The Patient Gardener Vs. The Ringer

* = Truer words were rarely attached to posters...

Don’t overstay your welcome, I’ve often been told this. You want to keep it fresh; you want to keep it moving. If you’re not moving forward, if you’re static then technically you’re stagnant and that’s no good. It’s important that we constantly refine ourselves, work on our limitations, and grow personally, professionally, and of course emotionally. We as humans were not meant to live within ‘ruts’, to grind our gears in a quagmire of droll day to day with no forward momentum. So since I’m all into lists I give unto you…

TEN THINGS THAT GOTTA CHANGE!

1) Thursday Night Board Gaming Covenant – I have missed for about three weeks now. There is no excuse. I just have had stuff come up but there is no reason I shouldn’t have MADE time. If I’m going to be a part of something I need to be a PART of it, not a peripheral. It’s unfair to those that do make it.

2) “I hate it when Mommy & Daddy fight!” – I said it. Cassandra said it maybe once. SO if you’re going to tease someone about it, then tease me. It was my line and I’m a little insulted, not really, that credit for so sweet a line has been attributed elsewhere. Oh and for the record we don’t fight. I really don’t fight with anyone since it’s not worth the effort and I hate the way I feel afterwards. So I’m not trying to fight with anyone over this. I just want credit given where credit is due. I want you to freshen up your material. You know who you are.

3) E-Z Bike – This bad mama jamma needs to be fixed. I was kicking ass on it and taking names of fat people. Now it’s chilling in the closet and I’m feeling fat. Granted that fat has served me well in the last week to keep me warm in the Snowpocalypse, but I don’t like it.

4) The Baby Cheezus Hate – I find it sad that the sport’s ‘media’, which spent like seventeen years nuzzling his sweaty jock strap, is now like a pack of slavering hyenas waiting to pick at the carcass. I usually reserve that crap for the regular ‘media’. We in America love nothing more than tearing someone down that we’ve built up. THAT is our national pastime. THAT is our American ‘exceptionalism’, or it’s become our ‘exceptionalism’. Which according to my spell check isn’t even an F’N word.

5) BUZZ Trivia Challenge & BINGO! – It’s been too random. It’s mainly my fault as I can be a bit all over the place when planning things, but what I’d like to do is do both twice a year. It’s not fair to Anthony “People’s Champ” J. that he doesn’t get more opportunity to flex his trivia muscles, especially since he’s dominated. It also isn’t fair that the madness that is BINGO doesn’t occur a bit more. So I’m going to do something about it and have these things both twice this year, THIS I SWEAR!

6) Tylenol PM – I got to find a way to slow down. It’s getting to the point where I’m not sleeping without medicinal assistance. My family is a notorious bunch of insomniacs, I have no desire to give up something that I truly enjoy and quiet honestly need to function. That being said I’m not a fan of being reliant upon pills to fall asleep, just as I’m not happy about being reliant upon bills to eliminate lingering pain. I think if I can slow it to three days a week that would be a good goal.

7) Money(s) – Holy crap can I spend some cheddar. It’s not gotten bad, but to me it’s gotten bad enough. I have enough “tiny men” for any number of games. I have a crap load of books to read. I have enough video and board games to last me a lifetime. I think it’s a good time to slow the roll significantly, say ‘no’ to deals, be much more selective, play it more for the long run. I mean I love games don’t get me wrong, but I’m putting off getting a T.V. for the basement by continuing to get gaming stuff. The goal is a better balance between ‘Want’ & ‘Need’.

8) D&D – Even if it’s just an every month Castle Ravenloft/Wrath of Ashardalon, when it comes out, group I’d take it. In reality I’d love a regular D&D group again. I just need to find some people to play in it CONSISTENTLY, and who are invested in it. The honest truth is I’m missing running it significantly and as excited as I am over the Twin Cities Marvel SAGA Campaign, it’s just not the same.

9) “He & I are…Buddies…” – In the last few months I have become strangely unavailable to the vast majority of my friends. Be it Dave, Mike, Anthony “Hot Carl” J., Joe, J.B., my dad, the list goes on and on I’ve sort of pushed people to an arm’s length. I’m not sure why, but I’ve found myself isolating. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing; it’s just an unfair thing. Those people who call me friend take the time to be my friend, so I need to reciprocate. I think I just need to remember that the next time I don’t want to “deal” with someone. That shouldn’t be a choice since they always “deal” with me.

10) Painting Minis – I have gotten significantly better about this, but I need to keep my momentum. I actually enjoy painting; I just don’t enjoy painting alone. So whether I need to find a game store to go to, or just wrangle in some folks to paint with, or whatever it is, I need to set aside one night a week to work on the never ending throngs of minis I’ve got to paint. It’s not going to get any easier when I get the BUTTLOAD of Storm Troopers I asked for Christmas. Those little dudes will need to be primed and repainted to meet my idea of the Basement Sci-Fi War.

I think that’s a modest list, and best of all accomplishable.

Almost as accomplishable as

RANDOM CRAP!

- I didn’t even think accomplishable was a word.
- Oh and for those that think the idea that I KNOW I’m getting some Storm Trooper minis for Christmas ruins it, you’re wrong. I have no idea which ones, how many, what designs, etc. I’m super excited about the prospect of a stocking full of cheap pre-painted Storm Troopers.
- Joe Webb looked pretty damn good last night in a debacle.
- J.B. wrote me a fantastic e-mail regarding a Twin Cities Marvel SAGA Campaign teaser I sent out last week. The questions he asked just spun themselves into new plot ideas, into new scenarios, into an ever-shifting web of possibility. That’s the beauty of running a game. It’s collective story telling, but when you run the game your get to be the editor. It’s your job to get the most out of, not only the game, but also the player’s, the setting, the experience. You get to see the story behind the curtain; you get to be the Great & Powerful OZ! And I really dig that about the experience.
- Disappointment is a bitter fruit, BUT if you mix it with some sugar and blend it up, it makes a fabulous topping.
- I’m thinking White Chicken Chile tonight or maybe Thanksgiving Casserole. Either would be fantastic. We’ve gotten away from chicken of late, in fact I’m seeing a pattern of us leaving chicken behind in the winter. It’s curious that our red meat intake goes up drastically when it gets cold out. Maybe there is a subconscious or body need for it. Just a theory.
- Spell check is my friend.
- I have a palatable excitement over our Holiday card this year. There is a true sense of insane genius that came together in its creation. Between Cassandra’s small touches, to Mom-in-Law’s uncanny seamstress abilities, to Char’s picture taking skills and creative flourishes, to Anthony “Computron” J.’s Photoshop mastery, to just the bizarre ideas that erupt from deep within my subconscious it all coalescences into something truly magical. Thank you all for being the mirepoix, that’s French cooking talk SON, in our Awesome Stew.

I think I’ve wasted enough time today. For now…

“Laboring in the liquid light of Leviathan
Spectres swarm around the sunken cities of the saurians
Rising from the void through the blackness of eternal night
Colossus of the deep comes crashing down with cosmic might

And none may see again the shimmering of Avalon
Or know the fates of all the races man has cursed
Long gone are the ages of the alchemists
Now there are none who know the secrets of the earth

Harken to the howl of the Huntsman's hounds
Or the clarion of kingdoms doomed and drowned

Lament for the passing of the auroch
And the slaying of the ancient wyrm
Would you dare to meet the gaze of the basilisk
Or face the flames as the phoenix burns?

And none may see again the shimmering of Avalon
Or know the fates of all the races man has cursed
Long gone are the ages of the alchemists
Blessed are those who keep the secrets of the earth
Lament the passing of the auroch
and the slaying of the ancient wyrm
Would you dare to meet the gaze of the basilisk
Or face the flames as the phoenix burns?”


* = No wonder Cthulhu lies dreaming, it's dark in R'lyeh. It's the perfect place to sleep...