Day 127 of 362

Hey all! It promises to be a busy day at the Gopher with the Pre-Release tournament for the next M:tG set, New Phyrexia. We have 36 folks signed up with a few alternates, so the turnout should be good. It'll be hoppin', but we think we have a set-up that will work for most of us.

After that, it's World of Darkness, which means I get to leave the Gopher Hole early and the lovely Loquacious takes over. I'll probably come home and collapse. Such is my way... =P

peace... GopherDave

Day 126 of 362

Big weekend this week. Friday Night Magic tonight, and then tomorrow has a pre-release tourney for the next Magic: the Gathering set to be released, and then the huge World of  Darkness game tomorrow night. In short, busy...

To top it all off, I took the family to see Thor at the Midnight release, so I didn't get much rest. However, the movie is good, and I recommend you go see it if you like movies, comics, and movies about comics.

Now, off and running...

peace... GopherDave

Day 125 of 362

Hey all... I didn't get a late start to the day as much as the number of errands I had to accomplish today increased exponentially. I have most of them done and am just polishing off the last little bits. so I can at least get to this.

Tonight at the store we have Pathfinder, Champions, and Emperor Magic: the Gathering happening, so we'll have a full house. =)

After the store closes, the family and I are going to go see Thor at the movies. Yeah, we'll be tired.

peace... GopherDave

Day 124 of 362

Sometimes basic black and silver says it all...

It's order day at the store and I am running way behind. On my way to the store I'm picking up some Mucinex because I have grown weary of this nagging, wheezing cough I can't seem to shake even though I feel fine otherwise.

Last night's DC Adventures game was good. In consisted of some role-playing that brought in a new character, a fight, then some more intense role-playing during which Myrmidon threw the Bat-Signal at Marathon. Good times!

peace... GopherDave

Day 123 of 362

Who would guess under this conservative shell lies a (soon-to-be) tattooed freak? =P

Another day, another, well... day. Off to the store to do orders.

Loquacious was talking to me earlier today and mentioned how it's time for me to get my second tattoo. I am pretty much agreeing with her. Now we just have to find money in the budget. Problem is, it got me thinking about tattoos in general, and now I have not one, but five different sections planned out in my head. Here's the kicker... given how I dress for "work" anymore (see above), no one but me and Loq will be able to see them on a regular basis. That kind of defeats the purpose of celebrating parts of your life by decorating your skin if your skin is fully covered 90% of the time.

Just a thought... GopherDave

Day 122 of 362

Hola, Gophers!

It's Monday which means it's 40K night, which also means that the wonderful Loquacious will boot me out of the store early. My plan for the evening  is taking the kids to the optometrist. Exciting, isn't it?

Seriously though... I really don't mind as I get to shift to Dad-mode, take care of our kids, and hang with them for a bit. They're great kids, and at ages 14 and 17, they're mostly grown.

Not entirely grown, though... and that means they still need us... if only for a little while longer. =)

peace... GopherDave

Ten Years and a Bullet...

I'm stunned...

Osama Bin-Laden is dead. Part of me is happy, because the man needed to pay for the crime against humanity that he orchestrated. Part of me is sad for reasons I cannot fully explain. Finally a third part of me wonders why the hell it took us damn near ten years to find a 6' 6" man who was on dialysis three days a week...

Upon news of Bin-Laden’s demise, the social networks of the Internet exploded. A great number of people were very much in the “YEAH!!!”, “WE GOT THE SOMBITCH!!!”, and “AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!” mode. As I watch all the commentary and stories about the event unfolding, I am quietly reminded of an old Chris Rock comedy routine. Specifically, I can draw parallels to the bit where Chris is talking about the whole O.J. Simpson trial fiasco. When the not guilty verdict for O.J. was handed down, the bulk of the African-American community was estatic… “Alright! We Won!!!” …to which Chris replies… “What’d we win? Every day I check the mail for my O.J. prize. Nothing!”

So, Bin-Laden is dead. This gives some closure to the families of the people who perished in the 9-11 tragedy, and grants value to the lives given by American soldiers who died waging the so-called “war on terror”, and for that fact alone, I am grateful that we finally did track him down and end his life. The thought that troubles me though is, with Osama’s death, what happens now? Where do we go from here? It's not like all terrorism in the world will magically go away. He left an impact on the world that we will never ever be able to erase. Osama, if nothing else, taught us that we must always be vigilant.

That vigilance comes with a price, though. A price that we continuously pay with money, resources, manpower, and sometimes people’s lives. All of those currencies could have been used to better effect than fighting a war against a concept we cannot kill. Education… Health Care… Lowering the deficit… Any of those would have been a better use of the resources we spent in ten years trying to track down one man.

And now that Osama Bin-Laden is dead, I ask “What’d we win?” The only thing we won was the short-term feeling of pride at finally accomplishing a job we’ve been trying to finish for ten years. In the long-term, we’re going right back to that feeling of looking-over-our-shoulders dread that was prevalent for the first couple of years after 9-11. We’re going to wonder who is going to fill the void that we created, and will that person be as much, if not more, of a threat to our security than the man we just killed. These are very much real considerations.

I won’t lie, though. Originally, when 9-11 happened, I was as fiery and as passionate as any other American. I was firmly in the camp of turning Afghanistan into a sheet of glass in order to dissuade other so-called terrorists from taking action against us. There is no kill like overkill.

As I’ve gotten older and matured, I’ve come to the conclusion that that sort of thinking is very short-term and knee-jerk reactionary. By making us afraid of him… by making us pour money, resources, and manpower down an ever-deepening hole… by making us change how we lived our lives… Osama Bin-Laden and al-Qaeda won… and we let him. As a country, we let our passion, our patriotism, and our pride get in the way of the big picture. We effectively paid attention to petulant children, and gave them power over us.

If we had responded by mourning our dead, and then returning to as close to normal as we could with our lives, I believe we would have made a bigger statement. A statement that said something like…

“Okay… you got us. We accept that. But we are not going to let you dictate who we are and how we live. We’re still going to fly… we’re going to pursue business and political opportunities that are advantageous to us… we’re going to keep being proud of ourselves, proud of what we have accomplished, and proud of what we are accomplishing on a daily basis. We are not going to be baited into a conflict where there can and will be no clear victor. However, when the opportunity presents itself because you, Osama Bin-Laden, will eventually make a mistake, and then we will jack you up… but we’ll do it on our terms, not yours. Have a nice fucking day… Signed, the United States of America.”

Peace?

-- GopherDave

Day 121 of 362

Not a lot going on today at the store. Some role-playing (D&D4E, Pathfinder Society, Gamma World), some Monsterpocalypse, and some board games. Okay, so maybe there is a lot going on, but I'm involved in practically none of it, so it'll give me time to do weekly financials and some other things.

Who knows, I might come up with something worthwhile to say... =P

peace... GopherDave