RonVitale

Throw a Magic Sealed Deck Party

Want to take your Magic games to the next level? Throw a sealed deck party! Before you roll your eyes and click off the page, take a moment to think about it. Invite a bunch of your friends, pick the card set, make some food, and you’ll all have a blast. Of course, you can order pizza and eat leftover hamburgers from two days ago, but why not make this a full fledged party? Celebrate in style.

Don’t Worry

Depending on your group of friends, you can do this one of two ways: You could either just invite the hardcore Magic friends you have or open it up and invite experienced and new players. If it were my party, I’d invite both people who knew how to play and those who didn’t. It’s your call on this. My rationale for inviting people who don’t know how to play is to find those people who might be new blood for your group.

Now before anyone gets all upset, let’s take a step back and break the party apart into various age categories:

--Young teenager who lives at home. Still living with mommy and daddy and don’t have the funds to pull this off? Sit down with your parents and ask them if they would host the party for you. Be honest with them. Tell them that you want to invite 6 of your buddies over and you want to order some pizzas and have some fun. With parents worried about their kids doing drugs and knocking back the old moonshine, I bet they might be impressed with your asking for help to pull off a party. (And if your parents won’t house the party, then maybe one of your friends’s parents will.) If your funds are limited, then make the best of it. Make your own pizzas, buy the packs of cards in advance, and have a blast. Poor and out of luck? Grab those commons you and your friends have sitting around and play some Peasant Magic. Remember, use your imagination and have fun.

--College student who lives at home or in a dorm. Sure, hanging out playing Magic isn’t considered cool, but it’s what you like to do. Gather your friends together and make a go of it. You’re coming together to have fun. But instead of doing the same old thing and playing the same decks you saw your friend have last week, throw a party. Make the food (more on that later), decide on the card stock, and go to town. You’ll have a blast.

--Live on one’s own and are single or married. If you have your own apartment or house, then you’re good to go. Send the invitations out, buy the cards in advance, and make some food. You’re in an excellent position to host a great party.

Invitations

Do it up right: Don’t just send out an e-mail or give people a phone call for your party. That’s lame. Send them an invite through e-mail. Here is a list of sites you can visit to send out (and keep track) of your invitations:

--Evite
--RSVPHQ
--Sendomatic

If you don’t like any of the sites listed above, then perform a Google search and find another or make up your own invitation as a .jpg attachment with a cool picture.

When you invite people to your sealed deck party, tell them exactly what they need to know. For example, if you’re covering the cost of the cards, then you ask that they pick from a list of items that you need brought to the party (soda, beer, dessert, etc.). The cool thing about online invitational sites is that some of them will keep track of who is bringing what. But if your party is small enough, you could keep track by hand. Just be sure that you’re direct and clear in your invitation:

--List the date, time, phone number, address, and directions to the party. Be sure that you list an approximate time for when the party will be over.

--Inform your guests that they will either need to bring their own unopened packs or whether you will pay for them (or they need to bring you a specific sum of money and purchase the cards off of you at the party). Again, this all depends on your financial status. If you have money, buy a box of cards and split them up among your guests. If you have no money to spend, tell your guests specifically what they need to bring. Make sure this is all worked out ahead of time. You don’t want to waste time the night of the party with gathering cards: “But I thought YOU were going to be bringing the Blue pile of commons….”

--Be specific on what you’d like people to bring: favorite drinks, food, desserts, supplies (paper plates, napkins, etc.). I’d suggest that you ask people to bring different types of drinks and desserts. This makes things easier for you in the planning of your party. Remember, be specific: “John, let me know if you could bring an apple pie.”

--RSVP date. In the invitation, be sure to tell your friends when they need to reply to let them know if they’re coming to your party. Give yourself plenty of time so that you’re not stuck with having bought too many packs of cards or food.

Time

Last night I had an hour and a half of time to relax.  I had worked hard yesterday and decided to take a break and do something fun.  I jumped online and ran into a friend online who I hadn’t seen in a long time.  We met in an online chat room and then played some online games of Magic: The Gathering.  He lives in Japan and we were talking about his first wedding anniversary coming up.  While we chatted, he sent me a link to his wedding pictures and I went through the pics, looking at his family and his wife’s family.  Although he was thousands of miles away, it was as though we were right in the same room talking.  I’m a fairly quick typist so I can hold a fairly good conversation online.

A little while later another friend jumped online and he joined our games.  This second friend I know from his having grown up blocks from where I did.  He and my brother used to go to school together.  Now he’s married and has kids.  He’s also over a thousand miles away.  But the power of the Internet pulls us together to “hang out” online.  When I was young, I mentioned how I used the local BBS system to chat online and meet up with friends in real life.  Now as I’m older and have less time, I take advantage of the computer and use it to the best of my ability.

Last night my wife and I had dinner after 8:00 p.m. and were talking about life and some important decisions that we need to make.  I didn’t get a chance to have some down time until after 9:30 p.m.  With getting up at 5:00 a.m. (I slept in this morning until around 5:20 a.m.), that doesn’t give me much free time.  So instead of trying to get together with people to play cards, I jump online and hang out with people there.  Granted this isn’t the best case scenario.  It would be nice to have the old days back in which I could meet up with people at someone’s house and hang out with them.  However, that’s just not possible with my schedule these days.

I’ve been focusing a lot on schedules, work, and the time available that I have because it’s been a big issue for me.  The night before last I finished my research on a publisher and put together package for my novel “Dorothea’s Song,” sending a contact person there a query letter, synopsis, the first 3 chapters of my book, and a SASE.  I’m still pushing forward as best I can, but the balance between work and downtime is a difficult trick to pull off.  Extremely difficult sometimes.  I will be honest and admit that there are times in which I feel guilty for not working harder.  However, the reality of the situation comes in: I can’t work all the time. I’ve a lot of work to do on our house in the upcoming weeks and my goal is going to be to fit in that work around my busier than normal work schedule.  Writing time will be squeezed tight and I will have to learn how to adapt for the next few weeks. 

With that said, I have to go get ready for work.  Have a good day.

Age of Sensationalism

On August 4th, I wrote about Latoyia Figueroa's missing person case. Today local authorities have confirmed that Stephen Poaches, Latoyia Figueroa’s ex-boyfriend, confessed to killing her and his unborn child. I wish that I could write something optimistic and positive about this news, but reading how Latoyia’s 7-year-old daughter will be told that her mother was found dead isn’t something that I can easily turn into a happy event. A young mother was murdered, a young man’s life was ruined, an unborn baby was killed, and the life of a 7-year-old was damaged beyond what I can imagine. No one won. Both families are distraught and in despair over what has happened to their family.

And for the rest of us, we see the lives of these people played out on the local and national news. In a few days, all of the drama and events will be replaced with new faces and more drama. Back in the early ‘90s, I remember thinking about the state of the news and entertainment system and I said to myself: “I live in the Age of Sensationalism.” I think I had been taking an English class and we were discussing the Romantics. Trying to make a comparison with what was happening in my world at the time, I thought “Age of Sensationalism” would fit just fine. But that was over 13 years ago and we’re still in the middle of that muck. Reality TV, drama about local fires, murders, rapes, and car chases still fill up the local channels. I’ve stopped watching most TV except for movies and a few shows (Food Network and Battlestar Galactica on the Sci-fi network) because I’m sick of the crap that’s being put on the air. Yes, I do get sucked into a few shows during the fall season (24, Gilmore Girls, and the L Word), but I’ve not been impressed with the TV.

Lately, I haven’t had much time to relax and have down time. Sometimes I just want to sit back and be transported away, watching a movie and just relax. But with TV these days, have of what is on TV just doesn’t interest me or is pure junk. Plain and simple. I could moan and groan about the state of our society, but that wouldn’t do anything. People just don’t care.

However, there are stories that are exciting and worth checking out. Maybe we just have to work a bit harder to find them. Or even more importantly, maybe we should turn our TVs off and see what else is going on in our worlds. I know that’s not easy to do so I’ll stop preaching and move onto something else.

Time issues.

When I get home from work at night, I try to balance several tasks that I’m trying to pull complete: Eat, relaxing, spending time with my wife and son, paying bills, cleaning up from dinner, making my and my son’s lunch, and, oh yeah, writing. I drove into work this morning and I had an interesting thought. I started to reflect on how I used to come home from school when I was younger and decide: “Tonight I’m just going to read.” I’m not an extremely fast reader. I can read about 40-50 pages an hour. I like to take my time when I read. But now I’m lucky if I can make a few minutes each day to sit down and read a book. It’s a bit frustrating. Typically, my reading time is during my commute to and from work. However, construction work this week is causing me to balance the taking public transportation and have commuting problems or suck it up and drive in. I’ve opted to drive in. Without that time to read, I’m using the ride into work to allow me to focus on listening to podcasts, but I still would like to work my reading time in. Often I’ll read a few pages before passing out in bed each night, but that’s not very exciting.

I remember being a teenager and sitting up in the living room on a lounger chair made of this fake black leather (Pleather?). I would just sit and read until the wee hours of night (well, until 1 a.m. or so). During those early years, I read Asimov’s books. No, I drank them with a thirst that only the young have in knowledge. That thirst of wanting to immerse yourself into the story and be brought on an exciting and adventuresome journey. I’d explore new worlds, meet interesting characters, and look into the minds of all the characters.

TV had nothing for me except crappy television a few good cartoons ( Star Blazers anyone?). But flash forward to the present and I do lament my reading time. My time of being able to sit back and just read, read, read, letting life go by me. Eventually, I did learn to stick my nose out of a book and look around, but maybe I’m just one of the old crowd. I do love books (new books, please. I’m not too into used and smelly old books—I think that makes me a book snob, but it’s the truth) and my wife and I share that same interest. We read for different reasons, but it takes all sorts to make the world go round.

I think I’m going to do that. I’m going to finish the chores that are on my plate for tonight and then go read. Peace out.

The Wiggles and I

My wife and I took our son to see the Wiggles this past weekend. If you’re not familiar with the Wiggles, well, let me just say that for four guys dancing and singing, you’d think that they’d be a flash in the pan. However, they were the highest grossing act in all of Australia last year (I think they earned around $20 - $30). Not bad for a kid’s act.

A few days ago I logged into the Writer Magazine’s online market section and came across a listing for Asimov's. In growing up, I had subscribed to that magazine and looked forward to the new issue when I received it in the mail. I had thought that they had around 144,000 subscribers. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that they were listed as having only 40,000. Wow. That’s a big difference.

The Wiggles brought in tens of millions of dollars last year and publication of a 5,000 word story in Asimov’s would bring in $400. I know it’s like comparing apples to oranges, but I like to remind people that I never started writing to make a lot of money. If I had wanted to make tons of money, I would have tried to be a Wiggle!

The writing life is not glamorous by any stretch of the imagination. Even writers who have had novels published typically have day jobs and write at night or early in the mornings. Basically, you juggle two careers and then add your family to the mix. I also never said that being a writer was “fun.” But there is an interesting draw for me. I like to put those words down on the page and just let my imagination fly, going wherever it will. There’s a freedom in writing and in enjoying my work. No, it’s not fun. And, yes, there are times when I’m bummed out by the rejections or the sheer number of responsibilities that I’m juggling. Making time to write is far from easy, but I do it.

The struggle these days is to make more time to write. At the moment, that’s not going to happen because I’m trying to finish a few projects on the home front and I have been swamped with my day job. The little free time that I have had has been spent on being with my family and on troubleshooting the computer problem I am having. After some testing, I learned that the new motherboard I purchased is the culprit. I’m shipping the board back to the vendor and hope to receive a replacement in 1 – 2 weeks.

Then I’ll need to rebuild two systems and install all the software and configure each machine. When I’ve built computers in the past, I’ve found that it’s usually time consuming and you always tend to stumble across some sort of a problem along the way. And I always forget to install something. But that’s the nature of building systems—with little time, I just work as quickly as I can and then focus on getting the integral software on the PC. I can always add missing software later as I need it.

What else have I been up to? I’ve been reviewing my wife’s website for her company. I have to admit that I’m impressed with her content and sheer effort that she’s put into the site. She created all the images from scratch: The banners, images of her products, scanned in her writing for samples, and wrote all the copy for the site. Not bad at all. I’ve stumbled across some minor issues that I’ve written down and will share with her so that she can fix them.

But in reflecting back 10-20 years ago, building websites from home wasn’t a possibility. And this leads me to ask myself: What will the future be bringing? I’m wondering if a switch will take place. What type of switch? The print magazines are failing. It’s easy to see that they need to come up with a new business model or they will be driven into the ground. The problem is: There isn’t an easy online venue to show the content online. People still like carrying magazines around so they can read them on the train to work. If you have access to an online site, that’s great for when you’re at the computer, but what if you want to take the magazine on the road? At the moment, there’s complicated digital rights management software that allows you to download an Adobe file and copy that file to your reader. Then you can carry that on the train or wherever. The problem is that this is rather expensive for the average reader and there’s a lot of free fiction online as it is.

An interesting way of sharing content is through podcasting. Some authors have sold their stories to online “magazine” sites that have someone read the story and then the user can download the audio file to his/her computer or mp3 file. Very interesting. But we’re still not there yet. There isn’t an easy way to share all of this content with readers and still make money. What will the future bring? I don’t know. My only concern is that the major markets don’t die before the new technological advances are applied to these markets. Or should I say: I hope the top fantasy/science-fiction magazines don’t die before they attempt to modernize and adapt to the changing technology. I’m not certain as to what the new business model would be, but I do hope that change is on the horizon. We shall see.

In the meantime, I’ll keep writing, reading, and working on my house and at work. It’s a bit stressful these days, but “this too shall pass.” I won’t be this busy and stressed out for forever. Well, have a good one and until next time, keep reading and support your science fiction and fantasy magazines! If you don’t, they might not be around long enough. Check them out and you might find that there’s some really good fiction published in them.