Jamie Wakefield

It is baffling, and sad, to me that part of the world thinks that profit > all, even at the expense of human dignity.  It gnaws at me every day when I go to a chain gas station or a McDonalds or any other place where I know corporate profits are > everything else in the world. Why can't McDonald's pays its workers more? We all know they can. We all can pay a dime more for a Big Mac. It's like this everywhere. In the UFC, Dana White was brilliant at bringing the sport to mainstream America and generating hundreds of millions of dollars for the Fertitta brothers, who were already billionaires. And even though they could pay their fighters more, they don't. The last payroll for the last event was under a million dollars. The UFC is like the NFL of fighting. The number one organization. Some of the guys that make it there get paid 2k to fight. Meanwhile, Dana and the brothers are gambling away millions at the tables in Vegas.   Yes, I know how the right will respo...

     Magic Arena has really gotten me back into Magic.      So much so that I started thinking about how far I wanted to take this. I already had OBS set up on my system and had it linked to my Twitch channel. Joshie Trash Talker was willing to do a podcast with me. So, I could jump back into the Magic life with both feet.      I started out doing some streaming and I noticed a few things about myself when I was streaming. We all know I'm not great at Magic. Well, I'm even more "not great" when I'm trying to be entertaining and when I am too aware of the camera. And, I can get pretty salty. Which isn't the image I want to project to the world while I'm streaming. Or ever.      Also, as an introvert, who seems to be getting more introverted as I get older, being "on" for the camera was exhausting.      The last thing that happened was that Facebook popped up a memory where another writer described the appea...

So, Friday I was home sick. I went through a bottle of Dayquil and a box of kleenex flat on my back. Luckily, the Mythic Championship was on. I think the field of yesterday's Mythic Championship was 41% Esper varients. Regardless of how much it was, the entire first day of coverage, bizarrely, chose to focus on the Esper decks, and the number of mirror matches with slight variations was a bit overwhelming. There were other decks in the competition but all I saw on the screen for 8 hours was Teferi activations. I was thankful I wasn't on the broadcast staff. Can you imagine trying to make 8 hours of Teferi activations exciting? Take a look at that screenshot. I had one yesterday with 6 Teferi's on camera between hand, board and graveyard. It's got the twitch chat in it so I used this one instead. I watched coverage all day and I gotta say, little depressed. Not even white weenie or Gruul or anything stood a chance against Thought Erasure and Teferi. Teferi be...

First off, I’m going to give a big shout out to WOTC R&D and to the team that programmed Magic Arena because that program is fantastic. I never thought they would be able to come up with a program that makes playing Magic on a computer so smooth. So, just to see how it goes, I’m going to be streaming tomorrow morning. https://www.twitch.tv/jaedence I’ll be playing the deck below so I thought I would do a quick “State of Green” impression. 4 Llanowar Elves (DAR) 168 24 Forest (RIX) 196 1 Ripjaw Raptor (XLN) 203 2 Territorial Allosaurus (DAR) 184 4 Vine Mare (M19) 207 3 God-Eternal Rhonas (WAR) 163 2 Gigantosaurus (M19) 185 1 Pelt Collector (GRN) 141 4 Steel Leaf Champion (DAR) 182 4 Thrashing Brontodon (RIX) 148 4 Thorn Lieutenant (M19) 203 2 Ghalta, Primal Hunger (RIX) 130 1 Nullhide Ferox (GRN) 138 4 Rabid Bite (M19) 195 Starting with the good: All of the colors have seen some serious power creep since I last played but this hasn’t negat...

This is the message that greeted me when I opened Facebook this evening. “Arena is trash. That is all.” It comes from a competitive friend who has just gone on tilt. I know we have all been there. On Facebook I have a group that until recently was called “Hearthstone” but has recently been renamed “The Attack Phase.” I still play Hearthstone and am working on a Lucentbark deck right now, but thanks to the wonderful new program Magic:Arena, I have been delving into Magic again. In the group are most of the members of Team Quarterstaff and Team Comics & Collectibles. Ira Wonderboy is now a much older Wonderman. Keith Kenyon, aka, “KrankyK”, is older so, even crankier. The “Serra Girl” Michele was down this weekend and I showed her Magic: Arena. Michele remains one of my best friends. This Christmas she gave me a book called   “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life The main tenet is that caring too much is what le...

Big Red is by far my favorite deck right now. The main reason for that? Goblin Chainwhirler. I don't think I have seen a card so likely to make Kibler stop playing Standard since Lifebane Zombie. This card is so broken and every time I play it, I'm just amazed it saw print. If you are playing Green or Bant or anything involving mana creatures, this is just a beating. If you are playing WW it is a beating. Tokens of any kind - beating. Planeswalkers? Remove a counter for all of them. I know it's not that big a deal to say that I made Platinum this morning but that was literally 3 levels with just big red and most of the time it was just pure domination. Plus, sometimes you play a mogg fanatic and your opponent just concedes because burn is the best deck in the format right now. I think the only thing I would change is the Legendary Zombies for either more Bladewing or more Phoenix of which I have neither. 1 Demanding Dragon (M19) 135 23 Mountain (RIX) 1...

I still love Magic and always will. But I eventually had to give it up because of the cost of Mythics. I moved on to a game called Hearthstone. Maybe you've heard of it? Here's a video I did for Ira "Wonderboy" Beaver explaining the differences and how to move to Hearthstone.

And now for some deep thoughts: The Best of all Possible Worlds. I believe that we are living in the best time period there will ever be. It is quite easy to empirically prove that this is the best time humanity has ever experienced. More education, less starvation, lower child infant mortality rates and best of all, toilet paper. That’s all good stuff. But what I am saying is, that this, even counting the future, is the best time to be alive. In fact, if you are under 30, the best time to be alive, well, I’m sorry but you missed it by … that much. The thing is, people my age, have lived through a period of change that I do not think the world will ever see again. I grew up with three television channels. The Atari 2600 was the greatest christmas gift there will ever be on Christmas day for a child. You could get today’s child a new Alienware gaming rig worth three grand and they might be kind of excited. But honestly, kids these days have grown up with computers, iPad’s p...

Odd title right? Well, it is a nod towards my beautiful wife's blog www.wendytellsall.com We'll get to the Magic in a minute. First, an update since this is my first post in two years. I'm sure the other Jamie Wakefield's out there hate me since I have the url and haven't done anything with it for a while. When we got back to the states, I had a job waiting for me in Rutland thanks to my good friend and former boss, Patricia Aigner. I was a computer tech again and while I do love that, I did not enjoy the environment nor the two hours of travel every day. I longed to be back at my home town's high school (MUHS) being a tech there. In the meantime, an opening appeared at Middlebury College and I aced the interviews and the meeting with my soon to be boss. But, luckily, Dan Callahan saved my bacon once again. He told me about a network admin position at my home school district (ACSU.) I applied for the job but had cold feet. I knew little about servers a...

Leigh said... Pal, we're just happy you're home. Thanks man. It’s good to be home. I look forward to many, many hours of your company. Anonymous said... So, since you are now back in the US, settled in and doing well, is there any chance we will see more MTG blogs from you? I'm hoping so, because I always found your writings to be insightful and fun. I regret to inform you that I believe I am done with Magic. Sorry about that. Unless I win the lottery and no longer need to work, I just don’t feel I will ever have the time to be good at it. And it’s not fun for me or my readers if I’m not at least adequate at the game. Eleven said... Sweet! Looking forward to (hopefully) regular posts (also hopefully) soon. Me too! It’s been crazy. Hope to get more adjusted soon. Tom Darling said... I was clearing out my old gmails and found yours from when you got married. Went to the blog and found you're back in Vermont! Wow! Welcome back. Thanks Tom. It’s go...

Dan and Forrest have hooked up a Smartboard in which to draw out the network configuration. I swivel my chair around to watch, pretending I know what’s going on, but really just trying to learn. I’m sorry, my expertise lies elsewhere. Side note to illustrate : The Assistant Principal stops Dan and I in the hall on the way to a job. “I’m sorry, non-work related question. Do you have a sec?” “Sure.” “I can’t get my iPhone to send mail. It can receive but not send using my school account.” Dan goes white. Me: “I can fix that for you.” And I do. I’m now the iPhone expert. Go me. BFD. Dan and Forrest (from my notes that I actually don’t understand as they draw shit on the whiteboard and I fail to comprehend:) “The VNKernals are here (drawing.) “What if we took VMware and… gibberish, gobbledegook, gibberish... “ “Yeah but NIC1 is here…” “ But look, the 1099 switch is..” “Sure but management is here!” “NO, Management is here on the other two 1099’s.” Hmmm… deep t...

We have finally settled in. The new little dog, Loki, is finally potty-trained and is an amazing dog. I've finally gotten used to the commute, the hours, everything. Finally felt up to having poker night this Saturday and had nine adults and Josh's baby over for a great time. Most of the stuff from Madrid has been unpacked and incorporated into the house thanks to my beautiful wife. All the patio and porch furniture is down cellar and the lawn mowed a final time before the snow flew. Life is good. Soon, I might even be able to do some real blog posts.

As I mentioned before, I am essentially working a ten hour work day thanks to my hour commute every day. Add on top of that forty-five minutes to wake up, a new puppy who needs constant attention and care when I get home, a busted car, sleep, chores around the house and we’re talking two to three hours a day of free time. For instance: We moved back to Vermont to experience family, friends, and festivals; to be a part of the community and local traditions as well as work on making our home a blend of all of our travels and lifestyle. Last weekend we had one plan. Dinner and walk through the production known as The Haunted Forrest with Hilary and Michele. Instead, we were informed of plans long in fruition finally bearing fruit. Our new puppy would be flown in and our shipping container from Spain would arrive. So, the weekend looked like this for me: Friday: Work a ten hour day, do dinner and Haunted Forest with Hilary and Michele, return home at 12:30 p.m. Saturday: Work aro...