Nerd Alert (Now with more life changing articles)

The newest set in the Magic block, which comes out September 23th for Prerelease, and is officially released October 6th, has just had it's product shots released... yeah, I know, I'm a freaking dork. It shows you 4 (which is all of) the covers of the packs. They hint at what each color is, (First one being a white angel, second a blue mage, third a black necromancer, and fourth a red dragon), and displays it's nice booster pack design. Enjoy by clicking here.

On a side note, I'm going to quote an article that's been up for a few days at Magic's website. It comes in 3 parts, and will have a brief insert by yours truely [In brackets, as always, with bolds to highlight specific points]. (note, even if you don't play magic, this is a good read, very good read)

PLEASE, it's really short, and I think everyone can benefit from it.

Accounting For Your Play [About Competition and respect]

It all boils down to accounting correctly for your mistakes, and not fobbing off every loss on "luck".

Every game, there are four forces that are pushing on you to lose. One is your opponent's skill. One is your opponent's good luck. One is your own bad luck. And the last is your unrelenting ability to screw up.

Now here's a thought experiment for you. If you play twenty games and lose ten, do you reflect upon those ten games and distribute the blame for those losses among those four factors? Do you recognize all four factors in every loss? Because believe me, they're all there. Not always in proportion, not always in clear and apparent ways. But I guarantee you: every game involves all four forces pushing upon you, begging you to lose. And if you do lose, all four forces celebrate together.

Getting your attitude right after you lose can be a hard thing. But the rewards are considerable: you'll probably lose less. In the meantime, you'll make the people who beat you a lot happier. (Don't they deserve a reward, too?)

When you win a game, which of the following reactions makes you respect your opponent more:

1. Firm handshake. "Good game. You played well and took advantage of my mistakes."
2. Sloppy handshake and the revelation of the top ten cards of their library. "Good game. Of course, if I had drawn my Rorix Bladewing and three Mountains all on my next turn, you were toast!"
3. No handshake – just lots of arm-waving and spittle. "You got so lucky! I hate this game! Any noob can win!"

Since we all expect (or at least appreciate) (a) when we win, we should do no less than (a) when we lose.

Accounting For Your Words [about social interaction/relationships]

I love a lot of the passionate message board posts, emails, articles, and other electronic discussion out there. The stuff I like tends to be both passionate and well-reasoned. You get the sense that the writer has taken the time to read what others have written, and that she has done enough homework that her arguments are clear and supported by facts.

This sort of writing is my favorite because it means the author feels accountable to the audience. She cares what others will think of her opinion, and so she takes the time to make it as rational as possible.

What breaks that sort of accountability? Anonymity. Distance someone from their true identity – make it hard for someone to track who really said that – and some people will shout the most ridiculous things, just because they can.

This is the reason I simply delete emails from addresses like blah@blah.com, without ever reading them. I knew from sampling (before I adopted this policy) that the people who used this anonymous service weren't always obnoxious; but the emails run about 50/50 between folks who write a readable email and those who just write junk. Compare that to those who write from traceable email addresses, where the ratio is more like 90/10 on a typical week.

There are certainly good reasons for anonymous communication – many people live in countries where there's political persecution. More commonly in America, some people just hate junk email. I can get behind that.

Where the irony strikes me as strong is when the anonymous voices pretend to care about accountability: "We're the customers and Wizards [company that makes Magic] should do exactly as we say!" So many of these people who want to hold Wizards' staff feet to the fire would never dream of putting their own names, reputations, and creations out there under their real name, for other people to criticize.

Being responsible in communication can be scary. If you don't know something, if you do something wrong, if you decide you need to apologize – these are all things adults struggle with, much less teenagers. But if you pick up the skill, you'll learn quickly that the fastest, easiest way to deal with a mistake is to push through it and get it over with. Short, clear, perhaps humorous (read: self-deprecating) statements are the bread and butter of good communicators.

You want to change people's minds, about a game or anything else? You want to change a political process? Take responsibility for your own words. Do your homework. Put the arguments together right. Add value with what you say (and borrowing from two weeks ago, evaluate your ability to do so). If you goof, own up to it quickly and clearly. Sign your name at the end of everything you say, so people know whom to admire. All of these are courtesies used among people who want to forge lasting, meaningful relationships.

Accounting For Your Actions [about responsibility and fear]

Once you have better control over what you say, you might want to think through how accountable you are for the things you do in life.

Why did you get a low grade in that class? Because you didn't study enough.

Why did that relationship not work out? Because you both had difficulties, not just one of you.

I used to work with a guy (years ago, not in my current job) who would come into work every day and just whine and complain about how awful it was there. "I hate this place!" "So-and-so keeps screwing things up – he's the worst boss ever!" "I never get to do anything good in my job!" And so on. I shared a double-sized cubicle with this guy – he drove me completely nuts. (I was otherwise happy with my job. These were nice people, and useful work!)

Finally, I had had enough of this fellow. While he was in the middle of his latest rant (he had just been assigned back-up reception duty, which was beneath him), I turned to him and snapped:

"Dude. If you hate this job so much, why are you still working here?"

This shut him up for a blissful two and a half days. Then he started acting up again, except louder. After three or four more weeks, our boss fired him.

Our boss did him a huge favor. (Me too, but we're focusing on his lessons learned.) He landed in a different job that he liked a lot more. He could have had a job like that months before, maybe years! Yet he stuck in a job he hated. Why did he do that to himself?

I'm not a psychologist, but most people torture themselves – stay in jobs they hate, drag out relationships that hurt them, pursue college majors and careers that they're not even interested in – because they don't have enough confidence in themselves to expect better.

One of the coolest things the beautiful but devious MaryJanice ever did was quit her day job, in the middle of a recession, to pursue writing full-time. I don't want this to sound too reckless – she had her first print publishing contract in hand, as well as a spouse with a job that could support two children if necessary – but she took a calculated risk because she believed in herself. (I believed in her too. I was thrilled to be proven right.)

The day MaryJanice quit – it was on her birthday, a present to herself – she took responsibility for her own happiness. She didn't count on her boss to do it for her. (He was a bit of a jerk, so she would have been waiting a while.) She didn't count on her husband or children to do it for her. She didn't even expect a publisher or agent to do it for her. She took the leap herself.

If you're under 18 and reading this, you are going to run into thousands of situations that will anger or worry you by the time you're 36 like me. The second eighteen years are full of them – bad bosses, erratic lovers or spouses, jobs that crash and burn, and parents who appear a bit smaller every time you visit them. And that's before you add kids!

Don't count on these people to make you happy. Sure, they have a responsibility to be civilized. But they're not in your life to carry you through it. Hold yourself accountable for your own actions. Set goals, and take the time to measure your progress every few weeks, months, or years.

The bottom line of accountability is about respect – for those around you, but most of all for yourself.

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Edited for non-magic readers, original article by Anthony Alongi and can be found here.