A good change on my every other Sunday routine

 Thanks to outdated and asinine military male grooming standards, I have to get my haircut about once every two weeks. Which I usually do every other Sunday. And today was one of those Sundays. 

As I drove to my haircut today, my brain seemed to pull out this random reminder of how these Sundays would go back when I was drinking.

I would wake up hungover (naturally), initially telling myself I just needed to pull myself together long enough to pretend I'm a responsible adult and take care of getting my haircut. Once that was done, I could come home and do what needed to be done to take care of the hangover (i.e. start drinking again). Sometimes I'd fall back asleep after this self pep-talk and sometimes I wouldn't, but either way once I was up and moving, I was just thinking of drinking again already. 

I'd tell myself I could just get my haircut tomorrow, either before work when I was working swing shift or after work when I was on day shift. And many times, that was the plan I went with. But sometimes I was able to convince myself to just get it done. (Usually, those were the times I was low on alcohol in the house and would need to go to the liquor store anyway). 

So I'd shower and all that other good morning stuff and be on my way. It should be noted, the haircut place I went to was like five minutes away and that's with hitting every red light on the way there. But almost without fail every time, I'd have to turn around and head back home halfway there because my stomach would start feeling weird and I'd need to get to a bathroom quick. Then I'd take care of what needed to be taken care of and head back out. Usually my stomach was still feeling a bit off and I'd just be praying the whole time to not having one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. 

Thankfully I never had one of those embarrassing moments, but the whole experience was miserable. I remember so often getting home telling myself that was the last time I'd go through that; that from then on out I wouldn't drink so much on Saturdays when I'd have to get a haircut the next day. Funny enough, I usually made that promise to myself while opening my first drink for the day. 

Anyways, looking back on those memories today, I'm definitely glad to not being going through that anymore. Pretty sure by this point I'd always be pushing the haircut to Monday. Or I'd have just started buzzing my hair on my own - both to keep from having to leave the house on Sundays and to save money on haircuts so I could buy more booze. 

 Song of the Day

Back to Peak 3

 As I figured I'd do, I decided against playing more Magic today. Instead, I went hiking. And went back to Flattop Peak 3. Not the most exciting hike to choose, especially considering the weather, but it's one I was sure Hamlet could handle no problem and I wanted to be able to take him along with me today.

 While it was seemingly just partly cloudy in Anchorage itself, once I got to the base of the Chugach that changed it was all cloudy. Which made me feel kind of foolish having put on a bunch of sunscreen before heading out. The sunscreen became even more annoying when, despite the clouds and what I thought was cooler weather, I began sweating like this was my first workout in months and the sunscreen mixed sweat from my forehead began stinging my eyes. Literally, I could not wipe sweat away fast enough and I contemplated just calling it a day and ending the hike not even a half-mile in. Fortunately, I kept going.

We got to the ridgeline and started towards peak 3, having a view much like the picture above most the way. Which in some ways made for a cool view, but in other ways was annoying as I had no idea how much further I needed to go for my destination. 

Finally, after taking much longer than I remember it taking last time, we made it to peak 3. Where the view didn't change much. We also didn't stop at peak 3. All because I read my app wrong and thought where we were at was like half a mile short of peak 3, so we kept going. It only took me about 1000 ft to realize my mistake and we turned back as I could tell Hamlet was getting tired. Not to mention I didn't pack enough snacks for myself to make a whole half day trip out of the hike. 

The clouds did finally start clearing and we got some of the views that always fill my heart with joy.  

Lately after hiking I've been going to Wild Scoops to get a scoop of ice cream. This time I tried the Off-Trail Chocolate and holy crap was it delicious! I hope it sticks around for awhile - I've been doing this thing where every time I go to Wild Scoops I try a new flavor, but I'd really like this one to be around when all that is done to have again. I also went to Moose's Tooth (of course), but as good as the pizza was, it wasn't pretty enough for a picture.

Anyways, a few take aways from the hike:

1 - I used low ankle shoes for this one. Never again for hikes that have some technical parts to them. Don't know what I was thinking when I grabbed these ones for this hike; I usually know better. Mid level ankle or higher on anything but the flat and easy trails, damn near rolled my ankle a few times. Also had to stop multiple times to get pebbles out of my shoes - very annoying.

2 - I need to make a packing list for all my different possible hikes (less than half-day, half-day, full day, etc.). I'm always forgetting something and this time it was the bear spray, which kept me from doing a little exploring I'd originally been planning to do. Instead I stuck to the populated trailed where I was sure I could outrun at least one other person in case a bear showed up.

3 - Did about five miles with this hike and by the end Hamlet was struggling a little more than I would've expected for such a hike. Now that might possibly be because I walked him yesterday and he needs a full rest day between any real outings, but it also may just be his age getting to him even more than the last hike (definitely hoping for the former). Something I definitely need to be keeping an eye on though. 

 Song of the Day 

Magic: The Gathering, The Hobbit pre-release after action report

Once again, my initial desire to just skip the event and stay home was gone as soon as I started playing. I ended up going 3-1-0, which is my best showing to date.Going into round four I was one of six players undefeated. Unfortunately, a couple big misplays on my part during my final match led to me losing the match 2 games to 0. Oh well, I'd say I'm still somewhat inexperienced to competitive play (even casual competitive play), so tonight made for a pretty good learning experience. 

The better part was just meeting new people. Sure, there were some people I didn't vibe with, but overall most people were relatively normal and cool to chat with.

That said, I'm still on the fence about going to any pre-release events tomorrow. My original plan for this weekend was to go to all the pre-release events I could fit in, but now that I've done one, it feels like it may have been enough. Mostly cause as much as I enjoy meeting and talking to new people, it's a bit exhausting and I may need to do a few more events before I build up the mental and emotional stamina needed for  two days in a row of it all. (I know, I've done two days in a row of pre-release events before. And it was hell, hence the lack of desire to do so again).

The other reason I'm hesitant to do more events tomorrow is, as said in my last post, this isn't just that amazing of a set. On a one to five scale, my initial impressions of this set are a three. Most these cards seem like they'll fit right into commander decks, but I don't see anything changing the meta in other formats. If anything, the few bangers there are will reinforce the current meta in standard. Granted, I could be wrong about the set - I often am when it comes to these things. But I feel like if I go to any pre-release events tomorrow, I'm going to see a lot of the same of what I saw today and nothing new. I think also the meta for this pre-release has already been figured out online, so a lot of people tomorrow will be building similar decks and that's just kind of boring for such events.

In conclusion, I had a good time and am once again glad I did it. But I'm doubtful about doing even more of it tomorrow. 

Song of the Day

A thousand dollars "saved"

This weekend is the pre-release for the latest Magic: The Gathering set, The Hobbit. Being the Tolkien fan that I claim to be, I was pretty hyped for this set when it was announced. I even budgeted out some money for spending on this set, $1000 dollars to be exact - with the ability to spend more if needed. My original plan was to get two collector boxes (which I were assuming would be between $350 - $400 a box on release) and two regular boxes (assuming $150/box on release). Thanks to Magic's seemingly ceaseless growth in popularity, the market has become filled with scalpers and speculators and those prices I was assuming were quite off.

The cheapest collector box I've seen in town (and online) is $600. The cheapest play boxes I've heard of are $180. Nearly all other product has been marked up 10-50% over MSRP. Also, due to a multi-billion dollar company (Hasbro, owners of WorC, the makers of Magic) being unable to figure out logistics, play boxes in a lot of areas, including Anchorage, have been delayed. Regardless, I'm not paying these prices for sealed product.

For starters, this set isn't that great. I want it for the Tolkien connection, but if you take that away from most these cards, they're pretty generic Magic cards that are in no way ground breaking. Most the singles in this set won't likely hold enough value to justify the cost of a box. (Unless of course the speculators sit on their sealed product and create a false scarcity for the singles, which isn't out of the realm of possibility these days).

Also, it's a small set, so buying a single play box will still result in lots of duplicates. I'm also seeing posts online from people that bought a box that had multiple duplicates of the same rare cards, which means collation at the factory when placing cards into packs was absolutely horrible. Which makes sense since quality control has been turning into a bigger and bigger issue for Hasbro over the past couple years (but hey, at least the shareholders are happy).

Lastly, for everything but the collector boxes and bundles, there will be another print run. Meaning prices are very likely to come down for play boxes and scene boxes. 

So instead of the $1000+ I would've likely spent on new Magic product this weekend, I'm going to be spending $40; $40 I already spent a month ago to register for a pre-release tournament happening tonight. Maybe if the LGS has bundles available at a decent price I'll buy one of those, but I'm doubtful they'll have any available and even if they do, they'll be well over MSRP. 

And now that $1000 can be put towards something else. Or nickel and dimed away as I usually do. 

Song of the Day 

A random day in the life of...

Woke up later than I planned today. Originally thought to myself I may as well stay in bed for even longer. Or just move from the bed to the couch and spend the day playing video games I mean, I took the day off from work kind of last minute and didn't have hard plans for it, so why not spend it doing as little as possible? But for some reason, I pulled myself out of bed and got on the treadmill. I'm still just doing three miles at a time when I jog, But this time I managed to maintain a 9 min/mile pace, which is my goal pace. So I'm happy about that.

And then to continue to be counter productive to a lazy day, I left the house. I went to Title Wave Books and bought some movies I'll probably never watch, but somehow it feels good to know I have them in my collection just in case I ever think I might be in the mood. 

What movies? 

Ant-Man. I don't know why, but the guys at work have been big on super hero movies lately and Magic just released a Marvel themed set, so I figured may as well.

Coming to America. It's an Eddie Murphy classic and peak 80's comedy (though not as peak as Trading Places, which also seems relevant to today's economic climate).

Out Cold. I've never even seen it, though I remember wanting to see it when it came out. So I probably will watch this one. Soon.

And lastly, season 2 of Frasier. Figured I should get it since I already had season 1 and 3 and needed some continuity for them. And while I can't say I love the show, I do think it did a good job of capturing much of the look and feel of the 90's into the early 00's. Not as good as Friends mind you, but I've still got a soft spot for sitcoms that span that gap. 

And that's my day. So far.  

Song of the Day 

Baseball is boring

 I honestly don't get the appeal. And when I tell people, they say something like, "yeah, it's boring on TV, but you gotta go to an actual game and then it's not boring." No. It's boring as a sport. There's next to no strategy involved. Maybe you swap a pitcher out vs a certain batter and have your in field back up by about ten feet or so when you're up by only one run and they have a runner on first and their hitter known for hitting line drives is up. That's it, that's the extent of strategy in baseball. And I nearly fell asleep writing that sentence.

It makes sense it's America's game though. Billions of dollars exchanged for a subpar experience in which men that look like everyday average joes are considered elite athletes. The major test of skill is between two men, but eight other men get credit for it. And the manager is a completely unneeded position, yet we keep it there because we just don't know what else to do with the guy that occupies it. 

If major league baseball went away tomorrow, I would never know it went away. Even though that means missing out on an item on my bucket list! That's just how boring it is. 

Anyways, I'd like to thank the TV show Seinfeld for teaching me all there is to know about baseball. Go cubs!

Song of the Day 

You just breathe that moment down

I don't often think about the night my exgf and I broke up. I remember it feeling awkward and surreal. I can't even remember the reason I told her I didn't want to be together anymore; I just remember it wasn't the real reason. It was a reason that seemed to work in the moment. 

A bit later, she assumed it was a different reason than what I said and let me know what she thought the reason was and that she understood. She was wrong as to what she thought the reason was, but I didn't correct her. At the time, she was still living with me as she got her things sorted for moving out. And I was just too frustrated and tired to even want to have a conversation about it. Also, as it often goes when it comes to such moments in life, I was a coward.

A good while after she moved out, I sat down to write her a letter explaining the real reasoning and to make excuses as to why I didn't tell her at the time. 

The funny thing (but not ha-ha funny) that sometimes happens when I'm writing out my thoughts is I suddenly gain insight into a truth I've been avoiding. I began to write to her that one of the big reasons I didn't speak up when I should have is that I was scared she'd try to talk me into giving us another shot and I wouldn't be able to say no. But the truth wasn't that I was scared that's what she would do, I was scared that's something she wouldn't do. And once she didn't, she'd prove true that fear I've always held deep down that I'm not lovable.

I don't know the reasoning behind this, I don't really often dwell on it. I mean, until I started writing that letter, I'd forgotten it was there. I'm sure there's some psychologists out there that would say it's due to a damaged relationship with my mom and others that would say it's born out of rejection in my earliest attempts at romance. Undoubtedly some might say it's because I listened to too much Marilyn Manson in high school (which is what I like to assume the reasoning is). I don't know if it even matters anymore. 

The other (not ha-ha) funny part about is that every time I tried to bring this up with my therapist, I just couldn't. I think that's partially due to having that feeling my time with her probably wasn't far from ending (which I was write about). And part of it was just assuming she wasn't really listening to much of what I had to say at that point anyways. Or maybe I wasn't listening to much of what she was saying and I was just projecting about it. Regardless, even though it was something I thought maybe I should address with a professional, it didn't happen. Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll seek out a new therapist and bring it up with them. 

Song of the Day