The Sphinx's Lair

Sciborg

12:00 AM

I swear a lot more outside of here also, I try to avoid swearing in here :p

HTM

@bobble Ok, now I had to Google what “stimming” means lol

bobble

hehe

HTM

New term to add to my “intelligent sounding but actually really boring” word bank

Sciborg

Stimming is something anxious people or people on the spectrum do sometimes, either to calm down from being stressed or when they're relaxed and deeply focused on something, like hand movements, touching soft things, and rocking. (It's different from tics, which are usually involuntary and not fun.)

bobble

I have both! lucky me?

Sciborg

12:04 AM

Everyone kinda has their own stim, it's unique to each person :)

bobble

Funnily enough, hand-flapping is both a tic and a stim. Though when it's a tic usually I'm standing still, and the stim is running around in circles while flapping

Sciborg

end of Sciborg PSA

HTM

@Sciborg Every day, millions of children go without stimming even once. With your generosity, we can help change that.

Sciborg

There's also misconceptions around stims because back in the day, scientists told parents to stop the person from stimming, but actually it's a great calming mechanism and you should always let them do it to calm themselves down. Making them stop is scary for them and makes it worse.

And now the PSA is over :p

bobble

I have some under-the-table stims for exactly that situation. Mostly feet-jiggling and adjusting my watch back and forth.

Sciborg

12:08 AM

You have the watch-fiddling one too! :D

bobble

I keep it just loose enough to go up and down my wrist, as will as around and around

Sciborg

I literally wear a watch just so I can fiddle with it when I need something to do with my hands. I never use it to tell time

bobble

by the way, did you need a poke on #14?

Sciborg

Yes, I very much need a poke

send help

bobble

give picture so I can remember?

Sciborg

12:10 AM

it's this one

bobble

ooh, I remember this

Sciborg

The last one with all white circles was fine because I could place a cube right away. But this one is crazy.

bobble

okay, so where can Os and Ss go?

Sciborg

Os can go in 5 places, and Ss can go in a lot of places

bobble

How about general regions? Can you identify some regions where Os and Ss can go?

Sciborg

12:12 AM

They overlap pretty strongly

As in, when I place an O, it removes some of the S spots

bobble

how many regions can you identify?

Sciborg

That might be helpful

3

bobble

for Os and Ss?

if either would work, include the region in your counting

Sciborg

by 3, i meant these 3

bobble

can you identify a 4th region where only an S can go?

Sciborg

12:16 AM

yeah

the one over there

bobble

okay, and each region can only hold 1 piece, right?

HTM

@bobble Hang on, just so that I’m fully understanding what’s going on, this is Statue Park with tetrominos?

Sciborg

oh, i see where you're going with this

bobble

@HTM double-tetro

Sciborg

Yes, this is Statue Park with double tetrominos

I getcha bobble, I getcha

bobble

12:18 AM

Can you see the next step in the global deduction?

Sciborg

yup!

bobble

or will you need another poke?

no poke, then

Sciborg

i got this

bobble

you got this

HTM

@bobble So 2x the number of pieces? And (looking back at the chat transcript), Z is S and L is J so there’s only 10 pieces to place?

bobble

12:18 AM

yep, reflection & rotation allowed

Sciborg

"only" they say

HTM

Beats having to work with those crazy pentomino shapes

bobble

once you graduate to full pentominoes, there are 12!

(they give you some partial-pentomino puzzles before that, to get you used to the shapes)

Sciborg

listen, i'm just a little baby bird who smashes into windows

bobble

you are now triumphantly flying away from the window!

Sciborg

12:22 AM

yes!

bobble

ah drat, Jeremy's new hint invalidates my group

Sciborg

mincing oaths?

bobble

Also-Ran connect-wall

Jeremy Dover

Thanks bobble. I'm running on low attention lately.

bobble

you should do what I do: mash everything up with polyominoes! polyominoes make everything better

Gareth McCaughan

12:27 AM

CCCC: Weapon of underworld boss, crooked and full of base desires (6)

bobble

'borg, are you still flying, or has a window appeared in front of you?

Sciborg

I'm doing great! uh, I think

bobble

Famous last words

Sciborg

Talking about our watches has made me fiddle with my watch this entire time :p

bobble

I'm doing my hair-twirling for the most part, though I'm also been chewing on it a bit

Gareth McCaughan

12:31 AM

Regarding the discussion of slang, abbreviations, etc., a bit earlier -- to me "cf." is kinda the opposite of slang; I would expect to see it in rather formal contexts, along with other Latinate abbreviations like "qv.", "loc. cit.", and the like. If, e.g., I saw "cf." and "lol" in the same sentence that would feel to me like an abrupt gear-change.

Sciborg

That's fair. I probably haven't read enough formal literature for cf. to be a familiar construct to me.

bobble

slang/abbreviations: anything that isn't a regular, full word is difficult for my brain

Gareth McCaughan

(I guess "e.g." is also a Latinate abbreviation, but not so much so, because it's more commonly used. I assume practically everyone knows at least roughly what "e.g.", "i.e.", and "etc." mean, but I wouldn't make the same assumption about "cf.".

Difficult in the same way as an unfamiliar word that you need to look up (or guess the meaning of from context), or in a different way?

You mentioned finding "lol" troublesome. If it had never been an abbreviation, and was just introduced as a word people use to express amusement, would that have made it easier?

bobble

Difficult as in it takes me longer to read, pulls me out of the text, and forces everything else happening in my brain to halt until I parse the abbreviation

Gareth McCaughan

(feel free not to answer such questions if they're too intrusive or if you just have other more interesting things to do, of course)

bobble

12:34 AM

@GarethMcCaughan yes. Word-concept mapping is easy for me, "word"-words-concept mapping is difficult

Gareth McCaughan

Interesting. I take it that for some reason you can't just pretend "lol" is simply a weird word and was never an abbreviation, and deal with it that way?

bobble

I'm unable to skim an abbreviation, would be a shorter way of saying it

Gareth McCaughan

(Are you bothered by, say, "laser" and "radar"? Those started out as abbreviations but scarcely anyone thinks of them that way now.)

bobble

@GarethMcCaughan Nope, since it was introduced as an abbreviation I stick to it

"laser" and "radar" are fine because I found out they were abbreviations after mapping word->concept

The extra step before getting to the concept/meaning is the main roadblock here.

Gareth McCaughan

Is it that when you see, say, "lol" you can't treat it as just a new word because your brain insists on reminding you "those are three letters: L, O, L, standing for Laughing Out Loud" and it distracts you from just reading the sentence?

bobble

12:39 AM

Yes

Gareth McCaughan

(And, if so, have I just caused you future trouble by telling you that "laser" and "radar" are abbreviations? Or would I if I also told you what they stand for?)

sorry if so

bobble

I know that they're abbreviations, and as I said it's fine because I've already mapped "radar" to the concept of radar, and not "radar" to Radio Detection And Ranging (I think that's it?) and then Radio Detection And Ranging to the concept of radar

HTM

Dang, this conversation is really interesting, I’ve never really had any problems with abbreviations (once I figure out what they mean the first time around). Turns out it’s not that straightforward for everyone

Gareth McCaughan

So do you have any idea what the obstacle is to installing a direct mapping from "lol" to something like "I am amused", alongside the indirect one via "laughing out loud"?

bobble

nope

Gareth McCaughan

12:42 AM

(for the avoidance of doubt, I am expecting the answer to be "no" and I don't think there's anything wrong with that, though obviously it's inconvenient for you)

bobble

One thing that does work is just skipping the word. I don't get the full meaning of the sentence, but normally I can parse the overall meaning without having to remind myself that "lol" = Laughing Out Loud.

Gareth McCaughan

@HTM I agree it's very interesting. Brains are strange things. (@bobble my apologies if it feels a bit too much as if you are a specimen being dissected right now)

bobble

nah, it's fine

Sciborg

I found this conversation equally fascinating.

bobble

The problem with my "skipping" method is if the abbreviation turns out to be integral to the sentence's meaning, and then I have to go and re-read the whole sentence to get context, along with screeching-halting to process the abbreviation.

HTM

12:47 AM

Does this sort of thing happen outside of online spaces? Like, if I were to ask you how to calculate the KE of a moving object or what AP courses you’re taking, do you have any trouble parsing the meaning?

bobble

I learned "AP" as a word before learning that is was an abbreviation, but "KE" will make me back up and think "Kinetic Energy"

Avi

@GarethMcCaughan nice solve for the last CCCC :)

Gareth McCaughan

thanks!

bobble

apparently my brain is fascinating :D

Sphinx

1

Q: All values in a 5x5 Super Minesweeper grid

In a Super™ Minesweeper grid each cell is either a mine or a value. A value in row $r$ and column $c$ represents the total number of mines located in row $r$ or column $c$. Can you fill a 5x5 Super™ Minesweeper grid with mines such that every number from 0 to 6 appears at least once? Good luck!

0

Q: 5x5 suko puzzle

Okay, an easy one. From 1 to 25, without repetition, what is the number in the cell r2c4?

logical-deduction grid-deduction

HTM

12:50 AM

@bobble This is the sort of stuff that advances our understanding of neuroscience y’know :)

Sciborg

I think this is just a reminder that my brain isn't like everyone's brain, and that it's important to remember that and respect other people's brains :)

bobble

(for another thing: I think of CCCC as a word, not as Cryptic Clue Chat Chains, because I saw it as a word first)

Sciborg

And that your brain is pretty nifty

Avi

Singer - fashionable, and can read your mind (7) - PSY + CHIC???

bad surface, rip

@Sciborg The best respect for something is to put it on your dinner plate

Too bad they put me in this coffin D:

Sciborg

what??

Avi

12:57 AM

(zombie talk)

bobble

Avi is in general weird

Avi

But I'm pretty sure that there exist rituals to respect the things that we eat

Because they lost their life to sustain ours

Sciborg

For a minute there I was like "am I tipsy or is he tipsy"

bobble

answer: both

Avi

answer: probably neither, rip

Bubbler

1:01 AM

If someone asks "Here is a puzzle I tried, I solved it this way, but it's incorrect. Is something wrong with my solution?" and the answer is "No, nothing's wrong with your solution", is it fine to post the answer?

Because I'm getting the feeling that such an answer doesn't add anything

bobble

If you could provide some proof as to why their solution is correct, that would be an answer

Bubbler

Sounds legit

bobble

Sphinx

0

Q: Most 5s in a 5x5 Super Minesweeper grid

In a Super™ Minesweeper grid each cell is either a mine or a value. A value in row $𝑟$ and column $𝑐$ represents the total number of mines located in row $𝑟$ or column $𝑐$. What is the most number of 5s that can occur in a 5x5 Super™ Minesweeper grid? Good luck!

combinatorics minesweeper

0

Q: All values in a 6x6 Super Minesweeper grid

In a Super™ Minesweeper grid each cell is either a mine or a value. A value in row $𝑟$ and column $𝑐$ represents the total number of mines located in row $𝑟$ or column $𝑐$ Can you fill a 6x6 Super™ Minesweeper grid with mines such that every number from 0 to 8 appears at least once? Good luck...

combinatorics minesweeper

Sciborg

1:22 AM

I have a weird guess for Gareth's C4, given that "crooked" might be an anagram indicator. HUNGRY contains the word GUN, mixed up, which is conceivably the weapon of an underworld boss? Where "full of base desires" would be the definition. I'm not sure where the HRY part would come from, though.

Alternatively, HITMAN? where the first half is the def and "crooked" = "hit" + "full of base desires" = "man" as a reference to the William Blake poem.

Neither of these are great fits, though.

bobble

1:37 AM

"full of" could be an insertion indicator - "weapon of underworld boss" around "base desires", take out def as needed

Sciborg

That does make sense

bobble

my mom is very happy because the thing she was coding finally is working

Sciborg

Definitely a familiar feeling :p

Is she a software person?

bobble

she both does some coding and yells at people in meetings to do their coding

Sciborg

Sounds about right

bobble

1:44 AM

then the people don't do their coding fast enough and she yells at them some more

Sciborg

If we take "base desires" as the middle part of an insertion, could be "IDS" or "SINS"

But it's only six letters, so we don't have much to work with

bobble

words that would work if "base desires" = IDS : AMIDST, MIDSTS

yeah neither of those work

Sciborg

yup

"crooked" could be "SLY", so container could be SL_ _ _ Y

bobble

also, about the GUN idea earlier: no indirect anagrams

"crooked" could apply to "boss", though

Sciborg

true

An underworld boss is a DON, if that's helpful

bobble

1:49 AM

"crooked" could also apply to AND

Sciborg

If "weapon of underworld boss" is the def, I like YAKUZA, MINION and FLUNKY as options

bobble

so anagram AND and then stick "base desires" into it?

Sciborg

Anagram AND as the container? that seems complex

bobble

but possible. Darn it, Jim, I'm a bobbling crown not a cryptic master

and leaving again

Sciborg

I do like that though, it fits with the first half being the def and the second half having every word fit into the wordplay

hmm

oAlt

1:53 AM

I THINK I GOT IT

Sciborg

Oh??

oAlt

@GarethMcCaughan Weapon of underworld boss = Hades' weapon = BIDENT = B(ID)ENT

Sciborg

Oh my god

Brilliant

oAlt

yeah it is

Sciborg

Why did I not make the underworld boss = Hades connection

@GarethMcCaughan oAlt solved your C4

oAlt

1:55 AM

:0

~~oh no not again, the responsibility of making another C4~~

Sciborg

Hello darkness my old friend

oAlt

alternatively, "Weapon of underworld boss (the president): tip of tongue (6)"

Gareth McCaughan

@oAlt Yup!

oAlt

epic

@Avi not the CCCC: "Singer's fashionable one who can read your mind (7)"

matt

@bobble ah yes, Star Trek quote

Gareth McCaughan

2:07 AM

@Sciborg What specific William Blake poem?

Avi

@oAlt oof, had the answer but not the WP

how does "base desires" become ID?

is that a literal definition?

was taking it as D_

oAlt

i think it has something to do with freud's shiz

Avi

ahhhh

Gareth McCaughan

yup, id as in Freud

"base desires" isn't a super-accurate definition but it's good enough

Sciborg

I was thinking of Blake's Proverbs of Hell ("the base man"), but that wasn't a great connection obviously. I'm so mad at myself for not realizing the Hades reference :p

Really clever C4, I had a head-smack moment when oAlt explained it

oAlt

2:23 AM

Lol

Sciborg

distant facepalming sounds

Gareth McCaughan

anyway, sorry oAlt, you have to make the next one now :-). Bedtime for me. Good night!

Sciborg

Good night :)

oAlt

heh, night

msh210

@Sciborg … then don't say the two different specific subjects you wrote papers on, and when, and where your name appeared in each, and which preprint server they're on. I'm guessing (though I haven't tried and don't plan to) that that's enough to identify you.

@oAlt nice

Sciborg

2:32 AM

I don't think I gave enough details on what they were about for anyone to find the exact papers, as they're extremely niche and basically only published in a tiny journal. But if you can find them, feel free, I guess?

You'd really have to know the specific subject and title and a few more specific details to even have them appear in a Google search.

msh210

2:48 AM

Oh, I thought you said what preprint server they're on. My mistake.

Sciborg

I mentioned arxiv, but only one of them has ever been there, and if I recall correctly it isn't there anymore.

But again, they're so specific and weird that I don't think they're as easy to find as it sounds.

msh210

No matter (to me. It's not like I'm trying to find them).

Sciborg

I would be impressed if anyone has ever looked at either of them, to be honest. Not exactly a famous scientist :p

Welcome back bobble!

bobble

I have returned

Deusovi

hello!

bobble

2:55 AM

While eating dinner I was visualizing Tetromino Nurikabe solutions in my head, moving the pieces around and mentally checking for 2x2s

... what have I come to?

Sciborg

The Tetris Effect, from the sounds of it :p

Deusovi

yep logic puzzles have done that to me before

Ankoganit

Aug 31 '16 at 16:15, by Rand al'Thor

@Ankoganit I get that all the time. Congratulations, you've been infected with the puzzling bug!

Sciborg

Tetris effect

The Tetris effect (also known as Tetris syndrome) occurs when people devote so much time and attention to an activity that it begins to pattern their thoughts, mental images, and dreams. It takes its name from the video game Tetris.People who have played Tetris for a prolonged amount of time can find themselves thinking about ways different shapes in the real world can fit together, such as the boxes on a supermarket shelf or the buildings on a street. They may see coloured images of pieces falling into place on an invisible layout at the edges of their visual fields or when they close their eyes...

msh210

@Sciborg Yeah. I have exactly one published academic paper to my name, and that's just because my dissertation is considered "published". Nonetheless, I get a "readership report" by e-mail every month(?) from my university, indicating how many people have downloaded it. I've stopped opening the e-mail messages, but they used to indicate single-digit readership. And even then, I'd wonder "who on earth? ah, probably download bots"

Deusovi

2:57 AM

especially new genres - when i was making heyacrazy puzzles i was seeing deductions in my sleep

Sciborg

@msh210 I relate to this way too much :p

Bubbler

@Sciborg Oof, that's really a thing

Sciborg

"Ah yes, how many people have downloaded my paper this month?? ...Two? oKAY"

bobble

The marine bio papers I read are the free ones off Nature, so they get one person by not paywalling themselves :)

Sciborg

Nice!

The funniest part was bringing my work to conferences, because I would start explaining it to people who looked at my poster and I could just see their eyes slowly glazing over

msh210

3:02 AM

@Sciborg And that's people in the field!

Sciborg

If you've never seen somebody's soul leaving their body, just start trying to explain your niche scientific research work to them

msh210

I've tried explaining my work to outsiders. I learned to condense it to eight words.

Bubbler

Off topic: I was once good at tetris though I haven't played it for years

Sciborg

@Bubbler That's you?? Goddamn!!

Ankoganit

my god

oAlt

3:04 AM

danggg

bobble

I coded Tetris in python and it only has 1 bug that I can't find!

Bubbler

Yeah, that's me in 2017

oAlt

time to subscribe

Sciborg

hammers subscribe button

Ankoganit

This is oddly satisfying to watch

Bubbler

3:05 AM

no videos for 3 years, unfortunately

msh210

Plot twist: The numbers at the bottom are minutes. The video is sped up ×60. I mean, that's the only way I can imagine a human being actually doing that.

Sciborg

I'm just watching in awe

Bubbler

Even I sometimes watch it in awe

Nostalgia

Sciborg

And here I was thinking I was a pro gamer

i subbed to you with my old youtube account from like 4 years ago

Ankoganit

speaking of games, I started obra dinn

this is harder than i expected

Sciborg

3:12 AM

:o

Ankoganit

but fun!

Sciborg

It's hard, but it's so cool.

Ankoganit

yep!

Deusovi

such a good game

Sciborg

Please try to savor it, because you can only ever play it once

Ankoganit

3:13 AM

absolutely

Sciborg

<3

bobble

I'm playing the game "can I make a legal Tetromino Nurikabe solution that starts with this deduction"

so far I am losing miserably

oAlt

rip

Sciborg

i'm having what is called a "doing statue parks with the laptop balanced on the laundry machine" problem

bobble

that sounds like a non-bad problem

Sciborg

3:19 AM

i had to do laundry but i also had to place an L block so i'm just doing both

msh210

@HTM Hm. When I see "/s", I read it as "the preceding was sarcastic".

@Sciborg As long as you don't launder the laptop....

Sciborg

The laptop is safe and sound on top of my socks

bobble

One college summer program I went to had you dorm, and I brought money for the laundry. On the first day there the RA told us that the machines were doing laundry for free - and then swore us to secrecy, since if the faculty found out they would fix it.

msh210

@Sciborg Then you should call it a socktop.

Sciborg

@bobble That is college in a nutshell

bobble

3:22 AM

It wasn't even that much money, but hey, free is better than not free

Sciborg

I remember one time there was a drink machine in my science building that was supposed to take credit cards, but it broke one day so that if you swiped your credit card, you could pick a drink, it would vend it, and it wouldn't charge your account for it. The professors were so confused why there was a massive line by the vending machine

bobble

they provided free drinks with all meals, but some people still bought extra soda off the vending machines

Sciborg

Our reasoning was that we paid thousands of dollars to be there, and we could take a couple free drinks if we damn well wanted to :p

Deusovi

seems reasonable enough to me

Ankoganit

Our CS department has a coffee machine that gives free coffee, except you are supposed to buy cups from the department

Sciborg

3:25 AM

Nice

Ankoganit

there are literally thousands of workarounds for this, no idea why no one uses those

Sciborg

I'm sure nobody brings mugs

Ankoganit

@Sciborg for some reason, they don't!

Sciborg

What??

Ankoganit

I've actually watched tha machine for long periods

Deusovi

3:26 AM

????

Ankoganit

(in a non-creepy way)

3

Deusovi

(sure if you insist)

Sciborg

we believe you

Ankoganit

I have no clue how it works

Sciborg

There are like... a hundred ways my "take free things immediately" college training can think of to get around this.

msh210

3:26 AM

@Ankoganit should set up a monitor like the one at MIT

Ankoganit

Maybe it's because there's some social pressure in being the first one to "break the rule" or something

idk

@msh210 hm?

Sciborg

I would be the first a**hole to show up with a mug

bobble

you could show up with a mug cleverly disguised as a standard-issue cup

Sciborg

Even better

msh210

Sorry! Cambridge, apparently:

Trojan Room coffee pot

The Trojan Room coffee pot was a coffee machine located next to the so-called Trojan Room in the old Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, England, which in 1991 provided the inspiration for the world's first webcam. To save people working in the building the disappointment of finding the coffee machine empty after making the trip to the room, a camera was set up providing a live picture of the coffee pot to all desktop computers on the office network. After the camera was connected to the Internet a few years later, the coffee pot gained international notoriety as a feature of the...

Ankoganit

3:29 AM

the standard issue cups aren't particularly rare either

you can reuse cups if all else fails

@msh210 ooh, interesting

Bubbler

xcoffee, what a creative name for a webcam window

Ankoganit

I hope that runs on Java

2

Puzzling Meta

0

Q: Is my modest english skills a handicap to write on the site?

I'm some new to this stack exchange community. Over the last weeks I've been posting different kinds of problems to my best ability. Some of them had drawings or sketches (the best which I could make them) to illustrate my doubts and confusion. However some of those like hunters and bullets and c...

discussion asking-questions policy formatting new-users

bobble

@PuzzlingMeta I can write a response to this and will right now

Sciborg

I think our most devious "free stuff" ploy in college was that our dining hall had banned food containers, leftovers and take home containers in the meal hall, which obviously sucked for students who were super busy and didn't have time to sit down in meal hall. So we set up a giant student smuggling ring to sneak food containers in and out of the dining hall throughout the year hidden in people's backpacks like drug lords, and we got tons of secret free leftovers out of it.

Ankoganit

3:35 AM

that's hilarious

Sciborg

The moral of the story being that hungry college students will always find a way.

@bobble this is the guy whose questions you frequently edit for English issues, if memory serves?

bobble

yep! I'm starting off with "Hi, I'm bobble. I have been the one editing most of your posts."

I'm also trying to use simple words and sentence structures, just for here

Sciborg

We should definitely try to be kind, he sounds very embarrassed about it and we want to let him know he's welcome here and it's nothing to be ashamed of.

oAlt

yeah im planning to comment that too

Sciborg

3:51 AM

Is there a good site or chatroom I can point him to for help with English?

That is, is there a Stack Exchange site/chat for this kind of thing?

bobble

English Language Learners (ELL)

Sciborg

Perfect, I'm assuming you will mention that in your answer but I'll leave it in my comment too

bobble

here is their main chat

oAlt

ooh

i forgot that site existed

Sciborg

I appreciate how wholesome Puzzling can be in moments like these, we're all teaming up to help somebody feel better and encourage them :)

bobble

4:01 AM

(see my answer?)

oAlt

yess

Sciborg

I'm glad you included the part about the importance of trying, because it is clear they try hard.

bobble

I feel a bit bad about my initial grammar comment now. Should I go back and delete it?

(I mean this one)

Sciborg

It may have come across a little harsh at the time

bobble

I'm also considering posting an apology comment - there, or under the meta post?

Sphinx

4:08 AM

2

Q: How do you deduce complete list of the five beers you can drink, in this LSAT question?

I don't know if this is a real LSAT question, or if the author made it up, but my head already aches from looking at it! Does it have a valid solution? M Kimes. Ivy Briefs: True Tales of a Neurotic Law Student 2007. p 11.

logical-deduction

Sciborg

You don't have to apologize for it, I think it's understandable that you left a pithy comment at the time - editing stuff takes effort and it's okay to say you would prefer not to do it.

I wasn't saying it was unwarranted, just that it may have had a tone you didn't intend

bobble

Also, should I edit their meta question? I'm leaning towards "no"

Ankoganit

Just a suggestion, maybe elaborate a bit on why mathjax for lists is bad? As it stands now it may come across as some sort of arbitrary PSE specific rule

Bubbler

Leaving it as-is sounds better, as editing it would remove some of the context

Ankoganit

@bobble probably better to leave it as it is

bobble

4:13 AM

added some MathJax explanation

Ankoganit

awesome

bobble

I have returned to fighting my Tetromino Nurikabe

Sciborg

North's geography connect wall is still unsolved right?

bobble

Yes

Sciborg

I hope we get some hints on it soon

Feels like we need them :p

bobble

4:28 AM

I keep almost getting a solution, but I would use a tetromino twice, or there's one 2x2 left, or some ocean would be blocked off...

Sciborg

Relatable

on an unrelated note, daily doodle:

3

bobble

adorable

also: SHIELD update?

Sciborg

they seem very trustworthy

we ended up watching Mandalorian instead... :p

bobble

understandable

Sciborg

i had also made a doodle of the chatroom teaching me grid deductions, but i suck at faces so i'm redoing it

how are the tetrominoes going now?

bobble

4:38 AM

I gave up on the deduction, and switched to a related one

I really want you to get episodes #6 & #7, those are my favorite of the Before-Twist episodes

It's too hard to choose among the After-Twist episodes, they're all too good!

Sciborg

Promise I'll get to those eventually, I just happen to have a watch buddy who really likes Mandalorian so we have to trade off :p

Before-Twist is probably the most ominous way to describe episodes of a TV show

bobble

:D

now you have to watch them

Sciborg

Reminds me of when I started Game of Thrones and the entire time we watched season one, my dad was elbowing me in the ribs and whispering "wait until we get to the Twist"

Ankoganit

heh

bobble

#15 is an iffy episode (one of the characters has his consent taken away through magic), but then you hit #17 and there is the first Twist

(the second Twist, by the way, is literally written in blood on the wall)

Sciborg

4:45 AM

...yikes

bobble

yikes to #15?

Sciborg

yes

bobble

if you want to skip it when you get there, tell me and I can summarize the important plot points

Sciborg

I mean, it seems like a pretty family-friendly-ish show, so like... I doubt they would show anything genuinely horrific

bobble

there is implied intercourse, and you're explicitly told that the man in question is incapable of saying no to the Evil Lady

Sciborg

4:48 AM

.......oh

bobble

as I said, iffy

Sciborg

it can't be worse than perfect blue, so... i think i'll be fine?

bobble

you have been warned, though

Sciborg

i appreciate the warning, which i did not get for perfect blue, not naming names

Ankoganit

(ouch)

(my bad there)

Sciborg

4:50 AM

:p

no worries

i did think it was funny that you looked at my softie, heart-emoji self and thought "yes, they can definitely handle this"

"they seem like a hardened individual"

Ankoganit

tbh I didn't really think it through

sometimes my brain doesn't brain so well

Sciborg

that's a relatable mood

Ankoganit

I'll try to avoid mentally scarring strangers on the internet in future

bobble

another warning, this one more immediate: in #4, there is some gory eye surgery

Sciborg

Oh god, I can't handle ANYTHING with eyeballs

do you have a timestamp on that?

bobble

4:55 AM

I'll see if I can look it up

I assume you don't want any more details?

Sciborg

nope

i mean, i do wonder what the context of gory eye surgery could be in a Marvel show

bobble

more icky stuff: in #7, a tube is stuck up a guy's nose very very deep

They announce it beforehand, so you should be able to turn away

@Sciborg do you really want to know?

Sciborg

usually partner knows to smack a hand over my eyes for that kind of thing so that should be fine

i do not think i want to know

bobble

because it matters: if I remember correctly, there are actually multiple parts of eye surgery, intercut with the Dramatic Spy Scene that happens at the same time

Sciborg

eeeeeek

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