Norman Ralph

Well of the four people that are currently resident in my house, only two are actually paying rent! Thats fifty per cent! Crazy.

Sarann headed off to Ireland today to visit her mum for a few weeks, leaving B and I as the sole remaining rent paying residents, with Maths Chris and Si making up the foursome.

Normally, this would be a matter of contention for me, I hate freeloaders…but in this case I am willing to make an exception. I quite like them being here. It is not often that there are more boys than girls in this house, especially seeing as until July I lived with four girls (now down to three). Excessive Magic playing, network gaming and general geekiness prevails. Throw in the fact that both are relatively house trained and we get a good living environment. One that I think i will thrive in. The only issue is that with Sarann gone and Michelle not back until September we have no maternal figure to guide us – we will be eating fried egg in waffle sandwiches and takeaway as a matter of course in no time at all, plus without lots of girlies to shame me into doing housework I don;t think the current relative tidyness will last very long at all.

Ah well. At least I will survive.

Land (20):

20 x Swamps

Creatures (17):

1 x Ascendant Evincar – Vampire (3/3, Flying, Black Creatures +1/+1, Non-black Creatures -1/-1)
1 x Lord of the Undead – Zombie(2/2, Other Zombies +1/+1, 1B, t Return Zombie to hand from graveyard)
2 x Severed Legion – Zombie (2/2, Fear)
2 x Gravediggers – Zombie (2/2, When played return target creature to hand from graveyard)
1 x Festering Goblin – Zombie Goblin (1/1, When put in graveyard from play target creature -1/-1)
1 x Gempalm Polluter – Zombie (4/3, Cycling 2B – when cycled target player loses 1 life for each Zombie in play)
1 x Dripping Dead – Zombie (4/1, Can’t block, Destroys target creature if deals combat damage)
1 x Keeper of the Dead – Wizard (1/2, B, t Destroy target non-black creature)
1 x Nekrataal – (2/1, First strike, When played destroy target non-artifact non-black creature)
2 x Restless Dead – Skeletons (1/1, B Regenerate)
1 x Abyssal Specter – Specter (2/3, Flying, When deals damage to player that player discards 1 card)
1 x Wake of Vultures – (3/1, Flying, 1B Sacrifice creature Regenerate)
1 x Belbe’s Percher – (2/2, Flying, Can only block flying creatures)
1 x Screeching Harpy – (2/2, Flying. 1B Regenerate)

Sorcery (13):

2 x Raise Dead – Return target creature from graveyard to hand
2 x Syphon Soul – Deals 2 damage to target player, you receive 2 life
1 x Diabolic Tutor – Search library and move 1 card to hand
1 x Unnerve – Each opponent discards 2 cards
1 x Soul Feast – Target player loses 4 life, you gain 4 life
1 x Mind Rot – Target player discards 2 cards
1 x Death’s Duet – Return 2 creatures from graveyard to hand
1 x Restless Dreams – Discard X cards, return X cards from graveyard to hand
1 x Assassinate – Destroy tapped creature
1 x Essence Drain – deals 3 damage to player/creature, gain 3 life
1 x Buried Alive – Search library and move 3 creatures to graveyard

Instant (6):

3 x Dark Ritual – Add BBB to mana pool
2 x Terror – Destroy target non-artifact non-black creature
1 x Agonising Demise – Destroy target non-artifact non-black creature

Enchantments (1):

1 x Death Watch – Enchant Creature (If creature is put into graveyard controlling player loses life equal to power and you gain life equal to toughness)

Artifacts (3):

1 x Demon’s Horn – When black spell is played you gain 1 life
1 x Angel’s Trumpet – Attacking does not cause creatures to tap, all creatures that do not attack are tapped at end of turn
1 x Soul Net – 1, gain 1 life each time creature is put itno graveyard from play

Comments?

It is so good to live with people again!

It has been a while since I have enjoyed being at home, in fact I probably have not felt entirely comfortable anywhere since I was about fifteen. I went through a tough few years during my late teens and early twenties, never really finding anywhere to fit in. I had some issues at home with my family during the later stages of school and into sixth form – nothing they had done mind, just my own personal issues that I projected onto those around me. I then moved over to Leeds and lived in university accommodation for a year. I met some good people that year, people that I considered myself friends with….until I moved into a shared house with them. I had a really torrid two years living with my girls. It’s not that we didn’t get on, it’s the fact that they formed a clique that I just wasn’t part of and we started to grow apart. Within six months of moving in i felt incredibly isolated and practically lived in my bedroom. It was not a good time.

This has all changed. Since my new housemates moved in I have realised that it is possible to actually enjoy being at home. Sarann and I have developed a beautiful new friendship, not surprising seeing as we have been living and working together for the past five weeks. We just seem to click, although subject to a few blowouts, and I feel that we now truly are good friends. I have developed a new found respect for Si too. I used to think he was a nice chap, quiet etc but have since discovered that he is actually a really interesting guy with a lot in common with me. He is also far too good at computer games!!

I think this year is going to be really good fun. I have friends I get on with and I have housemates that make being at home a better offer than going out!!

Thanks!

Right, so I have been a World of Warcraft convert for nigh on six months now, add to that my nerdiness when it comes to Star Trek and my love of computer games etc and you would think that I am already somewhat of a geek. You would be wrong!

This last week has seen me introduced to a trading card game called Magic: The Gathering. I have never been a huge TGC fan, though I did get quite into the Star Wars one several years back. However, I am hooked on Magic now. I bought myself my own deck on Saturday and have already started yoinking cards from Si and MC to put together my very first home made deck. So I am currently playing a Black/Red pre-made deck and am trying to balance out my zombie heavy Black deck. I am looking to try and put together a wierd ass Green/Black or Red/Blue deck next – they look like fun.

Will update on my finalised decks soon.

Since Liz and I started seeing each other I have been neglecting my WoW characters an awful lot. Today I finished re-downloading all the patches and finally got back into Azeroth. I currently have four characters on Turalyon and have today started a charatcer on Arathor. It is so good to be back into the cut and thrust of MMORPGs, I have really missed the escapism, the fantasy and the comaraderie that being part of it brings. I have not missed the social degeneration that comes from endless hours locked in your room whilst you battle your foes.

Ah well, my new orc will keep me busy for the next week or so

Today is the first day in a while where I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t have a job to dread (I finished my work up at the university yesterday), I have no really pressing things on my to-do list and I don’t have any uni work or anything piled up. I am at a loose end. There is lots for me to do though, the house needs a really good tidying up, my network cable needs laying (I did the rest of the house last weekend, but managed to forget my room!!) and I need to start downloading all the updates to WoW following my re-install of Windows. Somehow, these things are not exciting me as much as they possibly should. What I really want to do is go into town and buy some Magic: The Gathering trading cards.

I was introduced to this game recently by Si and MC and it rocks! It’s basically a trading card game based around magic. Most of my readers will have heard of it and some will probably play it, but it’s new to me so I am still rather obsessed about it. What is it with fads?

Anyway, today is the first real day of my summer and it’s raining. If I believed in omens I would probably take this as a sign that my summer was going to suck! I mean everything and everyone has gone crazy recently. The last two weeks has stretched Kara, Si and my sanity to breaking point. George is really struggling with some personal issues and Sarann is in love again B and MC seem to be the only people on a level at the moment, though being loud about it!

Oh well, here is to a very relaxing and recharging summer. I need it.

Bah!

Having had some serious issues with my PC recently I have had to format and reinstall my OS onto my computer. Now nothing works! I actually hate Dell, they send little or no driver cd’s out so I have had to trawl the web to get all the drivers I need, all except my onboard sound, my onboard video and my thrid party video/graphics card. Dell kindly told me today that they no longer supply drivers for the (now obselete) motherboard (P/N OJ8885) and that they can transfer me to their advanced software team for a nominal fee of £35!! I can buy a new motherboard for that!!

My big problem is that Dell don’t want their customers to do anything with their computers so they don’t actually label their components, so it has taken me over a week to find out the part number for the motherboard and I still cannot get the part number for the Dell installed (but definitely ATI Radeon) video card….grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Anyone any ideas?

It seems that all I have done over the summer so far is work. Which is a bit misleading as I have also managed to move house, go to three festivals, make some new friends, spend loads of time with Liz, throw a house party, attend another couple and manage to do 99% of my pre-summer to do list! No wonder I am exhausted at the moment! Liz keeps yelling at me because I am being boring by going to bed at eleven or so on work nights and midnight at weekends, but to be honest the eleven hour days at work plus all the domestic issues that arise during the first few weeks of any new house share are really taking their toll physically and mentally.

Headed across to Tesco last night, something I have been needing to do for a long time. Ended up only spending £8 on myself (mainly rubbish like coke and chocolate milk) but also picked up a third of the £50 house shopping tab too. Not bad for three of us. We managed to get home just as the heavens opened and the storms began.

The storms carried on throughout the night (I know because I didn’t get much sleep last night) and into today. Kara, Si and I were not that affected by the rain, although we did see a sharp increase in sales today – £2000+ after two of the five ceremonies! George and Sarann did not fare so well, selling no frames as of 3pm.

Unfortunately, I ended up having to disappear a little ealry due to being ill. It turned out to be a lot less serious than I first thought – I had just been inadvertantly inhaling too much of the glass cleaner we use to polish the picture frames. Explains the odd hyper moods I have been having recently (I was probably high!!!)

Back to the grindstone tomorrow!

After several weeks offline due to holiday, work, festivals and moving house (well room….) I am finally back online, although only temporarily at the moment. I am currently using a makeshift internet connection until our house network is up and running, so I cannot vouch for the regularity of my posts for the foreseeable future. I will do my best to ensure that I try to keep you all up to date on the comings and goings currently making my life about as hectic as it has been in several years!

Firslty, I am currently working ten to eleven hour days for a framing company selling certificate frames to graduates at Leeds University. Good money but hard work! I had to pass up on the last two festivals I was supposed to be working due to a) a better offer and b) the feeling that the work I was doing was going very unappreciated to say the least!

Basically, my life is good. I have a fantastic girlfriend, amazing housemates, quality friends and a bank balance in the black! Not a lot else for me to say at the moment. I am sure that my future posts will include some of the details I have skipped over, but then again they might not. Requests on a postcard please.