Random thoughts... - by Tocky
Tocky on 26/2/2019 at 01:45
We did the same. We built a tree house of two by fours and printing tin my dad had brought home from the university paper. It was pretty cool because you could read it but it was really light and the first hard storm that came scattered that thing over several acres. We had lots of other tree houses that were just platforms with a good view scattered about. I built a bit more elaborate one for my kids and used concrete wire in the branches beneath to catch them if they fell.
The story that started my story thread was about my buddy Elliott doing what we called tippy topping in another thread and somebody said I should write them all down. We would climb a tree to the top and bend it till it reached the next tree then see how far we could go like that. Worked pretty good till the day Elliott chose a sweet gum and the top snapped out of it. He fell all the way down breaking limbs on the way and landed on his shoulders and back of his head. It knocked the wind out of him and it took a while to get it back. When he did he kept asking what happened. I would tell him but it wouldn't stick. Not five seconds later he would ask again. I don't know how he was even alive. That was a good thirty or forty feet. Soft sod maybe. After about ten times he could hold stuff in his head again. Must have been a concussion but he wouldn't let us call an ambulance or even his parents. I've had my bell rung and the wind knocked out of me in football but never seen anything like that. He lived. Just a little sore the next few days.
icemann on 26/2/2019 at 13:06
The joys of being a kid. You can survive and recover quickly from falls and injuries that would destroy you, had you been 20 years older.
I remember cuts and bruises healing in days, which nowadays take weeks / months. Last major cut I had, was from getting drunk at a party, then as I walked home saw some trolleys on the side of the road. Thought it'd be funny to put them in the middle of the road and see what happened. Did that, then tried running to hide when the first car came, but as I was drunk, fell over and cut up the leg of my pants on my right leg. Thought nothing of it, until I got home and looked down and my lower right leg was covered in blood. Left a mean scab on on knee that took several months to heal.
Tocky on 20/3/2019 at 04:09
I love that every time I wand over my little yellow dot by my name it says "Tocky is invisible". I'm not. When I'm not logged in it says I'm not so the point of it is moot but oh hell to be invisible would be so cool. I would take that over flying even.
zombe on 20/3/2019 at 14:25
Hm. Flying is better. I envision poking my eye out when trying to pick my nose for starters.
Um... unless you can turn invisibility on/off at will - which would be fairer comparison to flying.
Random thought time.
I recently had an invisibility dream - trying to sneak through a blockade. Unfortunately, my opposition there was aware i was invisible - so, a fun catch-me-if-you-can ensued. Trying not to make noise nor disturb the ground while trying to judge where the guards will step next. Common situation: if i move - i risk exposing my location, but if i do not move - i risk being bumped into. Screwed if you do and screwed if you do not. Choices, choices.
Thought about the dream after i woke up and remembered something else from early school years. There was a unused wing in the school that had no windows and no electricity with a larger cinema projector room at the end - perfect place to play tag in. You could not see ANYTHING in there - touch and sound only. Fun times.
Guess i have had fun being invisible in both dreams and in real life.
... yeah, screw flying.
Tocky on 21/3/2019 at 01:51
I fully admit to being nefarious enough to following certain people around and substituting for their conscience when they are alone. "Tucker Carlson this is God... stop being a dick." I would hang around the roulette table and help some poor bastard win repeatedly. I would listen in on private conversations of those those in power to find out what is really motivating them. I would likely make some of them go nuts. Or further nuts. I would get bank account numbers and transfer funds to others accounts I like better. I would make a kids paper airplane fly forever. I would ride a motorcycle around just to see facial expressions. I would give Claude Rains a run for his money on being the most evil invisible man.
Eh. I would likely get killed trying to cross the street.
Pyrian on 21/3/2019 at 02:26
:D "Hmm, I'd swear I just hit something pretty big, but I don't see anything..."
zombe on 1/4/2019 at 07:22
I wonder ...
We used to play a lot of one certain card game in school. Called (well, translated as) "Lying". And by a lot i mean WAY TOO MUCH - it was the absolute top game.
I wonder how wide spread that game or its close variants are/were. Found some similarly named games via google, but with very different rules (much shittier sounding ones - but might be alright when played).
Rules:
It is a social game - not terribly "win"-oriented. Ie. leave your serious competitive face home. It is about knowing your friends.
Take a pack (or two / three) of cards (jokers are fine, but might prefer to exclude them - they do not really add anything to the gameplay). Shuffle. Throw away some of the cards (face down) and split all the remaining cards evenly among the players.
The goal is to get rid of all the cards you have AND get out of the game (not having any cards does not mean you are out of the game).
If you have 4 of the same card then you can discard them openly (face up) at any time - except when it is your turn to play. There is no point in keeping cards - so, one should discard sets of 4 as soon as you realizing you have a full set.
The game is played in rounds ( of lying :D ) and in a looping chain (ex: clockwise).
Whoever is starting a round can pick one of his cards and place it on the table face down - claiming what it is (ex: "Queen"). Next (the now current) player in chain has a choice:
1. tell that the previous player was lying. If correct then the previous player picks up all the cards on the table. If incorrect or joker then the current player picks up all the cards. Either way - current player starts a new round.
2. tell that the previous player was truthful. If correct then all the cards on the table will be discarded (face down). If incorrect or joker then the current player picks up all the cards. Either way - current player starts a new round.
3. add one of your cards to the pile with the silently implied claim of adding the same kind of card (ie: if the round started with "Queen" claim - you can only claim to add a "Queen" too). Thereby giving the next player in chain the same options to act on.
Additionally. When the player needing to choose has no cards then:
Option 3 is not possible and the situation is called an "exam" and is the only way to get out of the game - ie. not loose. To get out of the game - you just must guess correctly. If you pass the "exam" then the next player in chain starts a new round. Otherwise the game continues normally - pick up all the junk on the table and start a new round. Better luck next time.
You have at most ~10 seconds to interrogate, make your decision and act on it. Cut that down to ~2-3 seconds if no interrogation took place. Time it by "social clock" - ie: don't be a dick about it. Especially if the player taking more time has been mostly timely before. A few extra seconds for anyone having to pass an "exam" is also reasonable.
Notes:
It is a social game. Don't flip coins - judge and decide! Ban "coin-flippers" the moment you identify them as such and don't let them return till they get their head out of their ass.
Picking options 1 and 2 too often is not good for you nor the gameplay experience: it makes you predictable (makes it easier for the previous player to get out of the game) and slows you down from getting rid of your own cards. Generally, if the pile does not average to an absurd number - you are chickening out too much and dragging the game. Generally, you should expect ~"12 Queen" piles in a "4 Queen total" game. Especially if you have 5 or more players.
Cheating in spirit of the game is allowed (what qualifies as being "in spirit" must be agreed beforehand). Ex: if you play multiple cards instead of one and no-one notices before the next player makes their choice - you are Ok. If someone notices then you pick up all the cards unconditionally and the next player starts a new round. (this was the only allowed cheat in our case)
Best played in groups of 3 to 6 (preferably at least two 52 packs if more than 3 players).
Note about the "throwing away some random cards from the deck": it is there to help prevent draws in 2-3 player games. Example: i have had a 2-player game when we decided to skip the removal step and had the dreaded result. Every single card i had ended up in my opponents hand - which meant that he discarded ALL of them by the rule of 4. Which meant that both players were in the "exam" stage and neither player had ANY cards to actually perform it. Both lost. Hilarious. Which is a win of sorts.
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Sounds familiar? Something close enough? Or perhaps share some other card game to share (with more social than competitive elements ... excluding Mafia and its derivatives as thous hardly qualify as "card" games)?
zombe on 2/4/2019 at 08:03
Interesting.
How close was your variant of "exact same game"? Interesting that the "playing multiple cards instead of one" cheat option is mentioned on the wiki. We came up with that ourselves (pretty much exactly 25 years ago) - nice to see others have had the same idea.
Russian_Schnapsen - looks quite complicated.
Durak - same game (but usually under different name: "potiknoi") was also played occasionally. Was kind of the third option behind Lying and ... um ... "Küüned perse" (i doubt a translation would be terribly useful).
Anyone know some alternate names for "Küüned perse".
Description:
2-3 players (preferably 2)
Shuffle, deal 5 cards per player and one on the table. Current player adds one card to the pile:
* must be either same number or same color where some of the cards have special effects:
* 6 -> next player picks up one card from the deck and skips his turn
* 7 -> next player picks up two cards from the deck and skips his turn
* diamond King -> next player picks up four cards from the deck and skips his turn
* Ace -> next player skips his turn
* Queen -> can be played on top of any card (ie. player can ignore color and number requirements), player can wish for any color -> in effect his played queen assumes the wished color
* anything else -> no special effect
If player can not play any card (or does not wish to do so (*)) - he must pick up cards from the deck till he can/will play.
Goal: empty your hand. Usually by building up a combo and emptying your whole hand in one go.
*) wasting parts of your combo is, well, wasteful and helps your opponent in building his combo - so, drawing trash is often preferable.
edit: by "color" i mean "suit" / "mark".
Starker on 2/4/2019 at 20:57
Quote Posted by zombe
Interesting.
How close was your variant of "exact same game"? Interesting that the "playing multiple cards instead of one" cheat option is mentioned on the wiki. We came up with that ourselves (pretty much exactly 25 years ago) - nice to see others have had the same idea.
We usually didn't have to take cards out of the deck at the beginning, but it was pretty much the same exact game.
Quote Posted by zombe
Russian_Schnapsen - looks quite complicated.
It's not as complicated as it looks. Much easier than Bridge, anyway. You can pick up most of the strategies in just a couple of games. If you look at the left side of its Wiki page, under Languages, there's also a page in Estonian for it.
Quote Posted by zombe
Anyone know some alternate names for "Küüned perse".
There are lots of games like this, with different cards doing various things. One example: (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau-Mau_%28card_game%29)