The T-Block

I probably play more games than most people, and I also play a fair amount of Tetris. While I'm no Tetris god ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kqKOlcaZuI ), I do fairly well. Today while I was playing I started to realize something about Tetris that I felt could be generalized to everyday life. No, it has nothing to do with how it is protective for PTSD it's more of a metaphor.

What is your favorite Tetris piece?... The Line block right?
It can't ever hurt you and it is needed for the "best move" in the game scoring four lines at once.

I used to think be like you. I was always praying for a line block to save me from the mounting hoard of mistakes piling up. Today I realized there is a better block. The T-block the T-block is the often overlooked hard working among us. It carries its weight and some extra in the game. It is used for the highest scoring line clear in modern Tetris the T-spin. I know it sounds heretical, but hear me out. The T-block allows you to selectively complete rows without re-covering holes in lower layers making is easier to mount a comeback, It is also an easy shape to get rid of, and it doesn't lead you to the trap of having a 3 deep hole praying for another line block if you lose focus. It is almost never a bad block, but it doesn't have the same flashy draw of the line block which is vastly overrated.

While it might be a little bit of a stretch the line block reminds me of all the people and things that I regularly take for granted. So remember next time you sit down for a relaxing game of Tetris don't forget about the T-block while you're begging for a line block to save you.

I don't think this makes as much sense as it did in my head.

A White Christmas

My Innistrad Prerelease

Hey Guys,

So I went to an Innistrad pre-release and the results were pretty epic so I figured I'd write up the story here. I might also post my sealed pool if I feel like it. I ran blue/white humans with a couple equipments and enchantments. So at the game store by my college Xandu games there was a 6 round swiss tournament sealed. You had to have 4 wins to get into the prizes at the event, and it took us over 5 hours to complete.

My first match was a mirror match and I lost by only the slightest margin in 3 games. Match 2 I can barely remember, but it was against red/white and because most of my removal was for non-humans it was ineffective I lost this match 0-2. So staring at an 0-2 record and needing 4 straight wins to bring it back I steeled myself for a treacherous battle against numerous opponents. After a pleasant battle against a very nice woman, and a fairly quick battle against an opponent who's deck didn't do much of anything I found myself at 2-2 halfway there. My next match was against a werewolf deck that packed a lot of equipment like cobbled wings and used it to make the big guys flyers. This opponent won game one handily but I managed to steal game two by forcing his werewolf to transform and then using my priest to repeatedly tap it until I managed to take him out. After the second game we stood at 1-1 with 3 minutes left in the round. We shuffle and start quickly I start with a turn one silver inlaid dagger. Then he passes turn one I drop a second turn Invisible stalker. He makes some other play then I play spectral flight on my stalker giving it +2/+2 and bash for 3 putting him to 17 and pass the turn. On his turn time is called. My next turn is turn 1 and I equip the silver inlaid dagger making my stalker a 6/3 flying unblockable hexproof creature and swing for 6 putting him to 11 he plays turn 2 on turn 3 the excitement builds as I swing dropping him to only 5 life forcing him to find an answer or lose. Then The next turn I swing for lethal on the last turn of the match winning my third straight to play one more to reach the prizes. My last game was against a ridiculous deck that crushed me almost instantly but had dropped two matches early because it was in two different colors. All in all I had a blast scraped through with some great draw and careful play and then fell short right as I saw the finish line.

With all the excitement I can hardly wait to start drafting Innistrad.

The Past 3 Days

Hey guys,

I'm off from school and chilling a lot but I"m going to try and get posts up more regularly now. This past week has been interesting I've spent a fair amount of time with Amanda (my GF) and some time researching the effects of sleep and social support at my local library.

Anyway two days ago I went to the movies with Amanda my father and saw the Hangover 2 it was decent and I will be getting my review up either later today or sometime tomorrow. Then I spent most of the next day carrying things down to my room in the basement and trying to get them set up. I also spend a decent amount of time playing Fable III a game I really like. This is my second playthrough and I'm trying to be liked, but also not have everyone die like the first time. I've basically bought every property in the game and am donating my money into the treasury.

That night I went to a Rock 'n' Bowl with Amanda we bowled from 10-12 which was a lot of fun. I started cold but when I warmed up was doing consistently well most of the games. I also broke my personal best which is now 164. I had a turkey in frames 5-8 the only other turkey I've ever bowled was all in the tenth frame and had little impact on my score. I also want to tell you that Amanda bowling was hysterical. I know I shouldn't say anything but her motion was more similar to a discus throwing motion then bowling. But it was adorable and she was mildly upset. I was beating her which also was a good thing because like most girls she's cute when she's upset. After that we came back to her house and watched Easy A. The movie seemed pretty good, but I won't be reviewing it unless I watch it again because I fell asleep before the end.

Today I played some tennis with my older sister's boyfriend and have been helping to get the house ready for my younger sister's graduation party. I actually should be cleaning right now, but my readers are more important to me than cleaning. Well to a point, I won't sit here in filth to blog but I will forgo cleaning for a little while.

As you may or may not know I'm fairly recently 21 and if you feel like suggesting any alcohol or drinks to me I would appreciate it. Yes, I know no one ever comments, but I feel like it's one of those high-school like things where no one wants to be the first person on the dance floor, but as soon as someone breaks the ice everyone starts dancing. Just think you could be the awesome person who did it first.

Anyway off to start cleaning.

Random:

The only way to bowl a 299 is to leave one pin standing on the third ball in the 10th frame after a game of all strikes.

A bowling pin has to lean approximately 23 degrees to fall.