Eddie

Starting Monday, I will be a web developer at Zynga.

Discuss.

Yesterday, I went to SF with some friends to watch Objectified (and have yummy Mitchell’s ice cream). The film really cemented in my mind that designing and engineering are much more similar than most people realize. Both involve finding pragmatic solutions to everyday (or perhaps not-so everyday) problems. That’s all for now.

Earlier in the day, I asked for Tansen’s luck to help me open an Elspeth at tonight’s FNM (Friday Night Magic) draft. It’s the most-important—and most-expensive—card that I’m missing from Shards of Alara. Guess what? The guy across the table opened one and my only match loss was against that guy. In the deciding game, he was able to deal just enough damage to kill me because of Elspeth. =/

Starting with me and going left around the the table, here’s what the nine players in my draft pod drafted: Jund (me), Jund, Naya, Jund, 5-color good stuff, Bant (with Elspeth), Naya, Naya, Naya. Yes, we had six consecutive players fighting over red and green. Halfway through the Shards pack, I realized something was up because I kept seeing so many blue cards left in the packs. But I couldn’t bring myself to not use my first-pick Kresh the Bloodbraided.

Even with all the other Jund/Naya drafters, somehow I ended up with this crazy-powerful and crazy-consistent deck:

Goblin Deathraiders
Grixis Grimblade
Nacatl Outlander
Putrid Leech
Viashino Slaughtermaster
Ember Weaver

Rhox Brute
Blitz Hellion (first-pick from Alara Reborn)
Bloodpyre Elemental
Fusion Elemental (seriously! Check out all my mana-fixing)
Kresh the Bloodbraided (first-pick from Shards of Alara)
Igneous Pouncer

Magma Spray
2 × Wretched Banquet
Dark Temper (first-pick from Conflux)
2 × Fiery Fall (got both in back-to-back picks)

Colossal Might
Naturalize
Deny Reality
Voices from the Void

Mistvein Borderpost
Veinfire Borderpost
Arcane Sanctum
Jund Panorama
5 × Forest
Island
6 × Mountain
Plains
Swamp

Kresh was a huge beating. In one game, I had a Rhox Brute staring down a Wild Leotau. I played Kresh and attacked with my Brute. My opponent decided to trade and suddenly my Kresh was a 12/12. It grew to 27/27 by the time I won that game.

The two Fiery Falls were my MVPs though. In at least half the games I played, my opening hand was Mountain, non-green mana source, Fiery Fall, and red/green spells. With Fiery Fall, I was able to search out a Forest for turn 3 and never miss playing a threat each turn from then on.

It’s pretty amazing how far point-and-shoots have progressed in the last 7 years. They are smaller, lighter, cheaper (remember inflation), able to resolve much more detail, and have much more vibrant displays. I recently bought my mom a Canon SD1200 and wow, it is quite svelte compared to my old, clunky S200.

Leftover lettuce, tomatoes, and onions from salad last night + Trader Joe’s multi-grain sourdough that my family normally buys + deli pastrami and thousand island dressing = awesome sandwiches for dinner. I still have more leftover lettuce, tomatoes, and onions though. We have what looks to be a broiler pan, so I’m considering using the oven to cook avocado burgers in the near future.

(I’m aware that I’m 10 days behind.)

I heard about it from my friend Jay just now. Here’s the Associated Press story covering the incident. UC Berkeley has set up a website with information for affected students.

Hackers infiltrated UC Berkeley databases that contained the personal information of 160,000 students and alumni. The information includes Social Security numbers. UC Berkeley has sent out notices to affected individuals. If you have not received a notice, the datatheft website linked above has a hotline that you can call to check whether or not you have been affected.

I called and luckily, I am not affected. Neither is Jay.

The problem with the board game Modern Art is that it’s both the game I’m most eager to introduce to other people and probably the most fun game I own. So once I introduce people to Modern Art, what game do I follow it up with?

(Yes, Modern Art > Bang. No, Puerto Rico is still my favorite board game. The catch is that most people won’t like Puerto Rico and the game is complicated to explain.)

I almoooost 3-0′ed the draft last night at Game Kastle. I think I was in the weaker of the two 8-man pods and I ended up with a decent, aggressively-curved deck (deck list): Rip-Clan Crasher / Goblin Deathraiders / Jund Hackblade at the two, Ember Weaver / Vithian Renegades at the three, and Marisi’s Twinclaws / Rhox Brute at the four leading into Apocalypse Hydra as a finisher. I had good pump spells though (Colossal Might / Demonspine Whip / Maniacal Rage), so the hydra wasn’t necessary. I ended up only drawing it twice and playing it once.

What kept me from 3-0 was back-to-back, out-of-left-field beatings in round 1 from a Predator Dragon that my opponent added to his deck five seconds before we shuffled up. In game 1, I even stabilized the board with Apocalypse Hydra only to get blown out by Predator Dragon two turns later.

Of course, I blame his dragon, but the real problem was that I badly needed another Swamp in my deck so I could reliably play my RB two-drops. In both games of round 1, there were several turns where I couldn’t do anything because I had Mountain+Forest in play, but a hand full of red-black cards. After round 1, I swapped a Mountain for a Swamp and the next two rounds went swimmingly. (Ember Weaver + Demonspine Whip = awesome).

Mike Davis on the swine flu crisis:

Meanwhile, one of its first victims has been the consoling faith, long preached by the World Health Organisation, that pandemics can be contained by the rapid responses of medical bureaucracies, independent of the quality of local public health.

Didn’t we also think we could prevent another Great Depression with swift monetary and fiscal policy? Oops, I think we’re oh-for-two.

A couple of tidbits from my recent phone-buying experience.

Buying a $200-phone with a $100 instant rebate and $50 mail-in rebate from a physical T-Mobile store results in sales tax calculated from the $200 price. However, buying the phone through T-Mobile’s customer service results in sales tax calculated from the final $50 price. That’s a $15 savings right there. I doubt I’ll ever buy a phone from the store ever again, though I think it’s essential to actually hold the phone before deciding to buy.

I’m locked to T-Mobile for two years again, so I’m hoping Apple’s exclusivity deal with AT&T comes to an end and Apple brings the iPhone to T-Mobile. A T-Mobile iPhone with UMA support would be even hotter.

Of course, instead of signing a new contract, I could have switched to AT&T. Customer service should count for something though. I have heard a lot of negatives and zero positives regarding AT&T’s customer service. I don’t think even the iPhone is worth it if you have to sit through customer service hell whenever anything goes wrong.

(Was that a cheap way to catch up on posts? I backdated this by 70 hours.)