We finally launched the MTV Europe Music Awards Website today! Check it out at <a href="http://www.mtvema.com">http://www.mtvema.com</a>. This sucker launches with 25 regions. I've been working my butt off everyday, getting to work early and staying late (sometimes until 11pm!) ever since I've been on this project late July. I've been serving double duty as part of both the production team and tech team.
I finally got a taste of some freedom outside of work when we launched virtually bug free! It was a great accomplishment for MTV International. I was so happy that I could leave before 8pm today. I know it won't last long though since tomorrow, we will immediately start working on Phase 3 launch.
The EMAs is the biggest project my team produces every year and work continues until the show goes live November 5, 2009. The cool part of the job is that we do get to go to the event location to do live updates on the website. My team should be going to Berlin, Germany the week of the event. It's always fun to throw myself into completely unfamiliar territory once in a while and soaking in the experience. The unfortunate part is that I will be busy for a while.
On July 15 2009 12:35 Manifesto7 wrote: Wow awesome! Happy Birthday Update us on your amazing adventures some time soon please
Not exactly amazing adventures but here's a recap of how the year 2009 has been for me so far...
I ended 2008 with a trip to London for work (EMA 2008) and a trip to Germany for World Cyber Games 2008. After four years of serving the StarCraft community, I decided to take a break from it all and just be a regular gamer.
I thought I was done by 2007 but during my family vacation in Denmark, MYM ended up snatching me up and sending me to BlizzCon. How could I say no? And after I realized I was going to be in Europe already when WCG was going to be there, I decided to hop on over and go for the sake of going, this time representing nobody else but myself. I realized it might be my last hurrah so instead of just documenting the event from an outside perspective, I wanted to be part of the event, taking pictures among people and talking to people more so I could at least say that I was there and I met some good people.
Taking a break from the community meant being able to take a step back and looking at the bigger picture, having more time to focus on other goals and progressing in other aspects of life. According to Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," it's called "taking time to sharpen the saw". That is exactly what I did: <ul> <li>Physical - Exercise, Nutrition, Stress Management <ul> <li>I went snowboarding in Colorado.</li> <li>I was part of a group dance/skit performance that took four months to prepare for.</li> <li>I took Breakdancing Classes from Ms. Vee and Lyrical Classes from Derek Mitchell at Broadway Dance Center. This is where I get most of my flexibility training.</li> <li>I've been going to the gym before work three times a week. This is where I get my strength training.</li> <li>I've been playing Ultimate as part of an organized group once or twice every week. This is where I get my cardio.</li> <li>I've managed to stay pretty consistent with my physical training. Because of my regular routine, I would say I am in the best shape I've ever been in my life.</li></ul> </li> <li>Spiritual - Value Clarification & Commitment, Study & Meditation <ul> <li>I've been learning from Tim Keller's sermons at Redeemer every Sunday morning.</li> <li>I discuss the messages with Henry and note applications of what we learn.</li></ul> </li> <li>Mental - Reading, Visualizing, Planning, Writing <ul> <li>I've opened up recently to opportunities to learn how to be more successful in life through reading books/magazines and going to work sponsored workshops.</li> <li>I took a month long Advanced Flash Programming class at work.</li> <li>I've been learning web development techniques and enterprise solutions through self-teaching and exposure to the tech team and I've been getting a lot of practice programming.</li> <li>I've also been writing a lot more blog entries. I'm trying to expand outside of just writing about the daily grind to writing more thought provoked entries.</li> <li>Planning is just something I do on an almost daily basis. It's a part of me. I can't help but plan and organize or else I will feel overwhelmed by chaos.</li> <li>Taking Chinese classes not only helps me communicate and understand Henry and his family more but it also trains my memory.</li></ul> </li> <li>Social/Emotional - Service, Empathy, Synergy, Intrinsic Security. <ul> <li>Back in 2005, I struggled to break out of the <a href="http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=34134">shy/quiet shell</a> I had built around myself. I have since learned so much about interacting with others. I open myself up to opportunities to meet people once in a while through work, through sports, through friends. I see people as interesting beings that have a lot to share about their lives, their interests and their knowledge now. Although I am still introverted by nature, I am no longer bound by that nature.</li> <li>Even though I am half a world away from my family, they are still a big part of my life. I went back to Asia at the beginning of the year and intend to go back early next year.</li> <li>I have expanded way beyond my team at work. I work very closely with other teams, so much so that they can consider me to be part of their groups as well. I put a lot more effort in talking to people and to be quite honest, it has become something I enjoy now rather than dread.</li> <li>Watching TV and Movies isn't exactly a social activity but just this very act gives me a lot to choose from in terms of topics to talk about with others. I've gotten sucked into Battle Star Galactica, How I Met Your Mother, Lost, Dancing With The Stars, America's Best Dance Crew, So You Think You Can Dance, America's Got Talent, Deadliest Warrior, Two and a Half Men and WSOP. I also got hooked on a few games on the Xbox 360 - Fable 2, Gears of War 2, Call of Duty 4/5, Guitar Hero World Tour - but this is less of a topic to discuss among people I encounter.</li></ul></li> </ul>StarCraft doesn't exactly fit into the above categories but I do still play. I did take a break for a few months (unfortunately, this also deleted my account and my record and my friends list on USWest) but I'm back to my old 3v3 BGHing ways. I do miss playing 1v1 though. I don't have enough time to dedicate myself to training my 1v1 game. I wonder if I would be able to find anyone my level anymore out there. That may just be a goal for another time.
For now, my sights are set upon pushing myself further in life, going to the next level at work while keeping everything else in life balanced. I want to improve. I want to achieve. I want to succeed. As I mentioned in my blog before, I just want to <a href="http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=79119">level up</a>.
PS. Let me know if you are an awesome GM 3v3 player and you're up for BGH anytime.
<u><b><font face="Monotype Corsiva" size="5">Friday, November 7, 2008:</font></b></u>
I landed in Cologne, Germany at 5:30pm. After walking around a bit and making a few phone calls through the pay phone, I found that Naruto and company were not able to pick me up as planned so I needed to get myself to WCG on my own. I found that the Köln Bonn Airport wasn't very foreigner friendly as I got lost trying to find currency exchange and the way to the S-train. There was no customer service to ask for help and the ticket machine was confusing as ever. However, a friendly German helped me get a train ticket and even bought it for me since I had no coins. He escorted me to my stop and told me which way to go. I had a map but I still got lost since I couldn't find any street signs. I walked around and asked for help from some Germans but I found that a lot of them couldn't speak English very well so I ended up getting a taxi to drive me a mile or so towards the event for 5 euro.
I finally got there and <b>zatic</b> spotted me! I'm so glad since I had no clue what to do if I didn't find anybody I knew there. The TL group was about to head out for dinner and <b>Ilvy</b> was among them. <b>Nyovne</b> was kind enough to drive us to the Hostel to drop off my bag. <b>Tasteless</b> led the way, gathering people and finding a place to eat, drink and be merry. The first place we went to couldn't fit all of us but <b>Ilvy</b> led the way across the street to eat so we finally could have dinner.
<u>Friday Night Dinner</u>
Dinner with the group was great. It was my way of getting to know people from TL for the first time in a smaller group setting.
<b>Draco</b> made fun of the food server's accent when she was serving them coke so it became a running joke that <b>Draco</b> and <b>ret</b> ordered cock and weiner (Wiener Schnitzel).
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414177818_RCKzy-S.jpg"> Wiener Schnitzel
<b>ret</b> was also crazy drunk to the point that he couldn't stay sitting up straight.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414178288_tnb8U-M.jpg"> ret
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414216669_NaKzS-M.jpg"> Ghardo, Meat, ErkenBrand, ret
We headed to bed around 2-3am since he referees had to get up early the next day. <b>Ilvy</b> was kind enough to let me sleep on her bed. Thanks so much <b>Ilvy</b>!
<u><b><font face="Monotype Corsiva" size="5">Saturday, November 8, 2008:</font></b></u>
<u>StarCraft: Broodwar Area</u>
I headed over to the event area at around 10am with <b>Ilvy</b>, <b>baal</b>, and the other referees. Nothing was going on yet so baal and I had cookies for breakfast at the press area. Later, more people showed up and I spotted <b>JohnRambo</b> and <b>Lamer</b> and talked to them for a bit. <b>Strelok</b> stopped by momentarily and I told them all about the TL Meetup Dinner later that night.
<!--I didn't really talk to <b>Mondragon</b> this time around but at least I got to say hi.<b>Mondragon</b> kinda gave me a cold shoulder for the entire event. him at all this time around. Don't know what's up with that. Maybe he's just different with his girlfriend around.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414178837_d6RZq-S.jpg"> Mondragon and girlfriend --> <b>lilsusie</b> and <b>Midian</b> showed up. We couldn't really watch the player's screens very well. I think WCG still needs to find a better way to help spectators view the gamer matches. At least feature one at every round.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414217242_nVjhX-S.jpg"> mnm and lilsusie
<b>lilsusie</b> and I headed over to the Guitar Hero band area and grabbed <b>snowbird</b> and <b>Harry</b> along the way. We rocked out with me on guitar, <b>lilsusie</b> on vocals, <b>Harry</b> on drums and <b>snowbird</b> on bass. Some guy at the area liked how <b>lilsusie</b> sang so he got her to sing on stage later that day to showcase a new singing game. She ended up announcing the WarCraft III game later on too since the announcer wasn't around.
We headed over to the main stage to watch <b>Jaedong</b> vs <b>Stork</b>. They weren't supposed to go against each other so early on but <b>Legend</b> left the game before <b>Stork</b> could have a chance to throw the game so <b>Stork</b> ended up taking first in his group round and had to face <b>Jaedong</b> in the bracket round.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414217729_iEmv9-S-1.jpg"> Jaedong vs Stork
<b>Tasteless</b> and <b>Daniel Lee</b> were commentating for English speakers but unfortunately, as much as I tried to talk to several people about this, there were rules and other obstacles in place that prevented any English from getting through to the main stage audience. All we heard was German commentary.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414179538_Vq42R-S-1.jpg"> Tasteless and Daniel Lee
We tried to do the fighting cheer for the koreans but some tl guy interrupted <b>lilsusie</b>, who was gonna lead the cheer, so she could write some korean on their poster. The cheer failed but we were gonna try again later on.
<b>lilsusie</b> ended up translating for MYM on the condition that she was introduced as <b>lilsusie</b> from TL and we could post the video on the teamliquid site.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414179999_9J8dC-S-1.jpg"> Crow, Luxury, lilsusie (thx to Ghardo for taking these pictures)
The crowd was getting huge around the StarCraft:Broodwar Area as people tried to see as much of the action as they could. <b>zatic</b> did a great job of updating the teamliquid threads with live battle reports.
<a href="http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=81751" target="_blank">WCG 2008 Day 1</a> <a href="http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=81828" target="_blank">WCG 2008 Day 2</a> <a href="http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=81886" target="_blank">WCG 2008 Day 3</a> <a href="http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=81948" target="_blank">WCG 2008 Day 4</a>
It was down to the match for third place and someone had the great idea of setting up the idle big screen monitor at the corner of the SC area as an obs station for Tasteless so people can watch from the bean bag area. WCG wasn't happy with this later on but oh well what can they do now.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414180829_7TTQt-S-1.jpg"> Tasteless, Draco, Nony, Ghardo, ret, ?, zuqbu waiting for TL to gather before heading out to Karibik Cocktailbar
Tasteless was really antsy and ready to go an hour before our scheduled departure time. I walked around the entire venue looking for TL people to gather them up so they could walk together towards the venue. We decided to go in two groups. Tasteless, Naruto and company headed out first at around 6:45pm while I hung around until the referees were ready to go just in case there were stragglers. We probably got there at around 8:45pm, fashionably late =P.
<!--<b>Dknight</b> was a total asshole and slapped my face moments after I took this picture, completely unprovoked. It wasn't hard enough for me to want to end him right there but it wasn't soft enough that I didn't care. He said "In Europe, men can hit women." What the fuck. I wanted to seriously injure him at this point. My fist flew to his face but my personality and Christian self prevented me from having my fist plow through his skull. Plus, I didn't want to cause any trouble and get kicked out of the bar or something. I decided to be nice and punch him in the arm. That didn't feel like enough revenge so I tried to choke him with my arm around his neck and I really wanted to at least make him pass out but that didn't work. Seriously, <b>Dknight</b>, learn some respect, Motherfucker.
I shrugged it off as best I could and moved on to the China team section of the table. --> <img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414181148_tTjW9-S-1.jpg"> zatic, ?, ?, emucxg, Legend, ChinaTTT, LoveTT
I have no clue who these people are. Someone please fill in the blanks.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414181218_KHN2o-S-1.jpg"> Luxury, Stork, Harry
Actual Liquid players showed up to a TL event. The heart and brains behind the website. Much thanks to <b>Nazgul</b> and <b>Meat</b> for being the driving force behind teamliquid.net!
I believe this first guy in the picture below was the guy who interrupted our cheer earlier on =P. Still no clue who he is although I talked to him for a bit.
The great thing about the event was that we had our dinner and drinks, and people had the freedom to get up, go around and mingle. For the first time, I looked at this event from the inside rather than just from the outside in. For the most part I hide behind my camera but as I felt more included in the event, I also included myself in my own pictures feeling like I wanted to preserve memories and make the statement that I was there too. I met some great people and it was awesome getting to know each and every one of them.
It was great hanging out with <b>Nick</b> as I know he has my back and vice versa. It was also a little piece of home hearing the American accent as I was surrounded by Europeans for the entire week.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414219982_7rpvt-S-1.jpg"> Nick and mnm
<b>Ilvy</b> was very kind and hospitable to me. Thank you so much for taking care of me!
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414181417_GpPzH-S-1.jpg"> mnm and Ilvy
baal was my press buddy and guide for a good part of the time. It took me a while to get used to the French accent, but it was pretty fun chatting in Mandarin ^^.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414181516_DG3MW-S-1.jpg"> baal and mnm
I was able to practice the little bit of Chinese I knew with the China players as well. Talking to <b>emucxg</b> and <b>Phoenix</b> motivated me to learn as much Chinese as I can within a year's time. I definitely want to go to WCG Grand Finals in China next year!
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414219926_HU2ay-S-1.jpg"> mnm and Phoenix
It was great that <b>JohnRambo</b>, my fellow South East Asian, showed up as well. I interviewed him last year (I still have yet to post that o.O) and he's a good fellow to get to know.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414220086_rJqVQ-S-1.jpg"> mnm and JohnRambo
<b>zatic</b> was a hard worker at the event. He was the epitome of Teamliquid Staff. I wish I could have contributed more but I was glad he was around to keep that connection to teamliquid.net alive. I feel bad that someone sat on his laptop and screwed up his monitor =/. Hopefully he could get that replaced without much of a problem.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414220277_WNVAS-S-1.jpg"> zatic and mnm
There was a big change with <b>Energies</b> from the time I saw him last year. Great job with that! And thanks for letting me borrow the adaptor. Sorry that your phone died and you had to charge it the next day =x.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414220313_sc9g2-S-1.jpg"> mnm and Energies
I don't think I got to talk to <b>ret</b> while sober very much so I only know his drunken self. I squirmed out of his way for the most part but that interview was great. ret, let me know if you want to show anyone =P.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414181718_tEtVx-S-1.jpg"> ret and mnm
<b>Draco</b>, I talked to a little bit. I hear he has a hot gf. Pics pls.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414220343_ZYZUb-S-1.jpg"> Draco and mnm
<b>Ghardo</b> looks soooooo different from his gallery picture. I never would have guessed it was him. He isn't as scary as I thought he was gonna be. He's actually a pretty cool guy. Later that night at the hotel after <b>Ilvy</b>, <b>Nick</b>, <b>Energies</b> and I headed home, <b>Energies</b> knocked on our door saying that there is a guy sleeping standing up in his room. When I headed over there (I couldn't find my camera), I saw <b>Ghardo</b> about to piss on <b>Dknight</b>. lol <!--it was great. I wish he did go through with it but--> <b>Energies</b> guided him to the bathroom.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414181752_ZjKEf-S-1.jpg"> mnm and Ghardo
This guy, <b>Tot)Left</b>, started talking to me as I was walking somewhere. He ended up having several parallels to my life which was so coincidental it was hard to believe. He lived in the Philippines for a bit so he talked a lot about the places he went and the culture he experienced. He also was in New York for work and talked about where he worked and such.
<b>G.s)NarutO</b> was a great help with finding this location for the meetup and making the reservation. All I did was create the massive post with as much detail as I could about it. He's a very friendly guy who was willing to help out when he could. He housed <b>Nyovne</b>, <b>snowbird</b> and <b>Harry</b> as well. Props to him for a great turn out for the event!
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414181951_sdJzV-S-1.jpg"> Naruto and mnm (Nyovne put that candle there o.O -_-)
Much thanks to <b>Nyovne</b> for taking me to the airport. It sucked so much just trying to get to the event from the airport that I greatly appreciate the ride! It was great hanging out with you guys as well.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414220698_RwXSG-S-1.jpg"> Nyovne and mnm
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414182026_nsQEG-S-1.jpg"> Naruto and Nyovne
<b>Nony</b>, I watched you make your way to the top through the WCGs. I wish you the best of luck in Korea!
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414182018_8grd9-S-1.jpg"> Nony and mnm
<b>Harry</b> hooked me up with a photo with the progamers all together later on. As I said earlier, he is a fun and entertaining guy. I hope he had a great time hanging out with TL and I hope to see more of him in future events. Hopefully he'll be around if I go to Korea some day. I seriously need to learn more Korean.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414220841_hTgDz-S-1.jpg"> Harry and mnm
<!--<b>PuertoRican</b> was talking to me for a long time at one point during that night and several people noticed this. To be clear, he is gm to me now, doesn't go out of line, doesn't hit on me, and doesn't hesitate to tell anyone else that I have a boyfriend (Qyx is my bf). As he was telling me about himself and how his life went from being ref at wcg to ggl to sc2gg. I made a big mistake of asking him about sc2gg -_-;;. He went off on a huge rant telling me the whole story starting with Manifesto called one of the sc2gg admins or something a faggot and he took a screenshot of this and sent it to that guy Raddevil or something. Then all hell broke lose because of it and <b>PuertoRican</b> didn't like how <b>Mani</b> turned everyone against him. <b>PuertoRican</b> says he still likes TL he just doesn't like how <b>Mani</b> led the charge for staff to go against <b>PuertoRican</b>. I didn't speak a word during his whole rant but as a good listener, I let him speak. Later <b>Tasteless</b> came to our table and eased the tension in the air so <b>PuertoRican</b> got a breather from the emotions I had apparently provoked within him.
Later, <b>zatic</b>, <b>Rage</b> and <b>Xeofreestyler</b> joined my table and explained everything to me. Apparently it's a whole thing about <b>Baezzi</b> getting offended by a post in TL and completely turning against TL and joining sc2gg even though this one post was a joke it was against Koreans and he took it personally. I'm not 100% clear on where the faggot thing came into play. It had something to do with sc2gg taking over <b>Baezzi</b> and the admin acquiring him. I forget. I never really figured out what was going on as I wasn't that interested in all the drama. And from what I hear, all is well now between sc2gg and TL so there's no point in dwelling upon it. There are whole forums on this subject if you wish to read up more about it.
Anyway, what I get out of all of this is that, <b>PuertoRican</b> may have different views of right and wrong but he still has love for TL as a community. sc2gg and TL are friends now. All of this just came out of a minor understanding that blew out of proportion. It is mostly about miscommunication that got out of hand but was solved through talking through things. We are known for pushing the envelope a lot but we should also know our boundaries and be mindful of our actions. This is why we need our mighty banhammers to keep everyone straight. --> It is great to have the support of the Teamliquid staff at these events. They are what drives the site. They are also the people who led the cheer during the finals round later on ^^. <b>Rage</b> helped me remember everyones names by constantly quizzing me =P. <b>Xeofreestyler</b> sang a beautiful Con Te Partiro that night.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414220882_oNjSY-S-1.jpg"> Stork, Luxury, mnm, lilsusie, Jaedong (lilsusie popped into this picture while I was trying to get a pic with the Korean progamers =p)
Later that night I saw the announcer lady who was on stage with <b>lilsusie</b> earlier. She looked really familiar and I asked if she was Athena or Athena twin. I knew Athena from the Fragdolls and I knew the PMS Clan through her and Brookelyn having tried out for the first round of Fragdolls and having gotten a job as an Associate Web Producer for Ubisoft. Turned out she was Athena twin and she spoke a little about her Ubisoft and MTV contacts after I told her how I knew Athena.
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414220935_LmSbk-S-1.jpg"> mnm and PMS Athena twin
Later on though she went through her marketing speech on how great the PMS Clan is, being a sponsored female clan that encourages gamers from casual to pro as well as how they advocate females playing among males. She asked if I was interested in joining as a StarCraft player but I honestly don't see what I could gain from this considering I can and have already played WCG Qualifiers among guys and it costs nothing to play locally. There isn't anything else really beyond WCG. It was nice to get invited though but I felt a little trapped in the marketing speech and Tasteless helped by breaking the stream a little bit. <!--She slapped <b>Tasteless</b> in the face I think for interrupting and <b>Tasteless</b> didn't appreciate it one bit. Friendly or not, joking or not, drunk or not, mad or not, slapping is unacceptable. -->
<b>Tasteless</b>, <b>Ilvy</b>, <b>Armin</b> and I were among the last few to leave the place. We walked back on a high. Well, at least I did. Tasteless felt lost since he didn't know how to get back to his hotel. Ilvy was drunk I think, or very tired or sleepy. Armin was disappointed because we got him to leave right in the middle of him talking up some females at the bar. I was just happy that it was a successful night =).
Harry's article on <a href="http://fomos.kr" target="_blank">fomos.kr</a>: <a href="http://fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=89661&db=issue" target="_blank">fomos.kr</a>
<u><b><font face="Monotype Corsiva" size="5">Sunday, November 9, 2008:</font></b></u>
I walked away from the hostel kinda sad that I was leaving the place. My time there was short but quite fun.
We arrived via taxi at around 11:30am, ready to watch the finals match between <b>Luxury</b> and <b>Stork</b>. Teamliquid sat right at the front row, ready to cheer.
I, of course, cheered for the zerg, <b>Luxury</b>. People said they were disappointed with the games because <b>Stork</b> was messing up or something. I guess the games weren't quite as epic as people hoped. Nonetheless, we have a new champ this year.. <b>Luxury</b>!
<img src="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/photos/414221992_hxDzc-S-1.jpg"> Team Liquid!
Towards the end, we scrambled with interviews. <b>Xeofreestyler</b> and <b>Rage</b> helped me collect some questions from Teamliquid to ask the progamers and I wrote it out. We had trouble keeping track of the Koreans but <b>Jaedong</b> showed up after <b>Harry</b> interviewed me for fomos so I ran out to get <b>lilsusie</b> and <b>Meat</b> since <b>Meat</b> had the camcorder and <b>lilsusie</b> got the koreanness.
I held the camera while <b>lilsusie</b> interviewed <b>Jaedong</b> with the questions from Teamliquid. <b>Jaedong's coach</b> interrupted in the middle of the interview and it was cool to find out that his brother is from Manila, Philippines so I spoke to him through <b>lilsusie</b> about that a bit afterwards.
<b>lilsusie</b> and I had to head out after that so hopefully <b>zatic</b>, <b>snowbird</b> and <b>Meat</b> were able to get some interviews of the other two progamers later on.
<b>Nyovne</b>, <b>Naruto</b> and <b>Harry</b> took me to the airport so I could catch my flight from Germany to London and London to New York. I was sad to leave but happy to get back home. It's always great to go to these events. The teamliquid community proves time and time again that they are full of awesomeness. This energy, this passion, this camaraderie is what keeps me coming back for more.
It was great fun guys! Let's do this again next year =).
See more of my gallery here: <a href="http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/6517502_aeWh7" target="_blank">http://calbearmnm.smugmug.com/gallery/6517502_aeWh7</a>
i left work friday morning at 6:30am only to get back in to work by 11pm. i had two hours of sleep so I was barely functional. i got on the flight from london to germany at around noon and arrived at 5:30pm. Naruto was supposed to pick me up but Nyvone had problems getting his car so I had to find my own way to wcg. I had a lot of trouble figuring out where to go for money and to find the S train but I eventually got to where I needed to go and a nice friendly german guy helped me purchase a ticket (and was nice enough to pay with his own money since I had no coins =/). after i got off the train stop i was lost and walked all around trying to figure out where to go. finally i got a taxi to wcg for 5 euro. i forgot to tip ah fuck.
i got out of the taxi and walked towards the venue (i didnt know the exact address i just say go to the place where they hold big events) and i was so lucky that zatic recognized me and waved me down as they were about to leave. i was there at around 7pm and that was when everyone was heading out so i was lucky to catch them before i left.
we headed to the players village and i dropped my stuff off at ilvy's room (im staying with her). we went out to eat dinner.. walked to a nearby bar/restaurant. then headed back, hung out at frank's room with a bunch of people.. i did an interview with drunken ret and drunken draco but they wont let me post the video so im just keeping it. if you ask ret maybe he'll let me show it to you. then went to sleep at around 2am.
11/8/08
im so fucking pissed.. they dont do english commentaries here because on some block on german broadcasting that forces people to only do broadcasting in german.. plus technical issues make it difficult to switch to English. I talked to the WCG Broadcasting guy and he said it would take four hours to switch things over since the commentaries are tied to the web streams according to language so if the commentators switched places, they would have the english commentaries broadcasting on the german channel (which they didn't want to do).
anyway im also so fucking pissed because our tshirt shop promised us tshirts by yesterfuckingday and they didnt fucking arrive.
this is all i get from USPS:
Status: Electronic Shipping Info Received
The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper on October 31, 2008 to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date. Delivery status information will be provided if / when available. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.
fuck that fucking shit.
meat brought his video camera.. i asked tasteless if he would do an interview for teamliquid and he agreed to it. i told lilsusie but she said she would do the interview. anyway lilsusie is translating an interview for mym right now on the condition that she can say this is lilsusie from teamliquid.net and she can post the video on here. we might do interviews for teamliquid as well.
as for me, i might give up on doing interviews since i suck at it. i couldn't follow the games bec there is a huge crowd around the area right now and its hard to figure out what's going on.. i believe it was nony vs tt 1-1 last i found out.
much thx to zatic for live battle reports.. i was just working my arse off for the entire week for the europe music awards site and im burnt out for now.. im just taking a bunch of pictures.. hopefully that's enough..
=/ im burnt out and disorganized this year and oh so lost in these european countries. much thx to teamliquid for helping me keep my sanity and guiding me around.
im just a lil bummed right now bec i cant deliver on what i promised T_T.
I am spending all day at work (IN LONDON!) today updating this website for all our internet viewers. I have a love hate relationship with EMA but that site, dear friends, is a result of a crapload of work from my team.. a ton of content.. and it culminates today. Let me know if any of you guys watch it!
PS. Yeah I know its not the best site but the show should be better than the site =] =p
PPS. It's Perez Hilton on the Red Carpet streaming right now (2:33pm EST, 7:30pm London time). I wonder if I should try to be like him as an interviewer. o.Oa
After I found out that Gameriot didn't feel it was worth it to send people to cover StarCraft at the Worldwide Invitational in Paris, and people I worked with last year (Slasher, JP, Brian, etc) have moved on to other sites, I felt like I couldn't rely on them anymore to send me to events. I thought I wouldn't have the opportunity to go to other events and almost gave up on any outside help until an opportunity fell into my lap. When I went to Denmark for vacation with my family back in May, Crow told me that the CEO and COO of Esports Nation (which MYM is part of) wanted to talk to me. I enjoyed my vacation there and found some time to stop by the ESNation office. I thought I would just meet these people and go but it turned out to be an interview and they offered me a part time job as a web developer. I told them I wasn't interested in leaving my MTV job but I could lend a hand and didn't mind some pocket money doing web work on the side. As part of the deal, they offered to send me to events as a perk. This of course caught my attention as I am always a sucker to go to StarCraft events, especially WCG and BlizzCon. I wasn't 100% about the job offer and we decided to do this on a trial basis. I started doing development and design for them in July.
Worldwide Invitational went by and I was sad to miss it but I guess the timing was off since Crow already had plans to go there with other MYM people so I accepted the loss. WCG Regionals was one weekend after another and I didn't have enough energy in me to do coverage four weekends in a row so MYM and I agreed I should skip that and focus on US Nationals. US Nationals came around and Crow told me MYM didn't get a big enough US audience to send me there and he was already going there anyway to cover a CS event. BlizzCon came around and I almost didn't make it because I had a hard time trying to get a vacation day off to go to the event and MYM wouldn't send me just for one day. After talking to my boss I finally got a vacation day that allowed me to go and I was very appreciative that MYM would cover expenses to send me there!
Past Blogs I have been to every BlizzCon since it started in 2005. I was there last year in 2007 and I was more than happy to go back in 2008.
*8/2, Thursday - Headed to LA for BlizzCon c/o Gameriot.com. Left work early. Got a taxi to SFO. Flight was at 6:50pm. Arrived at SNA at 10:07pm. Met up with Dave the photographer from Gameriot. Took a taxi to the Clarion hotel. Met up with JP and others. Had a really late dinner at the Hilton. Headed back real late and slept at around 1am or so.
*8/3, Friday - BlizzCon Day 1. Got to play StarCraft 2 before anyone else at BlizzCon. Got escorted by Paul from Blizzard. Was really nervous because I was on camera and I was giving my impressions of the game. I sounded and talked retardedly but I was very interested in getting my hands on the game. It was weird at first, the buildings seemed big. The units blended into the buildings because everything was so detailed and colorful. Later on I got used to what I saw and got the hang of playing it and creating all the buildings. I stayed on there to take notes on buildings and units. After i was done with that I moved onto multiplayer 2v2. My first game, my teammate was a noob and didn't know what to do. He was terran, I was protoss. I told him to go mnm but he had no idea how to make medics. I pretty much just told him to figure it out himself while i continued to obliterate the opposing team with my zealot rush b00y3@h.
I had so much fun with multiplayer I wanted to keep going. I won every single game. I played another game with the noob and won pretty easily too. I got the hang of going zlot goon and wanted to advance but the other team would loose too quickly. I finally got someone partnered up with me who knew what he was doing. Meanwhile some chick from Yahoo video games wanted to interview me on camera and I told her okay but I was playing. She tried to ask me questions but I was terribly distracted. The opposing team was holding up better than I expected (ie. not as newbie) but my teammate was good enough to kill them off so we still ended up winning at the end. Yahoo Video was very distracting trying to interview me though the girl kept telling me to look at the camera while I answered her questions and I tried to but come on I was busy playing! Later on I found out that they didn't use the video of me playing anyway -_-. Such a waste of a possibly good game. Whatever, I still won. I played the next game but I kept getting distracted with phone call after phone call. I couldn't get a single decent game in. =/ I found out later that they wanted me at the opening ceremony so I left my spot but it was such a waste cuz I didn't do anything there. I could've stayed playing all along -_-;;.
I saw anton after I got out of sc2 and after i saw that the opening ceremony was a waste. He finally got in touch with Jeff to get his tickets in. I got a call from Cypress and met up with him. He was hanging out with Nal_Ra! I said hi to Nal_Ra but couldn't really communicate with him. Cypress and Nal_Ra were chatting and I couldn't really join in on the conversation =/. I was gonna eat lunch with cyp and asked if Nal_Ra would join but instead Nal_Ra ate lunch with cypress at the progamer area! Aw man if I only had the powers of Korean speaking.
Later on some of the games were starting and I had my laptop out trying to cover the games. I also met up with a bunch of people I knew along the way including a big group of teamliquid people. Unfortunately, I was so busy and all over the place, I didn't get around to talking to many people. I met up with some other starcraft admins at the press area typing away at their laptops and we ended up eating lunch at the hilton. Later on we continued to watch more games. They were played at the big screen and I had fun screaming out [name of progamer] fighting!~ along with them. I talked to the Blizzard guy I knew, Stephen, and got Manifesto in as a shoutcaster which was awesome and the community loved it. I was glad I made an impact at BlizzCon.
Later that night, we had our huge get together for Teamliquid.net at BJs with about 40 people! We ended up getting to BJs late and I was freaking out trying to get everyone into the taxi I got but we finally got people together. I'm surprised so many people actually did show up. I don't remember most of them, heck I didn't really get to talk to many of them except for people surrounding me. Maybe I will identify all of them someday. I hope people had a great time. I did.
After BJs, people rode back in the taxi with me and nick (tasteless) went to ride with other people but nick got distracted by some stuff along the way and didn't get back til way late. We hung out at Testie's room for a bit but it was getting soo late I ended up walking home. Later I was on im and slog told me that Nal_Ra was hanging out with teamliquid. I got a call from Trident that Nal_Ra was in Nick's room! I was torn. I called Henry and he encouraged me and I decided to go for it. I walked back to the Hilton where Nick was at and I am so glad it was close by. I met Nal_Ra in person and met Susan who ended up being such an awesome starcraft buddy later on. Nal_Ra is such an awesome person to hang out with we thoroughly enjoyed having him around.
*8/4, Saturday - BlizzCon Day 2. Such a crazy rushed day. The finals were played. Nal_Ra vs Iris was the first game. Those were the best games ever at BlizzCon. All of teamliquid was rooting for Nal_Ra! He did so great. Unfortunately he couldn't beat the mighty Savior. In the meanwhile, in between games, I was gathering signatures from players and I finally got Yellow's signature. I was still acting like such a huge fangirl with a humungous crush on Yellow. Oh man I couldn't help it. I thought I was over him =/. I was so nervous around him but later on I ended up asking if I could get an interview with yellow. Yellow was walking around everywhere like he was the man. I was so embarassed that one of the guys with me told the translator that I liked him and she in turn told Yellow that I liked him ><;;.
Later, I was with Cyric (Ben) who actually helped me out a lot by finding me a place to sit in the crowd and helping me recap what happened in games. He actually predicted one of the proxy pylon games because of a player's scouting earlier on i thought that was cool. Ben also helped me come up with interview questions because I was so nervous and my mind was drawing a blank that I couldn't think. In between games, I tried to get my camera crew together but they were busy doing another interview so we decided to do the interview after finals. I actually literally ran around and dropped my badge along the way but fortunately it was recovered. Thank God! I love keeping those souvenirs. After finals, Yellow was nowhere to be found so I asked Sue if she could get me an interview with Yellow. Sue told Nal_Ra to meet up with us after so I could interview him and Nal_Ra was nice enough to come hang out with us after and walk outside to do the interview. I have such mad respect for such a manner guy. I was really nervous with that interview too and Sue helped me figure out some questions for him. Finally I got my camera crew and I did the interview. My first interview ever! That was the highlight of the event for me - interview with Nal_Ra. I am so grateful for such an awesome opportunity. Right after the interview, I had to rush out to make my flight to New York. The taxi drivers in LA are the best people ever and this taxi driver in particular was very nice so I have a real good impression of the LA folk.
If you didn't know already, I've been working on a side job at www.gameriot.com to cover StarCraft news (since they're flying me out and covering expenses for free).
I just got to BlizzCon right before the first tournament so I went straight for the pro-gaming area where the first person I saw was InControl. I took some pictures and headed for the huge crowd of people wearing Teamliquid tshirts. I didn't recognize most of them but Day[9] waved at me and I went over to him.
I sat and wrote some chickenscratch on the Nada vs Jangbi game. I wrote an article about all the players and knew that this game would be a tough one for Nada.
Nada (T) vs Jangbi (P) - Main Stage, 10/10/08, 1pm Andromeda, Blue Storm, Colosseum
Game 1 - Andromeda Jangbi is at 11, Nada at 1. Nada builds a wall with two supply depots and barracks. Jangbi early pressure on Nada's wall with zealot and goon. SCVS repairing. Nada is building early expo. Tank comes out to drive protoss back out. Jangbi expanding. Protoss three base - 2 expos up. Terran has two bases up. Macro game. Shuttle going to terran base - DT drop killing off turret. DT targeting armory. SCVs save it but DTs attacking repairing SCVs. Turret build next to CC keeping dts away. Three tanks at front. Arbiter built. Protoss fast tech to arbiter - probably stasis for timing push to freeze cluster of tanks. Can possibly recall for main. Jangbi is taking 4th base at 9. DTs picked off with two scans in Nada's base. Nada scaned Jangbi's main base. Nada coming out slowly. Jangbi's force hidden under arbiter. Terran scans again. Protoss secures expansion at 7. Terran pushing out with tanks and vultures. Jangbi is attacking with zealots and goons. Tanks stasissed. Jangbi cleans up Nada's army. Jangbi in lead. Vultures picks off expansion at 7. Jangbi's army saves expansion. Jangbi recalled in Nada's main base. Few mines went off. Jangbi's all over Nada's main base. Vultures try to counter attack but pylon wall gets in the way. Jangbi has six bases Nada is scrambling to stay alive. Jangbi goes up the front to run over opponent with arbiter cloaking his units. Jangbi wins. 1-0 Nada. Nada never made sci ves.
Game 2 - Blue Storm Jangbi opens at 7, Nada starts off at 1. Nada is walling in case Jangbi goes aggressive. Probe harasses building SCV. Goon range from Jangbi - one goon and one zealot out. Factory building. Jangbi attacking wall with zealot and goon. Nada building fast cc. Tanks defending. Goon range is up. Nada setting up his expo. Nexus is up at expo. Nada doing a fast tank push with 3 tanks and 4 vults and 1 rine. Terran vs 4 goons. Planting mines along way. Goons picking off vults and mines but continues to run away. Nada loses one tank and lost some units - back down to two tanks, 2 vults, 1 rine. Vults die off in base. Reaver holding off push. Reaver is saving base nada's push fended off. zealot lured mine to Nada's units. Nada very aggressive. Vultures picking off probes and ming expo. Shuttle going to Nada's base. Nada over extending himself. Turret just built to keep reaver drop away. Jangbi in lead in mid game having fended off Nada's aggressive attacks. Has two reavers in shuttle. Nada setting up for another expansion at 11. Jangbi took over and expanded to 11. Jangbi has 4 bases up to Nada's 3 bases. Jangbi has a lot of goons, templars built, two reavers harassing Nada's expansion. Terran stuck, defending his expo. Jangbi containing Nada with his units right outside of Nada's expo. Jangbi takes over base at 12, increasing the area of map he has. Jangbi is pushing huge army, psi storming clusters of tanks. Mine takes out a lot of dragoons. Nada barely holds on to the base. Jangbi reinforcing attack on Nada's expo at 3. Reaver drop at Nada's expo killing off SCVs at his expo. Reaer drop at main base killing off a lot of scvs. Tanks trying to survive, barely holding on. Turret takes out shuttle. Nada has a fe gollies out to support his vults and tanks. Protoss has zlots in shuttle. Arbiter tribunal going down. Nada stretched thin. Jangbi moving in to finish off Nada's units in the middle.Arbiter providing cloak to goons. Jangbi playing safe, building up units. Terran is mining. Nada's expo killed off by goons. Jangbi attacks main base. Jangbi recalls and storms all over Nada's base. Nada overextends himself, is too spread out and loses to Jangbi. Nada GG Jangbi 2-0 Nada.
After the game, I saw Cypress and talked to him for a bit. Then I asked Panorama for game results: + Show Spoiler +
forGG 2-0 Xellos (sad, but I thought it might happen) Idra 2-0 Yellow Jangbi 2-0 Nada Wait, WHAT?!? Idra beat Yellow? That pains my heart. Poor Yellow T_T. No wait, im not a fan girl anymore. After WCG I didn't think Idra could defeat the Special Events King. Yellow is supposed to go far as Special Events King! But I guess his flame can't last forever. I'm not a fangirl anymore damnit. I'm rooting for Savior. Savior 2-0 Cloud (I expected this as well).
Savior vs Jangbi Game 1 - Troy Savior at 5, JangBi at 11. Good position for Savior as he is as far from JangBi as he can be. Early expo. Zealot attacking sunken. Drone block and zerglings saved it - 2 hp left on the sunk. 2nd sunk down with Hat blocking it to secure the expansion. Jangbi has 5 zealots and a probe threatening Savior's base. Jangbi taking expansion. Savior's spire up. Zergling aggresive at Jangbi's base. Probes protecting forming cannon at base. Jangbi's corsair harassing OLs. Hydra den up. Mutalisks out, harassing zealots. Savior's second expo is getting harassed by zealot.. killed by mutas. Hydras out. Muta hydra vs zealot sair. Mutas surround corsair and run away. Reinforcement sairs force mutas away. Mass Hydra plus hydra micro vs zealots and sair.
Game 2 - Athena Savior at 5, Jangbi at 9. Savior opens up with a 5pool. Probe scouts 3 first and discovers 5 pool later. Puts forge down. Probes help protect front with cannons form at choke. Zerglings take out a lot of probes. Only two get to sneak into the base. Savior taking two expos. Jangbi has one expo out. Lair building. Savior preventing Jangbi's scouting probe to keep him in the dark. Probe finds Savior's expo at 3. Savior's other expo is at 6. Spire up, halfway finished. Cyb core and late stargate.
Zerglings ran up the ramp. 5 lings through to main base. Zealot kills off 3 lings. Probes and goon finish off the other 2. Mutas building. Scourges kill off first sair. Mutas vs sair and goon. Savior going uber muta micro. Took cannons out. Scourge kills off sair. Mass mutas take over Jangbi's main. All probes gone. Mutas have overtaken Jangbi's main. Scourge and mutas fend off goon and sairs. Nex goes down. Savior puts up another expo. Jangbi switches to reaver. Jangbi attacks with 3 sairs. Savior responds with eight scourges and eight mutas. Jangbi is turtling up in his expo. Jangbi attempts to retake his main but Mutas kill off rebuild. Jangbi sends out shuttle with reavers. Scourges at expos to protect. Savior sends scourge to kill off shuttle. Hydras and mutas finish off last reaver. Mass hydras from Savior. Jangbi tries to regain control of main. Still turtling in his expo. Huge bunch of ols head over to expo. Reavers kill off big chunk of hydras. One reaver left. Good defense by JangBi. Savior takes fifth base at 3. Burrowing zerglings around Jangbi's base for intelligence. Reaver drop on Savior's expo only unleashes one shot before the drop is chased away. Zealot reavers and sairs at mid, savior runs back to retreat and bring army together. Lurkers out. pushes back zealots sairs and reavers. Savior setting up lurker contain in front of Jangbi's base. Templar archive building. Savior spots building expo at 12 and kills it off. Savior has five bases right now. Jangbi's army headed towards savior's expo. But savior has too much. Jangbi GGs. Savior 2-0 Jangbi.
After Savior vs Jangbi, I had the honor of interviewing Savior. Nervous as I was, I did the best I could in front of the camera. Much thx to Idra for hooking up the interview! He's flying high right now and is enjoying his time at BlizzCon. This video interview should be up on MYM soon. Jonas is editing the video right now.
I was supposed to interview Idra after but he disappeared. =[ You owe me one Idra!
While Nada played a game, I prepared to interview him. LosingID was kind enough to serve as our translator this time. Nada's interview was very inspiring as he still really wants his fans to support him. Check out the interview at MYM. It will be up soon. I'll post the link when I get the opportunity to.
Game 1 - Colosseum Jangbi starts at 1. Nada at 11. nada double proxy shield bat from jangbi Nada looked like he had it with a lot of scvs and marines attacking but Jangbi makes use of shield bat and takes the lead, pushing Nada back. Zealots overcome the marines and Nada ggs. Jangbi 1-0 Nada
Game 2 - Blue Storm Jangbi at 1, Nada at 7. Nada barracks wall at choke. Protoss harassing with goon and zealot. Sees only one marine behind the wall. Tank comes out to push back harass. Jangbi gets Robotics facility. Nada going vultures. Jangbi sitting with goons, expanding. vultures out moving towards Jangbi's base, laying mines along the way. Jangbi didnt get to block off wall. Nada killing probes. Jangbi ggs.
Game 3 - Andromeda Nada at 1, Jangbi at 5. Nada early expos. Jangbi's goon and zlot finds the ee. SCV saves depot. Tank deflects rush. Jangbi expos. Templar archive up. Nada atacks with 3 vults and 3 tanks. DT discovered. mines arent up yet. DT fending off attack. Mines laying down now. Jangbi lost some units but managed to defend his expo. More vults mining in expo. Arbiter up cloaking Jangbi's uits against Nada who is spaced out with mines vultures and tanks that are containing him. Stasis on tanks but Nada gets arbiter. Another arbiter comes out. Expo again for Jangbi - 3 bases. Nada has 3 bases. Nada's contain is reinforced. Mine kills off a bunch of Nada's units. Jangbi's starting to expo at 7. Jangbi recalls in Nada's base. Nada cleans it up with units quickly. JangBi recalls into Nada's expo. Jangbi ggs.
I just did an interview with JangBi and Idra after the games. I felt a lot more comfortable doing interviews with the Koreans and I think having LosingID as a translator helped a lot, esp having the time to think about my next question. However, when I interviewed Idra, I messed up a lot cuz I didn't have time to think in between and I couldn't even ask my questions correctly. Towards the end though, I just went on to a normal conversation and I got more comfortable with that. I think from now on I will try not to rely so much on ready made questions and instead think of categories to talk about. I hope I am improving.
I've had 4 video interviews so far. Here is the first one: http://www.mymym.com/en/coverage/529/15.html[spoiler="click for more..."]It is unfortunate that I can't get to watch every match. I tried doing this for many many events and it just ends up making me confused. I think I did well this year to just focus on knowing what happened on the stage match and getting the results for the other games immediately after.
These were my predictions as I posted in my StarCraft Preview on MYM: forGG > Xellos Yellow > Idra JangBi > Nada Savior > Cloud
Having done my research on every player, I was scared that these new players were so good that they would stomp on the old favorites. Most of my predictions came true except for the Yellow vs Idra match which surprised me a lot. I admit I don't know much about Idra. I heard he is a great player. I did know that he recently lost to G5 and Nony at the WCG US Finals. I also can't help but fall into the large population of people that think Koreans auto win against foreigners (although I often times hope against it). I do think it is great that Idra represented foreigners well and beat Yellow but I do admit that I have looked up to Yellow for such a long time that I was sad for him to lose so soon. Tournaments aren't the greatest at telling people who is better than who considering there is an aspect of luck involved but the fact that Idra 2-0ed Yellow tells me that he is doing something right.
The match on stage was Nada vs JangBi. It was more like an 'impending doom' match to me. I wanted Nada to win but I knew JangBi was strong and hard to beat. I also know that Nada has lost to JangBi multiple times before so it wasn't a big surprise when JangBi defeated him.
The second round games went as I predicted. I know forGG is also a very strong player nowadays but I had faith in Savior. Sure he is slumping but he is still doing pretty well and he pulled through for his fans when he managed to defeat forGG. I wish this was a stage match. This was probably a very good match to watch - top old school vs top new school player.
Third round solidified Savior's dominance as he 2-0ed JangBi. He pretty much made sure the new school players had no chance by kicking them out of the upper brackets. I was a bit surprised that forGG didn't do better in this tournament but he did go against the best old schoolers. Nada proved to everyone that he wasn't going down without a fight with his wins in Rounds 3, 4 and 5. He sought revenge against JangBi and fed off of the support of the fans and made his way to the finals. I was inspired after having interviewed him right before his match against JangBi. I knew he had the fire in him and I couldn't help but cheer him on.
The finals was amazing. It was so great to watch our favorites battle each other again on the BlizzCon stage. I was still rooting for Savior all the way but I was glad that Nada made it to the finals as well. I felt a lot of zerg pride as Savior dominated. I half wanted the matches to go on to the next best of 3 but I also wanted Savior to secure his win. I was very much elated when he won. His interview was great too. It was awesome that he prepared a speech in English. It just shows that he does think of us and he loves the support of his foreign fans as well.+ Show Spoiler +
Savior vs Nada
Andromeda, Othello, Colosseum
Game 1 - Andromeda Savior starts at 11, Nada at 5. Proxy Factory at middle. Savior spots middle fact. One vult gets out barely survives vs few lings. Nada does add on to factory at mid. Sunken protecting expo. Spire up mutas building. Terran is containing. One gollie is protecting tanks vs mutas. Siege tanks pushed back. Gollies vs Mutas. Factories at middle attacked by Savior at middle. Nada expoing. Protecting middle with gollies. Zerglings and mutas going vs gollies. Nada GGs Savior 1-0 Nada
Game 2 - Othello Savior starts at 4, Nada starts at 1. Nada 1rax cc. Pool among minerals in gap for savior. Savior hat, expo, extractor. Lair while focusing on drones. Nada building up rines. Lings scouting expo. Picking off Power Generator at Nada's expo. But pulls lings off to stay away from marines. Spire building. Nada using firebats to kill off lings. Nada tried to pick off sunks but Savior trapped him with lings. Counter attack at Nada's base with lings that got killed off easily. Spire is done. Savior muta micro harass at Nada's base. One ol selected along with his other mutas. Picking off turrets at Nada's expo. Picking off rines that are trying to defend expo. Nada's rines dying to muta micro. Lurks out. Hive going up. Savior has 3 base. Savior teching to defilers after effective muta harassment. Scii ves up Savior expos again - 4 bases now.. going on 5. ling lurker scourge. Nydus up. Nada goes for 10 expo of saviors but savior nyduses over to save his expo. Nada backs off. Ultralisk cavern up. Nada has six vessels Savior got a vessel or two. Eight bases to Nada's three bases. Nada attempts to go for 10 expo again. Trying to break the ramp. Saviors nydus over and decimates Nada's army and kills off all Nada's vessels. Savior going for nadas main with ultras. Nada scans all saviors bases and GGs Savior 2>0 Nada
MA JAE YOON FIGHTING!!!
The interview after was great because he spoke in english and said he destroyed everyone haha. So awesome.
There wasn't much for the rest of the day. I went to go play more StarCraft 2 with Froz, Sara, Qyx, collegebored, and Qyx's friend. Tried to check out more of the units. I kinda wish I had more time to play. After that we took some pictures, walked around, watched the comedian (he wasn't that funny), then headed out for some dinner at PF Changs. Headed back to the hotel after that. I fell asleep right away.. before midnight even.
Right now I'm still at the hotel, about to eat some breakfast and heading back to NY in a few hours.
2008 Post-BlizzCon Blog - StarCraft Invitational Tournament The StarCraft Invitational Tournament is the heart of BlizzCon for me. It is the main reason I go and it is the event that gets me the most excited. I LOVE being able to watch the players from right behind them and seeing their screens move and seeing the hotkey and mouse click action in person. I LOVE being able to see how the players are in person and getting a little glimpse of how they think when I interview them or hear others interview them. I LOVE the atmosphere, being up close to the action and being able to cheer with the rest of the crowd, "MA JAE YOON FIGHTING!!!" The support of the crowd and being able to be part of that is one of the best feelings I get from going to this event. I made sure I was there on time and up front with the rest of the StarCraft crowd whenever they had a stage match.
[spoiler="click for more..."]It is unfortunate that I can't get to watch every match. I tried doing this for many many events and it just ends up making me confused. I think I did well this year to just focus on knowing what happened on the stage match and getting the results for the other games immediately after.
These were my predictions as I posted in my StarCraft Preview on MYM: forGG > Xellos Yellow > Idra JangBi > Nada Savior > Cloud
Having done my research on every player, I was scared that these new players were so good that they would stomp on the old favorites. Most of my predictions came true except for the Yellow vs Idra match which surprised me a lot. I admit I don't know much about Idra. I heard he is a great player. I did know that he recently lost to G5 and Nony at the WCG US Finals. I also can't help but fall into the large population of people that think Koreans auto win against foreigners (although I often times hope against it). I do think it is great that Idra represented foreigners well and beat Yellow but I do admit that I have looked up to Yellow for such a long time that I was sad for him to lose so soon. Tournaments aren't the greatest at telling people who is better than who considering there is an aspect of luck involved but the fact that Idra 2-0ed Yellow tells me that he is doing something right.
The match on stage was Nada vs JangBi. It was more like an 'impending doom' match to me. I wanted Nada to win but I knew JangBi was strong and hard to beat. I also know that Nada has lost to JangBi multiple times before so it wasn't a big surprise when JangBi defeated him.
The second round games went as I predicted. I know forGG is also a very strong player nowadays but I had faith in Savior. Sure he is slumping but he is still doing pretty well and he pulled through for his fans when he managed to defeat forGG. I wish this was a stage match. This was probably a very good match to watch - top old school vs top new school player.
Third round solidified Savior's dominance as he 2-0ed JangBi. He pretty much made sure the new school players had no chance by kicking them out of the upper brackets. I was a bit surprised that forGG didn't do better in this tournament but he did go against the best old schoolers. Nada proved to everyone that he wasn't going down without a fight with his wins in Rounds 3, 4 and 5. He sought revenge against JangBi and fed off of the support of the fans and made his way to the finals. I was inspired after having interviewed him right before his match against JangBi. I knew he had the fire in him and I couldn't help but cheer him on.
The finals was amazing. It was so great to watch our favorites battle each other again on the BlizzCon stage. I was still rooting for Savior all the way but I was glad that Nada made it to the finals as well. I felt a lot of zerg pride as Savior dominated. I half wanted the matches to go on to the next best of 3 but I also wanted Savior to secure his win. I was very much elated when he won. His interview was great too. It was awesome that he prepared a speech in English. It just shows that he does think of us and he loves the support of his foreign fans as well.[/spoiler] 2008 Post-BlizzCon Blog - Interacting with Players The language barrier sucks. I don't like just standing there right next to them, wondering what's going on in their minds or wanting to congratulate them and not being able to communicate that with them. All I could do is look at them and maybe smile or bow. I did say congratulations and good luck a few times, hoping that they understood enough english to get it through to them.
[spoiler="click for more..."]I personally hate interviews. I apologize to every site I have worked for but I know and the rest of the world knows that I am just not very natural in front of the camera. I do feel like interviews are important enough that I will get over my dislike of them in order to do them. I only hate interviews because I get very nervous and I know I stumble over my words a lot when I am not prepared. I do love how it is a great way to very quickly cover an event, explain situations, give the world a better view of the people we look up to, and get answers that so many are curious about. I have a personal goal of being more comfortable in front of the camera as time goes by. I know I am naturally introverted and shy but I know that around gamers, I can get over that. On one on one situations, I can carry a normal conversation with people and once I get into that mode, I love learning about what they have to say and what they are all about. Gamers are interesting to me and thus, I believe that if I just pretend the camera isn't there and I get over nerves, I can carry a normal interview. I do believe that I am getting better over time though and I'm getting a better handle on the task.
I did four interviews at this event - Savior, Nada, JangBi and Idra. I think I came up with pretty good questions and I genuinely wanted to know a lot about them through these questions. I wish I had time to come up with more but I didn't want to take up too much of their time. I was ridiculously nervous with my first interview but I did calm down a lot over time so that by the time I got to JangBi, I was the most comfortable. I love getting a glimpse of each player's personality whenever I interview them. Although Savior was my favorite player among them, I enjoyed interviewing Nada the most. He just seemed so much more full of fire, willing to work hard to win, finding importance in the support of the fans and asking that they continue to cheer him on. He is one of the greatest StarCraft players ever and I have a lot of respect for him. As always, after I interview a player, I feel more of a connection with them and I end up rooting for them more. I have interviewed four Korean Progamers so far (three this year and Nal_Ra last year) and I look up to and respect them all.
Interviewing Idra threw me off though. I got so used to that lag time to look at my questions and having that time to think while the translator took his time translating that I screwed up big time interviewing Idra. I didn't have time to think so I couldn't even ask the questions normally. I kept stumbling over my words and adding in a lot of umss and uhhs. By the end of the interview though I ran out of questions but I ended up getting into a normal conversation with him. People told me that this was what I needed. I shouldn't rely on my questions (what I call my "build order") so much because the interview goes a lot better if I just let the conversation flow. It ends up seeming a lot more natural. I figured that next time I do rounds of interviews, I will just have categories to talk about and have more faith in my conversation abilities. I don't know if Crow will post up that Idra interview as I messed that one up so much. I do hope to have more opportunities in the future to do interviews so that I could get used to it. There is so much value to the things people say that I do believe it is important to capture these things on film.
I also want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to LosingID8 (from TL). I tried to recruit Cypressman to help translate interviews but he was too busy with yg. Jonas and I tried two random translators. The first one did an okay job but the answers translated in English seemed so short compared to the amount of Korean that was being said. The second one was just horrible. I had to repeat myself a gazillion times and his English was AWFUL. I'm so glad LosingID8 came to save the day. I hope to put in a good word for him so that Blizzard could use him as an official translator at their events. I hope to see more of him in Korean interviews. Please support him as a translator! He does a great job (at least this is also what I hear from Koreans who understand the interview). [/spoiler] 2008 Post-BlizzCon Blog - StarCraft II Gameplay Whenever I got into a StarCraft II Game, I just wanted to win. I can't help it. It is part of my competitive nature and I quickly forgot that I was there as a journalist. They only had 1v1s whereas last BlizzCon they had 2v2s. Not sure why they switched it up. I played as zerg this time. It was my first time finally being able to pick that race! My first game was pretty short. I did early rush/harass tactics, expanded and went mass speedlings. My second game I went muta ling.
[spoiler="click for more..."]Couple things I noticed: 1) I can totally play this game just like I do regular StarCraft. It felt familiar enough that it was easy to pick up and the hotkeys were the same so I didn't have any trouble with it. 2) They modified MBS (Multiple Building Selection) a bit so that when you select a bunch of buildings and select a unit, you have to keep pressing that key for each unit you want to build. Last time, pressing the key would make a unit for every building (which was ridiculously ridiculous). 3) Lurkers weren't as easy to make or maybe I just didn't know how to make them. I saw that they were still in the game as it was used on the onstage match but I couldn't get to it using the conventional method of just upgrading Lurker Aspect at the den. Weird thing - the Den evolves to a higher tier building if you make this other building. 4) Zerg buildings that were killed would blow up into a ton of broodlings that attack the opponent. I would've been dead without these but I felt like the game was saving me and I wasn't saving myself. It was a bit of an issue with relinquishing control. 5) The drones were hard to control sometimes as it would take a couple of clicks to get it's attention to make it do something. 6) Every time I play this game I keep feeling like the buildings are so big that it takes up too much of the screen space. This just makes me span and move around the map more. 7) I don't really like how peons automatically mine. I feel like this was an aspect of StarCraft that made it more challenging and it was part of determining the difference between a good player and a noob. Do we really want to get rid of the 'problem' of idle peons?
I played from the point of view of someone who didn't want to take too much time to learn and just wanted to dig in with what was familiar but along the way, it became frustrating not knowing what units and upgrades were available to me. I suppose the part of the fun of playing StarCraft is the familiarity with it. I believe this is something that can be overcome with experience playing the game but it is a hurdle to get past. I played another game where I was just trying out new units and new buildings. I feel I will need some time to just explore everything without feeling threatened or feeling the need to attack.
Beyond the new units and buildings, I still worry about the visual spam a bit. You do get used to the 3D world enough to play normally but the fact of the matter is, it does get in the way. There are many times when buildings look so much alike that it is hard to distinguish one from the other. I did think that there were so many squiggly things on my map I didn't know if it was a unit moving or just my hatchery. I couldn't tell the difference between zerglings and broodlings. The zerg units seemed so much more bug-like and I actually prefer that it didn't.
The overall consensus seems to be that a lot of people will get into it. There will be a lot of support for this game, at least initially. People will try to make it into an e-sport. However, there is a lot of doubt surrounding the longevity of the game. I don't know if it is quite up to par yet with it's predecessor. I hope that Blizzard will focus on multiplayer and improve gameplay more.[/spoiler] 2008 Post-BlizzCon Blog - StarCraft II Trilogy Given the following options Blizzard presented to us about how to approach the problem of wanting a bigger, better game, "A) Simplify the Campaign, B) Make Each Campaign EPIC, But Release Them Each As A Separate Product, C) Compromise in the Middle, But Delay The Game Greatly", it seems like B is the best choice and the entire audience was delighted to hear the decision Blizzard came to at the StarCraft II Gameplay panel. However, it still leaves that empty feeling - the feeling of getting your hopes of hearing a release date just shatter in front of you. Is this really the best solution?
[spoiler="click for more..."]I admit I was blown away with the cinematics and big plans for the single player aspect of StarCraft. It is a good marketing plan to separate the game into three, thus securing more financial gain from it's loving fans. Plus, it leaves the developers to keep the future open ended. It's sort of similar to how Lucas secured himself six movies in his contract for Star Wars so that no matter how much it sucked in the end, it would be produced and it's broad and loyal fan base will support it. The story seems very intriguing. And I do want to see what it is like to play as StarCraft's big heroes, especially through the eyes of Kerrigan! I want the open ended environment, the multiple threads in the storyline and the well developed plotline. But isn't this just another game? Sure, the ideas sound great but the big draw to StarCraft is the multiplayer aspect, the custom maps, the tournaments, the competition. This is what is keeping it so huge in Korea. Who cares if the best single player gamer out there beats the game? We want to SEE the best multiplayer gamers out there show their skills!
I personally don't mind having the trilogy as long as it doesn't greatly affect the multiplayer aspect. I want to learn more about the plans for multiplayer. I'm happy that Blizzard is focusing on single player and are excited to develop it but what about MULTIPLAYER? All I will say is that they better make sure the multiplayer is very solid. They cannot afford disappoint their audience.[/spoiler] 2008 Post-BlizzCon Blog - Teamliquid BlizzCon is ridiculously busy for me. I have a tendency to get easily distracted so I can barely keep my attention on one person. There are so many people to meet and talk to that I end up spreading myself out too thinly sometimes. I wish I could spend more time with the teamliquidians but I was often too preoccupied. I am grateful for being able to develop friendships through BlizzCon and other StarCraft events though.
[spoiler="click for more..."]At BlizzCon last year, I was able to make friends with lilsusie and XaI)CyRiC as they supported me through my interviews and overcoming fangirl-ism. I was also proud of being able to play a big part in getting Manifesto to cast with Tasteless for the on-stage matches. I believe I also finally met LordofAscension this year. The BlizzCon before that, Cypressman helped me out a lot by introducing me and getting me pictures and signatures with the progamers.
This year, I spent a lot of time with Qyx <3, collegeBored (as always.. he started me with teamliquid), Froz and Sara.
Press: I got to talk to Plexa a lot at the Press Room. It was great learning about his thoughts on StarCraft II. I got some of it on video but he filled up my memory. He went on to talk about a lot of MSL and OSL games he had watched. He definitely has a lot of enthusiasm about the game, especially when it comes to following the professional leagues. I, of course, spent a lot of time with The.Crow too as he was there to take the interviews and post them up. I admire his quick video editing and dedication to posting news up quickly. I am also grateful for his help in calming me down during interviews. He also took a lot of great pictures with quality that my camera will never reach. Xeris looks so damn different it took me a while to realize who he was. Dang.
RTS Stage/Progamer Area: I loved how people from teamliquid were so easy to spot since most of them were wearing Teamliquid tshirts =D. Thanks for your support, guys! The first guy I recognized there was incontrol. He was right next to Machine. They were pretty easy to spot. I was so happy to see Day[9] in the audience. I hadn't seen him in a while and it was great hanging out with him in the crowd and also at BJs. It was good to see Tasteless and Artosis doing their thing on stage. I am glad Blizzard got them to do the casting. I kept poking Panorama for updates on games I didn't watch. He is so easy to spot with his crazy hair. I got to see Cyric again, briefly. It was nice seeing him again. I saw Cypressman here and there. I saw the old Gameriot guys - Slasher and JP. I was with LosingID8 also during my interviews as I mentioned earlier. Last Romantic - Go Bears!I also saw Virii there. He didn't recognize me. I was all like.. dude, you interviewed me -_-;; =p. I got to talk to LordofAscension for a bit while waiting to get into the BlizzCon fansite mixer thing that I ended up giving up on. I got to meet Peanut briefly (but I kept getting interrupted -- sorry bout that).
Over twenty years after his hit single went to No. 1 in 16 countries, 80s pop star Rick Astley has been nominated in the category Best Act Ever as his fans take his hit single ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ literally and flock to write-in his name as a nominee.
Rick Astley – in his first ever nomination in the history of the MTV Europe Music Awards – will compete against Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Green Day, Tokio Hotel and U2 for Best Act Ever.
The finalists in the Video Star category were also revealed today as selected by MTV - with Madonna receiving her only EMA nomination this year for ‘4 Minutes’. She is battling for the Award against 30 Seconds to Mars, Santogold, Snoop Dogg and Weezer.
Here are all the nominees for Best Act Ever and Video Star:
Best Act Ever: Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Green Day, Rick Astley, Tokio Hotel, U2
Video Star: 30 Seconds to Mars – ‘A Beautiful Lie;’ Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake – ‘4 Minutes;’ Santogold – ‘L.E.S. Artistes;’ Snoop Dogg ‘Sensual Seduction;’ Weezer – ‘Pork and Beans.’
Vote now to determine who will win in Best Act Ever and watch on 6 November to see who MTV chose for Video Star.
Let's "RickRoll" the MTV Music Awards !! - FinalGear.com Forums Sep 17, 2008 ... Ok, here goes. The idea has it's roots at wow-europe forums (so I'm told), I came across this on the musicians forum I read and follow. forums.finalgear.com/entertainment/lets-rickroll-the-mtv-music-awards-30364/ - 78k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Digg - Rickroll the MTV Music Awards Using this script, you can autovote countless time to nominate Rick Astley under the category, "Best Act of All Time". I detect epic win. digg.com/music/Rickroll_the_MTV_Music_Awards - 23k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
How to RickRoll MTV Music Awards - GameTrailers.com Forums This is a discussion forum powered by vBulletin. To find out about vBulletin, go to http://www.vbulletin.com/ . forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=555683 - 133k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
GameSpot Forums - Off-Topic Discussion - Help Rickroll MTV Music ... Sep 11, 2008 ... Help Rickroll MTV Music Awards ... GameSpot Forums - Off-Topic Discussion - Help Rickroll MTV Music Awards ... www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=26588516 - 47k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Endless Online • View topic - HELP RICKROLL MTV MUSIC AWARDS!!!! Sep 10, 2008 ... Re: HELP RICKROLL MTV MUSIC AWARDS!!!! Post by DE_InVaLiD__ on Wed Sep 10, 2008 2:17 pm. +10 love cookies to whoever added the music. Image ... forum.endless-online.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=1276957 - 35k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Help Rickroll the MTV awards! - Icrontic Forums Help Rickroll the MTV awards! Web & Media. ... MTV Wants Its Online-Music Store, KingFish, News, 1, 7 May 2004 03:25 PM. Golden Joystick Awards 2003 ... icrontic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74428 - 78k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Rickroll MTV music awards - Shadowsong Europe Forums Rickroll MTV music awards Off Topic. ... really nice Flawless is just really nice. Send a message via MSN to Flawless. Default Rickroll MTV music awards ... www.shadowsongeurope.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21456 - 53k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Rickroll the MTV awards. - Comic Book Resources Forums Rickroll the MTV awards. You'll All Be Sorry. ... You'll All Be Sorry, When Words Collide, Miscellaneous Forums, Anime & Manga, Books, Games, Music, TV/Film ... forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=238912 - 36k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Help Rickroll MTV - Computer Forums Sep 19, 2008 ... Another forum I go to is trying to get people to help Rickroll MTV. Vote :: Vote Now :: MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 :: 06.11.08 ... www.tech-forums.net/pc/f6/help-rickroll-mtv-185672/ - 24k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
Health and games Still, players scored well on physical health compared to the rest of the nation. They reported exercising vigorously once or twice a week, as opposed to 62 percent of American adults who don't exercise for more than 10 minutes at any time.
Players were also 10 percent leaner than the average American, according to their height and weight reports. Williams and his colleagues used the same self-report questions used in common national health surveys.
Unfortunately, mental health was another matter. "EverQuest II" players were 50 percent more likely than the average American to have been diagnosed with depression, and reported a 20 percent higher rate of substance addiction. However, the researchers said the survey could not tell if depressed or addicted people were simply more drawn to such games to begin with, rather than the game causing ill mental health.
As you know from my previous blog, I think of life as an RPG. But don't you think the gym is even moreso an RPG? You have all these different objectives - Chest/Triceps, Back/Biceps, Legs/Shoulders and you want to increase the weights or reps or speed or endurance each time you go.
I love the weight room. I love dumbbell bench presses most of all. Yesterday, I graduated to the "big boy" dumbells. The light weights go from 5 to 15 and the heavier weights go from 15 to the heaviest it gets in the gym (45 or 60 or 100 or whatever, I am not sure). I usually do the bench presses with 10s or 12s but I managed to do 3 sets of 14-15 with 15 lb weights using the heavier weights ^_^. It felt great. I just hope to keep it up!
Here is my exercise routine: Monday - Strength 30 min /Cardio (Hip Hop/Elliptical/Treadmill) 1 hr Tuesday - Flexibility (Pilates/Stretching) Wednesday - Strength 30 min/Cardio 20 min Thursday - Strength 30 min (if no Strength on Fri)/Cardio 20 min (Elliptical/Treadmill/Breakdancing) Friday - Strength 30 min - or - Rest Saturday - Rest Sunday - Flexibility (Contemporary/Ballet)
What is your exercise routine?
I am used to doing the strength exercises and I am most consistent with those. I really dislike cardio but I am pushing myself to do more of that. It's fun when a dance class is involved but I don't like the stair master/elliptical/treadmill very much. Flexibility is something I need to get more into considering I can no longer do the splits and I miss it. Plus, having done research on fitness, it seems like it is an essential part that I tend to skip out on.
Cardio: * 20-60 minutes of continuous or short-bout exercise * 3-5 days a week * Working between 77% and 90% of your maximum heart rate * Varying the intensity, time and type of your workouts
Strength: * Choose 8-10 exercises, targeting the major muscle groups (lower body, chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps and abs) * For beginners, do one set of 8-16 reps of each exercise to fatigue. More advanced exercisers can do 2-3 sets. * Train each muscle group 2-3 non-consecutive days a week * Work each exercise through its full range of motion and use good form
Flexibility: * Stretch your muscles when they're warm (after your warm up or, even better, after your workout) * Do static stretches with a focus on tight areas such as the hamstrings and lower back * Stretch a minimum of 2-3 days a week...even better would be every day * Stretch within your range of motion. Stretching shouldn't hurt. * Hold each stretch for about 15-30 seconds and do 2-4 reps of each stretch
(I figured I'd post this entry in my tl blog since I think gamers would get it more).
I like upgrading my character. In the past, I hadn't really focused on it's well-roundedness and I've just been doing what everyone else does. I finished putting my character through school to upgrade it's intelligence level because that seems to be the first basic step. The next step was to get a job and that seemed pretty straight-forward too. The goal was to get a positive cash flow to upgrade my character's finances. As time goes on and my character's experience increases, I can add more skill points, get a better job and continue to increase finances with a higher salary.
I found fun hobbies for my character to do. The more time I get my character to play games I enjoy, the higher it's skill level becomes and the better I get at these games. This does increase my character's overall happiness and even it's social skill level but it just didn't seem as productive. I wanted to go through bigger level-ups.
I did a lot of research online and found strategies that will help me increase my finance level through wise allocation of money through investments. I also got a book that gave me an idea of what I needed to do. Excited with all this new knowledge since I found out how to optimize my money long-term, I reallocated my money and put them into highly rated and recommended mutual funds and the best interest bearing CDs and money market accounts. I feel like this is a great way to level up my character in the long run. Sort of like building moon wells in my base in the best locations.
Health and nutrition is another aspect of my character which I had neglected. I made sure to bring my character in for regular check ups and maintenance. My character is healthy but I have found strategy guides on improving nutrition. As of now, I am researching this and I will figure out the best way to optimize my character's nutrition. When that happens, I will feel fulfilled again!
Here are the categories I focus on:
- Relationship - I think I'm doing great with this aspect of my character's life. I've chosen to match my character with an amazing character that helps boost my level for every category.
- Happiness - I can never be satisfied. I always need to improve. I am happy with life overall but I always want to make things better.
- Job (Incoming Money) - I feel like I've made great job choices. It is always something that gives me a good flow of income, adds plus points to my happiness, and doesn't stress me out too much.
- Finance (Money Management) - I think I've optimized this as much as I can. I am glad to have done my research so that I don't have to worry about it anymore. I can just leave this alone now and let it grow. http://www.morningstar.com/ was my best friend.
- Intelligence - I feel like I haven't done much since I graduated college. I have been increasing knowledge in a lot of areas in life to improve myself in multiple categories but I do want to be more up to date with the latest in web coding and technology. This will also help me increase monetary intake through work (not only through my main job but also through side jobs). I need to know http://www.w3schools.com/ inside out.
- Fitness - I am going to the gym twice to three times a week and I have dance once or twice a week. I feel like this puts me in about an average level in fitness. I do want to push some sort of exercise to five days a week and research more about how to optimize my strength, cardio and flexibility. I've learned a lot about men's fitness and I've been following along with guy exercises but I want to see how to optimize toning within a woman's physique and see if it's any different o.Oa.
- Spiritual - I get a healthy serving of God in my life through church and small group every week.
- Social - I am constantly exposed to people. I do have fun with social activities but I get tired out quickly since I am highly introverted. I know I'm supposed to be reaching out and making new friends and networking more. I just need a lot of time alone to 'reboot' and get energy to hang out with people.
- Health/Nutrition - This is my next research project. I don't like food much and I am not the healthiest eater but I do wanna figure out how to eat a balanced diet. http://mypyramid.gov/ is going to be my new best friend.
- Family - Considering I am no longer surrounded by my family, I can only keep touch by phone call, email and infrequent visits. I am doing what I can and flying to California once in a while and to the Philippines once a year lately. I do hope to be reunited more often in the future.
What is your strategy for optimizing upgrades to your character?
I do feel like I am my own character in this game of Life. I strive to improve. I want to be better. I guess that is the competitive gaming side of me coming out. It's difficult to want to be better at everything since I have a tendency to spread myself out too thin. I guess my only way to focus is to obsess. The problem with this? I can't relax. I can't clear my head because I keep wanting to get back on my favorite MMORPG and use the time to upgrade. If I don't relax I will stress myself out. Sometimes I just need to force myself to turn 'it' off, to relinquish control of the game and leave the character be, idling and having it go on automatic, or maybe even have it sleep more. I need balance in my life.. balance and sleep.
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Update us on your amazing adventures some time soon please 
