February 2 2000 RussCon Report

13 of us, including a double shot of Wendy. William has no computer lately and hence did not know he was the Devil! This led to an amazing display of William-like wailing and moaning when he got here after 7 and a game was already in progress at the table.

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Game Results:

StephensonsRocket 4 RussW 3 WendyWhe 1 Marty -1 Clayton -3
ZirkusFlohcati 4 Josh 3 WendyWhi 1 JonathanC -2 JeffF -2
Frank'sZoo 4 JeffF 3 WendyWhi 1 JonathanC -1 Josh -3
Samurai 4 JP 3 William -1 Bob -1 Fred -1
Money 5 JP 4 William 2 Matt 0 Bob -2 Fred -4
UnionPacific 3 Marty 2 RussW 0 WendyWhe -2
Euphrates 4 Bob 3 Matt 1 WendyWhi -1 JP -3
Frank'sZoo 6 JP 5 Bob 3 WendyWhi 1 RussW -1 Marty -3 Matt -5
LostCities 2 Bob 1 JP -1
Bluff 5 WendyWhi 4 WendyWhe 2 RussW 0 Marty -2 Matt -4
Cosmic 4 Josh 3 JonathanC -1 William -1 JeffF -1
Attacke 5 Marty 4 William 0 JeffF 0 JonathanC 0 Matt -4
Tayu 2 JP 1 RussW -1
Bluff 5 JeffF 4 Marty 1 William 1 Matt -2 JonathanC -4
Bluff 5 Marty 4 William 2 Matt 0 JeffF -2 JonathanC -4

I'm quite fond of Stephensons Rocket. It's cool. Like 1830, it has no chance or hidden information, yet it doesn't feel like a purely deterministic game. There are lots of different ways you earn points that balance and interact with each other, which is cool. And people seem to have quite different notions of what the best strategies are, which is also cool.

I still sometimes mix up the mouse and the mosquito in Frank's Zoo, damn it!

Good to play Union Pacific again; it had been a while.

I heard that Josh (WendyWhi's brother) won his very first game of Cosmic.

I didn't play Attacke, but I heard its players complain that it seemed a lousy game and very random.

Very close and low-scoring game of Tayu; JP won 12 to 6, and it all came down to a corner which might have led to a 9 to 9 tie.

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Evening's Soundtrack:

My Dying Bride, As the Flower Withers
My Dying Bride, The Angel and the Dark River
My Dying Bride, Live at the Dynamo '95
My Dying Bride, Like Gods of the Sun
My Dying Bride, 34.788%... Complete

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Rank ratings:
 0.5294 JP (6 games played)
 0.3333 Josh (3)
 0.3333 WendyWhi (5)
 0.2500 Bob (5)
 0.1923 Marty (7)
 0.1364 William (6)
 0.1111 WendyWhe (3)
 0.0952 JeffF (6)
 0.0667 RussW (5)
-0.5000 Matt (7)
-0.5714 JonathanC (6)
-0.7143 Fred (2)
-1.0000 Clayton (1)

New Win ratings:
 0.6471 JP (6)
 0.5556 Josh (3)
 0.2308 Marty (7)
 0.1429 JeffF (6)
 0.0625 Bob (5)
 0.0000 WendyWhi (5)
-0.0667 RussW (5)
-0.2500 Matt (7)
-0.2727 William (6)
-0.2857 JonathanC (6)
-0.2857 Fred (2)
-0.3333 WendyWhe (3)
-0.3333 Clayton (1)

JP is the Devil! Josh is the Vice-Devil, but probably won't be here. WendyWhi (who also won't be here), Bob, and Marty are Co-Vice-Vice-Devils.

Clayton pulled a Reverse Brady Manuever. Marty & Matt share the Dedicated Award.

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Fun Stuff:

Info on 18GA. The guy seems an interesting character:
http://home.chattanooga.net/~derrick/18ga.htm

PARK CITY 2000 INTERVIEW: "Dark Days": The Ultimate Underground Film:
http://www.indiewire.com/film/festivals/fes_00Sund_000122_darkdays.html

Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization:
http://www.gcbro.com/

The Blair Family Circus Project:
http://www.brunching.com/features/feature-blaircircus.html

Placebo. So powerful, it's the standard by which medications are tested:
http://www.brunching.com/features/feature-placebo.html

The Onion examines Yoga:
http://www.theonion.com/onion3602/infograph_3602.html

Photos of fun road signs and a few humorous staged pictures:
http://poc301.tripod.com/road.htm

Anagram: Dave Brandt = Vat-bred DNA

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A watched pen never boils.

Russ