So yeah… I do have a somewhat nerdy part of me. That being I play Magic: the Gathering. Here’s a report of a tournament I did, which was submitted to the Starkington Post (and maybe Star City Games, but probably won’t do it). It was a qualifier to play in U.S. Nationals. But a big part of it is, what would you do if you were in a situation where you’re against your friend in the final round to go to Nationals. Knowing who I was… Would you play it out or would you concede? That was my dilemma.

It’s the last round of the Swiss and I’m in 10th place. Sitting in front of me is my playtesting buddy and friend, Brad. For either of us, it’s win and we’re in the top 8. Draw and it’s the end of that. I’m sitting there thinking of what I need to do, as we’re just sitting there. Before we even cut each other’s decks, I closed my eyes for a moment, then extended my hand in concession.

In the weeks leading up to playing in this year’s national qualifiers in Seattle, I was reminded of last year’s event. I played Geopede Jund and finished 5-3 and in 24th place. I started out 4-0 before going 1-3 in the last four rounds. And awkwardly enough, three of my opponent’s finished in the top eight (beat Gavin Verhey’s Naya, lost to Martin Goldman-Kirst and Teddy Vitro’s UW control). What was bothersome was the 1-3 collapse at the end.

So coming into this year’s event, I wanted to do better. Originally, UW Caw-Blade caught my eye to the various forms card advantage it had. Hawks, Preordain, Mystics, Jace. It’s like a dream for a player that loves card advantage and having a full grip. However, I wanted to try out different decks to see if there a better one out there. RUG was probably the closest since it rewarded on tight, solid play. Yet at the same time, it punished you for poor play. Given the length of the tournament, I knew I would be bound to make a mistake here or there, so I didn’t want to get punished for that.

Coming closer to regionals, I figured I wanted to try a deck that could beat Caw-Blade since it was obviously the deck to beat. Unfortunately, finding the Holy Grail for Standard never happened even after all the discussions with Brad, Thomas, and other guys from a card shop I had been playtesting with. So I stuck with playing some version of Caw-Blade After some deliberation, I told myself I wouldn’t audible (with reminders from Warren), so I kept with UW, even though I had been toying with UWr for mirrors and RUG match-ups.

In terms of game plan, I knew what I had to do:
- Be aggressive with my hands. Avoid keeping hands without a two drop if at all possible, especially game one.
- Kill off the value my opponent’s counters by winning the mana advantage war.
- Win the attrition war in the mirror by sticking a Sun Titan.
- Get Gideon and Tumble Magnets on the board to negate my opponent’s Swords.
- Don’t get tunnel visioned into winning solely by Swords.
- Know when to be aggressive, when to play as control.

The night before the event, I had the deck I wanted. But I changed my mindset. Rather than focusing on doing well, I just told myself to accept whatever outcome happened, whether I 0-2 drop or actually qualify for nationals. To just enjoy the opportunity to play, have good sportsmanship, and have fun.

So this was the list I came up with five minutes before the players’ meeting:

Maindeck:
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Gideon Jura
4 Preordain
3 Mana Leak
3 Spell Pierce
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Mortarpod
2 Condemn
2 Tumble Magnet
2 Day of Judgment
1 Sun Titan
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Seachrome Coast
5 Island
4 Plains
4 Tectonic Edge
1 Arid Mesa

Sideboard:
1 Sun Titan
1 Volition Reins
2 Divine Offering
1 Into the Roil
1 Jace Beleren
3 Flashfreeze
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Oust
1 Condemn
1 Day of Judgment

It’s a pretty straightforward list… Except for the fact that I’m running 26 lands in a 61 card list. A few minutes before the meeting was about to start, I wanted to replace the fifth Island for a miser’s Inkmoth Nexus. Thankfully, my friend Jesus I. managed to let me borrow one. I changed my decklist really quick and we were eventually on our way.

There were 250+ people, so we played nine rounds. However, I managed to draw in the second round, playing the mirror. Because of it, I played against UW Caw-Blade or the like for the next six rounds, so I’d rather not bore you. Rather than going round by round, I’ll just list any key points or moments:

Round 1 – Victor Blaiotta (Valakut)
I had Sun Titan double equipped with Sword of Feast and Famine against a board of green creatures both games.
2-0 (1-0)

Round 2 – Shawn Martin (UW Caw-Blade)
Game one was me having Mystic first. Game two was him having Mystic first and having all the answers to my answers.
1-1 (1-0-1)

Round 3 – Michael Cowen (UW Venser)
- Game three was the interesting one. We had ten minutes left in the round. I really didn’t want to draw again. I draw the miser’s Nexus after I kept my opening hand. So what do I do? Start beating him down with it from turn two (or three, I can’t remember exactly). He played a Tumble Magnet, I Divine Offering it. I keep beating him down with it each turn He attempts to play Gideon, I Pierce it. I keep up the beats with Nexus and a few Hawks. I hit him for seven consecutive turns with Nexus. Eventually I managed to drop a Mystic for a Sword and got it into play. I attempt to attack with Nexus equipping a sword and killed him just as time was called.
2-1 (2-0-1)

Round 4 – Matthew Forner (UW Caw-Blade)
Mystic for me game one, Mystic for him game two, Hawks kill him game three. I surprised him by keeping counter-magic in to protect my board.
2-1 (3-0-1)

Round 5 – Jared Illum (UW Caw-Blade)
Jared was a buddy I playtested with. When I found he drew his last round, I jokingly said we’d play each other. Turns out we did. I was pretty upset that I had to play him (I blame DCI Reporter for pairing us). I managed to keep a Mystic onboard and win. Sun Titan followed by another Sun Titan got there game two.
2-0 (4-0-1)

Round 6 – Jordan Brott (UW Caw-Blade)
I mulled to five game one on the play. He got the threats out before I could, so I couldn’t do much about it.
0-2 (4-1-1)

Round 7 – Casey Pordes (UW Caw-Blade)
He gets stuck on one blue source, so I Tech Edge it and start dropping threats to kill him. Game two, Sun Titans got there for me, eventually despite him beating me down with Celestial Colonnade.
2-0 (5-1-1)

Round 8 – Charlie Nguyen (UW Caw-Blade)
Another guy I been talking to and working with in terms of what to play for Regionals. Again, wasn’t too happy to have to play against another friend. Game one, I get Mystic out turn two and win. Game two, he gets Mystic out before I could. Game three, I get Jace out and start finding my answers to win the game. Sun Titan eventually turns the tide.
2-1 (6-1-1)

So after the eighth round, I’m in 10th place. I can’t draw in because there were six of 21 and 22 pointers, with myself, Brad, Gavin Verhey, and one other guy in at 19 points, as well as all the 18 pointers below us. Martin calls me over and tells myself, Brad and Gavin that we win and we’re in. The issue here is that Gavin already drew with Brad last round so they can’t play each other, which means I’m playing either Brad or Gavin most likely. Then pairings are put up. Guess who I get paired up against.

Round 9 – Brad Rutherford (RUG)
So we’re matched up again for the third time in as many weeks. I asked him as we were walking over to the table, “You for sure gonna go?” He said, “Yeah, you?” I told him, “75% sure.” As we sit down at the table, I told him, “Lemme make a quick call to my dad about something.” So I left the table and start walking away. I come back, sit down, and as we’re about to cut each others’ decks, closed my eyes for a bit before I extended my hand and said, “I’ll concede. Congrats man.”

So why the concession? Why the heck would you give up the possibility of a once in a lifetime opportunity to play in Nationals?

I tried calling my dad but to no avail because of reception issues. As I’m walking away from the table, I tried to convince myself to play it out. But to be honest, I couldn’t. As much as a competitor that I am, there were two things going through my mind. One, Brad would benefit more from going than I would. There were a lot of things pointing that I knew that were pointing that direction than there were for me. And for me to go was simply for the sake of boosting my own pride and ego. The night before, I told myself to just have fun playing at regionals. Don’t focus on trying to qualify. Two, to possibly see a friend not make it at my own expense wouldn’t have been fun for me. It’s not part of my character. That was my reason for conceding despite being a match win away from making it to U.S. Nationals.

So why write about this?

Good question. I guess when it comes down to it, we all have this desire to show off our skills and try to win titles, prizes, and fame. But ultimately, it’s just a game. I mean, if Magic were gone tomorrow, no one’s gonna focus on those things I listed. But people will remember the relationships and friendships that were developed through playing the game. I think that’s what’s the most important. Again, I would have a lot of regrets if I had played it out and won.

There were a lot of things that I took out of Saturday. I had my best finish at 6-2-1 and in 19th place (despite the intentional loss). My objective of having fun was accomplished. I helped a friend make his first U.S. Nationals. I played, for the most, part well despite a few play mistakes here and there. I executed my game plan that I came into the tournament with, especially in the mirror (4-1-1 in the mirror). Got to have some good conversations with great opponents and friends and just enjoy the experience. And for me, that’s what counted the most. I grabbed my packs and headed off to happy hour to celebrate one of my good friends’ birthday.

All in all, it was a good day. If I were to go back to that same moment, I would do the same thing again. The only difference would be I wouldn’t have hesitated to do so.

Other random notes:
- Jed Dolbeer may have had the deck of the tournament. It was pretty fun to watch it work. It ate all the Caw-Blade decks alive.

- I saw one of the most awkward rulings of the day. There’s this player that recently started playing M:TG and is pretty good. The difference between him and everyone else in the room is that he’s blind. So a lot of the times, he’s able to remember the board state despite not being able to see it. It’s quite impressive to say the least. It’s game two and he’s sitting at the table next to me. He Preordains, puts two cards at the bottom, draws a card, and there’s a Stoneforge Mystic on top of his deck, revealed. But Jamie is unaware that there’s a revealed card on top of his deck. Opponent has to call a judge over to explain the situation and because of this issue, the blind player gets a warning… For looking at an extra card. It probably was the most awkward situation for all three people. No one wanted that call to be made, but they had to follow the procedures on that. Thank God it was only a warning.

- Brad and I played it out just to see what would have happened. Brad would have won 2-1 if we actually played it out.

- Jared and my game may or may not have had the most play mistakes and take backs of all time. It was fun.

Props:
- Brad Rutherford – For what will be his first Nationals appearance. You deserved it bro.
- Jesus Ibarra-Leal – For getting me that Nexus. It got me there in that third round!
- Warren Eng – For reminding me not to audible.
- Thomas – For all the work in trying to trying to devise a foil to the current metagame, as well as the deck designing and discussions for what we currently had.
- The crew from Renton – For all the playtesting and random hangouts leading up to Saturday’s Regionals event
- All my opponents – For the great conversations, the laughs, being good sportsmen, and classy guys.
- God – For constantly keeping my priorities in check.

Slops:
- Deck checks – For getting deck checked in three consecutive events.
- DCI reporter – For pitting friends against each other.

// Ed Pham
// me at edpham dot net

So on my blogroll, Jason Kottke posted this link: http://txt2re.com/. What is it? For those of you that don’t know, it’s a text to regular expression generator. What the heck is a regular expression? It’s basically a way to match a certain string (or sub-string) or text. It could be anything from looking for punctuations, certain patterns, words, and so forth. I have to admit, regular expressions (or regex) can be fairly tricky sometimes, but it’s definitely a great tool, especially in the computational field. So what is this generator suppose to do? You type in a string of text, then you proceed to select the text you want to search for with your expression by clicking on the links below those letters or words. At the very end, the generator spits out a piece of code that you can use to help find that string.

What’s good about it? Well, first off, it’s good in that it can generate code for any language. C#, Java, Python, PHP, and so forth. There’s a lot of possibilities there. Another good thing about it is that if you don’t know regex, it makes things a lot easier. Again, regex is pretty tricky and does takes some practice to master it. If you don’t plan on coding much, this will probably be useful since it doesn’t require you to learn the syntax for it or develop the string needed to extract what you want. The simplicity of using the generator is pretty good too. Just click the link of what you want the expression to go after. Character, variable, word or even an entire string. It does it pretty easily. If you make a mistake, like you wanted a character and not the entire word, you just reclick that link for the word and it’ll give you all the options again.

However, there’s definitely a few things that are problematic (or at least a programmer can be nit-picky about). First, if you’re going to be programming stuff, the likelihood of needing to know regex is probably high. So resorting to a generator every time probably isn’t good practice. Secondly is more of a nit-picky issue. In the example that they have when you first go to the page is the following string: 13:Apr:2011 “This is an Example!”. Now if you try to setup for the expression such that it’s simply This is an Example, the code is rather unusual. Here it is in Python:

import re

txt='13:Apr:2011 "This is an Example!"'

re1='.*?'	# Non-greedy match on filler
re2='(This)'	# Word 1
re3='( )'	# White Space 1
re4='(is)'	# Word 2
re5='( )'	# White Space 2
re6='(an)'	# Word 3
re7='( )'	# White Space 3
re8='(Example)'	# Word 4

rg = re.compile(re1+re2+re3+re4+re5+re6+re7+re8,re.IGNORECASE|re.DOTALL)
m = rg.search(txt)
if m:
    word1=m.group(1)
    ws1=m.group(2)
    word2=m.group(3)
    ws2=m.group(4)
    word3=m.group(5)
    ws3=m.group(6)
    word4=m.group(7)
    print "("+word1+")"+"("+ws1+")"+"("+word2+")"+"("+ws2+")"+"("+word3+")"+"("+ws3+")"+"("+word4+")"+"n"

Notice anything unusual? re3, re5, re7 are all the same white space characters. Yet, they are all assigned a specific variable. This is fairly bad since if they’re the same, you probably could just assign them all one variable and use that variable multiple times. I won’t bash on this (too much anyway) mainly because this is a generator. It was released fairly recently, thus it’s still in the early stages of development. Also, since you’re creating a generator, it might not necessarily differentiate one whitespace character from another (or another variable from another, or another word from another). But that can be fixed pretty easily by identifying whether or not that word or character had been used previously in the string.

Overall, I think this is a cool idea. It’s simple, universal, and does it pretty quickly. You don’t have to worry about unusual load times for the code when you go from one language to another. Those kinks are still there, but they can be fixed. It’s definitely a great tool to use if you don’t use regex often or at all… However, if you do use it on a regular basis, actually learn how to use it and not resort to using a generator.

It’s been a few years, but Incubus finally released a new single that’s part of their upcoming album called “If Not Now, When?” It’s called Adolescents. You can listen to it here.

This week seemed to be one of those weeks where I managed to see random racial comments get thrown out, either on the internet or in person. Not exactly sure why, but I felt this calling to talk about it briefly. You probably heard Alexandra Wallace’s comments with regards to Asians at UCLA. Not sure what really prompted it (though I’ve heard random rumors here and there), but it seems rather idiotic to do so in such a public forum like YouTube and while at a university where nearly 40% of the student population is Asian. Though, I’m not going to completely deny that everything she said was false, but regardless, I’m pretty sure wasn’t smart. I can understand if she’s was trying to be humorous or be comedic (though awkward to do it), but it doesn’t seem like it was the intent of her rant. I will admit though that death threats by others weren’t really warranted either. To inform and educate would have been far better than to try to run her out and let her maintain that stereotype.

Then came Saturday afternoon. I went to a M:TG tournament down in Renton to help out a friend. I was just sitting around talking and playing cards with some guys, then I hear this slam of cards on a table and cards flying into a wall. It scared the heck out of me. I turn behind me and I see this fairly old guy frustrated and pissed off that this guy had beat him in the last round of the tournament (though, he had no chance of making the top eight due to tiebreakers). People that had surrounded the match eventually dispersed and the guy started picking up his cards. Then while I was just flipping through my own cards, I hear the guy say under his breath, “(Something something)… Damn Asians… (Something something something).” I call over the tournament judge and told him what I had heard because it was pretty inappropriate. The judge goes over to talk to him. Eventually, he goes around to a group of other guys and proceeds to make further comments. It was along the lines of “Asians aren’t honorable, they all play like Saito (only M:TG players would understand that reference), they’re cheaters.” A bunch of us talked to the judge after he left and the judge just sighed in disappointment after hearing this.

I guess it’s interesting what prompted each of these events. They were both triggered by frustration of some sort. Was it really necessary to make those comments? Obviously not. Anger does make us to saying stupid things. We all screw up. It happens. But especially the latter, the fact that the guy eventually cooled down before continuing to make these racial comments was upsetting. In the end, it made the individual be looked upon poorly since he’s stereotyping Asians as a whole because of one individual’s actions. It’s like saying all Germans are ruthless and heartless and are like Hitler. Well, maybe that’s too extreme but I think you get the idea. It’s especially disappointing because I’ve heard from a couple of friends that he is supposedly a nice individual. He’s also a judge himself, so he’s been a part of the M:TG community too. However, given some of his past history, it’s really hard to not put judgment on him for the things he’s done and this episode as well.

There was a video with regards to Wallace’s comments. While we all want justice, there’s also the importance of forgiveness as well. You need both. You can’t just say, “Whatever, it’s fine.” You have to inform the individual of their wrongdoing. But at the same time, you need to show forgiveness because that is how they will stop their stereotypes of different racial groups and any healing for the pain or struggles that they may have had with those groups.

In any case, all we can do is pray and hope for change, healing and transformation for these two.

I take the bus over to UW from Bellevue whenever I need to go to campus. It saves me money, gas, and car maintenance in the long run.

Whenever I’m on a bus, there’s feels like this unwritten and unspoken code for where to sit. If at all possible, unless they’re a friend of yours, create as much space between you and everyone on the bus. For example, you’re sitting alone on the bus and someone else comes on. That person can sit anywhere they want… Except for the spots adjacent to you. If a spot opens up on a crowded bus that creates space between you and the person next to you, take it immediately. Basically create space between you and the rest of the riders on the bus.

However, every so often, you get that one person that chooses to sit next to you, even though there’s a ton of other seats that would give the both of you a lot if space. As a result, you’re squeezed up against to the window, subtly holding your nose to not breathe in the the weird smell coming from their jacket. A spot opens up to create some space between you and them, yet they still choose to sit right next to you. You wait… And wait… And wait… Still not moving. Still taking in that smell from them. They finally get off on some stop and you can breathe a sigh of relief.

Today was one of those days… Not awkward at all.

Westboro Baptist Church goes around, protesting, putting up signs like “God hates homosexuals”, “God hates this”, “God hates that”. It’s pretty dumb. Well, this time, they go protesting three churches because of the churches’ belief that God loves everyone, which He does. So how does one church respond? You can read it here. (Thanks again to Josiah)

(Note: While, I might be a Christian, I’m not in support of the message Westboro brings to the world. I could go on a rant about their hateful message, but judging them is pretty much as hypocritical as them judging people for their sexual orientation, beliefs, etc.)

So I’ve played in the city soccer recreational leagues for about four years now. And in those four years, I’ve played against two of my old teams. It’s been pretty mixed in terms of experiences.

When I first started playing in the leagues, I had joined up with one team as a keeper with a few friends. However, we eventually left to start our own team since we’d be interested in doing so for quite a while. That summer we jumped up divisions after dominating in our first season and I played that old team. I made a number of friends on that team, so despite the competitiveness and ferocity during the games, it was relatively friendly (minus the drama in one game after I kicked off a player from the team and them joining that old team). It was overall fun during that rivalry. Heck, even some of them are on the current team today.

However, there are times where it’s a little different… Sunday night was one of them. I knew about it and another old team that I played with found out we were playing them. I have to admit, I didn’t leave their team on the greatest of terms, since I didn’t agree with their tactics or strategy and told that to the manager. I wrote a little comment on our website saying, “Calling dibs on an attacking position during the game”. When it came time to play against them, my former manager had this intensity I hadn’t seen before. She was more commanding of her defense, which I hadn’t seen before (but then again, that was my job when I was playing with them). It got a bit more physical, but then again, we definitely dished out our fair share to some of their players as well.

Halftime came around and it was pretty interesting. I went to go get a blanket for one of our teammates because she couldn’t play due to not having her card. I just gave a couple of pointers here and there about their attack and how to stifle it. Basically, I just did what I did with any other team. Just remained chill but kept in control of the situation (even though it wasn’t really needed). But I could hear my old team devising a strategy in the background, discussing pretty thoroughly.

In the end, their strategizing didn’t work out so well as we managed to win 5-2. But it was just weird to see them up their intensity like that. I hadn’t seen it before. I have a pretty strong feeling it was knowing that they were playing against me. I guess I would too if I was told by someone leaving the team that they didn’t mesh well with my tactics or fit the strategy I was trying to implement. But it happens. I think the only person in the game that I think I could knowingly goof around and joke with was my friend Erin, since she subbed for our team when we played on Saturdays.

In any case, I hope it was fun for them. I know it was for me..

… Especially when I assist a goal where my teammate traps my heading pass, then volleys in a goal from nearly 30 yards away. So sick.

If there was a single piece of advice I could give to any high school student or college student looking to take the next step of their education or career, this would be it: When I was in my senior year in high school eight years ago, I heard this quote from my senior IB/AP English teacher…

Procrastination is like masturbation. In the end, all you end up doing is ****ing yourself.

Pretty sure you can guess what the censored word is, but in his “wise” words, it’s about as accurate, livid, and clear as you can get in terms of what procrastination does for you. As I’m typing up this post, I have to admit, I did procrastinate on one of my assignments/projects for this week. Now I’m attempting to complete the last pieces of my grammar to make it process conjunctions semantically (if you don’t understand what I just wrote here, don’t worry). But the fact that I’m up at 5am in the morning just shows that it’s definitely bad, especially since this is a graduate course and not an undergrad one.

The more that I think about it, I’m kind of sad that I did it so much during high school and my undergrad career. Rather than just getting it done as soon as I could, I waited until the last minute and turned in something that was relatively sub-par. Granted, some of the grades on those assignments came out great, it was like flipping a coin. One week it might work, the next moment, you’re looking at the requirements for the assignment and thinking, “Why did I wait until the last minute?” You can try to think of excuses to why to hold it off until the last minute, but why? What’s the point? What good does it do for you to wait until the last minute to actually do something? Unless you’re absolutely booked with work, there probably isn’t… The excuses you make up to hold off on the assignment only hurt you in the end (in a sense).

Grad school has gotten me out of that mentality. I started doing assignments as soon as I could and as a result, I found a lot more free time… When it came time to turn in the assignment, I didn’t have to worry about something going wrong in the last minute because I had already caught the problem several days beforehand. And in the process, I could help out classmates with their bugs or algorithm analysis, which in turn, enhanced and reinforced my own understanding of the material and knowledge… That and the fact that I could now go out to dinner with friends or the girlfriend, go sub for some soccer team on the weeknights, or just chill. There were so many more pros of just doing the assignment as soon as I got it rather than just waiting a couple of nights before to do it.

But if you really just want to save yourself the trouble in the long run, don’t procrastinate. I dare you to just try it for a week. Try doing assignments, readings, or anything else as soon as you get them and see how much free time you have to hang out with people or do whatever you’ll want. You’ll notice how much more relaxed and good life is without the stress of meeting that deadline at the eleventh hour.

And when you think about it, in terms of doing work, it’s all about the quality of the work you do. There’s a Bible verse I constantly remind myself as I do my assignments or to drive myself as I get through my master’s program:

²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Col 3:23-24)

All the work I’m putting forth is for the sake of God’s kingdom. And with that in mind, I want to do quality work. If I save it to the last minute, it won’t be. It’ll just be crappy, inefficient, and poor. Imagine turning in this work to God and having Him grade it. I’m working towards a higher standard than that of my TA’s or instructor’s, that being God’s standard. And by working as though for the Lord, your reward(s) will be greater than just that grade that you get on that assignment, in the (short and) long term.

So take heed to the words of my English teacher eight years ago: Don’t procrastinate or you’ll end up fucking yourself. If anything, do it for God and His kingdom.

Just reading the title of this article alone is pretty funny… Sarkozy admits French language a hoax after Wikileaks expose. Maybe he’ll talk about the number of French military victories in history as well.

This is pretty cool. Johnny MacEntee (QB for UConn) throwing some crazy trick throws with a football.