How magic the gathering improved my social life and gaming skills

I just got back from a great night of gaming (card gaming) and hanging out with friends. I've been participating in Magic the Gathering tournaments at Fire and Dice, a hobby shop nearby. I used to go to Fire and Dice for Smash 4 tournaments quite a bit last year but now I participate more in their Magic tournaments. Magic has improved my social life and improved my gaming skills in many ways. I'd like to explain how.

I work five out of seven days so I don't get much time to hang out with friends or even interact with too many people outside of my work environment. Monday night mtg (magic the gathering) tournaments has given me refuge and I've met many new friends. Most of them are fellow nerds but they are all unique individuals. I usually organize our group and text everyone and tell them to come through to Fire and Dice when I go there. My group consists of about eight people. And counting in the future probably. They're all great mtg players and they've helped me out a lot with my decks and strategies. In a way I feel like I've anchored the group to show up when I'm there. And they usually all do show up surprisingly. I like the environment at Fire and Dice because its relaxing, fun, entertaining, and jokey. Perfect really. Its a great place to hang out. I always meet new people there every time I go and some of them become friends, others just casual acquaintances. Either way its great social interaction. Something I don't get to do often because of work.

Magic has also made me a better gamer. I usually play edh commander league tournaments. It's this game mode where you play with 100 card decks and you only have 1 of each card in it. You have a commander you can cast anytime you have the mana for it and this game mode is not easy. It also free for all. In tournament it can be 4 player free for all of 3 player free for all. Every match is fun, intense, and challenging. I've learned a lot more gaming skills from playing in these tournaments because I've learned to think a lot more before I act upon anything I do. This carries over to other forms of gaming-even competitive fps and moba gaming. I think a lot more about every action I take rather than just "going for it", which is better suited to a jazz guitar solo.

All in all, mtg is a great social gaming experience. I'm definitely going to keep playing the game and continuing to participate in tournaments. I'm also down to go to Fire and Dice for Smash 4 tournaments but it seems like I never get Thursdays off (that's the only day they do those there). It's great that I've gained strong friendships there through the card game. I have another inner circle of friends that I hang out with and even work with but its nice to have an entirely different sort of circle that is still just as awesome.

Magic rules! Btw, that's my commander in my mono green edh deck. This old woman rocks!

Valeera, Rogue Assassin enters the Nexus

Blizzard updated Heroes of the Storm today and released Valeera as their newest hero.

"Valeera Sanguinar, Shadow of the Uncrowned, is a melee assassin hero from the Warcraft universe. For a time, the gladiator Valeera Sanguinar served dutifully as one of Varian Wrynn's personal bodyguards. Now, her shadowy skills find her a natural fit within the secretive rogue order, the Uncrowned, in their fight against the Legion. She is a tricky assassin who can gain access to different abilities while stealthed, and builds combo points to eviscerate her opponents." (heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com)

"Valeera Sanguinar, along with Broll Bearmantle, was a companion of Varian Wrynn. She eventually became an enforcer for the New Council of Tirisfal, and accepted the position of an advisor and bodyguard to Varian in Stormwind, with the caveat that she retain her independence. She culturally identifies as a blood elf, taking pride in her people's traditions and defending their tribulations and loyalties. However, she herself acts independently of the Thalassian government, and has formally joined neither the Horde nor the Alliance since her introduction but is fiercely loyal to Varian and his son. Valeera herself maintains that her loyalties are personal, to her friends and her ideals." (heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com)

Ok, so now you know a lot about her. Now let's get to the nitty gritty-the skills and abilities. To keep this post short and sweet I'm only going to talk about the main skills rather than the additional talents you get as you level up.

Vanish

Cooldown: 8 seconds

Valeera vanishes from sight, becoming Stealthed and increasing her Movement Speed by 10%. For the first second, she is Unrevealable and can pass through other units.
Using Vanish grants Valeera an alternate set of Abilities that she can use while Stealthed.

This is her passive that allows her to be very powerful. Once she goes stealth she stays invisible unless she's hit or revealed. Not only that but using vanish gives you an alternate set of abilities that you can only use while invisible. It's awesome that they added another stealth character like Nova, Zeratul, and Samuro but Valeera has a much cooler stealth than all of those characters because it gives her great abilities. 

Q

Sinister Strike

30 Mana Cooldown: 5 seconds

Dash forward, dealing damage to all enemies in a line. If Sinister Strike hits an enemy Hero, she stops dashing immediately and the cooldown is reduced to 1 second.
Awards 1 Combo Point.
Stealth: Ambush
Heavily damage an enemy.

This is her bread and butter attack that you're going to be using a lot. The dash can go a pretty decent distance and you can also use it to run away. It is also good for general attacking, killing, and gaining combo points.

Q

Ambush

20 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Ambush a target, instantly dealing damage to them.
Awards 1 Combo Point.

This is her stealth Q ability. It's a great general attacking skill used for killing and gaining combo points. It does more damage than sinister strike but it doesn't do a dash attack, instead its just a close range assault. 

W

Blade Flurry

40 Mana Cooldown: 4 seconds

Deal damage in an area around Valeera.
Awards 1 Combo Point per enemy Hero hit.
Stealth: Cheap Shot
Stun and damage an enemy.

This is her small aoe attack. It will hit enemies around you but it doesn't have much range so they will have to be close to you to be effective. Its great for clearing lanes but if you're playing Valeera most likely you don't want to be clearing lanes that much. I find the stealth version of her W ability to be much more useful. 

W

Cheap Shot

30 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Deal a small amount of damage to an enemy and stun them for 1.5 seconds.
Awards 1 Combo Point.

This is my favorite ability for Valeera because it stuns an enemy and does damage. With the stun you can follow up with more rogue attacks and if your team is with you you'll instantly kill them. If you use this at the right time you'll always be able to secure kills. Very useful ability. 

E

Eviscerate

25 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Consume all stored Combo Points to Eviscerate an enemy, dealing increased damage per Combo Point spent. Valeera can store a maximum of 3 Combo Points.
Stealth: Garrote
Silence and damage an enemy over time.

This is a great all around attack when you have a lot of combo points stored up. Like cheap shot it will help you secure a lot of kills. I have to use it more and learn its uses better.

E

Garrote

30 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Garrote an enemy, instantly dealing a small amount of damage to the target, as well as a larger amount of bonus damage over 7 seconds, and Silencing them for 2 seconds.
Awards 1 Combo Point.

This one I have to mess around with more because usually when I'm in stealth mode I go for cheap shot and ambush more so than garrote. But I do see that it is very powerful, mostly because of the silence for 2 seconds. I have to use this ability more.

Ultimates

R

Smoke Bomb

Cooldown: 60 seconds

Create a cloud of smoke. While in the smoke, Valeera is Unrevealable, can pass through other units, and gains 25 Armor, reducing damage taken by 25%. Valeera can continue to attack and use Abilities without being revealed. Lasts 5 seconds.
Using this Ability does not break Vanish.

This is my favorite ulti for Valeera, at least for now. I like the fact that it has a short cooldown and that damage is reduced, armor is gained, and you can keep attacking and using abilities without being revealed. It's also great when you're super low on health. You can pop smoke bomb, run out, and use your passive stealth to run away. So good.

R

Cloak of Shadows

Cooldown: 25 seconds

Valeera is enveloped in a Cloak of Shadows, which immediately removes all damage over time effects from her. For 1 second, she becomes Unstoppable and gains 75 Spell Armor, reducing Ability damage taken by 75%.
Using this Ability does not break Vanish.

This ulti seems great too. I've used it during my first couple games and I love the short cool down. But so far I prefer smoke bomb for most games. However, if I'm getting targeted hard and don't have a healer this does seem like a much better option. The fact that it only lasts 1 second makes me not like it as much but the fact that its on a 25 second cool down is just insanely good. 

All in all Valeera has turned out to be one of the coolest and most fun characters to play in heroes of the storm. I probably won't get bored of her until I reach level 10 on her. Then I'll go back to my usual roster of heroes. Playing her reminds me of playing my Undead Rogue in World of Warcraft (oh, those were the days), albeit a much simpler and easier play style. She's super fun! 

Now you're thinking like a rogue.

Magic the Gathering, Board gaming, and hosting

So I've been having a great time with a lot of friends who are into a lot of different activities. I have a group of friends that are more into metal music, concerts, and hanging out (with some console gaming thrown in there) and another that is more into Magic the Gathering, board gaming, and meeting new people at these events called meetups. These are events hosted by people and advertised online through the website Meetup.com. We've met so many cool people and a lot of them have become good friends quickly. It's been a blast meeting new people, enjoying mtg (Magic the Gathering), and learning new strategic board games on the fly.

I haven't played mtg seriously since middle school and back then I relied on cheap tactics decks. I had an elf deck and a slivers deck as my main decks. Both were all about getting tons of creatures out and killing off the enemy player fast. Playing mtg again now that I'm older has really made me realize how great of a game it is. I even played in a tournament a few weeks ago. It was an edh (elder dragon highlander) setting where you have over 100 cards in your deck and you have a special commander card that you can play anytime if you have the mana on your turn. Its kind of a broken format but I find it to be super fun.

Magic has a lot of strategic and awe-inspiring elements for a trading card game. Its definitely the best card game I've ever played, sorry Yugioh kiddies. So I've been enjoying getting out, hanging out with friends, and playing magic. Sometimes we'll play until 1 in the morning just enjoying the gameplay. I've become quite serious and I'm even down to play in a tournament again even though last time I got curb stomped. They do tournaments at Fire and Dice, the place I used to go for Smash 4 tournaments. Go figure! 

This past Thursday I was at a board gaming event at this older woman's house in Woodland Hills. At first I was hesitant because we've gone to events like this before and my friend was kind of awkward (he walked in without knocking on the door first lol). However, this woman was so cool, funny, sarcastic, and chill. Her son was there too and we were the first people to arrive. Eventually more people came. We brought food and everybody was enjoying themselves eating fried chicken, pie, soda, coffee, donouts, and Doritos Cool Ranch and Nacho flavors.

We played this awesome game called Salem where we had to figure out who the witch(s) was(were) and if we found out and survived without being killed by the witch we win the game. I ended up using this troll-like strategy where I accused a random dude so much to the point that everybody thought I was the witch. But I wasn't the witch. I was just messing around. Haha, it was really fun and I ended up being a survivor, thus winning! Next time though I will definitely play that game smarter.

In addition, we played this great miniature DnD style rpg game. It was a co-op survival horde zombies game called Zombicide. Its on Kickstarter and I highly recommend it. I was this spellcaster Stormcrow dude who had this amazing spell (that I looted in a room) called Repulse where I could reposition zombies to different squares (only one square away per cast) and I got us a torch for a bile blast that killed tons of zombies in one fell swoop. I got insta-leveled pretty high from that. In the end our team just didn't play together on the same part of the board. So we got surrounded by the horde and killed. Rip. It was a fun game and I would definitely be down to play it again sometime there.

The son was a gamer too and we talked a lot and became friends. I added him on Steam and we're planning on playing Team Fortress and Terrarria sometime in the future.

I'm still interested in hosting my own events. I wanna do game nights at Planet Cyber for Overwatch. I'm currently working on doing this. Now that management has changed at my work I'm back to getting two days off a week, which I haven't had since November. You can bet that I'll be using that free time to the fullest engaged in social activity, friendship, relaxation, and fun.

Are board games better than video games? They just might be.

Whaddya want to learn on the guitar?

So I ran into my old guitar teacher and he said he'd be down to give me lessons again. Here I'd like to outline some ideas of what I'd want to learn. These are things I could figure out on my own but it would take me a long time.

First off, I want to build a custom pedal board using my vast array of pedals. I want it to sound perfect and not hiss all kinds of sonic distorted fury (because I could do that on my own). I've actually been against pedals for a long time now because of the fact that there's too much hum going on when I connect all of them together the way I do. I'm not a professional sound engineer by any means but this dude knows how to do that. He has a pedal board where I can turn up to a super high volume and there's no hum. He's a wizard lol!

Second, I'd be interested in learning more about musical theory. I already know a lot but this dude knows a lot more. Music theory is really big for him so this would be an important thing learning from him.

Third, I'd be interested in finding other musicians to play music with. Be it jazz, rock, metal, or anything really. If I can find more musicians through him that would be fantastic. Working with more musicians is always a worthwhile goal and experience in any styles of music that you play.

Lastly, I'd want to learn about modding my equipment. Maybe make my Marshall amp sound different by changing some wires. Perhaps modify one of my distortion pedals in some way. Things like that. I'd also be interested in how to do a proper setup on a guitar. He's done work like this at Guitar Center so I'm sure he'd be down to show me if I asked.

These are all pretty cool things. In terms of guitar technique, songs, improvisation, jazz playing, and chord voicings I will have to work on that little by little every day on my own. If I could learn all these things it would be very beneficial to my guitar playing!

Overwatch PTR patch 1.7

Here I'd like to talk about some of the changes on the latest ptr (public test region servers) patch. There were major changes to Roadhog, Ana, and Sombra..

Roadhog's hook has been adjusted further. In the last patch they changed (nefed, but made more consistent) Roadhog's hook so that it would hook people right in front of him when he successfully hooked but it was the persistent line of sight from the position of Roadhog that was getting on peoples' nerves. People could hide behind a tree and the hook would automatically break. Blizzard decided it was too much so they're not making that extreme of a change to the hook anymore.

If part of somebody's body is seen during the hook, it will still hook them. It's not gonna break the hook. They're adding a heavy slow when hook applies. Also, they fixed it so that Roadhog can't hook you, spin 180 degrees and drop you off a cliff.

Applying a hook won't work against people you can't see. That's the major thing to take note. If you hook someone they will still be reeled in. Blizzard wants us to feel like when you get hooked, that its fair. This looks like a step into the right direction.

Ana saw a big nerf. The last patch reduced biotic grenade's healing (on allies) increase from 100% to 50%. On top of that the grenade only has a 4 second duration instead of 5. This is a way to combat the current tank heavy meta. Ana is a big part of this tank meta and weakening her might change things up a lot. This might bring Mercy back into play for competitive more so than Ana. However, I will still be playing Ana a lot. 

Sombra got a buff, yay! In the last patch we saw her hack time take 0.8 seconds instead of 1 second, and the cooldown of hack has been reduced to 8 seconds from 10 seconds. This means Sombra can hack a health pack, run away, and then hack an enemy player in combat. Hacking health packs and players has become easier.

I'm super happy about the Sombra hacking buff because Sombra is one of my favorite dps characters. I have 5 hours of play time with her and most of it was wins. She plays like spy from Team Fortress on steroids. It will be fun playing her when this patch goes live. Which will be sometime soon. .

I can't help but feel like the ptr is Blizzard's way of having us players test the game for them for free but it is refreshing that they're changing things about the game that the player base doesn't agree with like Roadhog's hook. 

Smell ya later Overwatch agents

Planet Cyber event success

So the Planet Cyber meetup I had with my friends went well. We were all able to play Overwatch on free accounts provided by the cafe. I didn't want to log in using my main account for security reasons. Anyways, we ended up only having a three man party of myself and two friends. I was hoping for more but I'm already planning another meetup next week Thursday to try to get a stacked six man team.

Overwatch worked fine and we had a blast. Talking on the headset was fun, the monitor was super nice, and the computer ran the game just fine. We played really well for our first time playing all together the three of us. I mostly played Ana and had fun. I'm ready to plan more of these Overwatch nights and recruiting more people for the cause.

After we played Overwatch we did run into some technical computer problems. We installed Team Fortress 2 (which took 20 minutes) but after trying to launch it kept giving my computer and a friends' a Steam error. The guy running the place couldn't figure it out so he gave us a lot more time instead. We used that extra time to play more Overwatch.

One of my friends was upset about how Team Fortress didn't work but hey technical issues happen. All the other gamers there were playing Dota 2 and none of them had any problems. I can tell that this pc cafe is a moba cafe because all the guys there play is Dota. Which is actually super cool. Dota is a great game. I used to play it when I first got my computer but I stopped around the time Heroes of the Storm came out. Because of the popularity of the game yesterday I decided to reinstall it last night. I think I'll give it a whirl again sometime soon.

Anyways, I'm planning more game nights at Planet Cyber solely for Overwatch. If I get more people (just five for a full team) then that's all I'll need to get an amateur team going. It's going to be hard because I have to be a community organizer. I might have to resort to Meetup.com and Craigslist to find more players.

Wish me luck!  

The Obama legacy ends, enter the Trump era

President Obama did a great farewell address last night in Chicago. He mentioned a lot of important details about his presidency such as the Affordable Care Act and how the economy improved. It was a great speech. As we leave the Obama era and enter the Trump era there's a lot to think about.

What will happen to our so called post-racial society? What about the illegals and the so-called wall? What about the increasing gap between the poor, middle class, and rich? What about the economic crisis? And lets not forget all the environmental problems that the United States faces. What about terrorism and especially Syria? And the fact that Russia hacked the election?

These are all important questions that will hopefully be answered during the Trump administration. I'm not optimistic about Trump whatsoever. He's already shown what kind of person he is in all his speeches. As Obama said a lot during his presidency and even about the Trump campaign, "that's not who we are". Right now I'm watching his first press conference as president-elect and its interesting but I can't help but find everything he's saying to be idiotic. The way they're explaining what's going to happen with his assets is a bit asinine. He's giving control of all his assets to his family but who's to say he won't have a say in whats going on when he's President? They are family after all so they will always be in complete communication. Just not cool.

Having a billionaire President isn't cool. It's very douche-y as the kids say. He's out of touch with the American people in terms of wealth, intellect, and political views. The fact that he won the election shows how out of touch the American people are with politics. I don't mean to put on a top hat and say I'm smarter than thou but I would say Americans are so stupid that they're stupid enough to vote for someone who will lead them to ruin.

However, I believe that stupid people can become smart. And that's my hope. Obama ran as president on hope in 2008 and he won. My hope is that Americans, (my people, that's my heart) realize that they picked the wrong man, get smarter, and pick a better leader in the future. I'm not against the Republicans totally. I think there are a lot of smart Republicans in Congress. But I don't want them running and ruining my life or my future with their terrible ideas. And their ideas are terrible.

In eight days we will have a completely new political spectrum. It will be an interesting four years. Get ready for change. 

So you want to form your own esports team

So I've had this idea of going to this nearby pc cafe to play games with friends. Well, I've finally made the plans and I'm having a small meetup with friends (just three confirmed at the moment) at Planet Cyber in Woodland Hills. The initial goal of this was to hang out with my best friends, play pc games, and enjoy each others' company. But this idea has since grown into a bigger idea-what if I could create my own amateur esports and/or competitive team?

This seems super difficult but it is feasible. At the time currently I have two friends who would definitely be down for sure. Four more and we have a competitive Overwatch team to work with. I'm also interested in playing Team Fortress competitively as well, although that game is pretty dead in that aspect. There's other games to think about too, like Heroes of the Storm. I'm pretty good at all these games but we'd probably end up focusing on Overwatch and playing Team Fortress for fun. So the focus would be on those two games.

For the Overwatch team I would main Ana, Mercy, Lucio, and Zenyatta. For Team Fortress I'd play medic but have secondary scout, pyro, and soldier. One of my friends plays a mean Soldier 76. And the other one is a great Winston and Roadhog. These three confirmed friends are all pretty good Team Fortress players. One of them even has like 8000 hours on the game. Wowza!

This is an idea I'll talk about to the guys and see if they would be interested. If not, I can always place an ad on Meetup and find some serious gamers who would be down for this. I think in the long run I will have to end up doing this but because this idea is just in the blueprint stage I will ask the people I know first.

Sounds super fun but it won't be easy finding the right people with the skills and synchronicity for frags and team based fps's. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

See ya later space cowboys

Plans for 2017

So I already did a post where I talked about my new year's resolutions and stuff. All I said was that I wanted to get smarter and learn more about the things I like. Specifically learn more about these things on a technical level. Here I'd like to outline some more plans and goals for 2017 that are more general terms and ideas.

• Buy a better laptop for late night gaming sessions
• Start playing Hearthstone
• Learn 10 jazz standards by heart, this includes both melody and chord changes
• Start busking
• Buy a cheap acoustic guitar
• Start a band
• Start gigging
• Losing weight by eating less at work
• Get a better rank in competitive Overwatch 

Learning jazz tunes and chord changes by heart will take a lot of practice but I can definitely do it. Busking will take a lot of work and I will use a cheap steel string acoustic for that as electric doesn't really lend itself well to busking due to the lack of electricity.

I'm in the process of starting a band but to honest with you I'm not too sure if its going to work out so I might continue working with my newbie musician friends in our pseudo band at the moment. Hopefully those two friends (guitar and bass players) can get good enough this year. Who knows, perhaps we could even play a short gig or set somewhere?

Another thing I've been working on is losing weight by eating less at work. I've been eating smaller lunches and watching what I eat during the day as well. I eat three meals a day-breakfast, lunch, and dinner and no meal is that much bigger than any of the others. I've been keeping the weight steady, even losing a few pounds here and there. Just gotta keep it up and I'll lose even more.

Lastly, I wanna get a better competitive ranking in Overwatch. Right now its pretty difficult but I've become so good at the game now that I feel like I deserve to at least be in the platinum-diamond level skill cap. My ultimate end goal for the game will be to hit masters but that will take a lot of competitive game grinding for probably the rest of the year. 

That's all. Sounds easy? Well, it ain't. I'm gonna work my ass off.

Zul'jin has entered the Nexus

So a new patch hit Heroes of the Storm the other day. It's brings a new champion to the Nexus-Zul'jin from Warcraft 2 and World of Warcraft! I was super excited when I heard he was coming to Heroes but I didn't expect his playstyle to be so fun, rewarding, and technical for a ranged dps character. First his backstory...

"Zul'jin is a warlord of the Amani forest trolls and has been chieftain of the Amani tribe since before the Second War. Zul'jin and the Amani tribe were allied with the orcish Horde for the duration of the Second War, but Zul'jin himself was captured near its end by the Alliance. Upon gaining his freedom he went into hiding to rebuild his army and plan an attack on the remnants of the high elves, now known as blood elves, only to find them allied with the Horde.

A fierce forest troll of the Amani tribe, Zul'jin's ability as a warrior and leader meant he was able to do what no other troll had done since the Troll Wars: unite the warring tribes of Zul'Aman under a single leader. He was infamous for his daring raids on the outskirts of Quel'Thalas at a time when trolls had been completely beaten into obscurity by the high elves. Some claimed he planned to unite all trolls, but his plans were quickly put on hold by the events of the Second War." (heroesofthestorm.gamepedia)

Now lets go over his abilities. I won't go over all his talents because that's where the player is suppose to improvise given the battle, situational awareness, and team/enemy composition.

D

Berserker

Activate to increase Basic Attack damage by 25% but consume 2% maximum Health per attack.
Passive: Zul'jin attacks 1% faster for every 1% of maximum Health missing.

This is passive, he's a berserker. It increases attack damage by a ton but it consumes your health per attack. But at the same time Zul'jin attacks faster for the health he's missing. This is what makes him so great. While he's losing health he's becoming stronger and attacking faster. I've been able to kill a lot of heroes before they kill me because of this great passive skill. If you've ever played World of Warcraft this is a passive skill that all trolls have, they're straight up berserkers!

Q

Grievous Throw

50 Mana Cooldown: 8 seconds

Zul'jin throws an axe forward, dealing 130 damage to the first 2 enemies hit and marking them for 8 seconds. Marked enemies take 50% bonus damage from Zul'jin's next 3 Basic Attacks against them.

This is his bread and butter basic attack. It's got a short cool down and it marks enemies, making them take bonus damage. Not bad for a regular q button ability.

W

Twin Cleave

60 Mana Cooldown: 8 seconds

Throw 2 axes in a large, circular arc, dealing 116 damage and slowing affected enemies by 15% per axe for 2 seconds.

This skill is so good. I've been seeing most Zul'jins rely on this skill heavily and get the talents that make it a lot better. Honestly I don't go for those talents because I prefer the more passive berserker builds that I do but I can see that this ability is amazing if utilized correctly. Basically the circular arc is positioned anywhere you want within a small area and you can hit anything in that area. Great aoe axe attack. You'll hit things with this every time once you get used to the arc. You'll be killing people as they're trying to run away often with this skill.

E

Regeneration

75 Mana Cooldown: 15 seconds

Zul'jin channels to regenerate 25% of his maximum Health over 4 seconds. Moving while channeling or taking damage will interrupt this effect.

This is one of my favorite things about this dude. He can regenerate without need for a support or healer. I've been getting the talent that increases the healing and makes it so that you don't have to channel-meaning I can get increased health regeneration as well as move around and get healed still. Kind of reminds me of Gul'dan in a way how these two ranged dps characters can regenerate health back very quickly. When you channel and gain health the game plays some tribal troll music that sounds like it came straight outta Africa. Nice touch Blizzard.

R

Taz'dingo

50 Mana Cooldown: 60 seconds

Zul'jin is Unkillable for the next 4 seconds, and cannot be reduced to less than 1 Health. Taz'dingo!

This is my favorite ultimate for him because 'cmon, who doesn't want to die for 4 seconds? That's godlike man. This skill has saved me from death so many times. Just gotta wait and pop it at just the right moment and you can escape a lot of deaths.

R

Guillotine

70 Mana Cooldown: 45 seconds

Zul'jin launches a massive axe into the air that drops on the targeted area, dealing 210 damage plus bonus damage the lower his Health is.

This skill is a bit tricky to use. I've landed it and hit people with it a couple times. It deals massive damage but the thing is that its hard to actually hit them when they are spacing you out well. More of an ability I would get if we had a secure tank and healer in the game. Otherwise, I'll probably be going taz'dingo all the time mon.

This new hero was a fresh surprise to the game, which has gotten a little stale. The winter update for the game was only okay and Ragnaros seemed super op when he came out. I think he's stabilized now. With the addition of Zul'jin the game has gotten a new sparkle to it. He plays like a strong ranged dps but has technical aspects like that of a support and/or specialist. You gotta know when to back out and regenerate, when to commit to team fights when your health is low (b/c you have increased dps and attack speed with lower health), and when to pull back. He's quite technical for a dps and I would say he's not for beginners. However, that's not to say that you have to be a pro to understand how he works. Get online and try him out.

I gotta get back to the Nexus mon!

New Overwatch map

So a new Overwatch patch went live today. They added a new map called Oasis.

This is what the patch notes say:

New Control Map: Oasis
Oasis is one of the world's most advanced cities, a shining jewel rising from the Arabian Desert. A monument to human ingenuity and invention, researchers and academics from around the region came together to found a city dedicated to scientific progress without restraints. The city and its inhabitants are governed by the Ministries, a collection of brilliant minds who possess many secrets, which have attracted the interest of powerful organizations from around the world.

"Oasis is set in the Arabian desert in Iraq. It is a technologically advanced city founded by scientists who wanted to push the boundaries of human science. They accomplished this by turning an inhospitable desert into a thriving settlement. The Vishkar Corporation desires to have a presence in the city." (overwatch.gamepedia.com/oasis)

The map was revealed during BlizzCon 2016.

Oasis features Overwatch's second jump pad, after Lúcioball.

Oasis was added to the PTR on November 29, 2016 and to the live versions on January 3, 2017.

This map seems interesting to me because its a city in the middle east within Overwatch's world. More importantly its in Iraq in a war game with guns and tons of explosions. They definitely did this on purpose because Iraq had such a strong impact on the American viewpoint of war.

But other than that Americans tend to think of the middle east as some sort of impoverished and third world countries but this isn't always the case. There are some cities in the middle east that make LA and New York look like Milwaukee. I've heard of ski resorts in the middle of the Arabian desert and stuff. They're rolling in dough just like Americans.

Anyways, check out the map here. As you can see there's a lot to the map but its basically a futuristic Arabian city with some super fast cars on the edge of the map. There's a lot of artistic detail here but when you're in the heat of battle you don't focus on it much, if at all. But I should give more credit where credit is due because the artwork here is absolutely fantastic. I'm going to play games just to walk around the map and look at every detail.

I will also look around the map more and find out all the areas to utilize for attacking and defending. From what I've played so far I feel like Pharah and Symmetra are super strong on this map. Pharah because its such a big open space with lots of places for her to land and take flight again. Symmetra because there's a lot of closed spaces where she can get in and just murder you with her laser.

This map was a nice surprise for the new year. Blizzard said that it wasn't going to go live until next year. Well, this is really early next year and we already got it. Splendid.

Cheerio!

A thirst for knowledge

This post is going to be a short irl sort of rant. Somewhere around Christmas I realized I wanted to learn more about the things I do and use, to a more advanced technical level. Perhaps go to school by sometime next year and learn a lot of stuff.

I'm mostly interested in computers at the moment but I'm also interested in learning more about music, rhythm, and harmony. In addition, I'm interested in the science of sound at a technical, scientific, nonmusical level.

So far I've been doing a good job reading up on things online and taking it slow. Friends have suggested that I should learn computers and try to get a job fixing them in the long run. I have tried learning coding but I didn't get very far in that pursuit. Its not that I gave up its just that I took a long break from it and forgot a lot of what I had learned. Its definitely not easy and I don't think just anyone can do it.

I'm not sure if I can learn all this stuff but even if I don't end up going back to school or getting a better job I'm going to learn and read more anyways just for myself. If anything, I want to become a smarter individual and understand the things I care about and use.

I should also learn how to fix guitars. This would be the easiest thing to do because I can just watch YouTube videos and practice on an old axe I have. For example, I want to learn how to replace pickups, setup a guitar, and how to setup a Floyd rose. That way I can just do it all for myself.

All important stuff. To me at least.

That's the end of this rant. My goal for 2017? Get smart.

Jack Dejohnette featuring Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison-In Movement

The album starts out with some brush flourishes by the main man on drums Jack Dejohnette. Then Ravi's sax comes in with the haunting melody that is Alabama, an original composition by his father, John Coltrane. Garrison's playing here seems to drone and hit all the important chord tones while Ravi stretches the limitations of the melody while Jack holds it down rhythmically. This isn't the way John Coltrane did it. But it is still fantastic, albeit in a much different way. This is the current state of free jazz. Wild, free, and in Ravi's case melodically entertaining and focused. He isn't stretching out here as much as his dad would but he's still going "out there" like the album by Eric Dolphy with the same name. The song still retains the strength and meaning that Trane gave it. Fantastic cover.

Another thing to note is that Garrison isn't playing bass in a standard style whatsoever. He's playing electric bass and droning lots of notes rather than playing walking bass lines in the traditional jazz style. It gives the music a stronger bass sound and sometimes even a fusion edge.

The next tune is an original composition by all three guys entitled In Movement. It starts off with some abstract chords that sound like a question to me. Then these layers of sound come in, starting with some synthesizers (played by Jack). Once Ravi's somber sax comes through you remember you're listening to a free jazz record. The synths and the bass here give the music an ethereal feel. This is the ECM sound for sure. Once we hear more of Garrison's bass lines you can hear that he's playing the bass like a guitar, focusing on chord tones and two-three note clusters played simultaneously. It's refreshing hearing the bass played in this way rather than the usual walking bass line patterns found in traditional as well as free jazz. On this tune they really stretch out and show off their improvising credentials. Ravi can freak out for a bit but he always brings it back melodically. Its a way different approach from his dad. They created a nice piece here.

Next, we have another original composition called Two Jimmy's. This one has a dark minor sound with some extreme low end bass and spacing between the rhythmic dynamics of the bass and drums. Synthesizer appears again, creating droning notes to add to the sonic landscape. This song is way free jazz. Their isn't a clear or concise melody going on, just "sheets of sound". They take the song through various phases but Jack's drumming is the constant, the melody if you will. Its what's driving the music and holding it together from going all over the place. At some point there's a funky synth sound thrown in there. Its funky but it sounds industrial at the same time. Computer jazz music I reckon.

Then there's Blue in Green, the jazz standard by Miles Davis and Bill Evans. But the way they are playing it here is way different. A much more free and personal approach to the song. For me its almost unrecognizable as the song originally played by Miles and Bill Evans. Other than the piano. Jack plays a much different style of piano; a drummer's approach to the piano. More rhythmic and volume dynamics than a typical jazz pianist. This is the ballad of the album. Here we can see where these guys came from. There's that beautiful straight ahead jazz sound and feeling here. These guys are a product of the straight ahead period but they've adapted and changed the way they play based on all the changes in the jazz tradition. Cool stuff.

Serpentine Fire starts off with a funky bassline and backbeat. Ravi's sax comes in like a whisper, laying down some lines in between moments of silence. He's playing a soprano sax here, reminiscent of his dad but he sounds way different. He uses the soprano more melodically than Trane did. He sounds a lot like Wayne Shorter to me here. This whole tune reminds me of some late period Shorter from some years ago. It's a nice funky little vamp.

Lydia is an original tune by Jack Dejohnette. Its most likely written for his wife Lydia. It starts off with a brief melody then follows things up with some beautiful chord changes, outlined by the bass (playing it almost like a guitar). If you listen carefully the song does have a head and proper melody and stuff. But it is hard to hear that for the average and/or non-musical listener. It's written very cleverly in a way that sounds like its all improvised. Perhaps it was.

Rashied is an original composition by Jack Dejohnette and Ravi Coltrane, presumably about Rashied Ali. Rashied Ali was a great drummer that John Coltrane worked with towards the end of career, the great free jazz period for Trane. The opening of this tune is as free form as this album gets. The licks from Ravi sound almost exactly like John Coltrane, note for note. The difference is in the tone of the saxophone. This is some true ECM free jazz style stuff. The hardcore free jazz for the purists. From Ravi Coltrane this style of playing is pretty rare so its exciting to hear him playing like his dad. Jack's drumming is phenomenal as well. The entire song sounds like a drum solo but its all in time flowing with the saxophone. Another thing to note is that this is a drums and sax only song, just like how Trane and Rashied Ali recorded just them two together for some stuff back in the day. They are honoring the jazz ancestors and they're doing it with love and extreme musicality.

Lastly, we have Soulful Ballad. This is another ballad. It's not a real jazz album unless there's a couple ballads to balance things out. Amiright folks? It opens with a light hearted melody and sax line. Piano chords and note clusters give the song rhythm rather than drums as there are no drums here. I can hear some interesting things going on in the music. It sounds like they are playing higher notes of the chords on piano, bass, and sax. When played together it sounds very soothing. A great way to end a great album.

All in all this was a great Christmas gift from my stepfather and one of the best free jazz albums I've heard in a long time. Check this album out, you can find the tunes in bits and pieces on YouTube.