On refrences and terrible drafting of win

I finally read Orwell's essay, Shooting an Elephant and understand the reference in Meet Bill. It's pretty funny.

I ended up doing a draft last night/this morning. My first tournament since Morning Tide probably... and it went a lot better then expected. The first pack I opened ended up having Excommunicate in it, so I decided to draft something with white. Initially I thought the card was an instant, and once I realized it wasn't I was pretty disappointed. It still won me a couple of games though, I hear getting rid of blockers is pretty good. Then I was passed Realm Razer, which I ended up taking because I need him for another deck. I ended up going Red Green White... the decklist obviously follows. I lucked into a couple of big beasts, although someone else was in my colors as well so I didn't get as many as I wanted, but took mana ramp in the form of Obelisks regardless seeing how as the orignal plan was to abuse Realm Razer. And then my second pack I got Hellkite Overlord. I'm not going to lie, he was orignally just a rare draft for me. But I saw I had obelisks to fit his color and in the deck he went. The following is the end result:

Hellkite Overlord Ftw

//Creatures
2 Wild Nacatal
1 Bull Cerodon
1 Welkin Guide
2 Sanctum Gargoyle
3 Elvish Visionary
1 Naya Battlemage
1 Knight of the Skyward Eye
1 Wolly Thoctar
1 Realm Razer
1 Hellkite Overlord
//Spells
1 Excommunicate
1 Angelsong
2 Resounding Roar
1 Branching Bolt
//Artifacts
2 Obelisk of Grixis
2 Obelisk of Naya
//Lands
1 Naya Panorama
5 Plains
5 Mountain
6 Forest

Some of these cards like Angelsong, and Welkin guide are probably by no means picked in decks normally. But I figured they might help me out of a rough spot, and they did. Namely one of the last rounds I played I had my opponent down to 9, with him having the kill on me next turn. Luckily I had my trusty Thoctar out with Naya Battlemage out. A topdeck into the Welkin guide for 9 overhead damage and the match win was most excellent. I ended up going 3-1 and taking 2nd place.

I would go into more detail but this has been sitting on my computer for the last few days, and really can't remember my matchs all that well xD. The Draft was enjoyable because Kelly was there though, even though she got mana boned almost every game... too bad this week the naab is going to Comicon >:[

But with magic the gathering in mind, it looks like we are going to start doing casual friday MTG, and drafting thursday nights. It should be a good time! I have all ready worked my Hellkite Tyrant into his own little deck ^_^

Ah well

A magic playing again Travy

On Nyeh

Well I am still pumped about this semester at BCC, my professors continue to be amazing. My English Professor especially is pretty nicer dicer, and makes me look forward to coming to class every day. Today's discussion started with a poem with an epic line, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are all full of passionate intensity." We even had a discussion on prejudice against emos. How much more nicer dicer can it get?

Unfortunately my shitty car broke down today, making me quite the emo. I really can't stand life sometime, especially when I am correcting a problem a month with my car. How exactly am I supposed to save money.

Nyeh... at least there is a new House out... that will distract me for a while

An emo Travy

Oh, my life is changing everyday,

In every possible way.
And oh, my dreams, it's never quiet as it seems,
Never quiet as it seems.

I know I've felt like this before, but now I'm feeling it even more,
Because it came from you.
And then I open up and see the person falling here is me,
A different way to be.

Ah, la da ah...
La...

I want more impossible to ignore,
Impossible to ignore.
And they'll come true, impossible not to do,
Impossible not to do.

And now I tell you openly, you have my heart so don't hurt me.
You're what I couldn't find.
A totally amazing mind, so understanding and so kind;
You're everything to me.

Oh, my life,
Is changing every day,
In every possible way.

And oh, my dreams,
It's never quiet as it seems,
'Cause you're a dream to me,
Dream to me.

Ah, da, da da da, da, la...

On Tradition

One thing that always seems to consistently leave me awestruck, and doesn't seem to ever change, is just how well the combination of lust and greed go together. I suppose all of the original sins combo well off of one another, but lust and greed strike me hard as a c-c-c-c-combo. They have been around for ever, with the exceptionally attractive leeching off of the exceptionally rich and vice versa, an almost symbiotic relationship.

I suppose I look at it as being shallow, money buying love that is. But on who's end really? Is it wrong of the terribly well endowed to ache for money? I mean I know I would love to happen into a ton of cash, but would I be willing to trade my body over to someone for their own pleasures in exchange for a comfortable lifestyle? I would really hope not. As a matter of fact I am pretty sure I wouldn't, not in most cases anyways...
Unfortunately if you tangle the second part of the equation I might just be tempted, as one also has to ask themselves could you resist someone who is infinitely attractive to you. While I seem to be able to easily manage avoiding pursuing the whole lust bit (Arguably because I am not that confident with my own looks and that probably helps), if some incredibly attractive chick wanted to pay me to sleep with her I don't know how well I could resist. A comfortable lifestyle + sex with someone I would be all lusty over? How amazing could that be.

Still, I try to keep to the mindset of money can't buy you love, what's sex without love, etc etc etc. Doesn't everyone in the end seek someone who is both physically attractive and mentally attractive as well? Honestly, I wouldn't date someone who I saw as unattractive regardless of their level of mental intellect, or how well we matched up. Does that make me a terrible person? Does that make me shallow? I think so, if an individual is unattractive to me it just isn't going to fly, so be it.
But everyone is shallow. It's another one to add to my list of laws on humanity. No matter what anyone says or does, in the end they would really like to be with someone they are physically attracted to in addition to their mental attraction. And for some people, the physical attraction is all they want, more then willingly sacrificing any chance of what I deem to be a real relationship. We are all shallow, just everyone has different tiers as to what they find attractive.

And speaking of character flaws, I really need to stop procrastinating, I still have English and psychology to do for tomorrow and I should all ready be going to bed. It can be helped according to some people, but I am quite content in my ability to procrastinate. Even without world of warcraft I still mindlessly browse the intrawebs....

A still procrastinating Travy

I'd never lie to you
Unless I had to I'll do what I got to
Unless I had to I'll do what I got to, the truth
Is you could slit my throat
And with my one last gasping breath
I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt

Infinite Willow Elf Recurssion Combo

Tiffzoring for mah blog for teh memories

This deck was inspired by a deck of mine I called Cycle of Delicious. The deck ran Riggers, and Willow Elves, and we convinced a member of my playgroup that it had a 17 card infinite willow elf recursion combo in it. Naturally we were kidding around, but in a group chat the other day, we threw together that 17 card combo, and created infinite willow elf recursion combo deck.

The combo

Part 1: Infinite Willow Elf Recursion.
Willow Elf
Ashnod's Altar
March of the Machines
Heartstone
Reito Lantern
Verdant Succession

First, you are going to need 2 willow elves, 1 in play and 1 in library (2). You will also need a Verdant Succession in play to insure that when a willow elf dies, you are able to get another one out of your library (3). In order to make sure you constantly have a willow elf in your library, Reito Lantern is necessary (4). A method of fueling Reito Lantern is via sacrificing Willow Elf to Ashnod's Altar for 2 mana (5). Unfortunately The Lantern's ability costs 3 to play, and the altar produces 2, so we needed to reduce the cost of the lantern's ability some how. And so, Heartstone was suggested (6). But the stone only works on creatures, and so we needed to somehow animate the lantern, thus we splashed blue for March of the Machines (7).

At this point, you have infinite willow elf recursion combo online. But in order for it to advance game state, we had to add some sort of win condition. Naturally throwing a second heartstone in there with a Squall Line could work, but where is the fun in a 7 card combo?

Part 2: Advancing the Gamestate
And so Fecundity was added so that everytime a Willow Elf got sent to the graveyard, we got to draw a card (8). The next step was adding more creatures to the deck to play with the combo. But unfortunately infinite colorless mana doesn't play green spells, and cool as Mycosynth lattice could have been, we didn't want to blow up peoples lands, that's just plain rude. And so, Aluren was added, ensuring that we could play anything we drew for free (9). 2x Child of Thorns was added so that we could pump our men an infinite amount of times (11). Tarpan was then added so that we could gain infinite life in the process (13). Concordant Crossroads was added to ensure all of our men could attack the turn they came into play (14). And finally 2x Loaming Shaman was added to ensure we wouldn't deck ourselves (16).

So we only managed a 16 card combo

Is that so wrong :<

Ah well, the final decklist:

Deck
Creatures 2 Child of Thorns 3 Joven's Ferrets 2 Loaming Shaman 4 Spore Frog 3 Tarpan 2 Tree Monkey 4 Willow Elf Enchantments 1 Aluren 1 Concordant Crossroads 2 Fecundity 3 March of the Machines 3 Verdant Succession	Artifacts 3 Ashnod's Altar 3 Heartstone 2 Reito Lantern Lands 16 Forest 6 Island

__________________

On Foodstuffs

Ever since becoming a vegetarian my desire to eat meat has lessened more and more. At this point I have uncommitted myself from my diet, but still stick to it for the most part. Generally speaking I just don't have a desire to eat meat, now it is more of something to eat if there is nothing else on the menu. I find myself desiring boca burgers over regular burgers. Arguably a good thing...

And so long as I am thinking on food, oranges are pretty amazing. I had them for the first time earlier last year at a Japanese restaurant, and tasty as they may have been I didn't pursue oranges any further. I had some again at the Chinese buffet I went to a little while ago... and decided this time to actually pursue eating them further...


The artificial orange flavored thingy-ma-jigs I have eaten over the years couldn't begin to prepare me for just how tasty actual oranges are. Even orange juice which I love fails in comparison to eating an actual orange. With Kelly's help I learned how to peel them myself (I'm that much of a chump) and now eat one or two daily. I wonder if that is a bad thing...

Nyeh, I am still procrastinating, at this point I have been on the intrawebs for 3 hours doing nothing when I had planned on doing homework right away, god am I a bothersome individual sometimes.

On my list of weaknesses, my list of human traits, and sweet sweet victory

It's about time I got a few things out there. First and foremost, Inauguration Day this year marks one of the first times I have ever been proud to be an American. There is something about Obama that I trust, and I think he is going to do great things for our country. I am adding an Obama poster to my list of posters to get, and hanging it right over my bed, maybe even with an American flag. That is just how much he inspires me. God Bless America

With that out of the way, I figured I would publisize a couple of lists, which of course are subject to change (seeing how as I actually can't remember all of them at the moment).

First and foremost, my list of traits that describe humanity,

1. People don't hate
2. Everyone gets off on something
3. People lie
4. Everyone deserves a couple of chances

and nextly, my own list of personal (positive) weaknesses. Hopefully not to be abused too often.

1. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
2. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
3. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
4. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
5. MUNCHKIN CAT

As if I would devulge my intermost secrets to the intrawebs... silly people

LSD + Catterpiller?

A Munchkin cat loving Travy

On Scottish folds

Scottish fold kittens are fricken adorable.


That said, today's classes weren't too bad. I am actually kind of excited. My English teacher is incredibly enthusiastic and optimistic, and my art teacher is pretty rawking too. So maybe last semester was just a glitch, not that I want to go to BU any less. At first I was pretty enthusiastic with going to BCC, thinking of myself as a college student. While I am a little hard on myself now about it, I Suppose it's still better then nothing.

Man... munchkin cat makes me want to cry tears of joy, I can't take my eyes off of it!

On hindsight

Tomorrow marks my first day of the spring semester. I am sort of looking forward to it, and sort of not looking forward to it. On the plus side I have my Art and English courses tomorrow... but on the minus side I am really not expecting too much out of them, if they turn up anything like my courses from last semester. Still, it is kind of nostalgic... I suppose the idea of tomorrow kind of triggers high school memories. I mean, I will be there all day so I will need to pack a lunch, and it's an art course. Hopefully I can listen to my IPod and the wallflowers.
In hindsight, if I could go back to high school I would do a few things differently, one of which would definitely be putting effort into my grades so that I didn't find myself going to BCC now. I would have defiantly like to have gone to a better school where I might feel like I am actually learning. Unfortunately procrastination and lazy sauce got the best of me... so here I am. It can't be helped, hindsight is balls.

Similarly drinking while depressed is not a nicer dicer idea, and in hindsight is another thing I would have avoided the other evening. Spilling my heart, and a good portion of stupidity onto Kelly wasn't the best of ideas, but at least I am pretty positive at this point she knows most of my feelings concerning her. Since that point a few people have told me I've left the ball in her court. But the truth is, it's been there all along. And at least I didn't mess everything up.

I really want to get myself a copy of Guitar Hero world tour... if for no reason other than to get good at the drums. I can do vocals, play the guitar on hard/expert, and play bass on expert. But I feel like such an ass for making people watch me fumble through a song on easy or medium whilst failing at the drums. If I got a copy of the game myself, it's something I could fix on my own and feel like I'm not bringing other players down with me. I would also like to get up to expert on the guitar at some point, which probably requires a significantly larger amount of time invested then I have been.

I'm going to start playing Magic the gathering again, after all free time (minus homework) = Nicer Dicer and needs socializing!

A tired travy

(It starts with)
One thing / I don’t know why
It doesn’t even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind / I designed this rhyme
To explain in due time
All I know
time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
It’s so unreal
Didn’t look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on / but didn’t even know
Wasted it all just to
Watch you go
I kept everything inside and even though I tried / it all fell apart
What it meant to me / will eventually / be a memory / of a time when I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
One thing / I don’t know why
It doesn’t even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind / I designed this rhyme
To remind myself how
I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I’m surprised it got so (far)
Things aren’t the way they were before
You wouldn’t even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me
In the end
You kept everything inside and even though I tried / it all fell apart
What it meant to me / will eventually / be a memory / of a time when I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn’t even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn’t even matter
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this
There’s only one thing you should know
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this
There’s only one thing you should know
I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn’t even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn’t even matter

On left 4 dead and terrible people

I feel I have experienced a good portion of the communities the internet has to offer. It all started when my family got its first computer back in the 9th grade. My friend Kyle showed me how to set up my own hotmail account (although I have actually had that account longer then I have had access to the intrawebs!). I was initially drawn into the world of MSN roleplaying after happening upon a chat room entitled The Midnight Manor. That was my first taste of an internet community, a small group of roleplayers I came to know and love. But after a while I decided to try my luck at an MMORPG, the dreaded Tibia.
Tibia was another small community, easily handled and easily enjoyed.
And this is where the tier system begins
The next tier for me was that of the XBox live community. While roleplaying communitys, and other small online community were easily tolerable with your occasional prick, the Xbox live experince is a little different. Name calling, general harassment, your occasional tough guy 10 year old, that kind of stuff. But still, pretty easily managed.
Following the Xbox Live tier comes the world of warcraft tier, easily the next level of prick. Plenty of harassment and all around douchebaggery exists in the World of Warcraft community, including people who religiously strongly dislike the opposite factions.
But by far the worst, and most amusing community I have happened upon is that of /b/ on 4chan. The only rule is there are no rules... and it is incredibly amusing, making me feel like more and more of a terrible person every time I log on. /b/ is defiantly the bully of the internet.

So I got to play Left 4 Dead, and it was pretty awesome. The internet hype was by all means justified, but unfortunately it doesn't have an incredible level of replay value. While it's great game play and everything, the campaigns are all so brief I look at them as running instance encounters on World of Warcraft. Sure there is some story there, but it's all strategy that you will get down with your fellow players. And while generally in something with a campaign I am okay with sticking to strategy because the story is backing it... L4D is just different. The levels are laid out with "boss" encounters in specific areas, so I imagine after a couple of times playing it there can't be too much excitement to the matter. The only way to switch it up is with newer players to the game who won't be used to the encounters, or in the versus mode. Both of which will probably get boring after a while.

I suppose replacing my car is a serious contender in things to do with my tax money, as driving in this weather is nigh impossible with my inability to see. It's fine if it isn't freezing out, but this +2 shenanigans is just no good. But then again, I really don't think I can resist the temptation to get myself some sort of Blackberry, or some other smart phone. While initially I planned on getting the BB storm, terrible reviews have made me reconsider... The Samsung Omnia looks pretty awesome, and I hear a 5.0 megapixel camera is nicer dicer.

Oh well

Vegeta ftw

Breathe out so I can breathe you in hold you in
And now I know you've always been out of your head, out of my head I sang
And I wonder when I sing along with you
If everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I'll ever ask of you
You've got to promise not to stop when I say when she sang

On holy shizzle long time no update

It's been a while since I have updated this. To sum things up I started World of Warcraft, got addicted, and then managed to quit. World of Warcraft is a wonderful game, unfortunately there are people in this world that are just too easily hooked on MMORPGs, and I number among them.

Tibia was a long time issue for me, starting back in the 8th grade and probably costing me hundreds of dollars over the course of time I played it. But I found myself loved by the community, and loving the community. While in hindsight the game play was terrible, CIPSoft is a small company so you can only expect so much. It was the community and low system requirements that drove the game, and I imagine continues to drive the game. Eventually finding myself fed up with CIPsoft and the game itself, I broke open a seal of horrorz.

In case of Cipsoft screwup break seal

World of Warcraft was great at first, the few months I played, I played a horde side PVP server. I really enjoyed myself but managed to let the game go after a while. And life went back to normal, I managed to forget about MMOs for a while, and generally online gaming all together in favor of card and board games with my friends. But then my room mate moved out and I found myself low on cash. I also found myself being advanced on when I didn't quite feel ready for a relationship again. And so I took the chump's way out, and convinced myself I would become addicted to World of Warcraft. Once again in hind sight, a terrible idea.

Maybe I should have just learned to cut back on spending like a normal person. Maybe I should have taken a risk and tried another relationship. But I decided to fuel a terrible habit that I had by chance fallen out of. And so Travstopher of warlock was born. With Mitch's help I got into a casual guild, and managed to hit the level cap pretty quickly becoming exceptionaly good at my class. And as concieted as it may sound, with my help the guild gathered enough close friends and organized well enough to begin casual raiding. Around halloween issues arose between the guild leader of the time and myself over a roll I won on the Headless Horseman's mount.

So I left the guild, striking it out on my own waiting for the guild leader's apology. It came, but between my leaving of the guild and my subsequent return to the guild I found myself becoming even more and more attached to the game. Up until this point I all ready logged 4 or 5 hours on days when I worked 9 hour shifts and went to school for 3 hours, the days when I had to do only one or not at all were fully consumed by WoW. With the new content of Northrend to explore I put even more time in, sleeping only once every couple of days.
But to wrap up this rant, I realized how terrible my life had become. I had gone from a casual video gamer to one of those hardcore WoW players who's entire life schedule revolved around time spent on the game. I had given up exercising, cooking, and socializing. And the worst part is, I wasn't even into end game content yet, only gearing up.

And so I went cold turkey on WoW for new years, and got my life back on track. I have started exercising, cooking, and spending tons of time with friends. The next semester starts soon, and I think I may just start blogging agian.

Hopefully I will improve my english..

A reblogged Travy

How can I help it if I think youre funny when youre mad
Trying hard not to smile though I feel bad
Im the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral
Cant understand what I mean? you soon will
I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve
I have a history of losing my shirt