Tag: fun
Fun. Cool. Saucy. Axe Feather.
This was fun even before I realised that tickling her in different places when she was in different positions had different effects.
I like it.
Many years later, I’d go on to recreate this advertisement using modern web technologies.
Robotic Bins And Benches
Singing Benches Let Loose In City, writes the BBC. Just plain weird, say I.
Dan And Alex
Dan And Alex
People have been asking me if these comics are actually related to my co-worker, Alex. Of course the answer is no: I would never say anything so unflattering about such a great and able worker as Alex, nor would I ever call him RetardBoy. And obviously these comics aren’t based on actual events: it would just be wrong to imply that these conversations actually happened in any way, shape or form.
Honest.
Dan And Alex
Dan And Alex
CNPS
Consecutive Number Plate Spotting is a very, very silly game.
And now Claire is doing it. And I’m betting that there’ll be others we know who’ll want to try to beat her at it (I’m looking at you, Paul – there’s a number 1 parked on Bridge Street).
This could get very, very silly.
Dan And Alex
Keep Away From Fire
I hadn’t noticed before, but my jeans have a little label in them, sewn in right by my crotch. It reads:
Keep Away From Fire
Yeah; no shit – that’s my knob we’re talking about. Like I need a warning.
Andy’s Dingbats Challenge
Remember my dingbats challenges? (challenge 1, answers; challenge 2, answers) Well; Andy took my engine and made one of his own, which I forgot to link to earlier. Anyway, go take it if you like, but the answers are probably out by now.
It’s a little bit more random and weird and off-the-wall than mine, mind.
Dan’s Dingbats Challenge II – Results
Great turnout for Dan’s Dingbats Challenge II. Thanks for playing, all of you who did! Here’s the scoreboard:
Position | Player | Time Taken | Right Answers | Total Time |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
The Amazing Wonko
Best score, great time to boot… beat Jimmy by just three seconds. |
3mins, 42secs | 13.5 | 4mins, 2secs |
2 |
Jimmy
Fastest overall time and a very good score. So very close to winning… |
3 mins, 25secs | 13 | 4mins, 5secs |
3 | Dimmer | 3 mins, 51secs | 13 | 4mins, 31secs |
4 | Claire | 4mins, 36secs | 12.5 | 5mins, 36secs |
5 | Paul | 4mins, 41secs | 12 | 6mins, 1sec |
6 | Gareth @ SD | 5mins, 32secs | 13 | 6mins, 12secs |
7 | JTA | 5mins, 57secs | 13 | 6mins, 37secs |
8 |
Ruth
Unfortunatley for her, her second attempt [total time 3mins, 1sec] doesn’t count) |
3mins, 46secs | 9.5 | 6mins, 46secs |
9 | Andy K | 5mins, 6secs | 10 (two half-marks) | 7mins, 46secs |
10 |
“scatman”
(not me!) |
4mins, 10secs | 8 | 8mins, 10secs |
11 | Jen W | 5mins, 52secs | 8.5 | 9mins, 32secs |
12 | Matt @ SD | 6mins, 24secs | 8.5 | 10mins, 4secs |
13 | Hagen @ SD | 10mins, 28secs | 11 | 12mins, 28secs |
14 | Hayley | 10mins, 51secs | 9 | 14mins, 11secs |
14 | John K | 9mins, 50secs | 7 | 14mins, 30secs |
Here are the answers. Click on any of the dingbat thumbnails to see the full-size versions:
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Just like the previous challenge, this one began with a particularly difficult puzzle. The words “bird” and “two” appear inside the words “hand” and “bush”, respectively, and the equals
sign states that they have equal worth. Devillishly difficult, but an impressive number of people got it. Half-marks for “a bird in the hand beats two in the
bush”, because it was so very nearly there.
Three cheers.
Finally, a dingbat that everybody can get.
Rock around the clock.
It’s a clock, with the word “rock” repeated around it. Well?
Drinkin’ to forget.
The word “drink” appears in the phrase “24get” (“to forget”), so “drink in 24get”. Anything vaugely close got the marks, but “some kind of low fat drink” didn’t, and neither
did “24 hour drinking”. Difficult.
Head over heels in love.
The word “head” over two (different, just to be confusing) kinds of “heels”, inside a heart (love). Most people got this one, but “feel it head to heel” and “grr argh”
remain the two most spectacularly wrong answers.
History repeats.
I thought this one was really easy, but apparently it isn’t. “History follows history”, “history is history”, “two versions of history” and “past”
are all wrong answers.
Mixed vegetables / tossed vegetables.
Everybody saw the word “vegetables” in here, it seems, and even “chopped vegetables” is worth a half-mark. I thought it would be tougher to put the word back together than it
obviously was.
Once in a blue moon.
Easy, again: the word “once” on a blue-tinted moon. I’ve had complaints from two colourblind participants, but they both got it right anyway.
Green with envy.
More complaints from colourblind participants, one of whom had to hold up something that they knew to be green and squint at them both together to be sure they were actually looking at
something that was green.
Capital punishment.
The word punishment written, quite clearly, in capital letters. “Punishment takes a lifetime” is very, very wrong.
Backseat driver.
My favourite from this set. It’s the words “seat driver” written backwards. Many participants hunted for inner words, anagrams, and all sorts, not bothering to try to read it from right
to left. My favourite wrong answer was “Argh! It looks like revision! Help!”
Tickled pink.
Unpopular again with the colourblind participants. Nonetheless, everybody got it right.
Big Trouble In Little China
The correct answer, which only a few people got, was “Big Trouble In Little China”: it’s the name of a film. “Big Trouble In China” and “Trouble In Little
China” miss the bigger (or littler) picture, and only get half-marks, while “Trouble In China” gets none. Get over it.
No harm in trying.
My second-favourite in this set; one which many people got wrong. The word “harm” is being crossed out from the middle of the phrase “tryharming”, which of course leaves the word
“trying”, with no “harm” in it: therefore, “no harm in trying”. Wrong answers included “self harming”, “out of harms’ way”, and “trying to disarm”.
So, thanks again to everybody who participated, and big congratulations to The Amazing Wonko! Congratulations also due to Jimmy (great fast time – if only you could have shaved three seconds off it or got one more half-mark you’d have one) and Dimmer. Also well done to all those who participated in this and the last one, and got better as a result of the practice.
I’ll leave things there for awhile, but I think that Andy may be working on his very own “Dingbats Challenge” (or something like it) in the near future. Watch this space.
A Diversion From The Election
Looking for a diversion from the fun of tonight’s vote-counting? Here’s Wikipedia‘s "List Of Frivolous Political Parties.
Dan’s Dingbats Challenge II
Hot on the heels (that’d make a good dingbat!) of Dan’s Dingbats Challenge I (results and answers here) comes Dan’s Dingbats Challenge II! The dingbats are, on average, a little easier (and a little more logical), but the penalty for skipping one or getting it wrong has been increased to 40 seconds added to your time. I’m the only person who’s seen them this time around, so Claire is allowed to compete this time.
Will Suz, Andy and Paul struggle to steal first place from one another again? Will Statto or Ruth jump in and take the lead? Will Hayley and Gareth pull their respective fingers out? There’s all to play for…
Dan’s Dingbats Challenge I – Results
I’m glad to see so many people took part in Dan’s Dingbats Challenge I; hope you all had fun. As promised, here are the results (and the answers). Don’t forget, the total time is the time taken plus a 30 second penalty for every wrong answer or skipped question. I did award a number of “half marks” for things, as explained further down, each costing only 15 seconds. Here we go:
Position | Player | Time Taken | Right Answers | Total Time |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
suz
Slipped in at really, really the last minute. |
3mins, 2secs | 7 | 6mins, 32secs |
2 |
andyr
Slipped in at the last minute. |
4mins, 26 secs | 9 | 6mins, 56secs |
3 |
The Pacifist
Surprisingly, considering his negativity to it, almost won, ’til andyr slipped in while I was collating the scores. |
3mins, 50secs | 7.5 | 7mins, 5 secs |
4 | Statto & Chloe | 4mins, 52 secs | 9 | 7mins, 22secs |
5 | Ruth | 3mins, 45secs | 6 | 7mins, 45 secs |
6 | Dim | 5mins, 46secs | 7 | 9mins, 16secs |
7 | Jimmy | 5mins, 37secs | 6.5 | 9mins, 22secs |
8 | John K | 4mins, 55secs | 3 | 10mins, 45secs |
9 | Hagen | 7mins, 10secs | 6 | 11mins, 30secs |
10 | Sundeep | 7mins, 53secs | 5 | 12mins, 43secs |
11 | Matt In The Hat | 9mins, 10secs | 6 (two half-rights) | 13mins, 30secs |
12 | Hayley | 8mins, 39secs | 4 (two half-rights) | 13mins, 59secs |
13 |
Knobcheese
(Gareth@SD |
11mins, 58secs | 4.5 | 16mins, 8secs |
14 |
Claire
Disqualified because she saw some answers early |
3mins, 28secs | 14 | 3mins, 28secs |
Here are the answers. Click on any of the dingbat thumbnails to see the full-size versions:
Pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start all over again.
Only one person got this right, but, to be fair, it’s perhaps the toughest of the set. For those that need an explanation, the letters to the left read “pick your self” (upwards), the
middle letters read “dust your self” (downwards), and finally there’s a picture of the word “again” with the word “start” all over it.
Looking back over my shoulder.
“Looking over my shoulder” isn’t good enough: there’s got to be an effort to point out that the word “looking” is spelt backwards. Most folks who didn’t fall into this little
trap got this one right, though.
Beauty (is) in the eye of the beholder.
One of my favourites. “Beauty and the bees” scores no marks. Explanation: the word “beauty” is “in” the letter I (“eye”) of the word hive, which is, of course, a “bee holder”.
Sickeningly kick-yourself-afterwards.
Little Italy
Almost everybody got this one.
An inside job.
Hideously difficult: I didn’t get this one when first I saw it. The word “an” appears within the word “job”, but it’s hard to see because they’re both very short words. Other
dingbats in this style try phrases like “BOPUSSOTS” (puss in boots), which are longer, or use colour or case to differentiate between the words. Keep an eye out for ones like this, only
a couple of people got it. Things about banjos aren’t even slightly right, but I can see where you’re coming from.
Just around the corner.
I accepted “Just on the corner.” and “Just in the corner.”, too. Pretty simple, afterwards, but a pain in the arse when you have to guess it.
Letters of the alphabet.
Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I promise never to do one this bad ever again. Surprisingly, a few people got it, and not just ones to whom this phrase is an in-joke with me (for several days on
end, I found the phrase “lettuce of the alphabet”, and the image it conjured, hilareously funny). “Alphabet lettuce” gets half a mark, ‘cos I was feeling nice, but “The
sweedish alphabet” (what?) and “Cabbage with white letters on it” aren’t worth any. Sorry again.
Lioness.
It’s the word “lie”. On the letter “S”. Lie-on-S. Could it be any simpler? Apparently so, as only about half the people who participated got it.
Low Fat Milk.
Didn’t come out as well as I’ve have hoped, so I happily gave half-marks for “skimmed milk”, “condensed milk”, and “reduced milk”.
Blackout.
The word “out”. In black. Might have been easier if most of the word you’d seen weren’t in black, but what the hell.
Potatoes.
Another of my favourites. It’s a pot, followed by eight “O’s”. Incorrect answers included “A binary gardener gathers no moss” (what?) and “Planting seeds”.
Scrambled Eggs.
I’d also accept “Broken eggs” (‘cos it’s a better answer), “Eggs – beaten”, or a million and one other similar things. Lenient.
Just a tick.
You might have thought that the clue, “…hang on a minute…” might have been a giveaway here, but apparently it wasn’t. Anything even remotely similar to the phrase “just a
tick” got through, and “one tick” got half-marks. “I should have said I was Sian” doesn’t get any, I’m afraid, Andy.
What goes up must come down.
In a similar vein to the first dingbat in the challenge, this one had the word “what” upwards and the word “must” downwards. “What must” definately didn’t get any points.
So, congratulations to Suz, who slipped in at the last, last second, while I was adding Andy‘s score to the board, who had slipped in at the last second, while I was collating the scores, prior to which, Paul was winning. I really hope nobody else is submitting results right now, ‘cos I’m sick of re-collating the table (checks). No, they haven’t: big thanks to whoever they aren’t. And sorry to Claire, who’ll take part next time. Now that I’ve seen the patterns in the results, I’ve realised that the penalty needs to be larger (to increase the time people spend on individual dingbats, and to reduce the problems caused by people who “pass” fast), but hey – there’s always next time.