19 of us! Oregon-bound Jay showed up after all for one last final ultimate surely-no-more appearance, along with lots of surplus food from his fridge. Anyone want a jar of Hellman's mayonnaise?

Dan brought that German game some of us have heard of, where players are in lifeboats and deciding whom to toss overboard so the others can survive. It didn't get played, but I hope we play it soon! German games aren't normally so morbid! And I read in one of Marty's Counter magazines about another new German game with cannibals wandering the desert in search of other people to eat. Too bad it wasn't a Knizia design, or we'd know that it would show up at RussCon soon, courtesy of He Who Must Own Them All.

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RussCon Interruptus:

Wednesdays April 26 and May 3 there will be no RussCon! I will be out of town.

However, Marty says he wants to do virtual RussCon gaming at Dobie Mall Food Court those evenings, so don't be too hasty to schedule your wedding for one of those evenings.

Next week, Wednesday April 19, there is RussCon As Usual at my place.

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Game Results:

Guillotine 5 William 4 RussW 1 Jerrie 1 David -2 Jay -4
Bluff 6 William 5 Jay 3 RussW 0 JonathanC 0 Jerrie -3 BobR -5
Zero 4 Allen 3 William 1 Jay -1 JonathanC -3
ArkhamHorror 5 Daniel 4 BobR 2 Fred 0 Steve -2 David -4
McMulti 4 JP 3 Jerrie 1 Marty -1 RussW -3
BuriedTreasure 3 Marty 2 JP 0 RussW -2
Andromeda 5 Daniel 4 Bob 2 Steve 0 David -2 WendyWhi -4
Cosmic 5 JeffF 2 JonathanC 2 Dan 2 William -3 Cindy -3
BlackDiamond 4 JeffF 3 Cindy 0 Dan 0 Clayton -3
Zero 4 WendyWhi 3 William 1 Dan -1 Steve -3
SpaceBeans 3 RussW 2 JP 0 Marty -2
Frank'sZoo 3 Daniel 2 David 0 Bob -2
Tikal 4 Clayton 3 Bob 1 Jay -1 Allen -3
Settlers 4 Allen 3 Steve 1 RussW -2 William -2
TajMahal 5 JP 4 Dan 2 Marty -1 Bob -1 WendyWhi -4

'Twas surreally frustrating watching William agonize at the end of the Bluff game, when it was just him with 5 dice and Jay with 1 die, as William insisted he had to be careful because it wasn't easy...! There was a tense moment when he actually lost a die. Imagine the pressure of being down to only 4 dice versus Jay's 1! No doubt he thought of resigning in despair then. But he persevered and managed to snatch victory from this difficult position. OK, I'll stop being sarcastic now!

I finally played McMulti and was cruelly treated by the gods of chance. I didn't like it as much as I hoped, but perhaps I'll try again. I should probably make some pun about this game being crude.

I played Space Beans for the first time with the correct rule (pass hand to right at end of turn, not to left). Really different flavor! And more confusing, because when you pass something to the right at the end of your turn, the person receiving it thinks "He's done, so it's my turn now!". We kept messing up the turn order.

It was good to play the venerable classic Settlers again after so long. And now when you collect resources, you can say "Give to Radiskull..." If only I'd brought out my victory point card, I wouldn't have tied for last place...

It was very disorienting to hear Nite Owl William moaning about having to wake up early and needing to leave before midnight and other such things that traditionally would never be uttered by William. Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

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Evening's Soundtrack:

Clandestine, To Anybody At All
Hole, Celebrity Skin
Nine Inch Nails, The Fragile
The Smashing Pumpkins, Machina/the machines of God
Type O Negative, World Coming Down

The most recent CDs from some of my favorite bands... I picked up the new Pumpkins while in Houston last weekend recovering my go mojo. (I won 3/7 games in the Houston go tournament, better than I expected after 3 months of not playing go... my arch-nemesis Mr. Teng, the little old man who always counts Chinese-style, beat me in the closest game, thanks to the reverse komi.)

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Rank ratings:
 1.0000 Daniel (3)
 0.7143 JeffF (2)
 0.6364 JP (4)
 0.3333 Allen (3)
 0.2727 William (6)
 0.2143 Dan (4)
 0.0000 Clayton (2)
 0.0000 Fred (1)
 0.0000 Bob (4)
-0.0833 JonathanC (3)
-0.0833 Jerrie (3)
-0.1818 Marty (4)
-0.2000 Jay (4)
-0.2105 RussW (6)
-0.2857 Steve (4)
-0.3333 BobR (2)
-0.4286 Cindy (2)
-0.4545 WendyWhi (3)
-0.5714 David (4)

New Win ratings:
 1.0000 Daniel (3)
 0.7143 JeffF (2)
 0.5556 Allen (3)
 0.4545 JP (4)
 0.3333 Clayton (2)
 0.1364 William (6)
 0.0909 WendyWhi (3)
 0.0000 JonathanC (3)
-0.0714 Dan (4)
-0.0909 Marty (4)
-0.1579 RussW (6)
-0.2222 BobR (2)
-0.2500 Fred (1)
-0.2500 Jerrie (3)
-0.2667 Jay (4)
-0.2857 Steve (4)
-0.2857 David (4)
-0.3077 Bob (4)
-0.5714 Cindy (2)

JeffF is Vice-Devil. Then JP, then Allen, then William.

William & I share the Dedicated Award.

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Links:

Squirrel Fishing:
A new approach to rodent performance evaluation:
http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~yaz/en/squirrel_fishing.html

sodaconstructor animates and edits two dimensional models made out of masses and springs:
http://www.sodaplay.com

The Bad Boys of Computer Science:
http://www.hotzp.com/badboys/
A cute color comic by and starring CS majors.

Fans of Watchmen or the Bench comics may enjoy my latest batch of strips at:
http://russcon.org/thebench.html
Since I got a scanner, I've incorporated my drawn art into the Bench strips. I got twice as many "I like it" emails from strangers (7 emails) in response to my 5 Watchmen strips than I did from all my earlier 3 dozen Bench strips combined (3 emails). One was even from someone unfamiliar with Watchmen and hence totally confused by them. Woo-hoo!

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"How much are you getting paid for each strip?"
"Uh, not much, but I'll make up for it in volume!"

Russ