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Cake day: May 19th, 2024

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  • Here’s my prediction of what that speech might look like:

    “Ladies and Gentlemen, I’ve got a little secret to share with you. The Taliban, they’re not just some group out there. They’re my friends, good friends. We go way back, way back. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Trump, are you crazy? But let me tell you, it’s not crazy, it’s genius. Absolute genius. Because the Taliban, they’re not just any friends. They’re the best friends you could have in that part of the world. They’re tough, they’re strong, they’re resilient. And they’re not afraid to fight. They’ve been fighting for a long time, a very long time. And they’ve been fighting against some very bad people, some very bad terrorists.

    And that’s why they’re not just my friends, they’re America’s friends. They’re our allies in the fight against terror. They’re on our side, folks. They’re helping us, helping America. And that’s why I’m a genius. Because I saw this, I saw this potential, this opportunity, when nobody else did. I saw that we could turn enemies into friends, turn bad into good. And that’s what I did, folks. That’s what I did. You know, people don’t understand, they don’t get it. But I do, I get it. I’ve always gotten it. And that’s why I’m the best, the very best. And the Taliban, they’re the best too. They’re the best at what they do. And together, we’re unstoppable.”

    The real version might have the incoherence cracked all the way to 11, but I just can’t write like that without getting a headache.







  • Also, the number of loanwords in English is completely absurd. Some other languages resisted borrowing/stealing special terminology from other languages by coming to with their own clever new words.

    For example, entrepreneur is a clear loan from French where a salesman is a simple and clear description of a man who sells something. If you don’t know French, you’ll have no idea what the word entrepreneur means, but if you know basic English, salesman should be crystal clear to you.

    Many other languages developed lots of these types of clear words in order to make communication easier and less elitist. English is completely wild and there’s no central authority that could reasonably give any recommendations that anyone would listen. This sorts of uncontrolled wild growth and stealing has been going on for centuries, and now we’ve ended up with a complete train wreck of a language.

    And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Wait until you hear about the history behind how spelling and pronunciation became the disaster we have today.



  • I think I see what’s happening here. There are some pure puzzle games that require no execution skills at all. In the opposite end of the spectrum you have games that are all about skill and execution with no puzzles included. I guess you could call them pure skill games to make the distinction clearer.

    Most games appear to be a mixture of the two extremes, so they sit somewhere on this spectrum. In order to win, you have to know what to do and execute your plan well enough. I wouldn’t call them pure puzzle games, but they do have some puzzle elements in them. If the puzzle aspects are central to the gameplay experience, it could make sense to categorize them as puzzle games of some sort, even if execution and skills matter to some extent.


  • I think that’s an important distinction to make when exploring what is or isn’t a puzzle game. There are lots of games where flawless execution matters as much as knowing what to do. For example, FPS games lean heavily towards the execution aspect while mixing in some solution identification too.

    The purest examples of each game design style are also interesting. For example, you can play chess through snail mail, so being physically able to perform specific actions isn’t really necessary for victory. In the opposite end of the spectrum you have the simplest form of darts, which is all about skill. Just throw all the darts at the center and you’ll win. There are also more complicated versions for those who want to play a game that sits somewhere in the middle of this puzzle-execution specturm. Now that I think of it, most computer games seem to be a mixture of the two styles.


  • What’s the name of that mobile game where you tap to shoot an arrow at the exact perfect time so that it lands on the right spot on a spinning circle? Well, that’s the game where I fail to see any strategy. It’s all about perfect timing and tolerating the anger boiling inside your head.

    Oh, and there’s this other almost equally infuriating mobile game that I haven’t yet deleted for some strange reason. It’s called Stack, and your goal is to build the tallest stack possible by having supernatural timing abilities in your fingers. Oh, and what about Flappy Bird or the dinosaur game built into Google Chrome? Basically the same idea, but you don’t have a lot of time to prepare for what’s coming. You just need to have lightning fast reaction time and perfect timing. Now that I think of it, there are lots of games where timing takes the center stage.