Just got back from the Symphony. Went to see Carmina Burana with Kate and her mom. Ate dinner at Wild Ginger, which has some damn fine crab cakes and tasty other food. A bit loud though. The symphony was a great deal of fun, and I actually got to learn what the lyrics are, thanks to the power of the program. Turns out half of it's in German! Also, most of it is about young love, and impotence, and wanting to bone the queen of England. Also featuring the world's most emo swan. Speaking of waterfowl, the soprano soloist was a bit squawky at times. However, the children's choir was great, as was the rest of the crew. Oh, huge-bearded violinist, you're my hero. Anyway, lot's of fun, except for the part where Kate got a migraine. Stupid migraine.

Somebody done stole my Happy and Hopeful and left Painful and Awkward and a half bottle of Dread in its place. The rest of this week is gonna suck. Maybe I should become a Columbian drug lord. That way, when everything goes to shit, I can fly away to my secret mansion (distinct from any of my several public mansions), and lay low for a while in seclusion and style. That or get plastic surgery and start over :-P

"Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right"

Thanks Alanis.

Also, I had a lot of caffeine today, so sleep is a long way off. I don't suppose you have a jagged little sleeping pill I could take? No? Damn.


On the plus side, I'm finally reading American Gods after years of recommendations. Its good. Almost done! Maybe I can finish tonight...

Good news is rarely reported. I'll give that a shot.

Kate and I have been getting along quite well the past few weeks (aside from a rather awkward conversation today) and actually doing stuff together. Like painting! We're working together on a piece inspired by a tattoo that she wants. Blue tree, fiery orange leaves, swirling mass of storm-cloud gray background. It's gonna be totally sweet, just you wait. Also working on a piece she wants for her room, inspired by something she saw in an art store. However, I'm learning that working with silver leaf is really frakking difficult. Hm... Maybe I can fake it with silver paint. Shh! Don't tell.

Looking into a program that helps broke-ass Injun folk like myself get the grad school ball rollin'. It's in Arizona, but I'm gonna figure out a way to go, if I can get my act together.

Gonna visit a good good friend soon, if I can get the time off. Excited!

L8R humans.

-Will M.


PS. L8R reminds me of L5R. My game has, well, taken on a life of its own. Kinda gotten away from me, actually. I am no longer the GM. I am a player with 6 GM's and 40+ characters to play. Sooooo much work. But we're telling a kick ass story!

 Tomorrow is the 2nd anniversary of when I began my epic journey that ended up here in Seattle Land. I left to escape the feeling of being stuck in  a rut; to escape unending sameness. And yet, when people call from far off places to see what I'm up to, to see how I'm doing, I have nothing to tell them. I don't remember the last time I did something worthy of conversation; the last time I created something; the last time I learned something. My life is standing still and each passing day is the same as the one before it. The old wanderlust is stirring, threatening to break the bars of my little self-made cage. It's probably time for another major life change. I will have to give up much, but I think it's probably all stuff I've already lost and just couldn't admit it. All I know, is if I continue in this way, waiting for life to change, it will not. In the next room, Charles is arguing against the existence of free will. To put it politely, I think it's a load of crap. My life is not a series of scripted responses to stimuli, or the lack thereof, and I will not wait of the slow-turning gears of the universe to cure my loneliness and boredom and give me what I long for. I will make the change.

Article can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/42a

1) Simultaneous Mulligans

Hey, that's great. Anything to speed up the game. Nobody likes waiting for a slow shuffler. Rock on.

2) Terminology Changes
2A) Battlefield
Way more flavorful than "in play." Good job guys.

2B) Cast, Play, and Activate
Everyone says "cast" anyway. And besides we're supposed to be fuckin' wizards. What do wizards do? Why, they cast spells. Do they play spells? No. When they say, "fireball" they aren't playing. They're really gonna burn your ass. I like it.

2C) Exile
Removed from game not meaning the card was out of the game was stupid. This fix has been a long time coming. And it's flavorful and takes up way less space on the cards. I approve.

2D) Beginning of the End Step
Clears up a lot of murky unintuitive rules. Makes the game more accessible.

3) Mana Pools and Mana Burn
So, there's no more mana burn? I never minded this rule, and like the flavor and it forces you to make some resource management choices, but it comes up so rarely that I have no complaints here. I know some people will be annoyed though, but they'll live.

4) Token Ownership
You mean the tokens in front of me actually belong to me now? Good. About time.

5) Combat Damage No Longer Uses the Stack
I'm sorry, what?

5) Combat Damage No Longer Uses the Stack
Ha! I really must have gunk in my ears today. I could've sworn you said, "Combat Damage No Longer Uses the Stack..."

5) Combat Damage No Longer Uses the Stack
...FUCK YOU!

Sorry, that was unreasonable. I'll just read the explanation and I'm sure this will all make sense and...

FUCK YOU!

Nope. That didn't work. I'm sorry, but your goal is to make the game more accessible and understandable and streamlined and then you pull this shit? The Stack is the fundamental structure for resolving things in Magic. It's how you know when things are happening. It's the structure upon which you build nearly all timing related strategy. The Stack is Magic. Not part of it. Not all of the parts that aren't combat. It's the whole shebang.

You know what ability sucked and was confusing? Morph. Do you know why it sucked and was confusing? Because it didn't use the goddamn Stack. Morph was a cool idea that was poorly implemented and causes a lot of problems, especially for new players, because you have to explain, "you know how I've been teaching you about the Stack all this time, what it means and how to use it and make it central to your strategy and planning? Well, Morph doesn't work that way. Sorry." Morph was bad because it broke from the fundamental structure of the game.

You say people have trouble understanding the Stack? Really? Who? Back when I first started Magic, the concept of the Stack had not been introduced. Timing rules were fuzzy at best, and often irritating. Years later, when I returned to the game, the Stack was there to help me get a handle on everything. Every girlfriend I've ever had has been a casual Magic player at best. A couple of them I had to teach how to play. They thought it was all pretty confusing until they understood how the Stack worked. Then it all became clear and they proceeded to be able to kick my ass. Every game I play now, that has fast effects and timing strategy, that doesn't use the Stack seems somehow lacking. Usually, my friends and I just port it over from Magic so we can make sense of it all. The Stack makes everything easier. More games should have it. And it should apply to <i>every</i> aspect of Magic.

You act as if the Stack is this big confusing thing. It's not. It helps us organize and make sense of an otherwise dizzyingly complex system. The Stack simplifies Magic. But you say you want to make it simpler? Ok, I'm game. But making bizarre exceptions is not the way. I remain further unconvinced by your long and confusing explanation of how combat damage works now. Because of these changes you've had to change how lots of other abilities work, and the very nature of combat itself. And why? What was wrong with the way we were doing it? It was simple, direct and deeply nuanced. What aspect of the game has been made better by this radical and fundamental change? Hm? I'm waiting.

WotC, are you familiar with the phrase, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it?"

 The problem with posting poetry on LJ is that no one ever comments on it. Strange how a large collection of your peers writing about stuff is one of the worst places for peer review about writing. I wonder if people are afraid to offend, not knowing how to say "it sucks" in a constructive way. "It's awesome" is no more helpful. I think somewhere there's this idea that poetry is sacred, that you can't just rip it open, root through its guts, eat the good parts and toss the bad ones (can you tell I've been watching nature videos?). Well, I post poems for public consumption. So go on, public; consume!

Anyway, I'm going to try to use this more as a place to put writing, rather than solely a place to complain about relationships and post silly webcomics. Such attempts have been made before. We shall see how this goes.

Just finished The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. It is worthy of a full review. To follow!

Dear Home,
I missed
All the things I hate about you

Just downed half a bottle of champagne in about a minute flat. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee.

Much to get done today.

I have a secret project.

Also, my plan to be out of debt by the end of this month will not happen

If anything I'll be in more debt. My projection was made a while ago, based on then-current trends. However, I have recently done a lot of custom framing for friends and family and people who might as well be family. While I enjoy doing it, it is not cheap. Luckily, I will be paid back for some of it at some point, but for now it's sitting looking mean and scary on my credit card, daring me to come at it with the Sword of Financial Prudence!

And the thing is, I'm not even done yet. I have to add even more to the already large number of digits staring me in the face. There are 3 or more projects still in the works!

Also, my Anniversary is coming up with Kate is coming up. Yeah...

Also, I'm taking a trip.

Also, I'm gonna have to pay professional artists out of pocket.

Also, I'm halfway engaged in a childish competition of extravagance with someone who a) doesn't know he's competing, and b) has for all intents and purposes, infinitely more money than I will ever have. I'm acquitting myself feebly at best.

Blargh!

On the plus side, I paid off one of my credit cards and all of my paper money debt last month. Yay for small victories!

Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax both die within a year? Sadness abounds for the loss of the fathers of the gaming industry.

I am way more excited than I have a right to be.

Survey Time, boys and girls. Help a game-designin' brutha out.
http://madamluna.livejournal.com/474917.html

Ps. This is a chance to have an impact on a published game. My game. So don't be shy!

Kate just got a chest piercing. My sternum hurts just from looking at it. I'm not sure I'll ever understand what it is that motivates people to ram bits of metal through themselves, let alone pay money to have it done. Well, she's really happy about it, and that's what matters.

Went to a movie friday night. Last House on the Left. Oh, the violence. Oh, the uncomfortableness. Not much squicks me these days, except rape and home invasion. This film had both in spades. As such, fairly squicked. Well done film though, for the most part, though the ending is a bit out of place.

Went to the symphony with my lady on saturday night. A lovely dinner downtown, valet parking, her in a gorgeous new dress (picked out just for me :-D), and me in my damn fine suit, we certainly looked like moneyed individuals. Such an enjoyable lie. Let's just say triple digit dinners are not something I can do, you know, a lot. *nurses wheezing bank account back to health*

The symphony was fun. There were some stirring movements, and oh, the crescendos... And the music was pretty good too.

Sunday saw some friends, watched When Harry Met Sally and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Both of which are apparently required viewing that I had neglected until now. Didn't really get the appeal of Ferris Bueller, but I found it useful as a cultural experience. Hell, even managed to make a reference today. When Harry Met Sally was fun and funny. Later that night people came over for "Game Night," which involved almost no games this time, and mostly lots of people I don't know talking about stuff in which I have no interest. As such I hid in my room, but time alone is nice sometimes.

Monday was just beautiful. Didn't get dressed all day. Spent the day with Kate. Her in a bathrobe, me in pajama pants. Lazy-ass, comfy-ass bastards. Sat on the couch watching Firefly (she likes it! She's passed the Good Person test!) and eating leftover Chinese food all day. Well, that and painting. I got to bear witness to my girl's first paintings. She was so nervous, but managed to have fun with it. And she's really pretty darn good. Never done art before, but did some cool stuff I would never have thought of. I was quite impressed. Also, girls are damn sexy when they're covered in paint.

The problem with a near perfect weekend (especially a long one), is going back to work is all the harder. And really, by comparison what's the point? In the words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Cheers!

It's late monday night. I'm tired. I have to work tomorrow.

But I want to stay up stupid late and play Magic, damn it!

If I were a Plainswalker planeswalker, I'd use my unimaginable arcane power to cast Summon Friends at instant speed.

Ah well.








Life:
-Kate quit her job and is so much happier now. My girl is back!
-I miss a lot of people
-I'm really looking forward to my trip to Chambana in late April. Haven't been there since August 2007. How time flies! I'm all anxious.

The investigation is ongoing

Home. Family. Relationships. Positive words.

So why do they feel so empty. Disconnected.

I just want to get away. And that's precisely the problem.

Because so does everyone else.

And we wonder why we're all so lonely.