Interesting Stuff

Last night, Sherri and I went to Bridge Etc for their last game at that location. It was the biggest turnout they’ve had in as long as anyone can remember – there were 11 tables! While it was a lot of fun, we took dead last, with a 36% game. Sherri hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, and was only semi-coherent. She and I are also not yet used to each other’s bidding styles (over the summer she played with a really good player in Oregon, and picked up a lot of bidding conventions I’m not used to). Not only that, but we’re both used to having more agressive partners, so neither of us bid as high as we should have. And then on top of all that, we both made some stupid, stupid mistakes. Still, it was fun. Afterwards, I stayed after to help Tom move some of the stuff to Mudd (remember that they’re coming to Mudd to play every Monday starting the day after tomorrow). We now have 3 more tables, 16 chairs, and a complete set of 36 trays. \/\/00T! Before now, we’ve been using the only consecutive 8 we have, and we have to stop and shuffle every 8 hands. Now, we can shuffle a bunch at the beginning and then play through the whole night.

Abstract assignment due tomorrow, mock ACM tomorrow from 9-1AM, Systems test Wednesday, History reading/reflection due Wednesday, Philosophy reading due Wednesday, CS81 take-home exam due Thursday. We’ll see how much sleep I get this week.

On a brighter note, Sheri and I are going to Bridge Etc for their last game on Friday.

And to leave you all with something that is just awesome, look at this.

We’re having a birthdayful week here. Yesterday was Elicia’s birthday, and today was both Whitney’s and Rami’s. Whitney spent the day at home with Zack, so I IM’ed her. Rami, however, was here. We got a group of 11 people, went to Buca’s, came back and had cake, and then 8 of us went bowling. What a fantastic night for bowling! Amanda got a 132, Robert got a 134, Rami got a 146, I got a 136, Nadia got a 117 (which is fantastic for her – it was the only time she broke 100), and then Robert got a 159(!). Rachel, however, had a bad night – she only broke 80. Well, she’ll do better next time.

Let’s see… Amanda bought an X-box over break, which is kind of neat. Then, this past week, Elisa and I (among others) went to an informational meeting about Microsoft. I’m a bit torn: they offer fantastic internships and it would be wonderful to get one. However, I spent much of the summer purging my system of anything Microsoft-related. I doubt I’ll be offered an internship, but if I am, I’m not sure if I want it, because on the whole I can’t stand Microsoft’s products. They’re like the AOL of operating systems: many people are reliant on them because they make it easy, and hold your hand every step of the way. However, you can’t get anything useful done on their machines, and they’re full of problems. I can accept that they offer a great service to the barely computer-literate masses, but they’re certainly not for me. Well, we’ll see. I doubt I’ll have to make a choice in the first place. I bring this up because they had a raffle, and Elisa won a game for the X-box (which she has given to Amanda), and I won a copy of Halo for the PC. Argh! Halo is a neat game, but I can’t use it, since I’m not running Windows. Robert has offered to lend me his computer if I want to play it.

Bridge Etc is closing down in a week, and in honor of that, there is no admission fee for the last game. Sheri and I will be going to that, but we really need to get our conventions straight before then. She’s coming over tomorrow to do that, and hopefully it’ll go well. But there are several things where we adamantly disagree on certain, important things (for example, she claims that jump responses are weak, while I say that that is preempting your partner, and they had better be strong). I don’t know who is right, but hopefully we’ll find out. On a related note, I’ve started work again on the guide to bidding that I began over the summer. First step: to switch it to LaTeX (\/\/00T!). If you are into math or science and don’t know about LaTeX (or another variation, such as MikTeX), you should definitely learn. It’s just wonderful. I now type up all of my homework in it.

So, I had a prefrosh named Mark yesterday and today. He’s a pretty cool guy. I hope he gets in here.

Well, that’s about it. Good night!

This evening was our first official Bridge Club meeting of the year, and I think it went quite well. At 9:00, we only had 4 people – me, Carl, and two newbie frosh. As soon as they left, however, another newbie frosh showed up, as did Hadley, and later we got Carrie, Robin, Andrew, another newbie frosh, and Whitney. Usually, Sherri should also come, not counting anyone else who might show up. I think it’s gonna be a good year. Unit551 will be playing with us every Monday starting at 7:00 (lessons start at 6:30), but sadly I can’t make it until 8:00, so I can’t compete for Master Points. Argh! I can still play while I’m there, I just can’t compete until next semester.

So, yeah – bridge club Mondays and Thursdays at 9:00 in the 2nd story Case lounge on the west side of the building, and in November, Monday games will start going from 7:00-10:00. You should all come!

Over the summer, I don’t have my own computer, so I’m not nearly as good at checking my email or updating this thing. And I haven’t been on IM in weeks. If you really need to get in touch with me… good luck. I’ll get back to you eventually… probably… I hope. :-P

Jeff (my best friend) spent the weekend in town. He’s been working at Rockwell Collins this summer, except for a month that he spent in Transylvania. And he’s now in Texas working for NASA (I’m so jealous!). We spent the weekend looking at pictures of Hungary and Romania, which were really really neat. Transylvania really is a creepy old place with castles and fog everywhere. It was wonderful to see him. We were going to go down to St. Olaf and visit Michael (our other best friend), but he was really busy this weekend. Hopefully I’ll get to head down there next week. We’ll see.

It’s looking like Bridge Etc (the “real” Claremont bridge club) will be having games on campus this coming year! Their lease on their building is almost up, and they’re looking for a new place to play. I talked to Dean Chris (in charge of Student Activities) about it, and he seemed responsive. Well, we’ll see how it all turns out.

At this point it’s probably old news, but the California Supreme Court has nullified the 4,000 gay marriages that took place in San Fransisco. However, their reason for doing so is that no mayor or any other elected official should have the power to rule any law unconstitutional, because if everyone did that, there would be no laws in effect. They said that the right way to challenge the constitutionality of such a law is to have a couple apply for a marriage liscense, get denied, and challenge the denial in court (this has since happened). One of my professors at school was married to his partner in SF, so when school starts back up, I’ll have to go talk to him and see what he’s doing about this all. Well, eventually this will get done properly, and I for one am fairly confident that (at least in California) the law will be ruled unconstitutional, and gay marriages will be allowed. We shall see.

Well, I have to go. I’d like to write more in here soon, but doubt I’ll be able to. At this point, count on sporadic updates for a while.