The Sphinx's Lair - 2020-10-25 (page 1 of 2)

« first day (2355 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (1269 days later) »

Prince North Læraðr

12:04 AM

@merrybot Oh no no no

@PrinceNorthLæraðr ah, right, I forgot my </sarcasm> tag

Prince North Læraðr

Not duolingo!

HAVE YOU DONE YOUR DAILY STUDYING YET

i don't even use duolingo so uh

@PrinceNorthLæraðr yes duolingo

evil duolingo bird lands on North's bobblie, starks pecking at it

it's not evil, just misunderstood and it's your fault you can't understand it

5

Prince North Læraðr

12:15 AM

Oh no! Not the bobblie!

@bobble at this point you're genuinely scared for your life

evil duolingo bird flies away, but not before eating some of North's leaves

Prince North Læraðr

Ow. Bad bird!

and this is the part where bobble asks if trees can feel pain

guessed it

so, do they?

and how?

and why?

and when?

and where?

12:22 AM

also how did you manage to type 2 words in 1 second?

practice

Prince North Læraðr

@bobble Well, how would you like it if a bird came and pluck your leaves off?

Hmph

bobble does not have leaves

Prince North Læraðr

Oh, hush

mmmph mmph

what have you done

Prince North Læraðr

12:25 AM

I, Prince of Trees, have special powers

such as?

Prince North Læraðr

One doesn't just be a Prince without some perks

I can silence mortals

DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY

yer a wizard, harry

DIDJA PUTYA... yeah I think we all know how this one ends up

12:35 AM

BOBBLIE ON NORTH'S HEAD?

yes that's the ending

Prince North Læraðr

I gtg for studying. Farewell.

cya - I too must up and vanish

1:13 AM

0

Q: I Require Help Solving a Riddle!

"I am born in darkness and kept in the silence, I can kill, usurp and ruin, at the hands of any who free me, Death keeps me bound, for life threatens my escape, The wealthy have become poor to find me."

1:28 AM

oh I didn't know that @Voldemort'sWrath :0

0

Q: Ever heard of a W-Sudoku?

You may have heard of a type of Sudoku called an XV-Sudoku. In such a Sudoku, cells connected with an "X" must sum to 10 and cells connected with a "V" must sum to 5. In this W-Sudoku (W is right between V and X), cells connected with a "W" must sum either to 5 or to 10. Other than that, normal S...

Prince North Læraðr

2:19 AM

if anyone wants to help with my math, you can find me in my very own dedicated chatroom for math :P

The Grove

North's personal room, mainly for math & physics help. May now...

Actually I need to eat I'll be back

2:52 AM

-4

Q: Einstien Puzzle Variant

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

computer-puzzle

Prince North Læraðr

huh there's no "spam" close button?

I did VLQ instead of spam, since it isn't promoting anything

Though I wanted a "duh" close/flag reason

Prince North Læraðr

yeah

VLQ flag is appropriate

I'm in your math room, by the way

Prince North Læraðr

2:57 AM

yeah. Still eating

ugh my mom is watching the victim statements to the golden state killer's trial

except im eating

3:13 AM

Hello! I missed a whole bunch it looks like oops, been traveling the past few days so I could only jump on occasionally. How are you guys doing??

good!

lots of physics homework

bobblie updates are required

now

I've been visiting my mom so apologize for not responding, I've had really sporadic WiFi

I sewed the mouth and buttons eyes on, I will take a picture when I get home :)

yaaay

I also finished HTTYD!!

did you start on the next book?

3:15 AM

It was my eBook for the car ride, it was really good. I'll have to buy the second one since I only bought the first one

It was definitely super different from the movie

I'm glad you liked it :)

I really enjoyed it, writing style was adorable and the jokes were funny

I loved the lil tiny Toothless in comparison to how the movie portrays him

In case you're wondering, the setting gets a lot weirder (in a good way!) as the series progresses

and the narrative voice just gets better

It was also wild how the dragons actually talked compared to the movie, like the Green Death actually speaks

The doodly illustrations were great

What have I missed over the past few days?

Not as much, chat is quieter without you

The first Chain Puzzle was solved

3:20 AM

Ooh

Anonymus25 tried to come back, and Deus mod-hammered, and then they tried to come back again... and again... and again...

I did see that part, ffs. Good on Deus for mod-hammering

jafe made a questionable CCCC (you can see it on the starboard) where the def required using "CCCC" as part of the clue

I'm still trying and failing to make a Statue Park with a single, interesting solution

@bobble wait more than once?

2 days ago, by Deusovi

oh boy it's time for some whack-a-mole

3:22 AM

From the looks of chat logs, it seemed like he made a couple alts

oh.. so that's what deus meant...

Calling it "whack-a-mole" made me laugh not gonna lie

Did you work on an Around the Bend?

I made one actually, but I decided it wasn't clever enough to post

I love solving crosswords but I'm not very good at making interesting ones

Will keep working :p

Hey, I thought my first one wasn't great, but people liked it anyways!

3:25 AM

I might post it if I tweak some of the clues to make it more fun

The important stuff for AtBs are a cool grid shape and interesting row segments. Did you get those?

The way I did it was actually making it kinda invert, so the first and last words were super long and the middle words were shorter. So it looked like a big C

I liked the shape, just not the cluing and the words

Then you can rotate the grid! I've never posted an AtB that had the first row I made as the first row in the final grid

@Sciborg If you want better clues, I can help with that :)

I could rotate it, that's true. I'll let it marinate in the puzzle juices a while longer :p

I don't like posting puzzles I'm not 100% happy with

If you know your math, North is in his math tutoring room right now

3:29 AM

Oh god, I've blanked out basically all my college calc classes :p

I'm definitely not the expert

My life has been pretty quiet in the meantime, had to get a q-tip up the nose for a COVID test so that was pretty wild. The only one I had taken previously was the spit-in-a-tube

Was it negative?

Yup, have never tested positive. It was just a precaution

Close contact had contact with a positive so it was kind of a second-degree contact thing

Did school make you get tested?

Still remote learning

The q-tip isn't too bad if you ever have to get one. Just uncomfortable

How have you been life-wise?

Drowning in physics homework, but I got to do a bunch of tutoring last week which was fun :)

3:36 AM

Nice! Tutoring is fun :)

4:26 AM

On one day I tutored a bunch of calc, and the next day a bunch of Math 1. Such a nice brain break.

I feel a little silly saying it, since I've only know you for a bit and it's entirely through Puzzling, but dear goodness I missed you, Sciborg.

I missed you too! :)

My mom's house WiFi is from the 1900s so I was happy we finally got it hooked up today so I could come back.

and first thing we have you do back is tutor North in math.

If you can picture me sitting in bed scribbling on Post-it notes trying to remember how equations work, that's basically what I've been doing

so, how do equations work?

They're hard

4:37 AM

profound wisdom, right there

And my Discord buddies are all programmer computer nerds and partner is a biologist so none of them are any help with math at all :p

When your friends can write the most beautiful C++ code you've ever seen but don't know a thing about algebra

looks like we have a visitor?

@Deusovi, Anonymus25 is back

(click through to see main-meta username)

thank you, been busy with teammate hunt

(teammatehunt.com, great puzzle hunt)

this fellow is... persistent

Has your mod hammer been getting a workout?

yep, been a while since this type of thing has happened

4:44 AM

I'm grateful that you're here, not all SE sites have active mods to help with things like this.

Oh my god, what the hell

they're baaaaaaaaack

ಠ_ಠ

I'm just picturing Deus running around with a mod hammer playing account whack-a-mole

Maybe that's what Deus drops as his boss item in PSE Boss Fight?

The hammer will only work for you if you prove yourself worthy by beating Deus's score at Deleted Account Whack-a-Mole

Exactly

And it gives you a special ability called "Ban Hammer" where you can one-shot certain enemies

Does Gareth have one too? Or does he have one but hide it because he doesn't want you to know that he's a mod?

4:54 AM

He has one, and he hides it until the twist ending where he dramatically summons it into his hand like Thor.

Does he have some zinger that he says when it lands in his hand?

"It's nothing personal, kid... just puzzling."

Or maybe, "You were the one puzzle we couldn't solve..."

Your vision of this game is truly entertaining.

I'm surprised at how well this is solidifying into a legit game concept

If I ever get some decent time, I'm throwing together a text-based adventure game that will, at the very least, contain all the characters & plot points we've thought up. Python is probably my best bet here.

Though, because of this bit

> If I ever get some decent time

That's probably not going to happen

4:58 AM

you'd probably also want to make sure all the people involved are okay with it

oh yeah sorry

Yeah I don't wanna use likenesses or anything without permission

If I ever made a prototype it would not involve actual PSE users, would just be a Puzzling-inspired game

(I'm a bit hesitant but fine with it; other people, especially people with full names as their usernames, might have bigger concerns)

No worries, any prototype I make wouldn't have the actual users. It might have characters inspired by you but I wouldn't use likeness at all for privacy concerns :)

<sorry>

5:00 AM

It's fun to think about though

nothing to apologize for! it's totally fine, and all in good fun here

I do legit love the idea of mixing a puzzle game with a boss fight game and may actually make something like this at some point. But definitely would keep it all inspired-by and vague unless I get explicit permission

It'd be like The Witness but every few puzzles you fight a boss :p

honestly, I'd be interested in a merge of JRPG-style boss fights and puzzles

imagining a really wide 6-cell-tall slitherlink or something that slowly scrolls off the left edge of the screen, and you have to solve each column before it gets destroyed

Ooooh

I would definitely use a lot of PSE-inspired puzzles, like slitherlinks

If I decide to borrow some of my old Game Jam assets and whip up a prototype sometime with my dev buddies, chatroom will be the first to know :p

Should probably change the name from "PSE Boss Rush" though, I'll have to think of something else

i'd definitely be interested to see it! i've thought about getting into game dev before, but i'm more interested in puzzle-making than the programming side of it

5:09 AM

same... so it's good I had a programmer on board ;)

I'll let you know if I go forward with it :D just need a catchy name. "Puzzlefight" or "Puzzleclash" aren't really rolling off the tongue

Got any catchy puzzle-y name ideas?

nothing immediately comes to mind

"Sphinx Quest"? :p

Will have to get to brainstorming on that one, I'm terrible at game names

5:31 AM

@sciborg name idea: The Lair of Confusion

Ooh, that's pretty rad

"Lair of the Sphinx"?

mm... idk bout that one ... but do whatever

am trying to think of a way to add in a HOLY SHIT and bobblecrowns

will continue later since it's 10:33pm over here

Yeah, I'm having a hard time coming up with a short and sweet one :p

Good night my man

you too, fellow gentleperson <3

:)

5:34 AM

:)

let me know if you think of anything :)

6:18 AM

@bobble sameee

@bobble He has one, but it is not yet the time to reveal the true extent of his power

Hey Alt :p

Do you have any puzzle game-y name suggestions?

7:01 AM

ello, I don't yet :0

7:12 AM

Final FantaCCCC

7

(I'm so sorry)

7:36 AM

I'm angry at how hilarious that name is

2 hours later…

9:52 AM

0

Q: Devouring Nobility

Provide, with the minimum number of moves, a legal chess game where all pieces are captured except the sixteen pawns and the two kings. Example of final configuration: Which is done in 21 moves! e4 Nc6 Bb5 e5 Bxc6 dxc6 Nf3 Bg4 h4 Bxf3 Rh3 Bxd1 Kxd1 f5 Rg3 Nf6 Rg4 fxg4 d4 Ba3 Bg5 Qd5 Bxf6 Qb3 bx...

chess optimization

2 hours later…

11:32 AM

3

Q: My name is the same as my nationality

My name is the same as my nationality. I was considered as one of the best in my sport, but I never scored. Who am I?

riddle knowledge sports

3 hours later…

Voldemort's Wrath

2:27 PM

@oAlt What didn't you know?

@Mithical you around? I'm on your Web site (on mobile), clicking "play now" (or, really anything else I tried), and nothing's happening.

mobile doesn't really work

Ah.

(neither the website nor the game itself)

it says so somewhere in the FAQ, but we should probably make that more prominent

@Mithical Oh, good to know.

I'll try when I'm back at a computer.

Thanks

2:37 PM

(thumbsup)

lemme know if you run into any other problems

Will do, thanks

Prince North Læraðr

2:50 PM

@Mithical I see no one has bought you coffee on your Ko-Fi account :P

@PrinceNorthLæraðr that's why i haven't had coffee lately

:P

3:07 PM

@Mithical hm, $36 or ּ122shekel . . . not exactly a good exchange rate

I can probably get a better one by charging the $36 to my Israeli card

(not sure)

More important question, though -- when I click "play now", does it mean it? I mean, I want to actually play in 2 hours, so I should not pay yet?

oh wait, I mis-computed in my head. $36 to 122 shekel is the exchange rate!

Let's see - you're doing a group play (that's the 36 one); IIRC you just need to make sure everyone presses play at the same time

your link won't expire or anything until it's actually used (and completed)

that was going to be my second question -- I'll have a unique link that I should give everyone?

you should receive a PDF to your email with all the instructions; I think that yes, each connection has a unique link that you will generate from the GameMaster setup screen

(the purchase flow really wasn't my domain in case you couldn't tell :P)

okay, cool, thank you

Prince North Læraðr

ooooh, if only my school laptop didn't block a majority of Mith's sites. sigh

3:18 PM

a "majority"? *squints*

where are you looking

my linktree?

Prince North Læraðr

No, no my school laptop actively blocks any sites that are "not affiliated"

Your Ko-Fi works

@PrinceNorthLæraðr oh I thought because Mith's sites incite to violence and have porn

Prince North Læraðr

Twitter is obviously blocked, medium is blocked, urm and your game site is blocked

sssshh msh, you're not supposed to tell

Prince North Læraðr

How mith

@Mithical I need help before I keep on pinging msh for no reason

3:22 PM

reminds me of this

(link is to Mathematica's meta site)

@PrinceNorthLæraðr with what

Prince North Læraðr

*rolls eyes*

There we go

I keep on forgetting how to *do this*

I see

@PrinceNorthLæraðr After ~5 times I put mute on.

Prince North Læraðr

@msh210 I'm sorry. I forgot that it pings you every time I try to edit it

Until like my seventh time and I'm like "Oh crap, I'm just pinging msh"

3:26 PM

no worries

Prince North Læraðr

Okay very important question everyone: How do y'all eat your string cheese?

I don't

@PrinceNorthLæraðr standing on my head

it's the only way

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I haven't had string cheese in years

Prince North Læraðr

I suddenly feel like a kid

I mean, I am the youngest person here, but I'm turning 17 next week sooo

3:28 PM

seriously, though, the best way is breaded and deep fried

3:39 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr nope, also I don't string it

We're waiting on @GarethMcCaughan for a C4, right?

yep

@matt as in "nope, you're not the youngest person in here" and not "nope, you're not turning 17 next week"

Voldemort's Wrath

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Srsly? My birthday's next week too!

My birthday is not next week

Voldemort's Wrath

3:51 PM

Cool; thanks for sharing :):)

@Voldemort'sWrath that there was an option for others to improve edit

Voldemort's Wrath

ah i see

1 hour later…

5:05 PM

7

Q: Fortnightly Topic Challenges Threrun: Topic Suggestions

Let's do fortnightly topic challenges once again! What to Do: If you have an idea for a tag or a theme of any kind to use as a topic challenge, post it as an answer below. (Do note, you can propose anything, not only a tag). Only one suggestion per answer, please. Here is a list of all tags, to ...

discussion topic-challenge

^^ periodic reminder to VOTE on topic challenges!

5:20 PM

another random poll: your favorite tv shows

this data is important for, um... data

Oct 18 at 0:11, by bobble

List of bobble's Good TV Shows: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, The Good Place, Sherlock

Oct 18 at 0:14, by bobble

Oh another Good TV Show: Good Omens.

mine would probably be cutthroat kitchen

I'm watching Malcolm in the Middle right now, it's pretty good!

and of course there's always Star Trek but you people already know that

I have seen 1 episode and read 1 novel of Trek

and that's it

5:26 PM

what episode was it?

Though I know about it from references in articles & books and such

@matt Trouble with Tribbles

ah yes that's a good one

my dad and I have seen all of The Next Generation and Voyager, we're currently in season 1 of Deep Space Nine

5:42 PM

Currently cracking up over US history jokes. I think that's not normal.

1

Q: My name is simple, nothing tricky here

My nationality is English. I am born at 1859 I am bald, but I've never been bothered by it. I have always been on the round side, and people don't hesitate to point that out. Throughout my years I've always been pretty loud. My name is simple, nothing tricky here. What is my name?

wordplay history puzz

such as?

A caption in a picture of President Hoover: "If I close my eyes, the depression will go away"

for President Pierce: "Slavery issue? What slavery issue?"

I made myself a study site (essentially online notes) for AP US history, and I put captions on all the images to make reading notes more fun

ooh, a good one: for a section on the Tariff of 1789, I put a picture of the "Hamilton" logo and captioned it "We really need money, people"

Again, I don't think laughing at this is normal

study site? ooh fancy

5:59 PM

@bobble seems like a good strategy lol

wait, why did you switch accounts?

it's ... complicated

phone+school email = matt, personal email = merrybot
idk why i did that

the random image of the day:

wait what?

a random image of stupidity

🤷‍♂

6:05 PM

rftg4rfjeft

i will leave now

also it seems that whenever i try adding stuff to my python i end up just breaking it

6:24 PM

Hey Matt, you watch Cutthroat Kitchen too? :p

@Sciborg yep it's amazing ... im just like "what will alton think of next?"

That show and Chopped are the shows that we put on while we cook

i am also attempting to build myself an office in sorta-craft <-- i did not make it

Hi. I answered [this](https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/q/104156/70545) puzzle, and now the puzzle have been edited to clarify an intention.
If the clarification invalidates my answer, should I roll it back?

Nobody brought up rollback here puzzling.meta.stackexchange.com/q/6986/70545

6:44 PM

The edit does appear to significantly change your wording, if you feel it goes against your intention you can roll it back.

Oh wait oops I thought you were the author, you're an answerer

If you answered it and then it was changed, there's not much you can do unfortunately

Too late

I thought you were the OP lol. If you're not OP they might be miffed at the changes to their question :p

Actually, I think it's right to rollback to what the OP wrote in the first place.

That should be fine. As long as you leave a comment explaining how you think edit invalidated intent

Which I would agree with in this case

thanks, bye!

6:50 PM

My brain is a bit fried from coding all night lol, I'm not equipped to be using my brain right now

Voldemort's Wrath

eh

hi

Hi Voldy!

Voldemort's Wrath

howsit goin?

I'm wonderful, how are you? :)

Voldemort's Wrath

eh i'm procrastinating homework

i need my puzzle to be solved

i require it

6:55 PM

What homework are you working on?

Voldemort's Wrath

i have to write an essay

ugh D:

Aghh, that gives me flashbacks lol. Good luck

Voldemort's Wrath

thx lol

meanwhile solve my puzzle: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/104107/…

My method for writing essays is "pretend you're writing a SE answer".

Voldemort's Wrath

i must have it

That's an interesting idea

I'm sure that'll work tho

6:56 PM

I spent a while on your puzzle but I'm not smart enough to crack it

I gave it a good try though :p

Voldemort's Wrath

You're overthinking it

I'm not smart enough to write a puzzle you're not smart enough to crack

...but I've only ever written one essay and that was for my high school exam. Worked, though. :P

Listen, overthinking everything is what I do

Voldemort's Wrath

Wow only one essay? lucky

Haha

Only one essay???

6:57 PM

I took the GED test

Voldemort's Wrath

oh interesting

Ahh, okay. I was about to be like "damn"

Voldemort's Wrath

^

I had to write approximately 3,208 essays in college

Voldemort's Wrath

Huh

6:57 PM

o_o

Voldemort's Wrath

o_0 is right

I went to a liberal arts college if that explains it lol

Voldemort's Wrath

Idk why this emoticon is so cute: \o

The more you know

\o/

Voldemort's Wrath

Woah! Extra excited!

:{

or :} if you're feeling fun

6:59 PM

͡° ͜ʖ ͡°

Voldemort's Wrath

oh my

« first day (2355 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (1269 days later) »

Transcript for

Oct '2025

The Sphinx's Lair

General discussion for puzzling.stackexchange.com

join this room
about this room

00:00

06:00

12:00

18:00

all times are UTC

site design / logo © 2024 Stack Exchange Inc; legal

mobile