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Post by elysethecat on Jul 22, 2019 8:42:11 GMT -5
Sorry, I don't think I was clear. The first strike in a turkey is worth 30 points. Because a turkey looks like: X X X. Ten plus ten plus ten. A strike can only be worth 30 points in one frame if the next two balls thrown are strikes, hence a turkey being traditionally thought of as 30 points. 60 doesn't make sense. Here's a link that explains bowling scores in detail. As I said before, a "turkey" is impossible to quantify. The first strike of a turkey is always 30 points but beyond that, it depends. A turkey is a descriptive noun that is defined simply as bowing three strikes in a row. There is not a set numerical value for a turkey. A set value is impossible. www.myactivesg.com/Sports/Bowling/How-To-Play/Bowling-Rules/How-are-points-determined-in-bowling
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Post by efanton on Jul 22, 2019 10:15:07 GMT -5
Sorry, I don't think I was clear. The first strike in a turkey is worth 30 points. Because a turkey looks like: X X X. Ten plus ten plus ten. A strike can only be worth 30 points in one frame if the next two balls thrown are strikes, hence a turkey being traditionally thought of as 30 points. 60 doesn't make sense. Here's a link that explains bowling scores in detail. As I said before, a "turkey" is impossible to quantify. The first strike of a turkey is always 30 points but beyond that, it depends. A turkey is a descriptive noun that is defined simply as bowing three strikes in a row. There is not a set numerical value for a turkey. A set value is impossible. www.myactivesg.com/Sports/Bowling/How-To-Play/Bowling-Rules/How-are-points-determined-in-bowling got it. I fully understand now, thanks.
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luna
New Member
Posts: 32
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Post by luna on Jul 23, 2019 12:16:24 GMT -5
The following is a random train of ideas I came by that could mean absolutely nothing, but also could have some significance. So I just thought I would share and people can take it as they wish!
This stanza, especially the beginning, is pretty confusing to me and I've been stuck on the phrase "spare no expense". I'm wondering if it's simply a random phrase inserted in hopes that the word "spare" leads us to thinking of bowling (to get to turkey, etc.), but I'm also wondering if there's more meaning to this phrase and it holds more significance. A quick google search of the phrase "spare no expense" brings up information about the phrase, but also shows it's actually related to the movie Jurassic Park. In the movie, the creator of the park, John Hammond, repeats several times how he "spared no expense" in creating the park. In fact, he says it so many times that it's become a sort of joke and prompted people to make videos that just show him repeating the phrase throughout the movie.
So is it possible that this stanza could be somehow related to Jurassic Park?
One thing that could possibly support this idea is that Lukas mentioned that one of his biggest influences for the hunt came from Ready Player One. In the book, the gunters are all experts on the creator of the hunt (James Halliday) because he is obsessed with 80s culture/media/games and uses his interests to create the hunt (many of the clues have to do with games/songs/pop culture references of that era). So is it possible that Lukas had the same idea and based many of the clues off of some of his favorite media? (There's already a possibility Harry Potter is involved/alluded to in one of the stanzas). With that said, we have absolutely no proof that Lukas even likes Jurassic Park, so this is all speculation of course. But I think it's very possible based on his age. He and I are about the same age, and though the first Jurassic movie came out the year I was born, it was still very much a cult classic as I was growing up.
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Post by susb8383 on Jul 25, 2019 18:20:17 GMT -5
Hey theCoyWonder,
Thanks for sharing so much on the phone number thread. I didn't quite follow how you got "999 precedes 1000" from 'astride a treasure on its own.'
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Post by susb8383 on Jul 25, 2019 18:22:30 GMT -5
Random comment: it's always bothered me a little that he says 'astride a treasure on its own' instead of "...of its own.' It seems to me 'a treasure OF its own' makes more logical sense to the rest of the poem. I wonder if his wording was intentional.
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Post by efanton on Jul 25, 2019 20:52:12 GMT -5
Random comment: it's always bothered me a little that he says 'astride a treasure on its own' instead of "...of its own.' It seems to me 'a treasure OF its own' makes more logical sense to the rest of the poem. I wonder if his wording was intentional. Personally I think its deliberate. It singles something out. A bridge, an island, a mountain that's not in a range of mountains, something unique like a great wonder. Those are some of the things I have considered. My problem with this stanza (well one of them) is interpreting does he mean what we are looking for is astride a treasure BUT on its own (the solution would be on its own), or does he mean astride a treasure THAT is on it own (its the treasure that's on its own, not necessarily the solution)? The grammar in that sentence is a bit loose with no punctuation marks in it and could be interpreted in different ways. your suggestion too works, a treasure of its own might be an object that might not have monetary value, a beauty spot or secluded place for instance
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Post by TheCoyWonder on Jul 25, 2019 21:23:59 GMT -5
Hey theCoyWonder, Thanks for sharing so much on the phone number thread. I didn't quite follow how you got "999 precedes 1000" from 'astride a treasure on its own.' And that may be why the phone numbers didn't work. lol. I initially interpreted astride to mean "beside", and 999 is beside 1000 (the treasure). Looks like I'll need to look this over from the perspective of "on both sides of"
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Post by efanton on Jul 26, 2019 6:52:26 GMT -5
Random comment: it's always bothered me a little that he says 'astride a treasure on its own' instead of "...of its own.' It seems to me 'a treasure OF its own' makes more logical sense to the rest of the poem. I wonder if his wording was intentional. I had a good think on this, after posting my previous post. the question I asked was is the 'N' in ' in' significant, and why would it be significant. It occurred to me that there could be an anagram hidden in the line 'Astride a treasure on its own'. The N would be required to make up the anagram. Despite working on it for a few hours and using various online tools, no anagram could be found that made any sense (multiple gibberish words). I would suggest others work on a possible anagram in case I missed something. Then it struck me. Hidden in the line is the word ' SANTORINI'. Without the N you could not hide the word Santorini. Satorini is an Island. (on its own). It sits astride the volcano Tholos, (the one that blew up in the Minoan period and allegedly destroyed the Minonan culture, or in myth destroyed Atlantis.) and it is relatively near Turkey. I have tried various combinations of Santorini and Tholus in various URLs but no success so far. I'm sure I have not tried every possible combination yet. If this is right 'The next plus two' reference still baffles me, I have yet to see any meaning to it if the solution is Santorini or Tholos
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Post by elysethecat on Jul 26, 2019 16:06:12 GMT -5
That's why I initially believed the "on its own" referred to a single X - which would be astride a treasure on a map. XXX (the next plus two/turkey) being the potential solution to this stanza. I still haven't ruled it out, either.
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Post by susb8383 on Jul 26, 2019 17:35:39 GMT -5
Oh like X marks the spot. Good theory!
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Post by efanton on Jul 26, 2019 21:06:04 GMT -5
That's why I initially believed the "on its own" referred to a single X - which would be astride a treasure on a map. XXX (the next plus two/turkey) being the potential solution to this stanza. I still haven't ruled it out, either. X on a treasure map would not mean open the chest and inside it you will find an X. It a indicator as to where to search. I cant see X being the answer. I could knock up a list of every domain on the internet in an hour or two in the format X.yyy where yyy would be every top level domain possible. I could then click each and everyone one of them to see if its a valid site, or get my excel spreadsheet to do that for me. I really cant see Lukas making it that easy. I still think we are looking for a place, ancient monument, or place of historical interest near Turkey. My point was why use the hint X marks the spot or variations of that. X has to be more than a pointer, maybe a place that begins with X. Something that looks like an X on the map (airport, intersecting roads, shape of an island. Also if X was the solution then the lines are sort of redundant. Yes there's the reference to Bowling there, but surely there's a second meaning. Why say 'search everywhere'(near Turkey) If X on its own was the answer. That's why I made the post about Santorini. Susb8383 made an interesting point about the grammar in one line, and its possible that that grammar mistake, or looseness in grammar was deliberate, allowing Santorini to be hidden within that line The point I was trying to make is if Santorini was the rough location how do we use the X or 'astride a treasure on its own' to find the real solution to the stanza Santorini fits a lot of the clues (an Island on its own), its Near Turkey, its hidden in one of the lines, but Im not convinced Santorini or Thalos are the answer to the stanza they are simply a rough location where we now have find the exact spot. But how do we use the X or the first two lines to narrow down the search? Its quite possible I am over thinking this stanza.
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Post by efanton on Jul 30, 2019 16:12:44 GMT -5
Last night I set up my monster spreadsheet to produce a list of ALL valid domains 'X' (literally X as per Elsethcat's hunch) in ALL possible TLD's To do that I had to provide the first part of the URL as well in order to do lookups so I just used WWW.
It was surprisingly a relatively small list, producing only 1203 results. It did this as a sort of test run, having made some alterations to the code to improve performance. The good news is those alterations worked and testing every possible domain on the entire internet in the format WWW.X.tld (where tld represents every possible Top Level Domain) took less than 2 hours.
The problem is that The server Lukas has used might not recognize WWW and reject any call to an address in the format WWWW.X.tld. For instance if the correct server was 313 it might not return a result even though the domain was correct. However, It does mean that if we have a limited number of server names (the XXX in XXX.YYY.ZZZ) and a limited number of domain names (the YYY) I can produce relatively small lists of possible answers to the entire puzzle without actually solving Stanza 5.
What was the point of the entire exercise some might ask? Especially if it does not give a definitive answer Valid question. Well the point is if anyone was ever in the position where they were reasonably certain of two of the answers for Stanza 3, 4, or 5, I can produce a relatively short list of possibilities for the stanza they do not have an answer for.
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Post by elysethecat on Jul 31, 2019 0:15:10 GMT -5
I think my previous posts may be confusing, because I wasn't specifically suggesting a solo X as a possible solution for this stanza, though it's on my extended list. Going with the bowling concept, I personally interpreted XXX (or 30, or 42, or 101010, or 12) because of the phrasing next plus two. The single X (or 10), in this case being "on its own."
To be clearer, the following are all possibilities I've considered at one point or another over the past few months for this stanza: XXX, 30, 1E, 12, XII, strike, 42, 101010, X, Greek Church, 467910, plus various names of churches in Dearborn, Hart, etc.
I also considered a solo X as a multiplication symbol, taking either 313 or 213 then multiplying it by various numeric interpretations of the third key segment.
Again (in my opinion only) I am not convinced that the third piece of the first key is a top level domain. I'm keeping all paths and possibilities open until something finally clicks.
Maybe if someone here wins the yes/no question, we can ask if the first key is a URL, or something comparable.
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Post by efanton on Jul 31, 2019 18:01:58 GMT -5
I am still working on the Santorini theory.
the strange thing about that line if you start pulling it apart is that it not only includes the word 'Santorini' but it also includes the direction 'Eastwards' The problem with online anagram solvers is that they cant handle terms such as SE for southeast, NW for northwest, etc nor can they handle names of small towns, villages or locations. This means good old fashioned paper and pen is the only way to do it, online anagram solvers might give you hints but the solution they will not give. I have a hunch that 'X' will play its part. Maybe the first letter of a place name, a cross at a specific location, something like that
I dont know why, maybe I have a feeling in my bones, But there is something in that line that will unwrap the whole stanza.
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Post by efanton on Aug 2, 2019 7:36:39 GMT -5
I was searching google maps earlier and an idea came to me. We are kind of certain X is the answer to "The next plus two is found" but on its own its unlikely to be a solution. Now in terms of google maps, What do we see sitting on (astride) locations? We see place markers (restaurant icons, hotel icons, icons placed by USERS) Could it be as simple as Lukas putting a user entered place marker X on google maps?
This line then begins to make sense, Until you zoom in (spare no effort searching, and search everywhere), most icons are not visible.
Could it be that we have to literately do that, search the google map in detail for a place marker left by (or on behalf of) lukas?
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