I wanted to give a bit of screen time to a friend of mine from NC State. Matt Jones just got a new web host (34sp.com, like myself) and revamped his site: http://www.mysticalmatthew.com. An amateur magician and a technologist, Matt has some great stuff on his site, including lots of stuff to read in his Humor Files.
I have a bit of a secret project that I am working on… it ought to be rather sweet when it’s done. Today, I ordered the parts after dealing with a credit card snafu. Anyway, the parts should arrive in a matter of days, and then I should be able to begin. Of course, I plan on documenting the process and posting it here on my website.
I fire up the latest version of GAIM this morning to send a quick message to a friend of mine, Singe from World Class Mods, and was surprised to be greeted with this logo, rather than the default logo that I am so used to.
This is just as surprising as the Christmas easter egg for WindowMaker. Another reason to love Linux, the authors love to throw in little bits and pieces of code in that surprise us from tie to time.
Over the last few days, I have had to rebuild each of the blogs on my site here. I was attempting some maintenance and locked myself out of the system, so I have taken the most recent snapshot of the old blog and recreated all the old entries here. What is missing, however are the old comments. But everything here is exactly as it was before, but some of the old links may no longer work, since the entries were recreated in a different order than they were originally created.
Thanks for your patience, since I took down the old blog while I was redoing it.
Over the last few days, I have had to rebuild each of the blogs on my site here. I was attempting some maintenance and locked myself out of the system, so I have taken the most recent snapshot of the old blog and recreated all the old entries here. What is missing, however are the old comments. But everything here is exactly as it was before, but some of the old links may no longer work, since the entries were recreated in a different order than they were originally created.
Thanks for your patience, since I took down the old blog while I was redoing it.
Well, tomorrow is it. While I have been to a couple of pre-release tournaments before, the Magic: The Gathering Regionals tournament is tomorrow at about 10AM. I am excited, but I need to know what is up with Dan and Mike. The three of us are going, but I have had no contact with them to let me know who is driving, when we leave, or any other details.
And just so people know, I am taking a blue/green Madness deck, designed to get as many large creatures out as possible. Of course, I highly doubt anyone is reading this blog…. It’s a self-fulfilling cycle. I never post because no one ever read it, while no one ever reads it because I
never post….
Anyway, I digress. The tournament is a big one, up to 600 players or more. My personal goal is to break even, at the very least. We’ll see. This tournament will be different than others simply due to the fact that it’s my first Constructed tournament. All my previous outings have been Limited format, so I could not really tweak my deck appropriately ahead of time.
I’ll be sure to report my results here in a couple of days.
Tonight at work was quite boring, and we all know that boring nights tend to lead to interesting conversations… At about 10PM, I was needed at the Service Desk, and I just stayed up there. Jen was there, and she made good company. I won’t get into all the details of the conversation, seeing as it would probably be boring to most everyone….
Anyway, we talked for a while about Jessalyn, an acquaintance of mine through Key Club in high school. About two years ago, (I can’t believe its been that long since we really talked.) we had a period of about a month where we talked nearly every day. It was amazing, especially after we discussed the fact that we each had a crush on the other at the same time, but we were both too shy at the time to tell the other.
As Jen and I talked tonight, I realized just how much I miss her. She looks amazing, and she is a pleasure to talk with. At one point, she sent me some of her poetry, which she indicated that she rarely shares (only with good friends). Some of it is dark and reflects the adversity she has encountered in her life, and I am honored that she decided to share it with me.
But at this point, her boyfriend Scott is keeping her away from all society, it seems. The last time I saw her was several months ago at the Wendy’s where she works. She told me then that she really couldn’t talk; she revealed that the cause was not her manager or anything, but that is was Scott keeping her from even her female friends. This goes far beyond jealousy into the realm of total control.
This situation really is not good. I’m sure Jessalyn is unhappy; I could read it in here eyes. Her two daughters (both fathered by Scott) are likely to be getting to the age when they can really understand what is going on, and it isn’t healthy for them. And, to be perfectly selfish, I wouldn’t mind being able to see her again, at least as a friend, maybe more. I only wish I had a picture of her…. I only have quiet, pleasant memories of my short time spending time with her.
I think lunch is going to be had at Wendy’s… Hopefully, I can at least say hello…. Of course, I live in the area and haven’t been there lately, so Scott will not jump the the conclusion that I would be stalking Jessalyn or anything.
Regionals were fun, although disappointing from a win/loss standpoint. My overall record was 1-4. Yes, that’s one win and four losses. I had a decent deck built, but it just wasn’t enough. I faced 5 different decks, including a near mirror of my own, and each of them had their unique challenges. It was both unlucky draws and a couple of mistakes on my part. The only deck I won against was a Burning Bridges deck, with a lucky top-deck of Naturalize to remove his Ensaring Bridge. That was just before an ugly Haunting Echoes raped my deck of anything good. I finally beat him with a Roar of the Wurm, once Naturalize kicked in. About half the time, I acutally made a decent effort, but my opponent just had too much resistance.
After the tournament, Dan, Mike, and I ate at Spaghetti Warehouse, less than a block from the tournament and had a good time. After the drive home, longer because of the rain, we stopped at Mike’s house and spent the rest of the evening watching Star Trek: The Next Generation.
I am getting so sick of my fellow Americans be so damned modest in a so-called “Land of the Free.” For a small amount of background, TechTV has decided to air a program called “Wired For Sex.” According to everything I have read, it would appear to be an objective view on how various technology has influenced sex, the sex act, humans’ reproduction, physical attraction, and more. Now, there is a torrent of backlash on both TechTV’s message boards and on Leoville Town Square. As an American, I believe that it is everyone’s right to choose their own course of action, as long as it will not harm others. The folks claiming that TechTV shouldn’t air the show are not bothering to utilize their freedom of choice to change the channel. Instead of writing directly to the station management to attempt to change the minds of the network executives, many of these people have resorted to whining on these message boards and a small minority of those have taken it upon themselves to attack those of us in support of an honest exploration of what is so innately primal that we wouldn’t exist without it.
