Jamie Wakefield

It wasn't just a game, it was an experience that I will never forget. It was the game that made me give up Magic. It consumed me whole in the same sense that Magic did when we first started. It was years and years of amazing fun. But you can never go home again. Pete just posted on our boards - "Got this in the mail the other day. Come Back to Asheron's Call! If you are having trouble viewing this email, view it online. There is no better time than right now to come back to where it all began. Asheron's Call has continued to grow and change over the years. Here are just some of the new features we have added to the game for our Spring Update! Shadows Players can now choose to be a Shadow, living among the peoples of Dereth! Isin Dule has harnessed the power of the Lifestones to grant those who want it, a chance at life among those who follow the light! You can read more about the new playable race here! Tailoring To celebrate the upcoming wedding, the nobles of Dereth

This is a slightly older picture, but it looks sort of weddingish. Well, I’m totally obsessed with Magic again. I used to get up, read some web comics, check out some politics, check out some MMA forums and possibly post on them. I would do this until coffee kicked in and then I would get to work. Nowadays I get up, turn on the computer and immediately go to Magic Online to play some games while I sip coffee. I still check the news and check MMA websites during the day but for much less time than I used to. Wendy and I are playing Magic on the terrace at night after work gets done as well. Yup. Totally hooked again. In other news – Yesterday was an interesting day. I took a sign two feet wide and almost as tall as I am and walked around Madrid, standing in different spots where there is people traffic and advertised a free sample of my new book that is 18 pages long. Two hours later I had handed out two. One guy was very polite and said it was a great idea, very innovative, wished me t

That is what I looked like when I met Wendy. (Click the picture to get a bigger view.) In the post below are pictures of what I look like now. Thank God Wendy remembered I was a nice guy in high school. Why else would such a beautiful, brilliant woman give the old me a chance? Tip - Nice guys finish first.

Wendy and I spent part of the day working on a new profile pic for my column at http://www.starcitygames.com/ Here's a small sampling of what we did. We took about a dozen pictures. I really like the one above, with the bull on the shirt looking up at me. Smile is off though. This one is kinda cool but the blue behind me ruins it I think. And it just looks like I'm standing in tall grass inside. We dragged the plant elsewhere and came up with this - Which we both agreed was the best of the dozen and have submitted to SCG's as my new profile pic. Just sent in my column. No idea when it will be up. Wendy is having a Grrrls night out so I'll be playing Magic Online all night. (For those readers who don't understand Magic, my decks are usually mono-green and green represent nature.)

I’d like to say the metrosexual project continues but for once, this has nothing to do with how I look. In the past five years I have made some amazing transformations. I dropped forty pounds, got a real haircut, grew a goatee, bought more stylish clothes (thanks to Wendy) got and removed braces, had my teeth whitened and am now working out three times a week. I look better now than I did when I was twenty. Monday’s appointment was in the same vein of improvement, but isn’t cosmetic. It annoys me to say that my eyesight is diminishing every year since I turned forty. My eyesight was a gift to me. I considered myself to have super vision and even excellent night vision, seeing movement and just plain better than almost everyone I know. I’ve always been proud of my eyesight. And then at forty it just started to dwindle until now I wear 1.5 and 2.0 reading glasses all the time. Even when not reading. The world just seems out of focus without reading glasses on. Monday we went to an ophth

Wendy and I have just had a long talk. I am getting back into Magic and making a run for the title. My goal this time isn't going to be to get back on the Pro Tour, but to win a Pro Tour. Secret Force: Quest for the Pro Tour II will be available in early June. The reason for this is I need to proof the physical copy of the book that is sent to my house in Vermont and we will be there June 2nd. I will be playing Magic Online until we go home then playing physically anywhere I can find a game while there. When we return to Spain in September I will be playing at a local shop a half kilometer away and writing about playing Spanish Magic with a limited vocabulary.

Wendy, Castles, Segovia. . Just because I know some of you like to look at Wendy almost as much as I do. . (Sigh. The extra periods you're seeing force a line break. Blogger won't give them to me today. I'll work on my HTML next week so I can fix this myself.) . Wendy and I have put almost no thought into the ceremony. What matters to us is the gathering of friends, the dance party afterwards, the introduction of friends that have never met. Last night we had Lena, Stefan, Ruth and Sergio over for fajitas and a game of Carcasonne, and I realized that Lena has never met Lorelei. This shocked me. I don't think Leigh has met Lorelei. Dave has never met Leigh. How is it that these great souls, these wonderful people, do not know each other? (I could list a dozen people I consider great souls that have not met each other but that would go on for a long time. Seriously, every single person I have invited to the wedding I would gladly take a bullet for.) . I asked Wendy if we

I am sorry for the formatting, Blogger is ignoring carriage returns on some paragraphs again. I wanted to tell you what high school was like for me, because I feel it might help students doing poorly, or parents struggling with a child in this instance. . I received horrible grades. I failed classes and the classes I did pass I did less than average in. Like all parents in this situation, they weren't happy. My father was a teacher at the school and was embarrassed in front of the other teachers who I had classes with. My parents tried everything. Rewards. Punishment. Private tutors. Nothing helped. Eventually they tested my I.Q and found I was slightly above average. I was on a schedule and every day I was sent to my room to study and do homework. Usually in that time I would close my door and read comics, or work on my dungeons and dragons game or other things I found fun. . The next day at school, I would look like a fool when the teacher called on me and I didn’t know the answe

In researching how to promote my book (this entire week's project) I am pointed towards "tags" and "listmania" on Amazon.com. In trying to make a list, I say to Wendy, who is making a salad ten feet away, "Hey, we can do our wedding registry right on Amazon." "I'm waiting for you to ask if you can register for Magic cards." "Hahahaha... Wait. Yes." Or better yet, Magic Online gift cards... Oh the wheels they are a turnin'... Looked over the Eldrazi spoiler today and it's like Wizards is "drunk-dialing" me. You know, when you've had too much to drink and you call up an old girlfriend and beg her to take you back and swear things will be different? How she was the best thing in your life? Remind her how great things were. Yeah WOTC, I see what you're doing. I see those behemoths and those green mana producers and that 8/8 trample worm that only mono green could ever play. Oh, I see all of that, you deviou

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/deck/428 Thanks to Marc Di Tomassi and David Gerlach for pointing me to this link. I think I'll go check out what Eldrazi is all about now... And then get back to work on the final edit of "Secret Force: Quest for the Pro Tour II"

I have a new book out. Some people can't see the above picture link to Amazon because of ad-blocking software so here's a text link. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1450513190/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1RYC8TDT4M1PDPTGXSGG&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846 Wendy wisely suggested a couple of things. 1. A better description might help. I get complacent thinking that I don't need to advertise myself, forgetting that some people who visit this site might not have any idea who I am or what my writing style is. In fact, my very sophisticated little counter tells me almost 40% of page views are new to the site. So, that said, here's a better description of the book. "Jamie Wakefield had achieved everything he always wanted. He was happy. He was bored. Then he met Wendy, a woman from his past, now living in Spain. Though he had never even wanted to leave Vermont, Jamie followed his new love to a n

I scream from my keyboard - "YES!" Wendy who is in the kitchen and probably thinks I have just received a book contract wonders "What? What?" "BJ Penn lost!!!" Other than that, it was a very disappointing UFC. Could Damian Maia have been any more of a warrior? Has there ever been a more disrespectful, embarassing champion in the UFC than Anderson Silva? Could Matt Hughes have had an easier fight? Could Renzo Gracie have looked more out of shape? Could the fight between BJ and Edgar been more of a boring kick-boxing match? The answer to all of these questions is no. Maia earned my respect. It must suck to be a Gracie these days. They originated MMA and they haven't had a win for years now. Matt Hughes looked okay but it's clear he will never dominate like he used to. It's clear his reign was based on being a huge, good wrestler. The division is stacked with them now. Anderson Silva makes me sick. That performance was just so embarassing to him,

Before you read this, remember who I am and what I stand for. I am 100% for gay and lesbian equal rights in everything. I am 100% for helping the homeless and feeding children. I am 100% for America continuing to be the melting pot of the world. What I talk about in the following, is a rant about priorities. Wendy and I LOVE Top Chef. We have seen every season thrice. I can quote contestants, seconds before they speak. Sadly, the show does not run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. My mind cannot grasp why not. Like heroin addicts, we are both looking for video methadone to hold us over until the next season starts. Sometimes it’s Anthony Bourdain, sometimes it’s Kitchen Nightmares, and if we could get our hands on it, Chopped, which is not available for download, not from the website, not Fnac, nor from Amazon. Luckily, there is Top Chef Masters which has just started up again. For those who don’t know, this show is about chef’s who have already established themselves as stars in the culi

Yes, it is finally here. I hope you enjoy it. I have spent years on this book, and it is finally available. It details meeting Wendy, discovering Madrid, the growing romance, having to be with her, then the wonder of Spain and other parts of Europe. Also available in the Kindle store.

Ow. Please stop. No, seriously. That’s my arms' reaction as I try to type this. Despite my snoring all night and keeping her awake (which rarely, but does occasionally happen) the very determined Wendy still wanted to go to the gym. I rode the bike for ten minutes and then went to do free weights. Turned out I timed my caffeine intact perfectly and had a lot of energy. So, I just kept going. I did five sets of bench press, four sets of curls, four sets of shoulder presses, four tricep rope pushdowns, and three sets of lat pulldowns. Just as I was starting to wonder if she left without me, Wendy comes out and smiles at me. “Almost done?” “One more set of these.” “I got done my run and thought I would just walk until you came in to get me. Ten minutes later I had to come out and see what was going on.” Good workout today. I just kept going. And now I can barely lift my arms to type. Go me. So, as I sat here recovering I looked over some web comics and The Ferret’s blog which he updat

I have screwed up another book proof so there was no release last week like I had planned. I also sent it to the wrong address so it was lost for a little while. I swear to God this book is never going to be finished. I’ll be working on it again as soon as I finish this blog post. Sorry for the delays in posting. I blame Eric and Secret Force. (I spent last week editing Secret Force: Quest for the Pro Tour II and could not pull myself away.) Eric is our very clever and extremely intelligent friend from Paris who came down to Madrid for a few days. He’s almost as smart as Wendy. Yes, that smart. There was no subject I could bring up that he was not informed about and had an opinion on. We met at the Mercado de San Miguel and, miracle of miracles, found a table. While I held onto the table they went in search of food. Wendy asks Eric “Are you hungry?” Eric responds “Does the Pope protect pedophiles?” And thus began our weekend. We took him on a tapas crawl and showed him our favorite