danglovely

[danglovely]

What do the (0) (-1) (+1) on your taskmaster posts mean? I would have assumed they meant change in standing, but I’ve seen them assigned even after the very first task of a series

Hiya. I've been away for a bit, so I'm not entirely sure how old this ask is, but they are the difference in my regrade score versus the actual score they received.

Thus the score changes noted in parenthesis at the top. All the best.

[danglovely]

You watching the world chess championship?

A bit from afar. I enjoy watching speed chess or amateur chess live because I can understand what's happening and catch their mistakes. Watching grandmaster classical chess often leaves me completely lost.

It's also feels a little watered down because I'm fairly certain Magnus Carlson is still the best chess player in the world, but he just refuses to participate anymore.

I like Ding Liren and hadn't heard of Gokesh Dommaraju before and I like watching titled players analyze their games after it happened.

My only comment on the first game is Ding played the French Defense as black, which I hate . . . so I always gambit out of it as White with the Orthoschnapp (not a solid play, but fun). Anytime you win as black is great and chess players tilt probably even harder than gamers, so momentum.

The world championship is always funny because you have chess geniuses (Daniel Naroditsky) trying to explain what the two best players in the world are thinking in real time. It's like . . . are you sure you're seeing what they're seeing? Because if you were as good as them, you'd be there.

Also . . . thank you for asking me about chess. I legitimately love talking about it.

[danglovely]

Taskmaster Location Task Settings

Series 18:

Thorpe Park Chertsey and Staines-upon-Thames Surrey

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Taskmaster Last Place, Five Point Tasks

Series Eighteen: Rosie Jones

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Kim Possible S01E13 October 31st

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I enter a lot of rooms w/ "WHERE ARE YOU HIDING ****FACE?"

Use your own judgement on the line between a nickname and a cutesy version of their name

[danglovely]

Ayase and Nanami are the only two people Takumi should really be trusting.

Rimi: Used a delusion to fake like she had known him for ages and regularly tries to kill him to save Shogun.

Yua: Is actually Mia and has deluded herself into thinking she's her sister. Trying to gaslight Takumi into believing he's the NewGen murderer so she can feel better.

Sena: Dealing with deep-seeded father issues and is happy to blame and kill Takumi for indirectly getting her mom killed (which only happened because her dad stole his essay and he didn't even actually write it).

Kozue: Psychopath whose only solution to anything is murder.

Ayase is completely disjointed from everybody else's perception, but her story reveals that it's justified and she doesn't hurt anyone because of it (I think . . . it's unclear how she got Nanami and Rimi's Di-Swords). All Nanami does is look after Takumi until she gets kidnapped.

[danglovely]

I'm pretty tepid on Chaos;Head, but I absolutely adore Ayase's ending.

All indication is she's going crazy and, because she's a gigalomaniac, it is affecting the world in negative ways. Then Takumi starts syncing with her and you realize she's been suffering her entire life.

And then you get to help her free herself from it by killing the shared delusion through her music -- one of the few things that logically tracks in all of C;H.

Like. it can't actually be the end of the story because there's so much superfluous stuff going on that it wouldn't wrap up any loose ends, but I would've appreciated a story tailored to this ending a lot more.

[danglovely]

Canon.

[danglovely]

Regrading Taskmaster: S07E01 The mean bean.

*Score changes noted in parenthesis.

Let's do it. It's time for everybody's favorite season. It's not my favorite season, but everyone who matters likes it. I think this season really works because the cast is so competitive and willing to fight with each other in studio. James and Rhod really seemed to get what is entertaining for the show, but the other three were great as well.

Prediction time? I'll guess that I will end up having Kerry still winning it. It always felt like she wanted the win more than she wanted to be an entertainer on the show. Jess is the only other contestant that seems to take the competition aspect of seriously in any sort of way.

But enough exposition.

Prize Task: The Thing That Most People Would Like to Touch

I think that's more likely than the sign having an existential crisis.

My immediate go-to is to bring in a cat and bringing in living things always seems to work well. Greg could pick it apart if he hates cats or brings up dog people, but I think it's solid.

James chooses MC Hammer because of the song "Can't Touch This." It's a decent joke, but they only have a cardboard cutout of him. Real MC Hammer gets five points instantly; cardboard cutouts compete for one.

Jess brings in a sign that says "do not touch." James immediately mentions the weakness in that it is clearly referring to not touching something other than the sign and so that other thing would be the thing you'd want to touch. Jess limbos under James in points.

Kerry brings a Newton's Cradle. I'll give it this -- when I first saw one, I was fascinated. Once the novelty wears off it kind of becomes, as Greg says, "disappointing to touch." Kerry slots in between Jess and James.

Phil brings in a delightful chariot toy that moves in the most interesting way. To this day I want to play with it. I assume everyone is like me and wants to play with it, so it's getting the five. Note: First instance of the haggling joke.

Rhod brings in a replica of Greg's childhood toy, "BT" and there's a lot of conversation about the absolutely insane things Greg did in his youth. It's clever and deserves second.

James: 3 (+1) Jess: 1 (0) Kerry: 2 (0) Phil: 5 (0) Rhod: 4 (0)

VT 01: Design and demonstrate the best "quick change outfit." Best and quickest "quick change outfit" wins.

Just no sense of urgency whatsoever.

Two aspects to the win condition here: (1) best, (2) quickest. I would say "quickest" is more important, seeing as that is the point of a "quick change outfit," but I could be convinced the other way if there was a change where I truly couldn't figure out how they did it.

Jess's change is great and it's only marred that you can see the neon green headband from her 80's workout clothes underneath her wedding veil. She goes with the classic "curtain up, curtain down, different outfit," albeit with a lot of ruffling in between. Also insane that Greg thought she was a ghost and not a bride. 4-second change.

Rhod's attempt is completely insane. Obviously he was doing a different task and that task was "humiliate Alex." He wasn't going for points here, but he still gets one.

James seems to connect a suit and a dress on each half of his body, steps offscreen, then turns around. It was fast, I'll give him that. His third outfit was just removing the suit. It's definitively worse than Jess's outfit so the speed is irrelevant in this instance.

Kerry's is good. It happens quickly and the outfits look completely different. I'm more impressed with Jess because I can see the strings that pull Kerry's velcro apart, but I think they're close enough that fastest wins. 3.6-second change.

Oh Phil. It's so unimpressive. He basically just changes out of his outfit off-camera and it takes him longer to do it than an average person would take. It's even more brutal now that Taskmaster showed the video of him changing.

James: 3 (+1) Jess: 4 (0) Kerry: 5 (0) Phil: 2 (+1) Rhod: 1 (-2)

VT 02: Build the highest tower. You have five minutes from when your first box is assembled and maximum time twenty minutes from now.

Goddamn stinger and stinging nettles and then the friggin holly bush and thorny branches. Where do you get off?

First location task! The Woodrow High House -- I like the aesthetic of this place a lot and wouldn't mind visiting it one day. I also never noticed that they folded the task into a box before.

This task is a joy because the five put together so much failure in their own ways. The only real judgments to make is whether their attempts constituted "a tower" and when their first boxes are assembled.

James tried to hang a box off a tree with rope made of tape. A tower probably needs to consist of a minimum of two boxes. Arguably he didn't complete the task.

Phil contests that he hasn't assembled a box until every side is closed. I'm not buying it and his argument doesn't help. He also did not complete the task. Phil also argues that Rhod's tower isn't free standing. If that's what was said in the task I'd give it to him, but it wasn't.

Jess confidently builds a tower only for it to fall over as soon as she turns around. Here's the thing: the task doesn't specify when the tower should be measured so it could be interpreted to the maximum height she ever achieves. She even says "I'm leaving it there." Jess's maximum looked a lot taller than Kerry's so I'm flipping them.

James: 0 (-1) Jess: 4 (+1) Kerry: 3 (-1) Phil: 0 (-2) Rhod: 5 (0)

VT 03: Work out the circumference of the caravan in baked beans. You have three minutes. Most accurate wins.

It is such a bad omen that Rhod is the smart one.

I'm with Alex here in that the only way to do it is to find the average length of a bean. There is honestly no way for me to actually evaluate who did best from the footage, so Alex's measurements need to be trusted.

James: 4 Jess: 3 Kerry: 5 Phil: 1 Rhod: 2

Live Task: Make the best fruit display hat. You may not touch or tamper with your hat. Only the fruit picker-uppers may touch the fruit. You may only hold the fruit picker-uppers by their handles. Best fruit display hat wins.

First off, we ask if there are any disqualifications. There is some inadvertent contact with the fruit, but nothing intentional and that's the heart of the task.

The next bit is that people start collaborating by making each other's hat. The task specifically says to make the best hat, not wear the best hat. Thus, the hat that they make should be what they're graded on.

And now my subjective opinion:

James makes his own hat and gets a watermelon, and what looks like an apple and a mango on it. It's bad.

Jess makes Kerry's hat and Kerry makes Jess's hat. I think the hat Jess makes looks better and has more fruit. Phil makes Rhod's hat and Rhod makes Phil's hat. I'm honestly impressed that Phil got that much fruit on it, including a pineapple. Rhod's is similar to what Jess and Kerry did, but has slightly less volume than the other two.

James: 1 (-1) Jess: 4 (+1) Kerry: 3 (-1) Phil: 5 (+1) Rhod: 2 (-3)

F I N A L

James: 11 (0) Jess: 16 (+2) Kerry: 18 (-2) Phi: 13 (0) Rhod: 14 (-5)

There are no crazy scoring changes. I did dock Rhod a lot, but that's mostly because I felt Phil deserved credit for making his hat. There is a prisoner's dilemma version of that game where you depend on the other person to build your hat but you don't want to make it too good. That's not what the task said though.

Kerry wins.

[danglovely]

[danglovely]

[danglovely]

I guess I just took it for granted that Kaiba had a military grade hacking system under his house and used it to crash a satellite back in the day.,

[danglovely]

[danglovely]

[danglovely]

Just archiving the Gloomhaven campaign that I basically dm'd for (and I think that we got very close to finishing). Rest in peace.

And, my notes --

 A Spellweaver, Mindthief, brute, and Cragheart, much in need of beer money, formed a small mercenary group within the walls of the Sleeping Lion Inn. Hired my a mysterious woman, they travel to the Barrows to fight bandits raising the undead. After returning the woman, Jekserah, offers them a quest and seals their band together for the duration… the Sexy Bunch was formed.

     The group went on many a quest and even found a scoundrel to join up with their cause. They fought cultists and undead until they eventually realized the goals of their trusted employer ranged from nefarious to down right evil. The group united to wallop the crap out of her. With their goal complete, one by one the charter members found new quests and slowly dropped from the group.

The Spellweaver grew rich enough to realize money truly can buy happiness.

The Mindtheif had fought enough elite enemies and decided his prowess could no longer be tested.

The Brute had seen enough of his friends leave to realize the winds were changing and join suit.

The Cragheart defeated enough demons to conclude the world could endure without his fight.

The Scoundrel quelled her thirst to see all the different battles the world could offer her.

     One by one they left. It did not spell the end of the sexy bunch however. Whenever someone left, a new party member took their place. The group gained a Quartermaster, a Beastmaster, a Soothsinger, an Elementalist and a Tinkerer. While the original members felt their questing complete, these were some thirstier souls…

…actually the Quartermaster quickly became pious, sold all of his items and donated it to the Church of the Great Oak. He was immediately replaced by Sawbones.

     This new group went on a quest to stop cultists from evoking a demon spewing void. With The help of Hail, a frigid and magical woman, they managed to close the void for the time being. Yet still whispers of a being known as Gloom has crossed their ears.

[danglovely]

Regrading Taskmaster: S06E10 He was a different man.

*Score changes noted in parenthesis.

Series finale! Honestly, this season was a slog as evidenced by how slowly I got through it. Series Seven is a lot better (and one that a lot of people consider to be the best of all time).

That said, I've come off my Taskmaster fixation a bit. I'm still enjoying new episodes when they come out (including Australia and New Zealand), but now that I've stopped obsessing through these write-ups, it's getting harder. I at least want to get through Series Eight because it's my favorite, but this project might be naturally reaching its end.

Still, it's not like I'm on a deadline with this. I can always come back to it when I feel like. Anyway, let's wrap up Series Six.

Prize Task: The Least Appropriate Accessory For a Wedding Anniversary

How are you going to accessorize that?

Liza does a sandwich board stating "I Love Tom Hanks." Humor is subjective, but even as far as non sequiturs go, this is pretty weak. Russell does gift vouchers for a divorce lawyer. Pro - on topic. Con - a gift card that definitely isn't real because divorce lawyers don't give gift cards.

Alice thinks the mother of the bride should bring a positive pregnancy test. I fully agree. "She'll wear it as a corsage." Asim brings num-chuks. Even as non sequiturs go this is pretty weak.

Tim does a bunch of puns about bees! A for effort. B for execution.

Alice: 5 (+2) Asim: 2 (-3) Liza: 1 (0) Russell: 3 (-1) Tim: 4 (+2)

VT 01: Knock over the fewest skittles. You may place one item on each of the three ramp sections, or you may place two items on one of the ramp sections. Your items must be found on this table and may not include either you or the table. You may not tamper with the balls or the ramp.

What's that finger thing for?

Alex showed there was a right way to do this on YouTube! The only thing to evaluate here is whether anyone broke the rules. Possible trip-ups: (1) Wrong number of items in the section. (2) Items didn't come from the table. (3) Tampering.

Asim and Liza genuinely struggled understanding the rules. Alex's logic tracks that something that constitutes a singular form while it's on the table is an item. Asim narrowly avoids disqualifying by completely flubbing the task.

Alice, Russell, and Tim certainly seemed a bit smarter about it. It did seem like their attempts would have better results. Okay, maybe not Alice's banana peels. All said, this task was graded correctly.

Alice: 3 Asim: 3 Liza: 4 Russell: 5 Tim: 1

VT 02: Blow the candle out from the furthest distance. You may not relight the candle.

It was like an unhelpful Narnia.

This is going to be mean and people could call me incorrect about this, but it is brought up on the show and it should be taken seriously. Asim doesn't blow the candle out by any definition of the word. He knocks it over and it goes out.

Everyone else's score remain the same (+1 if you didn't get disqualified). Asim didn't complete the task.

Alice: 4 (+1) Asim: 0 (-5) Liza: 0 (0) Russell: 3 (+1) Tim: 5 (+1)

VT 03: Tell the Taskmaster you love him in the most meaningful way.

It was so . . . in me.

Liza wins. There's nothing to say about it. You have to see it and if you don't understand why Liza wins, I can't explain to you why Liza wins.

Russell gets one. He didn't do anything.

Asim's serenade was good enough to win the five in most instances. This wasn't one of those instances. Tim made himself Greg's mom which I thought was pretty inspired. Alice wrote, as Greg described it, a "heavily caveated declaration of love."

Alice: 2 Asim: 4 (-1) Liza: 5 Russell: 1 Tim: 3

Live Task: Display a number. You get one rosette if your number is higher than the person's on your right and one if its lower than the person's on your left. If you display the same number as someone else, you lose them all.

I am a creature of habit!

The only interesting part of this game (that is supposedly taking the world by storm) is that Alice asks Alex twice to let her pin the rosettes on herself.

There may be a game theory discussion to be had about this, but that's definitely not happening here. The scores remain unchanged.

Liza and Russell didn't get anything, but by rules I've set in the past -- zero is a number, so you do get points.

Alice: 5 (0) Asim: 4 Liza: 2 (+2) Russell: 2 (+2) Tim: 3 (0)

F I N A L

Episode --

Alice: 16 Asim: 13 Liza: 12 Russell: 14 Tim: 16

Alice and Tim TIE, which I took away from Alice in the past so I'M GIVING IT BACK TO HER.

Series --

I'm sure everyone's just as interested as me to learn who really won the series so let's math it up . . .

Alice: 133 Asim: 151 Liza: 149 Russell: 174 Tim: 179

Lost a hook, but won our hearts, it's Tim.

Actually surprised Liza didn't win it after calculation, I think odds on she was my favorite contestant this series. That said, good riddance to Series Six. I like you, but I don't like you.

Series Seven, let's go.