Category: learning curve

On Connections

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Mmm. I haven’t played the NYT Connections game for a while, but while other members of the family were at piano class, I thought that I’d give it a go. And it was while I was doing that, that I found this article by Connections editor, Wyna Liu.

This isn’t a new article: it’s a year and a bit old, but it does make interesting reading. Because it does rather make it seem like Wyna came up with this revolutionary idea of how to make the game work:

There would have to be a mix of categories for the game to feel challenging and satisfying. That’s where the puzzle element could come in: Some categories might be defined by their use of wordplay — palindromes, homophones, adding or dropping letters and words — rather than the literal meanings of the words on the cards. I saw three areas of potential difficulty that could be adjusted: the familiarity of the words, the ambiguity of their categorization and the variety of the wordplay.

But if you have ever watched Only Connect, the TV quiz show which began in 2008, then you’ll already have been enjoying “Connections” as “The Wall” for 15 years before NYT and Wyna began their version.
And they “saw” how to make it harder a long time before she did.

If there is a regular criticism of Connections, it’s that many of the answers are rather America-specific: baseball team nicknames or supermarket mascots; stuff that anyone outside the US wouldn’t know. But although it attracts an international audience, it’s an American site, and there’s ample opportunity for you to learn stuff about America from the internet.

Equally though, there was surely plenty of opportunity for Wyna and the NYT to know that “Connections” already existed. And I’m not saying that it was trademarked or anything – as far as I know, there’s no legal axe to grind here – just that pretending that it was a concept that they came up with… well… that’s a bit much.

Still, I do occasionally go and get my Connections fix. And when I need some more, I go to Puzzgrid, which… er… also pre-dated Connections. And why makes no bones about where it got the idea from (and pops a subtle dig at the NYT):

And why not go and enjoy the original on Only Connect, since it has just begun its 20th series?

Other Only Connect posts on 6000 miles…
Other Puzzgrid posts on 6000 miles…

Beer prices

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Despite the danger from wild animals around every corner (and on every golf green), South Africa is still a really popular tourist destination. Decent weather (T&Cs apply), loads of varied stuff to do, a single flight from and a very small time difference from a lot of Europe, and THAT EXCHANGE RATE.

It’s pretty rubbish for us living here, but the ever-weaking Rand makes SA deliciously attractive to tourists. Follow anyone who has come here (on social media, not like stalking them), and you’ll hear them wax lyrical about the service, the wine, the scenery, the wildlife, the people, the food and the prices.

I can’t believe that we got all of this – including drinks – for less than fifty quid

is a regular line at the end of every 4 course meal shared on the TikkityTok. And if you’ve ever been to the UK, you’ll understand exactly why that seems amazing.

And then I saw this:

I did some rudimentary calculations and worked out that at an average of about R40 (this is not Fireman’s, Forries or the Waterfront, obvs!), we’re sitting at about the €1.98 of Hungary for a 500ml Castle Lite or a Black Label. Sure, that may not be your tipple of choice, but this isn’t just about you, and if you’re going to want to drink something “Crapft”, then sure, things can get silly quite quickly.

But this is about the average price for 0.5 litre domestic draught beer in restaurants.
Like it says on the map.

And that shows just how cheap this place is when you’re coming from somewhere that’s yellow, orange or red. It also demonstrates that needs to be more than just cheap beer prices to take into consideration when choosing a holiday destination. Because Ukraine looks very inviting on this map.

But… well… you know…

I remember going to Czechoslovakia (when it was just still Czechoslovakia) and buying a bottle of beer for the equivalent of 2 English pence. I thought they’d misrepresented the price or I’d mis-converted it, and it should have been two pounds (which would have been very expensive for someone from the North of the England in those days), or maybe 20 pence (ridiculously reasonable).
It turned out that I just needed to move my decimal point along again. Amazing.

Looking back, I demonstrated some incredible – and some might say, foolish – self control on that trip.

Beer has gone up a lot more in the ex-Czechoslovakia in the last thirty years than it has in the UK.

And it’s definitely more expensive here since I arrived as well, but then isn’t everything? But like I say, if you’re coming out to Cape Town from London, then you’re probably going to think that they’ve undercharged you for your beer.

Still, the “cheap” beer is also a good thing for us locals. It’s just a shame that these days we can’t afford anything nice to eat with it.

Dinner (and what goes on around here)

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Or maybe: What goes on around here (and dinner)

There are a few new 6000 miles… readers in the house after the last couple of days, [deity] help them.

But anyway… Hi. Thanks for clicking through.

In case you didn’t know, I’ve been blogging each day (yes, all of them) for over 13½ years on here now – and not daily for a few years before that. There’s no particular theme here; just whatever takes my fancy on any given day from the news, my browsing, something I did, some photo I took or… whatever.

It’s a mixed bag.

If you’re expecting a post like yesterday’s each and every day, you might be a little disappointed, but those do come around occasionally, when the need and the time arise.

But like I said, it’s a mixed bag. And tonight, we made burgers and my daughter went all foodie photographer on us, so that’s what you’re getting here:

Super tasty, and almost certainly more nutritious than what I had planned having spotted this earlier:

Although on the downside, also quite a lot more prep time and washing up.

Look, it’s not exactly subtle stuff from the Olive Marketing Board there, but damn, it almost worked. Reading through, I found myself very tempted, but also concerned about the guilt and the potential consequences of eating 30 to 40 olives directly out of the jar with my fingers. Thankfully, that last line:

you will certainly not regret eating 30 to 40 olives

really put my mind at ease, and it was only when the rest of the family reminded my that I was long grown out of my heathen student days that we went for the burger option instead.

It was very nice. But there’s still a bit of me that thinks that maybe I’ve missed out on something.
Like 30 to 40 olives.

Maybe tomorrow.

Take me here. Now.

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Spotted this yesterday. A report from a photographer at the Olympics: he’s Jeff Cable, and he took the pics below. But they’re not sporty pics.

No. Because he’s an official ‘tog at the Games, and he’s using a Canon camera, here gets access to the Canon Professional Services (CPS) area.
What’s that? Oh, just a place with a full on Canon technical team to look after your camera and glass.
Oh, and where you can borrow just about any Canon camera body (yes, including the R1 which hasn’t even been released yet) or any lens to assist you with your photography of whatever you are photographing.

It’s like a photography candy shop.

Oh wow.

But wait! There’s more!

These things aren’t cheap:

As you see when you watch TV, all of us photographers rely on really big lenses here, to get photos close to the action. Each of these lenses that you see here costs thousands of dollars. These start around $6,000 and go all the way up to $20,000 (for the Canon 1200mm lens). You can see three of these on the second shelf from the bottom, far left, below.

$20,000 is a cool R365,000 as I write this post.
But if you want to buy that lens locally, you’re looking at R400,000.

The gaps may look unsightly, but it’s where stuff has been loaned out already.

Each of these camera bodies goes for R100,000 at Orms in Cape Town.

Can you even imagine how much fun you could have at this place?

Take me here. Now.

Here’s Jeff’s full blog post.

The monks are the monks

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More from Geoguessr, in which I found myself dropped in Thailand somewhere near the Myanmar border, and close to a UNESCO World Heritage Site (there was a sign with the logo on).
Not too great on the guess, sadly – 131km away – but my curiosity was piqued and I ended I revisiting the place after the game to have a look at another sign which was nearby:

Turns out that I couldn’t find out much about it, because blue signs with white writing on are very popular in Thailand. (Aside from being able to recognise the Thai language, it’s actually a good way of working out that you’re in Thailand.)

Still, maybe using Google Translate would assist me in trying to learn a bit more about the place:

Well, this suddenly made things a lot clearer.

I don’t think that I’m assuming too much when I say that we all know that the monks are the monks, but equally, we often have doubts as to whether that goes deep enough in ascertaining what the monks actually are. Therefore, logically, any clarification of their actual full status is always going to be helpful.
And what I – and many others, I would guess – would have never imagined, is that the monks are the monks – and the the monks are the monks.

It’s that sort of attention to detail that Thailand is known for, and I’m very glad that I took that time to go back and have another look at this. Otherwise, I would only have got as far as thinking that the monks are the monks, whereas quite obviously (now, at least, lol!) the monks are the monks and the monks are the monks.

I think we’ve all learned something here today.