Smallworld continues to be a favorite, though I still think of it as Vinci Lite. Pillars would have hit the table, but we didn’t want to play it six player. Through The Ages continues to be a tough one to get played, mainly because of the steep learning curve and long playtime. We had a really good group, with a nice mix of gamers and non-gamers. We also had a ton of delicious alcoholic beverages, thanks to our bartender, B*. The five of us that were staying the night got quite snockered. We set up the second XBox for L4D2 so that three of us could play online at once. That was really fun. It’s nice to play L4D2 with people I know instead of just random strangers.
For the rest of the weekend, I’m doing some random home projects.
I’m at the WBCs! So far, I like this convention. The people have been really nice and friendly. There’s a significant population of female and young gamers, which is a nice change of pace. There’s a bunch of restaurants in easy walking distance, plus the hotel puts out a really good spread at its various snack bars at a reasonable price. The hotel is older, but it’s nice enough once you take that into account…and the rate was really good. Plus, the best part is the games. I was afraid the “every game is a tournament” aspect would bug me, but the net result seems to be that people take the games seriously instead of just assing around. Also, the GMs REALLY take the games seriously. They take care to make sure the event is run smoothly and to resolve rules issues fairly. Many of them keep detailed statistics on the games that will be compiled and posted in a game report later this month.
The only exception to my praise for GMs has been the Empire Builder event. The GMs are really lax, if they show up at all. There’s little if any randomization of the event seating. And, for example, DH was in a game yesterday that they added a relatively unfamiliar player as a fifth person at the last minute…which meant his game ran a good hour longer than the others without being anywhere close to done. Plus, the GM originally said they’d adjudicate the game at 1:30, but then the GM left and didn’t tell anyone how to resolve it. Another GM helper came in and said to keep it going until 1:45 or until the original GM came back, but the original GM never came back. Then, that GM wanted to keep it going until 2pm, but a bunch of the players protested, as most of them were now going into their next event with almost no break, once you figure in time to break down and put away the game. (The one guy who wanted it to keep going was the unfamiliar player, who also was generally slowing the game down by asking irrelevant questions during his turn and such. And I mean, I’d feel bad for him, but he showed up late and let himself be added to a game as a fifth player, knowing that he didn’t know the game that well…and then was generally asshattish on top of slowing things down unnecessarily.) So, point being, I’m avoiding EB events here. Maybe I’m just spoiled to the TGA’s organization. I criticize the TGA often for being clique-y and often biased toward the clique, but they do run an excellent tournament.
The downside of the WBC is that it’s 2 hours from the nearest major airport. It’s also a con that runs 70% of its “open” events during the week. (The weekend is mostly semis and finals, with a few of the super-popular events still doing heats, e.g., Puerto Rico, St. Petersburg, TTR.) Thus, you really need to arrive by Tuesday evening. Granted, that’s only one day earlier than I’d typically arrive at GenCon, but the point being that, if you don’t make it into a final, Saturday and Sunday feel like wasted days, I imagine. But, I’ll see how that goes.
So far, I’ve qualified for the Power Grid semi-final and the Stone Age semi-final. DH has qualified for the Vegas Showdown semi-final.
I miss my Pancake! I wish he could travel with me.
Speaking of travel, I found out 2 days ago that I’m going to have to go to Taiwan for work, leaving the Friday after I get back from this. I don’t mind going to Taiwan again (Din Tai Fung!!!!!), and the timing is good in that I’m not starting school yet. But, the timing sucks in that our Adorable Nephew #1 is visiting us that week. I’d been looking forward to taking him to cool things and generally spoiling him rotten. As is, I may get to see him briefly on Friday afternoon after I get back from Taiwan, but that’ll be it.
For my part, this is why I have trouble supporting groups like EqualityNow (though I did contribute to them during the Fannish fundraiser re: Prop 8 that was held on LJ). It’s why I have trouble with NOW, why I had to resign as VP of the LA chapter. I don’t believe in the prosecution of thought crimes, no matter what the potential crime is. (I also don’t believe in putting rape on a pedestal above other crimes. It’s a very terrible thing, yes…it’s a form of torture and just as sick and twisted as torture in its execution. But, there are other terrible things that don’t get anywhere near the attention…and IMO, the way the American feminist movement has escalated rape has, in fact, fetishized it even more.) A video game doesn’t convince you to rape someone, nor to murder. (It also won’t convince you to do things that are even less morally questionable. My husband could play Webkinz all day long, and he’ll never have the want to buy more plushies like I do.) You have to have the desire in you already, the moral/ethical disregard or psychosis, and if you do, and you don’t work out your issues or seek treatment, it’s going to come out someday, no matter what game you play or don’t play.
But, Penn says all this way better than I do, and what’s more, he says it while basking in the Las Vegas sunshine, just meters from his lovely technicolor backyard:
I have over 300 masterpoints! Yay! And, I got my fake Life Master (fLM) in the best way: with fake points.
You see, the ACBL instituted a really stupid rule the year before I joined. The rank of Life Master has colored point requirements, intended (to some extent) to require you to play at high-skill events to qualify for the rank. For most people, the hardest color to get is gold, because getting gold requires you to play at a (so-called) nationally ranked* event…and win. You’re also required to get a certain quantity of silver (sectional level) and red (regional level) points. So, it’s Gold > Red > Silver > Black (club games) > Colorless (internet play). These colored requirements existed before I joined. And, I have a ton of red points, all the silver I need plus some, and all the gold I need plus some. I also have a high amount of colorless points, because we play on the internet (BBO) alot.
But, the year before I joined, the ACBL instituted a rule that requires you to get black points. Specifically, you have to get 50 black points, which is more than any other required color. And, unlike any other colored point, having the point color that is a rank above black doesn’t count toward black points. That is, you can’t use a spare 50 silver points as black points.
Here’s my beef with this rule (aside from that it’s keeping me from being an official LM):
It’s damn hard to get 50 black points. Club games don’t give out very many points per session, because they’re *club* games…they aren’t supposed to be very competitive, so they don’t reward you very much for winning. Also, they don’t get high attendance, and point award limits are based on attendance. The most you can get is ~1.5 points, for a top award at a well-populated club game. So, just getting up to 50 points is much harder than at a sectional, regional, or national.
You can only get black points at clubs. Silver points are occasionally given out at clubs, and red points are sometimes given out at NAOPs and GNTs (special events that aren’t regionals). But, the only way you can get black points is to go to a club game.
Most club games are held during the day, because most club players are retired. We’re actually relatively lucky to have as many club games near us as we do, but even with that, it’s very hard for a person who works a standard week to get out to a club game. If you live in an area less bridge-oriented than here, it’s very likely that you, as a working person, wouldn’t be able to find a club game at all. (By the way, even though there are two clubs here with decent timing that are 10 and 23 miles away from us respectively, we’re also a bit screwed because this area has a higher-than-normal density of very good bridge players…meaning those club games are VERY hard to win.)
Even though the concerns with internet play are mostly unfounded and based on fear rather than reality (and easily preventable if the ACBL cared to do so), internet “clubs” don’t get you black points. They get you colorless points, and only a third of your points for any rank can be colorless. Meaning, for LM, only 100 colorless points count, even if you have more than that. (I don’t have more than 100 colorless, but it’d be much easier for me to hit that point count than to get 50 black, just because there are more internet games in the evenings and on weekends, and I don’t have to leave the house to do one.)
With the exception of the club games in this area, club games don’t (or shouldn’t) require special skill to win. You’re generally playing with the same people over and over again, not a wide base of bridge talent. So, whereas the red and gold requirement (and even silver to some extent) can be justified as requiring a certain level of play, the club point requirement only exists to force you to spend $$$ at the clubs, which were supposedly suffering vs. regionals and sectionals. And rather than let the bridge version of the free market do its job, the ACBL created an artificial incentive to bail out the clubs.
If I gave a damn (or if I thought the ACBL did), I might write all of this down and send it to them. But, I’m pretty well convinced that the ACBL is filled with retirees who, for all their moaning about getting young people to play, are not willing to learn or accept the technology that would actually encourage people my age and younger to take up the game…and that they’re arrogant asses to boot. So, I’ve decided I’m quite happy with being a fake Life Master and that I may well *intentionally* avoid club games just so that I never get my LM under this stupid rule.
Oh, and what’s better is that I got my fLM with internet points. Ha and ha! Take that, ACBL! fLM party to be scheduled at a later date…possibly over Memorial Day weekend.
* Note: There’s a color even higher than gold: platinum. The events that award platinum are what I would consider nationally ranked events…but that’s just semantics, I suppose.
“There is no reason an adult should have this game,” says Andy Anderson, Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force.
Anderson says adults playing “animal crossing” and similar games are likely doing it for the wrong reasons.
Really? I haven’t played AC yet, but I want to play it. I also, as y’all know, play Webkinz, a game targeted at kids. I’m one of at least thirty adults I know of who do. Oh, and by the way, I have no, zero, zip interest in doing anything “wrong” with kids. Andy Anderson needs a reality check.
(By the way, it’s also worth noting that in Animal Crossing for Wii, as in ALL Wii games, you have to have both parties exchange friend codes before you can play together online. You can see mine in the sidebar at right or on the About Me page. That is, just because you have my friend code means nothing. I don’t see that you have my friend code, and I don’t see that you added me unless I also have your friend code and have inputted it. That’s not some arcane privacy setting; that’s how Wii works. On top of that necessary 2-way exchange, AC has a separate code that must be exchanged and set correctly by both parties, and you have to both be online at the same time *and* accept a chat session to be able to freely speak. In short, there’s no way for a predator to target a kid playing Animal Crossing or any Wii game without some serious effort on the part of the kid, not to mention a huge lack of oversight by the parents, considering that parental controls can block every single step in the process if desired.)
Last night, Eaten by Delicious (our Rock Band band) gathered at the Harrah’s Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana for the Total Rock, Total Rewards Rock Band challenge, round 1:
We checked the instruments. Then, we diva’d out and insisted on an opening band (one of the gathering crowd that wanted to play). We wanted any technical problems to be worked out before we were being scored, as this competition was purely score-based with no crowd component. We also woo’d and cheered loudly for them, though.
Then, just before we were getting onstage (as they were making sure their equipment was working), we had our VH1 Behind the Band moment. B* realised that the next round of competition is during a bridge tourney out of state. DH and I had already seen this and decided that we’d rather do Rock Band competition than a bridge tourney (even though this particular tourney is reputed to be awesome). Ms. Moo had already checked her calendar. But, B* had not checked on this/had not been told the date and thus told us he couldn’t play. At the last minute. Just before we were about to go on. At which point, I jokingly said, c’mon, it’s not a National…and then I realized he was seriously going to bail on us, and I got *pissed*. We had spent the past four nights practicing, working on this instead of doing other things. I’d left work early on Friday. And then he made the mistake of blaming my dear husband, which led to me biting B*’s head off. I mean, I was ticked anyways, but I also knew the history and felt strongly that this was in B*’s camp to check, not ours, so that just gave me justification to bite his head off.
We begged Mr. Moo to fill in. He’d just gotten Rock Band two weeks earlier, so this was a big ask. He was only there to root for us and take pictures. But, he was a really good sport about it and filled in on bass at medium. I was on guitar on hard (we’d figured out that, as a band, we scored better with me doing 99% on Hard than with me getting a higher individual score at 93% on Expert, due to the multipliers). My DH was on drums. Ms. Moo was singing.
We ended up scoring okay on the song, but not up to our normal level. It is important to note that this was not Mr. Moo’s fault. He did wonderfully, particularly considering that he was relatively new to the game (granted, he’s a very good real guitarist). One problem was that the whole stage rocked whenever DH hit the drum pedal (and Ms. Moo, not realizing the problem, was stomping along with the beat), and thus his drum kit was creeping forward at an angle. The drum kit didn’t have enough weight to hold it in place. Also, there’s the “zOMG we’re on a stage with a crowd cheering!” factor, which meant that I only scored 93% on hard, with a relatively low streak.
Then, there was a promotion at the casino that you could get free buffets pretty easily, so we got free buffets. Mr. Moo went back to the poker game while the “original” EBD went to the buffet. (Technically, the original Eaten By Delicious is me and DH…the band name is a combination of our two Guitar Hero band names, Delicious and Eaten By Wolves. But, B* and Ms. Moo complete us.) While there, B* and I (having had time to cool down) talked and resolved the fighting. So, we were cool.
Then, B*, having had time to think about it more, decided that he wanted to do it after all. So, we registered again, as a different band (because you can swap out one person and be a whole new band). That necessitated a new band name. Thus, we are now known in the competition as Even More Delicious.
Even More Delicious won…with nearly 150% of EBD’s score. Granted, the competition was weak. There were no serious bands there. We could have won without practicing at all, as it turns out. Still, it’s a victory.
In April, we’ll be competing in the local finals, and, if we get past that, we go to regional finals. At regional finals, we each win an XBox 360 and Rock Band 2 (kind of silly since clearly at least some of the winning band will already have it). If we go to and win the national finals, we get to open for the B-52s in Vegas. *That* is a long shot though. We might have a shot at winning the regional finals…but nationals…we’re good, but there are LOTS of people who are MUCH better. Still, it’ll be fun to try.
As many of you have noticed, the blog has gone back in time to catch up on posts from our (very awesome, wanna go back NOW) Disney trip. As such, I skipped over quite a few events that would normally warrant a blog post. I don’t want to spend another month re-capping, so below is a one paragraph, catch-all summary of the things that were, January 2009. As is fitting for anything dealing with time travel, I shall start with Lost…
Lost is back on! Desmond’s baby named Charlie, the others speak Latin, woohoo! B* made me a cake with a Dharma logo. It was delicious…disappeared very quickly, did Ben turn the wheel, shift cake through time? Obama officially president, yay! Didn’t care about inauguration until the day it was on, then was sad I couldn’t watch live and had to work instead. Re-org’d at work into new group but otherwise similar. Got one estimate for the pipe burst repairs from the guy(s) who did our basement, liked their work, but the painting estimate alone was higher than was to paint whole basement. Something smells funny in Denmark, yo. Business name is of the form, [name] the [job]er…which led to Joe-the-plumber, bob-the-builder joking between DH and I. DH has been working odd hours at his second job. Very stressful. Ran Survivor at Mensa AGOG. Had to scramble to get to the minimum ten to play, but once we got there, it was AWESOME. Everyone had bonzer good time. Yay. Knee has been hurting alot lately. Also, period has been irregular. (Not related.) WTF is up with me? Wish knee would stop hurting. But yet, I will be going skiing on Saturday, yay! And knee can just suck on that, thank you very much. Pancake continues to be adorable kitteh. Races me up the stairs. I almost won last night, but only because he let me have a 5 step head start. Thought L4D was an evil time suck, but then Mr. Moo introduced me to Braid, which now is on my bedroom xbox (not mytsukata gamertag). Damn you, Mr. Moo! Got special L4D achievement last night for blowing the witch’s head off, Cr0wnd! Sweet. So cold outside. But weather Saturday promises to be ski-awesome. Found giant and strange fruit at the store, called Pomelo, is huge and we could kill a small child with it, but we won’t. Instead, will eat. Also got some honey tangerines. Enjoying finding and trying out new fruits. Finished second term of class, am 12.5% done with MBA. Group project ended much better than it started. Next term, taking two classes: Effective Leadership *coughbullshitcough* and Negotiations & Conflict Management (win win win). Hoping negotiations will make me awesome at negotiation such that I can help Mensa with hotel negotiation stuff. Will speak quietly so they have to lean in, then will change meeting location suddenly without notice…then will threaten to kill their daughter. Oh and how did Frogurt’s shirt fit Sawyer? Nonsense.
First Lostie to catch the embedded (very subtle) clue in the style of Lost gets something nifty, though I’m not sure what. Adoration? That’s nifty, right?
Today, we had to do an emergency shopping trip on two counts. First, I needed some kind of “park purse” as my (super-awesome and carefully selected) park purse got stolen. Second, I needed a digital camera, preferably this Panasonic 9.1MP with 10x digital zoom and Leica lens. (I’d had my eye on that model when I did a rush buy in Taipei, but the electronics store in Taipei was out of that one.)
In Taipei, I’d paid ~$330 for my camera. This was a markup of $30-50 over what the US model was going for on Amazon at the time, but I was desperate and in a foreign country, with no time to comparison shop. So, I bought it. This time, even though I was again desperate, I was in my homeland, with the stores I know and love just a GPS click away. I figured it would be a much quicker and easier shopping experience.
We started at Best Buy. I like their rewards program, and for this kind of thing, where I know what I want, I find them to be a good retail option. After much looking around, I find my preferred camera on sale for $279. But (and I had this hesitation in Taipei, too), I was worried about pocketability. I didn’t mind a larger camera than my previous two, but it still needed to easily fit in my purse and pocket. Problem was, Best Buy had the camera on an anti-theft post. I could kind of shove it into my pocket to test, but it felt awkward. And, I couldn’t tell if I was feeling awkward because of the giant anti-theft mechanism or the camera. We call over a salesguy, who doesn’t seem to be occupied with other things. Speaking of, I shit you not, there was a LINE to get into Best Buy at opening, either because they opened later than they used to…new 2009 hours were posted at the door…or because Floridians are just that excited about electronics…but the place was relatively busy.
Me (with DH standing nearby): Hey, I’m thinking of getting this camera, but I really need to know if it will fit into my pocket or purse, and the anti-theft thingie is making it hard to tell. Could you unlock it just long enough for me to check it out?
Salesguy: No, I can’t do that. We have smaller models over there. (points and starts to walk away)
Me: Yeah, but I like *this* one…I just need to be sure that it will fit okay. Do you have a display model or something, maybe an already-open box?
Salesguy: No, we don’t do that. (very terse)
DH: Is there a manager or someone who *does* have a key and can unlock it for us?
Salesguy: I’ll get a manager for you in a minute. I have to help another customer. (walks away and begins talking to a customer who is looking at a sub-$150 camera)
Okay, benefit of the doubt: maybe the guy was in the middle of helping them and we didn’t realize it. But either way, doesn’t basic customer service dictate that you simply apologize, say you’re helping someone else and either offer to be back shortly (right at the beginning of the conversation) or get one of your salesguy-friends to come help? I guess, even giving this guy the benefit of the doubt, I was left with a crappy customer service vibe. DH and I came to this conclusion while standing there and decided that there are other stores nearby that we can go to…and even if the guy does get a manager to help us, we don’t want him getting a commission, so we walk out with the intention of coming back if this turns out to be the best price.
Our next stop was Target. My Target-branded Visa was my primary credit card now (as my usual ones got stolen), so I would get decent rewards by shopping with them, too. And, since I have a price point and model in mind, I figure it’s a reasonable alternative. But, Target’s selection was clearly geared at “cheap and compact” so my camera-of-choice wasn’t there. We scanned their purse selection for an alternative park purse and bombed on that count, too. (Of all places, why doesn’t the Target that is the closest Target to Disney (albeit still about 8-10 miles away) have a good park purse selection instead of silly fashion purses with short straps? :: sigh ::)
On the way to Target, DH had spotted a Ritz Camera, and he suggested that as an option. I initially pooh-poohed it. I, like any consumer, have perceptions about stores, and my perception of smaller camera shops like Ritz and Wolf is that they jack up the prices on cameras to near retail. DH pointed out, though, that we know how much it should cost, and so we can either try to get them to price match Best Buy or just go back to Best Buy if they’re a bust.
We walk in. It’s quiet. We go straight to the digital camera section, and they’re behind a glass case. Up toward the top, we see two Panasonics. One seems to be the new year’s model of the one that was stolen (priced at $360), with some minor updates, and the other is my camera-of-choice priced at $279. Well, I’ll be damned. And, even better yet, a salesguy comes over to us, asks if we need help…I tell him my situation and that I want to know if that Panasonic (innnn the window, woof woof!) will fit okay in my pocket. He unlocks the case and hands it over. I look it over, test it in pocket and purse, click a few shots, check the UI (Best Buy’s model had a dead battery), and basically fall in love. I tell the salesguy that I’ll take this one. DH thoughtfully asks if they have one with a charged battery (by now, I’ve explained the precise situation, theft, Taipei, and all, to the salesguy). Salesguy thinks for a minute and then checks his two floor models, but both have a low battery. He apologizes for not having a charged one handy…says they charge them throughout the day.
I bought a high-speed SD (class 6) card from him, too. Now, I’d planned to buy an “any ol’ memory card” for now, with intent to raid my collection of cards for a high-speed one once I got home…but I wanted to reward the customer service. So, I paid a really huge mark-up on the SD card ($39 for what should cost under $15).
Then, we went back to the room and plugged in the camera to charge. Meanwhile, we went to the pool for a quick swim before our bridge session. We ended up playing only the first half of the match (on a six-person team in KOs, each pair only has to play at least half of the session), so then we got to rent bikes and tour Port Orleans for awhile in the afternoon. We ate beignets at the French Quarter and took lots of pictures. I enjoyed riding a “cruiser” bike. We considered renting a Surrey bike or a kayak, but it turns out that you can’t take the kayaks to downtown disney’s lake (which was our interest in a kayak) and you can’t take the Surrey bikes to French Quarter (which was part of what we wanted to do on a bike). I took lots of pictures with my new camera. I love it. I’m really glad that I got it.
We had dinner with my parents at the Sizzler. We parked the truck where it was visible from a restaurant window. The Sizzler was a pretty good dinner deal, and it was good to reconcile the day’s activities with my parents.
We played both halves of the evening session (our picked-up pair wanted to cut out early to see the college football game), and we won…and not by a small amount, either. Yay for us! So, we made our teammates both life masters, which was a cool accomplishment. As for me, I’m less than a point away from being a “fake life master”…I’m missing 25+ black (club/local game) points, but I have the necessary red (sectional), silver (regional), and gold (top prize at regional and point-limited national events) points. I’ve decided that if the ACBL wants to withhold life master over black points, they can keep it. Fake Life Master is good enough for me.
It’s not an agreement if it’s forced on you. It might be a rule or a declaration or even a law, but it’s not an agreement if you don’t get the chance to agree to it.
The trend in online-enabled software these days is to have some kind of user agreement, generally that spells out if and how you can distribute the software as well as specifics on use. You agree, often by clicking a button, when you install the software or start the software. Usually, if you don’t agree, you’re kicked out of the software or prevented from installing it. That, I have no problem with, because you are prompted to agree or disagree. I also have no problem with this because you haven’t paid for anything at the point where the prompt occurs, or if you have, it’s generally easy enough to get a refund at that point.
My issue is with companies that change the user agreements at a moment’s notice, after the point of purchase, and remove services you previously had if you don’t agree. Specifically, the Nintendo Wii user agreement has been changed with the latest “software feature update” to state that Nintendo can update your system at any time and that the update may delete games or applications from your system at any time to “protect the safety” of the system. I do not want to agree to this, but if I don’t, my Wii will not function in the way that it was promised to function when I bought it.
Furthermore, if I do agree to the update, Nintendo may update their user agreement again at some later date without notifying me, as that is what is specified in the new user agreement. This further undermines the agreement. What’s more, I’m pretty sure that if I took my car to the dealership for maintenance and as part of that maintenance, without my agreement, they removed my custom radio and replaced it with a standard one, I’d have a legal claim. There is no law to protect consumers from that same sort of shenanigan in software, however.
In short, it’s not a user agreement; it’s a user edict. And it pisses me off.
I have not done the Twilight hack. I have not downloaded the Homebrew Channel. I haven’t really planned to do it, because the features I get aren’t worth the trouble to me (yet). So, I’m not the person that they have in mind in making this change. Nonetheless, I’m pissed off by it. Unfortunately, I have no effective way to express my grievance. I could stop buying Nintendo games, but my one purchase means little. I could write a letter, but again, it won’t mean anything. Nintendo has already dismissed my type as “geeks and Otaku.”
What’s worse to me is that the Homebrew Channel is not hurting Nintendo in any way. It is not sapping revenue from them. It doesn’t allow users to do anything that they shouldn’t already be able to do. Yet, Nintendo is going after it with a vengeance…seemingly just because it’s there.
I do not like this trend in user agreements. First, I’d appreciate the honesty of calling it what it is. Second, I want some consumer protection enacted that would protect software users from abuse of so-called agreements.
s. 
I wish he could travel with me.
