"How Often Do You Get "One Of Those Days"?" Topic

You know the kind of day I mean …

It's the kind of day that makes you want to put all your books, CDs, DVDs and all my hobby stuff into one huge pile and then just set it all ablaze, and then just have a beer or two as you watch everything reduce down to ashes?

Not give it away or even sell it, just burn it all and enjoy the light show.

Dan

Never, I love the army men too much to damage them. I am their commander, their caretaker, and no harm must come to them. A good commander takes care of the troops.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
bunkermeister.blogspot.com

Some times collections become overwhelming. I have ditched all my dvds, cds, toys and comics. I got rid of 90% of my books too. The computer has made this easier to tolerate.

Now I just concentrate on gaming. With so many options its like 10 interests under one classification.

Can't say I've ever had a day like that.

No, never.

The closest was one day when I threw away a lot of materials that I might, possibly, someday, conceivably, turn into buildings or hills or ruins or other terrain. I kept the stuff that I probably will turn into things.

Not quite that drastic but there are days I look at my unpainted mountain and want to chuck them all. I've been trying to cull the herd lately on the marketplace with mixed results…sigh

To a very small extent. I give a lot of it away but mainly it means that I need to clean up the game room as my projects have covered the entire game table again.

I know the feeling. I did give away some 1/4-1/3 of my collection of painted Miniatures, plus my collection of Osprey volumes, and a substantial portion of my other books, when I moved across the country.

The books I gave away I had already read, and I didn't need the Ospreys anymore, as I can find most uniform plates I need now on the internet. I kept my two-volume Funken Napoleonic set just for nostalgia.

Giving away painted Miniatures seems insane, but they had been painted to complement the collections of those friends I was leaving behind, or who had already moved away. I was already growing tired of too many big game periods, and wanted to focus on DBA ancients, skirmish games, and a few horse and musket periods. I was also mindful of the fact that I will leave all my things behind when I die, so why not lighten the load now?

As for CDs and DVDs, I saved a lot of room by ditching the plastic cases and jewel cases and putting the discs in zippered binders.

Never.

My men have never let me down.

Now real life….yeah…I wanna ditch that….

Never. I worry about seeing that they'll be taken care of after I'm gone. But the urge to cancel club memberships, kill magazine subscriptions, delete web sites and e-mail addresses and somehow manage to go completely solo is getting stronger and more frequent.

Never had that urge and I am well past the point of no return on my collection. Almost all of my best and most trustworthy friends I met through the hobby. No, that is not even a remote possibility. Even now, after 40+ years of gaming, I still greatly enjoy painting, gaming, terrain building and everything associated to the hobby.

Never

Dan,

Time to get your meds checked.

And no, most of the time it is not the hobby or my below average painting, but a lot of the people in the hobby. Most are fine and some are good friends, but then there are those who are..well…………

Dave

I have had those days.

Invariably I find that it is not war games that causes it but war gamers. Only people can get you into a funk like that.

Decades ago I knew a guy who owned a hobby store. I always went to his store to get parts from model railroads, scenery etc.,for my conversions and model making so he did not know I was a gamer. One day a bunch of gamers were in his shop trying to convince him to stock minis.

The guy was obviously riled. He said to me "Let me tell you something. "Gamers are the nastiest, laziest, cheapest, lyingest, ungrateful people I know. They won't do anything unless you gift wrap it and shove it into their grubby little claws, they won't thank you, and they'll only complain." Back then I thought he was being a bit harsh. Now, thirty years later I realize he hasn't overestimated us by much.

By the way later on he found out I was a gamer and was a little apologetic but I told him not to be.

Your toys will never fail you. Your little lead men are creatures ( create-yours??) and serve you loyally.

One day when I was in a club we had a guy who said "Hey!! Why don't we do Russo Japanese War!?" The mood around the club was generally genial. We'll play anything. We said "Well that's great Joe, we'll do it? We didn't know you had the figures for it." "Joe" then explained that he wanted US to buy all the figures, paint, them put on the scenario so HE could Play Russo-Japanese War. in fact a direct quote of his "Why should I have to go through the work and effort of building up the games. This should be a club- effort, and NO he did not mean that we all would buildup a few units, WE would build everything for him.

It was at that moment I remembered the words of the hobby store owner.

So when you get the urge to do that Cacique , sit down, have a few beers and figure out which of the gamers in the group is pissing you off and either dump him or just resolve to ignore whatever he says.

My lads, my soldiers do not deserve such a fate.

Vamps, tramps and mules.

Otto

Never.

The trick is to limit your collections to a few specific periods or genres. This doesn't mean that you will not play other periods or genres, just don't collect the miniatures associated with these other periods.

I have days where I go down to my Lair, sit at my table, look around at all the unfinished projects I have and just put my head in my hands and think"what the…?" Such moments have never been followed by mass destruction though. The "drink a beer and decide what is really bothering you" is good advice. The world is too much with me these days.

Over the last forty years I have gaming I have been involved in board wargaming, miniatures wargaming and roleplaying and built up impressive collections in all three areas. For the last year or so though I have been going though one HELL of a funk where I can't seem to inspire any lasting interest in anything long enough to get anything significant done. I pull minis out, paint a few, then put them away (another unfinished project!). I'll pull out a map, look at it, think how cool it would be to get some counters on it, then put it away. I do have a Pathfinder group going right now but even with that I find myself the day of every session almost resenting having committed to it and wanting to cancel. I just don't know what the remedy is. As Robert Piepenbrink says, 'the urge to cancel club memberships, kill magazine subscriptions, delete web sites and e-mail addresses and somehow manage to go completely solo is getting stronger and more frequent' and I see that happening right in front of me. Gaming has been such a large part of my life for such a long time I just don't know what to do about it.

Bob. don't let my foul moods worsen your own. This is a hobby, not an obligation. Do the things which please you when you please. But if you've got an aspect you resent, my advise would be to sit down and think out why, and how to fix it.

I know at least one of my problems is that my fix is two or three games a month, and I'm averaging not quite one. A lot of my dissatisfaction is cancelled or unsatisfactory games--which is why the call of solo gaming, which rarely works for me. At least I could count on my opponent showing up. But times have changed--and times will change again.

Oh no I wasn't pinning any of my gaming woes on you, Robert lol. Just commenting that I feel where you are coming from. I organize a club which meets most weekends at a local comic book store and I've been going religiously for probably a decade or more now, except over the last year I just haven't been really 'feeling' any of the gaming. I've always gamed at least once a week whether minis or board or rpgs but I don't know right now what (if anything) is pushing my buttons any more. I really like my friends at the club and I really enjoy hanging out but the games themselves no longer call to me (or at least not for long enough to get any significant progress done on them) and it's a very strange sensation – and not one I enjoy. Mid-life crisis (I turned 50 last November) ahoy!!

My problem if anything is I just have far too many interests that are constantly competing with each other to the degree that nothing stays in focus long enough to reach a conclusion. Just talking about minis I have Ancients, Medieval, Renaissance, Napoleonics, ACW, WWI, WWII, Modern, Fantasy, SF all on the go and in a variety of scale from 6mm to 28mm. I *seriously* need a good solid clear-out of stuff that is on the fringe and focus solely on those projects that REALLY call to me. Which is easier said than done!

It happens at the moment a project goes from fun and relaxing, can't wait to get home and work on it, to a tedious chore taking up space on the work table.

I had an experience lately. I had to move from NYC to Milwaukee Wisconsin, because I am getting too old to live by myself and all of my family is in or near Milwaukee. I was hospital bound. I still am tethered to an oxygen concentrator. The upshot was that I might lose my gaming stuff. I put a good face on it by thinking I could start my collection all over again! Ultimately, I was able to have relatives go to New York and pack up my stuff. It cost a couple thousand dollars, but I was happy to have it done. I guess I should answer your question by saying never, Dan.

Never.
Ever.

I have an ugly hunch many tin mountains can be explained on the theory that it takes a year to buy paint and base two opposed armies and six months for something else to catch the eye of the miniature wargamer. Joining a group so you can play while building seems to help, but groups are not always available.

I am pushing hard to finish another 250 5mm SYW Prussians this week. I am pretty much sick of the sight of them. But when they're done, I should have enough for a game. And I will NOT go over to the 28mm plastics and leave another project uncompleted.

But it's hard.

I've been there, but not with my wargaming stuff, maybe because I don't game competitively with strangers.

I've only saved myself because when I get into that mood its too much effort to pile stuff up and find the matches.

Never.

pjm

Too broke to watch potential money burn away.

01 Aug I had a cataract removed and implant put in …

On 04 Aug I had a bridge removed and two teeth filled. So I've been having some kind of "one of those days" … mostly good … so far …

Sometime later this month I'll get the other cataract "fixed".

On 01 Sep I'm getting a hip replaced …

Got hearing aids a couple months ago. So I'm being rebuilt a piece/part at a time …

Kind of like the 6 Million Dollar Man … but marked down to a few $100,000 USD …

So I'll be having "one of those days" for a while … Or something like that …

Geesh. Back to back too.

Dan

Yeah the VA wants to rebuild me as soon as they can. And move on to the next "rebuild" in line, whoever that is …

I was just scheduled for the other cataract yesterday by the VA for 25 Aug.

"No rest for the wicked !" …

"How Often Do You Get "One Of Those Days"?"

Not sure, but it always seems to be around this time of the month…..