Music (0571)

Denise Sawicki | June 9, 2005
Well at least my goo has managed to stump the great Amy and Jerry for 10 hours or so! I've got to get my gloating in now, because how long can it last? :)

Jerry Mathis | June 9, 2005
;)

Amy Austin | June 9, 2005
Oops, I mis-spelled it. But I've mostly been working on one goo that is pissing me off in a big way... and as much as I hate to be a joiner, well... it sounded a little like a challenge was being issued a few moments ago. ;-)

Scott Horowitz | June 9, 2005
You have way too much time on your hands, Amy.

Amy Austin | June 9, 2005
Actually, I've also been house-hunting this week... but I see that you've managed to use your paltry online allotment within 7 minutes of my last.

Jerry Mathis | June 9, 2005
Ah, there you are Amy. I knew you were out there lurking in the weeds somewhere, so to speak. :)

The wife and I have been house hunting also. Not having much luck yet. Actually, we see lots of houses we like, just not that many we care to splurge on.

I'll bet 0566 is the one that's pissing you off. What a freakin' nightmare that one is.

Denise Sawicki | June 9, 2005
Someone with a .mil domain was searching my web page(s) rather extensively. :) (I love sitemeter)

Amy Austin | June 9, 2005
Yep... you bet correctly, (as you guess)... ;-)

Are you first-time buyers, too??? ...we see lots of houses we like, just not that many we care to splurge on. I only *wish* that we had the luxury of being so choosy here! The real estate market here is the biggest "freakin' nightmare" you've ever seen... there is major housing shortage, and the population is only ever-expanding. WIth the latest BRAC list closures, there are commands being forced into this area from all over -- as well as new squadrons incoming -- and the builders just can't even keep up! Our agent says that "normally" there would be around 1600 properties in the available inventory, but right now it's only around 400. That's a huge cut! And once you factor in your particular needs and price cap, you're talking about less than a dozen options at any given time... with only 2 or 3 of them being really any good! It's totally a sellers' market here, with houses disppearing off the market within hours -- seriously... literally! -- of their listing. I think they'd even disappear within minutes if they could! I think some buyers even jump on them, site unseen... it totally sucks. Our agent showed us something one evening and wanted to know what we thought, right then and there outside the house, and we were wanting to, you know... "talk about it, think it over" -- as soon as we got in our car to drive home, he calls and tells us that there's already an offer in! How the fuck do you buy a house when everybody else is going, "WE'LL TAKE IT!"???!!! :-P

We've already had one major disappointment that we thought was "meant to be"... We had looked at an incredible property that was almost 2 acres! (about 1.25 fenced back yard!) within a subdivision!!! (Unheard of!) It was the only lot that size in the neighborhood, with a private driveway off a cul-de-sac. I think the neighborhood must have come up around this private plot of land, which was eventually sold and built upon in '98. The remnant of proof to that fact is the little bitty parcel next to the house that was retained by descendants -- about a 16' x 25' plot, containing 4 old grave markers that they continue to maintain (1808-1881, to give you an idea... it's not at all uncommon in these parts to find these really cool old cemetaries -- just out in the middle of... well, whatever came up around them! Really makes you think about history, you know?!) That was the other thing... it was a pretty newish house -- a 4/2, even -- and the driveway off the cul-de-sac made it seem almost like living out of the 'burbs... something we totally love and were looking for, and we were so excited! It was the *very* first thing we looked at, and it had only been listed the night before -- we were probably the very first lookers that Friday. We knew we wanted to make an offer that night, and we did. There were at least 3 offers on the table that we know of, and the listing agent told our guy to come with his best offer. Well, we thought that giving what they were asking would do it, but no... somebody bested us with not only an extra $2,000, but they also promised to match the appraisal if it went high (or pay anyway, if low) and did not ask for any closing costs! This should give you some idea of the sort of shit we're up against here!!! (We also found out that the base price on any new construction in that neighborhood is $60,000 more than the asking. The new highway bypass that's going in here will also make the value sky-rocket. Those bastards that bought it are getting a pure-profit investment on that one.) Even though we were actually more fond of the plot than the house, we wanted to JUMP on it. We're looking for lots of space for our 3 pups, but the house -- even though a 4/2 -- was only around 1500 for square footage... and MAJOR scrimp on closet space. No matter, when we probably could have walked away with $35-50,000 in our pockets on the resale in 3-4 years. (sigh)

Our only advantage is that we won't discriminate against the older homes just because they're older... apparently, that's what most people seem to want is as new a home as they can get! (Personally, I think the older ones are better... as long as no major issues. They're usually built better, on bigger lots, and with more space inside!) So we found two other lists that excited us (one an awesome 1993 manufactured -- almost 2200 ft2! -- on 8.4 acres, but sadly, needs a permanent foundation... potentially a big deal-breaker if owner doesn't want to pay; the other a 1960 "stick-built"), and so we put an offer in on the 1960. It was countered, of course, but I just now got a call saying that our re-counter was accepted... and we need to go in to sign our contract tonight -- COOL! (This will read kind of weird now... ;-D) But anyhow, it wasn't at all easy -- and I'm not going to celebrate too much until the contract is signed. Or better yet, until after we close, because we have yet to appraise, inspect, etc... and we know that *anything* can happen (and sometimes does!) So... hold your "congrats" for us until we know more! ;-D

And "good luck" with your own shopping, Jerry!

Amy Austin | June 9, 2005
Hmmm... that's odd -- do you know where, Denise?

Denise Sawicki | June 9, 2005
Not really, it just appears to have been central time zone. I assumed it was goo related since I usually get few if any hits. I take pleasure that *someone* had to do some searching for a while, anyhow :)

It's probably considered overly nosy to keep such close tabs on my sitemeter hits, but at least I'm openly nosy. :P

--edited in case i said something bad

Amy Austin | June 9, 2005
Heehee...that's all right -- I'm "nosy", too and would probably do the same! ;-D

Jerry Mathis | June 10, 2005
This will be our 2nd home, but it sounds like you're running into the same problem we encountered 3 1/2 years ago when we bought our 1st home. We would find a house we liked and someone would snatch it right out from under us....happened 3 times. So we ended up acting too quickly on our house without really thinking it through. Consequently, here we are moving again just a few years later. So don't make the mistake we did. Try to take your time and find the right place, even though it may be frustrating.

Now as far as the goo game goes, go ahead and put in all the answers. I know that you know them all. Enough with the suspense!!! :)

Mike Eberhart | June 10, 2005
Hmmm..... A .mil domain on your website.... I wonder where that would have come from???? :)

Scott Hardie | June 10, 2005
So how many of you are playing from that domain? I'm interested to learn who introduced the goo game to whom, assuming Mike started it.

Amy Austin | June 10, 2005
Hahahahaha... Jerry, you flatter me with your estimation of my guessing skills. (And I find the fact that you "know" I have all the answers a bit startling, too... only further evidence of your masterful use of "the Force" in this game... ;-D) I did, in fact, find the one I was looking for yesterday shortly after we discussed it -- which was *incredibly* satisfying... and I wasn't going to enter it until the last minute for a few different reasons. However, I did have these really awful mental pictures of losing my chance to guess on it because of it being Friday night, and we decided (for once) to go out... stayed out past midnight, and "d'oh!"... too late -- goo expired! Nooooooooooooooooo!!! And that's what I get for being silly. Or the power goes out before I can do it... something like that -- equally and deeply painful -- like when ebay has a glitch right at the end of an auction! Like when someone snatches the house you want right out from under you... (So perhaps I will go and enter at least one right now... ;-D)

I'm sorry you had to experience that *three* times, Jerry! So you know just what I mean, then! Such a sick emotional experience -- we just *HATE* it, and we try really hard not to get our hopes up... but we just can't help ourselves! Is it just that the house you're in now doesn't match your specific needs? Or are there other things (repairs) more troubling to you??? Either way, that sucks, and how far into it did you realize it? Just holding onto it long enough to build equity? I would think that a few years ago was a good time to buy... but of course, I do realize that every market is different and for different reasons. Was there something impacting your first buy at that time -- where are you?

Although I do appreciate the sound advice about patience and waiting (something that *neither* of us is really any good at... which makes it even tougher for me to sit on these goos -- just ask Scott! ;-D), we have already signed our contract and are now "locked in" on the 1960 house. I think it will be a good buy, though -- I am not worried about anything... (but our ability to pay ;-D) -- we will have inspection and appraisal real soon... then we'll know for sure. This house (remarkably!) was listed in April -- not just a few nights ago -- and we suspect that the reasons for it not moving as fast as the others were its age... along with the fact that the owners aren't completely moved out of it yet. They had enough money (the house was willed to him) to buy another without waiting for the sale of this one, and they are already living in their new one. But they left a pretty large assortment of their things behind: king-size bed in the master, living room and dining room suites... and some other stuff in places -- like closets and bedrooms... just some odd clutter. And the ATTIC! OMFG... the attic looks like a goddamn military surplus store! There's (as our agent put it) "enough military stuff up here to outfit a battalion!" And there is. Don't know where or what he's going to do with all that... but it's supposed to be out of there by July 15th! Kerry (the agent, not my sister) says that it's harder for clients to visualize it as "their home" with that kind of thing going on. And they just did some remodeling... which puts the fear of repair in some people's minds. Hard to say. Point is, we bought it.

And aside from knowing that we did not want to have to JUMP on a house as it seemed that we were being forced to (we actually said that if we didn't have time to think it over for at least a night, then it wasn't right for us), we also want to hurry this along because of E's upcoming deployment. He's off to Iraq in September... giving us (him) only a month to really take in the whole thing. We also want to quit renting ASAP. Every check we pay out just pains us both to know that it pays for someone else's mortgage (and then some!) and not ours. And! Our landlord has the bad habit of holding onto our checks, uncashed, until almost mid-month... which has caused us at least *one* overdraft that I can remember! We HATE that, too! He's an all right guy -- former Marine, Gunny, I think... although impossible to believe if you saw him -- but we've also had some repair issues that took a bit too long for our liking, too. We're just eager/anxious to move into a house of our own... on all fronts, you know?

And as for .mil domains... well, it can no longer be me -- and I'm pretty sure that E does not have the time at his place... he is FNG, pre-deployment, and has rank beyond his time in service, all of which are creating *lots* of pressure and demand on him and his time. And besides... we aren't in CST. As for the origin of our playing this game... well, I stumbled onto it while surfing in San Diego... and -- of course -- I, in turn, brought E in a couple weeks later. Wrote Scott and told him that I used to play the same game with my shipmates back in the CVN-70 Photo Lab... we had Photoshop as part of our job. And there's much more time on your hands when you're out to sea! We would morph portraits all the time... sometimes "goo"-ing them ("Black Hole Sun" style was a fave), sometimes creating the "illegitimate children" of our co-workers... in any case, you can be sure that we were all laughing our asses off until we were out of breath and there were tears in our eyes! Great fun, that was. Until the Photo O would hear us laughing and walk in. Game over.

So anyway... guess I'd better get that first goo in -- just in case somebody decides to take me out tonight... (fat chance!) Don't know why I'd think that now, when we need to save all the money we can for our closing! ;-P

Scott Hardie | June 10, 2005
Amy, I hear you about checks not getting cashed until mid-month. I'm occasionally guilty of doing it when people give me checks, but it's frustrating to have happen to you when you're living paycheck-to-paycheck. I used to have a utility company auto-deduct from my bank account when the bill came due, but they did it every 5-6 weeks instead of every month, and it became impossible to predict when that fifty bucks was going to go missing. I gave up on that system.

On the subject of you having so much free time to research, Amy, I wonder if you've considered playing in FIN; I could see you really getting into it. Maybe it's not your thing, but since you tried TC on my suggestion, I figure it's worth bringing up.

Anyway, with the .mil domain, I was referring specifically to the one shared by Jerry and Mike. Kelly Stokes is also on it, as well as a few other regular players. I was hoping to learn who introduced who to the game. (I've been trying to avoid saying the name of it. Denise or I can strike it from her comment if it should stay private.)

Amy Austin | June 10, 2005
Well, that was mostly for the benefit of others to know... but... how does Mike still have a .mil domain??? Did you say that you do civilian work on a base now, Mike? And Jerry, too, I take it? Now I want to see that site user map again! (Even though I'm certain it's out of date... ;-p) So do all of these folks know each other, or is it the order of this chain that you are trying to figure out??? (I'm a little confused now, I admit...)

Yeah, auto-debit can be a great thing... but only if it comes as directed! What do these people think, that I actually keep a register and *balance* my shit every day?!?!? ;-DDDDD You hit the nail on the head with "paycheck-to-paycheck", Scott -- if the money's "there" and you gotta' use it... PAYEES: CASH THE DAMN CHECK, WILL YA'???

Jerry Mathis | June 10, 2005
I work with Mike. I've been watching him play for a couple of years. I finally decided to give it a try towards the end of last round. Problem was Mike and Amy were battling it out for the title and the Goos were so damned hard I was thinking there was no way I could play this game!

But I decided to keep trying it when this round started and began to get a little better at searches, but mainly with patience. I missed a couple of goos this round because a got frustrated and just entered my best guess with like 3 days remaining, and of course figured out the correct answer later. Ugh!

Anyway, I think Mike's upset that I just started playing and I'm putting the smackdown on him!!! Hahahaha! He was trying so hard to get 0567 this week (and thwart my bid for an Imelda) that I thought his head was gonna explode! However, I have no doubt that you'll get me Amy. :-)

Mike Eberhart | June 10, 2005
Yeah, that 0567 goo sucks.... But what can I expect. I never get those anyway. Anyway Amy, yes, I still work at a base, so that's why I have the domain .mil. As for the chain of players, I was the first one here playing the goo game, Kelly Stokes started playing because she saw me playing, but she doesn't play much now for some reason, probably because I don't sit by her any more. (Couldn't take it) :)... As Jerry said, he knew that I played the game and would occasionally look at the goos that I was working on, and he signed up. Russ also works in my office with Jerry and I. It's a fun little competition that we have going here in the office. We don't tell each other much of anything if we find the answer. I stole an Imelda away from Russ on the 0566 goo, but it wouldn't have mattered much since Amy got it today also.

That's alright that Jerry's beating me this round. I kind of slacked off a little this round anyway. I wanted to give the rest of you a chance. :)

Russ Wilhelm | June 10, 2005
As well Mike introduced me to the game as well. I started about the same time as Jerry, waiting for this round to begin. I believe that Mike, Jerry and I are getting better, and this may because we are competing between the three of us on top of playing the game.

I'm behind now, mainly because of patience. I have a bad habit of only searching for about 5 minutes or so before putting in a guess, even when I know it's wrong, but I am getting better at holding back until I'm sure of my answer. Generally the harder the goo the better I play (Except for 0567, that was just karma, I found it about ten minutes after I choked).

So next round Jerry, It's on.

Amy Austin | June 10, 2005
Well... actually, I found 566 yesterday, Mike -- it's the one I was searching for furiously. I found Lori's goo shortly after Jerry also (like, three days ago?)... I just hadn't entered it yet, because I wanted to let Jerry soak in the Imelda for a bit... ;-D But perhaps I should just enter it now and remove all doubt.

Hmmm... this discussion reminds me of the end of the last round when certain folks (Mike!) kept impugning my playership -- I *had* noticed that the same three guys keep jumping on those hard ones! Funny to find out now that those same three guys do, in fact, work together... ;-) I don't think I'll be issuing any challenges for the next round. This also reminds me of Scott's team concept...

And... you guys are giving away the secret to success here!!! (I'm not going to repeat it!)

Amy Austin | June 10, 2005
Nah... I'm not going to let myself be pressured. You'll see tomorrow.

Jerry Mathis | June 10, 2005
Damn you Darth Goo!!!!

:-)

Amy Austin | June 10, 2005
Oh yeah... and thanks for the FIN invite, Scott -- but that's a pass. Between GOO and eBay, I'm already online too much... E would kill me! (Although, I think he should be more supportive of another "free" activity... since it would kill more of my eBay time than GOO time! ;-DDD) Besides, with our latest six-figure purchase, I will really need to start doing something to turn a profit again -- now is definitely *not* the time to entertain more computer distractions!!! I will also be all into my first house... painting, decorating, furnishing, etc... We shall see what happens once the move is underway.

Mike Eberhart | June 10, 2005
Amy, We aren't working together as a team. We're most defintately competing against each other.

Amy Austin | June 10, 2005
The galactic battle isn't over yet... ;-)

Amy Austin | June 10, 2005
Want to know 0567 then? ;-D

(Just kidding...)

Mike Eberhart | June 10, 2005
No need for the answer to 0567 now. I made my guess... Except it wasn't really a guess, it was more of a comment to Scott.... :)

Scott Hardie | June 10, 2005
Thanks for answering, fellas. You're all strong players, and if I ever find a way to make the goo game feasible for team play, you'll definitely be the team to beat. What about Derrek White and Bob Miller? I also see those players coming from your domain.

Mike, hold your breath, because 0567 won't be the last goo of its kind this round. I guess that's a luxury of falling too far behind to win; you don't have to bother with the ones engineered to be very difficult.

I've often advised players not to wait until the last day to enter a guess, because I've seen too many of them forget to enter it by midnight. It's playing with fire to do so. But on the other hand, how frustrating is it to guess early and discover the correct answer later that week? Bad enough you'd risk waiting till the last day to avoid it, I suppose.

Mike Eberhart | June 10, 2005
Oh Yeah, I forgot those two guys... Both of them work in our office too, but they don't seem to play regularly. I think they only jumped in because Russ, Jerry & I have a pretty good internal competition going...

As for that not being the last one of it's kind, then I'm almost assured not to get it. I can't stand researching for those answers, all the names sound the same to me... AHHH!! Ok, I feel better now.

I'm just waiting for the next round to begin anyway now, then I'll pour it on again.

Scott Hardie | June 10, 2005
In case anybody's wondering: The main problem with team play is that players would help each other. If there were six players per team, and I gave each individual member of team their own goo to guess, the other members would help them. If I came up with one single goo for the whole team to guess, it would have to be so mind-bogglingly difficult as to ruin the game for everyone else. Someone suggested that I run difficult goos for the teams and normal goos for everyone else, but it's hard enough creating one goo each day at present, so I want a solution that would involve no more work on my part than I'm already giving. (Hmm... What about letting teams create goos for each other?)

E. M. | June 10, 2005
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | June 10, 2005
Well, I thought he bought it for *me*... Sheesh!

Dave Stoppenhagen | June 10, 2005
Ed I've found out you might be paying for it but it will always be theirs. We can ask Lori's husband Ray about that too I'm sure he would agree

Lori Lancaster | June 10, 2005
[hidden by request]

E. M. | June 11, 2005
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | June 11, 2005
Hmmmph... we'll see. Seven months is a long time.

Scott Hardie | June 12, 2005
Ed: It's on my to-do list. That feature broke last fall and I never got around to fixing it, especially since counting got more problematic with multiple goos active at the same time. (If you guess goos 0561-0570 correctly, then guess right on 0572, then guess wrong on 0571, does that count as a streak of ten or a streak of eleven?) But at the rate I manage to finish things on this site any more, I'll be lucky to fix it before you return from your seven-month deployment.

Lori Lancaster | June 13, 2005
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | June 13, 2005
Actually, I'm more pissed off about Scott's "medium" goo right now, Lori... total fucking bullshit to call that "medium" when there's nothing to deduce from the image *or* the clue, except for recognition perhaps... which I do not.

But I *am* wondering about the content of Mike Eberhart's guesses... ;-D

Mike Eberhart | June 13, 2005
Well Amy,
I'm going to tell you what my guess was for today's goo. It was this: "AAAHHHH!!! Stop the MADNESS!!!!"

That's was my guess. I will not waste one second looking for this answer because for one, I can't stand anime, (no offense Lori, I know you love it.), and two unless you're really into anime or from Japan you stand no shot at figuring this out in a relatively short amount of time. Every name I've ever come up with as an answer for these goos all look the same to me. It's MADNESS I say..... :) So there you have it, if you see that I have pending guess on these, it's not because I made a guess, it was a statement.

Mike Eberhart | June 13, 2005
Ok, I like to just comment on the team play concept. I for one would not like to see team play. If there is to be team play, I would rather see it as a totally separate game. I enjoy the single head-to-head type competiton that we currently have going. Also, just because there are a lot of us playing now from the same location, we are NOT playing as a team. I don't want people to think that's what we are doing. If that is the perception, then I'll just quit playing because I don't want to be a part of that. I just made a recommendation to them that they may like to play and they did. We are all playing as individuals, that's why you'll see goos that have incorrect guesses by me, but not by them. If we were working as a team, then I would have put in a right answer.

So, to sum it up, I vote NO on team play. Unless it's made out to be a separate game of the site .

Amy Austin | June 13, 2005
Yeah, I knew that -- that's why I wondered as to the content of said "statements"... ;-D

Along the lines of all looking the same... it makes me wonder if Japanese people ever think these things about our names (or -- more pointedly -- if they, and others said to all "look alike", ever think this about... each other? ;-DDD)

Not to pick on you, Mike, but... it just takes more attention to detail. I'm not from Japan, nor am I all into anime (though I've become a bit more familiar and interested... all because of Lori, actually ;-D), and I actually kind of enjoy looking for these now... because the exposure leads to better... well, discrimination, if you will. I guess this is really the concept that "diversity" programs are trying to employ, with varying degrees of force and/or success: an increased understanding (and therefore, acceptance) of "others" through exposure that would not otherwise be sought out or attained. It's kind of like the "try it -- you might like it!" approach that more adventurous diners foist upon their pickier (non-sushi-eating ;-D) friends. Of course, we all know how well-liked this approach is... (not).

Like I said, I'm not picking... and I didn't mean for it to sound so "political" -- but it's just an observation that I'm making from the standpoint of someone who used to think similarly on the subject. "Try it... you might like it!" ;-DDDDD

Amy Austin | June 13, 2005
And I agree with you about the team concept as a separate option -- I wasn't suggesting that it should replace the current mode.

Mike Eberhart | June 13, 2005
Amy, I did try it. I was flipping through the channels the other night, and I came across an Anime film that I think I heard Lori talking about before. It was called Cowboy Bebop. It was on Showtime. I tried to watch it just to see what the fascination is with it, and all I could stand was about 5 minutes of it. I really don't get it when it comes to this kind of cartoons. So, I have tried it, I have absolutely no interest in it, so that's why I don't want to bother looking for these answers, it's not that I'm being disciminatory towards the Japanese, I like japanese people. I just don't get their cartoons. As for my comment about the names all looking alike, I just don't understand them either, and that's all on me. I can't just look at a japanese name and tell if it's a female or a male's name, and then when I'm looking for one particular voice actor, you get a list of about 50 names that pop-up. I just don't like looking for people's names that 2 minutes after I've found it, I can't remember what it is because all the other names I came across sound the same.

Amy Austin | June 14, 2005
Since I've only seen one film that would count ("Spirited Away" -- and that was pretty well before my participation on this site), I was really only speaking metaphorically/superficially... mostly just referring to the methods of the search. I can understand how it wouldn't be your thing, Mike, but I just thought that you might be able to get into the search a little bit better with practice -- like telling the difference between male and female names... which I can totally sympathize with! I've only just gotten used to the more common ones myself -- and even then, it bears confirming. But pretty soon, you start to recognize the more notable names among seiyuu! Oh, well... I'm just hoping to score an Imelda on this one and maybe win the round real soon. ;-D

Steve Dunn | June 14, 2005
All you people blow my mind.

I am in awe of the Goo skills on display here. For me, the goos break down into four categories:

1) I know it immediately and answer immediately. This seems to happen increasingly rarely.

2) I have a good idea how to figure it out, and confirm the answer quickly.

3) I take a few shots in the dark, finally establish a connection and eventually come to the correct answer. This often means taking several days, trying different approaches, testing different theories about the meaning of the clue.

4) No freakin' idea. As in, no idea who the person is, no idea what the clue means, no idea where to begin. No. Freakin'. Idea.

Unfortunately for me, all too many goos fall into the fourth category. I'll always poke around a bit and take a stab at finding the answer, but I've learned not to get stressed out. The amazing abilities of Amy Austin and Jerry Mathis (and many others as well) have given me a soothing sense of peace. Once I drop down a goo or two early in the game, I can be damn certain I'm not going to win. This round, I set an unofficial goal for myself to finish in the Top 10, but that's not even going to happen. I am a broken man, which is liberating, in a way.

I travel a lot, too, and that doesn't help. I'm going to Europe for two weeks in July, so I've already basically given up on the NEXT round (the pessimist is never disappointed, you know). I actually preferred the previous version of the game, with one goo per week, because I can almost always get in front of a computer at least once a week. Seven goos per week, especially hard ones, is more than my time and talent enable me to figure out.

I am sincerely VERY impressed by everyone who is really good at this game. It's a fascinating game, and it boggles my mind how consistent some of you are. Every time I get annoyed with misleading or nonsensical clues (I once got so frustrated I guessed "Scott Hardie's Mom") I remind myself that several of you folks manage to figure them out, time and time again. It's humbling and inspirational at the same time. Bravo.

Amy, if you manage to win this round, they might as well start clearing a space for you in the Celebrity Goo Game Hall of Fame. Winning these 100-goo games quite an achievement. Doing it twice in a row is not something I thought was possible until now.

What's your secret?

Erik Bates | June 14, 2005
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | June 14, 2005
HAHAHAHAHA... "Scott Hardie's Mom" was your guess, Steve?! I was wondering who entered that one, and for a time while working on (0566), I was considering borrowing it. ;-DDD

I would also use the same four classes of goo, Steve -- very accurate. And currently, Scott Horowitz is on my shit-list for his music goo (the one you got!), because for me, it falls into the last... and I think that the clue is for *SHIT*!!! All the more irritating is the timing of being at the end of the round, and while I swear at myself for the goo I wiped out, I just don't have any more frickin' ideas how to find the answer (though I have tried), and all I can see when I look at it is Kevin Bacon!!! I have often lamented here that the hardest goos for me to find are actually the ones rated "medium" -- I think this must be so because of a higher intended "recognition" factor, along with a less helpful clue.

Jackie has asked me twice about my "secret"... but really, it's only a knack for lateral thinking -- nothing more. It isn't helping me on (0573), though...

E. M. | June 14, 2005
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | June 14, 2005
In case nobody's figured it out by now, my husband is quite prone to exaggeration... and at this point, I would say "if", not "when" I win the round. I acknowledge the rather high possibility that Jerry Skywalker will come in at the last moment to defeat me. ;-P (But thank you for the compliments, Steve... ;-D)

Scott Hardie | June 14, 2005
Lori: I didn't want to use two of yours together like this, but damn if they weren't exactly what I needed right now. None of the other player requests were this particular brand of endgame difficult. It's not like I would have used either of these in the opening week of a round. :-) Anyway, I do apologize for putting you on the spot like this.

Mike: I understand your complaints, because they're the exact reason I use goos like this in the endgame. The fact that all possible answers have like-sounding names and resumés is part of the intended difficulty. :-) What I don't like about really difficult goos (anime-themed or otherwise) is that they aren't any fun to guess, which is what you're really getting at.

I've said this all plenty of times by now, but I suppose it's worth repeating. There's a continuum in the goo game, with "fun" at one end and "hard" at the other. As goos move towards one end (each round is a gradual shift towards the hard end of the spectrum), they lose the opposite quality. It's obvious that some of you really enjoy the competition, but I'd just as soon go without it and have mostly easy goos all the time, so that the game would be more fun for more people. Me, I much prefer inspiring that spark of recognition in players when I put in a silly celebrity than when I stump the players with someone ridiculously tough who is zero fun to research. When the leading players are this good, it takes goos of absolutely staggering difficulty (Peter Borwein) or flat-out deception (Amerie) to stump them, and where does that leave the other 95% of you? I think when the new round begins in a week, I will re-commit myself to having easy, and more importantly fun goos, dominating the game. You master competitors out there can save it for the traffic-jam of a tiebreaker at the end. :-P

I also want to mention: It breaks my heart every time I read a comment that someone is having more trouble with goos these days. I blame the competition and the need to crank up the difficulty so high. Why is the endgame always so frustrating like this? Is it because emotions are already running high and thus my sadness is magnified?

Anyway, team play is unlikely to happen. If there's no other reason, consider the astronomical increase in difficulty that would be required. The "fun" end of the celebrity goo spectrum would cease to exist.

On anime, Mike, you probably won't take me up on my recommendation, but you might rent a Hayao Miyazaki movie to watch with your kids and see what you think. His movies are really easy to enjoy, smarter than the average Disney cartoon and without the damn Elton John or Phil Collins songs. ;-) "Kiki's Delivery Service" is probably the best one to try. Phil Hartman is very funny in the English dub.

Back to GOO stuff. Amy: You know, you've gotten me thinking. Maybe what the endgame needs isn't more foreign voice actors with difficult names. It's more *medium* goos! I will endeavor to create more like Scott Horowitz's request. (On the other hand, let's face it, there's no way you'll get 0576 wrong. If anybody wonders, I put it into the system before our recent discussion about the celebrity here on TC.)

Lori Lancaster | June 14, 2005
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Amy Austin | June 14, 2005
Scott: Well, that will probably put an end to my streak then... and (0576) did not go unnoticed, either! The most auspicious goo for me at the end of the round... however, not enough to seal the deal without (0573). Not very happy about that. But, (576) did put a smile on my face. ;-)

Lori: Yes, I enjoyed "Spirited Away" -- a very strange movie, but I was riveted by the oddity of it. I saw it on the ship (there is a schedule of new releases and other films that are played in rotation for the crew on closed-circuit TV), and it made my stop in Japan just a little more interesting, for the fact that the amusement park I visited had a gift shop and an attraction filled with/based on an assortment of these popular characters that would have been otherwise unknown to me.

I had always wanted to go to Japan, but this one short visit was such a *tiny* taste of it that I do not really feel satisfied. I want so badly to be stationed there at some point, but that is all in E's hands now that I am out -- :-( -- and he does not have the same desire to go that I do... mostly because it would mean working in a Navy hospital for him, something he doesn't want to do again. I am always hoping that he might change his mind on the matter, since it's probably the only way that I'll ever get to go there again.

Jerry Mathis | June 14, 2005
Amy,

Congrats. I'd say you've got this thing won. You truly are Darth Goo! :)
I've been so busy with all this home sale/home search stuff that I haven't really even been to the site in about 4 days. I managed to find a few of the goos today, but I don't think I'll have the time I would need to find Lori's goo. (And for the record I enjoy the challenge her goos present)

Anyway, I'm not completely throwing in the towel, but I just don't see me overtaking the master. Heck, I've done much better than I ever thought I would and I've had fun in the process.

Cheers!

Amy Austin | June 14, 2005
Haha...

Thanks, Jerry... but I'm not taking any "congrats" until it's over ;-D -- of course, having been in just the same situation as yourself, I know *exactly* where you're coming from and didn't think you had given up just yet! ;-DDD And that Music goo is still just confounding the shit out of me, so I'm not going to start any crowing here...

(I, too, enjoy Lori's goos -- "for the record" also, just so that Scott knows it doesn't make *everybody* miserable... ;-D)

The day isn't over yet -- I'm still trying to find the Becky bastard. But neither is the week, and you *have* been some fierce competition! Good luck on your house hunt... from one shopper to another!!!

Amy

Amy Austin | June 15, 2005
Oh my fucking God... I can't believe what I've been ignoring inside my head all this time I was searching. More later.

Scott Hardie | June 15, 2005
Lucky timing, Amy. I was only a few seconds away from publishing a goo for June 15.

Amy Austin | June 15, 2005
Yep... thought I was done for. ;-D

Scott Hardie | June 15, 2005
Congrats again, "Darth Goo," on another masterfully-played round. You earned this victory.

I am considering a rule change for next round and I'd like to know what you think. Instead of placing goos freely across grids, what about restricting goos to one per category per row per column? For example, if you placed a Cinema goo in space C5, then you could not place any other Cinema goos in row C or column 5 from then on (except if C5 later got wiped out by an incorrect guess). Some possible benefits are:

- More strategic placement of guesses by competition-minded players: Would the "clustering" of goos continue? Would the "L" shape continue to be used? It would be interesting to see. (Players without grid control would just have their guesses placed in any available space at random, as they do currently.)

- More challenge for the competition-minded players. This could sometimes force you to place guesses in certain spaces, which increases the risk of a wipeout later in the round... but of course, only if you guess incorrectly.

- More possibility of the lagging players catching up later in the round, since you'd be effectively limited to a maximum of ten goos from each category. If the player in the lead were to run out of places to put Music goos on her grid, each Music goo from then on would be a chance for the other players to catch up – but only to catch up, not to overtake her, since they'd also be capped at ten per category. (And even if you were to run out of places on your grid to put certain goos, you could still guess them to boost your total score.)

- More freedom to request goos without holding yourself back in the competition. If you have already maxed out your grid on Cinema, what would you stand to lose by requesting a Cinema goo that you couldn't guess at anyway?

- A longer round by several weeks, due to grids being harder to fill to 100%. Having more goos in the round would result in more players scoring well, which would give us a healthier competition and a wider spread of potential winners.

- A more fun game. Not only would more players enjoy the competition by doing better in it, but more goos could come from the "fun" end of the celebrity goo spectrum, since the common-category goos (Cinema, Music, Television, etc) would have less strategic value and exist mostly for the fun of gameplay. Thus, I would less often have to devise those morale-crushingly difficult goos that nobody likes anyway.

Amy Austin | June 15, 2005
This is an interesting idea from all the standpoints that you suggest, Scott... I would consider giving it a try. I've already had at least about a dozen ideas for goos (some really hard ones, too -- but not impossible!)... but of course, they all came when I was in the lead! I was thinking that I might lay off on this next round so that I could offer them up to you... but I'm liking the sound of the alternative. It could especially be of benefit to a player like Steve Dunn, who just recently complained that his travel demands keep him from putting in the time required by current play -- I wonder what he'll say about it...

Like I said... I'm open to the idea and really curious to know how others feel on it.

Jerry Mathis | June 15, 2005
It all sounds good to me also. I'm in the same boat as Steve in that I'll be out of town for 2 weeks in September so that would pretty much ruin any chance I'd have next round. (Not that I'd have a chance against Darth Goo anyways lol). But I figured I could submit some goos which would be fun.

And congrats again Amy. I knew that music goo would finally dawn on you.

Steve Dunn | June 15, 2005
I can't fully wrap my mind around all the implications of the proposed rule, but anything is fine with me.

My only suggestion is to create a more severe penalty for guessing wrong. Under the current rules, as long as you've got some free space on the grid, guessing wrong is no worse than refraining from guessing. If there were a penalty for wrong guesses, I think you'd see more people sit out of particular goos, which might also even the competition.

But really, anything is fine. It's just a game.

Steve West | June 16, 2005
Hmmmm, just a game.... My wife has said the same to me on more than one occasion and I'm forced to agree with you both. However, it is a very pleasurable thing for me and I take it seriously insofar as I try do well (frequently spending more time on it than I should). Spending time with my three children first (priorities), I often don't get to look at the latest goo until after eleven and then say, "What the hey," and stay up until midnight to see the next goo. The point being, it is a diversion that I enjoy immensely and Scott's tinkering is usually worth it for me. Looking forward to the next round, as always.

Amy Austin | June 16, 2005
Dude... that (0571) is one ugly *female*!!! ;-D (End-of-the-round buggers there, Scott? ;-DDDDD)

Thanks, Jerry... for the "congrats" *and* for the vote of confidence -- I wasn't so sure of the "dawning" of (0573) myself... but I'd wager that Scott Horowitz (and perhaps others? ;-D) have been enjoying a good laugh at my expense. My thanks to them for not doing so publicly... and my apologies to the Ho for bashing his clue, which was actually far more clever than I initially gave him credit for. ;-) I'd say more, but I'm waiting for the reveal. ;-D (Good job, Scott...)

Scott Horowitz | June 16, 2005
I liked my clue! I haven't read TC in days because I've been so overloaded at work, and that's where I usually do my surfing. Then I see my name, with an apology, and then I had to look at what someone was apologizing for. My clue is good, you just have to think a little. Mitzman liked it, after he figured it out.

David Mitzman | June 16, 2005
It's funny because if I wasn't doing something very specific earlier that day, I would've probably never figured it out. Ho knows what I was doing that let me figure out his clue.

Scott Horowitz | June 16, 2005
I think my favorite thing about the goo game is the competition with Mitzman. We laugh at each other when one misses an obvious goo, and complain to each other about ones that we look at and go "WTF?" I agree it is more fun when the goo is easy, and the clue is able to figure out. My "Becky" clue came to me one day, and I just laughed about how it was going to drive Amy crazy, and that's why I did it. :)

Jackie Mason | June 16, 2005
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Scott Hardie | June 17, 2005
Thanks for the comments, y'all. It's given me some things to consider.

Steve Dunn made a great point: All that wide open space in the grid means very little penalty for guessing wrong. But I have a feeling that even if I forced each guess to be placed adjacent to a filled space in the grid, it would only penalize the inexperienced players, who would make wrecks of their grids, while the experienced players knew enough to preserve their grids by not guessing unless they were certain.

Maybe a return to the towers system would be better? Under that system, if it was adapted for daily play, there would be eight towers of twelve spaces each. Goos get stacked in the tower of the player's choice. An incorrect guess topples the tower and forces the player to rebuild. First player to fill all eight towers to capacity would win. That system would severely limit the amount of free space available, but I'm not sure it's much better at combating the problem of experienced players knowing when not to guess and inexperienced players not knowing.

Steve Dunn | June 17, 2005
Eh, "inexperienced players" aren't going to have a chance at beating Amy or Jerry anyway, so who cares?

I like the tower system. There's a MAJOR disincentive to guess wrong, especially later in the game. I think it would even things up a lot.

(Steve Dunn attempts to maneuver the rules to his own advantage...)

Hey Scott! I've got an idea! How 'bout changing things up so there's no penalty for being offline for two weeks?? I think this would really help inexperienced players, reduce competiveness, and add to the fun. What do you say?? Maybe a Goo Vacation? Like an all-star break, perhaps in the middle of July?

Scott Hardie | June 17, 2005
LOL. Steve, if you or anyone else can propose a balanced scoring system that allows someone to miss two weeks and not have their standing affected, I'm all ears. :-) I have always made sure that every scoring system rewards consistent correctness, without having that be the only winning factor.

Hmm... What about seven towers with 15 spaces each, and each tower represents a day of the week? If a goo were published on Tuesday, it could only be placed in the third tower. Only when you completed a tower could you begin assigning its goos elsewhere. That still allows the element of strategy (to guess or not to guess) while limiting advanced players' ability to use open space. And it would reward correct guesses on those really critical goos: Amy and Jerry's towers would look nearly identical, except for that really difficult goo that Amy got right and Jerry didn't guess...

Scott Hardie | June 17, 2005
Most of the ideas I'm writing down here are just sort of being tossed out for discussion without a low likelihood of being enacted, but I'm seriously considering a return to towers, most likely 8 towers of 12 spaces each. Does anyone else besides Steve have a cheer or a boo for that proposal?

(New thought: I could be really evil and limit you to one goo per category per tower, like if you place a Music goo in tower A then that tower can't take any other Music goos. That would benefit for all the reasons I listed above for grids.)

Lori Lancaster | June 18, 2005
[hidden by request]

Scott Horowitz | June 20, 2005
Here's something can be even more fun. The first guess on a goo can topple another player's tower. So if Darth Goo takes a lead, and someoen gets a guess before her, it can hurt her.

Scott Hardie | June 21, 2005
No comments (for or against) on Scott's suggestion? I'm surprised. This proposal has come up several times over the years from different people including myself, but it's often killed in subcommittee, so to speak. There are different reasons to like it or dislike it; me, I dislike that it could turn the game into a popularity contest, in which someone who might be disliked on TC could get penalized in the goo game, and that's not right. But with enough support I could put this into the game.

Amy Austin | June 21, 2005
Hmmph... well, I take back what I said about his dumb clue being clever... ;-)

Scott Hardie | June 21, 2005
Ed, the Current Scores page now shows streaks. Check the GOO Introduction page for the top ten.

Scott Horowitz | June 21, 2005
I think we're all mature enough to use that advantage for the game than as "popularity contest." I mean it would be hard for me to not knock down Mitz's tower, but if Amy has a run-away lead again, it would come in handy to level the playing field.

Scott Horowitz | June 21, 2005
I also have to say Scott, the last goo clue is in bad taste a little bit. Amusing, but in bad taste.

Megan Baxter | June 21, 2005
I don't like the idea of being able to knock down someone else's tower if you guess first - that could potentially mean 7 towers knocked down a week, and so it would be very hard for *anyone* to get anywhere.

I think I would find it more frustrating than anything else.

Also, I never get on the computer until after 8:30 in the morning.

Amy Austin | June 21, 2005
I concur.

Scott Hardie | June 23, 2005
I'm happy to see you're still reading, Megan. And I can't help but grin at the timestamp on your message. ;-)

Bad taste? Guilty as charged. I can't resist every once in a while, like with Terri Schiavo, Christa McAuliffe, Muhammad Ali, Bethany Hamilton, and Jenna Jameson. When you write this many clues, you have to find a way to keep yourself amused. :-)

Megan Baxter | June 23, 2005
Ah, yes. I must have gotten in early to work that day - my net connection is crappy at home :)

In the fall, I'm going back to school, so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to keep up, but I'll certainly try!

Scott Hardie | July 10, 2005
Just curious: Does anybody besides Steve Dunn prefer the weekly goo game to the daily goo game?

Jackie Mason | July 10, 2005
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Denise Sawicki | July 11, 2005
I kinda prefer the weekly because I have no natural talent at this game!

Aaron Fischer | July 12, 2005
Here Here! I always preferred the weekly format. It kept the game a bit more "simple". Mike talked me into jumping back into this round. The problem I have is that most of the time my vacations take me to places with no internet or cell phone or pager coverage, so there's no way for me to keep up with the weekly goos when I do head out on an adventure.

Scott Hardie | July 12, 2005
Thanks for saying so. Anybody else, yay or nay on the daily format?

Once again, there's a dichotomy between what I want the game to be and what most players want it to be. I want the game to be some trivial bit of fun you can play each morning for sixty seconds and not take seriously, which is what the daily game is good for: It gives you a web site to hit each morning for a daily diversion. Instead, most players seem to want the game to be a somewhat intense competition in which you're a failure if you miss even a couple of goos, and the weekly game would seem better suited to competition because it doesn't demand such grueling stamina. I'm not opposed to a switch back to weekly play (after this round) if that's what players really want, but let's talk about this a bit further for now.

Amy Austin | July 12, 2005
I am indifferent to daily vs. weekly -- however, like Jerry said, I enjoy having to work for it (at least a *little* bit ... not like this last week of Dio, damn him! ;-D) But I can certainly understand the desire of some to return to weekly format.

I only played in the weekly format, like, twice, before you switched to daily, but I can tell you this -- it wasn't just two weeks, I think it was three. Maybe it was only because I was new, but I forgot about it one of those times and missed a chance to guess in the middle (on Reese Witherspoon, I think!). The ironic thing about that is that I was very eager for the next one (I didn't have reminders then), and I was a little bit crestfallen about having remembered too late & missing out, and I remember thinking that a week was a long time to wait for another one! I think these are possible drawbacks, even among the not-so-serious/competition minded.

So my question is this... why does the choice have to be only "daily" or "weekly" -- can this not work on an "every-other-day" basis??? (Or is this a matter of difficulty in coding? This I could see...) Anyway, that's my 2 cents, I guess.

Scott Hardie | July 12, 2005
That's one factor for me: A week is a long time to wait for another one. Granted, it's not always easy to create a big batch of goos in my busy schedule (you can see from the list at the bottom of the Current Goos page right now that I'm about to run out), but as long as I'm taking the time to create one goo, it's not that much of a stretch to create another six at the same time.

Honestly, what's been most trying to me lately in the goo-creation process, once I finally have the time to sit down and do it, is my self-imposed rules about diversity. Say what you want about white-male society keeping them down, but minorities and women simply haven't become household names in large numbers in any fields outside of entertainment, sports, and politics. Every week, I feel like I'm including minorities and women in those fields just to have minorities and women in the game, and then when I want to use a less-trodden category like Science or Literature, I have to use a white male or be stuck with someone obscure, whose built-in difficulty would send players to the search engines no matter what clue I provided (José Silva anyone?). Maybe it's time for me to give up that self-imposed balance, or at least diminish it, but looking through my reserve of unpublished goos, I can assure you the game would be overrun by white males in no time. On the plus side, most of them would be household names. :-)

To answer your question, Amy, I can publish goos at any rate I want. When I create a new one, I simply enter the date I want it to appear on the site, regardless of when the previous one was scheduled to appear. In fact, if I switched back to a weekly system, I'd probably leave all the code alone, and simply schedule goos to appear a week apart when I first enter them into the database. So it would be no problem to try "every other day" or "only weekdays" or "M-W-F" or some arrangement like that.

Scott Hardie | July 12, 2005
I'll also mention: It kind of bugs me when sites that are otherwise daily take a day off during the week. Except for special occasions, the Hollywood Stock Exchange offers IPOs on new properties six days a week, taking off Sunday. There's no apparent reason for this, since there are more than enough new properties introduced during the week to go around. I want my HSX fix every morning, and it's always a bit annoying signing into the site on Sundays and realizing there's nothing new to see. That's why I haven't yet considered limiting the goo game to only certain days each week, because if I were a user, I wouldn't want to have to keep track of when updates occur and when they don't.

Amy Austin | July 12, 2005
Well, I can understand that... but if you were doing just a straight-up "every-other-day" schedule, then there really wouldn't be much for players to "keep track of" -- every weekend would still retain at least one new goo on alternating days, so there wouldn't be the "Sundays/holidays off" effect... and any confusion shouldn't be long endured at that rate, since it's a 50-50 likelihood that a new goo is up (whereas it would be much easier to miss, say, a week or a M-W-F set-up, I think).

But it's nice to know that you have that flexibility in scheduling -- perhaps others may like EOD as a compromise to daily or weekly...

Jerry Mathis | July 12, 2005
Given my choice between daily or weekly, I prefer daily.

Steve West | July 12, 2005
Daily over weekly for sure.

Mike Eberhart | July 12, 2005
Daily!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scott Hardie | July 13, 2005
That's three for daily and three for weekly. Anybody else want to vote?

Another possibility is to combine the two kinds of play more directly: I could designate one day of the week to be the "competition" day, and the hard goo that was published that day counted towards winning. The other six days would see easy or medium (true medium) goos that were just for fun.

Russ Wilhelm | July 13, 2005
I like the idea of having something to look forward to every day, so yeah, daily.

Mike Eberhart | July 13, 2005
Scott,
I know that you were talking about changing the scoring system for the game, but I like the current system that you have going. If you change anything, you could maybe enhance the grid system a little bit. I don't know how, but I'm sure there is some way to do it to make it a little more interesting. Other than that, I think the grid system should stick around for awhile. But that's just me.

Megan Baxter | July 13, 2005
It's harder to keep up with, sometimes, but I do prefer daily. A week was a long time to wait between goos.

Scott Hardie | July 18, 2005
It sounds like daily has won the vote. But the poll will remain open indefinitely; comment any time.

Mike: What about my proposal from June 16th? You could place your first guess anywhere in your grid, but from then on, you would have to place adjacently to another goo in the grid, so that you always risked some grid damage with every guess. There's still strategy involved (do you place it adjacent to 1 previous guess, or 2 or 3 or 4?) and best of all, it would require only minimal coding on my part. ;-)

Scott Hardie | July 18, 2005
Also, for the record, I have now lowered my diversity standards for celebrity goos, imposing less stringent gender-racial-national quotas on myself, not that anybody except me keeps track of such silly and near-pointless nuances of my game. </Denise>

Mike Eberhart | July 18, 2005
Scott: I read your suggestion about the Tower system, and to be honest, I wasn't a real big fan of the towers. I still think that there could be a way to enhance the grid scoring system if your looking for something to improve on. However, as it stands, I really like the 10x10 grid system. I'll try to think up some ideas for the grid and post them later.

Mike Eberhart | July 18, 2005
Oh, missed the part about the grid idea. Would you still risk grid damage even if you choose not to make a guess? That would be an idea. Only allow something like 2 or 3 non-guesses per round. After you use up your passes by not guessing on the really hard ones, you will have to make a guess or lose the goo that you previously guessed correct. That could force people to play a little smarter. What do you think?

Scott Hardie | July 21, 2005
Now that's an interesting idea. I like the idea of having three passes that you can use at any time. (Dave Mitzman once suggested having three opportunities to guess again per round.) But I wonder if it wouldn't widen the gap between the point leaders and the rest of the field, since it only punishes people who don't guess and the point leaders guess every goo anyway. Maybe it would only take effect when you're near the lead or in the top half?

Mike Eberhart | July 22, 2005
I wouldn't go for the guess again option. I'd much rather see the option of having the limited non-guesses though. I think you're right, it would come down to the end of the round before they were probably used, but if more then 3 really hard ones come up, then you have to decide which ones to apply them too. It could be interesting.