Search found 124 matches

by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MARCATo (Summer 2020)
Replies: 48
Views: 19772

Re: MARCATo (Summer 2020)

Is there a list of clips for past questions, like there sometimes is for IL? I’d love to see what some of those early clips were!
by #1 Mercury Adept
Mon Aug 12, 2019 8:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: IL5 Online Mirror
Replies: 5
Views: 2510

Re: IL5 Online Mirror

I’m excited to play this! :party:
by #1 Mercury Adept
Thu May 02, 2019 5:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Guerilla Imaginary Landscape
Replies: 19
Views: 14465

Re: Guerilla Imaginary Landscape

Awesome! Yeah, I was curious to see what discussion of questions in this format looked like. :grin:
by #1 Mercury Adept
Thu May 02, 2019 2:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Guerilla Imaginary Landscape
Replies: 19
Views: 14465

Re: Guerilla Imaginary Landscape

hftf wrote: Tue Jun 19, 2018 6:25 pmI just finished playtesting the excellent submission from Daniel Guo, which set a very high bar. For some reason Daniel really wanted feedback, so I wrote him 2,018 words of praise, which I hope to share after the event.
Oh yeah, did this ever happen? :smile:
by #1 Mercury Adept
Mon Nov 05, 2018 11:35 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2018 - Specific Questions and Errata
Replies: 53
Views: 26558

Re: ACF Fall 2018 - Specific Questions and Errata

I don’t want to be That Person, but is there an ETA on the packets being publicly released? Speaking as someone who wrote a packet but ended up not playing (and who may have written the original versions of some of the questions being discussed here?), it would make the discussion easier to follow.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Wed Oct 17, 2018 9:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: QANTA League: Human-Computer Open Tournament / Question Writing Competition (15. Dec, 2018, UMD)
Replies: 48
Views: 21371

Re: QANTA League: Human-Computer Open Tournament / Question Writing Competition (15. Dec, 2018, UMD)

Here's a question about the write.qanta interface that I don't think I can figure out without going in and trying it: if I start writing a question, at what point is it submitted to the website? That is, if I start writing a question with the answer "John Doe", am I locked into having a Jo...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sat Sep 15, 2018 11:17 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Imaginary Landscape No. 4 Discussion
Replies: 5
Views: 616

Re: Imaginary Landscape No. 4 Discussion

For jazz, in addition to the typical tossups on musicians, I also included some tossups that focus on standards that someone who plays jazz might know (these are some of the "title noun" / "title verb"-type questions). As someone who knows absolutely nothing about jazz, I though...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Aug 22, 2017 6:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Where are You Going Next Year (Collegiate 2017)
Replies: 32
Views: 20070

Re: Where are You Going Next Year (Collegiate 2017)

I'm leaving academia and going to SUNY Binghamton for the next 2 years or so, doing a Masters in accounting. I guess this means I will technically be eligible to play tournaments, though I don't know how much of that I'll actually do (especially since there doesn't seem to be a club there). If anyon...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Feb 14, 2017 12:14 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Certamen
Replies: 11
Views: 6328

Re: Certamen

I never did Certamen, but from the examples of actual play that I've been able to find, it looks like a perfect illustration of "real knowledge" and "game speed" not mixing well. A valuable cautionary tale. Anyway, I would also support a pyramidal Certamen endeavor if there were ...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Feb 07, 2017 3:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: SCT, autobids, and ICT size discussion
Replies: 131
Views: 57205

Re: Rocky Mountain Sectionals (Boulder, CO; February 4, 2017

I've been out of the quizbowl scene for a while but was always under the impression you couldn't send teams to more than one SCT. I'll add my two cents here to note that such a rule should be put into place. What about non-resident students, then -- like the person from Maryland who played this ver...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Mon Feb 06, 2017 9:20 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: SCT, autobids, and ICT size discussion
Replies: 131
Views: 57205

Re: Rocky Mountain Sectionals (Boulder, CO; February 4, 2017

I've been out of the quizbowl scene for a while but was always under the impression you couldn't send teams to more than one SCT. I'll add my two cents here to note that such a rule should be put into place. What about non-resident students, then -- like the person from Maryland who played this ver...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Mon Nov 28, 2016 12:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: IRC Festivus 2016: Still Not Dead Yet
Replies: 120
Views: 67366

Re: IRC Festivus 2016: Still Not Dead Yet

For real this time: I will have a short packet of <20 before and after tossups.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Thu Nov 10, 2016 2:24 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: How to be a Good College History Player + other stuff
Replies: 6
Views: 4230

Re: How to be a Good College History Player + other stuff

Generalists will be buzzing in more because they're generalists, but it doesn't mean that you're not good or that you don't pull your weight. As you've alluded to, nothing about bonuses is reflected in individual stats, and if you're the person with the deepest history knowledge, you're probably con...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Fri Apr 01, 2016 6:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Seinfeld Trash Tournament: Serenity Now, Witty Title Later
Replies: 9
Views: 6641

Re: Seinfeld Trash Tournament: Serenity Now, Witty Title Lat

If this were to get read on IRC, I would totally participate.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Thu Dec 17, 2015 11:30 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: IRC Festivus 2015: Rex Ryan's Revenge
Replies: 37
Views: 21504

Re: IRC Festivus 2015: Rex Ryan's Revenge

I have about a half-packet's worth of before and after tossups that I wrote for that thing in the summer but didn't finish in time and never sent. I might write a few more between now and then.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Fri Nov 13, 2015 10:05 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT rules revisions 2015
Replies: 6
Views: 3986

Re: NAQT rules revisions 2015

Something slightly related I've sometimes wondered about: what about English-language works whose title is in another language? For instance, can you give "It is sweet and fitting" as an answer for Dulce et decorum est when it refers to the Wilfred Owen poem? (As far as I can tell, the ans...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Jul 07, 2015 6:10 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Resetting [pt. 5 of 6]: How We Treat Each Other
Replies: 40
Views: 21831

Re: Resetting [pt. 5 of 6]: How We Treat Each Other

I've been one of these "fringe" members for many years now (more active at some times than at others), and I would agree that it's not easy to break into the community (which I would define, in super-vague terms, as being mutually acquainted with a decent number of quizbowlers who don't go...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sun Dec 21, 2014 5:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Matt J's Stuff (2014 Penn Bowl)
Replies: 11
Views: 5782

Re: Matt J's Stuff (2014 Penn Bowl)

I did exactly that and buzzed on "polished up the handle".

(On the other hand, I'm completely unfamiliar with the stage version of West Side Story and had no idea that "Somewhere" was even a ballet.)
by #1 Mercury Adept
Mon Oct 27, 2014 12:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Will's Questions (2014 Penn Bowl)
Replies: 41
Views: 10587

Re: Will's Questions

For what it's worth, I (and at least one other person in my room) recognised the rope thing but couldn't remember the name of the character, at the time.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Thu Oct 23, 2014 11:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2014 Penn Bowl - Cody's Qs
Replies: 8
Views: 3222

Re: 2014 Penn Bowl - Cody's Qs

vinteuil wrote:I do have to wonder if the Jews/Decca/Korngold bonus wasn't pretty rough on most teams, though—I'd be interested to hear what people thought about that.
Personally, I'm inclined to think that record labels just aren't notable enough to be answer lines, but I could be wrong about that.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sun Oct 19, 2014 5:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Will's Questions (2014 Penn Bowl)
Replies: 41
Views: 10587

Re: Will's Questions

I realized that might be an issue while writing the question, but I never got around to fixing it. What would y'all suggest I use to link the two pieces that the tossup clues from? That's a hard question, but maybe something that emphasizes that this is what these pieces are "called" woul...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sun Oct 19, 2014 3:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Specific Questions Discussion (2014 Penn Bowl)
Replies: 32
Views: 11606

Re: Specific Questions Discussion

Right -- my point was that I know German, but neither of those pieces.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sun Oct 19, 2014 1:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Specific Questions Discussion (2014 Penn Bowl)
Replies: 32
Views: 11606

Re: Specific Questions Discussion

The "requiems" tossup also had a quote which I assume must be from Brahms' German Requiem (something about "die, die in dem Herrn sterben"), which gave me a "wait, wait, it couldn't just be THAT?" moment.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sun Oct 19, 2014 1:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Will's Questions (2014 Penn Bowl)
Replies: 41
Views: 10587

Re: Will's Questions

I found the "rhapsodies" question confusing, actually -- I negged with something stupid, but then thought it was "piano concertos" until the end of the question (so almost surely would have otherwise negged with that). I forget what exactly the pronoun was, but I think it was jus...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Thu Oct 02, 2014 9:17 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The place of zoology in the bio distribution
Replies: 53
Views: 30931

Re: Writing Prizes

Probably just about every science tossup I've ever buzzed in on since finishing high school (in practices, at least, and maybe I have even answered a science question or two in competition?) has been on either an animal or a disease. Maybe questions on such things are just more frequently fraudable/...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sat Aug 09, 2014 12:36 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 27,000 HSAPQ answer lines
Replies: 11
Views: 12922

Re: 27,000 HSAPQ answer lines

This might have something to do with the Google Docs/Drive thing -- I have it in my "list of documents shared with me" (by virtue of having opened it while logged in?), and I can still get to it from there.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sat Aug 09, 2014 12:32 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Packets
Replies: 5
Views: 2853

Re: Packets

Oh, cool!
by #1 Mercury Adept
Fri Aug 08, 2014 10:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Packets
Replies: 5
Views: 2853

Re: Packets

Me too: nutbeam at MIT dot exactly-what-you'd-expect.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sat Jul 26, 2014 10:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Global Announce: Introductory Collaborative Collegiate Set
Replies: 37
Views: 23535

Re: Global Announce: Introductory Collaborative Collegiate S

Dr. Loki Skylizard, Thoracic Surgeon wrote:I am an experienced writer. How can I help you?

Email me at [email protected] or post in this thread, expressing interest in whichever portion of the distribution you're interested in.
I could do some lit. Is "extra lit" like a "your choice"-type subcategory?
by #1 Mercury Adept
Fri May 30, 2014 8:17 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: community question clinic
Replies: 95
Views: 92679

Re: community question clinic

I've done a similar thing with commas before, but without explicit instructions: This piece was originally conceived as the overture to a choral work called The Four Elements . In this work’s 12/8 “Andante maestoso” sections, the upper woodwinds and trumpets twice play a first-inversion minor arpegg...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Mon May 05, 2014 1:39 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: community question clinic
Replies: 95
Views: 92679

Re: community question clinic

The Schubert Arpeggione sonata is played quite frequently on the cello (same deal, it's always a good idea to google). And the flute, even. Good music written for obsolete instruments tends to be fair game for lots of transcriptions. :lol: I don't think there was any discussion of the music from Fe...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:47 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Triacontakaipentagonline (12/21/13)
Replies: 20
Views: 6959

Re: Triacontakaipentagonline (12/21/13)

tejasraje wrote:Miriam, we're collaborating on a packet, you want to work on it as well?
Sure!
by #1 Mercury Adept
Fri Nov 29, 2013 3:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Triacontakaipentagonline (12/21/13)
Replies: 20
Views: 6959

Re: Triacontakaipentagonline (12/21/13)

Likewise, I just saw this thread and would be interested in participating, especially if I could find a collaborator who likes writing history, science, and architecture.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sun Mar 24, 2013 3:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Venting rage: Cheaters edition
Replies: 74
Views: 54235

Re: Venting rage: Cheaters edition

Speaking of Josh Alman... Josh Alman is really really good Man do I feel like a dunce now. Honestly, I'm not really angry about the whole Josh Alman dealio (which is the only one that personally affected me), particularly given that it seems to have spurred NAQT to look into the Watkins/etc cases. ...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sun Oct 21, 2012 10:47 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion
Replies: 63
Views: 12580

Re: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion

When I read this, I (and some players) noticed that the answer to the third bonus part had sometimes been given or at least mentioned elsewhere (in the leadin or as part of another clue): the Croatian fascists bonus asked for "fascism" as the third part but had basically mentioned that the...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:46 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72515

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

Am I the only one who felt as though the rounds got progressively harder; and if not, was this intentional?
by #1 Mercury Adept
Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72515

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

On the megaliths question, the other team negged fairly early and I was sitting there thinking "OK, when this tossup is over, I'm going to buzz and say 'dolmens'…oh, hey, the question just said 'dolmens'." But n=1 and I don't actually know anything about dolmens. I enjoyed the music in thi...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:09 pm
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: How can we explain the rules more clearly?
Replies: 26
Views: 10066

Re: How can we explain the rules more clearly?

[L]et's say it was a tossup on "dogs", which specified to prompt on "beagles" because of some super-famous clue in the middle. If the player says "beagles" but doesn't know what "prompt" means, asking them to be "more specific" is misleading, and as...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:58 pm
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: How can we explain the rules more clearly?
Replies: 26
Views: 10066

Re: How can we explain the rules more clearly?

While I was reading for MIT's high school tournament the other day, several times I found myself saying "You may not confer; one of you may buzz"… :lol: Explaining to people what exactly is meant when a moderator utters the word "prompt" is probably also a good idea. In the bad h...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sun Feb 05, 2012 1:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 SCT individual question discussion
Replies: 114
Views: 24016

Re: talk about individual questions here

The Indo-European question would probably benefit from some kind of prompt/anti-prompt, as well as one of those little explanations you sometimes get in answer lines. The first answer given in my room was either "Slavic" or "Balto-Slavic"; I forget which. I hesitated because I th...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:58 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Harvard Fall Tournament VI (11/12/11)
Replies: 164
Views: 67227

Re: Harvard Fall Tournament VI (11/12/11)

Looking back at my previous comment (which was actually in the other thread), I think I can say something a bit more helpful than I did before. One typo I would definitely fix if I were the editors of this set is "lead" for "led"; this happened quite a lot and I managed to get tr...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Sun Nov 13, 2011 12:59 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: HFT liveblog
Replies: 37
Views: 12072

Re: HFT liveblog

Yeah, there were some typos in this set that will be fixed for future mirrors. But they may have added some extra flavor such as my favorite typo, "This is largest country in Portugal." I had trouble keeping a straight face while reading that question…another was the tossup on a noted Sha...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MAGNI Question Discussion
Replies: 138
Views: 30574

Re: Individual Question Requests and Discussion

In Packet 1, I'm wondering about dropping "Asa Heshel" so early in a common-link tossup on "Yiddish". At that point in the tossup, you've had two lines and already you've been given "New York" and "religion"... I'm buzzing at Heshel at that point on pure frau...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Rule Amendment Proposal: Eliminate Blitz Rules
Replies: 15
Views: 3640

Re: Rule Amendment Proposal: Eliminate Blitz Rules

What's the solution? It's fairly obvious to me. Get rid of the creator/creation rule altogether. It's obsolete. Modern question-writing standards are such that the ambiguities it was designed to address no longer exist. Pretty much all author tossups say "this author" in the first few wor...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Aug 02, 2011 3:21 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Stop using so many goddamn clues about Finnish composers
Replies: 17
Views: 5876

Re: Stop using so many goddamn clues about Finnish composers

I don't think Miriam has ever edited a category for a tournament before You're right, and I've been quite relieved over the past 48 hours or so that nobody has said "I loved this tournament, except for the fact that the music was absolute crap" or anything like that. tossups on stuff like...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Aug 02, 2011 2:15 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Stop using so many goddamn clues about Finnish composers
Replies: 17
Views: 5876

Re: Stop using so many goddamn clues about Finnish composers

Der Rosenbergkavalier wrote:I don't know if anyone's done Tovio Kuula, although there has been at least one question on Esa-Pekka Salonen.
I don't know how inherently academic "having been the conductor of the LA Phil" is, but at least it means people know his name.
by #1 Mercury Adept
Tue Aug 02, 2011 12:57 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Stop using so many goddamn clues about Finnish composers
Replies: 17
Views: 5876

Re: Stop using so many goddamn clues about Finnish composers

I'm afraid I'm to blame for introducing Rautavaara into the canon as a hard part at the Emergency back in '09... and you know what - I don't regret it. He'll come up once a year or so at the hardest-difficulty tournaments, and if someone tries to write a tossup on him (or Saariaho or Magnus Lindber...
by #1 Mercury Adept
Mon Aug 01, 2011 8:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Stop using so many goddamn clues about Finnish composers
Replies: 17
Views: 5876

Re: Stop using so many goddamn clues about Finnish composers

I was waiting to open a music discussion thread until there was also a main one, but I guess this is as good a place as any to discuss the CO music in general. I got to read or otherwise hear everything except the two finals packets, so if there were any issues with the music questions there, please...