Ntuple Indemnity

Yes, I’m well aware that not only have I owed this website a review of the delightfully fluffy Shrek 2 since I saw it on Friday, I just called an ogre fluffy.

Speaking of calling things, word on the street is that there’s an election of some sort going on here in the Great White North. According to Elections Canada, no candidates have been confirmed yet for my riding of Calgary Nose Hill, though Conservative Party incumbent Diane Ablonczy, presently the Chief Opposition Critic for Citizenship and Immigration, is more than likely to run again. The 28 June balloting will be interesting indeed, in the sense that it’s a game of picking your poison, which should remind us all of the old adage that politicians act fast.

The 21st Annual Summer Tournament held by the Calgary Scrabble Group was this weekend, in which I played in the second of three divisions and finished with a 10-4 (+296) record. This should boost my NSA rating well into the mid-1300s, which locks me firmly into Division 4 (1200-1399, effectively 1000-1399) at this year’s National Scrabble Championships. However, as is the case with all players, I am eligible to play one division higher, which presents a game-theoretical dilemma. Division 4 offers a better shot at qualifying for the generous cash prizes that come with being consistent about slapping people around, but being seeded near the top of the division means that any performance less than stellar will tank my rating. Division 3 (1400-1599, effectively 1200-1599) offers better players, tougher competition, and the potential to get a big fat ratings boost like at today’s tournament, which boasted a similar range of players, but any hopes for moolah will be tempered. When it comes to major title events, does one play to do well, or play for the challenge and experience?

Speaking of Nationals, anyone who was either at Waterloo DDT or heard about Round 4 against Harthousie (Bond/Hoddes) may be interested in this document, the inspiration for what turned out to be an entertaining round of debate, to say the least.

The above statement, of course, contains all of the single letters that combine with “RETINA” to create a Scrabble-legal “bingo”, or seven-letter word. These phrases are known as anamonics, and I don’t know them nearly well enough, which did not stop me from winning seven games of eight in today’s mini-tournament in Calgary, one of which was a forfeit. The record was just enough to prevent my present NSA rating of 1267 from dropping, as I was the top seed in a division of twelve players in the 900-1300 range. Given the circumstances, I should have done better.

Let this not be meant as a slight to players of this calibre, however. Despite how low the numbers look – expert level is conventionally defined as anything above 1600 – they were no small fish to fry. The typical player above 900 knows her two- and three-letter words cold, likely has the big three stems (AEIRST, AEINST and the aforementioned AEIRNT) well on the way, and has a good sense of positional strategy – in short, enough to clobber anybody who’s never left the living room. Especially interesting to watch are players whose first language is not English; they are tremendously advantaged by a lack of “word shock” given that obscure words seem no odder than many one may consider common, but disadvantaged by a deficit of “natural” word knowledge outside the sphere of study lists. Today, a player who is on nearly equal footing with me in terms of ability arguably lost by way of sacrificing two turns, the first when she challenged REDUX, the second when I caught her tacking an S on the end of ALIT.

Really, this is just a microcosm for the differences one generally notices between naturalistic and academic langauge acquisition. Homonym errors are far more frequent in the writing of those who learn a language verbally and contextually, whilst grammatical mistakes committed by those who learn English in an academic setting, upon analysis, are very systematic.

It is quite unfortunate that most language curricula nowadays in primary and secondary schools – and I believe this is not just the case in Alberta – are merely immersive and never bother to address the elements of syntax in the same manner as second-language programmes. The consequence is that in many cases, native English speakers are sometimes just as, if not more writing-impaired than their ESL counterparts. We already see some degree of linguistic confusion, or even reduction, with the misuse/non-use of “whom”, and the conflation of past tense and past participles.

Fourteen rounds of Scrabble does strange things to you. This week I played in the 1200-1600 division at the annual two-day Spring Tournament in Calgary, finishing with a 7-7 record and a negative spread. According to the Ratings Calculator my rating will stay about the same, rising from 1251 to 1255. The actual change will likely be slightly different, as in two-day events, intermediary rating changes are calculated after the first day – in this case, the first eight rounds, after which I was sitting at 5-3. (The player rating system is a variant of the Elo system used in chess, and is explained in this document.) Stay tuned next week for an update concerning the first tournament ever to be held in Northern Alberta, a one-day event at Sherwood Park in which I will be playing in Division 1.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles has been selling ridiculously well for a gimmick title that absorbs US$600 if you want to set up a four-player game. But already being in possession of two Game Boy Advances, it was not considerably pricier than what I usually pay for games, which is in itself too much. The game is of the old “fight monsters, don’t die” formula, but pulls it off quite well because of the teamwork element involved when several players are managing inventories and eyeing distinct radars on the GBA screen while conducting battles on the television connected to the GameCube. There is the occasional frustration that comes from leaving all the healing spells in the hands of a teammate who is a little slow to the punch, but that just adds to the social atmosphere. Social video games are an endangered species in this day and age of going online, but that’s a diatribe for another post, another day.

Calling a spade a spade, Chronicles is closer to a beat-’em-up than an RPG in terms of genre, but relies on elements of both and does not excel at strictly one and not the other. Aside from the overhead, the use of GBA-Cube connectivity deserves some credit, and it should be interesting to see how this technical feature unfolds in Four Swords Adventures.

Speaking of Zelda, be sure to read this transcription of Eiji Aonuma’s keynote speech at the Game Developers Conference held last week, wherein he discusses at length both the history of the franchise and the depth of the design process. It’s a fascinating read that covers everything from dialogue writing to the timing of the “success chime”.

CUSIDnet is back online, albeit under a new address, probably due to however the new host, GlobalServers, handles subdomains. If this remains the case, I will likely go back and update the various hard links to the CUSID forums to reflect this. Actually, don’t count on it; too much work. If this remains the case, I will likely see what is up with the subdomain issue, it being my new job and all.

It’s funny how much happens when you don’t update a weblog for a week. There’s that The Return of the King theatrical trailer, for starters, and I could probably write pages and pages of commentary on my reactions to that thing but that would be redundant, as the collective orgasm of the Tolkien community – at least, the half of it that adores the Peter Jackson films – has already been heard twice around the world by this point.

Then there’s the announcement of Pixar’s Film Seven concept, Ratatouille. All Pixar news is good news. It will be interesting to see how it performs without the Disney label, though I have a hunch that the Pixar name by itself far outclasses Disney on the reputation front at this point in time.

Last weekend I also played in Division 3 of 4 at the Western Canadian Scrabble Championships in Calgary. The final tournament results are online. I placed seventh in a field of twenty due to a botched Round 17 where a win would have placed me comfortably in third. I lay the blame for my loss squarely on a fatal mistake down a triple line, where I misread my opponent’s blank R in NASTIER as an S – twice – and in doing so, lost two turns in a row and allowed her to take both triples down that lane. I’m still not over it.

In a few minutes I will be heading off to tonight’s Students’ Council meeting. The Agenda and Late Additions are both online. Tonight is the big vote on the Separation of Powers bill, as well as a Tuition/Budget presentation from the Provost. It’s going to be one heck of a meeting; expect commentary later tonight.

I just encountered what may be one of the best applications of blogging I have ever seen: Puzzleblog. Of course, it would be even better if it was based on OSPD rather than Chambers – whoever is behind the site is evidently a UK player – and if it was more challenging for competitive types, like Larry Rand’s Scrabblegram puzzles in the Arizona Republic, which are syndicated across the US.