Hard as can be

Hello everyone,

This is a guest blog by Brian "the beej" James.  I'm a former roommate of Sandy and Alex'.  It's been at least 2 years since i've attended a Final Fantasy race and  I must admit that it's more entertaining than I remember.  The 2 big screens filled with impossibly proportioned magic women and She-creatures is way better than the tiny screens and 16 bit graphics that I remember from back in the day.  

When I walked in at 11am Sandy was in a battle for the ages against a giant stone punching machine man.  I was instantly caught up in the urgency of the situation.  The Stone punching man was nearly indestructible but only really had one form of attack.  Unfortunately the attack was punching Sandy's characters so so so hard.  So hard to death!!  "hard as can be.", as Sandy put it, trying to put a brave face on things.  Alex watched out of the corner of his eye, remembering how much he hated being punched so hard to death by this same character hours earlier.  Sandy did prevail in the end.  He found the combination of using one character to continually blind the puncher and another character to continually slice the puncher and still another impossibly beautiful she-character to continually keep the other 2 alive was the key to victory.

As I continued to  take it all in some familiar trends emerged.  It seemed that Sandy and Alex were neck in neck in the story line but while Sandy plunged forward recklessly the most direct route to victory, Alex took the time to strengthen and equip himself for what was sure to be the fight of his life at the end of the game.  I seem to remember this being the case years ago.  

Since Sandy has never ever one a FF race I would be tempted to question whether he ever learns from his mistakes but instead I find myself sympathizing.  It's so natural to just want to put yourself in a position where you COULD end up victorious instead of just doing a lot of busy work to be extra prepared.  I mean,  if you're willing to put your neck on the line and stand up to horrifying forces of evil on principle than isn't it really up to fate to hand you the victory?  Isn't it selfish to hoard "levels" and weapons and money while the people of Final Fantasy land suffer?   I respect Sandy's commitment to defeating evil over his commitment self improvement or even learning from past mistakes.  If Sandy doesn't win some sort of fluke David vs Goliath victory over his far superior foes than he can't be blamed.  He showed up.  He made a stand, and in way that's the real victory.  Right?  A moral victory.  

That's why when he asked me, "so do you think I'm gonna win?",  I replied, "well, if you don't win it's not your fault.  How bout that?"

It's not your fault Sandy.  It's just a cruel evil world that despises courage and won't cut you a break.

I realize I've focused a lot on Sandy to the exclusion of Alex but I don't really worry about Alex too much.  He can clearly take care of himself.  Because he's evil.

Thank you both for your courage against boredom, eachother, giant stone punchers and that smell.  

May fate favor the bold.

Sincerely,

the beej