I feel quite expressive tonight, after talking to Maureen for some time, and I figured I could actually convert all these expressiveness into another diary entry.

First off, I'm in trouble. ITF and QMF seem quite difficult to comprehend; I don't seem to have that kind of intuitive affinity for the concepts presented. I am quite worried, especially for QMF, as I have no idea whatsoever on how to approach the unit. And even ITF, the second tutorial alone left me stumped. And its not like I haven't been looking at the text and stuff, even looking at the answer key I'm still stumped, which means that I just don't get it. Maybe I should re-read that particular section one more time. MA seems quite straightfoward so far, and CA's still in the theoritical stages, so hopefully they'll get to the math quick.

My resolve has been alot weaker than it used to be. I wonder where all my discipline has gone to. Nowadays all I do is to play DoTA, procrastinate, waste time on useless pursuits, succumb to peer pressure and doing everything else except important stuff. It doesn't even have to be work, it may very well be other admin matters that needs attending to.

Some of the matters that I have been procrastinating is my car, fixing up my car, and getting insurance for it. I've been putting that off for so long it's sick.

It's Saturday today, and for once I feel accomplished, haven't pre-emptively finished a couple of tutorials to free up next week. I wanna talk abit about Magic the Gathering, the game I love so much for the pure genius that it is. In monetary terms. Coldsnap is coming up. For those of you who have played it in the past, you'll know of the Ice Age block. Then there's the Alliances block. Ice Age gave us stuff like Jester's Cap and a reprint of Icy Manipulator, while Alliances had the famed Force of Will and Thawing Glaciers, and maybe in not-so-recent times Delusions of Grandeur. Then they moved on to Mirage, but where's the third set of the Ice Age block? Wizards have decided to release a third set in an effort to milk more money, and they have called it Coldsnap. Until recently, where they announced that the official name was Time Spiral. I mean like, wtf? Time Spiral? The rocking 6-mana free sorcery from Urza's Saga which was still too broken, and perhaps even more so than the original Timetwister? The name sounded downright lame to me, naming a set after a banned card. I mean, there has been instances like thus, for example, Onslaught, which is also a red enchantment in Exodus, and Torment, which was a black enchantment in Tempest I think. But Time Spiral?

The other thing is that dealers do dislike new sets. Oh, its for the health of the game, and it brings sales, but the preparations for it is annoying. Add to that I haven't drafted a single card for Ravnica block, and it's just throwing me offbalance each time a new set is released. All the fluctuations in existing cards, coupled with the uncertainity involved with the new cards and the time it takes for the excitement for it to die down, it's annoying.

Anyway, I've seen a speck of light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully the end is near enough.

Today's actually quite an accomplished day for me, having did quite a fair bit of stuff. I actually decrastinated enough to do a couple of tutorials (as mentioned before). I'm quite proud of myself, and I hereby do solemnly coin decrastinate as the term to mean the exact opposite of procrastinate. I actually had time to spend on a couple of fun-filled DoTA games with the guys. I had a wild time with rogueknight, was pretty pleased when I randomed him. Fun stuff.

Currie Hall is a test of your handling of people relations. As it is such a small place, news tends to get spread around like wildfire. Rumours fly faster than you even realize. That's was what Alvina warned me anyway, and it was one of the reasons why she was so put off by the place. When you have friends nearby it doesn't mean that it is all that easy to develop really close friendships. That may be one of the reasons why: because there are always rumours. People gossip, it is a sad fact of life. You should expect that people might be talking about you, and there's nothing you can do about it. The best you can do is to give less reasons for people to be talking about you. That may be stifling and unfun, but I guess it all boils down to what you wish people to perceive you as, and what you take offence at.

I've been reading Who Took My Money?, another of Robert Kiyosaki's books, and this particular section hit me so hard I just felt like... wow. I would type the entire section out, but it is too long, yet to paraphrase it would lose any of the impact that it has made. You see, the thing that Robert Kiyosaki's doing is not teaching you to be rich. He's merely teaching you to shake off the old perspective of money, and see it from a different point of view. And whatever he says, it just makes alot of sense. Unfortunately, many people in their lives simply read, understand, and never do a thing about it. I might be that kinda person too. That's why not everyone can be rich. It's only those who are willing to take risks and work hard at being rich get there. Working hard at your job isn't working hard at getting rich. They are two separate things, and Robert Kiyosaki's trying to drum that in.

I guess I really should be sleeping now, since I gotta be up by 10 tomorrow.