August 27 2003 RussCon Report

News

As Tyler Durden said, the things you own end up owning you. I am trying to get rid of some clutter in my life (probably in vain, but a man can dream). I've put some books up for sale online (at amazon marketplace) (and even had one sell already) and am going to try half.com as well. I've also never actually sold anything in an ebay auction so will probably check that out for some of the rarer/bigger stuff. I hate to just take boxfuls of books to Half-Price Books and get a pittance for them since I know these books are worth more than some small epsilon greater than zero. (Although Ben claims to have once gotten $300 for 9 boxes of sf novels, to the amazement of the rest of us who usually get maybe a buck for a box of books there, if we're lucky. We suspect he must have slept with the buyer or something.) I'm also interested in cutting cheaper deals with friends or just giving some of it to friends if anyone wants it, so if any RussCon folks are interested in acquiring computer science, math, civil war, fiction, philosophy, queer/kinky, comics, or other books cheap, let me know. I also have 2 or 3 shelf feet of vinyl records if anyone's interested. I also have years' worth of Doctor Dobbs, Computer Language, Computer Game Developer and other software geek magazines which I'd be happy to just give free to anyone who wants them. I'm also thinking of getting rid of a bunch of boardgames! Anyway, this is just a heads up - I'll try to get a more specific list and plan in a couple weeks (when I'm back from a vacation - Whendy and I are visiting Sea Biscuit in San Francisco Sep 4-9!)

Also, if you have any games left at RussCon which in your heart of hearts you know never get played, go ahead and reclaim them. (Games like Alfred's Other Game and maybe "Bowelmeister" leap to mind.) The highly unpopular and bitterly despised games Domination and Conspiracy have already made their exit (thanks, William!). Which is not to discourage people from bringing new games - that's definitely cool. Let's just not keep games around forever if they've proven unpopular.

Heads up that the Willow Band (the new project of Clandestine bagpiper EJ) will be at the Cactus 8:30 on Tuesday September 2. And this week only apparently at the Dobie theater is Guy Maddin's Dracula; I have seen 2 of this guy's other films and found them fascinatingly odd. They have the look and feel of old silent films.

Game Results

Odin'sRavens	2	JP 1 Marty -1
Can'tStop	3	MarkH 2 Ben -1 Whendy -1
Carcassonne	4	Fred 3 RussW 1 Clayton -1 Matt -3
Tichu	2	( Ben MarkH ) 1 ( Whendy Dan ) -1
AufHellerUndPfennig	4	JP 3 William 1 Marty -1 MarkY -3
PuertoRico	4	Matt 3 RussW 1 Fred -1 Clayton -3
ZirkusFlohcati	5	Marty 3 MarkY 3 William 0 Ben -2 JP -4
Bluff	6	Whendy 5 RussW 3 MarkY 1 Ben -1 Clayton -3 JP -5
WyattEarp	4	William 3 Marty 1 RussD -1 Matt -3
Frank'sZoo	5	MarkY 4 Ben 2 Clayton 0 RussW -2 Whendy -4
Guillotine	3	RussW 2 MarkY 0 Ben -2

It had been a while since I'd played Puerto Rico, and it was fun to play it again. Truly it is a great game.

Whendy won a large game of Bluff two weeks in a row; could she be the new God of Gambles?

I didn't remember Wyatt Earp ever being played at RussCon before, but it actually had been played a couple times.

Ratings

Rank Ratings:          
 2.1327 RussW
 1.7918 MarkH
 1.7918 William
 1.4271 MarkY
 0.9808 Fred
 0.2231 Marty
-0.4055 RussD
-0.6931 Dan
-0.9163 Whendy
-1.0986 Ben
-1.3218 JP
-1.3863 Matt
-2.7081 Clayton

Win Ratings:
 1.7918 MarkH won 2 of 2
 1.6503 MarkY won 2 of 5
 1.3863 JP won 2 of 4
 1.0986 Fred won 1 of 2
 0.8109 Matt won 1 of 3
 0.5878 William won 1 of 3
 0.4700 Whendy won 1 of 4
 0.1178 RussW won 1 of 5
-0.2877 RussD won 0 of 1
-0.3522 Marty won 1 of 4
-0.6931 Dan won 0 of 1
-0.9808 Clayton won 0 of 4
-1.0341 Ben won 1 of 6

MarkH and I are Co-Devils! William and MarkY are Co-Vice-Devils. Fred and JP are Co-Vice-Vice-Devils.

Another unusual partial order tree this week.

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

Meta Game

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

The theme of the game is generousity. Whoever brings the highest dollar value worth of stuff to share is the winner. It only counts if the offerings are accepted. Russ will judge. Anything left at Russ' house is up to him to decide if it counts as "generousity" or "leaving trash at my house". Anything you give to yourself doesn't count. Your donations should be available to be claimed by anyone with two exceptions: Gifts to Russ are worth full credit and gifts to me are worth full credit. I probably won't be attending Russcon tomorrow but you can try to track me down between 7pm and midnight to lavish me with gifts.

Fresca is worth double.

Example:

Bring a $10 pizza. Eat half. You donated $5!
Bring 6 Fresca at $1.50 per 6-pack. Drink 2. You donated $2!
Give Russ your old copy of Risk. He decides it's worth $4. You donated $4!
Give Willyum $10. That wasn't available to everyone. You donated $0!

In the case of a tie, the most Generous Angel (determined by devil rating) among the ties will be declared the winner.

I was greatly relieved that people didn't bring vast quantities of "trash" to leave at my house, since I'm currently wanting to reduce not increase the clutter in my life. And there was only one case of needing to apply human judgement to evaluate the value of a used good: MarkH generously gave me his copy of Blokus (which has seen much use at RussCon and certainly falls into the "generosity" rather than "trash" category!) Thanks Mark! Luckily the exact valuation became irrelevant, as the Blokus combined with a metric buttload of Fresca put Mark clearly in the lead this Meta Game. Other recorded donors included Matt (various candy), Marty (razzleberry pie), RussW (HEB gas), William (food and HEB coupon), Dan (Fresca). So thanks again to MarkH who is the generous Meta Devil and will design next week's Meta Game!

Links

American Memory from the Library of Congress

Lego harpsichord including mp3

Goth Day at Disneyland ("did you know that men criminally cannot wear fishnet stockings in Disneyland?") aka Bats Day in the Fun Park

Pink Five is a cute Star Wars fan film

Simson Garfinkel's quest to burn a magnesium NeXT Cube computer case

The Physicality of Books interviews various authors (including RussCon alumnus Jay Lake) about books as physical objects

Meat or Accident? is a photograph classification quiz with some photos not for the squeamish

Urban Dictionary seems to be a lowbrow version of Wikipedia (as if the latter were written by people with the maturity and writing skills of typical slashdotters)

Cool Links to Hot Topics in Physics