2004-12-16 - 5:05 p.m.

Magic Cards

No, not as in wizards or nor stage magicians sawing leggy women in fishnetting in half, but the card game. In the early 1990s (perhaps it was as late as 1994) a friend introduced me to the card game "Magic the Gathering" when I was working as a receptionist at Levi Strauss. At the time I thought, "Dumb game." But he just gave me a deck of cards.

I ended up playing my friend Bane, and we both agreed that the game was pretty damn fun. We bought more cards, but not that many.

I collected the cards for a few years, but rarely played the game. Nobody I knew really played it, and while I went to a few game stores, I'm not really into playing a game with people I don't know. I don't care about winning or losing, and thus would want to play somebody else who doesn't care as much.

I fear there aren't enough people like me that are more interested in the process of the game than the outcome.

In any event, I lost interest and now own a ton of useless trading cards. I ebayed a few of them and like the artwork on a few others, but I don't need the shoebox full of cards I own.

Last night while at a game store in Sacto a bunch of nerdy, zit-faced (literally), social outcast boys were lined up at the cash register. They were talking about how they hated how female knights in fantasy games are often nude, while men are armored head to toe in armor (hehehe, a fair complaint, but naked women are visually pleasing to some people ... arguably the people who tend to buy this stuff). Har! :)

But I felt a bit sorry for them. At first because they seemed extremely nerdy. As in so nerdy that I felt they were missing a large part of the world. A very large part. So I wasn't angry that they spent nearly 30-minutes in line making up their mind what they wanted to buy.

When they left the guy at the store apologized and pointed out that they were from a troubled boys home. Each of them had something in their past that had warranted them living in this home. That sucks. I've known these homes exist, but I have to admit now I understood why they weren't coping to the world the same way me and another girl wanting to buy a Simpsons comic work. They really do live in a different world.

They were buying old Magic cards and very excited about it. It turns out that they all had done hours of community service work and were told that each of them could buy $15 worth of stuff at the games store. They weren't buying expensive stuff. Just the crappy cards, but they LOVED it.

These kids were probably half my age, but I still felt sorry for them. Anyway, I think I'm going to dig through my old Magic card collection and see if I can donate some old cards (that they might not have) to the home. I asked the guy working there if he would give them a shoebox of my old cards if I brought some in. I also asked if he felt if they'd like the cards, even if they were old, used, and easily found.

He said that he'd love to pass any cards along for me. He said it was a wonderful idea.

Apparently the reason they come to this store is that particular worker is really nice to them. He admitted that he once lived in such a home and understands what life is like for them.

I'm sorry that my diary is always so negative ... my life isn't. It really isn't. But sometimes seeing something like this makes me really think about life. I don't understand what is going on there, but I know I once liked the cards and recognized they do too. I think they'll get more use out of the cards than I.

-=-

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