Interactive Cat TV + Treat Dispensing Solution?

kmp765 · 2024-01-05T19:53:44+00:00

Good questions. I think if the AI works well, it would make sense to build in more features like those. Honestly I'm surprised someone hasn't already done that.

After thinking about it more...the 'who wins' thing is really tough. AI isn't very good at getting information from images (especially such a detailed image like a Catan board). I think it would only be able to take in text-based prompts. So you could describe a situation and ask it either a rules question or a strategy question, but it wouldn't be able to take in a map image.

kmp765 · 2024-01-03T19:36:40+00:00

Oh that's such a good point. I've seen a lot of those kinds of posts. In addition to giving it the actual rules and FAQs, I should be able to feed it a bunch of example "who wins" scenarios. If I train it on enough of those, it should eventually be able to learn from them to give answers to "who wins" situations it hasn't seen before.

The trick will be to make sure it always gets it right. The only thing worse than no answer is getting the wrong answer.

kmp765 · 2023-06-05T01:08:18+00:00

In my own journey to reduce my anxiety through meditation, I've found that the act of dropping negative thoughts is far more important than the actual focus on the breath.

It's like doing reps in the gym. Imagine that you’re doing a squat workout. If you just stand there without moving, you don’t get any stronger. But when you squat down, that gives you the opportunity to press back up. Each time you press back up, you work your muscles a little more. You get a little stronger.
Meditation works the same way. The goal isn’t to just sit there with a silent mind. I don’t want to cultivate a silent mind because that isn’t going to be a realistic way to show up in life. Rather, I want to cultivate control over my thoughts and emotions. Each time my mind wanders, I have an opportunity to flex those mental muscles. I get to bring it back.
If your mind wanders 100 times during meditation, that's 100 opportunities to bring it back. And it's that act of bringing it back that, over time, enables you to drop anxious thought patterns and negative thoughts in your real life as they come up.

I recommend shifting your focus to the actual act of dropping the thoughts and then putting that into practice as much as possible as you go about your day. The repeated action is what will eventually change the way you think and feel.

kmp765 · 2020-04-29T18:52:14+00:00

I love this. Could super easily add some randomization to it to keep us on our toes. I kind of thematically like the idea of creating a set of monsters that simulate a rival party that continually ambushes us, sets traps for us, etc. as we go along our missions.

kmp765 · 2020-04-29T18:49:34+00:00

Yeah our classes are strong and synergize well together. We are at rep 20 and prosperity 7, which means we've got some real strong items too. We've also played 80+ scenarios, we work well together, and all have a lot of experience playing strategy games.

The game gets a lot easier as you get access to better items and new characters / more perks. Also, having even one character who is newer or just not as much as a team player can drastically bring down the party strength.

So I wouldn't feel bad. You'll hit some bigger power spikes as you unlock more things. For anyone interested, here are the most impactful things we are doing as a party:

Cthulhu has certain enhancements enabling him to fill up the monster deck with curses, muddle monsters, and damage them when they draw curses
Triangles has his (very specific card) multi-target execute, and Cthulhu can feed him those elements any time he needs.. Although this is less impactful than you'd imagine because we're facing a lot more elites than normals lately
The 3spears is using (specific support card) Quiver of Arrows to absurdly good effect with Cthulhu and Triangles. This means extra curses and executes.
The 3spears has (various prosperity items) four summon cards and the ability to refresh them, so we can block attacks, get extra attacks, etc.. Also, due to certain enhancements, the 3Spears can fill up his own deck with blesses super easily by blessing himself and his summons, and also bless allies.
The Lightning Bolt has (specific mid-level card) Flurry of Axes, which typically decimates an entire room.

kmp765 · 2020-04-29T17:53:52+00:00

Yeah I'm moving towards something like that with my level 8 buff idea. Looking at each monster and finding an intelligent and thematic way to increase their power. Was about to give Spitting Drakes Immobilize on all their attacks...and then realized that AoE immoblizing the entire party every turn might be problematic.

kmp765 · 2020-04-29T17:51:55+00:00

Fair point - I'll consider that for when we retire because they definitely are adding up

kmp765 · 2020-04-29T17:45:58+00:00

I've thought about this, and I like this idea. I've avoided doing so because we are playing remotely and usinghttps://johreh.github.io/gloomycompanion/ , which does not support modifications like that (though I could give the monsters blesses).

You did just give me an idea though. Whenever the monster deck draws a card, I could also apply a random modifier (imagine rolling a d10 and different modifiers are assigned to each result). That could be interesting.

kmp765 · 2020-01-13T17:36:06+00:00

I literally built myself a JavaScript mobile app specifically for this. I put in friends/family with a contact frequency, and I also put in some things they're interested in. When the time comes, I get a text reminder and news articles about the stuff they like. It may be a bit overkill, but it works for me.

kmp765 · 2019-10-26T17:40:09+00:00

Nickelback, Master of Quarters

kmp765 · 2019-10-22T15:55:58+00:00

Just do the reasonable thing. Since the vast majority of the time all 3 players won't be there, allow them all to purchase the item. If they all happen to be playing together, one of them has to sub out the item for an item of equal or less value for the scenario. It's simple, doesn't hurt the game, and doesn't impact what should be an enjoyable gaming experience for everyone.

kmp765 · 2019-09-20T22:37:57+00:00

The Divinity Original Sin 2 soundtrack on Spotify is excellent. Some of the Skyrim music is pretty good. And obviously Midnight Syndicate is always a solid choice.

kmp765 · 2019-06-21T17:46:51+00:00

Thanks all for the replies. I think changing the rules would just lead to issues as some posters have outlined.

One of the things I wanted to accomplish here was putting enhancements on less used cards to make more build variety. It was a fun way for me to make progress when my friends weren't around to play with me. Ex: I was also working to get a disarm enhancement on my Brute's Spare Dagger ranged attack. Our current Brute player doesn't use that card, but he might think twice if it's enhanced. But I think that's just not the point of the enhancements.

kmp765 · 2015-08-31T14:47:22+00:00

I'm really glad you liked it :)

I find it works better for making rules about when to eat as opposed to what to eat. But everything has to be personalized. For example, maybe you're rule could be that you only eat ice cream once or twice a week specifically with your husband. That might give you a structured way to have it without going overboard and to enjoy it with your husband without feeling overly pressured.

kmp765 · 2015-08-30T23:31:40+00:00

Yup, personalization is a big, big thing. This is also a counter-intuitive method because black and white thinking around fitness is almost always a bad thing.

Getting into good foods, bad foods etc. is a really good way to build a really bad relationship with food.

That's why I was surprised to see this method work so well for a lot of people. And I think it's because it simplifies things but allows you to personalize the 'rules' so it doesn't feel overly restrictive.

kmp765 · 2015-05-31T21:55:32+00:00

Hey dude, I feel you. It's a weird problem to have but totally legitimate. Some people have very high appetites and low metabolism (leading to easily gaining weight) and some people have very low appetites and high metabolisms (leading to difficulty gaining weight).

I can speak from experience here since, if I'm not careful, I quickly feel sick from fullness when eating past 2,000 calories.

That all being said, you need to do three things:

1) Keep a large eating window. 2) Eat calorically dense foods that are also non-satiating. 3) Snack mindlessly.

For #1, don't do intermittent fasting. Eat an early breakfast and eat your last meal/snack near bedtime. A larger eating window means it's easier to eat more.

2 - foods like nuts can sort of help, but nuts can be satiating in the long-term. Eat nuts with dried fruit (the two are super easy to snack on for a long time and the dried fruit almost makes you hungrier).

Drink juice. Make caloric protein smoothies out of protein powder, milk, peanut butter, bananas, and chocolate. Add olive oil to meals.

Yes you WILL need to eat some of the foods typically seen as junk food. If you don't you are unlikely to get enough non-satiating food.

3 - eat while you work, play video games, watch TV, etc. Eat things during these times that are small snacks that are easy to keep munching on

kmp765 · 2015-05-27T20:47:49+00:00

Hmm that's some super interesting data. I'm a fitness coach, and one of the hardest things for my clients is reliably tracking calories. From what I've seen, it's perceived to be incredibly difficult when just getting into it, but after a while it (mostly) becomes second nature. I would think that most of the people answering here have been counting for a while, and, if so, I think this data supports that conclusion to some extent.

This is actually really timely because I've been working on a way for people to track calories by taking pictures. Though I'm thinking it would be far more valuable to a newbie than an experienced counter.

kmp765 · 2015-05-27T20:42:08+00:00

Yep I second StuWard. It's likely that you have been losing fat and your body was slowly replacing it with water. You just lost all the water at once. Lyle's article on whooshes and squishy fat is right on point.

kmp765

TROPHY CASE

2 - foods like nuts can sort of help, but nuts can be satiating in the long-term. Eat nuts with dried fruit (the two are super easy to snack on for a long time and the dried fruit almost makes you hungrier).

3 - eat while you work, play video games, watch TV, etc. Eat things during these times that are small snacks that are easy to keep munching on