636

Denise Sawicki | August 31, 2005
Didn't the goo at one point reference 443 (Johnny Carson) instead of 483 (Pancho Villa)? That kinda confused me...

Scott Horowitz | August 31, 2005
I saw that too Denise, that's what threw me off for a bit.

Megan Baxter | August 31, 2005
Me too, but I'm not always up on popular culture, so I figured it was referring to something I didn't get and went ahead and guessed anyway.

Amy Austin | August 31, 2005
Yeah, I counted that one a couple times over myself before deciding that it must have been a battle of wits against The Great Carsoni... ;-D

Jackie Mason | August 31, 2005
[hidden by request]

Megan Baxter | August 31, 2005
I just look up any old one, and change the number in the URL to the one I'm looking for.

Scott Hardie | September 1, 2005
Originally, it did erroneously reference Carson instead of Villa, because I mistyped or because I was really sleepy when I published that goo. I didn't know it was wrong for several days until someone emailed me about it. Sorry for the confusion. I wonder, if this had been a very difficult goo and lots of players had guessed wrong for various reasons, whether there would have been a call for me to disqualify the goo because of the typo or something.

Incidentally, this is not the first error involving this picture. Back during Military History Week, I accidentally published this gooed image for Mike's request of Chester Nimitz. Even though a guess came in for Patton, it was only because Mike was up and checking the site at midnight that I was alerted to the error: I had to turn off the page, quickly goo Nimitz (which explains the sloppy work), and upload the replacement image in hopes few people would notice the switch. At least I still had the gooed Patton sitting on my hard drive when it was his turn for real.

Seriously, between my error on Patton, my error on Nimitz, my error on Burr, my error on Winwood, my error on Rusesabagina, and the apparently indomitable errors in the streak-updating script, I'm getting the distinct impression that I'm burned out this game and need to take a break. I used to pride myself on running an error-free site; what happened to me? Maybe it's because I only have time to make quick updates in the middle of the fucking night.

Mike Eberhart | September 1, 2005
Actually, I thought that you put the Carson goo as a reference because Carson did a spoof of the great Patton speech. There was a skit that Carson did where he was dressed up like Patton standing in front of a big flag giving a speech. That's what I was thinking when you accidently picked Carson. I didn't know any different.

Amy Austin | September 1, 2005
Heheh... I did actually see that picture for Nimitz, but I still knew it was Nimitz from the clue (as did Ed) -- and when you switched it up, we were like, "heeeeyy? I guess he didn't like that picture, WTF?" Don't even know why... you don't usually see portraits of admirals in garrison like that. ;-) I guess the focus was on 4 stars!

Sorry you're having such a time of it with your site, Scott. You know, I've been compiling a whole spreadsheet of goo suggestions and clues for you whenever I get a good idea (you beat me to Chomsky) -- I could probably supply enough for a whole round, sooner or later, if you did decide to check things out from the player side for a while. (Of course, I don't know who you'd possibly arrange that with... Matthew Preston? No idea about that end of things...) I know you've said "not likely" -- but you really should give yourself a break and try it... I bet it would be fun for you! (Maybe *too* much fun, and you wouldn't want to go back? ;-D) I've even been collecting pictures, even though I don't currently have the necessary software loaded onto my computer for gooing yet. (Have Photoshop 6 on disk, though...)

I could actually use a break from the play myself, and E keeps hoping each round that I'll "sit this one out" -- but I am compelled by my curiosity and competitiveness to keep on! And this round is definitely not looking too good for me... Jerry & Russ are wiping the floor with me (with the help of Elliot Farney and his &#*@ clues!) So seriously... let me know if you'd like me to send it to somebody next round -- I've got great variety of category and gender (been working to get you some women that you feel are harder to find), and I've got a few non-whities in there, too. ;-D I think it would be great fun to be providing the goos/clues and seeing how people do with them... if you're willing to let me! Think about it...

Jerry Mathis | September 1, 2005
I got lucky on Elliot's goo. I'm almost ashamed of the way I found it. Meanwhile, goo 0642 is driving me nuts!!!

Amy Austin | September 1, 2005
Well, I guess I just blew my shot at 0638... and yes, 0642 is next. Well, perhaps you should just ask Elliot for the answer to that one, too, then, Jerry... ;-p ;-)

Scott Hardie | September 2, 2005
Thanks for the offer of support, Amy. I might try the goo game as a player someday... though as you already quoted of me, it's not likely. :-) When I say "take a break," I mean more like having a month off between rounds or something. I also badly need to resume creating several weeks of goos in one big batch instead of one goo each evening, but it's a matter of schedule permitting. I hope this Labor Day weekend helps me get back on track with this site and other things.

Scott Hardie | September 2, 2005
Mike: I wish I had known that and been able to pass it off as intentional. :-)

Scott Hardie | September 2, 2005
It's nice to see that Steve West has finally finished spelling out his message.

Amy Austin | September 2, 2005
Haha! Cute -- I hadn't even noticed... did you know about that already or see it coming, Scott? And what about the rest of your family, Steve??? ;-DDD

Lori Lancaster | September 2, 2005
[hidden by request]

Denise Sawicki | September 2, 2005
Go to the "current scores" page to see the secret message.

Scott Hardie | September 2, 2005
I wish Steve was still commenting. Both Steves. I miss 'em.

I saw the message forming all round, but I didn't put it together until today. Check his bio for the names.

Lori Lancaster | September 2, 2005
[hidden by request]

Jackie Mason | September 2, 2005
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | September 2, 2005
That's what I thought, Jackie... I guess Scott *is* burnt... ;-D

Yeah, I miss the Steves, too. I know why Steve Dunn isn't commenting, but what about Steve West? Did something/someone run him off, too??? :-\\

And where's Kris Weberg these days???

Steve West | September 3, 2005
Oh, I'm just lurking. I do read everything, but mostly I'm tired and have little (or nothing) to say. Yeah, I love the other two but the girls are special - my little funny bunnies.

Amy Austin | September 3, 2005
;-D Well, do they know about the message??? I sure hope "the other two" aren't jealous... ;-DDD

Speaking of which... I'm finding it really hard to spread the love between my three "girls" with E gone! Especially since the youngest (Devil) is a real Mama's Girl, *very* vocal (whiny crybaby and talks back when being scolded) and demanding of affection. The other two are sulkers, and I think CC (the original & only) is mad at me about it. Angel is the recipient of Ed's favoritism, and yesterday or day before, she cried for a moment, which is VERY unusual of her. I know they are missing him, and I hate that I can't explain to them that he will be back... eventually. That's the one thing that makes them harder than human kids. :-(

Scott Hardie | September 3, 2005
Sorry, Jackie. You mentioned that used Photoshop, but I thought you meant that you had created it using QGoo and pasted the screen cap into Photoshop after you had trouble pasting it into other programs. I myself use Photoshop in the early part of the process, for cropping and color-correcting the source photo before I goo it, but to date I have never actually used the smudge tool or whatever it's called, whether to create a goo or otherwise. I don't know what it looks like. :-P Anyway, I'll make the correction; thanks for bringing it up.

Amy Austin | September 3, 2005
My only experience with "goo-ing" is in Photoshop. That was the PH at-sea pastime before I found this site... I only wish I'd found it sooner (before I got out) -- I know some other PHs who would have gotten a kick out of it, too. But then again... I don't really miss too many of them, either. ;-D

Scott Hardie | September 4, 2005
The error that I'm most afraid of making is accidentally repeating a celebrity, since one of the eternal rules of the game has been that the same celebrity cannot appear twice, and that information has helped so many players avoid wrong guesses over the years. I have never rescinded or canceled a goo either, so if I mistakenly repeated a celebrity, I would either have to cancel a goo for the first time or change the repeat rule, neither of which options I can conceive of choosing.

Amy Austin | September 4, 2005
Can't you write a code (I know -- yet *another* "thing to do" on your list!) that would keep you from being able to do that??? After all, you were talking about doing it for our guesses at one point (...something that I voted down, even though I've now made the mistake *twice*)! Of course, I don't know how much harder that would be for the insertion of a new goo, but I have confidence in your ability to figure that out... after all, you do have to enter the name somewhere for our guesses to have a checkpoint, right? So, can't you have a code that checks that checkpoint against the library??? (Sorry if I am over-simplifying here -- as I've said before, I know *nothing* about these things or what it really takes to do them...)

Scott Hardie | September 5, 2005
That's a really good idea, Amy. I think I'll do that. Thanks.

Amy Austin | September 5, 2005
Sure... always glad to be of help. ;-)

Amy Austin | September 6, 2005
DAMN it, but I'm just slipping at this game! That's ANOTHER one that I was looking at the right answer, but didn't use it!!!