2013 in Review

What a year 2013 has been. While the last 2 months have been a bit disappointing in the nerdery department, it's been a pretty great year.

While it's tempting to run through my successes and (greater) failures on the resolutions, it's actually more interesting to talk about the year without the lists.

PAINTING
January/February started off solidly with a bunch of napoleonics painting. I eventually got led off in other directions, but I have a large block of 15mm french troops, and no officers, or cavalry. Hmmmmm.....still highly unfieldable, but a step in the right direction. It didn't help that the great online campaign I was playing died as a result of the GM's new job and lengthy commute......a big loss of motivation there.

Later into the year I made some good progress painting up some 28mm terrain pieces. A broken down wizards tower, a bunch of fencing (stone and otherwise), and a half finished graveyard are now ready to rock. I realize I have a lot of 28mm fantasy terrain now (including a bunch of foamcore buildings). The major gap in my terrain would be hills. I have trees, rivers, roads, but no hills. A serious deficiency. A big failure was not painting a 'skirmish force'. My god that is open ended and still ended up a failure. *sigh*. Always next year I suppose.

GAMING
Board games and Wargames I managed to get a fair number in. Mostly spread through the year as well. Battletech, Napoleonics, and Warhammer Fantasy were tops this year. Board games were sprinkled around evenly.

Roleplaying games remained a top event. It was pointed out this year that our Space 1889 campaign has been going for well over a year. We are closing in to a break off point which I think is probably a good thing. It's nice to swap between systems and campaigns to keep things fresh. The OSRIC campaign I was playing in has died off a bit as a result of my friend in Halifax getting a large gaming group organized. The writeups he sends me are howlers, I do miss playing with him. Luckily for me, he is moving again in the fall (to Saskatoon), so I will no doubt get in more skype gaming with him for a while.

EXERCISE
My scooter was stolen in the spring, so I was forced to bicycle to work more often (i.e. almost every day). It's actually been pretty good, even in the winter (which has been abnormally dry), so I decided not to buy a new scooter. Yay me.

The 'fab ab' challenge was a failure this year though. Every time I made it up to around 80 situps a day, I'd end up getting too tired from work, or on vacation, or sick, or whatever, and stop doing the situps. I'm currently back up to 50, but it's the progress at the top that is very, very slow.

FAMILY & WEALTH
I didn't manage to play a game with my brother this year. He recently went through a big breakup, so I think that helps contribute to the failure. I did play some of a game with my dad, but he wasn't really into it and we ended early. Need to find something more accessible than a GMT game (Labyrinth).

My personal savings target was hit, but I failed to save at all for retirement. Not getting a roommate this year was a factor, but I was holding out for a specific roommate.....which will be happening in January. My 'art deco' project was crafting an engagement ring in the art deco style while knowing nothing about it. It was a lovely, and successful operation, and now I'm having to downsize my stuff to make room for my fiance to join me in my place. The wedding is in may. Lots on the plate these days.

NERD PURCHASING
This one is hit and miss. As part of the downsizing I did eliminate a bunch of stuff. I certainly did not manage to half my nerd costs this year. I think I am probably up 10%. However......this includes duty paid on packages, as well as ebay shipping fees (getting rid of stuff). If I look at the amount of money I made on what I sold, I'm probably a lot closer to half. So maybe half the net costs? Maybe I'll give myself that one.

Books
I've even downsized to a single, smaller, bookcase for my nerd books. This doesn't include history books that non nerds might look at. I'm trying to maintain a one in, one out book rule, but not sure that will be acheived. There has been some big pulses of RPG buying, and I realize I need to use this stuff dammit!

I did manage to GM a game down in portland for my fiance's sister and friends. Almost no one at the table had played before and they had a good time. My fiance was mortified. There wasn't enough time, otherwise it was a success.