably less turn 3 payoff (Steel-Leaf is the only 3-drop) and yet... I sure do like Arena. I've been hoarding wild cards, so I want to test this HARD as soon as possible.
UPDATE: The deck is good but not great. It has ridiculous game against mono-red, as one might expect, but given that Esper plays Mortify main deck and white decks can target enchantments too, it loses some edge. Vine Mare is good on its own against Esper, but so is my current 4-drop of Nullhide Ferox. It's fun, but I'm interested in winning.
That's a pretty ridiculous time for a Wednesday, possibly a personal best (other xword bloggers agree this was super-easy).
So I've been dutifully grinding MTG Arena for the past several months, mostly breaking even on drafts and getting my constructed rating up. I'm just on the edge of platinum with green Gruul, but every time I get just one match away, I lose. It's not like levels mean a whole ton, just a few packs and coins (not even gems) at the end of the season. But if I finish platinum, I start the next season at gold, which is good, I guess.
War of the Spark looks quite interesting, and sponsored streamers have early access on Arena. It doesn't seem like the set adds anything interesting to my deck, nor any horrible new threats (How many people remember that Thrash//Threat can target planeswalkers? (I'm quite sure I've forgotten this more than once when they've played Teferi or something)).
The reason all this is relevant is that I'm planning on playing in a MCQ ("Pro Tour" has been rebranded as "Mythic Championship") on May 11, shortly after War of the Spark will become legal. for some players of lesser income like me, that can mean card availability problems, but more importantly, much less lead time to test new ideas. Bolas's Citadel seems ripe for abuse, but who can discover how to do so in just a week? The prerelease is this weekend, and so is the current Championship! They're essentially drafting a totally new set at the same time as us. (The constructed portion is Modern, and won't include any WAR cards, though I think a few more might be playable in the format.)
So of course I should just stick with Gruul. There are things I'd like to experiment with, but I'm still learning new things with Gruul, and I play it all the time. To try something new at this point is insane, right? Frank Karsten posted a G/W hexproof deck with Paradise Druid and Vine Mare to go with Blanchwood Armor and On Serra's Wings. It already has almost all the mono-green cards I'm playing already. It goes even bigger with Carnage Tyrant and Ghalta! I LOVE that idea. It has zero removal, and considerably less turn 3 payoff (Steel-Leaf is the only 3-drop) and yet... I sure do like Arena. I've been hoarding wild cards, so I want to test this HARD as soon as possible.
UPDATE: The deck is good but not great. It has ridiculous game against mono-red, as one might expect, but given that Esper plays Mortify main deck and white decks can target enchantments too, it loses some edge. Vine Mare is good on its own against Esper, but so is my current 4-drop of Nullhide Ferox. It's fun, but I'm interested in winning.
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Monday (April 1) 6:00
Tuesday 7:54
Wednesday 13:08
I played in a tabletop Standard tournament of more than 3 rounds in well over a year. I played Zvi Gruul and went 3-1. Some would say that's pretty good and I should be happy.
They're wrong of course.
Now, I don't currently have The Fire™ but I have what might be called Sufficient Heat™. I'm always in it to win it, regardless of stakes. I'm not always super cutthroat, though. I reminded an opponent that a creature he was blocking had trample and let him rethink blocks (he was very close to dead regardless so he ended up blocking anyway, going to 3 instead of 1, so no biggie). The Fire™ is a wonderful thing to have, and it's not that hard to get.
Living in New York, I always felt like I had something of an inside track, whether from Mike Flores & Co. or just a bunch of solid players concentrated in one place. Zvi's deck is good, but it's two weeks old now, and it was probably published up to two weeks after it was invented. The deck it destroys, and was designed partially in response to, Mono-blue tempo, has fallen out of favor, and other decks that have risen in popularity weren't covered in his deck guide. The metagame moves so fast. You can always tweak some sideboard cards or something, but if something really breaks, I feel like I'll miss it.
Like, a bunch of years ago, I was playing in a Kamigawa Block Constructed PTQ. I had been playing an aggressive monoblack deck ("Black Hand"). It was an ok deck, but it felt Tier 2. It was pretty good against the most popular deck, mono white aggro ("White Hand"). Yet both decks had a hard time with the format's Gifts Ungiven engine deck (I don't remember exactly what the deck did; I believe Hana Kami was involved). Playing the night before the tournament, I ran into my friend Julian also playing Black Hand, but his build had Sink Into Takenuma. I thought this card was hideous. Turns out it trounced the Gifts deck like a rag doll. I copied Julian's deck and suddenly, my deck was good. I saw other black decks the next day, but Julian and I were the only ones to make top 8 (I eventually lost in the semifinals to Mike Flores, playing the format's ultimate metagame deck, Critical Mass). Sink Into Takenuma wasn't Julian's tech, but being in that environment, whatever genius thought it up, it filtered into Neutral Ground, and I was there to acquire it.
Things don't feel like that anymore. The last piece of tech I felt like I had that few people thought of was Terrifying Presence in Innistrad Block Constructed Bant Aggro (Ethereal Armor). Exactly one US tournament had this as its format, a GP in Sacramento. It was fantastic in the mirror, as so many games just came down to haymaker turns, and that one fog turn could swing it. Turns out more than a few people playing the deck had it. I even lost a game to it once (I did make my first day 2, and almost finished in the money. One of my losses on day 2 was to the eventual champion). The format was so little-discussed, being a one weekend event, yet even this little tidbit was no secret.
Maybe there is no tech anymore. People have always complained about how too many matches come down to pairings, how it's just rock-paper-scissors. But of course that's not true. Why do top players keep winning big events? It feels more like skill than tech, though. In a way, that's better. In other ways, worse.
Tuesday 7:54
Wednesday 13:08
I played in a tabletop Standard tournament of more than 3 rounds in well over a year. I played Zvi Gruul and went 3-1. Some would say that's pretty good and I should be happy.
They're wrong of course.
Now, I don't currently have The Fire™ but I have what might be called Sufficient Heat™. I'm always in it to win it, regardless of stakes. I'm not always super cutthroat, though. I reminded an opponent that a creature he was blocking had trample and let him rethink blocks (he was very close to dead regardless so he ended up blocking anyway, going to 3 instead of 1, so no biggie). The Fire™ is a wonderful thing to have, and it's not that hard to get.
Living in New York, I always felt like I had something of an inside track, whether from Mike Flores & Co. or just a bunch of solid players concentrated in one place. Zvi's deck is good, but it's two weeks old now, and it was probably published up to two weeks after it was invented. The deck it destroys, and was designed partially in response to, Mono-blue tempo, has fallen out of favor, and other decks that have risen in popularity weren't covered in his deck guide. The metagame moves so fast. You can always tweak some sideboard cards or something, but if something really breaks, I feel like I'll miss it.
Like, a bunch of years ago, I was playing in a Kamigawa Block Constructed PTQ. I had been playing an aggressive monoblack deck ("Black Hand"). It was an ok deck, but it felt Tier 2. It was pretty good against the most popular deck, mono white aggro ("White Hand"). Yet both decks had a hard time with the format's Gifts Ungiven engine deck (I don't remember exactly what the deck did; I believe Hana Kami was involved). Playing the night before the tournament, I ran into my friend Julian also playing Black Hand, but his build had Sink Into Takenuma. I thought this card was hideous. Turns out it trounced the Gifts deck like a rag doll. I copied Julian's deck and suddenly, my deck was good. I saw other black decks the next day, but Julian and I were the only ones to make top 8 (I eventually lost in the semifinals to Mike Flores, playing the format's ultimate metagame deck, Critical Mass). Sink Into Takenuma wasn't Julian's tech, but being in that environment, whatever genius thought it up, it filtered into Neutral Ground, and I was there to acquire it.
Things don't feel like that anymore. The last piece of tech I felt like I had that few people thought of was Terrifying Presence in Innistrad Block Constructed Bant Aggro (Ethereal Armor). Exactly one US tournament had this as its format, a GP in Sacramento. It was fantastic in the mirror, as so many games just came down to haymaker turns, and that one fog turn could swing it. Turns out more than a few people playing the deck had it. I even lost a game to it once (I did make my first day 2, and almost finished in the money. One of my losses on day 2 was to the eventual champion). The format was so little-discussed, being a one weekend event, yet even this little tidbit was no secret.
Maybe there is no tech anymore. People have always complained about how too many matches come down to pairings, how it's just rock-paper-scissors. But of course that's not true. Why do top players keep winning big events? It feels more like skill than tech, though. In a way, that's better. In other ways, worse.
Monday, January 7, 2019
Sunday 29:07
Hm, well, a new year. Nothing much to report. Tried some kratom yesterday. It didn't do much for me, but it's helping an alcoholic friend quit drinking, so good for him (he's been on the wagon before, though, several times). I went to a Magic GP (they made some asinine decisions to call them Magic Fests now, but nobody does) this weekend. Sold a bunch of stuff to complete a Standard deck. Most of the cards are reasonable investments that will hold value like Teferi, which is already seeing play in Modern.
I'm really into MTG Arena, but that's a whole thing that deserves more time than I'm willing to spend right now. Just wanted to talk a bit into the void.
Hm, well, a new year. Nothing much to report. Tried some kratom yesterday. It didn't do much for me, but it's helping an alcoholic friend quit drinking, so good for him (he's been on the wagon before, though, several times). I went to a Magic GP (they made some asinine decisions to call them Magic Fests now, but nobody does) this weekend. Sold a bunch of stuff to complete a Standard deck. Most of the cards are reasonable investments that will hold value like Teferi, which is already seeing play in Modern.
I'm really into MTG Arena, but that's a whole thing that deserves more time than I'm willing to spend right now. Just wanted to talk a bit into the void.
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