Anime

It's kinda crazy how much time I have spent watching anime. I decided to run some quick numbers to see roughly how long it has been. I looked on Myanimelist.net and saw all the recorded episodes I have watch. When I added them together it came to a total of 345 episodes.
That's a lot right there, but that's without Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. You see, Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden have lots of filler episodes (episodes that are there for various reasons however, they do not develop the plot in any way (they are there to try to not catch up with the manga (manga is the comics that anime comes from) to make money or other) I skipped them since they didn't develop the plot or characters and there were so many). So even though I recorded that I've watched all of Naruto and 143 episodes of Naruto: Shippuden, I've only actually watched the cannon episodes. So I had to do some more math and it came out that I have watched 468 episodes of Anime. That's quite a bit. (But really it's nothing compared to a lot of people)
Assuming that on average the anime episodes last around 21 minutes each, I have watched 9,828 minutes of anime. That is 163.8 hours. Hmmm, that is more than I thought it would be. But that is not to say it was not worth it. Anime is often incredible. My favorite two animes thus far are "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" and "Haikyuu!!" (and "Haikyuu!! second season" which to me is part of the same anime) (the title of the anime has two exclamation marks btw).
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is about two young boys who use alchemy to preform human transmutation to try and bring their mother back. Human transmutation is strictly banned by alchemists. The transmutation goes wrong and one brother loses an arm and a leg (which latter get replaced by automail) and the other loses his whole body with his soul being attached to a suit of armor. They are traveling to find a philosopher's stone which, allegedly, can break the alchemic law of equivalent exchange (which states something like "for something to be gained something of equal value must be lost"). There goal is to find the philosopher's stone and use it to get there bodies back.
FMA: Brotherhood is a 64 episode anime.
Haikyuu!!'s premise is much less exciting, but that doesn't mean it is worse than FMA: Brotherhood. In Haikyuu!! a boy in middle school picks up volleyball and practices hard (although that doesn't mean is very good). Although he is short he makes up for it with his large jump. He develops a team, but gets crushed in the first round of the tournament by someone who is called the "King of The Court". The main character vows he will become better than him. (that all happens in the first episode or so) But it turns out to not be so. When he goes into high school it turns out that he and the "King of The Court" will be on the same team. Together with the other members they strive to win the tournament(s) by hard work and trying to work together without too many arguments.
Haikyuu!! is two 25 episode long animes with a third season coming out this fall.
This only part of what I want to tell you about Anime that I have watched. I'll have to talk about Ping Pong: The Animation (that is literally its name), Baby Steps, Death Note (an anime that each episode is so emotionally draining and bleak that I have yet to finish it) and the awesomeness of Time Travel in Steins;Gate.
Anyway I have to wake up at roughly 4 am tomorrow for scout camp, so I should probably get to bed soon.

Music that I've been listening to

I haven't started listening to music until just this summer, actually. Sure I heard music that my Mom listened to and the music that was just going on in the background, but I never actually decided to plug in some music in my earbuds and listen.
A couple times my friends at school asked me what music I like to listen to. I just responded that I listen to no music, maybe a little twenty one pilots. I would rather use my ears for other things. Such as youtube videos, reading (well you don't use your ears, but if you are listening to music and reading at the same time it gets a little distracting), watching anime (anime is a whole different blog post, perhaps next time), and just, well, talking to people.
I've been listening to twenty one pilots (not bothering to cross the o's) and a little Cavetown recently. 
To start, I'm going to put all twenty one pilots in one of four categories. 1. My favorites, 2. My 2nd favorites, 3. Pretty good, 4. Good?. They are in no specific order within each category.
Now for the unnecessary notes about my list:

• For category 4 I have a specific reason for each song, I know they're good and enjoyed by many (including me), but there is a reason why they are not in category 3 or higher (which I will explain).
• Several of the songs have two versions. One from their album Regional at Best the other from Vessel. The Regional at Best version is the original and the Vessel version is the "remastered" version. For the songs if I don't specify that it is from Regional at Best assume it is Vessel. Even though they are slightly different (so therefore should probably be separate from one another) I'm going to group them as one song.
• There are a lot of songs in Category 3 which I should probably split into two categories, but I'm not going to for simplicity's sake.
• I'm going to link to each song on the song. (ex. click on Tear in My Heart and it will take you to a youtube video playing Tear in My Heart.)
• Some songs that have there music videos have an opening (ex. Guns For Hands has a lot of silence) this is not part of the song.
• Might have missed one or two of their songs

Category 1:
Tear in My Heart, Polarize, Not Today, Friend, Please (Friend, Please is one song, not two), A Car, a Torch, a Death (also one song, not three), Trapdoor, Semi-Automatic, Fake You Out, Guns For Hands, Trees, Forest, Glowing Eyes
Category 2:
Fairly Local, The Judge, Doubt, We Don't Believe What's on TV, Message Man, Screen, The Run and Go, Kitchen Sink, Lovely (specifically the Vessel Bonus Track, the Regional at Best version is too auto-tuned), Heathens (their most recent song. on Suicide Squad song track)
Category 3:
Car Radio, Ride, Lane Boy, Goner, Migraine, Truce, Holding On To You, Implicit Demand For Proof, Johnny Boy, Oh Ms Believer, March To the Sea, Addict With A Pen, Hometown, Fall Away, The Pantaloon, Taxi Cab, Air Catcher, Slowtown, Isle Of Flightless Bird, Anathema, Ruby, Be Concerned, Clear, House of Gold (fun fact: did my Vid Pro music video on House of Gold).
Category 4:
Stressed Out. Stressed Out is their most popular songs and so I kind of shy away from this song. Obviously it is a really good song (or else it wouldn't be super popular), and I enjoy it, but it is over played.
Heavydirtysoul. Heavydirtysoul is a good song, but for me the really fast rap at the beginning makes me feel a little uncomfortable when I'm in a group of people and it's playing. Lane Boy also has quite a bit of rap, but sense it is slower and I've memorized half of it the problem is less for Lane Boy (same applies to Migraine).
Ode to Sleep. Also has several rapping parts, although one is slower, kind of the same speed as Lane Boy. Also has the word 'whore' (lyrics: "Metaphorically I'm a whore, and that's denial number four.") which is the closest thing to a cuss word in any of their songs. (The only other 'cuss word' is in The Judge where they say 'hell' (but they're using it as the place, so it doesn't quite count (lyrics: "I know my soul's freezing. Hell's hot for good reason")) However, I would argue (argue to myself that is) that I prefer this song over many of the songs in Category 3.

I also mentioned something earlier called 'cavetown' that I've listened to a little. Cavetown is this guy (well, teenager, he's only 17) that makes music and youtube videos. I've only recently discovered him (I think, like, 7 days ago) I've only listened to his songs once or twice each. (Once for most, twice for the ones that caught my eye (ears?))
I really enjoy This is home and Devil Town. Banana Bread is pretty good too. (Well all his songs are 'pretty good', so.....) (Note: Banana Bread has a 1 minute 45 second opening that you might what to skip if you were planning on listening to it (also has a 40 second ending)) (on a different note, Banana Bread has this line that I don't understand: "it’s a little tough, to put acorn shells on ice sheets without breaking through, and flooding the whole town", any thoughts?) He also makes some pretty snazzy twenty one pilots covers. Note: a couple of his songs have cuss words ex. Hug all ur friends.

Every two weeks, one? + board games

I don't enjoy putting myself on a schedule. Especially if I tell people what the schedule is. If I'm like "I'm going to do a post every week" to myself that's fine. I'll strive for that goal and if I fail it's fine. However, if I tell everyone I'm going to do that I might be better at it at the beginning, but when I fail it hurts and I just stop doing anything for a while.
That's why right now I'm going to be like, "I'm going to make a post every one or two or three or four weeks or maybe even longer than that if I really don't feel like writing anything." Basically my plan for writing blog posts is at least once a month, although hopefully a little more frequently. Or not. (you see what I did there? I added that "Or not" at the end that way if I fail I won't feel like I failed you just myself, aren't I tricky :P (well, except for the fact that adding that on counter acted my point, but whatever))
Also board game list has changed a little. Pandemic Legacy and Ashes switched places making Ashes my favorite board game of all time at this moment. I did this change because Joseph keeps claiming that Dominion is my favorite game of all time, but I keep resisting. I don't feel like it is. There are too many times where I just don't feel like playing it to make it my favorite (although right now I'm on a Dominion craze. Playing through the suggested sets of Adventures to finish off The Card (well until Empires) (have I told you about The Card? I'll have to if I haven't (And I know I haven't) because it is awesome!))
Every time I'm just like, "I don't know Pandemic Legacy is a pretty good game." But it didn't feel right. Sure my 18 straight or so games of Pandemic Legacy will definitely be better than any 18 straight games of Dominion. However, I have played Dominion far far more than 18 times. I have played hundreds of games of Dominion with 80 or so on record (due to The Card).
However, I don't feel bad about saying that I prefer Ashes over Dominion. I love the game, I love deck building, I love the art, I love the publisher, I love the designer, I love the release schedule, and I love the community that it has. Especially because I am a part of it. With Dominion it's just me and my family playing Dominion. With Ashes it's just me and a 1,500 people that I get to interact with and talk about the game with. (granted not nearly that many people actually post or respond to anything, but you get the jist (also, is jist a word, and if so how do you spell it? because it says that is not how you spell it and jest doesn't look right)
On a different note, I made some mini expansions for 7 Wonders: Duel and Castles of Burgundy. I showed my mom the mini expansions and noted on how they were expensive for how little you were getting. She said we should make our own. So we did. The tiles and the card are laminated (although the edges of the tiles are exposed due to the lamination not being tight enough (due to the tiles being too thick)) The pictures aren't the best quality.
Castles of Burgundy first since it doesn't look as cool:

 

Obviously I made more tiles, these are just the different ones. As you can tell the art on my tiles is not even close to the art on the actual. I wanted a simple design that way I could be consistent in my drawings. A tent made sense.

The Counterparts

Actually don't know where the bottom left token is, so I might have to remake that. Which is fine because we actually messed up on it at first. I made an additional tent, so I had to take a permanent marker to it. The token itself is a building tile that acts like any other building tile, so I just put a black box over the tent and put question marks.

The Counterparts

 The back of the 7 Wonders: Duel wonder card. My mom did some quick art that actually looks really good. I just wish we had made it a bit darker.

My mom also did the art on this, although I did add a few touches. One of which was darkening the lines.

 

The actual card

The Community of Ashes: RotP and My Part in it

So Ashes is, like, a really fun game. When I faced against my siblings and cousins we only played the Pre-cons and Draft. We never really got big into the constructed. We played some and had a couple games with constructed decks, but we didn't go deep into the building process. The game was only an okay game at this point for me. I had the interest to get more into the competitive constructed games, but no way to do so.

During this phase, I began my journey with a small step into the early Ashes community. On a forum, someone was holding a mock Ashes draft. The person who was in charge gave us the options of what we can draft. Collectively we voted on which card we would pick by posting on the forum. I was one of those people. On the forum, I had conversations about which pick was the best pick. Eric was also there rereading my posts to make sure I didn't say anything stupid. Here was where I got the first taste of what it's like to be in a larger than you community. Talking with people you don't know, but still having fun talking about a game you enjoy.

The second step of my journey into the Community of Ashes was Ashes: Online. This is a closed Facebook group (but if you ask they let you in) which is the center of the Ashes Community. This is where everyone posts their questions, sees if anyone is in their area among other things. I have posted a few posts on there and was even the one to post the link to PlaidHat's solution to the Promogate problem. I joined the group when there were around 700 members (or less, don't remember). We are now over 1,500 strong. Due to it being a closed group no one except the people in the group can see the things I liked. That means I can like what I actually like and not be afraid of my friends judging me about how much I'm into board games. :)

The next step comes with the release of the expansions. The deck building possibilities grew substantially thus making deck-building an even bigger and more exciting part of the game. Seeing other people on Ashes: Online talk about their experiences with the new cards got me pumped to play some games. And I finally found the way to play with people online.

I face people who I find online, specifically people who are in the League that Erik (spelt with a 'k') Rodriguez (someone who, if you are any into Ashes at all, you probably know his name) created. This is my biggest step into the Ashes community. You sign up and get matched up with other people who have also signed up. You get two matches per week. We play our games through a steam game called Tabletop Simulator (tts for short). I use the mic that I bought to talk to the player I am facing. Over the course of many weeks, you end up playing everyone who is in the league. You get points depending on how well you do (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss). Your points rank you against the other players. The person with the most points is the top and the person with the least at the bottom. Here's what Ashes looks like on tts (I played part of a round with myself and then took a snip):





This layout if for playing games. There is another layout with all of the cards where you build your decks.

Random thing that I think is way cooler than it probably is: Another guy and I didn't get to play our match, so Erik marked it a draw and in the notes of the game, he always says "Match expired" or something to that effect. On mine he put this:

 Erik has read The Stormlight Archive!!

Anyway, at one point I was 2nd in the league.

This is especially exciting due to the fact that I am higher than players such as Erik (creator of the league and winner of the tournament at Tulsa (the biggest tournament that has ever been held (later lost to him in a match. (I made quite a few misplays plus he's a really good player, so I'm not surprised at all about the outcome (apparently he posted our game on youtube. Was not aware that I was being recorded, but I guess I'm cool with it. It's actually cool to see the game play out while seeing his cards. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoqKMqwDgpg))))), Elliot (winner of the first ever online tournament), Nick Conley (known for being a very good player (I later lost to him in a league match)) and Papa Pratt (who I and others consider the 'wise sage' of Ashes, father of Christian Pratt (member of The Main Action Podcast who is also beneath me in the league)). Only second to Kian Jones (member of The Main Action Podcast (beat him in a league match (guys, I beat Kian Michael Jones... that's crazy awesome!! (super exciting game too, where it came down to the last move where I double pinged (ping = deal one damage to) my unit killing it allowing me to play a card that when one of my units die I could deal two damage thus winning me the game!))))

Right now (6/12/16) on the league I am in spot number 12 with only 3 points. Many of the people I won against dropped out of the league making me drop points like crazy. I wish the league was set so it kept my points, but I guess it's not ment to be.

One thing about the league is rule number 8, which states, "This league is just for fun so don't take it too seriously." I think I might be breaking that rule a little...

However, recently Erik has created another league. This league is a ladder league. Where you are put into the league and can challenge whomever you want. Before it was set up that if you win you take their place and they go down a rank. The thing was you could challenge whomever you wanted. This is where I come in (well where Joseph comes in) he mentioned that there was little incentive to challenge any player except the top. I brought this up on ashesrules.slack.com (a place where you can talk anything ashes, similar to Ashes: Online but has more specific topics, I put in my thoughts every once in a while). Erik mentioned how he was thinking about that problem and shortly after changed it so you get ranked depending on your ELO ranking (a ranking system that gives you points/takes them away depending on the win-lose ratio of the opponent (and whether you win or lose, of course)). I helped make that happen!

Above I acted as if being a member of The Main Action Podcast is a high title, but what is The Main Action Podcast? The Main Action Podcast was the first podcast created on Ashes. (Only one other podcast has come out since then entitled: The Ashtray.) Here is the link to The Main Action's latest podcast: http://www.hipcast.com/podcast/HtWXpCYQ. They release a new podcast every two weeks with a new one coming out this Wednesday.

I even have a part in this too. I have been mentioned several times on their podcast (they ask questions and I respond to some they then read off my answer along with other people's answers).  Here are the times and episodes on which I was mentioned in case you randomly wanted to check it out. On Episode 13: Jessa I even won a Dimona Promo!
Episode 7: Summon Spells: 79:14
Episode 13: Jessa: 63:03 (build up) 63:56 (if you just want to hear them say my name)
Episode 15: Tulsa Wrap-Up: 83:29

Anyways, hope you enjoyed that lenghty read about my part in the Ashes community!

Stuff

I have several things to talk about this fine day. Let us start off with school. It is almost over! Have a few weeks left along with only one week left of Seminary. (On a slightly random note , I need to catch up on reading) I've been able to obtain and keep a 4.0 GPA (well 4.1 due to four honors classes) obviously that is subject to change due to the school year almost over; however, I believe that I can keep it that way.
Speaking of school the laptop is kinda killing me. (okay that has nothing to do with school, but it does!) With paper coming up (rough draft due tomorrow, final on Thursday (which I have yet to start (I have quotes, okay! I don't procrastinate thaaaaaat much))) I have to type a lot (well except for the fact that I haven't started typing as I mentioned before, but that is beside the point). Anyway, to get to the point several of the keys are not working correctly. The backspace makes equal signs, the enter doesn't work at all and the delete sometimes works other times it also makes an equal sign. So basically there is often equal signs everywhere. For example, I'm going to write as long as possible, once I misspell something I will try to use the backspace. I'm typing random stuff, what should I=t=p== =. Yep, that's what happens. And it's SUPER annoying. I have to highlight what I want to backspace and retype what I wanted there instead or use ctrl x to get rid of it. This may not seem like a problem, (which it really isn't compared to the problems humanity faces) but to constantly have to go back and forth between the mouse and the keyboard is excruciating. The other way is to use an on screen keyboard but is super slow.
Different subject: TONS of things are on pre-order. I also have no money. But seriously, Plaid Hat Games currently has Summoner Wars second summoners, Dead of Winter: A Long Night and Seafall on Pre-order. They also had the first expansion for Ashes on pre-order a couple weeks back. I'm going to buy Dead of Winter: A Long Night and Seafall (because, holy cow, if you pre-order Seafall it comes with metal tokens! That's amazing!)
Speaking about board gaming, my next post will be entitled: The Community of Ashes: RotP and my part in it. (RotP standing for Rise of the Pheonixborn) Because I'm (kinda) part of it! And it's exciting! 7