[Sunscreen is part of thestatusjoe’s new photoset: Catalina Island]

[Downtown San Fran, originally uploaded by thestatusjoe]

Better late than never. I just renewed my pro account over at Flickr. Here’s a photo set (and here’s the slideshow) from when we ran a 10k in Napa in July and did some hanging out in San Francisco. Eliza posted a couple entries as well.

Stayed tuned shortly for photos from our magical trip to Catalina this weekend (as in, November). That place is beautiful. Lize is uploading pics as I write. We got back an hour ago and I’m sooo tired.

I just couldn’t take it anymore. Simultaneously and seemingly coincidently, I’ve recently been in touch with various old friends and it’s greatly added to my feeling the pull to post, at the least to show that I do write traditional entries once in a while.

Though the lapse is generally a false state of stall (I’ve overhauled this site’s design, and my nav and sidebars attest I consistently bookmark, tweet, and comment elsewhere), I’ve seriously slacked in the category of producing significant original content here. To those who do check in: my apologies. There’s a lot of good reasons you haven’t heard from me.

Excuses though, are for another post. In homage to my not-so-closeted-metal-head friend Todd’s brilliant series tributing fearsome metal riffs, it’s time to smash forward my lull with fire-breathing guitar work, compliments of Virginia-based thrash-masters Lamb of God.

This doozy of an excerpt (audio below) is cut from Vigil, the epic closer of LOG’s seminal record As the Palaces Burn.

“When this song starts up, I can picture myself as an evil king marching towards a balcony in my castle’s highest tower. As I come to the edge, my evil army goes nuts and starts beating their armor and smashing their swords against their shields.”

Todd’s spot-on description, above, of a classic Slayer track, runs parallel to how I’ve always imagined the scene as Vigil builds to its apex and falls off the shelf at 1,000 miles an hour:

My scrappy but passionate band of revolutionaries, having arduously trekked across an unforgiving landscape, reach our hilltop destination to face our enemy. Outnumbered, we psych ourselves into an adrenaline frenzy and run crazed through a hail of arrows to darken the field with the blood of our oppressors.

(Click to play)

To anyone I might have just scared the bejesus out of and/or don’t know me very well (e.g. those I work with who might be reading this): cathartic brutality is only one among many of my musical tastes (check my last.fm page or my player). Also, now that I think of it, my interpretation is probably pretty common considering the band’s historical instigation of the Braveheart-lifted Wall of Death.

Until next time!

“The first major album whose price is determined by what individual consumers want to pay for it. And it’s perfectly acceptable to pay nothing at all.”

It drops October 10. Download it here.

[via Ryanne’s Tweet. Story link here.]

My friend Chris and I have attended a couple of Tenth Edition booster drafts that a local card shop hosts every Sunday night, and it’s been sinfully fun.

I won this past weekend, besting chumps left and right with a surprisingly consistent and strong green, red, and black deck. I played well, and attributed much of my success at the time to that, as well as some admittedly lucky late-game pulls (e.g., Terror).

What I didn’t realize until Chris and I played some more this week is how the design and mana curve of the deck is actually pretty well-rounded. Card advantage, removal, and some hefty creatures turned out to be a pretty good recipe. I was worried three colors might mana-screw me but I kept the splashes appropriate and a couple Civic Wayfinders became my best friends.

[No clue what I’m talking about?  See my first Magic post or Wikipedia.]

Chris didn’t fare as well, but he built a pretty good white and green deck, especially considering this is his second time playing limited ever. It might be easy to say the moral of the story is Hunted Wumpuses can’t be trusted, but I think we both agree they’re still a good limited card. He definitely lacked any real removal, tho, even of the white variety, and that’s just a plain killer.

Anyhow, I’m quite excited to play some more, especially since my spoils ($45 worth of store credit) mean I won’t have to pay a cover for at least a few more tournaments. Limited really is Magic’s purest form, and it’s super neat that it fits well into both my and Chris’ schedule, so it might become a semi-regular thing.

My deck list is below the jump, if you’re interested: [Read more →]