Monday, March 31, 2003--Anyway, in the morning I dueled against Justin and won. Then, Will wanted to try, so I let him borrow my Slivers deck and guided him through his first match, which he won. However, during the second match, I didn't give him any help at all, and he lost. Maybe it was luck. I don't know.
Anyways, I finished sequencing Gregory Janson's Tear of Gold, but I haven't listened to it yet, so it won't be up until tomorrow, at least.
I also told Stacie that she and her sister should switch places tomorrow, and she was like "No, that's kind of too hard."
Right... tomorrow is April Fools' Day, and I've been trying to plan a prank, but I just have no ideas, you know?
However, when I told one of the Yalkuts to switch places, he said, "Sure thing!" or something like that.
At lunch, I watched the guys play at the Magic table. Apparently, Nick has a Sliver deck. Then, he used this amazing combo to get out infinite slivers! You need the Sliver Queen, Ashnod's Altar, and the Heartstone. The Sliver Queen allows you to make Sliver tokens for only 2 mana. Ashnod's Altar allows you to sacrifice a creature to gain 2 mana. The Heartstone reduces the cost of creature abilities by 1. Do you see where this is headed? Now, you can use the Sliver Queen to create a Sliver token for 1. Then, you sacrifice it to gain 2. You use this 2 to create 2 sliver tokens, which you sac to gain 4, then 8, then 16, and through this infinite loop, you end up with infinite slivers or infinite colorless mana. The other guy attacked with his 2 creatures. Nick said, "I block this one with 10,000 slivers and this one with 20,000 slivers." Then, on his turn, he said, "I attack you with 500 slivers," and he won.
I challenged Nick to a duel, and he played with a deck similar to the one he used last Friday. He got out his Chamber of Manipulation/Animal Boneyard comob out early in the game, so I held off from playing my slivers in fear of his using his cheap land enchantment combo to destroy them and take their life. However, by the time I finally got out a Ward Sliver, he used Akroma's Vengeance, destroying everything. By that time, though, he had a Cantivore, and enough enchantments had been thrown into graveyards to make it powerful. Time ran out, and I was leading 18-14, but an unfinished duel is an unfinished duel. I probably would have lost anyway.
I'm hoping to adopt the Infinite Sliver combo and use it to crush my own enemies. That would be cool--Infinite Slivers--as Nick says, "The correct way to use the Sliver Queen."
Marcos has finished mixing Doomfall & Hope, and it is ready to be burned onto the class CD, along with Simon's really cool Techno song and everyone else's copying-stuff-onto-Sibelius projects.
I got the highest multiple-choice score in English class. Well, I know my essays suck, so my only hope is that my natural multiple-choice skills will more than make up for it.
Today had an SJYS rehearsal. Anyway, we practiced both Gershwin songs today--Rhapsody in Blue and Porgy and Bess. In any case, I caught Lizzie singing the trumpet part of Rhapsody with the trumpets, and I suddenly remembered my first memory of her. She was singing with the trumpets in Rhapsody, which we played 2 years ago, and (I honestly don't know how--she was so quiet) I heard her singing, so I turned around and gave her an unhappy look. She immediately shut her mouth. This is the second time I've reminisced about Lizzie... The first time was on March 5, 2003, in case you're interested.
I mentioned this fact to Lizzie, and added, "I'm sorry. Don't mind me. I just remember the weirdest things."
So anyways...
The LMC Team Contest is on the move, as is the SFBA-ARML.
Kellie seems very depressed. Read her poems, and you'll be able to tell. I'll have to talk to her sometime.
Finally... *looks at watch* Oh, right, it's broken. *looks at computer clock* Wow! It's getting late! This entry was also decently long!
Ech! Good Night!
Sunday, March 30, 2003--Today, I woke up quickly and prepared to go to the rehearsal for the SJYS Family Concert. Taiko performances are hella cool, yo!
At lunch, I went to Ravioli's. Their meatballs are really good.
That Steve is a manipulator. He held Emma and I together in an attempts to force us together. That didn't work because Emma struggled out.
Anyways, by the time the rehearsal and concert were over, it was about 5pm. I went home and finished the Advanced Wars game. Because I had a huge swarm of infantry, I easily kicked over the computer. Franklin realized he was going to lose, so he surrendered.
Fresh Choice was dinner. I didn't know they had macaroni & cheese.
After dinner, I basically fooled around on the internet. The comp crashed once, but it didn't faze me.
Anyway, that seems to be it for this day. It was a long day, but a short entry.
Good Night!
Saturday, March 29, 2003--So I wake up this morning to go to Chinese School, and my class is almost empty! What the Heaven?
It was very uneventful. We read this really lame story and translated this article about Jackie Chan...
However, I did duel against Justin in MTG, but time ran out before either of us could do anything.
After Chinese school, I finished my homework, then played FF5 for about an hour, working on my Jobs.
Then, we went to Bernard's house, where I first dueled Bernard and lost, on account of his huge-ass airforce of Hypnotic Specters and Silent Specters.
Afterwards, we played quite a lot of 3-way FFAs between Bernard, Franklin, and I. I was able to win one duel, in which I got out an early Sliver Queen, but before I could use it, Franklin removed it from the game with his Faceless Butcher. I whipped out my Volcanic Hammer and tried to Hammer the Faceless Butcher, but he turned up the Willbender and I ended up destroying my own Quick Sliver. Then, I was reduced to 1 Life and my Sliver Army was destroyed. However, Franklin and Bernard then started fighting each other, and, using Volrath's Stronghold, I was able to get my Sliver Army back. With my Essence Sliver, I attacked Franklin and got myself back up to 7 Life. Then, Bernard kills Franklin, and, since the Faceless Butcher is gone, I got my Sliver Queen back. At that point, Bernard was dead, because the turn then shifted to me, and I could have killed Bernard except that he forfeited immediately.
Franklin and I also started an Advanced Wars 3-way game just before we went to Bernard's house--a 3-way between Franklin (who picked Andy, the well-balanced guy), the comp (who we gave Max, the tank guy), and me (who picked Sami, the infantry girl). Because we played on a map with no airports and no seaports, I owned with my swarm tactics, by building lots and lots of cheap infantry and bazooka men. We didn't finish the game today.
Then, I had Kellie listen to Doomfall and Hope. Then, I watched the Leave it to Beaver movie with Wendi and Robin. Then, we played Bomberman.
2D Bomberman owns 3D Bomberman, yo! 3D Bomberman SUCKS!!!!! Anyways, there was this one game that I played where I won in the last few seconds of the game, where Sudden Death limited all but the last few spaces. Franklin got crushed under a rock.
After that, we played some DOA2, and then we went home.
That ends to night, which was a Good Night!
Friday, March 28, 2003--In the morning, I played MTG against Justin. I beat him 3 out of 5 games. He's getting luckier, possibly because I cursed myself.
I think my group's doing better for our stock presentations...
Toward the end of fourth period, Roske suddenly left the room. I'm not sure what happened. However, while he was gone, Justin and I began playing a quick MTG duel. I brought him down to 8 Life and drained up to 18 Life. Then, someone yelled "Mr. Roske's coming back," and Justin and I shoveled our decks back into our boxes and backpacks. It turns out that although I was winning, Justin would have won in the end if the game had continued, simply because I forgot to counter is Broken Visage.
Math Club is all about the free chocolates nowadays... Oh, and Franklin forgot to go.
Mr. Peterson has a new pair of headphones. The main advantage is that they are harder to break, meaning they are more likely to be comfortable. They're actually pretty good, you know?
After school, I played a 2v2 duel, Alan and I versus Justin and Nick. Since I know Nick is good and that Alan sucks, I knew my team was screwed from the beginning. We lost, mainly because I didn't know Nick had so many Pacifisms and Pacifism-like cards, so I didn't call pro-white with my Ward Slivers. Nick also had this combo that, using Chamber of Manipulation and Animal Boneyard, he steals a creature every turn and then destroys it for Life. It's kind of unhappy. He didn't get to bring out his Lhurgoyf, though... They were creaming us, so when we had but 5 Life left, I tapped 5 lands and mana burned ourselves, thus ending the duel.
Now that I know Nick's strategy, I'm challenging him to a duel on Monday.
After that, Franklin and I went home, and I played Warcraft III. You see, I'm still stuck on Orc 4, the gather 15,000 lumber mission, so I created a new file and beat the game with cheats so I would know the storyline. I'll go back and beat the game legit someday... Anyway, the WC3 credits are so damn funny!
Anyway, that's all I did today. Good Night, I say!
Thursday, March 27, 2003--Woohoo! I made it to Berkeley EECS!
Anyways, just for fun, I creating a Sibelius score for Gregory Janson's Tear of Gold in my Electronic Music class.
Also, during 3rd period, Tiff H walked in to our class to make some sort of delivery...
Andrew: Are you sure?
Me: I dunno. I'll have to check, but not now!
And we burst into laughter.
Later, during 6th period...
Me: Tiffany, is there anything going on between you and me?
Tiff H: WH-H-AT?!?
Me: Andrew, you just missed it. I just asked Tiffany if there was anything between us.
He and I laugh.
Me: Well, we can't use that joke anymore.
Andrew: Yes, we can, just not with the same person.
In case you don't get the reference, check a previous journal entry, the entry for January 29, 2003.
During lunch, Andrew had commented that he was surprised that I remembered that so quickly.
Homework has reached its relaxed period again. I hope this one lasts a while, because I'm getting kind of tired.
Today, I went to the final SJYS rehearsal before our concert on Sunday... The only memorable thing was that I finally discovered what the typewriter types in "Typewriter", by Leroy Anderson.
I'm tired. Let me go to sleep now. Let me go to sleep.
Good Night!
Wednesday, March 26, 2003--Alan sent in a new batch of joke Magic cards, and suddenly, I was compelled to make new Magic cards, and suddenly, Franklin was compelled to make new Magic cards, so here they are. These first few are Alan's creations:
Bandaid - Cost: 1W
Instant (LS)
Prevent all damage to target creature or player, from one source.
Buyback 5
Flavor: "You're gonna DIE now Frankie!"--Justin Kuo, Sinitic Titan
NOTE: Since White is for damage prevention, I decided to make this card a white card instead of a black card.
Ultimate Rage - Cost: 4RRR
Sorcery (LS)
All creatures get +3/+0, trample and double strike until end of turn and attack if they can do so.
Flavor: "We ain't angry, we're just tryin' to have some fun with it!"--The Great Alan Watson
NOTE: I noticed this card was kind of expensive to play, so I made it stronger by changing first strike to double strike, a much needed improvement that makes it worth playing.
Stick - Cost: 7
Artifact (LS)
Tap: Deal 1 damage to target creature or player.
2: Untap Stick.
If Alan, Poke Army General is in play, Stick deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Flavor: "Feel the power of the ultimate poking stick!" - Alan Watson, Poke Army General
NOTE: This card is incredibly cheap, so I upped the casting cost from 6 to 7 and the untapping cost from 1 to 2.
Alan Watson, Poke Army General - Cost: 6UUUU
Creature - Legend (LS)
Tap: Deal 3 damage to target creature or player.
3: Search your deck for any creature with ability "Tap: deal 1 damage to target creature orplayer" and put it into play.
4: Play any creature with ability "Tap: deal 1 damage to target creature or player" from your hand; it does not experience summoning sickness if put into play in this manner.
6: Search your deck for Stick and put into play face down; you may turn it face up next turn for 2.
Flavor: "I will poke you to death!" - Alan, Poke Army General
0/3
NOTE: Alan forgot to give himself power and toughness. I gave him 0 power, since he's just gonna be poking all the time, anyway, and I gave him only 3 toughness because, unless the attacking creature has provoke, he'll be tapped during his opponents turn, so that he won't have to fight any battles.
These next few were made by Franklin:
Franklin the Not so Big - Cost: 4UUBB
Creature - Legend (LS)
Flying, Haste, Flanking, Trample
When Franklin the Not so Big comes in play, if Franklin the Bigger is already in play, bury Franklin the Bigger.
You may choose not to untap Franklin the Not so Big during your untap phase.
3U, Tap: Counter target spell.
3UU, Tap: Take control of target permanent.
When Franklin the Not so Big deals combat damage to a player, that player must randomly discard a card. If they cannot, that player takes 1 damage.
Flavor: "Nice try..."--Franklin the Not so Big
5/5
Franklin the Bigger - Cost: 6UUBB
Creature - Corrupted Legand (LS)
Upkeep: Pay 3UUBB for upkeep or take 10 damage from Franklin, The Bigger
Flying, Haste, Trample, Double Strike, Rampage 1, Swampwalk, Islandwalk
When Franklin the Bigger comes in play, if Franklin the Not so Big is already in play, bury Franklin the Not so Big.
Protection from Red, White, and Green
2UUBB: Take Control of target creature
Flavor: "DIE BIATCH, DIE"--Franklin the Bigger
10/10
Corrupt Legend - Cost: 3BBB
Enchant Creature (LS)
This card can Only enchant non-corrupted Legends.
Enchated Creature Gains -3/-2, Flying, Trample, Double strike, and Protection from white and red.
XB: Regenerate Enchanted Creature and X is amount of counters are on it.
Whenever Enchanted Creature Regenerates put 2 +1/+1 counters on it.
Flavor: "Beware the Corrupt. They're DAMN powerful."--Dwayne Jeng
These last 7 are my creations, based on VMyth. They come in their own set, called the Mage War (MW) set:
Viltris, King of Hell - Cost: 5WUBRG
Creature - Demon Legend (MW)
During your upkeep phase, sacrifice any number of creatures with a total power equal to or greater than the total number of counters on Viltris, King of Hell, or else you automatically lose.
Sacrifice 1 Life: Viltris, King of Hell, gains double strike, trample, flying until end of turn.
Sacrifice 1 Life: Viltris, King of Hell, cannot be the target of spells or abilities until the end of turn.
Sacrifice X Life: Viltris, King of Hell, gains rampage X until end of turn.
Sacrifice 1 Life: Destroy target creature with toughness not greater than power.
Sacrifice 1 Life: Tap target creature with power not greater than toughness. That creature will not untap on its controller's next untap phase.
At the end of your turn, add a +1/+1 counter to Viltris, King of Hell.
Flavor: A powerful sorceror, Viltris is driven by insanity.
13/13
Greenblade, Sword of Viltris - Cost: 5RR
Legendary Enchant Creature (MW)
Enchanted creature gets +4/+0
If enchanted creature is Viltris, King of Hell, he gets the ability "RRR: Deal damage equal to Viltris's power divided equally among all creatures you don't control rounded up." and gains 3 +1/+1 counters.
Flavor: The Greenblade, made of pure lightning, is a devastating weapon.
Stream of Souls - Cost: 2GG
Legendary Enchantment (MW)
Upkeep: GG
At the beginning of your turn, add a +1/+1 counter to every creature you control, and add another +1/+1 counter to Viltris, King of Hell, if he is in play.
Flavor: Sitting in Hell, Viltris is powered by a constant stream of souls.
Soul Reliever - Cost: 3WW
Sorcery (MW)
Remove all counters from all cards in play. You gain life equal to the number of counters removed.
Flavor: Sometimes, having too much strength can become too burdensome.
Helion Pyra, Cult General - Cost: BBBBB
Creature - Sorceror Legend (MW)
During your upkeep phase, pay 1 for each counter on Helion Pyra, Cult General, otherwise he deals to you 1 damage for each counter on him. If you pay the upkeep, add a +1/+1 counter to Helion Pyra, Cult General.
Remove 1 counter from Helion Pyra, Cult General: Helion Pyra, Cult General, gains double strike until end of turn.
Remove 3 counters from Helion Pyra, Cult General: Destroy target tapped creature.
Remove 6 counters from Helion Pyra, Cult General: Bury target creature and put a 1/1 colorless creature token with no creature type into play for every point of toughness buried creature had.
Flavor: Viltris's right hand man, Helion Pyra created the Cult.
6/6
Helion's Left Dagger - Cost: UUU
Legendary Enchant Creature (MW)
Enchanted creature gains +1/+0.
If enchanted creature is Helion Pyra, Cult General, he gets the ability "UU: Deal 1 damage to all creatures you do not control. If Helion Pyra is enchanted by both Daggers, any creatures sent to the graveyard by this ability come under your control." and gains 2 +1/+1 counters.
Flavor: Helion's daggers, although only a foot long, had unlimited reach.
Helion's Right Dagger - Cost: 2UUU
Legendary Enchant Creature (MW)
Enchanted creature gains +2/+0.
If enchanted creature is Helion Pyra, Cult General, he gets the ability "UUU: Deal 2 damage to all creatures you do not control. If Helion Pyra is enchanted by both Daggers, then this ability does 4 damage instead of 2, and any creatures sent to the graveyard by this ability come under your control." and gains 3 +1/+1 counters.
Flavor: Helion held this dagger in his right hand.
End Magic the Gathering tangent.
Anyways, at school, I worked hard to finish the Math 78 (Differential Equations) Take Home Quiz that was due tomorrow. I managed to finish, although it took me until the end of fourth period.
I realized today that my mom forgot to buy me lunch, so I bought a Snickers from some girl selling fundraiser candy. "Hungry? Why wait? Grab a Snickers." Heh.
Hmmm... not much else happened at school today, nor did much happen involving my Viola lessons.
Well, I did type up the Corpnucopia stock report on Cardinal Health, Inc., but that's relatively minor.
I dueled against Franklin in MTG and lost 2 of the 3 games. He's damn better than me, and I'm damn better than Alan and Justin... Maybe its just my deck, though...
So that's all for today. Although I didn't talk about my day, I ironically spoke for much longer than usual. I say it was the Magic cards that did it.
And remember...
"I will take care of you..."
--Dwayne Jeng to the person who he was talking to
And also...
"Good Night!"
--Dwayne Jeng, the ending of virtually all of his journal entries.
Tuesday, March 25, 2003--My watch stopped on Sunday. It stopped at 3:05:15 in the afternoon. I know this because it's an analog/digital hybrid and it still reads 3:05:15. It just doesn't move, that's all.
On an unrelated note, Tiffany W changed her hairstyle after more than 6 and a half years of keeping it the same. (I've only known her for 6 and a half years.)
Anyways, the AIME (the American Invitational Mathematics Examination) was today. I went in and solved 11 problems and guessed for the other 4. I feel confident in my answers. After the AIME, I compared my answers with Ke. After that, I knew I had gotten one wrong for sure (I made a huge mistake), and I had 2 that I was sure of and 1 that I was not sure of. Thus, I believed that I had 7 correct for certain, plus 3 more possible answers. I calculated that I needed 8 to make it to the USAMO (the USA Mathematics Olympiad--the most prestigious math contest in the nation).
After school, I went online and talked to Bernard (who had already taken the test, finished, and had discussed answers... perfectly legal stuff, we weren't cheating or anything) and found out that one of the answers I thought I had correct was wrong, as was the question I was unsure of. However, the two answers that Ke did not get that I did get were correct, so I expected a score of 8. That qualified me for USAMO by a margin of about 3.5 points, assuming that the cut-off would be the same as last year's (which was pretty high).
Later, Jongmin came online and I discussed answers with him (he's expecting a 12 on the AIME, by the way), and it turns out that one of the questions I guessed on I got right!
Woohoo! That gives me a score of 9 on the AIME, multiply by 10 and add to my score of 133.5 on the AMC 12A, that gives me a combined index of 223.5, which is more than enough to qualify for USAMO! Woohoo! That makes me the first Lelander in the last 10 years to make it to the USAMO. I have achieved my biggest goal in high school mathematics!
Of course, it still needs to be confirmed, but the online connection is usually accurate...
Anyways, because of the AIME, I missed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th period. Actually, I did manage to finish before the end of fourth, but since I was already technically absent and excused, I decided not to enter class so eagerly. Instead, I hung out in Mr. Woytek's room. Ironically, while I was in Mr. Woytek's room, Andrew was in Roske's room. (We were each in the other's classroom.) In the last 10 minutes, I decided to stop by at Mr. Roske's room.
And Woytek's latin phrase of the day is "Vox Clandestina". I guessed "secretive voice", but the real answer was "whisper". Well, that's the difference between the exact translation and the best translation, you know?
In English class, we read a story about a girl who says that when you turn eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. Then, we had to plan and essay about it.
After school was the Math Team meeting. We worked on the problem that I guessed on for 20 minutes and got nowhere. I still find it amusing that I guessed it right. Then again, between Lei, Linda, and Ke, 2 of them guessed it right and the third one put 83, which was close to the right answer.
Should I ask a 9th-grader to the Senior Ball?
Also, Franklin can be a real jackass sometimes.
Justin came over so we could work on the stock project. Thanks for the advice, Mark!
Hmm... looks like that's the end. Well, thank you for listening to the Dwayne show. I now bid you Farewell and Good Riddance--I mean, Good Night!
Monday, March 24, 2003--Do you think its too early for me to ask a girl to the Senior Ball? After all, it's about two and a half months away. Then again, I need to give them time to find a dress. Plus, I'll need to find myself a proper tux, too, you know? Plus, if I'm too slow, all the good girls will already be taken. (Haha, Steph's advice sounds a lot like Alex's advice last year.) Then again, if I ask them too early, that might not be such a happy significance.
Anyways, today, I played a series of Magic duels involving my Slivers against Justin's Undead. I won four games--no biggie. He won 2 games against me. In one of them, he did something very risky and played the Lord of the Pit when he only had a few creatures in play and no Breeding Pit. Fortunately, he killed me before he killed himself. The second game he won, I forfeited because three turns into the game, I realized that I should have mulliganed and that my bad opening draw would eventually cost me the game.
During lunch, I played a duel against Alan. At the beginning, he brought out a Horseshoe Crab, which you can pay blue mana to untap it. Then, he enchanted it with an enchantment that gives it the ability to poke for 1 damage. Then, next turn, he poked, untapped, poked, etc for six damage. At that moment, I was pessimistic, but my pessimism turned around when I drew a Volcanic Hammer and utterly destroyed the Horseshoe Crab. See, Volcanic Hammer has its advantages over Shock: three damage instead of two. After that, I got out my Essence Sliver, and some other Slivers and drained so much Life from Alan that I won 20-0. I creamed him!
In the last 5 minutes, Justin and Alan played a quick duel: whoever had more life before the bell rang for the end of lunch wins. Justin played a 2/2 Scathe Zombies and attacked Alan with it. Over time, the thing was Unholy strengthed, making it a 4/3. Then, Alan confiscated it and enchanted it again to make it a 6/5. Then, Justin Paralyzed it. In the last minute, if Alan had decided to pay to untap it, then attack, he would have won. However, he did some other plays, and so had fewer life than Justin when time ran out, and lost. He should have, could have won that one if it weren't for that mistake.
After school, I slept, then did homework. Nothing major. I shortly went to the SJYS Rehearsal and found out that I had been promoted to Assistant Principle of the Violas. Finally, after 2 years, I'm back in the front row. Actually, it's not so much of my viola skill as it is that Christine, one of the two people ahead of me, wasn't going to tour, so Yair automatically stuck her in the back. Therefore, I was promoted to 2nd seat by default.
Heh, we only have 3 violists going on tour--a major shortage. It's time to begin my campaign of recruiting Justin.
But first, who wants to buy tickets to the SJYS Family Concert this Sunday?
Anyways, tomorrow is the AIME, the most important individual math contest that I've ever been to. I'll need my sleep. Therefore, Good Night!
Wish me luck on the AIME tomorrow!
Sunday, March 23, 2003--This conversation happened a while back:
Tiffany H: Hey, Andrew! You're brother's a pimp!
Me: Is everyone's freshman brother a pimp?
Tiffany H: Dwayne! You're brother's a pimp, too! Tell I think he's hot!
Later...
Franklin: What the f~~~? How does she even know me anyway?
My day today was spent mostly studying and playing Magic the Gathering.
First of all, I finished the practice AIME. Within the three hours, I got 11 right (assuming all 11 are correct, and I am confident they are). Given more time, I could have gotten the 12th. I feel optimistic about making it to the USAMO this year.
Later, having read Crime and Punishment and written an essay, I played some Magic duels against Franklin. For the first duel, I borrowed Franklin's Akroma deck and played 2v2, with my Sliver deck and his Akroma deck versus his Bruised deck and his PP deck. The PP deck was killed off first, then the Akroma deck. Between Franklin's Bruised deck and my Sliver deck, I was winning. Then, when he successfully cast persuasion on my Ward Sliver, I said, "This is the beginning of the end, isn't it." It was indeed. Soon after that, Franklin defeated me. I almost won--the score just before the end was 2-3, with me having the 3, and I drew a Shifting Sliver. However, Franklin countered it and was able to block my remaining Slivers. Then, he counter-attacked to win the game.
Later on, Franklin realizes that he's never used my Sliver Deck before. I hand him the Slivers and take his Bruised deck and we play. Franklin won at least 1 game. He managed to play out the Brood Sliver, Essense Sliver, and the Toxin Sliver, along with a Shifting Sliver and a Ward Sliver. Such a combination is nearly unbeatable. All he needed was the Sliver Queen and the combo would have been ultimate.
I was able to beat him in another game, and I think I won the third, but I'm not sure.
Sometime during that night, Jackie called me, asking for help for Calculus. How she got my number, I do not know, but I don't really mind. Unfortunately, I got an imaginary answer for the question she asked me to help her on...
Later in the day, I went up to NYTimes.com and read the news regarding the War in Iraq. The opening moves have been played and now we're deep in mid-game. Apparently, the Coalition has engaged the Republican Guard (the Iraqi Republican Guard... it's Saddam's elite army, the one we didn't fight in the first Gulf War), and fighting has gotten tougher. That and, Saddam's son Uday has created the Saddam Fedayeen (or the Martyrs of Saddam), a guerrilla army that has been harassing the flanks and the rear of the Coalition. Still, I have absolute faith that the Coalition will succeed in capturing Baghdad.
Did you now that the Coalition not only includes the US and Britain, but also Austrailia, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Poland? It proves that we're not as alone as we thought we were. That's some comfort.
Speaking of comfort, it's getting late, and I'd like to be in the comfort of my bed. Good Night!
Saturday, March 22, 2003--The SCVMA was today. Early in the morning, I drove to San Jose State. My event? The Discovery Quest, the highest level of all of SCVMA. Unlike the years before, I would be competeing against great minds, such as Jongmin Baek and Simon Rubinstein-Salzedo (who, by the way, won second place and first place respectively). I, no doubt, would not do as well. However, there is no regret. I'd rather compete against giants and lose than compete against the little people (no offense to Joanna, Stephanie, Franklin, or whoever is offended by the term "little people") and win.
Overall, I won 7th place--not bad. Joanna won 7th place in Algebra II. Ke and Won won 7th place in Leap Frog. We seem to have lucky 7's fever? Not really. Lei won 12th place in Open, Stephanie 10th place in Open, and Michael 8th place in Open. The scores themselves aren't so great, but one good thing is that, for the first time that I've been at Leland, we got 3 out of 3 in a single division. I think this year's MAH is very strong. Who needs the "smart" people like Diane or Jasmine? With Michael, Lei, and Stephanie, we have all the Mathletic ability we need.
Overall, our team won 8th place, not bad. This year, we got more trophies, but last year, we got better trophies, so it all turns out the same. Congratulations to Joanna, Lei, Stephanie, Michael, Ke, and Won, and to whomever else I may have neglected to mention out of forgetfulness.
Coming home, I played some more FF5. I'm still trying to build up my Jobs so that I can do the combination I want to use against Neo X-Death.
I also did a smidgen of on Dark Fiends. I'm still trying, you know? It's much easier now that I'm almost finished with Crime and Punishment.
Franklin borrowed Justin's Warcraft III CD-Key, because Justin can't play online before 10pm, anyway, so Franklin got permission to use Justin's CD-Key before 10pm. Franklin, Ryan, and I played Warchasers and got further than we ever did. Unfortunately, the tank level is ridiculously hard. You can't use items, Ankh's of Reincarnation, Magic, or anything for that matter. We got our butts wiped out. I have a replay if anyone wants it.
After playing Warcraft III, Franklin and I played Magic. Because I left my Slivers in my backpack, my backpack in my mom's car, and my mom was away visiting a friend, I decided to borrow and play with one of Franklin's decks. We played a series of duels, each taking turns using the Green/White "Akroma" deck and the Blue/Black "Bruised" deck.
One of my most elegant victories over Franklin was played today. I was using the Bruised deck and Franklin was using the Akroma deck. Now, the Akroma deck has this one card called Change of Heart, which prevents target creature from attacking, and it has buyback for 3, so he kept using it over and over again. The thing is, while I had a large army out, so did Franklin. Plus, he had a few good walls, which made it risky for me to attack recklessly. Thus, I had to rely on my airforce, but Franklin always had the mana to Change of Heart all of my flying creatures. As the game progressed, our armies got larger until I had about 10 creatures out, 2 of which were Wind Drakes (flying 2/2) and one of which was a Zephyr Falcon (flying 1/1, does not tap to attack). Franklin had 5-6 creatures, including 2 healing Walls, but he refrained from attacking. I didn't want to attack with my land forces, lest I trigger his walls' healing abilities, and Franklin Change of Hearted all my air force. It was utter deadlock.
At one point, Franklin drew Akroma and summoned her. Quickly, I used Mind Games, a blue card which allows me to tap target card and has buyback for 2U, so I tapped Akroma and bought back my Mind Games. Then, on my turn, I used Dehydration, a Blue Enchantment that prevents enchanted creature from untapping. Thus, his Akroma was immobilized for the second time in my dueling history. Franklin still has never successfully used Akroma to beat me. Unfortunately, the battlefield remained mostly unchanged and Change of Heart still prevented me from attacking.
Finally, I drew Time Stretch and played it, allowing me to have 3 turns in a row. First turn, I attacked with my air force, forcing Franklin to tap away all his land so that he could block my air force, lest he die. On the second turn, I used Mind Games and bought it back repeatedly to tap away all of his defending forces. Now, Franklin didn't have the mana to prevent my attackers, nor did he have available blockers. At that point, I attacked Franklin with every creature I had and wiped himself out.
It was a sweet victory! Not only did I stop Akroma (the crown jewel of the Akroma deck), but I even managed to play Time Stretch (the crown jewel of the Bruised deck). Heck, any victory where you stop Akroma and get 2 extra turns is pretty cool.
Anyways, that's all for today. It's getting late. Good Night!
Friday, March 21, 2003--First period, I dueled against Justin in MTG--my Sliver deck versus his pure black deck. I think I won 3 out of 4 times. At the beginning of one of the games, he pulls out his Deathgrip (an enchantment that can be used to counter green spells). However, while he hasn't the mana to use it, I quickly summon a Quick Sliver, then a Muscle Sliver, then a Muscle Sliver. Finally, he makes sure to leave some mana open so he can use his Deathgrip. I say to Justin, "The next Sliver I play will be green." As I tap my Forests, Justin prepares to tap his Swamps to counter my green Sliver, but I play the Root Sliver. Justin's like "Argh!" I won that game, with the help of my Muscle Slivers and some others. Heh, in a lot of my games, despite Justin's superior air force, I still won because my Essense Sliver was able to drain enough Life so that I could survive and win. I'm not sure which one's more of a threat in Justin's black deck--his Nevinyrral's Disc or his black air force.
Trying to sell the SJYS tickets is difficult. I was turned down quite a many times. Fortunately, several people said they were interested, but needed to check their schedules or get money. Lironn made me sing the Chips Ahoy song.
Our stock presentation went much better this week. We made an extremely good argument in favor of Hershey.
Just before lunch, I was talking to Nadia:
Me: So how far can you see without you're glasses?
Nadia: Not very far.
Me: How many fingers?
Nadia: Two.
Me: You can see all right.
Nadia: Not really. You could have flipped me off and I wouldn't know.
Me: Well, I could, but I'm not gonna.
After school, I played some FF5...
*5*I finally beat Necrophobe. First, I summoned Golem so that Necrophobe wouldn't get off any hits while I waited for someone to be able to summon Golem. Then, I pounded away at his barrier with Bahamut. It only took 3 castings of Bahamut. Then, with Krile equipped with the Holy Lance, I jumped on Necrophobe. With Bartz carrying Excalibur 2-handed, I pounded away at Necrophobe. Then, with Faris and Reina, I casted Holy on him over and over again. Gilgamesh shows up and he and Necrophobe fight. Gilgamesh sacrifices himself to destroy Necrophobe, and its over. I'm now at the final save point in the game.
After healing up, I went and attacked X-Death. I basically used the same strategy--Holy, Holy, Jump, 2-handed. X-Death died pretty quickly. It was no real challenge.
Neo X-Death, however, was much harder. Each of his 4 pieces are as strong as an X-Death. He creamed me. Maybe I should have shifted Bartz and Krile to the back row, so I could have gotten in 2 more Bahamuts.
Anyways, I'm currently levelling up my jobs. I'm going to use a strategy Ke suggested to me--Golem, Haste2, Slow2, Carbuncle. That makes me practically untouchable. Then, I use !Sshot in conjunction with 2-sword to use the class 8-hit combo. For the record, Final Fantasy Five invented the 8-hit combo for which FF6 is famous. I'm hoping this strategy will work, but it may just come down to my being underlevelled.
And even after I'm done with X-Death, it's still far from over. There is still the question of the optional super-bosses Shinryuu and Omega. I heard those guys are damn hard compared to X-Death.
Heh, for the record, Final Fantasy Five invented the optional super-boss..*5*
After eating ribs from Armadillo Willy's and trying Jamba Juice for the first time (Jamba Juice is over-rated...), I did some updates to my website and did other online stuff.
I read on NYTimes.com that we captured an old abandoned airstrip in Iraq. However, it's been abandoned for so long that there are even grenades, mines, and bombs left there from the First Gulf War. Yeah, they needed to send in specialists to clean up the airstrip so they could land their copters and planes.
Other than that, there's not much else to say. Tomorrow is the SCVMA, so I need to get proper rest. For the first time at the SCVMA, I'm going up against the big guys. Wish me luck!
And in the meantime, good luck to the rest of my team!
And to all my readers, Good Night!
Thursday, March 20, 2003--"[I] finally resorted to the most powerful weapon in the subjection of the female heart, a weapon which never fails one. It's the well-known resource--flattery. Nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth and nothing easier than flattery. If there's the hundredth part of a false note in the truth, it leads to discord, and that leads to trouble. But if all, to the last note, is false in flattery, it is just as agreeable, and is heard not without satisfaction. It may be a coarse satisfaction, but still a satisfaction. And however coarse the flattery, at least half will be sure to seem true. That's so for all stages of development and classes of society. A vestal virgin might be seduced by flattery."
--Svidrigailov, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Part VI, Chapter 4, Constance Garnett Translation
Anyways...
It's official. We're at war with Iraq. From the 14 articles I've read on NYTimes.com, we're kicking butt, but I really think we should airlift those troops to the northern Kurdish territory. Protect those Kurds, you know? Oh, and let's capture some more oil fields before Saddam burns them all. While we're in there, we might as well get the oil, right?
We spent all of period 3 Econ Honors discussing the War on Iraq. Apparently, in our first attack, we fired 40 missiles at Saddam Hussein and missed. We blew up something, that's for sure, but I doubt it's Saddam. And I think the guy who showed up on TV is a decoy. The real Saddam has probably fled by now, Osama bin Laden style.
I found out today that a hot-link is spicy enough so that you don't need to add ketchup and mustard on it...
Today, there was a special rehearsal for the SJYS Family Concert. I have to sell tickets! I must pack those tickets now so that I don't forget!
By the way, would anyone like to go see the SJYS concert on Sunday, March 30? We're going to play a medley including Stars and Stripes Forever and the Blue Danube Waltz. We're also playing the song from the old Chips Ahoy commercial as well as another song that features a typewriter as a soloist. It only costs $6 for students, $12 for adults, and $6 for old folks.
That marks the end of today... Must cast Time Stretch! NNOOO!
Good Night!
Wednesday, March 19, 2003--Another essay on Iraq, written by me...
"The problem isn't simply that Iraq as WoMD, it's that their having WoMD is a violation of the treaty signed at the end of US vs Iraq Round One, where the US and Iraq basically agreed that the US wouldn't remove Saddam from power and if Iraq agreed to completely disarm itself (or something like that).
Now, Iraq failed to keep its end of the bargain--it's been about a decade and they still haven't disarmed, so why should the US. We need to make them disarm, by force if necessary.
You see, to me, it really isn't a question of morality, of terrorism, or whatever. It's a simple question of international law. If we allowed any nation to violate treaties, consider what chaos the world is in. Treaties, like contracts, should be honored, should be kept. They should not be broken.
See? That's what makes Saddam like Hitler. Both Saddam and Hitler violated treaties imposed on their nation by previous wars. In both cases, the Allies/UN refused to enforce the treaties and allowed the violators to simply break international law so that they could avoid war. If the Allies had been tougher on Hitler, World War II would not have been quite so harsh. Likewise, unless we act against Iraq, they will continue developing their WoMD and that would be bad.
Some of you argue that Iraq isn't a strong military power, which means it cannot be compared to Germany. That argument is fundamentally flawed, because Germany did NOT have a strong military power until AFTER they violated the treaty. The treaty was supposed to restrict Germany's military to keep it weak, but the Allies looked the other way as Germany illegally built up its military. Now, Iraq is illegally building up its weapons arsenal. If we continue to look away, then they WILL have enough WoMD to be a threat, just as Germany had a sizeable army enough to wage war for 6 years.
Therefore, for the sake of international law and for the sake of enforcing the old treaty, we need to disarm Iraq.
Some Anti-Warists argue that if we're supposed to be punishing Saddam, why are we killing innocent Iraqis by fighting a war? It is an unfortunate fact, but Saddam will, no doubt, put up meatshields to defend himself if war should come. Remember, though, you must consider things objectively--you can't always be sentimental. Besides, consider that if the SWAT team were trying to capture a major crime lord, but the crime lord hires 150 thugs to protect him. There's no guarantee that the thugs, who were previously guilty of no crime, will all survive. Likewise is the case with the US and Saddam. Besides, the American army doesn't kill innocent civilians on purpose (and if they do, whoever gave such an order should promptly be given a dishonorable discharge and tried for war crimes).
(I am aware that Bush might have broken some treaties of his own involving nuclear weapons. I have already stated my opinion somewhere a few years ago, and, if Bush really did violate or throw out such a treaty, someone needs to punish Bush as well.)
As a last note, I must say that I'm not necessarily for the war. I'm just for disarming Iraq, that's all. Peaceful methods are preferred, but force will be used if necessary. Bush, on the other hand, couldn't care less about disarming Iraq. His demands on Iraq are extremely harsh. He simply wants war and is using the Iraq issue as an excuse. Bush's actions are no different from Austria's at the start of World War I. Just as Austria purposely made their demands on Serbia too harsh so that they could have a war, Bush is making his demands on Saddam too harsh just so he can have his war.
In short, I support disarming Iraq and enforcing international law, but Bush is taking it way too far."
End Iraq tangent.
Anyways, today, during first period (no Math 78 on Mondays), I played a quick duel against Justin with Franklin's Green/White deck. I forgot who won...
School was not very memorable today. I forgot most of what happened.
More MTG was played against Franklin after my Viola lessons, but none of the games were very memorable. I won about half of them.
Also, Franklin bought a Time Stretch from a friend for $1.
Hmm... That seems to be all.
This leaves me no choice but to end today's uneventful day with "Good Night!"
Tuesday, March 18, 2003--School was very uneventful today...
However, after school, Franklin creamed me again with his Bruised deck. All those counters... I might have to rotate my Root Sliver back in just to counter his counters.
Later, Jen and Justin showed up for us to work on our Stock Project. We've decided to invest in Hershey. They're a decent stock, but they're already so high up that it's harder for them to rise even higher. Plus, although Vivendi has a strong Buy recommendation from NY Times Analysts, Hershey only has a Hold, meaning that it's not expected to rise much higher. Still, though, it is pretty decent. It's stable and it's a famous company which won't go away very easily.
Afterwards, Justin, Franklin, and I played some three-played Magic the Gathering. In the beginning of the first game, I lost my Essence Sliver, Brood Sliver, a Crypt Sliver, and a Muscle Sliver early on. My remaining Muscle Sliver was enchanted with weakness, making it a 0/1. I even lost my Volrath's Stronghold to Justin's Icequake, but not before I brought back my Essence Sliver, which quickly died, but not before I drained 8 life back. Heh, Justin and Franklin were practically double teaming me, although Franklin did deal 4 damage to Justin. Yet, in the end, I somehow managed to kill them both off simultaneously. I had but 4 life left.
In retrospect, if Franklin had chosen to deal those 4 damage to me rather than Justin, there's a chance Justin would have won instead. Also, they attribute the duel result to bad luck. Justin only had, like, 4 mana, and Franklin had mostly blue mana while he needed black mana.
In our second game, Justin and Franklin quickly took a beating on me (in revenge, of course), bringing me down to 1 life. Then, they started battling amongst themselves, completely ignoring me. In a last ditch effort to get something done (it was practically a lost cause for me, anyway), I attacked Franklin with my Mistform Seaswift while he was wide open. This upset Franklin and he resolved to defeat me next turn. However, before he could, I tapped one land and didn't use the mana, thus mana burning myself to death, dying the honorable way, hehe, akin to Japanese seppuku. In the end of that game, by the way, Franklin won. Justin was losing--he had about 4 life to Franklin's 9--and got out his Lord of the Pit, which would have torn Franklin into pieces within 2 turns, but Franklin already had the Dark Maze (4/5 wall) out, and, on the next turn, played Leshrac's Rite on it. Then, he activated the Dark Maze's ability to be able to attack, then sacrificed, and swampwalked Justin to death with it.
Justin then challenged Frankin to a one on one duel, which Franklin won. As a last ditch effort (Justin had 4 life against Franklin's 14), he played Unholy Strength on his 2/2 creature. However, Franklin unmorphed the Willbender and changed the target of Unholy Strength to his 2/2 creature. Then, on his turn, Franklin beat Justin with it.
Heh. Ah, well, it was a fun day. Finally, this big clutter of homework is behind me. Now, ahead of me is a small clutter of homework. I'd better get to work.
Good Night!
Monday, March 17, 2003--"Only when there is a social structure is there conflict. Those lower on the social ladder become jealous of those above, and those higher on the social ladder suppress those below to maintain their own corrupt power. Only in organized society is there suffering and misery. While it is true that society brings people together, it also brings out the worst in people. Only by breaking down the bands of society can we repair the woes of the modern world. Only in a state of nature will man find happiness. That is why I fight, to tear down modern society and bring humanity back to happiness, back to nature." --Johnathon Rousseau, Dark Fiends Chapter 20
Anyways, Justin's red/black deck is pretty weak. I creamed it three out of three times with my Sliver deck today. Well, it might have been decent, I don't know... It's hard to tell how decent something is when you consistently cream it.
Today, I finally finished Doomfall and Hope. You can download the MIDI at the Music page, at the bottom of the page. I hope you like it! If I can, I'm gonna try and get the twins of Shih to listen to it. Yes,m I know I am crazy.
Apparently, Justin fantasizes about a Cindy Angel named Cinkroma... no wait, Sinkroma. That proves that he's definitely the more perverted one...
Linda and Mark were trying to warn me about the fatal English literary terms quiz. Ironically, I aced it, 14 out of 11 points. My memory works in weird ways. I have mnemonics, apparently. Very weird mnemonics.
The SJYS rehearsal was moved to Castillero for today. Good! Now, I have to sell 10 tickets, and compete with Ihui, Steve, Naomi, Peter, and maybe some others that I cannot remember at the moment. Bad! Well it was fun to see... what? What do you mean I'm censored?
Franklin made an experimental blue/black deck, which I call the bruised deck. It seemed pretty decent, you know? I haven't creamed it yet, like I have the others. Besides, all those counters, two of which he bought from me, make it a pretty deadly force to contend with.
Anyways, it's getting late. I really out to go to sleep...
Good Night!
Sunday, March 16, 2003--"[Have you noticed] if two clever men meet who are not intimate, but respect each other, like you and me, it takes them half an hour before they can find a subject for conversation--they are dumb, they sit opposite each other and feel awkward? Everyone has subjects of conversation, ladies, for instance . . . people in high society always have their subjects of conversation, c'est de rigeuer, but people of the middle sort like us, thinking people that is, are always tongue-tied and awkward. What is the reason of it? Whether it is the lack of public interest, or whether it is we are so honest we don't want to deceive one another, I don't know."
--Porfiry Petrovitch to Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Part IV, Chapter 5, Constance Garnett translation
He's an article written by me that outline's my latest view on Iraq...
"I'm beginning to remember why I was supporting the war in the first place. We must remember that the point of all this isn't to go to war. It's to threaten Saddam with war in hopes that these threats will get him to disarm.
So far, these threats of war have been working. Saddam is beginning to cooperate. At this point, the Democrats are saying, "Saddam is beginning to cooperate, let's cancel the whole war idea now," but that is not the path we should take. Saddam has only destroyed 16 of his missiles when he as 1600 (these numbers are faked, but the idea is the same). If we continue to pressure Saddam with threats of war, he'll have to continue to destroy his missiles until we reach our goal of disarming him without war.
If, at some point, Saddam decides he's had enough (probably because Bush stupidly decided to give Saddam only 10 days for complete disarmament... I say gradual disarmament is a better answer) and decides to call our bluff, we end up with two choices:
- back off and show our cowardice to Saddam;
- back our threats of war with force.
If we want to show Saddam that we're serious, we have to back our threats with actual force. That's the only alternative we have now. An empty threat is worth nothing.
You might argue, maybe we should have threatened war in the first place, but it's kind of too late for that, isn't it? What we have to worry about now is the question of if Saddam refuses to cooperate, should we back our threats with force? We have already threatened war, and we can't take back that move--this isn't kiddie chess. We can't worry ourselves with what we should have done. We have to focus on what we need to do.
Of course, we could just hope for the best, that Saddam will cooperate out of fear and simply disarm. This way, we don't have to fight, Iraq is disarmed, and both sides are satisfied, right?"
End Iraq tangent.
Anyways, I forgot about Kristi's and Emerald's birthday's yesterday. Happy belated birthday's, Kristi and Emerald!
First thing in the morning, I finally finished Dark Fiends Chapter 20. The end of the world begins now!
I also did some major reading for Crime and Punishment, which is a good thing.
Next, I played some of Final Fantasy 5. Basically, I did a lot of levelling up, because I'm seriously under-levelled. I was at Level 42 and I'm already at the second to last boss in the Final Dungeon.
Heh, I still consistently cream Franklin in Magic the Gathering. I don't know why. It might have something to do with my Cursehand, a strange ability I have that everytime I cut Franklin's deck, he gets the same bad starting draw.
After updating my website and doing stuff online, it's getting late, so...
Good Night!
Saturday, March 15, 2003--I forgot to mention that yesterday, at fifth period, Mr. Orloff was joking around that if one of the guys didn't do his homework, he'd flunk and end up working at McDonald's, and he'd have to know how to say, "You wanna supersize that for 35 cents?" Then I say, "What happens if someone uses that line in the prostitution industry?"
Anyways, I got bored of Advance Wars already. It's pretty cool, but it's too serious a game and too time consuming. I have better things to do than play Advance Wars.
I also played lots of chess today with my bro and my dad. It doesn't work out very well, 3 people playing chess.
I also played some basketball with my dad and my bro. Franklin's really tricky, with his stealing and dribbling skills, but apparently, he seriously lacks in shooting (not to mention tallness). As for me, my shooting is very inconsistent. Sometimes, I shoot perfectly. At other times, I miss completely, but I still made more baskets than Franklin. Anyways...
That's all! Damn! I didn't spend much time on the important things of the era. Oh, well...
Good Night! I shall see you later, especially you over there, with the red sweater. That's right, you!
Who am I talking about, anyways?
Friday, March 14, 2003--I forgot to bring my Slivers to school today, so Justin took out his red/black deck and his spare black cards and we dueled each other, once with each deck. In both cases, the red/black deck won, although the spare black deck had both Pox and Nevinyrral's Disc (MTG weapons of mass destruction). Heh!
I took home a small version of my Doomfall and Hope to see what it would sound like on a regular sound card. Not that bad, ya know? Then again, I'm not a stickler for sound quality.
Stock presentations were today. We messed up before we even began. Oh, well, we'll do better next time. Plus, we picked the king of the entertainment industry: Vivendi Universal. They own Blizzard, Sierra (makers of Half-Life and the ridiculously popular Counterstrike), Universal Interactive (makers of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon), Universal Studios, and Universal Music Group. Sure, they're stock has been falling since the economy went bad, but that's natural to happen to an entertainment business. Plus, they're improving quite strongly now. They'll get better when the economy gets better.
Today is Pi Day (3.14 day...) It's an MIT thing, but at Leland, we eat Pie to celebrate it. What? Pie is good. Who doesn't like pie? And apparently, we owe Carrie Nguyen pie...
Me: Hey, Joanna, don't you normally not show up to Math Club?
Joanna: I come a lot.
Me: Then again, I have a tendency to leave within the first five minutes.
Joanna: And I have a tendency to not arrive until after the first five minutes.
And remember, it's spelled Joanna but pronounced Joanne... for convenience purposes only, of course.
Finally solved all of the USAMTS problems. Good grief... err... riddance... whatever...
Franklin borrowed "Advance Wars" from his friend. It's actually a pretty cool game, ya know? I like Infantry, but they is weak against tanks and air...
Hmm... That's all, ya know?
Ya know? I keep saying "ya know" in this entry, ya know? Heh!
I have to say "Good Night" now, ya know?
Thursday, March 13, 2003--"Stars freeze as the Fire crumbles. Waves melt as the Water fades. Stones shatter as the Earth bleeds. Winds stagnate as the Air decays. I am all that you see, and you see that I am the bringer of Death, the bringer of Doom, the bringer of the Catastrophe, the bringer of the Chaos..."
Heh! You're sure to see that one again...
Anyways, nothing much happened at school today, at least, not that I can remember.
At home, I fell asleep. Then, I woke up in time to print out my current event article (for Econ). After that, I went to the special rehearsal for SJYS today.
People are amiss at the special rehearsals. Emma doth not show up, but Lizzie does. Scott, the trumpeter, his trumpet fell apart a moment just before a solo. Whoops! I get to act as the Principle for the Family Concert, because Christine and Jeff will not be there. All in all, it was interesting, but not memorable.
Finally, at home, while simultaneously "working on the stock project", I sit here and update my website.
While some like to end with "Fin", I'll end with "Fine", because I like music terms. (I cast Ritardando on you!)
Screw it. I'll just stick with the classic "Good Night!"
Wednesday, March 12, 2003--I'm sorry. These next few parody Magic cards were just so intriguing that I couldn't help posting them. Justin and Alan came up with most of these (except Paradox, which I came up with), but I actually wrote down the specifics:
Paradox - Cost: U
Interrupt (LS)
Negate the effects of all Magic cards this turn.
Flavor: "This sentence is false."--Unknown
Perversion - Cost: B
Enchant Creature (LS)
Target creature counts as a pervert.
Flavor: "I feel so dirty."--Diane Ko
Corruption - Cost: 1B
Instant (LS)
Bury target non-pervert creature.
Flavor: "Which is worse: incest or homosexuality?"--Justin Kuo
Justin Kuo, Sinitic Titan - Cost: 5BB
Creature - Legend (LS)
Justin Kuo, Sinitic Titan, counts as a pervert.
All perverts gain +1/+1 and protection against white.
B, Tap: Regenerate target pervert.
Any non-pervert creatures blocking Justin Kuo, Sinitic Titan, gets -1/-1.
Flavor: "Would you rather do your sister or a monkey?"--Justin Kuo
4/4
Pedophile - Cost: 1B
Creature - Pervert (LS)
Any non-pervert creature with power less than 2 or toughness less than 2 does not untap normally during the untap phase.
Tap: Tap target non-pervert creature.
Flavor: "Hey, as long as I'm 17 it's still legal."--Dwayne Jeng
1/1
Stalker - Cost: 1B
Creature - Pervert (LS)
During your untap phase, you may choose not to untap Stalker.
Tap: Tap target non-pervert creature. As long as Stalker remains tapped, that creature cannot untap.
Flavor: "Stop stalking me!"--Nadia Shaw
1/1
Anyways, today, Mr. Orloff substituted for Mr. Peterson, who was gone today and will be gone again tomorrow and Friday.
Corpnucopia!
Apparently, I did pretty well on yesterday's AP English Multiple-Choice practice. I got the third highest score (with a 42/60). Wow! I'm doing better than I had originally predicted.
Me: Are you ready for that... thing?
Stephanie: Thing? *laughs*
Me: Well, what would you call it?
Stephanie: The SCVMA tryout?
Me: Right. That actually makes a lot of sense.
Today was the SCVMA tryouts. As I hung out in Mr. Yim's room, a bunch of people came to take the test so we can send them to the SCVMA.
Jackie: (regarding the LMC flyer) Haha! "Neither Dwayne Jeng nor Ke Xu can be on any team?"
Me: Yeah. We weren't planning on taking the contest anyway. We kind of wanted to give the little people a chance to win.
Jackie: Hey, who are you calling little?
Me: Uhh... not you.
After school was my viola lessons. Then, I went to meet Justin and Beth and Barnes & Noble to discuss our Stock Project. Unfortunately, Jen couldn't make it because she had an incapacitating headache. We decided to buy Blizzard stock, or rather, Vivendi stock, for Vivendi owns Blizzard, Sierra (who made Half-Life & Counterstrike), Universal Studios, Universal Music Group. Heh, Vivendi's practically the king of the Entertainment industry. A good pick, I say.
Our events bring me back to my home, from the past to the present.
*sigh*
What does it mean to live? Life is but an image of misery and pain. We struggle, we fight for life, only to delay the inevitable, the death that cannot be delayed. The pious light shines down upon the man who lives through the pain, but he is tired. He is tired. Is it worth it? Think of what we would give to rest, what we would give to sleep, to sleep the eternal sleep...
*yawn* Good Night!
Tuesday, March 11, 2003--Today, I had to go to Berkeley for the interview for the Regents' and Chancellor's Scholarship Program, so I was unable to go to school. The interview went quite well, actually.
Then, I had lunch at Hot Pot City. Good food, I assure you. It's an all you can eat meat bar and you get to barbeque (or fire pot) your own meat. Shaved ice is also a good dessert.
I made it to school in time for 6th period, where we had a practice English AP Multiple Choice. Darn!
I actually made it to the Math Team meeting. I practiced for the Amy--I mean the AIME. Speaking of which...
(supposedly)
Linda: Hey, Amy! Did your brother make it to the AIME?
Amy: What the heck are you talking about?
Getting home, I did one last-minute viola practice session, then went of for my seating audition. It went well. Yair said that I knew the music, just that I had to clean up my playing a little. I consider that a good thing!
Franklin challenged me to a Magic duel. In our first game, he, for some reason, didn't get any monsters out. Then, when I got out my Brood Sliver and got out seven Sliver tokens, he simply forfeited.
On our second game, Franklin managed to bring out Akroma. I was like, "Oh, shit!" Then, I played Pacifism on Akroma, and that was it. Yeah, I beat Akroma! It's not that hard. Then, I got out both my Sliver Queen and my Brood Sliver and brought out lots and lots of tokens. Between my newly acquired Volrath's Stronghold and my Crypt Slivers, there's not much Franklin can do to keep my Slivers permanently dead.
On the third game, I started out pretty badly. Franklin got to hit me 3 times for 1 damage each during the first few turns. Franklin managed to get out his Thorn Elemental, which I easily killed with my Toxin Sliver's toxin ability, but Franklin hit me for 7 damage. Then, he managed to pump up his Glintwood Invoker (for the first time ever) to make it a 7/7... Ouch! Beyond that, he hit me with a Llanowar Sentinel, bringing me down to 1 Life--1 Life to his 15. I was like, "Oh, crap!" But the worst was over. His Thorn Elemental was dead. I Pacified his Glintwood Invoker. Next, he managed to attack with his surviving Llanowar Sentinel and his Llanowar Elves--the last of his forces. I blocked, and thanks to my Toxin, I destroyed the last of his forces. I had only 3 Slivers left, but I managed to knock Franklin down to 2 Life. The score was 1-2, where I had 1 Life left. It was Franklin's turn. If Franklin drew Akroma, it would all be over. If he drew any other creature, the game could go either way. If he drew anything else, he'd be wide open for my attack. Luckily for me, he drew only a Forest. We find out a moment later that his next card was Akroma. I beat him by a single turn. What a comeback!
I also learned the power of the Quick Sliver. Franklin thinks I'm open for an attack, but then, I drop Slivers down to defend. Now, I am the one playing the mind games. Also, if I have a Quick Sliver and a Crypt Sliver, if I need a defender but don't want to lose a Sliver, but I have a Sliver in my hand, I drop the Sliver, have it block, then tap one of my existing Slivers to regenerate it. It's a pretty sweet combo.
That's the end of that chapter! Good Night!
Monday, March 10, 2003--I can't remember a single thing that happened today at school. However, I do remember at home, I read Crime and Punishment, though that's no surprise.
Hmm... There was SJYS rehearsal today, but I can't remember anything about it. That's what I get for writing in my journal a day late. Oh, well.
Good Night!
Sunday, March 9, 2003--You know it's a bad omen when I'm behind both on my Online Journal and in Dark Fiends.
Well, today, I was too busy doing homework to update my website, but that's no excuse.
No more Magic The Gathering: Leland Set Cards, though. However, if you're a Magic player and you'd like to fill in one of the gaps I left (and I left a lot of them), feel free to submit something...
I did manage to get a little bit of work in for Dark Fiends, though.
Also, we went to Taste of China for dinner, and I got back two fortune cookies. "Good news will be brought to you by mail." "Sing and rejoice, fortune is smiling on you." Right...
Short entry! Short ending! Good Night!
Saturday, March 8, 2003--Back to the Leland Set for Magic the Gathering...
First of all, Alan said that Middle Finger was too cheap, so I increased its casting cost by 2, and I also added buyback to it, at Alan's request. Now, you can flip off a guy repeatedly.
These cards were made by Alan Watson...
Administrative Faculty - Cost: 1U
Creature - Bureaucrats(LS)
Tap, XX: tap X target creatures for up to X Administrative Faculties in play; X cannot exceed 4.
Flavor: "Are you asking for a referal?"--Victoria Kim, English Teacher
2/2
Second Lunch - Cost: 1G
Instant (LS)
Search your deck for a forest and put into play tapped; pay 1 life to put it into play untapped.
Flavor: "I think I ate too much...urp..." - Mark Wu the Canasian
NOTE: Since Rampant Growth has a better effect (minus the pay 1 life to play the land untapped) but for a lower casting cost, I decided to lower Second Lunch's casting cost.
Mark Wu the Canasian - Cost: 6W
Creature-Legend
When Mark the Canasian comes into play, deal 1 damage to each player and destroy target enchantment.
Tap: untap target creature.
Flavor: "We're gonna get ASS-RAPED on this essay!" - Mark Wu the Canasian
4/5
Failure - Cost: 2UBB
Instant
Target creature loses flying and is reduced to a 1/1 creature until end of turn.
Flavor: "I stayed up all night studying!" - Nameless Student
These cards were made by me...
Lucky Dice - Cost: BG
Instant
Target a single creature.
Roll a die; that creature gains power equal to the number rolled.
Roll a second die; the same creature gains toughness equal to the number rolled.
Flavor: "I'll let the roll of the dice decide my fate."--Dwayne Jeng
Ke Xu, Lord Mathlete - Cost: 4BBBB
Creature - Legend (LS)
Ke Xu, Lord Mathlete, counts as a Calculator.
During the upkeep phase for every player, add up the total power of all monsters in play and the total toughness of all monsters in play.
If total power is greater than total toughness, Ke Xu, Lord Mathlete, gains +3/+0 and first strike until end of turn.
If total toughness is greater than total power, Ke Xu, Lord Mathlete, gains +0/+3 and banding until end of turn.
If total power is the same as total toughness, Ke Xu, Lord Mathlete, gains +4/+4 and trample until end of turn.
Tap, BB, Sacrifice Ke Xu, Lord Mathlete: Count up the number of basic plains, basic islands, basic swamps, basic mountains, and basic forests in play. Rank the types of land in order of increasing quantity and bury all lands of the type that was ranked exactly in the middle (ie, 3rd rank). If more than one type of land can be ranked 3rd in quantity, then this ability has no effect.
Flavor: "And that's how you calculate the number of possible paths to your target..."--Ke Xu
2/2
Cindy Su, Springtime Assassin - Cost: 2BR
Creature - Legend (LS)
BR: Sacrifice creature you control to add its power and toughness to Cindy Su, Springtime Assassin's power and toughness until end of turn. This ability may be used as an interrupt.
Tap: Destroy target creature. Pay 2 mana of that creatures color. If creature is multi-colored, pay 2 mana of each color that creature is.
Flavor: "Beware of Cindy Su! She's a lot smarter than most people think."--Unknown
1/1
NOTE: I figured, since I made a reference to Cindy in the Gang of Juniors card (as well as Ke, above), I might as well make her actual card. I changed Cindy's title from Silent Killer to Springtime Assassin, because Silent Killer would have been reserved for Maria Motonaga. I also made the appropriate substitutions on every card that refers to the Cindy card.
PJ Yim, Calculator King - Cost: WUBRG
Creature - Legend (LS)
PJ Yim, Calculator King, counts as a Calculator.
All Calculators gain +1/+1.
During your upkeep phase, count up the number of basic plains, basic islands, basic swamps, basic mountains, and basic forests in play. Whatever land is second most abundant, all Calculators gain that type of landwalk until end of turn. If more than one type of land is the second most abundant, all Calculators gain landwalk for each type of land that is tied for the second most abundant.
1: Use this ability as an interrupt. Add up the total number of all lands, all creatures, all enchantments, and all artifacts currently in play.
--If that total number is a multiple of 2, you may destroy target creature.
--If that total number is a multiple of 3, you may return target card to owner's hand and gain its casting cost as life.
--If that total number is a multiple of 5, you may take control of target card until PJ Yim, Calculator King, leaves play.
--If that total number is a multiple of 7, you may add up the total casting cost of all cards in play and gain half that amount as life.
--If that total number is a multiple of 11, you may put any card or cards from your graveyard into play. All cards not put into play are shuffled into your library.
--If that total number is a multiple of 13, player with the most life loses half his life (rounded down), player with the most creatures sacrifices half his creature (rounded down), player with the most enchantments buries half his enchantments (rounded down), player with the most artifacts (not counting artifact creatures) buries half his artifacts (rounded down), the player with the most land buries half his land (rounded down), and player with the most cards in his hand discards half his hand (rounded down). If there are any ties, all tied players are effected.
Flavor: "Mr. Yim's one of the finest Math Team coaches in all Leland history."--Dwayne Jeng
3/3
NOTE: I know this card is unrealistic... unrealistic as in he has more text than can fit on any card.
Integral - Cost: 1U
Creature - Calculator (LS)
Flavor: "What? You learned how to integrate before I did?"--Dwayne Jeng to Nadia Shaw
1/2
Derivative - Cost: 1R
Creature - Calculator (LS)
Flavor: "So as the slope of the secant line gets ever closer to the slope of the tangent line..."--Joyce Yamamoto, Math Teacher
2/1
End Magic the Gathering: Leland Set tangent.
I managed to get a little bit of work on Dark Fiends, but not much, unfortunately.
I thought there was Chinese School today. Nobody had warned me otherwise. Actually, I did have a clue, in that they said there was a speech thing today at Leland and that all the rooms would be used up, so that there'd be no rooms left for Chinese School. Well, I guess that's a good thing.
I spent a lot of today trying to work on my reading for Crime and Punishment. Progress is good. I'll be done in no time, where no time means several compacted hours.
I also played a little bit of FF5...
*5*I forgot to mention that I beat Odin yesterday. With Bartz equipped with 2-handed (use two hands to carry a single sword to double attack power), Sshot (attack 4 times per turn), and the Brave Blade, I did enough damage in a single turn to nearly kill Odin. It was kind of easy, kind of shameful. Well, at least now I have all the Summons.
Also, while trying to level up in Kuza Castle, I was forced to run away at one point. Now, the Brave Blade has equal strength to Excalibur. Oh, well. I knew it was bound to happen.
You know how they say Kuza Castle is the best place to level up because the Shield Dragons give so much experience and you can beat it really easily with control? Well, there's a second enemy there, X-Death's Soul, which gives no experience, but is also pretty easy to beat. Although normally, the X-Death Souls and the Shield Dragons come in 1 to 1 ratios, at one point, for some annoying reason, I encounted, like, 50 X-Death Souls in a row. Not very good if my goal is to level up. Fortunately, I can run away, but I didn't want to weaken my Brave Blade. Argh! Should have gotten the Chicken Knife. Stupid GameFAQs. They told me to get the Brave Blade. Shows what they know!*5*
After dinner, I went to Bernard's house and played Magic the Gathering. First, Bernard, Franklin, and I played several three way free-for-alls. I lost every single time because whenever I was winning, they'd double team me out of fear of my slivers. Seriously, though, Bernard's more of a threat, because he has a huge air force.
Apparently, Bernard and his gang play with "proxy" cards, as in, they take printouts of real cards and stuff them into sleeves and play with those. Personally, I don't like that. Players should only be allowed to play with cards they have.
Then, again, I could play proxy Leland Set cards. That would be hella funny. "I summon myself!"
I also played 1v1 against Bernard and won, but I think it may have been bad creature flow for Bernard. Maybe. Maybe not.
Finally, I took Franklin's spare deck and, using 2 decks, played 2v2 against Franklin and Bernard. My Sliver Deck kept getting bad draws and Franklins PP Deck had no forests, so naturally, after my Sliver Deck was wiped out, I forfeited.
Hmmm... Looks like that's it for today.
Wow! It's getting kind of late, and I'm still here.
Ehhh... Good Night!
Friday, March 7, 2003--I'd now like you to meet Sherry, Siren, Magissa, Mellusion, and WoodSprite--1 monster and 4 bosses from FF5--all in that order.
Anyway, Alan, Franklin, and I were coming up with joke Magic cards like crazy for our Leland Set. Alan suggested a new format, so I'm reprinting Andrew Matsuoka and me in the new format.
Andrew Matsuoka, Unicyle Rider - Cost: 4RR
Creature - Legend (LS)
Haste, first strike
Cycling 1
When Andrew Matsuoka, Unicycle Rider, is cycled, deal 1 damage to all creatures target player controls.
Flavor: "I do not wish to be defined merely as a unicycle rider."--Andrew Matsuoka
4/1
Dwayne Jeng, Thief Engineer, Cost: 2UG
Creature - Legend (LS)
During your normal untap phase, you may choose not to untap Dwayne Jeng, Thief Engineer.
Tap, 2: Take control of target artifact as long as Dwayne Jeng, Thief Engineer, remains tapped. If the target artifact is an artifact creature, it gains +4/+4 as long as it remains under your control.
Flavor: "You can learn almost anything if you just do your homework."--Dwayne Jeng
1/2
NOTE: The old wording says that the artifact is a creature, then it gains 4 +1/+1 counters. I changed the wording slightly.
The following cards were made by Alan Watson:
The Tome of the Great Alan Watson - Cost: 7
Artifact (LS)
The Tome of the Great Alan Watson cannot be untapped normally during your untap phase.
Tap: draw a card; discard a card to draw another card.
4: untap the Tome of the Great Alan Watson.
X, sacrifice the Tome of the Great Alan Watson: search your deck for X cards, shuffle your deck, then place those X cards back on top of your deck; remove the Tome of the Great Alan Watson from the game.
Flavor: "That's the way we play around here."--Alan Watson
The Great Alan Watson - Cost: 9
Artifact Creature - Legend (LS)
Upkeep: 3
When the Great Alan Watson comes into play from anywhere, put the Tome of the Great Alan Watson into play without paying the casting cost. If the Great Alan Watson is put into a graveyard, put the Great Alan Watson and the Tome of the Great Alan Watson in your hand, and draw a card. If the Great Alan Watson comes under the effect of an ability or spell you do not control, return the Great Alan Watson to owner's hand and draw a card.
Tap, 6: take control of target artifact permanently unless owner pays 6; if target artifact leaves play, draw a card.
3: search your deck for an artifact and put it into play; shuffle your deck.
Flavor: "I love artifacts!"--Alan Watson
4/8
NOTE: I added an upkeep cost for Alan Watson, because otherwise, the card is way too cheap with its seemingly unlimited ability to always come back.
Justin Kuo, Scourge - Cost: 4BBBB
Creature - Legend (LS)
Justin Kuo, Scourge, counts as a vampire.
Flying
When Justin Kuo, Scourge comes into play, all vampires get +1/+1 until Justin Kuo, Scourge, leaves play.
Sacrifice a green creature: regenerate Justin Kuo, Scourge.
Sacrifice a red creature: destroy target artifact or land.
Sacrifice a blue creature: destroy target enchantment; or, counter target spell.
Sacrifice a white creature: gain X life where X is the white creature's toughness.
Sacrifice a black non-vampire creature: put a +1/+1 counter on target vampire.
Sacrifice a vampire: deal X damage to target creature or player where X is the vampire's strength.
3B, Tap: search your deck for a vampire and put it into play.
Flavor: "You have made a powerful enemy today, my friend."--Justin Kuo, quoting CM Burns.
6/9
NOTE: I added flying 'cause Justin was bitching at me.
Franklin Jeng the Small - Cost: 1GW
Creature - Legend (LS)
Franklin Jeng, the Small counts as an elf and as an angel.
When Franklin Jeng the Small comes into play, any player may pay 4GW to return Franklin Jeng the Small to owner's hand.
If any of The Great Alan Watson; Justin Kuo, Scourge; Dwayne Jeng, Thief Engineer; Ryan Chao, Bad Dwarf; or Andrew Matsuoka, Unicycle Rider, are in play, Franklin Jeng the Small gains +1/+1 for each.
If all of the above cards are in play, Franklin Jeng the Small gains flying. Tap: untap a forest or a plains.
Sacrifice Franklin Jeng the Small, 4: gain 5 life, untap all your land and draw 2 cards; any player may pay 4GW to counter this ability and return Franklin Jeng the Small to owner's hand.
Franklin Jeng the Small cannot be regenerated by any ability.
When Franklin Jeng the Small is put into a graveyard from play due to combat damage or an effect or ability you do not control, remove Franklin Jeng, the Small from the game, discard your hand, bury a forest and a plains, and put any elf or angel into play without paying it's casting cost; it gains haste and +4/+4 until end of turn.
Flavor: "Don't talk abouts my womens!"--Franklin Jeng, supposedly.
1/1
NOTE: Overall, I made this card much easier to play. Before, you needed all of those legends in play, but you get a +10/+10 bonus. This new system just made more sense. Also, I changed it from "Goblin Angel" to "Elf Angel" because goblins are red, while elves are green. I also added a cost to the effects that occur when you sacrifice Franklin. Otherwise, it would be too easy to simply play Franklin, then sacrifice him. Of course, it still is kind of easy, considering that all your land gets untapped again when you do sacrifice him. Lastly, I removed some of the life penalty for getting Franklin killed. The other penalties are pretty bad as they are.
Ryan Chao, Bad Dwarf - Cost: 3BR
Creature - Legend (LS)
Ryan Chao, Bad Dwarf, counts as a dwarf.
When Ryan Chao, Bad Dwarf, comes into play, search your deck for a dwarf and put into play, then destroy target land you do not control.
Tap, 4: destroy target land or artifact.
BR: search your deck for a dwarf and put into play tapped.
Flavor: "LOL!"--Ryan Chao
2/2
NOTE: I added a cost for destroying land, because repeatedly destroying land is a really cheap strategy.
Lobo - Cost: 4BR
Creature - Legend (LS)
Lobo counts as a wolf.
Lobo gains +4/+4, first strike and trample when Ryan Chao, Bad Dwarf is in play.
Flavor: "ROFL!"--Ryan Chao
5/2
NOTE: I thought this guy was pretty cheap for a 5/2, so I upped his casting cost by 2 colorless mana.
The following cards were made by me just today:
Basic Swamp - Picture of the Senior Pit
Basic Forest - Picture of a tree
Basic Island - Picture of the flooded parking lot
Basic Plains - Picture of the grass field
Basic Mountain - Picture of the Charger Statue
Team of Seniors - Cost: 1W
Creature - Seniors (LS)
Gains +1/+1 for each Team of Seniors you control, including this one.
Gains +3/-1 if you control Dwayne Jeng, Thief Engineer.
Gains -1/+3 if you control The Great Alan Watson.
Gains +1/+1 if you control Justin Kuo, Scourge.
Flavor: "What makes them so great is that they work together as a team."--PJ Yim
1/1
Gang of Juniors - Cost: 1R
Creature - Juniors (LS)
Gains +0/+1 for each Gang of Juniors you control, including this one.
Gains +2/+0 if you control Ke Xu, Lord Mathlete.
Gains first strike, trample, flying, banding, and protection from blue and white if you control Cindy Su, Silent Killer.
Flavor: "You see, they're next in line to be at the top, which is why they're so hunted. That's also why they're so determined to survive."--Dwayne Jeng
1/1
Swarm of Sophomores - Cost: 1B
Creature - Sophomores (LS)
Gains +1/+0 for each Swarm of Sophomores you control, including this one.
Gains +2/+0 and protection from white if you control Jasmine Tzeng, Cold Beauty.
Gains +2/+0 and protection from green if you control Diane Ko, Rabbit Queen.
B: regenerate.
Flavor: "In only a year, they've already taken over the entire campus."--Dwayne Jeng
0/1
Flock of Freshmen - Cost: 1G
Creature - Freshmen (LS)
Gains +1/+1 for each Flock of Freshmen you control, including this one.
Tap, G: Target creature gains +3/+3 until end of turn.
Gains banding and forestwalk if you control Franklin Jeng the Small.
Gains first strike and flying if you control Connie Chu the Cute.
Flavor: "Damn seniors!"--Franklin Jeng
1/1
Dwayne's Terror - Cost: 1B
Enchant Dwayne Jeng, Thief Engineer (LS)
Play this card only on Dwayne Jeng, Thief Engineer
3B: If Jasmine Tzeng, Cold Beauty; Sherry Wu, Neighborhood Girl; Elaine Kuo, the Girl With the Face; or Jessica Chen, Anonymous are in play at the same time as Dwayne's Terror, immediately bury one of the above creatures. Play this ability as an interrupt.
Flavor: "It's just a shadow of my past. I have no idea what those little sophomore girls are talking about."
Middle Finger - Cost: XBBB
Instant (LS)
Tap X creatures.
Buyback for XBBB, where X is the same X you paid for the casting cost.
Flavor: "Oh, look! Now he's flipping me off!"--Diane Ko
The following cards were made by Franklin:
Insult and Run - Cost: GG
Enchant Creature (LS)
Enchanted Creature gains flanking (Whenever a creature without flanking is assigned to block this creature, the blocking creature gets -2/-2).
If enchanted creature is Franklin Jeng the Small, enchanted creature gains first strike.
Flavor: "THAT'S RIGHT YOU PHUCKIN' WHORE. Oh, shit!!!"--Franklin Jeng
"Drop the Hammer" - Cost: 1B
Enchant Creature (LS)
Enchanted creature gets -3/-2.
Flavor: "If all else fails, I'll just 'drop the hammer'." "Or kick him in the groin." "Thats what I meant by 'drop the hammer'."
Slow - Cost: W
Instant (LS)
If a creature is blocking, play Slow to remove target creature from battle.
Flavor: "I'm as slow as I am gay." "Wow... You must be super gay."
End Magic The Gathering, Leland Set tangent.
Playing Kingdom Hearts, Franklin beat both Kurt Zisa and Sephiroth. Now, he's done everything. Oh, wait, no, he still hasn't gotten the Ultima Weapon yet, but he'll never get it.
We went to Showgi to meet Alan for lunch. Justin said he was going to be "a little late", and he showed up half an hour late. Yeah, "a little late"--understatement of the year!
After lunch, I had to take Franklin so he could play tennis at Pioneer. Pioneer is so ghetto, even the people who go there say it's really ghetto. That's kind of sad.
I came home and played more FF5...
*5*I can't seem to beat Necrophobe. I was able to break his barrier open with Bahamut, but then, his physical attacks killed me. I managed to summon Golem, but Necrophobe broke through it way too fast. I've decided that, since I don't want to have to walk that long path repeatedly, I'll go outside and level up some.
By the way, I found out that when a Berserker KOs and you revive it, it immediately does an attack. It's pretty sweet!*5*
Then afterwards, Franklin wanted me to play this game he made up. Then, after I practiced my viola and ate some dinner, he wanted me to play Warchasers.
After that, I updated my website and stuff like that.
What the heck? How the Heaven did I end up without any time left over to work on Dark Fiends?!? Argh! It's all Franklin's fault for coercing me into playing with him, that mustard! Eh... Thanks to him, Dark Fiends is probably going to be delayed for several more months.
Wow! I think this definitely takes the record for longest entry ever!
Good Night!
Thursday, March 6, 2003--"It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in its utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual life upon another; each leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate hater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his subject. Philosophically considered, therefore, the two passions seem essentially the same, except that one happens to be seen in a celestial radiance, and the other in a dusky and lurid glow."
--Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Chapter 24
Didn't Diane hate me?
Today's a special day--the sophomores take more Exit Exams, so I don't have to get to school until 12:35, and all the classes are only 15 minutes long. However, again, Mr. Langlois wants us to be there at 8:30 for Math 78.
On the Math 78 quiz today, I did exceptionally well, except that I lost a minus sign somewhere early on, and this error completely changed my final answer. Ouch!
Also, I played my Sliver Deck against Justin's Black Deck. I beat him the first time. Then, he makes me take out my Ward Slivers, and we play again. He creamed me with his Sengir Vampires, those 4/4 Flying creatures that gain +1/+1 every time they make a kill, and his Mole Worms tapping out my lands.
So, Franklin and I go to meet Justin and Ryan at McDonald's for lunch. After lunch, we played a 3-way free-for-all between me, Justin, and Franklin. Justin beats me with his Sengir Vampires because I didn't have much anti-air. Then, with his Royal Assassin, he creams Franklin.
Later, during first period, we play another quick duel. In exchange for my taking out my 3 Ward Slivers and my Essence Sliver, Justin takes out his Sengir Vampires and his Baron Sengir. In the beginning, he brought out his Royal Assassin and pumps it up to a 5/3 with enchantments and attacks me twice, bringing me down to 10 life. Then, he gets out this other powerful creature, but I managed to kill that one and Pacify his Royal Assassin, From there, Justin couldn't draw any more good creatures (mana clumping, apparently), and I easily beat him.
Today at third period, Andrew Matsuoka, Unicycle Rider, was introduced. Yes, he rode his unicycle to school. He says its a crappy method of transportation, but "it's hella fun."
Also, we picked our stock groups for today. At one point, I asked Christine, the TA, if she would like to be on our stock group. It was funny. She just stood there and was like, "Umm... No, I don't think so." Justin and I teamed up with Jen and Beth. As for our group name, Justin suggested "69ers", which we immediately shot down. Then, I suggested, "The Short People", but neither Justin nor Beth are short. Finally, we settled on "Half & Half", an Economics inside joke. Yet, Justin still managed to make it sound perverted.
Funny thing, between 2nd and 3rd period, I said "Good Morning" to Maria. Then, I said "Good Morning" to Michele just before 4th period. It wasn't even morning!
For 4th period Chem AP, Mr. Roske was giving a quiz, so he says, "Anyone who's at a table of 5, move to a table of 3. At our table, Lironn was missing, so Michele, who was at a table of 5, hopped over to our table. At that moment, Lironn arrives, and Mr. Roske says, "Lironn, you're sitting over there." How interesting.
As a joke, Mr. Roske purposely skips me when giving out the quizzes, then gives me my quiz last. I say, "Is this a joke?" He replies, "The quiz? No, the quiz is not a joke, but this is." And then he hands me my quiz last.
Miss Koyanagi gave us extra credit just for showing up to class today. Thank you, Miss Koyanagi! And to think I was about to ditch to go play cards with Justin and Alan.
So finally, after school we go home. It's Friday in effect, because there's no school tomorrow! All right!
I play some Final Fantasy 5...
*5*I beat Azulmagia. He was incredibly annoying with all his status effects, but not too bad.
Then, there was Halycanos, who was easy once I realized that I should have 3 Dancers with 3 Ribbons so that her frog-spell would be useless. I also gave everyone Wall Rings so that when Halycanos tries to cast Holy on my characters, it'll be reflected right back to her for painful damage.
Next came Twin Tania. Everyone says this boss is hard, but I found him prety easy. I just had my two white mages cast Holy all the time, and since Twin Tania is weak to Holy, I killed him off pretty easily. I also equipped all my caracters with Wall Rings again in hopes that I would reflect his Mega Flare, but he never used it. However, I did manage to reflect his Mind Blast, which would have paralyzed all my characters, so in the end, it was a good thing.
Why does the path from my current save point to Necrophobe have to be so long? He creamed me! Do you know how long I have to walk to reach him again? Well... I guess it isn't that long.*5*
I looked at Linda's website and found that she had written "memories" for a handful of people. Surprised I was when I found that I was among them. I'll take that as a compliment, Linda.
Apparently, "Andrew Matsuoka, Unicycle Rider" is now a Magic Card from the Leland Set.
--Andrew Matsuoka, Unicyle Rider; Red, Creature - Legend, costs 4 and 2 red; 4/1, Haste, first strike, cycling 1, when Andrew Matsuoka, Unicycle Rider is cycled, deal 1 damage to all creatures target player controls; Flavor: "I do not wish to be defined merely as a unicycle rider."
--Dwayne Jeng, Thief Engineer; Multi-colored, Creature - Legend, costs 2, 1 blue, and 1 green; 1/2, [Tap, 2], Take control of target artifact as long as Dwayne Jeng, Thief Engineer remains tapped. If the target artifact is an artifact creature, add 4 +1/+1 counters to it. During your normal untap phase, you may choose not to untap Dwayne Jeng, Thief Engineer; Flavor: "You can learn almost anything if you just do your homework."
LOL, that would be kind of cool. Eventually, I should make this "Leland Set" for Magic the Gathering with enough cards so that we can actually play a pseudo-duel.
It's getting kind of late, and I've written kind of a lot. Eh, well, Good Night!
Wednesday, March 5, 2003--"With a kind of effort he began almost unconsciously, from some inner craving, to stare at all the objects before him, as though looking for something to distract his attention; but he did not succeed, and kept dropping every moment into brooding."
--Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, Part I, Chapter V, Constance Garnett translation
Anyway, today, the little sophomores are taking their exit exams, so I didn't have to come to school until 10:40. Plus, there is no Math 78 today, so I didn't have to worry about that.
In the morning before school, I solved 3 of the 5 problems for USAMTS Round 4. (After school, I solved a 4th one.)
I brought my Sliver deck to school today. I played against Justin's Green deck, and I creamed him twice.
The first time, I got out my Brood Sliver and my Essence Sliver, so I just kept pumping out little Slivers and getting more and more life. By the time I beat Justin, I had 38 life and 7 Sliver tokens on the field. However, Justin probably had bad mana flow, so we went again.
At the beginning of the second game, Justin brought out his Fountain of Youth and starts healing himself. Then, he plays Stream of Life to boost his life by quite a lot. I, at the time, didn't start so well, so I was afraid I was going to lose. However, as soon as I pulled out my Ward Sliver, Justin was screwed, because he only had green (and a small number of artifact creatures), and I chose the have the Ward Sliver give my slivers protection from green. I also pulled out my Toxin Sliver and was able to clear away most of Justin's forces. The best part was, I managed to play the Soul Barrier, which seriously hindered Justin's gameplay.
Justin wanted me to temporarily remove my three Ward Slivers so that his green deck might stand a chance, but we didn't have time to play that game.
Two out of two, Justin. You'd better rework your deck, make it a 2-color deck, so that my Ward Slivers aren't so fatal.
So anyways, during lunch, which was again between 2nd and 3rd periods, I went to the lunch Math Team meeting. Connie wasn't there. Oh, well. So, I was talking to Lei and Stephanie, and Lei was saying that she's glad she's not a freshman anymore, because people won't be like, "Look, it's a cute little freshman!" I say, "I just call say 'little freshmen' and 'little sophomores' even though some of them are bigger than me." Then, I follow up with, "I hope I don't offend you little freshmen and sophomores," referring to Stephanie and Lei respectively. Lei then says, "I think it's just because you senior people are jealous of our youth." That's actually a very good conjecture...
There was a special rehearsal for SJYS today at Castillero. Jeff and Christine weren't here today, so Ali and I jumped up to the front seats. Woohoo! Front row center!
Anyways, Lizzie was late, and by the time she showed up, someone had already taken her seat, so she sat in a seat behind me. It reminded of me when I first met her. Two years ago, toward the end of my sophomore year, she sat behind me, and she had a tendency to quietly sing other people's parts when she wasn't playing. Quiet as she was, I could still hear her just because I sat right in front of her, so once, I turned around to look at her singing, and she noticed me, and she suddenly stopped, never to sing anywhere near me again. Interestingly, I wasn't attracted to her until SJYS summer camp just before my junior year. Whoops! I've already said too much!
I feel sorry for Ihui, always having to play trumpet solos and messing up. Poor Ihui!
End of the line, here. Good Night!
Tuesday, March 4, 2003--"Today on Profile, we look into one day of a man, a man who has too much work to do and yet spends all his time fooling around, a man who does nothing because he chatters, a man who-- Hey! What are you doing? Don't press that button! No! Stop! NO! ST--"
What the heck was that?
Anyways, because the little Sophomores are doing their Exit Exams today (and tomorrow and Friday), I only need to get to first period at 10:40 and all the classes are but half an hour long. However, Mr. Langlois wanted Math 78 to be at 8:30, so I went.
Heh, today, lunch was after second period. Unfortunately, there was a CAML today and it had slipped my mind, but Linda reminded me the last 5 minutes of lunch. I went, grabbed a CAML, and rushed threw it in 5 minutes. I got a 3. Joanna got a 6. I think that means Joanna and I are tied again...
During lunch, I said to Andrew, "Remind me at the end of lunch to go the 3rd period." Then, at the beginning of third period Econ class, Andrew says to me, "Go to Econ after lunch."
Apparently, I have a hard time pronouncing Klosan Croudsclaper, I mean Krosan CroudScraper, I mean Klosan Cloudscraper. Damnit! Krosan Cloudscraper! There we go. I have a hard time pronouncing Krosan Cloudscraper. It's very alliterative with its kr, kl, kr sounds, one after another. The name itself is almost a tongue-twister!
In 6th period English, we had a timed writing. Oh, well, it's better than a quiz.
After school, Mr. Yim got angry because the guys were outside playing basketball and no one was doing work. Also, Joanna showed up late, something to do with some impromptu thing... Yeah, so Mr. Yim cancelled the meeting. It appears that he did so because he was angry.
Anyways, Joanna wants me to fill out this survey for her class. I fill it out, and I apparently said that I get depressed, but not stressed, and I'm never tired, but I'm never energetic, either. By the way, Joanna's one of my favorite students. She's very devoted to her Math Team studies and is one of the few people who paid attention during my Probability lessons so long ago. (Then again, so does Stephanie, but for some reason, I rarely notice Stephanie, until recently when she did really well at the Stanford Math Tournament.
On a side note, it's kind of funny that although I spell it "Joanna", I pronounce it "Joanne". Apparently, most people do that, also.
You know, yesterday at the SJYS rehearsal, when there was supposed to be a banjo playing, we didn't have a banjo, so the brass people start singing, and Yair's like, "That's right, keep on singing... but in tune, please."
A while back...
Me (in Chem class): Well, that's because [insert explanation here].
Iwen: Oh... Wait... Isn't it really because [insert better explanation here]?
Me: Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm sorry, I'm out of it.
Iwen: Yeah, and we're in it.
Hmm... It appears that this is all. *looks at watch* Intriguing...
Ah, well... All's well that ends well, right?
Except this ending is pretty bad.
Good Night!
Monday, March 3, 2003--*REQUEST RECEIVED*
*SEARCHING MEMORY BANKS*
*ENTRY FOUND*
*UPLOADING TO REQUESTING COMPUTER*
Processing...
Processing...
Processing...
Processing...
Processing...
That was interesting... So anyways, I'm reading Crime and Punishment, and I get to this quote: "It's because I chatter that I do nothing. Or perhaps it is that I chatter because I do nothing." So that got me thinking. Do I chatter because I do nothing, or do I do nothing because I chatter. Well, considering that I have a book I need to read, it must be that I get nothing done because I'm always talking. I must change that.
Mr. Roske told us that there indeed was a chemical contamination. Well, that certainly explains a lot!
During lunch, Alan played Magic against Jon. Alan used his Artifact deck while Jon used his Angel Deck. Jon was winning for sure, but the end of lunch cut their game short.
Today's SJYS rehearsal was at Castillero, the close place. Yay! However, for the Family Concert, they're overstuffing us with special rehearsals, so I'll be going back to Castillero for a second rehearsal Wednesday...
Porgy and Bess is my least favorite Gerswhin song. Rhapsody in Blue and Girl Crazy were much more fun to play and hear.
At home, I played a Magic duel against Franklin, my upgraded Sliver deck against his Green-White deck. We only had time for one game, but I won. I don't remember how, though. Later, Franklin has built a second Green-White deck from spare cards, a deck he calls his PP Deck. I don't know why, so we played a couple games with the PP Deck and my Sliver Deck and I won roughly half the time. However, during one of the games I lost, Franklin beat me with a single 1/1 flying creature, by pumping it up really big and flying it over my Slivers.
I also played an honor Duel against Bernard and lost miserably. His Hypnotic Specters can fly, and this really revealed a major flaw of my Sliver deck. I have no defenses against flying creatures. So, I'll need to get some Winged Slivers. You know how I said, "Why fly when you can shift?" Well, apparntly flying is needed for defense, and not for offense.
So, that's all for today. Wow, it sure is late. Good Night!
Sunday, March 2, 2003--I hate morons. I can be very cynical at times, very negative, very bitter. Don't piss me off.
Something I forgot yesterday--Justin parted the Track Runners, like Moses parted the Red Sea. Yes, while we were trying to get out of the parking lot, a legion of Track Runners blocked our path, so Justin was like, "I'm Moses. Part Track Runners, part," and he started gesticulating wildly, and the Track Runners, seeing the approach of the car, parted. It was mildly amusing.
Anyways, today, I finally got to go to Superstars, and I bought the Legions Sliver Shivers Theme Deck. The deck is pretty powerful on its own, but I'd like to make a few substitutions. I think adding in Crypt Slivers would be a very good idea. A Toxin Sliver would also be pretty deadly--the instant kill sliver. I also ought to replace some of my Plated Slivers with Muscle Slivers, and no deck would be complete without the Sliver Queen, right?
In any case, I played 4 games against Franklin and won two of them. One of the games I won was 'cause Franklin had bad mana flow. One of the games I lost, I had bad mana flow. No, it's not that I didn't have the right type of land. I just had no land in general.
Also, Bernard gave me a few tips. Since Sliver decks need all 5 colors, the best way to help make sure I get the colors I need is to use non-basic special lands.
I also watched Futurama and The Simpsons.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to continue finishing the homework that I started today.
So, even though it's kind of early, Good Night!
Saturday, March 1, 2003--Choices, choices, choices...
I had to choose between going to TEAMS (Test of Engineering Aptitute in Math and Science) and going to the SJYS concert. In the end, I reasoned that the orchestra could perform well without me, but the TEAMS team couldn't, so I went with TEAMS.
I correctly solved 8 out of the 10 problems in the Spin Ejection Mechanism (aka, shooting a comet with a bullet) problem set I got, and I tried to help other people, but I got kind of confused somewhere.
Overall, we did pretty badly. We keep doing worse and worse each year. Oh, well. We tried our best.
During lunch break, I dueled against Justin's green deck (now green-white) with Franklin's deck. We only played one duel, and I won, but I think it may have been luck.
Coming home, I made a list of all the Slivers. There are 32 of them--15 in Legions, 6 in Stronghold, and 11 in Tempest. Unfortunately, my dad wouldn't let me drive to Superstars. He doesn't trust my highway driving, although I've been up and down highways lots of times, and there have been no problems. Luckily, they promised to take me tomorrow right after lunch. We'll be going to Cupertino Village for lunch, so it won't be much of a hassle.
Slivers! Slivers! Slivers! *shivers*
Anyways, at home, I played some more FF5.
*5*I re-beat Apprehender, 'cause I didn't save after I beat him last time. Haven't tried Azulmagia yet, but I fought Catastrophe, who turned out to be readily beatable. However, those little old men (whose names I forget) are easy, but can be annoying. The third one I fought removed 2 of my characters from battle right at the beginning, so I could only use Krile and Reina. Then, he paralyzed Reina, then killed her off. Then, he paralyzed Krile, cast Maelstrom on her to bring her down to 1 digit HP, then he cast this wind spell and she died. Goddamn it! That was cheap!
Oh, and the guy who said N-Zone was big was wrong. I'm almost at the end of it, and it seemed pretty small. It just has varied scenery. That's all.*5*
Also, the guy who owns realultimatepower.net is such a retard. He claims to know and talk about "real ninjas" on that site, when its obviously all bullshit. His website is so stupid, it's not even funny. It's an insult to real ninjas everywhere and to people who actually have real knowledge of ninjas. I believe he deserves to get killed by the ninjas he insults, except that a real ninja would not waste his time with a piece of trash like that stupid kid, so I'll just settle for the kid getting hit by a stray bullet. Or if that eating frisbee suicide thing actually works, I hope he kills himself and we never have to hear from him or of him ever again.
Well, that's the end of that story...
Good Night!