February 10, 1999 RussCon Report

There were 20 of us! Quite a good turnout, and lots of games were played. Devil Kevin showed up in the nick of time to stake out the dining table.

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Can Recycling:

Ok, after spilling a bunch of soda onto the floor from used cans hidden in a soda carton, I feel compelled to officially remind everyone of The Can System.

I have 2 goals: recycle the cans, and don't attract roaches into my house.

So Please Don't Put Dirty Cans Straight Into The Recycling Box! It spills soda onto the box and floor.

Ideally, you'll rinse the can with a little water & empty it, then stomp it flat and put it into the box.

If you're in a hurry or lack can-crushing skills, then just leave the uncrushed dirty can on the counter by the sink. Then I or some other helpful person (hint hint) will rinse & stomp it for you and put it into the box.

Please Don't Put Uncrushed Cans Into The Recycling Box! I won't know if they've been rinsed or not.

Obsessive-compulsive, you say? Anal-retentive, you're thinking? Tough noogies, it's my house!

Thanks!

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Games played:

The Book was missing! The horror, the horror! So game results were recorded on various scraps of paper. I hope I found them all.

There WILL be A Book next time, one way or another. Yes, oh yes.

Goldrausch 5 Dawn 4 RussW 2 JonathanR 0 JonathanC -2 Clayton -4
Halunken&Spelunken 4 RussW 3 KevinH 1 Brady -2 Marty -2
Halunken&Spelunken 4 Brady 3 JP 1 Marty -1 RussW -3
SafariJack 3 RussW 2 Harry 0 Dawn -2
SafariJack 3 Dawn 2 RussW 0 Harry -2
Cheops 4 Harry 3 RussW 1 Dawn -2 Clayton -2
Entdecker 4 EricH 3 James 1 JP -2 Laurie -2
Can'tStop 4 Alfred 3 JeffF 0 Jay 0 Bob -3
Raj 5 Bob 3 RussW 3 JP 0 Brady -3 Marty -3
HookOrCrook 3 Brady 2 Bob 0 RussW -2
SafariJack 3 Bob 2 Brady 0 RussW -2
SafariJack 4 RussW 3 Bob 1 Brady -2 Doug -2
TVWars 4 James 3 Doug 1 Daniel -1 JonathanR -3
Automania 6 JeffF 5 Alfred 3 Jay 0 KevinH 0 Daniel -3 Bob -5
Cosmic 5 Daniel 4 JeffF 2 Doug -2 JonathanC -2 Steve -2
Elfenwizards 6 KevinH 5 Marty 2 JonathanR 2 Jay -1 Bob -4 Alfred -4
Can'tStop 4 JonathanR 3 Steve -1 JonathanC -1 Marty -1
Samurai 4 James 3 EricH -1 JP -1 Laurie -1
FamilyBusiness 5 Doug 4 JonathanC 2 Daniel 0 JeffF -2 Steve -4

Alfred had brought Safari Jack a few times in the past but it didn't happen to get played. I requested he bring it again, and it turns out to be rather fun, and quick! It's a game where you build the map as you go. The graphics are better quality than many of the other Cheapass games.

Someone can't tell their Jonathans apart, as one Can't Stop result mentioned JonathanB. Luckily JonathanR was also in the same game, so I deduced JonathanB should be JonathanC...

A hint for game recorders: the total Devil Points awarded to players in a game should sum to 0.

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Evening's Soundtrack:

I bought my new CD player since the old one skipped on scratched or low-quality CDs. I bought my new speakers since one was blown and sometimes made an awful blurpy buzz. Unfortunately at this RussCon, the 3rd component of the system, the tuner, was acting up again, cutting out the right channel frequently. Murphy's Law. Here are the CDs played:

Dracula, Music by Byron Tate from production by the Public Domain Theater Company, 1997
The Geraldine Fibbers, What part of Get Thee Gone don't you understand?
Jack Off Jill, Sexless Demons and Scars
Madonna, Erotica
U2, The Best of 1980-1990

Jonathans C & R were quite obsessed with deducing the theme and made many guesses, some cleverly inventive, some amusing, some idiotic. At separate times, each of them guessed "CDs which you've played at earlier RussCons", which was quite false but an important clue. Eventually Sea Biscuit jokingly said "CDs you weren't able to play before", which was exactly right, though he thought I was kidding when I told him he was correct. My old CD player would not reliably play any of these CDs.

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Rank ratings:
 0.7778 James (3 games played)
 0.4615 KevinH (3)
 0.3333 EricH (2)
 0.3125 JeffF (4)
 0.2500 RussW (10)
 0.1818 Dawn (4)
 0.1538 Alfred (3)
 0.1429 Harry (3)
 0.1333 JonathanR (4)
 0.0714 Doug (4)
 0.0000 Daniel (4)
-0.0769 Jay (3)
-0.1176 Brady (6)
-0.1538 JP (4)
-0.2000 JonathanC (4)
-0.2500 Bob (7)
-0.2778 Marty (5)
-0.5000 Laurie (2)
-0.6364 Steve (3)
-0.8571 Clayton (2)

New Win ratings:
 0.5556 James (3)
 0.3636 Dawn (4)
 0.3333 EricH (2)
 0.2308 KevinH (3)
 0.1786 RussW (10)
 0.1429 Harry (3)
 0.1250 JeffF (4)
 0.0769 Alfred (3)
 0.0714 Doug (4)
 0.0625 Daniel (4)
 0.0000 JonathanR (4)
 0.0000 Brady (6)
 0.0000 Bob (7)
-0.2308 Jay (3)
-0.2667 JonathanC (4)
-0.2727 Steve (3)
-0.2857 Clayton (2)
-0.3333 Marty (5)
-0.3333 Laurie (2)
-0.3846 JP (4)

James is clearly the Devil! Eric & Kevin are Co-Vice-Devils. Dawn is Vice-Vice-Devil-Girl. I'm Vice-Vice-Devil. I also win the Dedicated Award for playing an astounding 10 games, breaking the coveted 2-Digit Barrier...

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Advance Warning: No RussCon March 17!

I will continue to remind you in hopes of minimizing the number of people who come to my empty house that night.

Too bad, because that's St. Patrick's Day, and I'm sure I could have assembled a festive soundtrack theme.

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Batman vs Superman:

So would Superman's superior strength kick Batman's ass, or would Batman's intelligence outwit Superman? Harry says Batman would be resourceful enough to prepare some kryponite bullets and slay the Man of Steel. I can't believe we wasted so much time debating this, and now I have no idea why I'm strangely compelled to waste text reporting it here. Life is full of such deep mystery and wonder.

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Don't be sad, 'cause 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Russ