Back to Magic

I've stopped playing sf4 competitively, and am now back to playing magic competitively. I was on the fence about whether I should play again, especially since Malaysia isn't that great to play it... the players here generally keep to themselves and gravitate in their own cliques. Still, it's nice to be playing the game again. Casual drafters in my group have ditched magic for Diablo 3 so I suppose there's no where else for me to play limited magic except in shops, and the odd limited GPT and PTQ events.

On that note, for my first outing back into competitive magic, I did quite well for myself; I got 1st place at Grand Prix Trial Shanghai last Sat!Though I played horribly, somehow I managed to win out to get 3 byes in the Shanghai GP, will be going there on July 28 - 29 with Janice. Maybe I can top 4 and get on the gravy train? Who knows...

Diablo 3 is the new in thing for games. I'm already getting a bit bored with it, nothing but grinding and grinding for new equipment. The difficulty is alright but it feels a bit cheap when you just get one shot-ed by some jumping leaper or corrupted angel... that sucks when you're playing a low life wizard. Ah well, we'll see how long it lasts. I'm already thinking of going back to magic online to practise Avacyn Restored drafts but GP Shanghai is M13....

Any who, for real life stuff. Janice and I will be going to Redang soon with a bunch of my friends for a few days of sun-fun. Should be nice and relaxing. Shanghai is after that, then maybe I'll be heading to UK or Australia for a few days. Macau and HK (maybe) will be at the end of the year. Lots of places to go, looks like busy times this year. One of my best friend's weddings is going to be held early next year too; looking forward to that.

That's all for now, see if I can win another GPT / PTQ or something.

Wow that's long

OK didn't realise it has been like, 5 months since I last posted here. Reading my previous post, I was on the cusp of marriage and obviously by now, I am well into it. So the question I often get is; how is married life like? This comes especially from (a) friends who are still bachelors (meaning not married) and (b) people who have been married a pretty long time. I get the feeling group (a) are curious about what being married is like and group (b) are leading up to handing out some 'advice' and 'experiences' they or they're peers had.

Well honestly, it really isn't very different from our previous 7 years together. Apart from the fact that we live in the same house now and that we have to do housework and laundry and stuff. We pretty much do the same things (go on dates, watch movies, etc.) One of the big changes if any is the fact that we need to make decisions as a family, as opposed to as individuals. That takes some getting used to, especially since I'm one who kinda just does his own thing when and where ever he wants. Oh, and going out to meet up with friends is also taxing, even if she doesn't mean to I always feel guilty about it to the point I might not even enjoy my evening. That can be sucky but it's manageable.

What's new on the gaming front? Well, 1st; I've retired from competitive fighting games i.e. Street Fighter. Too much commitment to stay competitive, effort is not worth the reward yada yada. I've replaced that hole by going back to casual Magic drafts with some old (and some new) friends. It costs almost nothing (except time) and gets me back into Magic I suppose (no one actually quits Magic; they all eventually go back). I'm even feeling like going competitive again; I used to be a pretty decent Limited player back in UK and it was pretty exciting, those times. Though the scene in KL is pretty non-existent for Limited so I'm not sure how that will turn out.