August 8 2001 RussCon Report

27 of us played 22 games. 27 is one more than last week's record-breaking 26! Woohoo! There were several new folks (Mandy and Fina) and almost new folks (Robby and Dudley) and technically new but not really (Kate). And the usual merry band of ragtag misfits.

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Comicollage: daily ongoing comic jam with 7 artists and no planning ahead! There's a russ strip every Tuesday.

News

News from Whendy:

Will you mention this in the next RussCon report? Say that Whendy wonders if other RussConners will be interested...
Cirque du Soleil is coming to Dallas in November. They'll perform several dates, but the dates aren't announced yet. Advanced tickets go on sale August 22nd and the general public on August 26nd.
About the show: http://www.dralion.com
Prices: http://www.dralion.com/tickets/dallas-member.html

That's too long a trek for me (I'll be taking printmaking class on Saturdays this fall), but I certainly recommend Cirque du Soleil. I know several RussCon folks have seen one or more of their shows, and all agree it's amazing cool stuff.

And speaking of cultural events, several of us saw Richard III at Vortex Theater and enjoyed it a lot, so check it out, Shakespeare fans.

Game Results

Metro	6	Clay 3 Steve 3 Dudley 3 Dan -1 Clayton -3 RussW -5
HookOrCrook	4	Jeffles 3 Matt 1 Whindy -1 Fred -3
MerchantsOfAmsterdam	4	JP 3 BobR 1 JeffF -1 Marty -3
Zero	4	Mandy 3 Robby 1 Kara -1 Allen -3
ZirkusFlohcati	3	William 2 Kara 0 Fred -2
Carcassonne	5	Kate 4 Clayton 2 RussW 0 JonathanC -3 Steve -3
Tichu	2	( DaveB Clay ) 1 ( Dan Dudley ) -1
Tightrope	4	Fina 3 Allen 1 Robby -1 Mandy -3
Letras	4	William 3 Carly 1 ( JonathanB Kate ) -1 Kara -3
Mutineer	4	JP 3 Jeffles 1 Ben -2 Matt -2
Hare&Tortoise	4	Steve 3 Dan 1 Whendy -1 DaveB -3
Cosmic	4	Mandy 3 Fina 1 Robby -1 Allen -3
DurchDieWueste	5	Carly 4 JP 2 Clayton 0 Kate -2 Kara -4
Guillotine	4	Kate 2 Mandy 2 Carly -1 Robby -3
Tichu	2	( Ben William ) 1 ( Matt Jeffles ) -1
StephensonsRocket	3	JonathanC 2 RussW 0 JonathanB -2
Settlers	4	Whindy 3 JeffF 1 Marty -1 BobR -3
Carcassonne	3	JP 2 Fina 0 Allen -2
Can'tStop	4	Ben 3 Marty 0 William 0 JonathanB -3
Tichu	2	( Steve Whendy ) 1 ( Dan DaveB ) -1
WebOfPower	4	Matt 3 RussW 1 JeffF -1 JonathanC -3
Cartagena	4	JonathanB 3 JP 1 William -1 Allen -3

Metro is certainly enjoying popularity these days. It's definitely worth playing. Kind of an alternate universe version of Streetcar that's simpler and more elegant.

Tichu (introduced to RussCon by Dan's IBM comrade Richard) continues to be popular... 3 games were played tonight. I heard rumors that Steve and Whendy pulled off an amazing coup in the last game.

Sea Biscuit & I continue our weekly Stephensons Rocket tradition. In this game he pipped me 67 to 66. This one worked out with a big token grab in the endgame. It continually delights us how each play of this wonderful Knizia train game can be so different.

carcassonne We still hold steadfastly to the One True Farmer Counting Rule and scorn the new Hans Im Gluck farmer scoring change.

About that Letras game: Squeaky dropped out midway through and Kate took over, so they were dubbed a team. And the final Cartagena game had Allen in last place because he ingloriously bugged out and left shortly after it began. ("That bastard!", as it was recorded in The Book.)

A reminder: please write and spell clearly when recording game results, and remember last initials for people with common names, thanks! Please be clear about Jonathans, Wendys, and Tims.

Meta Party Game Results

I was the Meta Devil! Here is the game I mailed out:

This week's meta game is the Sartorial Verbosity game.
Wear a shirt with text already printed on it. I know you've got one. You want to wear one with lots of words. You especially want lots of words that you think other people will be wearing.
For each word that is on your shirt that you can find on one or more other shirts, you earn a point. You must tell at least one of the other people that you have a word in common so they may also earn a point, and verify that you are not brainfarting or misreading their shirt. Keep a running list of all your shirt's words that exist on other shirts. Paper and pens will be available of course. Hand me your sheet with your name on it before you leave or it doesn't count. It should be easy to find me, and I don't leave RussCon early.
Example: Your shirt says "Chicks dig Linux". 2 other people are wearing Tux the Penguin shirts that say "Linux rules". (Jeez you all are such techie geeks!) You notice these other people's Linux shirts. You write "Linux" on your scoresheet and earn a point. You verify this with one of the other Linux fans, and they may therefore also earn a point. (If you are feeling generous, you may tell both of the other Linux fans.)
Fine print:

No planning ahead or prior collusion with other people allowed. Seriously. Act independently.

No handwriting or printing a custom shirt for the occasion.

Generic crap printed on the shirt label like "large" and "fruit of the loom" doesn't count.

Wear a single shirt. If you're wearing more than one, only the outer one counts.

The definition of a word is looser than in standard word games: proper names and contractions and foreign words (yeah, right, wear your Klingon shirt, I'm sure you'll score a lot) are fine. Use common sense; if in doubt, ask me, your Sartorial Verbosity Moderator.

I was expecting it might become cumbersome writing all the words down, but in fact the high score was only 12. A good number of folks wore shirts with text, too. JP ended up being the winner! He wore a shirt with lots of text on the back. Other high scorers were me and Fina.

Evening's Soundtrack

Fight Club, Original Motion Picture Score
Local Hero, Music by Mark Knopfler
Memento, music for and inspired by the film
William Shakepeare's Romeo + Juliet, Music from the Motion Picture
The Sweet Hereafter, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

All movies I've seen multiple times which affected me more than words can describe.

Ratings

Rank ratings:
 0.7333 JP (5 games played)      
 0.6667 Clay (2)
 0.5000 Fina (3)
 0.4286 Jeffles (3)
 0.4167 Mandy (4)
 0.4167 William (5)
 0.4000 Carly (3)
 0.3333 Dudley (2)
 0.3333 Whindy (2)
 0.3077 Steve (4)
 0.2857 Ben (3)
 0.2143 Kate (4)
 0.1000 Matt (4)
 0.0000 Whendy (2)
-0.0769 Clayton (3)
-0.1111 JeffF (3)
-0.2000 Dan (4)
-0.2727 JonathanB (4)
-0.2857 RussW (4)
-0.3333 BobR (2)
-0.3333 Robby (4)
-0.4444 JonathanC (3)
-0.4444 Marty (3)
-0.6000 DaveB (3)
-0.6667 Kara (4)
-0.7143 Allen (5)
-1.0000 Fred (2)

New Win ratings:
 0.6667 Clay (2)
 0.5833 Mandy (4)
 0.4615 Steve (4)
 0.4286 Ben (3)
 0.4000 JP (5)
 0.3333 William (5)
 0.3333 Dudley (2)
 0.3333 Whindy (2)
 0.2857 Kate (4)
 0.1429 Jeffles (3)
 0.1250 Fina (3)
 0.1000 Carly (3)
 0.0000 Matt (4)
 0.0000 Whendy (2)
 0.0000 JonathanB (4)
 0.0000 JonathanC (3)
-0.2000 DaveB (3)
-0.3333 JeffF (3)
-0.3333 BobR (2)
-0.3333 Marty (3)
-0.3333 Kara (4)
-0.3571 Allen (5)
-0.3846 Clayton (3)
-0.4000 Fred (2)
-0.4167 Robby (4)
-0.4286 RussW (4)
-0.6000 Dan (4)

JP is the Devil! Clay is the Vice-Devil! Whendy wins the rare and coveted Extra Average Award!

Links

Debate about webcomics at Salon.

The Pound Of Flesh analyzes a particular subgenre of Shakespearean adapations: porn.

New Microscope Creates Images Using Antimatter.

A literary analysis of the delightful Nigerian scam letters: "I crave your distinguished indulgence (and all your cash)"

Utilikilts sells "progressive" as well as "utilitarian" kilts.

Game Studies is an online academic journal about computer games.

The human clock is a weird pointless cool idea. They also claim to have an apache webserver running on a TRS-80 Model 100, but I don't know if that's bs or true.

An appreciation of a 1K chess program for the ancient Sinclair ZX81, written by a fellow I play email go with.

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Russ