Q & A: "Knowing," games
Ever since I did a question-and-answer post, people have been sending me questions. It's wonderful. I get an opportunity to actually interact with people online, and it also saves me the trouble of thinking up an original idea. So keep those questions coming! Here are the two most recent questions I've received.
Q: how do you know when you met Mrs Happy that you were going to marry
her? how
do you know that this person is 'the one' and its not just feelings/emotions? (from
Anonymous)
A:
The quick answer is that I didn't know I would marry her when I met
her. In fact, she made almost no impression on me at all when I met her, and
she thought
I was a total dud with no personality or physical attractiveness to speak of.
As luck fate God would have it, we ended up
spending
a
lot
of
time together basically because neither of us had anything better to do. (You
can
read a fuller explanation on the About
my marriage page.) We became friends, then good friends, then best friends.
At one point during the "best friends" stage, I asked her, "Are we going to keep
insisting we're just friends until we're married?" She burst into hysterical
laughter and, once she regained her composure, said emphatically, "I am not going
to marry you!"
With time, our relationship developed into an intimate
friendship, then a romantic friendship, then a married friendship.We married
because we hated being apart, because we shared a love for God, because we believed
in
each
other's
life goals and because we could accomplish more together than apart, and because
we could not imagine growing old away from each other.
If you're looking for criteria to go by, check out a couple of posts I wrote
last
year (Part 1 and Part
2).
They have some good guidelines that were offered by a wise Christian woman.
Q: My brother and I were remembering how we used to play squat with
our father 20 years ago. Fond memories but, unfortunately, we couldn't
remember the rules for squat. All we could remember was that it required
5 dice. So, I did a Google on "squat dice game" and found your site. Unfortunately,
while the
game is mentioned, there are no rules. Would you be kind enough
to either reply with the rules for the game or a link (if you have one) that
would list such? (from John)
A: I'm not sure my game is the same as the one John played, for reasons I'll
explain
later. Here are the rules to my game, in any case:
A player rolls five dice and sets aside however many dice will score points for him. He may then end his turn voluntarily and accept those points or roll the remaining dice. He may roll the remaining dice until all five dice have scored points or else he rolls no points. If he rolls no points, his turn is over and nothing is added to his score. If he rolls so that all five dice have scored points, he may pick up all five dice and continue to roll as before. His turn ends when he decides to stop and accept the points he has rolled, when he rolls no points, or when he has rolled all five dice three times, whichever comes first.
The dice count for points in the following configurations:
- ones are worth one hundred points
- fives are worth fifty points
- three dice of the same number, taken together, are worth 100 times that number (three 4s are worth 400, etc.)
- (exception to the previous rule) three ones, taken together, are worth 1000
- a single roll of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (or 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) is worth 1,000. This counts only when all five dice are rolled at once.
Players take turns rolling until someone reaches a previously agreed-upon goal. 5,000 or 10,000 is pretty standard. When one person reaches the goal, everyone else gets one last turn. Each player then rolls until he rolls no points or until he surpasses the high score. If anyone surpasses the score of the first player to reach the goal, all other players get a chance to beat him as well, including the first player.
Here's a sample game:
Player 1 rolls all five dice. They land on 1, 2, 4, 4, 6. He sets the 1 aside, then rolls the remaining four dice. Those land on 3, 3, 2, 3. He sets aside the three 3s, then rolls the remaining die, which lands on 5. If he stopped at this point, he could add 450 points to his score (100 for the 1, 300 for the three 3s, and 50 for the 5). He picks up all five dice and rolls again, rolling 2, 2, 3, 4, 6. His turn is over and he adds no points to his score.Player 2 rolls all five dice. They land on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. He rolls all five dice again—1, 2, 1, 1, 4. He ends his turn voluntarily and records 2,000 points on his score (1,000 for the first roll and 1,000 for the three 1s).
Player 3 rolls all five dice—6, 1, 5, 5, 5. He sets aside the 5s and the 1 and rolls the remaining die, receiving a 5. He rolls all five dice again—2, 3, 4, 5, 6. He rolls all five dice again—6, 6, 6, 5, 3. He sets aside the three 6s (he doesn't have to keep every scoring die as long as he keeps at least one) and rolls the remaining dice, receiving a 1 and a 5. Since he has rolled all five dice three times, his turn is over and he records 2,400 on his score (500 for the three 5s, 100 for the 1, and 50 for the 5; 1,000 for the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; 600 for the three 6s, 100 for the 1, and 50 for the 5).
And so on to the end.
The reason I doubt that this is the game John played is that I learned the game without a name and later started calling it Squat. I did this because while playing with some friends, one was especially dim about counting his points and another was impatient with him, giving rise to several exchanges that went something like:
"Let's see. I rolled two 2s, two 3s, and a 6. So I got 200 points."
"You got squat, is what you got. Gimme the dice."
It's a fun game anyway, though, and can be played just as well with 6 dice.
