A Trade with Cards on Cards, part 3

See part 1 here

See part 2 here

As mentioned before, Cards on Cards sent me way too many cards to label in one post.

2009 Topps Heritage Cardinals

5 more Ozzie Smith cards:

1991 U.S. Playing Cards All-Stars

1992 Topps Kids

1991 Stadium Club

1993 Leaf Studio

1994 Donruss Triple Play

Playing cards is big in my wife's family, mostly Poker and Hearts.  I learned early on not to expect to win any money against the in-laws.  Maybe I can complete the 1991 U.S. Playing Cards All-Stars set to bring me a little luck next time.

A Trade with Cards on Cards, part 2

See part 1 here

As mentioned before, Cards on Cards sent me way too many cards to label in one post.

2010 Topps Heritage Cardinals

9 more Ozzie Smith cards:

1986 Sportflics

1987 Sportflics

1987 Fleer Star Stickers

1988 Topps - Mini

1988 Topps - UK Mini

1989 Donruss

1990 Topps (1989 All Star)

1990 Kmart

1991 O Pee Chee Premier

I must admit I struggled a bit to figure out the two minis with the same number from the same year.  Apparently the second one was from packs released in the UK.  At least according to Wikipedia.

A Trade with Cards on Cards, part 1

See how I resisted the title "Cards on cards from Cards on Cards"?

When Cards on Cards casually mentioned in his Heritage UPC post that he had a Heritage want and trade list, I knew this would be my opportunity to get rid of some doubles and knock out some of my needs.  I also saw he needed some 2010 Topps Update Turkey Reds, so the trade started to grow.  Here's part of what he sent me.

2011 Heritage needs

2010 Topps Turkey Reds I didn't have

3 Todd Stottlemyre cards:

1997 Topps Finest

1998 Pacific

1996 Upper Deck Collector's Choice

2 Ozzie Smith cards:

1990 Collect-A-Books

1991 Cracker Jack (looks like 1991 Topps, but it has the Sailor Jack and Bingo logo on the back)

If you're still reading, you may notice I said this is part of what he sent me.  "Why is he splitting this trade into multiple posts?" you may ask yourself.  Mostly because I've become addicted to the Labels/Tags feature for documenting which sets appear in a post, but there's a limit of 200 characters per post.  Names like "1996 Upper Deck Collector's Choice" and even "Todd Stottlemyre" take up a lot of space.  The Trade Post is most certainly not dead at Tenets of Wilson, as you'll see over the next few posts.

eBay Wins #2

Catching up on my eBay card wins should keep my blog busy for quite some time if I lack material.  Here is the oldest yet to be blogged:

1991 Upper Deck Brook Fordyce, Scott Aldred

1989 Donruss Rookies Ken Hill

1988 Topps Traded Tino Martinez

1991 Topps Traded Charles Johnson

1991 Topps Stadium Club Jim Mecir

1991 Bowman Roberto Hernandez, Todd Ritchie

1991 Fleer Ultra Juan Guzman

1991 Line Drive Rusty Meacham

1987 ProCards Roberto Hernandez

1990 ProCards Juan Guzman

12 cards for 16 cents.  Can't complain about that.  The listing was actually only for the first 10, but the  Hernandez and Guzman penny sleeves contained their minor league cards as well.  The big draw for me was Tino Martinez (a Cardinal from 2002-2003) and Ken Hill (1986-1991 and part of 1995).  So how do I make this post interesting?  Well, Ken Hill came to the Cardinals from Detroit along with the infamous "Player To Be Named Later".  That wound up being Mike Laga, who is the only man known to hit a ball out of Busch Memorial Stadium (the 1966-2005 version).  Recently, a local radio station tracked down the video, and I've been looking for an excuse to post it...but during the time I left this post in my drafts, the video went slightly viral (is it possible to go slightly viral?) and MLB ordered a takedown.


The Mike Laga Foul Ball from JoeSportsFan.com on Vimeo.

Oh yeah...it was a foul ball.  I promise you this video was real and amazing.  And now I know my Dad was telling the truth when he told me about it as a kid.

Two Milestone Contests with Unknown Prizes

Bloggers like noting their round-number milestones, and My Sports Obsession and The Bullpen Cardboard are no exceptions.

My Sports Obsession is nearing 100 posts.  Head on over and comment on his post to enter his contest.

The Bullpen Cardboard just passed 5000 views.  He's asking for a comment on his contest post about the "best" card in your collection.  I'm going with my Ozzie Smith rookie.

In both contests, you can get bonus entries by being a follower and promoting the contest.  Prizes are even the number of winners are yet to be determined, but hey, free contests, right? Usually I'd try to write more here or put some pics of what's being given away, but then my post would wind up longer than the two I linked.  Good luck!

Contest at Vintage Sportscards

Vintage Sportscards is running a quick giveaway of 2 1952 Topps cards after upgrading to better versions at the National.  Take a look:

No, they're nowhere near mint, but hey, free '52s!  Comment to enter by tonight, and promote on your blog for a bonus entry.

Big Fun Game Delivery

Napkin Doon ran another great Big Fun Game, and yet again I was fortunate enough to get to play.  I drew the 2nd pick, and wound up with:

2010 Bowman Stephen Strasburg

A scoundrel stole it from me, however, resulting in a compensatory pick for:

A Well-loved 1958 Clemente

Then, a pirate stole my Pirate, and my 3rd pick yielded:

2011 Gypsy Queen Green Border inserts.

These are cool cards, including a Red Schoendienst to go with the mini Ryan G threw into a previous contest win.  However, one thing I simply cannot find is what these green border cards are officially called, or how rarely they were inserted.  I don't care what they're "worth" per se, I'm just genuinely curious now what to call these, as well as how rare they are.  Coincidentally, I also won some Gypsy Queen inserts in the last Big Fun Game.

Napkin also threw in this bonus:

1987 Sportflics mini team logo trivia card, #7 of 136

That's a hologram card with 2 Cardinals logos depending on the angle from which you're looking.  Ending sentences with prepositions is something up with which I will not put.

Thanks for the Big Fun Game, Mr. Doon.

Contests Aplenty

Cheap Card Collecting is holding a contest spanning his next few posts.  First up is a choice among these 8 relics:

2011 Topps 60 Jersey Relic Brett Gardner

2010 Upper Deck Game Jersey Adrian Gonzalez

2010 Allen and Ginter Relics

Jerseys: Jered Weaver, Ryan Ludwick, Yunel Escobar, Josh Johnson

Bats: Blake Dewitt, Hank Blalock

Go check it out.

A Contest from the Daily Dimwit

Sam from The Daily Dimwit is holding a contest with 5 prizes.  4 are relics, and one is a Fausto Carmona autograph.  I expect tons of entries to this one.  Go check it out.  Comment and promote it to earn one entry each.  If you're not convinced yet, check out the cards:

2008 Upper Deck

From 2010 Topps Update, these are cool looking cards. I have Neftali Feliz in the #d/50 Gold (like this one), and Elvis Andrus and Chris Young in the regular set.

Fausto Carmona autograph on a 2008 reprint from 2011 Topps Lineage.

From 2011 Topps Series I.  He's a Cub, but I'd still like this one.

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces - Captured on Canvas

Draft Party Contest!

Jaybarkerfan's Junk is running a 100th post celebration contest.  10 people will get to participate in a game, about which he's being a little vague at the moment, with a total of 100 prizes.  You have until Aug 11 to enter.  Go check it out, and post on your blog for a bonus entry.

Tenet of Wilson #2: Always promote your fellow bloggers' contests.  Especially if it nets you an extra entry.

eBay Wins

I'm not one to chase rare inserts and spend inordinate amounts of money on them.  So cards numbered to 50 with a relic and autographed are not in my typical eBay search.  I go for the cheap stuff that will be interesting or somehow special to me.

I found one seller who listed a ton of cards at 1 cent with free shipping.  I thought, "how could I lose?".  I noticed a Todd Stottlemyre and bid my penny, then started at the top with the intent to bid on most of them.  Apparently eBay has a mode to allow you to restrict how many items people buy from you in a 10 day period, and his limit was 1.  The only logic supporting that is that I believe feedback only counts once per user, so maybe he's trying to buy a good feedback rating.  No matter, I waited 7 days and won my auction, and shortly after, this showed up:

Another auction I won was for 4 random packs of baseball cards.  The winning bid was $0.92.  Now I assumed a fair amount of junk would be involved, but for under a buck I thought I'd take a shot.  It turned out ok, though it may wind up costing me more in supplies.  The haul:

1989 Topps Big 2nd Series

1989 Topps Big 3rd Series

1992 Topps Kids

1994 Topps Series I

Not a terribly impressing lot, and now I need some big pages or sleeves.  Here are the cards.

These are 2.75" by 3.75".  Are there any cheap options for storing these?  I usually use sleeves but I could be convinced to go with pages.

19 year old gum? Yeah, I'll probably still chew it.  Also, there's a steroid joke in here somewhere.

By 1994 Topps was inserting 1 topps gold card in each pack, and in this random pack it was none other than:

Todd Stottlemyre

I already have a 1994 factory set, so all but the Gold Stottlemyre are for trade.  Conversely, I didn't have ANY Topps Big and I had a single Topps Kids (Tony Gwynn), so those are all for trade as well.

2011 Topps Opening Day

I've purchased 10 24pks of Opening Day, and received 1 card as a bonus in a contest win, for a total of 241 cards.  I counted my stack, and that's actually exactly what I have.  Often the packs vary a little bit, or I pick up some random cards here and there, so I'm surprised.  The set is 220 cards, and I'm hoping to make some trades and complete the base.  I'd be amazed if I could do it from just the 241, but that would be awesome.  Of course I'll also trade other things for them.  See my Want List and Trade List.

Not only are these inserts I'm not particularly collecting, they're also duplicates!

Topps Opening Day Needs
Base Set
1,3,6,12,13,24,25,27,30,35,38,40,43,44,45,46,51,52,54,57,61,64,68,70,71,75,78,79,81,84,85,91,92,
101,103,104,105,109,112,113,115,117,119,120,125,126,133,138,141,144,147,149,150,156,157,159,160,161,162,164,165,168,170,171,172,173,176,179,181,182,190,191,192,194,197,
200,212,217


Topps Opening Day To Trade
Base Set 2,5,11,16,19,21,22,26,31,33,39,41,50,56,59,60,67,83,88,90,95,98,102,106,114,116,118,129,130,131,135,143,177,188,198,213,219,220
Mascots
M-1,M-2,M-5,M-7,M-11,M-12,M-20,M-22
Superstar Celebrations
SC-1,SC-2,SC-14,SC-19,SC-20,SC-22,SC-24
Presidential First Pitches
PFP-1,PFP-3,PFP-7,PFP-9,PFP-10
Stadium Lights
UL-2,UL-4,UL-8
Opening Day Stars
ODS-4,ODS-6,ODS-10
Blue Parallels
4,68,84,94
ToppsTown
TTOD-10,TTOD-13,TTOD-17,TTOD-20,TTOD-23
Spot The Error
4,6,9,10

A Trade with Too Many Grandersons

I never know the right proper noun to use when referring to another blogger.  Do I use the blog name (as in the title of this post), the user name, or the name signed to the post?

Dennis at Too Many Grandersons sent me a pile - and I do mean pile - of 2008 cards.  There were 135 in total.

5 of the biggest stars and/or Cardinals from the beginning of the stack

He also gave me 5 2010 Topps Update cards to replace the misprints I have.  I'm still looking for US-40 to make a mostly complete set.

Ooooh, Updatey.

I really didn't come up with enough to satisfy my end of the trade, but he graciously sent along all he had of 2008 for me anyway.  Once I come into some cool Tigers, I definitely owe him one.  I've updated my wantlists for both sets, so take a look and make me an offer.

Thanks, Dennis!

Another RBI Collecting Contest

It seems like every time I make a contest post, another one crops up shortly after, meaning if I'd just waited I could combine them.  Today's contest is at RBI collecting, which, as you may recall, was where I won 2 packs of Gypsy Queen in the previous contest.  This contest works the same as the last one, where you must guess the players Ryan got autographs from in a recent homestand, with a bonus for guessing the day this time.  The prizes are 2 packs of Heritage, and some cards of your favorite team.  Go enter, and good luck to all!

Big Fun Game at Napkin Doon's

There's another Big Fun Game at The Adventures of Napkin Doon. Go follow his blog to help him get to 50, and post to enter.  Link it from your blog for another entry.  10 random entrants will get to participate it a White Elephant game with whatever it is he's managed to buy with his Brycemas money.  Last time, during the Gypsy Queen Big Fun Game, I won 2 inserts:

Good luck to everyone!

No More Rack Packs

I went to Target last night for beans and gummi bears (don't judge me).  Of course the sports card aisle is near the entrance, so I thought I'd go by and see what was there.  Actually, I knew full well what would be there, I just wanted to see what I could justify buying to myself.  Anyway, there was a man there searching the Topps Series 1 and 2 rack packs. He'd grab all 15 or so off the hanger, then, one at a time, push all the cards toward the top of the pack, and slowly slide them down and peek at them though the too-thin plastic.  I assume he was just looking for a card of extra thickness for a relic.  Though, I guess anything non-white would indicate an insert of some sort.  He's probably got the edges of the backs for each insert set memorized.

He was making me uncomfortable, and also kind of in my way, so I trekked back to the food aisles.  I stopped and pondered at the reach extender in the As-Seen-On-TV section, as my wife's parents have a few very high light bulbs I'm probably going to wind up changing one of these days.  But I digress.  All through the store and on the drive home, I was thinking about the ethics of what he was doing on a grand scale, as well as how it could personally affect me.

First, the easy and selfish part: How does this affect me?  Well, I probably won't be buying rack packs anymore.  They'll always feel like they've been searched for the "Good Stuff".  Even though my main goal is completing the base set when I buy these packs, I still think I'm entitled to my fair shot at a 1:1000 autograph or relic or extra shiny Chrome Refractor Die-Cut or whatever.  But I thought about it, and I've really already moved to buying boxes.  For 2011 I did pick up some Rack Packs of series 1, but once I saw the 72ct boxes, I stuck to those, and they seem relatively unsearchable with the shrink wrap on them.  I've bought Heritage blasters as well, which again are shrink-wrapped.  I have been buying Opening Day in 24-card packs since that's the cheapest per-card price vs. the 7 cards for 99 cents, but hopefully that lower-end set won't attract too many scoundrels.

Now the bigger question: Is it ethical?  Like I said before, I usually just want to complete the base set.  But, it's a cool surprise to get a relic, and that can often be parlayed into something else even better in a trade to a fan of that player.  I'll admit when I've gotten close to finishing a set, I've taken a checklist with me and peeked at the back base card of the rack packs to find one I needed.  But I think that's a little different, in that anyone who's even partially paying attention can see who's on the front and back of the pack.  And even if I take the pack with the Darren Ford base card on the back, there's a fair chance there's another pack on that same hanger with the same card somewhere in the middle.  At that point I feel like I'm beating "The System" which would have me buy more packs to get all the cards.  I feel like this guy was beating the rest of us, taking the few packs with Relics or whatever he was searching for.

Thus is written Tenet of Wilson #1: Pack Searching, for anything but non-SP base cards, is forbidden.

Another Contest Win!

I owe a big thanks to Trey at Rants, Reviews, and Fandom for his Shamless Plug Contest!!!.  I won 3rd prize, a card from a Dollar General pack.  Ok, it wasn't just any card, it was an Alexander Edler relic.  Which means on some level I was this close to having a Stanley Cup winner.

I borrowed your scan, Trey.

Trey also sent along 2 cool bonus cards.  Some might consider ToppsTown cards a throwaway insert, but somehow they turn collectible to me with the birds on the bat.  Let's hope 2012 treats Waino well, although I've heard he wants to be postseason-eligible this year.

And another 2011 Topps Series II insert, Mr. Lou Brock.

Funny story, he actually lives near me.  My Dad went to his house when he worked for the census in 2000 and thought he recognized the guy, but couldn't place the face.  He told Lou he just had the short form for him and asked if he'd be willing to answer a few questions.  Lou asked "How short is your short form?"  and my Dad showed him the paper.  He agreed, and my Dad asked his name, still not sure where he knew him from. He said simply "Louis Brock".  I still see him driving around town in a very...obvious...vehicle.  It's actually kind of cool but I suppose I shouldn't out him online.

Back to my main point: Thanks, Trey!

A long-overdue thanks

RBI Collecting held a contest that ended June 3 (original post), and I won!  He got 3 Oakland A's autographs when they were in town, and we had to guess the signers.  I had a tongue-in-cheek "strategy", but it actually panned out.  I figured relievers get bored pre-game, so I chose 6 of them for my 2 entries.  I even mentioned in my entry that I should have considered the rotation and which starters would have also been free those days.  As it turns out the answer was 2 relievers and 1 starter, so I won.  The prize was my choice of 2 Gypsy Queen or 2 Heritage packs, and I chose Gypsy Queen.  Let's see what I got:

Pack 1:

Ike Davis (SP)
Mark Buehrle
James Shields
Lars Anderson
David Ortiz
Barry Larkin Mini Parallel

Not bad, but not as cool as Pack 2:

Lance Berkman
Reggie Jackson
Jimmie Foxx
Rogers Hornsby Home Run Heroes
Orlando Hudson Sticky Fingers
Yadier Molina Mini

And the Yadi is a Red-back mini

And, just for fun and because I'm a cards fan, he threw in these two:

I don't know what Red Schoendienst's reputation is nationwide, but he's a legend in St. Louis.  He's managed the Cards a few times, was a bench coach for years, and still stars in the best spring training commercial I've seen.

He even lent Matt Holliday some pants!  That's kind of weird!  I'm trying to complete the Opening Day set as well, so Carpenter was a nice bonus.

Thanks again for the great contest!

Back to entering contests

Happy 4th to you all!.  Celebrate with 2 more contests for some cool stuff:

Rants, Reviews, and Fandom is having a contest for some football, baseball, and hockey relics and autographs.  Follow and comment for one entry, and plug it on your blog for a second.

Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle is also holding a contest.  His will be run in a draft format.  2 winners will be drawn to get the #1 and #2 pick.  #1 gets first pick of 2 Vintage cards, then the draft snakes to #2 getting first pick of 2 Tobacco-era cards, then #1 chooses one of 2 "scrub autos" (Greg's words, not mine).

Finally, I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Snake the Draft" is my favorite euphemism for almost anything.

2008 Topps

I've been delaying posting because I bought a scanner at a garage sale, hoping to get some better images on my blog.  It was only $5 so I took a chance on it.  As far as I can tell it doesn't work, so you get camera shots for now.

I saw a few fellow bloggers post that Target's "Hot Packs" boxes had some 2009 and 2010 Heritage packs for $1.59, and I immediately became interested in finding some of these discounted cards.  I had to check out the 3 stores near my work and home (hooray for urban sprawl!).  I didn't find any Heritage, but I did find a total of 6 packs of 2008 Topps.

I ripped the packs and threw away the wrappers before I had a chance to take a proper blog picture, but I don't think this was the original way 2008 was packaged.  The packs were red and clear plastic, in 2 sections.  One section has 22 cards, and the other has a rather wide piece of pink bubblegum.  Due to the clear plastic, I could clearly see who was on the front and back of the 22 card stacks.  Not that it mattered, since I bought every pack I could.  There were no inserts, but that's OK, since I'm focused on the base set for now.

Mmm, 3 to 4 year old gum.  And yes, I've chewed 2 pieces, and my wife even had one, and we're still alive.

I also noticed the packs didn't even say "2008" anywhere on them, and I'm pretty sure I've seen similar packs for 2011 at a local grocery store.  After counting up the cards I have, I have a feeling they were split by series (though I didn't pay attention when I opened them), as I have exactly 44 numbered below 330 and 88 above.

So, now I have 132 2008 Topps cards.  There were 14 doubles, so that leaves 542/660 on my want list, and 14 on my trade list.

Two More Contest Plugs

Ryan G at This Card Is Cool is holding a contest for a few specific cards, but also, a promise to search your want list for something as well.

A great thing about this contest is that, aside from possibly winning a prize, I now have the motivation to put some work into my want list and organizing my collection in the next week.

Thanks, Ryan!

Buckeye State's Trading Post is also having a contest.  It's winner-take-all for some nice Relics and Autographs.  Leave a comment to enter.

OK, I may have a contest addiction

This makes 3 in 2 days.

Over at Autographed Cards, zman40 is running a contest.  Just pick the 8 teams that will make the College World Series.  The prizes are as-yet undetermined, but based on the name of the blog, it oughta be something good.

Another contest, at RBI Collecting

My second contest post in 2 days.  You'd think I was being bribed with additional entries :)

RBI Collecting is running a contest for 2 packs of 2011 Topps Heritage or Gypsy Queen, or one of each for those of you I-don't-have-a-favorite-kid types.  You just have to guess which 3 A's players signed autographs for him during a recent series.

Contest from The Diamond King

The Diamond King is holding a contest.  Go check it out and leave a comment to enter.  You could win your choice of these relics:

Delivery from Napkin Doon

I got my prize from Napkin Doon's Big Fun Game in the mail.  Imagine my horror as I saw that the envelope was ripped to shreds and it was inside one of USPS's "We care about your mail, honest" plastic bags.  Inside the bag, inside the shredded envelope, was a toploader that looked like it had been through hell and back, all scratched up and with ink blots on it.  I wasn't feeling too confident about my sweet Gypsy Queen inserts.

Much to my relief, the cards were in great condition.  I suspect the toploader is an old one that's been used for quite a few mailings, and the damage didn't come during this particular journey.

Thanks again, Mr. Doon!

2011 Google Code Jam: Round 1

Again, here is the most important detail first: I advanced!

As of this writing I'm sitting at 910th place in Round 1B.  Assuming no disqualifications of me or anyone else, that's where I'll stay.  As a reminder, Round 1 is split into sub-rounds A, B, and C.  Everyone can compete in 1A, and the top 1000 advance.  All but those 1000 can compete in 1B, and again, the top 1000 advance.  Finally, everyone but the already-advanced 2000 gets one final shot in 1C, and again, the top 1000 advance.  This mean there will be 3000 coders in Round 2, and I'm one of them.

As Google noted, Round 1A was brutal.  I skipped the lowest-value Problem A out of fear it wouldn't be enough to advance (As it turns out, solving it in 42:01 would have been enough).  I also felt like there were some tricky cases in it that made it harder than it should be for the points offered.  Problem B also seemed like it could wind up taking too long to run a quickly coded solution.  So, I focused in on the highest-value, Problem C.

You are playing a game with a fancy deck of cards. Each card has three bonus numbers: a card bonus c, a score bonus s, and a turn bonus t. Some of the cards start in your hand, while the rest are in a deck on the table. You start with one turn.

On each turn, you can choose any card from your hand and play it. If it has bonus numbers c, s, t, then the following happens:

• The card is discarded from your hand, and it can never be used again.
• You draw the first c cards from the deck into your hand. If the deck has fewer thanc cards in it, you draw all of them.
• Your total score increases by s.
• Your number of remaining turns increases by t.

If you do not have any cards in your hand at the start of a turn, then nothing happens on that turn. Your goal is to get as high a score as possible before running out of turns.

For example, suppose your hand and deck contain the following cards:

         +---+---+---+            +---+---+---+
   HAND: | c | s | t |      DECK: | c | s | t |
         +---+---+---+            +---+---+---+
Card #1: | 0 | 0 | 2 |   Card #4: | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Card #2: | 0 | 5 | 0 |   Card #5: | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Card #3: | 2 | 1 | 1 |   Card #6: | 2 | 2 | 0 |
         +---+---+---+            +---+---+---+

The following table shows how you can get a score of 8 from these cards. The first three columns show your hand, the number of turns left, and your score before playing each card, and the final column shows which card to play.

+---------+------------+-------+------+
| Hand    | Turns left | Score | Play |
+---------+------------+-------+------+
| 1, 2, 3 |      1     |   0   |   1  |
| 2, 3    |      2     |   0   |   3  |
| 2, 4, 5 |      2     |   1   |   2  |
| 4, 5    |      1     |   6   |   5  |
| 4       |      1     |   7   |   4  |
| 6       |      0     |   8   |   -  |
+---------+------------+-------+------+

As you can see, the card bonuses and turn bonuses allow you to chain together a long sequence of cards before you have to stop.

My first instinct turned out to be correct, but it went south from there.  I figured out the best thing to do is play any cards with a turn bonus first.  That would certainly have no negative effect on the potential final score.  From there I tried varying strategies, from playing the cards with the highest card bonus, to playing the highest score when you're down to your last turn, to a recursive brute force algorithm.  None worked for even the small input.  I ended with 0 points.

Round 1B turned out much better.  I just about jumped out of my chair when I saw Problem A.  It asked for a fairly simple RPI calculation.  I've written lots of code like this for various personal projects, such as writing an algorithm designed to be "Better than the BCS" and decide the best team in College Football and any sport.  At the 32:03 mark, I had full credit for the small and large input.  I wondered if that would be enough to advance, but I suspected it might not.  I read the next problems and took a quick break to think about which one I could do best.

Problem B looked most plausible to solve quickly, so I went for it.

Last year, several hot dog vendors were lined up along a street, and they had a tricky algorithm to spread themselves out. Unfortunately, the algorithm was very slow and they are still going. All is not lost though! The hot dog vendors have a plan: time to try a new algorithm!

The problem is that multiple vendors might be selling too close to each other, and then they will take each other's business. The vendors can move along the street at 1 meter/second. To avoid interfering with each other, they want to stand so that every pair of them is separated by a distance of at least D meters.

Remember that the street is really long, so there is no danger of running out of space to move in either direction. Given the starting positions of all hot dog vendors, you should find the minimum time they need before all the vendors are separated (each two vendors are at least D meters apart from each other).

My solution wasn't quite optimal, so it worked for the small input, but failed for the large input.  In fact, I let my solution on the large input run much longer than the allotted 8 minutes.  After an hour, I finally stopped it, still with no solution.  My first naive solution was to move in increments of 0.5s, start with the leftmost vendor, and move everyone 0.5m to the left, as long as they would not get closer than D meters to the vendor to the left.  In that same 0.5s, I did the same thing starting from the right and looping to the left, moving everyone to the right as long as they wouldn't get too close.  I refined the solution a bit before attempting the large input, but still it took too long to run.

With my time expired on Problem B and not enough time to think out a solution on Problem C, I was down to scoreboard watching.  I saw my rank drop slowly from 561, down to 999th with 19 minutes to go.  When it hit 1009 with 18 minutes to go I knew I had to get out of the house for a bit before I went crazy.  I ran 2 quick errands and returned about 45 minutes after the end of the contest, and saw I finished in 910th place, good enough to advance.  This happens because Google gives an "optimistic" score during the competition, so anyone who submits a solution for the large input gets credit until the correctness of the solution is revealed at the end.  My large input solution for Problem A was correct, and enough other solutions were incorrect to vault me back into the top 1K.

For the 3rd consecutive year I've made the top 3000.  I'm hoping I can get one step further this year and hit the top 500 to make it to Round 3, but I'm pretty happy with how far I've gotten already.

2011 Topps Heritage - Blaster Box

7 packs, plus one extra pack?! How exciting!

Why don't they just say 8 packs? Anyone know?

 I could break this up into 8 blog posts, but frankly, no one wants that, not even me. Here's the whole box in one giant post.  I really need to get hold of a good scanner, so for now I'll spare you any sub-par scans. Note that this was purchased at Target, so I payed the 1 cent premium.  Let's hope it pays off.

Pack 1:
52. NL Batting Leaders
159. Joba Chamberlain (the Hut!)
193. Miguel Tejada
209. Andrew Romine
243. A.J. Burnett
359. Carlos Zambrano
403. Jonathan Papelbon
412. Colby Rasmus (When he hits homeruns the commentators love referring to is as a Colby Jack.  Does that cheese exist anywhere but St Louis?)
Chrome Refractor: C91 Dan Haren #140/562 - He's a former Cardinal, I'm waffling on whether it's up for trade.

Pack 2:
43. LA Dodgers
128. Joel Pineiro (former Cardinal and reason for dozens of local Joels to go by Jo-el)
153. Marco Scutaro
160. Garrett Jones
172. Dusty Baker (I like manager cards, I don't know why)
248. Chris Johnson
268. Ervin Santana
325. Alexi Ramirez
SP: 461 Russ Mitchell

Pack 3:
1. Josh Hamilton
3. David Ortiz
69. Cory Luebke
241. Josh Johnson
293. Jonathon Niese
314. Miguel Cabrera
330. Mike Napoli
346. Felix Hernandez
Chrome: C97 Ryan Doumit #0182/1962 - Definitely up for trade

Pack 4:
84. Denard Span
95. Ryan Zimmerman
182. Cody Ross
239. Brandon Beachy
272. Delmon Young
274. Will Venable
348. Eric Sogard
358. Andre Ethier
Green Parallel: 124 Brian Duensing - Up for trade

Pack 5:
7. Carlos Beltran
54. NL Home Run Leaders (with a nice Pujols scowl)
76. Freddie Freeman
118. Skip Schumaker (The reason you don't put an OF at 2B)
225. Adrian Beltre
322. Bruce Bochy
339. J.J. Hardy
405. Gio Gonzalez
SP: 444. Rafael Furcal

1 hit per pack so far, if you count SPs, which I do, cause it's my blog and I wanna.

Pack 6:
30. Chipper Jones (oh how I remember taunting him with Larrrrr-ryyyyyyyyyy)
108. Matt Kemp
194. Jordan Walden
208. Rickie Weeks
232. 2010 World Series Game #1
247. Jonathan Lucroy
269. Lance Berkman (in a Cardinals uniform no less)
300. Carl Crawford
SP: 450. Johnny Cueto (Karate Man)

Pack 7:
93. Nick Swisher (of "How I Met Your Mother" fame)
96. Jered Weaver (of causing his-own-brother-to-be-released fame)
115. Alfonso Soriano (the reason you don't put a 2B in the OF)
167. Wilson Ramos
187. Jon Lester
242. Manny Acta
298. Jason Kubel
351. Twin Terrors (Morneau-Mauer)
399. Roy Halladay
and a tenth, unnumbered card, labeled Checklist 6 of 6.  I'm having a hard time finding information about these, but I'm guessing there's, oh, I don't know, 6 or so.  It is interesting that it was the 10th card of the 9-card pack though.  I don't think I'll trade it just yet.

Pack 8:
64. Nick Markakis
68. Travis Snider
116. Gavin Floyd
120. Bronson Arroyo
131. Brett Sinkbeil
145. Dallas Braden
170. Aramis Ramirez
365. Howie Kendrick
News Flashbacks - NF-8: New York Mets join National League - up for trade.

Well there you have it.  One hit per pack if you count generously.  No relics, but that's ok, I think I'd rather have the 2 base cards right now, unless it's a Cardinal.  I'll make sure my Want list and Trade list are updated accordingly.  Make me some offers.  Please?

2011 Topps Heritage Tracker:
Base 70/425
SP 3/75

Self-Congratulatory Post

OK, not just yet.

I have been provisionally accepted to the doctoral program in Mathematics (Computer Science) at UMSL.  It's provisional because I haven't yet taken the GRE.  I've also previously completed a Masters degree with a 4.0 at the same University, so I imagine that had something to do with it.

When I first skimmed the letter that arrived Friday, I figured provisional just meant I wasn't yet rejected, pending GRE scores.  When I actually read it, I noticed the key detail: they're actually letting me register for Summer Semester!  So, suddenly I've got just under a month before classes start.

Due to my previous Masters degree, which will allow me to transfer 30 hours, I should have just 30 more credit hours to complete, including some taken for dissertation research.  Since I'm still working full time, I may go a bit slow, but I'll put my tentatively planned graduation date at May, 2014.  It should be an exciting and exhausting 3 years.

2011 Google Code Jam: Qualification Round

First, the most important detail: I Qualified!

There are 10,565 Qualifiers as of this writing, including - or should that be excluding - at least one above my rank (I started at 9912, now 9911) who has been disqualified.

I was a bit surprised when I logged in.  Google changed the format from solving one small and one large input to qualify, to needing 25 points. The first problem was worth 10 and 10, the next two were 10 and 15, and the last was 10 and 20.  This meant if I wanted to solve just one, it couldn't be the first.  It also meant if I wasn't too confident and I could only manage to solve the small version of the problem, I could pick up 2 more problems and solve their small input as well, and still advance.

I chose Problem B, as it looked fairly simple.

As a wizard, you can invoke eight elements, which are the "base" elements. Each base element is a single character from {Q, W, E, R, A, S, D, F}. When you invoke an element, it gets appended to your element list. For example: if you invoke W and then invoke A, (we'll call that "invoking WA" for short) then your element list will be [W, A]. 

We will specify pairs of base elements that combine to form non-base elements (the other 18 capital letters). For example, Q and F might combine to form T. If the two elements from a pair appear at the end of the element list, then both elements of the pair will be immediately removed, and they will be replaced by the element they form. In the example above, if the element list looks like [A, Q, F] or [A, F, Q] at any point, it will become [A, T]. 

We will specify pairs of base elements that are opposed to each other. After you invoke an element, if it isn't immediately combined to form another element, and it is opposed to something in your element list, then your whole element list will be cleared.

So basically, add a letter to a list, then see if it needs to combine with the previous letter to make a new one.  If not, loop over the whole list to see if the list needs to be cleared.  Looping over the list worried me a bit for the large input, as I would only have 8 minutes to solve it, and I've run out of time before when I wrote a quick and dirty, brute-force solution.  Luckily the Qualification Round usually isn't overly complex, so it worked out.

I also solved Problem A on paper, but I didn't have time to actually code, debug, and submit the solution.  I did go in and check my solution on Monday and found that sure enough, it worked.  I might have been pretty disappointed if the large input on problem B hadn't worked out but I had held back a problem A solution.  It runs in in O(n) time, where n is the number of button presses, so I was happy to at least have accomplished one "good" solution.

Now I get up to 3 tries to make the top 3000, next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  As I'm in the Central Time Zone, so I'll have to be pretty desperate to do Round 1C at 4am.

Big Fun Game

The Adventures of Napkin Doon, was kind enough to offer a "Big Fun Game" which is basically a White Elephant game, except he provided all the prizes from a divvied up box of 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen. I was lucky enough to get a slot and the #4 pick. Very little stealing has gone on, probably because no relics or crazy high-value cards have been drawn yet, and everyone's hoping. With 2 fellow bloggers left to pick, here's the lot I currently have:

Lot #6, "The Great Ones" Inserts

I chose #6 because #5 was AL Base cards, hoping for NL base cards and a Cardinal. Jim Palmer and Mel Ott were a nice surprise though.

2011 Topps Heritage

The Dimwit put 5 Topps Heritage cards in one of his Five Card Fridays, and I bit.  Once I got those 5 cards in hand, I knew I wanted to collect the set.

The theme was "AL Central".  Hope it's cool I borrowed your scan, Dimwit.

The set it honors still predates my life by 20 years, so it's not nostalgia per se, but I really like the non-glossy cards for a change sometimes.  In fact, I just checked my collection and I have a grand total of 2 cards older than 1962.

This will be a somewhat expensive set to collect relative to its popularity.  As far as I can tell the cheapest per-card price is the $20 Target and Walmart blaster boxes of 8 packs.  It'll take 6 of those to at least get 425 base cards to make 1 for 1 trades.  Of course, once I get a few inserts and SPs I'll probably want to complete some of those sets too.

I've purchased one blaster box, but I think I'll rate-limit myself by only opening a pack or two a week, and sharing the results on my blog.

Base 5/425
SP 0/75