Long time no see!

I know, i've been away. To all 3 people a day that visit this page an average of 2 minutes, i'm sorry. I've just been pretty busy.



It's a lie. I've just accumulated so many geeky hobbies recently that it has been impossible to keep up with all of them.



For exemple: My Savage Sword of Conan tpb sits in my bookshelf, half-finished.

I've read only a chapter of the last Dragonlance novel i bought.

I'm 3 games away from entering the playoffs with my NHL 2009 team.

I'm still at stage one of designing my own collectible card game.

The list goes on.



But there's a good reason.



At 25, i started playing D&D, and i love it.



I've been playing Magic for a couple of years now, slowly enticing all my friends to start playing with me, making them spend hundreds of dollars on the cardboard crack.

They all became quickly obsessed, and a weekly game meeting was the norm. Everybody knew the rules, or thought they did.

I speak in the past term, because i retired from the TCG around 6 months ago.



I couldn't take it anymore. I tried. I really did. I sat through what seemed like impossibly long games, made only longer by all the arguing and debating of the rules, fueled by the fact that every single rule in the game can be broken by one card or another.



So here we were, in my friend's new appartment, drinking booze, watching the hockey game and playing magic. I was sitting at the table quietly, sipping on rum n coke, watching the game unfold. To my right, the monster i created: a lawyer, playing magic. To my left, another monster: the sports dude who simply cannot wrap his head around the fact that everybody's different. Both drunk.

And I sit there, as they once again argue about: does a creature tap before or after the attack phase. Can you regenerate a creature you suicided. How can a Counterspell make sense when you use the stack: if the counterspell resolves before the spell, what does it counter?



It's finally my turn. I've been sitting there quietly for 5 minutes. Count 60 seconds in your head. It's pretty long, right? Do it again, 4 more times. My turn. I have a few options available. I could attack either player, i could boost a creature, i could just summon something. After about 6 seconds of mental debate, I chose the later, for no consequences from either sides.

After i put my creature on the table, i announce that my turn is over. The jock turns to me and says with some aggressivity: that's it?

At this point, i knew i was never going to play again. I finished the game not really doing anything great, since i was just testing a new deck, playing against guys that always use the same one. The guys thought it was drunk talk. I haven't played since.



And so i was left with an empty black hole in my life. All the hours that i spent looking at cards online, talking startegy in forums, building, deconstructing, analysing and testing my decks were now empty and scary hours of lifetime that i could use to do anything else. Like, for instance, concentrating on my finances, looking to go back to school, take a walk outside.



So you understand that i had to look for a new geeky obsession to fill my life, and fast!



Now, what is as time-consuming, nerd-associated and geek-points-awarding as Magic: The Gathering? Dungeons and Dragons, without a doubt!



And so my friends, this is why i haven't been posting a lot. Between rules clarification, book reading, character creating, adventure-writing, map-drawing, scenario-contemplating, game night organisation, and geek-recruiting, i don't have that much time left.



I still read comics, play NHL 09, play real hockey - Ice and Ball - spend time with my girlfriend, get drunk with my friends, workout. So, sorry to say, but the blog is kinda left back a little.



Mind you, whenever something grabs my attention, it'll end up here. Or if people actually start asking for more stuff hehe!

G'day

scar night

DO YOU LIKE DARK NOVELS?

If so you will be served by this book (the first of a trilogy) by Alan Campbell.

It is set in a city that is held by chains over a chasm where demons and gods roam.

If you have read China Mieville, you will probably find that the city and its inhabitants will remind you of New Corbuzon.

Cambell describes a world where a 3000 year old angel has to drink blood on scar night to survive. Why scar night? Because when she drinks blood she dies, resuscitates, sees what she has just done, stabs herself, creating new scars. It starts every month or so when a black moon rises.

A world where an young angel falls in love with the assassin sent to train him, where sould are sent to hell and where poisoners seek revenge.

Where priests are afraid that their god is building an army of the dead to climb up the chasm to claim more souls.

Where some humans have found the way to immortality only to be cut, have their bones taken out and be buried in the desert.

Etc, etc, etc.


I am in the middle of the second book which is even darker and I highly recommend the series



9/10