rets

http://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn3218ng2.jpg

....lol

Hey guys, here are my pictures from blizzcon.

If you want full rez pm me. I took about 600 and narrowed it down to 125. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/retsukage/Blizzcon08TL#

featuring Jeremy from PurePwnage,tasteless , Incontrol, Machine, Idra, Sonkie, lyn, Yellow, Nada, Savior, Jangbi and much more.

I should add surprisingly Jeremy from purepwnage is super into the proscene which I had no idea of, oh and he is a huge ma jae yoon fan.

Also about SC2.
+ Show Spoiler +

Here are some photos I'd like to share, that I took recently. I found a cliff over looking the sea, by exploring on my bike around my new college in San Fransisco.
I found it amazing to look out from this cliff, and I usually take my bike there everyday now. Enjoy.



















and a self portrait of me :D



If you want to see the full size of these photos please ask

Well tomorrow I'm moving to SF to go to SF state college. It will be my freshman year. I was wondering what TL.neters are up there and if any are possibly going to that college. Also if anyone can give me any heads up or tips that would be great.

EDIT: since the pictures arn't working I am just linking you all a gallery
http://picasaweb.google.com/retsukage/EuropeTripShort

Part 3 Germany

part one and two here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=75522
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=75523


the train to germany

I took a train from Paris to Germany with my Eurail pass, and woot they forgot to mark my pass so that means I got an extra train ticket. I called up Naruto and told him to meet me at the Dussledorf main station. Naruto and his friend picked us up by car, which was awesome because it was raining and thundering like crazy. After we got to his house, we ordered some pizzas and relaxed while watching some crazy horror movie about plants.


Naruto's command center

It pretty much rained the entire time I was in Germany, which was fine since I was at Naruto’s house and he had plenty to do. While I was there, we played this crazy racing game called Grid a ton, man that game is awesome. Naruto was ownage at it too. Anyway we shared stories of the WWI hung out; I coached Naruto on war3, talked to his German friends, watched videos on youtube, played starcraft and in general just owned it up. Germany was fun as hell, so thanks again to Naruto, that was a blast man.


Naruto owning

Part One with most of the writing:
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=75522

http://picasaweb.google.com/retsukage/EuropeTripShort/photo#5224984798194010370
sea displaying his macro

I was staying with Raven at a hotel for the nights of the Invitational. The next morning we chatted up SC2 strats and then it was time to say goodbye.

http://picasaweb.google.com/retsukage/EuropeTripShort/photo#5224984985977966242

goodbye raven! and good luck!

I went back to my hotel in Paris for a couple more days. In Paris I was with my two friends from LA, we just walked around Paris and went to so many different sights, its amazing all the history and art in that city. I actually ran into Talith and his girlfriend again, near the Eiffel Tower which was a pretty neat coincidence (shout out to them too, those folks are awesome, Talith if you read this you have to come to Blizzcon). It was also really funny to see people walking around with their invitational goody bag on them just like me. I made sure to highfive everyone of them that I saw, Even if they were very confused by my gesture and didn’t speak English.


final fantasy style boss encounter in notre dame






rich guy drinking tea in a fancy french building
a bad ass statue

expect video clips of wwi soon
After Paris next up was Germany. Coming up in Part 3

I’m writing this about three weeks after I left to Europe. I'm home now w00t!

From the first day I heard about the Blizzard WWI I knew I had to somehow find a way to get there. So I saved up money from my job and was able to gather some extra cash for graduating high school. I mustered enough and was able to get myself over to Europe. Once I slowly began realizing that this trip was no longer a joke, but in fact was possible I began to plan out my nearly month long trip to Europe.

This trip was too epic for words. First stop was Paris and the WWI. Next was Naruto’s house in Germany (another thanks to him for an awesome time). Next up was Amsterdam and after that Denmark. My entire side of my fathers family lives in Denmark in the small town of svenborg, after meeting up with a family friend there I would travel to Kobenhavn.

Arriving in Paris was crazy, my first thought was “Fuck, am I really in Paris? I’m halfway across the world from where I was just a moment ago, and I have no fucking idea what’s going to happen to me”. The first thing I had to do was find the hotel I was staying at, which was small, dirty and most importantly cheap. I noticed the streets in Paris were very confusing since in Paris the street signs are attached to the buildings which took me a while to figure out, they also have these weird roundabout circles that didn’t really make any sense to me. Anyway once I got to the hotel and checked in I dropped off my things and took a trip down to the Louvre which turned out to be really amazing and was probably the coolest thing I saw in Paris (other then the WWI of course).


The Louvre


A pretty damn epic wheel chair


The best piece of art in the damn place

The next day after much confusion I met up with Naruto and his friend Hot. It took us forever to find each other at the main rail station of Paris Gar de Nor. When trying to find a meeting place I told Naruto over the phone that I was at the relay store, and he instantly replied “me too!” but we didn’t see each other. I overheard him asking the store clerk, “How many relay stores are there in Gar de Nor?” sadly the answer was fourteen. After the confusing mishmash of random incorrect directions we finally met up and went out to dinner. After dinner we headed back to his hotel where we eagerly awaited the next day. We killed time playing games (Toho shoot em’ ups) on his friend’s laptop and watching SC as well as other random videos.


A toho screen shot

The next couple of days at the Invitational were incredible



I can’t hope to describe how good they were. All the TL folks were great people and we met up with them right away. Naruto and I headed over to the SC2 area, in which we had VIP access since we both played in the community tournament. We made sure to take a minute to laugh at the people standing in line; then enjoyed hours of un-interrupted SC2. Enjoying the matches with TL people was awesome as well as talking and getting pictures with the progamers. During the match between Mondragon and Sea I gave Tasteless a cheerful which I thought he really deserves. The best match of the day though was Kal vs Stork. It was sick and very entertaining. Even though my favorite of the two players is Kal I felt that Stork defiantly deserved those wins and overall victory at the WWI. Also while playing a SC2 game against a random person I got paired against the WGT admin Jaap, I lost but told him I was getting a rematch at Blizzcon. Jaap was a pretty cool guy and was very nice to talk to.



I was shocked to see how polished and complete SC2 felt. The only thing that seemed obviously new and out of place was the new gas mechanic. Other then that I have very few complaints about SC2, and those small complaints I’m sure will be worked out by the time beta comes around. The party after the first day was awesome, except for the pissed off French waiter who begrudgingly served us, but that was just hilarious. Not much in this world is funnier then a pissed of French dood.







The second day was equally as awesome. I talked to the art director of Blizzard, Samwise and he actually wrote down a piece of advice I gave him about the art direction of Battle.net.

Watching Idra and Savior play against each other in SC2 was awesome


stork


but watching Savior reveal who he was to his noob opponents was priceless. But the second party was unbelievable; I couldn’t believe both Sea and Savior were there! Not to mention all the other badass folks hanging around. Drinking shots with Savior and Tastless was defiantly the highlight of the night, as well as taking photos with sea’s camera. It was also great to talk to Idra and the War3 caster (I think that guy got really drunk because he was really just insulting everyone by the end of the night; it was hilarious). All in all it was a great night. I was surprised the hotel staff didn’t kick us out. After a bit of thinking I realized the Eurocup ended that night; and I think we all know it’s illegal to end a Eurocup party in Europe.


TL spelled in beer art



idra tastless raven







finishing this up in part 2

(if anyone has an high quality upload site they can recommend please do)

A fire that once ravaged the hillside near my house burned down many acres. Leaving nothing but ash and char. I took photos of this destruction, as well as the destruction of the church and homes near mine.(this happened near November, the fires that took place all over California) I come back to one of the many burnt fields, and its glorious. Hundreds if not thousands of flowers lie in every direction.



















Isn't it beautiful? Death and rebirth, the cycle of all.

So far I have been living at my friends house for about 7 days. I have not really had to much time to play starcraft :/ lol, but I have been playing alot of audiosurf with him as well as some Team Fortress 2. Anyway I also have not had time to work on photoshop at all so sadly I don't have anything new in that respect to show you. However I decided to upload some of my photography, I hope you might enjoy it.

I am also curious what kind of skill lvl something like Iccup requires. It seems like it would be alot of fun.

I decided to work some more with my other images and make wallpapers out of it. I cant really decide if I like the one with the headphones in the center, because right now I think its fairly ugly lol. Anyway on my computer, these are all 1600-1200 resolution, unfortunately photobucket downsizes them. The last picture is of myself at my computer.









Aside from the photos, I have been really lazy lately, one of those moods where you don't want to do anything. Whats on my mind right now is college, as I am almost done with my senior year in my high school. I have been making films for over four years now, so that is what I want to study in college. Hopefully one day I'll make a starcraft documentary . I'm also very intrested in photography and have a lot of great photos, I am unsure however if I should upload them to this blog or not.