Let’s start this edition of The Pickup Truck Diaries with a rhetorical question: “How does one go about achieving the goals they’ve set for themselves?” I’ll give you a few minutes to pause and think about that. Most folks have already started churning their brains into realistic “brass tacks”...
Campfire. Come gather 'round the campfire. Let me tell you a story. Several small ones, in fact! It started a month or two ago, when I had a bunch of hits on "Our Better Angels" via the 'ol analytics. Now, I've been running this little business for half a decade - so out of neurotic perfectionism,...
WARNING: This piece clocks in at 62,000+ words. It currently holds the record for longest "CEDH Primer" ever written. (Although it's more like a textbook or resource guide to Tribal Archetypes, and Rainbow/5c Magic, really.) It is over half the size of my sci fi books. Please remember to drink...
Aight, we back yet again. Somehow in my long years of being an L1 Judge and Modern and EDH player, I had never realized that learning tempo in Magic The Gathering is a rather visceral experience, in that you learn experientially. For the layman, that means that you have to learn that deep sense of...
Ew, I got CEDH in my EDH… Today we’re here to talk about power levels in the casual commander format, as well as how to encourage better CEDH & EDH play by more carefully separating the two formats despite their strange interwoven nature. As a “retired” L1 Judge for Magic: The Gathering, I’m...
Over two thousand poems,& counting.The trick to being prolific,Is merely to write.& write.& write.Experimental play,Interspersed with classical simulation.Weaving worlds into being.Common stuff,Really.I've found my style -Echoing the Romantics,On which I was raised.
Fie,McRae.Foolish monk,In wanting.You cannot practice allusion,The 21st century audience -Has pacing the speed of lightning.One must refrain from dropping hints,Secret caches of knowledge,At tips of fingers.Google away!Wordsworth?Coleridge?Donne?Who's heard of them?
No deeper meaning,No allusion or metaphor.Merely a placeholder.Nothing more.To remind me in due time -To remember where I stopped,And started.
Lock me away,For witchcraft.Contain me,As Foundations secure us cryptids.Believe,When the world is burning,Yet I tell you we can still save it.There'll be a tomorrow.I'll make sure of it.A dozen sunsets to ride off into,Whilst implanting false memories.Feeding you up.
Some people,Revel in their ignorance.Arrogant grandstanding -Pushing beliefs onto innocents.Stupidity,My greatest enemy.Slimy zealotry -Ugly attempts at conversion.Once people learn the truth,They can't go backwards.Your lies,Your fictions,Want education,Most of all.
Fade into history,Your faith as a footnote,In humanity's story.Cease your attempts,At indoctrination.Stop your hate -At the root.Queer lives,Will be glad to see you gone.What a wasteful mistake,Having done so much damage,Held humanity back,For millennia.Enough.
This nirvana,Is temporary.As they all are.Beautiful creation -Will be what we leave behind,Long after we die.Inspiring others,Long after we're dead.What beautiful long game,Eh?Enlightenment,Comes.Goes.I want to emancipate my species.
As Ever -Take My Visage,Various Forms;Method Acted Characters.Use 'Em As Ya Wish -Taking Art To Twist,New Stories,Different Endings.Show Me That Kaleidoscope,Good Or Evil,Latter More Malleable To Great Tales.Greyscapes."Fatal Flaw."Hubris.Too much Ego Death,To play those old tropes.
"Salary Man Blues.""Morris Stegosaurus."(Latter crashing on my couch post-Slam.)McRae. (Johnny, Not Some Nameless Clan Witch.)Beauty In Glasses,All Kitchen Cupboards & Fireworks.Known lotta people.Some Sondered At,More Than Others.No footage of old Slams exist,Save 1,Untitled.Lost?Heh.
Teach Me,Please.Fill my memory banks with endless new knowings,That I might weave together in infinite bliss -Into Poetry.Taking In Worlds With Pattern Recognition;Synthesizing Idealisms,Or Utopias,From Fragmented, Disparate Parts.Apples,Razor Blades,Oranges,Shards Of Glass.Cherries.
Nothing to mourn but ashes,You know?Took the shotgun to my dead selves,Twice.Then burned any remainders to black & white,Enriching soil with carbon.Blowing away in winter storm winds.This cryptid I am now?It consists of better selves -Even if unmasked,Refusing masking.Witch.Shhhhhhhhhh:
Prefer Red Meat.Moose Most,Beef, Bison, Buffalo, Elk, Or Deer Thereafter.Fisherman Young,Only to take to it.Like BBQ Salmon,But naught much else in Fish -Save Cephalopods,Or Crustaceans.Protein & Complex Carbs:At my absolute best my body craves it,Not much else.Remembering who I've been.
Funny How Things Work Out,Eh Lady?Did my best to take care of your kids,Now you're here taking care of me.Maybe my dreams of Anarchist Collectives,Aren't so far-fetched.Cooperation.Maybe It starts here:With Simple Reciprocities,To Take Care Of The Communities We Choose;To Participate In.
Goodnight,Void.Hold my solitary confinement,Somewhat sacred.Like two-way mirror,Transparent as much as reflective.Hermit Guru.Strange Cryptid Person,Claiming Witchcraft.Pointing Metaphors Like Gun Barrels.Nobody wants me.That's fine.I want me."Bonus Time."Should enjoy it.Not worry it.
Freezing hands to cold metal,Ripping off skin.Numb rattling of diesel engines -Somewhere behind.25-Tonne Slows,Physics of steel & size reduced.My frail body aches,In bed.All from simple shadowboxing.Naught a decade ago,Did so with weights in both fists.Have old wounds finally caught up?
My darkest,Can't be held by any Human,I've ever met.Seething boiling vacuum,Infinite Hunger emanating,From Infinite Void.Sucking At My Matter,At Yours,At Everything.You do not exist:A person who can cup palms,Around such endless despair.Agony & suffering exuding,Like an aura of death.
Full Cafes,Close To Closing.Holding Soliloquy With Myselves.Bickering Masses;THEY KNOW!You're not greatest.Never will be.You're shooting quantity,Tangible countable things.So what if I drop two hundred,In a day?Only those following,Would know Sisyphus in my efforts.Rest Gawk.Norm. F-
Sloth Oft Takes Me,After Bouts Of Gluttony.Greed Easy To Shirk,Same Immortalities -To Lust,Pride,Wrath,Envy,Amongst Other Things -Unlisted in old scriptures;Ones I hold as Museum Pieces.Sad History Of Abuse;Damage Across Humanity.Sin Doesn't Exist.But Infinite Shades Of Grey Sure...
The World Is Still Filled,With Secular Blessings.Chaos Theory Incarnate;In Three Body Problems & Beyond.Infinity:Held:"For The Future:So you remember ehat we thought about,Even through our ending as a species." Second Most Prolific Poet,Walks To Cafe On Boxing Day:"Pondering,Typos adding...
Not Today,Dead Man.Today I rise,Shake off thick, crispy layers,Of Rust.Slow -Yet Steady.Pouring out words in a digital haze -Assembling my false empire,Of hollow wisdoms;Nobody wants to hear.Nobody can keep up with it all:So I'm working for myself,& dead scholars in centuries to come.