The Syndicate

Good luck, Golden!

speedchuck wrote: ↑Tue May 08, 2018 2:29 pm Well, my headphones are broken.

That's a tragedy of the highest degree.

dunya wrote: ↑Tue Apr 17, 2018 2:03 pm RIP me, my latest version of a doc with 5hrs worth of extra work at least is corrupt

Ugh. That sucks, sorry. Been there done that. My worst case of this was losing a week's worth of dissertation code updates because my flash drive corrupted and I hadn't backed it up in a week or so. That was the incident that pushed me over the edge to always saving my files in a paranoid fashion and working from the cloud.

Marmot wrote: ↑Tue Mar 13, 2018 8:18 pm

MovingPictures07 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:21 pm

Ricochet wrote: ↑Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:18 pm Can't wait for next year's awards The Holdens...

We're naming awards after @Marmot now?! Cool.

Where does your new avatar come from?

This album.

Ricochet wrote: ↑Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:24 pm I regret posting now.

When is that ever not true?

Ricochet wrote: ↑Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:18 pm Can't wait for next year's awards The Holdens...

We're naming awards after [mention]Marmot[/mention] now?! Cool.

dunya wrote: ↑Mon Mar 12, 2018 12:01 pm nice new avatar, MovingPictures07!

Oh thanks, dunya!

It's been 10 years actually since I started using various Henry Cow album covers as my avatar because I was really into their music at the time. Then people on ProgArchives starting call me the "Sockface" nickname, lol, so it sort of stuck. The last few years I've been getting a bit sick of them but managed to keep it interesting using variations for my mafia games (the Talking Heads-themed one, Futurama-themed one, etc.), but I think it's finally run its course. I'm not even nearly as big a fan of Henry Cow as I was then, and I really just want a change.

I haven't totally settled on this current one, but it may just be my favorite album of all-time right now, and the album cover itself looks pretty dang cool, so I'm digging it.

S~V~S wrote: ↑Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:30 am Small life victories; being off work the day after Daylight Savings Time goes into effect.

Nice! The time change definitely messed me up this morning, lol.

G-Man wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2018 10:52 pm Apparently GoC really is just for the champions who can play. The rest of us don’t even get to watch.

[mention]G-Man[/mention]

This should now be fixed. It took a bit of fancy permissions maneuvering, but everything's all set for spectators to be able to see stuff now.

Now it's happening.

Or is it?

It's happening.

Scotty wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2018 12:13 am

MovingPictures07 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:49 am Scotty! You've been missed. Hope you're doing well!

It’s definitely been a while @MovingPictures07 ! I don’t think I even remember how to play mafia.

I’ve been busy busy busy and my entire schedule has changed, but it’s nice to check back in here and see y’all still thriving, you old farts!

Scotty! You've been missed. Hope you're doing well!

Spacedaisy wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2018 3:14 am

Marmot wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2018 7:58 pm

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2018 1:31 pm So a marmot and a bear walk into a bar...

...and the bear carried the marmot out.

For some reason I think this might be accurate. In my imaginary world where we all actually hang out in real life, I think SVS could handle her alcohol better than the Marmot.

Did I hear drinking contest?

Seriously? Still shows for me. Huh. Let me see if I can address that now, thanks.

DharmaHelper wrote: ↑Sun Jan 21, 2018 11:17 pm Shout out to the time @MovingPictures07 PMed me and was like "Hey DH I'm thinking of making another mafia website what do you think about that my best friend?"

G-Man wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2017 12:11 pm I'm pretty sure it was locked in lead box, welded shut, encased in concrete, dropped into the deepest part of the Marianas Trench, and is currently protected by a rotating shift of irascible kraken.

Ricochet wrote: ↑Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:18 pm Seems we Nauruans made the Washington Post with a storm that blitzed and ravaged through my hometown's region yesterday afternoon. Article here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/eu ... defd2a1e8a

The skies turned dark, the clouds brown with dust, the winds teared in, small booths near our supermarket got disassembled, power lines and traffic light got plucked out in, like, 5 minutes. It was quite surreal.

I didn't write this down in "99 problems", because nothing of significance happened really to our building and my family, except for losing power and me still having to go to a trumpet rehearsal, because the teacher is fearlessly cray. But acquaintances of mine were driving home or were stuck somewhere out or found their cars smashed in their parking lot; the city center was littered with rooftop tiles from very old buildings; I had to slalom through fallen trees today in the park route I take towards work; at school, the gym teacher couldn't come, because her daughter was hit in the head with a tile, and another teacher had his house's roof fly off; and the third grade girl in my piano class claimed she was out with her aunt and saw a car being hit by power cables and catch fire... with people inside.

Safe to say we aren't quite prepped for the end of times.

Wow, that's crazy. Glad you weren't personally affected, but I can't even imagine.

Hello, unfurl!!!

Hey everyone!

I cannot express how happy I am that the site is back. I also just want to emphasize that, due to working crazy hours and having no relevant knowledge whatsoever, I did absolutely nothing to accomplish this. Daisy and Sokoth were working constantly with every bit of their free time to battle every incoming issue and spearheading the charge. I also want to acknowledge the incredible assistance of Tranq and especially Makaze, whose very generous help was exactly what we needed to get things running again. We absolutely wouldn't be here again without any of them, so be sure to join me in telling them thanks so much for the help!

And it's good to be around you all again. Understatement of the year.

Over the past month I definitely have missed having this place in my life, despite the fact that I've just had one of the busiest months of my entire life so often it didn't have much time to register. The work onslaught shows no signs of letting up since in addition to networking, dissertation, other projects, and everything else I start teaching a 5-week class (for the first time at that) on Tuesday, so mafia is a no-go for quite some time, but I'm happy that now I can talk OT/music/whatever with you folks and hop in the discord whenever I have time. So rest assured you'll see my screenname pop in here from time to time, as much as I can afford for now, and just know that I really miss being more involved around here. Hopefully I'll get to talk to you all again soon.

Wow, that's amazing, Rob. Awesome.

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, Rob. Hadn't seen it until now. Wishing the best for you and your family. I know it's tough to lose a close family member like that, especially an elder you connected with so much.

Long Con wrote:WTF? It's gone already!!!

G-Man wrote:

juliets wrote:I just read on FB that Lostpedia is gone. I don't have a link to it anymore so I don't know for sure but if it is, RIP.

Lostpedia still exists as a wiki but the forums have indeed been shut down. Very sad to lose those mafia exploits of long ago.

The STV forums live on still (if you can find them).

sprityo wrote:got a new avatar

I'm digging it. Minimalistic, but cool.

nutella wrote:On that note, I was just finally looking up the games I've won to put them in my sig, and I realized that Heists don't seem to have banners? Is that intentional/not going to change?

gosh I've won so few games... but then I haven't even played very often so it's all relative. If I still had all my banners from the LP/Piano days it would be a monster sig.

Yeah, it will. Some Heists have them, but not all of them. I know LC and Daiay are working on steadily knocking down that backlog as we speak.

It's a product of originally not producing banners for Heists, and then deciding to start making them after seeing that people really took to them just as much as any other game type.

Who is Metalmarsh89? Never heard of that person before. He sounds like a weirdo.

Golden wrote:One of my birthday presents was an 'escape the room' experience, which I've always wanted to try.

What's particularly amusing, though, is when I looked at the 'plot' of the room. I quote "Your mission is to infiltrate and investigate the Syndicate’s headquarters, discover what their evil plans are, and put a stop to them."

http://www.escapemate.co.nz/index.php/booking/

!!!!

Boogs and blindfaeth were telling me about that a few months back. Sounds really neat, I want to try it sometime!

And at the Syndicate reference. Cool beans.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:I forgot to mention this.

I went to a social gaming event in our department at Uni a couple weeks ago, and someone had brought Mafia. Being that I was one of just a couple people who had played before, I offered to proctor a game. We ended up getting 15 people to play in the second round that I modded (after just 7 in the first). I'll say, it was a mighty difficult task to create a balanced and interesting setup on the spot for such a large group. But it was a ton of fun. It was also a little difficult to keep track of everything but I somehow managed without pen-and-paper. Overall, it went smoothly and mafia kicked ass.

I think I had balanced things relatively well. There were 10 civilians, 4 mafia, and 1 neutral. There were 3 power roles among the civilians, a cop, doctor, and bodyguard. But a large majority of players had never played before. There was a definitely noticeable mob psychology during every lynch. The newer players tended to follow each other or someone who looked/acted like they knew what they were doing. This is a drastic difference to party mafia I'd played before where you have a group of experienced players. It was fascinating to observe.

That's awesome! I love seeing and participating in real life mafia games; I wish I had more opportunities to do so. It's just so much fun, especially with brand new folks. Sometimes it can be a great chance to try to earn more converts to our cause too.

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Long Con wrote:Great idea, thesock73!

Also, I thought the space-God version of your avatar was pretty snazzy.

Oh yes! I love that one too. I should bring that one back out soon.

Decided to bring it back out already since I missed it. Pretty awesome.

Long Con wrote:Great idea, thesock73!

Also, I thought the space-God version of your avatar was pretty snazzy.

Oh yes! I love that one too. I should bring that one back out soon.

Better yet, what about themarmot73?

thellama73 wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I'm contemplating a change in my sock. Should I do it? I've had this one on for a while now.

I prefer the In Prasie of Learning one, myself.

That one is cool. I think I wore Unrest before this one too, so I'll switch to that one.

Oh, it's just a minor decision; I have a notorious tendency to overanalyze the fuck out of minor decisions, so I thought I might as well ask you all partially out of jest but partially just to resolve my crippling indecisive tendencies.

I'm contemplating a change in my sock. Should I do it? I've had this one on for a while now.

Yeah, me neither, Annie and I don't even have cable. I can't even remember the last time either of us turned on the TV without watching a DVD, using the Wii U or Xbox 360 to either access Netflix/Hulu/etc. or play video games.

Golden wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Golden wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I have never watched the Super Bowl ever before, and I have no intention of changing that today. Not because I'm contrarian, mind you, just because I have pretty much no interest in doing so. Who else is in my boat?

I'll instead most likely be working on something.

I've never watched the super bowl but that's changing today.

Why this time?

Lots of factors. We're not always guaranteed a public holiday on Super Bowl day so often I'm at work. I wasn't always married to someone with American family. My best friend wasn't always into NFL but he really has been the last few years, and I've ended up participating in fantasy leagues and talking about American Football as a result. Hamish has a whole lot of Patriots clothes. So, we thought it might be fun.

Also, it's on TV. I can't say that it wasn't in recent years, but it certainly wasn't even ten years ago. NZ has had an underground NBA culture all my life, but super bowl culture is kind of new here.

You should join in MP!

Makes sense.

Ehhhh, I'll probably still be here listening to music and working on reviews anyway; I have enough work to do. If not, I'd rather spend time with Annie watching something we both would find more enjoyable.

Maybe someday I'll eventually watch, if the Bengals are in it or something.

Golden wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I have never watched the Super Bowl ever before, and I have no intention of changing that today. Not because I'm contrarian, mind you, just because I have pretty much no interest in doing so. Who else is in my boat?

I'll instead most likely be working on something.

I've never watched the super bowl but that's changing today.

Why this time?

juliets wrote:I enjoy all the hoopla about the commercials for exactly the reason epi pointed out: they are for entertainment value. I enjoy trying to decide which were the best and which were the worst and comparing my opinions with the advertising gurus. It all seems like harmless fun surrounding the game.

That's understandable. Rating / ranking things is fun.

Epignosis wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Epignosis wrote:I know a great number of people who care nothing about football but watch every year anyway. Why?

Spoiler: show

The commercials.

I will never understand that. The whole reason I love Netflix and other similar services is the lack of commercials. Commercials suck.

I concur 100%. Commercials are the worst (except the ones with marmots in them).

Well, I wouldn't argue with that exception.

The commercials are generally tailored to be more entertaining than to actually advertise their products (which, ironically, works in their favor).

You think they'd learn from that revelation then.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:

Epignosis wrote:I know a great number of people who care nothing about football but watch every year anyway. Why?

Spoiler: show

The commercials.

I will never understand that. The whole reason I love Netflix and other similar services is the lack of commercials. Commercials suck.

I concur 100%. Commercials are the worst (except the ones with marmots in them).

Well, I wouldn't argue with that exception.

Epignosis wrote:I know a great number of people who care nothing about football but watch every year anyway. Why?

Spoiler: show

The commercials.

I will never understand that. The whole reason I love Netflix and other similar services is the lack of commercials. Commercials suck.

G-Man wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I have never watched the Super Bowl ever before, and I have no intention of changing that today. Not because I'm contrarian, mind you, just because I have pretty much no interest in doing so. Who else is in my boat?

I'll instead most likely be working on something.

The first Super Bowl I remember watching was Super Bowl 25 between the Giants and the Bills in 1991. I have watched part or all of every Super Bowl since. I grew up in a football-watching family, so I can't imagine NOT watching the game.

I will, however, be working through a trial balance for work or some church finance documents during the game. I'll look up for commercials and when the announcers sound excited.

Generally, sports was a very, very little part of my household growing up, practically nonexistent. Sports were never on, including the Super Bowl. Neither of my parents care remotely about the NFL, NBA, etc., or about sports in general. But I say all of this with one big exception in mind (other than the Olympics, which my mom liked watching but my dad didn't).

I grew up systematically watching tennis with my parents, who both played when they were in their teens and 20s. So tennis grand slams (Wimbledon, Roland Garros, and the U.S. Open... Australian Open was the one usually left out) were an annual pastime with my parents, but especially my mom, and we bonded over that. So I can understand it being enjoyable and habitual in that regard, even ritual-esque. But other than that, I find it difficult to understand the appeal of the Super Bowl and most other sports things.

I am incredibly athletically challenged and grew up in an environment that cared almost as little about sports as possible (my dad even often spoke of most sports with some level of contempt, saying he liked them when he was in college and such, but grew disillusioned with them), especially football (if possible, the one we all cared about the least), so watching the Super Bowl just never interested me remotely. Maybe one of these days I'll watch it, but eh, just have no motivation to do so.

I am trying to become more open-minded with sports; over the past few years I've become more interested in basketball and baseball, the latter partially because it's Daisy's version of my tennis. Re: basketball, for me it's been mostly warming up to NBA stuff; college is very meh to me except March Madness and even then I only ever cared because filling out brackets and making predictions is fun, even based on no knowledge whatsoever. I am naturally drawn much more to individual sports than team sports, but basketball and baseball are slowly becoming quasi-exceptions to that rule, though I doubt I'll ever be remotely passionate about either one. I'm loving the statistics and everything in those two. I just cannot find any interest in football though. It's so incredibly boring to me.

I have never watched the Super Bowl ever before, and I have no intention of changing that today. Not because I'm contrarian, mind you, just because I have pretty much no interest in doing so. Who else is in my boat?

I'll instead most likely be working on something.

S~V~S wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I've had glasses since I was 2 years old, so I'm as used to them as I could possibly be. I also hate the idea of sticking something into my eye, so I've never seriously considered contacts.

Yeah, I have had glasses since I was 4, so I feel your pain. But I got my first contacts when they were hard lenses, wow they are so much more comfortable now. I honestly forget I have them in.

I may consider it eventually, but I don't know. It'd just be so weird. I don't have much motivation since glasses don't bother me.

Long Con wrote:There was a professional baseball player (I forget who) that got pulled over. Cop looked at his license and said, "Says here you need glasses, where are they?" Baseball player: "I've got contacts." Cop: "I don't care who you know, you still have to wear your glasses!"

I've had glasses since I was 2 years old, so I'm as used to them as I could possibly be. I also hate the idea of sticking something into my eye, so I've never seriously considered contacts.