"I don't want to feel bluuuuuuuuuuue anymoooooooore"

Another year, another blog post. Thanks Myra for inspiring me to write this by writing your own.

2015 was ok. Things that happened include promotion, outdoors, travel, friends (old and new), Magic, and beer, to name a few. Some notables from the past ~10 months:



Saw DJ Kristian Nairn, better known as Hodor from Game of Thrones, during his Rave of Thrones show in Denver. I don't follow Game of Thrones and I also don't really listen to EDM, but it was a pretty cool show. I was exhausted from attempting to dance the entire night.



Visited the Great Sand Dunes with family during Memorial Day weekend. The place lived up to expectations: sand dunes and more sand dunes. Also hail and rain and wading across a cold creek.



Won a Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier on Easter Sunday, which qualified me to play in a Regional Pro Tour Qualifier 20 minutes from home a few months later. I do not envy the people who traveled 8+ hours to play in it. Missed the top 8 on tiebreakers after narrowly winning the final round of swiss due to my opponent's mistake on a crucial turn, so it's yet another 2-match-wins-away-from-qualifying-for-the-Pro-Tour for me. Also finished in the minimum cash bracket at Grand Prix Las Vegas this year, but wasted a strong start while doing it by trainwrecking the final booster draft deep into Day 2 (still 2 match wins short of a PT qualification). For the most part, I played out of my mind this past summer and ever since these two tournaments my level of play has slid downward to the point where I needed to take a break and regroup my mental state.



Participated in the Dragon Boat Festival again. I feel like we had a fun group of people on our team this year and I look forward to participating again. I began training to be a stern this year but did not feel ready to stern at festival, so hopefully next year I will be sterning dragon boats for real.



Did the Tough Mudder again. They really intensified all of the obstacles this year compared to last year, and as a result I did not successfully complete many of the strength obstacles. Some of us had a hard time walking afterwards, for various reasons. Had more teammates this year, which made the experience much better. Also scraped up my left knee in the Crybaby obstacle while scrambling to escape from the peppermint air makeshift tear gas and got a tetanus shot a few days later just to be safe. Was sick for almost a week afterwards as well.



Been hanging out with Anna (high school friend who found her way to Colorado) more often this year. She's opened my eyes to the mountains of Colorado that I've never explored on my own, including scaling rock slides sideways near the top of fourteeners that probably aren't supposed to be there in the first place (and hopefully skiing next month). Also beer at the Mountain Toad and Rocky Mountain oysters.



Went to my first NFL game, and it was a good one.



Went to a Seattle Rock Orchestra show with Stephen and crew. That was a good show. There was even an astronaut roaming around. Also crashed a date afterwards (oops).



Spent a week in southern California for work, which was the first time that I've ever been to southern California. It was nice. Got to follow some friends online who were tearing it up at a tournament in Vegas while I was in California, which was also nice. Their results that weekend may even inspire me to play more and get better at Magic again too.

Also been reading and listening to some self-help material, because I have issues and want to overcome them. Despite all outward appearances, my inner negativity, low self-esteem and complete lack of confidence in life are really dragging me down mentally and negatively affecting everything that I do. I'm pretty sure they've been with me for forever, but I'm just now recognizing how much it's affecting me and that I need to do something about it if I don't want to succumb to it.

2015, Chapter 1

First off, happy birthday to my brother!

So far, 2015 has been all right. The year started with Grand Prix Denver, where I last-minute audibled to Siege Rhino and made my first GP day 2 in 18 months but finished 9-6 and outside of the money.

My birthday happened and my work friends were awesome and took me out to downtown Denver for Grimaldi's pizza and dessert. (A very fancy ice-cream filled chocolate egg that's dropped onto a platter.)

GP San Jose (Team Sealed format with some awesome teammates) happened where we missed day 2 after a 6-1 start but got to watch the Super Bowl in San Jose while ordering beer by the gallon. We shared 3 gallons of beer between 6 people, then proceeded to get the entire bar involved in the punching bag game for about an hour after the Super Bowl ended in unspectacular fashion.

Also starting to cook a little more often than the past few years. Work friends hosted a wine tasting party where I was assigned to bring a pinot noir and appropriate pairing food, so I baked some Asian salmon to share. We (the software engineers) decided to buy tuxedo t-shirts to wear to the event since the non-engineers wanted to dress up in actual cocktail attire and look classy.

Other highlights in the first two months of 2015:

- Started playing chess, mainly on Chess With Friends. Started 0-4 and now I'm 10-9, but I think I'm about to lose a few games.
- Saw some friends from high school, including one that I haven't seen in 9 years. I think it's fun to reconnect with old friends from time to time, mainly because in some ways we are the same people who we were in high school but in other ways we've changed so much.
- Got stuck in an elevator.
- Got stuck in a Denver lightrail train with the train stopped on a sideways incline.
- Got to play some pickup soccer in February. Not only was it February, but it was 75 degrees and sunny outdoors.

2014 -> 2015

2014 was an interesting year. There were ups and there were downs. I explored a bit outside of my comfort zone. Friends visited me and I visited friends. I ventured off of the continental US twice. Experienced my first all-expenses-paid trip to play Magic. Didn't play as much Magic as I have in the past few years. Played weekly pick-up soccer. (also known as "run around for an hour" for me.) Completed a Warrior Dash and a Tough Mudder. Attended my first three weddings. Attended my first three pay-to-attend concerts. Returned to the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival after a break in 2013, this time as flag catcher, drummer and paddler. Did not shave during the month of November and learned how much of a struggle it is for some Asians to grow facial hair. Worked some crazy hours towards the end of the year as crunch time approaches. I had some lofty aspirations for 2014, but made a less-than-half-assed attempt to see those aspirations and instead did a lot of research to learn how I can get there after failure after failure.

Hoping for a better 2015 in every possible way.

And now, the obligatory photoblog:

I made a painting

AirBNB chickens in Colorado Springs

ROBO TACO in Portland - surprisingly good

Post-Warrior Dash turkey leg (and viking headgear)

Mudder Village

SMILE.

Christmas on a black sand beach

...because I need to end on a positive note