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 Forum index » Diversions » TimeWasters
A LITTLE TIMEWASTER SET
Moderators: Giskard, ndemeter, ScarpeGrosse
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danteIL
Unfictologist


Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1990
la!uep wrote:
Damn, and I thought that was too direct. Hmm... maybe it is and you're all trying to see more than it's there?

dude wrote:
On each fork of the road, it's key
to note which way to run.

Give me the right choices, and nothing but the choices. Smile


Jumping in here (because don't you hate it when people appear mid-puzzle?)

I'm pretty sure this is wrong, but the letters of the choice points are:

{wrong,right}
{C,E}
{G,N}
{L,I}
{W,A}

Anagram all of that out and you get:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
A CLEWING


I thought that was cute, given the nature of the puzzle and the need for more help Smile

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:10 pm
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la!uep
Boot


Joined: 26 Mar 2009
Posts: 69
dude wrote:
...don't go from A to Z,
...
Between those two, another three,
and then you'll know you've won.

You'll need 5 in total.

Rogi Ocnorb wrote:
( ) N-orth, S-outh, N-orth, S-outh
( ) L-eft, R-ight, L-eft, R-ight
( ) L-eft, S-traight, L-eft, S-traight
(X) E, N, I, A (Letters indicating the correct forks of the Z-A path.)
( ) D, H, K, Q (Letters where a "forking" decision needs to be made on the Z-A path.)
( ) None of the above


danteIL wrote:
{ wrong ,right}
{C,E}
{G,N}
{L,I}
{W,A}


As for the bacon bits... why would I choose the rhymes to fall out of order in some verses? And there's a few bits you'll have to include that are not in the song itself, you should be able to recognize them. This bacon recipe yields 5 portions, and it's served with the number mentioned there in the end (tinyurls are usually 6 alphanumeric characters).

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:33 pm
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GreenWindmill
Decorated

Joined: 21 Apr 2006
Posts: 195
Location: Midlands, UK

 		Which do you think is the more frustrated party?

The puzzler, provided with a series of confusing and hard to digest nudges or the puzzle setter, who has given blatant clue after blatant clue only for the puzzlers to completely ignore them and turn what should have been a brief walk in the park into a gruelling, week long camping expedition? (figuratively speaking Wink )

Ironically enough I isolated then discarded E, N, I and A as a possible solution. Seems like it was closer than I suspected, lets push on and find the answer now then...
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Mmm... Sacrilicious.

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:57 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.
la!uep wrote:
Rogi Ocnorb wrote:
( ) N-orth, S-outh, N-orth, S-outh
( ) L-eft, R-ight, L-eft, R-ight
( ) L-eft, S-traight, L-eft, S-traight
(X) E, N, I, A (Letters indicating the correct forks of the Z-A path.)
( ) D, H, K, Q (Letters where a "forking" decision needs to be made on the Z-A path.)
( ) None of the above




I've been mis-quoted! Wink

I've tried "zenia4", "eniaz4", "genia4" and "eniag4" to no avail.
The "z" as an additional first "forking" decision. And the "g" due to "bacon-izing" the 3/4 line counts for the verses of the song.

Wish I could pull more meaning out of riddles. Sad

ETA: I've tried "tinyurls".
"tinypics" are blocked, at work.
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I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"


PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:58 pm
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la!uep
Boot


Joined: 26 Mar 2009
Posts: 69

 		Yes, of course the first decision is where to start. So soon you forget that you did make that choice. Wink

At that point I thought you'd be looking around here for possible matches. The place is so small and unknown that it's not even listed on that page, but only when you click on 'Z' in the index. None of the other lists of "California locations" (that I've seen) have it either. Maybe it's because it's not legally incorporated, or it doesn't exist anymore, or whatever. I know, that's evil of me. But in my defense, the dude did give clear and precise directions.

Rogi Ocnorb wrote:
I've tried "zenia4", "eniaz4", "genia4" and "eniag4" to no avail.

No no, you would add the 4 to the bacon dish (in what context did the ABBA and AC/DC combo/confusion came up before?), after cooking, add the 4 to complete a tiny meal.

In short, the map result is a complete answer. The bacon meal would result in a tinyurl code to take you there.

Rogi Ocnorb wrote:
And the "g" due to "bacon-izing" the 3/4 line counts for the verses of the song.

Hmm... not sure how you're going about it... 3/4 line counts?

ETA: Ok now I see what you tried. Nope, not the line counts. There's more info there. What would ABBA or ABAB mean in reference to rhymes?

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:45 pm
Last edited by la!uep on Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:32 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		I live in Northern California and I've never heard of it. But they do come and go.

I probably never will get the Bacon part of this.

For the "g" I came up with, I took the number of lines in each verse (stanza?) or, 4, 4, 3, 3, 4 and cooked them.
BBAAB isn't valid in normal Bacon, so I went with AABBA which is "G".
BBAAB is, coincidentally, a "Z" in some Bacon offshoot variants.
_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"


PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:30 pm
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la!uep
Boot


Joined: 26 Mar 2009
Posts: 69
Rogi Ocnorb wrote:
I probably never will get the Bacon part of this.

See my edit above.

ETA: At this point (the puzzle is solved already), I have to warn you that you'll need more bacon bits than those found in the song alone. This is a "meta" hint/confirmation so the dude wouldn't really know about it "in-game," so the bits in the song alone won't do it.

ETA2: It's the simplest form, yea starts off as a Ballad or Common metre, but you don't even need to know anything about that. It's as simple as telling apple's from oranges.

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:33 pm
Last edited by la!uep on Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:42 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		I might be able to figure it out if I could see how, for instance, Gilligan's Island's theme song is considered Ballad Metre.

But I can't. So I won't.

It's just one of those (many) things I never was any good with.
_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"


PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:39 pm
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la!uep
Boot


Joined: 26 Mar 2009
Posts: 69

 		Alright I'll give you this solve because you all worked a lot at it and I admit the method is quite elusive.

dude wrote:
The smallest town you'll ever see [=A]
is just the place I'm from. [=B]
Don't fret my friend, this map's for free... [=A]
just give it back to mom. [=B]

On each fork of the road, it's key [=A]
to note which way to run. [=B]
But please don't go from A to Z, [=A]
that's just not how it's done. [=B]

Between those two, another three, [=A]
and then you'll know you've won. [=B]
Trust me, you'll know. Bar none! [=B]

You'll find her up there in a tree [=A]
as sure as I'm her son, [=B]
just ask which one's the one. [=B]

Don't stay too long, don't ask for tea. [=A]
She's mad as hell, she broke her knee, [=A]
her back, her hip, and she blames me! [=A]
Beware, she's got a gun! [=B]

There's 18 lines so to complete the first 4 letters (20 bacon bits) you look elsewhere, and must extrapolate the pattern on your own:

la!uep wrote:
WTF???

I stood there thinking, "this can't be!" [=A] the minute he was gone. [=B]

That completes 20: ABAB ABAB ABB ABB AAAB AB
or separated as bacon bits: ABABA BABAB BABBA AABAB = LXYF

still not enough for a tinyurl...

la!uep wrote:
If you can't read the crazy map [=A] but rather like the song, [=B] a breakfast treat that makes you fat [=A] would help you here to, in a snap, [=A] get tiny. Can't go wrong! [=B]

ABAAB=K

la!uep wrote:
[K? top your treat with this last bit and add a number four]

That "K?" was supposed to confirm you were in the right track, as well as the use of the version with I=K and U=V (otherwise ABAAB=I).

So, LXYFK4, 6 characters is just right for one complete tiny meal (from there click on where it says "View this record on the Observation Entry page, with map").

Sorry the main part got so frustrating... it seems like the bacon stuff is too much, and some easier alternative paths with easier hints might have worked better.

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:47 pm
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sixsidedsquare
Unfettered

Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 409
Location: 60E

 		Ah, posted the solution while I was writing this one. No worry, because I didn't have it anyways.

I had realized we needed more characters and was looking to the extra bits you pointed out, but couldn't decide what was meant to be a rhyme and what wasn't. That's can be a problem with rhyming puzzles, deciding on what you think the puzzle creator counted as a rhyme and what they didn't. I'd discounted the map/fat rhyme in the final part for example. You also get the problem of accents/pronunciation (Zed/Zee), though when you've got another pattern such as line endings this can normally be worked around.

And I think the main problem with the map part was that it wasn't an answer that hit you. We had the answer in front of us and we didn't even know it. I guess we should have been looking at small Californian towns, but we were so busy trying to solve the puzzle we forgot what we were looking for in the first place.

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:09 pm
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danteIL
Unfictologist


Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1990

 		Huh, what does any of that have to do with the keyboard map?

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:12 pm
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la!uep
Boot


Joined: 26 Mar 2009
Posts: 69
danteIL wrote:
Huh, what does any of that have to do with the keyboard map?

The tinyurl looks like some random page, with the intention of throwing off a hurried puzzler, to make him think it's a false lead if he wasn't paying attention. I sometimes like doing this kind of misleading thing.

But that page does have some relevant triggers once you stop and look at it. It mentions California, it has some geographic references with a mention of a map, and the answer in question is there too, so if you had come across it or part of it as part of searching the maze you should recognize it. Finally, when linking to the map, the answer appears with the crosshairs right on top of it.

Again, I intentionally made this part tougher for the player because it's kind of like a spoiler. And it wasn't required to get to the solution, so it's also a kind of Easter egg.

Six, I definitely agree with your comments. You can imagine it isn't trivial to make a maze out of a keyboard layout and then be able to pick too many words out of it. Maybe I didn't try hard enough.

Thanks for submitting yourselves to my tortures. I was just reading over the first few posts in the thread and I thought Magneto's thoughts in his first post were really interesting. BTW, Rogi's version of bacon was a simple, beautiful miniature which lasted more than 5 days. His comment on collaboration vs. hinting are also worth thinking about.

So, whoever wants to post a new one should go.

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:07 pm
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sixsidedsquare
Unfettered

Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 409
Location: 60E
danteIL wrote:
Huh, what does any of that have to do with the keyboard map?


There were two separate paths through the puzzle really, the map and the bacon.

For the map path you had to rearrange the letters to a qwerty layout (it's an okay assumption to expect people to use qwerty imo) which gave you a maze like path. Following through the maze from the Z key to the A key, whenever there was a point where there was a 'fork' in the path, you had to write down the letter on the key for the path you took, giving you ZENIA.

The bacon path, as described above, took rhyme patterns, converted to letters ala Bacon cipher, stuck a 4 on the end as per instructions and went on a tinyurl. That tinyurl lead to a page that was some sort of flora observation thing, in Zenia, California.

What I don't get though, is why people keep using random character tinyurl links, when you can make custom ones with actual words, www.tinyurl.com/likeThisForExample
That would make it so when you come upon the tinyurl string that you were certain of it, rather than trying random strings and trying to work out if the page they lead to in relevant. [edit] Ahh, I see from the post above that this was the point Razz [/edit]

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:19 pm
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la!uep
Boot


Joined: 26 Mar 2009
Posts: 69
sixsidedsquare wrote:
What I don't get though, is why people keep using random character tinyurl links, when you can make custom ones with actual words, www.tinyurl.com/likeThisForExample
That would make it so when you come upon the tinyurl string that you were certain of it, rather than trying random strings and trying to work out if the page they lead to in relevant.

But doesn't that take away some of the puzzling part of using a tiny url? Sometimes I like the gibberish-ness of those little codes, sometimes it's convenient to have a result that you can't recognize as a word, it forces the player to make sure he's doing it right, and discourages random guessing. A tiny url code would make for a cool encryption password with a secondary meaning which would probably go unnoticed by a careless player.

On the other hand, a player might discard a recognizable word as being the tinyurl (if there's a tiny hint in the puzzle), or they might get stuck trying to interpret it as something else...
sixsidedsquare wrote:
...I got stuck looking for how to interpret the last bit and didn't think to use tinyurl (couldn't get past "eight owl" -> "a towel").
WinkVery Happy

In this puzzle's case, that LXYFK4 is in fact an aliased tiny url. Because I wanted the first few stanzas to actually be in common metre (or Ballad), I was stuck with a ABABABABAB = LX beginning. Maybe I could have come up with something better, but my poetry skills are quite limited.

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:47 pm
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danteIL
Unfictologist


Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1990
sixsidedsquare wrote:
danteIL wrote:
Huh, what does any of that have to do with the keyboard map?


There were two separate paths through the puzzle really, the map and the bacon.


Thanks for the explanation(s), but then the problem I have is with the hints, because by mixing up hints for both paths together (like 'bacon' with 'key'), then one assumes that the are all part of the same solution, when really they weren't at all.

PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:48 pm
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