Friday, January 1, 2021

2020 in Review: Clean sweep....of failure!

It's no revelation that 2020 was a dumpster fire for most of us. Locally we started heading off the tracks in February/March. Working in the hospital we battened down for a tsunami of infection and death that didn't arrive. It was still quite stressful, no one knew anything, it was a mix of being scared to be working in the operating rooms, and being bored outside them looking for more to do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at home, the wife was expecting in the summer. So much was done to switch the home around including evicting me into the furnace room a.k.a the Dave Cave. Some outdoor work included installing an arbour and some fencing around the bee hives. 

 

Once it became clear that  enfilade was cancelled my painting dropped to zero. There really wasn't much motivation left at the end of the day to get my hobby on, when other projects with a much more definite 'due date' where approaching. 

Its mine. Not a random internet pic.
 

End of summer arrived, with a new baby, and (no surprise to those with children) two kids is a lot more work than one. Like....more than twice. Quarantine/Purgatory fatigue set in as numbers ballooned and restrictions came back. I've felt a mental fog for a lot of this year.

Having said all that, it's still a bit startling that I got NONE of my resolutions done. Maybe I went in a bit cocky but I'm fairly certain if enfilade had happened I would have hit a few of them. As it is....zero. The collection grew, outlays didn't decrease, I think that I played no table top games, and painting was a joke.

FAILURE! x7

1/. Host cowboy game - play unpainted//partially painted//fully painted
2/. Paint Austrians for enfilade// paint hussar rampant for enfilade //paint 2 sides for hussar rampant
3/. Frostgrave OR hardwired OR Pulp Alley OR some osprey skirmish ruleset - play unpainted//paint one side//paint both sides
4/. Decreased Kickstarter & nerdery expenditures by 20%//Only 3 kickstarters in the year//no kickstarters
5/. # of blog posts/regular hobby updates: 26 in a year// at least 2 per month// 1 every 2 weeks
6/. Minimum figs: 1 per week (easy...)//stretch 1 per week not enfilade related
7/. paint and/or give away more than I buy (negative growth)//paint more

The only slightly silver lining on this dog of a year is that the little work I did do was partial painting on lots of different things. It may mean some actual production in 2021. As the most excellent darkest dungeon game shares with us:

Do not ruminate on this fleeting failure - the campaign is long, and victory will come

 

 

 

13 comments:

  1. Definitely a very strange year with mental highs and lows, even more so as you were directly involved in the health industry. At least 2021 is the chance to start afresh, and you have the new arrival to at least look back on 2020 with some degree of satisfaction.

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    1. Hah, yes. I'm sure once the horrors of the 4 month sleep regressions fade I'll look more fondling on the first year of child #2.

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  2. A crazy year Dave; I have pretty high expectations the current one. I look forward to getting together and actually playing a game this year.

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    1. Yes! Maybe an open air game in the summer if nothing else. I guess the cowboys need to be on the high priority list....

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    2. Mine are going to be done by mid march!

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    3. March. Perhaps this is something I can work towards....

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  3. BZZT *WRONG* you played in at least one Alpian Wars tabletop game online with ME!

    Take your victories where you can get them!

    Two children, you are in the thick of it now ...

    The campaigns are always longer than anticipated, with the sense of accomplishment all the greater when done.

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    1. Hot dog! I forgot that was this year, seems so long ago. I seem to remember something about driving the defeated before my victorious army to spread fear into the town we were about to sack....

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  4. Congratulations on the new addition to the family! With that (and a global pandemic, of course) I hope you are giving yourself a well-earned pass on any missed goals for 2020.

    I will be interested to hear if you mount a cowboy game in 2021. What rules will you use? I've played Dead Man's Hand, and enjoyed it immensely.

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    1. Thanks! I have a couple of options to try. Fistful of lead, dead mans hand, and pulp alley are all possibilities. I've played pulp alley twice and it is very flexible. Deadman's hand a gaming buddy handed off to me when I gifted him some 15mm european buildings I wasn't going to use. So my options expanded.

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    2. Fist Full of Lead or Pulp Alley I am ready for!

      Got loads of ole west figs ready painted up too ...

      Yee Haw!

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  5. Congrats on the wee babe am sure by now she's crawling all over the place. Late I know, but I am a fan of "Late is better than never". :)

    No worries about last year and hobby. It was a toilet of a year for most of us. Let's hope 2021 offers you at least a little time to work on hobby things and if not, to at least visit the blogs of those that have been able to instead.

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  6. Thanks Dai. Late comments are welcome as well. Baby isn't mobile quite yet but has a disconcertingly long lunge for 'interesting' things (anything I'm currently holding).

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