As I write this I am at the airport, trying to kill time. As per usual, I am more than an hour early before the check-in time for my flight. It’s a thing I do, no matter where I’m travelling, that I put in lots of buffer time so I will more often than not arrive way too early and need to wait. It’s not just for flights either – I have a tendency to arrive early for any sort of time sensitive appointment.
Archive for 2015
Posts (12) :: Photos (184)Posts
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Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is my second Sanderson book after The Way of Kings, which made me a fan of his world-building. Given that this book is set in a dystopian near-future, the scale of the world-building here isn’t as large as that fantasy epic, but still gives Sanderson enough room to carve out a unique setting in the city of Newcago. Newcago, yes, that name is ridiculous. -
I was sent to London for work for a few months, which meant an opportunity to play a third GP for the year after Manila back in January and Singapore back in June. This will be the most GP events I’ve played in a one year period. I didn’t have time to practice, so I went with an updated version of the Jeskai tempo deck I was playing at the start of Khans rotation. -
(Click to view full-size) 9 Aug 2015 6:39amClose I like to be optimistic, or at least to try to. And to believe the best of people, or at least try to. It’s not always easy. Sometimes people disappoint you. Sometimes you feel lost. Or stressed. Or stuck in a rut. And you don’t know what to do. You have to be able to look within yourself to find your own drive, to find the ability to move forward in spite of the tough times. -
GP Singapore 2015 would be my first Modern GP and maybe only my 3rd or 4th Modern event altogether. Modern is a difficult format to prepare for; there are many decks to prepare for and it’s almost impossible to master all the matchups. For this reason, I felt much less prepared for this event than for GP Manila back in January. I put together Grixis Twin for this event. It’s a bit difficult to pilot, but I felt it had a reasonable matchup across the board and there’s always a chance of comboing out when you’re falling behind.
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Previously: Overview | Barcelona Part 1 | Barcelona Part 2 | Rome and Vatican City | Rome Part 2 and Paris Part 1 | Europe trip photo album This series of posts has taken longer than I thought it would, and I grow weary on it. We’ll cover things a bit faster from here, less of the daily stuff and we’ll stick to the highlights. This will be the final entry!
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Previously: Overview | Barcelona Part 1 | Barcelona Part 2 | Rome and Vatican City | Europe trip photo album Friday March 13th This was our last day in Rome and we were planning to visit the Colosseum and the nearby Palatino Hill. It was a long walk and we passed by a few palaces and the usual open plazas, many of the landmarks identified by Egpytian obelisks placed there by the Roman emperors.
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Previously: Overview | Barcelona Part 1 | Barcelona Part 2 | Europe trip photo album Wednesday March 11th It’s early in the morning when the shuttle picks us up to take us to the airport for our flight to Rome. When we first planned the trip a few months back, only Spain and France were on the itinerary. But due to a last-minute change in circumstances, we decided to add Italy to the trip.
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Previously: I went to Europe, decided I should tell you more about it and started talking about Barcelona Monday March 9th For today, we had decided to visit Park Güell, a Barcelona tourist spot created by this old-timey big shot to display the works of well-known Catalanion architect Antoni Gaudi. I say “well-known” but I’ll be the first to admit that my culturally-ignorant self had not heard of him before, but he’s kind of a big deal in Barcelona with many souvenir shops sporting some thing reminiscent of his works.
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My previous post only skimmed my trip to Europe. I did not want to write too much, partly because I was uncertain at how many would be interested to hear the sordid details and partly because while I was writing the post, the words did not flow as freely as I would have wanted. Despite this, I have received good feedback and more than one person had asked for more details.
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My friends know how stingy I am with money, and my family knows I’m not much of a tourist, so some might have been surprised that I took the better part of two and a half weeks off from work to travel around Europe with a couple of friends. It was my first trip outside of Southeast Asia and the first time I took a long haul flight. Other than my concerns regarding the possibility of my luggage getting lost, the trip was relatively smooth and the Singapore Airlines plane had relatively decent food, service and in-flight entertainment.
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One of my many, many loyal blog readers pointed out to me that I had yet to post about Grand Prix Manila, which took place in the first week of this year. I’ve been meaning to post about it, but it got lost in my backlog. So here we are. (Click to view full-size) 11 Feb 2015 5:48amClose Yes indeed, I still play Magic, “on and off”, as it happens with most Magic players with busy lives and/or multiple other hobbies.
Photos
2015 December
2015 November
2015 October
2015 September
![Large hedron collider #mtgbfz
[18:31] Having trouble deciding between a more aggressive gw allies build or a ub eldrazi build. Allies seems safer… #MTGBFZ
[19:28] The prerelease packaging is a lot better this time around. Kudos to @wizards_magic #MTGBFZ
[02:33] Gw allies deck i ran at #MTGBFZ prerelease, only went 1-2 (lol). Was considering the ub build shown as alternative](https://mirror.roytang.net/2015/09/8fq4xxsolk/CP03KOUWwAAoPhi_huf180a0a9c6e481d5e42acc567588fd90_116273_300x0_resize_q75_box.jpg "Large hedron collider #mtgbfz
[18:31] Having trouble deciding between a more aggressive gw allies build or a ub eldrazi build. Allies seems safer… #MTGBFZ
[19:28] The prerelease packaging is a lot better this time around. Kudos to @wizards_magic #MTGBFZ
[02:33] Gw allies deck i ran at #MTGBFZ prerelease, only went 1-2 (lol). Was considering the ub build shown as alternative")
![Large hedron collider #mtgbfz
[18:31] Having trouble deciding between a more aggressive gw allies build or a ub eldrazi build. Allies seems safer… #MTGBFZ
[19:28] The prerelease packaging is a lot better this time around. Kudos to @wizards_magic #MTGBFZ
[02:33] Gw allies deck i ran at #MTGBFZ prerelease, only went 1-2 (lol). Was considering the ub build shown as alternative](https://mirror.roytang.net/2015/09/8fq4xxsolk/CP2YPcQWsAA1JAs_hu4e3f8405fcc0aa7b0aee012badb84a80_121933_300x0_resize_q75_box.jpg "Large hedron collider #mtgbfz
[18:31] Having trouble deciding between a more aggressive gw allies build or a ub eldrazi build. Allies seems safer… #MTGBFZ
[19:28] The prerelease packaging is a lot better this time around. Kudos to @wizards_magic #MTGBFZ
[02:33] Gw allies deck i ran at #MTGBFZ prerelease, only went 1-2 (lol). Was considering the ub build shown as alternative")
![Large hedron collider #mtgbfz
[18:31] Having trouble deciding between a more aggressive gw allies build or a ub eldrazi build. Allies seems safer… #MTGBFZ
[19:28] The prerelease packaging is a lot better this time around. Kudos to @wizards_magic #MTGBFZ
[02:33] Gw allies deck i ran at #MTGBFZ prerelease, only went 1-2 (lol). Was considering the ub build shown as alternative](https://mirror.roytang.net/2015/09/8fq4xxsolk/CP2YPcyXAAACs8-_hua756b0e76870701d03cc951723d777e7_119155_300x0_resize_q75_box.jpg "Large hedron collider #mtgbfz
[18:31] Having trouble deciding between a more aggressive gw allies build or a ub eldrazi build. Allies seems safer… #MTGBFZ
[19:28] The prerelease packaging is a lot better this time around. Kudos to @wizards_magic #MTGBFZ
[02:33] Gw allies deck i ran at #MTGBFZ prerelease, only went 1-2 (lol). Was considering the ub build shown as alternative")
![Large hedron collider #mtgbfz
[18:31] Having trouble deciding between a more aggressive gw allies build or a ub eldrazi build. Allies seems safer… #MTGBFZ
[19:28] The prerelease packaging is a lot better this time around. Kudos to @wizards_magic #MTGBFZ
[02:33] Gw allies deck i ran at #MTGBFZ prerelease, only went 1-2 (lol). Was considering the ub build shown as alternative](https://mirror.roytang.net/2015/09/8fq4xxsolk/ab2c02e13e8769d4248670fe6e0d2d6b_hu723fa55b0189d2cc66b93b392f89fa01_110616_300x0_resize_q75_box.jpg "Large hedron collider #mtgbfz
[18:31] Having trouble deciding between a more aggressive gw allies build or a ub eldrazi build. Allies seems safer… #MTGBFZ
[19:28] The prerelease packaging is a lot better this time around. Kudos to @wizards_magic #MTGBFZ
[02:33] Gw allies deck i ran at #MTGBFZ prerelease, only went 1-2 (lol). Was considering the ub build shown as alternative")
2015 August
2015 July
![Decided to do a midnight Origins prerelease at the last minute
[05:42] Only went 3-1 at the origins prerelease; these guys did most of the heavy lifting but the angel is kinda bad against other white decks with tappers](https://mirror.roytang.net/2015/07/10153935708933912-1/20150711_001042_hu90507a0feb6b3d03a373f1d4e70087fb_1906720_300x0_resize_q75_box.jpg "Decided to do a midnight Origins prerelease at the last minute
[05:42] Only went 3-1 at the origins prerelease; these guys did most of the heavy lifting but the angel is kinda bad against other white decks with tappers")
![Decided to do a midnight Origins prerelease at the last minute
[05:42] Only went 3-1 at the origins prerelease; these guys did most of the heavy lifting but the angel is kinda bad against other white decks with tappers](https://mirror.roytang.net/2015/07/10153935708933912-1/20150711_054045_huc356d2888c70d74d860bdf8298e4ec09_1246604_300x0_resize_q75_box.jpg "Decided to do a midnight Origins prerelease at the last minute
[05:42] Only went 3-1 at the origins prerelease; these guys did most of the heavy lifting but the angel is kinda bad against other white decks with tappers")
2015 June
![Heading out for battle! #gpsing
[15:40] 2-0 vs grixis twin, 2-1 vs coco elves, 1-1 vs junk, 2-0 vs gw coco, 2-0 vs grixis twin #gpsing
[20:36] Finished gp singapore 6-2-1. Getting eliminated on the last round sucks](https://mirror.roytang.net/2015/06/10153907807963912-0/20150627_073508_hu4061598c519c11b07aed5aec5e4cd8d5_2315628_300x0_resize_q75_box.jpg "Heading out for battle! #gpsing
[15:40] 2-0 vs grixis twin, 2-1 vs coco elves, 1-1 vs junk, 2-0 vs gw coco, 2-0 vs grixis twin #gpsing
[20:36] Finished gp singapore 6-2-1. Getting eliminated on the last round sucks")
2015 May
2015 April
2015 March
![I am liking this new lock screen
[2015-04-19 03:04:31+00:00] @atlususa check out my lock screen](https://mirror.roytang.net/2015/03/10153672338193912-0/IMG_0317_hub3598f04a8637c8ef75ac396e2e97af6_353957_300x0_resize_q75_box.JPG "I am liking this new lock screen
[2015-04-19 03:04:31+00:00] @atlususa check out my lock screen")
2015 February
2015 January
![Well I’m already having fun #mtgfrf
[15:39] Went 3-1 at the #MTGFRF prerel, too lazy for a second run. Achievement: activated Ugin’s ultimate](https://mirror.roytang.net/2015/01/556281508978102273/20150117_105052_huabdde8f1f03db128ffd95fda7ba81925_1718685_300x0_resize_q75_box.jpg "Well I’m already having fun #mtgfrf
[15:39] Went 3-1 at the #MTGFRF prerel, too lazy for a second run. Achievement: activated Ugin’s ultimate")
