So what did I forget to cover? Um...

BBQ on Sunday (see some pics below):
I was disgustingly hot on the weekend. Going to and from the parking lot to the IMAX theater was tolerable on Saturday, but hanging out around the house afterwards and the BBQ on Sunday (with added heat from the grill, range and stove!) was pretty bad. And I realized I haven't gotten comfortable with my camera yet. I totally didn't take enough pictures. Besides all the people and yummy food, we managed to finish the outside portion of Amy's jigsaw puzzle -- I shoulda taken a picture of that to commemorate.

What's the solution to that? Obviously, if I'm having a good time I'm going to forget to take pictures. Hmm....do I have to train myself to stop every once in a while and take pictures of memorable moments?

Monday talking:
I feel much better about myself now that I've gone back and talked to a lot of my friends about random stuff. So thanks to Michael, Sandy, Charles, and even Archanna. (And probably Wendy in the near future).

Wednesday game:
Root beer float day at the Colliseum. The Warriors mascot came up and dunked four scoops of ice cream into James's cup instead of the normal two. And I didn't take any pictures :( I have to stop being so self-conscious about taking pictures. My excuse was that I was holding my own root beer float and didn't have enough hands to take a picture. Lame...I should have just put my float down on the table somewhere.

The game itself was good. A's won 5 to 1. I was expecting Boston to score a little more since Haren's been in a little bit of a funk and the Boston offense is so strong. I wasn't inordinately surprised to see Snyder give up so many runs.

I got sunburned. Can't tell how badly yet, but my arms look pretty bad since I didn't put any sunscreen on them. Maybe I'll take pictures later...haha

Can you tell if they will connect or not? I can't. I can't even make out who's at bat... *cry* 

No telephoto lens... =( This makes a great case for the Rebel XT or the D40, but I think I'll hold off until I get comfortable taking more pictures.




Pictures of Snyder pitching. I didn't get any of Harden... *bleah* 

OK, so the Castro pictures didn't come out so good, so I took a few pics on the way up to the A's game.


Awesome! Blurred wheels, blurred background, sharp body. And I had to do this while bouncing around in Grace's car.


Another shot. Not as exciting, but I got the background to be blurrier.


At the game proper. Elvis and ?! 

I travelled to exotic locations to get these fuzzy shots! Or I just took pictures of the screensaver on the new Apple panel...


A taste of NVIDIA Speedway 500 coming on Friday. I took it for a spin -- the batteries run out quickly, and there's hardly any traction. I guess you don't want the cars flying off the track... 

The beginning of Superman Returns (i.e. the inside of the IMAX theater). If you look carefully you can see the seams.


Michael's BBQ. Don't be fooled. Jeff is the real cook. Melinda is mistakenly adding butter and water to the sauce even though the instructions say not to.


Chris bravely cooks in the scorching weather. (Although eventually it got hotter inside the house than out).


Smile James! 

As it got closer, I realized that it looked pretty emaciated. This was as close as it got before I got scared and started walking away. At the same time, a car came up from behind. I think the cat was concentrating on me and didn't realize the car was coming. So when it turned around it got spooked and ran across the street (luckily the car braked).


Um....a black cat and a huge crow. Does that mean I'm going to have bad luck? (Like say, missing the Coldsnap release tournaments?) 

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures. I was trying to take these quickly. I saw a cat just sitting in a driveway when I was out for a walk. When I stopped to take some pictures, it got up and started coming for me! 

More pictures for your enjoyment...


The night sky as seen by my camera. 30 second exposure -- I think it's overexposed. You can actually see the spin of the sky...neat!


I went out to throw my garbage away and was greeted with this sight. So either a) this spider builds webs incredibly fast or b) I didn't realize this spider web was there for weeks on end....gross!


I tried to get a picture with the sun's rays coming in from behind, but the stupid sun wouldn't cooperate. 

And then of course, I couldn't play Sealed Deck on Sunday because there were not enough people. So I guess I'm going cold turkey to PTQ on Saturday....lol.

Whoops...I ended up being too late to for the Coldsnap booster draft Release Event at Superstars. So instead I went to watch Superman Returns with everybody at the Tech Museum.

I guess I was expecting a little too much from the movie. I was under the impression that it was a pretty good movie, as far as comic book movies go. So I kinda went into the movie expecting deep, thoughtful issues to be brought up by the movie. But they weren't.

I was expecting maybe a complex villain. But Lex Luthor is made out to be just a bad villain through and through -- no complexity like Magneto. LL just gives a small speech at the beginning where he talks about how Superman is like a god who refuses to share his power. LL can't stand that. I wish they had expanded on this theme to make LL possibly a more sympathetic person (albeit someone who does deplorable acts).

The whole Christ allegory was reduced to be primarily one of visuals (like the posture after he "dies"). I wish there was a little more of that in there too.

I guess I was a little spoiled by the whole Civil War crisis going on in Marveldom. At least there you have great issues being brought up by heroes on both sides. Issues on privacy, public safety, etc., all of which have great resonance in today's world. I think that's where comic books excel...where they can provide three dimensional commentary on both sides of the conflict. As opposed to a one-dimensional bad guy who's evil "just because"

YES! This day is good for something besides comind in 2nd at my first Constructed event. *pumps fist*

Must not get hopes too high......

Round 3: etJake
I lose the flip again...he mulligans down to 5
Turn 2 Confidant
Turn 3 Electrolyzed, Hand of Honor, Isamaru
Turn 4 Char
Turn 5 Jushi Apprentice (8 to 12), Confidant
Turn 6 Keiga, attack through, Helix (3 to 14)
Turn 7 Kamano
Turn 8 chump Kamano, tried to Hit him but got Rewound

UR control, so I took out Hit, Kami, Seals and put in Castigate, Flames, and en-Vec

Game 2:
Turn 2 Confidant, Jushi
Turn 3 en-Vec gets Shaoled, Confidant gets Threaded
Turn 4 Castigate him, play Hand of Honor
Turn 5 Isamaru -- I keep hoping Confidant will kill him by revealing Keiga or something.
Turn 6 Confidant gets Shoaled
Turn 7 Castigate gets Rewound, I need red mana to Helix or Flame him! (5 to 7)
Ryusei comes out.
Turn 8 No help on the draw, Ryusei comes over (3 to 1)
Turn 9 I force 2 more damage in (1 to 1) and it's over...

Awww...But I got 4 packs, which is good for just 6 tix...

Round 2: kaspfan11
I lose the flip, mulligan to 6 with no lands, so I go to 5.
Turn 1 Isamaru
Turn 2 Savannah Lions
Turn 3 Pyroclasm
I cast Kami
Turn 4 Another Kami gets Remanded
Turn 5 Kami gets Eclectrolyzed
Kami gets Remanded again
Turn 6 Ryusei
Jitte on Kami, attacked into Ryusei
And then it all goes downhill -- I survive for another turn using Helix, but Ryusei and Keiga pwn me.

He's playing Tron, so I take out Jitte, Kami, Hand of Honor, Seals, and put in the SOlifuges, Castigates, and Blood Hands.

Game 2:
Turn 2 Confidant
Turn 3 Castigate Meloku, Confidant gets Electrolyzed
Turn 4 Solifuge
Turn 5 Isamaru, gets Hammered
Turn 6 Isamaru, Keiga
Turn 7 Attack, with Solifuge getting blocked and Isamaru getting through. Flames deals the last 4 damage.

Game 3:
Mulligan down to 6 cards -- smart move.
Turn 1 Isamaru
Turn 2 He misses his land drop, I play Confidant
Turn 3 He misses his land drop again, and then drops the connection.

I think he probably should have won. Especially if he can Pyroclasm on turn 2. If he didn't, though, he may have been in trouble. I had en-Vec, Hit, and two Chars on the way...
Woohoo...Constructed rating to 1617...I'm into deeply profitable territory...

Round 1: Dr Bocho
Win the toss, mulligan down to 6 with only one land.
Turn 1 Savannah Lions
Turn 2 Savannah Lions
Turn 3 Dark Confidant
Turn 4 Hit his Signet
He concedes.

I take a guess that he's playing some UWB deck with Heirarch. So I take out the Ancient Laws, en-Vecs, Jittes, and Seals and put in the Solifuges, Castigates and Blood Hands for pure burn.

Game 2:
Turn 1 Isamaru
Turn 2 Hand of Honor
Turn 3 He plays Descendant of Kiyomaru, which I Hit
Turn 4 Isamaru gets Mortified
Turn 5 He plays Court Hussar, I Flame him for 4 (life is now 9 to 14)
Play Solifuge, he trades with Hussar (2 to 13)
Turn 6 Fetters my Hand of Honor (6 to 13)
Play Dark Confidant, Lightning him (3 to 15)
Turn 7 Zombifies his Descendant
Dark Confidant reveals Hit/Run :(, Hit is Signet (1 to 7)
Turn 8 Attacks with Descendant, plays Kokusho (4 to 4)
Lightning him (1 to 7)
Turn 9 He attacks (4 to 2), and then plays another Kokusho. Ouch.

Game 3: He mulligans down to 5 cards.
Turn 2 Dark Confidant
Turn 3 Condemns my Confidant, I play another one
Turn 4 Confidant reveals another Hit/Run (!!), I play Hand of Honor
Fetters my Hand of Honor
Turn 5 Solifuge (14 to 9)
Turn 6 Attack (8 to 9), then Flame him for the last 8.

Yay! I win a prize! Constructed rating up to 1609

I'm about to enter my first Constructed Standard tourney...wish me luck!

Reminder to self: poo is done, but gtx is not. No publicity yet.

Yesterday was only semi-lucky. Two out of four was not bad -- that was about what I was expecting. Wish I could explain in more detail, but blogs are very dangerous. You must always protect yourself from flying little slips of colored paper that might give you a paper cut.

TapEx on Friday. Matt's dish. Now I need a picture of Scott's dish.


Matt is trying to say "Choi" à la Jigglypuff.


Someone threw a baseball from across the street and nearly hit Matt! The window broke and everything. 

Pho Hoa on Friday. Matt takes the worst pictures evar.


Gavin can't wait to eat. He's busting out the mad skillz.


Matt contemplates the great issues in life. Or he's just nodded off.

No pictures of Yujing since she hates pictures. 

Shiny shoes!


Stephanie and Albert goofing off. Watching Simpsons, I think.


The Sunnyvale memorial outside the Community Theater. The camera takes nice pictures when there's enough light. But you have to be really careful indoors. Must use the flash (if you're not embarrassed at flashing everybody).