What is drain for two?

So what does "Drain for Two" mean?  Well, for that we have to first define it's origin.  The term comes from Star Wars: Customizable Card Game, a game I started playing back in high school.  SWCCG for short, is a strategy card game that uses the Star Wars license, which I am, in no small part, a fan of having grown up in the 80s.  The game requires forward thinking, strong decision making skills, resource management and the ability to adapt well to situations on the fly.  It also encourages counting cards, which proves to be an invaluable skill for the game and for your brain if you can get it down.  It's a really great game created during the 90's when games were increasingly complex and strategic before the 2000's hit and things swung the other way to the simplistic random chance games.   Anywho, when trying to come up with a name for the blog, I had just gotten back into playing the game with my friends so it was suddenly very relevant to me.  During the game, you use one of the game mechanics called force draining to deplete your opponent of his "force" and as with anything in this world that sees enough distribution and circulation, it develops it's own phrases, acronyms, caveats, etc.  This game was no different and "drain for two" was force draining for two force.  Simple.

I liked having this name for the blog because firstly, it tied me into something that has been a very important part of my life for the last 16 years. Not just because of the game itself, which is still incredibly fun and challenging and I'm really happy to be playing it again, but because that game introduced me to my best friend who has become like my 3rd brother, a friendship that has helped define me as a person.  It introduced me to my core group of closest friends, who I've shared almost as many laughs and memories with as I have with my family. It allowed us all to go on several amazing road trips across the country together.  It introduced me to an incredible group of people and places along the way and make for a plethora of fond and not so fond memories (a bowl of sugar in your hair at 3am while you're asleep on an Atlanta diner table not being one of them...).  It prompted me to learn about web development for this hobby which in turn helped me land my first real job.  It challenged me to be a better writer and sparked my love of graphic design.  It gateway'ed me into this wonderful hobby of gaming and helped expand my critical and creative thinking.  It connected me with one of the most influential things in my formative years besides my parents, siblings and God... Star Wars and allowed me to meet and chat with many of it's actors and actresses.  Most of which were extremely wonderful, down to earth people who you could just sit and chat with all day if allowed.  Especially Mr. Jeremy Bulloch, the man behind the mask of my favorite character growing up, Boba Fett... and boy is that is a story for another time!  Most importantly, it's how I met my lovely wife and mother of my children (which is a pretty good story in it's own right, but that's for another post...), which segues into the second reason I liked the name...  So this card game that I discovered in 1995 during an after school trip with some buddies down to the local comic book store, Jim Hanley's Universe on New Dorp Lane, pulling a Han Solo rare in my very first pack, was the catalyst for a seemingly endless list of life experiences and friendships that I wouldn't trade for the world.

The second reason I liked the name is because I am the proud father of the most amazing pair of twins this side of Mos Eisley. They are my little miracles and are my pride and joy.  They are draining and taxing and wear you down... especially when your night owl daughter never wants to go to sleep because she's too busy saying "HI!" and waving at you at 11:20pm and the only way to get her to go to sleep and stay asleep is to rock her and have her spread out on the bed pushing mommy and daddy to the edges... a habit, I really need to nip in the bud soon. Or your son who is finally sleeping hears you come home and is now transformed into a giggling bouncing bundle of sugar high that wants to throw his baseball to you and use you as his personal jungle gym. Yet, they have the uncanny ability to restore all that drained energy with a one excited look at seeing you walk through the front door, faces beaming with smiles and joy at seeing their daddy.  It's one of the absolute greatest emotional surges I've ever felt in my 33 years on this spinning rock, and it never grows old.  I've always wanted to be a dad since I was young, but nothing in the world prepares you, or shows you just how amazing (and tiring) the experience really is.  They are my little drain for two, but I wouldn't trade them for the world either!

So that's what a drain for two is, so until next time...  The force is with you. ;)

My SWCCG / Star Wars Autograph collection