May 31 2000 RussCon Report
21 people, 21 games! Probably a record number of women as well (5), including long-lost Jonobie, Carly, and Mindy. And several new folks (Susan, Mark, PJ). Quite a turnout indeed.
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Game Results:
WebOfPower 5 Marty 4 JeffF 2 Jonobie 0 BobR -2 RussW -4 WebOfPower 5 Bob 4 Daniel 2 Clayton 0 Dan -2 WendyWhe -4 HookOrCrook 5 Clayton 4 BobR 2 Jonobie 0 RussW -2 JeffF -4 Frank'sZoo 5 JeffF 4 BobR 2 Clayton 0 Jonobie -2 RussW -4 ValleyOfKings 4 Bob 3 Allen 1 Dan -1 PJ -3 WebOfPower 5 Bob 3 JP 3 Dan 0 Mark -2 PJ -4 ArabianNights 4 Mindy 3 Marty 1 WendyWhe -1 Susan -3 Survive 4 Allen 3 BobR 1 Clayton -1 RussW -3 GreatKhanGame 6 Jeffles 5 ChrisH 3 Carly 1 Matt -2 Daniel -2 William -5 Frank'sZoo 4 Mark 3 JP 1 Marty -1 Mindy -3 Tightrope 5 ChrisH 4 Allen 2 RussW -1 BobR -1 William -4 HatTrick 4 Daniel 3 Matt 1 Carly -1 Jeffles -3 SchottenTotten 2 Dan 1 PJ -1 SchottenTotten 2 Dan 1 PJ -1 HoneyBears 3 Jeffles 2 Carly 0 Mindy -2 HatTrick 4 JP 3 Allen 0 RussW 0 Dan -3 SchottenTotten 2 JP 1 Mark -1 Bluff 4 William 3 Matt 1 PJ -1 Daniel -3 BuriedTreasure 4 Jeffles 3 Daniel 1 Carly -1 Marty -3 Zero 3 Matt 2 PJ 0 William -2 Can'tStop 4 Matt 3 William 1 Daniel -2 PJ -2
We had 2 copies of the new game Web of Power, so it got played a lot. People liked it. I sucked at it horribly, but enjoyed it and hope to do better next time. Marty had played it once before, and said he'd show us how it's done. Sure enough, he won our game. Coincidence?
Tom Wham's legendary Great Khan Game got played, though I wasn't in it. William seemed to feel it had low interaction and kept coming to watch our games at the table while his Great Khan Game was still going on. His final score was 1, with the other scores being 55, 55, 91, 149, 165. Coincidence? I don't think so!
We muddled our way through BobR's copy of Survive that's missing the rules, but we had plenty of rules questions since our memories were hazy. Clayton, I TOLD you to kill those yellow dudes while you had the chance! But no, you had to be nice and let Allen go on to defeat us all. Alas. Strategy note: beware getting some of your dudes to safety first; you're perceived as the devil and then pounded on so you come in last place (but I'm not bitter).
Tightrope/Drahtseilakt continues to be very popular. Quick clever card play. Check it out.
The controversial strange trick-taking game Hat Trick got more play tonight. Allen and I still like it, enough to tie each other for second.
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Department of Raining Frogs:
At 4:00am Monday morning (Memorial Day) I'm fast asleep, but the ringing phone wakes me up. A woman's voice asks for Russ Williams. I sleepily say, "This is Russ."
"What are you up to?"
"Well, I was sleeping until you called me... Who is this?"
"Wendy."
I know Wendy Wheeler is in England and this isn't her voice, so it must be the other Wendy. It sounds sort of like her, so I ask, "Wendy White?"
"Yes. So when did you get into town?"
"Uh, a couple weeks ago." Now I'm waking up more and thinking that's really odd. I mean, jeez, doesn't Wendy White read her RussCon Reports, which made a big deal of me being gone 2 weeks and then being back in town? In fact I just emailed with Wendy about a week ago, so I know she knows I'm in town. Has she gone insane?
She abruptly says, "Hmm, I don't think you sound like the right Russ, sorry, bye," and hangs up.
A few minutes later the phone rings again, and it's her again. She demands, "How did you know my last name was White?"
She says she told what happened to her friend, who said she should call me back and "test" me. After a bit more sleepy discussion we establish that I did not go to A&M, she did not work at SimTex, and we both apparently have rather common names.
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Evening's Soundtrack:
Clockwork Orange, Complete Original Score
Fight Club, Original Motion Picture Score
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Natural Born Killers, A Soundtrack
Kurt Weill, The Threepenny Opera
Violent antiheroes, my droogs.
I just saw American Psycho and enjoyed its cold dark satire, but I found the ending to be enigmatic. If anyone else saw it and wants to theorize about it, drop me a line.
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Rank ratings: 0.9091 Bob (3 games played) 0.7778 ChrisH (2) 0.7273 JP (4) 0.5385 Jeffles (4) 0.4615 Allen (4) 0.3125 Matt (5) 0.2000 Clayton (4) 0.1667 JeffF (3) 0.1053 BobR (5) 0.0769 Marty (4) 0.0000 Mark (3) -0.0476 Daniel (6) -0.0769 Carly (4) -0.1667 Jonobie (3) -0.2500 Mindy (3) -0.2500 Dan (6) -0.4118 William (5) -0.6364 RussW (6) -0.7059 PJ (7) -0.7143 WendyWhe (2) -1.0000 Susan (1) New Win ratings: 0.9091 Bob (3) 0.6923 Jeffles (4) 0.5455 JP (4) 0.3333 ChrisH (2) 0.1667 JeffF (3) 0.1250 Matt (5) 0.1250 Mindy (3) 0.0769 Marty (4) 0.0667 Clayton (4) 0.0000 Allen (4) 0.0000 Mark (3) -0.0588 William (5) -0.0952 Daniel (6) -0.1875 Dan (6) -0.2500 Jonobie (3) -0.2632 BobR (5) -0.2727 RussW (6) -0.2857 WendyWhe (2) -0.3077 Carly (4) -0.3333 Susan (1) -0.4706 PJ (7)
Bob is the Devil! But there is a good chance he won't be here next week due to impending parenthood. JP & Jeffles are Co-Vice-Devils. ChrisH is Vice-Vice-Devil. Then Matt, then Allen, then JeffF.
Mark wins the rare and coveted Extra Average Award (for getting both Rank and Win Ratings of 0). Condolences to Jonobie who was shooting for it. Susan pulled off the rare and dangerous Reverse Brady Maneuver (playing one game and coming in last).
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Links:
You may recall the October 13 1999 RussCon Report which mentioned my AI entry doing well in the First International RoShamBo Programming Competition. It seems Darse Billings is ready to host a second event.
The Second International RoShamBo Programming Competition:
http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~darse/rsbpc.html
An Everquest wassup thingie:
http://eq.castersrealm.com/images/wassup.ram
Interviews with people about their jobs. The TV Guest Coordinator is impressively sleazy and amoral:
http://www.word.com/features00/workworldusa/
Impressively homely people may be found at Gregg's Hompage [sic]:
http://welcome.to/mytrailerparkpage
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And the ship
The Black Freighter
disappears out to sea
And
on
it
is
me