Grand Prix Lincoln

I was going to write a tournament report about this past weekend, but then it went incredibly poorly, so I figured I'd just blog. It was at that point I realized they are exactly the same thing, since I'd be focusing less on the game play and more on the whole experience and the mindsets and whatnot. So without further ado, here is my tournament report. Or, you know, just another blog entry.

I spent the week leading up to the grand prix thinking I liked my deck but not sure it was the right call because people would be prepared for it. Unfortunately this assessment was spot on. I seriously debated switching to a different deck the day before we left, but decided that without any games of practice, it would actually be worse than staying the course with a worse deck that I knew well. I expected a decent matchup against everything for the first game, and then varying degrees of preparedness to make the second and third games of each match more difficult.

We had planned to leave Ames around 5:00, so I went for a bike ride at 3:30, got back at 4:30, showered, and was ready to go. It turned out that a guy named Casey had his friends bail on him last-minute in Cedar Falls, so he drove to Ames to ride with us the rest of the way. This meant we left after 7:00, since we had to wait for him to show up, but it wasn't a big deal. The three and a half hours in the car were pretty easy considering that all magic players by default have enough in common to converse for days, and the drive was pretty short compared to many other car trips. All in all, the traveling experience was great. One of the guys in the group here in Ames has friends in Lincoln, so we crashed at their place for free. Plus, they knew good places to eat, how to get around town, and were pretty cool in general.

We spent much of the night before the tournament making last-minute changes to things. I only really wanted some advice for my sideboard, but some of the guys took that as an invitation to examine my whole deck. One of the many things I regret is listening to them as they criticized some of the choices I made. I wound up switching a couple of things because they made sense when people were explaining their thoughts to me, but I was the one with the most testing in, so I really should have stuck to my guns. We all went to bed late, but I figured since I had three fewer rounds to play than everyone else, it wouldn't matter as much. That was another mistake.

We go to the event site early the next morning to register and meet up with the rest of the Iowa contingent. I loaned out a bunch of stuff to complete some lists for friends, and then waited for the first rounds to start. Once they did, I looked on as almost every person I knew got off to a terrible start. One exception was Xavier, a guy I only met recently. He was playing a dedicated combo deck which had the sole purpose of taking the entire 50 minutes to win the first game, at which point the other two games are a draw and he wins the match by default. Needless to say, this frustrated many of his opponents. He wasn't breaking any rules, but it still isn't fun to sit down across for someone and watch them take 30 minutes on one of their turns while you sit there unable to do anything. After his third round his opponent was so frustrated he signed the results slip with such vigor that he ripped a huge gash in with the pen. And it turned out he had signed in Xavier's spot, so Xavier just scribbled something sort-of illegible in the guy's spot rather than let him know. It was pretty amusing.

Then it was time for my first round of play. I was paired against Gerry Thompson, a popular writer for a major magic website and fresh off a top 25 finish at the pro tour. I won the first game easily. I was riding high. I lost the second game. I changed a few cards because I was going to be going first in the third game and wanted a slightly different strategy. At the crucial turn he cast a spell his deck is known for, and I cast one that lets me search for a card in my deck and put it into play. I had switched it out because I was playing first. I lost. And I looked really stupid doing so. He probably won't remember it for long, and maybe he had a good laugh with some friends about it, but it was pretty terrible for me.

Had I won that match, I would have been playing other undefeated players, giving me a much higher likelihood of being paired against good decks. And because they are good, chances are I have a plan against them. As it was, my next round I played against someone piloting a really off the wall strategy that just happened to be really good against me. I made a minor mistake in one of the games now that I think about it, but I wasn't going to win that match.

My third round was against a deck I knew might be a possibility. It's pretty even, and it came right down to the wire, but I lost, ending my tournament as rapidly as was humanly possible. I watched my friends finish up. It turned out that nobody I knew made it past the first day of the tournament. We were all pretty worn out, so although there was still plenty going on, we left to get some food. Another great thing about knowing people in the area is that we get good restaurant recommendations. We didn't really want asian food, and the first place we walked into had over an hour wait, so we wound up at a place called Buzzard Billy's. The name was a little off-putting to be honest, but they served Cajun food, and that was on-putting enough for me to be looking forward to my meal. The five of us who went split two appetizers, one of which which was breaded alligator, while the other was bacon-wrapped chicken. Both were delicious, but the bacon-wrapped chicken things were definitely superior. For my main course I ordered a plate with blackened chicken, beans, rice, gumbo, and hushpuppies. The chicken was dry, the rice and beans were bland, and the hushpuppies didn't have much flavor beyond the taste of cornbread. The gumbo was good, but not enough to make up for the rest of the meal. Luckily, Xavier didn't want all of his steak, which was quite tasty.

We went back to the house, where we discussed a bit of magic, played some mental magic, and then went to sleep. Mental magic is where you take a random stack of cards and can play them as they are any card in the game as long as they have the same property for casting. There is limit in that you can't play a card that's already been played that game. It really rewards having an extensive knowledge of what cards have been made, and takes a lot of skill to play well. Luckily, none of us are very good, so it was still fun.

The next day I found out that I had managed to sleep through the somewhat triumphant return of a bunch of the lincoln natives from the bars. I say somewhat because while they had some pretty good times and stories, one of them did wind up falling down the stairs and throwing up on himself. I'm not sure if that's the order things happened in or not, but I am sure they both happened. I'm amazed I slept through it actually. The best story I heard about the events of the previous night was about a confrontation one of the guys had with another guy on the street. He was being his usual loud self, and somehow got himself into the situation where the second guy was quite annoyed and ready to do something. So he threatened our protagonist with a knife. Now, our protagonist, being quite intoxicated, did not take offense at this as one normally would. Rather, he just enthusiastically said, "wow! Cool knife! Can I see it?" and before the antagonist could construct a response, he grabbed it and started looking at it. The guy said something to the effect of "I have another one," and, indeed, pulled out a second knife. To which our protagonist responded, "no way! Really? Let me see!" and grabbed that one too. So here our protagonist is, with two knives in his hands, but still not quite realizing he might have been in danger, while the antagonist is a bit bewildered, less angry, and probably wondering if our protagonist is in a state where he should be having two knives. The situation concluded with the knives returned to their owner and our protagonist on his merry way.

We got a late start to our morning what with all the drunk people and figuring out transport and the locations of our bags and such. We ate a brunch-style meal at a Mexican place, and got to the tournament site at noon. That's when we heard the announcement that it was last call for a side tournament. Xavier and I scrambled to get registered and submit our decklists barely squeaking in. It was going to be a six-round tournament, with cash prizes to the people who finished with only one loss. I won my first round, and was called over by a judge right after. It turned out I had only written down 13 of the fifteen cards in my sideboard, so I had to start the next round with a game loss. I won the other two games, though, and was undefeated. The next round my opponent and I were picked to have our decks checked. This means they go through the whole thing and make sure you wrote down everything correctly. In my rush, I had switched a card. So I had another loss to start. This time I lost again, so I had to win the rest. I didn't, and wound up with nothing. It was nice to get some wins with my deck, though. I felt pretty bad that I got two losses for such similar things. I wish they had checked my deck the first time, because once I turn in the list, it's out of my hands, and it felt like I was being punished twice for the same thing.

It was a fun weekend, and between splitting gas and staying with people, it wasn't very expensive. Of course things could have gone better, but it's all on my shoulders that it didn't. I think I'll try again soon.

Not a real post

Today I slept in, did some dishes, shoveled a lot of snow, and did a bunch of research on Magic the Gathering decks for the coming weekend. That probably sounds silly to a lot of people, but with the strategy changing on a weekly (sometimes daily) basis, there is a lot to stay on top of. I feel good in my knowledge of what's going on, but there is a lot I can't predict. According to the sources I've looked up, four or five particular strategies should be the most popular, and I feel okay about most of them, but two things can happen. The first is that my deck could show up on everyone's radar, in which case I will need a plan for their plan against my original plan. This is what's referred to as the "metagame." My deck has a powerful strategy. Other decks have ways to stop it after the first game they see it. So I need to decide whether I need to have a second plan, or whether they will not be prepared for my strategy. If they are prepared for it, things get worse quickly, because then I have to decide what ways they will prepare for it and be ready to not only execute my original plan, but stop their counter-plan. This is one of the main reasons for choosing a deck that people aren't expecting. Then you only have to worry about your plan and their original plan. It's a one and two level system rather than a three, four, or five level system. At some point it may even be correct to assume they are ready for your plan and completely change plans in the second or third game. Or change plans for the second and revert to the original for the third. Or if you're playing someone you know, and they think you're changing things drastically for the second, leaving everything as-is could be the right move. It's not easy to figure out. So that's the research I was doing. And I feel okay about it, but my deck has been showing up a lot more places recently, so it's a bit unsettling. Hopefully this weekend is just early enough that people aren't quite ready, because I'm pretty sure it's too late to switch. Acquiring new cards at this point would be a pricy endeavor, and I'm really the most comfortable with my deck so the switch would take some serious reconfiguring of my play style. Unless something changes seriously in the next couple of days (which could definitely happen), I'm staying the course.

I just typed this on my phone, so there could definitely be some fascinating typos. Sorry in at advance, and thanks for staying tuned. I'm not sure when I'll be posting normally again, but I'd like to think Wednesday.

I wrote this application essay

This has taken a while, and it's still not done. I know I've been over thinking things at every step, so I'm just going to post it and think a little less.

I'm tired of shrugging. I'm tired of furtively glancing in another direction as I muster another halfhearted justification for the past four years of my life. "What did you major in?" followed invariably by "And what are you going to do with a degree in philosophy?" I'm tired of the way I've grown accustomed to thinking of philosophy: as a diversion or a pastime. I've been asked so many times why I took the classes I did that I'd almost forgotten how I felt while I sat in them, and more than once I've doubted that philosophy has served me better than a degree in engineering or computer science. In trying to justify my decision to others, I've inevitably adopted their system of values concerning the goals of education. This essay, therefore, isn't so much an appeal for entry as it is an attempt to figure out what I actually think about the path I took. 

The thing is, when I was surrounded by philosophy majors and professors, there wasn't room to doubt the importance of philosophy. In much the same way a physicist must look at the world and think theirs is the pursuit of the fundamental aspects of the universe, philosophy majors run rampant with their conviction that reason and pure thought are the pinnacle of education. This belief is fostered (even actively encouraged) by our teachers, who never hesitate to point out that at one point all the branches of science were once considered topics of philosophy. Though I never quite became fully absorbed, my haughtiness was at an all-time high when I was sure the field I had chosen was the epitome of next-level thinking. Even the names of the classes I took flaunted their superiority. I wasn't taking physics; I was taking metaphysics. And what other field can lay claim to a class called Truth, Belief, and Reason?

With graduation and the subsequent dissipation of the sheltering college environment, education's pedestal cracked. The flurry of questions became accompanied by varying degrees of skepticism. My job washing dishes seemed all too typical of a recent graduate with a liberal arts degree. " But what more could a philosophy major want? Mindless work gives you 
plenty of time to think." The lab I worked was focused on altering the genetic composition of corn and soybeans to make them resistant to herbicides, and having succeeded, they were in need of a process for determining where their altered gene had established itself in the corn genome. My boss knew I was a fairly intelligent person, and rather than hire a new worker (a grad student to whom he would have to explain every aspect of the lab), he gave me a shot at it. I am now listed as an inventor on a patent application we have every expectation of receiving soon.

Sure, philosophy didn't teach me very many specific career skills; I wasn't going to be piloting an airplane or calculating the stresses for a building. But I had learned how to learn. I learned how to think critically, evaluate efficiently, and assimilate information to the point where I felt comfortable in a new research environment and  could begin contributing without knowing much more than the goals of the experiment. Understanding not only how to do research, but the value and enjoyment contained in the learning process are the most important things I've found relevant from my undergraduate experience.

This doesn't make answering the questions easier. People aren't looking for an answer that sounds as holistic as, "my philosophy degree made me happy to think and eager to learn." Under job-related skills, "thinker" will never carry as much clout as a specialized degree in the field. So I'll cross bridge-builder off my list, since it doesn't appeal to me anyway. But what, then, is a good fit? What do I say when the next person asks me how my degree is working out, all the while smugly picturing me flipping burgers or toiling at some other stereotypically demeaning job (like washing dishes)? I'd like to tell them I'm still at it, that I'm still learning, still immersed in the educational environment I love, and on my way to a job where my penchant for research and my proclivity for writing will serve me well. And I'd like to say it while looking them in the eye, back straight, and proud of my degree.

Thank you for your consideration,
Ryan Pesch

My weekend

Yet another autobiographical post. I guess that's what a lot of blogs are, but I feel like I should be doing more. Anyway, on to my weekend.

I traveled to Colorado to play handball this weekend with my parents in tow. My dad drove the entire way to Fort Collins and the entire way back, which was pretty amazing of him. It's not like I didn't offer to drive or anything, but the truck isn't my favorite vehicle, and some of the weather did get rather interesting. We left Thursday afternoon, stayed in Kearney, Nebraska where they were expecting 11-15 inches of snow the next day, and hoped for the best for the remainder of the trip. We woke up to no snow on the ground and nothing really evident, and made it almost the rest of the way without incident. A couple of hours from Fort Collins things got slippery and white, but we obviously prevailed. Along the way we stopped at a couple of outdoor gear places, where I had the pleasure of sitting and trying to scold my parents over their selections in clothing. The price was right on a bunch of stuff, though, and I think their receipt said they saved over $400 or something. Plus that weekend there was an additional 20% off purchases of $100 or more, compounding the good deals.

We made it to Fort Collins and drove straight to La Luz, a Mexican restaurant we were recommended for our first trip four years ago and have stopped at every time since (sometimes multiple times per visit). I got a fish and potato burrito, and my parents got fish tacos, all of which were delicious. We shopped around downtown until my mom was kicked out of a couple of different establishments (her enthusiasm borders on the maniacal occasionally), but we found some cool stuff during the process. There was a cooking store that had a variety of kitchen gadgets and whatnot where we bought cups and narrowly avoided acquiring the most colorful plates ever. Our criteria for cups is strict, and stems from the fact that we don't use a dishwasher, making it necessary for our hands to fit inside without too much pain. This is actually a more challenging criteria to meet than you might think. I don't know if our hands are unusually awkward or if cups just aren't designed conveniently any more, but it was good to find them either way. At one point my mother was so excited about the possibilities she bordered on giddiness, and when she drew a random lady's attention, I loudly said this is why we couldn't take her out in public, which drew a smile from the onlooker, but really, it was just fun to see her enjoying the cool stuff.

We wandered around for a while at a garden-y store, which was unexpectedly a more subdued experience. We found a book, but didn't buy anything. On our way back the car I remembered a cool jewelery store and we stopped in. The guy who came over to help us was pretty awesome. It was obvious he was incredibly enthusiastic about his profession, and it seemed he could talk forever. Some of the rings he had crafted were really interesting. They were multi-layered with folded metals which results in this:






















Needless to say, my mom was fascinated. Woodgrain sorts of things interest her, as, apparently, do opals, which he showed her next. I think she was almost to the point of buying something before she remembered she doesn't wear jewelery. If we ever go back, though, the guy said they took scrap metal as raw material and would accept some in trade for the labor, so there's the possibility of something working out eventually. Of course, with the one-year communication delay, it's possible things might get bogged down a bit.

From there we went to the club where the tournament was being held even though it was a bit early. That was a good thing, though, since I was able to enter another division and play a half hour after our arrival. So I was in the A division and the open division. I won A's, but lost in the first round of open, confirming my suspicion I am somewhere between the two. So I guess I just need to get a bit better. I was actually surprised with how many shots the open players hit that I felt weren't of amazing quality, but I guess the fact is that they are always on the run, and if they are ever allowed to set their feet and take the shot they want, the result is a point for them. So maybe the trick isn't developing the hard shots, but getting your opponent to hit you easy ones by keeping them off balance. It's a lot less fun, but probably more practical.

I won my A matches pretty easily. Highlights included my opponent calling a hinder when I passed him on the complete opposite side of the court when he hadn't yet returned a passing shot when he was on the correct side. This wasn't terrible on its own, but it was immediately followed by another very questionable call. The combination of the two made the score 8-6 in my favor. I went on to win 21-6. Interestingly, I lost my first game of A's, but got my head in the right place, got warmed up and in the rhythm of things, and wound up winning the next two 21-2, 11-0. The finals could have been closer, but my opponent started off a bit slow and never really got into things. There were some actual highlights in this one, including a between the legs shot I hit left-handed that just barely made it to the front wall and almost rolled out. It was fun to win, but now that I can't enter the A's any more, I'm in an awkward position if I travel to tournaments, since it's unlikely I'll get many matches in the open divisions.

My dad played in his first singles tournament, which was pretty good, but one of his two opponents didn't show up, so while that meant he was in the finals, it also meant he had paid his entry fee and driven quite a way for not a lot of playing. Luckily we found him another match for fun, and he made a fair account of himself in the finals, hitting some pretty good shots once he got going. All in all, the trip was a success. We spent some good quality time with friends during meals and between matches, enjoyed our shopping, and the travel went as smoothly as we could hope after hearing the forecast. The only real (or imagined) downside is that I still don't know who won the super bowl. I guess I'll go watch a highlight reel now.

Thanks for reading.