Avacyn Restored Preview Video

Watch the Avacyn Restored preview video here. We knew that there was something within the legendary artifact called the Helvault and it had something to do with the disappearance of the Angel Avacyn in Innistrad.

In the video, we will be able to see how Liliana managed to shatter the Helvault with somehow, the help of Thalia. The Angel Avacyn and Griselbrand, the demon sought by Liliana to lift her curse, were both restored in Innistrad and their epic battle may continue. But with the angel back, churches and armies have their strength, faith and power also renewed.

April 2012 FNM Card - Dismember with Picture

THIS IS BIG!

I think this is one of the best cards chosen as FNM premium card all-time! Dismember not only shines in standard but also in all other formats, yup, even in legacy. You can see classic legacy decks, whose decklists were already very solid, making adjustments just for this card. Yes it is that powerful, and I don't think I need to explain why because if you play standard, you will know the power of this card. If you play legacy, you might see your friends adjusting their decklists for this card. Although, black decks have other options for creature removal than Dismember, it is also a decent card that prevents regeneration even for black decks. As for non-black decks, *bow*, mono blue? mono green? yup, they now have a solid removal spell.

Collection-wise and not to mention price-wise, this is something everybody might try to have so prepare yourself for a hard-fought copy when you win the FNM. This is an expensive uncommon for a certain reason, and that reason is power level. If you are still not sold on this card, just bring your best deck for the FNM tourneys in April, get a copy of this card, then use it in your deck. When you do, let's just pray April 2012 is not yet over because you will definitely want to join more FNMs to get more copies. :D

So here it is, April 2012's Friday Night Magic Foil Promo Card is Dismember!

Proposal Daisakusen

Hallelujah Chance!

I recently finished watching the JDrama Proposal Daisakusen and I think that it was a really great series. Packed with stories of friendship and love molded and tested since childhood, it can make you think back of your own childhood days. It is something worthwhile to watch as the light mood of the series will make you smile, laugh and cry.

As a short synopsis from wiki, it is a story about Iwase Ken and Yoshida Rei, who have been friends since elementary school. Ken, is obstinate and unskilled in love, but he fell long ago for the lively and cheerful, Rei. But Rei is about to get married to another man. While Ken and other friends from high-school attend the wedding ceremony, a fairy appears and sends Ken back in time, giving him a second chance to win the girl he loves.

One of the theme songs also had me humming all day long. This song is played when Ken does something that corrected the past and slowly made an impact to Rei. And so I will post the title and lyrics here. I also placed the Romaji version so that we can all sing it. As for some parts of the series plus the music video, Watch It!! :D

Chiisana Koi no Uta (Romaji)		小さな恋のうた
Hiroi uchuu no kazu aru hitotsu aoi chikyuu no hiroi sekai de chiisana koi no omoi wa todoku chiisana shima no anata no moto e Anata to deai toki wa nagareru omoi wo kometa tegami mo fueru itsushika futari tagai ni hibiku toki ni hageshiku toki ni setsunaku Hibiku wa tooku haruka kanata e yasashii uta wa sekai wo kaeru Hora anata ni totte daiji na hito hodo sugu soba ni iru no tada anata ni dake todoite hoshii hibike koi no uta hora hora hora hibike koi no uta Anata wa kizuku futari wa aruku kurai michi demo hibi terasu tsuki nigirishimeta te hanasu koto naku omoi wa tsuyoku eien chikau Eien no fuchi kitto boku wa iu omoi kawarazu onaji kotoba wo soredemo tarizu namida ni kawari Yorokobi ni nari kotoba ni dekizu tada dakishimeru tada dakishimeru Hora anata ni totte daiji na hito hodo sugu soba ni iru no tada anata ni dake todoite hoshii hibike koi no uta hora hora hora hibike koi no uta Yume naraba samenai de yume naraba samenai de anata to sugoshita toki eien no hoshi to naru Hora anata ni totte daiji na hito hodo sugu soba ni iru no tada anata ni dake todoite hoshii hibike koi no uta Hora anata ni totte daiji na hito hodo sugu soba ni iru no tada anata ni dake todoite hoshii hibike koi no uta hora hora hora hibike koi no uta		広い宇宙の数あるひとつ　青い地球の広い世界で 小さな恋の思いは届く　小さな島のあなたのもとへ あなたと出会い時は流れる　思いを込めた手紙も増える いつしか二人　互いに響く　時に激しく　時に切なく 響くは遠く遥かかなたへ　やさしい歌は世界を変える ほら　あなたにとって　大事な人ほど　すぐそばにいるの ただ　あなたにだけ届いて欲しい　響け恋の歌 ほら　ほら　ほら　響け恋の歌 あなたは気付く　二人は歩く暗い道でも日々照らす月 握りしめた手　離すことなく　思いは強く　永遠誓う 永遠の淵　きっと僕は言う　思い変わらず同じ言葉を それでも足りず　涙に変わり　喜びになり 言葉にできず　ただ抱きしめる　ただ抱きしめる ほら　あなたにとって　大事な人ほど　すぐそばにいるの ただ　あなたにだけ届いて欲しい　響け恋の歌 ほら　ほら　ほら　響け恋の歌 夢ならば覚めないで　夢ならば覚めないで あなたと過ごした時　永遠の星となる ほら　あなたにとって　大事な人ほど　すぐそばにいるの ただ　あなたにだけ届いて欲しい　響け恋の歌 ほら　あなたにとって　大事な人ほど　すぐそばにいるの ただ　あなたにだけ届いて欲しい　響け恋の歌 ほら　ほら　ほら　響け恋の歌

March 20, 2012, DCI Banned & Restricted List Announcement for Magic: the Gathering

Announcement Date: March 20, 2012
Effective Date: April 2, 2012
Magic Online Effective Date: March 28, 2012

Innistrad Block Constructed
Intangible Virtue is banned.
Lingering Souls is banned.

Standard, Extended, Modern, Legacy, Vintage
No changes

Lakers Acquire Ramon Sessions, Christian Eyenga and Jordan Hill.. Suns? hmmm.. still no moves?

As the trade deadline was up, I was looking at what changes my two favorite teams did the past 24 hours. Without a doubt, I am a Kobe Fan and I try to improve and pattern my game to him but of course I am a loooooong way to go even to a quarter of his skills. So the past 24 hours, The Los Angeles Lakers acquire Ramon Sessions, Christian Eyenga and Jordan Hill. Let us breakdown the stats for these players:

Rammon Sessions:

	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Career	259	85	25	0.455	0.183	0.788	3.1	4.8	0.8	0.1	11.1

Christian Eyenga:

	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Career	44	18	21.5	0.425	0.275	0.643	2.8	0.8	0.8	0.6	6.9

Jordan Hill:

	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Career	119	11	14.7	0.492	0	0.693	4	0.4	0.2	0.6	5.5

The Lakers got Ramon Sessions, Christian Eyenga for Luke Walton and Lakers' #1 pick (top 14 protected) in 2012 draft. And got Jordan Hill for Derek Fisher. As a lakers fan, I am surely gonna miss D-Fish for everything he has contributed to the lakers on and off the court and Fan-favorite Luke Walton will surely be missed on the court. But I believe with these changes (esp. the addition of Ramon Sessions) the Lakers was able to land a great point guard (not elite like CP3 and D-Will level) but very good enough for Mike Brown's system.

As for my other favorite team, the Phoenix Suns, trade Deadline has been really quiet for them. I sure hope they can acquire people to improve their bench scoring. But these past few games, they have really improved and now they are back to having their playoffs hopes.

Nobody to Beat but Myself

Frustration usually shows up when certain expectations are not met. In the picture, my idol, Kobe Bryant showed signs of frustrations, it may be because his shots were not falling, or due to calls that he did not have, we don't know and never will. But this post is not because of the frustrations of Kobe or the Lakers as they lost 2 games this week to teams that didn't have good standings - blowing their lead in the final minutes. This is about my frustrations and how it somehow improved me in the last 2 weeks of playing basketball.

Basketball is my favorite sports. Ever since I was a child, my father trained me (and all of my cousins). I was the most stubborn of us all, 'coz I always thought I was already the second best in our group (cousins) and that I didn't need to work on my skills. Together, we experienced defeats and championships in our local neighborhood leagues when we were in elementary. Then, going into different high schools, we represented our schools in inter-high school competitions. Then in college, I still had the chance to compete with other universities but my team struggled to get a win. Back then, I thought because most teams were really better than us talent-wise. But now, I think it was because we simply didn't even try to compete with ourselves. From then on, everything went downhill for me, playing only casual basketball, reminiscing the times when I last played competitive basketball, and my skills dropped and then frustrations built up.

I became the president of our company's basketball club recently, actually inherited it hehe. I may still have decent (but not that good) point-guard skills, passing, shooting and basketball IQ and stuffs like that. With our team being the reigning basketball champions last Sportsfest, some people thought that I was the MVP of that team, that I am very good in playing basketball. What people don't know is that I don't really think of myself as "good" and that I am frustrated that I did not give 110% every game. There is no excuse for being frustrated that your opponent pushed you and you whine all game until you just lose and make that as an excuse. There is no point in being frustrated about your teammates. And lastly, there is no excuse in thinking that you are too tired to do anything in a game.

In our company, we play every Thursday and for 2 hours, we average about 5 games every session. Back when we started playing for the club, I usually only play 2 or three of these games because I felt I was tired already. I was even contented in winning only half of these games that I played. I became easily frustrated with losing and that I wanted to give more efforts but I already thought that my body wasn't the same as before and so I just give up without even trying. For the last 2 weeks, I tried another recipe. I wanted to improve myself in many different aspects - one of those is basketball. And then I played all 5 games in week 1, then 5 out 6 games last night. My team also won 8 out of 10 games in that stretch. I was improving and I used frustration to do it.

I was frustrated with every jumpshot that I make - I don't really care if I am very tired already but an open jumpshot or layup should be put into the basket. There's just NO excuse in missing open shots. And so I tried to improve this by taking a lot of shots for warm ups and going early to the gym so that I can practice shooting. Everytime I take a shot, I try to really put it inside the ring so that I will not be frustrated afterwards. When my shots are not falling, I don't feel sorry for myself and whine about how "malas" I am tonight, I dish out assists to my teammates and setting them up for an open shot. When I feel that I am tired enough and my opponents are tired too, I beat my body and still run up the floor (we are all tired anyway so I have nothing to lose). It is also very frustrating to miss free throws - why? Because everybody else is lining up for a rebound and nobody is defending you, then how come I still miss freethrows? So what I do is when I am resting and I am in a basketball court, I shoot free throws. You are not running when you practice free throws so you will not get very sweaty (in case you don't want to be). Lastly, rebounds, when you are a fan, you really get frustrated in games when you see your team not going for the rebounds and just letting the opponents get the ball in every shot. But the truth is, rebounding is really very tiring and uses a lot of energy. As a player and when you want to win, get those rebounds. What I did was that when I'm already very tired, I would focus my energy in a point in time when another player takes the shot, and burst with that remaining energy to get the rebound. Once I pass the ball, I then rest and recharge.

I think this is becoming a long post already so I will just summarize it in a few more lines. Beating these frustrations all required giving extra efforts even when you feel you cannot do anything anymore. Then again, the only way to improve yourself is to beat your current limit, right? Beat your body and convert your frustrations to better results - this is not only applicable to sports. If you do this, whether you win or lose, you will always have a good night sleep - not having thoughts of "what if"s and other regrets. You may sleep with a very tired body and muscle pains though, but in the end you will end your day with a peaceful smile on your face.