c4countdown

Dan McColm is on two wins as we end the week. Can he get a 3rd to finish strongly?

Join Anthony for the recap later.

Alt first numbers: (25+2x8)x(10+4)

Dan's had a few awkward numbers games already in his run.

GERMANE alt to MEGARON

Gavin Chipper wrote:Dan's had a few awkward numbers games already in his run.

In the second numbers, seeing Rachel laughing gave a clue that it was actually easy if you spotted the trick.
I hadn't until then.

R7 cool in the CAFTAN

Tony Atkins wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:Dan's had a few awkward numbers games already in his run.

In the second numbers, seeing Rachel laughing gave a clue that it was actually easy if you spotted the trick.
I hadn't until then.

Had I noticed it, Rachel's laughter would've put me off, if anything - I saw her laugh when I had 124 as a target with 4 large, and I panicked thinking it was really easy and I had overlooked something obvious (which I had). I didn't see my solution until 20 seconds in.

You kept pretty relaxed for someone "literally in flames".

WHATEV talk about dumbed-down words being let in. Can we use a new dictionary please, a sensible one?

Anyway well done, Dan.

Tony Atkins wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:Dan's had a few awkward numbers games already in his run.

In the second numbers, seeing Rachel laughing gave a clue that it was actually easy if you spotted the trick.
I hadn't until then.

They're all easy if you spot the trick! (This one wasn't particularly simple relatively speaking.)

I know you were attempting humility, but I'm not sure all the "oh woe is me" stuff with the numbers was particularly well-advised when your opponent was struggling to score in any round at the time.

Congrats on the wins so far though

Jojo Apollo wrote:WHATEV talk about dumbed-down words being let in. Can we use a new dictionary please, a sensible one?

Anyway well done, Dan.

I disagree, I think dictonaries should reflect, rather than dictate, language usage.

Jon Corby wrote:I know you were attempting humility, but I'm not sure all the "oh woe is me" stuff with the numbers was particularly well-advised when your opponent was struggling to score in any round at the time.

Congrats on the wins so far though

Yeah, I must admit I did cringe watching that back. Thanks, it was definitely a relief to get these 3 wins on the board and get some rest after a long day's recording, as Tony Atkins likes to say.

Dan McColm wrote:Yeah, I must admit I did cringe watching that back.

Glad to hear it. I had a good three paragraph rant lined up if you were going to defend it I'll save it for the next prick.

She was spotting decent stuff, but when you see stuff like UNCREATE, MEGARON and possibly even SOLARIZE, you just think "ah shit, she doesn't have a chance"

Dan McColm wrote:

Jojo Apollo wrote:WHATEV talk about dumbed-down words being let in. Can we use a new dictionary please, a sensible one?

Anyway well done, Dan.

I disagree, I think dictonaries should reflect, rather than dictate, language usage.

Fair enough, we can look forward to WHENEV, WHOEV, WHOMEV, WHOMSOEV, WHATSOEV, WASSUP and TITTYBUM. All splendid additions to PAINEDER, HINGEDEST etc.

Srsly, Jojo?

Jojo Apollo wrote:

Dan McColm wrote:

Jojo Apollo wrote:WHATEV talk about dumbed-down words being let in. Can we use a new dictionary please, a sensible one?

Anyway well done, Dan.

I disagree, I think dictonaries should reflect, rather than dictate, language usage.

Fair enough, we can look forward to WHENEV, WHOEV, WHOMEV, WHOMSOEV, WHATSOEV, WASSUP and TITTYBUM. All splendid additions to PAINEDER, HINGEDEST etc.

If people actually said these things, then yeah, but I don't think there's a speaker really who would say WHOMSOEV or TITTYBUM. And things like PAINEDER and HORNEDEST support my point - the reason there's so much fuss about these being valid on apterous is because nobody uses these forms! And anyway, what if someone didn't know the meaning of WHATEV and wanted to look it up?

The problem with this dictionary is that it doesn't really reflect usage. They leave out "boring" words like LAGGY, and bring in words like OMNISHAMBLES that no-one uses because it makes good press. WHATEVS and WHATEV presumably came in because they're the sort of words that newspapers would report. Any other word would have to be in common usage for years before getting in. So it's not that I mind words like that getting in per se, but let's have some fucking consistency.

Jojo Apollo wrote:WHATEV talk about dumbed-down words being let in. Can we use a new dictionary please, a sensible one?

Anyway well done, Dan.

It certainly was brilliant you getting that word, definitely lightened the mood in the audience further. Certainly a great end to the recording day, and then as you know, it was a great night out afterwards.

3rd Numbers Alt.: (25 + 6) x 3 x 5 = 465

Jack Worsley wrote:Srsly, Jojo?

No, Jack. I was being SARCAS.

Dan McColm wrote:
If people actually said these things, then yeah, but I don't think there's a speaker really who would say WHOMSOEV or TITTYBUM. And things like PAINEDER and HORNEDEST support my point - the reason there's so much fuss about these being valid on apterous is because nobody uses these forms! And anyway, what if someone didn't know the meaning of WHATEV and wanted to look it up?

What if they wanted to look up a word like MOTELIER and found it wasn't in the dictionary because there wasn't enough space in the dictionary, the space having been taken up by words such as WHATEV?

Just watched this back. One of the numbers Dan had a 50 6 and 8 left and he needed a 7 so he was one away. (50+6)/8 could have got him there.

Could shape up to be an exciting finals week (if he makes it) as he's not as invincible as I thought!

Oh and we need more female characters like today's contestant. Decent player-shame she had to play an aptobot lol

Gavin Chipper wrote:The problem with this dictionary is that it doesn't really reflect usage. They leave out "boring" words like LAGGY, and bring in words like OMNISHAMBLES that no-one uses because it makes good press. WHATEVS and WHATEV presumably came in because they're the sort of words that newspapers would report. Any other word would have to be in common usage for years before getting in. So it's not that I mind words like that getting in per se, but let's have some fucking consistency.

Yeah, agree with this mostly, but OMNISHAMBLES was one of those fad words that stopped being used after a while, but WHATEV(S) really is something that is used a lot in certain informal styles of English.

And Jojo, obviously the dictionary has limited space, so it has to prioritise words that occur with more frequency (though I'm not sure why it hasn't done this for laggy*). I'd expect WHATEV to be more common than MOTELIER, but I can't check right now.

Kirk Bevins wrote:Just watched this back. One of the numbers Dan had a 50 6 and 8 left and he needed a 7 so he was one away. (50+6)/8 could have got him there.

Could shape up to be an exciting finals week (if he makes it) as he's not as invincible as I thought!

Oh and we need more female characters like today's contestant. Decent player-shame she had to play an aptobot lol

Lower your expectations :p One thing that worried me about going on was people saying stuff like "OMG you can break the record easily" and "you could get a max mocktorun!" Obviously my game yesterday was below par, but I'd argue that 12 and 13 maxes today and Wednesday is not too shabby, and the kind of performance to be expected (I was averaging 12.1 maxes before recording), rather than expecting a string of max games or something!

EDIT: Yes, (50+6)/8 would've made 7, but adding a small to large and then dividing by another small to make an intermediate number isn't something I'd think to try even in apterous, let alone under the pressure of the studio!

No worries, Dan.

Out of interest, how did you know WHATEV was valid, it isn't allowed on apterous?

Jojo Apollo wrote:No worries, Dan.

Out of interest, how did you know WHATEV was valid, it isn't allowed on apterous?

I studied a list of ODO additions before filming (didn't help me with LORRYLOAD though!)

Dan McColm wrote:And Jojo, obviously the dictionary has limited space

Does it? The print edition, yes, but I doubt that's true of the online edition. At least, any technical limit would be far in excess of the space they'd need.

Dan McColm wrote:

Jojo Apollo wrote:No worries, Dan.

Out of interest, how did you know WHATEV was valid, it isn't allowed on apterous?

I studied a list of ODO additions before filming (didn't help me with LORRYLOAD though!)

Ah righto, cheers.

Graeme Cole wrote:

Dan McColm wrote:And Jojo, obviously the dictionary has limited space

Does it? The print edition, yes, but I doubt that's true of the online edition. At least, any technical limit would be far in excess of the space they'd need.

True, which explains why all of the ODE2 words came back, as there was no longer a space constraint, but I imagine there's still some sort of frequency test that new words have to pass before they're added, which can be overruled if a word makes good press, as Gevin says.

Dan McColm wrote:One thing that worried me about going on was people saying stuff like "OMG you can break the record easily" and "you could get a max mocktorun!"

To be honest, I switched off as soon as you missed your first max and assumed you'd probably walked out of the studio in shame. I'm surprised to hear you carried on.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Dan McColm wrote:One thing that worried me about going on was people saying stuff like "OMG you can break the record easily" and "you could get a max mocktorun!"

To be honest, I switched off as soon as you missed your first max and assumed you'd probably walked out of the studio in shame. I'm surprised to hear you carried on.

It would actually be a max octorun, not a mockto, in that example

Dan McColm wrote:
EDIT: Yes, (50+6)/8 would've made 7, but adding a small to large and then dividing by another small to make an intermediate number isn't something I'd think to try even in apterous, let alone under the pressure of the studio!

Really? This is something I often look for as it comes up quite a lot in 2 large games... (50-8)/6 also gives 7 in the above case.

Kirk Bevins wrote:

Dan McColm wrote:
EDIT: Yes, (50+6)/8 would've made 7, but adding a small to large and then dividing by another small to make an intermediate number isn't something I'd think to try even in apterous, let alone under the pressure of the studio!

Really? This is something I often look for as it comes up quite a lot in 2 large games... (50-8)/6 also gives 7 in the above case.

I didn't practise any 2 large at all before recording, just 1L, 4L and 6S.

Well done again Dan, another solid performance! I got the 1st and 2nd numbers rounds by different methods to Rachel but you still beat me playing at home fairly comfortably.