December 13, 2025

I was playing a TCG that somewhat resembled Magic the Gathering. However, the play space also featured a grid where you could place down your creatures which was important because they would each have different ranges and active areas. Units would automatically attack each other when certain conditions were met, mostly satisfied by positioning. After playing a card, an action could be spent to draw a card, return a card to the deck, or to retrieve a card from the field.

I was losing by a long shot in my current game. The opponent’s field was simply overwhelming and I couldn’t see a way to beat it with the cards I had on hand. I surrendered.

I was listening to someone expressing his disbelief that a friend of mine was actually looking for a job. “Do you not want him to?” I asked. He said it was nice just having someone to hang around with all day.

I picked up an acoustic guitar and started plucking at the strings. Someone asked if I knew how to play. I emphasized that my skills were “very very rudimentary”, and probably not enough to really count as “knowing” how to play. I clumsily fingered out a scale while sitting on the sofa.