The Streak Comes to an End
Around three years ago, we started Ertai’s Lament with an ambitious goal: to write a review of a Magic the Gathering preconstructed deck every 48 hours. No-one is more amazed than I that I’ve been able to stick with it, and we’ve written as much as we have. I read on Amazon that the average book is 65,000 words. I did the math and discovered that I had written just over thirteen books’ worth of articles here.
Thirteen books.
But as you might have noticed, we finally missed a review window. The streak had died.
In truth, it probably died a long time ago. Although it survived the birth of our son, Liam, a vacation to Cape Cod, and other major life interruptions, we’d had our moments where we kept it going by hook or by crook. A WordPress error delayed publishing one time, but with the article written I dated it appropriately and considered the streak intact since, technically, it was written and ready to go, and the fault of the delay wasn’t ours.
More recently, I even had to resort to publishing an unpolished article just to get that all-important time stamp, and that’s when I realised I just needed to succumb to the inevitable. That means continuing to publish as I can for the time being, then getting back on schedule once things with us level out.
You see, we bought a game store.
You read that right. Long-time readers might remember our friendly, local gaming store, Moonlite Comics, which supported many of our earlier contests and giveaways. Well, as of the first of July, we’re now the proud owners of the store. It’s been amazing already, being able to be a part of the community at that level. But it is also more work than I have ever had to do in my entire life. Though I’m loving every minute of it, it’s also demanded a ton of my time. Something had to give, and alas the streak was a casualty.
We love this site as much as ever and have absolutely no intention of stopping. We’ll be back with your regularly-scheduled programming very soon! In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying lots of preconstructed Magic- and Magic in general.
Cheers and thanks!
Jay
Ertai's Lament 
Good luck, guys! I think I can safely say that we’re all extremely excited for y’all!
Well, I suppose we can let it slide THIS time… 😉
Seriously, congratulations and I wish you all the luck in the world with the store!
Ooh, that’s big news. Good luck!
Jeez, this scared me. I thought you were stopping writing the reviews. Glad that’s not the case, and in fact, Ertai’s Lament and Mind Games Ltd are going stronger than ever. I love you guys! All the more power to you! 😀
Same here, scaried for a moment there! Congratulations on running your own store, that’s impressive!
Take all the time you need, i’m sure most of us will keep coming back here to check for new articles anyway.
*wipes sweat from forehead* Best of luck! Take your time. No need to rush it. We wouldn’t want you to run out of precons, now would we? 🙂
Now go drool over the new Commander precons.
Congrats on the gamestore! I was wondering why your reviews weren’t going up but this is way better news!
living the dream! congrats!
Best wishes for your entrepreneurial endeavors, and looking forward to more fun precon analysis when you get the time!
This is such awesome news, congrats on everything! *looks at streak* It really was something, wasn’t it. Congrats on that accomplishment, too. 🙂
Looking forward to the new reviews when you get rested up and ready to roll again!
Why is it that I always discover great sites right before they quit publishing updates regularly? Congrats on the store. I really hope that you continue to publish your reviews. Your site is one of a kind.
You have years of backlog to get caught up on then. 😛
Love this blog. Good luck with the store, and we hope to see more reviews as soon as you have time (which will be never)!
Good luck with the store! Love this blog, and hope to see more reviews soon.