Crafting a Legacy aka "I accept who I am, I'm the bad guy"

I know I shouldn't use awesome-sounding titles on relatively lame posts, but I'm pretty sure I'll forget this by the time I actually want to talk about "Legacy" in the context of college admissions or having something that exists even after you are gone. Legacy in this context is a format in Magic the Gathering (a card game that had been a hobby of mine for over 10 years).

Legacy is the grown-up format in Magic. People are playing with very expensive decks that require high levels of skill. I never wanted to play Legacy, because as a casual player I would rather buy 20 mediocre but fun decks. However, we don't always get to choose the monsters we become. One of my good friends only plays Legacy, and with his sponsorship, I have been able to play Legacy for the past two weeks.

The results?

I crush small children and experienced players alike in a flurry of interactions that are not fun for them, but that feel satisfying for me. Legacy lets you play at a high skill level, but if your opponents don't have fine tuned decks and aren't veteran players they simply don't stand a chance.

The pros are that I have won a lot and I've basically made back the money I spend on Magic. The cons are that I had to explain to a seven year old why there was nothing he could do to stop me from beating him in the face on my second turn. I've also created a reputation as the serious player who pretends to be playing for fun. This is hilarious to me, because I know I am actually trying to have fun, but I really hate losing.

I came to New Mexico with a bag full of 18 fun decks, and I'm just playing the ridiculously overpowered one.

I think I'm going to put more energy into crafting fun, but competitive decks. I'm not sure how I'll do that, but I'll have to figure something out. Maybe I'll bring back Arcane or another old mechanic from 10 years ago.

In non-Magic related news, I had a weekend where all I did was play Dominion and Legendary. It was pretty awesome, and I would definitely do it if I get the chance.

I got a ton of basil from my friend's garden and spent a week eating Margherita pizzas. I know they are bad for me, but I will drink water and eat fruit for the rest of the day so that I can have that and stay on track.

I've started doing myfitnesspal or whatever the meal tracking thing is, so that should be interesting. I feel like I know that working out burns calories and that eating gains them. The fact that an app like that makes it seem like a tradeoff I think is something that is useful for me. I do love feeling like I am being clever.

I'll update this with pictures when I get the chance (mostly food, though some Magic stuff). All in all a pretty great week.

Lyric of the Day: The Moth & The Flame - The Young and Unafraid

"The concessions are useless
A failure to diffuse this
Now you have to excuse us
We are moving on

There's rats in the basement
Trying our patience
We are just tuning you out
We are young & unafraid"

The Week in Review

One thing that I wanted to do when I got to ABQ was take a weekend trip to Santa Fe. Santa Fe is ABQ's hipper younger sister who only cooks using organic ingredients, plays Frisbee in the park, and is a drummer for a local band. While both have some similar things going on Santa Fe has the edge in the touristy destination.

Lucky for me that the random weekday I decided to go was a Farmer's Market! I didn't get many veggies, since I was on a day trip to see the old city and have lunch on the plaza. I did however get to grab a yummy chocolate croissant and a coffee to start my day trip. The rest of the day involved walking around the old city and having the aforementioned lunch from the balcony of one of the restaurants on the plaza.

My phone took so long that I ate half of my croissant before taking the picture.

Before I came out to New Mexico, I would always joke that I could never trust sushi from a landlocked place. Since I have been here, I have checked out several sushi places and I have become a believer. I actually went out to a sushi place with friends I made a few years ago who were still in the area, which was great. Third or fifth wheeling is getting a bit old, but is still pretty entertaining.

Desert Sushi. I have a soft spot for shrimp.

 Some of the friends I went out to dinner with are growing vegetables, and had an overabundance of produce. They gave me a couple of squash that I turned into dinner today. I was even promised a bushel of basil next week! Spoiler alert: There will be pesto and pizza next week.

The two squash that are now(mostly) in my tummy.

The last thing for me to do was to find a place to play Magic and get board games. Thankfully my old store was still there, so I was able to find a place to play regularly. A friend of mine also showed me a new place to check out, so he and I spent most of our Friday there. I got to put together a "Legacy" deck, which was basically a spiffy version of my old modern deck. I had to drive around the entire city searching for cards, which was actually a ton of fun. The result of finding cards for it was that my Magic table is now a mess. No regrets! I did manage to lose to burn, but beat a kid playing a block deck.

I'm organized. Priomise.

I'm excited for next week, and enjoying my time in ABQ. New places can be scary, but great because there are so many new people to meet.

Lyric of the day: Metric - The Shade

"I'm following the sun
That's setting in the West
We're floating on a bed of fading lights
A canopy of trees
Bears witness to the breeze
I'm falling like a feather, soft and light

Baby, there's no better time
No better time, baby, we can't find
Oh-whoa-whoa, oh-whoa-whoa"

The new place

So as you can tell from the blog title (and knowledge of obscure state taglines) I have moved to New Mexico!

It was a long drive, but I made it here in one piece. I have been busy setting up my new place, but that is pretty much done. I'm excited to be in a new place.

One thing I did was color code my rooms. I thought it was a pretty cool idea, and it gives my place an interesting twist! Now all I have to do is shop for on-color accessories :P

The rooms:

Red Kitchen

Grey Living Room

Purple Bathroom!

Blue Bedroom

Bonus: I also got a new car :D

Song of the Day: The XX - Intro (long version)

No lyrics, since it is an instrumental haha