What's the opposite of blue? That's me now

[bigAL 2,176]

 

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Beaviss: This is my official resignation from the role as VHL Commissioner. My VHL interest has stagnated in the last month or so. I recently took a little break and I found when I came back that it didn't get any better. While this is unfortunate since I once really loved spending all my free time coming to chat and thinking up new ideas for the league and how to make it better. I feel like I've left a little mark good or bad (depending on who you talk to) on the league in the role that its a good time for me to walk away. Hopefully my replacement (if one is hired) can have the passion I first did when entering the role.

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Quik: So, this will probably come as a shock to most of you, but I haven't really been around much lately. I touched a bit on this when we announced Al as the newest Commissioner, which was 2 months ago, that I was going through some changes in my personal life that meant less time for the league. Initially, this was meant to be temporary, as I settled into a new phase in my career, hoping to return to full activity as a part of the Commissioner team in this great community that I've devoted thousands of hours to over the past decade and a half. However, after a couple of months, it's become clear that I will no longer be able to put in the time necessary to be a contributing member of the Commish team.

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bigAL: Ditto.

 

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.”

 

&
 

[Beketov 9,091]

I love how you started this with “ditto” and then wrote the longest one haha.

 

Like the Montreal Canadiens if you spend a day as a blue you’re a blue for life, it’s been fun having you on board and it sucks to see you go but ultimately I get it, you have to do what’s best for you and I can’t begrudge you that. Not everyone is as stubborn as me to stick around forever. 
 

Of course it’s really starting to look like I’m abusing my fellow blues, I seem to go through them quickly.

[bigAL 2,176]

2 hours ago, Beketov said:

I love how you started this with “ditto” and then wrote the longest one haha.

Have you ever known me to be brief or succinct? 

 

2 hours ago, Beketov said:

if you spend a day as a blue you’re a blue for life

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.

[UnknownMinion 728]

Wait what happening can you make it the short and sweet version big al

[fromtheinside 1,290]

1 minute ago, Minion said:

Wait what happening can you make it the short and sweet version big al

 

he leave

 

all the best Al. 

[Daniel Janser 2,213]

1 minute ago, Minion said:

Wait what happening can you make it the short and sweet version big al

blablabla BigAL has no time/energy/motivation left to be a blue anymore and is stepping down accordingly...

[mediocrepony 1,216]

  

orange. the answer is orange

[Beketov 9,091]

10 minutes ago, GrittyIsKing said:

  

orange. the answer is orange

Colour correcting film disagrees, take out blue and you end up with more yellow, photoshop curves will do the same thing. In general the colour wheel is dumb and shouldn’t be taught.

[mediocrepony 1,216]

1 minute ago, Beketov said:

Colour correcting film disagrees, take out blue and you end up with more yellow, photoshop curves will do the same thing. In general the colour wheel is dumb and shouldn’t be taught.

art teachers:

[Beketov 9,091]

Just now, GrittyIsKing said:

art teachers:

I should be more clear: the way it’s taught is bullshit. Kids are taught that the opposite side of the wheel are either complimentary colours or opposites. Those can’t both be true and generally neither is true. They certainly don’t compliment each other but if you take blue out of an image the image becomes more yellow, not more orange, so they can’t be opposites either.

 

In general the colour wheel is just a good way of showcasing the warm / cool sides of the spectrum and how you get between them. Colours on opposite ends of the wheel don’t necessarily represent anything in relation to each other.

[jhatty8 675]

I love how this thread devolved (evolved?) into color theory

[bigAL 2,176]

19 hours ago, jhatty8 said:

I love how this thread devolved (evolved?) into color theory

Proof that people only read the headlines haha