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First | Previous | Next | Current Tuesday, May 25, 2004--I played FFTA today. That's about it. *TA*Storyline Mission 4: There were some crazed monsters, which I had to destroy. After killing them off, Montblanc says that rumor is there is a crystal which drives animals mad. Crystal, huh? ...there should be four of them. Storyline Mission 5: I fell into a warp by the river and found a crystal, then had to fight Famfrit (who's name sounds like a cheap rip-off of Ifrit). He was easy, though, possibly because I had gotten lots of levels from all those optional missions I had been doing. Storyline Mission 6: Rescuing Ezel Berbier, and now I can use Law and Anti-law cards!*TA* A Year Ago Today: "Well, I have a girl who is a friend... I mean, I have a friend who is a girl. I don't have a girl." Anyways... that's pretty much it. Hmm... Albert says I should add more spice to my entries, but you know, there's not really much to say. When I have something interesting to say, I'll say it, but for now, if you want entertainment, you can either read game spoilers that I post (like the one today) or the MTG stuff, (like the pre-released on Sunday). I can't write philosophical tangents unless inspired (or expired)... Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 4 = 10 Good Night! Monday, May 24, 2004--Some kid wrote in my guestbook, "More posts about Karen!" My response: "Why?" I mean, it's not like I have anything interesting to say about Karen, other than the occasional anecdote involving her and the other TBPeople (and other than in response to your comment). Karen doesn't approve either, by the way. Anyways, A Year Ago Today: I buy FFOrigins. Anyways, today, I woke up, ate lunch, picked up Franklin, worked on Dark Fiends, not much. Oh, yeah, I'm resuming work on Dark Fiends. I have some ideas, but it'll take a chapter or two to get there. In the mean time, Dark Fiends Chapter 52 will be up later tonight (hopefully). Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 6 = 11 Hmm... boredom overcomes me. I need to do some thing... yes... something... Good Night! Sunday, May 23, 2004--Franklin barged into my room and challenged me to an MTG duel, so I did. He wanted to test out his new red-blue deck. So I duel him a bunch of times with my Slivers, and win every time, because my Slivers have evolved thanks to multiple encounters with Justin's Goblins... but at one point he gets out his Isochron Scepter imprinted with Counterspell... which was enough to put the fear in me and it stalled the game so that I had to go through half my deck before I was finally able to beat him. But I still won. A Year Ago Today: Ke: Come on, Dwayne, it's only 2 classes. It won't make a difference. Me: Yes, it's only 2 classes, so it won't make a difference if I ditch them. Then, I went to the 5th Dawn Pre-release. I arrived at 1pm and signed up for the second individual flight. Unfortunately, I had to wait until 3:30, because they needed more people to sign up, but after that, it was all good. They gave me a Promotional Foil Helm of Kaldra just for signing up. Then, they gave me a Mirrodin Tournament Pack and three 5th Dawn Booster Packs. In my Mirrodin Pack, the only memorable cards I got were a Banshee's Blade and a Spikeshot Goblin, both of which I used for a tremendous effect. In my 5th Dawn boosters, I got a Beacon of Destruction, which I chose not to run, and a Crucible of Worlds, which I also chose not to run. In uncommon, I got an Energy Chamber, which combo'ed really well with the Banshee's Blade and the Skyhunter Skirmisher, which I also got from the boosters. In common, I got a Cranial Plating, aka "Nim Helmet" and a Vulshok Sorcerer, which should have been called a Vulshok Sorceress, because she was a woman. Both of those commons were pretty killer, and the Nim Helmet was good even if you're not playing black. So they gave us 30 minutes to look through the cards and build a deck. During that time, I looked through my cards, sorted them, and eventually picked out my colors (red and white... only later cutting out green), but by then, they said I only had 3 minutes left to build my deck, so I hurriedly built my red-white deck in only three minutes. At first, I thought I'd be screwed, seeing as I spent so little time building my deck, but after playing with it, I realized I was quite happy with it, especially with all the Energy Chamber doing all this shit for me. First round, I played with a man named Greg, who quickly learned that Banshee's Blade is a pretty dangerous card, at least in my hands it was. So in games 2 and 3, as soon as he saw the damn blade, he would Stasis Cocoon the damn thing before I attached it to any of my creatures. I won game 1 with my Energy Chamber. He won game 2 with his Vedalken Shackles, which is annoying as hell and reminds me of when Franklin used to play his Seasingers on me. If I managed to kill the creature he controlled, he would simply take another one. Ugh! How annoying. Needless to say, Greg won. In the third game, we ran out of time, so overall, it was a draw. Second round, I played this kid who's name I forget who also drew. He played a green-black (and possibly some other color that I didn't see) that used three Dross Crocodiles. Unfortunately, he never had a chance to do much with them because my Goblin Striker has first strike, so even though he's a 1/1, he could kill a Dross Crocodile and survive. That and, he was equipped with the Nim Helmet, which made him especially deadly. Needless to say, I creamed him hella fast two games in a row. When all was said and done, he said that my deck was "Surprisingly fast". After taking a break and finally getting to look through my deck (and realizing I was happy with it), I sleeved all my cards to make them easier to shuffle. (I had learned yesterday how ridiculously hard it was to shuffle 40-card decks without sleeves.) Next round, with a record of 1-0-1, I faced off against this guy named Lue, who's record was 2-0-0, but one of his wins was actually because he had a bye first round (there were 21 people in this tournament). Anyways, first game, at one point, he played a Composite Golem for 6 and sac'ed him for [W][U][B][R][G], I was like "WTF?!?" Then, I realized that [W][U][B][R][G] was the magic formula for summoning a Bringer, and I was like, "Oh, shit!" He proceeded to summon the Bringer of the Green Dawn. Needless to say, he creamed me with it and its 3/3 Beast Tokens. In the second game, he killed me with a Megatog. It was short and simple, although I attempted to put up a fight... and failed. You see, I had to chump block the Megatog a lot, because Lue had so many artifacts that if I didn't block, the Megatog would be fatal in one hit. After beating me, I said to him, "You're good. You deserve that 2-0, now 3-0 record, even if one of them was because of a bye." So now, with my 1-1-1 record, I realized I had to win my next match to get a prize... but even if I didn't, I still had fun and a promotional Helm of Kaldra, so it's all good. In the fourth and final round, I went up against a guy named Jean-Luc, who was also 1-1-1. In the first game, I managed to get out the Skyhunter Skirmisher and the Banshee's Blade. Basically, turn 1, nothing. Turn 2, Banshee's Blade. Turn 3, Skyhunter Skirmisher. Turn 4, equip, deal 1, deal 2. Turn 5, deal 3, deal 4. Turn 6, deal 5, deal 6, game. In Jean-Luc's words, "That was ugly." Game two was a tough battle, but I managed to pull off a win because Jean-Luc didn't realize that the Leonin Sun Standard (oh yeah, I forgot that I got that, too... I think it's the only rare in my deck) could be used repeatedly, so I managed to deal exactly enough damage for the win. So I got my three boosters, but I didn't open them until I got home. Heh, so Franklin buys one from me, but apparently, I have all the luck now, because he opens the booster with all the crappy cards. Heh. I opened a Bringer of the Red Dawn, a Cosmic Larva, another Nim Helmet, and two more Vulshok Sorceresses. Oh, and I forgot to mention, at the event I sold my third Skullclamp and my Pristine Angel so I could make enough money (the ATM was broken) to buy a Morphling. So anyways, all in all, I had fun, and I got some nice loot. Maybe some other day, when the prices on the market stabilize, I'll take a look to see how much loot I actually got. Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 2 = 4 In any case, Good Night. Don't let the Bringers of the Dawn bite! Saturday, May 22, 2004--I already have swords. Now, I need some plowshares! Anyways, today, I woke up, did my Physics 7C Final, and discovered that I can't do particle physics! Ugh! You know it's a problem when on one relativity problem, you get beta = 1 and on a different problem, you get gamma = 0.07. Anyways, I then packed up my stuff and went home. Whee! After the long packing and waiting and going home, I had dinner, then went to Bernard and Kellie's, where Kellie watched Naruto episodes on my laptop and other stuff. Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 4 = 10 Mmm... It's good to be back, although I'm going to miss those kids at Berkeley, particularly the 7th floor girls, and the 6th floor gang. At least I still have them on AIM... speaking of which... ... Oh, sorry. That's all for today. Good Night! Friday, May 21, 2004--Waking up this morning, I basically reviewed my History 160 Notes in preparation for the final later today. Then, after lunch, at 12:30, was the History 160 Final. Since he had given us a Midterm #3, we only needed to stick around for an hour and a half and write 3 essays, which I think I did all right on. Prof Pearson was right. The best way to study for this test was to just think about the course as a whole. Hehe... Then, I went to buy cards for Franklin and Eudemonia while buying some cards for myself (namely the Swarm of Rats and Oversold Cemetery). Shortly afterwards, I played in a booster draft. I drafted a blue/black deck again, but this time without that dude (Eric, I think his name was) helping me fix my deck, I didn't do so good... although my record was better. I played my first round against Bryan Funk, who was rusty and hadn't played in a while, and I lost to him the first game, because I was mana-screwed (even though I had 16 lands in my 40 card deck). Second and third game, despite being mana-screwed, I somehow managed to pull off a win... although it was also due to Bryan's making some mistakes. Second round, I played against this kid named Mark and I won one, he won one, and we didn't finish the third game, so it was a draw, although if we had played it through, he probably would have won that last one. (I resorted to stalling that last game to death.) Third round, I played William again, and he beat me quite cleanly again. Heh, it was fun, though. In the end, I had a record of 1-1-1. Of course, I have a Physics 7C Final tomorrow. *shrug* Good Night! Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 1 = 7 Thursday, May 20, 2004--After going to Battaglia's review session and watchin him solve Schroedinger's Equation (which I hope we don't have to do for the actual test), I ate lunch at the Crossroads. Hmm... I think I mixed up the important points with the unimportant ones. This Just In: A fire in Salinas! Ehh... Also, after printing out some notes for the open book CS61B Final, I messed around with this MIDI Sequencer to make this song, based on one Bernard wrote and then forgot about. It sounds pretty good. Then, I finally took the final. Of the twelve lectures' worth of notes I had printed out between this time and last time, I had to refer to 6 of them, only 4 of which I had printed out today. Hmm... Anyways, after that, I ate dinner and slacked off at home and chatted with Kim on AIM, and... hmm, that's pretty much it. Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 1 = 3 Hmm... 5th Dawn Prerelease on Sunday! Woot! So tired... Dreamed about 7th floor girls... Good Night! Heh, I almost typed "Daisy Dice Roll" instead of "Daily Dice Roll". Wednesday, May 19, 2004--I think I caught a cold. Grr... Amidst reviewing for History 160, I went to lunch and saw Kim. Then, I played around with Photoshop. Photoshop is fun! The filters are funny! I'm bored. A Year Ago Today: Oh, and in response to the dude who posted in my guestbook, the point of this "retarded thing" is to post my thoughts. The fact that you can't figure that out makes me wonder who's really retarded here. (Cue Alan's entrance, shift to Forums, Flaming time! Whee!) Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 6 = 7 Hmm... okay, time to stop slacking off. Good Night! Tuesday, May 18, 2004--Today, I woke up and took the EE40 Final. I spent two hours out of the three before I got bored and finished early. Needless to say, it was easy. Then, I played some GunBound before reviewing for EE40. Kim goes home tomorrow. Grrr... I'm stuck here until Saturday. Grrr... Is there no one else who has to stay until Saturday? Is there no one else? Anyways, after dinner, I slacked off, even though I should be studying. Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 2 = 3 Ah... *sigh* *shrig* Grr... *stabs* Good Night! Monday, May 17, 2004--Today, I woke up and played FFTA for about an hour. *shrug* Then, I went to Hot Pot City and ate. (What else would I do?) Then, I returned to Berkeley, where I did a sample EE40 Final. Then, while everyone else was doing their Chem Final, I slacked off. I intend to go fencing today! Otherwise, I'll leave this entry short and just fill it in with an addendum later. A Year Ago Today: Of course, I'll have to go to be early today, so I can wake up in time for my 8am Final tomorrow. Eh, well, it could be worse. Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 5 = 10 Ehh... Good Night! Sunday, May 16, 2004--Hmm... A Year Ago Today: I was sick. Hmm... maybe I have allergies that kick in mid-May? I dunno. I'll figure it out later. Anyways, I was playing FFTA a lot today. *TA*Man, that was a long intro. Anyways, I played the first intro where Marche goes to gather herbs. Whoops! Then, I played some optional missions, including a few boss fights, like against this Chicken Thief. Then, I went to recover the Thesis. Me: WTF?!? Then, I freed Cyril, freed Sprohm, and then Raven of the Borzoi clan wanted to fight me, so I fought him and beat him, even though it was a hella hard battle. I still beat it on the first try, though. Then, I played the third required mission, where I met Ritz.*TA* I dunno if it's because of all the optional missions making it easy to level up, but FFTA is a lot easier than FFT. Also, another thing I don't like about FFTA is the lack of menus. I mean, the original Tactics, there was a separate menu for Abilities, so you could clearly see what Abilities they could have. For me, it took me a while to find the Abilities menu. Also, why is it that if you press SELECT, it doesn't give you all the info for the Items. I mean, in the original Tactics, the menus were a lot helpful in helping me identify my items. Otherwise, FFTA is a good game, but it's nowhere near as good as the original. Later, I was making my 3-pages of notes for EE40, which was really boring and I didn't want to do it. Grr... But alas, I had to, otherwise, I'd have to memorize everything for the final. Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 6 = 12 *yawn* Good Night, peeps. Saturday, May 15, 2004--I believe I spent today reviewing my History 160, which I quickly grew bored of and I played Diablo 2 instead. Damn, Nightmare Duriel is so easy with a Spear Barb. Later, I went to Bernard & Kellie's place, where I watched Kellie watch some Naruto, and I MTG dueled against Bernard several times. At one point, I used my Mouse Deck and he used my Sliver deck and I won 2 out of 3. That probably means my Mice are decent, then again, it was Bernard playing, so maybe it was more the duelist than the deck. (For example, at one point he didn' realize he had the win on the table thanks to a recently played Magma Sliver.) Then, Kellie wanted to watch me play FF9, so I did. I started a new game and decided to name Zidane "Dwayne" instead. At one point, there was this line. Dwayne (Zidane in FF9): I'm always thinking about girls! Dwayne (the real me): Wow, that's pretty accurate. Kellie: *laughs* That's pretty much it. Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 1 = 5 *sigh* Good Night! Friday, May 14, 2004--Shortly after waking up, I downloaded Naruto Ep. 83. Then, I was talking to Daisy on AIM. Me: Are you ready for the Math 55 Final? Her: No, didn't study. Me: Are you studing right now? Her: Nope... LOL! Hmm... I won't pass any judgement. After lunch, I watched the Naruto Ep. Like Yohan said, the series is good when there's fighting, but it's bad when it keeps repeating the same scene over and over and over again. Geez, like when Sasuke invented the Lion Combo. Then, I had my Math 55 Final. I was given 3 hours to complete it, and for the first hour and a half, I lost track of time as I worked out every part to every problem. Eventually, I finished at 2:15, which was about an hour and 45 minutes. It was kind of early, so I decided to check my work some, and at 2:30, after only spending 2 of the 3 allotted hours, I decided to just turn in my paper and go. I was too bored to continue. Yes, any test that I finish early is easy. Any test where it takes me the full alotted time is hard. I have examples of both, but there's no need for me to list them here. Then, I watched some old Naruto eps in Yohan's room, then I played some GunBound with Franklin. After that, I went home, where I played the piano, ate dinner, and came online. Memorable day today. I don't know why. Oh, I almost forgot! Just before the Math Final, I ran into Lily, who was visiting Berkeley with her mom, so Lily, Lily's mom, and I had a chat about how life is at Berkeley. Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 1 = 2 Whoa! That was rare. Hmm... Ah, enough pondering tonight. It's time to say Good Night! Thursday, May 13, 2004 - Addendum--I went back to Fencing. Haven't been there for a week a half. Unfortunately, thanks to Finals, we didn't have much of a showing. I fenced Saber with Marvin and did a bunch of drills with him. Then, we bouted a little and I found he's pretty good. His disengages... well, I'm naturally bad at dodging those, but apparently, my parry-ripostes are one of my strong points. Hmm... yes, I guess that's a good thing. I like fencing. You should come fence with us sometime. It's Mondays from 8-10pm and Thursdays from 9:30-11pm an the RSF in the Combatives Room. Hope to see you there! Anyways, Good Night! Thursday, May 13, 2004--I woke up and went to the TBP Officer Meeting. It's at 9am, and I get there about 30 seconds after the clock tower is finished striking 9. Me: Sorry I'm late. Arthur: You're not late. In fact, you're early. Girl: What? Are we going by regular time or Berkeley [10-minutes late] time? Arthur: We're going by TBP time? That means they start when everyone has shown up, which usually takes about 15-20 minutes. Then, I went to Battaglia's Physics 7C review session. It was originally scheduled to be at 5 Evans, but then so many people showed up that we moved it to 4 Leconte (normal Lecture room), so it was just like Lecture... except more people showed up. LOL! Then, I wrote something for the Avalanche Online Forums. A Year Ago Today: Later, I duelled Justin, his Goblin Deck versus my Mouse Deck. In the first duel, Justin got out a Raging Gob that I couldn't get rid of, and he kept burning away my Relentless Mice. Finally, when the score was about 11-20, (Justin in the lead), Justin started drawing a mana-clump or something like that. Then, I got out an Oversold Cemetery, and I started reviving all my dead Mice, and I quickly ended Justin. Second game, Justin won because his Goblins are good like that. Third game, Justin got mana-screwed or something like that, and I crushed him with my giant Mice. Fourth game, with a bunch of Mice, I got the score down to 18-4 (me in the lead) when Justin hits me in the head with an Incinerate and two Lightning Bolts, taking out half my life in a single play. Then, he managed to play a bunch of Gobs that I didn't have kill cards for, so I quickly lost. It was an amazing comeback for Justin, and it brought our series to a tie at 2-2. Me: Well, now we know why Lit Bolt and Incinerate are out of print. Justin: Heh. Fifth game was ridiculously fast. Justin got out an early Goblin King and a Goblin Goon and managed to deal 9 damage a turn for 3 turns straight... which killed me, as you can see. My Mouse Deck has improved quite a bit, though. With the Swarms and the added Swamps, it gets 3 mana more consistently and isn't as badly hurt if it doesn't. Sin It I Cheat (5:30:17 PM): ur rat deck mite actually be more annoying than ur sliver deckl Sin It I Cheat (5:30:18 PM): deck Viltris (5:30:32 PM): yeah... those relentless rats really are relentless Viltris (5:30:42 PM): especially with the cemetery Sin It I Cheat (5:30:51 PM): heh Viltris (5:30:51 PM): "urgh! why can't you rodents actually STAY DEAD!" Sin It I Cheat (5:30:54 PM): they keep cumming back We also started talking about Kamahl. Sin It I Cheat (5:27:52 PM): i should bring back kamahl one of these days Viltris (5:27:58 PM): which one? Viltris (5:28:00 PM): red kamahl? Sin It I Cheat (5:28:07 PM): the shit fighter Viltris (5:28:24 PM): red kamahl is unprovokable Sin It I Cheat (5:28:29 PM): heh yeah Sin It I Cheat (5:28:33 PM): thats the funniest shit ever Sin It I Cheat (5:28:57 PM): "i provoke ur tapped kamahl!" "thanks, he untaps and i stab ur fucker to death before it deals dmg" Sin It I Cheat (5:29:36 PM): its so weird how kamahl has 1 toughness Sin It I Cheat (5:29:57 PM): heh Viltris (5:30:00 PM): you could kill him with scattershot Sin It I Cheat (5:30:05 PM): or spark spray Yeah, the sad part is that Spark Spray is a pretty shitty burn. Anyways, after that was a dinner, then me slacking. Soon, it will be me trying to "study" for Math, and I use quotation marks pretty liberally. Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 6 = 9 Yeah... that's all I can remember. Good night, peeps. Wednesday, May 12, 2004--Finally, I'm caught up in Journal entries. Yeah, there was no class today, so I woke up late. Then, I went shopping to buy the Swamps and Smothers I needed in preparation for my Relentless Rats deck. Yeah... Then, after lunch, I proxied up a version and tested it against Justin. It needs a little fine-tuning. Oh, and it's going to be Standard Legal, at least until either Relentless or Swarm of Rats rotates out of Standard. Then, I decided it was time to start reviewing for EE40. Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 1 = 6 I talked to her today. Strange. I apologized, but then she said I had nothing to apologize for, then apologized to me. Let's see... how does that smilie go? o_O Yeah, we cleared up this fiasco, or so it seems. Anyways, that's all. Good Night, my people! Mindy: Bow down! Bow down! Me: Shut. Up. Tuesday, May 11, 2004--Last day of class! Woot! I couldn't wake up for the last Physics 7C Lecture though... EE40 Lecture... today was demonstrating the TuteBots day... Tutebot Day: Rise of the Machines. Yeah, some were pretty amazing, like this robot that follows light or the robot that follows a trail of black tape laid out below it, or a robot that acted like a fire truck. The girl put up a candle and the machine sprayed water on it to put it out. Oh, and one group had a robot that was connected to their laptop, but for some reason, it wasn't working right. Yeah... I feel sorry for all the people who missed it. Math 55 Lecture... History 160 Lecture... actually, we had Mudterm 3. It wasn't so bad. Then, I went to the TBP Elections. I voted for Karen for President... I failed to get Historian, though, but I got into New Projects. Of course, anyone can get into New Projects. It was invented for people who wanted to stay involved but couldn't get elected. Relentless Rats! Man, this card single-handedly prompted me to make a new MTG deck. It's just that damn amazing. Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 6 = 10 Yeah... Good Night! Monday, May 10, 2004--Only two days left of class! A Year Ago Today: Math 55 Discussion... Chocolate Chip cookies won, so Jeremy baked us some cookies and fed them to us. Not so many people showed up, though, so everyone got extra cookies. Jeremy: Are they good? Me: Yes, they're good, but their weird shaped. Jeremey: Yeah, I go with taste rather than looks. Because of all the cookies I ate (I ate 6 of them, I think), I ended up skipping lunch. Physics 7C Discussion... EE40 Discussion... CS61B Lecture... Graham, Bryce, and Leonard tell us how they made their Machine Player. It was pretty amazing. Evolution, wow! They created a program that would randomize the Machine's stats, and they played them over and over again and used the winner's stats of each tournament, then did it again. Evolution, indeed. Survival of the fittest. You've got to play their machine in order to know just how good the damn thing is.  Yeah, white is Killer Coding Ninja Monkeys, their Machine. Crazy, isn't it? I decided (unfortunately) to skip fencing so I could study more for History 160. Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 4 = 7 Yeah... Good Night! Sunday, May 9, 2004--I went to the HKN Officer elections trying to get into Bridge. Unfortunately, there were 5 of us running and only 4 Bridge positions, so outside we made a deal that whoever was kicked off of Bridge can still help and take pictures and stuff. I was kicked off of Bridge. Heh. Then, it was more reviewing for History 160 Mudterm... Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 6 = 10 Hmm... Good Night. Saturday, May 8, 2004--When a girl asks you "Do you like me?", what's the correct response? Do you think they ask that with an answer in mind? I dunno... I wouldn't have ever thought a girl could be so direct... although I suppose it's better like that. A Year Ago Today: Stephanie and her eyepatch. I went to the Eta Kappa Nu Initiation. Apparently, I was early. I got there before Mimi was even dressed! After that was the Eta Kappa Nu Banquet. We went to HS Lordships on the Berkeley Marina, and I had a steak. It was good, but fatty, but that only made it taste better! Mimi: Oh, by the way, the salad is vegetarian, so you vegetarians can start eating now! Me: What about the bread? Is that not vegetarian? Yeah... good times. Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 3 = 8 Good Night! Friday, May 7, 2004--Today, I went to neither the CS61B Discussion because I was too lazy to wake up that early in the morning, nor the CS61B Lecture in the evening because I had to go to the... Tau Beta Pi Initiation! Unfortunately, I'm supposedly supposed to keep the contents of the Initiation a secret, so yeah. If you're so interested, look it up on the internet. Then we went to the Tau Beta Pi Banquet at a Chinese Restaurant called the Silver Dragon. We fun at our table with Nathan, Angela, and some of the other officers being really... hyper? It was fun. Then, this girl (I forget her name) was reading her Candidate Essay on VP Mike Schou and after mentioning something about screwing in a light bulb, she accidentally calls him "Mr. Screw". Then, Peter, while giving him the award for "Officer of the Semester" announces him (purposely as a joke) as "Mike Screw". Me: I know what question we should put on the next Candidate Quiz. "What is Mike Schou's nickname and where did it come from?" Mike: Umm... I think we should keep quiet about that. Yeah... the TBP Banquet was the most fun I ever had a Chinese Restaurant. Angela and Nathan claim that Cantonese is much more complex and subtle than Mandarin. Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 3 = 9 Now's a good time to say Good Night! Hey, that rhymed! ...kinda... Thursday, May 6, 2004--Physics 7C Lecture... EE40 Lecture... Math 55 Lecture... since the material in our class is done, we've just started reviewing. That's all. History 160 Lecture... we had a guest lecture today, but he didn't write up a lecture outline, so it was kind of... disorganized. (Grr...) Well, at least I still got the main points of the lecture. A Year Ago Today: (on aim) Viltris: heh, do you remember the compatibility test last year? [Linda]: yes [Linda]: SHADDUP Viltris: lol, okay Anyways, so I went to the Wheeler Auditorium to meet up with Joyce so we could get in line to see the Troy screening. Unfortunately, there was some chaos and about 1200 people showed up even though there were only 800 tickets and 700 seats in Wheeler. As a result, Joyce and I were cut off with only about 5 people ahead of us. She was mad for the next hour... or so it seemed from her demeanor, so i took her to Crossroads for dinner and tried to cheer her up. *shrug* Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 5 = 9 Okay, that's enough. Clear out. Nothing to see here, people. Good Night! Wednesday, May 5, 2004--Happy Cinco de Mayo! For those of you who don't know (and shame on you if you don't), Cinco de Mayo means "5th of May" in Spanish. Anyways, CS61B Lab was cancelled today because... because... hmm... no wait, there was Lab today. It was on Amortized Analysis, and I did it. Math 55 Discussion... our quiz was on what kind of cookies did we want. (Heh!) CS61B Lecture... Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 4 = 5 Hmm... *shrig* Good Night! Tuesday, May 4, 2004--Today, I went to my Physics 7C Lecture, and as soon as it ended, I went straight for lower Sproul Plaza to get in line for movie tickets. I ended up getting the tickets, much to Joyce's pleasure. (She couldn't make it herself today, because she had a lab or something like that.) EE40 Lab... our motor burned out, so Jeff and I had to quickly switch motors. Unfortunately, we couldn't find one of the big fat motors that we used on our other wheel, so we settled for the smaller motor. It turns out that the small wheel was more powerful than the big one. How ironic. Yeah, so our machine was kind of off balance and it went in circles even worse than before... but it still worked. Math 55 Lecture... History 160 Lecture... I've had a lot of History reading lately. It's been keeping me quite busy. A Year Ago Today: I pay too much attention to Joanna and not enough to Stephanie. Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 2 = 8 Good Night...? Monday, May 3, 2004--Joyce and I had agreed to meet each other in lower Sproul Plaza to try to get Tickets to the screening of Troy. We had agreed to meet at 9:50am. Unfortunately, there was a fire-alarm that went off at my dorm building (Unit 1 Cheney Hall), and we were stuck outside for an hour and a half because the firefighters caught some guys still inside (like a good 5 or 6) so they needed to write them up and give them citations. Then, they led the guys down to make an example of them. Incidentally, one of them was Zach Hendlin, who ran for ASUC something a while ago. Jason: I'm glad I didn't vote for you... okay, that was kind of mean. I would have said the same thing. Then, just as we were getting back inside (after the firefighters had left), Joe randomly pops out of the elevator, and everyone starts yelling at him. Finally, I meet Joyce at about 10:15, and the line is hella long. In the end, however, not even Joyce, who was near the front of the line, got tickets, so she called me and told asked me to wait in line for her tomorrow (at 9:30 or so) to try to get tickets. Physics 7C Discussion... I believe I skipped EE40 Discussion so I could do my Physics Homework. CS61B Lecture... Then, I went fencing, where we taught some new Saberists. I hope they stay, 'cause with Severin leaving, it'll just be me and Amber, and that's pretty tough to train for Saber with only two people. We get kinda unbalanced that way. I discovered that my parry-ripostes are getting pretty fast. Amber says she's having trouble parrying. Maybe it's luck, I dunno. Lee says I'm a natural Saberist. *shrug* Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 5 = 7 Hmm... Good Night! Sunday, May 2, 2004--Today is just like yesterday... I'm at home and I don't remember anything that happened. But I do remember going back to Berkeley. Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 5 = 8 The Night is Good! Saturday, May 1, 2004--It's Saturday, and I'm at home. I don't remember what I did... honestly. *shrug* Oh, well. A Year Ago Today: "Existence does not exist outside of the universe." Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 4 = 10 Uber-short entry today. Good Night! Friday, April 30, 2004--Today, I skipped CS61B Discussion... at least I think I did. Like I said yesterday, all these entries were posted on May 12, because of my... Business? Busy-ness? Something. So I went to TBP and dropped off the packets and heard the most elegant argument against Affirmative Action. I'll post it up someday, but the gist of it is that simply assuming that just because someone is black that it means that they are poor and have no education and need you to give them all these benefits just because they suck would be offensive to black people. Yeah, apparently the Republicans held an Affirmative Action Bake Sale. "Oh, you're a white male? You're cookies cost $3." "Oh, you're a black female? You're cookies cost 50 cents." The guy telling the story triggered a discussion about Affirmative Action and about its pros and cons. Then, I had a bagel. After that, I dropped off the HKN Packet. Also, I went to Eudemonia and bought 3 Magma Slivers, so now my Sliver deck is proxy-free! Woot! CS61B Lecture... Finally, I went home. Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 3 = 8 Ahh... now it's time to say "Good Night!" Thursday, April 29, 2004--Sorry I haven't been updating for the last week or two. I've been busy. I don't remember with what. Let's dig around and see if I can find out. I actually don't remember if I went to Physics 7C Lecture today... Yeah... anyways... I believe the reason I was so busy today was because of the Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi Candidate Packets that I had to finish &c. Yeah... they were good, though. Math 55 Lecture... History 160 Lecture... I think I skipped fencing today on the account that I was still kind of sick and that I had to work on the packets. *shrug* If I remember anything new, I'll post an addendum. Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 4 = 8 Good Night... Wednesday, April 28, 2004--I have the Andorhal Plague. First one to tell me where else I used that phrase gets an eCookie. A Year Ago Today: Today, I gladly discovered that there was neither EE nor CS homework. Yay! CS Lab was also cancelled, since they held it last week because Prof Shewchuk forgot to put up last week's lab. Heh. Yay again! Meeting with Prof Meyer to arrange the Course Surveys for EE242 on behalf of Eta Kappa Nu... Math 55 Discussion... CS61B Lecture... Me resting... Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 5 = 7 My journal is so boring... Good Night! I love you... Tuesday, April 27, 2004--I meant to go to Physics 7C Lecture today. Really, I did. Unfortunately, with the whole disease thing, I was feeling too weak to wake up at 7am. EE40 Lecture... Slept... At lunch, I saw Kim sitting there eating by herself. I would have eaten with her, but I was ravaged by a disease and I didn't want to risk spreading the plague to her. That would be bad. At least I think it was Kim. I was deliriously sick. If you were the person who I was talking to at lunch in the Crossroads on Tuesday, IM me. Math 55 Lecture... History 160 Lecture... Slept some more... Drink lots of water when your sick! You sweat a lot when you sleep when your sweat. I believe that's a sign of fever. So at night, I wake up at 8pm with a headache. Ow! A Year Ago Today: I tear open my arm on a Soda Fountain Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 6 = 7 Good Night, peoples! Monday, April 26, 2004--Math 55 Discussion... Physics 7C Discussion... EE40 Discussion... CS61B Lecture... Fencing... Upon coming back, I finally decided that I was sick and that I should get some rest... so I did. A Year Ago Today: BAMM... we lose in the semi-finals to Homestead... There was a seeding error, and we should have faced them in the finals, because we were by far the second best team. Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 3 = 8 *shrug* Good Night. Sunday, April 25, 2004--I've added an addendum for Friday, about the Board Game Night as well as A Year Ago Today for yesterday. Anyways, after eating brunch at the Crossroads, I played my Sliver deck against Ryan's Fling deck. First deck, he beat me pretty quickly. Second game, I beat him with a Sliver rush. Third game, he beat me pretty quickly. Heh... amewsing. Then, Mark, Ryan, and I went to Games of Berkeley, just to take a look around. Then, we went to Eudemonia, where I bought enough cards to bring the proxy count on my Sliver deck from 23 to 3. A Year Ago Today: "Then I wrote, 'Then I wrote, "Then I wrote, 'Then I wrote...'"' Let's not continue that infinite recursion." Hmm... that seems to be all. What a boring day! Well, I did watch the Simpsons. Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 2 = 7 Good Night! Don't let the succubi bite! (It's been too long since I've last said that... I give an eProp to whomever tells me when was the last time I said that line.) Saturday, April 24, 2004--Today is the BAMM. The Leland Team will be competing. I had hoped that they could get into at least the Finals this time, since Homestead was out of the picture. Unfortunately, I later learned from Lei we again made it only to the Semi-finals. Oh well. Strangely enough, Joanna was placed on the top team while Stephanie was placed on the lower team. Hmm... I always thought Stephanie was better. Maybe it's just that Joanna is faster, like how Ke is faster than me, so he dominated BAMM last year, too. Heh, he dominated BAMM two years ago, too. I remember Kristi and I were just barely managing until the lower team was eliminated so Ke could join our team again. Kristi... I miss her. I wonder whatever happened to her. Mindy: She went to UCSD. A Year Ago Today: I get out Infinite Slivers for the third time... and I think never again... or at least not one that was noteworthy enough for my journal. Anyways, today, I went to do the "Geek Olympics" with Tau Beta Pi, but she didn't show up... So yeah, while waiting for the other people, we first played Blob Tag. Me: What are we playing? Girl: We're playing Blob Tag. Since I just caught you-- Me: (not really) Girl: --we now have to link our arms and run as one. Me: I can do that. Later... Her: We need to just pick one person and try to catch them. Me: Someone slow... no, no, NOT someone slow! The thing is, if we catch someone slow and absorb them into the blob, it'll slow the blob down. Hmm... I think I ended up whipping Stephanie around too much, but yeah, it was pretty fun, especially when the blob got so big that it split into two, and then from there, the non-blob people slowly all got caught and it was game over. Heh, shortly after the blob split, the runners did some kind of maneuver and the two blobs ran into each other. It was pretty bad. Oh well. Then, we played this cat and mouse game, except that the mouse can switch out with other people. It was pretty crazy. At one point, I was the mouse, and I was running around. Then, I slipped, and I was like "Oh shit!" Then, I scrambled over and tagged a guy to get a new mouse in. Heh, at least it wasn't as bad as the girl who fell over and screamingly crawled over to a line to tag another dude in. Anyways, afterwards, the games began. We split off into two teams, and after much of no one having any idea what to call our team, Angela suggested Team Sexy... prolly since she wore a shirt that said "Sexy" on it. She then said the other team could call themselves "Team Mofo" because one of the girls (Cindy was her name, I think) had a hat that said "Mofo" on it. Then, the other team said that they were called whatever our team name was plus Sucks at the end, so they were "Team Sexy Sucks", which I think was pretty frivolous. We first did the electric fence, where we had a wall of rope and we had to slip people through the rope without touching it. Vincent "died" because he looked when we told him to tuck his head in and close his eyes. By moving his head, he ran into the rope and lost. Darn... Then, we did the blindfolded shapes game. Thanks to our ingenious system by counting off and using our numbers to guide our shape-making, we finished it in 6 minutes, whereas the other team took nearly 20 minutes. We rock! Then, we had to hold a bucket of water in the air with just our feet and then we had to take our shoes off in sequence and put them back on. It was ridiculous, but we pulled it off. The other team, however, kept spilling small specks of water until finally, they dropped the entire bucket and LOST. Then, there was the relay race, which was really illegit since Heena kept making our team members redo things, but we still won anyway. Then, there was the controversial "broken egg" thing, which was probably bullshit since the egg certainly wasn't broken when Vincent did his uber-jump rope thing. Anyways, we had a break for the BBQ... then came the final round, the 14-legged race. It's like a 3-legged race, but instead 2 people we had 13 people. Then, we coordinated a system of walking altogether. Unfortunately, we had to walk down, then walk back. Since it was too much of a hassle to turn around, we decided to walk backwards. However, that proved to be our downfall. We were uber-efficient going forward, but going backward, we kept falling over, and the team finally over took us as we scrambled backward for the finish. One major problem was that even though only one person was supposed to count, everyone else started counting, too, which totally threw off our rhythm, and people didn't step at quite the right time, which caused the falling overs. The worst part was when the other team won, and we just stopped, then Heena informed us that we had to finish the race and that they were still timing us, which delayed us a good 5-10 seconds. In the end, since we lost the 14-legged race by a such a huge margin, the other team won, even though we were winning beforehand. They said that they came from behind. Me: Actually, you came from in front, since we were walking backwards. Hmm... walking backwards was my idea... whoops! Ah, well. We still had fun. Me: I demand a Tug of War! Heena: Unfortunately, we do not have a rope that strong. Me: Darn... Ah, well. We still had fun. ...Wait, I said that already. After I got back to the dorm, I talked to Justin about how Franklin was a bad deckbuilder but a fantastic duelist and how Ryan was a good duelist but a spectacular deckbuildinger. Justin then said that he could beat anyone with an inferior deck no matter how good a duelist he was. I then said we should try it by giving Ryan the Transference deck and see if he can win. Ryan decides to look over the deck, and I hand him the Arcbound Ravager that he could use as his trump card, but since Ryan wanted to look over the deck first, we wouldn't play until after dinner. After dinner, Justin plays against Ryan, and Ryan wins the first game with the Ravager. Nice! Second and third game, Justin wins. Then, Ryan uses my constructed Arcbound deck and still loses. Justin: Well, I lost the first one, but I won the next three in a row, so I guess that redeems me. Ryan: No, you still lost to a Pre-constructed deck. Mark: Yeah, you lost to JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG JENG! Me: Why isn't KUO or WU or CHAO as catchy as JENG? Ryan: Because I made it catchy. I suppose that's true... or maybe it's the NG in JENG. It buzzes funnily. Then, I make some changes to my Slivers to make them more efficient and I duel Justin's goblins and lose... but I found out that Magma Slivers are hella good. With just a little bit of help, they can kill Goblin Goons, which is a damn amazing thing. Yes, Justin has good deck advice. I know this because his version of my Arcbound deck was better than William's. Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 6 = 7 In retrospect, yesterday's entry was short, but today's entry was long. Anyways, I'm still tired. I declined a few games of DOTA in favor of getting to sleep early. Actually many of these journal entries since the 15th were posted within the last 2 or 3 days since I've been so busy with work. This one was posted on Sunday, actually. Anyways, that's all I have to say. Hope you had fun reading, even if you didn't. Good Night! Friday, April 23, 2004--CS61B Discussion... Ali gave back the mudterm (I got perfect score) and then went over it. After that, I had no classes, since Physics Lab is over and Shewchuk was at the faculty retreat (like Sanders), so CS61B Lecture was cancelled. I decided to be a good student, however, and spent my time doing the Physics Homework. I went to Board Game Night with Eta Kappa Nu and I learned how to play Settlers of Catan, which is a fun game! First game, I built a really long road and got the Longest Road award... but I still lost anyway. Second game, the board was randomized so that there was no lumber and no bricks... which is bad, since those are the most basic of resources. It was pretty insane. Everyone was getting Development Cards and trying to steal each others' material. It's my fault, though, since I randomized the board. Dwayne of the Cursehand, eh? Later... that's all I remember. I believe I turned down playing DOTA because I was so fucking tired. Anyways, Good Nights, y'all! Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 6 = 7 Thursday, April 22, 2004--Physics 7C Lecture... Sourav Mandal was giving a special lecture about Quantum Field Theory and String Theory. It was interesting. It's the best lecture so far, since, despite having only 5 hours of sleep last night, I managed to stay awake the entire time. Wow... EE40 Lecture... was cancelled today because Prof Sanders was at the Faculty retreat. EE40 Lab... we finished our TuteBot. Now all we need to do is add batteries. Math 55 Lecture... I found out that that lady (I thought her name was Olga something something?) was subbing for Prof Demmel today. I don't like her much, but supposedly she's teaching Math H90 next semester. How... interesting. History 160 Lecture... A Year Ago Today: Then, I went to the Tau Beta Pi general meeting. It was pretty funny, with all the performances there. Mimi was there... one of those people in both Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu, and the first person to know that I was in both. Then, Angela gave me a challenge to open a shaken up soda with my teeth so she could make a kick-ass video. I do it, but the first soda was dead, so we try again. I'm hoping to see that video soon. Then, Heena gives me a challenge to do an Indian dance with her. At first, I'm reluctant, but then she takes me by the arm and leads me to an open area of the room to teach me the Indian dance. As if to seal my fate, while passing by Karen, she says, "I think that's a really good challenge!" Well, I suppose it's nice to see Karen so supportive... I think... Yeah, Angela caught the entire thing on video... which I'm also hoping to see. In retrospect, it wasn't too bad. Everyone was telling me I did good for my first time. Anyways, Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 1 = 3 Good Night, sirs! Wednesday, April 21, 2004--CS61B Lab... our lab was to get at least one point on the autograder for Project 3. Heh... I ended up finishing part of my project. It was an easy project. Math 55 Discussion... I went to buy the sticky pads I would need for my EE40 TuteBot. CS61B Lecture... I went to the Telebears Advising for Tau Beta Pi... only one guy showed up at the EECS table for advice, and he was doing the EECS minor. Interesting, considering that most Berkeley Engineers are in EECS. Probably the EECS people already figured out what they wanted to take early, though, since Telebears was already kinda started. CS Homework was fun... make a maze. I'm tired, though... A Year Ago Today: Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 2 = 3 Good Night... Tuesday, April 20, 2004--Physics 7C Lecture... I haven't been there for a while... except Prof Battaglia was gone, and a TA lectured in his place... or maybe it was Prof Lee, I dunno, I never met Lee. The dude went over Schroedinger's Equation and how to solve them to get all these weird crap going on, like quantum tunnelling (a quantum particle passing through the quantum equivalent of a solid wall). EE40 Lecture... EE40 Lab... our TuteBot is coming along quite nicely. Math 55 Lecture... History 160 Lecture... HKN General Meeting #3... That's pretty much all I can remember. I've been tired lately... too little sleep. Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 1 = 3 Good Night, yo! Monday, April 19, 2004--Happy Birthday Little Rabbit Diane Ko! Yeah, um... yeah. Math 55 Discussion... Physics 7C Discussion... EE40 Discussion... we got our Mudterms back. Apparently, I was two standard deviations above the mean and they will curve it. Woot! The part that worries me is, though, the part I thought I did the worst I actually did the best, and the part I thought I did the best I actually did the worst. It was because I got question 3 part A (a 5 point question) wrong, so I lost 4 points there. But then because I got it wrong, I lost 2 of 10 points in part B and 1 of 5 points in part C, so because of that one mistake, I lose 7 points, which is worth more than the problem. WTF! CS61B Lecture... Bucket Sort! Woot! Linear time sorting algorithms. Sweet! A Year Ago Today: I pull of Infinite Slivers for the first time ever. Hmm... it makes me want to make an Infinite Sliver deck, just for fun, even if it's not powerful enough to win. I'll just use it on all the newbies, and when they complain that it's too powerful, I'll show them my R-G Sliver Beatdown deck. Then, I went fencing. Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 4 = 6 Tired... Zzz... Good Night... Zzz... Sunday, April 18, 2004--Lunch with Jackie at Cheesecake Factory... pasta is good. Jackie wanted me to convince her that she should go to Berkeley, except that everything that I thought was a good thing was a bad thing to her. Whoops! Because I was impatient, later, I walked down to Software Etc and bought a Transference deck for $12 because I was too impatient to wait until coming back to Berkeley. Good thing, too, since it was raining today at Berkeley, and I didn't want to have walk in the rain for half an hour just to save $2. So I dueled Transference against Justin's goblins and lose. Then, I duel Transference against Justin's zombies, and it's pretty even. Toward the end, Justin builds a large army and he attacks and he thinks I win. However, I bounce up his Twisted Abomination with Echoing Truth. Then, I sac my stuff and somehow get all my counters to the Spire Golem, making him an 8/10. Then, I double Skullclamp him, making him a 10/8. Then, since Spire Golem flies, I swing him in for the kill. Then, I play Transference against his U-G Madness, and I lose utterly to some Wurms. Later, I played Mark, my Transference against my leftoever U-W deck. First, I beat him once. Then, he beats me once (because of cards like Nomad Decoy and Leonin Elder). Lucky for me the Voltaic Construct is a good counter to the Nomad Decoy. In the third game, there was utter stalemate, except Mark had a clock on me with his Covert Operative dealing 3 to me each turn. Later, I Echoing Truthed his Operative, and then when I was at 5 life, I sac'ed a Pacified Arcbound Crusher who had 15 counters on him to the Rust Elemental to put his counters on the Spincrusher. Then, I attacked with the Spincrusher and other dudes, using his ability to make him unblockable, to hit Mark for heavy damage, bringing him down to 1 Life. At that moment, I realized I had made a mistake. First, I should have waited 1 more turn (a turn I could afford, since I bounced the Covert Spy). That way, I'd have enough counters for a one-hit kill. Second, when I did attack, I shouldn't have attacked with the Voltaic Construct ('cause Mark blocked and killed it). I should have left him alive so I can untap my fliers to block his fliers so that I could life, but I didn't and he broke through for the win. Yeah, it was a game I should have won, but failed thanks only to my own mistakes. Oh, well. Then, I went back to my dorm. Simpsons was interesting today. "Then, the coal mine collapsed. None of us got out alive, not even Willy!" --Groundskeeper Willy Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 2 = 6 *yawn* I'm so tired. Good Night! Saturday, April 17, 2004--I spent the morning playing GunBound with Franklin. Then, I started looking at all the forum stuff on the internet since I hadn't looked at it in a while. Later, we went to Jasmine's place for dinner. There was Jeffrey and Connie Ho, Kevin and Jerry Chang, and some others I can't remember. Shortly after Jasmine showed up (seemingly from nowhere... although I suspect she came out from locking herself in the room), we (meaning everyone who had nothing better to do) watched Cheaper by the Dozen, which wasn't that great, although Hilary Duff was in it. I found out, though, just how whiny Hilary Duff can be. Dinner... I like eggrolls. Then, Frank and I went back home and we played MTG. He liked my Transference deck so much, he bought it off of me. I decided to be nice, so I sold it to him for $10, though, the price I got it at. We dueled about four times against my constructed Arcbound deck. He managed to beat me once, though, with a huge-ass Rust Elemental. It was pretty good, considering he was playing with a weaker deck. Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 3 = 8 Slay! Good Night! Friday, April 16, 2004--I woke up extra early today to go to CS61B Discussion... just to find out that Mudterms aren't returned yet. In fact, they haven't even started grading them yet! Grr... Rushing to finish Physics Homework... and I succeeded! Then, I ran out and bought the Transference Darksteel Preconstructed Theme deck. It has Arcbounds and 2 Skullclamps, which are worth $5 a piece. Yet, the deck only costed me $10. It's like I bought two Skullclamps and got 59 other cards for free! Physics 7C Lab... last one of the year... I'll miss the LASER BEAMS (pulled a page from Ryan Chao's book there). CS61B Lecture... we watched a video about sorting. It included 3 Insertion Sorts, 3 Exchange Sorts, and 3 Selection Sorts. However, it didn't include Merge Sort. Me: What happened to Merge Sort? Prof Shewchuk: I don't know. I guess they just decided not to include it when they made the selection. *class laughs* No, I didn't find it funny either, but I thought I might as well add it here, just in case you guys might be amused by it. Then, I went back home, finally. Franklin showed me so many card tricks. He's gotten quite sneaky with them tricks. The first time I saw them, I was like "Holy shit!!!" Then, Franklin showed them to me again (yes, he does know the rule that you never show a guy the same trick twice... he was letting me see them again to see if I could catch the trick), and this time, although I couldn't see it, I could guess the trick. Then, I showed Franklin the 3x3, pick the column card trick, which is all mathematical and no hand-waving. Anyways, that was all. I'm tired, so I shall be going to sleep. Good Night! Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 6 = 8 Thursday, April 15, 2004--EE40 Mudterm #2... it was ridiculously hard. Granted, I wouldn't be worried if it were curved, but it isn't. I'd be happy if I broke 35. A Year Ago Today: Math 55 Lecture... We finished the Gore VS Bush thing. History 160 Lecture... Later today, I fenced... I don't remember a thing, though, except for some reason I really kicked ass today, even though I had a weird cough thing. NOTE: Starting today, no dice roll will apply toward the Dice Game until further notice!!! Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 2 = 8 *yawn* Good Night! Wednesday, April 14, 2004--I have some addendums for April 9 and yesterday. CS61B Lab... it was easy... too easy... Math 55 Discussion... CS61B Lecture... Boring day... I have to "study" for my EE40 tomorrow. Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 4 = 9 Moo? Good Night! Tuesday, April 13, 2004--I skipped my Physics 7C Lecture since I couldn't wake up on time... You know what? From now on, if I omit a class, just assume that I skipped it for various reason. EE40 Lecture... so I was asking Daisy and Ellen what classes I need to take. On an unrelated note, Me: Hmm... we have a midterm on Thursday. I should prolly read the book. Daisy: Maybe you don't have to. You're hella smart! Me: And where did you hear that from? Daisy: Aren't you a Freshman? Me: Heh, yeah, I suppose that's true. EE40 Lab... We got our TuteBots today. (Tute is short for Tutorial... I think.) Then, I went to my Advising Group Session with Prof Gastpar, who's specialty is in Communications. Incidentally, my parents want me to go into Communications, but I'm personally not sure at all. Math 55 Lecture... So Professor Demmel was doing this example about voting, if it's really close, what is the probability that the wrong guy won, so he was like, "Let's name some random candidates... how about G and B, and these are the results at an unknown location called F." *class laughs* "Yes, there were a lot of papers writting on the probability involved in elections, most of them were written 4 years ago... in the year 2000." Yes, he was doing it on purpose. History 160 Lecture... Hmm... Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 4 = 8 Hmm... Good Night! Monday, April 12, 2004--Math 55 Discussion... Physics 7C Discussion... I skipped my EE40 Discussion because it's useless and because I wanted to have time to "prepare" for my CS61B Mudterm. CS61B Mudterm... I failed miserably... at finishing early. Otherwise, I did pretty well. Heh, I had printed out notes from 6 lectures and I used all of them except 1. Good thing I printed out all them notes, eh? And I ran into Melody on my way back from the RSF after fencing circa 10pm. Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 5 = 8 I also discovered today that I have no idea what I want to study here at Berkeley. EECS is a pretty broad field! Good Night! Sunday, April 11, 2004--Today, I played basketball with the engineers. TBP vs HKN, yo! ...and I'm in both groups. Heh... You know, I think Mimi was the first to know that I was in both HKN and TBP, because one day at an HKN meeting, she said to me, "Hey, I recognize you! I saw you at TBP." Next was prolly Daisy or Tanya or Victoria, whom are also in both HKN and TBP. And just today, Amy and Peter and all the other people at the basketball even found out. Heh... A Year Ago Today: I beat FF5. When I came back, I tested my Arcbound deck... then I played FFX-2, won the Sphere Break tournament, beat Garik, saved O'aka's shop, and got myself 3 new Dresspheres--Lady Luck, Trainer, and Berserker. Now, all I have left to get is the Mascot Dressphere, and I have a full collection. Oh, and Garik was an easy boss. Then, I ate dinner, saw Christine, and did stuff online. Moo... Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 2 = 8 So frustrating... maybe I should just give up? Good Night. Saturday, April 10, 2004--I have some addendums to Thursday's entry. Other than that, I went to the Eggster thing, and worked at the booth where little kids get to make their own Solar System. Kind of boring, though, but the 3 hours went by pretty fast... although I was actually 30 minutes late. Then, I typed up some stuff for Avalanche Online. I'm still waiting for ANBU to put out their good version of Naruto. That is all! Good Night! Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 4 = 7 Friday, April 9, 2004--I woke up and did my Physics 7C Problem Set... and that's about it, actually. Yeah, I skipped CS61C Discussion because it's early in the morning, I'm tired, and it usually doesn't help anyway. CS61C Lecture... Quick Sort... is very quick! Prof Shewchuk: Quick sort was invented by a man named Tony Hoare. *someone snickers* Prof Shewchuk: Yes, that is an unfortunate last name, but what are you going to do about it? *class laughs* I went to the card shop and bought some cards for my Arcbound deck, but I forgot to buy mana. Oh well. I'll get some next time around. Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 6 = 10 Hmm... strange... if you're wounded to the same spot over and over again--a physical wound--eventually, you get a callous there, and it doesn't hurt so much when it gets pricked anymore. Does the same apply with the heart? Good Night! Thursday, April 8, 2004--Happy Birthday to Bernard Liang... I'm having trouble waking up in the morning, thanks to Daylight Savings Time. I woke up at 8 instead of 7 today, so I missed my Physics 7C lecture. Then, I went to the EE40 Lecture, where I was able stay awake for long enough to see every single slide! ...although I didn't hear every word the Prof said, but yeah, I saw every single slide. That's an achievement! Math 55 Lecture... I leave early so I can drop off my EE40 Homework before Cory Hall locks their doors. History 160... Wow, that was a short history lecture today! Then, I went to the Eggster thingie, which started 15 minutes late because people showed up late and finished 5 minutes early because it was short. Then, I went to an HKN Bridge meeting, which we promptly ditched (including Kun, who called the meeting) to go to the HKN Telebears Peer Advising and thieve some pizza... at which I saw Melo. Hello Melo! Then, I came back to my room and generally slacked off even though I should be doing my Physics Homework. *shrig* Today, Coach Lee showed up at fencing in a dress. Apparently, she had to go to a fundraising dinner with the Chancellor, Maxing Hong Kingston (or whatever the hell her name is), some politically important figure, etc etc, so she although she had some clothes to change into, she didn't bring any of her gear. It was amusing. Me: You're not planning on fencing in that are you? Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 4 = 7 Anyways, apparently, on Thursday, Lily Nieh was at Berkeley and in my EE40 class, just visiting, and I didn't ever notice! Then, she went to Unit 1, 6th floor of some tower. LOL... what a strange coincidence. Hmm... my next poll: "Is it wrong for a guy to go after a girl who is older than himself?" Good Night! Wednesday, April 7, 2004--Today, I woke up late and went to my CS61B Lab late and as a result didn't finish, but at least I still got 3 out of 4 points. Math 55 Discussion... I finished the homework in 45 minutes. Then, I spent an hour looking for Gastpar's non-existent office. Damn! Oh, well, I'll just go to the group session. I finished the CS Homework in just 2 hours. It was surprisingly short. CS61B Lecture... Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 4 = 5 A Year Ago Today: Connie Chu... I have things to do. Good Night! Tuesday, April 6, 2004--Currently Listening to: For Rachel from Final Fantasy 6 Skipped Physics 7C Lecture today to get more sleep... At the student store, I ran into Diana, whom I haven't seen in a while. She's the Cog Sci major who dropped out of CS61B in favor or some other class. EE40 Lecture... saw Kyrin sleeping... did my Prelab... EE40 Lab... our TA again did not show up this week... we gave our best effort and had a pretty good lab report. Had lunch at the Terrace for the first time. Tacos are decent, but taste like DC food... except hella more expensive. Mudterm 1 Math 55... It started at 2pm, and at about 3pm, when I was done with 3 of the 4 problems, I started falling asleep. So in my head, I told myself, "Oh shit! I'd better finish this fast if I want to be able to stay awake through the History midterm!" So I finished it up fast and just left. It was easy... too easy. A double-induction proof, counting, a weird modular Chinese Remainder Theorem type thing, and a pigeonhole principle thing... So I sleep just outside the room and wake up at 3:30pm, just in time for History. Then, I stepped outside for some fresh air and on my way in, I ran into Daisy... literally, I collided with her. Whoops. At least it was Daisy and not some random person I didn't know. Mudterm 2 History 160... it wasn't so bad. I was satisfied with most of my answers. What was most surprising was that when it was all over, I didn't even feel the slightest bit mentally fatigued. I had a one-hour break. Hungry? Why wait? Grab a Snickers! Mudterm 3 Physics 7C... this was the bad one. I solved 3 of the 5 problems (only 4 required) near perfectly (if not absolutely perfectly). However, problem #1 (one of the problems I didn't get) was apparently covered at the review section, and I couldn't solve it. Of course, it wasn't so much a problem of me not knowing how to do it. It was more like the conventions were reversed from what I had expected, so I set the thing to one instead of zero and got sin^2 + cos^2 = 0. What the hell? Oh well, with my hella good score on the first Physics midterm, on average, I should still have a solid A in the class... unless Battaglia grades easy and the curve is like, 90% A like in high school... which would be messed. Then, I went to Tau Beta Pi's Mafia Night. During my second game, because I was eating chips, they suspected me. Of course, it was the mafia dude Phil that accused me and convinced everyone else to kill me. Oh well. It was quite a drama that played out. First, they tried to kill this one guy, who then revealed himself to be a cop and revealed that Dude A was innocent. Then, Phil says, "I think Chippy (referring to me eating chips) over there seems suspicious, like he's trying to cover something up." Me: "It seems to me like you're accusing me of being Mafia because I'm hungry, and I think that's just ridiculous." Dude B: "All right, let's kill Dwayne, but if he turns out to be innocent, one of you [Phil or Zach] are going down!" I turn out to be innocent. Overnight, the Mafia kill Zach. The next day, Dude B gets everyone to kill off Phil, and one of the poeple who voted to kill off Phil was Quiet Girl, who was a mafia. The mafia has turned on each other! Then, as the Quiet Girl was mafia alone, she killed off the Innocent Dude (smart move!), and then it was Dude B, Frantic Girl, and Quiet Girl left. Dude B said that Frantic Girl must be the mafia because she's frantically trying to defend herself, like how a mafia would. So he and Quiet Girl kill off Frantic girl, and mafia wins. It was very tense at the end... Then, I come back to my dorm and slack off. Ahh... Hey, I feel much better now! Maybe it's the music... Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 5 = 10 *sigh* Good Night... Monday, April 5, 2004--My excuse for not posting today was because I was too busy reviewing for my mudterms, particularly the History 160 mudterm, because it's all essays and I suck at essays. Math 55 Discussion... Chinese Remainder Theorem... Physics 7C Discussion... Skipped EE40 Discussion... CS61B Lecture... Then, I went to Eta Kappa Nu's Video Game Night, even though I have 3 mudterms to study for tomorrow. That's how much I love... video games! I also watched people play Halo, Starcraft, Mario Kart Double Dash, (although no one wants to play Battle Mode... Battle Mode is the only fun part of Mario Kart!) and I had Bomberman group going for quite a long time. Boring day. Next! Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 2 = 3 Good Night... Sunday, April 4, 2004 - Addendum--I'm tired... After she got mad at me, today just seemed... so... pointless. Yes, this journal is two days late (maybe even more if I don't actually finish this). I don't care. Sometimes I have to ask myself, is it really worth the effort? If there was something that was so important to you, that if you could only have it, you could be happy for the rest of your life? What if this one thing was locked away, just barely out of reach, and in order to get to it, you needed to pass through a dark void, bringing only the cold and the emptiness. Would you still reach for it anyway? Happiness can be so evasive sometimes. It cannot be approached from some angles, and sometimes, it cannot be approached at all. Other times, the path may seem perfectly clear, and yet, there's a surprise, waiting to sting you when you try. It's like a mouse seeking a piece of cheese, but then, he steps into a mouse trap, which bites into his foot, and it hurts. Then, he runs away, and he's too scared to come back for a while. How many times would you step into that mousetrap before deciding the cheese wasn't worth it? There is a wound in my heart, a wound that never heals. It took many people to cut it so deep, one after another. It's an ugly, jagged wound, because everyone cuts at a slightly different angle, but it's still the same cut, the same debilitating stroke. To this day, it still bleeds. Sometimes, I feel the pain. It's a pain so powerful that I it becomes too strong for me to bear alone, and I want someone else to bear it for me. Sometimes, I want to return the pain to those who first dealt it to me, but no matter what I do, it still feels like they haven't suffered enough, for how much they have hurt me. My hatred still resides within me. It never left. It has only been covered up by layers of optimism and hope. What are optimism and hope? Are they just ideals? Frivolous virtues invented by the naive who believe the world is good? Is the world good? Or is it, as many have observed, full of suffering, through which there is no escape. I suffer, there is no doubt about that, but I manage. It's only through hope and optimism, that I manage. I am a dreamer. I feed on dreams, thrive on desire, survive on hope and optimism. I reach for my dreams not because I want to, but because I have to. Happiness may be just barely out of reach, but as long as I have my hope and my optimism, existence will suffice. But what happens when she, with a single stroke, tears away my dreams and my hope? There is always the hatred, at the core of my soul. I don't want to hate you, but I'm breaking down. The dreams tell me so... . . . . . . I'm sorry, I really am. I never wanted to hurt you, frustrate you, irritate you. Yes, I do respect you, I really do. I always wanted the best for the both of us... . . . . . . Now, to mundane matters... why do I even bother? Do people here really care that I was studying my History 160? Do people really care that I was thinking about her just before seeing her on the street? Yes, I did see her on the street right after I thought about meeting her on the street. It was strange, as though fate summoned her to me, as though my thoughts were prophecy. Me: Hello... I was just [thinking about you]... hello... Her: ...hi... Me: [doesn't actually remember her saying hi] Strange prophecy it is... she was already mad at me when I ran into her, and I was... completely oblivious... Me: Should a guy take what a girl says at face value and trust her words? Or should he read between the lines and try to find the hidden meanings? Jen & Tiffany: Read between the lines. A girl will never tell you straight up what she's feeling. Obviously our fated meeting did not help my image in her eyes... On a lighter note, I had dinner with Joyce. She and I went to this Japanese place on North side. I had Tempura Udon. Soba is still better, though. Then, I tried to play the piano for her, but the Foothill piano was disgustingly out of tune. When I hit those notes, it was just... blech... and I couldn't play anymore, not on that piano. Too bad most songs I know hit one of those 3 or so notes. Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 1 = 2 Good Night... Sunday, April 4, 2004--[removed] "Love is like a rhino, short-sighted and hasty; if it cannot find a way, it will make a way." --Flavor text from MTG card, Crash of Rhinos Saturday, April 3, 2004--Today, I went to the Tau Beta Pi E-futures. They talked about how to run a Meeting. Yes, it was a meeting about meetings. One of the highlights of the E-futures session was we did the Space Survival thing, where we had to rank the usefulness of 15 items. I always rank propulsion high and food low. Then, I went to the Eta Kappa Nu Potluck. I asked Daisy whether she liked HKN or TBP better. She said TBP, but only because she joined TBP first... which is kind of interesting, because TBP has tougher requirements than HKN. Then, I came back, where I challenged Bernard to an MTG duel and played my Arcbound deck against him. In the first game, he used a Reanimator deck, which had trouble getting started, apparently. I ended up killing his Hypnox three times and ended up with a 9/9 Arcbound Stinger. A turn later, I had the 9/9 Stinger, two Arcbound Crushers--one 6/6, one 2/2. He had a Visara and two Nether Spirits. So I Shrapnel Blasted his Visara, sacrificing my Stinger and putting the counters on the smaller Crusher. Immediately, Bernard forfeits. In the second game, Bernard used a Counter deck, but he was mana flooded. He was able to hold me off for a while, though. However, when he was down to 10 Life, I had two 1/1 Arcbound Workers and a Discipple of the Vault. Bernard's at 10, so I Shrapnel Blasted one of my Arcbounds on him, and thanks to the Disciple, he goes down to 4. Next turn, I attack with the Disciple and the Worker, but he bounces them both with Aether Burst. So, I replay the Disciple and the Worker. Then, I Shrapnel Blast the other Worker, but Bernard Syncopated it, but since I the Disciple's ability still went in and knocked him down to 3. Then, I played another Worker. Bernard plays a Scalpelexis, which means he's got a blocker I can't break. However, he doesn't want to attack, since I could kill him in 3 turns with the Arcbound Worker. Then, I play a Crusher. He does nothing. I play a Skullclamp, which brings my Crusher up to 2/2. I Clamp the Crusher into a 3/1, then attack with the Crusher and the 1/1 Worker. Bernard, at 3 Life, blocks the Crusher with his Scalpelexis, because he doesn't want to die. However, in doing so, the Crusher dies, and the Disciple knocks off another life, bringing him to 2. The Worker deals 1 combat damage, bringing him to 1. Then, with the Crusher dead, I choose not to give the counters to the Worker (it says "you may"). Then, I Clamp the Worker, killing it, and Disciple kills Bernard. It's the most amusing way I've seen anyone use the Skullclamp and the Arcbounds. Anyways, Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 2 = 5 Good Night! Friday, April 2, 2004--Okay, the answers to "What pranks were pulled yesterday?" are as follows: In the About me section, I wrote: Current Academic Goal: Planning to transfer to the University of Edo in Japan, where they have a world-famous curriculum in Artificial Intelligence. Progress? I've already been accepted. Current Romantic Goal: Having already slept with Kara Telani, I'm become bored of her. I'm currently trying to ditch her to get some from Kim Hung on the 7th floor. Progress? Well, I've gotten Kim to fall for my charms, but Kara just doesn't get the hint that I don't want her anymore Current Spiritual Goal: Trying to become God. Progress? I've already closed the agreement with Prof Lucifer. I just need to write him a check for $666 dollars. This should have been obvious, since there is no University of Edo (at least, not one that's world famous. Also, Kara Telani does not exist, nor does Prof Lucifer. I also wrote: For an update to the romantic scene, I'd like to tell you about my girlfriend Kara. She's a white girl, kinda short, ridiculously cute, loves to party, and she's just as smart as me! Man, who would ever have thought that I'd find such a perfect girl at Berkeley EECS? Kara, if you're reading this, I want you to know that I love you always! Same as above, Kara does not exist. Also, the poll was obviously a prank. I would never make a poll like that (and no, I don't lust after girls, I court them). That and Fiona Rasz is also fake. On the Front page I switched around the words so it said "what I am and who I do" instead of "who I am and what I do". Anyways, I was tired last night, so I didn't wake up for today's CS61B Discussion... Physics 7C Lab... it was quick. I wanted to do the booster draft at Games of Berkeley, but since it starts at 5pm (and so does CS61B Lecture), I had to ditch lecture... so I did. Right after lab, headed straight for Games of Berkeley. First, I bought the cards necessary to complete my Sliver deck... at least as many as I could find. The store didn't have all of them, but their commons were uber-cheap! Then, I booster drafted. It was Mirrodin-Mirrodin-Darksteel. The first pack I opened had a crappy rare, so I drafted Domineer instead, which set me down into the path for blue. I ended up drafting lots of blue affinity cards... and very few artifacts. Whoops. On my second booster, I opened it, looked at the rare, and gasped in shock. Mindslaver! I immediately drafted it without looking at any of the other cards. That day, I ended up drafting a Blue-Black deck. Then, while I was trying to build it, the tournament was about to start. Dave asked if everyone was done building their deck, and I said "I need to cut out 1 card". So Eric says he'll help, and he goes through my deck and changes stuff. Apparently, he made improvements. My first game was against a guy named Pacman (or at least, that's what the paperwork said). Apparently, despite all the red he had gotten, he had built his deck wrong (or something like that), so I quickly beat him two for two. One of the highlights was that I used Mindslaver. Then, I spent his Consume Spirit for zero. (Eric: "What the hell? Why would you want to do that?" Pacman: "I got Mindslaver'ed.") Then, I wasted whatever spells that I could. Another highlight was when he played a creature, equipped it with Leonin Scimitar, and then tried to equip it with Skullclamp. In response, I Essence Drain'ed his creature, and he got to draw no cards. Later, he got out a Myr Adapter, equipped it with Scimitar and Skullclamp. Then, I Domineer'ed the Adapter and killed him with it. In the second round, I played Eric, whom apparently is really good at the game. He beat me with Spire Golems and his Crystal Shard, which allowed him to rescue his creatures from my removal. However, I did get to Mindslaver him. Then, I made his Alpha Myr equip itself with the Viridian Longbow and shoot itself to death. Then, I had his Leaden Myr attack and suicide into my Omega Myr. Then, I used his Crystal Shards to bounce his own Spire Golem, just for fun. But then, the fun ended, and he recovered and beat me after that. However, he did say that Mindslaver was a good card and that it had set him back 2 turns. (Of course, when you take over the other player for a turn, how Mindslaver not set a guy back.) In my third game, I had to face my friend William, who apparently drafted a really good Green-White deck. His Leonin Abunas powering up his Tangle Golems and Razor Golems, making them untargetable, so I couldn't remove them. I died pretty quickly. For those of you who are interested, my draft deck looked like this: 8 Swamp 8 Island Talisman of Dominance Gold Myr 2 Essence Drain 2 Thoughtcast Regress Chromatic Sphere 2 Omega Myr 2 Arcbound Worker Moriok Scavenger Nim Shrieker 2 Drill-Skimmer Scavenging Scarab Domineer Alpha Myr Cobalt Golem Annul Slith Bloodletter Irradiate Mindslaver Heh, apparently, I am a DCI-registered player, now. The guy running the draft gave me the forms to fill out and the DCI Membership card. On my way out, I bought 3 Darksteel boosters. I opened the first one and got a Shield of Kaldra. It's worth $2, but I was really happy since it's a Legendary artifact, and I like Legends. (Incidentally, so is Mindslaver, which means I got two Legendary Artifacts today.) In my second pack, I got the ARCBOUND RAVAGER!!! This is the best Arcbound, and it's worth $22, and is the #1 wanted card on FindMagicCards.com. In my third booster, I got a Pristine Angel worth $6 and a foil Arcbound Crusher which is worht $2. All in all, I got tons of good cards from my boosters today, which makes me very happy! Now, when my brother tells me to build a deck other than my Sliver deck, I can actually build something decent now! Anyway, I came back home, updated some stuff online, and went to sleep. Good Night! Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 1 = 5 |