Undercooked Onions

I made chili tonight. It did not turn out as well as it normally does. I guess that's what I get for not having made it in so long. At least it wasn't inedible and I've got lunch for most the week.

The problem with chili (as well as a few other dishes) is that it's great when I'm in the mood for it. But it doesn't take more than a couple days of eating it before the mood has left and then it becomes a chore to eat. And I've yet to find a way of making it than produces only a couple days worth. 

The most obvious solution is freezing what I don't want, but then I run into the problem of not having lunches for the week. Which has the obvious solution of making a couple different dishes on Sunday night and I can freeze some and alternate the others to not get bored with the food so fast. But I just don't like cooking that much. I'm kind of jealous of those that do. Though to be fair, those that do enjoy it tend to be cooking for more than one. 

I know, I'm complaining about a first world problem. It's just been a frustrating day. A lot of stupid little shit to inconvenience my day (like Firefox crashing right when I tried to submit a message board post for the last bit of homework I needed to do). I thought today would be a lot more relaxing than it turned out to be and now I'm trying to get things ready for work over the next 11 days (I'm working next weekend, so it's going to be 11 days until my next day off) and for all I've gotten done, I feel like there's still a bunch more to do. 

At least the Bills won.

Song of the Day 

If only I could take up hibernation

Sometime ago, I decided I'm going to leave my alarm set on weekends, even though I absolutely hate the sound of the thing and in my dream perfect life, I never have to wake up to an alarm clock. I think I was thinking that maybe by doing that, I might someday turn into one of those normal adults that gets up at the same time every day, work day or not, and does productive things. There has yet to be a non-work day I haven't just turned the alarm off and gone back to sleep. Usually that sleep lasts about a whole our or so. Maybe two hours if I was up particularly late the night before. 

Today I went back to sleep for four hours. Which is how I know I've been a lot more tired lately than normal. Suffice to say, oversleeping like that, I did not make it out to another prerelease event for Magic. Which is kind of a bummer as I did want to try and give it another go, but oh well. I took care of what needed to be taken care of, which was homework and grocery shopping. 

Anyways, I've been feeling off lately. Or in a funk as some might say. And unlike a lot of other times I've felt in a funk, I know why this time. Or at least I know most the why, there's always more than one reason for these kinds of things and I think often no matter how much we do know, there's always a little more that we don't know. 

I normally love fall. It's a great time for introspection and wearing your favorite hoodie more than any other clothing item you own. The excitement of the holiday season can be sensed, but its additional stress still seems far away. Warm drinks hit just right and don't get cold too soon. And it's when nature shows most the most color, something I really, really love about the season.

But I don't love this fall. I don't think I loved last fall either, but I think I was more prepared for not loving fall last year. My breakup still felt fresh at that point and I knew it was time I'd need alone. (I also had hope that my next relationship wouldn't be too far away, which is a story for another time (maybe)).

Truth be told, I've been missing my ex lately. Not in a "I wish we never broke up/I hope we get back together" kind of way, just more of a miss having someone in my life to be excited about things with, like the changing of seasons. When fall came here, we'd decorate the house together and make lots of plans for the winter. Of course most the plans were wishful thinking and would never come to fruition (which was one of the things that bothered me in the relationship), but it was fun to make them nonetheless. 

When I saw the first couple yellow leaves, I told myself I was gonna be excited for the season no matter how hard it was - I'd fake it til I made it. Now most the leaves are yellow and quite a few have fallen and I just don't have faking it in me. Instead now I just want to be a recluse that can sleep away fall and winter and the dirty part of early spring too. 

Song of the Day 

Reality Fracture Prerelease after action report

TL;DR - I went 1-1-0 and quit early so I could get food before Eye Tooth closed. 

As mentioned yesterday, I made the mistake of scheduling a Dr appointment this morning. (The good news on that front is that the issue shouldn't require surgery or anything like that). I tried to nap later in the afternoon so I wouldn't be so tired at the prerelease, but I think I dozed off for all of ten minutes and that did more harm than good. Really, what I should've done is gone out and got some food, but I'm sure if I'd done that I'd just wish I had slept instead. C'est la vie. 

At the prerelease I was in a mixed mood. I was hungry and tired, but after opening some packs earlier in the day, I was a bit more excited for this set than I'd previously been feeling. Then I opened my prerelease kit. There was very little synergy for the supported archetypes. I ended up building a green/white deck with a splash of red. I was sure it would do horrible.

To my surprise, it did quite well in round one. Much better than I was thinking it would do. But then I got obliterated in round two. To a red/black deck that splashed some white. Red and black, the colors I already called out that would dominate sealed for this set. So losing round two as I did, and being as hungry as I was, I called the quits there. 

(Honestly, it's kind of hard for me to feel excited to continue you on after a round loss since none of the game stores around here offer prize support beyond first and second place, maybe third place. But there's no getting to those places when you lose in the first few rounds). 

So after getting food, I came home and checked the full list of cards that comprise this set and my suspicions were confirmed - the designers for this set gave black and red plenty of removal tools, but green and white are nearly completely missing the protection spells they normally get. But I'll rant about that later.

In game one of round two, I made a couple misplays that I think cost me the game, or at least a good chance at winning the game. Game two I didn't have a chance because my opponent had all the removal he could need and I just couldn't get shit going. 

Oh well, wasn't my best night playing Magic. Could've been worse. 

I also saw that the new season of the Great British Bake Off has started. I haven't decided how I feel about the judge taking Prue's place, but I'm still happy to have new GBBO to watch over the next couple months. Who knows, maybe this season will be the one to inspire me enough to actually do some backing of my own.

Song of the Day 

Someday I'll be better at planning ahead

On most weeknights, I get off work at 11 pm. I usually don't get to bed until around 130 am though. Two days a week, I have to be at class at 1130 am. The other three days, I have to be at work by 230 pm, though I'm usually there a little earlier. So on most nights, I'm usually able to get 6-7 hours of sleep. I could probably get more a lot of times, but it takes me FOREVER to get ready in the morning. Mostly due to my first hour of being up I'm not really awake and I'm moving like a zombie, and that's without being hungover (it was way worse in my drinking days). I also enjoy not feeling rushed in the morning, even if that means feeling a little more tired (and that tiredness usually goes away after that zombie hour).

On my days off, I like to sleep in a little more. I know the medical community recommends keeping the same schedule, but they also recommend lots of other things I like to ignore.

Anyways, the point to saying all that is because I took tomorrow off. Mostly so I could go play in the pre-release for the new Magic set. But I also made a mistake - I scheduled a Dr appointment at 10 am. Meaning I have to get up much earlier than I would like, especially for it being a day off. 

When the Dr office called, they said they had a 1 pm and 10 am available. And for some reason, my brain thought 1 pm would be too late for me to have enough time to get ready for the Magic pre-release. That starts at 6 pm. 

I'm also questioning if I needed to schedule it at all. The appointment is for some pain in my shoulder looks to be from a benign issue that should fix itself over time. But because I'm a little bit of a hypochondriac, I wanted to be sure and see a specialist. Also, I want to be sure I can return to BJJ with this issue. That doesn't mean I will, I just want to know that I can.

It's also too late now to reschedule unless I want to incur a no-show fee. And I just don't have that kind of money to throw around right now. 

So instead of sleeping in tomorrow, I will be waking up early. Hopefully being extra tired brings me luck for the pre-release (which I've never heard of being the case, but there's got to be a first at some point).

Song of the Day 

Snapcaster back to reality

I know that's not a great pic of the northern lights, but it was taken in the heart of Anchorage (where the northern lights are often hard to see due to light pollution) in September. So I like it and I'm keeping it.

Anyways...

There's a new Magic set coming out this weekend, Reality Fracture. A lot of people are super hyped for it. It's back in the Magic universe and it'll be a full size set. I'd say there's good reason to by hyped. Yet I am not. I was for a good while, but as previews for the set have been coming out, that hype has left me.

For starters, the story is OK at best, but I've already talked about that. The thing more taking the wind out of my sails for this set is that the set design itself seems uninspired to me. They're using a lot of call backs to old cards that were popular, almost to the point it feels like too much for me. 

They're also going to be doing this thing where they're pairing cards together (called "echoed pairs") in such a way that every pack you open will have an echoed pair in it. Considering most those echoed pairs, by a large number, are at uncommon rarity, I feel like people are going to be pulling a whole lot of the same echoed pairs over and over. It's honestly lazy and Wizards of the Coast's part and a pathetic marketing gimmick that a lot of people seem to think sounds great. (Probably because Magic fanboys are absolutely insufferable idiots, but that's a post for another time). 

Also, after watching some gameplay video, the set feels like it has some major power creep in it, particularly at lower rarity levels. I know power creep is inevitable, especially from a design team that is obviously running out of ideas and a company (Hasbro) that can't figure out how to turn a profit from any other product they make, so they keep pushing Magic in a way that would make Lee Iacocca proud. I will note, I often overestimate the power level of a lot of sets and it turns out not as bad as I thought it would be. But I'm going to be very surprised if we don't see a few of these cards become instant power houses in the pauper format.

It also looks like the limited environment is going to be removal heavy for red and black (again) with not much protection afforded or the other colors. We just went through a set (The Hobbit) where players figured out the limited environment in a matter of days and made draft an almost pointless endeavor for the set. Again, I may be wrong, this is definitely a time will tell kind of thing. But the little bit of gameplay I've already watched has me worried this will be another set I skip going to any draft nights for.

All that said, I'm still planning to go to at least one pre-release event this weekend, possibly even two depending on how much homework I can get done before the weekend. There's a certain excitement at pre-release events that's hard to beat, even when I'm not excited for the new set.

Song of the Day
 

Beards for all! Man, woman, and child too!

A coworker asked me tonight if I could make any one change across the military, what would it be. My answer, at first, as allowing beards for all men. But I realized that really isn't far enough. The dress and appearance standards used by the modern US military are antiquated and quite honestly, just embarrassing on the world stage. 

I would make a complete overhaul of the current dress and appearance styles. No more regulating hair length for men or women. Or hair color. Same for nail polish. And while I wouldn't go so far as to allow unlimited piercings, but I'd certainly allow more than what there currently is, for both sexes.

I think pretty much, I'd keep the current regulations for how the uniform must be worn, but beyond that, it would become much more relaxed.

Why? Because anyone willing to serve a nation that claims to be the world's beacon of freedom should be given a bit more of that freedom. So much as your hair, piercings, etc aren't causing a safety issue at work and you're not getting offensive words/symbols tattooed on your face, than who cares what you're choosing to do with your body? 

I know it's not so simple as just saying this is the way it should be and then it happens (despite what some "leaders" seem to think), but I know it can be worked out. I know this because NEARLY EVERY OTHER MILITARY IN THE WORLD IS ALREADY MAKING IT HAPPEN! It's absolutely mind boggling to me that our military leaders refuse to get on board with something most the military wants or is apathetic about and those against it have had their arguments disproven or just dismissed for being nonsensical. 

I used to believe there was a decent chance I'd see beards allowed in the military, but that was before Trump 2.0; instead we've gone backwards. But even when I'm out of the military, I will fight for our service members to be able to have more personal expression in their appearance. I think for most of them, they'd actually be better soldiers/sailors/airmen/marines if they could present themselves in a way that they felt better represents them. I know I would.  

Song of the Day 

Should've called in sick

Today was a training day at work. Which for me and my office, meant we didn't have much of anything to do. Normally, when I know there's a training day coming up, I call in sick. But because I'm feeling especially masochistic lately, I decided to go in to work. 

It was so slow we watched a movie. Not Another Teen Movie to be exact. And I gotta say, that movie holds up, at least for a xennial like me. 

Anyways, Monday through Thursday, there's an evening meeting I'm usually expected to go to. And any time I call in sick and say someone else has to cover for me, I get a bunch of shit about it from my active duty counterparts. Which, to a degree, I get - someone not expecting to stay late suddenly has to stay a little late. But also, to be fair, they're all SNCOs and can easily take the time off somewhere else. Still, I hate hearing the whining, even when it's in jest (because most jest has some truth to it), so even though I really didn't want to be at work today, I went in.

And because of the training day, the evening meeting was cancelled. 

Funny enough, I had a feeling that would happen. I should've trusted my instinct, but I feel like when I often do that, things turn out the opposite for me. 

I'm just so tired of work these days and even though I just had two weeks off not that long ago, a spontaneous day off really could've helped my mood. I could've gotten a god amount of school reading done in the comfort of my home and then played some video games. Or, I could've just spent the whole time playing video games! 

Regardless, the point is that earlier today I had an opportunity to give myself some dedicated me-time. And I blew it. On the plus side, I already put in for Friday off, but that's for social me-time and while I look forward to it, before too long I'm gonna need to find me a work day to play hooky and enjoy doing whatever the hell I want. (And let's be honest, there's a certain element of playing hooky that makes that alone time better than other planned alone time). 

 Song of the Day