The internet access here is not free, but
cherylmorgan is working this weekend and bought three days' access as a business expense. I am borrowing her connection briefly. I will not be carrying my laptop around with me making a nuisance of myself with constant LJ posts about SMOFCon.Because so many people (including a lot of planned program participants) have been prevented from attending, Programming was in a state of flux. Schedules appeared during the Friday night mixer, which IMO accomplished many of its intended tasks of getting people to talk with each other even if they didn't know each other. Nothing like shared annoyance with game rules to get a room full of SMOFS talking, it seems.
The Mixer game involved a team trying to assemble a complicated Tinkertoy construction. However, the team were not allowed to see the plans. Instead, the team could only talk to the Construction Boss (Area Head), who could talk to the Engineer (Division Manager), who could talk to the Architect (Chairman). The Architect was the only person who could see the original model that we were trying to duplicate. The idea was to simulate the multi-layered structure of large conventions and the difficulties of communication therein. I played my "get out of Worldcon free" card to avoid one of the positions of responsibility and simply be a member of the construction team.
I pointed out to them that I was playing the role of a former Worldcon chair on their construction committee: I can't tell them how to build the current project, but I can tell them lots of reasons why previous projects did not get built properly.
So far, 21 people have signed up for the Texas Hold-Em Tournament tonight; however, some may not actually show up -- indeed, there is at least one advance sign-up who is on the "stuck in airports somewhere" list. SMOFCon has thoughtfully provided us with a room including three round tables, and the most number of people you can have at a Hold-Em table is 10, so the tournament limit is 30 people.
Last night, we played an ordinary cash game, and I can say the Baseball has been very, very good for me. On the last hand of the night, I called a variation of the seven-card stud wild-card game "Baseball," a game where a full house isn't necessarily a very good hand. I was terrified that the player across the table from me had two down wild cards to go with the pair of 4s plus a wild card up. He did not -- his hand was thus four 4s -- so my straight flush (8-J diamonds plus three wild cards) held. In the $5 buy-in game, I had at the end $12.40. I also distributed a lot of $2 bills in payouts to the players.
Anyway, even with the storm-imposed disorganization of the schedule, there are interesting panels today, so I need to get going.