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Below are the 30 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Kensan Oni" journal:[<< Previous 30 entries]
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07:19 am
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One in Eight
About 900 people showed up to play Magic at the Anaheim Convention Center this weekend. After grueling delays, and about 12 hours later, they had knocked down that 900ish to about 120. For ever 1 that made it to day 2, another 7 to 8 people left home without the prize.
I... did not do well. The top players will show that my deck was fine, and that the top tables of the tournament were playing the deck that I ultimately choose to play with, too. I can blame a combination of luck and lack of experience for the straight three loses I had that day, but really, what I blame is not paying attention to my heart.
I am not saying I would have faired better at the tournament mind you. The first game I played, I was up against an old timer and Pro Player from Brazil, and it was a honor and a pleasure to play against him. I even won one of the games of the match, so it was still fine.
There is the matter of deck choice, however. The first thing I must remember about deck choice is that other people are always, and I mean *always* wrong. They may be good about choosing the right cards, but never have I played a deck that someone else built and have it come out well. Except for Senor Stompy, but that's neither here or there.
I should have played my champion deck. It's a tad modified sure and I would have to get one more paladin, but I knew that deck, as it's very, very close to my regular standard deck. It might even just needed a few card subsitutions, and I could have ran it just like I ran my standard deck. It wouldn't have been favored, I am sure, but I would have felt a lot more comfortable with the deck, and I think that in the end, it would have made a difference emotionally.
The Bant deck is effective, mind you. Untargatable creatures, pump, a little bounce (I think I would have liked more by the end of the three rounds I played, mind you). However, I don't think it had enough soul. I played it because I knew it had really good plays, not because I liked the deck emotionally. I was playing what I felt was my best shot, and maybe that was the wrong play to start with.
I won't say I didn't enjoy myself, though. I had a really good near mirror match with the Rules Manager for Wizards, with dueling Counter Producing decks. I also played in a Draft after I had lost, and played a neat BR deck that gave me an idea for a new deck to play with. I got some neat card sleeves, and overall, I was glad I got to see some of the people who I've been seeing online in person, even though I was containing my inner fan, so I didn't say hello.
Well, I get another chance in about four months, when the GP comes back to San Jose. I'll try to not listen to my brain next time, and listen to my heart. My heart just tends to do better.
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07:49 am
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I'm off to the GP!
Okay! Off to Anaheim. I have my clothing packed, I have my three decks (For three different formats) in my carry bag. I have a bunch of jelly beans. I think I am all set.
Wish me Luck! I wanna finish big!
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12:50 pm
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Test of Character day
So... today I am being challenged by the internet community. I'm being told that I am not seeing correctly, that my view is too close, that I am being to mean, and to demanding, and too greedy. That I need to *conform* to the way other people do things to be a better person and to do things a better way. *Their* way.
Well, **** that. My view of the economics is spot on. My view of fairness is as valid as theirs. Equal in their own ways, but I like *mine* better. I also am acting according to my needs, and not their needs.
I might be at a 6:1 against me ratio here, but I will not give my ground. I am as right as they are, dang it, and it is their warped perception of what is fair that is at stake here, not mine.
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12:40 pm
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[Art] Peacock
Deep apologies for being away and not saying anything. I still am doing stuff, but MTG is consuming me for now.
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08:09 pm
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More Magic Processing
Eat Trees defeats RDW Boros Humans. Loses GW Angels, GU Self-Mill (?)
Angels Defeats GU Selfmill, Eats Trees. Loses Boros Humans, RDW.
... Arg.
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08:58 am
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[Magic] Perhaps the most grumbly of enviroments ever
So, the new set is out, and I'm starting to put together decks to beat the field, and right now, the best deck I've been able to put together rotates around the combo of High Toughness creatures (Tree of Redemption), and Feed the Pack to generate Insane amount of Woofies, to go gnaw on the opponents life total.
It's working insanely well right now, and part of me logically and emotionally is going "This shouldn't be working", because traditionally, this has been a very bad idea. This kind of stupidity (32 creatures in a deck) only succeeded once in magic history, and no one has seen Senor Stompy in years, and this isn't even as fast.
I'll find out for sure this weekend. I'm going to be taking the current build to a Block Tournament on Saturday, after I pick up the needed cards from the big Card Shop. I'll also keep looking over the card lists. It just will amuse me highly if this does turn out to be one of *those* decks, because if it is, all the professionals seemed to have highly underestimated the cards I'm using in general. That would make me insanely happy.
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10:06 pm
[Link] | Movie to watch in the future : Om, Shammi, Om. If I can endure the totally bollywood of it, the plot sounds META! Reincarnate and remember your past life as a woman and the man who killed you, and then prove he killed you. I so WANT to see this film now.
Okay, so it seems a little silly, but I like the idea of the plot.
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08:43 am
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Get some Culture!
Set aside a few hours for this one. It's the complete Swan Lake!
http://youtu.be/RM3fZ3qewqo
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04:36 pm
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Paranoia Scenario - -1 Y
Sector MEX goes Commie when the whole sector without warning starts speaking a strange language to the computer. Little does the computer know that during a routine subsystem reboot, a Violet Tech Services Guru accidentally pressed the Spanish Language button, and the Computer in the MEX Sector is now processing in espanol. Can the troubleshooters reboot the sector, or even convince the computer not to send in the death squads? Can they stop the Romantics from taking advantage of the situation? Will the Marachi Music ever stop?
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09:22 am
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Really? (Anti-Smoking Ads)
Look, I will be the first to admit smoking is a horrible thing to do to yourself. I've seen two grandparents die to smoking enhanced deaths, and it's a horrible wasting way to die.
... Out of all the heavy smokers in my family, none of them ever had a open hole in their throat. The scare tactic is beyond ridiculous. I don't mind you going "Smoking is bad. It'll kill ya". Bring back Crow Cameos, it'll work better. But this scare tactic is just plain stupid.
Not saying it doesn't happen, just saying that it's pretty rare from what I've experienced, and that it's strong arm propaganda. It's not needed, and it's not going to be stopping anyone.
....
In other news, the sick sperm picture on another anti-smoking ad were really cute. :D Gawd, the Anti-Tabacco lobby is getting stranger as I get older.
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06:05 pm
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[MTG] Whoo-hoo!
It's a first this time around. I entered a tournament, the Grand Prix Trials, at Anime Imports in Pacifica, and I got First. :D Against *real* decks of the Innistrad Block. To say that I am happy is an understatement. I get Byes (Auto Game Wins) for the Grand Prix: Los Angeles (Anihiem, really) in a month or two. This is *SO* thrilling. My research and dedication to a deck really paid off for once.
I just thought you all should know! @Yeeeeee!
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11:01 am
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Snow White and the Huntsman. Wha?
I won't inflict the trailer on you. Go see it if you really want to know.
...
I thought, that after Alice in Wonderland, the producer would have never gotten another story again. I know people loved it, but I feel it was only because of Johnny Depp's star power, and if anyone really thought about the story, they would have seen how really horrible and out of touch the story was.
So... here we have... a murder of crows sorceress that has a giant army that kills other armies with... what I assume are swords that make people into shattered glass, I don't know... who gets this huntsman, for reasons I don't understand, to go out and kill the white druid snow white... and then go off to be the Mad Mardiggan and slay the queen. With some dwarves as sideline support?
How can you take Snow White, and mess it up so much? It's like Willow meets World of Darkness. It looks WORSE than Alice in Wonderland, which is a bit of work... and ... oh, I don't know.
It's just sad that Once Upon a Time, the TV series looks like it's better than either of these movies.
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10:16 am
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Onions!
As a first.... I'm planting Onion bulbs... that I had bought from the store... because they are sprouting green. And they are really really happy in the outdoor planter.
...I am going to water them sometime in a few days, since their soil is still very moist from all the rain we've been getting, and I have no idea what to do with them, when all is said and done... but I got onions growing!
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10:39 am
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WTF Brain
.... I think the sleeping pattern at home is really fucking with me, or something deeper is going on.
So on Sunday, I went out and played at the local Sealed Deck championship. Due to low turn out, the prize pool was insignificant, but that's fine. I had ate a sandwich before going, and I had had a peppermint frappichino just because before the first round...
( Basic yelping about card game. Basic failure of math and logic )
I blame waking up about 4 times a night on average to playing into this really developing ditzziness. I fear it may be worse, but right now, it just seems like my brain is going "Hey, I could use more naps"...
I am going to be doing a huge sketch dump later, because I just need to post art, and I don't have a lot of finished products.
lots of love, people.
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11:08 pm
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[Character] Ant Ambassador
So... I started doodling on the bus, and came up with this character, and I've yet to get a good image of it done, but the history of the character's race, and this character's position goes something like this.
A while back, humans started a war with the Ants for reasons not clearly understood by ants. It wasn't exactly unexpected, and it wasn't entirely unwelcome by parts of the Ant Congress, due to the ugly squishy wobbly things that humans are. So the races fought.. and fought... and after a while, it was getting pretty bad.
The Queen of the Ant People had not really wanted to fight at all, but the Soldier cast had gotten out of hand and took things into their own hands. So she passed the message amongst the drones that they were to leave the nest and look for ways to end the war.
The real problem was that Humans did not want to stop and listen. Indeed, they saw the Ant People as horrible monsters, worse than other races, and were simply terrified just by their large pony sized appearance. It didn't help that they were horribly stronger than any creature Humans had ever experienced before.
One drone, when going through a town warzone got clever when it passed by a toy shop. Finding Masquerade Masks, the Drone covered it's body with a large drapery, and hid it's face behind the mask. Then it started to try to approach individuals that it could find.
It took about four months. It took time to learn to communicate. It took longer just to get peoples trust without having them fight the Drone. Eventually, though, a dialogue opened up, and the Humans and the Ant peoples finally negotiated a peace.
Ant People still terrify humans to irrationality, but they occasionally need to open dialogues. The Ambasadors still wear the Drapery of Dialogue, even though they have made much nicer ones since that time, and they hire human craftsmen to craft appropriate sized masks of the highest quality, so that they may speak to Humans without terrifying them. It mostly works, and it's part of an Ambassadors training to know how to stand, where to stand, how to quickly get away if needed, and how to unarm humans without hurting them.
...
These might end up being part of the Flow universe, but I just think it's a horribly wonderful idea, and wish I was playing games again so I could use it somewhere.
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07:23 pm
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What scares me of my brother's generation.
Really, it wouldn't scare me that much if it wasn't cultural changing of basic human nature.
He and his friends will say LoL (la-oo-wl) instead of, you know, actually laughing. It's like part of their humanity isn't there, and it disturbs me greatly and hurts my heart in ways that is hard to understand for me. It shouldn't matter on one level, but on another level, it is horrific.
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08:16 am
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St. Patties day!
I'll be making some art later... although I could get away with recycling Fluttershy art, admittedly...
But Happy St. Patties day! For those of you who believe in such tomfoolery.
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12:04 pm
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Wow...
Just as a side note, I am watching a review of Battlefield Earth, and apparently the movie is so bad, that it just ignores that the aliens had infiltrated earth culture for decades, if not centuries, before the book "Battlefield Earth"... so a lot of the plot points in the movie? Don't exist in the novels at all.
... what is sad is that I had read enough of the novels to know this...
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09:53 am
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[Dream]
Maybe I am channeling University Santa Cruz last night.
( The Dream )
What this really tells me is that I probably just want to live in Forest Territory, but I don't know how to deal with bears outside of just dying. (_).(_)
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03:01 pm
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*sigh*
... and once again, I am reminded why I am not aiming to be part of art festivals and juried shows. I'd mention stupid cycle stuff, but I've already been there this month.
I want to scream... but it'd probably really disturb the neighbors. THis isn't helping my current motivation levels, either.
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11:42 pm
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[Art] Fluttershy Via Tiffany
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10:54 am
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[MLP:FIM] Snips
You know. Badmouth Snips all you want, but when it comes down to it, you know who is going to be the movie heart throb? Snips, that's who! He's got he face of Tom Felton, the body of Johnny Depp, and he's blond all over. He's going to be big in the pictures, you just wait!
...
And I realize this is really random, and irrelevant... but the Ditzy Hooves controversy has hit levels I never imagined. I mean really. The every boy stand in is suppose to be annoying. Being annoying does not equal being 'slow'. What the Heck?
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10:11 am
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ARG!!!!
I need to raise money for student loans.
I should sell art.
I can't sell art through esty. Have no Bank Account.
Don't have Bank Account because I have no Money.
Have no Money, because modern routes of raising money are not open to me lately.
So I need to sell art...
.... I hate the vicious cycle that is my life. :P
I'll be throwing commission queries out there soon. Is anyone interested?
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10:11 pm
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And in the news...
SPIDERS!!! Thousands of them! Go Sisters go!"
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02:23 pm
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Ladyehawk and what is missing from RPG Combat
So, last Saturday I rewatched Ladyehawk, and was remninded how well the conflict scenes were choreographed and planed in that film. In Particular, both the Vineyard and the Chapel sequences kinda stand out to me.
One of the things that gets me about most, if not all RPG games, is how conflict is handled as a life-death symbiosis. Players at this point are trained to think of conflicts as fights, and that winning means that you have killed the opposition, or that you were killed by them. This is a problem I am struggling to find a way to so9lve mentally.
The vineyard scene is a scene of complete defeat for a hero. Phillip comes in and starts bragging about his escape, and runs into the Church Guard. He makes a nimble dash away from a guard (Oh, look. Many systems would allow a free attack here), and quickly hides in the crowd. That tack doesn't work, though, and he ends up dashing and darting, and trying to get away. Eventually he is cornered and he loses. In his final moment, he is about to be killed for an accident with Miquet, when Nevair show up.
The remarkable thing about this sequence is that in theory, it should be doable in a RPG game, but the rules get in the way, from storyteller to even Houses of the Blooded. Not that they don't try, but even if players get to define their own failure, the kind of fluidity you get in these kinds of action sequences are not easy to achieve without direction, and players tend to be a very undirected bunch looking for the quick solutions, from my experience.
I at one point tried to plot out a system that I called Predator/Prey. The goal was that there was a scene number, and all characters divided themselves into Predator or Prey relationships. The goal of any conflict scene was for the Prey to get away, and the Predators to stop that. It didn't necessarily end in a death, but defeat was still possible
I'm still not sure if I was right with that model. I think it's a really alien concept to players that they *want* to get away, that they don't want to be confrontational with their action hero characters. It's 40 years of "I kill X, I loot Y, I kick open door z". The idea that your character most likely is not the one with the sword or crossbow drawn, standing over a pile of dead bodies, but are the people on horseback, leaving a bunch of mooks in the dust as you ride off in pursuit of the prize is a very foreign one.
I have no idea how to create this kind of behavior, and reward it well. I need to think about it some more.
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07:34 pm
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GACK! I am not that person. I am not that person...
I... was an extra in this webisode for a local comic shop. It was one of those rude comedy sketches type thing, and I ended up with some improved lines and in a posistion that is not me. I played my part, for that is what was needed, but I feel very dirty and icky right now for being the type of person I personally have great hatred for.
The character is a mask, it is not me... and I'll work through the ick. It is what people see when they look at me, and I understand it, but that does not mean it is me. It will pass, and all will be good.
Although hot shower might be needed right now.
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08:05 pm
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Let me know if Flow dumps are getting annoying
Because, you know, I can stop and move it to like a real word file somewhere. I just am taking energy when I get it and blurb out as much as I can before my energy is gone again. I could just be babbling into a microphone instead...
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02:28 pm
[Link] | In case I have not said it. I hate being sick. What I hate more than being sick is being *chain* sick. Oh, please, oh please, will my mucus glands please not try killing me today?
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10:12 am
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To expand on a thought...
So... Total Bisquit, the popular commentator for Starcraft, recently released a rant here about EA and Mass Effect 3. I happen to think that he is overreacting, and here is why.
So, there is this bonus content, that is available to the Deluxe edition, which they are selling as a package upon launch, which TB feels should just plain be part of the game, as it is pretty much launching complete. He feels it's important because it contains a character of a race that the game has been centered about for quite some time.
He sees this as milking the customer for more money. To be honest, this is true. He is asking for a boycott of the game because of this. This I consider too far. EA is allowing access to the Deluxe content to the players who may not be able to acquire a Deluxe copy for half the price difference between the two. I can't object to this. Just because it contains content about one of the biggest races in the game doesn't matter. It is the selling point for the Deluxe edition, and I have no problem with that.
He proceeds to rant about what he considers acceptable bonus content for deluxe editions. I have no problems with this, and I agree with a lot of it. It is only the demand to boycott over... being able to upgrade my standard purchase electronically to the deluxe edition? Really? You are going to boycott over *This*?
Seems a bit reactionary to me, and not well thought out. I like that I won't have to buy the Non-Available deluxe edition, and still be able to get the content. Boycotting over this is telling the Developers that they shouldn't make content available to everyone, which is the opposite of what the intended effect is.
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10:04 am
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For my Ren People
I discovered this accidentally on Spotify when putting together a Rainy Day Music Mix... and it's well worth sharing. It's not as high fidelity as the song deserves, but if you crank up your volume, you'll get most of it.
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