A couple weeks ago, an IBMer at IBM Tucson googled the words "IBM" and "Starcraft". One of the results led to my blog and e-mailed me telling me about a league for StarCraft 2 that he was organizing for him and his friends at IBM. Before he found me, the league had only been on for about 3 weeks. I joined their channel one night and decided it'd be fun to participate in a work league for StarCraft 2. With my help, I was able to recommend other IBMers who play SC2 and they grew from 11 people to 16.
After the assimilation of new recruits, the league has put together the "October Classic" season. It is comprised of 4 pools that contain 4-5 players each and will meet every Wednesday from ~7pm-10pm PST. Tonight is the season opener and the first time I'll be playing a match in the league. You can find the complete bracket online at challonge.com. The first 3 weeks will be round robin pool play and at the end of the each month there'll be a single-elimination tournament with seeds based on the outcomes of the round robin play.
In case you're wondering, the IBMers we have so far mostly comprise of mid-level skill (Silver through Platinum) and there are just a small handful of Bronze and Diamond+ players. I was selected to the highest pool, which is comprised of only one other Diamond+ at the moment - Steve (a.k.a. GreatArchon). Steve and I have been playing against each other for quite some time with about a 50% split. I guess you can say him and I would initially be the favorites to win the season, but hey, never doubt any player!
But really this is just an opporunity to have a fun yet organized league among friends and coworkers and I'm looking forward to playing some fun matches!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Some People Just Flat Out Suck
I was driving home from the gym tonight and made my way north up Stone coming from 6th street. While driving up Stone, a white sedan from behind me is going at least 15 MPH faster than me in a 30 MPH zone, swerves around me, and nearly hits my car as he changes to the lane next to me. I'm pretty livid since he came so close and he pulls up in the left turn lane to turn west onto Speedway. I'm sitting in the left turn lane behind him also waiting to turn and I look at the guy's license plate. I actually memorize it real quick, but really there's not a whole lot I can do about this asshole...if only there were some way to report him.
When the light turns green, he turns onto Speedway and quickly speeds ahead, literally driving like a maniac and swerving around cars. Then, at the next intersection, I see in the distance a car getting hit from behind and smoke coming out of it. The white sedan swerves around some more traffic, runs a red light, and speeds off toward the freeway. I turn on my emergency signal and pull over to check out the damage and make sure the victims in the totaled car are alright and fortunately no one was injured, just a bunch of car damage. I get on the phone with 911 reporting the accident and they send out an ambulance and a police car. At first, the lady on the phone tells me that they can't take a report for a hit and run if there are no injuries, but I go ahead and give her my contact information as well as the number on the Michigan license plate I memorized earlier. She also tells me that there's not really much they can do if there's no ID on the suspect, something that I couldn't provide. Fortunately, there was another witness who saw the man driving the white sedan and could ID him. The ambulance soon arrives and I try to help them move the car out of the street, but this honky, old grey car just won't budge. After that, they let me go since I've provided just about all the help I could at that point. Them stopping traffic so I could get back onto the road was a pretty cool, VIP-ish feeling by the way. :)
Later this night, I'm sitting at home watching my boy Weaver pitch against the A's and I get a call from an officer. He asks for a description of what I saw and I basically tell him everything that I just told you. He tells me how much it helps them that they got a license plate number from me and I wish them good luck. It's funny, I sometimes think about what I would do if I were a cop. I'd be the hardass who would pull you over and try and put you behind bars, but usually I only think about that as I'm raging right after someone on the road just pissed me off. Tonight, I feel like I was actually able to help thanks to the rage I had after he almost hit me, which led me to memorize his license plate. I'm also really lucky that it wasn't me with the totaled car instead. Ugh, some people just flat out suck. :(
When the light turns green, he turns onto Speedway and quickly speeds ahead, literally driving like a maniac and swerving around cars. Then, at the next intersection, I see in the distance a car getting hit from behind and smoke coming out of it. The white sedan swerves around some more traffic, runs a red light, and speeds off toward the freeway. I turn on my emergency signal and pull over to check out the damage and make sure the victims in the totaled car are alright and fortunately no one was injured, just a bunch of car damage. I get on the phone with 911 reporting the accident and they send out an ambulance and a police car. At first, the lady on the phone tells me that they can't take a report for a hit and run if there are no injuries, but I go ahead and give her my contact information as well as the number on the Michigan license plate I memorized earlier. She also tells me that there's not really much they can do if there's no ID on the suspect, something that I couldn't provide. Fortunately, there was another witness who saw the man driving the white sedan and could ID him. The ambulance soon arrives and I try to help them move the car out of the street, but this honky, old grey car just won't budge. After that, they let me go since I've provided just about all the help I could at that point. Them stopping traffic so I could get back onto the road was a pretty cool, VIP-ish feeling by the way. :)
Later this night, I'm sitting at home watching my boy Weaver pitch against the A's and I get a call from an officer. He asks for a description of what I saw and I basically tell him everything that I just told you. He tells me how much it helps them that they got a license plate number from me and I wish them good luck. It's funny, I sometimes think about what I would do if I were a cop. I'd be the hardass who would pull you over and try and put you behind bars, but usually I only think about that as I'm raging right after someone on the road just pissed me off. Tonight, I feel like I was actually able to help thanks to the rage I had after he almost hit me, which led me to memorize his license plate. I'm also really lucky that it wasn't me with the totaled car instead. Ugh, some people just flat out suck. :(
Friday, September 9, 2011
Kyle's Entry: Me Catching Up
During my near one-month hiatus of blogging, Kyle constantly texted me to update my blog with blogworthy items. So here you go buddy, this blog is for you!
Texas (August 18-21):
The weekend after my birthday, I traveled to Texas to visit Kevin, one of my buddies from college. Kevin left Tucson for Denton to work on his PhD in psychology and some 4-5 years later, I finally got a chance to go visit him out there. Before this trip, I've never actually been to Texas or even driven through it, so I was really excited to have someone to visit in this state. I always thought Austin would be the first city in Texas I'd see (I hear crazy stories about the nightlife there), but the Dallas:Fort-Worth:Denton "Golden Triangle" area was pretty good!
I arrived at DFW airport Thursday evening and we started by getting some good ol' Texas barbecue at a hole-in-the-wall type restaurant called Metzler's (pictured above). One of the things I really enjoyed about this trip was the inexpensiveness of it. Kevin has similar tastes as my own, so the places we went to eat not only featured really good food, but it was fairly cheap too. And when we went out at night, we didn't go to expensive clubs with covers and over-priced drinks, we instead went to dive bars and sports bars...which leans more towards my current taste in nightlife. :) With that said, Thursday was a great start to my vacation 'cause we went to a couple chill sports bars in Denton Square and I got to enjoy a great pitching duel between Jered Weaver and Colby Lewis: two starters from my fantasy baseball teams at the time. I also proceeded to demolish Kevin in corn-hole (a.k.a. bean-bag toss) 21-3 and 21-6. :D
Friday was more of our sightseeing day. After grabbing Freebirds World Burrito (the successor to Chipotle burritos), Kevin drove us out to Dallas to check out the city and since we're both big sports fans, we actually learned that the Cowboys offer self-guided tours of their new stadium for only $17. I had never actually done something like this before and it was actually pretty cool despite the fact that I don't really like the Cowboys.
I got to check out the ridiculously over-sized jumbotron, the Cowboys locker-room, and we even got to see the Cowboys scrimmage during practice against the Chargers. There was also a Troy Aikman sighting and we were sitting in seats along the sideline where he was only several feet away. Troy is still in phenomenal shape might I add. Why did this guy retire early again? After touring the stadium, we decided to check out some more of Dallas including downtown and Deep Ellum, one of Kevin's favorite collection of dive bars in Texas. Our night ended with watching Telegraph Canyon perform a concert at Dan's Silverleaf bar. Apparently Denton is home of a lot of up-and-coming bands and this band is one of Kevin's favorites.
Saturday was a fairly chill day where we went to Riprock's, which is the bar that sponsors the Denton rugby team that Kevin plays on. I got to meet the girl he is dating who not only is the blonde bombshell type, but she's smart, can actually talk sports with us, and plays video games too, like FPS-type gaming even. In other words, I was pretty jealous of Kevin's find and I really hope he can lock her down. :) Very good job buddy!
Since Saturday would be my last night in Texas, we drove out to Fort-Worth to visit Kevin's grad school friend Courtney. He claims that his group of grad school friends is actually a lot bigger then who I got to meet and that I just happened to be there on a weekend where everyone was out of town. Uh huh, suuuuuuure. Just playin'! Anyway, the three of us checked out Sundance Square in Fort-Worth, which is the nightlife neighborhood. It was pretty much like any other collection of bars and clubs and likewise, I had a good time. :)
There wasn't really anything left to do on our list for Sunday, so we spent the day engaged in many 1-on-1 Madden battles on the XBox360. Back in the day when Kevin used to live in Tucson, we would play a game of Madden before we hit the clubs every weekend...Madden was just one of our things so it was fun to play vs him again while I was out there. On Sunday afternoon, Kevin introduced me to a round of disc golf, which is basically what it sounds like. Instead of golf clubs and golf balls, you throw a disc (it's like a small frisbee) from the tee area and try and eventually sink it into a chain-link basket. Like regular golf, I sucked, but Kevin was actually really impressive. Not surprising to me because he's always been pretty good at the things he's passionate about, sort of like myself. :) That basically concluded my trip to Texas, which officially ended with me getting one more burrito at Freebirds. I'm serious, it's better than Chioptle and if it ever reaches Arizona I will be one happy eater. It's nice to cross Texas off the list of states I haven't been to yet, but I would go back. Just not during the summertime if I can help it 'cause that heat+humidity is gruesome!
Peyman Visits me in Tucson (August 25):
The Thursday after I got back home from Texas, Peyman visited me in Tucson for a night. It had definitely been a few years since he last visited me in Tucson, so it was nice of him to think of me as part of his annual 2-week west coast summer vacation that also included stops in San Diego and Flagstaff. Peyman arrived in town around 6pm and we caught up a little before I had a fantasy football draft for EC's $200 league. He actually watched me draft my football team and I think I picked the New York Giants as my backup defense just because he was around. :) Later that night, I took him to the popular restaurant that has been featured on Man vs. Food: Lindy's on 4th. He absolutely loved the burgers and I was happy I could take him to a place that would be unique to Tucson itself. Lindy's was an easy choice 'cause it would also put us on 4th ave, which is basically the only good nightspot to go on a Thursday night. He had been to 4th before, so I took him to the places I go now which are the not-so-overly-crowded bars like O'Malley's, but places like Skybar and the Shanty. The night was a good collection of sights and events, meeting up with Kirstin and Teqas finishing up trivia night at Bumsted's, playing Big Buck Hunter at Che's lounge with Teqas and Jonny, or dancing with Brooke and her friends at Club Congress. Overall, it was a good night and I'm glad someone from out of town visited me! I don't get too many visitors anymore with all my friends getting married or in serious relationships these days. :'(
Hashing (August 27):
My friend Chuck has been inviting me to try hashing with him. However, he'd always invite me the day of and of course I'd already be hungover or have something else planned. In case you don't know what hashing is, it's basically a group of people who walk/run and drink beers at designated pit stops. A few people, known as the hares, create a 3-4 mile trail that no one but the hares know. The group has to follow markings on the ground such as chalk symbols or flour or rice to the final destination and along the way, there are stations where there is beer to take a break and have a drink.
Since I was a hashing virgin, I didn't really know what to expect. I did know that my house was going to be a stop since Chuck was one of the hares for this hash and wanted my house to be a station along the trail. There are two types of hashers: walkers and runners or also referred to as the turkey trail and the eagle trail. The turkey trail is a straight shot to each pit stop and eventually the final destination whereas the eagle trail will have several paths and could make you end up running in circles. Either way, both parties would end up at the stops around the same time. I was a turkey for this event since the friends I went with weren't really into running. I still considered this a workout though since trekking this trail of about 4 miles required some energy.
About 50 people showed up for this hash, which I hear is a huge amount. Usually it's only 15 or so people. The trail started at Estevan Park at Main & Speedway and along the way we had beer stations under a bridge near the I-10 and at a small chinese market called Johnny's by the El Rio golf course. Some of the memorable moments during this hash were walking through sewage tunnels lol and watching everyone climb the wall alongside a huge wash.
The trail actually ended at my house, which wasn't supposed to be the final destination but became it when it got late by the time we got there and everyone was kind of tired. It was also kind of scary to have 50 really loud hashers outside in my backyard from 8-9pm, but fortunately it was early enough were my neighbors weren't really bothered by the raucous party. It was however pretty funny to see that many people back there singing and dancing to their hashing traditions and initiating virgin hashers including yours truly. It really was an eclectic group of Tucson locals and I actually really enjoyed myself. Hashing is definitely something I will consider again!
Exploring Southwest Tucson (August 28 & September 1):
My friend Lucky lives in the southwest part of Tucson. In terms of driving distance, it's west of the I-19 and south of the I-10 and a good 20 minutes or so from central Tucson where the popular nightlife is. Lucky is a great friend in that he drives out to visit his friends in Tucson and never complains when people don't go to his side of town to visit him. Granted there isn't a whole lot to do in his area, I recently wanted to make an effort to check out his side of town more and make it more convenient for him for a change. Our mutual friends didn't participate in these recent excursions mostly using the "it's too far" excuse, but fortunately, Lucky shares the same "Make It Happen" mentality that I try to hold up to. (Kyle, I know you're gonna knock me down for not coming to tailgating when you guys were in town, but I was pretty hungover that day from partying so hard the night before and just wanted to rest. I had honestly forgotten about the U of A game, or is it not forgetting when you don't follow your alma mater's sports...lol, hmm. You know I'll be out there eventually!) Anyway, on the last Sunday in August, I drove down to Lucky's house, which is really only 15 minutes from my house so I can't see how anyone can complain about it being far. It's a pretty quick drive. We played some Madden before we hit up Casino Del Sol for some Pai Gow and Blackjack action. Lucky broke even, but I didn't fair very well, but I did learn Spanish 21 while I was out there, a game I still can't decide is broken or not. :P We also ate at Moby Dick's cafe/restaurant while we were there and I was really satisfied with the food and the price.
Later that week on Thursday, I again visited Lucky on his side of town and we checked out Salud, which Lucky had heard hosted ladies' night on Thursdays. The look was pretty much what we expected and how do I put this lightly...let's just say the girls were exotic and had a little bit more to love if you know what I mean. I don't know if I'd go back based on the lack of talent, but it was nice to get two free rounds of shots from Lucky's ladyfriends who were working there that night. :) After Salud, we checked out some real dives by the airport. First was Airport Inn, where I was drunk enough to be overly ecstatic about the true diveness of this bar and I sang some karaoke to the tune of Toby Keith's 'I Ain't As Good As I Once Was'. Our final stop of the night was Palo Verde Bar & Grill, which I think had 5 people inside when we got there, but it was actually fun because we all just started talking to each other along with the bartender. I will mention that the bartender gave us another round even though we didn't ask for one and I think that put me over the edge where I wouldn't be able to drive home the rest of the night, but that's okay, since I was in Lucky's side of town, he offered to be the DD for the night; I just had to crash at Lucky's house for a change. These Tucson excursions were pretty fun for me, I think I just like checking out new places and being around some more wholesome people. :)
IBM Bowling League (September 8):
Not only was yesterday Opening Night for the NFL, a season I am very eager to watch, but it was also the first night the IBM Bowling League met. Usually it would be the first week of our season, but over the years, there has been a gradual decline in participating teams. When I started, there were 12 teams in the league, but it would drop by 2 teams every year until this year where only 4 teams remain. :( Pretty unfortunate that the league just doesn't get enough advertisement and interest now. So yesterday was mostly for a league meeting and our league is scrambling to establish at least 6 teams in order to be a league. :/ I honestly just want to bowl, so I guess if there won't be an IBM League this year, I would just find a league somewhere to be a part of. Of course, I'm partial to IBM League because I know people, but hey, gotta do what you gotta do.
Texas (August 18-21):
The weekend after my birthday, I traveled to Texas to visit Kevin, one of my buddies from college. Kevin left Tucson for Denton to work on his PhD in psychology and some 4-5 years later, I finally got a chance to go visit him out there. Before this trip, I've never actually been to Texas or even driven through it, so I was really excited to have someone to visit in this state. I always thought Austin would be the first city in Texas I'd see (I hear crazy stories about the nightlife there), but the Dallas:Fort-Worth:Denton "Golden Triangle" area was pretty good!
Friday was more of our sightseeing day. After grabbing Freebirds World Burrito (the successor to Chipotle burritos), Kevin drove us out to Dallas to check out the city and since we're both big sports fans, we actually learned that the Cowboys offer self-guided tours of their new stadium for only $17. I had never actually done something like this before and it was actually pretty cool despite the fact that I don't really like the Cowboys.
Since Saturday would be my last night in Texas, we drove out to Fort-Worth to visit Kevin's grad school friend Courtney. He claims that his group of grad school friends is actually a lot bigger then who I got to meet and that I just happened to be there on a weekend where everyone was out of town. Uh huh, suuuuuuure. Just playin'! Anyway, the three of us checked out Sundance Square in Fort-Worth, which is the nightlife neighborhood. It was pretty much like any other collection of bars and clubs and likewise, I had a good time. :)
There wasn't really anything left to do on our list for Sunday, so we spent the day engaged in many 1-on-1 Madden battles on the XBox360. Back in the day when Kevin used to live in Tucson, we would play a game of Madden before we hit the clubs every weekend...Madden was just one of our things so it was fun to play vs him again while I was out there. On Sunday afternoon, Kevin introduced me to a round of disc golf, which is basically what it sounds like. Instead of golf clubs and golf balls, you throw a disc (it's like a small frisbee) from the tee area and try and eventually sink it into a chain-link basket. Like regular golf, I sucked, but Kevin was actually really impressive. Not surprising to me because he's always been pretty good at the things he's passionate about, sort of like myself. :) That basically concluded my trip to Texas, which officially ended with me getting one more burrito at Freebirds. I'm serious, it's better than Chioptle and if it ever reaches Arizona I will be one happy eater. It's nice to cross Texas off the list of states I haven't been to yet, but I would go back. Just not during the summertime if I can help it 'cause that heat+humidity is gruesome!
Peyman Visits me in Tucson (August 25):
The Thursday after I got back home from Texas, Peyman visited me in Tucson for a night. It had definitely been a few years since he last visited me in Tucson, so it was nice of him to think of me as part of his annual 2-week west coast summer vacation that also included stops in San Diego and Flagstaff. Peyman arrived in town around 6pm and we caught up a little before I had a fantasy football draft for EC's $200 league. He actually watched me draft my football team and I think I picked the New York Giants as my backup defense just because he was around. :) Later that night, I took him to the popular restaurant that has been featured on Man vs. Food: Lindy's on 4th. He absolutely loved the burgers and I was happy I could take him to a place that would be unique to Tucson itself. Lindy's was an easy choice 'cause it would also put us on 4th ave, which is basically the only good nightspot to go on a Thursday night. He had been to 4th before, so I took him to the places I go now which are the not-so-overly-crowded bars like O'Malley's, but places like Skybar and the Shanty. The night was a good collection of sights and events, meeting up with Kirstin and Teqas finishing up trivia night at Bumsted's, playing Big Buck Hunter at Che's lounge with Teqas and Jonny, or dancing with Brooke and her friends at Club Congress. Overall, it was a good night and I'm glad someone from out of town visited me! I don't get too many visitors anymore with all my friends getting married or in serious relationships these days. :'(
Hashing (August 27):
My friend Chuck has been inviting me to try hashing with him. However, he'd always invite me the day of and of course I'd already be hungover or have something else planned. In case you don't know what hashing is, it's basically a group of people who walk/run and drink beers at designated pit stops. A few people, known as the hares, create a 3-4 mile trail that no one but the hares know. The group has to follow markings on the ground such as chalk symbols or flour or rice to the final destination and along the way, there are stations where there is beer to take a break and have a drink.
Exploring Southwest Tucson (August 28 & September 1):
My friend Lucky lives in the southwest part of Tucson. In terms of driving distance, it's west of the I-19 and south of the I-10 and a good 20 minutes or so from central Tucson where the popular nightlife is. Lucky is a great friend in that he drives out to visit his friends in Tucson and never complains when people don't go to his side of town to visit him. Granted there isn't a whole lot to do in his area, I recently wanted to make an effort to check out his side of town more and make it more convenient for him for a change. Our mutual friends didn't participate in these recent excursions mostly using the "it's too far" excuse, but fortunately, Lucky shares the same "Make It Happen" mentality that I try to hold up to. (Kyle, I know you're gonna knock me down for not coming to tailgating when you guys were in town, but I was pretty hungover that day from partying so hard the night before and just wanted to rest. I had honestly forgotten about the U of A game, or is it not forgetting when you don't follow your alma mater's sports...lol, hmm. You know I'll be out there eventually!) Anyway, on the last Sunday in August, I drove down to Lucky's house, which is really only 15 minutes from my house so I can't see how anyone can complain about it being far. It's a pretty quick drive. We played some Madden before we hit up Casino Del Sol for some Pai Gow and Blackjack action. Lucky broke even, but I didn't fair very well, but I did learn Spanish 21 while I was out there, a game I still can't decide is broken or not. :P We also ate at Moby Dick's cafe/restaurant while we were there and I was really satisfied with the food and the price.
Later that week on Thursday, I again visited Lucky on his side of town and we checked out Salud, which Lucky had heard hosted ladies' night on Thursdays. The look was pretty much what we expected and how do I put this lightly...let's just say the girls were exotic and had a little bit more to love if you know what I mean. I don't know if I'd go back based on the lack of talent, but it was nice to get two free rounds of shots from Lucky's ladyfriends who were working there that night. :) After Salud, we checked out some real dives by the airport. First was Airport Inn, where I was drunk enough to be overly ecstatic about the true diveness of this bar and I sang some karaoke to the tune of Toby Keith's 'I Ain't As Good As I Once Was'. Our final stop of the night was Palo Verde Bar & Grill, which I think had 5 people inside when we got there, but it was actually fun because we all just started talking to each other along with the bartender. I will mention that the bartender gave us another round even though we didn't ask for one and I think that put me over the edge where I wouldn't be able to drive home the rest of the night, but that's okay, since I was in Lucky's side of town, he offered to be the DD for the night; I just had to crash at Lucky's house for a change. These Tucson excursions were pretty fun for me, I think I just like checking out new places and being around some more wholesome people. :)
IBM Bowling League (September 8):
Not only was yesterday Opening Night for the NFL, a season I am very eager to watch, but it was also the first night the IBM Bowling League met. Usually it would be the first week of our season, but over the years, there has been a gradual decline in participating teams. When I started, there were 12 teams in the league, but it would drop by 2 teams every year until this year where only 4 teams remain. :( Pretty unfortunate that the league just doesn't get enough advertisement and interest now. So yesterday was mostly for a league meeting and our league is scrambling to establish at least 6 teams in order to be a league. :/ I honestly just want to bowl, so I guess if there won't be an IBM League this year, I would just find a league somewhere to be a part of. Of course, I'm partial to IBM League because I know people, but hey, gotta do what you gotta do.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Ahhh!!! Where have I been!?!?
Yikes! 1 blog entry in August is not enough! I have been up to a lot, but the problem is I like to blog when I'm at work and there's downtime. When I'm at home, I never really have downtime. There's always something I want to be doing be it watching a sports game, playing video games, or watching Netflix (which I recently subscribed to). In other words, I guess I'm busy at work lately and I just need to find time to blog. Don't worry, it's coming though. I have much to update with things like a Texas trip, Peyman visiting me in Tucson, and my first hashing experience.
I will say that I am super-excited for the football season that starts tonight! Bowling league is also on the horizon: tonight is our first week and league meeting to determine if there'll even be a league with the lack of teams. Updates coming soon! Hang in there Kyle!!! :D
I will say that I am super-excited for the football season that starts tonight! Bowling league is also on the horizon: tonight is our first week and league meeting to determine if there'll even be a league with the lack of teams. Updates coming soon! Hang in there Kyle!!! :D
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