My Dad

I mentioned in a previous post that my father was getting married again. When he first called me and asked me to be his best man, I was ecstatic. I obviously accepted, honored that he would choose me to do this for him. I also knew that I would get to write a toast for the reception as well.

I knew I wanted the toast to be special. My dad has been a huge influence in my life, and I knew this would be my chance to let him know what he has meant to me. I thought quite a bit about my life today, and how my childhood helped shape me into the person I am. While I mentioned some of this in my toast, I've realized I would like to expand on some of this a little more. I would like to dedicate this blog post to my dad and everything he has done for me.

As most of my readers know, I started this blog because I have dreams of being a writer. This blog is a tool for me to put my thoughts to "paper" and give me a chance to practice my writing. However, my desire to be a writer stems from my love of books. My love of books is in no small part thanks to my dad.

One of my earliest memories from childhood, is my father reading me the riddles that Bilbo and Gollum exchange in Chapter 5 of The Hobbit. I've always loved puzzles and these riddles also excited me. After hearing them enough times I had eventually memorized the answers, but I still wondered about the rest of the book and what part the riddles played in it.

Once I was old enough, I read the book on my own. This was the first fantasy adventure book I ever read, and I was hooked from the beginning. I have read many books in this genre, and several of them are very near and dear to me, but The Hobbit will always remain my favorite. I read it once a year as I was growing up and have read it cover to cover at least 11 times over the years.

My love of reading has never waned over the years, and I can't tell you how many books I've read. This is one of the only times in my life where I am not actively reading a book, and that's only because I'm focusing on my writing and game design. While there are several reasons books are such a big part of my life, I can still trace part of it back to those childhood riddle games with my dad.

My love of gaming can also trace some of its roots to my dad. I remember playing card games with my dad at a very early age. I learned how to count using playing cards, and I learned how to shuffle a deck of cards at the age of five. I wanted to learn as many games as I could and even remember trying to make my own games before I was 10.

In addition to playing cards, though, my dad and a couple of my uncles were the people who taught me to play chess at a young age. I still remember playing games with both of them and wanting to get as good as them. I was eventually able to get as good as them, and then even better. To this day, my dad will not play chess with me anymore.

My love of chess as a child is what led me to learning Magic. It was like a combination of the cards games and chess that I have always enjoyed. I don't play much chess anymore because I tend to focus more on Magic, but I still look back at those games with my dad and realize how much they have shaped my life.

My dad is a good man, and I have learned a lot from him in my life. My dad will go out of his way to help a friend. I have always looked to him as a guide for how to live my own life, and I know that I am a better person today because he gave me a great example. My whole life I have tried to make him proud of me, and I know I have succeeded. More importantly, I am also proud of him. He has taken a major step in his life, and I know it is the right step for him. I was very glad to be there by his side as he took that step. This is just another way for me to show him how much he means to me. I love you, Dad.

-Eddie

Moving Forward

Welcome back. I know it's been a while and I apologize for that. I continue to think about this blog and evaluate how it fits in my life. I started with the goal of doing daily posts. I quickly realized that was eating up too much time and preventing me from accomplishing the goals that this blog was supposed to detail.

Since then, I tried going to a weekly schedule. As you can see, that hasn't worked out so well, either. I'm spending more time on the goals I have this year, and this blog has fallen behind. So I have made another decision in regards to this blog. I am going to keep it, but I am not going to adhere to any sort of set schedule. Instead, I am going to use it to document updates in my life and the projects on which I am working.

I also do not intend to have a specific them for each post. Instead, it will more of a play-by-play of what I've accomplished since my last post, as well as what I have going on at the time. This will still allow the blog to retain its original function, which is to serve as a progress report of sorts, as well as a way for me to practice my writing.

Speaking of writing, I have been able to move forward with one of my projects this year. As most of you know, I play Magic: the Gathering competitively. Last year, I spent time writing strategy articles for a blog a friend of mine started. Toward the end of the year, my friend found himself lacking the time to maintain the blog, and he handed the reins off to me. Several of our friends were writing at the time as well. Together we decided we wanted to expand the blog into something larger.

Last week, we were able to launch our new site. For those of you interested in Magic you can find the site here. As of right now, I function as the editor and webmaster. I also produce written and video content for the site as well. It feels good to be writing about Magic again. It gives me the opportunity to practice my writing in a field with which I am familiar. In addition, as the editor, I get some helpful insight as well. I get to look at the writing styles of the other authors and learn from them.

In addition to helping my writing, I believe the website is going to help with my Magic play as well. I'm trying to play more so that I can create good content for the site. Even if I'm not playing, I'm still thinking about the game quite a bit more now than I have been earlier this year. Hopefully this will lead to better results in the events that I have later this year.

I've also been focusing more on game design lately. I've been listening to a podcast by Mark Rosewater, the Head Designer for Magic. While most of the podcast relates to Magic design, he does go over general game design principles as well. This has started me thinking about my own game design. I have an idea that I'm working on making a reality.

With the work that I'm doing on the new website, as well as the ideas I have for my new game, I'm pretty content right now. I'm finally taking the time to let me creative side accomplish its goals. I will continue to update this from time to time with new developments in my life. I hope you will continue to read it as well.

Eddie

Return to Form

I would like to welcome everyone back to my blog. This blog and I haven't exactly worked out the way I had originally intended, and apologize for the lack of content in the last few weeks. I will not try to make excuses. Excuses do not lead to results. I also cannot promise that I will adhere to any schedule I set forth. I can only promise that I will make every effort to do so.

Now, let's get to the post at hand. Since it has been a few weeks since I last wrote, today will be sort of a catch up post. I'm going to go into a few different things from the past few weeks. Hopefully, I will get back to more focused posts next week.

The last blog post I had was in regards to preparation and focus. The biggest portion of my life where these ideas are brought to the forefront is when I play Magic. Last year, I experienced my first taste of major success playing Magic. I did reasonably well in several high level events. While my performances could have been better, they were still better than any of my previous results. I was certainly looking forward to doing even better this year.

However, something happened during that time frame that I did not consider. I used to play Magic locally every Monday and Friday and occasionally on the weekend as well. Toward the end of last year, though, my schedule at work changed, and I was no longer able to play on Monday or Friday. I didn't think about it at the time because I was still going to be able to attend major tournaments on the weekends when they came up.

What I did not consider is that Magic is a game with a large skill component. Playing regularly helps you maintain your skills and even improve them. As of now, I am playing far less Magic than I did last year. It has definitely had an impact on my abilities. I have been to a few major events so far this year, including a couple in the last few weeks. My results have been less than stellar.

I learned a while back that when I lose at Magic, I have no one to blame but myself. I can look back at my losses and point to the situations that caused me to lose. From there, I can then attempt to avoid those mistakes in the future. I realized after looking over my losses in the last few weeks that I was making more mistakes this year than I did last year. It took me a while to understand why there would be a difference. I soon realized that I had gone from playing 10-15 hours of Magic a week down to less than two hours a week on average.

Since my schedule changed at work, my preparation and focus have dropped, and I'm just starting to see the effects. I have the option to still play Magic during the week. Instead, I have chosen to use that time doing other activities. If I wish to have the same success I enjoyed last year, or preferably, more success, then I need to get back to playing so I can keep my focus at the appropriate level.

Similar to this, I also wrote about how I had slipped in my health goals. My focus slipped and I had a few weeks where I didn't put as much effort into it. As a result, I gained back all of the weight I had worked to lose. Once I realized what had happened, I made myself focus on it again.

I have worked hard on adhering to my dietary plans. I am still not exercising at a level I should be, but for me exercise is much harder than dieting. I am still attempting to get myself to exercise more, but it is a larger obstacle. However, I have had success again just in the dieting. I weighed in at 328 this morning, which is about where I was before I slipped. My goal is to continue this downward trend, and I still want to achieve my goal of losing 100 lbs by the end of the year. I believe it is still attainable, and I will continue to take the steps to accomplish it.

The last item I'm going to update on today is my attempt to write a novel. I started working on the world building process as well as outlining the general story. So far, I'm pleased with what I have. For now, I'm going to continue with the groundwork. I don't want to start writing until I tweak a few more details of the background, but things are progressing well.

It's been a crazy few weeks, and once again, I must apologize for not keeping this as up-to-date as I would like. I'm not going to say when the next post will be, because I have a tendency for that to be inaccurate, but I will make every attempt to have a new post next week. Thanks again, to everyone who takes the time to read this. I welcome all comments.

-Eddie

Preparation and Focus

First of all, allow me to apologize for the lack of posts. I could say something here about being too busy to write anything, but I don't feel that's a valid excuse. I made a committment to maintain this blog, and I need to follow through on that committment even when I have other things going on in my life. I apologize, and I will endeavor to prevent lapses like this again in the future.

This leads me into my topic for this post. I've had a lot of thought about preparation and focus these past two weeks. They are both quite important to completing the goals that we set for ourselves. As I have many goals this year, I need to make sure I have the proper preparation and focus in order to be able to achieve them.

To have the best results, we have to make sure we are well prepared. A favorite quote of mine is "Proper planning prevents poor performance." I am the kind of person that likes to plan things out well ahead of time. This allows me to be more efficient. For example, I am in the process of writing a novel, but I have to make sure I have prepared the back story well enough to make the writing process easier.

Focus is just important, however. All the preparation in the world will not help if you cannot focus on the task at hand when it is time. You have to take the time to accomplish the goals you set forth and not become distracted by the outside world. When you lose focus, then tasks can be abandoned and never completed. This has been my experience in the past, and it is something I am trying to avoid moving forward.

I've two separate experiences in the last couple of weeks that have really solidified these ideas for me. The first experience was at a Magic tournament I attended February 7-8. This was the biggest tournament I've attended so far this year, and I have been looking forward to it for a few weeks.

I had moderate success in the event, but certainly not the level I have come to expect from myself. I played a deck that was very familiar to me, and I felt pretty good about my chances. However, a new set had just recently been released which changed some of the decks other players were playing. I did not take the time to adequately prepare for the new cards I would be playing against.

I might have been able to make different choices that would have allowed me to perform better, had I done the necessary preparation. I had alot of success last year playing Magic, and I let part of that go to my head. I allowed myself to believe that I didn't need to prepare as much. This turned out to be a mistake. I have since deflated my ego a bit and I'm currently preparing for another tournament that I will be attending at the first of March.

I learned my lesson in focus in the last couple of weeks in regard to my fitness goals. I have made the necessary preparations to be able to achieve my fitness goals, including buying better foods to eat and purchasing exercise equipment. Unfortunately, I have not focused on meeting this goal as well as I should. Between the Magic tournament I attended and a week of training at my job, I lost focus and let my willpower slip.

I did not focus on eating healthy and indulged in several meals that were quite delicious, but not altogether good for me. I have also not been using the equipment I purchased as much as I should be and that has shown. I have sadly undid all of the work I had made in losing weight, bringing me back to the weight I was at before starting this blog.

This really hit me hard when I stood on the scale and saw the numbers. I'm determined to meet my fitness goal possibly more than any other goal I have this year, but I am not really succeeding at this point. I know I have the ability to complete it, I just have to focus harder on completing it.

I also have to focus more on making sure I keep this blog up to date. I have enjoyed writing it, and I feel that is really beneficial for me. Just posting this has already helped keep me accountable for my goals. Once again I apologize for not keeping it on the schedule I set out, but I will endeavor to do better going forward.

-Eddie

Media Crossovers

I just recently watched the first three seasons Game of Thrones. I have already read the books on which it is based. I loved the books, and I had heard good things about the series, so I decided to watch it. I was a little skeptical at first because I've been burned by bad media crossovers in the past. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The series is excellent, and I recommend it to anyone who can handle the copious amounts of sex and violence.

Watching the series made me start thinking about media crossovers. They are everywhere these days. It's not surprising when you think about it, though. You have a successful franchise, and you wonder how to make it more successful. You cross into another media. Not only will you generate more success from your existing fans, you also have the potential to reach new fans as well. Not everyone reads books, but they may watch a television series or a movie. They may play a video game. And once they've seen the movie or played the video game, they may go back and read the book. To me, anything that gets people reading is a good thing.

Of course, there have been many failed attempts at media crossovers as well. The people in charge assume that the strength of the original work will carry through to the crossover and make up for any shortcomings it may have. That's not always the case. Each piece needs to be able to stand on its own if it is to be truly successful. People should want to watch a movie because it is a good movie, not because it is based on their favorite book. The latter is just icing on the cake.

This is especially true with video games. You see so often where a video game is released along with a new movie. However, most of these games are terrible. They end up in bargain bins within a year of release. It doesn't make sense to me for companies to waste resources making the game if it is just going to fail. And the reverse is also true. There have been many successful video games that have been turned into movies. Unfortunately, most of these movies have been terrible.

Aside from making each entity good on its own, they still need to be closely related. When you start making major changes from the original work, you run the risk of alienating the existing fans, which can cause a negative backlash. You need to make sure the important characters and plotlines stay intact. It is understandable to make minor changes based on the new media, but you need to make sure it still mostly resembles the original.

Game of Thrones is one of the best examples I've seen recently of a successful media crossover. The books are very good and have quite a few readers. When HBO decided to turn the books into a series, obviously they had to make a few changes. There is too much information in the books to put into a TV series because there are different constraints in that media. However, they have been very true to the major characters and plot points in the books. There are certain events in the books that I expect to see when I watch the show and thus far I have not been disappointed.

However, Game of Thrones is also an excellent show on its own merits. If someone had never heard of the Song of Ice and Fire books, they would still be able to enjoy the show. This is obvious in the success the show has had. It is filled with a high quality cast and excellent writers. Of course, it helps that the author of the books has a direct hand in the show, even going so far as to write scripts for some of the episodes.

If any of my works ever have a media crossover, I would want to have my hand in it as well. I think this leads to the best product because it helps make sure the true vision of the original work stays intact. Maybe one day, I will get to see "based on the book by Eddie Walker" at the beginning of a movie. I can't even imagine what that would feel like.

-Eddie

Fitness Wednesday - Week 2

Another week has passed, and it's time to check in on my fitness goals. In last week's post, I said I wanted to weigh in under 330 this week. I am happy to report success because the scale read 328 this morning. Another three pounds gone!

I have continued to improve my eating habits. I am still snacking on vegetables at work and avoiding soda. I've started eating a little better when I get home at night as well. I did have a couple of slip ups this past week, but not as many as I have had in the past.

This weekend is going to be difficult though. I have a series of Magic tournaments that I'm running starting on Friday evening and running through Sunday evening followed up by the Superbowl Sunday night. These weekends have previously been filled with junk food and soda, but I'm hoping to change that this time. I'm planning on having healthier snacks available and avoid soda as much as possible. We will see how it goes.

The exercise bike I purchased has an 8-week weight loss program that you do 3 days a week. I started that yesterday. My goal is to use the bike three days a week following the program, and then fill in the other days with other exercise.

328 is the lowest I've weighed in a long time, and it makes me feel good. As I see the number get lower and lower, it helps keep me on the path. I lost three pounds this week, so I hope to lose at least another three pounds this week and report in at most 325 next week.

-Eddie

Learning

I love to learn new things. Learning is one of the greatest opportunities we have and should not be wasted. I will go out of my way to learn new things. Learning is how we improve.

I have the goal of writing a novel this year. At this point, though, I know that my writing is not as good as it could be. I have to learn to write better. That's the reason I started this blog.

I also plan on creating a game this year. If I want to create a good game, I need to study the designs of great games that already exist. By seeing what they did, I learn to be a better game designer.

If I want to be a high level Magic player, I have to improve my skills. I have to learn how to be a better Magic player. I watch videos of high level players and study what they do. I read articles they have written so I can learn what they have already learned.

Learning isn't just about improving in areas we want to succeed. Learning also presents us opportunities we may not have had before. One of my favorite quotes is by Louis Pasteur: "Chance favors only the prepared mind." The more we know, the higher the chance we will see an opportunity for what it is and be able to take advantage of it.

I use Magic as a reference for several of my articles on this blog, but that's because I have so much experience with it. This is another prime example. While playing Magic, I will face many difficult decisions during game play. If I have studied information written by professional players, or if I have seen them face the same situation, that knowledge will allow me to make the right decision at the time. Learning allows me to win difficult games that I might not have won otherwise.

Learning has other benefits as well. As I learn more about various subjects, I also learn more about myself. Once I learn something, I may find that I have a further interest in that particular topic. The more I learn about he topic, the more insight I might find about myself. A greater understanding of myself allows me to make better decisions about my life. This allows me to be happier and more fulfilled.

I have no desire to stop learning. I go out of my way to learn new things when possible. I want to be prepared when situations arise, and want to succeed. This is why I learn.

-Eddie

Changes

As I've mentioned before, this year is going to be a year of change for me. I've worked on changing my lifestyle to become healthier. I've changed the way I look at the decisions I make. I've changed the way I spend my free time, choosing to work on projects that I want to finish. I've become comfortable with the idea of change this year.

Fitness Wednesday - Week 1

As I mentioned last week, I will be devoting Wednesdays to posts about my ongoing efforts to get in better shape. This is a very important goal for me this year, but I know that I will struggle with it. I have an issue with willpower when it comes to food and exercise. This has become even more apparent to me this past week.

Characters

Characters are the backbone of a good story. Its important that your characters feel alive to the readers. You want your readers to be emotionally involved with the characters whether it be positive or negative. Even if you have a character that everyone hates, that's fine. The reader is invested enough in your story to actually feel an emotion toward it.

Ideas

In brainstorming ideas for both the novel I plan to write as well as games I would like design, I have discovered I have a lot of ideas. Some of these ideas are quickly discarded as I realize they aren't the best ideas. Even still, it leaves me with a lot of ideas to parse through.

Misses

I almost named this post Failures, but I don't like that word very much. There are a couple of different things that I could label as failures this weekend, but I prefer to call them misses. The word failure has such a negative connotation that it has a tendency to make people give up on what they were attempting. I have no intention of allowing that to happen, so I'm going to go with the word miss. It's much easier to attempt something again if you just missed as opposed to failing.

Choices

This post is about a life lesson I've learned while playing Magic. I'm going to start with the Magic example, then show how it relates to life in general.

Being Organized

Last night, I was in the process of building a wine rack that my wife had purchased recently. It was all going well until I reached the point where I had to nail the backing to the rest of the rack. I realized I had not grabbed the hammer when I had grabbed the screwdriver, so I went to retrieve it, only to realize it wasn't there. I searched all over the house to no avail. I could not find it.

Fitness Wednesday - Week 0

On Day 2 of this blog, I posted that getting in better shape was one of my resolutions for this year. To that end, I purchased an exercise bike over the weekend. I find biking to be better for me. With my current weight, walking or running puts a lot of strain on my knees. This doesn't happen with the bike.

Back in the Magic Saddle

I've mentioned before that I play Magic: the Gathering competitively. My performances last year were the best I've ever had, and I'm looking forward to doing well again this year. I haven't competed lately, though. My last major event was almost three months ago.

Being More Active

As part of my resolutions this year, I have to decided to have a more active life. I'm not talking about just being more phyiscally active. I'm referring to doing more with my time. I feel that I have missed of great times in my life because I have made up excuses to not do things.

Quarriors!

Last week, I bought a new game called Quarriors!. It labels itself as a "dice building game". This is a take on the genre of games called deck building games, where each player starts with the same basic deck of cards. Players collect new cards over the course of the game to improve their decks, working toward some ultimate goal. Quarriors is similar except that you acquire a pool of dice instead of a deck of cards.

By the Rules

One of the biggest pet peeves I have with games is when the rules are not clearly defined. That's one of the reasons I like Magic so much. It may be a complex game, but it has clearly defined rules for any situation that could come up. This removes any possibility of ambiguity.

World Building

Today, I'm going to talk about World Building, which is an important skill to have in both writing and game design. World Building is the process of creating the setting for your story or game. This is important, especially in stories, because it helps your story come to life. It helps immerse your readers into your world.

Thoughts on The Night Hunt

Short post today.

A couple of days ago, I posted a short story for my blog post. It was my first real attempt at writing for the year. It came to me on a whim and I wrote it over the weekend. After taking a couple of days I went back to reread it.

First of all, I would like to say I'm very happy with it overall. I know its not the greatest piece of writing ever, but it is mine, and that means something to me. I put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard in this case) and created something. To me that is a success in itself.

While I'm certainly happy that I was able to write something, I also realize that I have a lot of room for improvement. I didn't really do any editing or revision on the story. I posted it almost exactly as I wrote it.

The next time I write something, it will go through a much better editing/revision process. My goal is try to post at least one writing per month as a way to catalogue my process. Hopefully, it will show gradual improvement as the year progresses.

I just wanted to say thank you again to everyone who continues to read this. Your support really does help me continue to do this.

-Eddie

Adventure or War?

I've recently started taking another look at several of the books I've read over the years, in preparation for my own writing. I'm not just thinking about the stories themselves, though. Instead, I'm taking a look at the possible creative process that went into them. It's interesting to look at how the books are structured and how the characters develop over time.

The Night Hunt, Part 2

Continued from part 1
Unfortunately, as Cayel leaped, so did the night wolf. The wolf tried to jump to the lowest branch of the tree, attempting to reach the bird. The wolf fell short of the branch and tried to claw her way up the bark. Cayel landed deftly on his feet, realizing he had missed his chance. Seems the Goddesses weren't going to make it that easy.

The Night Hunt, Part 1

Part 1 of a short story I wrote.

Cayel crouched on a tree branch listening to the forest around him. Night brought an eerie silence to the familiar trees. He had spent many years training to ignore the silence. If he focused, he could make out the sounds of the nearby wildlife going about their nocturnal business. None of the sounds he heard at the moment were important, though. He was listening for something else.

On the Fifth Day of Blogging...

So its only been five days, but so far I'm very glad I started this blog. I've had quite a bit of fun writing it. I found myself thinking about things in a different manner as I relate to how I could blog about them. It's also helped me take a further look at myself and my life up to this point.

Gamer

These days the term "gamer" is typically associated with people who play video games. However, there are other types of games out there, as well. As I mentioned in the first post, I love to play games. While I do play video games from time to time, I was referring more to board and card games. I will try almost any board or card game at least once. I just love to play games.

Mistborn: The Final Empire

Today, I'm going to discuss the book I just finished reading. I do not intend this to be an "official" review or anything of that nature. I'm just going to give some basic information about the book and you can decide if you actually want to read it. As a learning writer, I feel this will help me by looking at other writers' processes.

Fitness

So I've made it to Day 2 of this blog and so far so good. I know it is going to be a challenge at some point, but I know I'm up to it. For today's post, I'm going to talk about something personal as well as lay out my other major goal for 2014 in addtion to this blog.

And So It Begins...

Hello everyone, and welcome to The Daily Eddie. With this blog, my goal is to post a new blog entry every day for the entire year. As this is the first post, it will mostly be just an introduction. I will tell you a little bit about myself, as well as the reason I started this blog and what I hope to accomplish with it.