Three Years a Blogger

Huh.

I don't feel like I've accomplished as much this last year - gaming as well as blogging.

Year 1: 61 posts.

Year 2: 71 posts.

Year 3: 48 posts.

While the club has become more active, especially this year, I still haven't gotten there as often as I like. They are doing more weekday games now, which provides more opportunities, which I haven't always taken advantage of. I also hoped to go to Recon again, but an aging and picky cat has prevented me from being away from home for more than 24 hours. One member is planning a The Longest Day extravaganza - watch the movie, then play an epic game. Whether I'm willing to spend all afternoon on it, I dunno yet. I'm somewhere between depression and laziness at present, or maybe Executive Dysfunction, which is why I've been reading and picking away at my projects rather than anything more productive.

I did get to a local con last week, but not, strictly speaking, for gaming. I was helping man the library presence. In addition to a booth on the "floor", we were given an activity room to do as we liked, which meant crafts and board games. I hoped to demonstrate some one-page RPGs and Paperboys figure-building, but failed to prepare properly (under the assumption that a: it would be easy to find dice at a geek convention and b: that my coworkers would bring plenty of scissors). Will do better next time - another local con comes up in July, then Hurricon in September. (I won't be able to get away in August.)

The chess club at work is going well; since chess doesn't really appeal to me, I've been experimenting with variants and a few other games. My Scottish Museum version of Tafl -

- has actually seen some play, and I've been reading Discworld and thus tempted by Thud. I learned Peter Dennis of Paperboys has even does some work on Discworld products.

Speaking of Peter, a lot of new stuff has come out recently, but it's inspired more reading than playing. A "pirate" series, some late 17th-century figures, and new large ships are tempting, especially the ships which could be used in the club's regular Limeys and Slimeys games. But they will be intimidating to build! Another thing I was looking forward to was the 10mm Seven Years War series in Wofun plastic, which have just come out this week but at 500USD for the full pack. Again, tempting, but is it really a good idea? I held off on the paper ones because I wanted to try the plastic 10s, but I may put them off for a bit. The 17th-century types are designed for the Monmouth rebellion, so I read up on it. Interviewing a glider veteran of Operation Varsity - and finally getting hold of Featherstone's Tackle Model Soldiers This Way - got me building some US troops, but that too has paused.

I intended to try the Mike Lambo solo ECW rules with my Memoir '44 tiles. Haven't.

I've been wanting to paint up my two-past-editions Warhammer and 40K starter sets. Haven't.

Wanted to play some more Charles Grant solo scenarios. Nope.

Wanted to play more Charge! ...

I have managed to amass quite a bit of VCBW stuff and even terrain to go with it. But no serious play. Misplaced a couple of the (hard-to-obtain) books, too - will probably find them minutes after I've bought new ones, heh.

Also built up and organized quite a collection of 18th Century 18mm Wofuns. One big solo game.

I've built a lot of Paperboys, but aside from that one big game, without direction.

It's an odd combination of Asperger's and what I suspect is executive dysfunction. Together, they are a project-killer, when it comes down to it. I edge towards building/painting something, but would rather procrastinate (read, watch, design) than do it.

That's not to say I'm not enjoying myself, sometimes immensely. I'm proud of what little I have achieved this year, in particular having finished a gaming painting project (two units) for the first time in, oh, around a decade.

What next? Given past events, more reading and more watching painting videos, inching towards doing some work.

I don't mean to feel sorry for myself here. It sounds like it, I know, and I'm having a hard time convincing myself otherwise. But there is more to gaming than play, or emptying the Closet of Shame. Just gotta remember that. The play's [not] the [only] thing, and one thing I've been trying to get across with this blog, besides just tracking my projects and encouraging myself, is to demonstrate that it's just part of the whole "hobby." As Featherstone pointed out more than once. I've just done more of the research and planning side of things, or at least it feels that way.

Friendship is a thing too, which is why I've forced myself to go to the club a little more often than usual.

Whatever happens in the next year, I'll still enjoy it. And I hope you will too. Thanks for your support.