I mean, after two solid months of no updates after the appeal to save Standard Pauper fell on deaf ears over at Wizards of the Coast - and after a year of rather infrequent posts - it should be pretty clear that this blog is dead. The Standard Pauper format is still alive thanks to dedicated players and community leaders, but the filter has been taken away at the same time a lot of changes have happened rapidly in my personal life.
So it looks like I'll be composing a eulogy for the Cabel the Pauper blog instead of an obituary for the format.
So why have I not been playing Standard Pauper since about mid-season or blogging about it? And why does it look like I won't again, at least not in 2016? I feel I owe whatever readers I have some answers.
The first reason is romance. This is something that I did not see coming, but after catching up online with an old acquaintance this spring and summer, things moved rather quickly into the fall and I'm now involved with a woman who has fast become the love of my life. She knows how to play Magic but isn't really too into it and was also in the European time zone finishing her doctoral degree. So my time was better spent chatting with her on Sundays and Mondays when the PDC events were going on. That is a pattern that will definitely continue once she goes back to Britain after coming home for the holidays.
I know, I know: it's the classic "found-a-girlfriend excuse" but I've always been of the mind that there's no such thing as excuses. There are just good explanations and bad explanations. I think falling in love and maintaining a long distance relationship is as good an explanation as any for just not having the time to log in to play Standard Pauper any more. And I can only hope that every Magic player out there - every human being, really - can find someone special against all odds to truly fall in love with.
Now that the sappy stuff is out of the way, the second and third reasons fit in with the Letter-M theme I've developed on the blog. These are music and Marxism.
On the music point, I've recently switched instruments from bass to acoustic guitar and will be going back to school for music. Specifically, I'll be training to become an audio recording engineer and I'm focusing on guitar because I already know how to play bass, keyboard, and can carry a tune singing. In about a year or so my final project for graduation will be to produce a 20-minute recording myself.
This means I can finally write and record all the songs I've been working on for years that all the bands I've been in before weren't interested in. It also means I'll have a marketable skill set as both a songwriter and studio engineer so this long spell of joblessness can finally be put to rest. So since I'll be practicing an instrument as often as recommended by my instructor and studying for classes, Magic simply has to take a backseat and I've already gotten halfway decent at guitar by spending my time learning chords and rhythms instead of playing Magic.
Finally we come to Marxism. I'm proud to report that after several years of starting and stopping with the bitch of text that is Marx's Das Kapital Volume I, I've finally finished reading the book and the lectures posted for free by Dr. David Harvey. Now I feel I truly understand several of the contradictions that are inherent in the capitalist system and know for a fact that Marxist philosophy and economic theory is more relevant than ever. My new girlfriend even got me Volume II for Christmas (she is also a socialist!) and I'll be spending my spare time this semester reading that one and following along with Dr. Harvey's newly posted lectures on this essential Marxist text.
Anybody interested in this intellectual undertaking can find Dr. Harvey's lectures here. I highly recommend not trying to tackle this masterpiece of philosophy, political economy, and world literature on your own. God knows I didn't make it very far by myself, so it's a blessing to have somebody who has been teaching the book for over forty years share his course materials for free over the Internet.
So those are the reason that I haven't been keeping this blog up to date and why I have no plans to do so after the publication of this post. My time will be spent maintaining a healthy long-distance relationship until summer arrives and my love finally comes home for good, practicing my guitar and learning the ins and outs of audio recording and engineering, and continuing my autodidactic studies of Marxist philosophy. This leaves no time for playing Magic, much less blogging about it.
The fact that the Standard Pauper filter was taken away from us and that a nasty bug in my MTGO client made deck-building a bigger chore than it was before are small potatoes compared to these positive life changes and thus warrants no more than a passing mention here.
The main thing I want to say is that it's been a hell of a lot of fun being a member of this small but close-knit community of online Magic players and doing a little bit of self-indulgent blogging about it from time to time was fun, too. I want to thank everybody who read this blog or my old forum posts and PureMTGO articles, everyone in the Standard Pauper Players Clan for keeping the format alive, and, of course, I wish you all good luck & have fun!
Peace Out!
- C
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Monday, March 9, 2015
Back to Blogging and The Five M's of Cabel the Pauper
It has been nearly a year since I have posted anything new here. And what a year it was! I shall spare the details for the sake of my readers and myself. All you need to know for the purposes of this long-overdue post is this: I've returned to playing Magic: The Gathering in real life at the same time I am reforming my writing activities on the Internet.
That means it's time to get back to blogging here after breaking several promises to update regularly about Magic Online and far too many other topics. On this Monday, I will begin (again!) by directing your attention to the changes already made and my plans for the future.
First of all, this blogs description in the header has been shortened from its former declamatory incarnation to be more concise and accurate regarding the intended content. I've distilled what I'll be covering to one main point and five other interrelated interests of mine worth writing about. The most important is now listed at the top of the page and the rest of these - all beginning with the letter "M" by some strange coincidence - you will find in a revised list of links in the sidebar.
Magic: the Gathering will be what I post about the majority of the time. It will not be about bourgeois Money Magic formats, which I oppose. Instead, this will be the place for what I have christened Rarity-Restricted Casual/Competitive styles of play. I explained what this was in the post immediately preceeding this one three days shy of one year ago. If you are unfamiliar with what this approach to Magic is, I encourage you to find out below or by clicking the link provided.
In fact, I intend to make it known to you and every other Magic player I come into contact with. Much, much more on this in future posts.
Last, but not least, are the other Five M's of Cabel the Pauper. I will elaborate on these sub-topics in the future. For now, two elements of each are alluded to in parentheses as sub-headers for the new link lists featured to your right. Here they are for reference below:
You'll note that there are five of these just as there are five colors in Magic: The Gathering. The idea here is to connect these areas of interest and inquiry to the game itself, as well as combine them together in the same way the five colors join forces into guilds, shards, and wedges.
Perhaps someday I'll be good enough a writer to compose a piece that connects all six! But that post is for another day and, after having said all that needs to be said for now, this post itself has become too magniloquent.
In closing, I hope you enjoy the new format and subject matter. This time I make no promises with regard to a set blogging schedule. But I plan to explain reasons for returning to playing Magic: The Gathering in real life as opposed to Online; for returning here instead of continuing to post elsewhere on the Internet; and for settling upon these specific five topics.
It's good to be back! Thanks for reading and following along and good luck to the Standard Pauper players still struggling with Magic Online. Peace,
- C
That means it's time to get back to blogging here after breaking several promises to update regularly about Magic Online and far too many other topics. On this Monday, I will begin (again!) by directing your attention to the changes already made and my plans for the future.
First of all, this blogs description in the header has been shortened from its former declamatory incarnation to be more concise and accurate regarding the intended content. I've distilled what I'll be covering to one main point and five other interrelated interests of mine worth writing about. The most important is now listed at the top of the page and the rest of these - all beginning with the letter "M" by some strange coincidence - you will find in a revised list of links in the sidebar.
Magic: the Gathering will be what I post about the majority of the time. It will not be about bourgeois Money Magic formats, which I oppose. Instead, this will be the place for what I have christened Rarity-Restricted Casual/Competitive styles of play. I explained what this was in the post immediately preceeding this one three days shy of one year ago. If you are unfamiliar with what this approach to Magic is, I encourage you to find out below or by clicking the link provided.
In fact, I intend to make it known to you and every other Magic player I come into contact with. Much, much more on this in future posts.
Last, but not least, are the other Five M's of Cabel the Pauper. I will elaborate on these sub-topics in the future. For now, two elements of each are alluded to in parentheses as sub-headers for the new link lists featured to your right. Here they are for reference below:
- Marxism (Philosophy & Politics)
- Meditation (Buddhist & Franciscan)
- Music (Performance & Enjoyment)
- Mixology (Professionalism & Recovery)
- Media (Social & Traditional)
You'll note that there are five of these just as there are five colors in Magic: The Gathering. The idea here is to connect these areas of interest and inquiry to the game itself, as well as combine them together in the same way the five colors join forces into guilds, shards, and wedges.
Perhaps someday I'll be good enough a writer to compose a piece that connects all six! But that post is for another day and, after having said all that needs to be said for now, this post itself has become too magniloquent.
In closing, I hope you enjoy the new format and subject matter. This time I make no promises with regard to a set blogging schedule. But I plan to explain reasons for returning to playing Magic: The Gathering in real life as opposed to Online; for returning here instead of continuing to post elsewhere on the Internet; and for settling upon these specific five topics.
It's good to be back! Thanks for reading and following along and good luck to the Standard Pauper players still struggling with Magic Online. Peace,
- C
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