As some of you may know, I work in a vision science lab. This week is the sweeps of optometry and vision science. There are currently not one but TWO big conferences going on, one on each side of Florida, of all places. One is called Arvo, and the other is called Vss ('cause I know you care).

Anyway, the result is this: Little me in a big empty building. Ok, so it's not really empty, there are at least ten other people, but here's the thing: I don't work for any of them. Everyone that cares even a little bit about me doing my job is on the other side of the frikkin country, which is probably why i'm posting this from work.

So I'm torn between working (pfft), spending all day doing stuff like this, or just going home really early. I predict some mix of options two and three with a little of option one thrown in for guilt-prevention.

Ok folks, just a reminder: rugby this weekend! But, it turns out I was wrong. Or rather, I was right but then erroneously corrected myself. So...

Rugby this Friday and Saturday. I can't make it to the Friday match, so I'll be at the Saturday matches. How incredibly lame is it to have a national sporting even in the middle of the day on a friday? How lame I ask you? VERY! Anyway, the national championship is Saturday at 4pm at Stanford's Steuber Field.

I hope to see you there.

Allright, some of you may remember how I was all excited about Instant Runoff Voting a while back. I have since heard about something called the Condorcet method. For a full rundown, check out the wikipedia article on Condorcet method.

Anyway, IRV still seems like a pretty good idea to me, as it solves some (but not all) of the problems with simple Most-Votes-Wins solutions like ours. However, there is a case where IRV will choose a canditate such that there is another candidate more people prefer. That's confusing and abstract, so if you car, check out the example from the wikipedia article.

I haven't looked at any of the implementations of the Condorcet method suggested in the article, but a major weakness I see, and I emphasize it is major, is how complicated the Condorcet method seems. I don't think the American populace is going to buy any voting system that can't be explained in a few sentences. To whit:
"Everybody votes for one person. The person with the most votes wins." -> "Hyup, sounds good"
"Everybody ranks all the canditates, putting a 1 by their favorite, 2 by their second favorite, and so forth. We tally everyone's first choices, and if no candidate gets a majority, then we eliminate the candidate with the least votes. Then ballots are re-calculated where if the highest ranked candidate is eliminated, we look at the next highest ranked candidate. After that, if there is still no majority, we eliminate the candidate with the fewest votes again and repeat." -> "Hmm... I guess that sounds allright..."

I won't even try with condorcet.... Anyway, our election system needs to change and IRV is still the best thing i've seen so far.

Emergency update! Sorry i'm a dork, a rugby press release announced the finals as being April 30th/May 1st. That's WRONG! The rugby finals are Saturday May 1st and Sunday May 2nd. And Yay for Vicious Kitty!!!

Well it was a great weekend for Cal rugby, with victories on Saturday and Sunday. It was an exciting match against Bowling Green State U (their uniforms are orange and brown. Why not green? That's what I was wondering, too.), with the bears entering the half down by two. Cal roared back in the second half for a big win.

I didn't make it to the game on Sunday of Cal vs. North Carolina Tarheels, but I guess it was a total blowout. So what does that mean? It means I expect to see each and every one of you in Palo Alto on April 30/May 1 for the final four. Give 'em the old growl cheer. Anybody needing a ride down should contact me, I may be heading down Fri. Night, but if not, i'm happy to give rides.

Oh, here's the official recap articles from the Cal Rugby site: Cal Varsity Defeats Bowling Green State, 40-15 and Bears Rout The Tar Heels, 69-11 .

Also, LAYT's "Alice" is opening Friday, the 29th. It should be a lot of fun. I've seen some of the costumes, and they look cool. Here's a link to LAYT and to the show information.

It came up at work today. One of the guys at work who graduated from Stanford was talking some trash about how yeah, Cal rugby is pretty good, but isn't Stanford better? Now, it's no secret that i'm a big Cal Rugby fan, so I informed him that in recent history, Cal has beat Stanford to a bloody pulp every time they met. Stanford-guy was skeptical. Then fellow Cal Enthusiast Allen piped in with "oh, well, except for two years ago when Stanford backed out of the game". Stanford guy was incredulous. "No Way!" he said. Allen: "Hey, you can find it on Google!".

So I did. In no particular order:
Stanford's rugby forfeit is downright cowardly
and
Email correspondence between Cal and Stanford rugby coaches.

Ok so the first one an Oakland Tribune columnist going off on cowardice, and the second is from a Cal supporters website. Let's look for some Stanford perspective (although, really, didn't we get enough of that from the e-mail from Stanfurd's coach, Franck Boivert?)
Ruggers Forfeit Their Big Game

It's brief, but still manages to take a quote out of context and, in my opinion, to mangle the intention. I was going to let it slide, but then I looked up the quote in the actual context. What the stanford article claims Clark said: "We take great umbrage ... How dare you not compete." What Clark said in context: "We do however take great umbrage at the content of your letter of forfeit." ... [skip two full paragraphs] ... "Lastly, I found your closing comment concerning rugby one day being 'again a sport for the students' insulting to the very ethos of sport. How dare you not compete and belittle the accomplishments of those who do."

Anything else from the Stanford side of it? Well, if there is, I can't find it. However, I just found an interview with Stanfurd's current Chairman of Development and Treasurer for their rugby foundation. Yancey does mention the forfeiture but doesn't comment much about it. What I found particularly salient, especially considering Boivert's comments about Cal being better because they have funding etc, was this passage about Stanford rugby's endowment: "It is my understanding that this sum probably places Stanford in second place behind Cal when it comes to US college rugby endowments." Ok, so Cal's is bigger, but second place is no position from which to whine about funding. To be fair, that's the situation now, and I have no real evidence about the situation three years ago.

So here's my conclusion from all this. Stanford's forfeiture was a totally spineless move. They let fail a nearly century-old tradition because they were afraid of being injured. I can't blame them, really, for being afraid. The break in the tradition is unfortunate. The lack of courage is embarrassing, but forgivable. I mean, these Cal guys are really big and strong. The unforgivable thing was Boivert's response. He took cheap shots at Clark and Cal Rugby. Rather than facing the fact that he had failed as a coach to prepare his team to play Cal, he tried to blame Cal. He looked for excuses. Instead, he took his team to Fiji. (Yeah, if you read the Oakland Tribune column, the coach took the team to the Fiji Islands instead of to the Cal rugby match) So he further failed to fight the stereotype of pampered, spoiled Stanford brats.

But really, I guess, that's how you become successfull in the real world. If you can win, kick their teeth in. If you can't, go to Fiji.

Cal Rugby
Stanford Rugby

From the latest Cat and Girl:
Teacher: "Follow your dreams."
Girl: "My dream leads to scurvy."

Ok, it's official. No more reference to Belgian Bluesbands in my subtitle. I have begun a new rotation of subtitles. I have found a pretty good source for subtitles, and as the source changes, I will change my subtitle. Five points to the person that correctly identifies the source.

And, I will mention (because I see some of you in the back becoming a little anxious), this blog will remain forever "Fair and Balanced Blogification", so fear not!

I was taken with a sudden urge to play ATTACK! earlier today. Which got me thinking about Luke. That guy must have a web page. Anybody know what it is? And how his job at Sega is going. and stuff. Anyway, hope some of y'all make it for the rugby match tomorrow!