Neopets Gloats and Cries [Split 1]

[Jelani]

Grading "on a curve" is weird. "This course is rigged so that inevitably some of you will do well and others of you will do badly, regardless of how well you actually do."

It also implies something fundamentally untrue, that your ability improves when other people do worse. I wonder what the game theory implications of this system are? Should a class being graded on a curve all deliberately get zero, so they cannot be differentiated from each other, and therefore all get As?

In higher education in the UK, anything above 70% is a 'first', which is the highest classification you can get.

[Siniri]

Jelani, it was worse than that. It was our first year of college, so we could withdraw and have it hidden from our transcripts up until 2/3 of the way through the course. The class went from ~120 students at the beginning to less than 50. And the professor readjusted the mean on the first 2 exams, removing the students who had dropped -- but didn't tell the rest of us. So while I had been told that I had scored 20-30 points above the mean on those exams when I got them back, I was suddenly below the mean, as were half of us left. And then the professor decided our scores weren't what he expected of us, so he curved to a C-/C. Which meant 25% of those of us who were left got D+'s (or lower), which technically meant you had to retake the course for it to count for your major. None of which we found out until we got our final grades for the course in the mail over summer break. The department left the grades as is (they had to because they had made him chair, which at least mercifully meant he wouldn't have to teach any more undergraduate courses), but let us all continue in the major without repeating. Anyone who made it through that course knew their chemistry.

I also took a course in which I had a 94% average and had it reduced to a B-, because the professor had stated up front it was based on a curve and didn't think it'd be fair to change the grading to a straight scale. Her exams were not too easy; we just all worked really hard (there were a lot of pre-meds in the course).

To make this post relevant, I went to go place my Food Club bids, but couldn't because it glitches during Daylight non-Saving Time, showing the new matches an hour before the old ones close (preventing you from bidding on the old ones, and if you bid on the new ones during that window, sometimes it just eats your money). It really hurts because I'd have added another 150k for my savings for a trophy, putting my savings solidly in the bronze range still (with potential to move up dependent on how I do tomorrow). Now I have to win at least a little bit tomorrow to even get the bronze.

ETA: With just a few hours to go, I'm barely in contention for a bronze (really kicking myself for the lack of betting yesterday, because I'd be solidly bronze). And I just won 150 NC from Expellibox. Woohoo! (I'd never had my sound on when I've won before; it was actually a kind of creepy sound, so that I thought something bad had happened.) And I just deposited my Food Club winnings, and have reached a new highwater mark in my bank account. Only 3M away from my new goal, at which point I'd told myself I could go for one of the more expensive avatars or maybe a weapon upgrade. It'll be tough to decide what I want.

ETA: Made it on 3 high score tables yesterday (Ugga Drop, Faerie Caves 2, and Clockwork Codebreaker). Then when I went to do the daily puzzle:

Something has happened!
An Alien Aisha gives you a Basic Golden Nerkmid!!!

ETA: You have received a Silver Trophy for winning 5 games!!! You have played 145 game(s), and you have cleared the pyramid 5 time(s). Your current win streak is 1 game(s).

Played once more and didn't get the back-to-back wins for the gold. Taking a break for a while now that I've gotten the 5 wins. Only RE I got during playing was one of my pets asking me to buy some expensive food for them.

[Daze]

*headesk* Ad Infinitum!

Spent yesterday training free levels, only to take the pet to the lab and lose 2 levels.

I just can't win.

[Siniri]

Wow, just won another 150NC from Expellibox! Crazy.

Been raking in Food Club winnings the past few days: 14:10, 24:10, and today's 48:10. I came up with a more precise (and hopefully more accurate) way to estimate probabilities, and it certainly seems to be paying off! And that led to reaching another milestone in the bank. 2M more before I can spend on either a weapon and/or avatar.

ETA: Woke up to only 1k NP on hand. I'd gotten used to getting an extra 3k/day from trophies. Had I really fallen off all 4 high score tables at once? I checked my Spinacles score: nope, still gold. Did anyone else not get their trophy NP today? I even checked to make sure I hadn't somehow woken up in the middle of the night and done something at the bank. Nope, I had not collected my interest yet or made any deposits. Now the ticket system isn't working, so I can't even gripe at TNT (not that they'd give me my NP today, anyway, but hopefully they could fix it by tomorrow). Oh, and I made a really stupid move in Armada while upset about the trophies, so now I'm going to lose that game, too.

And now the lab removed two levels from my battlepet. I should just do only the free dailies and stay off Neopets today, eh?

[Daze]

Your luck has rubbed off Siniri. I won 150 NC on Expelibox.

[Siniri]

Yay, glad it's rubbing off, Daze.

Today was much better than yesterday (I was right about the dailies yesterday -- I lost in Food Club, only 20% of what I bet, but still...). I won 52:10 in Food Club, nearly half a million NP!

[Pickles]

Spent 2.1 mil on codestones. Got back up to 25 of each, and only had 10 before doing so. Apparently Cuis have gone back to "normal" prices (around 17k isntead of the like, 33k they were) and Zeds are back down to 33k (instead of 38kish).
Spent less and got more? That's good.
Still...I don't think I'd actually earned the difference during the time since I last bought codestones.
Ah well. I'm still training as much as I can, just for kicks.

Haven't seen anything more from the monthly tournament this month. Guess I'll try again next month.

Can I have some of the Expellibox luck? It's been a while since I won, and I go as often as I can manage.

[Siniri]

Pickles, if your opponent for this round had a game that wasn't finished, so no one won, then you'd get an automatic bye into the next round. At least that's what I assume would happen based on the rules. My opponent and I didn't finish our Armada game. I need to practice that game before next month's tournament to get the hang of how to play. I would have played it out and lost if he'd contacted me to arrange a time.

Gripe: got 0:10 in Food Club yesterday, which would have been the first day to save for trophy turnover day. Hope I get a good win today so I can start saving up; I'd love a trophy upgrade, and given my account age, it shouldn't be too hard.

ETA: Today's Food Club winnings: 60:10. Some people got 80:10, and others got 72:10, but with my account age, I should still be in a decent position for a trophy if I can keep getting lucky.

[Pickles]

Pickles, if your opponent for this round had a game that wasn't finished, so no one won, then you'd get an automatic bye into the next round. At least that's what I assume would happen based on the rules. My opponent and I didn't finish our Armada game. I need to practice that game before next month's tournament to get the hang of how to play. I would have played it out and lost if he'd contacted me to arrange a time.

I guess I've gotten an automatic bye then 3 times now? I haven't had any games since the first round, for any of them, and I've been going and checking just to be sure.

...I wonder if that means I get an automatic gold? I'm signed up for next month, and I'll still play if that happens (or even be willing to forfeit the games), just so my opponents can get through the first round.

Didn't manage to get into the gold trophy spot last night for NBL (got silver again). Guess I'll try again next month. Eventually I have to be lucky enough to hit the top 3 at just the right time, right?

[Siniri]

I'm still in the 90's after 1 day; it'll be tough to get a NBL trophy this month.

Gloat: I got 4 reds from battling today. Cry: 3 were mags, 1 sho. And the ninja asked for double zeds yesterday. Hopefully I'll have better luck tomorrow morning (please, ask for kews, shos, and/or mags).

[Blue]

Cry: Expelibox gave my pet Sneezles... again

Cry: WoE - The Pant Devil stole my Neovian Darkfall book

Gloat: Healing Springs actually healed my pet

Goat: I had two in my inventory

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