You may recall a ferociously hardfought battle between myself and the Bad Astronomer over the Weblog Awards a while back—a battle I won easily, of course, by the overwhelming majority of approximately 1%—and that we had bet each other various horrendous penalties if the other was the victor. Phil has begun to pay up with a new article on astrobiology, and this coming weekend he'll be singing my praises at The Amazing Meeting (anyone else here planning to attend? Make sure he does a good paean, and report back to me).
What is it with this weekend? I'm attending ConFusion, Phil will be at The Amazing Meeting, and the science blogging conference is going on at the same time. Is there something magical about this particular weekend that everybody had to schedule something for it?
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I'm going to be in Vegas this weekend, but not for TaM. I'll be at the MtG prerelease instead.
Why, o why, must nerds have to choose?
I guess I'm not nerdy enough to know what "MtG" is.
PZ: Magic the Gathering. I detest CCGs (Collectible Card Games) in general, but am nerdy enough to know the acronyms.
And as to your "overwhelming" 1% majority, remember; for the Decider only slightly more than this constituted a mandate, giving him political capital that he intended to spend.
Of course it also might behoove you to remember how well that has worked out for him so far. ;)
As explicated by Rheinhard, it's a CCG. The oldest and, many tend to think, still the best. Details can be had at magicthegathering.com, but the basics are pretty straightforward; basically you have a finite (but on a tern-per-turn basis renewable) energy pool you can use to "cast" creatures of various types along with offensive or defensive "spells". The object is to obtain maximum opponent smackage while remaining alive yourself.
It's a bit like D&D, but considerably more structured and much easier to grasp, and some of the most sought-after cards are worth four figures and more.
I'm just goin' for the hot babes. (Snort!)
My guess is that this weekend is popular because it's cold in huge swaths of the country. It's not in Vegas or North Carolina. given a choice I don't know that I'd be going to Michigan.
phat
I'll be at TAM and you'll get your report! And if it's not praise-tastic, Phil will have hell to pay during the Q + A :)
L5R > MtG. This is true because I said so.
I know what Magic is -- I've even got a big box of the cards somewhere (my kids all went through a phase, you know).
So those Black Lotuses my son picked up years ago...I could sell those and pay his college tuition?
sounds like a trip to Ebay is in order, PZ.
I keep meaning to sell my old Magic cards, or at least work out which ones are valuable. I held the geek title of being the only girl in my high school who played Magic for a couple of years, at least openly. A few others started the year I graduated. I'm not sure how proud I should be of that.
I'll be at TAM and hope to beat Phil at poker.
There was a hard freeze warning for Vegas this morning, and it's windy, according to the Riv's weather page. I may have to wear long pants at times.
Is there something magical about this particular weekend that everybody had to schedule something for it?
Yes. It's the weekend before my birthday. Obviously.
Also, I think that Killer Bunnies > MtG. Of course Killer Bunnies isn't, strictly speaking, a CCG, but it is similar to Magic, except you need Bunnies instead of energy, and your opponent can kill or abduct your Bunnies. But really, how can you beat a game where bunnies regulary meet with unfortunate hedge-clipper accidents.