bigAL

I'm doing the math now to figure out how to get to exactly 374

Groovy Dood - the answer to life, the universe, everything, and every most DC Dragons' trivia questions. It's an honour to be a one-team guy for such a stand-up franchise

So @osens is the new commissioner now eh?

Awesome! Sam's so passionate about the M, I'm glad to see she's back there.

Heyyy I still have another claim left, awesome. 3/3.

Proof that people only read the headlines haha

To my new locker in our evil underground lair, of course

Aww buddy, I remember how crushed you were when I quit AGMing for you. But if you love something you gotta set it free, or some other hippy dippy cliche

It is a lot eh? It’s hard to quantify that from the outside but once you know, you know. And don’t worry, I’m not done with you old man. I owe you five podcast intros!

Have you ever known me to be brief or succinct? And you thought Jardy was bad for snooping and lurking and leaking top secret behind-the-scenes info? But for real, you're the glue that holds this place together. If you're ever going to go on vacation, plan it six months ahead and download your brain into someone new in case something happens to you.

and and Seriously, I might as well just copy and paste what Beav and Quik said in theirs. For real, I pulled the classic blue move of “go away for a few weeks and lose the drive to come back.” Someone else on the brink of retirement gave me the lightbulb moment when they said they “were actively avoiding logging in” and I was like, “igen, that’s me, that's a red flag.” I mentioned a bit about December’s hectic ‘goodbye tour’, but that started as a weekend away. And turned into a week. And then another end. And here we are at the end of another week, still barely active. Time to make it official, I can't do the job to the standards that this league deserves anymore. The VHL was the right place, the right people, and the right project for me at the right time of my life. I’m so proud of almost two years I’ve been a part of this community. From my humble beginning as an AGM, to my work on the WJC, to bringing a voice of reason to the BoG, and then finally becoming the tyrannical overlord for the last six months, it’s been a ride. More important than job titles and responsibilities, though, are the friends made along the way. I’ve been so fortunate to spend time with so many different groups. I broke in with the League folks early days; the 9-5 crew last year was a bumpin’ gang of people who were definitely supposed to be working remotely but were on discord all day; my S72-74 Miami LR, because you always remember your first; the Jackbox party team were the best because that was a game my crap technology could actually handle (unlike Golf With Friends which I swear melted my laptop); the Chess Club, which was so much fun; the podcasting friends, both those that I actually met and podcasted with face-to-face and the people who feel like friends because I hear you talking to me regularly. Everyone here is a “best people around” even if you aren’t old, or a boy, or in the club. I dunno what my legacy will be here, but I’m intensely proud of the work we’ve all accomplished in the last six months. The moderation team did an unbelievable job of codifying our rights and responsibilities as members, and I’m happy to be a part of that. The VHLE was implemented while I was blue, so that may or may not be on the ‘positive’ side of the ledger for you. I’ve always been a community organizer, a volunteer manager, a policy and good governance of large social groups wonk, and so I got a lot out of being a commissioner. It was fun for me in the same way writing academic essays is fun for me (seriously, I got to help write a few uni papers for a friend this month and it made me long so much for uni). I needed a new project that kept me in the community organizing world since I left my old one behind in Canada. Blue was a job that kept me sharp professionally, engaged and entertained personally, and allowed me to give back to a community that gave me so much during the pandemic. On top of all that, I’ve got a new appreciation for the work of the commissioners. They tell you that your job description is to do, quote, “everything”, and it’s accurate. The blues are the HR department, managing all our staff; they’re our spreadsheet hockey organizers, responsible for creating and enforcing rules, training new GMs, settling disputes between our squabbling children; we’re community organizers who work hard to make sure there’s a wealth of positive experiences and activities to keep people entertained and engaged; and, commissioners are just generally firefighters, dealing with the unexpected problems that come up when dealing with 200+ incredibly diverse humans all existing in the same space. I was even the lucky blue that didn’t have to sim, so add that daily responsibility on top of all the above, and you’ve got the day-to-day VHL life of Bek and Josh. Holy shit they do a lot. Make sure to hug a blue and call your parents today. Life changes, and we’re allowed to (and it’s important for us to) change and grow along with it. I’m old now, I can look back and see a number of distinct chapters in my life. Each has a starting and an ending, and each leads - not always immediately - to a new chapter. That could be a new job, a new city, moving away to uni, starting or ending a relationship, or joining or leaving an online community. That’s okay! I’m working through now how to thread those chapters together, how to make an active choice of what and who to bring from a closed chapter to a new one. My VHL chapter taught me a lot of things. It reignited my passion for writing which - ugh, I hate the idea of this but love the practicality - I’m trying to monetize on UpWork. I got to dust off my photoshop skills after 10+ years of stagnating on a back shelf of my brain, and PS is one of those things you can’t really do unless you have a project like creating VHL graphics. As my relationship was deteriorating, the league gave me a place to safely retreat to so I didn’t feel so sad and alone. I got to podcast! I always wanted to do that, but never had a purpose or a thought so interesting that the world needed to hear it. I learned and practiced what diversity looks and sounds like in the 2020s, which was extra important as I lived first in the aggressively heteronormative small town in northern Ontario and then in the aggressively heteronormative country of Hungary. The VHL kept me hip to what the kids are rappin’ to these days, yo. I know that when a student tells me they love to play League, I should ask what their “main” is (and they get so damn excited that I can speak their lingo). These are all skills and experiences that I now have, that are now a part of me, that will come with me on the rest of this crazy journey through life. I’m forever thankful that this chapter of my life happened, that so many of your names appear in my daily journals, and that we could all be there for each other during these “unprecedented times”. So, that’s it for me. My day to day life in Europe just doesn’t have the required space and energy to adequately do the blue job anymore. It’s not fair to you to have 50% of a commissioner, and it’s not fair to me to carry the guilty burden of not meeting the responsibilities I signed up. I’ve said in a few places, I took this job literally the morning of my last full day in Canada before I had my coffee and immediately when it was offered. With more time to think it through, I probably wouldn’t (shouldn’t?) have done it knowing all the change that was coming in my life. The time zone meant that I wasn’t active at the same time as most of my friends, which takes out a lot of the fun from the league. Since covid doesn’t exist in Hungary (lmao fuck), I wasn’t spending time sitting at a computer long enough to participate in actual discord conversations anymore or to deal with things in a timely manner. And, I’m not gone. I’ll still be on the forums. I’ll be on discord probably as much as I have been the last two months (ie: not enough). If we hang out and chat, it’ll be as friends catching up on life and not likely sim hockey fans debating the merits of drafting first overall Vasile Lamb or Tavish MacGroot (don’t blow up this chance, go for the demoman). So, it’s been a ride. Keep on keepin’ on. Bring joy to someone’s life. Remember to think of things you’re thankful for. Hug your loved ones. Be kind to yourself and treat yourself the way you would your best friend. In the immortal words of bigAL: “don’t be a dick.” &

and and Seriously, I might as well just copy and paste what Beav and Quik said in theirs. For real, I pulled the classic blue move of “go away for a few weeks and lose the drive to come back.” Someone else on the brink of retirement gave me the lightbulb moment when they said they “were actively avoiding logging in” and I was like, “igen, that’s me, that's a red flag.” I mentioned a bit about December’s hectic ‘goodbye tour’, but that started as a weekend away. And turned into a week. And then another end. And here we are at the end of another week, still barely active. Time to make it official, I can't do the job to the standards that this league deserves anymore. Oh well, it happens. I wrote a eulogy, an explanation, a reflection to go along with this, but this isn't the place to do that. Check that heartfelt look back here. So long, and thanks for all the fish. &

What a Christmas season. I'm always amazed by the generosity of our community. Nicely done to everyone who donated, and thanks for the participation and attention from those that were unable to. The results from the charity drive are amazing. The last loose end to tie up is the 12 Days of Christmas Raffle. Every day, you dutifully logged in, said hello, and got entered into the grand raffle. As explained in the rules, we've got a lot of winners: I used Google's Random Number Generator to pull a number of Josh's crazy spreadsheet that organized all the entries. You can view the streams here, here, and here if you don't believe me, but don't waste 15 mins of your life watching and listening to me fumbling around a spreadsheet. So, here are the winners! Tier 1: You win: Tier 2: You win: Tier 3: You win: Tier 4: THE GRAND CHAMPION You win: Thanks to everyone who participated. The 12 Days raffle is always my favourite because it's an "activity" check of sorts. We had 186 unique users participate in this bonanza. That's fantastic, what a big number. I'm proud of you, proud of us, and happy for all the winners. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Good Riddance 2021, let's all have a great 2022

Thanks everyone, let’s take all your offers and put them together! https://vhlforum.com/topic/113170-tpa-dump-by-horcrux/?do=findComment&comment=897927