It's Going to Be a Busy Few Weeks

This week, I'm packing a lot of stuff, so I won't be blogging this week. It is likely I might not blog next week either because I will be busy getting things sorted out when I get there and my Internet connection might not be ready yet. :D Check back in the week after next week for updates. I should've squeezed one out by then, hopefully. I'm also upgrading the blog to Wordpress 2.0.1 today, so bear with the few bugs if you see any. :D

Sick, Tired and Idealess

I'm currently sick. I've got no fever, but I feel weak and tired. As a result, I've been struggling to think up a post, of which I have none. So, I've decided to just post a card that will never see print regardless of the mana cost and environment as it is so broken, so powerful, so abusive, that'll it'll make the Power Nine become the Power Ten, break every format in competitive and casual Magic, make any deck into tournament material, and is the result if power creeps upwards into a mad spiral. (I'm pretty sure everyone knows which card this is, I'll just make it more broken than it should be. Everyone knows how to fix this broken card, and everyone knows why it shouldn't be printed. :D)

(I even made a deliberate mistake. :D I'm so sick and tired I don't have the energy to make a nice Photoshop one this time round. I'll just whacked it together in Magic Set Editor. I'm thinking about getting down and designing my own set for fun during the holidays when I have time.)

Separate People in Separate Places

Some people might have read my substandard review of Quake 4 on 1337tech.org, and some of you might not have heard of such a place on the Internet. I'll say it's a great place for finding out more about stuff you aren't familiar with. I would have to say the star writer is chewxy, having written, as of this post, 7 articles out of the 11 you can find on the site. I am, of course, the most pitiful writer since I only contributed one article to this effort to make a decent web site. I will obviously not contribute many more PC gaming articles, but you might be able to expect PSP games instead. And since I got a nice PowerBook, I'll be able to contribute more 1337tech.org type articles: reviews on software for the Mac. While I haven't gotten down to doing that, rest assured that I'll probably have more free time and more willpower when I get to Australia to finish articles and so on.

That being said, let's get to what my post today is about: separate identities.

cfgt is known by many monikers on the Internet. He is known by so many nicknames, that no single person, not even he himself knows all of them. He spends his days watching anime, playing games on his numerous gaming platforms and building insanely funny Magic decks.

cfgt also happens to run his blog "Random Ideas" on cfgt.net, which nobody cares to read since he is only a wannabe game reviewer. He ignores the existence of the term 1337, but chooses to use it anyway since it sounds n00bish.

cfgt will be departing his homeland soon for a foreign land to advance his knowledge on the not-so-arcane art of manipulating huge tables of numbers that will tell him the probablity of n00bs reading this being pwned. (But Chewxy thinks he's secretly going to India to attend the Kama Sutra Sex Institute)

People I know online know that I have many names. I have those I use for my online self (cfgt, cfgt2001), those I use for darker parts of my activities on the Net (which I will decline to reveal), those I used for games (which I will decline to reveal so you will never know how awful my RTS skills are or how deadly I am with the Quake 3 Gauntlet), and those I use for absolute fun (such as rei, for those who correspond often with my e-mail accounts or atropos as you see on this site).

Some people are so familiar with my online name/nick "rei", they actually call me "Rei" in real life. They're mind is stuck on "Rei", who is actually an entirely different entity from me in reality. How would I describe "rei"? "rei" is not the same as his real life counterpart. "rei" is an online entity. It only exists as a shadow or illusion of my existence or presense. "rei" is however very real. "rei" is "cfgt". "rei/cfgt" is a far more open person online. "rei/cfgt" is capable of doing a lot more damage than I can in real life.

"rei/cfgt" is far more liberal with information. "rei/cfgt" is the false shield and false sword I use. It is real life proof than the pen is mightier than the sword. "rei/cfgt" is far more intelligent and more well thought. "rei/cfgt" is far more paranoid than me. "rei/cfgt" isn't afraid of hurting people with sharp cutting words, which I would be if I had a message to pass. "rei/cfgt" is an existence that can only exist online. "rei/cfgt" cannot be brought into the real world.

Who am I then? I am the one who casts the shadow that is "rei/cfgt". I am the student who has gotten a place in a university in Australia. I am the student who now has a PowerBook. I am the one who builds Magic decks during his free time. "rei/cfgt" is the one who talks about it. "rei/cfgt" is the soulless being which is the editor of this blog and my every day dealings online. I am just a soulless being who lives out the life "rei/cfgt" can only talk about. :D

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

I'm certain a lot of you have heard of this adage before. I'm pretty sure that some people reading this blog might have never experienced these kind of choices before. But a lot of people have faced such choices. In any place where humans are involved, you will eventually find some point in life where you are between a rock and a hard place. This is especially true where things less material are involved, such as politics. It is when the line between right and wrong is completely erased. The choice you have to make is no longer obvious. There is no easy way out anymore. The pros and cons of your choices are nearly identical. Your entire set of principles comes into play as you attempt to ascertain the best way out - which is still a bad way out. You are not getting out of this unscathed, no matter what you do.

In this case, it helps to have friends help you in this decision. It helps to know who your friends actually are. Who will help you when you in a difficult position? Most of the time, you will find that no one can, although some might want to. The decision is yours and it will become difficult. Sometimes, you might find an option no one saw - but this is highly unlikely.

I was talking about evil things to do to your opponent in Magic: the Gathering with chewxy the other day (involving how to make your opponent make difficult choices). I came up with two simple examples. Most Magic players will know what I'm talking about. As for those who don't, the card on the left sums up my post quite nicely as it is. :D

(I suddenly ran out of things to say. >< This is not a Magic post, despite my referring back to it for cards.)