.setoN modnaR
Happy Birthday, Baby!
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This new (old) mouse at work is taking a while to get used to. The wheel is horrible and gets stuck, and I've really grown used to the luxury of side-mounted front and back buttons. It's weird, though. I mean, before we had wheelmice, I got along just fine, and before I had the front/back buttons, I got along just fine. Surely I'm not so utterly crippled that I can't get along without them.
Ah, we are such slaves to modern convenience.
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Well, as anyone who actively follows my LJ might have noticed (yes, I know the two of you are out there somewhere), Jed and I had a bit of an argument about whether or not any skill was involved in Dan getting 2nd place at the tourney this weekend. The argument then spilled onto IRC, and never got anywhere. I stood by my position that both luck and skill were involved in how well he did, while Jed contended that Dan had no skill whatsoever and that it was pure luck. Jad has since taken me off of his LJ friends list.
I find this odd.
See, the thing is, Dan is my friend, and one of my closest friends at that. Jed is also a good friend, though. There's a bit of bad blood between them, mostly on Jed's side. I'll be honest - I don't like seeing people slag on my friends and, for all intents and purposes, calling them incompetent - even when it's another friend doing it. At the same time, though, I also know that this is just Jed's nature. He's very competitive at L5R and takes the game very seriously, and I see how he would somehow take it as an insult of sorts when someone who he doesn't like much who rarely plays anymore does that well, especially when Jed didn't do as well. I don't agree that it's an insult, but I can try to put myself in Jed's shoes and see it that way.
So what's my point? My point is that, multiple differences in viewpoints aside, Jed is still my friend, even if he might not consider me to be one right now. I don't hate Jed for his viewpoint. I don't like him dissing Dan, but Jed is Jed and Jed will do what Jed will do, and Jed will believe what Jed will believe, and there's not much I can do besides sticking up for my other friends and riding it out. I also know that underneath the apparent bitterness, bluster, and bravado that Jed displays at times, there's a very decent human being. A human being with flaws, sure, but hey, who isn't?
I mean, God knows I'm a walking dictionary of psychological problems - social anxiety, introvertedness, mild paranoia, and clinical depression - so who am I to judge Jed as a bad person?
So I'll wait and let things cool off, and maybe Jed will put me back on his friends' list, and maybe he won't, and Jed will do what Jed will do, and either way, it'll be all good.
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Still reading Shinju. I keep coming up with ways to translate the novel into an L5R game, but with enough twists and turns to keep anyone who's read the book from picking it apart too easily. Or maybe I can spring it on an unsuspecting Garrett and Chris and Justin... people who are new to L5R. Maybe throw Kim and Seth into the mix. And Z, of course.
Those 6 people in one room gaming together.
The world is not ready. :)