Editing 1750: Life Goals

All nine unchecked goals on this to-do list features one or more strange words often containing an excess of the last three letters of the alphabet (X, Y and Z) as well as Q, often using several off them in the same words, even several of the same rare letter in a row. (See [[#Table of life goals|Table of life goals]] below).  

All of these words can be looked up in the English version of Wikipedia, but only a few are {{w|common noun}}, the rest being names (fictional or animals) or obscure names for places or games, i.e. {{w|proper nouns}}. The first goal is the one with fewest of these letters, only using two x's, and only the first word is strange, {{w|Skrillex}} being the artist name of a musician. All later entries has at least three of these letters, and often used in strange words.

The '''punch'''line, in the final goal, expresses that the writer of this list often uses these unexpected and bizarre words in {{w|Scrabble}} games, which exasperates his opponents to such a great extent, that he has yet to finish a game without getting punched. All of these words would theoretically earn a player the prize of many points in Scrabble (see [[#Scrabble points|Scrabble points]] below).

In the title text, a reference is made to the fact that none of these goals have been checked off yet. It also turns out that it is indeed [[Randall|Randall's]] list, since the writer of the list, did manage to check of the goal ''Make something called xkcd'' early. But sadly there are neither y's nor z's or even more than one x in that four letter combo.

This comic was published the week after the [[what if?]] ''{{what if|152|Flood Death Valley}}'', which referred directly to the city {{w|Zzyzx}} in one of the pictures. It was the first what if? post in almost three months, the longest break between two posts during 2016 (and third longest of all time at the time of release). This makes it the third comic in a row released after that what if? post that references it more or less directly, the previous two being [[1748: Future Archaeology]] and [[1749: Mushrooms]]. It seems likely that Randall created this comic after doing research for this what if? post, and came across the city Zzyzx as the shortest way to dig a channel to flood Death Valley.

| Meet Skrillex in Phoenix || Randall's goal is to meet the musician using the artist name {{w|Skrillex}} in the city of {{w|Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix}}. Not that Skrillex has any specific connection to that city. || 0|| 2|| 0|| 0|| 2

| Study zymurgy  || Randall's goal is to study {{w|fermentation}}. {{w|zymurgy}} (or zymology) is an applied science which studies the biochemical process of fermentation. || 0|| 0|| 3|| 1|| 4

| Get a pet axolotl named Hexxus  || Randall's goal is to obtain a pet salamander (an {{w|axolotl}}) and name it after the malevolent Hexxus from the animated film {{w|FernGully: The Last Rainforest}} || 0|| 3|| 0|| 0|| 3

| Observe a syzygy from Zzyzx, California  || Randall's goal is to observe and astronomical event where three celestial bodies form a straight line (known as a {{w|Syzygy (astronomy)|syzygy}}, from the Californian city {{w|Zzyzx, California|Zzyzx}}. That city was just mentioned in the last [[what if?]] ''{{what if|152|Flood Death Valley}}'' released less than a week before this comic. || 0|| 1|| 4|| 4|| 9

| Port the games Zzyzzyxx and Xexyz to Xbox  || Randall's goal is to {{w|porting|port}} (i.e. adapting software from one platform so it can be used on another platform) two old video games so they can be used on the modern video game platform {{w|Xbox}}. The first game is {{w|Zzyzzyxx}}, a 1982 {{w|arcade video game}} about navigating a labyrinth and the second is {{w|Xexyz}} a 1988 game for the {{w|Nintendo Entertainment System}} with platform and shoot-em-up game-play. It will be very difficult to port these to Xbox. || 0|| 5|| 3|| 5|| 13

| Publish a Zzzax/Mister Mxyzptlk crossover  || A {{w|Crossover (fiction)|crossover}} means that two different stories (often comics) are mixed together, mixing either characters from the two, or the world of one and the characters of another story. In this case Randall's goal is to make a cross over of {{w|Zzzax}}, a {{w|Marvel comic}} book villain with that of {{w|Mister Mxyzptlk}} a {{w|DC Comics}} villain. Since Zzzax and Mxyzptlk come from different companies, a crossover story involving them both might run into license problems.  || 0|| 2|| 1|| 4|| 7

| Bike from Xhafzotaj, Albania to Qazaxbəyli, Azerbaijan  || Randall's goal is to bike from {{w|Xhafzotaj}}, a village in {{w|Albania}} of eastern {{w|Europe}}, to {{w|Qazaxbəyli}}, a village in {{w|Azerbaijan}} of {{w|Caucasus}}. The distance between [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Xhafzotaj,+Albanien/@41.3420999,19.538176,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x134fd7eb6257dec7:0xc0c17ea9f1d4ef05!8m2!3d41.3442157!4d19.547883 Xhafzotaj] and [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Gazakhbayly,+Aserbaidschan/@41.1604329,45.3040337,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4041307bb83f5793:0x30f6c3728844806e!8m2!3d41.1606486!4d45.3147936 Quazaxbeyli] is about 2800km (1700 miles). Doing this trip by bike would be challenging, but possible. || 1|| 2|| 1|| 3|| 7

| Paint an archaeopteryx fighting a muzquizopteryx || Randall's goal is to make a painting of two bird like dinosaurs fighting. Unfortunately the {{w|Archaeopteryx}}, a famous small feathered dinosaur, and {{w|Muzquizopteryx}}, a {{w|pterosaur}} (the famous flying dinosaurs), lived in different time periods, so such a fight have never taken place. The feathers dinosaur was only about half a meter long, but with clear feathers. It is a clear candidate for a {{w|transitional fossil}} between non-avian dinosaurs and birds. It lived in the {{w|late Jurassic}} epoch around 150 million years ago. The pterosaur had a wingspan of about 2 m and was one of the first (and smallest) of this type of dinosaur and it lived in the {{w|Coniacian}} age about 86-90 million years ago. This means the two dinosaur live as far apart in time as we live apart from the last of the dinosaurs. But since only the bigger one could fly, it seems most likely that the pterosaur would have won such a fight. Randall has previously made several comments on the feathers of Dinosaurs, as recently as the comic released a week before this one [[1747: Spider Paleontology]], see more there.|| 1|| 2|| 2|| 2|| 7

| Finish a game of Scrabble without getting punched  || Randall's final goal is to avoid getting punched during a {{w|Scrabble}} game. As he always try to use some of all these unexpected and bizarre words mentioned in his other goals when playing Scrabble games he exasperates his opponents to such a great extent, that he has yet to finish a game without getting punched. || 0|| 0|| 0|| 0|| 0

| Make something called xkcd  || '''Title text''':  Here it is made clear that it is Randall's list, as this is his only xyz goal that he has succeeded, and quite early, as he has celebrated 10 years anniversary with {{xkcd}} see [[1581: Birthday]].  || 0|| 1|| 0|| 0|| 1

All of these strange words would theoretically earn a player the prize of many points in Scrabble (Go to the [[#Table of words|table of words]] below). However, most of them would not be found in {{w|SOWPODS}}, the combined list of all words valid in either British or North American Scrabble tournaments, and many include too many X's, Y's or Z's (there's 1 X, 2 Y's, 1 Z in a standard set), meaning at least one would have to be substituted for a blank (which is not worth any points). Some words would also be very difficult to play in reality, since there are only 7 letters in a Scrabble hand, so they could only be played in extremely rare circumstances (there are only a couple of ways to play MUZQUIZOPTERYX: for instance, from MU and OPTER; or MU, QUIZ and ER; or an astonishingly unlikely set of crossing letters). Many are long enough that, in theory, they could net the player the additional 50 point bonus for using all seven letters in a hand if played right.

**Notes: ??

**Score: What would the score in Scrabble be for this word. (Without any bonuses.)

**Score (ignoring blanks): ??? If the word can only be written using blanks, and these are set to zero what would the score then be?

**50 points possible?: ??? Is it possible to use all seven letters writing the word? If so it will give 50 points extra.

! Word !! Definition !! Notes !! In SOWPODS? !! Enough tiles ({{w|Scrabble letter distributions|in English version}})? !! Score !! Score (ignoring blanks) !! 50 points possible?

| [http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Hexxus Hexxus] || An evil spirit from the animated movie {{w|FernGully:_The_Last_Rainforest FernGully}} || Proper noun, fictional name || No || Yes, With a blank as X || 23 || 15 || No

| {{w|Syzygy (astronomy)|Syzygy}} || An astronomical event where three celestial bodies form a straight line. || Noun || Yes || Yes, With a blank as Y || 25 || 21 || No  

| {{w|Zzyzzyxx}} || A 1982 arcade video game about navigating a labyrinth || Proper noun, name of game || No || No || 64 || 26 (assuming infinite blanks) || Yes   

| {{w|Xexyz}} || A 1988 game for the Nintendo Entertainment System with platformer and shoot-em-up gameplay. || || Proper noun, name of game || No || Yes, With a blank as X || 31 || 23 || No  

| {{w|Xbox}} || A series of home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. || Proper noun, name of game console || No || Yes, With a blank as X || 20 || 12 || No  

| {{w|Zzzax}} || A Marvel comic book villain. || Proper noun, fictional name || No || With both blanks as Z || 39 || 19 || No  

| {{w|Qazaxbəyli}} || A village in Azerbaijan || Proper noun, name of city || No || No, because it's spelled with a {{w|schwa}} (ə, upper case Ə), this word would be impossible to spell in English-language Scrabble, although you could put an E tile down upside down (Ǝ) or use a blank. It can alternatively be spelled "Kazakhbeyli". || 39 (at least, unclear) <br/>36 for Kazakhbeyli || 39 || Yes  

| {{w|Muzquizopteryx}}  || A pterosaur || Noun, name of animal species || No || Yes, With a blank as Z || 55 || 45 || Yes