#going to perth

[phidica]

Twenty fifteen

Y’know, my 2015 was pretty good. I’ve seen and heard a lot of people say they had shit years, and that sucks and I’m sad that so many I know haven’t had the best experience this past year. I don’t want to diminish what they’ve been through by jumping up and saying “Yeah well my year was great,” but I’d still like to take a moment to reflect on the good stuff that’s happened in my life this year. So I’ve scrolled through all my OC posts for the last twelve months and I present to you, the Year That Was on reece’s peanut butter cup

I spent ten weeks in Perth, doing science stuff the likes of which I kinda do want to base my life around. It was very scary. I had to catch a plane on my own (several times!). And live in a tiny room. And pay rent. But I made it out alive. And I got paid biG DOLLAS which leads me to

I built my own computer. After years in struggletown with a mediocre laptop, I finally got cashed up enough to buy some modern architecture. This also involved me packing my bags and moving in with my fedora-wearing friend Linux

I learnt to touchtype. And not even on a typical layout; I played this the hard way and learnt to type Colemak. I just ran a test and I type at about 70 wpm, so I’ve exceeded the speed I had when I looked at each key I was pressing, and now I don’t have to see the keyboard at all!

I went to my first convention. It was amazing and I loved it and I can’t wait for the one this year

I figured out how to do magic eye pictures. This is a small victory but I think a very important one

I drew a tonne of art for NATG ᴠ . And wow, did I show some big improvement or what. This was a good year for my art. I was thinking of doing a post with one art piece for each month but realised that I only drew art in like two bursts over the whole year so alas that wouldn’t quite work

I graduated from uni, and in fact I think my degree technically conferred at midnight on New Year’s Eve. I don’t go to a ceremony with the funny hat and expensive robes until April or something so it doesn’t really feel like a big deal yet, but it happened

And I mean, sure, this year had some low points (mostly during my study because it occupies a lot of time and drains my soul). I’m not going to lie and say my whole year was amazing. But rather than dwell on the bad, I’m going to focus on all the good. And I think it far outweighs the negative stuff anyway

Now, I’m not usually one for new year’s resolutions. In fact I don’t know if I’ve ever done one seriously. But I think I will do one seriously this time, and I’m sure this isn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing even though I only thought of it while writing this post

I want to draw more art. Yes, that old default-new-year’s-resolution-for-an-artist cliché, har har. Look, not huge amounts more, because it’s a casual hobby and I don’t have that many hours to spare from the rest of my life. But I want to at least be able to put together a post at the end of 2016 with an art from every month. That’s my goal. At least one art per month. Surely I can do that

[phidica]

Public defecation

[phidica]

Well, my Perth studentship has ended. Tomorrow I rest, or something, and on Sunday I fly back to Adelaide

While it was sad to clear my desk, the strangest part was clearing my computer. I wiped the entire Firefox history and cookies and things, deleted (almost) all my files, emptied the recycle bin, removed my password, and finally stripped myself of my own superuser powers. It felt like I was killing a little part of myself. I leave behind an open account which contains essentially nothing but the neatly-organised project files I've devoted these last three months to. Oh and I still need to write up a report

[phidica]

Are you ever like, somewhere that the sink is different from what you're used to or the circumstances are unusual, and suddenly you have to drink water from your hands, and you're just like "what, how, how do I contain liquid in these squishy fleshy slabs of meat"

[phidica]

Little update for you all: I am still in Perth and I am still doing this summer internship thing. Two weeks to go! I've essentially finished the research proper, and now I'm moving into the phase of writing it all up in a report. I wrote over 1500 words today and I've barely scratched the surface lol

[phidica]

Fate Reforged prerelease

1-3 Hey at least I won one round! Better than nothing. Watch out, I've written a long one today

A reminder in case anyone forgot that I am still in Perth, while every prerelease I've played before has been at the same little store in Adelaide. ngl, that store was kinda crummy; good thing it closed down a few months ago, right? But anyway, my point is that I went to a prerelease in a strange new city and wow was it swagging. The store is huge; they had 81 players in the event and there was still room for more. I wish I could be in Perth for every prerelease. They had so many players / so much product that there were four rounds instead of the three I'm used to. Well, ultimately that just provided me with more opportunities to get my face kicked in, but the thought was there

I was allocated a Mardu pack, which I swapped with a nearby player for an Abzan pack because they wanted Mardu and I didn't care what pack I opened. I hadn't played Magic since KTK prerelease (except for maybe one or two Commander games) so I wasn't totally sure what I was doing. It's not like I forgot any core game rules (though later I did forget the P/T of face-down cards) but I was feeling a little flustered by the piles of cards lying before me

My promo foil in the seeded booster was Daghatar, and there was some other really solid Abzan stuff too. However, as I cracked the FRF boosters I found quite a few good Jeskai cards (Bloodfire Enforcers, Lotus Path Djinn, Renowned Weaponsmith, Wandering Champion, Monastery Siege), and when I opened Shu Yun I concluded that it was time to hop on the Jeskai train once more, and bring Daghatar along for the ride. That decision was in part influenced by my having a Hero's Blade, and wanting as many legendary creatures as I could get in the deck. I unfortunately could not find a place for Silumgar. I opened my single KTK booster last, and it was a Jeskai goldmine: Treasure Cruise, Act of Treason, Erase, Master the Way, Warden of the Eye, and Sage of the Inward Eye. While I didn't run Master the Way or the Warden (latter such a shit card imo) the others would prove very useful. Erase and Act went into my sideboard

I lost round one 0-2, in very short order, to a stronk Abzan deck. The only interesting thing I have to say about this round is that when we were recording the result on a slip of paper provided by the store, I saw the guy's DCI number. It was six digits long. Mine is ten. "Oh yeah I've been playing Magic since the mid-nineties", he told me. Wow

Round two was also a quick 0-2 loss, against Mardu. He literally dashed to victory both times. Game two started slow for him and I got some good board presence, but he had too many tricks and removal spells for me to hold on

Between rounds I played a game with another guy. He did nothing but play land for four turns while I cast Wandering Champion (a 3/1) on T2 and Shu Yun (a 3/2 at least) on T3. Needless to say, a short game in my favour. This did boost my confidence in the deck, though I paused to recognise that, well, my opponent did basically nothing to stop me. Also it turns out that guy was at his first prerelease and had only been playing Magic for a few months

Round three I won 2-0, and I even think my opponent's deck was good. Shu Yun showed up in both my games and proved his worth mightily. One time I hit for 11 on a single turn with Shu Yun and a Lotus Path Djinn

Round four was a disappointing 0-2 loss, against Abzan. In game one I mulled to four and then still didn't have three land until turn five or six. Game two I played well but his deck was better. We played a third game for fun and I still got wrecked

I got two boosters as prizes, and opened another Silumgar. Overall I'm glad I went to the event and I still had fun when I was playing well in the games that I ultimately lost. On three separate occasions I resolved Daghatar while my Hero's Blade was on the battlefield, affording me an immediate 7/6 with vigilance. He never lasted to the end of my turn, but at least I was impressed with me

I still haven't built a new standard deck to replace the one I lost when RTR rotated out. These cards should help with that when I get back to Adelaide in another month or so and reunite with my full collection

[phidica]

I fly back to Adelaide for Christmas tomorrow so right now I'm just sitting here munching on leftover salami like "I gotta throw it away unless I eat it all"

[phidica]

My work computer is so much better than my laptop, it's depressing coming home. Also it's running Ubuntu and I'm diggin' that. Such a sad feel to open me laptop up and instinctively launch a terminal, only to immediately afterwards remember this is Windows and I have pretty much no reason to do so