tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45444571006090360692023-11-16T12:09:04.298+00:00Thought ExperimentRamblings about various things. Some Magic: The Gathering based articles, some software development, some posts just about miscellaneous things I do.lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.comBlogger152125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-84161241944410421742016-01-28T21:32:00.001+00:002016-01-28T21:32:22.792+00:002015<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
I started 2015 <a href="http://lhsi-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/2014-in-numbers.html" target="_blank">not really knowing how it was going to turn out</a>. With no expectations it's hard to really say how it went, but on the whole I think it went well. I started my new job at Lockheed Martin which is going well. It is a big change of pace and different work, but it is interesting stuff. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Evelyn had her first birthday and has continued to grow since then. She can walk and has started talking. This also means she can wrestle with Kaleb and argue with him...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Starting a new job meant having a different commute; being in the next town is a lot easier to get to and it means I no longer have to rely on the trains. It took me two days to get fed up with getting the bus so I started going to work on a mini scooter instead. A few weeks later a colleague gave me a bike so I have been cycling in on that since, and generally feeling healthier for it. Work was encouraging employees to join in on a 5K Charity run which I signed up for so started running in the evenings, again feeling healthier. Running has slowed down now it is dark when I get home (and it is cold outside), but I expect it'll pick up again once it starts getting warmer/brighter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">In the summer, me and Liz went to GP London for a big Magic Event. It was also the first time we had both been away from the children overnight since they were born. It was a fun event and something we hope to do again in 2016. I went 4-0 in a Modern Tournament and over the weekend we saved up enough prize wall tickets that I got myself an Ultra Pro bag. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">We went to Weymouth again in September, staying at the same place as last year. The kids enjoyed playing on the beach, and Chris enjoyed winning lots of tickets in the arcade...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">After Weymouth, Adam had a pre-stag event going to Alton Towers (on a Friday in school holidays so it was very empty and hardly any queues). We also had Ada's Christening, and the kids enjoyed seeing their cousin again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">In December Liz had two baking shows and subsequently spend some time afterwards baking Christmas cakes to fulfil orders from the shows. For Christmas itself, it was just myself, Liz and the kids and after a hectic morning, we had an enjoyable (and somewhat relaxing) day. Christmas was an extended affair as we then had two days at my Dads, followed by a day at my Mums, followed in the start of January by a visit to Lincoln. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">2016 will be an interesting year, I am sure. I intend to start finding time to do some of the bits I have always been meaning to get around to do. I'm planning to start running again when the weather gets nicer, and after an update to my <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=lhsi.mcd" target="_blank">Android app</a> recently, I'm hoping to get in another update or two before the year is out. It has dawned on me that this is the last calendar year of my 20's, so I will hopefully save any panicking for next year...</span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-29413044988067582392015-08-24T23:40:00.001+01:002015-08-24T23:52:05.712+01:00GP London<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
When I heard about GP London, I thought I'd head along to play some Magic, making a change from only playing at prereleases. Not in the main event; I play seldomly enough that I have no idea if I have enough cards to make a half decent Standard deck, and certainly not a good one. Plus an incredibly long tournament didn't seem too appealing. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liz got the Friday off, arranged for the kids to be looked after by their grandparents while we were away, we were ready for our first weekend away from the children. We booked a hotel a couple of days before we went so we wouldn't have to travel far each day, staying at the Marriott which was very nice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was about midday when we arrived at the Excel centre. We picked up our Infinity Challenge badges and wandered around a bit as we had some time until the first event we signed up for was going to start (2 Headed Giant Sealed). One of the Wizards people with a camera chatted to us, and we also did an interview with Dan who was videoing people there for a future GP London video. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The 2HG tournament ended up starting a little late, plus had an hour for deck building. Handy for us as we had only drafted the set (Origins) once so didn't know what many of the cards were. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liz had a fast Red/Black deck, and I had a Green/White deck with supporting cards in it. The idea was that Liz would rush in early with me helping (pumping her creatures for example), then I had some large creatures to help finish the game afterwards. We won 3 out of 4 matches which was pretty good considering our inexperience with the set (plus not having played much recently). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At GP London, events paid out "prize tickets" which could be exchanged at a prize wall, which was an interesting way of doing it. We picked up our winning tickets then decided to leave and check in at the hotel as we had been up early and travelled in. Plus, the tournament had gone on for quite a while at that point. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our Hotel was right next to the DLR station we got off at, which was very handy as it was raining. We checked in and organised breakfast for the next two mornings then the concierge showed us a couple of places to eat on a map. We borrowed an umbrella and went out into the evening, eating at a very nice Italian restaurant by the river. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Saturday</b></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the morning, I got up a little early to use the Gym (it was there so I figured I'd make use of it) then we had a large breakfast and headed over to the Excel centre. Liz signed up for a Sealed Challenge and I waited in line to meet John Avon (who is thoroughly nice) as I had an hour until the Legacy Challenge I had entered was going to start. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Going into the Legacy tournament I wasn't really sure what to expect. I had put together a Manaless Dredge deck but hadn't played in a sanctioned Legacy event before. My first match was against Elves, with their first turn being a Deathright Shamen, which didn't really help much... I did get going in the second game, but didn't manage to dredge some key cards before losing. Still, it was fun to play. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My second match was against a White/Blue/Black deck where I went 2-1 after some close games. We were 1-1 when time on the round was called. I attacked with some Zombie tokens on turn 4 of extra turns as it was the quickest way to win that turn, but they had enough blocks to stay alive, so I went through the motions of Dread Return Balustrade Spy to do the last few points of damage with Flayer of the Hatebound. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I won the first game of my third match against a Show and Tell deck. They had an Emrakul, but were low on life and I had a lot of zombies at that point. In the second game, a turn two Show and Tell had them put in an Omniscience with me putting in a Ashen Rider (from the sideboard), however they were able to combo off and win with my trigger on the stack. The final game went similarly, so I decided to drop and join a draft with Liz. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Manaless Dredge</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Full up graveyard</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Stuff to fill up the graveyard</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Golgari Grave-Troll</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Stinkweed Imp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Golgari Thug</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Shambling Shell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Phantasmagorian</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Combo</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Dread Return</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Balustrade Spy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Flayer of the Hatebound</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Flame-Kin Zealot</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Free Creatures</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Ichorid (freshly signed from rk post)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Nether Shadow</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Narcomoeba</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Bridge from Below</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Speed/Misc</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Street Wraith</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Gitaxian Probe</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Cabal Therapy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Noxious Revival</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Sickening Shoal</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Ashen Rider</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Blazing Archon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Serra Avatar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Surgical Extraction</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 Noxious Revival</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Sickening Shoal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Contagion</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In all, it was fun to play the deck. I don't get a chance to play it often, so will look out for other opportunities to. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The rest of Saturday involved doing a draft; as is tradition whenever me and Liz play in the same event, we got paired up (which is why we had a good laugh at <a href="http://cardboard-crack.com/post/126073671201/pairings" target="_blank">this comic</a>)</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, then one round of a Sealed Challenge event before going out for dinner. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sunday</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sunday morning involved packing away in order to check out from the hotel. Again we had a large breakfast - this time I had a specially cooked omelette. Liz started Sunday similarly to Saturday - joining a Sealed Challenge Event. I hung around for an hour until the Modern Challenge was due to start. We got some more Zombie tokens from rk post - we had brought some on the Friday and they look sweet so we went to get some more. Most were sold out at this point. It was a fun stall to be at; rk post would often come out with a witty comment when talking to everyone there. I also got the last couple of cards I needed for my Modern sideboard, and had a cursory wander over to the coverage area to have a look at the feature matches briefly (but I didn't know the cards enough to really follow it)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had brought a couple of Modern decks with me (I seriously overestimated how many games of Magic I'd be able to fit into the weekend), and decided upon my mono red deck. Its the one I played in the last Modern tournament I played in, plus I suspect it is the stronger of the decks I had with me. Plus burn decks are fun :-)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My first match was against a Splinter Twin combo deck. I made a mistake in the first game - they had a Deceiver Exarch in play and I thought I could get away with casting Molten Rain on one of their red sources to prevent a Splinter Twin combo the next turn, but it got countered and I lost the next turn. Should have cast the Exquisite Firecraft instead...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before the event had started, I had gone around the dealer tables to pick up some Rending Volley to put in the sideboard - I am glad I did as I brought all 4 in here. I was able to win the next two games, even past a Spellskite. I may have missplayed again against the Spellskite - I usually just aimed burn at my opponent waiting for them to change the target (either using two life or some of their mana) - they didn't always, even when I had somewhat hoped they would. When they didn't it did mean I got some damage in still, which is always good. One game went fairly long (for a red deck) - I had 6 lands out (which does make a lot of the cheaper counterspells less effective - my spells are cheap enough that I either had the spare mana for a Mana Leak, or could just recast anything countered with Remand). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My second match was against a similar deck, although it also had white in it - Kiki-Jiki and Restoration Angel. My opponent helped me out somewhat by casting Path to Exile really early on, giving me access to more mana. I ended the second game with a Volcanic Fallout with my opponent on 1 life to win the round. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The third match was against a similar deck to mine, although they said they had a couple of extra colours. The first game had a quick start - turn one attacking with a Monestery Swiftspear for one (19), turn two casting a Lava Spike (16) and Lighting Bolt (13) to hit with the Swiftspear after two Prowess triggers (10). They had stumbled on lands, so even though casting a Molten Rain on a basic Mountain did no damage, it put them far enough behind that they couldn't catch up. The second game was a little closer, but again I was a lot faster so able to win 2-0. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At this point I got to enjoy one of the benefits of playing a red deck and in the spare half hour I had until the round ended I wandered off to see how Liz was getting on with her draft, and grabbed us a quick bite to eat and some drinks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We also figured out what we were going to do with our weekends worth of prize wall tickets. Liz had already got a tshirt. I had expressed an interest in one of the satchel bags, thinking at the start of the day we wouldn't have enough, but winning three rounds of Modern meant we were 10 tickets away from me being able to get the bag. If I won the final round, I could get it outright (and if not, trading or borrowing 10 tickets from a friend shouldn't be too difficult). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My final round was against a Jund deck. The first game started off fairly close, but I got ahead to the point where my opponent was in a stalemate - one life with a single creature against Eidolon of the Great Revel. Casting most spells would kill them from the Eidolon trigger, and I could survive an attack and swing back with the Eidolon. So I just waited until I drew a burn spell to win. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second game was close, but it started to slip away from me towards then end (I made a couple of play mistakes which didn't help - I held an instant in hand instead of casting it on my turn, meaning they could flip their Huntmaster of the Fells)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the final game, I was only attacked once, although it took a couple of turns at the end to eek out the last few points of damage. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finishing the tournament at 4-0 meant I had enough prize wall tickets to get the bag I wanted. Hooray! Liz used the remaining tickets to get some sleeves with cute turtles on and a keyring. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As my last Modern match went to three games, I had sent Liz along with my Infinite Challenge Badge to sign us up for the Sealed Deck Challenge happening after the Modern Challenge was due to finish, however when it came to it we were a bit tired after the long weekend, so after picking up prize wall prizes we grabbed the packs to use later and dropped to say farewell to our friends and go home. My Dad had taken the kids to the Zoo, and when we arrived home they were on their way back, so we all met at the nearby pub for dinner, seeing some very excited children. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Modern Mono Red</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Creatures</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Goblin Guide - Handy to know what my opponent is drawing (what needs to be played around)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Monastery Swiftspear - Quite good in the early game. Which is fine, as the deck aims to just have an early game. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Grim Lavamancer - Handy to have as a one of, I'm considering a second in the sideboard (it may be handy to attempt to shrink an opposing Tarmogoyf, however I am unsure whether it will actually be effective at doing so)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Eidolon of the Great Revel - Usually my opponents number one target whenever I cast it</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Burn</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Lightning Bolt - Efficient</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Lava Spike - Efficient</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Magma Jet - Not too efficient damage-wise, but the Scry is worth it</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Skullcrack - Not as efficient, but fine main deck as it can cancel any incidental lifegain</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Rift Bolt - Efficient (next turn)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Exquisite Firecraft - This was Flame Javelin until recently. I think I prefer the Firecraft. While I give up instant speed, I gain can't be countered (very unlikely I get to turn 3 and don't have Spell Mastery). I think a lot of the times where it being an instant might matter is when I'm playing around counterspells, in which case just having something uncounterable is better. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Molten Rain - So many non-basics. Inefficient damage wise, but it can really punish anyone stumbling on lands. If I found a cheaper burn spell I was happy with, I'd move 2-4 of these to the sideboard. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">19 Mountain - If I could lower the curve of the deck a little I'd consider dropping to 18</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Sideboard</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Volcanic Fallout - Good against lots of creatures, although my main use was against blue decks as they can't counter it</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Smash to Smithereens - Didn't side this in, but I didn't play against Affinity this time. I do wonder if it is worth siding it in if I know an opponent has brought in a Spellskite. Hrmm...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Rending Volley - I was impressed with how good this was when I brought it in. It is nice to know that if I aim it at something there is little that cam be done about it</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Magma Spray - I had almost forgotten why I had these in the sideboard until my opponent played a Kitchen Finks in the last round</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Electrickery - Cute attempt at an answer against hexproof. There is probably something better that can go here. Arguably Volcanic Fallout fits this role. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In general, I'm mostly happy with the deck. It can win quite fast and can really punish unprepared opponents. There are a couple of card choices that I think something better could go in its place, but I haven't found anything as of yet that I am happy with. The 4 Molten Rain is the main area for improvement - I do like it, but it means I have 8 spells that cost 3 to cast (I count the Rift Bolt as 1 really) and I occasionally had two of either in my hand where I'd rather have a cheaper spell. The sideboard could do with a bit of work and proper thinking through, although it is surprisingly effective considering that I've not spent as long thinking about it as I probably should. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've thought about adding a white splash (Lightning Helix, Boros Charm), but have resisted so far. Partially not having the spare fetch lands, but also partially because I like the deck being "pure" red (zero worries about colour fixing). Also, it is at the stage where it is fine as it is and I'm just making minor tweaks to it; adding another colour would be a big change. </span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-37416649192187002442015-06-05T22:15:00.000+01:002015-06-05T22:15:43.392+01:00Mini-Christmas<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
We spent the end of May Bank Holiday celebrating birthdays - mine and my Mums, and Kalebs. With the amount of people around the house (and the amount of food and presents going around) it was like a mini-Christmas. </span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had the bouncy castle inflated as we hadn't used it this year and it was now sunny enough. Kaleb convinced Jenny to go on it with him. Evelyn was put in it once, but was not impressed and wanted to come out.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_BEUqNfMMPliTRLqhmmyMG_JkcBMOrNxRAdo2y8N-gcciMxvQMbv_mMw-FY_BFKhwveDgdGDRR8qYVJznovCDoVT7e463155AkEFx3Vezm87aqPCIX7HV9DLv-OYDZcckldMpdutAis/s1600/IMG_20150525_123530.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix_BEUqNfMMPliTRLqhmmyMG_JkcBMOrNxRAdo2y8N-gcciMxvQMbv_mMw-FY_BFKhwveDgdGDRR8qYVJznovCDoVT7e463155AkEFx3Vezm87aqPCIX7HV9DLv-OYDZcckldMpdutAis/s320/IMG_20150525_123530.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kaleb also had fun playing in the sand pit. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUGXm1_i6uPGIKAYowrL_KnhOarYilPrLOdalwNl7Xbym1zz_Q4G2pPohWTg41VpV7lRHI7C5XfqhAqd3gfTBuqFD73C2MCHq3rRs0iITwnHJ51JtOx6u73I4P4e9p4GPTAFwxICSzCdQ/s1600/IMG_20150525_141618.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUGXm1_i6uPGIKAYowrL_KnhOarYilPrLOdalwNl7Xbym1zz_Q4G2pPohWTg41VpV7lRHI7C5XfqhAqd3gfTBuqFD73C2MCHq3rRs0iITwnHJ51JtOx6u73I4P4e9p4GPTAFwxICSzCdQ/s320/IMG_20150525_141618.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span id="goog_907308234"></span>With a lot of people there, we had a lot of food, so much that we had to light a second BBQ to get everything cooked. In addition to having lots of them, the burgers were very large ones so had to be done in batches. I was mostly focused on cooking everything, but luckily there were lots of people around to entertain the kids.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxdkjdqVUJQNe3OiWd1pOB4-MgcSRN-CVuk1V95bugK7TfmlwwJr2bZDaGSq_gJa9X6KgmHs00r8GjY6usfinO4bBrmzJB77Cgh5yFwDJguH4Uk1CRuS8HMcTFYQiv7qtwzxFFHTsH3Ek/s1600/IMG_20150525_170910.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxdkjdqVUJQNe3OiWd1pOB4-MgcSRN-CVuk1V95bugK7TfmlwwJr2bZDaGSq_gJa9X6KgmHs00r8GjY6usfinO4bBrmzJB77Cgh5yFwDJguH4Uk1CRuS8HMcTFYQiv7qtwzxFFHTsH3Ek/s320/IMG_20150525_170910.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had made some Nutella ice cream for the day, which was very tasty. Very chocolaty, too. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIGpkn9aKgcgmFKX8KPbrevK37YMhWTMMYXgmXHse78mlI0zIj35hpCxoFKk7979eDtesVN1ZvJKmYYyXGcn0HQyy70b7nxpZc0LIjYTisiwJIpYyXEq-Fn1zq497AMjeiISekenM-XeA/s1600/IMG_20150525_150222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIGpkn9aKgcgmFKX8KPbrevK37YMhWTMMYXgmXHse78mlI0zIj35hpCxoFKk7979eDtesVN1ZvJKmYYyXGcn0HQyy70b7nxpZc0LIjYTisiwJIpYyXEq-Fn1zq497AMjeiISekenM-XeA/s320/IMG_20150525_150222.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liz had made a Dalek cake for my birthday, and all three of me, Mum and Kaleb took turns in blowing out the candles on it. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1B2UwYUFhlvvL6QklY49wIbeK4RhGneOMlO5w8fdFV6FJgQ8ky6afKau1LqlxrcOjqPYUJYl4Eu2JYWUjhI3JfLWOATtlzYvHeTY0kueyQMsSs8sNGhuXoWGyZjek236auiju1t8v0yY/s1600/IMG_20150525_143436.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1B2UwYUFhlvvL6QklY49wIbeK4RhGneOMlO5w8fdFV6FJgQ8ky6afKau1LqlxrcOjqPYUJYl4Eu2JYWUjhI3JfLWOATtlzYvHeTY0kueyQMsSs8sNGhuXoWGyZjek236auiju1t8v0yY/s320/IMG_20150525_143436.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kaleb got lots of presents for his birthday. Chris seems to like getting him something big. The possibility of there not being enough room is apparently "not his problem"... So Kaleb got a box larger than he is to unwrap. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn5nZXkExPbiDseGPIVu4pW8GxOLwmaEIL4aMeDEmq7qZc3OIWrHhjoX85Asa1Q41aD0TzBJucDSQCdJsdhTu-LM4fYYddH4Bd7GU6KNAxjS6PwHEZxaZ0zQ8IL4YTe574OpidtveK69Y/s1600/IMG_20150525_121532.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn5nZXkExPbiDseGPIVu4pW8GxOLwmaEIL4aMeDEmq7qZc3OIWrHhjoX85Asa1Q41aD0TzBJucDSQCdJsdhTu-LM4fYYddH4Bd7GU6KNAxjS6PwHEZxaZ0zQ8IL4YTe574OpidtveK69Y/s320/IMG_20150525_121532.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Turns out this was large because it was large enough for Kaleb to sit in an ride around on. He hasn't really gotten around to figuring out steering and would just drive along the road, hands off the wheel, leaning back (with me and Dad turning the wheel to stop him crashing). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsgaiEig3K472mROfVmx_PAi1gkhu6W88jKJ4vFJqSFTV6QHEhHN9wHh1tXMZlBGrhi1npBCq-Lp-KECm0uq6tOQ1Nxd0FGIOV94Vjucjvgpl3SPVQktslqPrgrCywPnVKKZR6Qqm4T14/s1600/IMG_20150525_152205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsgaiEig3K472mROfVmx_PAi1gkhu6W88jKJ4vFJqSFTV6QHEhHN9wHh1tXMZlBGrhi1npBCq-Lp-KECm0uq6tOQ1Nxd0FGIOV94Vjucjvgpl3SPVQktslqPrgrCywPnVKKZR6Qqm4T14/s320/IMG_20150525_152205.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8rvlq9wrLSccVMHmKBA2mqsIunbhdm6Ct0DDgAni5vFtcbyfmcvkzNLUifeAyXbBnbU_GXoIFfTNdC5CV4McnAxBfDdMuvEWgeTrz951zQcwzcMg7ZjkWJArQy2B103fg4bALg8JrRbg/s1600/IMG_20150525_164546.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8rvlq9wrLSccVMHmKBA2mqsIunbhdm6Ct0DDgAni5vFtcbyfmcvkzNLUifeAyXbBnbU_GXoIFfTNdC5CV4McnAxBfDdMuvEWgeTrz951zQcwzcMg7ZjkWJArQy2B103fg4bALg8JrRbg/s320/IMG_20150525_164546.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Evelyn thought it was great and climbed in too. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilergk01Q2xDaFgLVrhdOemB2o4eh0E_E_g5XU37O98SNT3LLqoZNe_0f2j7glE_emSWmYxCQ357AA7QHjaHPlX8YGDKx7kmZm4UpaiHU4GTJhbnYeDx6enZs5ee9B5yuxIVROJ2rY_cE/s1600/IMG_20150525_143013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilergk01Q2xDaFgLVrhdOemB2o4eh0E_E_g5XU37O98SNT3LLqoZNe_0f2j7glE_emSWmYxCQ357AA7QHjaHPlX8YGDKx7kmZm4UpaiHU4GTJhbnYeDx6enZs5ee9B5yuxIVROJ2rY_cE/s320/IMG_20150525_143013.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kaleb also got a little scooter, which he enjoys. My bike was being serviced the week after so I was taking my mini scooter into work. Kaleb wanted to take his out too; "I got a scooter like yours Daddy!". </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-41405448681607677862015-03-24T22:37:00.002+00:002015-03-24T22:37:51.980+00:00Dragons of Tarkir Prerelease<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I did really well at the Dragons of Tarkir prerelease, not only winning the tournament but winning all games I played (6 rounds, so 12 games in a row with no losses). I can't remember getting a Game Win Percentage of 100 before, certainly not in a tournament lasting longer than 3 rounds. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While I don't have a chance to play Magic as often any more, I generally try to make it along to the prerelease events. I usually prefer draft to sealed, but they are a nice way to just have some fun with the new cards. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been going to a new venue as well after I found out a prerelease is now being held on Saturdays down the road from my Dads house (which makes it easier to find someone to look after the kids). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Deck</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Dragon I picked was Kolaghan (Black Red). I think it was the mechanic that interested me the most as it seemed fun - I had played against it at the Fate Reforged prerelease only so far. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I didn't think so at first, but the deck came together very well. No huge bombs and maybe one less creature than I'd like in an aggressive deck, but there was a good range of different removal spells, and a couple of late game reach spells. The curve was very low, with lots of things to play at both 2 and 3. Plus the mana colours were almost perfectly split, so I had a great mana base. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>One</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Kolaghan Stormsinger - Usually megamorphed so it was a 2/2, sometimes in the same turn if I had the spare mana (I say spare, it is only 4 total to do it). I did play this turn 1 once when I had a lot of other cards in hand, and it did get in a fair amount of damage</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Coat with Venom - Interestingly the one time I played this it was for the toughness boost to survive an opponents damage spell and not for the deathtouch</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Two</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Ire Shaman - At least twice I turned this face up in response to a removal spell to get the effect</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Blood-Chin Rager - Good for the aggressive deck, needing to be blocked by two creature was occasionally relevant. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Kolaghan Aspirant</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Dragon Fodder</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Twin Bolt - I found both two damage to a single target and one damage to each of two targets equally useful</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Roast</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Defeat</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Temur Battle Rage - I used this once to finish a game after a creature went unblocked, and once to help trade in combat. Quite versatile</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Three</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Reckless Imp - Cheap flyer, very helpful</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Hooded Assassin - Early game it was often a 2/3 to get a good creature count, later on it would help get rid of problematic creatures if needed</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Screamreach Brawler</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Kolaghan's Command - I think I actually used all modes on this one. Main mode was two damage, as apparently 8 other spells that can be used for removal wasn't enough</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Douse in Gloom</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Tail Slash - I had two more copies of this, but only played the one as I had a lot of removal and wanted a range of spells. Nice synergy with the Coat with Venom and two creatures that naturally have Deathtouch</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Four</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Ukud Cobra - Held off attacks if I needed, but attacked equally well</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Five</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Sprinting Warbrute - Very powerful. I probably should have dashed it more as sometimes I'd play it for it to eat a removal spell or Pacifism</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier - Good stats, the deck is full of small creatures so I'd often have something small to trade for something useful</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Atarka Pummeler - Big, and if I could activate the ability it meant I was doing really well</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Six</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Swift Warkite - Decent size, aggressive ability with some possible card advantage</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>X</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Death Wind - Being instant was useful</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Land</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Evolving Wilds</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">8 Swamp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">8 Mountain</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Sideboard</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While I had an extra Coat with Venom, and extra Defeat and two extra Tail Slash, I never sideboarded for the entire tournament. The deck was well balanced as it was. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Games</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Round 1</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I played against another B/R deck - I had a very aggressive first game which included a big swing thanks to Atarka Pummeler, and a closer second game. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Round 2</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Playing against a W/U deck, I spent the games playing cheap creatures and removing the few they played. I did get hit by a couple of Pacifisms, but just had more creatures to come. I turned up an </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ire Shaman about to be put on the top of my library to get an extra card (otherwise I would be a card behind as I would draw it again). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Round 3</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Playing against W/G, I was able to get out more creatures quicker than my opponent. I think I used </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kolaghan's Command</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> here to destroy an artifact (it would have been one of the dragon monuments), but it may have been at the same time as dealing the last two points of damage to my opponent. In one game I cast a </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Swift Warkite after combat, but that was because the creature I returned was </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hooded Assassin to kill their big creature that had chump blocked that turn (so had been dealt damage). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Round 4</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Playing another B/R opponent, we both had aggressive starts, but I made a very favourable trade with Twin Bolt that allowed me to take the advantage and push through damage continually (my Blood-Chin Rager was blocked by two Goblin tokens, I was going to allow the trade, but one was about to be given +1/+0 and First strike, so I pinged it and my opponent, allowing me to destroy the other goblin and keep my creature). In the second game they had to mulligan a couple of times and I played an early </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kolaghan's Command</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to kill the one creature they had out and make them discard their last card. A brutal play they were unable to recover from. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Round 5</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A very close first game. I was dead on board next turn so attacked with my last creatures to get them down to 2 with one card in hand. They let it through so they would have more creatures to attack back with as they had two out and was worried I was going to either cast or return a creature from my graveyard as a blocker. After combat I cast Twin Bolt to end the game. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second game had me facing a Dragonlord Ojutai, which was then given Vigilance. However I had a larger number of creatures and surprise deathtouch to get around being unable to target the dragon itself. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Round 6</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the final round, I played against a W/G deck. Both games I could consistently get out multiple creatures early and keep the number of creatures my opponent had down. In the second game I played the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kolaghan Stormsinger turn one as I had a near perfect curve in my opening hand that I'd have other things to play on turns three and four anyway. It was still attacking for one until the end - it got a few attacks in and then it was always attacking with something a little bigger that prompted more attention. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>End</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't think I could have asked for a better tournament really. Most importantly my deck was fun to play but still had a couple of little tricky interactions that I could benefit from. Not only winning but being literally undefeated was great. It's always good to know that I've not completely forgotten how to play after not playing as often as I used to (a recurring reminder that I should try and get out to play more often). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Plus I got a new Planeswalker Points achievement:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNY0YeYttNrigfUlCbSxETPKjQtaAC1JbRL8_ZngUK-gvLPNyRzZ9f-ZCpfeYbcdNeT9Sjnu9gwYh1Yyv5x47SRa1NzF5JRBpfJ1lGrjWxDKg9Fe2O1jVN3TXETZ6lXthfj3suDgYq3b0/s1600/Screenshot+from+2015-03-24+22:28:53.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNY0YeYttNrigfUlCbSxETPKjQtaAC1JbRL8_ZngUK-gvLPNyRzZ9f-ZCpfeYbcdNeT9Sjnu9gwYh1Yyv5x47SRa1NzF5JRBpfJ1lGrjWxDKg9Fe2O1jVN3TXETZ6lXthfj3suDgYq3b0/s1600/Screenshot+from+2015-03-24+22:28:53.png" height="350" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-79370536219297502432015-03-13T15:36:00.001+00:002015-03-13T15:40:47.703+00:00Eclipse Tip: Highlight Occurrences<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
I thought I would write a quick post about taking advantage of a useful feature in Eclipse when writing code - highlighting everywhere a selected item appears in the current file. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is most useful for fields, variables and parameters, but can also be used for method/function names. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN3sIjo-3jWJNyeBmbu3jX3fNlv7Ojl9LyuFpheXNy5m6TfvZXcM_oVvFw3wcLTRlHUFmoXtwOG4WhureOyAxrhQ5_yUG8Ql-Ep9KM60soFEvGRUn5F9Rx9vfN77G2VRnqihSAKAaFKmQ/s1600/01_code.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN3sIjo-3jWJNyeBmbu3jX3fNlv7Ojl9LyuFpheXNy5m6TfvZXcM_oVvFw3wcLTRlHUFmoXtwOG4WhureOyAxrhQ5_yUG8Ql-Ep9KM60soFEvGRUn5F9Rx9vfN77G2VRnqihSAKAaFKmQ/s1600/01_code.png" height="311" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First, go to "Preferences", then either search for "annotations", or navigate through General -> Editors -> Text Editors -> Annotations. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_HchIJq8G3pgrawH9D2aOHB6K0sJo4NuM_sJrGVqREs6cGZWcXI2bgUxEVp7uFYCOHUZv6XQ9a_XtgfS2WM-b-jZI1zVimj_mOmxv0NiAKC_EXbHK_6U7yH7dbB2ct9itCbSx1uqDkw/s1600/02_annotations.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_HchIJq8G3pgrawH9D2aOHB6K0sJo4NuM_sJrGVqREs6cGZWcXI2bgUxEVp7uFYCOHUZv6XQ9a_XtgfS2WM-b-jZI1zVimj_mOmxv0NiAKC_EXbHK_6U7yH7dbB2ct9itCbSx1uqDkw/s1600/02_annotations.png" height="261" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The two to change (for Java) are "Occurrences" and "Write Occurrences". The former will apply to any time the highlighted word is used in the file and the latter will apply to any time the highlighted word has a new value written to it. There are similar C/C++ specific types. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I usually change "Occurrences" to something bright to make it stand out. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdY_z2PhAGRZsNPlKtQ_OW_HnCRbCY5igez1fauYqdk8VxbKOWxIzoYAoKjcdWEWE8sCC0iV2p58-NGSmCKWYDI8F1YggvSER3SUduNiFdDDm_tRMeOMxl1ZfQorR2kww56jYsevUGeY8/s1600/03_highlight.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdY_z2PhAGRZsNPlKtQ_OW_HnCRbCY5igez1fauYqdk8VxbKOWxIzoYAoKjcdWEWE8sCC0iV2p58-NGSmCKWYDI8F1YggvSER3SUduNiFdDDm_tRMeOMxl1ZfQorR2kww56jYsevUGeY8/s1600/03_highlight.png" height="261" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Write Occurrences" is changed in the same way. You could use the same colour, but I find it beneficial to be able to differentiate them, so use a different bright colour (just not red as that is used for errors). </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfWO6ukCSR6pbaDZL-iyAHsxIecUsjTQMBYeK8zF77H4McqZvuK6gqCrzEVwhLv5DunYbQLMtpks8-2o03BjzwxlNxqr-Mjz8bDDjDC6y3lxbYPGphja6O-wxXxW62T5lQt33m49U6Mjs/s1600/04_write_highlight.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfWO6ukCSR6pbaDZL-iyAHsxIecUsjTQMBYeK8zF77H4McqZvuK6gqCrzEVwhLv5DunYbQLMtpks8-2o03BjzwxlNxqr-Mjz8bDDjDC6y3lxbYPGphja6O-wxXxW62T5lQt33m49U6Mjs/s1600/04_write_highlight.png" height="261" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now if you select a field/variable/etc. in the code, it will be highlighted one of the two colours you selected depending on how it is used in that line. It will also mark the space next to the scroll bar with additional occurrences. As shown below, there is an additional Write Occurrence for the field at the top of the class (circled in blue). </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXlRb9sKjlVr57e6LJjsUaQYMxYm73gsPRMwVpnUqTyK5tDpqlIY7eyf1nxghqZH01d2mmlsTKt-RH33yrd1XwR5VlZ9S07TZ5T5MQ3RBsonXZP_LPPTmyvl-VRDhudpHCWibMDGJh6F4/s1600/05_scroll.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXlRb9sKjlVr57e6LJjsUaQYMxYm73gsPRMwVpnUqTyK5tDpqlIY7eyf1nxghqZH01d2mmlsTKt-RH33yrd1XwR5VlZ9S07TZ5T5MQ3RBsonXZP_LPPTmyvl-VRDhudpHCWibMDGJh6F4/s1600/05_scroll.png" height="342" width="400" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-52211746564251517932015-02-27T21:26:00.003+00:002015-02-27T21:26:49.830+00:00Agile as part of Waterfall<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
When we started developing with Scrum, it was just the development team using Agile, but we were one of many teams still working in a waterfall style (one long cycle with a delivery at the end). This introduced a couple of irregular circumstances when we tried to follow the Scrum process as best we could, for example we always had 2 week Sprints, starting mid week and could fit 3 sprints into the larger delivery process, but we would have a couple of extra days at either end where we couldn't start on the next delivery because the one we had finished (early) hadn't been submitted yet. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But a couple of concessions didn't mean that we should abandon the whole process altogether. While we wouldn't be able to get all the benefits (we could technically have had a delivery of some sorts at the end of most sprints, but we never did), we still got some and that made it worthwhile. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The daily stand ups were the most important thing in my view. It allowed the whole team to know what everyone else was doing, and a daily opportunity to help out on problems anyone was having. This always worked well, and there was no conflict to being part of a larger non-agile process. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One concession we started off with was having both acceptance criteria and a larger formal specification. This did cause some conflicts initially if the two ever got out of sync as we would generally develop to the acceptance criteria, but system tests were done against the spec. As we got better with agile, the acceptance criteria was better defined from backlog meetings so changed less often. I think in this case, if both are to be maintained, it would be better to update the specification after the sprint has finished, so the specification will then match what the acceptance criteria evolved into, avoiding the two going out of sync. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our end-of-sprint time was probably most different from the expected baseline. As we were part of a larger process, we didn't have a release. The code was in a state that we could have done a release, but in practice we didn't. Our code area was just one part in a larger product, so even when we did submit code for a release, it went through a full integration process first. We started off doing a demo for most sprints, but the participants and frequency changed over time. In the end we did a demo every two releases (roughly 6 sprints worth of features) to the support team, so they knew how what had been added worked and could ask any questions about it in advance. The component we were developing was the interface into the product as a whole, so I think a demo to any internal customers would have been useful in addition to just the support team. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sprint Retrospectives were meetings that I always found useful and we would discuss a lot in them to improve our ways of working. We would always try to get everyone to think of at least one thing that went well (so we could try and replicate it again) and one thing that could have gone better (to try and prevent it happening again). At some point we stopped doing them and didn't start them up again apart from the occasional one-off, which I think was a loss. We did run them for a couple of years, in which time we would have ideally sorted out most (or at least the major) problems. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Towards the end of my time in the role, the team size was smaller than when we started, and we were essentially doing a 6 week sprint of a mix of Scrum and Kanban, which I have <a href="http://lhsi-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/mixing-scrum-and-kanban-scrumban.html" target="_blank">written about before</a>. We used the Scrum practices for stories with acceptance criteria, only taking about half of the velocity for the team, with the other half used for bug fixes using Kanban. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the end, working with small Agile developments inside a larger Waterfall style model did work out. The Agile process had to be a lot more flexible than the Waterfall style one in order to fit, but from a high level perspective, our development was only one part of the Waterfall, so we did have the flexibility to do it in a manner that was productive for us, so long as it didn't interfere with the larger Waterfall (which only cared that the work got done, not how it got there). There was still a formal system test afterwards, so while any new features ended up getting tested twice, this was a good thing as we had a much lower rate of new bugs. The grooming meetings were the most valuable part of the whole hybrid mix. Initially it meant we were updating the specification while developing (which is a previous step in Waterfall), however as we finalised a larger backlog we were making high level estimates on features before they had been specified, and because of this less mid-development changes to the specification was needed. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In summary, running the development part of Waterfall with an Agile methodology can work, so long as you are not too rigid with the enforcement of the Agile method. This may mean you don't get all of the benefit from the Agile process that you could do, but if the development step would improve using an Agile method, the benefit you do get will likely outweigh the alternative of not doing it. </span></div>
lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-57782469109739534732015-01-20T18:57:00.001+00:002015-01-20T19:01:01.125+00:002014 in numbers<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another year has gone, so as is tradition, I've written another yearly review. It has been a varied year to say the least; the highs have been very high, and the lows very low. </span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">+1, 8:28</span> </b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the morning of the first of March, we <b>added one</b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to our growing family and welcomed <a href="http://lhsi-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/evelyn.html" target="_blank">Evelyn</a> to the world at </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">8:28</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> AM</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. Unlike Kaleb, we went home with Evelyn that evening. </span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u0ilbCgfx20/UxG2UALqRjI/AAAAAAAANuI/OxglViI2jos/s1600/IMG_20140301_091200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u0ilbCgfx20/UxG2UALqRjI/AAAAAAAANuI/OxglViI2jos/s1600/IMG_20140301_091200.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She has <a href="http://lhsi-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/evelyn-growing.html" target="_blank">grown up</a> so fast in the last ten months. She absolutely adores Kaleb and learnt to crawl quite quickly, I think just so she could follow him around. Kaleb usually gets on well with her; they like playing together, although Kaleb still likes to play on his own sometimes. </span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-28FnVnAzAk4/VGtvP9FpT8I/AAAAAAAASHc/lvG9LqajulU/s1600/IMG_20141118_154557.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-28FnVnAzAk4/VGtvP9FpT8I/AAAAAAAASHc/lvG9LqajulU/s1600/IMG_20141118_154557.jpg" height="320" width="236" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>2</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In addition to May containing my birthday, Kaleb's birthday and my Mum's birthday, we also went to <b>2</b> Weddings. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first was my aunt getting married to Dawn, which was all the way up in Newcastle in a lighthouse. Kaleb had fun playing in the sand, this being the first time he had been on a beach. Dinner was fish and chips, with a sandcastle cake later on. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second Wedding was my cousin getting married to Ian. Again Kaleb had a lot of fun, and another very tiring day. Kaleb ended the night asleep on me in the lobby by the door. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>-1</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the end of August, my <a href="http://lhsi-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/grandad.html" target="_blank">Grandad</a> sadly passed away. I'm happy he was able to meet my children, even if it was only for a few months in the case of Evelyn. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>1st</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The <b>first</b> long holiday the children had was at <a href="http://lhsi-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/weymouth.html" target="_blank">Weymouth</a> in September. Kaleb had fun again on the beach, and even went on a donkey ride. Chris and Jenny could only stay for the weekend, but we're planning on going back again this year, staying at the same place, but Chris and Jenny will be able to stay for the whole week this time, which will be nice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>12</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In September, we had a visit from our friend Hannah for <b>4</b> days; in the couple of years we've lived in Flitwick she is the <b>1</b>st non-family member to stay over. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For the end of September the weather was really nice, so we had <b>1</b> last BBQ in the garden for the year. We also had a wander around the nearby woods (with <b>1</b> scraped knee from an excited Kaleb walking there, which he still occasionally remembers for some reason). I finally got around to using the Story-cubes I got a while back, which was a lot of fun (a bunch of dice with different images on them; you roll the dice and make up a story using the images <b>1</b> at a time). Hopefully soon the <b>4</b> of us will visit her and go to the zoo. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>4.3</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As part of my university course, I did a placement year at Anritsu. After I completed my Masters, I was invited back to work there, and had been doing so for the last <b>4</b> years and <b>3</b> months, until November when myself and what was left of the team I was on was made redundant. </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 42</b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I started looking for a new job straight away. There is a bit of a lull in job postings in November/December time, and I wanted to make sure I found a good place to work so researched anywhere I was going to apply in advance. I applied for jobs at <b>5</b> different companies for a range of roles that I am capable of and heard back from <b>4</b> of them, leading to <b>3</b> interviews. I hadn't been in an interview since I was looking for a placement job in Uni, but all the ones I went to had a similar format (<b>2</b> people asking me technical questions). I must have done well at them as just before Christmas I had <b>1</b> offer, so I'll be back working soon. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Considering the time of year, I think <b>42</b> days to find a job isn't that bad really. Since I started school as a child, I've always been in Education or Employment (or had a planned date to start either), so this has been the longest (well, and only) time since when I've been in neither (and had nothing planned). </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>9</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Christmas Day, we had a house full of <b>9</b> people over for dinner. It was a very busy day, but we purposefully didn't plan too much so we weren't rushing at all, which made the day enjoyable. The kids liked opening presents (even if they had to finish opening some on Boxing Day). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b> 23</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We went to my Dad's house for Boxing Day, where at one point there were <b>23</b> people there. Another busy day seeing lots of family; that weekend kids had a long sleep after two tiring days in a row. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>365</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ended the year with a quiet evening in with Liz (candlelit dinner, an old film, reflecting on the year just gone). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2015 is the first year that I can remember that I don't have a vague idea on how it will turn out. It's starting off well with a new job, so hopefully everything will be good throughout. </span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-4778059082046609782014-12-04T20:36:00.002+00:002014-12-04T20:36:30.123+00:00Mixing Scrum and Kanban (Scrumban)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
At my previous job, my team was part of a pilot to switch over to an Agile methodology for development. It was generally successful so we continued doing it after the pilot had ended. We started with Scrum, and did Kanban when needed, and ended up merging the two into a sort of "Scrumban" process. This was just based on our experience with the two processes as a team, and not based of any official sort of Scrumban process. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We first started off doing Scrum for development; as I suspect is common our estimates weren't too accurate initially, but we still got everything done on time (even if not done as part of a sprint), and estimates got better over time to the point where story point estimation could be used in advance for planning. We started off with a white board and post it notes, but then moved over to using the JIRA Agile plugin (the story details were in JIRA, so it was still part of the process). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This worked fine for general development. We did 2 week sprints, and had a little bit of time left at the end afterwards (the development time was not a neat 6 weeks, and we didn't start a sprint on a Monday so there was always a mid-week end). We still had bug fixes that needed doing, but we split the team into two "streams"; a large stream doing story development, and a second stream (of one or two people) just doing bug fixes for the duration of the sprint. This team rotated so team members had experience on both streams. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Kanban</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scrum worked for developing something based on a story, but we would sometimes have a backlog of bug fixes that needed doing (and, as mentioned, might have a bit of time between some sprints). For this we used Kanban. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All issues scheduled to be fixed were in the "To Do" column in JIRA. Anyone could pick what one they wanted to do to move into the "In Progress" column and work on (my personal best was fixing 5 issues in a day). We still had daily stand up meetings, but there was no task estimation (as there were no stories). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Scrumban </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At some point we decided to a variety of factors to mix the two together. We wouldn't fill a Sprint completely with stories, instead reserving some of it for bug fixes. On the JIRA board, each story had its own section, with all sub tasks underneath, and there was an additional section for "Other" which had all issues to be fixed (with no sub tasks). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Everything being on the same board meant that at the stand up meeting we could see everything that everyone was working on in one place. We still had weekly backlog meetings for upcoming stories, occasionally discussing an issue that needed fixing, but only when a major change was potentially needed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At this point we had stopped estimating the time required to complete a sub-task of a story (we had stopped doing that before we switched to Scrumban however); we hadn't been following the automatically generated burndown chart anyway as it was fairly clear from the board how things were progressing. We had a stable velocity so that was used to fit in the number of stories we could do in a sprint, and as we were experienced with the process it was generally accurate; we didn't miss a submission deadline and had all features delivered before any system testing started. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sprints had gotten longer, which meant we had more to do in a sprint, but more time to get it done in. We just had to keep a closer eye on any delays. The longer sprints did mean that we didn't do a demo as often, so whenever we did one we had to ensure that it was well prepared beforehand so we could go over it quickly (this is a general good idea for a demo). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We had stopped doing a retrospective, I don't think consciously, we just forgot a couple of times and didn't really start doing it frequently again. There was less of a need to have one as we had already had a few years of fine tuning our process to work well, but I still think we should have done it occasionally. Also, with the longer sprints, we would be implementing improvements on an ad hoc basis, in order to benefit from the change straight away (which was a good thing, considering the alternative would be potentially waiting 5 weeks before we would discuss it at the end of a sprint). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The team size was smaller than when we first started, so the combined approach worked well; we didn't have enough people to realistically split the team into separate streams, meaning having story development done at the same time as fixing issues worked well as we could get them both done without having to focus on one or the other. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In summary, I think our Scrumban experiment worked well overall. We could only get to it through our experience of both Scrum and Kanban, meaning we could take what benefited us most from the two in order to get a process that was a more custom fit for our needs. We were good with hitting deadlines, and I think having a process that we knew well helped a lot. </span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-75992005543519241632014-12-04T18:11:00.004+00:002014-12-04T18:11:56.880+00:00Unexpected output: strtok<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
I was reading up on the differences between Java and C++ (as I have used the former the most recently and wouldn't want to wonder why declaring an array in the Java way in a C++ file was causing errors in a side project I'm working on). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the things pointed out was to read up on the strtok function (splitting up a String into tokens based on a delimiter) as it works quite differently than how it works in Java. So I read through it that evening - it does work very differently, so if I have to use it I need to remember to be careful when doing so. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next day I looked at my laptop and found this:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tokens everywhere! Something must have gone wrong...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(My son had found a pile of Magic: The Gathering tokens and decided they needed moving)</span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-5221436755741182332014-12-04T16:37:00.000+00:002014-12-04T16:37:52.943+00:00CV Update<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
I had to update my CV last month after being made redundant from my previous job. As I got the job after impressing them during my placement year while at University, my most recent CV was from the middle of my second year at University, essentially necessitating a rewrite. What I would have had on it previously (my GCSEs and A-Levels) has now been reduced to two lines as the rest of my professional career is taking up the rest of the space. </span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The CV is an interesting document to think about, as there are multiple different possible audiences for it to take into consideration - I've only applied for jobs with a digital version, but it could later be printed out and read as a hard copy. One change I made to possibly account for that is using a capital "L" in my email address as it can be hard to tell apart a lower-case l and an upper-case I in certain fonts. It doesn't matter if it is being copied and pasted, put does if it is being typed in from a printed copy (my LinkedIn URL has the same upper-case L for the same reason). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thankfully I've had some help putting it together (mainly making sure I've not missed anything important, or not put in any silly mistakes), both professionally and from family and friends. I'd like to think it has <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4g9onNwexpiUnZyejQ5SkE1ejQ/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">turned out quite well</a>. </span></div>
lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-51702941877817274892014-11-11T20:46:00.000+00:002014-11-11T20:46:16.146+00:00Grandad<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My Grandad's funeral was in September. He had a lot of waistcoats so myself and some of my family each wore one. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A large number of my memories of our time together are from my childhood. I think the earliest is going to visit one day and asking where his moustache had gone; he told me it had jumped down the sink. </span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We played lots of games when visiting, he taught me a couple of card games, and I remember playing a puzzle game on his computer. He had the Dingbats game, but I would usually just look through the cards trying to guess them (or ask someone else to guess it) instead of actually playing it properly. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I remember sitting on his knee being told a story (only to have him move me in his lap telling me to sit still). Me and my brother used to go on adventures with him in his old ambulance, eating breakfast in the back and driving around somewhere. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He used to dress up as Santa for the Christmas party his old work had; one year I dressed up as an elf and helped. I did a work shadowing in his shop as part of school, so spent a day helping out in the shop (we would occasionally visit and help out at the weekend, although helping here would usually mean playing with the little toys). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We used to holiday in Sark a lot, and one year when he was there he told us how he had been cycling down a steep hill and accidentally swallowed a butterfly!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There would often be "aunties parties" held at his house, which were very busy and a lot of fun. We would go sledging down the big hill in the park up the road when it snowed, and played in the park when it didn't. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The week after we told my parents that we were expecting Kaleb, my Mum told us that he was in hospital and might not last the week, so we went in straight away to tell him (and show him the scan photo we had). He was out of hospital in time for Christmas, and got to hold Kaleb once he was born. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He appeared at our house for Kaleb's first Christmas in a Santa costume (brining a spare one for me to wear). One year, for his birthday, his sister got him a clown outfit, which he wore to answer the door (scaring poor Kaleb in the process). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Earlier this year, he got to hold Evelyn after she was born, and see my aunt getting married. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't think either of my children will have any memories of him; Evelyn certainly wont, and I think Kaleb is too young to have made many long term memories. At the very least, they'll have some photos and videos, and of course, my memories. </span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-81612484838345183482014-09-23T21:52:00.000+01:002014-09-23T21:52:16.181+01:00Khans of Tarkir Prerelease<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
I managed to get to two pre-releases for Khans of Tarkir (making up for missing M15 apparently). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Saturday</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Saturday event was in Bedford; I hadn't played at the store before, so it was interesting to go along. I picked Sultai (BGU) for my clan pack and started building a deck. I had a hard time getting a decent amount of creatures, and realised that I could switch out blue for white and I would have a better chance. I had a lot of the common enters battlefield tapped lands that were half blue, so I did play Sidisi, Brood Tyrant as my only blue card (although I never drew it in a single game, and only use blue to activate the ability on Smoke Teller to peek at some opponents morph creatures). I went 2-2 and had some fun.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Sunday</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the Sunday, I went to my usual store in St Albans, and picked Abzan (even though I had already played those colours, it was one of the other clans I had planned on playing). I opened a pretty good pool and went about building my deck. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Creatures</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[One]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Mardu Hateblade - This was mainly played for the deathtouch ability</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[Two]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Ainok Bond-Kin - I had two of these on the Saturday, and they looked pretty good, just outlasting it once would make it a good blocker for a few turns. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[Three]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Abzan Falconer - This drew removal pretty quickly, and for good reason as it is a great creature</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Mardu Hordechief - This card helped a lot, I think I always got the token when I cast it (not always on turn three)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Tuskguard Captain</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Watcher of the Roost - I cast this as a morph one turn when my opponent had a flier. They attacked me (I was tapped out) and I unmorphed it to trade. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[Four]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Unyielding Krumar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Longshot Squad</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Alabaster Kirin</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[Five+]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Wingmate Roc - Somewhat unsurprisingly, this was really good in sealed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Abzan Guide - This was really good as well, I gained a load of life off it one game, giving me a very healthy buffer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Necropolis Fiend - I think I cast this once, exiling all the cards in my graveyard, but a 4/5 flier was enough to win in a turn or two anyway. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Spells</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Suspension Field</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Debilitating Injury - good in a format with morph creatures</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Abzan Charm - I think I may have used all three abilities over the day</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Abzan Ascendancy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Dragonscale Boon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Smite the Monstrous - Started with two maindeck, but often didn't have that many targets</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Dutiful Return</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Throttle</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Lands</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Sandsteppe Citadel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Nomad Outpost</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Jungle Hollow</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Scoured Barrens</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Blossoming Sands</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 Forest</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 Swamp</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6 Plains</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(I think that is the correct basic land distribution, I know I played 18, and about half the deck is white). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Sideboard</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Bloodfell Caves & Mardu Charm</i> - One of my lands already produced red, and I could add in a second and play the charm. I felt I didn't need it as I had two spells that gave a creature -4/-4, which in most cases is the same as 4 damage. Two 1/1 tokens would be nice, but I had a lot of bigger creatures that they wouldn't really matter later in the game, and I felt it was better to have good mana than adding a splash. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Dragonscale Boon, Savage Punch, Smite the Monstrous</i> - Extra removal themed cards if needed. I started the event with the second Smite the Monstrous main deck, but took it out as I felt I only needed the one. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Highland Game, Longshot Squad, Shambling Attendants, Sagu Archer, Alabaster Kirin - Extra creatures if I needed them in certain matchups. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Round 1</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I lost the first game as my opponent (playing a fast Mardu deck), removed all my creatures while playing lots of their own. I won the second and third games, one to my opponent stumbling on mana a little, but both games were fairly close. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1-0</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Round 2</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My opponent was playing a Sultai deck, with a lot of defensive creatures. I went up to 31 life thanks to an Abzan Guide before they blocked it with three creatures to kill it. I came close to winning in a single big turn by casting Abzan Ascendancy with about 4 or five creatures out (and I think a Abzan Falconer to give everything flying), but they countered it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My opponent was getting ahead of card advantage, playing Bitter Revelation, Treasure Cruise, Weave Fate and Dig Through Time, but (mostly thanks to Outlast), my creatures were big enough that they couldn't attack through. They did lay a giant Hydra (came out as an 8/8), but I had the Smite the Monstrous to turn it into 8 1/1 snakes, which was a little more manageable. I ended up winning as my opponent ran out of cards, although I did get down to three life (from a previous 31), before stabilising (Wingmate Roc helped, token for blocking, creature for attacking and gaining a little life as I also had something with vigilance). As we were shuffling up, time was called for the round (yup, the whole game took the entire round). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2-0</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Lunch</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liz had arrived with the kids, so we wandered to a bakery to get something to eat quickly. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Round 3</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first game was very back and forth, I think it ended when I cast a Wingmate Roc and my opponent realised he couldn't beat it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the second game, I drew my 7 cards, saw one land so mulliganed. One land, mulligan. No lands, mulligan. One land in a four card hand - I'll keep it. On the draw, I not only drew into lands to cast a three drop on turn three, but I had all my colours. All the cards I had drawn were cheap ones, so I put a lot of pressure on my opponent as I wasn't sure on my chances in the long game due to the cast disadvantage. The last card I cast to give me an empty hand was a Smite the Monstrous on a newly cast Meandering Towershell (at that point my opponents only creature as I had removed any others they had cast, through removal and them blocking). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3-0</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Round 4</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My opponent is playing Jeskai, and have a lot of tricks. I get a strong draw in the first game and cast something they can't deal with to win (possibly Wingmate Roc again). The second game is a lot closer, but I ultimately win. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4-0</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Round 5</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Final round. First game I get off to a good start and my opponent can't catch up. They are playing an aggressive Mardu deck, but I get bigger creatures out faster. In the second game they play a Bloodsoaked Champion and one or two other creatures and get me down to a low life total thanks to removing all my creatures. I made a play mistake here by allowing them to attack with the Champion as the only creature before using a removal spell on it, so they could return in as they had attacked with a creature. Later in the game, I cast Abzan Charm on 6 life to draw two cards (and lose two life), as I needed to draw into something to help me stabilise. I didn't, so lost. The second game was a little closer, but I started losing my creatures again, took a hit from Zurgo Helmsmasher, and didn't draw anything to remove him next turn so lost. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4-1</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I won 6 packs in the end. Pretty happy with the result, considering the last time I played was the Journey into Nyx prerelease. Back when Shards of Alara was out and I was drafting a lot, I always had issues with mana, but I had more success this time around, which is good. That is probably part me having more experience and part more experience with developing multicolour sets in Wizards of the Coast. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All in all, I think it is a fun set. I'm still not sure about morph, I have generally just blocked if they attack with one, as it forces them to unmorph it or use a trick or they lose it, meaning they're not developing their board. I'm more likely to get blown out this way, so I will see how well this strategy works to see if I need to be more cautious. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-55789857339332015532014-09-19T20:02:00.001+01:002014-09-23T22:04:52.563+01:00Weymouth <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
In the first week of September, we went on holiday to Weymouth with my mum. It was the first holiday Evelyn had been on, and she turned 6 months while we were there so we could give her some food. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We got the train down on the Saturday, leaving home early so we could walk through London at a leisurely pace instead of trying to get through the underground with two prams. We met my Mum, Chris and Jenny at the train station and walked to the beach, with Jenny getting a bucket and spade of chips on the way. Kaleb had a ride on the carousel on the beach, and then had a paddle in the sea. We had fish and chips for tea, and I gave Evelyn some bread sticks and yoghurt; the first food she tried. She pulled a very amusing face when trying the new flavours. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the Sunday, Evelyn had a paddle in the sea along with Kaleb. She sort of stayed still on all fours letting the end of the sea wash over her hands. Chris attempted to get his lighter out of his pocket while we were in town and managed to drop it directly down the drain. There was a butchers in town called the "Sausage Factory", where I got some specially flavoured sausages to try out for tea; I liked the sweet and sour ones. As the sun was setting, Kaleb looked out the window and said "Sun going to sleep". Chris and Jenny went home in the evening, getting the train back that me and Liz had taken to get there. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We took the kids to the sea life centre on Monday. We were walking through the underground tunnel when Evelyn woke up and she started looking around in amazement. There was a simple seal ride there that we all went on; I had Evelyn on my lap. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Wednesday we went to the Observation tower. Liz stayed at the bottom with Evelyn, and I went up with Kaleb, Mum and Martin. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Afterwards, we got on the train car that went to the sea life centre, and got onto another train ride nearby, followed by a wander around the sand sculptures. My Mum got Kaleb an inflatable rocket boat, and he had fun playing with it in the sea. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liz had a spa treatment planned in Poole for Thursday, so I went with her and Evelyn. I took Evelyn for a walk along the quay and had an ice cream outside the oldest pub on the quay. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kaleb rode on a donkey on the beach on the Friday. He looked nervous at first when he was put in the saddle, but started to enjoy himself as he rode along. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We left the house we were staying in on the Saturday morning and had the car packed, but stayed in Weymouth for the day. The kids watched a Punch and Judy show and played on the beach. At the end of the day, we had a wander around the gardens by Nothe Fort, and along the coast before driving home with my Mum. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-85432144535434810142014-07-28T21:18:00.000+01:002014-07-28T21:19:37.842+01:00Casual Magic<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
I got a chance to play Magic: The Gathering with Liz for the first time in a while. Both kids had gone to bed early, so we were spending sometime together. We weren't sure what decks to play (considering she hadn't played a game outside of pack wars for quite a while). In the end I picked two more casual decks that I had constructed but not played that often. One was a Zombie deck (mainly black with a little blue), and the other was a bloodthirst/counter themed deck. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>BR Bloodthirst</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This deck has a very low curve.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>One</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 Rakdos Cackler</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Gut Shot</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Tormented Soul</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Goblin Fireslinger</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Two</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Stormblood Berserker</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Duskhunter Bat</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Contagion Clasp</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Three</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Volt Charge</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Cryptborn Horror</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Hellhole Flailer</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Four</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Gorehorn Minotaurs</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Bloodfray Giant</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Rakdos, Lord of Riots</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The deck can (and did) push through a lot of damage quite quickly. The Cryptborn Horror was played in one game and was pretty sizeable (about a 6/6) early on in the game. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Bu Zombies</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This deck has an odd curve (by which I mean the converted mana cost of most of the cards is an odd number...)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>One</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Gravecrawler</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Diregraft Ghoul</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Three</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Geralf's Messenger</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Diregraft Captain</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Cemetery Reaper</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Forbidden Alchemy</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Four</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Moan of the Unhallowed</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Door of Destinies</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Five+</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Rise from the Grave</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Zombie Apocalypse</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Army of the Damned</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Killing Wave</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Lands</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">14 Swamps</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Cavern of Souls</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 Dimir Guildgate</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Vivid Marsh</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Drowned Catacomb</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was an awkward point during one game where I managed to draw three Cavern of Souls, but wanted to cast Moan of the Unhallowed and didn't have the coloured mana available... The deck was quite fun. A little slow to get going, but was able to get in a fair amount of damage quite quickly once it had. In some ways, it is a little too aggressive for some of the cards, particularly the five plus costing ones, and maybe even the Cemetery Reaper. The Door of Destinies worked quite well, even though I had to take a turn off to cast it, I could cast two cheaper Zombies next turn to get a big boost. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The games were quite fun, and it was nice to play a much more casual game than usual. </span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-49851632979280248092014-06-19T21:35:00.001+01:002014-06-19T21:35:32.694+01:00Evelyn Growing<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Evelyn has been growing already. She's gone up two nappy sizes since she was born, although when we started putting her in the reusable nappies they looked so tiny compared to the ones Kaleb wears! We have had an initial go through of the clothes she wears to take out ones that she has grown out of already. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She has had two lots of her jabs so far. As expected, she cried at them, but seemed to calm down quite quickly afterwards which is nice. After the second lot, Liz had an evening out with work colleagues and had left me and my mum with Kaleb and Evelyn, who wasn't that interested in having any bottled milk. We think this was due to either still being grumpy from her jabs, or being too hot as it was very, very hot weather then. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I fed her twice this week and she had no problems with it, so things are looking good for me looking after her tomorrow while Liz has a KIT day at work. I'm planning on taking her swimming for the first time tomorrow morning; Kaleb will be in nursery so we can see what she thinks of it. I am expecting her to not like it that much as we gave her a bath today and she did not like it at all. I have been meaning to take Kaleb swimming at some point too, hopefully we'll find some time to all go, although we have a lot to sort out around the house. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We're planning on painting Evelyn's room before she moved into it. My Dad has got my old cot down from the loft for her to use, so we just need to look for a new mattress. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-39840549594797462412014-06-19T21:14:00.002+01:002014-06-19T21:14:42.272+01:00Conspiracy Draft<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
I went along to a Conspiracy draft a few weeks ago - it was a fun event. I didn't see many of the special draft cards, but ended up getting an interesting black green deck. When we went to our multiplayer game, I was sat next to another black green player. The early game consisted of me playing a Runed Servitor, an opponent playing Grudge Keeper, and the next opponent also playing a Grudge Keeper... So possible to lose life regardless of which choices were made while voting. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I threw around a lot of damage in the mid game with a Pelakka Wurm equipped with a Fireshrieker, and then moved it over to a Spiritmonger when it died. At one point I sacrificed a Sakura-Tribe Elder to allow me to get extra wolves from Predator's Howl due to morbid. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With a lot of creatures on board (a lot of tokens too), the game was starting to stall. I was running low on cards (so didn't want to play my Skeletal Scrying) so instead made a massive attack to try and end the game. With a lot of creatures dead, I cast Assasinate on a Magister of Worth I had enchanted with an Unhallowed Pact, so got to bring it back. This caused me to lose due to direct damage, but the game did end quite soon after, so I was partially successful. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm hoping I will be able to play it again sometime as it was a fun game. </span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-50536173159989780362014-04-19T19:39:00.000+01:002014-04-19T20:39:25.858+01:00Kaleb's Words<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Kaleb has been getting on really well with his words recently. He started with a single syllable version of longer words, but is now starting to spread them out into two syllables (like "track" into "track-ta" for tractor). </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He has also started putting two words together. Some of them are animal names and noises, like "cow moo" and "quack duck". A number are various chocolate variants; "choc bar", "choc pot", "choc moo" [Chocolate Milkshake] and "choc cake". Also food related, he does say "cheese please" and "more cheese", as well as the more general "more please". Recently he has started saying "tee tie" [tea time]. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the double words I have taught him is "oh no", which is usually does alongside putting his hands on his cheeks in a mock shocked face. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Helping out his sister, when she is crying he sometimes lifts up his tshirt and says "bay milk" [baby milk], and of course "bay cry" [baby cry]. This is sometimes followed with "poor bay" [Poor Baby]; repeating me as I sometimes say that after repeating him saying baby cry. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kaleb sometimes lets us know if he needs a change as he'll say "change nappy" (he usually does the makatan sign for this at the same time). He has recently had a seemingly uncontrollable urge to wash his hands as he'll point up at the sink saying "wosh hans" [Wash Hands]. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last week my mum was visiting and got him settled in bed for the night. In the morning he said a three word sentence for the first time "where nanny gone?". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of all the words he's said, the ones I remember the most are when I helped drop him off at nursery after Evelyn was born. I don't normally but was on paternity leave so had the time off. Trying to leave him in his room he said "don't go" in a little upset voice. As usual once we actually left he had a great day at nursery. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As the weather has been getting nicer recently, we have been going for short walks. When he wants to go for a walk, Kaleb will come over and say "wall ken" [Walk Kenny] - Kenny is the name of his little kangaroo backpack that he wears while walking so he can't get too far away from us. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While walking, Kaleb will often point at a car and say "car", and if it is moving and drives off, it will often be followed by "car gone". There is a little park near us, Kaleb lets us know what there is there: "swing, slide". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As we all seem to sit in the same place while eating, Kaleb points out whose chair is whose, even if we aren't sitting in it; "mummy chair, daddy chair, bay chair" [baby chair] - Evelyn's chair being a little bouncy chair she sits in sometimes while we are eating. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At nursery recently, he was holding a toy car and walked over to another child and said "car share", which was very nice of him. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He has been repeating number "wan, too, tee, for, fie, sics, nie". Sometimes he will attempt to say seven and eight, and sometimes combines them into one number. I'm not sure whether he understands that these are number or what their significance is yet. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is very interesting watching him increase his vocabulary so much so quickly. I'm looking forward to him learning more and more, and hopefully soon he'll say his first four-word sentence. </span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-87410452432282796772014-04-05T13:48:00.002+01:002014-04-05T13:48:39.989+01:00First Attempt at Modern Zoo<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Ever since Wild Nacatl was unbanned, I thought it would be fun to build a deck with it. As I drafted ZEN a lot I already had a bunch of fetch lands, which helped a lot. I really want the allied colour fetch lands to be Modern legal as it would help a lot. I have been trying the deck out with no Tarmagoyf as I only have the one, and went to a Modern tournament in St Albans with the deck below. I am trying a bunch of 2-ofs to see which ones I like. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>One Drops</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Wild Nacatl</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Kird Ape</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Loam Lion</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These creatures make up the bulk of the aggressive creatures. I had been considering some 2/1's as well, and might try a couple out sometime, but if there are a lot of 1/1's around it makes them less effective, whereas the 2/3 Apes and Cats can be blocked by smaller creatures and still be around. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Lightning Bolt</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Path to Exile</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two lots of efficient removal. I loved playing Lightning Bolt when it was legal in Standard. I seem to have gone off red decks in Standard since it rotated out, maybe it just doesn't feel the same (not that I play much Standard). </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Rancor - I was trying this one out but never really drew or played it. It was my plan for a bit more reuse in longer games while still being useful early on (attach to a Nacatl and swing for 5...).I might replace one or both of these with something else. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Two Drops</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Strangleroot Geist - Fairly Efficient, although I have a couple of effects that give +1/+1 counters, which does work too well with this unless it has died once already. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Stormblood Berserker - I'm still not sure about these. It is cheap for a 3/3 that is really hard to block, especially with the amount of removal I have to mess up combat. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Lightning Helix - A slightly harder to cast Lightning Bolt, but the extra life is nice to offset the mana base...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Travel Preparations - I quite liked these, the extra counters is good and I get to use it twice. This is usually for longer games, but if used early on it can help get some extra damage in quickly. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Three Drops</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Woolly Thoctar - I thought these worked quite well. These are sort of my Tarmagoyf replacement, although it is always the same size. I had meant to keep track of graveyards for interest, the one or two times I remembered to a Tarmagoyf would only have 3 or 4 power. I'm considering adding another one. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Kitchen Finks - I almost didn't run these as I was worried about having too high a curve, but I can see myself adding in an extra one or two. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride - The +1 ability is quite good for some extra bumps. The -3 is usually for finishing games. I took some of the Cat tokens for the -8 just in case, but can't realistically see myself getting to that point. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Lands</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Arid Mesa</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Verdant Catacombs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Marsh Flats</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 Misty Rainforest</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 Stomping Ground</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 Temple Garden</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Sacred Foundry</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2 Forest</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1 Plains</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Basic Lands are there so I have some insurance against Blood Moon, and so I can fetch something untapped without paying 3 life for it...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Sideboard</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wasn't really sure what to do for a sideboard. Some of the guys on the MTG Google+Community recommended Graftdiggers Cage, so I'll see if I can get hold of some of them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Destructive Revelry - Hits Artifacts and Enchantments so a nice all-rounder. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Fulminator Mage - I know people play Tron at that store and this was all I could think of at short notice. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3 Electrickery - Thought it would be something good against Hexproof when overloaded, and also against Bitterblossom Tokens</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4 Relic of Progenitus - Again, short notice picking graveyard hate. Graftdiffers cage would probable work better here. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Tournament</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the first round my opponent had mana problems both games (first not enough and then too much). It turns out they had switched out some lands for a standard deck so had a really odd mana base. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the second round, my opponent was playing a burn deck and due to me fetching shocklands, I lost on their turn three (although it was a close game). I was more conservative with land the next game and got it a lot closer but they killed me in response to a Lightning Helix. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the third round, I won against Tron. The second game was getting drawn out as I had awkward mana so couldn't cast some of the cards in my hand - I had about 4 creatures on board but they had a Wurmcoil Engine (and then a second one). I was lucky to top deck a second white source just when I needed it to play Ajani and make a Woolly Thoctar fly for the win. This match was the first time I used my sideboard, but didn't really use any of the cards from it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the final round, I played against another burn deck and kept a "high" curve hand (i.e a couple of three drops and enough land) in the first game not knowing it was a burn deck and lost fairly quickly. I didn't do too much better in the second game. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Considering it was the first time I played the deck, I think 2-2 wasn't too bad. I had a headache a lot of the time, but I suspect that was more due to tiredness due to the new baby :-) I might tweak the deck a little bit and see if I can play it again sometime. It was fun to play, even if choosing which lands to play and search for and in what order can get somewhat complicated. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-18332006899378148522014-03-10T19:38:00.000+00:002014-03-10T19:38:18.409+00:00Kaleb: Big Brother<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
We've had a week of life with Evelyn now and it is going well. Kaleb gets on well with her which is great. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He can sometimes be over-exuberant without meaning to, but is getting better at interacting with her. Early on we would put her on his lap with one of us holding her underneath, but switched over to putting her on a pillow and putting the pillow on his lap so she is more stable. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Often when he holds his new sister, Kaleb can appear very protective of her. Sometimes when she cries and we try to comfort her on his lap he will say "no" and push our hands away. One of the first times he held her, when we started to move her away he grabber her leg and arm and puller her towards him (this was one reason why we switched to having her on a pillow). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kaleb likes to point out the different parts of Evelyn's face - he can point out his eyes, ears, nose and mouth on his face and likes point at her face too. We keep on telling him to be gentle when he does this so he doesn't poke her too hard. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He is very affectionate with his little sister too. He likes to give her little kisses on the head when she is on his lap or when he is getting ready for bed. He comes over to her Moses basket or pram when she is sleeping in it and points at her saying "bay" (translation: "baby"). </span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-78760363580326312362014-03-06T18:40:00.000+00:002014-03-06T18:40:35.928+00:00Evelyn<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Three days before her due date, Liz gave birth to Evelyn, our daughter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Arriving early did mean that Liz and Evelyn aren't going to share a birthday (she was due on Liz's birthday). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Pre-Birth</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We found out Liz was pregnant later than we did with Kaleb; the first scan we had was around 14 weeks, so when we had the second scan at the usual time along in the pregnancy, it seemed a lot closer to the previous scan. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As we've had Kaleb to look after as well, we have been a lot busier than previously, so it seemed to go by quicker. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When it came to the point where Liz was full term, it was almost a surprise in a sense that I didn't realise how close it was, even though I knew it was coming soon. I think I worried less than around the same time with Kaleb, probably because I had a much better idea of what was coming. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Labour and Birth</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the Thursday evening beforehand, Liz had been complaining about her back hurting, and we had a broken nights sleep because of it. She continued with her Friday as usual and when we were getting ready for bed Friday evening, her back started hurting a lot again. Calling up the hospital, they confirmed that she was in early labour, so we started preparing getting there. My Dad was in London and heading back in order to come and drive to our house, and my Mum also drove up. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When they both got there, Liz was around the point where the contractions were close enough that we should be going in, so we went to the hospital with Dad and left Mum with Kaleb (who had been asleep but seemed to have woken up to see what was going on). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we got there, we initially were put in a room on the delivery unit as the midwife led unit was full at the time. Liz was checked and was on the borderline of being sent home, but as it was awkward for us to get there they let us stay. My Dad had fallen asleep on one of the chairs in the waiting room (it was 2:30 AM) so we had to wake him up to let him know he could leave, and as we would be staying he could go to his house to sleep. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liz had been given some standard painkillers after she had been there for a little while. I had a 10 minute doze in one of the chairs while we were waiting. Liz requested some more help with the pain as it got worse, and was informed that we could move to the midwife led unit as there was now space there. Upon getting there, Liz was allowed to use the Gas and Air so was pleased for both being in the midwife led unit (which is nicer than the delivery ward) and also having Gas and Air to help with the pain. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the midwife led unit, labour progressed a little faster than we expected. Liz had wanted to be in the water a little bit if possible, but there wasn't anyone around to run the birthing pool that early. There was a bath in the room we were in, but we attempted to rest a little and by the time the shifts were changing and we had new midwives Liz was too far into labour to go get the pool ready. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Right at the end the midwives were concerned about the amount of blood they saw after the waters breaking so pressed a special button and about five people suddenly appeared to help out. At 8:28 AM the baby was born and given to Liz, then we all had a cuddle before checking the gender (it's a girl). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Post-Birth</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the birth, all three of us had a bit of a cuddle. I had a cuddle with Evelyn while Liz had a check from the Midwives. Evelyn also had a check and her Vitamin K injection. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As everything was fine we were left in the room for a bit while one of the midwives completed the necessary paperwork for us. We made some calls to family members to tell everyone (even waking my Dad up again in the process). We had discussed some names beforehand and had decided upon Evelyn for a girl. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A little after midday, someone came round with some food for Liz and we were told that we should be able to leave in a couple of hours; I let Dad know so he could get ready to come up to pick us up (after first picking up the car seat from our house). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liz had a shower and got dressed and gave Evelyn a feed while Dad was on his way, and we were home by 6 in the evening, which was a great improvement compared to when Liz had to stay a couple of days after Kaleb was born. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>At Home</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We arrived home and showed Kaleb the new arrival, including a little toy gift that the baby had got for him. My Mum had also had a similar thought and gave Kaleb a soft toy to give to the baby (he dropped it in her car seat), and then she also gave him some flowers to give to Liz (although he also dropped them in her car seat). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Liz was very pleased to not have to stay in hospital for a couple of days, so we have gone out a couple of times already. We had a wander around Luton to get a couple of bits of clothes for both Kaleb and Evelyn (we didn't have much in the way of baby girl clothes), in addition to usual trips out of going to the shops and taking Kaleb to playgroup/nursery. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My Mum has stayed with us for a couple of nights, mainly helping to look after Kaleb which has been a great help so we can focus on getting Evelyn sorted, and Kaleb gets to have extra activities done with his Nan, so he's happy. We'll have Liz's Mum visiting soon too. Liz's birthday was only a couple of days after Evelyn was born, so we have a mixture of cards on display (birthday cards, new baby cards and big brother cards for Kaleb so he doesn't feel left out). We have also had a lot of family come to visit, and I'm sure we will see more soon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kaleb seems to have gotten used to Evelyn quite quickly. He strokes her head (usually) gently and likes to try and hold her on his lap sometimes. We've had to guide him away from trying to poke her in the face and towards being more gentle a couple of times, but on the whole he has been really good with her. He is a very protective big brother, once when she was on his lap and got upset, when we tried to comfort her he said "no" and pushed our hands away. Another time at nursery he was standing next to her (being held by me) and one of his nursery friends came over to have a look at the new baby, but Kaleb pushed him away and said "no" again. When she's sleeping on someone, he has occasionally gone "shhh" to other adults while she is sleeping (this is usually followed by him shouting near her, but it is a good start). </span><br />
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We had the Midwife visit earlier and while it is expected that a new baby will lose some of their birth weight, Evelyn's weight has stayed the same since she was born (3330 g). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has been a big change bringing Evelyn into our lives. We have to get used to handling a small baby again which was a little weird at first but I think I'm getting used to it again. Like Kaleb, she is a content little baby - she feeds well and sleeps a lot, but only really cries when she wants something (usually feeding). I'm looking forward to the time ahead, it is going to be a lot of fun spending time with my growing family. </span><br />
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<br />lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-53805323843777455472014-02-23T22:14:00.001+00:002014-02-23T22:14:25.717+00:00Busy run up to the new baby<p dir="ltr">It's now less than 10 days till the due date and it seems to have come around very quickly. Time has sped along the last two months and we've recently been in a big rush to get everything ready. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Something me and Liz have always tried to do (since completing uni at least) is have a roast dinner on a Sunday. We used to growing up and why I can't remember our exact reasons for starting it outside nostalgia, it has been something we've strived to do, and something we carried on doing when we moved to Flitwick. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Cooking a Sunday roast earlier today came with the realization of how busy we have been recently as the last roast dinner we cooked in the oven was on Christmas day. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Since then we've had a mixture of birthdays and visits and haven't been in to cook, or were busy tidying so did something quicker instead. Not to say we've been without Sunday dinners of course; we've had many cooked for us by a number of relatives :-) </p>
lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-30143916592787124452014-01-29T21:40:00.002+00:002014-01-29T21:40:48.288+00:00January<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
We have had a very busy January this year. Starting off in Lincoln for a week to spend time with Liz's Mum, then the weekend after we got back we had Gemma's birthday, then another round of Birthdays the weekend after that. Last weekend me and Liz were a little under the weather but managed to sort out a couple of bits on our list of things to do before the baby is born while my Dad looked after Kaleb. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Speaking of the new baby, Liz is full term in less than two weeks (i.e. if it was born it would not be premature). That came around a lot sooner than I thought - I think this time round we found out Liz was pregnant later than we did with Kaleb, so there has been less time (slightly) for us to get ready. The baby is also due two months earlier than when Kaleb was born, so I suspect that part of me might still be remembering how far along Kaleb was around this time in the year and not adjusting correctly for the difference in due dates. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The main thing we need to get sorted is the spare room so the new baby will have somewhere to sleep. Luckily we have made a lot of progress inasmuch that we can walk into the room as opposed to just being able to get into the doorway before needing to climb over stuff, as was the case a couple of months ago. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sorting the spare room is a priority, but luckily doesn't need to be completely finished by the time the baby is born as it will have a couple of months in our room in the Moses basket first. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think it is slowly starting to hit me how close it is to there a new baby around, so hopefully I'll be able to focus on getting the house sorted for the arrival. I just need to find some more spare time to do it all in...</span>lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-81649313254882481522014-01-05T15:17:00.000+00:002014-01-05T15:17:57.398+00:002013<div dir="ltr">
2013 was the first full year that we've had with Kaleb, and it has been a fun one. He's grown so much in the last 12 months, at the start of the year he was just about sitting up on his own, and since then he's learnt to stand up, walk on his own and has started communicating through some simple signs and words. </div>
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Earlier in the year we went to Liz's sister's wedding and all had a lot of fun. Kaleb stayed up late, mainly because lots of people were telling him how cute he was, which he loved.</div>
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A couple of months later Kaleb had his very first birthday with all the family there. Kaleb still didn't fully understand presents at this point, but had fun with wrapping paper and new toys to play with. </div>
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Later on in the summer we went to Henley with Chris and Jenny and had a great time on the island. <br />
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We also found out that Liz is pregnant again, and look forward to welcoming another little one to the world in March.<br />
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I've been playing Magic a bit more than the previous year after Kaleb was born, and will hopefully continue this.<br />
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This Christmas we spent just the three of us, making a day of it and then visiting family afterwards. Kaleb seems to have started to understand presents and how to open them which is nice.<br />
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I'm looking forward to a great 2014, with Kaleb getting bigger and growing a lot and a new arrival due soon, I'm going for an exciting year. </div>
lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-88221894025987057692013-12-31T20:00:00.001+00:002013-12-31T20:00:04.844+00:00Christmas 2013<div dir="ltr">
Compared to last year, our Christmas was a lot quieter. It was just me, Liz and Kaleb. In the morning when Kaleb got up we took him downstairs to open up some of his presents. We had planned to have sausages for breakfast but found out they'd been put in the freezer so I took them out so they'd be ready later and we had bacon instead. </div>
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Kaleb opened a couple of presents and talked to Liz's mum on the phone. A bit later we did a hangout with Chris at mums house and Kaleb was greeted with my mum in a Santa hat signing carols. </div>
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While Liz was busy getting dinner ready, I took Kaleb outside into the garden for some fresh air. When the last bit of dinner was in the oven, Liz joined us and we had a wander down the road with Kaleb.<br />
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We had dinner with a bit left over for tea and did another hangout with Chris who was now with dad and his parents. Kaleb opened some more presents before having a nap.<br />
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Me and Liz played the winter version of Carcassonne that she got me for X'mas while Kaleb napped. After his nap we finished opening Kaleb's presents and had some tea (leftover turkey).<br />
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On boxing day, we were picked up by my mum and went to her house where Kaleb opened a box of chocolates because he decided they required moving to the lid instead.<br />
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Once my grandparents arrived we had dinner and pulled some crackers, however Kaleb didn't like the idea of wearing a cracker hat. After dinner we opened some presents with Kaleb before heading over to my aunts house to see some of my dad's family. </div>
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Dad gave us a lift home after a quick bite to eat at his house and we got Kaleb to have a sleep after a long and busy two days. </div>
lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4544457100609036069.post-65692506987145501392013-12-10T20:51:00.001+00:002013-12-10T20:51:26.728+00:00Theros first picks<p dir="ltr">Due to doing well at a recent tournament, I have some Theros packs to look through, so I'll think about what I would choose if I opened it in a draft (as I don't get to draft very often, just doing the thinking about it helps). </p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Pack A</b><br>
This pack has: Fleshmad Steed, Breaching Hippocamp, Fleetfeather Sandals, Aqueous Form, Nylea's Presence, Divine Verdict, Traveler's Amulet, Two-Headed Cerberus, Setessan Griffin, Pharika's Cure, Triton Tactics, Battlewise Hoplite, Shipwreck Singer, Abhorrent Overlord</p>
<p dir="ltr">I think Cure and Verdict come under consideration as removal, as does Triton Tactics which can potentially be more effective given the right circumstances. The Abhorrent Overlord is expensive, but given the right deck can be quite powerful. For me, it's quite close between Verdict and Overlord and my answer would probably depend on what mood I was in :) Verdict is good for consistency, but the overlord seems fun so I'd probably pick that. My last couple of drafts seemed to end up Green and/or black so for me the black card would be better as I'm more used to that play style. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Pack B</b><br>
Battlewise Valor, Feral Invocation, Boulderfall, Loathsome Catoblepas, Griptide, Gods Willing, Omenspeaker, Sedge Scorpion, Prescient Chimera, Timed Ox, Magma Jet, Heliod's Emissary, Horizon Chimera, Celestial Archon</p>
<p dir="ltr">I took cards out of this pack when I found an interesting one. The first was Feral Invocation, which I like as a persistent surprise. Next was Griptide which is good for tempo and better on a target with an aura, but between the two I'd probably pick the Invocation. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Then I set aside Gods Willing, which is good as it will protect against the already small amount of removal in the format. Sedge Scorpion is also one to consider as the death touch makes it close to removal. Magma Jet is also powerful, killing smaller creatures and smoothing the next turn or two. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I think, however, that Heliod's Emissary and Celestial Archon are the two more powerful cards in the pack. The Elk has the benefit of being possible to splash in a deck and the creature side is cheaper, but I think the Celestial Archon is the pick here due to the higher power. The bestow cost is essentially the same, but for a more powerful effect. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Pack C</b><br>
Nessian Asp, Nimbus Naiad, Messengers Speed, March of the Returned, Unknown Shores, Benthic Giant, Returned Phalanx, Silent Artisan, Satyr Hedonist, Traveler's Amulet, Spellheart Chimera, Stoneshock Giant, Insatiable Harpy, Nepotism Charlatan</p>
<p dir="ltr">The 4 I like from this pack are Nessian Asp, Nimbus Naiad, Stoneshock Giant, Insatiable Harpy. The Asp and Giant are quite similar, but I think I prefer the Asp here as the monstrosity is cheaper and larger, and the reach is going to be useful over multiple turns as opposed to the one off effect of the giant. I quite like the Harpy here, as it is possible to increase the power and get a better effect from the lifegain. The Naiad is aggressively costed which I think gives it the edge over the harpy, but for this pack I think the asp is the best choice here. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Pack D</b><br>
Boon of Erebos, Deathbellow Raider, Breaching Hippocamp, Bronze Sable, Nessian Courser, Fleshmad Steed, Wavecrash Triton, Wild Celebrants, Opaline Unicorn, Evangel of Heliod, Witches Eye, Centaur Battlemaster, Chained to the Rocks, foil Ordeal of Erebos </p>
<p dir="ltr">I have seem Evangel of Heloid make a lot of tokens so I know it can be powerful. Wavecrash Triton looks good if if can be repeated, but I think Centaur Battlemaster is the most powerful here, the bonus it gets even if targeted once is impressive. <br>
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lhsihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08239945700036069055noreply@blogger.com0