Musings of the Hearth: June 2010 Archives

June 10, 2010

Jeopardy! last night (discussion of one particular random question)

This is about just one particular random question and shouldn't spoil watching the episode for anyone.

On Jeopardy! yesterday there was a question about the title of the first Harry Potter book, referring to it being translated into another language. TheDan answered "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" and was given credit. Although not surprised they gave him credit, I have to feel this answer is wrong. I can't imagine the translator didn't work from the original source, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", and not the Americanized (a change I hated by the way) title (or text).

Posted by aarondf at 11:29 AM | Games | Comments (0)

June 03, 2010

Teaching Tichu

Simultaneously taught 10 people Tichu just before running a small tournament this weekend. Had known I would be teaching but figured would be more like 3-4 people so although I had printed some cheat sheets, I could have prepared better if had realized this would be the situation. Pretty much the first people I ever taught where I was not immediately playing at least a few hands with right after which changes things somewhat. Still, went quite well and I paired all of the inexperienced teams against a team with at least some experience in the first round. This made it harder for them to win but also made it much more likely that they would end up playing the game correctly, which I thought the more important goal. Was nice to see one pair which lost in the first round of the tournament immediately play two more games.

M & I ended up winning in the final but only because I had upped the ending score for the SF to 1250 and Final to 1500. If had been to 1000, we would have lost, and to a pair who the only time they had played before was a game or two a year ago.

Posted by aarondf at 01:50 PM | Games | Comments (0)

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Quotations

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Aaron Fuegi's Collected Quotations

Frodo was now safe in the Last Homely House east of the Sea. That house was, as Bilbo had long ago reported, "a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep, or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all." Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear and sadness.: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Dr. Strauss says I should rite down what I think and remembir and evrey thing that happins to me from now on..: Daniel Keys, opening line of Flowers for Algernon
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.: J.D. Salinger, opening line of The Catcher in the Rye
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.: Albert Camus
"Do you know what I learned from you? I learned what is possible, and now I must hold out for what I thought we had. I want to be very close to someone I respect and admire and have somebody who feels the same way about me. That or nothing. I realized that what I'm looking for is not what you're looking for. You don't want what I want." "What do you think I want?" I asked. "Exactly what you have. Many women you know a little and don't care very much about. Superficial flirtations, mutual use, no chance of love. That's my idea of hell. Hell is a place, a time, a consciousness, Richard, in which there is no love. Horrible! Leave me out of it.": Richard Bach, Spoken by Leslie Parrish and Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever
I don't wish to be everything to everyone, but I would like to be something to someone.: Katherine Kurtz, spoken by Javan
...that was the first thing I had to learn about her, and maybe the hardest I've ever learned about anything--that she is her own, and what she gives me is of her choosing, and the more precious because of it. Sometimes a butterfly will come to sit in your open palm, but if you close your hand, one way or the other, it--and its choice to be there--are gone.: Barbara Hambly, Spoken by John Aversin, Dragonsbane
And though I came to forget or regret all I have ever done, yet would I remember that once I saw the dragons aloft on the wind at sunset above the western isles; and I would be content.: Ursula K. LeGuin, The Tombs of Atuan
What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.: William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.: Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP Keynote Address
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.: Oscar Wilde
The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.: Joseph Heller, Catch22
My close relationship with Alice Waters illustrates the kind of client with whom I get along best. We have a clear aesthetic, are dedicated to our work, and leave each other to do the best we can for each other. I cannot imagine a finer relationship.: David Lance Goines, Graphic Designer
"I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worth while?" Death thought about it "Cats," he said eventually, "Cats are Nice.": Terry Pratchett, Sourcery
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!: Albert Einstein
One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world will be better for this.: Mitch Leigh, The Quest, based on Cervantes
That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.: Richard Bach, note written by Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever
The main problem with today's high-technology society is that we allow politicians to run it instead of people equipped with the wherewithal to understand it. Their mentalities are still in the nineteenth century. How can they hope to manage complex economies when they're not competent to run a yard-sale. What can they do that requires even a smattering of knowledge or intellect? People let them get away with it. If people are gonna elect turkeys to tell them what to do, then the people are gonna have problems. You can't blame the turkeys. The Constitution never guaranteed smart government; it guaranteed representative government. And it works - that's what we've got. The trouble with the damn system is that it selects for the skills needed to get elected, and nothing else... which requires only an ability to fool a sufficient number of people for just long enough to get the votes. Unfortunately the personal qualities necessary for attaining office are practically the opposite of those demanded by the office itself. A test that you can pass only by cheating can't possibly select honest people, can it?: James P. Hogan, Code of the Lifemaker
Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it's true. If you hire somebody without the first, you really want them to be dumb and lazy.: Warren Buffet
Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well -- he has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun.: Ralph Waldo Emerson
"There. There," said the marquis de Carabas, awkwardly, patting her shoulder. And he added, for good measure, "There." He did not comfort well.: Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.: Buddha
The avalanche has started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote.: Vorlon Ambassador Kosh Naranek, Babylon 5: Believers
Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is what happened on the banks.: Will Durant, The History of Civilization
You cannot rule the world El-ahrairah, for I will not have it so. All the world will be your enemy, Prince With a Thousand Enemies. And whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you--digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.: Richard Adams, Watership Down