In which we recover from disaster

Well, now what? So said an awful lot of forensicians last Saturday when tabroom.com took an unscheduled vacation.

This, of course, is why I wrote a disaster plan. Which, by the way, we didn’t follow at Wee Sma Lex because it didn’t seem necessary. Honestly, given that we lagged-paired every round, it really wasn’t, since tabroom came back up before we went seriously off schedule. The key thing was to provide blank ballots to the sitting judges, since they could no longer enter their results electronically. I would imagine that things were not quite so hunky-dory at places like Glenbrooks, where the sheer numbers of people banging their heads against the wall can result in mass hysteria and, needless to say, serious damage to the wall. You know, I remember when I first started in this activity, when it was unusual for a tournament not to pull to a crashing unexpected halt somewhere in the middle while something or other got fixed in the smoke-filled back rooms. Why should tabroom.com be any different?

Of course, for the Tiggers, we will go full disaster plan. (And here it is if you want to try it.) It does not incorporate the new save-a-pairing backup, but I’m wondering if drawing on the backup server isn’t an invitation for even more problems when tabroom does come back up, as it inevitably does. Oh, well. We’ll find out someday, probably. Or not, the Good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise.

Other than that, as always, Wee Sma Lex was fun. As a tabbing exercise, it’s pretty straightforward. If you’re lagging, the key is always do it right away, before any results come in. Partial lagging punishes people; blind lagging may or may not punish people, but at least it’s punishing people across the board, rather than the handful whose results came in early. Lagging is a good way to get 4 rounds into one day before too many hours go by. There is also a school of thought that every other round in an invitational should be lagged, to preserve more fairness against potential side biases, but not too many people buy that argument. I think it’s a pretty good argument, but I’ve never actually done it, and probably never will. Give the people what they want, or at least what they expect. So it goes.

By the way, there was pretty decent, and warm, pizza in the Wee Sma judges’ lounge. What more could anyone ask for?

During all of this, I did get Columbia started. I have to look at their invite, but at least tabroom is mostly ready to go. With all-waitlist, there isn’t all that much to set up in advance. The real tinkering comes later. And the Tiggers are about ready to go, with fees set tonight and the last juggling of hireds tomorrow. I think we’re in excellent shape on that front in all the divisions.

And in a couple of days, Thanksgiving. Our dinner will have no Trump supporters, so we won’t end the meal in a duel to the death. At least not over the President Elect.

By the way, did you know that Donald Trump was elected president? Yeah, that Donald Trump. I hope this isn’t news to you. I would hate to be the messenger if that is the case. Then again, would you be willing to share the hole you’ve been living in with the rest of us?

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