Where all the cool keys hangout

So, I have this blog… in fact if you looked deep enough you would discover I have many blogs. I’ve recounted the tales of blogs gone by every-time I start yet another one.  I started this one about a year ago thinking if I speant some time making it look neat and spending 10.00 bucks on a fancy URL it would stick. No such luck.

BUT!

My friend is starting a new blog up and it got me thinking. I went back into my blogging history and found while I do suck at maintaining a blog for any significant amount of time I always seems to be able to keep it fairly up to date during the Fall/Winter months. The obvious explanation for that being I’m inside far more often and have more free time than I would say, during the warmer months. I think the real reason is I’m happier during the fall/winter months. That’s not to say I’m unhappy or depressed during spring/summer but I’m not as relaxed and happy as I am during the cold/wet and windy. I have no idea what’s up with that, seems that people in general lean towards the other end of that spectrum, but here I am. It’s the end of September with the smell of fall in the air and the knowledge that winter is just around the corner has me genuinely excited.

So I thought, fuck it. Let’s see how I do. No goals means no expectations. So if I don’t post for 3 weeks in a row, I don’t care. If I post everyday for the rest of the year, then lord have mercy on your souls and the english language. Lets get started off on the right foot. I wanted to come back with a good topic for you all, something happening in my life that I’m really enjoying. I thought maybe I could talk about how me and a bunch of my close friends are back playing WoW, with the intention of raiding with only us come Cataclysm. But lets be honest, you guys could care less about WoW. That’s why I figured we would start here.

Yup, Magic The Gathering.

First the back story:

I played Magic back in my late elementary/early high school years. In 1994 I had done well enough at the end of Grade 5 that my parents said they would be happy to get me a small present for all the work I put into getting through to another grade. A few of my buddies from school had recently started playing Magic and I had the opportunity to play a couple games before we let out for the summer. I was immediately taken in. A card game that didn’t involve a standard deck of playing cards was something I had never experienced before, and I liked it. So I picked up a Starter Deck of Revised Edition and a few booster packs. I don’t remember every card I pulled that day, but there are a few that have stuck with me for almost 20 years.

Force of Nature to this day, is the card that immediately pops into my head when someone say Magic. No idea why. Needless to say I played a lot of Magic that summer. The guys at school that did play Magic weren’t, at the time my closest friends, in fact I don’t ever recall my best friend at the time ever playing but it gave me a chance to start to meet some new people and interact with them in more than just a classmate kind of way. We played Magic till the final days at St. Pats and I enjoyed every second of it. I played until the late 90′s. I think I gave up around the end of grade 9 which would have been 1998. I can’t for the life of me remember where all my old cards went. I have a feeling they went to a friend of the families son, which at the time probably annoyed me but looking back I was done with the game at that point and if he had a tenth of the amount of fun I had playing then I’m glad he got them.

So that’s my history with Magic, now how did I end up back in the fold? One three letter acronym. PAX…

I can without a doubt in my mind put blame squarely on Mike and Jerry over at Penny Arcade.  We (LoadingReadyRun) have been attending PAX since 2008. We attended our 3rd PAX Prime this September and will hopefully be making the trip out to Boston again for our 2nd PAX East. The first ever PAX we went to, WoTC those crazy bastards that they are decided to lace every sway bag with a booster pack of Magic cards. It didn’t mark our return to the game but it planted the seed. Fast forward to PAX Prime 2009, again those clever folks over at WoTC planted yet another booster pack in all the swag bags, all were once again immune to their wicked calls… except Morgan. He went a little Magic crazy for a short period of time. He was able to get his hands on dozens upon dozens of booster packs. He brought that filth back to Victoria with him (while the rest of the guys were considerate and only brought back Swine Flu) and proceeded to play with a couple we know in town. Luckily for Morgan it didn’t latch on hard enough, as I think he only dabbled in it for only a short number of weeks.

Then shit got real.

PAX East 2010. WoTC has wised up, they know their evil plan is working but far to slowly for their liking, so they decide to up the ante. In every sway bag came pure concentrated evil, a playable 40 card deck. I’m sure to most it seemed harmless but for me and others like me it was only the beginning of the end. To be honest I, along with my friends, came out of PAX East clean. Sure we brought back with us playable decks but we managed to hide them away for months (Keep it secret, Keep it safe) Then the inevitable, PAX Prime 2010. This was the final stage, there was nothing after this but pure darkness. Nothing new was introduced mind you, sure we got another playable deck in our swag bags, but after years of keeping them at bay this would be the moment. I’m not proud to admit it but I was the first to fall, very quickly taking Graham with me. Soon after Matt, Alex, Jeremy and Kathleen all fell, it was terrifying. This was the scene heading home on the clipper on MD+2:

Fast Forward 3 weeks. Things are bad, really bad. We tried to put limits on the amount of cards we were allowed to buy that that plan failed after only 2 weeks. Things were only made worse when a fan only wishing the best for us in our situation decided to send us his collection from his days on the front. All 1500+ of them

As you can imagine things have only gotten worse from there. We recently pre-ordered a box of of Scars of Mirrodin which we plan to turn into a draft tourney. I can only imagine the horrors to follow; Deck Protectors, Sifting through singles at Yellow Jacket, Late night gaming sessions. But you and I both know all that has already happened.

Basically what I’m saying is…. If anyone has 1-4 of the following cards lying around please email so I can send you my address information.

And if anyone at WoTC is reading, thanks

So as you may or may not have heard the Winter Olympics are in full swing in Vancouver which as most of you know is just a short ferry ride from Victoria.

Now I have no opinion of the games one way or another. A lot of contraversy surrounds almost ever aspect of them and I would rather just not involve myself. The simple fact is there here, and regardless of the outcome we have to live with it. Could the city and the province be in debt for years to come? Maybe. Have people been displaced because of new constructions? Possibly. I really don’t know all the fine details and simply don’t care to really find out.

Truth is, I have seen a lot more positive come out of the games than the negative (which probably has everything to do with where I’m looking) but I don’t care. People all around me seem to be happy in some way or another that we have the games in our country, province, back yard and for my friends in Vancouver in their very own city. So I decided that I need to get in on some of this “Olympic Fever” Now money is rather tight with my upcoming trip to Boston/New York next month, so this Vancouver trip won’t be anything spectacular.

I’m going to hop on the ferry after work on Wednesday and head straight for downtown and check out the sights and sounds of the city. I won’t stay out to late cause I want to have a full day on Thursday. I have arranged to rent a very nice camera lens for Thursday, it’s one I have been wanting to buy for a while but it’s cost is more than I can justify right now. However renting it for the day will be 35 bucks which is well within my budget. (Nikon 17-55mm 2.8 for anyone interested)

Stephen Colbert is in town for the games, and is filming for his show Thursday morning at 9:15am so I fully plan on hitting that up and then wandering around all day and just taking pictures and taking it all in. There has been some talk about changing the access to the Olympic Torch, which is currently surrounded by a large chain link fence. I’m hoping they have that sorted out by Thursday some time so I can go check it out as it’s mean to be seen (If not, not big deal. I’ll still go down and check it out)

I also wanted to throw out a music selection for you guys. Now I wanna say, upfront, this is not going to be for everyone. And if you follow me on twitter than you might have already seen my link to this artist.

Meaghan Smith

Now here style of music isn’t much like anything thats currently out there. She has a great voice and matches it wonderfully with an amazing mix of music from the 30′s and 40′s but using modern technology to do so. I strongly urge you to check her out. Shes a Canadian act, which makes it that much better.

Anyways, I should do something that will either benefit the cleanliness of my house or the healthiness of my body.

Later Days

Jesus. How is January already done? This year needs to slow the hell down or the end of the world is going to come a lot quicker.

So we are a month into the new year. How are my goals doing? (cause I have stopped calling them resolutions)

I haven’t been blogging 3 times a week, but I’m shocked after 2 months this thing is still getting updated. I don’t know what to tell you. I just don’t have much to say right now. It might get better or it might not but mark my words, this thing will survive the year.

Listen to more podcasts? I have knocked this one out of the park! twit.tv has become a huge part of my day to day life and I still listen to the Smodcast on a weekly basis. I think I’m doing pretty well there.

Read a book a month. Well I read a book last month and in February I am going to try something a little different… http://audible.com  AUDIO BOOKS! I still haven’t decided what book to get this month but I will get on that later today. And then listen to it when I start going back to the gym.

My photography has been hurting. Me and Ashley are heading up to Tofino this weekend so we will both take up our cameras and get our shooting on.

My eating habits have been kinda meh. It’s not like I’m eating fast food everyday but I could be doing a lot better. I put off going back to the gym because I didn’t want to deal with the huge masses that appear on the first of January. Hopefully the crowds have died down a little bit and I can get back into the swing of things.

That’s it for now.

Later Days.

I stay till the end of the credits at Movie Theaters. It pisses off some people I occasionally see movies with but most of the time I don’t have people hounding me to get going.

I do this for a reason however, and it’s not because I don’t want to fight the crowds after the movie is over.

A movie isn’t an easy thing to make, even the really shitty ones. They require time and commitment from hundreds of people. Some might put in a days work, while other can spend weeks, months or even over a year (sometimes even longer) working on a major motion picture. When it comes down to it the actors will get a huge amount of credit, which they should and then credit trickles down the line. After the actors the director or writers will generally pick up whats left, but what about everyone else? How about the Director of Photography, First Unit AD, what about the sound mixer, even craft services. All of these people are listed at the end of the movie but who actually pays attention to them? Other than those post roll credits there is no other way to really see who was in charge of any given task in a movie and thats about all the credit they will ever get when it comes to the mainstream audience.

As someone who has been part of a creative team for 6 years now, I have come to appreciate every person in our crew and those that might just be able to help out every once in a while. LoadingReadyRun wouldn’t be what it is today without the hard work from Myself, Bill, Morgan, Matt, Jeremy, Kathleen, Graham, Paul, Tim and the countless numbers of other that have helped over the years. It’s the same with Hollywood flicks. People work their asses off to make a movie and I believe everyone deserves at least a little bit of credit, and the only way I can show that is to sit through the credits and actually watch them, read peoples names, see what they did to help get that movie made.

I don’t expect you all to start sitting through the full credits of every movie you see from now on, but next time you catch a flick at your local theater take a couple extra minutes, let the crowds clear and watch the credits.

So I read all the issues of this today.

It’s pretty hard core. But really good, I suggest you give it a try.

Other than that things have been pretty quite around here.

My read a book a month thing is going pretty well. About half way through More Information than you require and so far it’s been pretty amusing. I should get around to reading his first book one of these days.

My eat right has been going really well. Been eating at home more and more and have noticed the difference in wallet, not so much on the scale but I need to get back to the gym for that sort of thing to actually happen.

LRR has officially started up with The Escapist and things have been going well so far. The first video was fairly well received but I think a few people were confused as to what exactly we do. Hopefully with this weeks video (which is one of the best videos we have done in a while, IMO) will cement that we do wildly different things week to week.

Later Days!