Games: One Era Ends. One Era Continues.

On Sunday I sold my complete collection of BattleTech miniatures and books to one person for the sum of $850. This was a great relief to me (and Aerin too). I had feared I would just end up having the lot picked through until all I had left was the hard to sell stuff, but now it's all taken care of. It's going to a good home, but I've been ready to move on for a while now.

Of course, I've already made plans to spend some of the proceeds to further expand my Flames of War collection. While there are still a ton of options for armies that I could buy, I've tried to keep myself focused on purchases that will actually see the tabletop at some point. For all that I want to actually see everything painted, I've decided to mainly work on just getting everything together. I know I keep changing the plan, but at least if it's not sitting in blister packs I can actually get something onto the table to play with.

There are a few things that still need reorganizing. I still have a bunch of Heavy Gear mins from Dream Pod 9. I really like these minis, and I definitely want to use them again at some point. However, it will probably be with another game system in all likelihood. I haven't even seen a set of the Blitz! rules, but I like the Flames of War game mechanics too much not to try a conversion.

So that's were things stand.

Life: Sleep...

I just reread my last blog entry, and it's odd to think I'm writing another one at this late hour due to my inability to fall asleep.

I'm really not sure exactly what it is that's left me with a whole week of poor quality sleep. I've been waking up hungry from any number of stupid dreams. This hasn't happened to me often in the last year since I started taking fibre before bed to fill my tummy up. And not just stupid dreams either, but ones that get my heart rate up and the adrenaline flowing. This just makes it even harder to fall asleep again.

One oddity that has me wondering what's really going on in the dusty recesses of my brain is how I can feel so tired all day, and yet when I finally lay in bed I suddenly feel wide awake and ready to come sit at the computer to write a blog or work on the Flames of War proposal for a couple of hours. I lay down and suddenly all the things I would have liked to think about or ponder during my day rush to the front of the stage with a full orchestra and chorus.

I think about running. I think about work. I think about Aerin. I think about what to do in the backcountry this summer. I think about the future. I think about the past. I think I might just go crazy or have some dangerous lapse of attention at work. Sigh...

Aerin tells me I seem to be doing that a lot lately. The sighing that is. My body seems a bit uptight about something, and is forgetting to breath. Maybe I could hold my breath for a bit until I pass out, and then I could wake up in the morning when the alarm clock goes off again...

Something is there. I'm anxious or worried about it. What 'it' is I won't figure out anytime soon probably. I wish it was something simple like the unfulfilled desire to hold Aerin in my arms for a long, long time while the world goes away. But it's probably something to do with the job, running or my apparent inability to sit down and work on my large stack of unfinished minis. Or most likely at this moment my inability to quickly fall into a deep, restful sleep.

Or maybe I just can't wait to see the first episode of the last half of Battlestar Galactica.

Let me know if you have the answer. 42 doesn't seem to be it.

Life: Welcome 2009!

Didn't we just celebrate New Year's 2008?

I have to say, that from my end of things, the passing of 2008 was definitely NOT slow. I will always remember an episode of Daily Planet a few years back about how a person in 2004(ish) perceives time passing eight times faster than someone in 1904. That would mean we haven't even made it to my birthday before we're celebrating New Year's again. Talk about getting the short end of the stick!

I'm happy to be back on the road to running after few months of nothing much leading up to Christmas. Between injury (not running related) and illness (damned 6 week chest colds and my second this year) I got in little running between October and few days ago. Even a minimal amount of core work hasn't done much to keep me sane or maintain any level of fitness. The stress of moving and lack exercise was a horrible combination. So it's back to building, and I have some time to do that properly and with some enjoyment that was missing from this year's training.

Aerin and I are both pleased with our new place, and invites to the house warming party will be going out to friends in the near future. We'll probably never move into anything smaller than a two bedroom apartment now that we have all this space. Unfortunately I think we may be a little beyond future living area with the items we've purchased to make our place truly functional, but I don't foresee any great need to depart anytime in the near future unless under duress.

I've been doing some life inventory to spend time on the things I really enjoy doing. So there's time with Aerin, friends and family, being outdoors with running and backpacking, and building and playing my Flames of War armies. I'll be spending some time exploring industrial design related classes through Continuing Education, and Aerin and I will take the digital photography course to get the most out of my Christmas present, a Canon Powershot G10 (essentially a professional-grade point-and-shoot). That's all I have on my radar for the coming year. I still won't have as much free time to spend on these as I'd like short of winning the lotto, but I'll be happy to be able to do it.

Another Flames of War player and I are also collaborating on a writing project for a campaign book for our shared interest, but that's still in the development stage. Our plan is to have a proposal submitted by the end of January. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

I'm having a little trouble getting to sleep, but I'm getting closer to sleepy now. I hope everyone had a great 2008, and that you're looking forward to another great year in 2009. I know I am.

Happy New Year!