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The day, boss! The day!!
2003-05-09 02:06:33
Ok, so I'm kinda buzzing right now. I should be a lot more drunk than I am, but I'm not. Bah. Oh well. I'm feeling better even as I type this.
Well, it's almost over folks. I've packed up everything except the computer, my alarm clock, my refigeratables, my bedding, and a change of clothes for tomorrow. And I haven't thrown away the trash yet. The walls are really blank and I can understand how Nick's room started to feel like a prison cell after living like this for an entire semester.
In a little over 15 hours I'll be saying goodbye to 1010 Kerr Hall. It was nice, but I can't say I've developed any specific attachment to it.
Other than packing today was pretty uneventful. I got up around 12:30, took a shower, ate breakfast, went to the plasma center for the last time until fall, had lunch, goofed off, packed, then drank with Nick and Ryan.
Minesweeper is hard when you're buzzing. This has been your daily random statement. -
Finals and stuff......
2003-05-08 01:50:56
Ok, so I had three finals today at 8, 10, and 12. Bleh. Fortunately they were teh easy. Astronomy went like it usually does and I'll think I'll make it into the "A" bracket (usually starts somewhere around 65). Then I had CompSci which was also easy. There were a couple algorithm definitions, some execution tracing, a recursive method that I had to write, and unfortunately a question about the "box method" which I never really learned how to do. Ah well, I think my guess was quite clever. Hopefully I'll get more than the 1 "Thanks for trying" point. Then I had Psych which took almost an hour because I kept falling asleep. Honestly, the terminology in that field gets just plain silly after a while.
After that I made use of the broadband here to try to catch up on all the webcomics that are inconvenient to keep up with at home. At one point I finished up Fruits Basket with Nick. Unfortunately the later half of the series is pointed weaker than the first half, with roughly four episodes devoted to characters that I could care less about. The ending seemed kinda rushed and forced. It didn't really flow naturally at all. I'd put up some more specific complaints but I don't want to give away the ending for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
Well, back to the comics. I should have this stuff finished up before I go to bed. -
Lazy Days?
2003-05-06 05:52:22
Does it still count as being lazy when you spend all day doing fun stuff? =)
Anyway, I got up a little after noon today and went to take my government final, which was pretty easy. I had to guess on the amendments, since I never bothered to memorize which is which but that shouldn't have hurt the grade to much.
After the test I came home and generally wasted time until Nick and I left for the magic tournament. More on that later. Afterwards we stopped by Walmart and picked up pizza, then came back to Nick's room for some Fruits Basket. All in all a good day.
The rest of this entry is going to be devoted to Magic, so if that holds no interest for you then you're done reading, I suppose.
Tonight was draft night and luck would have it we were able to draft Onslaught X 3. Unfortunately John (the story owner and tournament organizer) was in the mood to try something new in the name of speeding up the drafting process. Tonight he decided to try putting us in 3 four-player pods, so card variety was rather scarce. I ended up with a BU deck with 2 Cruel Revival, 1 Infest, 1 Death Pulse, 2 Nantuko Hust, 2 Shepherd of Rot, 2 Choking Tethers, and some random other stuff.
Round 1: Nick with UWb.
Bleh, I hate playing Nick. One of us has to lose and that always sucks.
Game 1: I get an early Husk that dominates the entire game, even forcing Nick to block with his bomb Quicksilver Dragon before I finally kill him.
Game 2: I do some stuff, but Nick's about to get the Dragon again when time is called. We roll for the game and I win.
3 points.
Round 2: Troy with UR.
Troy is the luckiest little sob ever in draft. He always drafts red, and he always gets a couple of rare bombs.
Game 1: I play nothing impressive while Troy plays a couple morphs I can't deal with that eventually get some big friends on their side.
Game 2: See game 1. I actually got a couple of morphs and something else with an Infest, but he still kept up enough pressure that I couldn't deal with.
3 points.
Round 3: Random kid with GB.
Game 1: He does nothing threatening and I roll over him.
Game 2: See game 1.
6 points.
In the end I tied for 3rd and lost to tie-breaks. Oh well. I bid farewell to Peter who might not be coming back next year as well as everyone else I won't get to see again until next fall.
After pizza and Fruits Basket I came back to my room to organize my stuff for the new environment back in Dallas. Presumably it'll be Type 2 only, so I disassembled my Type 1 decks and put all three of my Type 2 decks in brand new sleeves I bought earlier in the evening. I also ordered some commons and uncommons to fill in the holes in two of my decks created by overlapping card lists and updated my trading list for how the current environment has evolved. Fun stuff that probably would have bored most people stiff, lol. And now I suppose I'll go to bed. -
Just another day.........
2003-05-05 02:19:09
Ah, another wonderful day. I got up around 2, optimized my schedule for next year, watched some Fruits Basket with Nick, and then Ryan joined us to watch Legend of Drunken Master.
Impressions on Fruits Basket: I think Nick came up with the best description for this series when he said it's "Utena Light". If you enjoyed all interesting characters and development thereof in Utena, you'll probably like Fruits Basket. It mostly lacks the action factor (there is some, though), the problems tend to get solved much more peacefully, and the setting is quite a bit more normal as well. It's a very enjoyable show.
Impressions on Drunken Master: Best Jackie Chan film evar. 'Nuff said.
Hmm, I face a tough decision tomorrow. To talk about Magic in here or not? Meh, no one's forcing you people to read this so I'll talk about whatever I want, lol. -
Mostly judo.......
2003-05-04 04:07:48
Ok, after writing this report once and losing the entire thing to a random crash, I present the long, detailed, and rather explanatory account of my first judo tournament MARK II. If you could care less about judo, please feel free to skip to the section titled, "What else happened today."
This is my first tournament after about a month and a half of training. It was interesting to line up behind all the 5-10 year olds that outrank me =). Now for anyone reading this that has never actually met me, I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm a large person. Not fat, really. Mostly thick, wide, and beefy in the 6', 260 lb range. This puts me in the 220+ class and I was told at the start of the tournament that there were 3 other guys in my class and that none of them had any significant size and/or experience advantage over me. Unfortunately that turned out to be false. There was but one other person in my class. He was 6'2". He weighed 315 lbs. He also happened to be a black belt with extensive tournament experience. Yay.
To give you an idea of how I approached this fight I need to tell you a little bit about my training. My instructor, Hendricks-sensai, is easily the best grip-fighter in all of Oklahoma, with the obvious result that I was trained with a certain emphasis on that aspect of judo. Now it's important that you understand how important size is in judo, not so much for advantage but for the way you fight that person. You use very different moves against a tall person and a short person. Same goes for people larger or smaller than you. Sensai is a pretty big guy (240ish, I think) but I've got a couple good inches on him. There are a couple guys in the club taller than me but they weigh in around 180-220. So I've practiced with tall guys and big guys, just never at the same time.
I was clearly unprepared for this match and it showed in the first fight. The first thing I noticed as the fight began was that my opponent wasn't fighting my grip at all, which was completely foreign to me. I tried a regular hip-throw and discovered that he was far to large for that to work. He then threw me onto my side for half a point. I then tried something else I can't recall and he threw me again to win the match.
In the ten minutes between matches Mike (another of my instructors) recommended that I try tripping him in the next fight. It seemed a good idea so I figured I'd give it a whirl. I pushed him and then tried to pull him into a trip. He almost tripped me instead so I kinda abandoned that line of thinking. I tried another hip throw with a leg thrown under him (also called a hip wheel) in an attempt to solve the lift problem I had in the first match. It didn't work and I was left in a pretty vulnerable position. Then a grand coincidence occured. Right as he was about to throw me I randomly changed the direction that I was trying to move him in. The motions combined into landing him flat on his back with me on top. I won!!
Humorous aside: I'm pretty unfamiliar with the formalities of tournament judo. I was unaware that when you win you're supposed to stand in front of a little line and bow before anyone else does. I'm used to bowing while everyone else does. This resulted in everyone staring at me while I stand there not bowing, which actually meant that I refused to accept the victory. Luckly they cut me some slack and gave me the win anyways =).
Going into the third match I was fairly certain that the pure dumb luck trick wouldn't work twice, so I endevored to come up with a stategy. I figured that since he wasn't fighting my grip I'd try for me most unfair one that I know, which basically boils down to "grab him, spin him around and throw him from behind". A couple things went wrong when I tried that, the first of which was that I didn't get his arm in the right position. The second and far worse error I made was getting my left leg caught in front of his right one when trying to spin around behind him. Never being one to miss a golden opportunity, he promptly threw my flat on my back for the win.
Overall I'm very pleased with my performance. I came out and kept a huge black belt on his toes by throwing a lot of different stuff at him, which is pretty good for someone as inexperienced as I am.
What else happened today:
I got home, went to Walmart with Nick, picked up a movie, then came back and watched episodes 1-8 of Fruits Basket, which I'm enjoying quite a bit. Overall a fun and entertaining afternoon.
JOURNAL: (NERD Studios) Arturo (Andrew Alford)
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