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 ...