All Our Yesterdays

2016 is over and the new year is upon us. I feel like I've aged more than 12 months since this time last year, but that may be the chili I had for lunch.  My thoughts and reflections on this past year:

La vie (et la mort) avec des chats

The biggest change in my life in 2016 was the loss of my beloved cat Grendel in September. The sharp pain of those six terrible weeks between his diagnosis with cancer and his death has given way to a dull ache that lingers and may well linger indefinitely. I can't help thinking about that line from the song Mr. Bojangles, "after twenty years he still grieves." Does time heal all wounds? Maybe not in this life. I had such a special relationship with that fat, obstreperous little man that the absence, the nullity of him is palpable.

I think that our relationship with our pets restores, to some degree, the natural order of creation. We were meant to be in harmony with our environment, not at war. That we can create such a bond with our critters now is some foretaste of the restoration to come:

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he shall dwell with them,
And they shall be his peoples,
And God himself shall be with them—their God.
And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and death shall be no more;
nor mourning nor crying nor pain—they shall be no more.
The first things have passed away.

And he who sits upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new."

(Rev 21:3-5)

The girls go on. Maebh is still crazy; Rhiannon is still fussy; both are still adorable. Rhiannon is soon to be 16 and Maebh is going on 13, two little old ladies. They're a bit like Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? I expect Maebh to push Rhiannon down the stairs any day.

The new cat, Bogart, is a much-loved (by me) addition to the home, even though his full admission to the tribe has hit many a snag. I was too sanguine that he would fit in quickly. There were a few problems at first, Maebh wouldn't stop hissing and growling at him, but there were also signs that things might settle down. That optimism pretty much went south after Bogart chased Maebh through the house while she shrieked and yowled. She came out just a bit ruffled, he suffered a nasty bite on his left foreleg that required a second trip to the vet for cleaning and dressing. (He had an abscess on his shoulder from another Maebh bite just a month earlier.) I keep fearing for the girls in these encounters, but it's always Bogart going to the vet.

For now I'm keeping the girls and Bogart separate. My den, which I envisioned as a temporary quarantine, is now Bogie's semi-permanent home. I manage a kind of time-share where I lock the girls in my bedroom and let Bogart have the run of the house and then put him back in the den and let the girls roam free. It's not ideal. He spends by far the most time in his room, though I do a lot of stuff in there, like my painting and 'putering, so I manage to spend time with him wherever he is.

I have to admit, however, that I'm a bit perplexed how to resolve settling him in. He's too enthusiastic about wanting to be with his "girlfriends" who want nothing to do with him. He presses, they run, he chases, hijinx ensue—along with cat-bites and puss-oozing abscesses.

Painting

Having perfected the art of the dip, I started out last year with many a high hope for painting projects. I managed to get a lot done earlier in the year and was set up to get a lot more done when Grendel's death and Bogie's arrival took a lot of the wind out of that sail. The current irons in the fire, in no particular order, are:

• Aztecas y conquistadores: This is the Queztalcoatl Rampant project Kevin Smyth and I have been working on. I have a surprising number of figures painted for it, though unsurprisingly many fewer than Kevin has. I'm nearly done with my conquistadors, but I have a lot of Tlaxcalans and then Aztecs to paint. I just ordered a few more conquistadors and a lot more Tlaxcalans. The Mesoamericanos paint pretty quickly, even the more elaborate ones have a simple color scheme. I ordered several more Tlaxcalans from The Assault Group. I'd meant to order more Aztec slingers, too, but forgot. However, just yesterday, Jerry Tyer handed me a bag of 24 Assualt Group Aztecs he's had sitting around for years, including eight slingers. Joy! More material possessions!
• Lion Rampant: Earlier in the year I got excited about painting a 28mm Medieval Spanish army for Lion Rampant. I was going to debut it at a small Lion Rampant tournament that was held in Gig Harbor, WA in September. I managed to get a lot done, but then the project stalled with Grendel's sickness and death. I'm just now getting back to them. I also have a large number of later Medieval figures from Old Glory's Hundred Years War range. These have been kicking around half painted for well over 10 years. I hope to squeeze out a few Lion Rampant retinues from these.
• Beyond the Gates of Antares: This project is a going concern and yielding its fruit in season. I recently completed some long-stalled additions, which include my first vehicles and a heavy weapon with extra crew. I'm well along with some more recent additions. This is something we play regularly, so I expect to get a lot of mileage out of what I have and add to it as new releases come. All my figures are Algoryns and I'm tempted to branch out. We'll see.
• 30 Years War: After my initial output at the beginning of the year, I started many more (and ordered many more) figures. Things paint faster with the dip, but like Thursday's child, I have far to go. We're planning a game of Pike & Shotte for Drumbeat in February, but I'm not confident I'll have any units completed by then.
• 1672: This project is still prominently on the back burner. I'm excited by the possibility. The uniforms (and they are uniform, unlike the motley of everything else I'm currently painting) are simple and the quick block painting used in the dip may result in several units painted quickly, whenever I get back to them.
• English Civil War: I have a lot of pikes and muskets going on. I've been working on some of the beautiful—and big—ECW figures from Renegade (who have now resumed binness) and Bicorne. My plans are to use these for the soon to be released Pikeman's Lament rules from Dan Mersey/Osprey. I have some English and Scots in the works. These are also mostly uniform, so painting should go quicker than with the 30 Years War, etc.
• WW2: This is pretty dormant right now, but I have several Italian troops for North Africa to paint to complete a platoon-sized unit, plus a few Italian tanks. I also have some British tanks for North Africa to complete. I have a lot of Crusader Russians that I picked up cheap at Enfilade! a few years ago. I keep meaning to get to them. So far, I have no Germans. I expect to remedy that at some future date. What keeps me from getting more done is that we're not playing Bolt Action much.

I'm reduced to painting in my wee den closet. In the past, and just before Grendel died, I took over more open spaces like my dining table or desk to work on my wee figures. My first generation cats know enough not to tromp through my painting mess. Bogart has no intention of keeping that tradition. The cramped space I'm left with limits the amount of things I can do, though cleaning and priming is a movable feast: Have file, will travel.

Politics  (God help us all)

The point of politics is to upset people, or so it seems. I try to avoid the topic, but it dominated so much of 2016 that I feel the need to make a few upsetting comments.

I'm no fan of The Donald, but I have to admit to feeling ecstatic when Hillary lost. If schadenfreude is a mortal sin, I am doomed to hell-fire. (However, cf. Aquinas Summa Theologicae Supplement 94.3 "I answer that...the saints will rejoice in the punishment of the wicked, by considering therein the order of Divine justice and their own deliverance, which will fill them with joy.") And the schadenfreude only got worse as the post-election days ticked by and Team Hillary kept melting down publicly in increasingly hilarious ways.

Then there were the pathetic attempts to overturn the election.

Jill Stein acted as Hillary's stalking horse to demand recounts in the three key states that turned the election (because, you know, it would be unseemly for Hillary to demand recounts after all the time she spent hectoring Trump about whether he'd accept the election outcome). Judges shut down the recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan and Trump actually gained votes in Wisconsin. Oops. But it gets better.

Other stalking horses fulsomely encouraged (or violently threatened) Trump electors to vote faithlessly. They even tried to get Hillary electors to be faithless in order to pave the way for faithless Trump electors. In the end, Trump lost two electors in Texas, one to Ron Paul and another to John Kasich. Hillary, however, lost five—four of them from my home state of Washington. Three of those four faithless Washington electors voted for Colin Powell, who didn't run, but took third place anyway. One Hillary elector from Hawaii voted for Bernie, so at least he got a bit of his own back after having the nomination stolen from him. Three other Hillary electors tried to defect but were either forced to recant or had their faithless votes invalidated and recast by a faithful alternate. The end result of trying to use the electoral college to overturn the election was even more schadenfreude inducing than the botched recount: Trump 304, Hillary 227 (or 224, if we go by intentions).

Of course, the outraged cry has gone 'round the land (yet again) to abolish the electoral college, which would require a constitutional amendment unless the Democrats can find a judge who will rule the Constitution unconstitutional (don't laugh, that's not at all improbable). Of course, the urge of the outraged to abolish Article II is more urgent in light of the fact that Hillary won the popular vote by nearly 3 million. But the electoral college was designed specifically to give every state a say in presidential elections proportional to their representation in Congress, and no more, so as to disallow a few very populous regions to dominate the whole country. Hillary won California (my former, and formerly deep-red, home state) by 6 million votes. There are a lot of people in California. But even if Hillary won the vote of every single Californian, she only gets 55 electoral votes, the same number she'd get if she won California by only a single vote. California may really, really love Hillary, but it doesn't get to decide presidential elections on its own. That's especially meaningful since states have a lot of leeway in deciding how their elections are held. California has effectively banned the Republican party (much like Mississippi, South Carolina, et al. in 1860). The election for US senator from California was between one Democrat and another Democrat. Some Californians are agitating for secession. Well, adios. It means that 55 electoral votes and all those popular votes won't go to Democrats in US elections any more. California is one of the wealthiest states in the US, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that as a separate country, the People's Republic of California would give Venezuela a run for its money on the misery index. But I digress...

The ramifications of 2016 will go on and on. I don't know what to expect from a Trump presidency, though it will certainly be less dire than the Democrats are shrieking (most things are) and less glorious than the Trumpkins promise. My overall feeling for the state of things would be pessimistic whether Hillary or The Donald won, but that's grist for another mill. For now, I'll deal with what has come, i.e., our absurd orange overlord and the musical caterwauling of the left at everything he says and does.

The Democrats, who spent the eight years of the Bush administration being obstructionists and the eight years of the Obama administration decrying the evil of obstructionism, will return again to being obstructionists and declare it good. Republicans will, of course, bemoan the Democrats' obstruction (though, to be fair, many despise Trump enough that they might become co-obstructionists thus creating a new bipartisanship). Trump will try to rule by fiat (i.e., executive orders) as Obama did, only to be denounced as a tyrant, as Obama was. It seems that we've gone from government of the people, by the people, for the people to government by tit for tat.

There won't be enough nails to shut Hillary's political coffin. Without serious intervention from friends (assuming she has any who aren't sycophants) she'll undoubtedly try to run again in 2020. When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. Hillary's not dead yet—and even then, there's enough toxic ambition in her system to animate her corpse until the smell becomes unbearable (worse even than boiled cabbage, urine, and farts). The sad reality at this point is that there isn't anyone on the Democratic bench that has the stature (or lacks the baggage) to make a serious run in 2020. If they don't run Hillary again, even though she's well past her sell-by date and loaded with baggage, who will they run? Maybe a retread of a different sort...

Obama, having now declared himself the winner of a (delusional) third term, may spend his time out of office orchestrating a repeal of the 22 Amendment (or finding a judge who will declare the Constitution unconstitutional), which would let him run again. He's young enough to still be around if or when a repeal happens and he certainly has the ambition and narcissistic self-regard to imagine himself yet again his country's new (or renewed) hope: Messiah 2.0, rested and ready to save our souls once again.

Whatever happens, 2017 and beyond promises to be an interesting mélange of political hurly-burly, angst, and, yes, schadenfreude—and squalor, lots of squalor. It should be entertaining. I can hardly wait.

Danse Macabre

Apparently everybody who was anybody died in 2016. The Grim Reaper's harvest of exceptional souls seemed especially rich this past year. The quite unexpected back-to-back deaths of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds were the most poignant. Requiescat in pacem.

Celebrity deaths hold a fascination for us. Maybe it's because they're celebrities or maybe it's because death is that one leveler that puts the uncommon and the common on par. Some seemed to have lived wonderful lives, but others seemed to have lived a horror of addiction, mental illness, dysfunction, etc., much of which was unknown—or only vaguely known—while they lived. In reviewing the lives of the rich and famous, we gain a whole new appreciation for the simplicity and obscurity of our own (at least I do).

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,
The short and simple annals of the poor.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free," wrote St. Paul. But we do so poorly with freedom, squandering it mostly on ambition, the pursuit of wealth, and the satisfaction of our base desires. Every year's crop of celebrity dead brings home that truth and underscores the fragility of our lives and the transitoriness of all our achievements great and humble. And so, in saying goodbye to 2016 and greeting 2017, it's only appropriate to end with this timeless quote from the Bard:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

To 2015 with Love and Digression...

It takes a new year (and a few weeks after that) to pull me out of my blogging lethargy, but here I am. Another milestone, a new blog post.

I made a lot of resolutions last year, so no new year post would be right without a bit of retrospective.

So, how did 2014 go?

As to 2014's resolutions. Well, that was then.

Eat better - I am eating less pizza. That's better, I think.  I'm not jonesing for Chinese take-out. I am, however, eating a lot of delicious Beecher's Mac & Cheese and frozen Lasagna. I like pie, so sue me. I have gotten into the groove of not buying a big lunch. Instead, I get some frozen meals and eat those at work. I did lose some weight and then gained some back, but overall there is less of me being acted upon by the Earth's gravitational pull than there was 12 months ago.

Digression: I first encountered Beecher's at the Sea-Tac airport where they have a small cafe. The only other Beecher's cafe in the world is at Pike Place in Seattle. It's delicious. You can get it frozen almost anywhere, I think. For a while, I was in love with Whole Foods mac 'n' cheese. For a while after that, I was hooked on the Mac and Cheezola (made with Gorganzola cheese) from Metropolitan Market (which also has ready-made deviled eggs!). But Beecher's takes the prize. It's rich and creamy and has a wonderful tang to it.

Blog more - I have been reminded recently that my resolution to blog more in 2014 was a hollow promise. All too true. My last published post in 2014 was September! Two-thirds of my blogging last year was in January. After that, not a single new post until July and two posts in August. I do have several unfinished posts for 2014 to my credit (or is it my shame?). I start 'em, but I tend to write long rambling posts with lots of pictures and digressions, so I don't finish 'em. Being a writer for a living can be taxing when it comes to writing for fun. I much prefer the latter, but by day's end I'm all worded out. The last thing I want to do is sit at my computer and type. I get so far into a digression that I digress right off into a new draft post, from which I then digress...

Paint more - I have not painted more, but I have painted. My 40mm prehistoricalistic Europeanoids were a big project that I finished entirely. Entirely. I haven't one unpainted or half-painted figure left. Even the chariot is done. I also managed a few more 28mm WW2 figures, but the bulk of that work was done in 2013. Other than that, I have a lot of things started and in the works (which is a familiar refrain). Also, even though I've been not diagnosed as having ADD, the enticing shininess of new things often leads to old things languishing. I have a lot of half-painted figures. Maybe clearing the dining table was a mistake...

Watch TV less - I gave up TV for Lent. For 40 days and 40 nights (and a few weeks beyond that) I eschewed the vidiocy to which I am all too easily prone. I thought I might wean myself off TV entirely, but that didn't happen. I almost gave up TV for Advent as well, but that didn't happen either. I may have to wait until my antique Sony Trinitron goes kaput. The inertia that keeps me from buying a new TV (one of them new-fangled flat things) may just be the trick to kick the habit. Until then, I may get a bit dumber.

Read more - Yes! I have read a lot more this year. I featured that in the last blog of 2014. It was all I could do during Lent, anyway. As usual, I'm reading several books at once. I find that when reading I get diverted towards another book that gets addressed or whose subject is mentioned in the book I'm reading. I have typically spent more than two hours a day reading. I can feel the brain enlarging despite still watching TV. I hope it's not encephalitis.

Exercise - I renewed my gym membership. What more do you want? I watched TV less, but I read more. Both involve sitting. If I could sit and exercise...

Spend less - Getting better. Not really budgeting still, but spending more time looking at where the money goes and buying less of the things I typically buy (like blowing a lot of money on eating out, ordering pizza, etc.).

Declutter - I have done some. I took a hard look at gaming projects that I haven't done anything with for a while and sold them off. Gone are my painted 15mm WW2 figures. I have, however, many more unpainted WW2 figures than I ever had painted. At our recent Drumbeat game day, I tried selling my beloved 3rd c. Romans along with my mass of unpainted Sassanids. I got no buyers. That may not be too bad. I have mixed feelings about parting with them. I'll need to re-base them (ugh!) to do anything else with them, but I may go with an adaptation of the Lion Rampant skirmish rules that came out last year (yes, I have an unfinished blog post about that—two, in fact). I'm also not averse to painting more Romans. I have another 80 figures or so that are unfinished and they are beautiful castings—but I digress...

Blame the cats less - As if.

What else?

So, other unplanned, unresolved events in 2014 were leaving Expedia and finally becoming a Catholic.

Adios, Expedia - I'm at AT&T now. I got fed up with management issues after some changes and re-org at Expedia. I almost got a job at Google down in California, but stayed here in the cold, wet Pacific Northwest instead. AT&T feels temporary, so I might wind up somewhere else this year, but we'll see. There are a lot of advantages to being at AT&T. It's closer, the hours are better, the pay is a tad higher, I can fit in daily mass (see below). I miss a lot about Expedia, but if I go back there, it won't be where I left from. I am, alas, far from retiring.


I, Papist - After 35 years a Protestant, I stopped protesting and swam the Tiber.

It wasn't a Jesuit plot, I assure you, and having a degree in theology and further graduate studies at seminary beyond that, it was more than the smells 'n' bells that drew me in. It took a lot of study (which accounts for a lot of my reading last year). If M. Luther is right, I might have just imperiled my immortal soul, so I needed to be sure I wouldn't.

I also had to go through RCIA—apparently the Church won't take just anybody. RCIA typically takes a year, but I joined the class in February, which is towards the end and just a few months before my confirmation, which took place on Divine Mercy Sunday (April 27). Having a theology degree can hasten the process—even if it's Protestant theology. George Wallace infamously said about the Democrat/Republican divide that "there ain't a dime's worth of difference between 'em." So, somewhat, with Christianity; the DNA of Catholicism and Protestantism is about 95% compatible. Of course that 5% delta is fraught with controversies. It entails some of the big 'ologies, like ecclesiology and soteriology. There's also the Eucharist, confession, Marian devotion, prayers to the saints, etc.

As another Protestant convert to Catholicism noted, there's a well-worn path taken by Tiber-swimmers: You start with reading C.S. Lewis, move on to G.K. Chesterton, and before you know it, you're in the water dog-paddling towards the Vatican. So it goes.

What's in store for 2015?

Much, I presume, but mostly staying the course:

Paint more - I have many projects in the works and I want to stick with them. As I mentioned above, I am—perhaps serendipitously—still in possession of my 3rd c. Romans. There may be a project in there, about which I will blog. No, really, I will...

Watch TV less - If I manage to succumb less to the allure of mindless eye-candy, I'm pretty sure that will generate more time for reading and painting. That's the plan, at least. Lent is coming soon. Ash Wednesday is February 18. No TV after that until Easter.

More digression: The few TV shows I watch on Amazon Prime (I don't have cable) are Justified and Grimm. The unwatched episodes will pile up after Ash Wednesday, so I'll have some Easter season binge watching to indulge in. This is the last season for Justified. However, I re-watch a lot of the shows I buy on Amazon Prime, so the temptation will be always there.

Blog more - I'll try. I'll start with publishing the blogs that are in draft limbo.

Exercise - I renewed my gym membership. What more do you want?

Declutter - It's on the list. I've kind of given up on being more of a board-gamer. I don't have space for them and I don't play what I have. I see a game-purge coming sometime this year. I purged a lot of clothes earlier and I'm planning another purge. I haven't yet gotten ruthless about purging, but I really want to. I suspect that I would never miss half the stuff I have sitting around taking up space (apart from the cats; I'd miss the cats).

Read more - That's my one good one, so far. I'm spending an hour or so in the morning and at night reading. This cuts into my painting time. I can watch TV and paint, but so far I haven't found a way to paint and read at the same time. With the cats, it's hard to do either.

Blame the cats less - I'll try.

Spend less - Getting there. Focusing on existing projects will reduce money spent on buying more figures, rules, etc.

Eat better - I've got delicious Beecher's Mac & Cheese on the menu tonight and a frozen lasagna in the freezer. I don't, however, have dessert planned. That must count for something.

So, hello 2015. I expect good things from you. Don't let me down.

2014: Out with the old, in with the new

So another annual milestone is passed in relentless frequency. It's time for reflection, resolution, and resignation. I'm a few days late with this, but here goes:

Reflection

Looking back at 2013, I'm hard pressed to think of any big achievement in my gaming life. Most of my productive energy and gaming time was spent on Bolt Action. This is not a bad thing. I like Bolt Action. It has an energy and flow to it that makes our games enjoyable. Playing Bolt Action also meant a lot more playing time with Phil Bardsley, Bill Stewart, and Dick Larsen. Longer in the tooth now than when I first met them—as am I—they game less frequently than in their relative youth, so it's nice to be a part of the few times when they game. Our games are pleasant and exceptionally non-acrimonius, which is a good thing.

Bolt Action also has the virtue of not winding me up. For some reason, certain games that I have played a lot just get me going and force a rant. Kampfgruppe Commander is one of those. I played a few games this year and always found myself getting frustrated. I'm not sure why. I think that despite its qualities, the game also has inherent flaws. It's essentially a tactical game that was re-written, streamlined, and transmogrified into an operational game without really changing the tactical nature of some of its mechanics. The lineage of KGC II goes back to Clash of Arms Games' The Clash of Armor, a good, albeit complex, set of tactical rules than no one I know of plays any more.

I think my focus for WW2 gaming is getting more towards the skirmish level. Bolt Action is the current station of that pilgrimage. I had the opportunity to play Battlegroup Overlord just before the new year. This is a big lavishly-produced offering from The Plastic Soldier Company. I have the first set of rules for the series, Battlegroup Kursk. BGK and BGO are skirmish level games, like Bolt Action, with their own command/control system that emphasizes allocation of variable command points. Fire actions can be for pinning or for effect. Pinning has a major effect on the game in that un-pinning units requires a random pull of a numbered chit (1 to 5) that counts against a force's overall rating. Once the cumulative number of chits pulled equals the force rating, the side loses. This can result in a game ending even when there are significant units still intact, i.e., no fighting to the death of the last figure. In our game, we had remaining two Tiger Is, two StuG IIIs, roughly a platoon of infantry and some other assets (like off-board heavy mortars)—but still lost, despite having brewed up most of the American armor (not surprisingly when Shermans take on Tigers). I liked the game and will post more about it, and other WW2 skirmish games, later.

I managed to complete a lot of figures, terrain, and vehicles for WW2 skirmish. I know have decent forces for British in North Africa, Japanese, and US Marines. I also have made progress on French Foreign Legion for North Africa and Russians (lots of unpainted lead for Ruskies, but I did complete "The Beast," a.k.a. a big T-35 model from Company B.

I got back into board gaming in a big way. I attended Dragonflight and Bottoscon this year and had a great time. I tend to think, incorrectly, that a board game convention is all about playing lots and lots of boardgames. But actually, the average hex 'n' counter wargame takes as much time to complete, or more, than a miniatures game. Despite the expense of most board games, it's cheaper than miniatures by far. This point would be sensible if one were an alternative to the other. I do both. No money saved in that. I see board gaming as a continuing trend. Not only are there a lot of great games coming out, but I have several that deserve a lot of play. It's a matter of finding time and opponents. This, too, increases gaming overhead.

I made slight progress on finishing my two rules projects: Row Well and Live and Pike & Periwig. The former is further along both in finalization and in models painted. I have many more galleys to complete, but more than enough to play big multi-player games. Pike & Periwig requires more editing and significantly more figures painted (see Resolutions below).

I spent little time on painting over the year. My productivity came in spurts, but there have been long down times. Between the beginning of November until just after Christmas I painted nothing at all. Nothing. I somehow managed to migrate my painting activity from my little painting nook in my den to the dining room table. This migration actually started in the summer of 2012 when I was painting a lot of ships for Row Well and Live. It was more productive to have a large space to spread out on. It also gave me the opportunity to paint in front of the TV, which I can see from the table. The den has radio or I can play DVDs or stream video through my computer, but my back is to the monitor when I paint. When I prepared to go to Bottoscon for three days in early November, I cleaned up the table lest my cat-sitter think I was completely feral. I liked the clean table so much, that I couldn't bring myself to re-migrate to it. However, I never got things going again upstairs until I had two weeks off for Christmas. Now I'm set up in my wee painting nook again and have made some good progress on some ancients figures for skirmish gaming (about which I will post more later).

Resolutions

One has to be realistic. I am not going to invent cold fusion or perpetual motion any time in 2014. I will not paint Napoleon's Grande Armée in any scale, nor any part thereof. I can, however, take a stand on a few things.

Paint more - the most prolific painters I know (e.g., Kevin Smyth and Bill Stewart) paint at least one hour a day. Whenever I've put in a little bit of painting time over a few days, I'm amazed how much I get done. Part of it is the momentum of actually painting and seeing things get nearer to completion that impels me to paint further. Then again, the inertia of not painting can be almost insurmountable. This situation requires dedication. So, I resolve to paint something—even if it's just an eyebrow on one figure—every day.

Watch TV less - this resolution is a corollary to painting more. Actually, it's video-watching since I don't have cable. I do, however, have a lot of DVDs, Netflix (discs and streaming video), and Amazon Video. It's a cornucopia of flickering eye-candy. As I've mentioned, the painting place is once again upstairs where the TV is not. I'm chagrined to reflect that I spend a lot of time watching things on Netflix or Amazon Video. I blame the cats! It's far too easy to binge-watch several episodes of an old TV series. I have to confess that I managed to watch every episode of NYPD Blue from first to last this year—TWICE! That's a lot of sitting on my butt, even though with the painting table downstairs, I managed to paint a lot while watching. However, it has been all too easy to come home at night, fix dinner (or order in, like pizza), and collapse on the couch smothered in cats (whose lethargy is highly infectious). You can't hear it enough: as a grizzled old man on my death-bed, I will not lament that I spent too little time watching the boob-tube—though I will likely lament the opposite. So, I resolve to limit my video watching to five hours per week.

Eat better - I love to eat. Who doesn't? I managed to lose about 30 pounds this year, although I gained some (too much) back between Thanksgiving and New Years. I was on a strict fascistic diet that allowed only 500 calories per day supplemented by drops of HCG, which is a hormone that causes you to burn stored fat. When I was on the diet, the results were amazing. However, I discovered that after a week of eating 500 calories a day, I wanted to eat a whole pizza—and did. Mostly I found myself jonesing for Chinese food. I would see a week of steady weight loss flushed away after downing a large order of cashew chicken. I indulge myself too much. So, I resolve to stick to the HCG diet until I get to 180 pounds and then adopt sensible eating habits of 1500 calories per day with no empty calories. Wish me luck.

Read more - This resolution is a corollary to watching less TV.  I used to be a ferocious reader. Now I find that I fall asleep the few times that I pull out a book. I get home, eat too much, watch something on the TV for too long, then pick up a book just about the time I'm getting drowsy. I'm pretty sure I'm getting stupider as a result. I can't entirely blame TV; I must also blame the cats! (I did post about this some years back.) My reading also suffers from options overload. I spend a lot of money on books. My bookshelves runneth over and my iPad is stuffed with eBooks for my Nook and Kindle apps. However, I find myself often grousing that I have nothing to read. In fact, I have altogether too much to read. It's just my short attention span asserting itself. So, I resolve to spend at least an hour every day to reading.

Exercise - I have been a full-on Gold level 24-Hour Fitness member since about 2000 and was a Gold's  Gym member for years before that. I was never a gym-rat, per se, but I did spend several days a week working out. When I bought Stately Chez Dave in 2006—and acquired three cats!—I just stopped going regularly. I went from being 180 pounds in Jan 2006 to about 245 at the beginning of 2013. I'm fatter than Grendel! Through the HCG diet, I got down to 210 in late October, but its crept back up. In addition to dieting and eating better, I need to work out. Nothing too hardy. I'm 53 now, so I don't expect to be Charles Atlas, but regular aerobic exercise will keep me less tired and regular resistance exercise will keep my bones healthier. So, I resolve to spend at least three days each week working out.

Spend less - I have never kept a budget. Never. When I reflect on it, it seems absurd—even though I'm sure that most Americans don't either. Budgets are like dieting with money, and no one likes to diet. I indulge myself with gaming stuff: lots of expensive figures I don't paint, lots of expensive rules I don't play, and lots of paint I don't use (I'm a bit more than bemused at how many duplicate, triplicate, and quadruplicate paint colors I have. I just buy without knowing what I already have. Me: "Oh look, red. I think I need red..."). The excess causes storage problems. I'm not tidy in any sense of the word, but that situation is only exacerbated by too much stuff and too little space to put it. I also buy books, as I mentioned above. Sometimes, really expensive books. I like to think I'm a collector as much as reader (which is not untrue), but I do buy a lot of books that I can't possibly read. I also spend too much on food. Eating simpler and better (resolution #3) is not just healthier, it's more economical. To spend $20.00 on a pizza is not just a lot to spend on a meal, it's fattening. I also buy lots of boardgames that I don't play. Again, I think of it as "collecting," but I have to draw a line somewhere. When I look back on what I spend each month, I'm aghast. So, I resolve to set and live within a budget. I'm on Mint.com, which helps. I just need to be stricter with myself. I've budgeted $150.00 for hobbies and $100.00 for books each month. These numbers are much below my actual average...

Declutter - Spending too much and having no space to put the excess leads to clutter. My garage is in disarray so that I can't put my car in. I meant to clean it out, I just don't like doing it. Opening up all the boxes is somewhat delightful as well as disturbing. I have lots and lots of little metal men that I meant to paint (really), but never did. In some cases, I have got back to them. However, there are a lot of figures that I've had for 10+ years and expect to be sitting around still 10+ years from now. I have a closet too full of clothes that I don't wear—in fact, my actual wardrobe is very simple, so why do I have so much else? I gave a lot away last year and should do the same this year. The clothes I have left are too small for me. The ones I gave away were the larger sizes that I expected to be unneeded as I lost weight. Oops. (I'll do better this year.) I need to take stock of what I can get rid of. For a lot of stuff, the Goodwill beckons. For a lot of gaming stuff, it's bring-and-buys or eBay. However, I need to organize and make stuff ready for sale. Books are a more difficult proposition. I regard them as resources, which I may not want to read now, but will later. I have a sordid history of getting rid of books only to re-buy them later—often for a higher price. Game rules are similar to books; I find them to be useful references and, more so than books, are hard to re-find at any price. In any case, I have much more than I need. So, I resolve to reduce my stuff-load to at least the point where I have a place for everything.

Blog more - I see that I've managed only 14 posts for all of 2013. To be fair to myself, my posts are long and often heavily illustrated. It takes a while to put on together and I don't always have time (however, less TV time will help!). I also have a lot in the hopper. My Blogger dashboard shows that I currently have 25 posts in draft mode. Many of these are almost complete, I just haven't made the final touches and posted. If I post more frequently, I may draw in more followers. Everyone needs followers. So, I resolve to post—on average—once a week for 2014. That means 52 posts overall. That may mean smaller posts, too.

Blame the cats less - However well the cats deserve my obloquy, I run them; it's not the other way around (hard as that may be to imagine). I've often reflected that the infectious nature of feline languor has much to do with my own laziness and unproductivity. Time to human up and admit that I laze around with the furry munchkins because I like to. However, the quality of torpor is more important than its persistence. I shall spend less—though better—time lounging about covered in a layer of cat. I will not let that be a drag on getting other things done.

Resignations

This is what I resign myself to not doing.

Big projects - In my younger days when time and money seemed inexhaustible, I had dreams of doing big gaming projects. It never worked back then and certainly won't work going forward. My experience with Bolt Action has shown that I can get a lot of bang for my buck on small-scale games that can be added to over time. Less than 30 figures and a tank or so is more than enough per side for Bolt Action. I am more leery of anything that requires a lot of large units. My Pike & Periwig rules call for 18-figure foot units and 8-figure horse units. Also, the rules can be played with a small number of units per side, basically a reinforced brigade, even though larger games are possible. Like Row Well and Live, I envisioned P&P as a system that didn't require huge numbers of figures/models to play. Apart from P&P, I see my gaming trending towards skirmish games in 28mm or larger.

Totally new eras/genres - As I've mentioned, I have a lot of unpainted lead and a lot of painted lead that goes unused. Part of the ever-growing-lead-pile syndrome is the tendency to get sucked into projects that are terra incognito. These projects require buying new figures, new rules, new terrain, etc. which defies all my resolutions above. I will not start any new projects this year. I need to do someting with my existing lead pile that decreases it, whether that means selling it off at bargain prices or painting it for use in a project that's been on the back burner (I have a lot of these). Anything I've started in 2013 or earlier is fair game for new figures, etc. But I won't suddenly start painting for a whole new area.

No plastic miniatures of any kind - This is more of a resolution than a resignation. The last plastic minis I painted were some Airfix HO scale Confederate infantry in 1977. I have not painted plastic minis since, nor shall I ever. I only mention it here as a response to the alarming emergence of plastic figures in the hobby.  Chacun à son goût and all that, but the day that metal minis go away, I officially change hobbies.

So there it is. My 2014 plans in a nutshell. We'll see how it all works.

Looking back (and forward)

It's almost the end of January, so I figured I'd better complete my "new year" post.

Looking back at 2012, I am much more pleased with what I've done than in the previous few years. 2010 was miserable for many reasons that I don't wish to revisit. 2011 picked up a bit and I got a few projects under my belt. 2012 was probably the most creative year I've had in a long time. So what did I accomplish? Here's a brief review:

Wrote two sets of wargame rules

OK, neither is complete, but I have produced playable versions of my Pike & Periwig Dutch War rules and my Row Well and Live! ancient naval rules. The latter are far more polished after several play-tests than the former, which has only had one play-test.

Pike & Periwig started in February last year with me poking around in Adobe InDesign CS3 and playing with various antique fonts to get the look and feel I wanted—even though I had yet to really get any ideas going.

The inspiration to write was the resumption of Mark Copplestone's apparently moribund Glory of the Sun 28mm range of 1672-era figures. When Nick Eyre at North Star Military Figures acquired the range and hired Steve Saleh to complete it as North Star 1672, I got interested in reviving the painting project I had put on hold some time before (about 2010, I think). The rules we planned to use for the earlier project (Beneath the Lily Banners) didn't really inspire any of us. Being fast play rules, they lack meat. They also contained some unintelligible bits that left us somewhat perplexed.

I started out by looking for ways to revise a set of rules called King's War written by one of the locals here in the PNW (Bruce Bretthauer). They had a small following in 15mm and I wanted to use them for 28s. However, as I spent more time looking at them I wanted something more detailed and different mechanics. I've written more about the genesis and development of P&P here and here. I'll let it suffice to say that I have about 70 pages of rules, diagrams, and examples of play written out and formatted in InDesign CS6. The work has involved a lot of writing, research, and revision with a few lengthy hiatuses thrown in for good measure.

My only play-test was an afternoon with Rick Martinez using wooden bases for the units and a dining table for the battlefield. The rules played out well and I've caught a lot of things that I need to either write out or define better (so much of the play-test came ad hoc from my head). I also saw places where I needed to change some rules. It was productive time well spent.

Row Well and Live! started in June last year. The basic ideas for the game came to me while I was lying sick in a hotel room in San Jose, CA. I had just bought a sackful of 1:600th scale Xyston galleys from The Game Kastle in San Jose to augment the small handful I already had. I wanted to do something with them, but I couldn't think of a good set of rules that allowed a reasonably enjoyable game with just a few ships per side.

My time in San Jose was mostly spent with friends—and being sick—but I managed to hash out the basic vision for the rules. My inspiration was, of course, Ben-Hur. The rules seemed to flow faster than Pike & Periwig, but then ancient naval rules are a bit simpler than pike and shot land war.

Returning home, I managed to bang out enough rules for a play test in a bit more than two months. I was surprised at how well everything came together. The revisions since then have been minor. Most of what I have left to do is polish what I've got.

Some pics of my latest game can be seen on Dave Schueler's blog Naval Gazing.

Painted a lot of 1:600 scale galleys

At the time I was languishing in my hotel sick-bed in SJO, I had no ships painted at all. I tinkered with building the models, but hadn't done anything until I started writing the rules. So far I have about 25 ships completed and maybe another dozen, plus sinking ships, to go before I call it good. My posts about painting the wee ships can be seen here.

Created a lot of game pieces

The Row Well and Live rules require a number of counters to mark shooting attenuation, grappling, damaged oars and steering, damaged rams, initiative sequence, etc. I came up with ideas for them and created a huge pile of these markers in no time. My exuberance over my little brain-farts of counter-making inspiration can be seen here and here.

Created islands

RWAL also needed some land bits to be avoided. I picked up some 2" pink board insulation and a hot knife and got to it. My land-making adventures can be revisited here.

Painted some 28mm pikers and shooters

OK, the total number painted and based is not inspiring—certainly not to people who churn out hundreds of figures a year. (You know who you are.) However, I'm happy that I made progress. One unit is complete, but I have many more that are nearly so—and a couple guns as well.

Bolt Action Japanese

I got inspired late in the year to further dissipate my already feeble project focus when I play a game of Bolt Action WW2 skirmish. I don't love them, but they're fun and they got me dusting off the 28mm Japanese that were languishing in neglect for so long. I managed to paint two tanks, two MMGs, two squads, and some other "team" stands like knee mortars, snipers, and flamethrowers. I also finished two USMC 81mm mortars and two bazooka teams. I have many more Japanese cleaned and primed and some in further progress than that. Once painted, I assume that I will have well over 1000 points, as they're counted. I might play in some 1:1 tournament style games, but I'm mostly looking at creating multiplayer game scenarios.

Looking forward...

I want to get both my rules sets completed and made available to others. My initial thought had been not to sell them, but I'd like to look into a way to make them pay for themselves. Lead is expensive. If I could recoup in rules sales what I spent (and will spend) on 28mm figures and 1:600th scale boats, I'll be happy.

I plan to run Row Well and Live! at Enfilade in May and perhaps a game of Bolt Action. I won't count on running even a wee game of Pike & Periwig by May, but perhaps after then I can devote my time to the alchemy of turning lead into painted figures. I have a lot of lead for P&P. I just need to hunker down and paint!

More rules? I may be a bit addicted to rules writing now, and I should finish what I have before I start anew. However, reading William P. Guthrie's excellent volumes on battles of the Thirty Years War, I've got a bug in my ear about writing skirmish rules for the period. Kleiner krieg (small war) was the near-constant conflict that engaged small parties of men in between  the big battles. I have a few skirmish rules for later periods that I could adapt, but I'd like to do something that is specific to the period rather than modify an existing set. (Of course I'll steal their good ideas...)