Computer Canasta

As all three of you who follow this blog are well aware, I have a bit of a canasta problem. I don't mean my recent problem of losing every hand to DLB, no, a problem that predates that. A problem that began around the family dining table, carted back from somewhere out West on a dare from my Dad, the table, not the problem, and nurtured in many a borrowed dorm room. I have a mild addiction to the game of canasta. Its combination of luck and strategy of braggadocio and humbling retribution. Its symmetry of odd numbers. In Japan, outside of a small group trapped in a house during a typhoon, I have found no one to play canasta with. In comes the iPod. Now, I can play canasta whenever I want.

This brings its own issues however, it isn't the loss of conversation that a real human game brings, although that detracts from the experience, it is the absolute boneheaded way that your partner plays and the fact that their method can't be corrected through personal rebuke.

To be fair, I have noticed the same strategies from human opponents in Internet canasta; the same get the canasta and get out dash to the exit. To me the slowly building deck, the pot of soup that only one person will get to eat, is the fun of the game. Once you meet the challenge of melding and then get that deck, it is your obligation to stretch out the game and milk the other team for everything they have. Not so, says my digital teammate. The real challenge when you get up to melding 120 points is the meld itself. I can't see the logic in being roughly 1,000 points away from a victory, getting the difficult meld, getting a huge deck, having the other team in the position of every discard being a donation to your team fund, but deciding to go out after one canasta. A canasta that doesn't put you over the 5,000 point mark for the win. Now you have to struggle to meld 120 again and have no idea if you will get to pick up the deck.

Maybe it is the rule that you can go out with one canasta, natural or not. I am not a fan of that rule. I say two canastas where one must be natural is the only way to play. It makes for a more strategic game. Maybe it is just flawed programming. My teammate has been known to through a deuce on 6 eights for an unnatural and discard the eight in their hand on the same play. Or two lay down 3 sixes, which the opponent doesn't have, and then discard a Jack, which gives the other side a natural canasta.

Oh, well. That's what happens when you build robot people. Take that science!

Campamus. Scenes from AICL 2010

I got a new camera as a wedding present. I am trying it out. I am sure it will change my life like the new J Crew catalog.




Two super geniuses at work.


Commander Dan


Captain Mustache



Ms. Mustache



Princess Hotstuff



Ghost of Dave Kyser



The Mush



Micah and John



Old Yankee





Dr. Foxy



Dance Wars





Mr.Me



M.Bensey





DJ Wooly Willy



Our Mikoshi



Dirty Hippy



Eco Dorm



George Going Beefcake



Musical



Jeff and Juno

And the Winner is......

In case you missed it:





James won camp in a bit of a runaway. I think he might have a lock on it for a while.



Congratulations.

All-Star

Vote for a camp all-star.

Roadtrip Finale

Roadtrip Duagon

Post-Camp Roadtrip. #3

Post-camp roadtrip. #2

Post-camp roadtrip.

From points unidentified. Duagon access not granted, state troopers cower behind their pandas.

No Music

The stunted one week version of camp left me little time to play music with Phil, which is one of my favorite things to do...even though I can't keep up with the trad. Here is Phil's camp drawing.


It was good to have April at camp this year, not only for her outstanding voice.

An Odd Dynamic

Has an elementary school student ever asked you, "Have you ever heard of Alice in Chains?" Has a 15 year old ever played the intro to "Dreams" on a piano and tried to find a way to work it into a musical...in 2008???!?!?! Apparently we have this game to thank:

Mission Accomplished

Chasing the roaches out of the washing machine I waited for David to call so I could get out of my 2 year/no Florida holding pattern and head out to the Smokies. 30 minutes to Rockford and I still have a magnet in my head for Roddy Branch Road. I knocked at the back door. I knocked at the front door. No answer. I sat on the front porch and read the New Yorker article about Tavis Smiley. Jim's notes read "Chad and others called." I am "others." No signs of life. No signs of life. I knocked on the front door and stuck my head in. "Hello." No signs of life. My mind rolls trough a week of church shootings and bus decapitations and family stabbings through a Southern Gothic, front porch filter. "Jesus, Jim killed the family." Might have crossed my mind.

After a bit, David and Jayden pulled up. They had mistook their flights for Tuesday instead of Monday and missed them both. Jayden had to get back to Mexico and David to Mexico via New Orleans with visa time line restrictions. The options are to fly business class or to leave several days later. After several frustrating hours on hold David finds out that no one-way rental cars are available in Knoxville for New Orleans. To Chattanooga!!

To Chattanooga. Two hours closer to a home I haven't seen in more than two years in a borrowed car. Renting cars with a debit card. The desk next door. Credit checks and insurance. Uninteresting Indian food in a strip mall with an overheating borrowed car. Only to turn around and come back as Jayden and David push on to stay in Tuscaloosa without even going to campus.

Mission thoroughly accomplished.

My Loony Bun is Fine Benny Lava

Camp is over and this is all I have for you:




Blame this on David. Now with post camp space out crashing at Jake's. Camp went fine with only one tragic shooting and pronounced understaffment. I am tireder than three weeks worth and all full of Mexican food. Waiting for Chad to take me to Florida on Wednesday.

Minor bun engine made Benny Lava.