Pre-release Mayhem

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Today I went to my first Magic: The Gathering pre-release tournament in easily six years. A new set is due this week, "Rise of the Edlrazi," and as MTG has once again become I a game I play often (thanks to a growing trend at work), I decided to go. There were 37 other players attending -- and that was just the morning shift. another tournament was scheduled for the afternoon.

Well, the good news -- I pulled a couple of pretty "sick" cards. Definitely future staples for my deck building. The bad news -- boy, did I get schooled! These players are almost like pro's. Before I could blink, I was 0-4 in my matches. Ouch!

Granted, a couple of the games were close. But, when the dust cleared, I had been humbled. Still, I liked the dueling deck I built. It was blue-white with the new "leveler" cards.

Now, for those of you who know nothing about Magic The Gathering, I'm sure if I were to go on and explain what occurred in my matches, I'd more than lose you. For those of you who know the game, let's just say the new "level up" cards are a lot of fun. For example, you can turn a one-mana 1/1 creature into a 3/3 First Strike beast by turn two. Little guys go grow up fast! The key to this new set is mana-acceleration, because you need mana to level up creatures, and you needs LOTS OF IT to bring out the humongous Eldrazi creatures.

Seldom have I had a good time while having my competitive head handed to me...

What is not making my competitive heart happy is the fact that my Texas Rangers have now lost four games in a row. A promising 5-3 start has turned suddenly into a 5-7 disappointment. Ugh... Of course, it didn't help that they played their last three games against the defending world champion New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Time for my boyz to regroup!

Speaking of regrouping, our work softball team, The Machinima Isotopes, have a game to play! We have a losing streak to halt! Time to go play softball. Until the next time...

Back from Jury Duty

Well, I've been absent from this blog for over two weeks as I sat on a jury of which I could say nothing about, until we delivered a verdict.

Which we did today.

What an experience. First time for me. And I can honestly say, as much as I was dreading it, and as annoying as it was to have to juggle this and work at a time when I needed to be at work full time, I still got alot out of my service. Partially because the case itself was interesting, and also because my fellow jurors were a good group -- a smart and interesting group.

Without going into too much detail, I was on a case where the Plaintiff was suing a major corporation to the tune of 15 million dollars because he believed the corporation was responsible for his terminal illness, which he allegedly contracted when using the corporation's asbestos-laden products back in the 1970's. The disease was mesothileoma, which has a latency period of 30 to 40 years. It is believed to be caused mostly by asbestos. But, as I learned, there are many different types of asbestos. Scientists are in some disagreement about which types are carcinogenic. The accepted belief, tho, is that the short-fiber asbestos is less likely to cause illness than the long-fiber asbestos. And this corporation produced asbestos made of only the short fiber variety. So that argument was a focal point of the case.

But to us, the jury, the most important factor in the case, which led to our verdict, was that no substantial proof was ever given for the plaintiff actually USING the corporation's product. There was no record, receipt, or witness of the plaintiff using the product. The Plaintiff's lawyers argued that the product was on the shelves for the Plaintiff to buy and use as he did his handyman work that included working with asbestos drywall compounds, but they could never point to one single instance even when he had actually used the product in question.

We deliberated approximately an hour to reach our verdict. We of course felt horrible for the Plaintiff, as he has a death sentence. But we could not justify his claims based on obvious issues with not meeting the burden of proof.

I have simplified the details here probably just to give you a quick feel for what the case was about. But there were two weeks filled with drama, boredom, excitement and curiosity. My recommendation to you all if you get called to serve on a jury -- don't be afraid of the experience It's not that bad and I felt like a learned a lot. And made some new friends!

While I was on jury duty, baseball season started! My Texas Rangers are 5-3 after the first eight games of the season. I'm very happy with that start. They could be 7-1, except their closer blew two ninth-inning saves. Needless to say, they have a new closer!

I am ready to embrace baseball season. :)