Man that would be the best day of my life! Do you like peanut butter?
Oh, hehe, hello again, Kyle! I do like peanut butter!
I got out of class early. Have you been chatting the whole time?
Not enough to make the world out of it, but still a lot. Not the WHOLE time. There aren't always people online. But, yes, I've been here.
That's true. Well back to Peanut Butter....
I dunno if I told you this, but I'm shooting for the iPad--not made of peanut butter. I will be downright upset if it is.
Hey me too. No worries. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone. But I'm glad that isn't made out of peanut butter. Then it would just fall apart.
You do know the competition ends in three days, right?
Yeah I do.
Unless they made it, um . . . steel peanut butter? Are you aiming to win THIS round's iPad?
But then another one starts and goes till November 2nd.
Ah, okay okay, that makes more sense.
It's all a mind game KJ. I'm climbing up the ranks to scare away the others.
See, I tried that, once. I said, "I'm going to get so far ahead that the rest of my competitors won't even try." You know what happened? Second place did that to me: put a 1.5 million lead on me. And I said. "WELP. I think that's it for me." And then I said again, "But . . . I said I was going to win." So I held my nose, closed my eyes, and dove back into the competition. Took me almost five days to claw my way back to first place. But I did. I finally did. Me and second place fought back and forth over the next little bit. I . . . haven't actually spoken to first place in a while. I think he refuses to talk to me. I can't be SURE as there's no confirmation, but I think he's the one that closes out of my chats. But anyway. Here we are, three days before the competition end, and I'm ahead.
Maybe he gave up?
Unlikely. I've seen his score trickling up.
And you know. The more you type the more points I get I think. So thanks for that lengthy description.  Hehe. How often do you do this?
Probably more often than I should. I'm not taking classes, see. And I really wanted that iPad.
Ahhhh a huge advantage. Okay, well why do you want it? Surely it's for some noble cause I presume.
Actually . . . heh, my brother's been wanting to play Breath of the Wild for the longest time. But we don't have a Switch. And of course don't have the game. I wanted to sell it to give him the console and game package.
No idea what that is. So you will just sell the Ipad once you win it?
I think so, yeah. Unless I can think of a reason I need an iPad. And that's a popular Zelda game.
Hmmm. Interesting. Why not just use this time that you spend chatting to earn money and save up for a switch, which is what you actually want?
Because I don't have a job that pays in that many hours, and so I'm just playing in my down time.
I see. How much is a switch?
And I kinda wanted all the money I saved from my sidejob to go towards a mission. It's about . . . oh, you can get a good one for $250.
Oh thats not too bad. I'll tell you what. We'll make a deal. If you win the ipad I will buy it from you for $250. Then you can get a switch and I can have the ipad. It's a win win
Riiiiight. See, but if I win the iPad, I can buy other things, too. Like parts for drones or computers and such. That's almost $300 worth of new material! I can experiment so much.
So you are in to all that techy stuff I see. What is your major?
Computer science. Go figure. I know a lot about coding--or know more than the average person, at least. But hardware stuff? Actual, physical building with my hands? It might as well be a new language to me. But with this iPad winning . . . ohhhh, I could get a breadboard and an Arduino (and teach myself Python to use it) and get all these cool parts and circuits.
Coding is a valuable skill though. Why go through the trouble of learning to build physical things.
Because it's fun.
I see. I'm getting the iPad for my wife, so she can do more calligraphy for her print shop. See we just had a baby and this is her new hobby. Money is tight so she started designing to make some extra greens. right now she just uses pen and paper and then scans the designs, but with the ipad she could be much more efficient
See, you say things like that, and it makes me feel bad.
It's all a mind game KJ. hahah just kidding its not a mind game But my story is true.
I believe it. I came across someone who said she was trying to get the iPad so she could sell it to pay for food.
Yeah, but I just started doing this today so I'm not going to beat out first place in three days. Dang, thats rough. She should win the iPad.
I just . . . how am I supposed to compete with that, you know? I'd like the iPad to give my brother something he's wanted for a while and to further a few curiosities of mine. You want it to help your wife. And she wants it to help her live. Literally. Is it . . . fair if I win?
Thats a good question. I can see you are genuinely concern about the welfare of others. That will make you a great missionary. It is fair though. It's a competition, not wellfare. If she wants to buy more food she can get a job. If I want to help my wife I can get a job/sell stuff. There are a million different ways to make money. This is just one way. And if it fails there is always something else. Persistence and not giving up is key in life. You will learn that on the mission.
But . . . how am I supposed to feel that, because I don't have to worry about these other things, I have all this time to do this? That because I'm not struggling to pay for food or rent that I can get an iPad? While people who would gladly work for this, but can't due to their circumstances, are robbed of that reward? Not because of their lack of trying but literal lack of chance. Because people like me, people who need it less, are taking it.
That's true. They have much less time. Take me for example, I'm taking 18 credits right now. I'm very busy. But it's all in good fun.
(Oof. 18.0 credits. I wanna do that one day. But please continue.)
I'm just trying to graduate in April so I can move on to other things. School takes a lot of work though. But as I was saying... It's all in good fun. I won't be distraught is I don't win. Like I said there are always other opportunities. What place are you in by the way?
Take a guess. I'll give you a hint: I'm about 800,000 higher than the person below me.
First? I think you already said that actually.
I am first, yes. With hopefully a big enough lead that second place stops trying to beat me.
Wow. It is an honor. How did you do it? When did you start chatting and about how long do you chat per day? See you will most likely win this round, but if I can learn from you I might win next round. Then we both win.
Well, I'll gladly answer any question you might have. I've already done a lot of computations. Your score, for one, is based on a number of factors, but the biggest one is definitely word count
Interesting. Continue.
They say they want you to hit interesting topics, but those are more . . . ambiguous. I think you get better points for more obscure words, like referencing your quotidian - life and all its inane details, etc. And there's a chance that longer words score higher, too. But most definitely, the sheer raw number of words takes the cake. There was a rare moment when I had LESS words than the person below me but a HIGHER score. I had many more "turns" than he did, which I believe is defined by the little blurb you send when you hit enter. Right now? My turns are about, oh, maybe ten words ish. But when I get excited, it reduces to five or four or three. Kinda depends. Longer conversations give you more points, too.
I see. So longer posts, and more turns, and for more time is the key?
I believe so. I ran a few numbers. You can earn anywhere between, oh, 100,000 to 300,000 per hour of conversation.
So you would take about 5 hours to get to one million right?
About so, yes. In reality, it took me about 7. It depends on who you're chatting with, if there even IS someone to chat with, etc. Like, right now, it's easy for me to talk because you're asking questions and whatnot. Other times? Not so much.
Okay. So about 5-7 hours to get to a million. I believe you have over 6 right now correct? How long is the competition period? 2 weeks?
It's two weeks per round, yes. (Unless they change it, but that's unlikely.)
I'm trying to figure out how many hours I need to chat per day to be in first place
And I'm at 6.7 million. See, now that's the strange part. Last time? I had maybe three million, if that, and I won. Whoever is in second place is really competitive. Usually, when it's pretty determined who's in first, people don't strive as hard. No point in fighting if you know you're going to lose, right? When I was 1.5 million away, I just about threw in the towel. That's a LOT to catch up on. Technically, that's two of my days chatting, but you have to keep in mind that your opponents can rank up, too. I remember the competition for the macbook last time hit something close to 20 million points. And . . . man. I'm dedicated, but I'm not sure I'm THAT dedicated.
Last time? Like last year?
Last semester, yeah.
I wonder what our parents would have thought if they new that their kids would be chatting on line in a competition. Back then competitions were face to face. Now it's just virtual.
Hehe, that's a funny thought.
But anyway. Dang. Do you know who won the iPad last round? And how many points they had?
I'm not certain, but I think I know ballpark. It was around three million.
Next round do you think it will be as competitive?
My guess? If second place tries to win again (spoiler alert, probably going to happen), then maybe so. I've already met a few people saying they're really going to give it their all. Which . . . I know is not what you want to hear. I don't want to scare you off or anything.
You don't scare me.
But I'll be frank and say that there's a chance it might be worse than this roudn. *round
Nobody does.
This is a good thing. I sure wouldn't want you to be intimidated by a girl you'd never met from the internet.
See though, my only worry is that I really have a busy course scedule. Schedule. I can't just sit around and chat all day. Even if I want to.
Exactly. You said 18 credit, yeah? Which courses? (Ugh, if I hit 7 million and he's still chasing me, I'm going to be annoyed.)
Too many to count. Can you do multiple chats at the same time?
Last time, yes. This time? No. Hence why he could hit 20 million. I imagine he had something like three windows open at once.
Yeah seriously. But that doesn't work now. Too bad. That wouldn't have been a good strategy. I actually have to go to work now. But I'll be back on later. Good luck to you. I hope we meet again.
Okay. I really love talking with you. I hope so, too.