Every day you received your shift assignment for the next day. On Thursday I was assigned "PM Public Events", which meant working in the area where tournaments are open to the public from noon till 8:00 pm.

I attended the judge meeting at 8:00 am, followed by the official photo which you've probably already seen on the web. Then I had some time to ( Read more... )

Overview

Day 0 and the judge photo

Wednesday report:

Two uneventful flights (had to change in Atlanta, which claims to be the world's busiest airport). First one was delayed 15 minutes, which gave me pause since I checked a suitcase. However the second one was delayed an hour, which allowed John Shannon (a friend and judge from New Mexico who had ( Read more... )

I’ve been reflecting on the Level 2 Recertification test, my approach to testing, and what it says about my approach to life.

Some backstory: in February Wizards of the Coast changed the Judge Certification program, essentially doing away with the Level 2 position and renaming Level 2 Trainer. Under the new system all Level 2 judges will be able to ( Read more... )

Have you ever heard the British expression, “busman's holiday?” It means spending your vacation time doing the same things you do at work.

Saturday Chuck and I drove down to Andrew's to celebrate his birthday a week early and to deliver his presents, a new hard drive and a new video card, the e-GeForce 8800 GT. Alas the week before Andrew's ( Read more... )

My sister pointed me to this awesome website. You can see what song was Number One on the day you were born. Wait till you visit my son James's date: 3/18/1988!

http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm

Sunday morning James and I checked out early (well, 9:30) and checked our luggage at the Front Desk. They had a handy terminal there for printing boarding passes, very convenient. I had been reading the thick schedule of events, and thought the Amorphous Blobs Games "blobcast" sounded interesting. James humored me. It turned out to be lots of fun. ( Read more... )

Today is the main event, the Fifteenth Anniversary Sealed Deck Tournament, with prizes galore including a foil Crystalline Sliver (a Magic card), and a large, 30 sided spin-down die for everyone.

Whenever I describe why I play in Sealed Deck tournament, I always mention my hope that some day I will get a deck so good even I can't help winning with ( Read more... )

Wow - 67 people for Friday Night Magic at Origins!! And Magic: the Gathering backpacks to be awarded to the top 4! Seven rounds (fifty minutes each) plus a cut to the top eight meant we were in for a long night.

My notes don't show how much time was allowed for deck construction. I seem to recall it was a different length of time each event. Thank ( Read more... )

 Today was a blast. Somewhat at random I chose an event called Origins Premier Track which turned out to be developers teaching us new games not yet available to purchase. Andrew, Chris, and Bram all turned up too. We tried two games from Bucephalus.biz named Rorschach and Top Ten: Bill of Rights. Both are great party games. The Bill of Rights ( Read more... )

Thursday 6/26/2008

10 am Sealed Deck Tournament

For my non-Magic-playing audience:
At a sealed deck event the contestants are given booster packs and tournament boxes of unopened cards (“sealed”) and must build the decks they compete with from those cards. They then play a number of 50-minute rounds based on attendance, best two out of three games ( Read more... )