The Weekend That Was

Hey all! The biggest part of my weekend was attending a local Magic: The Gathering tournament on Saturday, wherein I took 5th out of 24 players. The coolest part was my first round, however, because I got to play against Elizabeth. She was smart, and willing to improve her game, and asked all kinds of questions-- all the things you'd want to see in a nine-year-old who's learning to play Magic and expand her circle of friends.

And she beat me in the second game, and forced a draw due to time for the round! In large part because I was explaining every aspect of a turn, as it progressed, and helping her find the best play in some standard situations, our 3rd game didn't begin until minute 48 of the 50-minute round. And I couldn't have had more fun. Her next opponent was "in it to win it," and treated her like seasoned vets treat one another when playing for $25,000... which is pretty much the opposite of how you're supposed to play against a nine-year-old kid in a tourney that has 8 booster packs ($32 value, before taxes) as the grand prize. But hey, she had fun, and legitimately beat someone in the last round, too.

Now, I also want to complain about the erosion of social graces and fashion sense in today's youth. I understand the tight clothes, the celebrity parroting, and pushing to look older than you are. But walking around a mall with some of my friends, I saw probably a dozen kids (both genders) who very much looked like characters from an anime flick. Wacko hair, nauseating clothing color combinations, and that intense/vacant/clueless look that every cartoon character gets when there's nothing special going on. These kids clogged passageways, darted through other groups, and did all the things that we fossils get mad at youngsters for doing. But then, as I work with teenagers, I know that they're not all amoral, brain-dead spoiled brats, so I'd love to know how these kids in the mall grew to be that way.

Also, where the hell were the parents of the three kids age 4-6 who were sliding down the metal railing of a set of concrete stairs? And they were using the handrail as an amusement park for at least 20 minutes, because I passed by them a few times. That's definately what I expect from kids that age, and therefore I want to beat up their parents for being stupid.

So yeah, it was a fun weekend. Won some cards, reminded myself that I'm good at solving problems through logic, and just kicked back a lot. Finally, Transformers was fun to watch, but you'll be okay waiting for it to come out on pay-per-view, if you have an HD TV available.