Weekend notes...

- I'm finally getting a break after 4 days of work + umpiring, and I'm just bored.

- I got a quick question from someone yesterday asking me about how their rating would be affected in a MTG event after a match, his was nearly 2000 and his opponent was (approx.) 1600. I got bored and just built a quickie program to handle something like that, but I answered him using my "in-head" method of guesstimating point swings:
> Take K-value * 50 (or K / 2 * 100 if you want something easier to do in-head). In this case, it was 400 (8 / 2 * 100). If you are ahead by more points than that, you won't gain anything by winning. (conversely, if you're more than 400 under, you won't lose anything by losing)
> If you're both even, then a win/loss will bring your rating up/down by 1/2 the K-value. If you add the above to that, you can just cut the remaining ratings into sections. i.e...
> > You are +100 rating = a win brings you + 3 points
> > You are +200 rating = a win brings you + 2 points

Yeah, it's a little complicated.

- I've been getting questions from family about if I've gotten a Wii yet; I've been looking for one pretty much continuously since last October.

Well, for me the reason was simply because of Smash Bros. Brawl. I always knew that I would love the console, and I still feel that I would. The issue now is that I also knew that I'd eventually also get a PS3 for some games, specifically FFXIII, GTA4, and LittleBigPlanet. Now I've hit a 4th game in a little game called Mirror's Edge. Seriously, watch this trailer.

I don't play FPS games, and I really don't like anything that's a Halo derivative, but I do have some games that I like from branches of the genre. (Portal, enough said) There's something about a game like that that is about technique as much as any combat that just makes me want it. It's like watching the LittleBigPlanet debut again for me, as it just has that "charm" as something different, but just something that seems so fun. I think I'll be describing it as "GTA if instead of running on the ground you needed to jump from rooftops".


- Still nothing on Japan, and I hear enough about it. I've gotten to the point where I start conversations asking if they know that I'm going, just so I can get it out of the way. I'm still not thinking about it that much, as I still have better things to do.

- Random trivia, just because I really am that bored right now. If you've heard of "Caramelldansen" or "the U-U-Uwa-Uwa Dance" (this thing), there's an interesting story as to the origin of that dance. It comes from a Eroge ("dating sim" is the easiest, though mild, way to sum that genre up) video game called "Popotan". It has an anime based on the game that I heard is very good, and I may look at it in the future. From what I've looked at in reviews, it's like Elfen Lied to Americans in that the series is actually pretty good, but because there are things in it unacceptable by american standards, you'd never see it here. If you want to see the origin of the dance, it's here; NSFW warning: It's got a lot of stuff in it against US "standards".