Online Journal

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Wednesday, January 31, 2007--Happy Birthday Florence!

Since Vista was released yesterday, and since I work at Microsoft, I got my free copy of Vista Ultimate today. Now, all I need is a machine to run it on. Good thing I'm planning on... any advice?

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 2) Total: 7

Good Night!

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Tuesday, January 30, 2007--Apparently, Vista was released today. Too bad I've already been using since the end of September.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 6) Total: 7

Poor Duckie... she had this CS61c homework that she was doing that's due tomorrow, so I decided to give her a bit of guidance.

Good Night!

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Monday, January 29, 2007--

Also, Gym.

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 5) Total: 11

Gym Night!

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Sunday, January 28, 2007--Happy Birthday Stephanie H!

Today, I played more Disgaea. *dis*So I finished off the boss in Chapter 11 and cleared Chapter 12. In Chapter 13, though, I ran into a bit of trouble. Twice in a row, I got my ass kicked by Kurtis. Of course, I was way under-geared, so I went to the Dark Assembly, got my Product Rank up to 6, and then bought a couple of really strong armors for my people. Hopefully, that'll be enough, 'cause I'm running low on cash. If not, I'll just go through the item worlds of a few items, earn some more cash, and then by some kick-ass weapons to kick some ass.*dis*

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 1) Total: 6

Good Night!

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Saturday, January 27, 2007--First, I got the lease on my apartment renewed.

Then, I played more Disgaea. *dis*Today, I cleared chapters 9, 10, and most of 11. It's funny. The third battle in chapter 11 actually gave me a slight amount of trouble. The first time through, due to a bit of carelessness and overconfidence, I accidentally let my healer die. Oops! A restart, and I cleared 11-3 without incident.*dis*

Good Nights!

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Friday, January 26, 2007--Happy Birthday Kellie!

You know what makes me happy? I got my car back today from the shop today. Apparently, it's finally been fixed up and tuned up. Hurray!

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 1) Total: 4

I also played Disgaea today. *dis*I cleared chapter 8 today, which is storyline-wise one of the best chapters in the game.*dis*

Good Night!

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Thursday, January 25, 2007--I'm so happy. My Flonne figurine arrived today. She's so adorable. She's my favorite ditzy blonde girl. (Uhh... Little Vivian isn't currently blonde, is she?)

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 3) Total: 6

Good Night!

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Wednesday, January 24, 2007--This entry does not exist.

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Tuesday, January 23, 2007--Today was a pretty hectic day for me. First, I had to go drop my car off at the dealer to get the battery cable fixed, only to discover that due to a miscommunication, it would take longer than expected. Since it would take longer than expected, I asked them for the 60k mile checkup. (The car has 56,666 miles on it.) 'Cause you know, the last thing I want to do is to get one part fixed up only to have another part fix. So I'm gonna get the whole thing checked up and fix everything that needs to be fixed. So, they got me a rental car.

Later in the day, they after they do the check, they inform me of all the things wrong with the car and that all the parts won't arrive until Friday, so I'll have to use the rental car until Friday. Good thing they're paying for it.

After work, today, I went to the first ever Time Spiral-Time Spiral-Planar Chaos draft. I think my skills are improving. During my first few picks, I noticed that each pack had both a red burn and a black kill card. And I knew if I took one, I'd send the wrong signal by giving out the other. So in the end, I decided to just take the burn and just get out of black completely. Then, later, when I stopped getting both burn and kill cards, I noticed that every color but red and black were still under-drafted to my right, and I knew that white had some burn and kill cards in Planar Chaos. ('Cause, you know, it's Planar Chaos.) So I moved into white. And all in all, I was able to build a pretty solid, if not weenie-ish, red-white deck. Behold, my first red-white deck since Boros:
7xMountain
10xPlains
2xOrcish Cannonade
Rift Bolt
Goblin Skycutter
Prodigal Pyromancer
Needlepeak Spider
2xFlamecore Elemental
Gaze of Justice
Sunlance
Errant Doomsayers
Quilled Sliver
Benalish Cavalry
Dawn Charm
Temporal Isolation
Amrou Seekers
D'Avenant Healer
Cloudchaser Kestrel
Riftmarked Knight
Cavalry Master
Calciderm
Gustcloak Cavalier
Saltblast

Other notable cards in my card pool included: Reflex Sliver, Seal of Primordium, Bog Serpent, and Battering Sliver.

First, I played Ken, who played a red-blue deck. He trounced me in game 1, but I trounced him in game 2. In game 3, I was winning, but he pulled out a Fortune Thief, and I was simply unable to draw into removal as he killed off my forces and beat me back down.

Then, I played Joe, who played a red-green deck, featuring several Essence Wardens, several Thallids, and somehow, several Healing Leaves. I trounced him in game 1, and in game 2, he decided to keep a 1 mana hand (but to his defense, he did have 3 one-mana spells in his opening hand). We decided to play a game 3 just for the hell of it, and I managed to beat him.

Then, I played Jon. In game 1, he was mana screwed. In game 2, he was mana flooded. We decided to play a game 3 to give his deck a chance to do something against me, but alas, he was color-screwed. (And then mana flooded.)

Regardless, I can still tell that I'm improving. I'm able to improvise on the spot and make a deck that's not stupidly weak rather than forcing a pre-determined pair of colors and then splashing a third when I get cut off. (I think this started when I first-picked a Teferi last week and decided to venture into blue.) Not only that, but ever since two weeks ago, my mana curves have become a bit more top-heavy, which is a good thing, because I used to play too many 2 and 3 drops, only to get wasted by my opponent's fatties.

20-sided dice roll of the day: 13

Anyways, Good Night! Don't let the, uh... don't let the slivers bite?

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Monday, January 22, 2007--This entry has been omitted due to a lack of interesting material.

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Sunday, January 21, 2007--Disgaea... *dis*I cleared Chapters 6 and 7 without incident.*dis*


Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 2) Total: 4

Good Night!

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Saturday, January 20, 2007--So my car won't start because of battery failure, and my bathtub is clogged. Two problems. Fortunately, I had a hunch that the battery connector was just loose again, so I just took a wrench to it, and it worked. However, I decided to take it to the auto-repair shop because, you know, it might break again, or something. So at the auto-repair center, they told me that they whole damn cable had corroded (and demonstrated). Unfortunately, they didn't have the parts, so they referred me to the Toyota dealer. However, that was so far south that the street numbers went negative (in a way). Once there, they were apparently busy that day, so I had to make an appointment to come back on Tuesday. (Hopefully, the car will work on Tuesday.) I also got some jumper cables in case I need to jump. I also got some Drano and a plunger to solve the bathtub problem. Fortunately, only the plunger was needed.

There. Two problems, two problems solved. (Kinda.)

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 4) Total: 10

Also, I played more Disgaea. *dis*I cleared Chapter 5... I need to find a copy of Tsunami Bomb's Invasion from Within. I also got through most of Chapter 6, excluding the boss fight against Mid-Boss. I'll kick his ass tomorrow. It's getting rather late.*dis*

Good Night!

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Friday, January 19, 2007--My car broke down again. The damned battery won't let me start the car. As a result, I was unable to go to Crossroads Mall to play a booster draft, and I was unable to find a ride for the pre-release tomorrow, and since my car's busted, I won't be able to go to the pre-release tomorrow. Lamed. And Matt Cavotta was supposed to be there signing cards, too. He drew Jaya Ballard and Lim-Dul. Oh well.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 3) Total: 4

After work, I played more Disgaea. *dis*I cleared chapters 3 and chapters 4. Chapter 4 had another Mid-Boss fight, and I kicked his ass this time around. Haaahahahaha!*dis*

Good Night!

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Thursday, January 18, 2007--It makes me sad. There's still snow on the ground, but it's mostly melted. For all intents and purposes, the snow is over.


However, I did make my triumphant return to the gym and run a mile on the treadmill. The time was something like 14 minutes or something. Wow, I suck.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8

Also, I wrote a new song. Seven Beat Dance.

Good Night!

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Wednesday, January 17, 2007--All I remember from today is that I played more Disgaea. *dis*So I cleared chapter 2 and got Flonne. Then, I made a wind mage pupil for her to teach her wind magic. Now, I'm starting on chapter 3.*dis*

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 5) Total: 7

Disgaea is a Good Game!

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Tuesday, January 16, 2007--For some strange reason, listening to the Disgaea 2 OST makes me want to replay Disgaea 1. I remember in my first play through, I had bad builds and bad teams, and therefore, had a lot of trouble with the game. Worst of all, I used a bad build for Flonne. (I took the archer route, when the caster route is clearly superior.) And Flonne's my favorite character, too! So I'm gonna go back and play it again, and this time, I'm gonna do things the right way.

So many games to play, so little time.


However, after work, I was trying to decide between joining the playgroup and play the last ever triple Time Spiral draft or just go home and play Disgaea. Somehow, I decided to play the draft, which was good because we only had 4 players (including me), so they couldn't play without me.

As you should all know by now, I normally force red-black, as it's the only color combination I'm familiar with. However, in the first booster I opened, I saw none other than Teferi, which, if the rumors are true, is a really really good card. Unfortunately, I'm not good at drafting blue.

me: So I opened a really really good rare, but it's in a color that I don't have much experience with. What should I do?
Samir: Get experience in it. That's what these casual drafts are for.
me: Okay.

Needless to say, I went blue. After getting some choicy kill cards in black, I settled into blue-black. However, it appeared that blue and black were already highly drafted at the table, so I started looking into a third color. I grabbed a few red cards, hoping to see some burn come my way (but none ever did). After noticing that no one was drafting green, I started taking a few choice green fatties here and there. However, after the drafting was over and I started building my deck, after asking for advice from Ken and JV, they convinced me that it was better to go blue-black and not splash a third color, because I had enough blue-black playables and 2-color is clearly more consistent than 3-color.

So here it is. My first ever blue-black draft deck. (Not counting those blue-black-green decks of Triple Ravnica draft and the red-black splash blue decks of the Champions-Champions-Betrayers drafts.)
9xIsland
7xSwamp
Dreadship Reef
Sage of Epityr
Dream Stalker
Stormscape Familiar
Think Twice
Cancel
Giant Oyster
2xTemporal Eddy
3xViscerid Deepwalker
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Brine Elemental
Deathspore Thallid
Pit Keeper
Feebleness
Basal Sliver
2xAssassinate
Tendrils of Corruption
2xCyclopean Giant
Viscid Lemures

First, I played against Jon. I beat him 2 out of 3, but apparently, he never got more than 3 land in two of those games. *shrig*

Then, I played Ken. In game 1, he trounced me. However, in game 2, I had a pretty good start, and it was pretty close. Ken still narrowly beat me, though.

Then, I went home, because the only 2 remaining players were playtesting for Extended.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 1) Total: 6

Once I got home, I began my replay of Disgaea, starting from scratch. Cycle 1, level 1. *dis*I still remember when I first fought Mid-Boss at the end of Chapter 1. He kicked my ass quite thoroughly. This time, though, I was able to find the gaps in his minion's defenses, and I was able to draw them out and kick their asses one by one. I've definitely gotten better. Maybe Disgaea 2 isn't easier than Disgaea 1, as I originally thought. Maybe I've just gotten so good that NIS's AI just sucks. (Well, NIS's AI sucks regardless.)*dis*

Really Good Soundtrack!

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Monday, January 15, 2007--me: I think the snow's going to melt soon. That makes me sad.
Beth: I heard it was supposed to snow again, either tonight or tomorrow night.
me: Really? That makes me happy!

And it turns out that it really did snow today. Hurray!

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 2) Total: 7

After work, I "acquired" the Disgaea 2 OST. Good stuff.

Good Night!

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Sunday, January 14, 2007--More La Pucelle...


Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 5) Total: 10

Good Night!

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Saturday, January 13, 2007--Today, I made some pain perdu. (It's what the French call French toast, apparently.) Mmm... French toast...


Anyways, the copy of FF Anthology that I ordered off Amazon.com arrived today. But instead, I just continued playing La Pucelle.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 5) Total: 10

Good Night!

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Friday, January 12, 2007--It's still snowing, but Microsoft's offices are now open again. (Well, they were open yesterday, but the cafeterias were closed.) So everything seems to be better now.

After work, I went home and played a bunch of La Pucelle. The story seems a lot more serious than Disgaea 1 and Disgaea 2. It's like an anime that has it's comedic moments, but is mostly serious. Seriously.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8

Good Night.

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Thursday, January 11, 2007--Snow day!


So on impulse today, I bought La Pucelle, Phantom Brave, and Makai Kingdom. I only had time to play La Pucelle, though, and only the first chapter of it. It's a lot less polished and a lot simpler compared to Disgaea, but then again, it came out before Disgaea did, so that's to be expected. It's still entertaining, though (though not as entertaining as Disgaea, and Flonne!). Incidentally, La Pucelle is French for "the virgin (female)", apparently.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8

Good Night!

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Wednesday, January 10, 2007--It snowed for reals today! Hurray!

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 5) Total: 9

Now, I'm gonna go play FF7, just for the hell of it.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

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Tuesday, January 9, 2007--There was a storm warning today, or something, and everybody was thinking about going home early. However, I decided to go join the doods and play Magic: the Gathering anyway. We ended up having a draft of 5 people.

As usual, I tried to force a red-black deck. However, I quickly discovered a shortage of red-black and noticed that no one was taking green, so I started taking some green fatties as a third color. This is the deck I ended up with:
6xMountain
5xSwamp
5xForest
Fungal Reaches
2xTwo-Headed Sliver
2xRift Bolt
Fiery Temper
2xBonesplitter Sliver
Dragon Whelp
Pit Keeper
Strangling Soot
Assassinate
Cyclopean Giant
Viscid Lemures
Phthisis
2xWormwood Dryad
Herd Gnarr
Durkwood Tracker
2xSavage Thallid
Havenwood Wurm
2xFirewake Sliver

This was also the most top-heavy deck (mana-curve-wise) I've ever played.

Anyways, first, I played against Samir, who creamed me the first game. In the second game, I was doing pretty decently, but he managed to pull off the win.

Then, I played Jon, who had also drafted red-black. In the first game, we held each other off pretty well (We both had tons of kill cards), but eventually, he broke through for the win. In the second game, he managed to get out an early Liege of the Pit (morphing Lord of the Pit, for those who are interested) and I didn't have an answer to it. Incidentally, he had to play Evil Eye of Urborg to feed the Liege, so it was like, now the Liege can't attack... but he eats the Eye, so he can attack.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8

Also, it snowed today. Just a little bit. (Most of it had melted by the time I got home, though. It made me sad.) But also, FF7 came in the mail. That makes me happy. Now, all I need is for FF Anthologies to arrive, and I'll have the complete set of FF games for the PSX. (Except for the original FF3, which was never released in the US, and FF11, which is an MMO, so I'll never actually play it.)

Good Night!

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Monday, January 8, 2007--After work, while reading the surviving Silicon Commander Games forum, I noticed someone had claimed to make a Brain (AI) that could beat Rydia in a StarTillery duel, so I decided to investigate myself. And it turns out it was pretty good. I'll have to examine it more closely. If I have the time.

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 3) Total: 7

Good Night!

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Sunday, January 7, 2007--

Good times.

Anyway, today, I played lots of Disgaea 2. You know what would be awesome? If every game was like Disgaea. Under ideal power-levelling conditions, you gain a level every 2-3 kills. Then again, Disgaea's level cap is 9999.

Apparently, I'd make a very bad dietician. After dinner today, I was still hungry, so I grabbed a bowl of cereal and ate it. Mmm... cereal...

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 3) Total: 9

Good Night, my dearest...

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Saturday, January 6, 2007--Today, I played lots of Disgaea 2.


Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 5) Total: 7

Good Night!

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Friday, January 5, 2007--Funny story. When I tried to start my car this morning, at first it wouldn't start. So I was like, dood, what's going on? So then I try it again, and my car starts. Weird...


After dinner, I went to Michael's place where we played Gears of War. It reminds me of Halo, except it's a 3rd-person shooter, not a 1st-person shooter.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 4) Total: 7

Good Night!

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Thursday, January 4, 2007--Today, I finally got my car fixed. One of my fellow devs gave me a jump start, and I drove it to Sears' Auto Center. (Yes, Sears has an Auto Center up here.) There, the doods discovered that the battery connectors had corroded. So he sprayed some stuff on it to remove the corrosion rust or whatever you call it, then re-tightened the connections. After that, the car started just fine. Yay! He did a few more tests and concluded that everything was fine. So yay! My car is working again!


Afterwards, Rohan, Michael, and I made our triumphant return to the gym. Hamster wheel, yo!

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 2) Total: 3

Good Night!

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Wednesday, January 3, 2007--Finally, Dwayne has returned to Microsoft. (Winter Vacation over, dood!)


Heh, apparently, I beat the two worst FF games ever on January 3rd.

Unfortunately, today, my car wouldn't start either. I guess the battery must really be dead. What's even worse, the car's almost out of gas. So I have to somehow solve both problems.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 3) Total: 6

Good Night!

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Tuesday, January 2, 2007--Today, I flew back to Washington. Upon arriving, I decided to go to Safeway to get some groceries (other than some microwave entrees, I had finished everything in my refridgerator). However, as I was preparing to go back, my car wouldn't start. Apparently, the battery was dead. Fortunately, the people at Safeway were really helpful and helped me jump-start my car, so I made it back home this night.

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 3) Total: 9

Good Night!

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Monday, January 1, 2007--Happy 2007!!!


So today, I didn't do much other than watch the Rose Bowl. It was U$C vs Michigan. USC lamed Michigan pretty badly. At least on the bright side, USC missed two points after.

Other than that, I gotta prepare for flying back to Washington tomorrow.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 5) Total: 6

Good Night!

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