In which we look forward

Somehow I managed to pick up a cold at the Tiggers. Oh well. At least it’s after Thanksgiving and before Christmas.

Nevertheless, life continues apace. Ridge is this weekend, the old Bump weekend, or more to the point, the old old Bump weekend. I don’t think anyone is furiously checking the weather forecasts every three minutes, as one is wont to do with a winter tournament. I hear that they’re putting out the chaise longues (which my software wants to Anglicize) so that the judges can spend their off time sunbathing. Feh. There will be no off time for you, you spalpeens and tattie howkers! Not if I have anything to say about it. We’ll be back to e-ballots: no more judge calls, and much more efficiency. Although I’ll miss calling names and hitting that replace-and-fine button, one of the best features of tabroom. Take that, you tattie howker! The Paginator, after much deliberation and flipping of coins, went for 6 tiers of MJP (which is like 6 degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon, only without Kevin Bacon). CP is the great proponent of more tiers rather than fewer, based I think to some degree more on his work as the preffer for Lex than as the programmer/math guru of the piece. Or let’s put it this way: his math brain, combined with his pref experiences, goes in the direction of more=better. I’m willing to accept this on face. I know that, once upon a time, I was even willing to experiment with ordinals, but ultimately held back because it was too user-unfriendly an idea at the time. That doesn’t make me less curious, though. Just judicious.

Speaking of Bump, early registration numbers are cheering. It looks as if we'll get a full house, provided there isn't a blizzard. Everyone said a tournament for frosh and sophs was needed then. It seems as if they were right. 

The Gem waitlist has had its first blast going with golden numbers to insure all winning records break (not that we’re actually promising it). 80 LD, 160 PF. Not too many freebooters that I could detect, but there are a couple. For some reason this tournament is big with Utahans. Go figure. It’s always been the case.

And we’re kicking back into Penn. I had halted because I was worried about room numbers. We’re okay with last year’s number, so I’m back at it, or at least I will be shortly. The biggest issue everywhere is the exponential growth of PF. Absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, it’s also the most unruly event, with all those parent judges who have never done it before. But as long as they keep coming, the event remains accessible to people just like them, of which I am all in favor. The minute it becomes like Policy and LD, where even long time coaches can't bear the thought of listening to rounds, it will be over, and the NSDA will have to create yet another event for normal people. If you consider PFers normal people, that is.

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