Do you like celebrating your birthdays?
Reserved for updates
No one is perfect, and I'm certainly not; I might need to remake or delete a cart, so updates will be put here.
If you spot an error, please tell me here or in the giveaway!
Update #1
Thanks for all the bumps, thanks, and cakebirth wishes. I'll answer some of them, I can't answer all, but I've been away for the weekend and I'll not have time until tomorrow due to extreme business. But as I said, I appreciate every one of them. Right now unread messages > 125.
Also, someone has solved the riddle "The first one to guess what (almost) all my giveaways in these 2 years have in common, will be whitelisted." I must say, that person is already in my whitelist, so the challenge is still open (not sure if there's another answer in this thread). Yet, I should put another challenge... In the 5 sentences giving the code to the first cart, there are mentions to two original artistic works. First one to name author(s) and title of both works will enter my whitelist.
I'd also like to know who of you (pretty sure it's one who read this thread, or maybe from Discord?) gave me 2 Steam awards today.
Update #2
We have a winner for the "what do my GAs have in common almost always?" riddle: Lockcjwen. Congrats!
Still waiting an attempt for the 2nd riddle. Two original artistic works. Both are pretty known, I think. Clue #1: One is a song, another is a book (with a Hanna-Barbera cartoon adaptation).
I've also read every message and seen every cat, cake and platypus image or linked vid. I've only answered or commented a small handful, but I really appreciate them all. Whitelist recruiting is still going on. I'll probably begin whitelist removal once I have more free time.
About the poll, it seems there's a big majority of people who don't care or don't like celebrating their birthdays. I celebrate mine exclusively for a friend; another excuse to throw a party. This time with homemade lasagna, extra-deluxe licorice, and too much booze. Pump up the volume!
Update #3
I realized I announced the winner for the first riddle, but I didn't give the answer. The answer is:
Almost all my giveaways start on a certain hour of the day.
All but very few of my giveaways end on a certain hour of the day.
That's what they have in common. You can check it yourself in any cart of this train, and on most of my giveaways in my user page. The choice of the hour is intentional, but the meaning is personal and I'll not explain it :p
Update #4
SkeetSurfer has found the solution of the second, double riddle; indeed it was Charlotte's Web by Elwyn Brooks White, and the song was Lullaby by The Cure. I was tempted to change it to "candy striped legs" but I thought it would be too obvious for googlers.
Now you'd say, it all is around a spider, or spiders. Indeed I do have a spider problem which hopefully will be solved this or next month, but don't try to find another hidden meaning. No more riddles. We're in the last week, on wednesday the last carts will be unlocked and the train ends this saturday, so nothing more to say for now!
SkeetSurfer's proof: https://www.steamgifts.com/go/comment/kOywprf
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Happy C-day JMM72 glad to read things are improving for you.
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Happy cake day!
I dont expect to be removed from your blacklist anytime soon, but congrats on fighting your good fight. I battle with depression daily, and it seems a small petty problem, but it is powerful enough to weasel into every activity and thought...
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Once again, happy cakeday! I want to take a crack at guessing what your giveaways have in common. Given the clues so far, is it that almost all have at least one of the following letters: 'A', 'C', 'E', 'H', 'L', 'O', 'R', or 'T'?
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That's so generic that I think it could be applied to 95% of all SG giveaways ^_^
Not even close, keep trying.
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Dang, but still worth asking if only to make sure. Hmm, is the common thread that you learned of these games from sites like steamgifts (on the web)?
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Nope, not even close. It's something actually simpler.
In the first comment of this thread, which I use for updates about the train, you can read who answered the riddle correctly, and what's the right answer.
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Oh, shoot, sorry then! I guess I got caught up in the reference and wasn't as active in the forums lately so I missed all of that. Alright then, I got the book reference but the song reference is stumping me for now. Hopefully I'll eventually get this one right at least.
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https://youtu.be/j1Oegd_pLUk
Some keke to make this an even better day :)
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🎂happy cakeday JMM72! 🎂
I hope that youre having great day today!!!
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Happy to hear that you're doing better 🙌
Did you use any specific techniques that you're willing to share with us that may have helped you?
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No. I suffered the worst crisis in my life due to an event I had no control of. Some people have seen that post, that train. After that, all my problems seem trivial in comparison, and it inspired me to be stronger and face the troubles that other people find daily but were insurmountable for me. There's no trick, no technique. I just had to cross a barrier of suffering that I wish never happened - but well, it left me in a strange and better situation after surviving through it without going insane.
Ahem excuse me, I mean "without going more insane" ^_^
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Sounds rough, understatement of the decade I know, I'm sorry you had to go through that 😟 But I'm happy to hear that you've been able to use that experience and convert it to mental fortitude, that's no easy feat ✌️
Also I think it's really cool of you to be so open about it. I hope the fact that people talk about these issues will help overcome stigmas that are still apparent within the community.
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You certainly never fail to make your giveaway posts worthwhile reading :) So thanks and happy cakeday!
And I'd prefer to have a more entertaining guess, but from what I've seen before, I'd say al(most al)l of your giveaways have been open to all regions.
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As I said above, that's so generic that you can apply it to most giveaways in SG. The solution to the riddle is something much more specific. Keep trying and good luck.
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Happy cakeday! Glad things are looking up for you :)
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Happy cakeday JMM72!
Common in your GAs: almost all your giveaways were hidden from level 1 public either being group, level limited or WL (once passed level 1 yourself). Is that the common thing your were looking for?
.
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Not even close. Some (many? I've seen quite some) people exclusively make invite-only giveaways or group only giveaways. Once again, too generic. Try to find something specific that other GAs wouldn't do without doing it on purpose.
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I don't know if I'll join the giveaways (backlog is REAL) and my memory is terrible so even though you said to wait on the happy birthdays, I hope it's okay if I wish you a happy cake day and a really early happy birthday right now 😄 It's almost a month out but still, I hope the rest of this month is lovely for you and makes up for this year. We relate to one another on the "ups" and "downs" and I'm glad to hear you're hanging in there too! Thank you for your kindness and generosity as always. We're never too old to turn things around for ourselves and make new happy memories 💜
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You are welcome to enter all and any giveaways you feel like entering. My backlog is REAL and EVERGREEN. No requirements on when you'll play the game(s) you win from me except some simple gratitude and a smile ;)
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Aw, you are too kind to me. You will always have overwhelming gratitude and my smile personally, even for offering games regardless of if I win anything 💜
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Hello everyone.
This is a train to celebrate my 2nd cakeday, and also my birthday. As some of you might know or remember from my train in May, the last 2 years have been quite rough for me, tho I'm recovering now and my "downs" are less frequent and less severe than my "ups". Thus here you have my usual extra-long post for a train.
2 years in SteamGifts that have been quite good, although I keep trying to give back to the community; even when sometimes it seems that half of the community are ungrateful people. But well, I still do it with my best intention. Today is my cakeday and it's when this train starts. And it'll run until my birthday, so enjoy the ride!
Every day a few more cars will unlock and you will be able to advance. I've decided to do it this way so you can put some points in the games you want while keeping a good amount for other daily giveaways from other users. They will unlock until October the 20th, when the last carts will unlock. Also, it will start with not-that-good games; as days go by, the games will be better, and every few days the level requirement to enter the new carts will increase from 1 up to level 5 for the best games; and the last carts will be for my whitelist only (level 1). There are 78 carts in total, for 75 different games, bundles or DLCs, all ready to unlock when their day comes.
Despite when a cart is going to be unlocked, all carts will end on my birthday, hobbit-style. I do like to make gifts on my birthday, but actually it has nothing to do with Tolkien. I've been doing it for many years, and why not this one? Past year I wasn't in a state where I could even make a giveaway when my birthday was around the corner; I hope this train will compensate past year's cakebirthday train absence. I don't really like celebrating my birthday and often I feel uncomfortable (but never ungrateful) when receiving gifts, I'm that weird. Maybe making the gifts myself on that day is a way to compensate that. I hope that starting this year, that uncomfortable feel will vanish and I'll be able to accept birthday gifts in a normal way; or at least not feeling as if I don't deserve anything.
Note: Due to being away that particular weekend, I'll not be able to send the keys to the winners until 24th, sunday night CET, or even monday noon. Please excuse me about the delay and be patient.
I'll also do some clean-up on my whitelist and blacklist to reduce them to more manageable size. I don't like blacklisting anyone, but people here are ungrateful and sometimes just too unpolite to ignore. And while I don't think I make any specially great whitelisted giveaways, I make them happily hoping that some people who I think deserve more will get another gift; but once again, only for the people who I think they do deserve that extra.
You can check if you're in my whitelist or blacklist using the giveaway links in my user page. And here's what I'll do with the lists in SG...
Whitelist recruit:
Try your luck, ask here; but don't bother if you don't have a positive CV ratio, or at least close to even, also with enough activity (having made 10 giveaways won't get you through the cut). Only one person is being to added to my whitelist without asking, and I do have my reasons to do so. The rest who ask, it'll be on my own discretion, and please don't be offended if I don't add you. Also don't bother if you're already in my blacklist.
The first one to guess what (almost) all my giveaways in these 2 years have in common, will be whitelisted.
If there are too many unworthy whitelisting requests, or when I've added too many people to my whitelist, I'll close the whitelist recruit.
Whitelist removal:
Before my birthday and before the whitelisted carts are unlocked, I'll do a cleanup from my whitelist. I'll mainly remove people with very bad ratio or low activity. If you know you were in my whitelist and you find you can't enter the whitelisted carts because I just removed you, ask to reenter the whitelist here and I'll consider it. Once again, don't be offended if I don't readd you.
Blacklist removal:
After my birthday I will remove several people from my blacklist on my own discretion, mainly based on good CV ratio and activity. You can also ask here, but I'll not remove you until the train has ended anyway. Once again again, if I don't remove you, don't be offended.
Blacklist recruit:
That's automatic when it's needed...
So, without further ado, here's the first cart to enter the train:
(Use the first character of each sentence to make the 5-char code for the giveaway and put it like https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/XXXXX/ and remember the last slash is important)
you don't understand why some people have fear of you
2 nasty teeth aren't the reason, nor you have 2 ears to hear a lullaby
8 candy legs you use to walk, hunt and draw beautiful designs
Elwyn wrote about you, talking about hearts that don't fit in their bodies
Hanna-Barbera made us watch you, but we still prefer the reading
About "happy cakebirthday" or generic thanks, here or in the giveaways, they're appreciated but not needed. Keep the cakeday ones for the beginning, and the birthday ones for the ending. Use a giveaway without any comment before using one with 100 comments already. Just know that if you win something from me and you don't act with minimal, minimal politeness, I'll consider it maximum rudeness.
I've also put a few more games here and there, if you find them. Enjoy the ride and let's hope I have some more stuff to make a post-new year train.
I'm so old! (Or rather should I say, I'm not that old, but I'm quite damaged due to lack of self-care. Lesson learned too late.)
Regards, JMM.
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