The Sphinx's Lair

4:27 PM

hooray!

congratulations!

The trick at the end was amazing

"wait, where the hell do i put the cube - OH"

yeah, i love when a puzzle ends with you just cramming everything left over into the available space and it somehow works

It's like magic

are the colors helping you?

4:28 PM

(also, some advice - remember that you don't have to fill in all of a shape at once! between the first and the second pictures there, you could extend the two bottom/left dots by one, without necessarily completely finishing off their shapes.)

The colors are being my visual aid :p

Ooh, that's a good tip

in harder puzzles you'll definitely have situations where you have half of a shape determined, and it sits there for a while until you find out that one of its options ends up being somewhere else in the puzzle

I'll keep that in mind :D

oh also the color thing makes sense! what i generally do is cross off a shape when it's used (or, in an image editor, color it with my "unshaded cell" color)

I won't be able to help as much for next puzzles since I have an econ test soon :(

4:31 PM

I should start crossing off shapes, that would definitely help with the elimination logic

Good luck on your test bobble!!

that's generally more useful than labelling each shape in the grid, because once it's done i surround it with unshaded cells and don't have to worry about it anymore. (plus you'll eventually run out of colors :P )

@bobble good luck! i'm sure you'll do great

The day I stop color-coding things is the day I will die

fair enough

i color-code things a lot too but colorblindness makes that an issue

@Sciborg then don't stop color-coding things

Ohh, true! I will color my shapes to be colorblind-friendly from now, did not think about that.

4:34 PM

oh no you're perfectly fine

no need to adjust it - i can see the difference between your colored and your yellow cells, so it's all good. solve the puzzle however it works for you, and in the unlikely event that i need you to clarify i'll ask

Okay, good. I was worried you were having a hard time with my brown shades

If I color it in a way that's difficult for you to see definitely let me know

i mean i can see the shapes so it's not like it matters

(by the way, Sciborg, I have bookmarked a conversation and named it Sciborg solves Tetromino Nurikabe)

aww

how even do you bookmark conversations? cannot seem to figure it out

4:37 PM

in the transcript, there is a bookmark button

hm

so it turns out this one is hard

there's another ocean you should be able to put immediately

need a nudge?

oh, oops, i see the ocean

4:40 PM

you see the ocean

and the ocean seas you back

i have gained the wisdom of the sea

(scratch earlier comment about no-tics - just had one)

(deus is the yellow-blue easier to see?)

yellow-blue works fine! your previous colors were also fine

like i said, please don't feel the need to change your solving methods for me - i'll let you know if i can't see something

No worries, I'm liking this color palette - Michigan colors :D

hmmm, the key to this one is definitely expanding the oceans

4:43 PM

they are also nevada colors

look at me goooo

nice!!! see you're doing it

statue parks are so fun!! i'm glad you introduced me to them

:D

:D

4:46 PM

they're definitely one of my favorite genres, if not my favorite altogether

Now that I'm getting the hang of the logic, they are a total blast

oooh, #4 is tough because i get no black circles!

ah yep that one's fun

really showing off the potential that the genre has

speed solve

that was fast

hm how'd you get the L in that second one

4:51 PM

had to fit there because of ocean connections

the straight piece could only go at the top at that point, so it couldn't fit in the left spot

and it couldn't fit at the bottom or it would cut off an ocean square

hm? why

i see a few different places it could go

if i put it on the bottom left, sideways, then the bottom ocean would have to connect all across the bottom

and is that a problem?

that can't work because with the white square placement on the right, the ocean can't connect all the way across the bottom, so therefore that's not the right spot for the L

i get the feeling i didn't take an intended path here

wait why can't it be this

4:56 PM

...hm

yeah, i see now i may have done this wrong

Ugh

i'd at least place the I shape first!

should i try this one again but place the straight piece as the second step?

up to you

I didn't get to finish my math test :(...

4:57 PM

ouch :/

Dang

My highest potential grade is a 7/9

But the test closes and locks, which means I could compare answers, and all the questions I compared (including the one I guesses) were all the same

So crossing my fingers

hope the teacher curves it then

She never curves

oof

4:59 PM

cos^2-tan*cot+sin^2=0 right? (pretend after each trig function there's a theta)

Sounds right

Accck I have a mock trial scrimmage tomorrow, and two more tests

D:

I have an exam at 8 am tomorrow

good luck to both of you

(deus what's the insight after placing the straight piece second? i'm not sure where the logic goes from there.)

5:03 PM

@Ankoganit You have Saturday school?

@msh210 more C4 hints?

@PrinceNorthLæraðr usually not, but the prof kept it on a weekend to avoid clashes

Huh

What's the time over where you're at?

sciborg: think about the T piece. you might not be able to fully place it but you can get some partial information

@PrinceNorthLæraðr GMT+5:30

So 22:35 rn

Sorry, American (converting 22:35)

10:35 pm.

@Ankoganit Wow. You are 13 hours and 30 minutes ahead of where I am :P

5:06 PM

Heh

Time zones are weird

time travel

It's a bit weird when I really think about it that some ppl in here would be day earlier than I am

i think i did the intended path this time

So if I'm insta-transmission to Ankoganit, and then fly back to where I am in like 4 ish hours, I've travelled back in time!\

Yep, definitely how it works

5:08 PM

looks good! i think there are a few different ways to get through the middle section of the puzzle, but your logic makes sense to me

I'm glad I went back, it felt important to grasp what they were intending me to understand

@Ankoganit Duh

on to #5!

cry for help again

What's with all the Princes?

5:12 PM

He says it's an Android phone and then says it's an iPhone...

Okay I need your opinion

Q: Help! I forgot my phone's lock pattern

-3

My android phone has a pattern lock screen, it is unlocked by using a pattern drawn on the screen over a 3x3 grid of dots. So for example, if we number the dots as follows: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 then valid lock patterns may be created by drawing lines connecting 1 > 2 > 3 > 4, or 1 > 5 > 9 > 8 > 7. ...

mathematics pattern geometry

0

Q: How to solve this Loopy puzzle efficiently with little backtracking?

I would like to solve this Loopy (Cairo) puzzle with as little backtracking as possible. By this I mean that I want to have at most one pending guess at a time, meaning that I do not want to make any further guesses if I have already made one that has not yet been disproven. I believe it is possi...

logical-deduction slitherlink

This song or this song

cannot watch right now

Alive

5:13 PM

Heh, that's fine lol

Jekyll and Hyde is a bop

@Sciborg I'm thinking that too, but I know Out There like the back of my hand

Thought it goes pretty high

They're both really good songs

got #5

dilemma:
* want to make statue park
* want to use something other than tetris pieces
* can't think of what else they could be

I used bobblies, you can steal that

or just different-sized squares

5:20 PM

i shall do bobblies

@Sciborg all deductions look good to me

:D

you had to squeeze the S in!

@matt the statue park pack has a few different bank puzzles

I definitely did

5:21 PM

maybe look at that for inspiration?

(and yeah the S there is a good moment)

Have the afternoon off so I'm just hanging out eating lunch and doing puzzles :)

we are inducting you into the Society of Grid-Deduction-ers

sounds like a good time!

I formally accept this honor as long as I'm allowed to wear Silly Hats.

oh, we have lots of silly, grid-deduction themed hats

some of them have puzzles, so you have to follow another member around to solve the puzzle on it

5:23 PM

what self-respecting not-a-cult doesn't allow silly hats

Excellent

I love joining ~~cults~~ groups of puzzlers

@Deusovi LOL

Why is grid-deducting so relaxing

update: i shall do fancy hats for my statue park

matt, i think it would be a nice thing to do if you apologized to bobble for being a little hurtful earlier.

5:30 PM

it's okay, really

okay. just wanted to make sure things were good.

y'all are important to me <3

I had another annoying episode during econ test, where my arms were not staying in the same spot. arm waving + hand shaking = no ability to write answers.

ahh, that sucks!

Hopefully teacher was understanding.

I had forgotten how <expletive> annoying having tics was - I've been mostly tic-free for over a month now due to the meds

It's the worst, yeah.

I hope I'm not bugging you by asking for help with grid deductions! :p

5:33 PM

I write really fast, so I was able to make up the time

speed writing

I wish I could write faster honestly, you've seen my handwriting - picture that but way worse

but you have MS Paint skills

and that makes up for it

True :P

Q: Parallel Trees On The Grass

0

Let the picture speak for itself and try to find the correct height of the tree marked with "?".

mathematics visual rebus

slammed into any windows yet?

5:41 PM

yes, #6 is making me hit all kinds of windows :p

post picture?

so it's this one

two things that might be useful: you have to use the I, and you can't re-use the T

not sure if those help

hmm, true. i need to use the I

Also, Five Fours got a drive-by downvote :(

5:44 PM

It wasn't anything you did, sometimes people just downvote stuff for no reason - it's a great puzzle.

ah that one's an interesting puzzle

i can give a nudge if you'd like

I solved that one a while back, can't remember how I did it now

i may need a nudge on what the next logical deduction is/could be

look at the bottom middle black circle

hmmm

5:46 PM

you should be able to figure something out there (though it may not directly lead to any marked cells)

that gives me two places to put the T, then

since either the cell above it or left has to be shaded

and if the T goes there, then...

then the top two right blue ones are not the T

so, you can make deductions over there!

hmm

hmmmm

5:48 PM

there sure are a lot of almost-T arrangements of black dots here aren't there

there sure are

hmmm

AHA

triumph picture?

hang on, not quite done yet

there's an amazing eureka moment in this puzzle that i love

hmm, okay, i may have gotten stuck at the end here

no... wait a minute, no i'm not

show us what you have?

they appear to have un-slammed from window

5:56 PM

i got un-stuck

hmm.....

leaving for physics test now

Good luck on that one too!

this is where i am now, i need a lil nudge to get to the end

it seems like multiple things work here, did i goof up somewhere?

do multiple things work?

looks good to me

it seems like placing shapes will always keep the oceans connected and is therefore fine

and how many ways are there to place shapes

6:02 PM

huh, wait a minute....

oh

the straight piece

now i get it :p

ta-da

hooray!

Yay! :D

I'll take a break now to give the chatroom a rest

sounds good!

though i don't personally mind it at all

You can probably tell I'm really enjoying these!

the shape logic moments are a ton of fun

glad you're having a good time! i really love the geometric logic that comes from these

6:19 PM

ok i think i found an easier puzzle to make - masyu

Q: Save the poor Gingerbreadmen!

6:52 PM

0

The poor gingerbread men want to survive to Xmas (they don't mind being eaten afterwards). If at least one of them doesn't guess his hat correctly, they will all be cruelly eaten before Xmas. This is a modified version of some puzzles I found out there... Will you save them?

strategy hat-guessing

9:08 PM

teacher: It's a Friday, take some free time
other students: immediately set up an Among Us game
me: does homework

I give my section free time to record and I get like no submissions

Q: Let's Play! - a Scandi Drama

0

This is my original question - not sure about tags so please edit and add this requires a wide spectrum of knowledge and elements are not always as they seem. Some cultural references but they are global in extent. Russ and Kess are chatting. Russ says he saw Kess cracking away on his computer an...

knowledge lateral-thinking

10:46 PM

'borg!

Bobble! :D

solve any more puzzles?

I got stuck on #7 so I took a break for dinner

are you going to watch SHIELD or are you still in Ad Astra?

We're planning on watching it tonight hopefully!

10:51 PM

yesssssss

did I ever say that I own a prop-replica SHIELD lanyard?

because I do and I wear it every day

Ooh :D

it is very broken - the spot where the lanyard attaches broke off, so I rigged up a cord that knots around it so I could still wear it :)

That's really cool though

point is: I love SHIELD so much that I have a prop-replica lanyard

Valid

10:54 PM

and you will too

I feel the need to brag about the cool thing I own, which is an autograph from the creator of the Python programming language, Guido von Rossum :D

what is it on?

It's a piece of paper, my roommate is his babysitter and got him to sign it for me for my birthday :)

It says "Are all your pets named Eric?"

great birthday present!

Apparently he had never been asked for an autograph before and thought it was really funny

10:57 PM

A fair warning about the first half of the first season: there is less plot stuff and more random adventures with the characters. So your enjoyment will be directly correlated to how much you like the characters.

(and I mean, I love them, so I love the adventures)