July 30 2003 RussCon Report

News

Next Wednesday (August 6) falls during The Best Week Of The Year when I will be out of town on what one might call a vacation, so there will be NO RUSSCON AUGUST 6!

In case you missed that, there will be NO RUSSCON AUGUST 6!

Traditionally there has been a SansRussCon during The Best Week Of The Year; as always I leave that for you to sort out among yourselves!

BradS is officially heading to Baton Rouge for his new tenured astronomy position, but hopes to make it back to occasional RussCons. Good luck, Brad!

I recently joined friendster.com, an interesting and potentially useful looking social networking site that seems to be becoming popular; if anyone else has an account there, let's add each other as friends. You can find me as Russ Williams (duh!)

Game Results

Blokus	4	RussW 3 BobR 0 Marty 0 Clayton -3
Tichu	2	( Ben MarkH ) 1 ( Dan MarkG ) -1
David&Goliath	6	JP 5 RussW 3 Fred 1 BobR -1 Marty -3 Clayton -5
Cathedral	2	BradS 1 MarkY -1
Montgolfiere	4	Ben 2 MarkH 2 Baron -1 MarkG -3
Carcassonne	3	BradS 2 Fred 0 Clayton -2
David&Goliath	4	MarkH 3 Ben 1 MarkG -1 JohnG -3
Exxtra	4	MarkG 3 Clayton 1 JohnG -1 Ben -3
Cathedral	2	MarkG 1 JohnG -1
Acquire	4	JP 3 MarkY 1 BobR -1 RussW -3
Settlers	3	Justin 2 William 0 BradS -2
GhostParty	4	RussW 3 JP 1 Justin -1 MarkY -3

I hadn't played David & Goliath before, although it has actually been played at RussCon a few times in the past. It was an ok trick-taking card game.

The Acquire game was a textbook example of Someone Who Is Broke When Others All Still Have Money Will Lose.

For some reason the Tichu players began chanting "Turn off the Spock! Turn up the Kirk! Because Spock is logical, but Kirk likes chicks!"

Ratings

Rank Ratings:     
 3.5835 JP
 2.7726 MarkH
 2.3026 RussW
 0.6931 BradS
 0.6931 Justin
 0.4055 Ben
 0.2877 Fred
 0.0000 William
-0.4055 MarkG
-0.4055 Baron
-0.6931 Dan
-0.6931 BobR
-0.9163 Marty
-1.6740 MarkY
-2.4849 JohnG
-3.8712 Clayton

Win Ratings:
 2.8904 JP won 2 of 3
 2.7726 MarkH won 3 of 3
 2.3026 RussW won 2 of 4
 1.3863 BradS won 2 of 3
 0.8109 Justin won 1 of 2
 0.8109 Ben won 2 of 4
 0.4055 MarkG won 2 of 5
-0.4055 William won 0 of 1
-0.4700 Marty won 0 of 2
-0.5878 Fred won 0 of 2
-0.6931 Baron won 0 of 1
-0.6931 Dan won 0 of 1
-0.7577 BobR won 0 of 3
-1.1632 Clayton won 0 of 4
-1.2685 MarkY won 0 of 3
-1.2685 JohnG won 0 of 3

JP is the Devil! MarkH is the Vice-Devil. I am the Vice-Vice-Devil. Crash is the Generous Angel. Dan, BobR, MarkY, Clayton, and JohnG share the dubious honor of having been bested in the ratings by the infamous Black Baron. MarkG wins the Dedicated Award.

The partial order graph is unusually linear this week! You could remove only 4 nodes and have a total order.

If you are confused how the ratings work, you could peruse the FAQ.

Meta Game

MarkG was the Meta Devil. Here is the Meta Game he mailed out:

With several Russconners going off to the Go Congress next week, this week's meta-game will be a celebration of GO.

One point awarded for wearing something with "Go" or "GO" printed on it. One point for bringing a snack (with enough to share) with a label containing the letters "GO" consecutively (case doesn't matter) so dried mangos would qualify. One point for bringing a game with the letters "GO" consecutively (case doesn't matter) in the name. The game must be clearly labeled - so you can't bring a deck of cards and claim it's "Go Fish". One point for each different game played with 3 or more players which has the letters"GO" consecutively (case doesn't matter) in the name. (So playing 5 games of Go Fish still only gets you one metapoint.) Once again, I will be providing the ambient music. Two points for figuring out how the music fits in with the theme. (I'm handicapping myself on this one so I can't be accused of "conflict of interest").

Several folks played David & Goliath and Montgolfiere for meta points. I correctly guessed the music was from countries with "go" in their names, but didn't earn enough meta points. MarkG and MarkH brought food and clothes and ended up in a tie for the most meta points, which we randomly broke by die roll and again MarkG is the Meta Devil! The next Meta Game will be for the August 13 RussCon since as Our Most Assiduous Reader surely knows, there is no RussCon on August 6.

Evening's Soundtrack

Music supplied by MarkG from various countries with "go" in their names, e.g. Togo, etc.

MarkG noted later: "There are 8 countries in the U.N. with "go" in their names and all were represented. For those who care, the countries are Angola, Bosnia Hercegovina, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (fromerly Zaire), the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Mongolia, Togo and Trinidad & Tobago. Yugoslavia has recently officially changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro and so was not represented."

Links

Lycette Bros. has various arty Flash animations and toys

From Uzbek to Klingon, the Machine Cracks the Code

Space Station Science Picture of the Day: The Physics of Space Gardens

Mindy Teaches the Dharma!

Ladle Rat Rotten Hut is challenging to read

Bizarre Case: Man Held For Faking Spiritual Powers, Bomb Plot

Perl.com Exegesis 6 might only appeal to hardcore perl geeks, but the introductory dialog might also appeal to Dashiell Hammett fans

Interesting shark photo