Sorry for being erratic lately people- had stuff going on. Here is a double snippet to help makeup

He started to spend a lot of time reading fantasy novels looking for magic spell ideas, between practicing his own magic and just lazing around. After years of school followed by university, where his whole life had revolved around study, study, and then even more study interspersed with bouts of writing essays, this being able to loll around doing little if he didn’t want to was very welcome! He imagined the novelty would wear off pretty soon, but he intended to enjoy his newly found idleness as much as he could in the short term!

His Steam account grew substantially as he tried all those games he had always wanted to play but had not bought either for fear of interrupting his studies or because he simply lacked the money to waste on games! He wondered if his parents understood just how much self-discipline he had developed over the last few years. Even after he started earning money part-time, which meant he could afford to buy a selection of games, he resolutely denied himself!

He studied the casinos at Atlantic City online and spent a long weekend there, flying in on the Friday and leaving on the following Monday. He stayed at one of the casinos with the highest table stakes but only played at their tables in short sessions, spending more time at the surrounding casinos. He left with forty thousand in cheques and nearly thirty thousand in cash! Woot! On the long flight back, he thought again about getting his own place but, in the end, decided against it for the moment. Instead of renting, what he’d rather do was buy a place of his own outright. He didn’t have anywhere near enough money to manage such a purchase outright, and with no job, it meant he wouldn’t be able to get a loan to buy something. Right. He decided he would just continue to save the money until he could buy something, and this became his game plan for the moment. Plus, he would use the loose cash for anything small he bought to hide it from the taxman!

He had also been contemplating the fact that he knew about multiple Earths. Urasmian came from an Earth that was fifty worlds east of Jason’s Earth. That meant there were forty-nine other Earths between here and there! It was kind of mind-boggling! On Urasmian’s Earth, things had gone very differently, apparently. So, what other alternate histories were out there? A world where Hitler won World War Two? One where the Roman Empire never fell? Oooh, one where the dinosaurs didn’t die out! He spent a lot of time considering the possibilities, although he refrained from actually trying to travel to a different Earth, at least not just yet. Using the magic spells he had discovered and developed so far left him drained and tired after just a little bit of use, so he had no wish to find himself on a planet of sorcerers while worn out and unable to do any magic himself!

One of the fantasy magic book series he enjoyed had a protagonist who stressed how physical exercise increased his stamina and made throwing around magic spells easier. He started going for a run every morning and discovered just how unfit he was! And yes, after a couple of weeks, the magic seemed to come easier and not tire him out quite as much. He found a karate dojo not too far away and started that sport but decided that while it was worthwhile, in many ways, it wasn’t the aerobic sport he was seeking. After thinking about the matter for some time, he considered trying soccer and even hunted up a local team on the internet, but before he tracked the team down, he found another choice.

He was watching ESPN one night and found a report on a game called Australian Rules Football which seemed to involve a lot of running and jumping plus plenty of physical contact, and further investigation confirmed this. He found a vid of a whole game on the internet and watched an hour of this game from down under, which left him very intrigued. At least as much running as soccer, plus tackling and physical interplay that was a bit like rugby or American Football, plus you had to be able to kick and catch the football. There was a lot to like!

Some searching on the internet found that there was a San Diego Australian Football team, and it seemed they were looking for new players for the next season. Before he knew it, he found himself training to play this strange game. The ball was obviously from the same family of balls from which the ball used in American Football had developed, but it was not as pointy. Some of the rules were pretty strange for someone who, while not a sports jock, had played some in High School as a wide receiver. So, he did at least understand American Football and had been a keen supporter of the college team. Still, the Aussies were sure into aerobic fitness, which was exactly what he had been trying to find!

He learned to kick using the Aussie drop punt style, not all that successfully, but he was accurate enough over short distances if he didn’t shank the kick badly off his boot. Using his magic to subtly nudge the ball into curving a little from either side gave him an impressive goal-kicking accuracy. He was careful about not using too much force when making the ball’s flight curve, but he became known as a very goal or miss completely sort of kicker. In the end, after some persuasion, the coach put him on the half-forward flank, which was a position where he could run up and down the field all day, which, after all, was his main aim in playing the foreign game. He also had the sneaky suspicion that he was given that position as much because they lacked any depth in their available players, and the coach didn’t want to lose a good prospect. Jason discovered this was true at their first real game as their reserves were just an old guy and two of the teenage sons of a couple of the older players. When he asked about the shortage of players, there were shrugs and sighs. Apparently, they had rarely fielded a full team in recent years. The only other regular player was a very overweight guy who always played full-forward when he turned up for a game. His work made it difficult for the fellow to get to training, and he missed a lot of games as well. He was told there weren’t that many people interested in playing.