The competition is done and Prague is left behind. Because the competition is well known, slashdot picked up the story. We didn’t do well—we only finished one problem. We had two other problems partially done, but there were bugs, and no time to fix them. We never expected to win, and Viper had commented a few times that he felt out of place. He said he didn’t really want to fit in with these people. I guess he considers other things more important. Matt wrote the program that was our sole triumph.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed. I had hoped to get three problems done. That was my goal. Though I didn’t have that much to do with it directly. The thing is that many of the problems were geometry problems. I should have been able to solve them easily, but for some reason I couldn’t. Maybe is was jet-lag, maybe fatigue, or maybe just a bad day. Or maybe I am just stupid. Incapable of solving a system of equations without my calculator. I hope that’s not it, but one has to consider the possibility. I don’t do that sort of math much anymore. I am certainly out of practice (which I should have remedied before I went over there) but that is no excuse. The bridge is under the water, but I still feel bad.

The St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics won the competition by being the only team to solve 7 out of 10 problems. The highest ranking North American team was from MIT placed 5th. They were very nice people and I am glad they did well. Not just because I have a soft place in my heart for MIT, but because they had a mathematician on their team. He was of course much higher calibre than I. He placed in the top five in the Putnam exam. Apparently they don’t rank the top five. I didn’t know that. All in all, I liked the teams that I talked to. They all seemed very normal, definitely not something I expect from a group of college students, nor a group of computer scientists, let alone a group of both. How’s that for stereotypes ;-?

The University of Calgary won the Java Challenge by the way, and also did very well in the regular competition. They are the team that beat us in regionals. So that is somewhat comforting. They are also very nice. I must sound like a toddler—categorizing people as “nice”.

In the discussion on slashdot about the contest there was talk as to why Eastern Europe always does so well (last year the highest ranking North American team placed 13th). At least one person said that it’s because their school system is much more intense. He said that second grade in communist Russia carried him through 6th grade in Canada. If the Canadian school system is anything like ours, I don’t doubt it. “No child left behind” will only make it worse. Any spark of creativity or ambition will be wrung out of students long before they get to high school, let alone college. I don’t plan to discuss this more at this time, but I can’t help myself. No one cares about academic achievement. It’s more about fulfilling requirements. Please tune in later for more on this subject. Differen bat time, same bat channel.

The awards ceremony for the “ACM ICPC 2004 sponsored by IBM and hosted by the Czech Technical Institute and cosponsored by Charles’ University…” was one of the most painful experiences of my life. To start off it began late, and ended much much later. I think (though I am too lazy to look it up) it was supposed to take 45 minutes, but took over twice that long. Secondly, the host seemed to think he was funny. I had found him mildly amusing on previous occasions, but this time he was simply annoying. Third he kept playing up the importance of the contest and how smart we were and how were all “champions” for just being here. Fourth, the presentation of the “good volunteer” awards, and the actual contest awards took forever. I can see the purpose and the importance of awards ceremonies (though I myself hate them—especially if I win something), but this was way overdone.

Complaining aside, it was a fun trip. I really liked Prague. It was a very pretty city, and I the whole time I was there I couldn’t help but think that it would be nice to visit if you were in love. It was a perfect walking city (think holding hands) with plenty of places beautiful places to kiss. There wasn’t a lot of really exciting, super famous, or high energy things to do. At least I didn’t see any. This is perfect if you are in love because you don’t feel like you have to go see everything. In Paris you have to see the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, L’arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysee, etc. Don’t get me wrong, those things are great, and I am glad that I had the chance to see them. However, it was rather stressful to get to everything. Perhaps all I am saying is that Prague is more relaxed. Everyone seemed that way, even the natives. There are lots of open air concerts and such. I would love to spend a few days in Prague just relaxing. I had thought my honeymoon should be in Guatemala. The only real complaint that I have is that so many people spoke English.

In fact I had so much fun that when I got back to Provo, and my apartment, I felt like a stranger. Like I don’t belong here. This isn’t the real me. The real me doesn’t necessarily belong in Prague, but he sure doesn’t belong in Provo. And he’s not getting his Master’s in Mathematics. In fact he’s no good at Math and doesn’t particularly enjoy it. He’s not overly fond of programming either. In fact he doesn’t really like anything. Or maybe he just doesn’t know what he likes.

Perhaps this confusion of identity has to do with the fact that I have read three books recently: Idoru, Lord of Light, Lost Boys. I believe this is more than I have read during the whole rest of the semester. I think that all three are worth reading for the right people.

Idoru is not William Gibson’s most engaging, but it is Gibson. And like they say, “If it’s Gibson, it’s gotta be good.”

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny is a very original book. It is Science Fiction and Fantasy, but without being stupid. The basic plot is a battle between various Hindu gods, demigods, and demons. But they are really humans that have given elevated themselves to that status via high technology. The common man doesn’t have the technology because it takes place on a planet after a crash landing (though this is never explicitly stated). I thought it was well written and very entertaining. I wish I know more about Hindu vedas. The Lord of Light (a.k.a. Buddha, Sam and others) is the main character and believes in accelerationism (id est giving technology to the masses). The rest of the gods don’t like this because it will weaken their control. So without giving away the plot I will say that is a refreshing change of pace for a Sci/Fi Fantasy buff like myself.

One of the main reasons that I like Orson Scott Card is that he is mormon, but he’s not afraid to write to non-mormons. I liked him before I knew he was mormon. He always seems to present real moral dilemmas, and not from a strictly mormon point of view. Lost Boys is now one of my favorite books. I suppose it’s not for everyone. I have heard people complain about the “sex scene” in it. I will admit that I may not have written the first page exactly the way he did, but I wouldn’t really consider it a sex scene. It’s not about sex. It’s about dehumanizing the main antagonist (who after the prologue doesn’t show up for the majority of the book). I suppose that by saying this I have many of you wonder what the scene actually says, and just how depraved I am to not consider it ’bad’. Don’t worry too much about it. If you are the sort of person that would be offended by it (that’s probably a good thing) then I don’t want to be responsible for you reading it. If you want to read the book, but not that scene, just skip the second paragraph of the prologue which is titled “Boy”. In fact you can probably skip the whole prologue if it will make you feel better. That way the ending will be more of a surprise anyway.

Card is able to take mormon characters and put them in a setting where the gospel doesn’t give them all the answers. It does help them through hard times however; helps them to believe something that they otherwise would have dismissed as crazy. I like this. I already know what to do when the gospel has an answer. What I don’t know is what to do when the church doesn’t say anything. Caffeine is a somewhat overly used example.

I also liked Lost Boys because it showed real parents. People who cared deeply about their children, but didn’t always do the best things for them. Out of ignorance, or weakness. The father, for example, is very belligerent when defending his children from others, and it sometimes causes more problems than it solves. On the other hand, things have a way of working out, just like in real life.

From the beginning I identified very strongly with Stevie, the oldest son. Perhaps as strongly as I have identified with a fictional character since Ender Wiggin.

Another thing that I really liked was that it didn’t portray all mormons as nice people. In fact one of the most insidious of the ’bad guys’ was a prominent mormon who would preach false doctrine. Ostensibly spiritual is how he described her.

The biggest complaint that I have was that most of the parental dialog seemed a little funny. Like I was missing some important background which would make sense of why they would say something. I think that it is because he couldn’t convey the manner in which they said things. Rather like sarcasm is difficult to wrote properly, I felt that perhaps he didn’t know how to write the dialog. In other words, I didn’t feel like the characters weren’t real, just that I was reading a poor translation or something. Sort of like listening over a tin-can telephone. It was of course one of his earlier novels, and I think he has gotten significantly better since then.

Because I had some idea of the plot before I read it (I won’t spoil it for you) I was able to guess about half way through what the surprise ending was going to be. Or rather the key element of the ending. I am rather proud of myself.