On Sat, Jun 08, 2002 at 04:09:56PM +1000, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> En op 08 juni 2002 sprak `/anick:
> > `/anick, who beat /-\ndrew by a gnat's eyelash. YEAH!
>
> NO! Oh, the unspeakable pain and anguish, and in the
> last hour too! `/anick, you dirty rotten bastard ...
Ah! Now the world can see that your past 3 victories
over me was only sheer luck, and that this clear, unambigous,
overwhelming gap of one full stroke proves my indubitable
superiority.
> I mean congratulations Sire `/anick on your magnificent
> long, slow whittle. When I got 5 ahead, with just 2 hours
> to go, I thought I had it because you must surely be
> exhausted from all your recent vigorous dieting.
> Or so I thought.
Blame it on Sec.
No, really, it's his fault.
Friday, I was preparing myself for the usual pilgrimage to
Montreal, and I had all my stuff prepared when I decided to check
the scoreboard a last time. And then I saw it: Sec had leaped ahead,
and was beating me by a handful of strokes. Now, I /did/ had made my
peace by being beaten (again) by you, but was taking comfort in
being a few strokes ahead of Sec, Benoit and Chris. But this had
changed, and it felt like being smacked by a wet, dead trout in
the face. This would not do.
There's only two hours remaining. Each minute I would waste would
drag my arrival time to Montreal to ungodly hours. I had worked
on that solution all week long. Surely I couldn't do anything.
Well, a miracle happened. The sky opened, plumpy cherubims
came down blowing in silver trumpets while an angel, dressed
in fire and solid light raised his arms in my direction and
bellowed.
"You're needlessly using an argument on that function, you
nincompoop!"
Hands shaking, I modified the solution. YES! It was working,
and it was bringing me ahead of Sec and, *gasp* the /-\ himself!
I open my browser, click on the TPR(0,4) link and...
I see that the post-mortem link is on the site.
I don't know whose fault it is, I suspect it's Dave. Whoever
did it, I want to tell you you snuffed a solid 5 years out of life.
I hope you feel guilty. :)
I frantically checked my clock. There was still a good hour
before the end of the game. I was fearing the worst: that because of
a time glitch, the post-mortem solutions had been made available
early, and that because of that the refs would be forced to reject
all further solutions submitted.
Not daring to follow the post-mortem link, assuming that denial
was the best course of action, I submitted anyway. And then I followed
the link. To discover that the solutions were not there yet. *fiew*
And the rest is history. I must say that the taste of
victory is almost, almost as sweet as the exquisite tang
that dueling with so many sharp blades brought me. This was
fun, and I look forward the July edition of the tournament with
a mixture of joy and deadly fear, for I can hear a few swords
already being whetted for the occasion.
Joy,
D'artanick
--
"Have we forgotten how to walk towards each other?"
- Bodhisattvacaryatara, Project Pitchfork
