Steven's Sanctum

Wow. BlizzCon 2007 was a ridiculous two days. I left work and drove up to go pick up my tickets. The swag bag was so awesome. I got a bunch of sweet goodies including the beta key to an upcoming Blizzard game, please Starcraft II. The lines on Thursday weren't that bad to pick up tickets, granted we got there at 10PM. Friday was the start of something great. We ate McDonald's breakfast and then drove to the Anaheim Convention Center. BlizzCon had officially begun. The lines to enter the hall started getting more and more crowded. I met up with Thomas Tran who I hadn't seen in quite sometime. Always a pleasure to have another Blizzard fan. Right as we entered the hall we went to the BlizzCon store, and I bought tons of things for my friends and coworkers. Afterwards we saw the Opening Ceremeony where Blizzard highlighted all of their flagship titles and showed us the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event. Watching the Starcraft II Cinematic Trailer in Korean was crazy. Man, so many things to do, panels, tournaments, and gaming. Starcraft II exceeded my expectations by far. It was ridiculous. I must have played the demo 10 times or so, both multiplayer and single player. The World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King Expansion was eh. The Starcraft Tournament was definitely the highlight of my time there. Watching the Korean progamers own in Starcraft was just a sight to see. nal_rA the "Dreamer Toss" who uses high risk/reward creative strategies played brilliantly. He uses a ball mouse! He cleaned it before the match begin. Iris played some brilliant Terran but the champion Savior was unbelievable. Savior's macro and micro just overwhelmed his opponents with his Zerg swarms. There were some crazy cosplayers there with some pretty gnarly costumes. There are some pictures of all of this in the photo album. The second day was just as equally entertaining with more tournaments and panels as well as the concert in the arena. Jay Mohr was there and was pretty hilarious although the crowd did heckle him. Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain rocked. I did not know they were a Blizzard employee band but they were cheesy but awesome. The Video Games Live portion was well orchestrated. Hearing the Terran theme with orchestral accompaniment just brought out the "inner" nerd. We ended the trip with a stop at the In N Out for two 4x4s and well done fries. Mmm. I'll write my analysis and thoughts on Starcraft II later. Check out the album!

Steven Huynh/ 08.08.2007

Well things didn't work out and I don't think I'll recover from it for quite some time. Depression sucks.

Steven Huynh/ 07.28.2007

I am not one to whine but I'm in a depressed state. The current situation with my girlfriend and me is horrific. I certainly love tradition and prejudices!

Steven Huynh/ 07.08.2007

Well this summer has been very pleasant. I actually got my internship at Sony Computer Entertianment and have been enjoying it so much there. I'm a Game Programmer Intern working in Product Development of NBA 08 for PSP and High Velocity Bowling for PS3. I love the work environment and this industry. Everyone at my office is extremely helpful and nice.

I saw a few of the summer blockbusters. Live Free or Die Hard was awesome. It was a very entertaining movie with great action and cheesy humor that we all love. Ratatouille was an amazing experience. Pixar really nailed it with stunning animation and a solid story with lovable characters and delicious food. Transformers was a huge letdown for me mainly because I loved the show when I was a kid. I expected some of the same magic but sadly there wasn't any. Although Michael Bay did provide a fun action filled adventure I felt some of his decisions were lame. Where was Stan Bush's The Touch, the best 80s song ever?

For those who are unaware I turned 20 this past 4th of July. I appreciate everyone's birthday wishes and am very thankful. I'll post pictures of that very soon when I get the chance.

Steven Huynh/ 07.08.2007

This match was epic, definitely worth waking up at 6AM PST to see. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played some of the best tennis I've ever seen. Although both players played extremely well, Federer's magnificent serve got him out of so much trouble and took the two tiebreak sets. In the fifth and deciding set, Federer was down 15-40 twice and held with aces or powerful serves. That sixth game in the fifth set with Nadal serving was absolutely brilliant. Federer played some of the best tennis ever to finally break and secure the fifth set and his fifth Wimbledon title.