State of Chubacca’s Game

Recently, I got promoted from Platinum to Diamond, then I stopped playing for a significant amount of time, then came back to BNET and played 20 games, losing approx. 15 of them, then got demoted down to Platinum.

The demotion was premature I feel. I was trying out new strategies. But whatever, it’s only a matter of time before I’m Diamond, although once again, I will have much less time to grind out games. Especially since Diablo 3 will be out in a little more than a month!

This post acts as a time capsule of sorts for myself, mostly to see what my understanding of the game (Starcraft 2) is at currently, and comparing to the future.

ZvZ

There are no shortcuts in ZvZ, in the past, I tried to find ways to skip zerglings and go directly to roaches, but this turned out to be safe only for a little while. Having no way to pressure the opponent, they get a bigger economy and eventually I am on my backfoot for too long.

Zergling and baneling play is a necessary Evil.

After I lost to a 14 pool/14 gas, zergling and baneling attack, I started to use it myself. This build has the main weakness of the ramp being blocked off by buildings or 2 Queens. The main objective is to infiltrate the mineral line with the banelings and cripple their economy by killing their drones. So far, it has been very effective. Another counter to this build would be defensive banelings. But it comes down to a bit of luck since the offensive banelings are faster (defensive banelings have to predict where you are going).

After getting enough damage, I transition to expansion, roaches or mutas.

ZvT

This was the main reason I dropped down to Platinum, but I have stabilized this matchup lately by going fast expand into mutas. The quickness of my build usually catches the terran a bit off guard, even when they scout the spire. Mutas also offer the most important factor of scouting their build, and I can react accordingly by stopping muta production or ramping it up. Upgrades for zergling and baneling speed takes priority over the massing of mutas, which I do incrementally.

ZvP

Although toss like to cry ‘zerg op’, I find this matchup a bit confusing so far because I am overpreparing for DTs, stargate play, early zealot pressure. The most common build against toss fast expand is to 3 base and then mass roaches. I am still figuring out when to build units to defend the third. I think I am overly worried about really fast tech.

I am late to the strategy of counterattacking, however. I have found that when an army ball is incoming, a fast counterattack does enough damage to cripple the current toss attack. They can’t reinforce, etc.

One key thing I have learned from recent laddering is to familiarize myself with one build and not to deviate. This consistency translates into very powerful play. I realize this is common advice, but it’s one thing to hear it and another to experience it for myself.

Packing for the Mayan Riviera

A quick update: I am going to the Mayan Riviera, currently the Canada Government travel advisory for that area of Mexico is to ‘exercise high degree of caution’, which is alarming, but okay, at least Tropical Storm Nate fizzled and there is no other storm within the six days we plan to stay there.

The biggest anxiety inducing obstacle, for some reason, has been deciding on which camera to take. With no convenient (ie. light, portable, affordable) wide DX lense, I wanted to take a point and shoot camera, however, we have lost the battery charger for our Canon Powershot SD850 IS, and I lent my Panasonic Lumix FX30 to my mom. A charger, an official Canon charger that is, ostensibly costs 80 bucks which can buy you a much improved replacement camera. With that thinking, a day long grueling internet research into the best available point and shoot commenced and I started drooling over these two cameras in particular: the Olympus XZ-1 and Panasonic Lumix LX5. The Olympus camera I had read about recently on Advanced Photographer (Photography?) magazine, and the LX5′s predecessors had rave reviews and is used by cool photobloggers such as topleftpixel. After much grief, desire and discussion with Mel over MSN, I decided that I needed to use my Nikon D3000 more, and I couldn’t really afford the price of a professional point and shoot anyway. (What does afford mean anyway? One can “afford” anything!)

I decided to use my starter kit lense, Nikkor 18-55mm, 3.5-4.8, as my main go-to travel lense. It is even high recommended by bythom as a “rational lense” to take. Knowing this will likely be a relaxing vacation in an all inclusive hotel, I should take it easy with the photos.

Also, here are the books I’m bringing. I realized I have no real Mexican authors. Roberto Bolano is Chilean, Borges is Argentinian, and even Mario Vargas Llosa is Peruvian.

Nazi Literature in the Americas, Roberto Bolano.
Cancun, Cozumel and the Yucatan, The Lonely Planet
Playa de Carmen, Tulum and the Riveria Maya, Joshua Eden Hinsdale (Great Destinations Series)

I’m still not too clear where exactly I’ll be staying (Aventura Spa Palace is somewhere south of Playa de Carmen). I’ll be away from Battle.net for six days, so my quest to Diamond as Zerg will be have to resume once I get back. GG everyone. Also: all my photos are uploaded on my photoblog http://marginaliac.tumblr.com.

PS. Off the top of my head, Conor Obert’s self-titled solo album seems like a great playlist for this trip. Maybe even some “Machu Picchu” by The Strokes.

Thoughts on technology in my life?

A 30 second clip of ‘Under the Cover of Darkness’ appears on Amazon. Meanwhile, the entire ‘The People’s Key’ and James Blake’s self-titled albums are streaming for free on the internet a month and a week before their physical release, respectively.

I remember purchasing ‘I’m Wide Awake/It’s Morning’ at HMV and listening to it on the bus ride home. I sat on the grass behind the bus stop, which was littered with cigarette butts. The sky was blue, the weather was wonderful. I had a portable CD player.

We used to buy an entire CD based on a single we loved. Now I may not even buy it if I like 2 songs. I just download those 2 songs. I still believe in the concept of an album artistically. It can be very well done. But an album is the concept of the artist.

I downloaded an ebook app on my IPhone 4. I read half of a short story by Chekhov. It was free. The story is very good, I haven’t finished it. Yet I carry the IPhone around with me everywhere (even to the can; especially to the can).

Recently, CD purchases have been motivated by an anxiety that I own no physical copies of music I’ve been listening to the last 5 plus years. I don’t even own any Elliott Smith albums. And I fucking love Elliott Smith more than any musician, author, artist, etc.

I could have written these thoughts in journal. The readership of this blog may be 2 people at most. Now these words are online. What does it mean? I had a blog in high school where I wrote little random poems. They seemed non-sensical and surreal, although I’m sure there was real emotion to them. I forgot about that blog, but I found it again a few weeks ago. It’s still there if one remembers to look for it.

Raptors vs Knicks, Season Opener: Loss

Despite good first half performance by Bargnani, great offense from Jack and spurts from Barbosa (6/16?), talent in the form of Wilson Chandler and Amare Stoudamire beat us out in the end. Bargnani coasted in the second half, and there was no production from Amir/Derozan/Weems. Kleiza was okay, just subpar. Blame this loss on the Young Onez. Also extra sucky due to game being on TSN2.

Toronto Raptors 2010-2011

I was about to title this post, “Toronto Craptors 2010-2011″, but realized I didn’t find the joke funny. Our team is not a joke, basketball is not a comedy . . . it is more like a melodrama, a sad sad melodrama.

Instead of pondering the value of literature today, I find a greater question in pondering the value of Andrea Bargnani, or Barfnanny as I like to call him, as the savior of the Toronto Raptors. Let me explain the origin of Barfnanny. (Content Advisory: Includes Paragraphs of High Bargnani Bashing for Comic Effect.) “Nanny” invokes the image of a maternal figure and of an infant. Now what happens when your mother steps on the basketball court? She will likely get sandwiched between two six-footers and have the ball smashed back on her face. Then a crowd will start to defend her exclaiming, “Why did you do that, man?”, and “Of course that would happen, what did you expect?” The last part was an allusion to how Bargnani is often seen as misused in either the wrong position or wrong system.

Now what happens when a fifteen year old steps on the basketball court? They dribble the ball off their feet. They release the ball faster than normal for fear of getting blocked. In fact, Bargnani often plays like he is 5 feet tall, needing to one-dribble to shake off a defender.

“Barf” denotes how surprisingly bad he is at times. Like when you make a bet that he will dominate a game where he is being defended by a much smaller forward, only to shoot a jumper a foot inside the three point line, and you lose the bet, and the bet was for you to do something so terrible it makes you vomit, then the next morning you catch the replay of the game and reflexively vomit again.

I am just kidding, sorta. It is too easy to make fun of Bargnani. I side with that half of the Raptors following that seriously believes Bargnani is misunderstood. Seriously. But if this season is to be watchable, he has to become comfortable with his post-game. There have been many pre-season games where Bargnani struggles inside but then shoots a few three-pointers to get his stats into some normality. Raptor fans don’t care about stats. We have a good sense of what makes a good player. We sense Demar Derozan is not quite there yet. We sense Sonny Weems is playing out of his “role”. However, we are not seers. If Derozan suddenly found his jumpshot, he can be a second-tier All-Star. If Sonny Weems averages 15-20 points, we will have a higher chance of winning 25-30 games.

This season, I am waiting for the thing I cannot predict. That thing that is not on paper, but always happens, like the Sixth Man, or Most Improved Players that come out of nowhere. Also, bad team on paper means potentially cheaper tickets! I hope to go to the season opener and see Reggie Evans play D on Amare Stoudemire.

Lost: The END :’( or :D

The flash-sideways is a tool for the writers to give closure for the characters and the viewers. It is like Harry Potter when you see everyone grown up. It’s supposed make you satisfied because everyone, no matter what happens to them in between the events of Season 6 and their deaths, will end up re-united with their loved ones. It is sad that they don’t get to do that in real life, but that’s because Jack is dead, and you don’t come back from death, no matter how much I thought Locke was going to be resurrected.

Now here are some questions I have. So Desmond, as a “fail-safe” was transporting between life and death. In the flash-sideways, does he realize they are all dead? I don’t think so, because when he comes back to this reality, he thinks he sees another reality, and thinks he is invincible. The reason why Desmond feels this is because he thinks he can “escape” to an alternate-reality where everything is fine, or even if he dies, he knows there is somewhere where everything turned out okay. IF he KNEW that the flashes brought him to the after-life, I don’t think he would have wanted to bring Jack there, because everyone will be there already. He thought Jack in the alternate-world was an alternate-Jack. What it really was, is that is was Jack after death, Jack’s soul.

Ben stays behind in “purgatory” because he needs forgiveness from his daughter. Weird how in the island world, the walkie-talkie didn’t really redeem Ben, he just wanted to kill people after all.

Anyway, I have more thoughts on this episode, and seasons in general, which I will spew afterwards.

Second Last Episode Before Season Finale

I can’t connect to the Lost Forum right now, it’s probably too busy. So I will give my impression of this episode. Not sure which number, its the one before the last episode before the special Sunday one-hour and half long season finale. Phew, mouthful.

We finally get to see the backstory of Jacob and the one without a name, “brother”. The new element to the Lost mythology is not so new: its the energy source of the Island, the shiny light, the source of weird electromagnetic power.

We also discover the Smoke Monster’s motivations are not so evil after all. He doesn’t seem to be evil incarnate, but he just really really wants to get off the island.

We see kid Jacob and kid Smokey get into lots of scuffles, but what we don’t see is what is holding them back from killing each other. The Mother is very blunt. She doesn’t seem to lie too often. Although she is manipulative, telling Smokey there is only the island, she also tells Jacob straight out that she killed their real mother. Interesting how she doesn’t lie to Jacob but does to kid Smokey. Nurture versus nature here. No wonder Smokey despises father-loving Locke; Locke who does not want to see reason; who does not want to see that he is being manipulated.

Now we know the kid in the woods that appeared this season is Jacob. What is interesting is that even though Smokey can see dead people, Sawyer saw the kid as well. Is Jacob alive?

Another thing: “Thank you” are the last words of the Mother. Did she want to die, she didn’t seem to age too much, was she immortal and was it her goal to be replaced and rest in peace? If so, was Jacob’s goal to be replaced too, he seemed to accept his death too readily.

A lot of things don’t mesh. But it’s funny how unlikable Jacob’s character turned, and how sympathetic we become to Smokey after just 1 episode, these writers can really manipulate us, the viewers, as well. I didn’t like the flashbacks to Season 1, because it seemed to be a way for the writers to show off how smart they are. I mean, they could have easily written this backstory after Season 1. However, I guess that wouldn’t explain the rocks in the bag … I guess that would require some advance planning, like using the motif of black vs white, and rules and such. But still! I liked how young Kate looked, though

Moving on! Good episode. Lost is definitely moving towards something. When did Jacob get his powers to grant wishes, etc? Hmmm. 8.5/10.

Lost 6×10 the obligatory Jin/Sun episode

Question: Would the Smoke Monster ever obtained the means to kill Jacob if Jacob never attempted to bring Losties to the island? The loop hole was never fully explained. I bring this up today because it seems that most people are on Jacob’s side: Widmore, Ilana, Jack, Ben, etc. Smokey tricked Ben into thinking Locke was doing Jacob’s will. The loop hole simply is Ben killing Jacob because Smokey can’t. This is hard because everyone is on Jacob’s side on the island. Now, I don’t believe the loop hole is that simple. Why? A) Because Jacob knew from Richard’s attempt that the Smokey was trying to get someone to kill him. B) He can kick most people’s ass. He probably could have stopped Ben. However, he didn’t. He couldn’t because that would violate his own beliefs. He is trying to show the Smoke Monster that people intrinsically choose the right thing, without manipulating. Smokey is trying to show Jacob that people are manipulated very easily and are corruptible. Now my other question is why Jacob seems mortal if he has stayed alive all these years. Who knows if we ever will find out.

In this episode, we find that Smokey pretty much only cares about leaving the island. Everything he does is to serve that purpose, he doesn’t care too much about the Losties at all. Now, many say that although Kate wasn’t a candidate in the cave, she was definitely seen in Jacob’s lighthouse. Maybe she is a candidate to be a candidate, a liminary being, neutral or capable of being both good and bad, or even outside its jurisdiction. Anyway, she had done batshit in the last few episodes, not even look hot. On this subject, did we really need that gratuitous close-up of Sun’s side-boob, c’mon. Somewhere in Seoul, a middle-aged Korean man is high-fiving his friend.

Anyway, overall it was a good episode. Knew Desmond was going to come back into it somehow. I don’t know what it means that Sayyid can feel nothing. What does it mean? Is it Sayyid’s fault that he killed temple people? Sayyid seemed capable of feeling before. I don’t think its anything to do with the bad water that resurrected him. It has something to do with killing Dogen. I don’t really understand it, or how it fits with the whole story. Smokey seems surprised Sayyid feels nothing too. He has turned into the perfect weapon. Here is hoping that it is psychological, and Sayyid will be redeemed by Jack in the end.

I liked it when Jack extended his hand to Sun, and asked if she trusted him. That scene felt like it actually needed the past 5 seasons of events to pull off. I trust Jack too, despite how fragile he was a couple seasons ago.

Lost 6×09 There’s Something About Ricardo

Richard Alpert’s wife is on her deathbed, so he rides to the next town to get the doctor. He is very poor, he can’t afford the medicine, and in a fit of anger, accidentally kills the asshole. The priest comes in and says he can’t be forgiven, there isn’t enough time, he is about to be hanged any moment. Irony: Richard is about to become immortal.

In this episode, we meet a very animated Jacob, who for all intents and purposes, seems to be capable of kicking ass and defending himself. Where were his fighting skills when Ben had the knife?

When Jacob takes out the wine bottle to explain where they are, I start to roll my eyes and prepare myself for another vague metaphor, when he gives a very lucid explanation. The island keeps evil from the world. The evil is the smoke monster.

This is where the show gets you. You think they’ve answered the big question, right? You think they have revealed their hand, laid down all their tricks, right? WRONG! We were supposed to find out why Richard never ages. We KNEW it was a gift from Jacob. All we see in this episode is the DRAMATIZATION of the giving of this gift from Jacob to Richard. Why does Jacob have all these powers? Can Richard die from any other means? It’s frustrating to think how little they actually reveal. Richard’s back story is sentimental and weepy, like Les Miserables in Spanish, and it kind of feels similar to all the back stories of the other Losties. But I do focus too much on the negatives.

Observation: The Smoke Monster’s instructions on how to kill “the devil” or Jacob are identical to what Dogen told Sayid to kill Smokey, ie. stab him with Link’s sword, don’t talk, stick it right to chest. How come this doesn’t work on Smokey but does to Jacob? That’s my question.

If what Jacob says is true, and that he wants people to decide what is right and wrong for themselves. And if the Smoke Monster believes that people are easily manipulated and corruptible. Then logically, the ideal candidate for Jacob is someone with their own conviction, someone independent. None of this sounds like Jack, at least recent Jack. When Jack was laughing at Locke behind his back (and to Locke’s face) before Jack left the island, I’d say Jack was pretty bull-headed and not easily swayed from his own idea of right and wrong. But he seems more open to suggestions. Does this mean he is more corruptible, maybe not. He is the one person who wants to do the right thing no matter what, even if he is confused most of the time. So far, I am not convinced that the Smoke Monster can’t find a way to convince Jack to do something in order to, let’s say, get Kate back, or get everyone off the island.

What is interesting is how independent Kate is. She is not easily corrupted, even though she did kill her father, which is murder. And Sawyer isn’t easily duped, he has a good heart. Good old Sawyer, with his good looks and easy smile and dimples as deep as a pool … ahem.

Hurley too, finally shows the extent of his importance. He convinces poor Richard to stay away from the Dark Side. If I was Richard I wouldnt know what the fuck to do either. So can’t say I blame him.

Overall, great episode. Not convinced about the Candidate thing tho. There is little motivation for any Lostie to stay on the island and fight evil. They just want to go home, don’t they? Don’t they?

Lost 6×08 The Recon (review w/spoilers)

James Ford is a cop! Sawyer is a hard-boiled hero who we all know will do the right thing in the end. When he came across Kate’s dress, I almost expected him to sniff it. Maybe he did during commercials. Anyway, I knew he wasn’t with the Smoke Monster.

What’s up with Smokey’s crazy mother? Could Smokey be Aaron? That doesn’t make much sense though. Smokey seems like a very likeable person so far. Ben has killed many people, and we seem to like him, so murder is not an impediment towards Smokey’s likeability.

Who killed all those people on the Ajira flight? Not Smokey, he seems trapped. Well, it might have been Smokey. More likely though, it was a third party, we have not yet encountered.

Also, who does Charlotte think she is? How can she reject the sad puppy-dog eyes of Sawyer?

Good episode overall, although I’m looking forward to next week’s even more, where Alpert’s backstory will finally be told.