(Before we go any further… Have we done this before?)

Good Day Realms,

This is Stu. The strange one. Things have been stranger than usual lately, both with my life and with our game. Let me tell you what I mean.

Back in college, back in 1980, we used to “plug in” to the mind of the Earth and share in strange meaningful coincidences. Carl Jung called these thrilling events “synchronicities”… do they happen in your life too? There was a great magazine in the early eighties called Omni, and for six months straight we would predict the next feature article just by surfing the astral plane for ideas. One time, we were having one of those spacy-hippie-college-bull-sessions of ours and Jim said; “We could start a cryogenic library of all life-forms and make a zoo later when we learn how to clone them back to life!” The article came out the next month. Another time, we thought; “What if there was a basic genetic structure oystered in the chunk of stuff that became a comet?” The article came out the next month.

Well, I have always wondered how that works. Often it would happen after the magazine went to print, but it always happened before we had ever heard the idea. I still don’t know the mechanic of the phenomenon… but it is happening again.

Back in October 2004, I wrote this article about Longshot, and I called it...
“The Most Dangerous Man in the Game": http://metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=46&ArticleId=612

Then, three months later, profparm told me to check out Ultimate X-men #54. I got that shock of recognition… (I get it a lot) …I was “plugged in” again. The comic is about Longshot, and they called it...
“The Most Dangerous Game.”
(Longshot looks so good with his new hair, you must check it out.)

If anyone can explain this phenomenon, please do. I have no idea when Marvel decided to do the Longshot story and call it that. I have absolutely no contact with them. All I know is that it is really thrilling and that it happens to me all the time. Especially with license plates.

See, before 888 became the toll free number it was magick. It’s still magick to me. Once I found a twenty dollar bill in my pocket when I was expecting lint. I looked at the serial number, and it had an 888 to start the string. I photocopied the bill and sent it to a friend to show him that we could find magick in the belly of the beast. He pulled out his wallet and felt his eyes pop out when he saw a twenty with the 888 at the end of the serial number. Oh yeah, license plates. I see that number on license plates when I am “plugged in”. It has happened every day this week.

Often these “meaningful coincidences” help me through difficult situations. It was difficult for me last week when there was a small but vocal uprising against my fundraiser. I despise the things that money does to people, I knew it would bring hate into my life on some level. I was not ready to lose the 36 pages of community that those threads had built… but they needed to be archived so the rules against selling were protected. I understand that, I agree with the decision, but I began to question myself and my motives. I did what I tend to do, I told myself “#### it. Walk away. Send all the money back and return to the simple life.” Then it happened again. Just by coincidence, the teacher who worked next door in the Science room came back to visit for the first time since her going-away party. She gave me a Thank You card just when I needed it most. I’d like to share it with you, I really don’t care what you think of me when I do.

The front of the card was one of those colorful lists of pep-quotes by Sark:

How to Be Really Alive!

Live juicy. Stamp our conformity. Stay in bed all day. Dream of gypsy wagons. Find snails making love. Develop an astounding appetite for books. Drink sunsets. Draw out your feelings. Amaze yourself. Be ridiculous. Stop worrying. Now. If not now, when? Make yes your favorite word. Marry yourself. Dry your clothes in the sun. Eat mangoes naked. Keep toys in the bathtub. Spin yourself dizzy. Hang upside down. Follow a child. Celebrate an old person. Send a love letter to yourself. Be advanced. Try endearing. Invent new ways to love. Transform negatives. Delight someone. Wear pajamas to a drive-in movie. Allow yourself to feel rich without money. Be who you truly are and the money will follow.

Okay, I start feeling that and I blink twice at the last two since they seemed to be speaking directly to my mental wrestling match about the fundraiser. Then I opened the card to read this:

Rian and Nina,

Thank you so much for my gift of “happiness in a bottle”. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. However, I value and appreciate your friendship, kindness, and positive energy in this world even more. You are truly amazing people who bring light and joy to all those who are fortunate enough to know you.

Peace to you,

Lori

(Needless to say, I forgot all about the fundraiser issue and ran across the school to get one last hug before she left again.)

So, how about the Marvel Knights preview you ask? Here goes:

The Christmas with a vengeance! title of this piece was written by Boiler Demon the night before the previews. I had a gift a little more special than usual when I opened my packs. My friend did some of the paintings, and he refused to tell me about it so I would be surprised! Nina and I met Dave Devries back in 1996, we hunted him down at MegaCon so I could grab him by the shoulders and insist that he do the drawing for our tattoo. He is so cool that he agreed and we became fast friends. He was doing Marvel Masterpieces back then, and when this game was announced I asked him if he would consider doing paintings for Vs. He told me no, he was too busy teaching college. Then, I opened my first Marvel Knights pack ever on Saturday... and saw his name under Nekra’s… swirls. Can you bug your eyes out like that?

Now the part you waded through all the bliss-ninny fluff for… Marvel Knights tech. I’ll help as much as I can, in my way. Here’s the only thing I remember after going 3-1 for third place.

I dropped Doop on one. He gets that little green burn thing going just fine if the opponent has no one-drop. Even though this set has plenty defense and games will go to turn 8 in limited, there is also plenty early burns and beats. Wacky stuff this time. Back to the one-drop Doop. He can also kill himself. I like characters that can do that, especially with Hypnotic Charms. I missed a 2-drop, but so did my opponent. On three I recruited Morbius and got all charming and stuff. Nice ability for Sealed, now it’s time to party. Turn four I dropped Reaper (did someone say early beats?), and I needed to do something to make my two Head Shots usable so I could use two Advance Recon on the Vampire Armageddon for maximum swelling. Enter Sharon Ginsburg. She grabbed Moon Knight by the hood and dragged him into the KO pile… top decking Day of the Dead. Since I was intent on the biggest effect I could write about, I had my Doop jump into the KO pile too… even though I had no other Doop to search for. Without Savage Beatdown/Overload to worry about, my Reaper swung for 22. My opponent’s Saracen took 15 breakthrough and I gained 60 endurance.

When I played football in fourth grade, I wore number 60. Coincidence, or Synchronicity… you decide.

Vicariously yours,

Stu

The Matrix has you...



Good job! I too feel Advance Recon can be very, very powerful when used correctly... :devious:

... like in TNB with Blind Sided? (Not that it needs it or anything. We gotta find space for the new witch first.)

dont talk to me about JUng and coinkidinks! i have a drawer full of scrapped comic and movie scripts that i know i pulled from the ether, started to write, and then saw the exact story not three months later! im tapped in brother, and if it wasnt such a beautifully done film, "sky capt and the world of tomorrow" would feel the full brunt of my ire for making my similar script i had been working on for 8 yeqrs script totally un porducible...

by the by, its all about cage in the pre release. a resounding "Christmas!" from the shadows

So I'm not the only one? I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I'll see you there.

how about this for a coincedence

i went to dave's store for the pcq
played in both sealed and constructed

sealed
round 1 - table 6
round 2 - table 6
round 3 - table 6
round 4 - table 6
round 5 - table 6

constructed
round 1 - table 6
round 2 - table 6
round 3 - table 6
round 4 - table 3
round 5 - table 2

i kid you not
i probably would have ended up being on table 6 if i wasn't 3-0 and then 4-0 in those last two rounds of the constructed portion, but since i did fairly decent it forced me to move to better tables ;)

what do you think of that?

I think 666 is supposed to mean something... check the back of your scalp to see if you were born with the mark.

In all honesty, there is a clinical condition called "Delusions of Reference". I love that term, and whether I am crazy or not I will live my entire life this way.

Thanks for sharing.

Stu

MK was a fun day. My friend and I played sealed, with him winning and me finishing 9th. I went 3-2 which was much better than I ever should have been with that deck. And without mistakes in 2 games, I could have been 5-0. I let Blackheart get stunned when he was team attacked by a 5 and a 3. My fault. Grr.

Then we stuck around for draft. I finished 4th out of 10 and my friend won again. Since he won the pcq sealed in Jax last month, he's really on a roll with this sealed gig. Dragoonxix is catching up to some of the big names in his sealed skills and will see you at PCNY. Maybe I can make it by then too.

Underworld rules! I finished second in the sealed running them and crimelords.

Oh and Nekra's swirls are hot. I played wih her all day.(Uhm...that didn't come out quite the way I wanted it to.)

I got this in my PM box, I simply must share it with you before school is out:

"Every time an idea is thought up, it is put into the collective for someone else to think up. That cool deck you made? Use it quick cause once one exists, someone else will create one too.

Waking dreams and soul travel - Tapped in. All good.

Why? The only answer I have is God. If that doesn't work for you... well (shrug). Works for me.

Good luck, rock on."

My dear friend, it works for me. Thank you.

Stu

woa, freeky psychic stuff....i feel like that too. i have Da Ja Vu all the time. like this one time, i thought of a song, and a week later it was ont he radio. freeky stuff...

Adv. Recon cost me a game. Situational, but definitely swingy.

Yes, Chrsitmas with a Vengeance no doubt. I won't bore you with my day at the preview, I've already blabbereda bout that.

I remember when I was about 5 or 6 years old I had a dream that I was playing street hockey with a group of guys in a parking garage. The summer when I was 9 years old I had De Javu when I signed up for roller skating hockey and I was playing in a parking garage with other boys.

Yea, I get those freaky little "dream of the future" things a lot.

Dream: Robot Seeker stunns Imperiex...with a few pumps.