Ferret XMas

The ferrets sure love Christmas. I don't think it has anything to do with the birth of their lord and savior (little known fact: Ferret Jesus was born the exact same moment as human Jesus... but they technically call him *squeak-squeak-low-dooking-noise*). I think it has more to do with travel and all the new random crap that comes with the season.

In addition to their accordion style ferret tunnel, which they never get tired of running through even when it's laid out in the same place (as if it was going to lead somewhere different... no... it's just the same open space of floor two feet away), they also get to smell new presents as I bring them home... wrapping papers and tape (OOOH TAPE!!!). For some reason they also never seem to get tired of crawling in plastic bags. I think it has something to do with the noise and the static cling... but who the hell could even tell what a ferret's thinking.

Life as a ferret must be either insanely exciting or maddeningly frantic.

DSi Review

The DSi was released somewhere around 8 to 10 months ago, marketed as an upgraded DS lite (which was an upgraded DS). While the DS lite was almost a necessary improvement over the DS, which looked like a prototype model (and some say it was the rushed prototype released after news leaked it early), the DSi sported more subtle changes. It's slightly smaller, has two small cheap cameras, and features a much improved 'channel' like interface reminiscent of the Wii. Most noteably it lost the Game Boy Advance slot, meaning that it can only play DS games. Of course this means that it cannot also play DS games that required the GBA as a peripheral spot.

I've had mine for almost a year, and to be honest I really haven't used it much differently than the DS lite before I traded it in. People who are looking to just play games don't really have a need for a DSi. It has a music player that features a limited mixer, it's fun. I played Lady Gaga's Bad Romance on it and altered her voice to sound male... strangely entertaining. However, don't confuse this with an MP3 player. It's not.

The cameras are limited too; the quality is comparable to a cell phone. There are some fun doodling utilities, but like the mixer, these are mostly fun... they aren't for serious pictures.

The channel system is interesting. Once you accept that the DSi is a portable game system that also tries to be a bit of a 'jack-of-all-trades' toy, you really see that the channel system is at the heart. The DSi store, where you purchase applications, has been up for a while. There's are a variety of puzzle games and a few types of calculator and alarm clock applications. Very few of these stand as 'games' and usually just seem more like 'stuff to do if you're bored enough'. There are some fun titles though. And some applications are worth trying out.

Internet connectivity is a big thing nowadays. The DSi takes the the DS lite clearly in this department. An upgrade that came out this past August allowed pictures in the album to publish directly to facebook. I'm not sure why exactly they picked to route it only to that one social networking site... I wouldn't have minded if it had routed it to a picture site like Photobucket or a blog... but Facebook is the most popular, so it works.

The lack of Blue Tooth technology and the elimination of the GBA peripheral port makes the DSi limited. In this respect it is very much like a 'toy', with very distinct boundaries and an ill defined purpose. There are fun features on it, but really it feels like half the fun is trying to incorporate them into your daily life somehow. That's a strange way to conceptualize a game system. While I can't say I agree with everything that Nintendo has made the DSi into, I can say that it is a neat little gizmo that really makes no real pretensions at being anything more than a little light fun.

Break-fest!!!

You know, I kind of miss November. Not because I was in school then. As much as I enjoyed learning, and I did, I'm happy to be out for a while. But I had a list of exciting event in November. Now it's December, and really I got nothing. December is signifigantly lamer than November, afterall, I pretty much spent the first half finishing up school. And on top of that, I had, although willful, obigatory and time consuming travel plans to arrange everything by. With only ten days left in December, nay 2009, I'm thinking I'll do my best to inject a couple of exciting events and projects to spice up life. I can't say life sucks, but I can say that it's a lot more boring since November ended... :(

Tune in tomorrow to start a reel of exciting plans! Damn it, I'm going to enjoy my break to the fullest and stop being such a lardass about everything! (first I'll need an annoying catch phrase... "November Rocks" and "November is Awesome" are pretty hard to beat though... they were so catchy)

Out of In Your Face -book

Oh internet, you are a wonder. You're fucking massive! I don't think humans were meant to be as connected as the functionality seems to put us sometimes; and that uncomfortably close proximity is only made possible by the internet!

Case in point, I submit Facebook. A social networking site, it allows you to keep up with an absurd number of people as they continue to update every inane detail of their life. In the case of my close friends, I really appreciate it. In the case of casual acquaintances, I guess it's kind of neat. I mean it helps me get to know them better without all that awkward... what did they use to call it? Conversation? As for people I really don't talk to though it's annoying.

I really don't care that they uploaded pictures, have a tough status update, or that they lost their phone and need the numbers of all their real friends. We don't talk and have no real impact or contact on each other's life. We have nothing in common and there really is no point in staying so up to date on people who have, and never really, had anything to do with my life. I might as well be following strangers. Scratch that! A lot of these people are in their own circle of friends. Bascially I just get updates about how they all get along with each other... which is all well and good... but basically I feel like I'm looking into a Alpaca Enthusiast Group meeting; I have no real attachment to alpacas.

But I can't un-friend them, that seems a little antagonistic. There must be a compromise. What's that Facebook? 'Hide' is a feature that can 'Hide' people right out off my reading list? You mean I can actually use facebook and ignore people I don't particularly care about? Why it's just like real life! *click*click*click*click*click*click*and *click* Ahhh, I now have a little breathing distance.

As the internet was conceived a way to connect everyone in near limitless ways, I think it's also key to let us all to disconnect a little bit. Ahhh... Facebook hasn't jumped this much closer to serenity since I blocked Farmville!

Snow!

I couldn't tell you if it's a Texas thing, but everyone gets really excited about seeing snow. Is it because snow is an indicator of uncomfrotably cold weather? Probably not. Is it because it's a subtle departure from their dull and mundane lives? Even I'm not that cynical. I think it's rooted in something closer to childish wonderment. Snow floats on air and drifts around, it's eye catching and just fun to watch. Enjoy the day! Behold one of mother nature's many screen savers!

Cleaning Cubed

I started cleaning. I ripped everything out of my truck yesterday and spent this morning blowing everything around my appartment like a huge storm of vacuuming and organizational skills. Too bad I really don't have the time to finish any of it today, I'm writing the rough draft to my now infamous Animorphs paper and working today. I also spend quality time with Kyle and such. But it doesn't really matter if everything in my apartment is completely wrecked (seriously, everything is pretty much blown apart right now), my roommate is still out of town!

Things in life remind me of a Rubics Cube. You have to carefully mess everything up before you can put it back together better than before!

Strength

I think Thanksgiving may be one of my favorite holidays. I just like the tone. Thanksgiving isn't a tv/radio advertisement guilt trip to make the general public feel obligated to go down a falate superstores and malls across the country. Thanksgiving is nothing but simple dinners with family. You just can't sex that up like you can Valentines day or Christmas. Thanksgiving is nice; being more thankful just feels so introspective and cleansing (and inexpensive).

I have a lot to be thankful for, but the things that I focus on have changed over the years. For years I used to say I was thankful for my house and having my own room and food and having a family and being able to drive myself places.. etc. My list has been changing a little over the past few years in particular though (a lot of things have). Last year was a year I really realized just how strong my family members are. My mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa have all lead full and successful lives that I had never really thought about collectively before. I can tell that a lot of that has passed onto my sister too. This year opened the scope even more. I've met and grown closer to people outside my family with a steady radiating glow of personal fortitude. It's not always obvious at first, but over time you can really see the hope, drive, love and success of people with less innate talent and less than perfect circumstances. You can't help but feel a little bit inspired. Having people like this willingly include me in their lives by choice is what I'm most thankful for this year.

The Fame Monster

Where The Fame was very 'sparkely' in it's lyrical themes, The Fame Monster is little darker. Gaga makes a lot of references to people in 'the business' acting less than nice to each other. According to Wikipedia(theallknowing).org she wrote these during her tours and promotions of The Fame... so maybe it does fit after all. I was a little disappointed, just because Bad Romance was released in full force first. The rest of the album is good, better than most electronic/dance cds anyways, but Bad Romance is definitely the strongest track. Just because it's Gaga, I was expecting a little more distinction than beep-beep-dance-pop.

She has a strong voice that makes for very energetic music, but it tends to overpower instruments and electronic effects unless they're reined in tight. Most of the tracks have weak moments because of this, her voice is bringing the energy up and the back music just can't seem to keep up with her. Teeth and Bad Romance are the two exceptions to this. Alejandro is fun, if a little bit of a flash back to Ace of Base (it's not a bad thing). Monster and Dance in the Dark are all serviceable, the second or third time I listened to them I was able to overlook the random awkward slow parts. I didn't care for Telephone because the lyrics are unbelievably dumb; it's a collaboration song with Beyonce though, so I'm guessing the radio is going to bludgeon everyone with it regardless. So Happy I Could Die is almost as good as Dance in the Dark but just kind of fizzles out flat. Speechless is a variety inducing ballad. It's not what I typically go to Gaga to hear, but it's decent. There's also a Bad Romance remix by Starship; the original was so good, I wish they had remixed one of the tier 2 tracks instead.

The album is very short. It's practically an EP and I think it was misleading to try to hype it as a completely new album. Still, it's not priced as a full album and the tracks it does have mostly range from average to above average.

I give it 3.5/5.0 Ra Ra Ras.

Eyes

Cold weather makes me think. It’s good thinking weather. Maybe it’s because you can pretend that a storm is blowing in; prepare for the harsh elements on the way! Survival is key! November is the awesome month. This year, November is full of nothing but great event happening every single week. For whatever reason though, today a little bit of October slipped back in. Now I’m being all ‘contemplative’, particularly about what kind of outlook I should have. Despite what people will tell you, it’s not always best to have a entirely sunny and positive outlook on life; there’s no perfect way to view the world that’ll work magic. For instance, changing to more exhaustive outlooks is impractical if there are insufficient returns. All you’ll accomplish is burning yourself out, trust me I know. But there’s also a downside to just vomiting tar, it makes moments where you feel peaceful and happy a little sad because you know you’re pushing people away. I guess everything is a balance! The key is always remember why you choose a certain outlook in the first place. Finding a way to view the world is a means to an end, not an end to some means.

Artifact

I walked into my old room in San Antonio on Saturday night, home for the Sunday and tried to go to sleep. At 11:40 I heard a light beeping sound. It's been in my room for as long as I could remember, I've always thought it was a watch I lost somewhere with an alarm set. I went through several watches in high school in particular and I was big into setting alarms; I figured I set it for 11:40 am and the AM/PM thing got switched.. Anyway, I could never find it because of the way the beep echoes, it's impossible to tell which corner of the room it's coming from, and my room isn't even messy or anything!

By some weird coincidence I was able to tell where it was coming from that night. Turns out it wasn't a watch at all (which may be why I had trouble finding to start with). It was a really (really really) cheap PDA I got from sending in Cocoa Pebbles proof of purchases through the mail. I think I remember I ordered sent off for it because it was free and I just liked getting stuff in the mail back then (It was a lot of fun to have free junk delivered... I should start doing that again). I think I played with it for 30 minutes, obviously set an alarm, and then dropped it in a junk drawer. That was almost 10 years ago! This thing has been setting off that soft phantom watch beep alarm every night at exactly 11:40 pm since then!

I thought about how such an insignificant whim could just keep going and going on, as endless as needless. There aren't many things I took up in early high school that still keep going; blogs, stories, movies, books, ideas, ideals, dreams, plans for the future... most of those have undergone radical changes or been outright abandoned. This dumb thing though just kept enduring on for no reason. It made me think about what we really leave behind..

13

In a moment of weakness and poor judgement, I decided I should sign up for a half marathon in San Antonio this weekend. Have I been training to run 13 miles straight? Nope. Since signing up have I gone running? Not once! Do I think I have ample amounts of free time to pick up another side track event? Probably not. But you know what? November is the month of fucking adventure! Bring it on!

The Fourth Kind: Movie Review

Life is full of natural wonders. Like a campfire sunrise after a night in wilderness or large roving flocks of birds, somethings just beg you to sit down and enjoy the moment. For reasons I cannot fathom, watching Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil, Fifth Element) act is a similar experience for me. While her movies never end in radical introspection that make me reevaluate the meaning of life, I can't help but enjoy myself. Maybe its because she's a stunning beauty with above average acting and a low set, sensuous voice (it's like sex with chocolate pudding) and maybe its because the movies she does do are fast paced and fun, but I can't help but love any movie she stars in. When I saw trailers for her new movie, an alien abduction thriller, I was shaking with excitment. Enough of my woman crush though, how was the movie?

We'll get there, first I want to say that one thing you have to understand is how hard alien abduction movies are to make. Abductions are complete misunderstandings or hoaxes at worst and infrequent enigmas at best, not much is really compiled. Even details of 'sightings' aren't congruent with each other. The Fourth Kind takes a bold stance, juxtaposing 'dramatizations' with 'archived footage' from a Blair Witch series of audio and video recordings taken from the researcher who is the focal point of the movie.

The Fourth Kind tries to be completely factual, something that not possible for vampire or other equally fantastical movies. That's a pretty difficult job, but it pretty much delivers! Now you can go to this movie and take it apart; it's a freaking alien movie that tries to use archive footage for crying out loud! It's like someone built a house of cards where you're pretty sure one of them is imaginary. But it starts with a bang and does an excellent job of keeping tension. This is a movie that is fast paced and at the same time keeps itself from spinning excessively out of perspective. The camera work, lighting, sound, and direction are tight; it's a classic case of what it takes to make people stay engaged, the very definition of a thriller. It has some components that seem overdone or cheesy, but then it blankets them over with the irrationality and mystery that usually accompanies a god complex; it more or less covers its bases. I have only one small minute criticism for this movie: the exact detail (of the dramatization) of the ending, going off of the archived footage, could have been made more ambiguous.

This movie is a good suspense ride, appropriately punctuated with action and clearly manged with tight direction. The few parts that I thought were overdone while watching the movie were actually the ones that stuck with me when I went home later that night. Don't watch this as a movie trying to convince you of research. Suspend your common sense a little and pretend you're watching Life Time documentary and this will be a fun movie that is the very definition of a thriller! I rate this movie 3.5 out of 5 late night bedroom encounters.

Vista to 7

Holy cow! To everyone whose computer is infected with Windows Vista (any of the various strains), for the love of God go and upgrade to Windows 7! I made the swtich today and the difference on my little laptop is HUGE! I can see animations! The screen saver actually works! It doesn't take 15 minutes for my computer to start up!

Is Windows 7 better than Leopard? Hells NO! But unlike Vista, it will actually run on a computer! I'm so excited! Running this is like getting a brand new computer that isn't a piece of junk! It feels like a brand new computer! The operating system change is that huge!

[why the hell did they even bother releasing Vista again?]

Enganst

I was reading over the syllabus for my English class and I found something that pissed me off.

"Exams, discussion questions/ responses, and homework will receive a numeric grade, but all papers and presentations will receive a letter grade, the point-value of which is listed below: A 95, A- 92, B+ 88, B 85, B- 82.. F 59"

Did you notice there's no A+ 100 in there? That's because there's no such thing as a perfect paper (or apparently presentation)! There are a 15 point paper and a 15 presentation. So if I get MAXIMUM points on both of those I still automatically still lose .5 points on my FINAL grade. I'm trying my best to salvage points after a horrific test and a misunderstanding of the attendance policy! No, but go ahead and dock any rounding factor I had. Let's all just round down this go around! No, really it's cool! I understand this is how you save English as a language. Lord knows if kids thought they were getting 100 points on their work instead of 95 points, there's be no point to life as we know it all hell would break lose! Bitch, I hope I get the chance to round down you tax return... because, you know, you technically get so much... but... the system probably might have an error in your favor... so we'll fix that for you. Just to make sure you know how the world works. Isn't learning fun?

I think English teachers do the 'no perfect paper' thing in an attempt to pretend that they aren't the ones determining what good English is. Like there's some all mighty God of English papers that looks down when they leave a stack on the alter at sunset and etches red letter grades in lighting bolts down from heaven as a form of judgement. 'I can't say that your paper is perfect', they're saying, 'because in the grand scheme of things no English paper is really PERFECT.'
Bitch, in the grande scheme of things, when I sign up for this class, I'm promised an OPPORTUNITY to score 100 out of 100 possible points. I know you grade the paper and you personal opinion may resonate with some techniques more than others. I'm writing a paper for your class to be read by you. If you feel like I deserve full credit for fully completing an assignment then I deserve full fucking credit!!

The Fall Atmosphere!!

I'm in a fantastic mood today. It could because I woke up freezing cold. I love cold, why the hell do I live in a small midwestern Texas town? I've been asking myself that a lot a lot lately. The weather is a big part of it. Would I be terrible to say that social atmosphere is another part? Probably. I'd also probably be incorrect. I know that eventually I'll have to accept the fact that people are pretty universal, especially when they're all put under the same laws. Even if I move up north I doubt some things will change, in fact when I think about it logically I'm sure of it. Realizing that is probably some part of growing up.

If growing up means that I'll reconcile everything I've ever wanted out of life, I'll remain a fool forever.

Ardisleeplessness

I hate it when I procrastinate and end up having to pull an all nighter over an assignment that's dumb and not even all that hard. You'd think I'd have learned by now to always get things done ahead of time! I guess I should be glad at least that now I at least get it done in time, regardless of exactly how much sleep I loose in the process.

Forecast

I went dragging Benny around campus today; I love these cold fronts moving though. They never last long, but they are heavenly none the less. They remind me that I want to move northward. Ahhh, I can't wait until I'm away from Texas heat...

Nature Lover

This morning was beautiful. It was the kind of day that made me happy to be outside and walking around. I went up to a tree and just wanted to hug it, strongly embrace it in my arms! But that would have been slightly embarrassing with everyone watching. Instead I leaned by it, opening up a channel of mutual support. The tree supported me just as I supported it and we gazed blissfully together into the cold gentle wind. Then unable to restrain myself I reached a little lower. I don't think there's anything too weird about grabbing a tree.

Grim Fish

I gave Grim a burial at pond today in near by John Crompton Park. He died of an infection that started in his left eye, but eventually began spreading elsewhere. I remember I got him my second day back at TAMUG for my sophomore fall semester; I bought him at Walmart and when I brought him home to his 10 gallon tank and turned on the light he sank right to the bottom and leaned against the glass mortified. I was sure he was going to die the first couple of days I had him, which lead me to naming him Grim. He slowly over the course of the week (mostly during which his tank light was kept off) he got more active and lively. It wasn't long before he grew to needing a larger tank. When I did my awesome semester of Calculus I where I got an A after getting Ds in PreCal and the first time I took Cal 1, he floated around his tank on my desk and intently watched me do homework. Oscar fish are always said to be somewhat smarter than other fish and are renowned for having personalities; I don't know about fish intelligence, but Grim definitely had personality. I had to move him home once and he jumped out of the tank while I was changing water. I scooped him up off the floor to put him back in the tank and he bit me with his big boney, toothless fish jaws. He never tried to jump out of the tank ever again. After I left Galveston I moved him to College Station, first in an apartment, then we lived alone for a while, then we moved through another apartment before settling in the current one. He got so big that fish nets and bags were no longer possible modes of transportation, I had to carry him in a bucket. I took a lot of pride in how large and healthy Grim grew up to be, so it was really difficult for me when he got sick because of me and slowly but surely died over the course of 2 weeks. Some days he looked so much better and some days he looked so much worse. All together he lived a good 5 years and I'd like to think that most of the time he was a happy fish. The apartment feels a lot more lonely without him.

You're Wrong, But You're Right.

I've always looked up to my parents in a lot of ways. It took me leaving home to compare how strong they are to a lot of other people. I'm grateful of the one definite thing they managed to give me: a wide base of love and worth. That very thing has made some things hard these past two years. They might be outstanding, exceptional people, but they aren't perfect. They were wrong about a lot of things. And even then they were at least partially right about some of the things they were wrong on. I'm not sure exactly how I can have some conversations with them, but on some level knowing they love me trumps the need to even have them in the first place. Love and living are tricky like that.

March on to Your Crazy Tune

I can't speak for anyone else, but for me there always seems to be a divide between the individual (me) and the society. I'm not talking about ideals. Ideals are by their definition are unrealistic; they're perfect. I'm talking about the actual expectations, actions, feelings of culture, all those things and more rolled into one. A lot of them are created by majorities (even majorities of minorities) and I'd be lying if there wasn't a very distinct stark line between what that culture expects before it offers rewards of success and what I'm willing to give it. I imagine this type of thing is generic enough to be applied to a lot of people and situations. It doesn't answer really answer those feelings though. No one really wants to be an outsider, but if compromising to fit to society is impossible, then you have to find your own stride. That's a message that's as old as children's stories but something that a lot of so called adults forget: March on... to your own crazy tune.

Chi Chi Chi Chia!

I've decisively given up on shaving since the past week. With what little testosterone I have pumping I've managed to puff out an extremely irritating misshapen fuzz. I don't have to tell you it looks terrible. You can probably just imagine and that'll get you halfway there. But the good thing about looking terrible up front is that you don't have to worry too much about much else. Something that pretty much repels any kind of social interaction leaves me comfortably reserved. Plus I like to think of it kind of like a ChiaPet, the hedgehog one (because the head shaped one was stupid), only I don't have to water it, trim it, or leave it out in the sun. I pretty much just scratch and run my fingers along my chin stubble thoughtfully. Yeah, that's the stuff.

Measureablely Learned

I took my first English exam today. I think I did okay with the exception of a fill in the blank section. Our professor, one of the most energetic and engaging professors I think I may have ever had, put a fill in the blank section on our exam because she felt it required students to actually have the tested information in their brains completely with full comprehension. Multiple choice questions only tested recognition, not cognition, and our class period isn't even an hour, making it far too short to have essays that aren't incomprehensible paper-vomit.

I agree with her that multiple choice questions only scratch the surface of actual comprehension. In a way, I'm always a little sad when professors rely on them so much for so called 'higher learning'. But at the same time I think fill in the blank questions are pretty bunky too. I lost somewhere between 16 and 20 points on questions that I feel like I comprehended everything but the verbatim word blurped out of the sentence. I don't like it. And then again at the same time, I can't think of any real way I could test students if I was a teacher, that would guarantee that they were comprehending and capable of using anything I was testing them on... forget only having 50 minutes to do it in. I would hope that teachers get studies and whatnot on what people say is the most effective... if I had to teach this conundrum would drive me bonkers.

Moose Eye View

When you were a kid, did you ever make your own TV or radio stations? Make line ups? Etc.. etc... well I can tell you that was an act of pure boredom. I find myself in immense boredom, so I made something almost as well thought out: another blog. Check out LeafWheels on Blogger; I plan on updating it once or twice a day with random internet things. Don't expect too much effort or originality, and definitely don't expect any analysis.

A birds eye view gives you the scope of everything, it puts things in perspective. The opposite could be a mouse's eye view giving you insight to the gritty workings under the floor and between the walls. This new blog is neither of those things.

Intermittent with the randomness, I'm adding several internet series. While technically you can jump ahead by following the web sites, that's boring and you're likely to watch most of it all at once in an unappreciative marathon. Save yourself from yourself!

The A&M Water Polo Game

I went to a water polo game today! A&M hosted a club tournament. They competed their team against other schools' teams most of today continuing through tomorrow. It's been 4 years since I played and probably 3 years since I even watched a game, so I was surprised at how much I instantly got into the game. Everything, terms, lingo, strategy, experiences, all came rushing back during the first quarter. I wish there were more water polo games around to watch. I kind of want to play some again, although I'm still so hopelessly out of shape. It's something to work towards though. =)

In terms of the game itself, things were pretty one-sided. The game was A&M's team vs. UT's B team. I forget the exact score, but A&M had a 15 point lead which constitutes one count of rape. I think if I ever have kids in sports, I'm going to be an annoying parent to deal with. I kept wanting to tell them 'tighten up', 'drive!', 'someone cut to the side and give the goalie someone to pass to!' Yeah, I'm probably going to be that asshole...

Getting Well Soon

My animals don't like me much these days. Grim has an infection, so I'm changing out his tank water and trying to get him to eat. He doesn't care for most things though. I can't blame him, his right eye looks like hell.
For some reason the flea bombing failed more than usual. Right after we got back we were still finding fleas in the carpet. I'm hoping those are just chance hatchers. I'm trying to crack down on them, I gave Trolly and Norman their first bath a few days ago. They hated it, it was the most pitiful thing you could imagine. Trolly was too small to get out of the tub, so she just stood in the water sudds up and shaking with this expresion that said 'Dear god, why are you doing this to me?!" Norman is big enough to jump out once he gets his front claws latched on the edge, so I had to push his feet back when he started scratching up the side. He's a little more simple, it was more of 'Okay, I want to get out... Okay, I want to get out... Okay, I" over and over again. I felt terrible but then I saw little flea specks drifting off of them and going down the drain. At least it largely worked. I've been monkey-grooming them for fleas every day since. They don't like being held down or the flea comb. Trolly is now terrified of me picking her up. I think Norman's too dumb to remember anything past 30 seconds, so at least he still loves me.

Bascially, I'm a terrible pet owner in general at the momment.

More Fleas

Somehow the fleas were able to break through the seal we put on the door to Tracy's hallway. They're back in full force! We're going to flea bomb the apartment tomorrow night. It's been decided that Tracy's room gets it's own flea bomb this time. While they're all over the apartment, they haven't reinfected the ferrets yet. I'm grateful for that!

Wanna Go Clubbing?

School has definitely come down to a rhythm. In fact, it's gotten a little boring. Everyone seems to be having a busy semester, so it's been hard to link up with friends. And now that I'm pretty much over my sickness, I'm feeling fat, lazy, and inactive. I was planning for this semester to be so much more... something.

To rectify this problem, I've decided to join a school club! Now I don't know if I even can, but I'd like to get into some sort of athletic thing. Something where I could meet new people, burn off energy, and level off some of my near limitless ADD-interest. The downside to joining anything athletic is obvious: I'm not very athletic. In fact I tend to range somewhere between mediocre and flat out BAD at most sports (nix that, most things). I went on the A&M interwebs to try to find a sport club that I might be able to get into. Running is something I really enjoy, but really I'd like something a little bit more full body. Judo was something I tried a little bit of before, but I tried getting into it in two different semesters and both times I fell out of it; I'm just not a fighter. The only things that have caught my eye is the Triathlon Club and the Water Polo Club.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of getting back into water polo. I kind of miss that, even if I was terrible, and A&M's team probably out classes me. I could probably be happy trying Triathlon Club too though. The thing I'm worried about, water polo has already done tryouts and started practices; I haven't even swam in over a month... and before that one time it was well over 4 or 5 months! I know I'm crazy out of shape, I don't even think I could keep up at one practice as it stands and people sitting out of practices are always bad for the team as a whole. I can think of tons of advantages for me if I got on the team, I just can't think of too many they would have for having me on. <8|:o)

Sleeping Ferrets

Ferrets are cute together because they sleep all the time and, to each other, friends are pillows and blankets!
Apply that rule to people and it gets creepy though...

Freakonomics

Freakonomics! A book that my friend Travis bought me for my birthday ( or was it xmas?) several years ago (maybe even back in the Galveston age). I picked it up again recently and started reading it. I assure you it had nothing to do with the declicious looking fruit on the cover. An apple (yum) with the innards of an orange (yum!). I can only imagine what a citrus apple would taste like (heaven!), but as for the book itself, I'm impressed. It reads like a casual lecture, relating cause, effect, and correlation.

I can understand why some introductory economic classes have it for required reading! Unlike the required reading for my Physical Anthropology class, Freakonomics is not a excruciatingly detailed decade long study on the various habits of the spectral tarsier and its environment. It doesn't have graphs, charts, or even a full-fledged explanation of what exactly doing a 'regression' entails. Instead it focused conveying more applicable generalized principles through magnetic good humor; what it does have is a light hearted, if slightly cynical, theories that try to reveal the flaws in conventional-moral thinking. Towards the end, it seemed like every time I opened the book, I was disappointed to find my bookmark so close to the back cover. That doesn't happen often!

More of an exercise of thought than a serious book on how economics works, I'd recommend it to friends as a very entertaining read. The theme of the book: if morality is how we want the world to work, then economics is how the world really works.

(in the above blog I meant no disrespect the the fine required book, The Spectral Tarsier, written by my esteemed Physical Anthropology professor, Dr. Gursky. I find myself riveted by the various graphs, charts, and the full-fledged explanation of all your extensive and thorough tarsier observation and experiment methodologies, data, and clearly entailed conclusions! Truly an impressive collection of information about the often misunderstood tarsier. It's impressive girth and tiny print prevents me experiencing that disappointment outlined above, where I find myself gazing regretfully when I find my wondering 'is the book really going to end already?)

Dream Boats

I had I crazy dream last night. I was part of a crew on a boat and we traveled down this long winding jungle river. Every so often we'd come to various abandoned water parks and dock in huge lagoons around water slides. Then we all had to split up because one of the people in the crew was a douche bag, so then we all had our own little groups. I had my own boat and was on my own for a long while. There was a nice guy I kept running into at the water slide lagoons who was traveling by hot air balloon. He was helpful, but every time I saw him I got scared that he was with the douche bags and ended up shooting him with something (oops). He was always okay though and never held it against me. At the end of the river was a huge Sea World water park and there were more douche bags catching everyone (we were too late!). They had an Apple system for their main computer, so I easily found the control panel icon, found my own user preferences, and set my colors to clear. That apparently worked somehow. If that doesn't make sense, all you need to know is that it made me invisible. I ended up being the only one of the good guys not caught, so I was running around invisible trying to find everyone else and get them freed. Unfortunately I was sick in my dream, and they tuned their dolphin tracking system to the sound of my sniffles. Just like most things in life, a really cool premise ended up getting ridiculous. I got annoyed when it wasn't fair and work up. I wish there was a way to stop it halfway.

The Ever Dominant Bean

I went to my Anthro lab today. We're still doing heredity and alleles. I thought it was funny that we using little colored kidney beans as props, like we were all back in elementary school, grouping random pairs of red and white beans as alleles for 'people' and then eliminating the ones from the gene pool when natural selections or a random catastrophe deemed them fatal. It just goes to show you that you're never too old to play with counting beans.

Rain Waters the Flowers to Grow in Sunshine.

Ever have a mantra? I'm not scoping this towards religious chanting, but some little insightful saying that becomes something to live by. People compile books of those little warm and fuzzy blurbs. I don't think reading said books really does anything for anyone. It might provide a little pick-me-up, but it's too short lived or impacting to be a transformation. That's because mantras are journeys of personal exploration, where you learn about you in particular and how your actions impact the world around you. By analyzing yourself, where you are, and where you'd like to be in the perspective of self awareness, THAT is how you transform your life.

"If you wait for the whole apartment to smell like poop before you empty the litter box, the smell tends to linger something awful." Yeah, that's what I try to live my life by. Just sounds like something that needs to be engraved on a memorial somewhere.

Hanoko 002 ~ Kritins and the Forest

I fixed up the second one!

Forever...

We finished our discussion Judy Blume's book, Forever..., in my adolescent literature class. For those of you who haven't read it, it's basically porn for tween girls. Perfect families, practical sex talk, she names her boyfriend's penis Ralph (the name comes up surprisingly often). I don't consider myself a prude, but I can't decide if I'd let my teenage daughter read books like this. On one hand, I guess it's informative and empowering. On the other hand, it is pretty sexual.

Scammers Need to Speak Better English (for sexual purposes)

One of my roommate's friends had his facebook account hacked. A scammer came on and tried to get him to wire money. I was nearby and grabbed the computer. Hilarity ensued. Be warned, we get a little GRAPHIC. Reader discretion is advised.


Michael
11:27
hey
11:27Michael went idle

SupremeThor
11:27
hey!
what are you up to?
11:28Michael became active

Michael
11:28
i'm in some kind of deep shit right now

SupremeThor
11:28
oh?

Michael
11:29
I'm stranded in london

SupremeThor
11:29
whaaaa?
how did *that* happen?

Michael
11:29
got mugged at gun point last night
all cash,credit card and phone was stolen

SupremeThor
11:30
what were you doing in london...?

Michael
11:30
I had a trip for summer
It was a Brutal Experience,but thank God i still have my life and passport saved

SupremeThor
11:32
well, there's that

Michael
11:33
my return flight leaves in few hours but having troubles sorting out the hotel bills

SupremeThor
11:34
well that sucks, you might be late for class
*I take over for Justin*
well are you going to be okay?

Michael
11:36
wondering if you could loan me some few $$ to sort out the hotel bills and also take a cab to the airport

SupremeThor
11:37
hmmm, about how much?

Michael
11:37
I will pay you back the cash immediately i get back home
it just 600$

SupremeThor
11:38
that's cool, but you have to pay it right back

Michael
11:39
since i still have my international passport with me
i can use that as identification as soon as you send the money to me
through western union

SupremeThor
11:39
don't you have paypal?

Michael
11:39
dont hav much init
that why i contact you for the help
because I know i can count on you

SupremeThor
11:41
what are friends for?
anyway, we go way back
western union?

Michael
11:42
yea
All you have to do is to have it send through western union
to my information

SupremeThor
11:44
okay, I'm pulling it upnow
I'venever used this before
this is weird huh?

Michael
11:44
ok
it very simple

SupremeThor
11:44
I'm kind of glad you called I was thinking about you the other day

Michael
11:44
You can visit there website for instant transfer within a second transfer on www.westernunion.com

SupremeThor
11:45
yeah I'm on the site right now

Michael
11:45
ok
just click on send money
you will find it in the website

SupremeThor
11:45
did you ever break up with that girl?
oh i have to make a new account

Michael
11:47
ok

SupremeThor
11:47
but anyways, are you single again?

Michael
11:48
am not sure that is necessary
am not sure that is necessary
all you have to do is to use your credit cards

SupremeThor
11:48
i miss the way you smelled

Michael
11:48
you dont need any acc again

SupremeThor
11:50
it keeps tellingme to make one
do you ever think about that night?

Michael
11:50
hmmm
yea
but please i really need the cash
we will talks about this as soon as am back
ok
so are you still on the website
?

SupremeThor
11:53
noone has ever made love to me like that

Michael
11:54
hmm
ye
yea*

SupremeThor
11:54
the way you were just on your back

Michael
11:54
try and creat an acc and do the transfer

SupremeThor
11:54
with me thrusting into you

Michael
11:54
ok?

SupremeThor
11:55
don't you care about us?!

Michael
11:55
I do
and you know that
but i need your help nw
you are not showing me any concern
why?

SupremeThor
11:56
oh I'm gonna help you so hard
we need to get your hot ass back home!
okay I'mon it
okay, did it go through?

Michael
11:58
hey, this is really me now

SupremeThor
11:58
ooooh

Michael
11:58
no money needed

SupremeThor
11:58
things were just getting interesting!
lol

Michael
11:59
lol ya i can see

SupremeThor
11:59
we were cybering with your nigerian friend o.0
anyway...

Michael
11:59
i have a nigerian friend

SupremeThor
11:59
don't click on bad links

Michael
11:59
?

SupremeThor
11:59
well, whoever hyjacked your account
my roommate was having too much fun with it all!
although i'm glad you didn't really get mugged in london

Michael
12:00
me too

SupremeThor
12:01
anyway
i'm going to go find lunch!

Michael
12:01
thanks for the heads up justin

Ice Skating

I took some time off from the massive amount of studying I'm trying to pull off and went ice skating again tonight. That makes 3 times in 3 weeks so far. After the initial improvement bloom on my first time I'm still pretty slow and a weak skater. You'd think that running all the time would give me a boon in skating... and you'd be wrong. Last week I noticed that my ankles sink inwards and that causes my blades to meet the ice weird. This week I busted out my foot arch support and shoved it in my boot. It definitely help, but didn't fix the problem my far. I think it has to do a lot with how I rest myself on my ankles, I naturally just relax them inwardly instead of standing on top. I've decide to spend this next 7 days trying to walk on top of my foot instead on the inside. I'm hoping it'll build up more support.

Hanoko 001 ~ Cantankerous Mello

I went back and fixed the first video with my cartoon. I'm busy running around today, so I'll just post it here. I am not lazy!

Ice Skating

I don't think I've been ice skating since I was 5 years old. It's just something that's never interested me and I don't remember ever really having much fun. I never liked falling down on my butt when I was a kid and I would have rather have been somewhere warm. Plus there's no snow in ice skating. Mainly I just remember being stuck in uncomfortable shoes, hanging onto the wall, and scratching up ice crystals to make snowballs with... oh I remember that being hilarious.

Anyway, after listening to the new Owl City CD nonstop for about two weeks (half of the songs of which seem to do with icy things or explicitly ice skating) I decided that I wanted to go again. And so I got a whole new perspective on the sport. A mature adult perspective if I might so bold.

Ice skating has a lot of going in circles. I never processed that as a child. If almost anything but ice was out there, it'd look like the most boring, dumb activity ever. If it was just regular ground, and everyone went there to walk around in circles on it while music played, occasionally changing direction (oh how exciting) or watching as some extremely skilled walker went break dance spinning in the middle.. if that was the case, it'd be dumb as hell. Even something like a swimming pool does seem to fit. Ice skating rinks and how people act in them is unique because if it didn't involve ice, the Texan's worst enemy, no-one would see the point in it. But since it is Ice filling the rink, people find it acceptable to mill around in circles while a radio scratches in the background. Why? Because trying to move on ice is like juggle huge water balloons and trying to learn spanish.

I learned a valuable lesson trying to ice skate again: sometimes doing mundane and boring things is interesting when you put a handicap on it. I'm hoping my legs get stronger for next week, apparently its 2 for 1 on Thursdays and the price is already pretty cheap. Go figure.

Here's to falling! John

Lil John Wears Worlds Biggest Name Tag

I heard a rumor today that Lil John had been selected to be awarded the newly coined Jackson Prize for his vast and immeasurable contributions to the art of music. And even though I may have just made that up, I think we'd all have to agree that it would be the right thing to do! Lil John is an irreplaceable national treasure. An influence on my life, showing that turrets syndrome and a smoking problem can single handily save an absurd number of songs that tragically mixed a catchy beat with lyrics that induce my dry heave response. Just when I almost comprehend what the song is talking about I find myself wondering 'what who the hell was that?' If you don't remember 'from the windows to the walls', fret not, we now have this little gem:

Patron Tequila by Paradiso Girls
(if the video stops working use this: Click Here )


As a note on the music video, I have to say that I'm disappointed. For a song sexing up alcohol poisoning and smoking weed I thought it'd have more of... you know... alcohol and weed. Instead I'm left confused and the sense I just watched a Best Buy commercial. For a song so perfectly, vividly explicit I have to wonder why they abstracted it to a wallflower sitting in a lively, bright eyed club scene. I guess this means there really is no way to make vomit smexy. Hear the bulimics? This is calling you out.

Drinking Game: take a drink whenever the guy looks like he's having a Lorelle moment OR when Lil John says anything that's not "Lets Go!", "Hey!", "What's Happening?", "Come On!", "Say What?", "Uhuh", "Hey Gurl!", or something that isn't already being sung by someone else.

Lake

Went to Canyon Lake today with my dad. We haven't always had a lot in common or even gotten along, but some of my fondest memories with the man are on that lake. I had almost forgotten it until I got out there, the time we went night fishing in 'Canyon Cove' with LED bobbers, Rudy's BBQ, and a small propane stove I made hot chocolate on. I have no idea how old I was at the time somewhere between 5 and 13?

Fleas!!

The battle has begun! Fleas have found my beloved ferrets and so WAR IS DECLARED. Unfortunately, ferrets are small creatures with sensitive systems, making even a mild infestation harmful. Also they have thick hardy coats which are dense and hard to comb through. They also simply can't be made to sit still once they're awake. Finally to top it all off, their coat needs to be kept comfortably oily, so bathing them is a big no-no.

So if there aren't medications made for them that get rid of fleas, and I can't use conventional flea baths, how the hell am I supposed to de-flea them?! Apparently lemons. You can infer from how this entry is phrased that I'm almost expecting this not to work, but the internet says to boil 1 lemon for about a day in a gallon of water and then to soak the lemon-water into my ferret's fur. I complied as best I could and employed the all powerful Borax to de-flea other unlaundrable surfaces in the apartment. I'm going to try this for a week and see if it reduces flea encounters, reporting back to you, loyal readers (I think there's maybe 2 and a half people who skim over this occasionally).

District 9

District 9 is a movie that SciFi enthusiasts will nerd-gasm over for years to come. Anyone with a background of liking the genere will find this movie extremely entertaining. It has a loose plot premise that isn't thoroughly explained in the movie, but then again, the movie doesn't focus on trying to explain things. Basically in the beginning of the movie, it's established that an alien space craft mysteriously stopped over an African city, seemingly broke down, and the aliens residing in it are stranded on earth. Insect like creatures are given a small sanctuary of their own which develops into a full-on African slum.

Not to be mistaken with other alien involved movies that fall outside of traditional Science Fiction (Transformers), District 9 focuses it's themes on abstracting human nature and transposing it over the extraordinary in an attempt to represent it with a cognitive twist. District 9 gives us two races interacting and the tensions that come from their differences. The actual plot isn't too bad, although the premise itself is the main goal of this movie.

I give District 9 4 out of 5 movie ferrets for being different than most movies cranked out every year... and for being successful at it.

Tracy Gone T_T

It's weird how empty my apartment feels these days. Tracy almost completely moved out last night and now there's no one around to bug me when I get up. Now I have to travel outside and find people to bug me. It's really inconvenient, not to mention impractical. There's still a couple of piles of 'Tracy Things' so at least I assure myself that she has to come back at some point. Come back Tracy and move the rest of your crap!

Movie Review: Funny People

I saw this movie twice, once with my family and then again when I tagged along with some friends. I enjoyed the second viewing much more just because I prepared myself not to watch something laugh out loud funny.

Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen star with other stand-up comedians in a pitch-black dark comedy. Despite the title of the movie and the fact that it follows five separate stand-up comedians, I had trouble recognizing this movie as a comedy. A main theme of the movie: comedians, employed to be funny, lead unhappy lives, is reflected differently, though consistently, through each character. As can be expected, there's a heaping helping of actual stand-up routines in this movie. It helps break up the action, which in all honesty gets to be a little depressing around the middle of the movie. Adam Sandler plays an angry comedic legend, which meshes well against Seth Rogan (who is marketed as not funny) showing his classic 'confused puppy' expressions.

Once I reconciled myself that this was not a movie about comedians that would make me ROFLMAO movie, I throughly enjoyed the dark situational humor, the various stand-up routines, and the well developed plot of the movie. That's why I give this 3.75 out of 5 Movie Ferrets!

Movie Review: Julie & Julia

Julie & Julia is movie that follows a woman, Julie, who finds herself unsatisfied with her life and seeks a journey of self discovery by cooking her way through the cook book of her cooking idol, Julia. Julia decides to document it in a blog, cooking every one of Julia's 500+ recipes in the span of one year. The movie parallels the two characters, showing Julia's early cooking career alongside Julie's year long endeavor. While enjoyable, I would say that this movie is largely a mediocre with the saving grace of Meryl Streep playing Julia Childs. It has funny moments, some memorable lines, but the overall product (though by no fault of Amy Adams or Chris Messina) is pretty forgettable.

The plot line the movie seems to try to focus on Julie cook/blogging her way through Julia's recipies, never seems to escalate it's conflict beyond the same baseline of angst. Challenges arise, but are quickly answered and forgotten; it gets a little redundant and the end of the movie more or less happens without any real palpable climax. As mentioned before, Meryl Streep (and for that matter, also her opposite Stanley Tucci) does an amazing job in her role. Playing the always upbeat, although socially quirky, Julia Childs she became the sole factor that propelled my interest in this movie. The chemistry between her character and Stanley Tucci's character is endearing and becomes the only reason to watch this movie. I wish the movie had focused more on her and used Julie as more of a framing device than a paralell plot line.

Even if half of the movie is basically forgettable and dragging, the Julia Childs plot line saves it and gets this movie 3 out of 5 movie ferrets!

The World Under Boredom

Out of school and working part time has given me free time. Dare I say too much free time? I will say that I have been making weekly trips home to see family. Very recently I also managed to see most of the old high school friends I still talk to. I’ve met a few completely new people over the past few weeks and even managed begin to reacquaint with other people I briefly knew in passing (with the social grace of a caveman clubbing a mate to drag back to his cave, but what can you do?). The point is that I haven’t had a real ‘job’ occupying my time and that has lead to the dangerous pass time of thinking.

I don’t know where I’ll be in 10 or 20 years from now. I can’t even fathom what I’ll be doing when I’m 50… 60… 200 years old (I’ll never die, thank you modern medicine!) In a weird sort of mental MTV reality show, I get this weird comforting fantasy that once everything settles, I’ll move into a big house and I’ll share it with everyone I’ve ever met in my life. We’ll talk about old times and on the occasional down time from our jobs we’ll go out and do and see things. No one will get eliminated or voted off, although we’ll probably fight over who’s not doing the dishes (it’ll be me). More or less though we’ll get along and understand each other. Maybe that’s the weird sense of security I get from thinking about it. Maybe that’s what heaven’s like. Maybe if the house is big enough you could say that’s what the world is like. Maybe you could say that today’s world is a kind of heaven. Okay, now I'm scarring myself. I’m going to go for a run and go back to cleaning out my car.

Electric Boogaloo

Last night was weird. My roommate is in the process of moving out, some time around 5:00 am she was using my vacuum cleaner and grabbed a spot on the cord where the rubber has somehow been removed and managed to electrocute her arm. Luckily, as of this morning it hasn't turned black and fallen off yet, but electrical burns arc inside the body, so really they're hard to gauge. From what we can see though, the blistering looks somewhat minor and roommate is following all the post electrocution protocol: ice, ointments, not touching the vacuum anymore...

Now I need to figure out how I'm going to patch up the cord on my brand new vacuum. T_T

Swimming?

I spent a good portion of yesterday looking for a drag suit. Apparently functional swimming attire is a rare occurrence. Don't fret though, to compensate there was plenty of board shorts and poorly designed trunks. Even Academy (Sports and Outdoors) failed me, corralling all male and female swimwear to a back corner and making way of a menagerie of colorful Nike running shorts. I don't know how people got swimming shit before the internet!

Another New Residence

Resident Evil fans who found themselves confused with the mishappened mess of discontinuity and unresolved plot-bunnies are in for a questionable gift: a fourth installment to the series. For those who have never seen any of the movies, the first one, written and directed by Paul Anderson (Mr. Video Game to Movie extraordinare) is a decent suspense movie with a zombie twist. The second and third one, written by Anderson but directed by seemingly less capable people while he pursued important projects such as Alien Vs Predator (don't see it!), got progressively TERRIBLE and should only be watched under extreme duress or in a vain attempt to understand horrible renditions of the video game characters. In spite of it all my complaining I can't lie; I'm going to see the movie. Anderson is directing this one, so I can tell myself that it has a hope to be managed in a way that doesn't feel like the direction is fighting with the script (case in point: Resident Evil 3: Extinction, the movie has some good themes and sequences, but it carelessly lingers on parts that aren't pertinent or that just seem completely random; I felt that presentation choices were trying to redefine focus points in the movie, and that lead it to feel long and awkward).


Even if Anderson wasn't directing it though and it was absolutely garenteed to be terrible, I'd probably still go see it in theaters just to see how they were moving the material from the game source around this time. And that is why sequels are inherently [resident] EVIILL.

Sad Good Day

Every now and then people enter your life who, while not perfect, are still strong individuals who exemplify love, experience, and determination. Of course these kinds of people will never stay in your life as much as you'd like, but what you have to remember is that you're lucky to have ever known them at all.

Moms

My statistics grade came out and it was a full letter grade above what I was expecting, so I made it a point to call my mom today. She did that lovingly chastising that only a mom can do: "You're so smart, you can pick stuff up quickly and skate by without trying. But you too stubborn and don't have the tenacity to reach your full potential." I've been in college long enough to know just how not smart I am, but I will admit to being lazy. Some have even said flaky. That's something I can take to heart and work on.

Magic: Running Games and Power Creep

This article is part of the series: Magic: The Gathering Summer '09

Magic the Gathering is an old card game, created in 1993. It was the original collectible card game, and as you can expect, it's earliest incarnation had some definite limitations. The fact that it's lasted this long (over 15 years) can not be attributed to a sturdy game design. Instead, I think it's endurance has more to do with capable management and handling with a deep rooted vein in conceptualizing popular themes in fantasy. The huge great sweeping M10 rules change was an attempt to prevent complexity creep. But more routine management is needed for maintain a game as a business. Running games, that is that games that are routinely updated and sold in waves, almost inevitably have one sweeping problem: Power Creep.

As a business, the main goals is to stay in business. When creating a game, the main goal is to make an enjoyable experience for the players. If no one buys your product, your business fails and if you fail to make the experience enjoyable, people won't play your game. But if you have a running game, you have to release game parts that are compatible with older iterations and still give people incentive to buy them. One way to do this, a very easy way, is to release cards that are strictly better than previous ones. (In the card world) this creates a situation where although older cards technically work, anyone who fails to buy your newest release will be at a distinct disadvantage. The release of strictly better cards with each iteration is Power Creep, as the power level of the cards released steadily raises in an effort to attract players to buy newer cards.

Power Creep is seductive in that it literally gives most players what they want, stronger and cheaper cards. But it is destructive to the fun game play over the long run. As cards get cheaper in their playing cost, the individual matches get shorter and more explosive. Players often want cards that decrease the variability of their shuffled deck, but releasing too many cards that allow them search for cards leads to matches that are no longer randomized and that are overly predictable. Most often, whatever players want most is bad for the game overall because players think strictly of ways they can card-for-card improve their play.

While the cards used in most recent Magic sets are stronger than the majority of early sets, they have done a decent job of avoiding Power Creep. They largely accomplished this by by doing two things: setting baseline 'standards' and rotating themes. The core sets, are often the place where 'standards' cards are released. An example is the Grizzly Bears card, one that has been in core sets since the beginning. For for the cost of 1 colored mana and 1 mana of any color (listed at the top right of the card) you get a creature that has 2 attack points and 2 hit points. All other new cards that are similar are only allowed to be slightly better than Grizzly Bears. For instance Wild Mongrel is a card based off Grizzly Bears. It has the same cost and the same stats but it has an extra ability, an ability so good that it unexpectedly became a power house card to play on the second turn. Wild Mongrel is strictly better than Grizzly Bears, but it did not become the new standard. Many sets (and bear lookalikes later) Ashcoat Bear was released. Just like all other cards on the 'bear standard' it is meant to be only slightly better than the standardized Grizzly Bears. Magic does this with all basic creatures and all basic effects it deems central to the game.

Although releasing cards that continuously get better than the same base card prevents the game from getting Power Creep, by itself it doesn't encourage the sales of newer sets. Which is why Magic rotates themes. Each set and block (3 related sets) tie together by focusing on certain playing styles or concentrations on certain game zones. For instance, one of the reasons Wild Mongrel was so good was that it was released in a block that rewarded players for having many cards in their discard pile (graveyard). It also followed a block where players were rewarded for playing cards of multiple colors. Had Wild Mongrel been released in a a block based around artifact cards (such as Mirrodin) it wouldn't have been as exciting. Magic rotates these themes and markets them as a fun new way to play the game. It also uses the rotation to discontinue the cards from popular tournament play a few years after their introduction. This allows them to generate excitement by releasing cards strictly better than the standards (which most tournament players have) reissued in the core set.

One of the most drastic changes in this upcoming core set is the removal of the standard Wrath of God, a card that was so hyper efficient at mass creature removal that could not be improved upon without risking Power Creep. Every white colored tournament deck would often include the maximum number of Wrath of God cards over the newly released Wrath-variants because they were often more specific and more expensive to play cards than the standard. Wrath of God has been so strongly ingrained in core sets that it's often been seen as one of the few reasons to actually buy core set cards. In its place, they put what would otherwise be seen as a new Wrath-variant.

Magic: M10 Rules Changes

This article is part of the series: Magic: The Gathering Summer '09

Magic is a card game that has kept many of its essentials much the same despite pioneering the collectible card game as a business and surviving over 15 years. However as it's progressed it has found itself burdened with its attempts incorporate fantasy, fun, and comprehensive game mechanics. Magic started out as side game people could play with cards while waiting at Dungeons & Dragons gatherings, as it grew and developed into its own right it became distinctly different. While D&D is a story telling game, Magic has grown into a contest game. Magic boasts strict rules that can run through competitions and tournaments. These rules weren't perfected at the start and eventually the number of special cases and the strain of several stacked effects created situations where even judges and experts had to subjectively guess at what was going to happen in the outcome. In an effort to make the rules more coherent, Magic got a huge overhaul with the release of it's 6th edition core set, the summary of all past card accepted in the standard playing environment. For whatever reason, on the cusp of what would be the 11th edition core set, the power at work decided to do something similar. For starters, the core sets now are planned to be released by year, hence the title M10 for Magic Core Set 2010. There are six main changes to the rules and one policy change. Below Im' going to describe them and their impact.

#1 Now Mulligans are simultaneous. That is, before the active player decided how many mulligans he or she wanted to do before the passive player. No one really cared about this rule as it was an effort to make the game overly mechanized. It was cumbersome and largely ignored by 99% of the people playing. This was a good call even though it doesn't really effect much.


#2 Manaburn no longer exists. Typically you tap lands for mana of the corresponding color, and that mana is used to pay for the cost of cards and abilities you want to play. Occasionally there are cards that add arbitrary amounts of mana to your pool and before, the player would take damage for each unused mana as it emptied from the mana pool at the end of each phase. This reduces the functionality of some cards but Manaburn was always such a small part of the game, that I think it's a change for the overall better.

#3 Lifelink and Deathtouch are no longer triggered effects. These were both abilities that triggered when creatures that have them deal damage. Lifelink makes the creature's controller gain that much life and deathtouch kills any other creature hit with the damage. While it made the abilities easier for rule-whores like me to piece together in my head, it did lead to some unintuitive situations. Like even though a lifelink creature deals damage, there was always a brief momment where the player could take lethal damage and loose. This was especially relevant during combat, where lifelink-life could have otherwise kept a player alive. This change will make me have to reorder how I do combat math, but it still is so intuitive that I believe it is a good change. In a related story, this also means that multiple instances of lifelink no longer trigger individually. Genju of the Fields is sad.

#4 Token Ownership is now the controller of the Token when it comes into play. Apparently before, Tokens were 'owned' by the controller of the card that made them, reguardless who controlled them when they came into play. I didn't even know about this rule, but it largely was a technicality. This just prevents Warp World, Azorius Æthermage, and Brand from doing weird things with cards that put tokens under your opponent's control. It makes sense, I like this too.

#5 Assign Combat Damage is now no longer a phase. Instead now creatures all deal their damage and die. Also during the Declare Blockers step, if multiple creatures block a single attacking creature, the attacking player orders the blocking creatures in a row. When damage is dealt, it more or less 'tramples' through the creatures. Once damage assigned to be lethal to the first creature to attacking player can (but is not forced to) run the rest to the next in line and so forth. This is a huge change for me and my tricksey combat math, although I see how it makes the combat step easier to understand. It took me by surprise at first. It definitely changes how I evaluate cards like Mogg Fanatic (who can no longer assign his attacking/blocking combat damage and then activate this ability to sacrifice himself and deal another damage to a creature to player). Cards like Morphling and Fleeting Image don't like this change much, but everyone else does. I understand and agree with it. As a side note, Deathtough now lets creatures spread out it's damage.

#6 Terminology: Battlefield, Exile, and At the Beginning of the End of Turn. This change only affects how cards are worded. Now when a card would say "When CARDNAME comes into play" it'll say "When CARDNAME enters the battlefield." Instead of "Remove target card in a graveyard", it's "Exhile target card in a graveyard". And finally, instead of "At end of turn, sacrifice CARDNAME" it's "At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice CARDNAME." These were all done because newer player apparently were getting confused with terminology 'play', 'removed from game', and the convoluted end of turn step. However with the exception of Exile, it's just replacing sloppy wording with more sloppy wording. 'Entering the Battlefield' hints at 'whenever this attacks' as much as it does 'when this comes into play'. Although it tries to be flavorful, it comes off as stupid and clumsy. A better approach would have been to phrase it as 'Enters the field of play'. Although space is always a consideration with wording, 'field of play' only has 2 more characters than Battlefield and is much more clean. Speaking of which 'At the beginning of the end of turn step' is clumsy as hell! This is supposed to clear up the confusion because 'At end of turn' was a phrase for a triggered ability going off at the end of turn step while 'until end of turn' was a phrase for a state-based. This only mattered when people tried tricks, using 'At end of turn, this goes away' effects during the end step of the turn... meaning the 'go away effect' wouldn't actually go away until the end of the next turn. This is sloppy because these tricks were unintuitive anyway. They should have just consolidated them both as state based effects: for example changing it to 'during the end of turn'. That would have been shorter, cleaner, and easier for newer players to grasp while sacrificing nothing in terms of intended functionality as no 'at end of turn' abilities are really directed to be played through this loophole. I loathe 'Battlefield' and 'Beginning of the end of turn' phrasing. I can agree to 'Exile' as 'removed from the game' has become a more interactive zone, it just doesn't mean what it used to so it needs a new name.

#7 More generalized creatures will now appear in the Core set along with functional reprints of cards from previous sets. This is a policy to make the core sets appealing to newer players. 'Real world' things are being removed along with 'Magic universe only' name references to make a more generic fantasy scene. While this does make things easier to understand, it also gives returning players a little bit of the shaft. Core sets are low selling points, but they set baselines and return cards that would be retiring to the Standard format for another rotation. Now players who obtain cards when they are originally released have to buy their functional reprints when they're put into the core set? I understand the policy, but it smacks of something bitter. I only hope Wizards of the Coast look forward enough to start naming cards intended for the core set names that won't require functional reprints. The good news is that all the real functional reprints I've seen so far have been common, so in the online environment they can be picked up for literally a few pennies each. Also some of the creature types have shifted a little bit, allowing them to tweak relevant creature types more into use (for instance Savannah Lions is now a Human Solider, something with more type support in White). This change actually does help me out, in Singleton (where 100 card decks are used with only 1 of each card), I am now effectively able have two Skyhunter Prowlers, Remove Souls, and Civic Wayfinders. I'm confused as to why they made Runeclaw Bears to replace Grizzly Bears when they already had made exact-down-to-the-creature-type, ready-to-go functional equivalents with Bear Cub and Forest Bear. But whatever.

These eterras are meant to take effect immediately (Gatherer has already been updated) in paper Magic, and will go onto Magic Online come July 29th.