Hello money, goodbye money
Sep. 26th, 2005 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
same_differenceI got paid today, with the added bonus that thanks to the efficiency of the companies finance department, I wasn't put on a temporary tax bracket so I didn't get charged income tax this month. However at the start of October my next lot of rent goes out, which is quite a bit as we pay quarterly, and I renewed my car insurance (making use of credit cards so I wouldn't have to pay until after my pay day) which is also quite a bit too*. So the net result is I have gained money, just not a great deal. Oh well hard come, easy go.
On the job front I finished my induction training at the end of last week and I'm now currently doing a C++ training course. However as of today I am actually starting on project, it's developing something for the broadcast sector, and has a tight deadline of December. Considering that design is due to finish at the end of October at the latest it will probably be quite hard work. It began life as training project to improve the companies broadcast sector expertise, but since they found a buyer interested in what's being developed the focus has changed slightly. So far I'm enjoying the work, well training, there is a nice attitude and atmosphere in the company which helps makes working more enjoyable, even if it the C++ course is dragging on a bit. Plus free fruit juice :-)
The flat is still really nice, and I'm really enjoying living with P. I had a couple of my friends from before uni come over for a little bit and it was really nice having other people see the flat. I look forward to having people over more often once I've got this whole work/life timing with more sorted. Of course people are welcome to come over now, as long as them give me a good warning, and be prepared to be told that we're to busy occasionally.
I need plate for my larp character for this coming year, but I won't be able to get it in time due to cost and waiting for the delivery. The thing is I'd like to start the character as soon as possible when the year starts, which means I'll have to borrow plate. Which I don't want to do as it restricts access to it for the newbies. Hmm, not sure what to do, anyone have suggestions.
I went to a Magic: The Gathering pre-release tournament on Saturday and came out 4-0-3 (wins-draws-losses) and placed about 22nd out of about 80 I think, which earned me a couple of boosters. Overall I had 10-0-5 (2-1 win, 0-2 loss, 1-2 loss, 1-2 loss, 2-0 win, 2-0 win, 2-0 win) on the individual matches which isn't so bad, though I would have liked to have done better considering the quality of cards I drew, including a significant amount of spot removal, though I did have an almost complete lack of cards that cost less than 3. I did get fairly poor luck typically in the matches I lost (mulliganing down to five and four, and just not drawing into the spot removal). Though it was really odd, I included a 41st card of 'Svogthos the Restless Tomb' a land which becomes a creature with power and toughness equal to the creatures in your graveyard for 3BG, and won my first round without using it, so took it out. I then lost three games in the row to horrendous bad luck at times, so I put it back in again, and win the next three with almost no difficulty. I don't understand it should have reduced the odds of me drawing what I needed not improved it. So what did I learn: if your deck wins don't change it. Actually I learnt something else too: don't look at the spoiler and spot one of the most pointless rares and say 'I bet I draw that'. Why, because I did, though in foil admittingly, and then I got it again in one of the boosters I won. Grozoth you mock me so. Damn you Wizards of the Coast and your multicolour sets that I can't resist.**
*I got my insurance via confused.com which I heartily recommend as my car insurance quotes I got through the broker I was with were about £120 pounds more (20%ish).
Magic: the gathering - a collectable card game that will eat your money, and that's before you even get to buying singles (which I don't, because I damn well won't buy a piece of card with some ink on it for £5, though I might sell one for one).
Pre-release - a limited tournament, i.e. one where you build decks out of what cards you get from the tournament packs and boosters you are given (1 tournament pack, and 3 boosters for a pre-release), in which players get a chance to play with the cards of a new set a week before it goes on sale (the only tournaments I do). WotC release a new block (consisting of 3 sets: a 350 card base set (including reprinted basic land with new artwork), and two 150 card sets every year at roughly 3 monthly intervals (The fourth release being an update of the core set - staple reprinted cards, with a lower level of complexity - exists to help people start playing without it getting too complicated, while ensuring a core set of cards available for tournament decks (read: making more money)). WotC release new sets every year to make money, of which only the most recent two blocks, and the core set, are tournament legal in 'standard', so as to ensure a continually evolving tournament scene (read: make more money).
Tournament pack - a 75 card box consisting of 6 of each of the 5 basic land types, and basically 3 boosters. Costs about £6-7.
Booster - consisting of 15 random cards: 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 11 commons. Costs about £2.50.
Deck - a collection of cards minimum 40 in limited formats, 60 otherwise.
Spot Removal - typically refers to a card capable or removing another card in play. In my case creature kill, which is crucial in limited games.
Card cost - when not talking about the hideous price of cards currently popular in tournament play, is the cost to play the spell. Exists to balance the game, cost refers to amount of resources needed to play it, which typically increase at a rate on one a turn (well not really but that'll suffice).
Land - the resources basically. Basic versions are plains, mountain, forest, swamp, island, and produce colours of mana needed to play the spells ( white (W), red (R), green (G), black(B) and blue(U) respectively). Non basic (e.g. 'Svogthos the Restless Tomb')version produce mana and do something else though with a drawback of some kind usually.
Mulliganing - The act of taking a mulligan or discarding your opening hand, reshuffling it into your library and drawing one less card, before the game starts, can be repeated as necessary until you stick with your hand, or have mulliganed down to 0 cards (your opening hand starts with 7). Worth doing if your hand is atrocious, but something you don't want to have to do.
Foil- a shiny card, literally. About 75 - 100 times rarer than a normal card, and therefore usually worth about 3x the amount (if the card is good). Good cards go from £5-20 unless less they are very rare (i.e. from early sets with smaller print runs).
Bad rare - e.g. Grozoth, a card which is generally regarded as unplayable, except in casual/silly/stupid decks, and even then not often. WotC maintains it must make bad rares so people don't know which are the good cards that look like bad rares until you realise how to break them (read: make more money by making people buy more boosters/tournament packs to get the ones they want).
Multicolour - cards of more than one colour, usually do more for cheaper cost as it's harder to guarantee you'll have the land, and therefore mana to play them. Not produced in every set, and guaranteed to make me buy cards.
.
On the job front I finished my induction training at the end of last week and I'm now currently doing a C++ training course. However as of today I am actually starting on project, it's developing something for the broadcast sector, and has a tight deadline of December. Considering that design is due to finish at the end of October at the latest it will probably be quite hard work. It began life as training project to improve the companies broadcast sector expertise, but since they found a buyer interested in what's being developed the focus has changed slightly. So far I'm enjoying the work, well training, there is a nice attitude and atmosphere in the company which helps makes working more enjoyable, even if it the C++ course is dragging on a bit. Plus free fruit juice :-)
The flat is still really nice, and I'm really enjoying living with P. I had a couple of my friends from before uni come over for a little bit and it was really nice having other people see the flat. I look forward to having people over more often once I've got this whole work/life timing with more sorted. Of course people are welcome to come over now, as long as them give me a good warning, and be prepared to be told that we're to busy occasionally.
I need plate for my larp character for this coming year, but I won't be able to get it in time due to cost and waiting for the delivery. The thing is I'd like to start the character as soon as possible when the year starts, which means I'll have to borrow plate. Which I don't want to do as it restricts access to it for the newbies. Hmm, not sure what to do, anyone have suggestions.
I went to a Magic: The Gathering pre-release tournament on Saturday and came out 4-0-3 (wins-draws-losses) and placed about 22nd out of about 80 I think, which earned me a couple of boosters. Overall I had 10-0-5 (2-1 win, 0-2 loss, 1-2 loss, 1-2 loss, 2-0 win, 2-0 win, 2-0 win) on the individual matches which isn't so bad, though I would have liked to have done better considering the quality of cards I drew, including a significant amount of spot removal, though I did have an almost complete lack of cards that cost less than 3. I did get fairly poor luck typically in the matches I lost (mulliganing down to five and four, and just not drawing into the spot removal). Though it was really odd, I included a 41st card of 'Svogthos the Restless Tomb' a land which becomes a creature with power and toughness equal to the creatures in your graveyard for 3BG, and won my first round without using it, so took it out. I then lost three games in the row to horrendous bad luck at times, so I put it back in again, and win the next three with almost no difficulty. I don't understand it should have reduced the odds of me drawing what I needed not improved it. So what did I learn: if your deck wins don't change it. Actually I learnt something else too: don't look at the spoiler and spot one of the most pointless rares and say 'I bet I draw that'. Why, because I did, though in foil admittingly, and then I got it again in one of the boosters I won. Grozoth you mock me so. Damn you Wizards of the Coast and your multicolour sets that I can't resist.**
*I got my insurance via confused.com which I heartily recommend as my car insurance quotes I got through the broker I was with were about £120 pounds more (20%ish).
Magic: the gathering - a collectable card game that will eat your money, and that's before you even get to buying singles (which I don't, because I damn well won't buy a piece of card with some ink on it for £5, though I might sell one for one).
Pre-release - a limited tournament, i.e. one where you build decks out of what cards you get from the tournament packs and boosters you are given (1 tournament pack, and 3 boosters for a pre-release), in which players get a chance to play with the cards of a new set a week before it goes on sale (the only tournaments I do). WotC release a new block (consisting of 3 sets: a 350 card base set (including reprinted basic land with new artwork), and two 150 card sets every year at roughly 3 monthly intervals (The fourth release being an update of the core set - staple reprinted cards, with a lower level of complexity - exists to help people start playing without it getting too complicated, while ensuring a core set of cards available for tournament decks (read: making more money)). WotC release new sets every year to make money, of which only the most recent two blocks, and the core set, are tournament legal in 'standard', so as to ensure a continually evolving tournament scene (read: make more money).
Tournament pack - a 75 card box consisting of 6 of each of the 5 basic land types, and basically 3 boosters. Costs about £6-7.
Booster - consisting of 15 random cards: 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 11 commons. Costs about £2.50.
Deck - a collection of cards minimum 40 in limited formats, 60 otherwise.
Spot Removal - typically refers to a card capable or removing another card in play. In my case creature kill, which is crucial in limited games.
Card cost - when not talking about the hideous price of cards currently popular in tournament play, is the cost to play the spell. Exists to balance the game, cost refers to amount of resources needed to play it, which typically increase at a rate on one a turn (well not really but that'll suffice).
Land - the resources basically. Basic versions are plains, mountain, forest, swamp, island, and produce colours of mana needed to play the spells ( white (W), red (R), green (G), black(B) and blue(U) respectively). Non basic (e.g. 'Svogthos the Restless Tomb')version produce mana and do something else though with a drawback of some kind usually.
Mulliganing - The act of taking a mulligan or discarding your opening hand, reshuffling it into your library and drawing one less card, before the game starts, can be repeated as necessary until you stick with your hand, or have mulliganed down to 0 cards (your opening hand starts with 7). Worth doing if your hand is atrocious, but something you don't want to have to do.
Foil- a shiny card, literally. About 75 - 100 times rarer than a normal card, and therefore usually worth about 3x the amount (if the card is good). Good cards go from £5-20 unless less they are very rare (i.e. from early sets with smaller print runs).
Bad rare - e.g. Grozoth, a card which is generally regarded as unplayable, except in casual/silly/stupid decks, and even then not often. WotC maintains it must make bad rares so people don't know which are the good cards that look like bad rares until you realise how to break them (read: make more money by making people buy more boosters/tournament packs to get the ones they want).
Multicolour - cards of more than one colour, usually do more for cheaper cost as it's harder to guarantee you'll have the land, and therefore mana to play them. Not produced in every set, and guaranteed to make me buy cards.
.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-27 09:26 am (UTC)All I need now is to get a group of people together to play on a semi regular basis.