Legend of the Five Rings
Well, I know that it's been awhile since I posted, but life's been hectic. Did a new Doctor's Office installation, VPN tunnel setup, software installation, all that good stuff. And somewhere in the midst of all of the chaos and extra hours, the interest in Legend of the Five Rings re-sparked in me.
Legend of the Five Rings is a card game that I used to play from 96-2000-esque. There wasn't a whole lot of interest in the card game around San Antonio, so I rarely did get to play it and I only ever played in one local tournament (At Skye Games years back. Unfortunately, half of my deck was stolen before the end of the tournament, so I quit shortly thereafter.) It takes place in Rokugan, which is roughly based on Feudal Japan and other East Asian cultures. It is a very fun, albeit complex collectible card game (CCG) and one I'm glad to be getting back into.
There's a pretty decent sized playgroup over at Dragon's Lair off of Fredericksburg Road on Friday nights and I've also heard that people play at Cards and Crafts on Wednesday nights, as well, although I've had no luck finding a good contact phone number for Cards and Crafts. So, I showed up a Dragon's Lair last Friday (July 30th) after finishing the installation and watched a few games be played. Wow, these guys were moving fast. Anyways, I went and bought a Crab Clan starter and looked through the cards, noticing the changes in the borders, the new keywords and art styles. All-in-all, I was impressed. I toyed around with the starter deck for awhile before starting up a solitaire game to re-familiarize myself with the rules, looking to the rulebook whenever I had a question.
It was about this time that a gentleman, one of the local playgroup and one I actually recognized him from years earlier playing MtG and such on Friday Nights at the mall, came along and introduced himself and asked if I wanted to play some friendly games to help re-learn the basics. (Unfortunately, I cannot remember the fellow's name, nor any of the others I met that night. I'm terrible with names and it normally takes me a few meetings before they stick.) Anyhoo, we started off slowly with me asking no doubt very stupid questions throughout the first game, which he absolutely demolished me at. (Not for lack of him trying not to.) I wasn't discouraged, however, and we set off on game number two. This game was far less one-sided, although he still could have destroyed me, I'm sure. With Hida Kuon and Co. in play, I began picking away at his provinces, eventually bringing him down to one before he snagged an honor win to save the day. All-in-all, it was fun and I'm glad I stopped in.
With all of the locals off to GenCon this week, I'm having to wait a whole two weeks before I can get in on any more CCG action, but I'm anxiously biding my time. I ordered some cards online which should be arriving over the next few days and I will enjoy picking through them. In the meanwhile, here's my current deck:
Shattered Peaks Castle
Dynasty (42)
Regions (1)
1 Farmlands
Holdings (18)
1 Border Keep
1 Bamboo Harvesters
1 Family Keep
3 Iron Mine
3 Large Farm
2 Barley Farm
2 Imperial Artificer
2 Permanent Encampment
1 Famous Bazaar
1 Akodo's Grave
1 Corrupt Officials
Personalities (23)
2 Hida Kaoru
3 Hiruma Rohitsu
2 Hiruma Aki
3 Hida Eijiko
1 Hida Kuon - exp6
2 Hiruma Gohachiro
3 Hiruma Masato
3 Hiruma Seiko
2 Hida Bachiatari
2 Hida Yumiya
Fate (40)
Strategies (25)
1 Turn the Tide
3 Rout
3 Extended Maneuvers
1 Settling the Homeless
1 Flanked by Nightmares
3 Encircled Terrain
1 Siege Tactics
3 The Height of Courage
2 Spearhead
2 Retribution
3 We Stand Ready
1 Laying in Wait
1 Unexpected Sympathy
Followers (11)
1 Traveling Ronin
1 Tactical Advisors
2 Untested Scouts
1 Berserkers
2 Gunso
1 Imperial Elite Guard
1 War Dogs
2 Spearmen
Items (3)
1 Radiant Steel
1 Heavenly Tetsubo of the Crab
1 Celestial Mempo of the Crab Clan
Rings (1)
1 Ring of Water
Tiago Has Arrived
And oh, did my Spurs need it.
I'm absolutely thrilled that Tiago Splitter is finally a Spur and I'm hoping that the extra seasons in Europe have helped him even more finely-tune his skills. I'm glad that we're finally going to have a real big man to accompany Tim out there. Now we just need a shooter, especially with Jefferson opting out of his contract.
Who will we be able to snag with so very little cashflow to use on someone? Time will tell. Perhaps we'll end up hoping to find a diamond in the rough with one of our Summer League entries. For a list of who is still available on the free agency market, mosey on over to SI's site.
I'm only somewhat excited about this season, as I'm not overly thrilled with many of the going-on's around the league. Perhaps the most disconcerting for me, was adequately expressed by my friend Ethan:
I miss when great players were rivals determined on being number one. Not lazy ass people happy to make 100 million and vomit up some rings that dont mean anything because there was no competition. You cant take 3/5ths of the all-star team on one team. Those are players who are clearly not very driven as competitors. They want money and glory and get no pride in the game itself. Michael Jordan would have killed himself before agreeing to play with one of his rivals; he had to beat them to be happy. These players just dont care about the game per se, its all image and media. It would be so bad for the league for the heat to win because nobody will care. You have these great guys who could be creating awesome rivalries and dynasties and really boosting the league but instead theyre gonna make sure they profit to the max at everyone elses expense.
Miami will either tear it up this coming season or fizzle out on the backs of too many star players. We shall see. Either way, no doubt there are many things coming over the next two years that very well may change the NBA for forever. We'll see if it's for better or for worse.
The Tale of the Angry Washer
So, as most of you know, this past weekend was Independence Day weekend, with Sunday being July the 4th. Seeing as I had Monday off work, I decided to make the trip up to the parents' house in Burleson, Texas. This normally isn't a long trip, ranging from 3 hours to 4 hours typically. Well, Friday it took almost 7 hours, thanks to some absolutely wonderful traffic on i35 North. I had hoped we would beat the rushing traffic for the holiday, as we'd managed to get on the road at about 2pm.
Once we finally arrived, the weekend was enjoyable. I had the first cheeseburger I've had in about a month, went and saw The Last Airbender in 3D at The Hulen Movie Tavern. -- Good food and great seats. The movie wasn't as terrible as I was expecting, but it left much to be desired for a fan of the show. On Sunday, we got together with some friends of my parents, messed around in their pool, played some cards, talked and had some pretty kick-ass Sangria margaritas.
Unfortunately, Lila had to work Monday evening, so we opted to make the late night drive home. Leaving Burleson at about midnight, we traversed the cop-laden highway and made our way home, landing at approximately 3 AM. - Needless to say, I was tired, as I hadn't slept well while we were in Burleson, due to some whistling vents and not having my blankie. We promptly passed the hell out after taking the dog out.
Monday morning rolls around. I have breakfast, waffles with Lite Syrup and two eggs. Not too shabby! After eating, I take Chloe out and on the way back upstairs, I notice I big puddle and water rolling down the wall on the second floor's landing... directly beneath my apartment. And sure enough, when I opened the door to my apartment, I was greeted by water-laden carpets, sinking feet, and electronics that were in danger of being shorted.
Apparently, the washer decided it didn't want to continue its wash cycle and simply kept filling the wash basin, causing water to keep running and eventually to overfill. I was able to move all of the electronics in time (hopefully, as I haven't tested the computer, external HD, etc.) and thankfully none of the tax files, etc. were soaked. Putting ourselves to work with beach towels, a pitcher, busy hands and soaking feet, we worked diligently to soak up as much water as possible while waiting for maintenance to arrive.
Unfortunately, the wait for maintenance was rather long, due to it being a holiday, but eventually Jesse (SP?) arrived and immediately went about finding the problem with the washer as well as calling their carpet guy. Another few hours passed before he showed up and worked on extracting the water from the carpet. The carpet in the corner of my living room was pulled up and a fan was installed to blow air beneath the carpet to dry it and the carpet pad. This fan is loud and I've had it running now for over 48 hours straight now. Needless to say, I've gotten again very little sleep and Lila says despite the fan that it's starting to smell of mildew. I have no idea what mildew smells like, but there is indeed an odor.
I'm hoping to hear from the carpet guy soon and our new Samsung High-Effiency Front-Load Washer and Dryer set will be delivered tomorrow from Lowes.
Thus far, $1140 spent. We'll see if it goes any higher.
Cheers.
Sleepless In San Antonio
It was one of those nights, last night. I went to bed at eleven o-clock, after taking the day off work to rest (I've been extremely tired the past few weeks and I'm not sure why. It worked, as I felt very refreshed throughout the day.) and I laid in bed for about three hours, tossing, turning, and staring at the ceiling. Eventually, I grew tired of that and went to the couch. Another few hours there with the fans on, restless again, and I eventually returned to bed. Finally made it to sleep around 5 or 6 am, just in time to wake up for work. Awsomeness!
Anyhoo, hoping today goes by fairly quickly, so I can get the workout over with and rest more.
Intro to Brian
Howdy, folks. My name is Brian and this here is my 'blog'. Things will be starting off slow here, no doubt, but I hope they'll be picking up soon. I live in San Antonio, TX and work for a small IT company as a technical support rep. To find out more about me, please check out the About section.
The main reason for this blog is for me to chronicle the things I've seen, done, track my progress as I work to achieve various goals, and to post thoughts or things in general that I find interesting. I'll be blogging about many different things and any and all feedback or comments are appreciated.
My first goal: Achieving better health and losing weight.
While I may not be hugely overweight, I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be.
My plan: Exercise and eating better. Currently, my exercise schedule is as follows:
Monday: Cardio
Tuesday: Weight Training
Wednesday: Cardio
Thursday: Weight Training
Friday: Cardio
Saturday: Cardio
Sunday: Rest
I'm allowing myself a Daily Calorie Budget of 2186 calories. - I will be tracking my calorie intake with the LoseIt! app for the iPhone and tracking my exercising with the wonderful GymGoal app for the iPhone.
At the end of each week, I will be posting my progress, workout routines and anything else I find that is of worth.