Daniel_Doyce

4 hours ago, T-Pac said:

Finished reading Stories by O. Henry, a collection of the author’s short works written between 1900 and 1910.

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O. Henry’s fiction is defined by its twist-endings, which to my knowledge are often panned by literary critics for being “low-brow”. But I think dismissing the medium of short stories and the trope of twist endings discredits their value as fun, casual entertainment. And even still - that takes nothing away from the powerful themes and often very moving plotlines that O. Henry crafts. For example - “The Gift of the Magi” wouldn't be half as successful if it weren’t for its format. The brevity of these works and the punch of their climaxes only serve to distill O. Henry’s messages into exceedingly approachable packages. 

And I think a key to the approachability of his stories is a mastery of archetypes. O. Henry instantly transports you to a defined place and time, surrounded by people you know, thanks to his reliance on stock characterization. Yet he still expertly develops those characters into their own personalities once he’s eased the reader into the comfort of a base familiarity. One of my favorite stories introduces a wild-west ruffian who scoffs at his old partner-in-crime for going soft after getting married and settling down, but O. Henry toys with our expectations of such an archetype by ultimately reversing the two principal characters’ roles. Another story even manages to imbue and develop familiar personalities to dollar bills as the plot evolves from their perspective.

Anticipating the climactic twist at the end of each story could easily spoil the surprises in theory, but O. Henry always leads toward a satisfyingly appropriate conclusion without betraying so much information along the way as to make the ending predictable. There’s such a range between tragedy and comedy that you never know if these characters will come-out for the better or the worse when all is said and done. I’d certainly say that I came out for the better by picking up this book, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend some O. Henry shorts to anyone looking for some light, fun reading.

 

He had a very specific niche, but did it spectacularly. Although I admit I once bought a compilation of his complete works, and stopped about halfway through since it was getting a bit tedious.

I did walk by the drugstore he owned or just worked at (forgot which exactly) for about 6 years of my professional career, whenever I'd go to lunch on the main drag in his hometown. There was a place that served massive fried burritos and I'd get double steak with a huge side of rice and beans that would absolutely destroy my GI tract for the rest of the afternoon.

On 4/28/2024 at 4:50 PM, mbd39 said:

Games like this are more fun with two players or in small doses as a single player game.

Well, yeah, I don't think anyone is going to have an 80-game goon session of Bases Loaded. 5 games a day over about 2 weeks is all I could take.

Nice humblebrag about having a friend BTW

All right, Bases Loaded is done. This game really captures the sheer tedium of baseball by making you play 80 boring ass games of baseball.

The special trick in the FAQ definitely works. This is the last time I'm playing this though.

On 4/15/2024 at 10:05 PM, Estil said:

His inaugural address (at 38:40)...yes folks, we sold out Rupp Arena for a press conference.  

No way am I watching that, but I hope he exhibited proper "name on front, not on back" coaching style.

On 12/14/2021 at 12:36 PM, koifish said:

I didn't know that there was a facebook group for NintendoAge. Guess it makes enough sense.

Facebook is lame. The cool NA kids are in the Friendster group.

5 hours ago, scaryice said:

Super Glove Ball done. Just grind for a bunch of lives so you can survive the many inevitable deaths

 

Right on!

Did you beat it with a normal controller? Maybe I'll screw around with it next year.

One of the moments of my generation where everyone remembers where they were is when that chase was televised live.

Also, "If I Did It" was one of the ballsiest book ideas in human history.

The Frogmen pilot was on YT for quite a while, but looks like it was taken down at some point.

Ok starting Bases Loaded. Will report back in 2 weeks

Also, what's up with Xevious? I suck at shooters, but thought that one is way easier than Starship Hector

15 hours ago, scaryice said:

We were one day short of the fastest time to 650 games cleared (4/9 vs 4/8 in 2015). We could still beat the fastest time to clear the whole thing though, which is June 12th. 2 months to beat the last 26 games?

Well.. I have beaten Bases Loaded before with the exploit, so I guess I could slog through it again. Is anyone actively working on it?

23 minutes ago, nerdynebraskan said:

Any chance the tobacco and titties would keep you cool long enough to power through Championship Pool?

I'd have to be on a raging diet coke / vodka / meth bender to ever consider playing that POS again

20 hours ago, PII said:

I think you forgot to drink Chartreuse while eating fettuccine alfredo and dove bars while also being in the hot tub at the time...  

Well, to be fair, I smoke cigars and watch retro softcore nudie vids all day anyway, especially now that I retired this year.

Anyway, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 is done. Since @Gaia Gensouki is doing Genghis Khan, that may be it for me for this year.

We need a quarantine thread for people to air their non-video game grievances no one else cares about, like when Ryan made Creed that Word doc on The Office

1 hour ago, BriGuy82 said:

Made it to the final boss in Starship Hector should have it beat soon hopefully. I've probably played this game for close to 20 hours overall so far. It took me FOREVER to clear the end of that 2nd level consistently.

That's impressive. Played it for about 5 minutes once and it beat my ass hard.

This guy is the coach? And he got a new job? Can't they just find another one, or are they out of stock?

41 minutes ago, Estil said:

I always thought the term premium regarding silver/gold coins/bullion was a bit odd.  Am I buying silver or am I buying insurance?  I mean I guess you gotta call it something but I'm more used to these kind of premiums:

Well, words can have more than one meaning, ya know.

Are you interested in bullion or collectible coins? Because they are two different things. You can get bags of cull Franklins to just get melt value coins, but the high end deep cameo proof Franklins command a premium even over regular proofs as truly rare (and beautiful) coins.

Too lazy to search the original thread, but 3 pages in and no Arrested Development reference? Shame.

Should also point out that if you have any 1965-1969 Kennedy halves still, they are 40% silver. There are 1970 silver halves, but only in mint sets.

Here's an example of a DCAM proof Franklin MS68 currently on ebay. It's hard to photograph these slabs and do the coins themselves justice. Getting a deep cameo (DCAM) early strike commands a large premium compared to normal proofs.

Depends where you want to go with the hobby. Searching through rolls is fun, but pointless nowadays for silver. You'll get more checking the Coinstar reject bin. There's a huge spectrum from that to collecting slabbed DCAM Franklin halves, which look so amazing. Franklin halves are even prettier than Walking Liberty halves IMO.

I'd consider straight bullion accumulation a different beast altogether, and not really a hobby. You can just get silver at some small markup above spot from places like APMEX

5 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Not sure who you're asking, but yes you can start new games in M&M3.  You just have no prayer at getting them anywhere.

Maybe I'm just slow, but why not? Is it a matter of not triggering the glitch again, or an issue with the saved game?

You can't start a new game and save over the old one? I don't get how it can get permanently bricked

11 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

I've started Genghis Khan with world conquest on the lowest difficulty.

Good luck! I suggest not selecting the Mongols on the world map. You're in a tough starting position. England and Japan are easier, IIRC

3 hours ago, RH said:

Yesterday I wondered why Carmen Sandiego was so hard, then I read the requirements.

So, eh, why does this one have to be 100%ed rather than just beaten by capturing Carmen? I’m not saying these goals have to be easy but that did sound a bit unnecessary.

(Full disclosure, I have never played this game.)

Carmen pops up about 50 cases in, after your last promotion. But you're prompted to keep solving cases until 80, when you are forced into retirement. Since that's in the manual too, it makes sense to be the winning condition. Plus you don't get the end screen until then.

22 minutes ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

Since my fingers are still wrecked from Trakc & Field II I thought about maybe trying one of those turn-based strtegy games from Koei. Is one of these currently worked on? And would it be okay to chose a lower difficulty?

Well, there are two left. Genghis Khan is definitely harder, but RotTK2 is no slouch either. If you're serious, let me know since I'm going to start on one or the other next.