Wednesday, February 28, 2007--It's resolved, I think. I've worked everything out with her. Just as long as she doesn't pull a Connie and run away.
On this day:
In 2003:
- "According to Linda, Sarah, poorly translated into Chinese, becomes Skunk. I passed the information on to Sarah, but she's so used to my abusing her that it didn't mean anything to her."
- Me: [upon Linda's request] Yeah, I'll check out these books, and while I'm at it, I'll check out something else.
- Justin: You mean Cindy?
- The first official mention of my Slivers...
Tuesday, February 27, 2007--I think I finally understand the role I need to play.
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 3) Total: 4
After work today, I went to another Time Spiral-Time Spiral-Planar Chaos draft with the doods at the Microsoft Cafe 16. Again, instead of forcing red-black, I decided to let the cards dictate my strategy. My first pick was a Sudden Death, so I managed to lock myself into black. My next few picks were black kill cards, but then, when I discovered a pack that lacked black kill cards, I just took a white weenie (they seemed plentiful at the time). And thus, my path was set into black-white.
Here is the deck I ended up with:
10xSwamp
7xPlains
Blightspeaker
Feebleness
Assassinate
2xMelancholy
Sudden Death
Mana Skimmer
Brain Gorgers
Tendrils of Corruption
Cyclopean Giant
Viscid Lemures
Spitting Sliver
2xSidewinder Sliver
Amrou Scout
Benalish Cavalry
Errant Doomsayers
Revered Dead
Zealot il-Vec
Cloudchaser Kestrel
Flickering Spirit
Valor
Necrotic Sliver
Another thing I did was that I passed slivers that I knew I wouldn't play (not in my color, for example), hoping that my opponent would play them so I would piggyback off their abilities with mine own slivers. Also, I rare drafted a 3rd pack red Akroma just for the hell of it.
First, I played against Samir. I beat him in game 1, and then JV (?) showed up, so Samir decided to go and playtest for Extended instead.
Then, I played against Kaz. He beat me in two long, drawn-out games, even though in one of them, I managed to get out all 4 of my rebels. (Mainly by using one of them to search out the other 3.)
Finally, I played against Ken (not Judge Ken, the other Ken), who played a blue-green deck that splashed black, white, and red for Tromp the Domains, using Dreamscape Artists as his main land fixers. Unfortunately, his creatures were mostly rather small, so in game 1, after I got out my "rebel engine" (using either the Amrou Scout or the Blightspeaker to search out the rest), it was easy to lock down or kill his creatures while my bigger creatures smashed face for the win. In game 2, I didn't get my rebel engine running, but I did get the Errant Doomsayers and the Zealot il-Vec to clear out his creatures. (Except for that Gemhide Sliver, whom I was using to power up my Sidewinders to serve as mana accelerators.)
Anyways, I really like my deck today. It's really consistent, especially with the rebel engine. I also like how, since I went with the cards rather than forcing red-black, I was able to get a solid 2-color deck without having to dip into a third color. I am improving!
Good White!
Monday, February 26, 2007--It's strange. Last night, I went to sleep thinking that everything had changed. Today, I woke up realizing that nothing had changed.
Sunday, February 25, 2007 - Addendum--It's strange. I got pushed to the limit today. But instead of reacting in anger, I just committed my first sefless act. Ever. In my entire life.
I guess she has that effect on me...
Sunday, February 25, 2007--Has anyone ever noticed that my bloop entries have grown less substantial over time?
On this day:
In 2005:
Me: *unscrews Tiffany's chair*
Colleen: Dwayne, don't do that. *re-screws Tiffany's chair*
Me: Aww, you ruin all my fun.
Colleen: Yes, that's what I'm here for.
In 2003: Franklin and I share our first Legions MTG boosters... I discover Slivers for the first time ever... and Mistforms, too.
Today, I played yet more La Pucelle. *LP*
Today, I spent some time training Homard, Yattanya, and a siren to replace my three missing characters. Since Croix was a ranged character (if a range of 2 can count as "ranged"), I'm training the Siren to be a mage to permanently replace him. Since Homard is supposed to be really useful against Baal and other demon bosses, I think after I get Homard up to speed, I'll replace my zombie with him. (The zombie doesn't have enough movement.) The downside, unfortunately, is that Homard takes 20% more effort to train up. Ah well. He's really powerful. He's at level 16, and he already rivals Prier in strength.*LP*
Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 1) Total: 4
Good Night!
Saturday, February 24, 2007--I had a dream last night. In my dream, Mr. Yim was driving me and
her back from a math contest. (I dunno why she was there--she's not even on the Math Team.) So he drops both me and her off at my place, for some reason. I say to her, "You're always welcome here." She then hugs me and kisses me on the cheek. In response, I kiss her on the lips. I'm happy.
3 seconds later, I get pulled out of the dream world and back into reality.
On this day:
In 2006: In EE192 lab, I manage to get pieces of wire impaled into my finger. OUCH!
In 2004: Zach: Some asshole--probably me--put on two small prongs instead of one big prong and one small prong.
Today, I played more La Pucelle. *LP*
Today, I clear chapters 8, 9, and 10. I saw it coming during chapter 9 (shortest chapter ever--one real battle, one faux battle) when Croix went all Dark Croix-like (kinda like Rozalin, except he came before Rozalin), but at the end of chapter 10, Croix reverted to his Dark Prince form. And then Croix, Prier, and Alouette left my party. And I don't think Croix's coming back. That makes me sad. Now I have to figure out how to replace Croix permanently and temporary teammates to replace Prier and Alouette.*LP*
Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 5) Total: 8
Happy Birthday Sarah C!
Friday, February 23, 2007--
On this day:
In 2006: "Why is this NAND gate pulling the input up to 3 V? Wait, that's not a NAND gate, that's an
op-amp."
In 2004:
- My first Tau Beta Pi Candidate meeting.
- "If a fencer scores a touch, but the machine is broken, does it make a sound?"
Today, instead of playing Disgaea, I decided to continue playing La Pucelle. *LP*
Last I left off, about 2 weeks ago, I was in the middle of chapter 6. Today, I cleared chapters 6 and 7.*LP*
Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 2) Total: 5
Good Night!
Thursday, February 22, 2007--
On this day:
In 2003:
- Stanfurd Math Tournament 2003
- "So anyways, in a 9-way game of BS, I was third man out, my last move being seven 4's (we played with 2 decks, by the way), and I did it when it was my turn to put down 4's. Your last turn should always be honest, so that even if people try to BS, you still win. Joanna somehow won by lying. Why didn't anyone notice that she was out of cards? Mike won the same way--a flood of 4's. 'Seven 4's.' 'Should I BS that?' 'No, we already know he probably has 7 4's.' It turns out one of those 4's was a 6."
- Stephanie ranks 8th place in Geometry. I vow to stop treating her like a Newbie.
Eating 15 fish sticks is a pretty good snack. Eating 30 fish sticks makes you nauseous.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007--Cutting meat is very therapeutic, apparently.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007--
On this day:
In 2004: I got my laptop. Happy Birthday, Laptop!
I need to get her replaced...
Anyways, last night, I realized that over the last 2.5 months, I've been cooking the same two dishes over and over again: soy-boiled pork and stir-fry chicken. So I decided that this weekend, I'm gonna have spaghetti. Sure, spaghetti is stupidly easy to cook, but dood, I haven't had spaghetti in months!
So I decided that not only would I make spaghetti this weekend, but I would make spaghetti with meatballs. Of course, I balked when I was about to purchase ground beef, because ground beef is the most dangerous of meats. (Second only to uncooked chicken.) So instead, I ended up buying pre-cooked meatballs instead. At least until someone teaches me how to safely make meatballs. (Not a vegetarian, Sean!)
Alas, I forgot to buy garlic. D'oh!
Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 1) Total: 6
Good Night!
Monday, February 19, 2007--I'm feeling rather contemplative today. I dunno why.
Sunday, February 18, 2007--More Disgaea, dood! *dis*
So, to continue our story from yesterday, I'm on the battle in chapter 6 against the Alternate Overlord. As I said yesterday, since I passed all 20 Stronger Enemies bills, they were stronger than my castle NPCs. So I unpassed 5 of those Stronger Enemies bills, and my NPCs, despite being roughly the same level as the Alternate Overlords (and outnumbered 10 to 6), were still stronger and managed to edge out the win. Hurray!
After that, I re-passed the Stronger Enemies bills up to 20, and while I was at it, I passed everyone's Increased Movement bills to make them significantly (but only in a tactical sense) stronger. (I'm not going to try Improved Counterattack, because depending on the situation (such as the final boss fight), it could be counter-productive.)
Then, it was the Prism Ranger battle and then the Mid-Boss battle, both of which weren't too difficult.
Next, I played one battle into Chapter 7, but then decided to stop so I could watch the new Simpsons, the new Family Guy, the new American Dad, and the new Battlestar.*dis*
Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 4) Total: 9
In between TV shows, I called Kellie, who was at a Chinese New Years party at Kellie's place, and Little Vivian was also at the party. So at some point, I ask Kellie to give the phone to Little Vivian, and Little Vivian talks to me for about 30 seconds. That means Little Vivian doesn't hate me. Hurray!
me: *ring ring*
Kellie: *answers the phone*Hi Dwayne!
me: (Well, I guess this means I can't ask her to give the phone to Robin to trick her into talking to me.)
Little Vivian: Hello?
me: Hi, is this Little Vivian?
Little Vivian: I dunno. Is it?
me: Heh, know I know it really is you. Only Vivian would say something like that.
Good times.
Saturday, February 17, 2007--Disgaea, dood! *dis*
Today, in my 20 Stronger Enemies Bills Cycle, I cleared chapters 2 through 5 without trouble. In chapter 6, I got to the battle that you're supposed to lose when you get attacked by a high level Alternate Overlord, and then the NPCs from your castle show up and defeat him for you. Except now that I've passed 20 Stronger Enemies bills, the Alternate Overlord is way stronger than the castle NPCs. Hehe, oops! Maybe I should unpass a few of those Stronger Enemies bills, let the castle NPCs mop him up, and then pass those Stronger Enemies bills back.*dis*
Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 1) Total: 4
Good Night!
Friday, February 16, 2007--
On this day:
In 2003:
Me: If you're lucky, Justin will show you his Phyrexian Dreadnoughts.
Franklin: Wait, if I'm unlucky?
Me: Yes, if you're unlucky, he'll show your his Phyrexian Dreadnoughts... in battle.
(Later that day, Bernard got unlucky.)
Disgaea (my second cycle)... *dis*
So I finally passed all 20 Stronger Enemies bills. Then, I cleared Chapter 1 with enemies at maximum strength. Of course, it was easy for 2 reasons:
#1, even at maximum strength, most of my characters are stronger than most of the enemies.
#2, even though the enemies have higher levels, they have crappy or no gear.
So I was able to kick their asses (and Mid-Boss's ass) easily.*dis*
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 2) Total: 3
Good Night!
Thursday, February 15, 2007--Gymming...
On this day:
In 2005: Exploding soda.
Also, today, I downloaded the old MegaZeux game, Weirdness, and recorded its soundtrack into mp3. It's not as good as the Zeux series' soundtrack, but it's pretty good just the same.
Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 5) Total: 8
Good Night!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007--
happy Valentine's day, ViVian!
will you be my Valentine?
Tuesday, February 13, 2007--
On this day:
In 2004:
- The sniper-rifle Physics Lab.
- Justin: You fail to charm every girl you meet.
- Me: No, not every girl. Just the attractive ones.
- Justin: Okay... you fail to charm every girl you try to charm.
- Me: Fair enough.
In 2003: "Don't fall into the [active] volcano!"
Monday, February 12, 2007--Apparently, I'm not fully recovered from this sickness, but I'm recovered enough to go back to work. So I went back to work.
Sunday, February 11, 2007--Today, I played more Disgaea... *dis*
Well, like I said yesterday, my plan was to capture monsters from the Divine Prison (that is, Battle 14-5) and use them as meatshields. So I did just that. I had to capture them one at a time, since they were too strong to capture two without healing at the hospital in between. So after a few battles, I managed to capture one of each level 75 demon, and I named them after the gods: Atlas, Poseidon, Hades, Zeus, and Bahamut. While I was at it, I also gave Etna my bonus specialists (in particular, my Statistician), and she managed to level up to level 79. (My Laharl was at level 77 at the time.)
So now it's time to put my strategy to the test. (Well, not really a test, since I already know from my first playthrough that it works.) First, I used my gods as meatshields to prevent the Seraph's angel minions from getting at my weaker characters. Then, once the angels were taken care of, I surrounded the Seraph so that he couldn't move (thus preventing him from getting at my mages). With my mages and my healer intact and out of harm's way, it was child's play to heal my characters as needed and boost their attacks with Braveheart to take out the Seraph completely over the course of about 5 turns.*dis*
...and I beat it. Again. Anyways, here are some numbers for comparison. This time, I cleared the game in 58:47:01 (as compared to 92:47:55 the first time around). Laharl entered the battle at level 77, and after dealing the final blow to the final boss, he walked out at level 86. Etna remained at level 79. All of my other characters were at level 50ish.
Next, I'm gonna play through cycle 2 with 20 Stronger Enemies bills passed. It'll be like playing through the game in Hard Mode.
On this day:
In 2005: I beat Diablo 2 Act 5 for the first time ever.
Then, with perfect timing, Duckie had a CS61c crisis, so I helped her resolve that for about 5 hours. Then, I watched the new Battlestar. Then, I went to sleep.
Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 5) Total: 9
Good Night, dood!
Saturday, February 10, 2007--Today, I played some more Disgaea. *dis*
The next few battles went by without incident, but when I fought Vulcanus, he beat me the first time. After a bit more preparation, I went back and thoroughly wiped the floor with him.
Then, I fought the hardest storyline battle in the game (and rightfully so): The final battle against the Seraph. I tried 4 times, each time improving my tactics based on the previous battle, and 4 times, I got my ass kicked. You see, Laharl can survive a hit from the Seraph, but he's the only one who doesn't die in one hit from the Seraph. And unfortunately, Laharl can't solo the Seraph. He needs at least a healer to keep him alive, and ideally, some mages to cast Braveheart on him to increase his attack power. Fortunately, in one of my attempts, I was doing pretty well by keeping the Seraph and my healer at literally opposite corners of the battlefield. Unfortunately, as I was about to beat the Seraph, he decided to randomly start attacking my healer. Laharl went down two turns later.
It looks like I'm going to have to use the same tactic I used last time: capture monsters from the Divine Prison and use them as meatshields.*dis*
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 5) TOtal: 6
Good Night!
Friday, February 9, 2007--I failed. I was still sick this morning, so I took another day off from work. Ah well.
On this day:
In 2006:
In 2005: Colleen L makes her first appearance in my Online Journal.
Anyways, I started feeling better by the afternoon, so I played some Disgaea.
*dis*
After earning some money to buy better gear and getting better gear from the Hospital, I kicked Kurtis's ass and then cleared Chapter 13 without incidence.
In chapter 14, I cleared the first few battles without a problem, then stumbled a little as I went into the Maze level again. After getting thoroughly wiped out on my first try, on my second try, I bought better staves for my mages (and a new Axe for my Warrior), then, I held back my mages, only sending my melee units (and an archer) across the gap (courtesy of my Brawler's King of Beasts attack). This time, the combination of long-range mage bombardment a quick, efficient team of melee units allowed me to pulmogorize my enemies.
Next up: The Divine Prison, although this time, I hope I won't have to resort to capturing random monsters.*dis*
Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 1) Total: 4
Good Night!
Thursday, February 8, 2007--Am I sick? Or am I healthy? I'm not sure, but I don't feel completely healthy, so I called in sick today so I could get some rest.
On this day:
In 2005: I beat Normal Diablo at Level 27 in Diablo 2 (all time personal low record).
Tomorrow, I intend to be strong. We'll see if I succeed.
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 4) Total: 5
Good Recovery!
Wednesday, February 7, 2007--I'm not sick, am I?
Tuesday, February 6, 2007--New mechs in the Office office...
Monday, February 5, 2007--
On this day:
In 2005: I beat KH:CoM - Reverse/Rebirth.
In 2004: Alan: Wow... that was impressive... impressive in how fast you lost. I thought you said your little kitties raped his slivers.
In 2003: I discover that soda is the only thing that tastes good when you're sick.
What say you?
Sunday, February 4, 2007--
On this day:
In 2003:
- I dreamt I was really dizzy, and when I woke up, I was really dizzy.
Kristen Kurimoto decides to sit right in front of me instead of in her usual spot near the front of the room (which is usually right behind me) because today I sat at the back of the room instead of the front...
- Tricia: Kristen, why are you sitting way back there? Come sit up here?
-
- Kristen: *embarassed, goes up to the front of the room*
- Me: *confused, falls asleep*
Today, I played more Disgaea. It was mostly farming specialists. Dood...
Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 3) Total: 4
Good Night!
Saturday, February 3, 2007--
On this day:
In 2005: I start using Visual C++.
In 2004: I dream that Mark has a really hot sister who's name is not Julie.
In 2003:
- I dream that I am a buggy computer program.
- Cindy stops wearing glasses.
Anyways, today, I played more Disgaea. *dis*
I failed. Even after buying all that armor, Kurtis and his minions still kicked my ass. I managed to get Kurtis's team down to 1 swordsman and Kurtis himself, though, which is an improvement, but it still wasn't enough to take him down. Ah well. Now comes the intensive training. First thing's first, I went through the item world a few times with my alternate team (my thief, my Star mage, my Wind mage, my succubus, and my cat-girl) and farmed some specialists. It'll be a slow and tedious process, but it won't be as tedious as going through subpoenas in Disgaea 2, I assume.*dis*
Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8
Good Night, dood!
Friday, February 2, 2007--Happy
Hedgehog Day!
So when I left my apartment to go to work, the sky had completely clouded up, so I couldn't see my shadow. Does that mean it's spring already?
In 2003: I find the "I Love You" virus on my computer.