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Aaron's Rod

I've split these posts into their own thread so that people can comment on this issue if they'd like, or on the general discussion of the set if they'd like. Thanks, Andrew. Although I understand that moderators and players don't necessarily want to be ambushed by vulgar language, I side with Mike'...

Aaron's Rod

Field
House (~2)

Aaron's Rod

The University of Chicago will mirror the Eisenhower Memorial Tournament on Saturday, May 13th. I, Alex Damisch, am directing this tournament, in collaboration with the University of Chicago's quizbowl team. EMT is a regular-minus undergraduate question set; you can read more about the questions (in...

Aaron's Rod

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:Mike Sorice/Saul Hankin/Matt Lafer/Billy Busse/Me won this tournament, stats to follow I'm sure

I also would like to see stats for this.

Aaron's Rod

For what it's worth I have changed the phrasing of the question to read "tight [redacted]." If I could, I would put in "tight lucky charms" but that would unfortunately be confusing. I guess I will add that I agree with Mike Cheyne -- I don't remember who Earl Butz served when I...

Aaron's Rod

I think the difference between the two examples here is that quizbowl isn't really in the habit of giving direct quotes from literature to describe entire scenes, and so it's the default to paraphrase (so paraphrasing in a less graphic manner is fine) Yeah, and you can see in my post that that wasn...

Aaron's Rod

I sympathize with being uncomfortable saying words, and perhaps you're right that in this case it was gratuitous seeing as how the gist was that it was a Secretary of Agriculture making horribly offensive statements. On the other hand, I still find the specific quote helpful in remembering who said...

Aaron's Rod

We don't need censorship. Moderators were given a choice about what to say, which is the standard gesture. I'll go a step further on the Earl Butz quote and say that the clue is interesting precisely because of the quote itself and the context in which it occurred - changing the quote or paraphrasi...

Aaron's Rod

The Earl Butz quote was not gratuitous; it was a famous quote illustrating his idiocy and it was easier to just put the quote in rather than paraphrase in my opinion. It made me super uncomfortable to have to talk about "tight pussy" during a game, and I don't consider myself particularly...

Aaron's Rod

Also, I've already told Ike Jose, I have a big beef with packet 7 bonus 13 [infinitely divisible/normal/Levy]. As a person who actually does stats at a graduate level (EDIT--and who has also taken probability at a high level), I'm pretty sure I've never heard the term "infinitely divisible.&quo...

Aaron's Rod

So, it looks like nobody has complained about this long-form in about a year and a half, and not in a way that is specific to college. When you are editing a tournament, for the love of God, please include pronunciation guides. I have noticed that their absence has been particularly egregious in hou...

Aaron's Rod

The Music/Opera bonus part on Adams had an abnormally high get rate. Did many people know this or was it fraudable (e.g. "contemporary composer" + "shares his surname")? There really aren't that many truly contemporary composers that come up, and John Adams is obviously one of t...

Aaron's Rod

Field (teams/buzzers/staff)
Gustavus (1/0/0)
Carleton (1/1/0)
Wayzata (1/0/0)
Lawrence (3/1/1 [counting myself])
Minnesota (1/3/alum staffers)

Aaron's Rod

I am thrilled to announce the University of Minnesota mirror of the Eisenhower Memorial Tournament on Saturday, April 15th. I, Alex Damisch, am directing this tournament, in collaboration with and with the support of the University of Minnesota’s quizbowl team. EMT is a regular-minus undergraduate q...

Aaron's Rod

tiwonge wrote:Skype mirror of Penn Bowl?

(Are there any other Skype tournaments?)

EMT! The writers are doing a Skype mirror a week before the other sites so we can get feedback.

Aaron's Rod

I have a good friend at Notre Dame (oh no, quizbowl tourism!) and could staff. I'd prefer the 1st.

Aaron's Rod

Charlie is correct though in the fundamental bloodbath of some sectionals over others. It is unfair that some sectionals have a much better field than others, denying very good teams a chance to go to ICT. I would suspect the reform is probably not in cumbersome rules about travel, but rather in th...

Aaron's Rod

[...] There was only one round at SoCal that had twenty or more tossups converted (with exactly 20), and Amherst never broke 18 converted or 19 read (and I doubt anyone else in DI did either). Amherst had rounds where we heard 12 questions (12!!) out of literally twenty four tossups. We heard fewer...

Aaron's Rod

The tossup on sausage, which I assume was Geography or Other, did not accept or prompt on "bologna" despite including a clue on Lebanon bologna. The answerline actually said to accept specific types of sausage, so that's down to moderator error. As a very enlightened vegetarian, I did not...

Aaron's Rod

This set was a lot of fun to read, thank you for all the editors and people who submitted. I may have more things to say later. It feels like I'm more or less going to go to the grave asking for more/better pronunciation guides, but not having them in place for words like "Pirahã," "H...

Aaron's Rod

thesouthindian wrote:Seriously, can't ananyone make a better version of Protobowl? Anytime? I have a tournament coming up in a couple weeks and I can't even practice because of this.

In fact, they can, although few would say that it's the best use of your time with a tournament coming up in a couple of weeks.

Aaron's Rod

There are also a lot of great writers out there who haven't been "discovered" yet so to speak. If you get a few experienced editors (I'd say one for each major category of Lit, Science, History, and Fine Arts) and a bunch of newish but motivated writers, I think you could produce some goo...

Aaron's Rod

Muriel Axon wrote:
cruzeiro wrote:
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote: Spring: MUT?
Minnesotans, is there any word one way or another on if MUT will happen this year?
Doesn't look like it. We're all a bit over-committed, either in quiz bowl or other endeavors.

As I'm sure you know, this will be sorely missed by teams that aren't national competitors.

Aaron's Rod

I also would probably prefer IRC to Skype, but Skype is totally fine if that's the majority consensus.

Aaron's Rod

CPiGuy wrote:
SpanishSpy wrote:Perhaps sometime tomorrow night then? 8PM EST maybe?
That should work for me.

Aaron's Rod

Because we currently have enough buzzers signed up to run the tournament, we will no longer be accepting buzzers with new registrations. Just a tip: You should really have at least a few extra buzzer sets available, because even experienced quizbowl clubs are not very reliable at bringing working b...

Aaron's Rod

SpanishSpy wrote:
That DCC guy wrote:Could you possibly read it tonight?
Not tonight, but Saturday or Sunday sure. I'm on a train heading back to Williamsburg tonight (from Alexandria) and so I'm booked then.

+1 for reading this sometime this weekend.

Aaron's Rod

SONGS I LIKED Like #20. or something: I don't hate "No," okay, I tried and I can't do it. 10. "On My Mind": I can't usually listen to Ellie Golding over and over (her songs just don't hold up for me), but I liked this song more than anything since "Lights." 9. "Hi...

Aaron's Rod

SpanishSpy wrote:Also, I've been throwing around the idea of a 21st century history packet.

Yes, please.

Aaron's Rod

Okay, but have you guys even heard Owl City's Christmas song this year? Especially the second verse?

Aaron's Rod

My trash/academic mashup packet:

Code: Select all

Dylan Minarik 30
Max Schindler 20
Greg Peterson 20
Rob Carson 20
Tejas 10
Matt Weiner  10
Adamsil 10
ELynch 10
Elysia 5
Afham 5
Mike Cheyne 5
Pat -5
Matt -5
Kenji Wynaut -5
AaronDR -10
Mia -10

Aaron's Rod

I should be free that day, and I've been encouraged to read my 20 academic/trash mashup tossups, where the academics basically follow an ACF distribution, and the trash distribution is "some stuff I like, some deplorable TV trash." I'm not going to be there at noon but I'll be there. (May...

Aaron's Rod

merv1618 wrote:Many, many thanks to Alex Damisch for what has to be the best Secret Santa gift I've ever gotten, including a Stravinsky biography and Darlingside album among other tasty goodies and a wonderful card. I'm seriously flattered.

Care packages are fun.

Aaron's Rod

Thanks to the unnamed person who got me Rebecca Traister's All the Single Ladies and Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me!

Aaron's Rod

I just shipped mine; should be there in 2-3 business days.

Aaron's Rod

I should be free that day, and I've been encouraged to read my 20 academic/trash mashup tossups, where the academics basically follow an ACF distribution, and the trash distribution is "some stuff I like, some deplorable TV trash."

Aaron's Rod

I'm going to Minnesota for a two-year MS in Statistics. I'd love to continue staffing, especially (but maybe not exclusively?) at collegiate tournaments. The only situation in which I can see myself playing is if there's a spot on a DI NAQT team that would otherwise go unfilled--I'm done with learn...

Aaron's Rod

When will the set be posted?

Aaron's Rod

Auks Ran Ova wrote:Please do not send me Malort.

I guess Conan O'Brien really DOES hate my homeland.

Aaron's Rod

Every year I have regretted not doing this sooooo Name: Alex Damisch Email: alexandra.damisch at gmail.com Present requests: 1. Something readable on feminist/queer/leftist theory, as I am well-versed in Internet Discourse™ but not actual discourse 2. Unusual candy or sweet things of any kind, espec...

Aaron's Rod

The editors send your packet back and in their email they either say "really? biographical clues? this is bad" or "this is too hard for this tournament but please write a side tournament of all Irish mythology." That's it. That's all the feedback you get and now you're not sure ...

Aaron's Rod

Music, always music. Solo work, a woodwind quintet, at various times symphonic band, wind ensemble, orchestra, opera pit, clarinet choir...Although it's not technically "extracurricular" considering I got credit for it as a music major. To be honest, I always found creating art with friend...

Aaron's Rod

I only ended up reading one packet of this, but I have to say that everything people are complaining about here showed up there—questions with grammatical errors that, left unfixed would make them unanswerable (I had to correct "this experiment" to "that experiment" in the Ruthe...

Aaron's Rod

Matt Weiner has said for a long time that ACF Fall needs to be moved to earlier in the year. If that were to happen, I think option 1 makes sense, and if option 1 is enacted, i think it would make sense to move ACF Fall earlier in the year. As for Fall, I think the PADAWAN style idea is good, and w...

Aaron's Rod

Inifinite Jest wrote:What the hell was up with that tasmanian devil tossup? It seemed like a bad idea on several different levels.

FWIW, people in my room were entertained by that one, and I overheard another team talking about enjoying it as well.

Aaron's Rod

LBJ and/or Texas came up a lot in this set. Like, at least three times. (Am I misremembering that "Texas" was an answer line twice?)

Aaron's Rod

I will probably have more later, but: There was a bonus part on an un-nicknamed (Mozart?) piano sonata that I thought was a little excessive. There was some tossup--and I think it was the "Cossack revolts" one--which gave specific instructions on how to prompt for a specific answer in a wa...

Aaron's Rod

I might have a little to post later, but obviously this tournament had some issues on copy editing which must and I'm sure are being addressed. Still true even as someone who read it on the 29th. Missing periods (and occasional double periods), sentences without verbs, getting corrections about fac...

Aaron's Rod

I was a control freak who almost never delegated, so I wrote a pretty extensive "Lawrence University Quizbowl President’s Binder," which I left to my successor with the intent that he edit it and pass it on to his successor, etc. (I stole this idea from my sorority, which has a binder for...

Aaron's Rod

(This is not about your most recent question of hosting a college tournament, sorry.) In terms of "after that," transitions can be particularly difficult when one person has run the club for a long period of time. To try and counteract that, the most important things you should do are dele...

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