An Indepth Look Into A Geek's Soul

I decided to try out some drafting tonight, just to see how it would go.  You know, get a good start on one of the resolutions that I have set for myself.  It did not go so very well.  In fact, I went 0-3.  Rather abysmal if you ask me, which I know you would if you were near me.  I should have written down the cards that I drafted, and in what order, but alas, I did not.  I cannot even recall my deck list.  In future updates on my Magic games, I will try to remember to write down exactly what it is I am doing.  I can go back and replay games (at least until all of the matches are over), so I can give you guys a play by play if you really want.  Just let me know in the comments below.

My deck was a blue/green one that tried to run both some combat tricks backed by big creatures.  It did not work really as well as I planned.  I don't think I played a single creater with a toughness greater than two.  I blame this mostly upon not getting enough land.  I later went through my decklist and found that I only had fourteen lands.  Definitely thought I was running four more than that.  A rookie mistake.  Well, at least I am aware of it, and can take care not to let something that stupid happen again.

Not everything is bad though.  I did end up getting some cards that I think might sell for a little bit of money online.  This will at least help to ease the pain of loosing.  I believe that the card that will fetch me the most is Lux Cannon, which is a mythic rare even if I think it kind of sucks.  It takes three turns to kill something.  Most other cards are a bit quicker, what makes this one take its time.  In fact, I'm looking it up right now.  Lets see what it comes up with online for a price.

Looks like 1.5 tickets, which is about $1.50.

Oh well.

Peace Out.

That is right people!  The Top Ten list is back!  For this Monday at least.  I figured that since we are newly into another year, I should start this off right by actually updating a somewhat regular occurance here on my site.  In honor of the new year, I decided to do my top resolutions for the year.  Do I plan on really doing all of them?  No, not really, but I am going to try.  These are all things that I've wanted to do for awhile now, so why not hunker down and actually do them?

Number Ten:  Winning a Magic Tournament

Starting off this year's list of resolutions is a hobby of mine.  After going to countless tournaments and participating in a variety of online matches against virtual opponents, I came to the conclusion that I really would like to win a tournament.  I'm not talking about the World Championship or a Grand Prix or anything like that.  I just would like to win a low key tournament.  I don't mind if it is down at Northland Games for Friday Night Magic, or if it is on Magic Online, battling people from around the world.  It will most likely be in a limited format, as I do not have the money to build a tournament worthy constructed deck.  To get to the point where I can stand a reasonable chance of winning, I plan on simply practicing.  Nothing really beats that.  I will of course try to stay a bit more current with the ebb and flow of the game, reading articles and that such thing, but nothing beats actually trying out the all the stategies that are being thrown around.  With any luck, I'll have a win under my belt by summer.

Number Nine:  Regularly Updating this Website

Oh yeah, it is this good old resolution again.  This is one of those things that I am just horrible at, yet constantly try to improve upon.  I know that it does not take a lot to update;  all I need to do is pick a topic and write and rant about it.  I think the biggest reason I do not is a lack of motivation.  I'm not sure why either.  It might have something to do with me losing my gusto on any subject the more I write about it.  Who knows.  This site will be updated more, though.  I plan on adding a new area by late winter/early spring and getting rid of a few of the current areas that are already on here.  Anyone reading this should let me know how the changes are when I get around to making them.

Number Eight:  Working on my Car

I resolve to improve my mechanical skills when it comes to my car.  I pretty much never want to have to resort to the above picture.  This is not because I don't think that it is an awesome idea, but because I want to always have my car in a working, Pringles free condition.  This is something that I do not plan on working on until the middle of spring, mostly because my dislike of the cold is greater than the love of my car.  I do not plan on doing huge repairs on the car, at least not right away.  I want to do things like replace the fluids in the my car, be it windshield wiper fluid or the oil.  Until warmer weather comes my way, I will make my car nicer simply by keeping the inside of it clean, something that I'm sure my very patient girlfriend will enjoy.

Number Seven:  Staying True to Myself

This is one of my more wishy-washy resolutions.  By this, I simple mean I want to be more of what I feel is the real me.  I don't want to bend over backwards for people just to have them like me.  If people don't like what I'm doing, then tough.  I am my own person, and if you don't appreciate my hobby or the way I act or something like that, then there are plenty of other people in the world.  A lot of people won't notice this change.  The people I really care about, like Megan, already know how I act, and I don't plan on changing how I act around them.  This is mostly for those people (and customers) who get all pissy when I do the slightest thing wrong.  To them I say this:  good bye.

Number Six:  Reading Twenty Six Books

This resolution is one of those that are meant to better myself.  I plan on reading a box every other week for all of 2011.  I have already started this with Star Trek Titan:  Taking Wing, a book about Riker taking command of his own starship in a whole new series.  I won't plan on reading only one genre the entire time etiher.  I will try to mix it up every time I finish a book, moving between fiction and nonfiction, as well as trying to hit up a lot of the genres.  No longer will I locked into those science fiction and fantasy books, even if they will be well represented.  How will you readers know how I am doing on this quest?  Just check the site;  I will be keeping a running update.

Number Five:  Listening Better

I have a problem when it comes to listening.  I am terrible at it.  Megan could tell me do something or pick up something from the store and chances are I will forget.  This is something that will be changed.  I feel that by listening better, it will make me an overall better person.  At the very least, it will make my very loving (and patient) girlfriend happy.  It could also lead to higher grades and better results when it comes to things dealing with jobs and other tasks set before me.  The biggest thing to work on is focus and memorization.  I need to focus on the person when they talk and try my best to remember it, possibly by writing it down real quick or by repeating it in my head several times.  This is something that should be affect all aspects of my life.

Number Four:  Earning 4.0's

As the clipart above shows, I plan on getting a 4.0 on both of my next college semesters.  It did sting me something fierce when I recieved a 3.88 on my last semester GPA.  Yeah, I know, it is nothing huge, one 3.5 out of all the classes I've taken at NMC so far, but it represented a lack of excellence that I know I am able to attain in any of my classes.  I will rectify this situation by doing better this time around.  I may have blown my chances at achieving the 4.0 overall GPA that I wanted to get, but I can at least  try to get the next best thing.

Number Three:  Managing my Money

With any luck, I will someday invent this money tree.  As it stands right now, I am sitting with a little under $200 in my bank account, which is the most that I've had in weeks.  This money is all but gone even as I speak now.  I have books that I have to buy, gas tanks that need filling, and presnets that need buying (damn, forgot about the presents I need to buy for the folks).  I simply cannot figure out how to manage my money effectively.  Megan seems to do it without a problem.  Yes, I realize she makes a bit more than I do, but she also buys a lot more than I do and doesn't manage to get overwhelmed by all of the bills she has to pay, which are many.  I need to sit down every time that I get a paycheck and plan out where each dollar will go.  Doing this will help me see the flow of cash and possibly tie up any loose ends that might get away from me.

Number Two:  Loosing Weight

Ultimately, I want to get down to about 160 lbs.  That is roughly thirty pounds  lighter than I am right now.  This comes to about three pounds or so every month.  This is probably the most daunting resolution that I will apply to myself.  It will be a lot of work.  I need to improve the way I eat, work out more, and probably get more sleep.  I'm honestly not sure if I will complete this one.  I will have my motivation in a healthier me, which will help to reduce a lot of my stress.  Plus, Megan will be here, working out much harder than I am.  I'll do it for her as well, so she'll have some arm candy to show off.

Number One:  Get a New Job

I am just tired of Best Buy.  Time for a new job.

So there you have it.  The first Top Ten of 2011.  I hope that you all enjoy it.  Let me know what your resolutions are for the new year in the list below.

Peace Out!

I never thought that I would ever get to the point in my life where I thought, "Hey, I'm in the future."  Turns out that I managed to make it to that point, though.  I'm not sure when exactly it happened, but I know that it is indeed happening now.  What makes me so certain of this?  Robots.  They seem to be cropping up everywhere nowadays.  All kind of robots too.  Not just mindless drones, but some smart ones too.

I think I came to this realization the other day when I was at the local organic food shop.  I was waiting in line for Megan to buy her stuff when I happened to look over at the magazine rack.  There, on the cover or some magazine that I didn't care to remember, was there headline "ACLU Creates List of Robot Rights."  Yeah, that's right, robots now have rights at ACLU.  Think about that.  I couldn't bring myself to pick up the magazine to find out exactly what rights they were offered, but I silently wondered if they had more rights than gays did.  It wouldn't surprise me if they did.  Seems like something ACLU would do.

A few days before that, while watching some random show on Hulu, there was a commercial for Roomba.  They were using a tagline that went something like "you too could own a robot."  That is not it exactly, but the message was still something like that.  Basically what I got was that having a robot is common place, so why the hell don't you have one yet.  Really?  Robots are that common? 

These two things combined to make a picture of a cheap science fiction novel written in the 1960's that takes place in 2005, where everything is different.  People own robots, who just gained the right to vote, all while driving electric cards.  Alien contact happened in the late 90's and mankind is just now beginning to reap the rich technological rewards of their interaction with this new species.  Overall, it's rather pulpy and all together futuristic.  Still, all I can say, is that future is now.  Well, almost.  No aliens yet.

Peace Out.

Yep, it's true.  School is out for the winter.  Well, for me at least.  I hope the rest of my finals today and now I'm done for good with them.  Well, sort of.  I still need to know what I'll get, but I have a rough idea of how well I will be able to do.  I'm thinking that I'll end up this semester with around a 3.7 GPA.  Yeah, it's a bit lower than I would like (gotta go for the 4.0's man, you just gotta) but still not too terrible.  I can live with that.  Gives me something to improve upon next semester.

Next semester will be the beginning of my junior year and I think that it will also be when classes actually start getting challenging.  The classes I had this semester weren't cakewalks, but I don't think that they really challenged me all that much.  Mostly it was a lot of cramming at the last minute, which I hardly consider challenging.  It was just work I could push off until the very last minute.  That kind of work isn't all bad though.  Gave me more free time than I'm probably going to have for the rest of my life.

I think one of my bigger goals for next year is going to be to devote myself more fully to my school work.  I don't hold it in high esteem at the moment, and I know that is one of my weak spots.  As soon as the work does start getting rough, I know I'm likely to just curl into a ball and give up on it.  I have to overcome that if I want to be a successful accountant.  If I can improve upon this now, then I can use that newfound ability to be succesful in life.

Peace Out.

I've noticed that as I slowly drift off to sleep, I almost always have a great idea for an update to this website.  I tend to think about it for a good twenty minutes or so before finally falling to sleep.  These ideas range anywhere from something insightful on the events of the day to an awesome new keyword they should make for the next Magic set.  The biggest problem I have with these ideas is that by that time of night, I'm too worn out to really do anything with them.  I would love to write them down or type them up, but I don't want to turn on my light to do so.  Such a bright, glaring object in the quiet stillness of the night just seems too jarring.  It seems like it would expel the idea from my head.

It is a big reason why I wish I had darkvision.  I would love to be able to see in the dark just so I could do the little things like jot down my silly ideas.  I have tried just writing my ideas down blindly onto a page, and it goes so-so, but the text is often unreadable and it can be frustrating to do this with every idea.  If darkvision was one of my powers, I honestly would have this site updated a lot more regularly.  It seems a shame to have so many of my ideas go to waste because I cannot put them into words.

Now, I'm not saying that everything I come up with is gold.  In fact, I'm lucky if most of it is copper.  It is just in my opinion that more gold comes when I get sleepier.  This probably is not true, and often times I will wake up in the morning, recall what I thought, and be glad that I do not have this darkvision.  That seems to be something that most people do though.  Oh well though, not a lot one can do about it.  Not everyone can be as sweet as dwarves.

Peace Out.

I voted today.  No really, I did.  It was my first time too.  That is right, I did not help to elect Obama as our first black President.  My girlfriend threatened to not marry me because of the fact.  I guess I did not think of as such a big deal.  I know better now.

For a first time voter, everything seemed to go fairly easy.  There was some spare time between classes which help out tremendously, actually allowing me to vote this year.  We got to the voting place and my girlfriend and I went our seperate ways to vote (even if our votes ended up being almost the same).  Off to precinct 3!  I filled out my information on a piece of paper, got my ballot, and proceeded to do my American give right.

I found the ballot instructions to be only somewhat confusing.  The biggest thing was that I was told to write my information in pencil, then instructed to use only blue or black ink, and then given a felt tip marker to do the entire thing.  I delved in and followed the instructions as best I could.  Also, turns out that you don't need a voter registration card to vote.  Man, I love democracy.

How did I vote you silently wonder?  Mostly randomly, though heavily (maybe even obesely) to the left.  Is this the most prudent way to vote?  Not even closer.  Is it timely and efficient?  You bet your ass it is.  Why did I chose to do it this way?  Mostly because I know little of the current political scene in Michigan.  The only issue that I really wanted solved is to have all of Holiday repaved because it is a hellhole.  Unfortunately, there was no such proposition on the ballot.  It was show down last time it was up for a vote from what I hear.  Oh wel, nothing you can do about it (besides vote!). 

Pretty much, I'm just telling you guys to get out there and vote the next time around.  Even if you don't care that much, cast a vote anyways.  It is your civic duty.

Peace Out.

In the long line of Pokemon games, this one is the latest to capture my eye.  Pokemon Black White has been released recently in Japan and will slowly be coming to America sometime in Spring of 2011.  You better believe that I will be getting one of them, though I'm not sure which one yet.  I'm leaning towards Black, but I'm willing to lean either way.  I finally broke down and looked at the list of all the new pokemon that will be available in the new generation (Generation V) of the games, and I thought I'd share with you guys my first impressions.  I honestly mostly just looked at the picture and typing when deciding on these guys.  My information came from Serebii.net and Bulbapedia.

Also, all the names are in Japanese still.  Also, just going alphabetically by their Japanese names, just so it does not appear that I'm biased.

Archeos is a Rock/Flying type pokemon.  I love this combination and wish that we had more choices when it came to this rather unusual type combination.  I did look a litter deeper into this one than the others and it has this weird ability, called Timid, that makes its Attack and Special Attack stats drop by half when Archeos is at half HP or lower.  However, he has the highest base stats of any non-legendary pokemon except for Slaking, so I think I'll have fun with him.  Just need to people fast and hard.

Our next pokemon, Gigigear, was picked solely on looks.  It is a pure Steel type pokemon, bring with it a lot of the defenses and restistances they all come with.  It would not surprise me if it also brings the slow speed and so-so move pool.  However, my love of Steel types has grown stronger with each generation and I'm almost positive I'll have him on my team for a little bit, if not to beat the Elite 4.  Plus, it looks a new version of Magneton.  Always a plus.

This lovely creature is named Goruugu.  I know, a lot of vowels for such an awesome guy.  His type you ask?  Ground/Ghost.  WHAT?  I know, it's crazy.  The first one of  his type?  Hell yeah.  Is it an awesome typing?  I like to think so, but hey, I don't know anything about competitive battling, so I could be wrong.  At any rate, I just like the fact that he can learn both Earthquake and and and.... some awesome Ghost move.  I think he has Shadow Punch?  That sounds sweet.

This guy will be on my team simply because he's one of the starters.  Jalorda is a rather nifty Grass type pokemon.  Interesting fact?  Only starter ever with no legs.  I kid you not, look it up. I'm a sucker for grass pokemon, despite their rather, well lets say lackluster, performance.  If I had any qualms, it woul dbe his rather hipsterish look on his face.  He's only playing a pokemon cause it's the ironic thing to do.  I'll be sure to help him get over those feelings.  Should definitely be a blast playing with him.

This lovely Bug/Steel type pokemon is Shubarugo.  I like him only because he look slike a knight and has a lance.  Or two.  It's a little hard to tell, but I think there's another one back there.  The typing isn't unique;  older pokemon had it and there is a slew of new ones that have it.  I just like the style of this one.  I think that is all that matters in some cases.  Who cares how strong the pokemon is so long as you like playing it?    I play for fun, not to win (though winning is nice).  Also, look at this dude's helmet.  Who wouldn't want to rock one of those bad boys?

And last, but certainly not least, is the mighty brute, Terrakion.  This is one rough and tumble Rock/Fighting pokemon.  In all fairness, I probably won't use him on my team, but I'll but him here anyways.  Why won't I use him on my team you ask?  I have learned that he is one of the legendary pokemon in the game,  much along the lines of Moltres.  Still, I think that he has an awesome typing, something that makes me think of a brick wall that fights back (sorta like Wall from Monster Rancher 2).  He at the very least is one of the legendaries that I'm looking forward to hunting down.

So yeah, have you guys done any investigating into the new Pokemon games?  Have any favorites?  Have any guys you just plain on hate?  Leave the comments down below.

Peace Out.

You know, school really puts me in an awkward position.  On one hand, I really like.  On the other, it's utterly stupid and pointless.  I know what you are thinking.  "But Jon, you haven't even started school yet, why are you complaining about it so early this year?"  I'm not trying to complain it about guys.  Really.  The only thing I really want to complain about is money and paying for school and all of that fun jazz.  I just feel that there is too much needed to get aid for paying for school and books and the like.  Honestly, I have to fill out the FASFA, which not only requires my social security number, tax forms, W-2's, and a load of other things, but also my mom's information as well.  Yet, even though this is more than enough to get money from the government, it's not enough to get money from NMC.  Awesome.  I have to give them copies of the exact same things.  Really?  Just because you are the small guys you have to give us hell so you can stick it to the federal government?  Honestly?

It's not toing to be all bad.  I mean yeah, some classes are sure to suck, but I have a feeling that most of my classes will be on the more enjoyable side.  Plus, with me being on campus more, I get to work less at the hellhole of a job that has become Best Buy.  Yeah, that means less money, but at the same time it also means that I get to spend more time hanging out at the writing center with Megan.  She's been awesome in helping me stay calm during all of this hassle of a new school year.  I don't know what I would do without here.

Peace Out.

Welcome back to yet another amazing update on what's going on in the world of Azeroth.  In today's post, we'll delve into a few new instances that I've run, a couple of new items that I've recieved, and just how the game is going so far.  But first, here is an up to date picture:

Yeah, I know, crazy.  I'm at level 35 already.  Who would have ever thought that?  Not me, that's for sure.  I'm getting some pretty sweet abiities too, though a lot of them I just don't use all that often because I just don't need to.  Maybe it's the fact that my armor is rocking out already, but I only tend to use a couple of my abilities.  THe other ones are there for looks or as a just in case type of deal, but no real value besides that.  I wonder if other people have that same problem with their characters.

I ran a few more dungeons too.  One of them was Razorfen Kraul and the other was Gnomeragon.  Both were rather blah in my opnion.  Razorfen was super long, taking our party almost 2 hours to complete it all.  It was crazy.  Not sure if I liked that all too much.  It was the more fun between the two of the them however.  Gnomeragon was just kind of a drag that stretched on and got you lost.  I don't think it helped that the party memebers were a little on the clueless side either.

I'm wearing a lot more high end loot now though.  Well, higher end at least.  I currently have five blues (rares) equiped, which is a lot for me.  I do rather like my new axe that I looted off of a boss (I think the one from Razorfen Kraul).  It's an axe and all, but it looks more like a club that someone stuck a bunch of progessively bigger spikes through.  All in all, it's pretty damn cool.

One thing I think that I might do would be to start collecting weapons/armor/items that just look coold on your character.  They would just be put into my bank in the game, not really using up any space, but there for me to pull out in case I ever needed to use them for some random reason.  I'll probably wear them around sometimes, just to look all flashy and stylish.  So far there are only a few items in there, but I'm sure that will grow as I get farther into the game.

Until next time folks.

Peace Out.

Lets start with the picture.  It's a good way to start.  Trust me on this one.

In case you were wondering, the answer is yes, I am using a rolling pin to smite the unholy blight that covers the land.  Also, I did not help with Mor'Ladin.  I just took the picture and left.  Honest.

I have some relatively big news to talk about:  I completed my first couple of dungeons!  Woot.  Yeah, it is nothing too huge for most people but I'm glad that I finally was able to achieve something like that.  The first one that I completed was the Deadmines.  It was fairly easy to do.  Being a protection warrior, I was the tank.  Pretty much I take all the damage and get all the attention of the enemies so the more squishy people don't get hurt. 

Well, nothing huge came of that excpet for a couple of quest rewards and some nice presents.  I also go my first rare piece of equipment.  No, it wasn't until my second time through that I was able to get my awesome rolling pin of doom.  It is nice and it hurts people and I rather like it.

Anyways, that it mostly.  I ran the Stormwind Stockades, which are pretty much a dungeon set in a rioting prison.  It was rather short and the group was rather angry, so it wasn't as enjoyable.  Oh well though, they aren't all nice groups.

Peace Out.