A Productive Time All Around

Well, this weekend was a pile of fun. Let me tell you what. I went home to be with my family and friends, as you already know if you have read the previous entry, and I got all sorts of things done. None of them were in any way productive, but they got done regardless.

The first thing was a Magic draft tournament. To those who are unfamiliar with the rules of such a tournament, we each had three 15-card packs of Magic cards which we had not opened previously. We would each open a pack, take a card, pass the rest, take another, pass the rest, etc. The second and third packs would be opened in sequence, and the process repeated. The 45 cards we ended up with at the end, we had to build a working deck out of. Well, a deck, anyway. The deck I built didn't end up working at all. It was easily the worst out of anyone's there. I didn't win a single game. I suspect that if I had started to win one, against all odds, the deck would have burst into flames or imploded into a black hole. This is unusual for me. I generally know how to do these things quite well. It was probably because I was unfamiliar with the block (group of cards) we had drafted in. Oh well.

Leaving aside the indignity of my defeat, I had a marvelous time. Lots of Super Smash Bros. Melee was played, World of WarCraft accomplishments were touted, large dinners were eaten in the presence of many. Dinnertime with five or six of my friends as well as my parents is always an entertaining experience, simply because of the sheer random nature of what we generally end up discussing. I don't remember all the details, but I know the Evil Overlord Rules (Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's worth it) were the subjects of much debate. And laughter. Because if at any time, an evil overlord actually obeyed these rules, surely all hope for goodness and prosperity in the world would vanish forever.

Tonight is Halo 3 night. It doesn't get released, strictly speaking, until tomorrow; but starting at nine o'clock, the store is opening its doors to any who reserved the game, as I did. So I anticipate hours of fun. My girlfriend is coming along, but only because it provides a more quiet and relaxed atmosphere than her house so that she can study (which probably speaks volumes about the atmosphere of her house. Living with sixteen other girls would take its toll of sanity on anyone), as I doubt highly that she is at all interested in the game.

Speaking of the game, hoo nelly. It promises to be absolutely ridiculous, in all aspects. I'd love to go on and on about it, but such things will probably have to wait until Monday. With a test today, a speech due on Wednesday, and a test in Meteorology on Friday, I may have to do something I have been loath to consider previously...something I had avoided so far this year and hoped to avoid still further. I may have to actually do some work.

Yes, yes, I know, a horrifying concept. I can hear your gasps of panic and incredulosity from here, I assure you. Even though, now that I think about it, you aren't actually reading this right now this second, as I'm writing it previous to posting it. Unless you were to look over my shoulder. Which nobody is. Regardless, I firmly believe that my entire potential audience has had a precognitive flash of the last sentence of the last paragraph at the exact instant I wrote it, and I had a similar flash of being able to hear your reactions. Or maybe that's just a random hallucination. Lord knows my sanity is not as great as it should be, after a weekend with my friends. Spending extended amounts of time in their presence taxes the brain.

My girlfriend is actually in the room right now, talking on her cell phone and subtly trying to indicate - without being so gross as to actually say or do anything - that she wants me to stop writing and go with her to dinner. But this journal waits for no man, or woman. I was struck with the creative inspiration, and I could not resist. Any writer can tell you when something like that happens. Nevertheless, she will wait, for it will only be a few minutes more. When the inspirations strike, I type like lightning.

But the point of the first point I made was that she was talking on her cellular phone. She recently acquired a new phone, a hands-free that has just a small dealie that attaches to her ear which she can speak into and hear from. The quality of her voice is somewhat questionable, that far from the mouthpiece, but I cannot say as to whether the reason I can barely understand her on my phone is that she is mumbling, the mouthpiece is misplaced, or her other phone is lacking in clarity. I say "her other phone", because as soon as I got on the bus to head to college, I realized I had left my cell phone back at my house. So she has lent me her old phone in the interim, while I wait for my phone to arrive here (my parents were kind enough to overnight-mail it to me).

Not having my cell phone gives me cause to realize how truly dependent on it I am. Without it, I cannot communicate effectively with the outside world. I cannot call up my friends to inquire "what is up", speak with my girlfriend about when to meet her at night, talk to my parents and beg them for money...I don't even know what time it is. If she hadn't lent me her phone, I'd be lost.

Another thought occurs to me. My girlfriend's hands-free headpiece makes it impossible to tell if she is having a conversation on her phone or merely talking animatedly into the air. This is a more common trend than one might think, for hands-free headsets are dominating the business world. It makes the most rational of businessmen look like gibbering lunatics, blithering into the empty air, having an animated conversation with another party who is not, technically, present. The time I was in a public restroom, and one of these men walked in and went to the urinal next to mine...already a sign of trouble, every other urinal was empty. That's just creepy. As he began his ablutions, he was having a loud conversation that seemed to consist of "What??...No! Tell him...He said that? Tell him that...What?? He said that??...Tell him..." Again and again and again. I could not decide whether he was a high-powered executive skillfully negotiating company politics, or an insane hobo debating the fictional spirits surrounding him. It really could have gone either way.

That's just about it. Reports on what I've seen from the game next time...and what I got from my pack of Magic cards that I'm going to buy myself for completing a week.