I quickly biked from the end of the magic draft over to Steph’s so that we could go meet Jeremy for dinner at Shezan. We got the things in the orange sauce as usual, and it was absolutely delicious as usual. We sat around and talked for a bit, and then headed back to Beachhead to try to get some work done.
Michael, Andrew, Kevin, Adam, and I did a draft of only rare and epic rare cards. This went surprisingly well, although I didn’t win many games. I was a little to middling on the mana curve, with some really nice 6 drops, but not much in the way of smaller support, mana fixing, or game enders. I had six sphinxes, and they worked well when I could get them out. The most epic game was me and Adam, where he got up to 121 life, and I was able to make him take out all of his permanents, giving me a huge advantage which I closed by stealing one of his planeswalkers. Using the planeswalker I set his life at 10, effectively dealing 111 damage in one action.
I met up with Steph, Jeremy, Lindsey, and others at Pho Vi Hoa. I biked over and it turned out to be a pretty nice day. I got there early and was able to cool down after the ride. We waited a while for everyone to show up, and got a table for the pho, it was super tasty. After Pho, we went back to Beachhead to play a game. We chose Puerto Rico to play, with Candice joining Jeremy, Steph, and I. The game went well, and I got an early lead. The early lead made people look to me to figure out how to not let me get points. I was one turn off from winning, but the game ended earlier than expected. Steph took it with me in second. Jeremy was in a close third.
Chris, Steph, Michael, Jeff, and I played a great game of Galaxy Trucker with all the expansions. It was Steph’s first time with the last expansion, and Michael’s first time playing in general. Michael got hopelessly lost and didn’t understand many of the special pieces. I got some really bad penalties, but was able to overcome them in the second round. The first round and the third round weren’t too good for me. I couldn’t handle the pirates or the invaders in the third round, which made me all too vulnerable. In the same pirate attack, Michael, Jeff, and I were taken out due to lack of people to fly the ship. By that point I had already lost most everything. I was using the flotilla, and it actually ended up being two separate ships. I was a little surprised at that, but I suppose it has to happen every now and then. Chris ended up winning by a lot, and Steph got a solid second. I was well in third, but it wasn’t too bad, that was wholly due to dying in the third round.
I really enjoyed getting out and playing some squash with Nima today. It was very invigorating, even if he did destroy me 3 to 1. I’m not in nearly as good shape as he is, since he plays many hours of volleyball each week. I was getting some good placement and reads on him, but I wasn’t moving fast enough to keep up in the scoring.
This was a well developed universe, and the focus on color was interesting. I liked most of the characters in this story, except that some of their endings are less exciting than what I was hoping for. The story was very well put together, with the ending piecing all the different parts of the story into a nice ending. The ending was a little too neat for all that, and it seemed like things were all too convenient, but it turned out well in the end. I think this book is still on the weak side when it comes to Sanderson’s writings.
This was an interesting world, but I didn’t care for many of the details of how the powers worked. It was all very contrived feeling. I did like the story a good bit, and the action sequences were very nice. I think this is one of Sanderson’s less well developed stories.
Steph and I met up with Tommy, Joe, and Jim for diving in Monterrey. We got up around 5:30, and I drove us to the dock. We got on the Escapade and headed out to Hopkins Deep and Macabee. The first dive was very nice, but very cold. It got down to 47F at the bottom. During the dive we saw some big ling cod, as well as a sea lion swimming up to Steph under water. She got a big surprise out of it, since it came up on her from behind. I had a good time on the dive, and need to remember to not have any of those 5 hour energies before diving. The vitamin B in them increases circulation, which can increase heat loss.
Iliya and I sat down to try a game of Civ V against a good number of computers. I chose the nation of Polynesia, since I hadn’t played them before. They are able to embark and go in the open ocean from the start. I was able to use this to explore a ton before most others were able to. I got ahead on science and then got ahead on religion. The religion part started making me lots of money, which was very nice. We had to stop eventually, and we’ll finish the game some other time.
It's an Exciting World 