Scav and other things concurrent with it
May. 11th, 2009 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoyAs usual I didn't contribute much to Scav (this year's list[0]), I'm really not much of an engineer...
Wednesday night Charlie went around Tufts asking if anyone had a spare bedsheet for Scav. I gave him my old torn one - I still have no idea what it was used for.
Item 49: The Judges have no idea what that is, but we like it. No Judge must be able to identify what it is. No Judge must dislike it. [20 points]
I turned in my blue-block-of-wax-with-holes-in-it. Nobody will be able to identify its purpose, as it was just an exercise in using the milling machine. However what the team actually went with, at Ezra's insistence, was a sort of big-Koosh-ball-with-glowing-lights-inside. (That's not actually a good description, but...) This had the disadvantage of being obviously a toy of some sort, and indeed the second judge to look at it identified it. (Indeed, I think I may have even seen one at Eppy's house before, though I failed to mention this...)
When I went looking for it downstairs afterwards I wasn't able to find it, but fortunately Pat found it for me.
Item 70: An 879-page completed and bound dissertation. It'll be three times more fun than finding a 293-page completed and bound dissertation!! [8.79 points]
I spent a few hours combing the A-level for this; I couldn't find one that was exactly 879 pages. Word is that there was only one and another team got it first. I brought back one that was at least 879, hoping it would count. Someone else suggested that we get one just a bit under 879 and add a few pages (our own introduction, e.g., though that wouldn't really be bound), but I have no idea whether we ever did this (or whether it counted - I wasn't at Judgement).
Our road trip team apparently crashed their car! It was on the way back, though, so they didn't actually lose any points for it. :D And, in fact, it certainly got us item 178 - "Demonstrate why we can't have nice things. [3 points]" Uh, not that I'm saying this was a good thing or anything...
Item 247: Meat substitutes are okay, but really what I'm looking for is a vegetable substitute. I don't know how you made that pork, beef, chicken, or ham taste just like carrots, celery, spinach, corn, or broccoli, but damn if I'm not impressed. [15 points]
Winston and Minura were doing this, IIRC. The plan was to take some ham, boil all the flavor out of it, and then boil (? not sure, I don't understand cooking) it with carrots (or carrot juice?).
Well, step 1 turned out to be not so easy. They had that ham sitting on the stove for hours, tasting it occasionally only to find out that it still tasted like ham. And so we were sitting in the lounge when suddenly, "Hey... there's smoke..." Whoops, they burned it. So much for it being flavorless. I think they found some way to avoid starting over, though.
Item 26: Convince a child that you are Santa; Batman; dead. [3 points, 2 bonus points for the same child]
It was suggested that Hannah and I should do this, but we never did. I don't know whether we ended up doing this or not.
Item 209: Build a vending machine. Vending machines must be coin operated, with multiple button-selected options to choose from. In addition to whatever sugary goodness you choose, machines must vend three other List items when you type in their item numbers. [250 points] [showcase]
Someone (I forget who) got a microcontroller and modified our Moai head (see below) into a vending machine that dispensed through the mouth. It only did the 3 items (I don't know which); typing in the number activated a conveyor belt underneath the item. Jeremy Kane tells me that Sara Abarbanel (he thinks it was her) knit the conveyor belts?
Item 11: Arising from the mist Friday morning are the proud and majestic statues of the Moai. Their simple yet enigmatic expressions raise many questions: where did they come from? When were they built? What are their properties? Answers: they come from you. They were placed next to a path leading toward Cobb Hall between 5 and 6 am Friday morning. They are between 5 and 7 feet tall. Each team need only erect one statue, so make it as imposing and impressive as possible. [45 points]
Scav often coincides with or almost coincides with FOTA, so you see a lot of weird stuff on the quads and aren't sure which it's for (if either). This was decidedly Scav, though. They were not all your usual Moai, though, which kind of surprised me, as the item doesn't seem to leave a lot of room for customization, and a lot of the variation did not seem to be due to lack of materials (though one was constructed out of suitcases)... one team turned in a giant Mao head!
Item 245: Catch a judge in a classic box trap. Course, you'll have to use something mighty tempting as bait. [19 points]
I have no idea whether we managed to do this - I suspect not - but I know for some time the plan was to use our Ark of the Covenant (Item 235 - build the Ark of the Covenant to the biblical specs) as the box, since hey, it's a box we have.
Item 148: You know what happens sometimes in May? That's right, Prom. Find one. Crash it. (12th grade points, 2 bonus points for nailing the Prom King/Queen, 4 bonus points if you are the Prom King/Queen, negative 6 points if you are the Prom King/Queen but don't get laid).
Winston, Michelle, and Jasper did this. They located a school having a prom at a place on Navy Pier that weekend. Then Michelle called ahead to explain what they were doing and see if they could get in, and indeed they got permission. Which means they weren't really crashing it, but... well, but, things didn't work out that way. When they got there, they were told they could only take pictures at the door - and if you don't have pics, it didn't happen. So Michelle and Jasper went off to ignore the item and ride the Ferris wheel, while Winston snuck in a side door to *actually* crash it and get pictures, briefly, before they kicked him out. (He describes people being rather creeped out by his asking them, "Hey, can you take a picture of me dancing with these people?" "What... who are you?" "Don't worry about that, just take the picture!")
Item 159: Camp Scavvahunta, we hold you in our hearts. Few things are more evocative of the lives of young Americans than the noble institution of summer camp. This Friday, at 7 pm (set up at 6), round up your wagons, pitch your tents on the Eckhart Quad, and get ready to hunker down for a night of good ol’ fashioned fun at the Scav Campout. Festivities will involve a Scav counselor cookout and an assortment of delectable camp activities. We will begin by testing the capacity of both your brains and maws with the “Chubby Bunny Spelling Bee”. Then, the Scavvahunta Follies! Each team will present a short skit recounting their team history in a particular style to be assigned at the Captains’ Oddity. Finally, a massive battle royale Capture the Flag game on the main quads. Each team must bring their own uniquely recognizable flag and will be assigned a random position on the quads to serve as home base. Each team should have at least one tent set up on the quads for this event—expect it to be occupied until 11 pm, for we are the young Americans. [δ points]
So ORCSA placed even more restrictions on the Party on the Quad this year - enough that the judges just decided to cancel it[3]. However, apparently the Scav Campout basically just turned into another Party on the Quad anyway.
Item 94: Have a male member of your team take a pregnancy test and yield a positive result. [23 points]
Oh man. This one caused a lot of discussion. Is it safe for a male to take enough of the hormone tested for to yield a positive result? How can we get it? Or should he not take it at all, but rather just put it on his penis or something so it'll mix with his piss? Ideally we'd get some pills of it or something, but when that appeared to be falling through, one team member suggested on the list host that we, uh, obtain some naturally, which left a lot of people very disgusted.
Item 36: Scavegon Trail #1: As the University expands, a certain breed of adventurous souls race to reach the fabled new land south of the Midway known as the Oregon Dormitory. Come to Main Quads, Missouri, at 4 pm Thursday to see your pioneering quartet off on the first leg of their journey. Who will you be? A banker from Blackstone? A farmer from the Fallers? A carpenter from Chamberlin? Their first task is to test the sturdiness of their newly constructed, flat-bottomed wagon and the fortitude of their oxen. Like all Scavegon Trail events, in addition to points the winner of this race will win valuable medicine to stave off deadly diseases. Overall Scavegon Trail points awarded for costumes, wagon construction, and number of pioneers alive by the time you reach the Oregon Dormitory. Set a Grueling Pace! [ε points]
There were 3 other Scavegon trail events - items 56, 91, and 109 - but I'm just going to cover the first one, the wagon races. You needed 2 people dressed as oxen pulling the wagon, and 4 passengers. Most teams constructed their wagons out of wood, but we just used a shopping cart and put a sheet on top. This meant our wagon was very fast - of the 2 races I saw that we were in, we won one and came in 2nd in the other - but how to get 4 passengers? Well, we put 2 small people inside (I suggested Hannah and Sasha, naturally Jack did not approve), and had the other two just hanging onto the side, one on each side.
Item 257: Have you really done your best job on all of this page’s items? Swear to it on a stack of Bibles. Seven biblefeet shall be considered a minimum stack height. [9 points]
As a result of this item, the Reg put their own stack of bibles by the checkout desk, saying, here, use these, please don't go taking more from the stacks. Unfortunately, you couldn't check them out - they wanted you to use them for your stack right there. Fortunately, we ended up not needing them, getting to 13 feet even without them.
Final results:
1st Snitchcock
2nd BJ (!)
3rd Max P
4th MacPierce, tied with Shoreland
6th GASH, tied with Blint
8th Breck
9th FIST (!!)
10th Hooverstone
You may notice some unusual names above; the old Broover alliance ended this year, leaving Breck on its own, while Hoover combined their efforts with Blackstone. Meanwhile, Flint house also split off of Max P, and allied with Broadview (I think "Brint" would have been a better name, but "Blint" is what they called themselves).
So yeah, surprisingly strong showing from BJ, and surprisingly poor showing from the FIST; last year they did badly because their tent collapsed, but that certainly didn't happen this year (I think this year their HQ wasn't even in a tent). And we took 4th, so yay.
Other things: Perhaps inspired by my having to take jogging (which will thankfully be over soon), the other night I dreamt that it turned out I never properly completed kindergarten and had to do that over. Mickey was there too, I guess this is a surprisingly common error. :P
I was going to write something here about Lie algebras, but I think I'll skip that for now...
-Harry
[0]Note this link will probably eventually break, but look, http://scavhunt.uchicago.edu/ is the site, so...
[3]Incidentally, one item was actually canceled mid-hunt for safety reasons-
Item 58: Wow, those kids by the Reg are rad, smoking their hand-rolled cigarettes and discoursing on Pitchfork’s latest reviews. Who would have thought those vents were such a great place to hang out? Oh, probably the hipsters sitting on every other vent. Spring has come, and we have reached Regenstein Hipster Critical Mass. This begs the question—how many hipsters can you fit on one vent at once? [0.5 points per hipster]
Wednesday night Charlie went around Tufts asking if anyone had a spare bedsheet for Scav. I gave him my old torn one - I still have no idea what it was used for.
Item 49: The Judges have no idea what that is, but we like it. No Judge must be able to identify what it is. No Judge must dislike it. [20 points]
I turned in my blue-block-of-wax-with-holes-in-it. Nobody will be able to identify its purpose, as it was just an exercise in using the milling machine. However what the team actually went with, at Ezra's insistence, was a sort of big-Koosh-ball-with-glowing-lights-inside. (That's not actually a good description, but...) This had the disadvantage of being obviously a toy of some sort, and indeed the second judge to look at it identified it. (Indeed, I think I may have even seen one at Eppy's house before, though I failed to mention this...)
When I went looking for it downstairs afterwards I wasn't able to find it, but fortunately Pat found it for me.
Item 70: An 879-page completed and bound dissertation. It'll be three times more fun than finding a 293-page completed and bound dissertation!! [8.79 points]
I spent a few hours combing the A-level for this; I couldn't find one that was exactly 879 pages. Word is that there was only one and another team got it first. I brought back one that was at least 879, hoping it would count. Someone else suggested that we get one just a bit under 879 and add a few pages (our own introduction, e.g., though that wouldn't really be bound), but I have no idea whether we ever did this (or whether it counted - I wasn't at Judgement).
Our road trip team apparently crashed their car! It was on the way back, though, so they didn't actually lose any points for it. :D And, in fact, it certainly got us item 178 - "Demonstrate why we can't have nice things. [3 points]" Uh, not that I'm saying this was a good thing or anything...
Item 247: Meat substitutes are okay, but really what I'm looking for is a vegetable substitute. I don't know how you made that pork, beef, chicken, or ham taste just like carrots, celery, spinach, corn, or broccoli, but damn if I'm not impressed. [15 points]
Winston and Minura were doing this, IIRC. The plan was to take some ham, boil all the flavor out of it, and then boil (? not sure, I don't understand cooking) it with carrots (or carrot juice?).
Well, step 1 turned out to be not so easy. They had that ham sitting on the stove for hours, tasting it occasionally only to find out that it still tasted like ham. And so we were sitting in the lounge when suddenly, "Hey... there's smoke..." Whoops, they burned it. So much for it being flavorless. I think they found some way to avoid starting over, though.
Item 26: Convince a child that you are Santa; Batman; dead. [3 points, 2 bonus points for the same child]
It was suggested that Hannah and I should do this, but we never did. I don't know whether we ended up doing this or not.
Item 209: Build a vending machine. Vending machines must be coin operated, with multiple button-selected options to choose from. In addition to whatever sugary goodness you choose, machines must vend three other List items when you type in their item numbers. [250 points] [showcase]
Someone (I forget who) got a microcontroller and modified our Moai head (see below) into a vending machine that dispensed through the mouth. It only did the 3 items (I don't know which); typing in the number activated a conveyor belt underneath the item. Jeremy Kane tells me that Sara Abarbanel (he thinks it was her) knit the conveyor belts?
Item 11: Arising from the mist Friday morning are the proud and majestic statues of the Moai. Their simple yet enigmatic expressions raise many questions: where did they come from? When were they built? What are their properties? Answers: they come from you. They were placed next to a path leading toward Cobb Hall between 5 and 6 am Friday morning. They are between 5 and 7 feet tall. Each team need only erect one statue, so make it as imposing and impressive as possible. [45 points]
Scav often coincides with or almost coincides with FOTA, so you see a lot of weird stuff on the quads and aren't sure which it's for (if either). This was decidedly Scav, though. They were not all your usual Moai, though, which kind of surprised me, as the item doesn't seem to leave a lot of room for customization, and a lot of the variation did not seem to be due to lack of materials (though one was constructed out of suitcases)... one team turned in a giant Mao head!
Item 245: Catch a judge in a classic box trap. Course, you'll have to use something mighty tempting as bait. [19 points]
I have no idea whether we managed to do this - I suspect not - but I know for some time the plan was to use our Ark of the Covenant (Item 235 - build the Ark of the Covenant to the biblical specs) as the box, since hey, it's a box we have.
Item 148: You know what happens sometimes in May? That's right, Prom. Find one. Crash it. (12th grade points, 2 bonus points for nailing the Prom King/Queen, 4 bonus points if you are the Prom King/Queen, negative 6 points if you are the Prom King/Queen but don't get laid).
Winston, Michelle, and Jasper did this. They located a school having a prom at a place on Navy Pier that weekend. Then Michelle called ahead to explain what they were doing and see if they could get in, and indeed they got permission. Which means they weren't really crashing it, but... well, but, things didn't work out that way. When they got there, they were told they could only take pictures at the door - and if you don't have pics, it didn't happen. So Michelle and Jasper went off to ignore the item and ride the Ferris wheel, while Winston snuck in a side door to *actually* crash it and get pictures, briefly, before they kicked him out. (He describes people being rather creeped out by his asking them, "Hey, can you take a picture of me dancing with these people?" "What... who are you?" "Don't worry about that, just take the picture!")
Item 159: Camp Scavvahunta, we hold you in our hearts. Few things are more evocative of the lives of young Americans than the noble institution of summer camp. This Friday, at 7 pm (set up at 6), round up your wagons, pitch your tents on the Eckhart Quad, and get ready to hunker down for a night of good ol’ fashioned fun at the Scav Campout. Festivities will involve a Scav counselor cookout and an assortment of delectable camp activities. We will begin by testing the capacity of both your brains and maws with the “Chubby Bunny Spelling Bee”. Then, the Scavvahunta Follies! Each team will present a short skit recounting their team history in a particular style to be assigned at the Captains’ Oddity. Finally, a massive battle royale Capture the Flag game on the main quads. Each team must bring their own uniquely recognizable flag and will be assigned a random position on the quads to serve as home base. Each team should have at least one tent set up on the quads for this event—expect it to be occupied until 11 pm, for we are the young Americans. [δ points]
So ORCSA placed even more restrictions on the Party on the Quad this year - enough that the judges just decided to cancel it[3]. However, apparently the Scav Campout basically just turned into another Party on the Quad anyway.
Item 94: Have a male member of your team take a pregnancy test and yield a positive result. [23 points]
Oh man. This one caused a lot of discussion. Is it safe for a male to take enough of the hormone tested for to yield a positive result? How can we get it? Or should he not take it at all, but rather just put it on his penis or something so it'll mix with his piss? Ideally we'd get some pills of it or something, but when that appeared to be falling through, one team member suggested on the list host that we, uh, obtain some naturally, which left a lot of people very disgusted.
Item 36: Scavegon Trail #1: As the University expands, a certain breed of adventurous souls race to reach the fabled new land south of the Midway known as the Oregon Dormitory. Come to Main Quads, Missouri, at 4 pm Thursday to see your pioneering quartet off on the first leg of their journey. Who will you be? A banker from Blackstone? A farmer from the Fallers? A carpenter from Chamberlin? Their first task is to test the sturdiness of their newly constructed, flat-bottomed wagon and the fortitude of their oxen. Like all Scavegon Trail events, in addition to points the winner of this race will win valuable medicine to stave off deadly diseases. Overall Scavegon Trail points awarded for costumes, wagon construction, and number of pioneers alive by the time you reach the Oregon Dormitory. Set a Grueling Pace! [ε points]
There were 3 other Scavegon trail events - items 56, 91, and 109 - but I'm just going to cover the first one, the wagon races. You needed 2 people dressed as oxen pulling the wagon, and 4 passengers. Most teams constructed their wagons out of wood, but we just used a shopping cart and put a sheet on top. This meant our wagon was very fast - of the 2 races I saw that we were in, we won one and came in 2nd in the other - but how to get 4 passengers? Well, we put 2 small people inside (I suggested Hannah and Sasha, naturally Jack did not approve), and had the other two just hanging onto the side, one on each side.
Item 257: Have you really done your best job on all of this page’s items? Swear to it on a stack of Bibles. Seven biblefeet shall be considered a minimum stack height. [9 points]
As a result of this item, the Reg put their own stack of bibles by the checkout desk, saying, here, use these, please don't go taking more from the stacks. Unfortunately, you couldn't check them out - they wanted you to use them for your stack right there. Fortunately, we ended up not needing them, getting to 13 feet even without them.
Final results:
1st Snitchcock
2nd BJ (!)
3rd Max P
4th MacPierce, tied with Shoreland
6th GASH, tied with Blint
8th Breck
9th FIST (!!)
10th Hooverstone
You may notice some unusual names above; the old Broover alliance ended this year, leaving Breck on its own, while Hoover combined their efforts with Blackstone. Meanwhile, Flint house also split off of Max P, and allied with Broadview (I think "Brint" would have been a better name, but "Blint" is what they called themselves).
So yeah, surprisingly strong showing from BJ, and surprisingly poor showing from the FIST; last year they did badly because their tent collapsed, but that certainly didn't happen this year (I think this year their HQ wasn't even in a tent). And we took 4th, so yay.
Other things: Perhaps inspired by my having to take jogging (which will thankfully be over soon), the other night I dreamt that it turned out I never properly completed kindergarten and had to do that over. Mickey was there too, I guess this is a surprisingly common error. :P
I was going to write something here about Lie algebras, but I think I'll skip that for now...
-Harry
[0]Note this link will probably eventually break, but look, http://scavhunt.uchicago.edu/ is the site, so...
[3]Incidentally, one item was actually canceled mid-hunt for safety reasons-
Item 58: Wow, those kids by the Reg are rad, smoking their hand-rolled cigarettes and discoursing on Pitchfork’s latest reviews. Who would have thought those vents were such a great place to hang out? Oh, probably the hipsters sitting on every other vent. Spring has come, and we have reached Regenstein Hipster Critical Mass. This begs the question—how many hipsters can you fit on one vent at once? [0.5 points per hipster]
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 09:22 pm (UTC)Also, there's a separate issue of which opinion one uses for how big a cubit is. The standard pop cultural number is 18 inches. However, there's a fair bit of evidence that the cubit in ancient Israel was likely longer.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 11:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 12:20 am (UTC)