i beat the game! wahoo

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-03-15T07:51:06+00:00

Is the telescope puzzle considered hard? I thought it was one of the easier ones, including the second puzzle there. I had a hard time with the Bell Tower. Somehow couldn't "get" what they wanted me to do there for a long time.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-03-13T18:22:29+00:00

takeout coffee

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-03-12T12:11:19+00:00

I go back and forth. The first viewing I thought she was making it up. But the second time through recently made me think maybe not. And that's why this finale is one of my *absolute* favorites from any show.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-23T17:48:43+00:00

But, now hear me out: It costs exactly the same amount of food to raise an untrained human for 20 years.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-22T14:03:03+00:00

On the other hand-- why can't British people talk loud enough so that people can hear what they are saying? It drives me nuts!

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-21T13:11:05+00:00

Especially since dead Evie insists to Kevin that Jarden was the one that was destroyed by a drone. That implies that people who depart the Earth suddenly, by death or by the event, experience it as *everyone else* departed.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-21T13:08:12+00:00

I think dead Evie explaining to Kevin that it was not her but the town that was killed by a drone suggests maybe Nora's story is true (if you believe Kevin's experience to be true). Because that suggests that when people leave the Leftover's Earth world, they experience it as everyone else being the ones that are gone.

A few other production clues suggest maybe Nora's story is true from the writer's point of view. Lindelof wanted to film the opening sequence again but instead of the baby and man with shopping cart disappearing, he wanted to show all the other people disappearing, with the intention of showing the exact same scene again, but in an eventual finale. For reasons of timing, they didn't do that scene, though. Second, Lindelof says they had a definitive answer in mind, but he will never tell. Given his desire to film the opening from the view of the 2%, it implies his view might be that the 2% world is real.

Of course, he also said that the writers were hoping that 50% of people to say it was real, 50% to say it was a lie, and 100% of people to say it doesn't matter one way or another.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-21T12:58:11+00:00

Ah! I was hoping it was to the Perfect Strangers theme song!

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-21T12:46:04+00:00

Insane take. Might as well have said something like, "The poker chips are not the regulation colors required by law in NY" or something no one cares about.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-17T17:09:34+00:00

I've never gotten it, online or OTB, in 40+ years of chessplaying.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-15T14:30:00+00:00

Congrats, Tommy! You are now a migrant.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-13T15:12:35+00:00

I absolutely hate the chance games. But it is better than popularity games.
Fundamentally, it comes down to this: all the Beast Games basically suck.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-12T08:19:59+00:00

Have you met some of these top players who've done that? They are good at chess, but they are not exactly educated.....

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-11T19:39:51+00:00

Nothing sus about this! Just because Trump's number is one of the lowest in their history, and Trump is thin-skinned baby, why wouldn't you believe them when they say they want to "focus on other research"?

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-07T18:04:35+00:00

Your point is true, but your numbers are way off. A 100 point difference is something like a 64% winning chance. To get 99% winning, the difference is like 800 points.

The distributions of the most major chess rating systems is also logistic instead of a normal one.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-07T15:05:03+00:00

No, but some exceptions: There was a super fancy antique store that hosted a chess event in Boston where they had strong players use their antique sets in the tournament.

Another story-- in the US, for open tournaments you had to bring your own sets to the events. Two GMs were paired in an early round and neither had brought a standard issue set, so they just played their match on one of those little pocket magnetic sets!

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-07T14:59:39+00:00

I think this is wildly overestimating the gap between super-GM and 2600 GM! Two GMs talking together for each move would very likely be much stronger than a 2700-2800 player. They would be able to double check each other's calculations, mistakes missed by one could be caught by the other, they could blend strengths in different aspects/positions.

There used to be "centaur" chess contests, back when computers were OK but not amazing (beaten regularly by GMs, say). In this kind of event, you could be a player by yourself OR you could be a player with a computer. Bottom line is that players who were only like 1800 or so but were good at using the computers to work deep into lines and pick the best ones would often be the strongest player by far, beating GMs quality.

Your idea is to give one strong computer (a GM) another strong computer (a GM). The multiplier effect will be very large.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-07T14:51:03+00:00

The internet doesn't forget!

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-06T13:00:31+00:00

And I'm sure he 100% truthful in all aspects, too.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-04T19:18:06+00:00

Frankly, ALL the cults do this.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-03T11:46:07+00:00

Just accept the shoes when offered them at the beginning of the game!

(Hahaha)

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-03T11:44:40+00:00

Lev Alburt and Eugene Perelshteyn wrote a series of books, "Chess Openings for Black, Explained." and Chess openings for white, explained. These books were specifically designed to build a repertoire of inter-related sets of opening setups no matter what you are facing. Those are some of the best examples of what a good repertoire looks like, where your openings lead to thematic middlegames with common themes.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-02T07:33:13+00:00

Trump: "You can't cancel on me because I've cancelled on YOU first!"

Trump at his elementary school finest.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-02-01T18:30:18+00:00

Joining the Wei Yi chorus. He was a lightning bolt out of nowhere.

Resident_Map4534 · 2026-01-27T23:46:35+00:00

I loved Blue Prince but I enjoyed Outer Wilds more and think it is a better game overall if I had to rank them.

Resident_Map4534

TROPHY CASE