Timestamp: Saturday 8th October 2016 at 22:24

Day 6 as well I suppose.  I’d rather not count the days one by one honestly.  The streak on the badge on Reddit is awesome to look at, and highlighting milestones is awesome too; that said, taking up that title space is a drag.  Maybe I’ll program a widget or something…

Got home so late last night that I couldn’t post before falling asleep.  It happens.  That’s why Accountability is going to have a three-strike system.  What was I up to until almost 0100, you ask?  Well, I finally got to go to play Magic the Gathering on a Friday night again.  First time in weeks.  Really, last I remember going was maybe before the spring semester started.

And let me tell you, it’s good to be back.  Magic was originally what I was going to replace this video gaming habit with, and so far it’s been a heck of a ride.  Something in fact that I lost sight of as time went on.  It became such a normal part of what I was doing - who I was, you might say - that I let it fall by the wayside.

Now, I’ve always been a an introvert, to put it lightly.  I take a while to really open up and get close to people.  No matter how I try to describe it in my mind, that’s just how it is.  I keep to myself until I feel I’m otherwise ready.  And it is thus that I tend to be at Friday Night Magic.  I’ll play the games and be social during it - the kinds of decks I love to play require a lot of counterplay and interaction with what my opponent’s doing - but as soon as the match is over I pull back and just keep to myself.  I’ll wander around and look at the collection of cards that the owner has for sale that might improve my deck.  I’ll buy a soda or a pack of cards or what have you.  But otherwise I’m just withdrawn into myself, doing whatever until the next round is posted.  Rinse and repeat.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I first walked in yesterday evening.  Everyone there, from the owner on down to my fellow competitors, greeted me like an old friend.  Like they had missed me or something weird like that.  Hell, they even remembered the old deck I played last time I was there.  Sure, it was never Tier 1 or the best deck out there, but it was far from original.  Mind you, I never really talked to them much.  The owner, sure, but that’s about it.  I remembered one regular competitor who was there, but otherwise I think it was pretty much fresh faces.  Of course, I’ve never been good at the whole “names and faces” thing anyway, so who knows.  The cynical side of me says it was all orchestrated - that the message was spread around while I was having my usual Friday night dinner at the Cane’s in that strip mall - but the optimist in this new me is trying hard to believe it was as genuine as anything.

Regardless of whether it was coordinated or not, it made my week.  Seriously.  You don’t get this level of thing with, well, any video game.  Hell, it’s rare enough in this day and age that I’m writing 560 words on it on a Saturday night because of how it stuck out.  It wasn’t just a casual thing like “oh hey, look who’s back!” when I walked in the door.  The general spirit of it lasted throughout the night.

Even though my deck is terrible, I think I’ve gotten the spark back in this thing now.  I’m coming for that top 8 promo.