The Nights of Busy Dreams Continue

[mundens]

This is possibly because the apartment is really quite noisy so I suspect I am waking, if only slightly, at regular intervals.

Again only impressions and one or two scenes are remembered. For instance I had the impression that for many of my dreams I was some sort of federal agent, of the black suit and dark sun-glasses variety.

At another time, I remember watching a cat that we thought was Lancelot, but had the colouring of a tiger, limping across a garden holding his front left paw as if it was broken.

san_grail and jnicholson both had useful suggestions about the random symbol that appeared in hair on my shower floor. I too thought it might have looked like the symbol for Saturn , but I think jnicholson hit it on the head with her suggestion of the kanji for "ten thousand", 万 (man / ban ). When one looks into the etymology of 万, it is discussed that it bears a similarity to a simplified scorpion ideogram, as well as having phonetic similarities. It is interesting that I am a Scorpio, and I believe the cusp falls around now.

Interestingly, the cry of "banzai" 万歳, once associated with suicidal charges on Pacific Islands, actually means "Ten Thousand Years", but was originally used in China (wànsuì, 万岁)to wish the Emperor long life and is the largest single unit in most asian languages.

It seems 万 is also the name for a Yahtzee-like game using six dice, where the point of the game is to be the first to score more than 万 using the following scoring.

The Rules of 万

The goal is to be the first player to reach 10,000 points. It is played with six six-sided dice. In order to "get in" or, begin being able to score points, a player must acquire 500 or more points. After that, they can "stay" or, keep any amount of points in a given turn by choosing not to continue rolling.

The basic rules of rolling
A player rolls all six dice. If their roll produces scoring dice or combinations, they have the option of putting those aside, and rolling the remaining dice, or accepting the total scored as their total for the turn. If at any time, no scoring dice are rolled, then all points acquired during that turn are lost and the turn ends.

Scoring:
A full run (1-6 in one throw) = 1,000 and dice are thrown again.
A partial run (1-5 or 2-6) = 500
Three 1s = 1000
Three 6s = 600
Three 5s = 500
Three 4s = 400
Three 3s = 300
Three 2s = 200
A single 1 = 100
A single 5 = 50

No other die is scored unless part of one of the above combinations.

On any throw in which all six dice are counted towards points, the player must throw again. Any points gained are added to their score. If however, their next toss contains no scoring dice, then they lose the points accrued during that turn.

The first player to break 10,000 points initiates one last round in which the remaining players have one last turn in which to beat that player's score. The highest score (above 10,000) at the end of this last round is the winner.
Reproduced from everything2.com

Perhaps we should introduce this game at KapCon? Combined it with Set and a couple of others and very soon there would be no role-playing being done.

I shall now play more Halo 3!