Some festering thoughts
I never liked Ken Jennings anyways
I'm not a religious Jeopardy watcher by any means, but it's one of the few legit game shows still airing and it's a solid, so I catch it occasionally. Last week was the Jeopardy online test, which I felt like I could do fairly decently on. Until I took it, and seemingly a quarter of the questions were about literature. Sure, there is often a literary category on the show, but that's 1 out of 12 categories. There was a ton. Then they asked about LBJ's cabinet members, opera, and so much other stuff that's beyond usual show fare and way outside my area of expertise (whatever that is). While no official results are given, I do not expect at all to get to the next step. Oh well, at least I got farther than I did in 2004 (when I was too young for College Jeopardy, and a different CMU student, Kermin, ended up winning). I didn't live up to 2006 when I passed the written part of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire contestant search but failed having a personality, or 2007 when I got to the final stage of Wheel of Fortune tryouts before they stopped communicating with me.
In cooler Jeopardy news, though, a three-day exhibition tournament started yesterday between the most frequent contestant (Ken Jennings), the winningest contestant (Brad Rutter), and a language-processing computer named Watson. They're spreading two games across three shows so they can talk about Watson and his team a bunch, and it's cool to get a tiny glimpse of the algorithms used. They look for keywords in the clue and seem to have massive amounts of word relations, as far as they showed. They didn't get into how they look for what kind of response is required (it knew in the Name the Decade category that they wanted a response like "What were the 1920s?"). Watson started off clobbering Ken and Brad, partially thanks to timing stuff (it can buzz in first whenever it wants to because, well, it's a machine), but as harder clues were reached, Watson was less buzzer-happy and even got some things wrong, including repeating a wrong response from Ken (this amused Alex). I'm looking forward to tonight's and tomorrow's episodes for sure. I'm excited to see just how good this can be at natural language processing.
108 Stitches and a Problem Ain't One
I work part-time for DJ Trivia, which hosts casual trivia games at bars and restaurants around the country. However, because Connecticut had ridicu-snow during January, my hosting nights were constantly canceled. I did get to host for the first time in a month last week (my second and third times ever), although my boss wasn't in the state and so couldn't help me get things set up. Which was unfortunate since I was hosting at Applebee's, where I'd never set up or seen someone set up before.
It started with getting slightly lost on my way and being late, but it didn't even matter because the Applebee's guy accidentally seated a couple at the table where I'm supposed to set up, so I had to wait until a half hour before starting time to even begin setting up. I've got a mess of cables, boards, mikes, speakers, computers, and other stuff to try to figure out, and the only power outlets in the ceiling. It took way too long to figure things out without anyone knowledgeable to help me (I was able to call my boss, but he could only be so helpful over the phone), but I got things essentially working by 8:15, only 15 minutes after the starting time and about 45 minutes after I was supposed to be set up. There were only 4 teams, less than half of the usual number, but luckily they were all experienced and there was no real explanation to worry about. Despite my speakers being necessarily weak because they'd give feedback if they were any stronger, the screens showed the questions and they knew the rules, so there wasn't too much of an issue there, it was just stressful and hectic.
The actual hosting part (the part I enjoy) went smoothly until the final question was answered and there was a tie for second place. No problem, I'm a rules guy, I know the tie breaker rules easy. The question has a numeric answer, whoever gets me the closer answer wins, and a tie there is broken by whichever team responds first. So I laid the rules out and put the question up on the screen: How many double stitches are on a major league baseball? Just as I was about to read it out loud, a person from one of the teams came up and said she didn't know what the rules were for the tiebreaker or if they were even involved - apparently they were sitting farthest from my speakers and couldn't hear a word I said all night. So I explain the rules again to her (with five other people trying to tell her at the same time, very helpful), and mid-spiel, someone else from her team comes up and gives me the correct answer, 108. Great for them, but the other team had been courteously waiting to respond until the other team knew the rules and had a chance, since timing was a factor here. Well, as long as the waiting team didn't have the same answer, I'd be... oh, great, they also said 108. So we had a tie for second place, which is gives $10 more gift card value than third place. Uh... great. The waiting team very kindly agreed to take third place, since all they wanted were the points for league play, the couple dollars didn't make a big difference, so that worked out, but it was a messy evening that ended in a long drive from Torrington to Cheshire, but whatever, that was over and since I was just filling in that evening, I probably would never be at that Applebee's again anyways.
The next night I hosted at TD Homer's in Southington, where I'd set up and hosted before, and it went fine except that after the game, one team accused another of cheating. I had no evidence, and they didn't say anything during the game, so I couldn't do anything, but I'll keep an eye out next time. There were also 11 teams to keep track of, but it ended up working out fine.
The Defeat of Vince Volcano
My dad decided to start up recently, with the help and participation of his family and friends, a trivia podcast that he and I co-host. It's inspired by the early 2000s game show Beat the Geeks, in that we have experts in various fields (so far Food, Video Games, Animals, History/Geography, and Music) and jack-of-all-trades contestants trying to win as much as possible against them. The format is okay, but I haven't listened to the two extant episodes yet as I hate the sound of my own voice and I feel bad about the generally inconsistent difficulty levels of the questions. It's tough making questions for this for a few reasons. One, I know many of the people involved, and it's not fair to specifically include or exclude things in their strongest areas. Also, I only have my own point of reference, and something that may seem really hard to me may actually be common knowledge, and vice versa. Granted, all trivia things come down to contestants either knowing things or not, and sometimes people get hit with questions that seem unfair, but that's how trivia games intrinsically are. It's also why I really don't play any trivia board games, with Wits & Wagers (with specific knowledge not necessary) being the only exception. And yet, I'm involved with so many trivia things right now: Hosting DJ Trivia, attending Thursday team trivia, doing the trivia podcast, making and taking Sporcle quizzes, and Jeopardy whatever.
I Say Awesome, You Say Bots!
Awesome Bots is currently being considered by two different companies, one an American publisher that usually goes for a younger audience and isn't confident my game is a fit for them but wants to try, and another a Dutch publisher that randomly reached out to me last week and is currently getting a prototype sent to them directly from ArtsCow. Jake, who did the great art on the cards, still has to do the art for the cover and the non-part cards (Upgrade Pile, Junkyard, etc.), but he has some inspiration at least. That's fine, as the longer he waits to finish those the longer I have till I have to pay him for that part of his work.
In other game prototype news, The Golems of Ymhet cards just shipped out today from Hong Kong, so I should get them in a week or two. The Antons also bought and painted a nice set of miniatures for the invader figurines; once they get some minor glue work done, I'll post some pictures. I helped Alan do some People Wars testing, and while there are some kinks being worked out, it's based on a sound system. (But not an LCD one... never mind.) In published game news, I got to play Through the Ages last Friday, and lost to Mike's military machine by just 5 points. That's my second loss in a TtA game that didn't involve Luke. I'm teaching Ray some 2-player games he hasn't played before, like Rook and Day & Night, with varying success. Kayleigh got me Dominion a couple weeks ago, along with the Alchemy expansion, and I've gotten to bust that out a bit. I don't know why people hate on Alchemy so much, it's good stuff. I recently reached 25 logged plays of Setback and Shadow Hunters, two lighter games because I don't get to play much medium to heavy stuff anymore.
Dark Mind?!?
I still haven't beaten any of those bosses from last post. I haven't tried Pokemon or King's Bounty, but I did give Kirby a bit more of a try and while I got a little further, I have NO CLUE how to beat the flaming eyeball. Nothing seems to affect it. There's not even any furniture to use, like Mordecai and Rigby used against The Hammer in Regular Show.
I'm not a religious Jeopardy watcher by any means, but it's one of the few legit game shows still airing and it's a solid, so I catch it occasionally. Last week was the Jeopardy online test, which I felt like I could do fairly decently on. Until I took it, and seemingly a quarter of the questions were about literature. Sure, there is often a literary category on the show, but that's 1 out of 12 categories. There was a ton. Then they asked about LBJ's cabinet members, opera, and so much other stuff that's beyond usual show fare and way outside my area of expertise (whatever that is). While no official results are given, I do not expect at all to get to the next step. Oh well, at least I got farther than I did in 2004 (when I was too young for College Jeopardy, and a different CMU student, Kermin, ended up winning). I didn't live up to 2006 when I passed the written part of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire contestant search but failed having a personality, or 2007 when I got to the final stage of Wheel of Fortune tryouts before they stopped communicating with me.
In cooler Jeopardy news, though, a three-day exhibition tournament started yesterday between the most frequent contestant (Ken Jennings), the winningest contestant (Brad Rutter), and a language-processing computer named Watson. They're spreading two games across three shows so they can talk about Watson and his team a bunch, and it's cool to get a tiny glimpse of the algorithms used. They look for keywords in the clue and seem to have massive amounts of word relations, as far as they showed. They didn't get into how they look for what kind of response is required (it knew in the Name the Decade category that they wanted a response like "What were the 1920s?"). Watson started off clobbering Ken and Brad, partially thanks to timing stuff (it can buzz in first whenever it wants to because, well, it's a machine), but as harder clues were reached, Watson was less buzzer-happy and even got some things wrong, including repeating a wrong response from Ken (this amused Alex). I'm looking forward to tonight's and tomorrow's episodes for sure. I'm excited to see just how good this can be at natural language processing.
108 Stitches and a Problem Ain't One
I work part-time for DJ Trivia, which hosts casual trivia games at bars and restaurants around the country. However, because Connecticut had ridicu-snow during January, my hosting nights were constantly canceled. I did get to host for the first time in a month last week (my second and third times ever), although my boss wasn't in the state and so couldn't help me get things set up. Which was unfortunate since I was hosting at Applebee's, where I'd never set up or seen someone set up before.
It started with getting slightly lost on my way and being late, but it didn't even matter because the Applebee's guy accidentally seated a couple at the table where I'm supposed to set up, so I had to wait until a half hour before starting time to even begin setting up. I've got a mess of cables, boards, mikes, speakers, computers, and other stuff to try to figure out, and the only power outlets in the ceiling. It took way too long to figure things out without anyone knowledgeable to help me (I was able to call my boss, but he could only be so helpful over the phone), but I got things essentially working by 8:15, only 15 minutes after the starting time and about 45 minutes after I was supposed to be set up. There were only 4 teams, less than half of the usual number, but luckily they were all experienced and there was no real explanation to worry about. Despite my speakers being necessarily weak because they'd give feedback if they were any stronger, the screens showed the questions and they knew the rules, so there wasn't too much of an issue there, it was just stressful and hectic.
The actual hosting part (the part I enjoy) went smoothly until the final question was answered and there was a tie for second place. No problem, I'm a rules guy, I know the tie breaker rules easy. The question has a numeric answer, whoever gets me the closer answer wins, and a tie there is broken by whichever team responds first. So I laid the rules out and put the question up on the screen: How many double stitches are on a major league baseball? Just as I was about to read it out loud, a person from one of the teams came up and said she didn't know what the rules were for the tiebreaker or if they were even involved - apparently they were sitting farthest from my speakers and couldn't hear a word I said all night. So I explain the rules again to her (with five other people trying to tell her at the same time, very helpful), and mid-spiel, someone else from her team comes up and gives me the correct answer, 108. Great for them, but the other team had been courteously waiting to respond until the other team knew the rules and had a chance, since timing was a factor here. Well, as long as the waiting team didn't have the same answer, I'd be... oh, great, they also said 108. So we had a tie for second place, which is gives $10 more gift card value than third place. Uh... great. The waiting team very kindly agreed to take third place, since all they wanted were the points for league play, the couple dollars didn't make a big difference, so that worked out, but it was a messy evening that ended in a long drive from Torrington to Cheshire, but whatever, that was over and since I was just filling in that evening, I probably would never be at that Applebee's again anyways.
The next night I hosted at TD Homer's in Southington, where I'd set up and hosted before, and it went fine except that after the game, one team accused another of cheating. I had no evidence, and they didn't say anything during the game, so I couldn't do anything, but I'll keep an eye out next time. There were also 11 teams to keep track of, but it ended up working out fine.
The Defeat of Vince Volcano
My dad decided to start up recently, with the help and participation of his family and friends, a trivia podcast that he and I co-host. It's inspired by the early 2000s game show Beat the Geeks, in that we have experts in various fields (so far Food, Video Games, Animals, History/Geography, and Music) and jack-of-all-trades contestants trying to win as much as possible against them. The format is okay, but I haven't listened to the two extant episodes yet as I hate the sound of my own voice and I feel bad about the generally inconsistent difficulty levels of the questions. It's tough making questions for this for a few reasons. One, I know many of the people involved, and it's not fair to specifically include or exclude things in their strongest areas. Also, I only have my own point of reference, and something that may seem really hard to me may actually be common knowledge, and vice versa. Granted, all trivia things come down to contestants either knowing things or not, and sometimes people get hit with questions that seem unfair, but that's how trivia games intrinsically are. It's also why I really don't play any trivia board games, with Wits & Wagers (with specific knowledge not necessary) being the only exception. And yet, I'm involved with so many trivia things right now: Hosting DJ Trivia, attending Thursday team trivia, doing the trivia podcast, making and taking Sporcle quizzes, and Jeopardy whatever.
I Say Awesome, You Say Bots!
Awesome Bots is currently being considered by two different companies, one an American publisher that usually goes for a younger audience and isn't confident my game is a fit for them but wants to try, and another a Dutch publisher that randomly reached out to me last week and is currently getting a prototype sent to them directly from ArtsCow. Jake, who did the great art on the cards, still has to do the art for the cover and the non-part cards (Upgrade Pile, Junkyard, etc.), but he has some inspiration at least. That's fine, as the longer he waits to finish those the longer I have till I have to pay him for that part of his work.
In other game prototype news, The Golems of Ymhet cards just shipped out today from Hong Kong, so I should get them in a week or two. The Antons also bought and painted a nice set of miniatures for the invader figurines; once they get some minor glue work done, I'll post some pictures. I helped Alan do some People Wars testing, and while there are some kinks being worked out, it's based on a sound system. (But not an LCD one... never mind.) In published game news, I got to play Through the Ages last Friday, and lost to Mike's military machine by just 5 points. That's my second loss in a TtA game that didn't involve Luke. I'm teaching Ray some 2-player games he hasn't played before, like Rook and Day & Night, with varying success. Kayleigh got me Dominion a couple weeks ago, along with the Alchemy expansion, and I've gotten to bust that out a bit. I don't know why people hate on Alchemy so much, it's good stuff. I recently reached 25 logged plays of Setback and Shadow Hunters, two lighter games because I don't get to play much medium to heavy stuff anymore.
Dark Mind?!?
I still haven't beaten any of those bosses from last post. I haven't tried Pokemon or King's Bounty, but I did give Kirby a bit more of a try and while I got a little further, I have NO CLUE how to beat the flaming eyeball. Nothing seems to affect it. There's not even any furniture to use, like Mordecai and Rigby used against The Hammer in Regular Show.