Why I love Battletech

So I was reading the Game Over-thinker, who created a video called I love Video Games, which he admitted was a rip off of friend of the show Film Critic Hulks "Why I love movies." and cause I have nothing else coming up the pipe creatively I thought I would rip of the man, who ripped off the man.

So here it is, the reasons I love Battletech

BECAUSE OF JORDAN WEISMANN.

BECAUSE OF BEER AND PRETZELS

BECAUSE OF TEACHING MY WIFE HOW TO PLAY AS A DATE.

BECAUSE OF THE GIANT ROBOTS

BECAUSE OF THE TO HIT MODIFIER

BECAUSE OF THE END OF A DYING TIME.

BECAUSE OPERATION KLONDIKE GOT MADE.

BECAUSE OF THOMAS FREAKING HOGARTH!!!

BECAUSE OF THE JUMPKICK IN TRO 3025 HAS NOT GOTTEN SOLID RULES YET.

BECAUSE OF MICHAEL STACKPOLE

BECAUSE IT IGNITES OUR IMAGINATIONS.

BECAUSE OF GRAYSON CARLYE STARING DOWN A LOCUST.

BECAUSE OF TIMBIQUI DARK

BECAUSE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE GEMS MEETING IN THE EARLY NOVELS

BECAUSE OF THE MOMENT WHERE VICTOR DAVION GETS PUNCHED IN THE FACE IN THE BLOOD OF KERENSKY TRILOGY.

SCREW IT, BECAUSE OF THE ENTIRETY OF BLOOD OF KERENSKY TRILOGY.

BECAUSE OF THE FIRST SOMERSET STRIKERS

BECAUSE OF THE DELIGHTFUL, LURID INSANITY ROMANO LIAO

BECAUSE OF MISTAKES LIKE FAR COUNTRY.

BECAUSE IT ALLOW US TO EXPERIENCE IMPOSSIBILITIES.

BECAUSE OF TUESDAY

BECAUSE OF THE INSANE RANGE OF THE AC2.

BECAUSE NO ONE WEARS THE WHITE HEAT.

BECAUSE OF GARISH COLOR SCHEMES ON CAMO SPECS

BECAUSE OF EVERY SINGLE LINE DELIVERY BY JAIME WOLF IN WOLVES ON THE BORDER

BECAUSE OF THE DELIGHTFUL RARITY OF KNOCKING OUT A 100 TON MECH WITH A SINGLE SHOT

BECAUSE OF THE JOKES MY FRIEND CHRIS MADE DURING GAMES.

BECAUSE I PRETTY MUCH KINDA SAW THE END OF THE FEDCOM CIVIL WAR, DOWN TO VLAD TAKING KATHERINE AS A SEX SLAVE, ERRRR BONDSMAN

BECAUSE I TOTALLY DIDN'T SEE THE MANEI DOMINI COMING.

BECAUSE WE'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO TOP THE HOT DROP SCENE IN FLASHPOINT

BECAUSE I STILL THINK “ENHANCED IMAGING” IS COOL 20 YEARS LATER.

BECAUSE ENDGAME WAS NOT THAT AT ALL

BECAUSE OF EVERY SINGLE PRODUCTION DETAIL OF THE WARS OF REAVING

BECAUSE LAMS ARE SO POWERFUL THEY CAN BE BANNED.

BECAUSE OF LAM LOVERS

BECAUSE OF LAM HATERS

BECAUSE OF MORGAN KELL.

BECAUSE IT MAKES THE WORLD FEEL BIGGER.

BECAUSE IT MAKES THE WORLD FEEL SMALLER.

BECAUSE OF THE UNCOMFORTABLE TIME MY WIFE CHALLENGED ME TO A TRIAL OF POSSESSION FOR MY GENETIC LEGACY

BECAUSE OF HOW ANY FAN CAN STAND UP TALL AND PROUDLY PROCLAIM TO LOVE THE URBANMECH

BECAUSE VICTOR STEINER DAVION’S ROMANCES WITH OMI KURITA AND ISIS MARIK ARE MORE COMPELLING AND MATURE THEN ANYTHING STEFANIE MEYER WILL EVER HOPE TO WRITE DOWN IN HER PUTRID EXISTENCE AS AN AUTHOR

BECAUSE OF THE CUT TO BLACK GHOSTS OF WINTER

BECAUSE OF THE ASSASSINATION SCENE IN ASSUMPTION OF RISK

BECAUSE OF THE BIG REVEAL IN LETHAL HERATIGE.

BECAUSE THE JIHAD DIDN'T COMPROMISE.

BECAUSE OF LINCOLN OSIS’ NECK

BECAUSE OF TANCRED SANDOVAL’S MUTTONCHOPS.

BECAUSE OF KAREN NAGASAWA’S SMILE.

BECAUSE OF ULRIC KERENSKY’S MIND.

BECAUSE OF ACE DARWIN’S PANTHER.

BECAUSE OF PHELAN KELLS GALL

BECAUSE OF THE LEGACY OF THOMAS MARIK.

BECAUSE OF THE WAY ANDREY KERENSKY PROJECTED DIGNITY.

BECAUSE OF THEY WAY NATASHA KERENSKY PROJECTED TROUBLE.

BECAUSE OF THE WAY HANSE DAVION WOULDN'T TAKE YOUR SHIT.

BECAUSE OF THE WAY ALEXANDER DAVION WOULDN'T TAKE YOUR SHIT EITHER.

BECAUSE I SAID “NO FUCKING WAY” WHEN THE MANEI DOMINI WHERE INTRODUCED AS MORE THEN RUMOR IN DAWN OF THE JIHAD

BECAUSE I CRIED WHEN OMI KURITA WAS KILLED

BECAUSE OF THE HORRIFIC AWESOMENESS THAT WAS STAR LORD.

BECAUSE OF THE JAGERMECH.

BECAUSE TRO 3075 PROVED YOU CAN STILL DO AWESOME THINGS WITH “OUT OF THE BOX SET” TECHNOLOGY

BECAUSE OF THE AWESOME ART OF BRENT EVANS

BECAUSE OF DOUG CHAFEE.

BECAUSE OF 25 YEARS OF ART AND FICTION

BECAUSE THE SWORD AND THE DAGGER IS STILL NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE TO GET UNDER 100 DOLLARS.

BECAUSE OF THE BRAZEN AUDACITY OF RANDALL BILLS AND LOREN COLEMAN.

BECAUSE OF SOME FANS STILL CONSIDER TECHNICAL READOUT 3025 TO BE THE PINNACLE OF THE UNIVERSE AND DAMN WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT IT.

BECAUSE BECAUSE ARCHER CHRISTIFORI ASKING KATHERNIEN STEINER DAVION FOR AN EXCUSE TO PUBLICLY HUMILIATE HER WAS THE LAST GREAT SLAP IN THE FACE OF AN IRREDEMABLE CHARACTER

BECAUSE NOTHING IS MORE SATISFYING THEN PULLING OFF AN UNBELIEVABLY DIFFICULT MINIATURES PAINT JOB THE FIRST TIME AROUND

BECAUSE NOTHING IS MORE FRUSTRATING THEN NEVER QUITE GETTING THAT SAME PAINT JOB TO REPEAT IT’S BRILLIANCE.

BECAUSE I CAN STAY LOYAL TO THE PROPERTY WHILE BEING BANNED FROM THE FORUMS.

BECAUSE HERB, BRENT, LOREN, ALEX, RAY, BEN, JASON, AND TARA ALL GREET ME LIKE AN OLD FRIEND AT THE GENCON BOOTH.

BECAUSE THEY'RE THE ONE THING I WOULD PLAY OVER ANY OTHER GAME OUT THERE.

... EXCEPT SHARING THEM WITH THE PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT TOO.

BECAUSE AS CYNICAL AS WE GET, THERE ARE STILL A THOUSAND GREAT STORIES THAT HAVE YET TO BE TOLD. A THOUSAND GREAT GAMES YET TO BE PLAYED, AND A THOUSAND GREAT MECHS YET TO GRACE A RECORD SHEET.

AND LASTLY, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, BECAUSE BATTLETECH TOTALLY MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN.

Better to have loved, then to have lost... Try it.

The Following is a portion of a letter i shared with my sister in law. The exact details as to why I told this tale are rather confidential, but the story is what I needed to share. it is a tale that only a few close confidants know, but ten years later after losing a woman I loved, it seems to be a good time to share it with the world.

There was a story I wanted to tell you, before you were shipped out to basic. I do hope that you read it over at least once. Long before you and I met I was seeing a young woman by the name of Emily Silverman. She went to the same high school my first long term girlfriend did. To say we did not get along would be like saying oil and water do not mix. In our high school years we generally avoided each other, and times where proximity could not be avoided we just did not speak, lest a shouting match break out.

In November of 2002 close to a year after breaking up with that same girlfriend I was ready to begin dating again. I ran into Emily at a party my friend was holding. It was not sparks flying or anything like that. Rather I willingly took the time to reintroduce myself to her, starting with a heart felt apology for my behavior when we knew each other previously. When I returned to Columbia after Thanksgiving I had an email waiting for me, with her phone number and a message. “Want to hang out? Maybe go dancing.”

Our first night together was eventful. I treated the whole thing like a first date, brought flowers, the whole nine. Things were going so well when I moved in for a kiss she dropped the bomb.

“You do know I am seeing someone, right?”

If on November 29^th 2002 you heard a faint screaming of the word “fuck” that was me. But something else happened that night, we hung out, talked, danced and eventually did kiss. She told me she wanted to leave the man she was with, but did not want to be a serial dater. She encouraged me to go out and date other people as well as her, give her time to sort herself out. I told her I would, but never got around to it. We hung out every weekend of December, briefly parted ways for new years, and resumed in January. At the time I never recalled being happier. It was around the 3^rd week of January that she called me on not dating anyone else, and pressed me to do it again. A week after that I started talking to your sister.

The last days of January and first weekend of February was an emotional roller coaster for me. I slept with Emily for the first time the night of Janurary 31^st, and woke up to see the Space Shuttle Columbia had disintegrated over Texas. In hindsight I should have taken that as an omen, but my belief in such things is weak to this day. About three days later I went out with your sister for the first time. In true Jenny fashion she really never gave me the chance to explain my situation. Waking up next to her, very sore from what you sister did to me, I finally got to tell her what was going on.

Much to jenny’s credit she did not cry, or feel betrayed that after sex on the first night I told her she was not the only woman I was seeing. Later on she admitted that some of the times she called me up trying to get me to come over cause she was sick, were cries for attention, but by then things had long since changed.

So for the month of February 2003 I was dating two wonderful women. I like to say there was the one I loved, and the one that loved me. To Emily’s credit, she kept saying she needed to meet your sister, saying she needed to “approve” her. Jenny was open to this idea as well, something that shocked me.

On March 19^th 2003 my life changed in a way that even 10 years later I find hard to reconcile. I got a frantic phone call from Emily, telling me something exciting just happened to her, and it meant big things for me as well. She wanted to wait to tell me in person. She told me she would be over at my Dormitory bright and early the following Saturday, because she started a new job Friday. The last words I ever heard her say were “I love you James. I can not wait to tell you.”

At 4: 19 PM on highway 65 heading to Marshall Missouri, Emily swerved her car to avoid hitting a coyote. She arrived at the University of Missouri Hospital 2 hours later and was in intensive care. I immediately dropped everything I had when her mother called me, and was at the University Hosptial Saturday morning, March 21^st. I begged her to hang on, cause she had something to tell me. Told her everything was going to be okay. I held her hand as she slipped away at 8: 22 am March 21^st.

Her mother, Kathy, later shared with me that she had left her boyfriend Jeremiah, and was working to transfer to the University of Missouri. Though Kathy did not say it out loud I guess the plan was going to be she and I would move into an apartment together.

Sister, you talked about how both you and your husband have irrevocably changed. I hope that tale shows you how I understand that. In my life I went through something at 20 years of age that no one should have to go through. And it changed me in ways I can not describe. But your sister did not run away from that, she was not afraid of what I had gone through, and she did not give up on me. I am not the same man that I was when Jenny and I first met, I am not the same man she moved in with, and I am not the same man she married. More to the point, Jenny is not the same woman she was at any of those points either.

Now as to why I chose to share this with you now? Because I should have shared it ages ago. That I did not reflects my failure to you as a friend, and a brother. Maybe there is a hint of better late then never, or a vain hope that this will give you something to chew on during those moments of mental auto-pilot. More then anything else I just want you to know that I understand, more then you know.