Weekend at Shiro Shitshow

So this weekend, Kim, Nikki, and myself packed up the Jeep and headed to Fort Worth to stay with some L5R folks and play in the Kotei there. I hadn't really played seriously since GenCon, but this year I was resolved to hit a few Kotei and get in fighting shape beforehand. The plan was originally Ft. Worth, Kansas City, and the Austin tournaments, but KC has been pre-empted by Jake's wedding that exact same day. So this ended up being one of the two Kotei I'd be able to attend, maybe the two only tournaments I'd get to play in.

I've spent months getting Nikki, Stephen, Kim, Monica, Brian, and Scott all ready to play this season, but most of them couldn't come for one reason or another. I tried to get a Kalani's Landing deck together (Mantis Mags is something I've wanted to play since EE was fleshed out), but there's just such a stack of rares I'm missing and I didn't really give myself enough time to slap them together. I tried to force together a Torch enlightenment deck, but the same issue got in the way. I thought I had some cards I didn't and suddenly it was two days before time to go.

So I picked up a Koshin Keep deck I slapped together. I was pretty hopeful, because I think people overall underestimate Koshin, but I didn't realize the deck was full of substitutions because I had lent out many cards to folks I thought would be coming. Hurr hurr. Nikki had barely played, so we were trying to finish out a quick Crane deck for her. Kim was really the only person rolling with a tested, tournament ready deck. Thankfully, Jacobson was good enough to lend Nikki his deck once we arrived in Arlington to stay with Leann and her crew.

Leann's house is now officially Shiro Shitshow in my head. The place is huge - I think there was something like fifteen of us staying there. We got in a little late Friday, just as the crew was getting ready to head out for dinner. I got to grab some steaks with some of the San Antonio folks and THE BRISCOE, who I hadn't seen since GenCon last year. Was good times all around, but when we headed back to the house, the real horrors began. These are gaming folk, and true to form, in crowds away from prying eyes, they got hammered and did retarded shit. I think in the two nights I stayed there, I saw more games of gay chicken than I care to count. Kim brought a stack of brownies and goodies she slaved over making but unfortunate got lost in the shuffle. I think people may have been concerned they were for someone else, because these folks were not exactly health nuts.

Saturday was the tournament, and I got hit pretty hard. I was tired, the sun got in my eyes, I slept on my hand, etc etc etc. The short of it was I didn't test enough and I haven't been really playing enough to do well in a Kotei, and it showed. I made some pretty dumb mistakes but also ran into my fair share of "oh look you drew certain cards, you win!" moments. In short, I  went 2-5. Strength of the Tsunami is dumb.


Saturday night was probably the best part of the weekend, though I did enjoy the tourney. Heading back a little early, cleaning up, heading out for some of the best duck ever for Nikki's birthday, and then coming back to sit for a bit and drink whiskey while bullshitting with Her Nikkiness was a nice mellow counterpoint to what was to follow. We stayed up till 2 or 3, drinking, watching the OKC/LA game, and talking with folks I had never met, or had met and never really got to know.


Notes: 

• Strength of the Tsunami is dumb.

• My deck can handle a few token followers. It apparently cannot handle "Grateful, topdeck a Nakanu, play another Grateful, topdeck a Nakanu."

• Merholtz is the Angel of Death.

• Leann's house might need to be named Shiro Shitshow. And that woman has the patience of a saint.

• Discussing feminism at 4am after drinking for six solid hours is not the best plan.

• No one wins gay chicken.

• I give better advice and make better decks than what I do and play.
 

• When your free packs give you a playset of the most worthless rare in a set, God is telling you to pack it the f up.
 

• If you would please say out loud that you have 2 x Strength of the Tsunami, 2 x Near Miss, and 1 x Skipping in your first seven cards, it will save us both some time and trouble.
 

• People apparently still get surprised by Sniping even out of Koshin Keep. I do not understand it.

• I was told by the same person I sleep like a vampire and look like David Tenant. 

So, it's time to buckle down and work pretty hard this month before Austin. I'm not too sure if I'm going to play Mantis (KL) or Unicorn (Tacs) or possibly even Spider (Commanders), but I know I'm gonna put a little more damn effort in.

This ship is troubled only because this ship we're on is sinking.

What a month. I've been meaning to jot some stuff down here so I don't forget, but my resolve to write in this more has gone to crap apparently.

About a month ago was the Austin Kotei, and it was good to see some folks I hadn't seen in awhile, as well as meet some new ones I had only vaguely bumped into now and again. Jim, Gio, and Reese and some other folks came out Friday night to the Highball to see Karaoke Apocalypse, but only the aforementioned three made it downtown with us to 6th street. Was a long night, and we shut it down at Maggie Mae's before heading back to our respective beds to wake up for the Kotei.

I realized, far too late, that I had forgotten the existence of an entire expansion in my rush to get a deck built for a game I hadn't played since GenCon. Bryan was good enough to lend me some Crane Control mess that he would later remark about, "If I had known that'd get played in a tournament, I'd have built it different." Went 2-5, which was pretty horrific. It was kind of neat to poke around virtually unknown to most folks, as I was used to heading to events like this as part of a huge entourage and having a sort of meta-event where we just talked to each other. Briscoe ended up winning, then much later crashing at my house at something like 1am.

I had left after the first seven rounds to go to the combined birthday of several folks (Kim, Justin, Abby). Things were weird a bit, as folks don't like to lose trivia games, and Jim/Gio showed up for a hot minute then booked because they knew no one and apparently Jim was out of "meet strangers and impress them with descriptions of my dick" energy.

The next weekend was a lull, sort've a break for a breath, because that weekend was rough, and then the two weeks after the break were gonna be rough. Alycia's wedding was up the next week, which meant a 11 hour drive to KC. In the cold - or rather, in the "cold", as Texas has trained my body to believe that 50 degree winds is cold now. The wedding was a good opportunity to drive around the city, see old friends I don't get to see enough of, and see what's changed in the city for the past five years. I got to get sick on Grinders food with Adam, visit Sheridan's and Blue Koi with Jake, Tyler, Rob, Z, Dennis, Jon, and Dan. It was like a highlight of "old times shit" right there.

I stayed with Matt, and apparently he nor Marlena were used to having houseguests. We (Kim, Nikki, and myself) tried to be good, but we are a loud, boisterous folk. Alycia was unnaturally calm for a bride, and even Ian managed not to do anything ridiculously stupid for the most part the whole time. I didn't get to see Daniel, but I did get to see Ian's new kid, which I think was perfectly awkward, so there's that. The drive back was no bueno, as it was pretty much raining hard until we got to about Dallas. But, Sunday night, we got in, dropped off Nikki, and zoomed home so I could unpack, do laundry... and fucking pack again for Florida.

Since we hired a new counselor in Florida, it was my duty to head down there for a week, help him acclimate, and see what he'd need to get things going. The week was sadly uneventful, since between handling Luis' induction into the company and my own work, I left the hotel room only to eat, workout, and a single hour long session of sitting out, reading, and enjoying the weather. I was told, repeatedly, since I was flying on the Monday and Friday after Bin Laden was killed that I was taking a huge risk. Right.

Anyway, Friday I got back, got home to find bugs had overrun the downstairs, the upstairs main pipe was clogged, and the house was in general disarray. Some sushi later, I managed some laundry and kitchen work before getting to bed for a few hours. Saturday morning, we headed out to Lake Pflugerville to hang out with Claire, Erin, and Stephen... and the Sun. The burning, burning Sun. I promise with deep conviction that we sprayed sunblock on multiple times, but everyone who went (and we were only out for two, maybe three hours) all have sunburns. My particular fate was the most damned, as I am still recovering (two days later) from a burn that makes me gasp in pain just to put my pants and shirt on. It's been difficult to sleep like this, since rolling over in bed or shifting (both of which I'm told I do a lot) causes me to wake up in pain. Fun, fun.

Sunday was the raid, but I'm not possessed of enough energy to go on about WoW right now. Not yet. Today I rolled in to work, took care of all the stuff that built up and I couldn't get to remotely, and now I'm going to leave a little damn early because ... of... I say so. yes, that.

Happy Birthday, I Got You a Poke in the Eye

Today I am 31. Being 30 wasn't so bad, but it felt like a lot of time spent getting my footing right. I don't know if I'll ever really feel like an adult, but I know that certain things are different now, and people are at least looking at me like one. With the priveliges of being treated as an adult, there is also the responsibility to making sure you don't fuck it up too bad, I guess. I didn't get my novel finished. I didn't re-learn Spanish. But I did keep my home, I haven't managed to kill myself, and I'm slowly steering my day-to-day job back in a direction that I like. I need to get myself back in the habit of writing regularly.

I contacted Shawn a few weeks back to pick up some work from AEG. Medical bills are a monstrous bitch and paying off last year's trips is not going as quickly as I had thought. It really came down to "pick up a few checks from AEG" or "work part time as a waiter or something". The waiter thing may yet come to pass, I'm not too certain how going back to work for AEG will sit with me. It'll either be great and much better given the years I've had to understand what I want and what I am right to expect, or I'll just get disgusted and say nevermind after one assignment. Let's see what happens!

Raiding with the guild is on again. Cass asked me to pick up the raid lead spot because her semester this year is crushing her sanity. Fortunately, I haven't embarassed myself too bad, and Stephen xferred over to Blackhand to fill a DPS spot. Things are going pretty smoothly - two nights a week, ~3 hours each night, BWD one night and BoT the other. We're up to the end on both, though it's going to be a flustercluck till the end, I think. The threat of having to do Heroic raiding is looming large, as I'm currently playing a re-branded Shaper (Beerbraids!) as Resto, which is easily the weakest healing spec in the game right now. We wiped last night a few times and I kept thinking "Well, if this was a Paladin or Priest, we'd be alright." I'm not making many mistakes, but the simple throughput shortfall is making this harder than it should be. On the flip, I really like Shaman, and it's not pissing me off too much yet.

4.0.6 drops today, the first major rebalancing/tweaking patch since the expansion went live, and Resto Shaman is barely touched. It's not encouraging.

Took tomorrow off since I'm working this weekend. Probably gonna see if I can drag some folks to Mr. Tramps to check it out before we go there for Trivia for the first time tomorrow.