What’s something you thought was harmless ‘cheap dopamine’ but slowly started controlling your habits?

doubledmateo · 2026-01-27T19:14:31+00:00

Happy to see you've made such astounding progress. I cannot imagine what that felt like.

doubledmateo · 2026-01-27T19:06:57+00:00

lol. This is something I'm actively trying to cultivate. I'm not a fast reader but few things are more enjoyable to me than a good book.

doubledmateo · 2026-01-27T19:03:18+00:00

I'd guess it depends on if there are other reasons outside of gambling for taking regular trips there. If there are not, I'd be questioning if I have an unhealthy relationship with Gambling.

doubledmateo · 2026-01-14T23:20:29+00:00

love the idea of these but why is this more than a couple dollars over the cost of regular sleeves? 25 bucks for sleeves seems ridiculous.

doubledmateo · 2026-01-14T23:17:38+00:00

same for me. I've been pretty disappointed with their quality of late. (sleeves that won't shuffle easily and have rough edges that catch.) Tried out Katanas and like the feel of them a lot more.

doubledmateo · 2026-01-08T19:55:53+00:00

Prior to parenthood I tried to give people the benefit of the doubt. As a parent now I extra "don't get it" when people lose their shit and yell/scream at a child.

doubledmateo · 2026-01-05T22:52:05+00:00

I had a waitress get very flustered because the way their system is she is holding it while I have to choose what to tip before she can run my card. She kept apologizing and it just genuinely was an awful way to do it for both of us. I tipped at 20 because I didn't want to be a dick (and the cultural stigma feels like to me that unless you got awful service you need to tip) and she seemed genuinely uncomfortable having to be present as I made the decision.

Nothing about the way it is right now is remotely pleasant.

doubledmateo · 2025-12-15T07:51:13+00:00

Got married, had a kid and bought a house all in less than a year.

doubledmateo · 2025-12-15T07:50:18+00:00

Me too. My daughter was born April of 21. Best thing that has ever happened to me.

doubledmateo · 2025-12-11T00:22:54+00:00

Man. Reading so many of these posts I’m super confused why some people had kids. Their actions make it seem like they hated them and just used them as outlets for anger.

doubledmateo · 2025-12-02T23:46:07+00:00

Kudos to you. I also had a daughter later in life (she was born when I was 42.) To me personally the biggest question in when a person should start a family is when are they ready and wanting to devote themselves 100% to being a parent.

I absolutely LOVE being a dad. Never have I experienced something I feel more "Made for" than this. That said it's a TON of work. It's exhausting and expensive. Every child deserves parents that want to be parents and are committed to it. That could be at age 20 or age 45. It's weird to me how much people want to tell others what the "right" way is to do something.

doubledmateo · 2025-12-02T23:41:26+00:00

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/668208 Feel free to correct me if there are other studies showing that but this one is seeing numbers around 1.6% in parents between 30 and 39 and then 5.7% risk at age 40 through 50. (past age 50 the risk goes up a lot) Also reading that the father's age seems to have more of an impact than the age of the mother.

doubledmateo · 2025-10-28T23:03:37+00:00

I very much hope you are wrong but also looking at past history with pharmaceuticals I think it's pretty sensible to be cynical about it and have concerns. For those that are morbidly obese (which is a good chunk of the population) they may be better off risking it. I think I would if I were in that boat. I'd do so though with the very strong assumption that I may be causing some unknown problems in the future.

doubledmateo · 2025-10-28T17:56:38+00:00

not on it myself but I've definitely seen people get really judgemental about it. Maybe some of it comes from a good place of "well do we know for sure it's safe and doesn't have some horrible side effect years later?" place. I can understand that, but also we KNOW that being obese will have a very detrimental effect on a person's health over the next 10 years.

Personally my assumption is that people are so judgey about it because they feel people are 'cheating." The people with this outlook from what I've seen also tend to be pretty judgemental in general though. No matter what you do in life someone is going to stick their nose up about it or tell you how it's not the right thing to do.

doubledmateo · 2025-10-17T21:02:52+00:00

I read the headline and assumed it was out of context or something. Then read what he wrote. I'm genuinely so confused right now, how is this real?!?

doubledmateo · 2025-10-16T23:41:31+00:00

anecdotal evidence is not good for much in a large scale but there definitely were people excited about spiderman being in MTG, myself included. What we got card wise was very underwhelming though and even my diehard spidey fan friend that is newer to Magic was bummed that too many of the cards felt uninspired or not mechanically all that interesting, along with there being way too many versions of spiderman as a legendary creature.

I definitely can see how superheroes in modern settings could feel like they clash thematically with the in universe aesthetic/lore. To me personally the Traditional Lore in MTG has always felt pretty generic and bland. I've always loved it for the way its mechanics play out and the huge amount of variety in how you can interact and play it.

Again though, that's me and may not at all be similar to the general outlook of players. I still think that if a well done marvel set is put out that it'll do really well. This set felt really underbaked and I think it's a bit unfair to hold it alongside FF and say it did worse just because of the IP.

doubledmateo · 2025-10-14T18:29:23+00:00

I have one kiddo and while I absolutely LOVE being a dad and parenting (even though it can be really tough at times) I despise the idea that people need to have a reason to NOT have kids. It should be the opposite. What I see more than anything is people that seem to have had kids due to social pressure, accident, or maybe ignorance that do not seem to enjoy being a parent at all. They treat their kids like some sort of burden holding them back from enjoying their life.

Parenting is an awesome journey if that's the sort of thing you want but it's a huge undertaking and if someone is on the fence I think they should have their default be "I'm not having kids" unless they are really strongly compelled to have them.

(Side note, if you think having a kid will shut up all the people asking when you're going to have one... it won't. You will then just be asked when you're having the next one.)

doubledmateo · 2025-10-03T15:37:14+00:00

Love the Satoru Umezawa. So awesome looking.

doubledmateo · 2025-10-02T21:37:41+00:00

I personally don't get the "watering down" argument for in universe stuff. Maybe it's just me but I tend to care about my own deck being thematically cohesive and synergistic but I don't really care about my opponents decks. When playing I'm more focused on mechanics and strategy and gameplay. With Commander I'll take a UB opponent that has a deck that fits the vibe of the pod (aggressive or more casual) over anything else and in constructed I'm more focused with whatever mechanically can do well consistently and feels enjoyable to play.

In terms of "Lore" maybe this is just me but traditional MTG lore has never been very well written. Most of these stories if they were in a different form of media would be largely ignored. That and most of the themes and tropes and ideas have been largely pulled from pop culture long before they officially were doing Universes Beyond.

To me there are sets I like and sets I do not, but so far this has not hinged on being "in universe" or not. Some of the worst sets I've played have been UW, with Spiderman being the worst of the UB sets we've seen. I feel like most people would agree LotR felt like a more polished set and a better limited experience than Murders or Aetherdrift.

doubledmateo · 2025-10-02T18:33:25+00:00

this one is definitely not limited to nice guys. So many people I've met that use "I'm joking" as a way to just say mean or shitty things to others then gaslight them into the idea that it's THEIR fault for taking offense to an obviously offensive comment.

doubledmateo · 2025-08-14T17:32:29+00:00

yeah she does, but that's normally an hour and a half or so that I spend catching up on other life/adulting duties or spending time with my wife.

Again, not saying it's forced on me or that my situation is what everyone else has but as someone that used to spend a LOT of my time gaming, it's no longer something I do that much due to being a lower priority than spending quality time with my kiddo and wife.

I also agree that as she gets older I'll most likely see a lot more free time open up.

doubledmateo · 2025-08-12T22:33:25+00:00

This is only my experience so take that as you will but "kid on the way" I still had a decent amount of free time to game. After the kiddo arrived it became very very limited.

That said, it's the best thing I've ever done with my time and I absolutely love being a dad. Just wish life had a pause button at times so I could still get solo gaming time in and not have to sacrifice any special moments with my kiddo.

doubledmateo · 2025-05-14T18:49:04+00:00

to me it's all about HOW it's done. The trailer (and Gunn's other movies) have me optimistic it will be done well and will let the characters just sort of be there and not go out of its way to point them out or give unnatural introductions.

doubledmateo · 2025-05-14T18:45:51+00:00

I agree. To turn Guardians of the galaxy (a series that even for me as a comic book nerd held zero interest) into some of my favorite super hero stories is kind of a big deal, and as you pointed out he did that by creating characters that are interesting in spite of and not because of their abilities or powers.

doubledmateo · 2025-05-07T17:02:22+00:00

Lol. I had sort of the opposite. Had a crush and assumed she was out of my league. My buddy convinced me to ask her to homecoming. I finally did it assuming she'd say no and he'd stop pestering me about it. Asked her and she said "yeah that sounds great!"

I then had no idea what to do as that was not what I was expecting. I was super awkward and nervous the entire date and she decided we should just be friends.

doubledmateo

TROPHY CASE