First: My latest contest was tied to episode 43 of my podcast. Two people entered the contest. Rather than draw a winner between the two, they'll both win a fabulous prize package.* It might take me a week or more to put it together, but with any kind of luck, it will bring an ounce of amusement to their lives.
As for the future of our Yahtzee group: I'm not going anywhere, and I'll play as time permits. I'm going to stop dedicating time to prize climbs and the world of dice. They're fun, but I've got a lot on my to-do list in 2020, and cutting out 10 minutes of Yahtzee per day won't do that much to help my cause. Nonetheless, I'll scale back my time in a lot of areas in order to accomplish things that I need to accomplish. But yes, I'll be around on a daily basis, collecting free rolls. And maybe putting my 2200+ free rolls to use for a future Family Feast, should we need the extra push to secure a position. Nice job to all who put extra effort into securing second place after we briefly slipped to third.
And in cutting back, I won't be initiating head-to-head challenges with other players for a while. That's not a big time suck, but again, I'm trying to cut back on how I spend my time overall. This is bad news mostly for Greg, as I'm his good luck charm. He beats me far too often, and it's because I bring him good luck. I've been drawing out our current game only because I know the inevitable outcome.
*prize package is not fabulous
Saturday, February 15, 2020
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Super Bowel contest
Here are the Super Bowel point total predictions. As usual,
closest without going over wins. If all guesses exceed the total points scored
by both teams, the lowest guess will win. If there’s a tie, a tiebreaker will
be held.
Chrisblackburn 32
Lauriem324 41
Alyssajandm 42
Quicksparrow14 42
Spartan75 42
Pinksushi66 43
Gregrulz 45
Totallyquacky 49
Sheila618 50
Penguinrnbwunicorn 55
71fraz 56
Xray1989 59
Azjim1 62
Scracer 65
Dicedominatorokc 66
Jack664 77
Cheerfulelk1177 77
Saturday, December 28, 2019
New year, new contest
Every year the Minnesota lottery has a New Year’s Day raffle.
They sell 700,000 tickets. There are several prizes, including two $1 million
prizes.
As usual, I have a ticket for the 2020 raffle. What does
this have to do with our contest?
Your goal is to guess the total of the 12 digits from the $1
million winning ticket numbers in the 2020 contest. The winner receives a prize package containing at least three items on
nominal value.
An example: The winning numbers for the 2019 raffle were
091593 and 442917. Add up the 12 digits for those winning tickets and you get a
total of 54. https://www.mnlottery.com/games/raffle/raffle-2019
Fun facts: The lowest total you could have is 2, and that
could happen several ways. If the winning tickets are 000001 and 000100, the
total is 2.
The highest total you could have is 101, and that could happen
multiple ways, as well. If the winning tickets are 699999 and 699998, you
get 101. It also happens if the winning tickets are 699999 and 698999.
To enter: Send your guess via private message to MikeVegas by
Tuesday evening. At some point Tuesday night the contest will officially close.
So don’t delay, enter today.
As usual, game show rules apply. The closest to the actual
total, without going over, wins the prize package. If all guesses exceed the winning
total, the guess closest to the total will be the winner. A tie-breaker will be
held if necessary.
AND THE ENTRIES ARE:
Spartan75 43
DiceDominatorOKC 44
Azjim1 46
Alyssajandm 49
QuickSparrow14 56
GregRulz 58
Pinksushi66 63
Sheila618 63
Xray1989 64
71fraz 71
Jack664 73
Scracer 78
AND THE ENTRIES ARE:
Spartan75 43
DiceDominatorOKC 44
Azjim1 46
Alyssajandm 49
QuickSparrow14 56
GregRulz 58
Pinksushi66 63
Sheila618 63
Xray1989 64
71fraz 71
Jack664 73
Scracer 78
Sunday, December 8, 2019
Thanks for the effort
Our team won its first Family Feast, and I was amazed by that. Plenty of people have come and gone since then. Life goes on, with or without Yahtzee.
A team member came to me with a crazy idea a couple of months after the Feasts were introduced: Delay our start and get into a less competitive pool of teams. It doesn't guarantee a win, but it avoids having to compete with super teams. As we've learned, some teams will earn more than 100,000 points in a Feast.
I liked the idea, floated it in the group chat, and others liked it to. We were about to start a Feast, and I thought it was too early to expect 50 people to be on the same page, but we tried to get everyone on that same page at the suggestion of several team members, and we delayed our start long enough to give us a less insane pool of competitors. It was very encouraging.
Moving forward, I determined we needed a more organized campaign, so I recruited team "captains" to send reminders to players prior to the start of each new Feast. In addition to private message reminders, we repeat our messaging in the general chat room. It does not take hours of our time to do this, but I have spent time organizing teams twice and communicating with the captains at the start of each Feast. We all spend time trying to make sure everybody is paying attention and on the same page.
I have never made winning the Feast a team priority. I don't pay close attention to the contributions of our members. I don't set participation benchmarks that team members must reach. It's just not that important to win a limited edition dice set or team emblem.
The current Feast started about four days after the previous Feast ended. A Facebook group I recently joined noted that the Feasts were starting about 7-8 days after the completion of the previous Feast. Somehow the current Feast had to start four days after the previous Feast, and without a 24-hour notice. I think we had about two hours notice.... too short to expect the captains to send reminders to the team members. We limited the announcement to our group chat and hoped for the best, knowing everyone on our team knows our strategy.
As I said, I recruited several people to help me keep 42 other players in the loop when a Feast is about to start. We've benefited from our communication/delay effort seemingly every time, but for whatever reason, it's just too difficult for our team to accomplish our one declared goal, to wait until the following day to start playing the Feast.
I can no longer ask people to dedicate their time toward a goal we can't accomplish collectively. We've been through several Feasts using a delayed start. When I add new team members, I communicate with them and make sure they understand that we skip the first day of the Feast. They all understand that. And yet, one of our veteran players has some extraordinary circumstances that necessitates starting the Feast.
I'm not interested in pointing a finger at any one person. It has happened a handful of times now, and I have no reason to assume it's not going to continue happening.
I won't ask the captains to spend any more time reminding everyone that we have one goal, and only one, on this team. There's no 75-bag requirement during each Feast. There's no 10 bags/day requirement. There's no help points requirements. But we can't, collectively, leave the Feast alone for 18-24 hours. We just can't. And asking team captains to work toward that is something I can no longer do.
You're all welcome to do what you want to do during future Feasts. My work is done.
Yahtzee is supposed to be fun, I'm told. If being part of our group and not paying attention to the one goal our team has agreed to makes it more fun, who am I to argue?
Good luck out there!
A team member came to me with a crazy idea a couple of months after the Feasts were introduced: Delay our start and get into a less competitive pool of teams. It doesn't guarantee a win, but it avoids having to compete with super teams. As we've learned, some teams will earn more than 100,000 points in a Feast.
I liked the idea, floated it in the group chat, and others liked it to. We were about to start a Feast, and I thought it was too early to expect 50 people to be on the same page, but we tried to get everyone on that same page at the suggestion of several team members, and we delayed our start long enough to give us a less insane pool of competitors. It was very encouraging.
Moving forward, I determined we needed a more organized campaign, so I recruited team "captains" to send reminders to players prior to the start of each new Feast. In addition to private message reminders, we repeat our messaging in the general chat room. It does not take hours of our time to do this, but I have spent time organizing teams twice and communicating with the captains at the start of each Feast. We all spend time trying to make sure everybody is paying attention and on the same page.
I have never made winning the Feast a team priority. I don't pay close attention to the contributions of our members. I don't set participation benchmarks that team members must reach. It's just not that important to win a limited edition dice set or team emblem.
The current Feast started about four days after the previous Feast ended. A Facebook group I recently joined noted that the Feasts were starting about 7-8 days after the completion of the previous Feast. Somehow the current Feast had to start four days after the previous Feast, and without a 24-hour notice. I think we had about two hours notice.... too short to expect the captains to send reminders to the team members. We limited the announcement to our group chat and hoped for the best, knowing everyone on our team knows our strategy.
As I said, I recruited several people to help me keep 42 other players in the loop when a Feast is about to start. We've benefited from our communication/delay effort seemingly every time, but for whatever reason, it's just too difficult for our team to accomplish our one declared goal, to wait until the following day to start playing the Feast.
I can no longer ask people to dedicate their time toward a goal we can't accomplish collectively. We've been through several Feasts using a delayed start. When I add new team members, I communicate with them and make sure they understand that we skip the first day of the Feast. They all understand that. And yet, one of our veteran players has some extraordinary circumstances that necessitates starting the Feast.
I'm not interested in pointing a finger at any one person. It has happened a handful of times now, and I have no reason to assume it's not going to continue happening.
I won't ask the captains to spend any more time reminding everyone that we have one goal, and only one, on this team. There's no 75-bag requirement during each Feast. There's no 10 bags/day requirement. There's no help points requirements. But we can't, collectively, leave the Feast alone for 18-24 hours. We just can't. And asking team captains to work toward that is something I can no longer do.
You're all welcome to do what you want to do during future Feasts. My work is done.
Yahtzee is supposed to be fun, I'm told. If being part of our group and not paying attention to the one goal our team has agreed to makes it more fun, who am I to argue?
Good luck out there!
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Happy Thanksgiving
First and foremost, whether you can sit back and enjoy the cooking of others or have to work and make life better for others, I hope you have a pleasant day and a chance to gather with family or friends in the days to come.
This contest attracted 15 entrants, I think that's a record. The contest is to pick the total points scored by all six NFL teams on Thanksgiving. Here are the picks:
It seems as if every contest has a number that two or three people pick, and that's the case here. DiceDominator can only win if his pick is exact. I'll hold a tiebreaker if the total is 129-141.
Fun fact, if we had held this contest on Thanksgiving last year, the winning total would have been 141.*
Finally: Here's recent video of the Goofball Bros., dancing to one of our favorite songs:
*fact is not fun
AND THE WINNER IS....
To be determined. Sure enough, the combined final score of all six teams is 129, which three people picked, so we need a tiebreaker.
If you're one of the three winners, send me a private message, picking three numbers from 1 to 3, in order of preference.
If your first choice is 3, your second choice is 2 and your third choice is 1, message me with 3-2-1. Once two people have picked their three numbers, in order of preference, we can hold a tiebreaker.
AND THE WINNER IS!
That didn't take long.
Funny story, PenguinRnbwUnicorn and totallyquacky are two of our new team members, and are husband and wife. They both picked 129 without consultation. Logic suggests they should compare notes and pick two different numbers to give their household a better chance of winning. They didn't, and they ended up picking the exact same number.
We'll be spinning the roulette wheel to choose our winner. Each player will get one column. If the wheel hits 0, we spin again. totallyquacky was first to respond, and her first pick was 2, so she gets column 2.
PenguinRnbwUnicorn responded second. His first pick was 2, which was already taken, so we go to his second pick, which is 1. He gets column 1.
Fun fact: They both picked 2-1-3 as their order of preference. After 21 years of marriage, you think alike. That's the lesson we're learning from all of this.
azjim1 is out of town this weekend, so it's no surprise he wasn't quick to respond. He gets column 3 since that's the only column left.
If you are the winner, send me your name and address by private message.
With that, here's our winner.
This contest attracted 15 entrants, I think that's a record. The contest is to pick the total points scored by all six NFL teams on Thanksgiving. Here are the picks:
45 GregRulz
67 ChrisBlackburn
77 JennaChelle
87 Sheila618
90 bluebelle27
97 Spartan75
100 QuickSparrow14
117 71fraz
120 Pinksushi66
128 DiceDominatorOKC
129 azjim1
129 PenguinRnbwUnicorn
129 totallyquacky
142 Xray1989
157 alyssajandm
Fun fact, if we had held this contest on Thanksgiving last year, the winning total would have been 141.*
Finally: Here's recent video of the Goofball Bros., dancing to one of our favorite songs:
*fact is not fun
AND THE WINNER IS....
To be determined. Sure enough, the combined final score of all six teams is 129, which three people picked, so we need a tiebreaker.
If you're one of the three winners, send me a private message, picking three numbers from 1 to 3, in order of preference.
If your first choice is 3, your second choice is 2 and your third choice is 1, message me with 3-2-1. Once two people have picked their three numbers, in order of preference, we can hold a tiebreaker.
AND THE WINNER IS!
That didn't take long.
Funny story, PenguinRnbwUnicorn and totallyquacky are two of our new team members, and are husband and wife. They both picked 129 without consultation. Logic suggests they should compare notes and pick two different numbers to give their household a better chance of winning. They didn't, and they ended up picking the exact same number.
We'll be spinning the roulette wheel to choose our winner. Each player will get one column. If the wheel hits 0, we spin again. totallyquacky was first to respond, and her first pick was 2, so she gets column 2.
PenguinRnbwUnicorn responded second. His first pick was 2, which was already taken, so we go to his second pick, which is 1. He gets column 1.
Fun fact: They both picked 2-1-3 as their order of preference. After 21 years of marriage, you think alike. That's the lesson we're learning from all of this.
azjim1 is out of town this weekend, so it's no surprise he wasn't quick to respond. He gets column 3 since that's the only column left.
If you are the winner, send me your name and address by private message.
With that, here's our winner.
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Another photo of the Goofball Bros.
I did not take this photo of the Goofball Bros., but it was taken a couple of hours after I picked them up from school on Oct. 8 and took them to the park for an hour or so. I think this was on their car ride to swimming lessons.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Rules of the game
I created our family on a lark and named it after my podcast because I could.
I had no idea there would be Family Feasts, and that having active family members would be beneficial to winning a few simple virtual prizes. But that's how it works.
As time marches on, we've learned that delaying the start of the Feast makes it easier to win them. Few people seem to object to that. I encouraged RDoc1 to move on and find a new team if s/he wasn't happy with having "boring" Feasts. I totally support moving onto a new team if there's any reason you're not happy with the one I put together.
As for RDoc1, s/he joined a team that requires you have 10 help points every week, and earn at least 50 bags in each Family Feast. If it makes him/her happy being part of such a team, I'm glad s/he joined it.
I have talked with one of the captains about having a minimum requirement for the Feast, but I have not implemented one. I'm still not going to.
But here's my loose-knit guidelines for membership. Apologies if I'm asking too much.
I don't care about how many or how few help points you have. I don't bother to look these days. If you ask for free rolls and scratchers, and don't help anybody earn them, it's no big deal. We have plenty of people who spend the 3 seconds it takes to help multiple times per day. Our team has a huge help score. As of this moment, two members have scores >200.
I am not setting a minimum on Feast contributions. Beyond the daily free game, I spent less than 20 rolls on the last Feast, and scored 40-something bags. I spent no rolls on the prior Feast and scored 30+ bags just by playing one free daily game.
All I hope for is to have active players who engage regularly and play their free daily Feast game, if nothing else. Almost everyone ends up with 20+ bags during each Feast. That takes very little effort.
But I'm not setting a minimum requirement. I try to watch the bottom of the player score total at the end of each Feast, but I don't keep stats. If I notice somebody is consistently inactive, I will consider removing them. I know people take breaks from the game, and some folks are kind enough to let us know. But I'm not going to set a minimum requirement for the Feasts. I couldn't care less if we win or finish in 20th place, but I'd rather have a chance at winning, and therefore I'd rather have modestly active players on our roster.
So what's my point? I'm not penalizing people simply for starting the Feast 3 or 4 hours after it begins, despite the fact our goal is to wait until the next day. But during the past two Feasts, the players who started it were players who contributed less than 30 bags. And when I sent them private messages, asking if they are paying attention to our delayed start notifications, I got no response. After several messages over several days, with zero response, I decided that it was time for them to go after we finished the Feast.
I don't care if you don't want to chat. We have active players who never chat in the group chat, and that's fine. But I don't think it's asking too much for anyone to acknowledge a private message when one is sent. So if a player starts the Feast, and never pays attention to our announcements or acknowledges a private message I've sent, I figure s/he doesn't much care if s/he is in our group or not.
Am I a jerk, or am I simply trying to build a team of players who pay attention to each other, even if they don't chat? That's for you to decide. If it turns out you all think I'm doing things all wrong, I'll happily turn over the leadership. But I don't see many complaints, and 95 percent of you seem to be active players. We all found our way to my team by happenstance, and it has turned out to be a fun, active group. I don't know how I got so lucky.
Finally, coordinating the delayed start of the Feast has been easy, thanks to our team captains. I set the teams up, and the captains spread the word each time via private messages and reminders in the group chat. Thanks to the seven of you for making it work!
I had no idea there would be Family Feasts, and that having active family members would be beneficial to winning a few simple virtual prizes. But that's how it works.
As time marches on, we've learned that delaying the start of the Feast makes it easier to win them. Few people seem to object to that. I encouraged RDoc1 to move on and find a new team if s/he wasn't happy with having "boring" Feasts. I totally support moving onto a new team if there's any reason you're not happy with the one I put together.
As for RDoc1, s/he joined a team that requires you have 10 help points every week, and earn at least 50 bags in each Family Feast. If it makes him/her happy being part of such a team, I'm glad s/he joined it.
I have talked with one of the captains about having a minimum requirement for the Feast, but I have not implemented one. I'm still not going to.
But here's my loose-knit guidelines for membership. Apologies if I'm asking too much.
I don't care about how many or how few help points you have. I don't bother to look these days. If you ask for free rolls and scratchers, and don't help anybody earn them, it's no big deal. We have plenty of people who spend the 3 seconds it takes to help multiple times per day. Our team has a huge help score. As of this moment, two members have scores >200.
I am not setting a minimum on Feast contributions. Beyond the daily free game, I spent less than 20 rolls on the last Feast, and scored 40-something bags. I spent no rolls on the prior Feast and scored 30+ bags just by playing one free daily game.
All I hope for is to have active players who engage regularly and play their free daily Feast game, if nothing else. Almost everyone ends up with 20+ bags during each Feast. That takes very little effort.
But I'm not setting a minimum requirement. I try to watch the bottom of the player score total at the end of each Feast, but I don't keep stats. If I notice somebody is consistently inactive, I will consider removing them. I know people take breaks from the game, and some folks are kind enough to let us know. But I'm not going to set a minimum requirement for the Feasts. I couldn't care less if we win or finish in 20th place, but I'd rather have a chance at winning, and therefore I'd rather have modestly active players on our roster.
So what's my point? I'm not penalizing people simply for starting the Feast 3 or 4 hours after it begins, despite the fact our goal is to wait until the next day. But during the past two Feasts, the players who started it were players who contributed less than 30 bags. And when I sent them private messages, asking if they are paying attention to our delayed start notifications, I got no response. After several messages over several days, with zero response, I decided that it was time for them to go after we finished the Feast.
I don't care if you don't want to chat. We have active players who never chat in the group chat, and that's fine. But I don't think it's asking too much for anyone to acknowledge a private message when one is sent. So if a player starts the Feast, and never pays attention to our announcements or acknowledges a private message I've sent, I figure s/he doesn't much care if s/he is in our group or not.
Am I a jerk, or am I simply trying to build a team of players who pay attention to each other, even if they don't chat? That's for you to decide. If it turns out you all think I'm doing things all wrong, I'll happily turn over the leadership. But I don't see many complaints, and 95 percent of you seem to be active players. We all found our way to my team by happenstance, and it has turned out to be a fun, active group. I don't know how I got so lucky.
Finally, coordinating the delayed start of the Feast has been easy, thanks to our team captains. I set the teams up, and the captains spread the word each time via private messages and reminders in the group chat. Thanks to the seven of you for making it work!
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