VXN: Announcing The Ultimate Challenge... with a prize Beyond belief!

[VXN]

Announcing the Ultimate Challenge... with a prize Beyond belief!

Friends, Readers, Countermen,

I come not to praise you, but to challenge you. For 18 months, and with the aid of six pillars of blood, sweat, and tears, we nurtured, molded, and bore the work you now know as the third edition of Blackjack Attack. Every word has been carefully crafted, analyzed, and debated. Our burden, larger perhaps than for even Atlas to bear, was to make our progeny a model of perfection and, a priori, divine.

But, is our creation above reproach? Have we reached our literary Olympus?

This is your task, your challenge, your burden. He who finds the most errors, as defined by the Master below, shall win perhaps one of the most coveted of prizes: A pristine edition of J Morgan?s collection of arcane AP wisdom, Beyond Counting, taken from Viktor?s private collection of out-of-print works.

Further, to symbolize that this Herculean effort in not an all-or-nothing proposition, we also offer two out-of-print editions of the right Bishop?s masterpiece, Blackbelt in Blackjack, for second and third place champions.

Finally, all entries containing at least one valid error are entitled to a one-time discount of 25% for all non-sale, non-subscription merchandise from the RGE catalog. Qualifying orders must be placed by or on June 30^th.

Rules:

[*]You shall have a fortnight to complete your quest, to end at midnight on the 17^th of June.[*]You must email your list of errors prior to the appointed time and date to [email protected] .[*]Errors posted to Don?s Domain prior to June 2^nd are not eligible.[*]In the event of a tie for first place, we will select a number between 1 and 21 and contact the competitors by phone or email. The person closest to our selected number wins. In the case of tie for second, there will be no third place.[*]Management reserves all rights, and all decisions are final. Don will have final say over what constitutes an error and what does not. The final winner?s list will be posted to Don?s Domain along with commentary on all entries.[*]Please notify us if you DO NOT want us to refer to you by your usual pseudonym when publizing the results of the contest.[/list]

Finally, we present to you Don?s guidelines for determining errors:


?Please note that ?errors? can mean many different things. Here are the broad categories that we?d like you to consider:
1. Grammatical or syntactical mistakes. Personally, I don?t think you?ll find any, but one never knows.
   
2. Punctuation errors. I found a few commas that aren?t optional; they don?t belong and should be deleted. Also, for the softcover, we will be adopting a style of always starting with a capital letter any full sentence that follows a colon. There are many violations of this format in BJA3, but don?t bother to send them to us; we know where they are!
   
3. Pure typos. We killed ourselves to eliminate all the gremlins, but, upon rereading the book, I found five. Here are some hints: One involves omission of the final ?s? of a plural word; one omits a preposition in a sentence; one makes an improper page reference; one is a typo involving the result of a mathematical operation; and one puts a period in a number, when it should be a comma.
   
4. Stylistic inconsistencies. By this, I mean not following the same convention in every instance of a particular expression. For example, if I were to say on one page that ?I bet two units at a true count of +2,? and then I were to write, later: ?You should bet 2 units at a true count of +2,? that would be an inconsistency with ?two/2.? Or, if I capitalize a word in one place and then don?t somewhere else (there is an example of this!), that?s being inconsistent. Also included in this category would be font types (regular, bold, italic) and sizes, which should be consistent throughout the book.
   
5. Factual errors. This, of course, is serious, and, while I don?t think that there are any, one never knows. So, if I?ve stated something that you believe isn?t true, or if a number appears to be in error, I most certainly want to know about it!


?Happy hunting!!?

[Fuzzy Math]

> Announcing the Ultimate Challenge... with a
> prize Beyond belief! Friends, Readers,
> Countermen, I come not to praise you, but
> to challenge you. For 18 months, and with
> the aid of six pillars of blood, sweat, and
> tears, we nurtured, molded, and bore the
> work you now know as the third edition of
> Blackjack Attack . Every word has been
> carefully crafted, analyzed, and debated.
> Our burden, larger perhaps than for even
> Atlas to bear, was to make our progeny a
> model of perfection and, a priori, divine.
> But, is our creation above approach? Have we
> reached our literary Olympus? This is your
> task, your challenge, your burden. He who
> finds the most errors, as defined by the
> Master below, shall win perhaps one of the
> most coveted of prizes: A pristine edition
> of J Morgan?s collection of arcane AP
> wisdom, Beyond Counting , taken from
> Viktor?s private collection of out-of-print
> works. Further, to symbolize that this
> Herculean effort in not an all-or-nothing
> proposition, we also offer two out-of-print
> editions of the right Bishop?s masterpiece,
> Blackbelt in Blackjack, for second and
> third place champions. Finally, all
> entries containing at least one valid error
> are entitled to a one-time discount of 25%
> for all non-sale, non-subscription
> merchandise from the RGE catalog. Qualifying
> orders must be placed by or on June 30 th .
> Rules: You shall have a fortnight to
> complete your quest, to end at midnight on
> the 17 th of June. You must email your
> list of errors prior to the appointed time
> and date to [email protected] . Errors
> posted to Don?s Domain prior to June 2 nd
> are not eligible. In the event of a tie for
> first place, we will select a number between
> 1 and 21 and contact the competitors by
> phone or email. The person closest to our
> selected number wins. In the case of tie for
> second, there will be no third place.
> Management reserves all rights, and all
> decisions are final. Don will have final say
> over what constitutes an error and what does
> not. The final winner?s list will be posted
> to Don?s Domain along with commentary on all
> entries. Please notify us if you DO NOT
> want us to refer to you by your usual
> pseudonym when publizing the results of the
> contest. Finally, we present to you Don?s
> guidelines for determining errors: ?Please
> note that ?errors? can mean many different
> things. Here are the broad categories that
> we?d like you to consider: Grammatical
> or syntactical mistakes. Personally, I don?t
> think you?ll find any, but one never knows.
> Punctuation errors. I found a few commas
> that aren?t optional; they don?t belong and
> should be deleted. Also, for the softcover,
> we will be adopting a style of always
> starting with a capital letter any full
> sentence that follows a colon. There are
> many violations of this format in BJA3, but
> don?t bother to send them to us; we know
> where they are! Pure typos. We killed
> ourselves to eliminate all the gremlins,
> but, upon rereading the book, I found five.
> Here are some hints: One involves omission
> of the final ?s? of a plural word; one omits
> a preposition in a sentence; one makes an
> improper page reference; one is a typo
> involving the result of a mathematical
> operation; and one puts a period in a
> number, when it should be a comma.
> Stylistic inconsistencies. By this, I mean
> not following the same convention in every
> instance of a particular expression. For
> example, if I were to say on one page that
> ?I bet two units at a true count of +2,? and
> then I were to write, later: ?You should bet
> 2 units at a true count of +2,? that would
> be an inconsistency with ?two/2.? Or, if I
> capitalize a word in one place and then
> don?t somewhere else (there is an example of
> this!), that?s being inconsistent. Also
> included in this category would be font
> types (regular, bold, italic) and sizes,
> which should be consistent throughout the
> book. Factual errors. This, of course,
> is serious, and, while I don?t think that
> there are any, one never knows. So, if I?ve
> stated something that you believe isn?t
> true, or if a number appears to be in error,
> I most certainly want to know about it!
> ?Happy hunting!!?

Can I submit errors that I found in this post? ;P

[Don Schlesinger]

> Can I submit errors that I found in this
> post? ;P

Nope! But, you can list them here, so that we might correct them. Viktor added some material after I proofread last night, and I found one error that I missed. So, I've corrected "beyond approach," to now read "beyond reproach," and the typo of "publizing" to "publicizing."

Did you find anything else?

Don

[Fuzzy Math]

> Nope! But, you can list them here, so that
> we might correct them. Viktor added some
> material after I proofread last night, and I
> found one error that I missed. So, I've
> corrected "beyond approach," to
> now read "beyond reproach," and
> the typo of "publizing" to
> "publicizing."

> Did you find anything else?

> Don

"I found a few commas that aren?t optional" how about "optimal" =)

[Don Schlesinger]

> "I found a few commas that aren?t
> optional" how about "optimal"
> =)

No, I meant "optional." There are a few commas that can't be justified -- not even by comma-happy me. I found two such instances.

Don

[Sun Runner]

.. to whomever (whoever?) wins this thing.

I'm assuming you'll be a really smart guy that may possibly already own Morgan's book.

I'll start the bidding at $45 ....



No kidding. Pathetically, I've already given up.

[Don Schlesinger]

> .. to whomever (whoever?) wins this thing.

Whoever.

> I'm assuming you'll be a really smart guy
> that may possibly already own Morgan's book.

Not guaranteed, by any means.

> I'll start the bidding at $45 ....

> Good luck!

> No kidding. Pathetically, I've already given
> up.

Aw, you can do better than that!

Don

[Viktor Nacht]

1. For creative writing or marketing copy I will often use commas to convey the cadence of the prose. I know, I know, we'll never agree on that point.

2. Is this really that interesting?

Good Words,

V

[Don Schlesinger]

> 1. For creative writing or marketing copy I
> will often use commas to convey the cadence
> of the prose. I know, I know, we'll never
> agree on that point.

> 2. Is this really that interesting?

You misread the posts. The comment on the commas was in the part I wrote about finding extraneous commas in BJA3. Reread the whole thing, and it will make more sense to you. It had nothing to do with what you wrote in the post announcing the contest.

Don

[Viktor Nacht]

What are you talking about? Every post is about me. That's the whole point of the site... it's all about ME!

Good Cards,

V

p.s. Please note space after ellipses.

p.s.s. Please note proper spelling of ellipses.

[Advantageray]

How could such a vital book (Beyond Counting) be published and not even have enough made to have some available on Ebay a couple years later? It's just so unfair..
btw..Im sending the book over to a friend of mine who has master's degrees in English and Creative writing...is that legal?

D

[Fuzzy Math]

> How could such a vital book (Beyond
> Counting) be published and not even have
> enough made to have some available on Ebay a
> couple years later? It's just so unfair..
> btw..Im sending the book over to a friend of
> mine who has master's degrees in English and
> Creative writing...is that legal?

> D

If I don't win, I'm sure I can at least beat the $45 opening bid. Instead of spending 20 hours searching the book, I could just spend 20 hours earning myself a few hundred dollars to bid with. =)

[Random Poster]

Here's a better alternative for you people: go to your nearest library (I used my university library) and use their interlibrary loan service. There's about 6-10 copies floating around (especially in NV). Borrow it, copy it, and return it. It costs about $12 to copy and bound it and it takes about 2 hours to request and check it out. It works and it's legal provided you don't sell it for profit. By the way, I don't think Beyond Counting has an ISBN number so it's probably not registered at the Library of Congress.

Viktor, I'm not 100% sure on the legalities of copying, so please correct me if I'm wrong on that last point.

> If I don't win, I'm sure I can at least beat
> the $45 opening bid. Instead of spending 20
> hours searching the book, I could just spend
> 20 hours earning myself a few hundred
> dollars to bid with. =)