Magic, the greatest game ever!

If anyone gets to know me too well they find out about Magic: The Gathering.

Yes I am indeed a Magic player, and the game is awesome! There are many reasons people play, for me it is especially because of the intellectual challenge of playing. Most people dont know this, but Magic is one of the most complex games ever made. First a very basic outline of how the game works.

A magic deck consists of a minimum of 60 cards (which is generally the best way to do it because having more than 60 cards reduces your chances of drawing any specific card in your deck) and they can have as many cards as you want as long as you can shuffle the deck to randomize it. There are 7 common card types which include, land, creatures, instants, sorceries, planeswalkers, enchantments, and artifacts. There are sub-types of all of these types of cards. All of the non-land cards have a casting cost, which means you have to have the right amount of lands in play to play that card, and often the right colors as well.

There have been tens of thousands of unique magic cards printed, and you can build a deck out of any combination of them within the following limits. First, you can only have 4 or less of any one specific card in your deck, except basic land, which you can have as many as you want. There are also different formats, which limit specific cards. The smallest format is standard, which has about 1200 unique cards legal. The possibilities of deck building are very vast, there are billions of different deck combinations in the smallest format.

The point of the game is to reduce your opponents life total to 0 from 20, while not letting them do the same to you. You can only play one land from your hand each turn, if you have one in hand. You start the game with 7 cards in hand and draw 1 each turn.

The game is so complex because you need the right mix of lands, creatures, and other spells, while also considering what are the strongest cards against your opponent, and for you in general. The draws are random, and you cannot guarantee you will draw the right amount of lands. There are different abilities that cards have that interact with one another differently, and every single turn of the game there are 9 phases, and you pass priority 18 times. So not only do you have to build your deck correctly, you need to play your cards in the right order, decide when to attack and not, deal with your opponents cards, make sure to play around what possible cards they could play, know what every card in the game does, make sure to send the right signals to your opponent about what cards you might have, and on top of all of that you depend on luck to make sure you draw the right cards and amount of lands. 

To put into perspective how hard this game is, the best people in the world NEVER win more than 60 percent of all of the games they play. There are literally hundreds of outcomes of every single game depending on what the players choose to play and when.

Theres also other considerations such as mana curve, tempo, power, synergy, interaction, card advantage, virtual card advantage, immediate value, timing, priority, and how many of each card you want in your deck.

In short the game is incredibly complicated. There are tons of decision points and possibilities in every game and that is why I love it so much. Im not alone and to put it in perspective, the most powerful card in the game is worth up to 100,000 dollars, and there is millions of dollars of prizes given in magic events every year. There are even people who play professionally.

When I think of how immense the posibilities of one small game are, it causes me to marvel at the knowledge and scope of our Heavenly Father. He literally sees all from the beginning of time to the end of years, and he has seen all of the possibilities and found the best one. I cant even comprehend that. It just testifies how amazing he really is.

perspective

I have a wonderful friend named Erik, today I have been thiking a lot about him and his story. It started my sophmore year of highschool. It was right before track practice one day and like the 16 year old I was, I was out tanning in short shorts before practice. Then our coach called the team together and told us that one of our fellow runners and one of my good friends Erik had just been diagnosed with cancer.

The word sunk into my mind... CANCER... I obviously knew that younger people could get cancer, but it never felt like it actually happened. Mind racing I thought of many scary things that entire practice. I couldnt imagine how he must have felt.

Fast forward a couple years. Erik is still going strong and we have lots of fun going on random adventures. At this point he had been cleared and rediagnosed a couple times, and he didnt really get to run anymore. I always marveled at how he was able to stay so positive when he literally had something that could kill him in his life.

Since he has been diagnosed he has gone through a lot. Having to eat through a tube, learning to walk again, and lots of surgery and medicine.

With all of these things, you would never tell that he has had a rough go at it. He is definitly one of the most positive and enthusiastic guys I have ever met.

When I was getting ready to leave on my mission, we spent quite a bit of time together, and because of his cancer he wasnt able to serve. He didnt let that hold him back though! He wanted to do anything he could so as all of his friends started leaving, he sent them all off with a special copy of the Book of Mormon to give to someone that they taught on their mission with his testimony in it.

Over time he was finally able to stay clear of the cancer for a year, and started a service mission at the St George temple, Which he is doing now and loving every minute of it.

Unfortunatly he hasnt had the easiest go during his mission, in November he was diagnosed again and is currently going through chemo and serving once a week on fridays. In all this time he has been so positive and even through his latest development of losing all of his hair, he is still smiling.

It is always great to know I have such wonderful people in my life to inspire me, and I feel it appropriate to end this blog with the catch phrase he uses to end all of his

Keep running

Normally I post about the spiritual aspect of my life, but this was just too good to pass up! A deer hit me! Disclaimer, the deer is OK so I  am totally fine saying things about its intelligence in doing so.

Lets paint a picture. Its 230 am and I am driving home. I am on Main Street Cedar City, Utah. I have just finished a very long, fun day filled with friends and very good birthday taquitos. As I am driving I see a deer in the road. Naturally I slow down and keep an eye on it as I pass. All of a sudden in the other peripheral I see a deer very close to the right side of my car, I feel a thump, and start freaking out. I immediately turn around to make sure that it is fine and it is already walking next to the other deer, check. Then I think about my car...

Just so you know I LOVE my car. Her name is Giselle and she is wonderful. I was filled with dread at the potential damage(and bills!) I jumped out and immediately began to inspect the front of my car, nothing! good! I go to bed and think of how lucky I was. I wake up in the morning, walk out to my car and see a pretty big dent in my rear passenger-side door.

Think about the timing of this. I was going 40 miles per hour, the deer hit my rear passenger door hard enough to dent it pretty bad, and missed the front of my car entirely. I haven't done the calculations but the deer had to be at least trotting along. There is no way it could have been walking and moved that far forward that fast.

The point of the story is the deer ran into me, I didn't run into it. I guess now we know who the superior species is!

Things as they really are

I find it fitting that in the middle of my media fast I take the time to talk about the prophetic warning about technology.

First of all I absolutely love Elder Bednar. I am always very excited when he gets up to talk because his understanding of the world seems to align very well with mine. He kind of speaks to my mind in a way with his words and to my heart with the spirit. I have learned the pitfalls of media first hand and I am a strong advocate in the fact that the technology is being abused and broken.

I can not describe how sad it makes me to see someone who has so much potential and privilege waste away their life doing things that do not matter. Like I said in an earlier post I have started a media fast. I am not allowing anything in my life right now that does not invigorate the mind, or the spirit. How is it going after the past week?

I honestly have a hard time every once in a while. We are bombarded with so much all the time that I feel somewhat anxious if there is nothing going on. I am very bad at sitting still. I have found that even while fasting on mainstream media, I find myself listening to church music and general conference talks all the time. The biggest difference is how I feel. I am so calm and happy! There is an amazing peace that has come into my life. I feel like I have the spirit and that it is close.

Elder Bednar was warning of the harmful consequences of the  misuse of technology and I have found this past week that when I use technology for good things, It uplifts me. Its true what they say, all technology is brought forth for wise purpose in God, we just need to find what those purposes are.

Is there a God

Don't worry Im not questioning my faith today, I am reflecting on how it has developed.

This morning in my Book of Mormon class we had a discussion that highlights perfectly something I have seen time and again during my time as a member. The assumption that all humans are searching for the reason behind everything, and that if you do not profess belief in God, you actively don't believe in him either.

This is a perspective that I personally cant understand because I was literally the exception to that rule before I joined the church. In retrospect I would declare that I was agnostic. If you had asked me before I joined the church I would have given you a response of "I'm nothing" or "I don't have a religion." To me, religion, God, pre or post life, were all just non-factors.

No I never once wondered where I came from, or where I was going to go after I died. I never once thought about why the world was the way it was or why things happened to me. Those feelings are associated with an innate belief that there is SOMETHING else going on and I just had no reason to think that there WAS something else going on. This is very important to understand and I hope I can explain this clearly.

It takes some form of faith to even entertain the idea of God, whether you believe he exists, or is a coping mechanism developed by the collective human experience, you must believe something for it to matter in your life. That is where people like I was are so hard to understand for people who have always had a religious context.

Try to picture what it sounds like when you tell someone that they can say words in their head, and a parent they don't remember, that has seemingly supernatural powers, will hear them and talk back to them in their thoughts and feelings. How motivated would you be to actually do this? I know I wasn't! It was the initial seeds of faith that I let grow within me, that gave me the desire to know it there was a God, that drove me to my knees the first time, no matter how ridiculous it felt (It was by far the most humiliating thing I had ever done up to that point in my life.)

The point of this post is this. It takes some form of belief to cause action. If you are sharing the gospel with a friend and it seems like they might be negative, its very possible that they just do not have the desire to know. You can never give them that desire, they need to find it for themselves. Don't worry if it seems like you aren't accomplishing anything. Though they may not realize what you are doing is out of love, you can be giving them the crucial frame of reference that will allow them to find their "why" someday.

Always remember your "why." Keep it sacred, because it is the driving force behind what you do, who you are, and who you will become.

Dating Morms(Norms)

There are multiple things that the people who Im close to all know about me.

1.) I am most likely the pickiest person you know, yet I also probably eat more than anyone you know. Its rough and I have a love/hate relationship with food.
2.) I am very high energy and there is almost never a time when Im not up to do something
3.) I hate Mormon dating

Hold on just a second, hate isn't the right word... I disagree very strongly with many aspects of what "Mormon Culture" has defined as dating. Don't get me wrong here I love the doctrine of Family and Marriage. I have ZERO problems with the doctrine behind dating, even if at the time I wanted to date before I was 16. The problems I have is with how dating is approached in the community, especially from what I have seen here in Provo.

First of all lets start with how dating begins. Asking someone on a date is not a proposal, nor declaring your intent to propose down the line if you two seem to get along. Asking someone on a date means that you want to get to know them better, and that you can see yourself in a relationship with said person, but you want to get to know them better.

Second asking someone out should not be a huge deal or scary, but it also should be done with respect and thought. Texting is a huge no! thankfully most people agree on this but theres another side to it. Asking someone out should not be scary or some huge deal. Just in case you weren't sure, boy or girl, if you ask someone out they are very likely to say yes, and in the case that they say no, you can be glad you aren't wasting your time with someone who doesn't value your company.

Finally there seems to be this huge rift in the community on how long to date. There are people who propose on date 3, there are people who say they will never get engaged until they have dated for at least a year. The problem with this is that you are actively putting your own will above that of the Will of the Father. For example, me and Nala. We started dating April 7th. After the most amazing ten days of my life, we had a date picked for when we were going to be sealed. If either one of us would have set up an arbitrary amount of time we had to date before deciding to get married, we would be actively ignoring promptings to guide and direct our lives.

It all comes down to this. Date! that's it! Just let it happen. If you meet someone you are interested in, you can ask them out! If you fall in love, great! If you don't, theres always more people to get to know! If you try to force dating, or you try to hold it back, you are only limiting yourself from the wonderful possibilities that the lord is saving for you. Don't let anything limit your potential, especially yourself :)

I think I skipped it!

When I started this blog, I posted about what I wanted to do with it and where I was coming from but I forgot one very crucial aspect. Who am I anyway???

First off my name is Shane Miner, I love everything sport, my family is my greatest treasure, and Im a Mormon... Oh wait that's not what we are doing here! back to the point.

I was born in Colorado, raised in Utah. I am a city boy through and through. Provo is on the small end of where I am comfortable with. Salt lake is my home. I grew up with one older sister and now I have four bonus siblings from my Moms second marriage. Like I said my family is my life and I would do anything to keep them safe. Im somewhat of a protector and I cant stand to see anyone take advantage of anyone else.

I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on August 28th 2010 and that is to this day the best decision I have ever made. I say to this day because in March of next year I am going to make the new best decision of my life when I get sealed to my dear Nala. Why next year you may ask? She is needed elsewhere at the moment, specifically Frankfurt Germany. As a convert you can imagine how happy I am that she has decided to serve.

On the subject of serving, I served my mission in Arequipa Peru and I loved every single minute of it! Going on a mission is something that I would recommend for anyone, amazing time in my life.

I am totally a sports enthusiast and if you can think of a sport I have probably tried it out. I have spent my entire life outdoors and I don't see that ever changing. I love puzzling things and can often be found with a rubiks cube in hand. I am a math major and yes I do actually like numbers. a lot more than I like writing!

I love to laugh and be happy and I am willing to be anyones friend. I love giving to others and sometimes I find it hard to accept help in return. Im far from perfect but that isn't the point of this life. I am doing my best and constantly striving to grow, and that is the point!

What I got from the Devo this week

I don't know about anyone else, but the devotional this week was exactly what I needed to hear.

I don't know if it was the fact that I was super tired after not getting much sleep, or if I was just overwhelmed from my life, but I wasn't having the best day Tuesday. Picture this, I am taking 18 credits, work 5 days a week, was studying for midterms while trying to keep on top of homework and taking care of myself physically and spiritually.

I am happy that I can say that no matter how busy I get I never neglect to pray, read my scriptures, go to church, and things like that, but during the devotional I realized something. I am doing all of these things for good reasons, but besides taking a day off for my birthday and not doing any school work on Sundays, I hadn't taken time for myself in weeks. I hadn't stopped to do anything just because I wanted to. I hadn't even spent time with a friend in a couple weeks.

Who could not be happy with awesome friends that put candles on Jenga!

Im trying to find out how I can take this time that I have been given, and balance my goals and aspirations with actually enjoying the process. Does that mean I need to drastically change anything in my life? No. There are things I know that I am going to keep doing, I'm keeping school and my job. Not doing homework on Sunday is non-negotiable. but if there is one thing I have learned is that there is a priority in this life.

1.) experience trials and choose to become like Christ and our Heavenly Father
2.) Family/Marriage/Enjoy the experience
3.) learn and take care of physical needs

My number one goal is to live the gospel and become my best self. if I cant to that I failed the whole purpose of this life. I forgot it for a minute but enjoying this life comes next. I love being happy and Ive realized lately being happy isn't just not being sad. I haven't been sad these last few weeks, but I haven't been happy. I know now where I have changes to make

Im not going to just live this life, I'm going to love it! Here's to being happy!