Search found 54 matches
- Wed Aug 02, 2017 4:24 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: VCU Side Event Weekend - 8/5/2017
- Replies: 31
- Views: 17627
Re: VCU Side Event Weekend - 8/5/2017
How will the cancellation of OCTAVIAN affect the schedule? Rather than poach an event from the second weekend, is it possible to push back the start time for NASAT? Or to have some previously run event (Math Monstrosity, Fight the Power, etc) take its place? Evan Adams and I would like to advocate ...
- Sat Jul 01, 2017 11:41 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: VCU Side Event Weekend - 8/5/2017
- Replies: 31
- Views: 17627
Re: VCU Side Event Weekend - 8/5/2017
I will be moving away shortly after the first weekend and cannot make the second. My ranked preferences for the first weekend's offerings:
1. All side events.
2. NASAT + side events.
3. Trash + side events.
4. NASAT + trash.
1. All side events.
2. NASAT + side events.
3. Trash + side events.
4. NASAT + trash.
- Tue May 30, 2017 1:07 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Virginia Summer Open – 8/5/17
- Replies: 53
- Views: 33804
Re: Virginia Summer Open – 8/5/17
I would strongly prefer a Side Event Weekend with no NASAT, and it's not in my self-interest to say that as someone who will make money from NASAT. The last Side Event Weekend was delightful and superior in every way, I thought, to a second summer open. Besides, NASAT is a regular-difficulty tourna...
- Fri May 26, 2017 3:47 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Virginia Summer Open – 8/5/17
- Replies: 53
- Views: 33804
Re: Virginia Summer Open – 8/5/17
I would strongly prefer a Side Event Weekend with no NASAT, and it's not in my self-interest to say that as someone who will make money from NASAT. The last Side Event Weekend was delightful and superior in every way, I thought, to a second summer open. Besides, NASAT is a regular-difficulty tournam...
- Thu Apr 27, 2017 2:44 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
- Replies: 70
- Views: 42766
Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
As a moderator, I was not particularly a fan of this bonus, especially the third part: 13. For 10 points each, answer the following about Middle English lyric poetry. [10] The lyric beginning “Sumer is icumen in” (SOO-mer “is” ih-KOO-min “in”) repeatedly tells the animal it addresses to do this, fr...
- Wed Apr 26, 2017 11:10 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
- Replies: 70
- Views: 42766
Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
-There were functionally three music questions in one packet: Aida, Gesualdo, and Bach partitas Although this technically was not a distributional error (music tossup, other arts tossup, and other academic tossup--mainly literature--with a music giveaway), had we noticed the convergence, we certain...
- Wed Apr 26, 2017 11:01 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
- Replies: 70
- Views: 42766
Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
I wanted to fire a question at the author of the Millay bonus in the Maryland packet -- for the bonus part on "tetrameter," which of her sonnets were you thinking about? I pulled this eventually while thinking of her "Three Sonnets in Tetrameter," which are some pretty dope sonn...
- Mon Apr 24, 2017 1:59 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
- Replies: 70
- Views: 42766
Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
I edited all of literature, music, opera, and film. I wrote the majority of the literature and music in the set from scratch, as well as all of the opera and film. The European and World/Other literature includes about 20 excellent questions written by Matt and Evan, and Jonathan Magin freelanced 3/...
- Mon Apr 24, 2017 12:16 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
- Replies: 70
- Views: 42766
Re: ACF Nationals Thanks and Discussion
There were a few questions that I found odd, like the tossup on "names" that used "these objects" as the pronoun, but I don't think that they diminish the editors' achievements. I wrote this tossup and can attest that the pronoun phrase used throughout was "these things,&qu...
- Wed Dec 21, 2016 10:00 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: IRC Festivus 2016: Still Not Dead Yet
- Replies: 120
- Views: 67662
Re: IRC Festivus 2016: Still Not Dead Yet
I've been incubating a Festivus packet. The distribution is roughly: 25% Game of Thrones mashups 25% hard answers from easy video games (i.e. more questions like the ones in my Nintendo packet from a couple years ago) 25% wint's Twitter (@dril) 25% Seinfeld and other miscellanies So hopefully somet...
- Sun Dec 18, 2016 9:47 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: IRC Festivus 2016: Still Not Dead Yet
- Replies: 120
- Views: 67662
Re: IRC Festivus 2016: Still Not Dead Yet
I've been incubating a Festivus packet. The distribution is roughly: 25% Game of Thrones mashups 25% hard answers from easy video games (i.e. more questions like the ones in my Nintendo packet from a couple years ago) 25% wint's Twitter (@dril) 25% Seinfeld and other miscellanies So hopefully someth...
- Mon Aug 01, 2016 4:47 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Chicago Open 2016 Set Discussion
- Replies: 110
- Views: 50301
Re: Chicago Open 2016 Set Discussion
I'm a little disappointed that several clues were added to the Trypanosoma tossup that I had specifically avoided because they were non-unique -- there seems to have been a conflation between kinetoplastids or trypanosomatids and Trypanosoma , despite important other kinetoplastid genuses existing ...
- Fri May 08, 2015 10:26 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111231
Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
Also, "please don't attribute psychological motives to my posts, which you are probably doing because you are a tantrum-having baby experiencing mental problems(?)", is some killer irony. Wow, somebody get me some ice for that burn, am I right? Perhaps you didn't notice, but the rhetorica...
- Fri May 08, 2015 7:12 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111231
Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
In response to Shan: I identified those as especially hard answers under the assumption that no one would contest that they are hard. If someone can show me the conversion numbers demonstrating that they were converted at the same rate as anything else, I'll gladly partially retract that statement. ...
- Fri Apr 24, 2015 3:14 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111231
Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
Pataphysics is still not a literature tossup, though the fourth lit tossup in that packet was on V. , which does nothing to rebut the 20th-century-heavy nature of the editors packets (especially the tossups). I'm certainly not going to defend the overall selection of answer choices as perfect - I r...
- Fri Apr 24, 2015 2:49 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111231
Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
To illustrate Evan's and Matt's claims here, I'd like to tell a personal story: I hope I can venture without controversy the claim that I am a pretty good literature player, perhaps even a very good one. As it happens, I don't study literature for quizbowl, and almost all of my buzzes come from read...
- Mon Apr 20, 2015 6:04 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111231
Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
I haven't seen this set, and didn't write any of the questions being complained about; but I can't resist a discussion of what is "beyond the pale" in 20th-century American lit questions! If I'm reading this discussion correctly, the view being expressed is that a tossup on Hemingway's &q...
- Mon Apr 20, 2015 5:29 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
- Replies: 227
- Views: 111231
Re: ACF Nationals 2015 Discussion
Each topic had two pretty flipping hard tossups - My Brilliant Career and A High Toned Old Christian Woman in lit, Old Court/New Court and Guizot in history (I really don't think On-to-Ottawa or Sardis are that difficult at all), and Geostrophy and N.Crassa in science. The rub comes in the fact tha...
- Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:13 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 CO Visual Arts
- Replies: 131
- Views: 73620
Re: 2015 CO Visual Arts
Matt Bollinger and I are playing this together. Also, I realize this is probably late in the writing game for Stephen, but 15% sculpture seems like a ton to me, especially when the huge category of architecture is being shaved down to 10%. As Aidan demonstrated with his architecture tournament, it's...
- Sat Feb 14, 2015 9:40 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: RILKE: Chicago Open Literature Singles 2015
- Replies: 95
- Views: 54460
Re: RILKE: Chicago Open Literature Singles 2015
I will play.
- Mon Dec 22, 2014 1:48 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: IRC Festivus 2014: Quentin Tarantino Edition
- Replies: 74
- Views: 37802
Re: IRC Festivus 2014: Quentin Tarantino Edition
This sounds fun; I am especially looking forward to the SpongeBob packet. I have a packet that has been on the burner for many months that I will read for this. It's a video games packet with a heavy focus on hard answers from hugely popular Nintendo games, mainly major franchises, mainly N64. It co...
- Thu Jul 31, 2014 8:31 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: VCU Open 2014: August 2
- Replies: 57
- Views: 33442
Re: VCU Open 2014: August 2
This is indeed the case. I am playing with Matt Bollinger, JR Roach, and Juan Garavito.vcuEvan wrote:I was planning on playing the Texas tournament with John Lawrence, Matt Jackson, and Eric Mukherjee. Maybe there are other teams that have formed that haven't posted here as well.
- Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:45 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Gorilla Literature Singles (July 20, Chicago)
- Replies: 64
- Views: 36588
Re: Gorilla Literature Singles (July 20, Chicago)
Announcements: 1. The packet deadline is tonight. If you have not yet submitted yours, hurry up! 2. We are capping the field now at thirty-seven players. 3. We have made some slight changes to the format so as to ensure we have enough readers through the whole tournament. We have enough to run the f...
- Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:35 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Favorite Quizbowl Experiences
- Replies: 77
- Views: 69148
Re: Favorite Quizbowl Experiences
One of my favorite quizbowl moments that has stuck with me through the years occurred during Chicago Open 2009. (It seems this tournament was one of my most impressive individual performances of my high school career, a fact of which I was not aware until a few minutes ago.) After my team was done w...
- Sun Apr 20, 2014 5:01 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals congratulations, thanks, and discussion
- Replies: 169
- Views: 57672
Re: ACF Nationals congratulations, thanks, and discussion
As usual, I want to pick an example to illustrate my point; and as usual, I'll try to pick an example that will piss off a vocal member of the community! I'm amused at the celerity with which I have risen to the dubious distinction of "vocal member of the community"! Actually, far from be...
- Sat Apr 19, 2014 6:33 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals congratulations, thanks, and discussion
- Replies: 169
- Views: 57672
Re: ACF Nationals congratulations, thanks, and discussion
John, I think you misread several aspects of my post, and took it to be more hostile than I intended. When I returned to the thread I found that the response was basically to tell me to sit down and shut up; to remember that music questions used to be even worse years ago, so I should be grateful th...
- Sat Apr 19, 2014 3:08 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Gorilla Literature Singles (July 20, Chicago)
- Replies: 64
- Views: 36588
Re: Gorilla Literature Singles (July 20, Chicago)
In case anyone misunderstood, I'd like to clarify that Evan, Matt, and I all plan on writing packets and playing. No one will be editing these questions. Because we will only have time for eight or nine rounds, each of which (with the exception of the seeding round) must be produced by a single writ...
- Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:31 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Gorilla Literature Singles (July 20, Chicago)
- Replies: 64
- Views: 36588
Gorilla Literature Singles (July 20, Chicago)
Having talked with Auroni and come to the agreement that anyone, even a gorilla, could run three tossups-only events in one day and still get to the airport on time, I am pleased to announce this guerilla literature tournament as the third Sunday event for Chicago Open weekend. This tournament, the ...
- Thu Apr 17, 2014 5:41 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals congratulations, thanks, and discussion
- Replies: 169
- Views: 57672
Re: ACF Nationals congratulations, thanks, and discussion
Thanks to all the editors for putting together a great tournament, and thanks to our opponents for some great games. Some thoughts: First off, the literature was phenomenal. Ted and Auroni killed it. They certainly did ask about some difficult things I've never heard of, which is absolutely fair and...
- Sun Apr 06, 2014 4:09 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2014 ICT: general discussion
- Replies: 75
- Views: 18126
Re: 2014 ICT: general discussion
I thought I was done posting in this thread, but I had forgotten how much Andrew enjoys misrepresenting everything I say. I understand that my posts, rare as they are, must be a real treat for him to set to work upon, so I won't begrudge him a reply. Put another way, I think your argument proceeds b...
- Sat Apr 05, 2014 11:19 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2014 ICT: general discussion
- Replies: 75
- Views: 18126
Re: 2014 ICT: general discussion
Note: this is a shoddy reconstruction of a much more eloquent paragraph that was infuriatingly lost when I hit the "submit" button and was told to log in again. Final clarifications/thoughts: I agree with several things Eric has said. The tossups on scientists were generally not to my tast...
- Thu Apr 03, 2014 2:45 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2014 ICT: general discussion
- Replies: 75
- Views: 18126
Re: 2014 ICT: general discussion
To be clear, I'm not basing my opinion on "this is a thing I've seen in packets," I'm basing it on the fact that Bethe has made regular appearances in the astronomy/physics classes I've taken, both in the context of nucleosynthesis and in the context of the development of QED (and no, I'm ...
- Thu Apr 03, 2014 3:14 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2014 ICT: general discussion
- Replies: 75
- Views: 18126
Re: 2014 ICT: general discussion
I’m not one to post extensive breakdowns of individual questions, and I don’t have a copy of the set anyway, so I’ll mostly limit myself to general observations. By and large, I found the science in this set a bit frustrating. I’ll begin by appealing to the useful dichotomy drawn above between empir...
- Thu May 02, 2013 2:43 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2013 Discussion
- Replies: 129
- Views: 36731
Re: ACF Nationals 2013 Discussion
I strongly agree with the post by Matt and the post by Eric (I'm not a scientist, but it was clear even to me that some of the biology questions were poorly written, so I appreciate your thorough review across all the categories). In general, I don't think it's too much to ask that for ACF Nationals...
- Sat Jun 23, 2012 8:02 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: The New Oberhausen Manifesto: Film Question Reform
- Replies: 28
- Views: 20856
Re: The New Oberhausen Manifesto: Film Question Reform
That's a fine point, Mike, and I certainly don't have a problem with including the type of clues you prefer, as my questions should evidence. I just think it's important to mix in some audiovisual clues as well, often in conjunction with screenplay clues. For instance, I think really good clues can ...
- Wed Jun 20, 2012 2:52 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Fine arts/music
- Replies: 117
- Views: 45140
Re: Fine arts/music
Andrew, you keep responding to arguments I didn't make rather than the ones I did make. Put that quote back in context and you'll find it doesn't mean what your response implies it means. Also, my post explained exactly why it's not "incoherent" to treat film differently. I suggest you re-...
- Tue Jun 19, 2012 9:18 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Fine arts/music
- Replies: 117
- Views: 45140
Re: Fine arts/music
With all due respect, Andrew, this is a misrepresentation of my argument. I do not think that film should encompass both "film that we engage from an artistic standpoint" and "film that we engage from a pop culture standpoint." Rather, I think it should encompass "film that...
- Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:08 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Fine arts/music
- Replies: 117
- Views: 45140
Re: Fine arts/music
There is plenty of room in the distribution for serious tossups on important artists of any stripe in the "other academic" section. I do wonder if John's explanation, which I think is an excellent way of framing the issue, undermines Tommy's film arguments a bit. It seems strange to me to...
- Wed Apr 04, 2012 5:21 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: The New Oberhausen Manifesto: Film Question Reform
- Replies: 28
- Views: 20856
Re: The New Oberhausen Manifesto: Film Question Reform
Ted, when I said that “virtually no one” has seen the films that do come up, I was specifically describing the quizbowl community, not the entire world. In that context, not only is my claim not “blatantly false,” but also I would go so far as to claim it is not false at all, because you and I (and ...
- Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:18 am
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: The New Oberhausen Manifesto: Film Question Reform
- Replies: 28
- Views: 20856
Re: The New Oberhausen Manifesto: Film Question Reform
I appreciate the interesting sources you all recommended, which will, among other things, definitely help writers without much experience in film to get a general sense for the historical context and critical importance of potential answers. Mike, you provided some excellent examples of useful audio...
- Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:54 am
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: The New Oberhausen Manifesto: Film Question Reform
- Replies: 28
- Views: 20856
The New Oberhausen Manifesto: Film Question Reform
Introductory thoughts: The current state of the film distribution is abysmal. A bizarre taboo has been placed on almost all American film. You can name in a single breath all of the directors who come up with any semblance of regularity. Virtually no one has seen any of the films that do come up, wh...
- Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:34 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2011 NSC: Tournament Logistic Discussion (not the set)
- Replies: 62
- Views: 23628
Re: 2011 NSC: Tournament Logistic Discussion (not the set)
Just a few brief remarks: Firstly, I’d like to congratulate State College on yet another great performance. While I have neither the knowledge nor the desire to point fingers at anyone, I would like to say that I think it is a shame that this team, indisputably one of the best in high school quizbow...
- Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:27 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: General Discussion
- Replies: 46
- Views: 8656
Re: General Discussion
Will, if you could send me an email recommending a good way to modify the tossup on solids properly, that would be much appreciated. Also, for the record, there was no tossup on permittivity of free space. It was the answer to a hard part of a bonus.
- Sun Sep 19, 2010 11:41 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: GSAC XVIII at Maggie Walker (12/4/10) - Seeking Mirrors
- Replies: 68
- Views: 42641
Re: NEW DATE: GSAC XVIII at Maggie Walker (12/4/10)
NEW INFORMATION: This tournament was written (I use past tense because it is already done) by members of the Maggie Walker team, namely JR Roach (history and geography) and myself (other stuff), and head edited by myself. The set consists of twelve packets, two of which are designated for the finals...
- Mon Aug 10, 2009 11:16 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Finish your tournaments
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1565
Re: Finish your tournaments
Having been very disheartened reading this thread, I would like to ask if anyone else thought that I was accusing the community of any wrong-doing or trying to dictate how you reacted to my failure to complete a tournament, as that was certainly not my intent.
- Mon Aug 10, 2009 9:32 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CaTO/TaCO Discussion
- Replies: 84
- Views: 13653
Re: CaTO/TaCO Discussion
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who played this tournament and put up with the somewhat wacky organization and limited number of games. A tremendous amount of thanks is owed to Shantanu Jha, who graciously contributed the majority of the visual arts distribution to the set and many philosop...
- Fri Aug 07, 2009 10:52 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: VCU Open Music August 8, 2009
- Replies: 40
- Views: 9642
Re: VCU Open Music August 8, 2009
Charlie, if it's any compensation, Cato Taco will have an above-average amount of music in it which I guarantee will be very high quality.
- Fri Aug 07, 2009 6:59 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CaTO/TaCO at VCU August 9
- Replies: 67
- Views: 23411
Re: CaTO/TaCO at VCU August 9
Sorry for the confusion, John and Carsten. I grouped the free agents who did not form teams of their own into makeshift teams or added them to teams with open spots. Of course, everyone is welcome to change their team if they have a problem, just post it in the thread.
- Mon Aug 03, 2009 10:42 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CaTO/TaCO at VCU August 9
- Replies: 67
- Views: 23411
Re: CaTO/TaCO at VCU August 9
Current Field: York / Carsten / Nathan / Zheng Caesar Rodney / St. Anselm Guy / White / Silberman / Cheyne Andy / Hannah / Rob / Bernadette Chris Carter / Charlie Rosenthal / Sarah Angelo / Lily Chen Charlie Dees / Phil George / Jason Loy / Trevor Davis Jonathan / Richard Mason Byrne / Graebner / Ev...
- Mon Jul 13, 2009 6:52 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Tyrone Slothrop Lit Discussion
- Replies: 25
- Views: 8927
Re: Tyrone Slothrop Lit Discussion
First, I'll just clarify that I make no claim to be a good literature player or have any great knowledge of any field of literature. When writing a tournament of this difficulty, it is also very difficult to figure out what the people playing know, and my pretty-much universal response for "Why...