12.23.08

Also, today is Annie’s 6th(!) birthday party (her actual 6th birthday was on the 8th). I will be manning the grill, of course, hoping to one day learn how to properly cook things on a grill. Just a few weeks ago I believe I mastered the art of ‘how many charcoals to use’. This skill took years to develop. I can only imagine how long I have to wait for ‘when to flip the burgers or turn the `dogs’.

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03.04.08

Pure Romance By Ericka

Posted in Family at 3:56 pm by Evan

So I was reading this sudden outbreak of common sense in Texas, which reminded me to remind you that my wife has begun selling Pure Romance products.

Basically, she’s kinda tired of working at a home for kids with special needs (as she’s done for a decade now), and would like to try something else. The moment I saw my friend’s wife selling this stuff I knew Ericka would be up for it. She’s a fantastic saleswoman and is excited about getting started.

If you are interested in Pure Romance products, hosting a party in East Tennessee, or how to become a consultant yourself, please give her a buzz at erickaerwin at pureromance dot com. There’s also her webspace they provided. I’m sure she’d be happy to talk about it with you or help you get started.

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12.10.07

New York & the World Championships

Posted in Family at 3:32 pm by Evan

Going new places is always nerve-wracking. Going somewhere as famous and huge as New York was certainly no exception.

On Friday I found out after arriving at the airport that my flight had been cancelled. Great. So instead of non-stop service to New York City arriving at 3PM I had a connection through Atlanta to arrive around 6PM.

Then, of course, the plane was delayed in Atlanta. I finally arrived in New York around 7:30PM. By the time I got my luggage and a cab ride to the Javits Center, where the World Championships were being held, it was almost 8:30PM.

I found out an unfortunate (inconvenient?) truth when I arrived: Since I had missed pretty much the entire singles portion of the event, every big name had basically disappeared.

That’s not to say I didn’t see Zvi or Kai or others roaming around, it was just that it was late, everyone was exhausted from playing their favorite game, and so the footage I got that evening was sub-par.

Another inconvenient truth: Turns out that Invitational is special in that when there are just 16 people who can hang out with each other, you get incredible footage of Kenji being Kenji.

At Worlds, each country sticks together. That means the Japanese hang out with the Japanese, and so on.

This may not be 100% the case, but also remember that on Friday night I found out my place to stay had fallen through. This was, of course, bad.

Speaking with my buddy Reuben, he said that the guy + two backups fell through, and that the last few nights they had been drafting then sleeping on the tables at Neutral Ground. Needless to say I didn’t feel like sleeping on a table of all things, and pressed for a hotel.

At Worlds, we ran into a fan of the show who was there with his mother. She said there was a decent (I originally wrote nice and erased it) place called the Golden Gate Motor Inn. Not too expensive, she said. She was right. For five of us over two rooms, it was $60/ea. Not bad for New York, but the travel there was ridiculous.

Subway rides for 45 minutes followed by a long wait for a bus that never showed. There’s nothing like standing alone in the Bronx at two in the morning with a bunch of nerds. I can only imagine what we may have looked like to a thug of some sort.

But that’s the thing: I didn’t think New York was that unsafe. While I certainly _felt_ threatened, I don’t believe the city is actually that dangerous. I mean, as totalitarian as it may have seemed, the broken windows policy and other police measures really have increased security.

Were there shady characters hanging around the subway? Sure. But you simply ignore them and move on. Don’t leave your shit lying around, don’t do anything stupid. Walking on the streets of New York was fun and fascinating, and day or night I never thought I was in danger of losing my stuff.

So on Saturday I got what I would consider the bulk of my footage. I ran around trying to interview everyone I could while getting a few shots of the team coverage. I also ran into Ken Adams, a guy who has been on the show before. He said he was staying with a friend who lived in Brooklyn who may put me up.

I then met Rich, who is a fantastic guy who put me up for two days no questions asked. So myself, Ken, Rich, and Ken’s friend Ryan hung out for essentially the rest of the weekend.

While it was a trek to Brooklyn (45 minutes or so, a good half mile walk and lots of Subway rides including a transfer), you really can’t beat free room and board. Not to mention free room and board with Magic geeks. Playing a 4-man cube last night was certainly a highlight and the only Magic I got to play all weekend.

Anyway, backing up to Sunday the Worlds Top 8 was underway and it was great to see Uri Peleg, an Israeli, in there. Who knew Israel, of all the countries, would be kicking ass at Magic? It was really cool. Also really interesting was the return of Patrick Chapin, who, along with Gabriel Nassif, were playing Dragonstorm, a variant of the deck that won _last_ year’s Worlds.

Patrick made it all the way to the finals where he lost to Uri. An Israeli is the Magic World Champ! How cool is that?

But here’s a weird quirk: The next Pro Tour, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, may not let Uri even in the country.

Why? Because he’s Israeli and Malaysians don’t like Israelis. My God I hate bigotry. I can’t stand religion because of stupid shit like this (arbitrary discrimination) and it blows my mind that the guy who just won $40,000 and 25 pro points can’t attend the next Tour because of politics.

I guess it really is unique to be the Israeli World Champ.

Another funny quirk: Right before I interviewed Patrick Chapin he was smiling, then smacked himself.

"Gotta keep up my image," he tells me. Funny stuff.

Also on Sunday I missed a few opportunities to get some footage due to editing work for Wizards of the Coast. Had I known what little time I’d actually have for the show, in retrospect it may have not been the best decision. But we’ll see.

If anything, I feel a lot of pressure to deliver. For example, I remarked heavily in my donation drive that I’d like to feature Kenji. But Kenji was simply not available. I couldn’t try to chase Kenji around being drunk if I couldn’t be assured of a place to stay. Then when I _got_ a place to stay, I didn’t feel comfortable finding the place by myself. I mean, I’m sure Brooklyn is a nice, safe place and all, but I don’t like the idea of getting lost in New York. So I had to stick with my friends.

So many variables, so much stuff happening, so little time.

For example, they had a big tournament where the gave away a car (or $20,000, your choice). Where in the hell was this tournament? At the end of Sunday, I couldn’t find where the Top 8 was, let alone the winner. The kept moving the tournament around, and so I didn’t get an interview and/or deck tech with the winner. This was frustrating, as you can imagine.

I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with something entertaining. That I’m not worried about. But the expectations I put on myself are so high sometimes I wonder if I can ever reach it. But that may be part of my success: If you don’t reach for the stars, why even try?

It kills me when I see people try to do video production and just half-ass it. I know it’s hard work, and it’s unbelievably time consuming (just ask my wife). But the rewards are incredible.

There is no medium like video. Period. There is nothing more humanizing, there is nothing more immediate, and for a game like Magic, there is also nothing that can teach others easily. I was really happy with my most recent drafting episode. While it took a LONG ass time to compile, I believe it was worth it.

I read a comment recently that said that draft decklists don’t help people. I’m inclined to agree. Why those picks, that build? There are so many variables, it doesn’t make sense to just dump a few opinions, decklists, and call it an article.

Maybe it’s me. I have pretty high standards for myself, and when I see people phoning it in or making shortcuts, it bugs me.

Anyway, I’m rambling so I’ll wrap this up. New York was a blur of fun, Magic, work, fans, and more.

Total # of Giant Solifuge Signed over the weekend? I think around twenty. Playmats? Three. Fans met? Innumerable.

It’s really cute meeting fans of the show. A judge walked up to me and said "I don’t mean to be a fanboy, but…" Too cool, I tell you.

And people wonder why I work so hard. Why? Because the rewards are incredible.

Until next time.

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12.03.07

Christmas Wishlist

Posted in Family at 2:58 pm by Evan

For friends, family and loved ones who wish to buy me things for Xmas, my wishlist is here.

Weight loss update? Seventy Pounds. Woohoo!

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10.13.07

Spain, Days 1 and 2

Posted in Family at 7:58 pm by Evan

Hello from the world of Valencia, Spain everybody.

Let me tell you, it’s been a hell of a ride…so far.

Let’s begin with the flights. Specifically, the Paris airport, which is officially the worst airport of all time. Construction was everywhere, signs were virtually non-existent, and you know how you always look for that digital board with the flights listed on it? NOT THERE. Oh, they’re there, like three of them, but they’re not plastered everywhere like in every other I’ve ever been in.

For what it’s worth, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the Valencia airport, but it seemed a bit better. I dunno.

Things I’ve noticed about Spain (and probably Europe in general)

1) Everything is smaller. Hotel rooms (oh man!), cars, meal portions, etc. Everything is tiny and therefore you can fit a lot more ’stuff’ in a smaller space, but it’s pretty damn inconvenient. Like, for example, with 5 people in our group, we know that we’ll need more than 1 cab to take us where we want to go. If we all want to travel together, I guess we’re just screwed. I’ve not once seen a van or even an SUV. They just don’t exist here.

I never knew how we (as Americans) cornered the market on big, bulky cars until I got here.

2) Traffic is insane. Like, "Oh my God did you see how close we came to dying" insane. Every cab driver I’ve seen so far (about a half dozen) doesn’t think twice about cutting off people or drifting in and out of the same lane. They also don’t seem to have turn signals, or they don’t work, or they don’t care (I’m betting on the last one).

3) Currency exchange is key. Period. I’m sitting on a shitload of Traveler’s Checks that aren’t doing dick for me at the moment. I took more of those Checks than I anticipated, and it turns out NOBODY takes them. Period. All of the cool shops and restaurants take euros only, and that’s painful.

However! There was a saving grace. Today, for the first time in the history of the Pro Tour, Day 1 was cancelled.

There has to be some sweet irony in that a card game meant to play indoors is cancelled due to outside weather.

Even when they were holding one in London and there were terrorist attacks nearby, it STILL occurred.

So with Day 1 cancelled I had a chance to get my money exchanged, right? Nope. Why? Because apparently, today is a Hispanic Day. Not making that up. What does that mean? All of the banks who could exchange my traveler’s checks aren’t open. They may be open tomorrow, but tomorrow is oodles of rounds of swiss on Day 1 of the Pro Tour, meaning I won’t get back to the hotel until midnight at the earliest (that’s 6PM for those in Eastern Standard).

Okay, so I’m screwed on money but thanks to Day 1 being cancelled I did a few deck modifications and noticed that, oh yeah, I’m only playing 59 cards. Good thing I remembered that Sacred Foundry in my suitcase…which meant if I had taken it to the event like I planned on this morning, I would be shelling out 20 euro for another. Which is almost $30 for a $15 card. Ugh.

So that’s good, right? Well, sorta. Let’s backup. Where were we? Oh yeah, getting off the plane.

So I get to the site on Thursday and do some meetin’ and greetin’. I get my Pro Tour shirt (totally wearing it tomorrow) and after some shmoozing it’s time to go. Me and my new buddy Tim wander outside into the rain. We exit the HUGE facility and then get out on the street. Cars are flying by. There is no chance of catching a taxi here.

The rain gets harder. And it’s COLD.

So we’re crossing the main thoroughfare and somewhere around this time we realize we are going to have to hoof it back to the hotel. It’s about, eh, a mile away.

Then it begins to POUR rain. And still, we walk.

You know how you walk in the rain, and at some point you go from "hey, I’m wet" to "OMFG I’m SOAKED"? Yeah, we were there.

So we got back, I dried out my useless traveler’s checks, and we went to bed.

Today (I’m finishing this post late late Saturday night here) was much better. The Pro Tour was a blast, and while I didn’t do very well (3-7 record, woo), it was super fun to meet and greet. I got some good footage and hope it makes a solid show this week.

I would write more but I’m exhausted and need to get this up.

More soon!