Interesting Stuff and the Other 14%

I've been posting pretty regularly over at my other blog (stangg.blogspot.com) but there's only so much to say about me playing Magical Cards. 

I've got the itch to write right now and, despite what it might feel like sometimes, Magic isn't 100% of my life. Probably closer to 86% really. My wife would say more I think. 

Of course there's work right there at the top of the heap, occupying the bulk of my waking existence. Work's pretty good. It's challenging at times, entertaining and even hilarious. I know for sure that customer service wasn't even close to my job radar growing up but I enjoy it and I'm even pretty good at it if I may be allowed to brag a little. 

I'm sure I'll talk some more about work in the future, there are always good stories to tell, but for now I kind of want to put forth my manifesto for this blog. 

What I'm into, what I'll be writing about and maybe why you'd want to read about my life. 

I'm 32 for now, I'm married to a wonderful woman and I have 3 Guinea Pigs named mostly after Transformers. We all live in a house that's full of things. Some things we need, some things we absolutely don't and some things that I'm still not sure how we got. 

Some of those things (a lot of those things) are toys that I've bought. I collect toys. Collect, in this case, is accurate by 2 definitions of the word. There are some groups, brands and lines of toys that I seek out and buy in an attempt to get all of them. I've been down that road of collecting with lots of things. He-man and the Masters of the Universe. G.I. Joe, a Real American Hero. Transformers, Robots in Disguise. Mostly those experiences were frustrating ones punctuated with moments of intense excitement that was soon overshadowed by more frustration. There's a fine line between "The Thrill of the Hunt" and "Why in the Bloody Hell Can't I Buy the Sorceress" and as most collectors know you spend a lot more time on the bad side of that line than you'd like. 

Lately I've collected toys more in the way that an unmoved item collects dust. 

Not in the sense that they are unwanted, it's more that I'm not seeking them out but still I find them everywhere I look. 

I still frequent a lot of the stores that I stalked my previous prey in out of habit. It's actually more fun now that there aren't any plastic faces to pine after as I round the corners of the aisles. No feeling of hope/disappointment. Hopesappointment? The only problem is there's still that nagging need to buy something, anything, and I sometimes often usually leave with a trinket anyway. 

Luckily there's a big push lately for relatively cheap toys called "Blind Bags" and I've been able to satiate my rabid inner consumer for under $4 most of the time. I say luckily because it means I'm not spending a ton of money but to be honest there is a down side to these little guys. They are actually available to be bought just about everywhere. Where before it was relatively safe to walk down the toy aisle of Walgreens now I'm liable to crash into a display box of Lego Minifigures. 

You haven't lived until you've spent the better part of an hour feeling Legos through plastic bags in the middle of a drug store. If you've ever seen a bag of Legos that has roughly the texture of stone-washed jeans, well now you know what happened. 

So toys will probably occupy a large part of my posts on this end of the blog. What I bought, what I didn't and what I wish I could've bought. I'll add in pictures too if I can figure out the workings of the internet that'll let me do so. 

I'll also tell you about things my family does, this will include not only my fantastic wife Noelle but our 3 Guinea Pigs: Scrumbles, Ravage and Laserbeak. All 4 of the crazy women in my life make me smile, laugh and cackle on a regular basis and I want to share those experiences with literally the entire planet. And I will. 

I'm sure some Magic talk will creep into my posts, it is after all 93% of my life, but I'll try and keep the confusion to a minimum. Most likely anything Magic related will focus on what happens before and after the actual Magicing. Our little group of Magicians goes to eat, watches movies and generally hams it up in the Muggle world and it's usually a pretty good time. 

I hope to keep up with this thing better than I have before. Realistically I plan to post a couple of times a week whether anything special happens or not. Maybe more but probably less. Any feedback will be gratefully read and responded to, it really is the best reason to do something like this, so please tell me something. Anything.

If you like what I like (and I like a lot of things) then I think you'll like my blog.