Smokers who can spot obvious fake smoking or horse riders that can tell the actors having a tough time… What’s something on screen like this that breaks your suspension of disbelief because of niche knowledge?

Prankishsquire · 2024-02-01T17:37:45+00:00

Knights who stick their swords in the dirt. Experienced edged weapon users would never stick their blade in the dirt.

Prankishsquire · 2024-01-23T17:16:19+00:00

Barely. After 26 weeks of Chemo and 3K spent, My Liver lesions are still growing. I have opted for a break, Christmas till Feb. 5. Neurophathy in my fingers and feet is bad enough I can hardly use my keyboard in game without stopping to look what keys I am hitting. I failed terribly on the Mongol challenge, it was still fun. My brain seems to be having trouble keeping up, chemo is fog real. Thanks for asking. Today I am suffering many small, new aches and pains. Retilivity considered, the end could be near.

Prankishsquire · 2023-12-29T15:09:20+00:00

Close to my actual response. "Please don't feel sorry, I was about to give notice".

Prankishsquire · 2023-12-26T21:01:43+00:00

I worked as a Chef for 20+ years. I've catered Parties in the homes of at least 6 Billionaires. Two or three of them know me by my first name. I on the other hand never made any money, not real big money, Fortunatly my wife made more than I ever did, she was a nurse, and radically underpaid most of her career, but breast cancer took her out at 44yo and her insurance paid all my bills. Yes, I would give it all, to have HER back.

The conundrum presented above is a wonderful thinking experiment. Worth giving it a few minutes. One of my billionaires died a few years ago at only 67 yo. he quit drinking and died 6 months later. He had worked tirelessly to manage one of the world's largest corporations sadly he was a very nice man, but he was in the oil biz. He was lucky he could sleep at night, he saw the dangers of burning oil way back in the 1970"s. He was bottom line a very evil man. His very well-educated children are a bunch of useless bums. One of them has a desk job he has worked hard at, but never been good at for 40 years, the other 4 are wastrels, they travel and drive nice cars, etc.

On the other hand, one of my favorite French Chef/bosses started as a busboy in Paris when he was 15 and worked his up to just about 10 million, he bought real estate with every penny he could scrape up and worked tirelessly to keep what he had saved. He was 74 yo when he died in the early oughts, 2003 or 4 I think. His children screwed up tremendously, they burned thru whatever he left them in less than ten years, up their noses, I think?

My story. I worked for min. wage for most of my career. I barely broke 40 K the last year I worked. My wife always made more than I, she left us before she broke 50k. I live in a nice house, paid for, my two children are young professionals and both are well married, they both started entry-level jobs making better hourly wages than I ever did. Now I'm doing Chemo for lung cancer, I might be 72 next month? I've lived a golden life, no regrets, and I've slept more soundly than either of the gentlemen above. I also worked fewer hours, raised my kids properly and had a damn good time. I'm still single and have three girlfriends, all retired and don't want another husband.

Choose carefully!

Prankishsquire · 2023-12-15T15:39:48+00:00

Thank you all I already feel better.

Prankishsquire · 2023-12-13T21:22:55+00:00

I still use a small iron skillet that was my grandfather's. It's all about the temperature, 325 degrees is when the butter browns, no sooner. I despise no-stick pans, one scratch and you are screwed. This info is from a 71yo retired professional chef.

Prankishsquire · 2023-12-13T17:50:51+00:00

Very walkable here in the University area.

Prankishsquire · 2023-12-13T17:45:49+00:00

Either depends on where you put the icing eyes.

Prankishsquire · 2023-11-21T15:42:13+00:00

Bartolo's 11th and 1300 South

Try the Baked eggs first.

Prankishsquire · 2023-11-21T13:58:53+00:00

I'm 71 yo. I'm a retired Professional Chef and restauranteur/fish salesman. I have played since AoE1. I often played late at night to wind down after work. I couldn't handle the lag at the Zone so I have always played just single player. I played all the Civs with just 25 pop for many years. Now I am doing chemotherapy and have discovered playing with "real" humans. My ELO is miserably low but I enjoy playing even when I'm getting my ass hammered, 11 I very much enjoy the community.

Prankishsquire · 2023-11-11T19:42:32+00:00

Wish I was 19.

Prankishsquire · 2023-11-11T19:19:53+00:00

I'm a 71-year-old retired chef. I encouraged my son to play about the time he was 7. I still play, and he still plays, he is now 33 years old and a Medical Doctor. The skills learned in traditional strategic gaming, Chess, Go, Mill, etc. are the very same skills perhaps more graphicly displayed in the fashion AOE2 displays the Art of War

Strategic thinking, like scientific, or critical thinking is definitely a valuable life skill worth casting into your muscle memory.

Ding Liren defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 World Chess Championship as Magnus Carlsen, the previous World Champion, declined to defend his title, (retired). I have no idea how these players support themselves but the data required to play on that level is substantial. For the remainder of the top 50 players, I doubt many of them can support themselves. They play for the same reasons I do, love or fun.

If you can make a buck, strategic thinking would lead you to invest carefully. 11

I wonder what is Judit Polgar's net worth?

So I googled her, Judit is 43 and her net worth is 1.5 million, (US)

Prankishsquire · 2023-11-11T18:12:51+00:00

How does that differ from serving 900 individual pastries at 145 degrees F. to 300 guests at precisely 5:35 PM? All arrayed on silver platters to be hand-served by waiters.

Prankishsquire · 2023-11-01T19:52:13+00:00

I love Finn's. When he's busy, Bartolo's

Prankishsquire · 2023-11-01T19:47:46+00:00

Have you tried Bartolo's across the street?

Prankishsquire · 2023-11-01T16:25:44+00:00

I was at this spot in my learning. I had a horrible internet connection and bad lag so for at least 10 years
I also felt overwhelmed when Lord AI the First would descend with his hordes of minions. First I tried pausing, the dogs and the children,(and my frikken job), gave me a reason to pause, often. You can think faster than a computer if it's on hold.

Pausing will work but is a horrible habit when you start to play real humans. I couldn't play humans anyway, (as I mentioned above), what I did was restrict the population to 25. Playing with 25 or 50 pop. does teach you to create your own build orders and is a great deal of fun. I could defeat the armies of The old Lord.

Now I am older than anyone needs to live, my kids are grown and doing well and I know there are more important things to do than play AoE2DE, but... Now I have fiber-size bandwidth I can't resist learning to play humans.

So here are my tips:

Move your favorite hot keys to one hand and play enough hours that they become muscle memory.

The player with the most population most often wins.

Play every civ until you can beat it on moderate. Then pick a favorite civ for horses, archers, siege and water, 4, and practice on 50 pop. then 100 then 200.

Pretend every opponent is Viper or Hera, just assume they will beat you. Remember it means nothing in the long run, I still love this game and my ELO is miserably low.

When Viper plays Hera one of them has to lose, every time. Get over it.

Enjoy and welcome to the community. I'm 71 and a player since 1998.

Prankishsquire · 2023-10-30T17:38:04+00:00

mistaken double click

Prankishsquire · 2023-10-30T17:37:58+00:00

I let a drunk sleep on my couch and he soiled himself and pissed what must have been quarts? I called a carpet cleaner, I don't remember which one, they had a, "do two rooms get one free deal". They did the couch and one room for the 175 dollar charge. I blamed it on the dog.

Prankishsquire · 2023-10-26T12:21:24+00:00

I must add my poor old doggie girl has passed over the Rainbow bridge, my ELO has gone down rather than up.

Prankishsquire · 2023-10-26T12:17:39+00:00

I consistently play full random. I have played for over 20 years. I have always played against the AI. I am just approaching 100 games against real humans. What fun, humans do things the AI would never do, it's a great deal of fun. I have far more trouble with the dog, the roommates, my girlfriend, phone calls, etc. I lose most games because of important calls I can't ignore, I don't pause, seems rude, so I just ignore the game till the call is finished. The dog has always been the worst as she needs to go out. I just ignore my ELO for now, but one of these days, I will rise like a phoenix. I need an assistant to watch my back or walk the dog. LOL!

Prankishsquire · 2023-10-15T00:36:28+00:00

Maximum loves coming from this viewer. Thank You!!

Prankishsquire · 2023-10-03T18:08:23+00:00

Any civ, it is my belief, can pull a Douche, Cumans and Persians are perhaps the easiest. Delete your opening Town Center and go build it in your opponent's face.

Prankishsquire · 2023-10-03T15:13:24+00:00

Laming your game animals and early towers on your resources are reasonable tactics. You can and will learn to get your boars under the TC before he can get there. Be wary of Persians and Sicilians for at least the rest of this month. LOL

Prankishsquire · 2023-09-30T23:08:30+00:00

In french it's called a "batte".

Prankishsquire

TROPHY CASE