Warriors Duel

[Another little drablet with the witch and the snakescale warrior]

Two warriors face in a field, one a paladin held by holy order to kill all users of magic not allied with the church. The other the snake scale warrior who had been making his way acting as a companion for the witch.

It was a duel, and one both knew the rules to and when the arrow was heard coming his way he knew also that this was no fair game of skill. It had been enough for the holy knight to charge with his two-handed sword charging and dropping the blade vertical along the helmet to have what he felt would be hard metal be gone. Fog had come in unnaturally throwing off distances before a light had shone over the pair causing the holy warrior to jump back before looking to see the witch who had come out of her hut, a round shield big enough to take care of unwanted arrows flying her way set in the moat of the field.

The look in her eyes had said it, she knew there was magic played and that had been why she had been pulled out of the house by the action and had to show there was fairness in the act now causing the church’s forces to work in other ways now.

Scanning the situation their tactics in battle had been something he had known very well, but the sudden impatience and lack of honor had been something he was unsure of. What had caused he did not know but it was not something he had understood them to do before. It was a question to be asked later as an arrow came whistling by his helmet aimed at the witch before it was set floating in front of her completely harmless before turned and sent back along the same route through the fog and light catching someone with a muffled gurk before the sound of body met moat and grass.

It had been a sound both of the armored warriors heard and when understanding there was no more back up the paladin had become more defensive trying to create openings tactically instead of by tricks. However, the snake scale knight had already lost patience for those who used honor as a currency and shifted his hand to a handle behind the sword who when pulled had glowed in a viridian and moss palette before a visage of a snake had been uncoiled from the handle to catch the blade and the attacker in its bind. Magical weapons not held by the church were illegal but there was nothing extra they could do he figured and decided to show something.

“You, [******]”

A spell in the tongue of the high holy, although as he used his other hand to block it the eyes in the helmet of his opponent almost shot through the blessed steel and gold.

[******]. {******}..[**********!!!!]

Three separate calls to power and three separate counters, each had been a piece of evidence that had even the witch’s eyes on the snake whip holder. Magic was a finicky thing but to counter something there had to be something there.

There had to be a power in the same school of magic that the spell was. She had believed in nature and the green and it had been something that had given her great wisdom and joy in life. Ways to counter the effects were a way to work btu that would not throw the spell aside as she had seen. Dark magic would not do that and neither could her magic that worked with the green and creatures.

Over the time he had stayed with her he had slept in the barn, turning it into a small forge and being quite useful at repairing what he had and what she needed. Nothing major but enough to understand he was no sell sword.

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Magic and Life Without It

Someone got mad once because I explained cooking as the last school of magic. For this we are going to pull the merriam webster definition.

“The use of means (such as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces.”

Now there is nothing more natural then grown food, whether animal or vegetable it is the natural force of the planet we can use to keep ourselves going.

For the sake of clarity supernatural is defined as “departing from what is usual or normal especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature”

Now this is a pork roulade by the freshman cook @ https://www.thefreshmancook.com/pork-roulade for those who are wondering, go check them out.

Can anyone tell me how this is a natural meal?

It is not. Nature does not come like this, we work with the materials to make our emotions, our senses, and our ideas come to life in away that is wholly without speaking but still a language all of its own. There are dishes that do something with us that scientifically we cannot explain. When your lover makes your favorite cookie after a long day of work. When your mother made you a dish after you cried from not making a sports team. The argument could be made that memory and all of that is neuroscience but even they do not understand to what degree it is or it isn’t.

Magic is something that can be holy or unholy, self-reflective or a pulse to the people around you, it can be something built out of the worst of emotions and be great, and be made from joy and be horrible for others. All it is, is a crack in the door that you do not understand the world as completely as you think. That’s it.

It took me years to believe in magic again after a lot of painful times because when you go through a lot of pain sometimes magic is the farthest thing you can believe in. It doesn’t feel like it can help you, like it can heft your weight of the mud of the situation or bandage wounds that have come from working.

Magic allows you to think you may be able, if the cards fall your way and the wind blows just right you can do things that maybe you wouldn’t be able to do as well before. Walking back to my apartment it dawned upon me that for all the people willing to shout down anyone doing well not one of them could see themselves doing the same successes they saw in others. It made me wonder why, and why they couldn’t just believe a little bit. Anywho.

Just a Thought.

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Writing Time (nano book) – Rough Draft

Paul was laughing like he was out of it to begin with while Jake had told me if he see’s one more email about someone’s special little angel he is going to have an aneurysm. What we had gotten from the computers was a majority of useless emails about different buildings meetings, inspections, who is screwing who, and enough details to make sure I will never send anything personal on a work email again.

Seriously, who could think that sending half dirty messages to their coworkers for a tryst would be a good idea. From their faces after I had asked the answer seemed to be that a lot of people thought it was a grand old idea that only made Jake rub his temples asking when people would be the species they should before walking in to the isles to check where everything stood. Being set on their path for the night the little bots were doing there thing leaving what was left to be pored over by the three of us as we began to understand a step by step process of how some people should not work in an office building. E-mails about kids, sex lives, dinner dates, and whatever else you readers could think up polluted what we grabbed making what information we could glean something of an oasis in a landfill. Three of us on what was left made it easier to burn through them with little fanfare except for a great more understanding how people could be sympathetic to the villains in the comics.

After all of that was done my voice was full of salt and vinegar wondering. Jake had gotten his mood up a little bit more when there was some serious meetings from the higher ups flying in to inspect how everything was going.

“You ever think we should just stop this company for what it is doing to their workers. Cripes, a little perspective does matters on one’s mood just try to work here with all this going on. Would you like to work with us, No, that’s a fate worse then death it’s a miracle how these people seriously do not go bonkers from all of this.”

We had to laugh at all of it because just the way his voice first was normal before dropping to sound like an overweight Colonel Sanders before coming back up with the care of a man truly wondering what was going on had all of us nearly on the floor. It summed up how were feeling watching all the little pieces of their lives while our own problems hung over us. The mail was already opened while the emails soon were replaced with the packages of paperwork fell from the top of the cut envelopes sitting there like a beast ready to drain any fun from the moment.

Advertising some service or item there seemed to be more information that Jake found interesting so has soon as something looked or at least when he craned his long form over my shoulder from his seat he would just get the mail handed over. Claiming some from Paul’s pile it was clear he was on to something that neither one of us wanted to derail him from having the majority of the pile he seemed to be on a train of thought that would at least excuse Paul and myself while we made sure everything was going as it should be with the little bots. It was something to do that helped us talk about what other things they had found when it came to possibilities from what the info could be used for.

From the deli we could barely get to the stove without me running my elbow in to a stack of woks that seemed dirty from the oil in the bottom. It looked like a teaspoon had been left in them when it was explained how with woks sometimes that is done to keep the seasoning on them.

“With some pans, and iron skillets are included they will actually oil it lightly right after cleaning it by hand to keep the seasoning on it. Seasoning means deeper flavor when you use it again. While these guys also look to be a touch lazy about how they do it.”

Draining the excess it was clear that someone in the wok area couldn’t do a thing. It may have been a day where someone else was needed to work the station. Coming from day shift he was surprised to know that sometimes people were just put in to position to work the hours before the proper person came back the next day. Talking up a storm he had wanted to make a stir fry and some fried rice with the left overs in the walk in. How he would get in and out of there without a key was a question I didn’t want to ask. It was clear that if anyone noticed, then no one cared about it because while on the day shift nothing was said about these woks being used or supplies being missing.

Jake must have smelled the food coming his way as we made our way to the break room he had come slightly disheveled. His hair was flipped back showing both eyes in a look of spirited fire that seemed to spell something dismal for Paul as he met that look with a back step.

“No, no, no,no,no, no. I am not going back to do anything with any idea you have floating between your ears right now. That is the look of trouble, that is the look, look we have fried rice with ham, and a nice stir fry, don’t you want to eat first before you get us all in to trouble. After the past few nights we could use a break.”

“Walker will be here tomorrow. I already called him and we have something we need to go over then.”

Our eyes widened at the fact that the man on vacation would be here tomorrow while he would still be off the clock with something that had to be communicated with us. Gazing at how the fried rice looked he soon pulled the container still steaming from my hands before heading off to the break room. The stir fry would be good, but that rice was mine too.

“Seriously that look,is either meaning we have something great or we are all com-plete-ly screwed and he has flipped his lid.”

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NaNoWriMo – 2015 Excerpt

“Now I get to finally cross this off my bucket list. I finally feel like Q from James Bond.”

Tossing me a small black cell phone looking thing the place where the screen was only had two lights.

“Combination surveillance sensor and scrambler. When the light goes green there is surveillance equipment nearby it measures by the minute changes in sound and light bouncing back and forth in the environment. All I can say is just trust the equipment it will do the job and you will only be seen as a light spot on the lens. Whatever you say will be heard though.”

Clipping it on to the belt a flood of fear went over me. If I was going to be shot there seemed to be very little that would stop me. Second thoughts began to make me question everything. Could I actually go and do this? Sitting down to the table our first mission was a small outpost whose job was to monitor leads in the surrounding area. We were to go in and see what information they had before taking it and deleting the original files. There was no security that had lethal fire arms, but they did have tasers. It was just a small building that looked like every other half wannabe business office built by people to make money with little application for anything else.

We had everything ready all that was needed was how to get there. Turning back around the wind was blowing in my face as I almost walked in to a tree. Spinning around to see our position we were in a thicket of trees marked on the map Paul held. Even he was surprised to see the building behind him it all amounted to a nod of the head though Jake was smiling ear to ear like a man who had everything to say.

“As you can see I got the teleporter to work a little smoother. I thought it would be nice to polish some inventions off to make everything a little easier.”

He was beaming, surprisingly so before Paul began to make his way up to chain link fence shaking his head with what sounded a laugh. The parking lot was empty from where I had seen with few lights signaling any people still in the office the winds in the area still had a bit of the summer heat. My job was to be another set of eyes while the heavier parts of the mission put on the shoulders. Beginning to climb the fence I could see both were feeling some of the jitters as we all stood watching the building well out of sight of any of the lamp posts. Leaning down Paul briefed us on some of the details. There was still a half dozen people over the 3,000 square feet and we need to get in to the server room from there Jake will do his thing. We had to do this using everything we had including small bags of powder that lowered someone’s metabolism to the point almost making them fall asleep. It would not last longer then a half hour as well as each of us had only had two packets each and we had to make sure we did not get any in to our own faces. Another small bottle was given to Paul with a rag.

“What’s that? then the liquid sleeping essence?”

“Nope, chloroform, just in case the powder doesn’t work. I trust Jake but I like having a back up strategy.”

Seeing him walk across to the back door Jake and myself hung back.

Wondering why he just didn’t use his magic Jake had answer as soon as asked while we sat in the shadows.

“Magic spells pull a lot of energy from him. Some of his strongest ones actually take so much energy he loses pounds of fat because of all the calories converted. It’s not like he can do it all the time.”

Nodding along I watched him fumble with the small hooks taking more then ten minutes before picking the door open. Watching it swing open we soon scampered across the back lot making sure to stay out of the light. Walking over the threshold the door was soon closed leaving everyone to sit in the darkness for a moment the weight of the moment soon coming over us before Paul made his way forward. From the crack the door he was soon out in to the darkened halls the sound of various people still moving around seemingly booming my ears as Jake motioned me to follow him. Taking the right I was stopped looking at my waist the red light soon blinking green. Stretching around the corner the small turning camera was spotted checking both sides of the hall on a seemingly mechanical circuit. Jetting forward Jake could barely see where I ran to. From under the camera though the wire was seen feeding back in to the wall. Turning around it was barely with in reach hopping of the wall. Feeling the wire pull from the camera left the red light without power turning it off as Jake came around seemingly aware of my new position.

Waving him over one of the security guards had seen me and in a knee jerk reaction I ran back hearing him give chance to me for a couple seconds. I could hear him talking in to his walkie talkie saying how he was investigating something. Running around the corner I heard nothing else except for my own hurried steps before hearing nothing else. Making my way back to the entry door it was all seemingly fine as soon no one was chasing me. Wondering about the guy I had left behind he was seen with a small empty baggy between his fingers shaking it to show he had used it on his seat. Currently the guard was soon out.

We had thirty minutes.

“It’s ok I got him with the sleeping powder as soon as he turned the corner.” The earpiece sounded.

“ Paul, Trina got jittery and we knocked out a camera. They know we are here. We need to move fast.”

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Magic The Gathering – Top 5 Blocks

Magic the Gathering is a game that has been around for more then twenty years. If you believe Wikipedia at this point it has just about twenty-three years being a hobby for people. Each set of cards can be broken down between core and expansion sets. Core sets are just that adding to a core of items that can still change depending to the kind of event. Expansion sets are additional sets made that would often communicate a piece of a story including the creation of characters, places, and the events that would give a little more life then what would be in the core set. A few expansions over the span of a year would make a block and that would be the end of the story there for now. The next set of the next block would start another story and we would go on. Each set would have different mechanics introduced and different characters or stories making a different experience from set to set. This can be harder for some players to jump in all of a sudden depending on the sets mechanics, and how they would interact in the overall game.

Here are my five top expansion blocks. These are my opinion because there is not a set of good against evil and I will try to at least explain them in some form or fashion.

Alara – Introducing groups that are three colors the color combinations are set for the most part but still allow a fair amount of choices for players to work on. The story on this one was that the plane of Alara was broken in to five shards with each shard only having access to three forms of mana which would then dictate the evolution of that area. Mana is something that is particular to each kind of basic lands with five kinds of lands representing a color as well as a specific form of it. Three colors are harder things for beginners, but I found the cards entertaining on the prospect that you could go with a two color or three color deck with plenty of possibilities. Single cards could add a lot more choices in to a deck’s play style. This was released from mid 2008 to mid 2009.

Return to Ravnica – This is the second set dealing with Ravnica and it dealt with the evolution in the guilds that started in the previous sets and with that there were a lot of cards that work with the dual color combinations. Each combination of colors is still represented with a group and a play style that was was evolved from the previous Ravnica set adding several mechanics to the cards in addition to the ten from the previous set. Seeing how the groups had evolved over the years from the previous set added another shot to the arm with dual color deck possibilities. Mid 2012 to mid 2013 is when this set was released making it fairly recent addition. The story between the Ravnica revolves around a maze that must make it’s way through the sections of each of the groups, and how each group will try to help their own runner or spoil the efforts of others.

Ravnica – This was the set that gave dual color combinations for each of the ten possible combinations of colors including different play styles, mechanics, and history for each one. While the mythology is not pulled from a different mythology it has a lot of things that make this a fun set to play. Adding to it where creatures with four kinds of mana needed. The nephilim are hard to summon, but with a little skill they can turn a game just with one showing up on your side of the field. This would have to be the best set for just having fun with a group of people simply because with the variety of styles in these sets one can truly make a deck for each guild and each person can play it differently. This came from 2005 to 2006 right after my favorite block.

Theros Block – Built with an eye on the pantheon of gods found in Greek myth it created a structure of gods and mortals dueling to see who will be able to go on with the various champions. Being a fan of mythology made this one get off on the right foot already. The art is some of the best and introducing mechanics like the enchantment creatures as well as the bestow mechanic turning a creature in to a power up first. It was some of the most entertaining drafts while playing in this block. Draft events were ones where you had to make the deck with random packs of cards along with basic lands. This was released mid 2013 to mid 2014.

Kamigawa Block – Comprising of three different sets with a story line of the spirits, and minor gods against the humans that lived on the two portions of the same plane. Many of the cards pull some visual and ideas from the mythology of Japan. Spirits are one of the main creature types on this block, and for many years this was the block that people knew me for. Going so far for some stores to not allow Kamigawa themed decks in events because people are not happy they were losing. All five colors seemed to be balanced enough where you can build a deck that can be competitive no matter how you cut it. Many times if you ran spirits you had all the tools to run an engine of your choice helped by the Bakus, Myojins, Kirins and more. Coming out from late 2004 to mid 2005 some of my best memories were made with cards built from this era. Multiple choices, the ins and outs of a plane at war, and the entire feel of the set makes it my favorite. It is also a set where I think people can learn quicker then the some of the other sets which is also how I came in to magic as more of a full time hobby.

There are close to two dozen different blocks at this time of writing not including the expansion sets released before the block format was introduced. My bottom five would be pretty easy and maybe another day I will write about it, but reallly the sets define the players and my bottom five show that more then the top.

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Last thoughts before Main Event

So with the Portland pro tour past and the main event of the grand prix coming through. The final two of the pro tour were actually first time pro tour players and it has been so long for my friend and I that we hope to do well.

In any case it will be fun, and in the grand scheme of things that is what matters.
A part of me is hoping and worried we will do well and before I go into promo mode which is my little version of talking to think I am the best. Everyone has that mode to psych themselves up or talk to an opponent, but I just name mine promo mode.

Anyway, before I go off saying how I may or may not win it is really all about the game. Having fun with people of many different styles from other walks of life before just nerding out. Soon we will be pushing into advertising and my other projects will be getting some more time including my writing and cooking.

So far the year has been getting fairly good at least in getting stuff done. Hopefully after this weekend I will have another good story to share with all of you. Good luck in your travels.

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Blackberries and classes

I am taking some classes on a place called ALISON.com keeping everything else going is rough, but good for the mind. Right now working on a diploma in children’s studies.

Earlier today I had a bit of a family time picking blackberries with my mother. A couple places we know have berry bushes that are not sprayed down with chemicals. All natural, all organic and all free blackberries. Minus the pain of pulling some thorns out of various pieces of skin. Nothing worse then a splinter pain wise. With my new harvest freezing before I find something to do with them, and most likely the concoction will be on here.

Training continues on the program although nothing else has been finished and soon the grand prix will be coming to Portland. Before that though is the pro tour event just a couple days beforehand and if all goes well the group of us here should have someone going to do some recon on possible opponents.

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Back to work

So after the tearjerker we got a whole new setup for the channel which will be a bit challenging and we will be executing a set of aggressive advertising plans as well. My roommate and I after getting all the main videos redone to raise the quality level up we are going to advertise it for all we are worth. After the advertising plans we will wait for three months.

After that we are going to have a meeting and see how hard we want to push this channel over all of out other projects. Since everyone is getting much more comfortable with their programs as well as their responsibilities.

Magic training has involved more with what may come up and hoping for a finish worthy enough for at least a good payday. Cooking wise I have nothing new to report as it seems someone as cast a disappearing spell on my cookbook.

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Update

Hello everyone got plenty of stuff done recently.

Entered into my first major tourney in almost a decade and at the platinum level tcgplayer event held in Tigard I came out 35th which is not bad when they award to 32nd position. It was a sealed draft. Broken got a 36th ranking so we did well for coming back to high level tournaments.

We got some videos done and coming soon we will have more advanced subjects such as how to build decks to different events. Breakdowns of popular deck themes such as goblins, artifacts, elves, and even slivers will soon be put on the channel.

Right now I am learning about the litany of groups on facebook that may be interested in some of the things I am doing. Facebook is large enough that if you are writing something you can join some groups of like minded people that can help you. These groups are also full of people you can build relationships with.

Chicken a la kiev has been made for everyone and that will be coming soon.on here

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Draft training

So I apologize for the blank post. I had a full post done and set after publishing it had turned out blank. The past week i have been training for a tournament on the 21st (tcgplayer.com) sponsored the event and I hope I do well.

Stock has been made and right now just cleaning up the pictures for it. Next will be chopped clams on toast from the old new york times cookbook.

For the youtube channel we are working on some deals where card shops will be proactively advertising us as a resource and I could not be more thrilled. Plenty of things or beginning to roll and I hope you people are enjoying at least that much success in your plans

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