Da-Planet, the place for Trading Card Games

Greetings from Across the Pond

Heya, everyone. It's been a couple of weeks since I've left the islands, and I figured I was about due to say "sup." Before I say anything else, since people might have missed it the first time I said it, I just want to repeat that I am very, VERY thankful to everyone who wished me well in the time leading up to my departure, both in person and on the site (and even on other sites). It meant a lot to me. No exaggeration, I was actually tearing up a little at the last Regionals (though that was probably pretty obvious). Thank you, once again, to everyone.

Life out here is going well so far, though. I got my apartment here up and running, and while Casa de Squiddy may be a little humble at the moment, it gets the job done. Just a nice little studio apartment, with the only furnishing really being my fold out sofa/bed (pretty much always in "bed" mode) and a small bookshelf housing a few DVDs (Venture Brothers, Pick of Destiny, Home Movies) CDs (Nightwish, Dragonforce, Sonata Arctica, BlazBlue soundtrack), and a tiny collection of books, including my lucky copy of Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone. Between that and my trusty laptop, I'm pretty much good to go.

I'm actually right next to like a ridiculous shopping area too. Once I walk down my hill, literally from horizon to horizon there's nothing but little shopping plazas, except for this big area in the middle that houses the Westfield Mall. It's a pretty tight situation for someone like me who's getting around on foot.

Even catching the bus isn't too bad, though, because, get this, the buses ACTUALLY come on time! The latest I've ever seen a bus come here is ~2 minutes. It is soooo awesome.

Surprisingly enough, I might actually be eating kind of healthy so far. I find myself drinking lots of water (because its cheap) and eating lots of salad (because its easy to make). Strange, huh? My sweet tooth has made a nice discovery, though: a delightful little drink the locals call Horchata. It's basically sugary rice milk with seasonings mixed in, especially cinnamon. Think of it like non-alchoholic sake that also kind of tastes like egg nog because of the spices. It's pretty solid.

Work so far is going well. Since I'm still new, I tend to be doing more development than design right now, which basically means I'm mostly building decks to see if the cards are fun or not. It's an interesting process, since as a player you may not always be monitoring your "fun level," or especially your opponent's. I can say that my work has already had an impact, but I'll have to leave the specifics until the sets get released in the future. True story tangent: my desk actually still has the name of the guy that used to work there hanging above it. Sort of a dreadful reminder of just how fleeting this job might be.

Here's a fun story: after work on Friday, I ended up tagging along with some of the other R&D members for an FNM draft, after which we took a trip down to a nearby bar to have a few drinks and chat. As I was standing there in the midst of a shuffle board game, what should come on the ol' juke box but Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer! Now, for those of you who don't know, there's a small tradition at Da-Planet of playing a whole bunch of Bon Jovi songs on Rock Band every Friday to celebrate Bon Jovi Friday (I THINK it was started by Xavier? Could be wrong.) Anyhoo, the tradition gets its name from a phrase used by the Xtacles, who some of you may remember from the show Frisky Dingo. Anyhoo, as soon as the song came on, it immediately reminded me of the store, and I had to call back home to remark on the bizarre coincidence.

That just about sums up my first week here. It seems like things are going smooth over there too, so I'm glad to see that. I do plan on swinging by the site pretty regularly, so you'll probably see the odd comment from me here or there. And if I ever get a sizable chunk of vacation time and spare money, I'll probably try to work in a visit home (though hopefully my "vacation time" doesn't come as a result of downsizing). Until then, my fellow islanders, live your lives like you play your games: clean, fast, and nice. Take it easy.

Comment by motsuji on July 28, 2009 at 8:37pm: Great to hear from you Matt. Hope you are showing up to work on time. If you are not I will demonstrate this new extremely painful move I have been working on (I do jiu-jitsu for those of you that don't know) on you when I see you again.

We actually brought in some WoW in your honor albeit small and it sold out.

Comment by Sean Pottenger on July 28, 2009 at 11:20pm: man i love me some bon jovi... good to hear you're doing well matty

Comment by Matty the Squid on July 29, 2009 at 3:10pm: Heh, no worries Mike. So far most of the days I'm actually the first one on my team in the office.

I'm pleasantly surprised to hear the WoW order sold out. Pretty hot.

Comment by fotsuji on July 30, 2009 at 4:14pm: What?? YOU...eating salads?? Unbelieveable...hope you're not putting gravy on them! Take care.

Comment by The Dane Train on July 30, 2009 at 9:56pm: BAHAHAHA.

Comment by Charli Toratani on July 30, 2009 at 11:21pm: I'm totally seconding Fay.

Anyways, buy fruits... they're probably easier to down, cheaper and clearly it's easy to prepare it.

Glad to hear you're enjoying a non-Hawaiian time place. lol...and my ear perked up on the fact that there's some shopping malls. :D

Comment by Keoni on August 2, 2009 at 4:37pm: Great to hear from you matt... I can't believe you're actually eating salads haha XD

So I had a sealed pool with 4 of my top 5 in it: Baneslayer (took the place of ant queen), Magebane Armor, Magma Phoenix, and Planar Cleansing. Let me assure you that Magebane Armor was as good as I hyped it to be and it is most definitely the real deal. It not only won me more games than Baneslayer did, but it won me games that Baneslayer could not have. =]

Anywho, great to see things are going good over there, sounds like a dream :)