2004-10-27 RussCon Report

News

18 of us played 14 games!

There were some Halloween costumes to varying degrees (yay Jeffles, Dan, Whendy, JP, Fred, KevinU, SarahM...). Photos here, and feel free to email any more you'd like added to the gallery. We also saw the eclipse which occurred during RussCon. My ex-cow-orker Greg took some neat astrophotographs of the lunar eclipse.

Lots-o-stuff happening:

This coming weekend is Halloween of course, and some of us will be seeing the Sunday 3pm show of War of the Worlds by Violet Crown Radio. That night, I may go partake of the costumed revelry on Sixth Street, if anyone cares to join me for an hour or two of observing people in crazy outfits. Let me know.
Next weekend, November 6-7, is the annual Austin Celtic Festival, with more celtic music than you can shake a stick at. I consider it the best weekend of the year and will be there, rain or shine. Even if it looks like neither Maggie Drennon nor the Killdares will be there this year, damn it.
Okazos la 13-an de novembro la dua tut-teksasa kunveno, en norda Teksaso! Se vi volas kunrajdi tien, bonvolu diri al mi. Rob havas buseton.
November 20 will be camping overnight at Inks Lake (car camping, near a bathroom; not primitive camping). Currently the lineup includes me, Whendy, JP, Jeffles, JeffS, Leslie and there's room for a couple more, so let me know if you're interested.

VOTE! Early voting is underway, and you are encouraged to vote early because there are worries that election day (November 2) will be a chaotic crowded Florida-style fiasco with not everyone even being able to vote. Please pass along this info to others.

Early voting info
League of Women Voters guide
Austin Chronicle endorsements with discussion.
Note Lorenzo Sadun is a very worthy write-in Democrat candidate (I heard him speak at the county convention and liked him). If you support him, take notes when you vote to remember his name's spelling... even if you are a straight-ticket voter, you won't be voting for him since he's a write-in.
If you want to help Democrat candidates, 701 Rio Grande has yard signs for various candidates available for $2 each.
I have been posting a lot of political news at my blog lately, which I encourage you to peruse. This election is very important, please be informed and involved. I know some people who feel Bush is a clear disaster, but don't feel they know much about Kerry. I recommend watching the movie Going Upriver, for which I wrote an extensive review, and which you can actually download free from thekerrymovie.com.

Note that early voting runs 7am to 7pm through Friday October 29 at most locations. Lots of folks are doing it, and thereby probably beating the longer lines on election day. It's important, please vote, whether early or on Tuesday November 2.

Game Results

EinfachGenial	4	Jeffles 3 RussW 1 Whendy -1 Marty -3
SaintPetersburg	3	Clayton 2 KevinU 0 JP -2
Tichu	2	( MarkH William ) 1 ( Ben Fred ) -1
GhostParty	5	RussW 4 Marty 2 Jeffles 0 Whendy -2 Dan -4
HighSociety	5	Marty 4 ToddG 2 RussW 0 Jeffles -2 SarahM -4
TicketToRide	3	JimG 2 RussD 0 Whendy -2
ScrabbleJunior	2	JimG 1 Dan -1
SaintPetersburg	4	SarahM 3 ToddG 1 William -1 RussW -3
Vampire	6	Clayton 5 RussW 3 ToddG 1 SarahM -1 JP -3 William -5
Vampire	5	SarahM 4 Clayton 2 RussW 0 ToddG -2 William -4
GhostParty	4	Clayton 3 RussW 1 JP -1 SarahM -3
Dampfross	4	KevinU 3 Matt 1 Jeffles -1 Ben -3
RicochetRobot	5	JP 4 Ben 1 Jeffles 1 KevinU -3 MarkY -3
SanJuan	2	JimG 1 MarkY -1

Several appropriately Halloweenesque games were played: Ghost Party and Vampire. Yay!

Ratings

Rank Ratings:    
 4.9698 Clayton
 2.4849 JimG
 1.9504 RussW
 0.9163 Marty
 0.6931 MarkH
 0.6931 ToddG
 0.5754 Jeffles
 0.4700 KevinU
 0.4055 Matt
 0.0000 RussD
-0.2877 SarahM
-0.6931 Fred
-0.8110 JP
-1.6094 MarkY
-1.7916 Ben
-2.1973 Whendy
-2.3026 Dan
-3.1145 William

Win Ratings:
 4.0535 Clayton won 3 of 4
 2.4849 JimG won 3 of 3
 2.3026 SarahM won 2 of 5
 1.0986 Marty won 1 of 3
 0.7577 KevinU won 1 of 3
 0.7340 JP won 1 of 4
 0.6931 MarkH won 1 of 1
 0.4292 Jeffles won 1 of 5
 0.1178 RussW won 1 of 7
 0.0000 William won 1 of 4
-0.2877 Matt won 0 of 1
-0.4054 RussD won 0 of 1
-0.6931 Fred won 0 of 1
-0.9163 ToddG won 0 of 4
-0.9163 MarkY won 0 of 2
-0.9163 Whendy won 0 of 3
-0.9163 Dan won 0 of 2
-1.2040 Ben won 0 of 3

Clayton is the Devil! JimG is the Vice-Devil! Sarah, Marty, and I are Co-Vice-Vice-Devils.

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

I used GraphViz to generate the graph image.

Meta Game

Ben was the Meta Devil and designed the following Meta Game:

The Culinary Metagame:

For each home-made culinary treat you bring for Russcon, get 1 metapoint. For those Russconers who are in to cooking, here's your chance to flaunt your l33+ skillz. For the cooking-challenged, note that the game doesn't require you to make the treat, or even for it to be made in your home...it just needs to be made in someone's home, and brought to Russcon by you.

Since we're dressing up for Halloween next week, the metagame should have something to do with Halloween costumes; so if you made the treat while wearing your Halloween costume you get an extra metapoint.

Write down your own metapoints in The Book sometime during Russcon. Indicate which foods you brought and whether you're claiming the bonus costume metapoint. The one with the most metapoints wins, with ties broken randomly.

William brought lots of fresh stuff and we made a bunch of yummy pesto together; he also made a so-called spider cake which, due to some sort of confusion in the recipe, had literally 10 times as much salt as it was meant to. I made some soup. Kevin made some yummy muffin/cupcake thingies. I was the only one to wear my costume during food preparation.

So points earned were 1 for Kevin, 2 for William, 3 for me. So I am the Meta Devil and will design next week's Meta Game!

Links

La Eta Fantomo kaj Jen Via Tuta Vivo estas Esperantaj tradukoj de religiaj komiksoj de Jack Chick! Nekredeble!

The Great Old Pumpkin

Fright Night 6 has various Halloween webcomic stories

Royal Navy to allow devil worship

Dungeon Majesty is a cable-access TV show in California of four young women sitting around a table playing Dungeons & Dragons with a male DM, complete with low-budget special effects and animation. Imagine Wayne's World crossed with Summoner Geeks. Check out the QuickTime video teaser

Alfred's second rare entries contest has completed; I did better in this contest, getting 20th place (and I see Marty got 18th). Now there is a third contest, deadline 2004-11-03! I also recommend Alfred's recent blog entry Gateways. There are also hushed rumors Alfred may visit Austin soon!

Bush B-Gone

Nucleus shows one way to make a comic shop and art gallery

The Diebold Variations

Eminem's Mosh video

Brain in a dish flies plane