The Bachelor Gamer Lifestyle

Two months in to moving into the new place, and I think things have progressed as far as they are going to. 

Ignore all the esthetic issues, I need to lose a few pounds to fit in a suit to wargame.

 I already showed my impromptu gaming space in the living room.  A little furniture maneuvering, some tasteful curtains, and an extra table and we can play larger games.  

As a recently single guy, my brain and heart had all the practicality of location for work and to be close to the kids, my gamer brain and gamer heart was searching for a place with storage for all my stuff without paying rent for the dreaded second bedroom.  This place advertised as a one-bedroom, and, in spite of some red flags, when the landlord opened up a door to a room without a closet, my gamer brain was sold.  It's been my office since day one, my command center for my online RPG sessions, and slowly but surely, my painting area and general storage for all things wargaming.

Not sure what sale there was at K-Mart during the 80's but my family bought FOUR of these style bookcases.  One was destroyed during one of my sister's moves, and I still possess the other three, one in the living room, and these room right off my computer workstation.

There's some miscellaneous stuff still in storage, and a box of random non-gaming books in a closet, but I'm not sure what to fill these with, beyond more books.  I mean, RPGs, dice, antique toy cars, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a piece of rail I could kill a would-be burglar with.  All my needs are met!

The painted wood paneling in the room is perfect to "properly" hang up all my Grandfather's college memorabilia. It's also a good place to keep the painting bench stools, and occasionally used dumbbells.    

Directly across from that are my shelves storing everything that was stowed in the basement at the house, and maybe a little bit more.  One of two remaining projects I'd like to complete is a long shelf over the shelves, to keep my boxes of Middle Eastern buildings in-sight and accessible.

Back at the house I had 10 or 12-foot long solid wood workbench for painting, projects, and what have you.  That's been replaced with a small folding table, a new double set of Spicy Shelves, and an extra shelf for cans and flocking.  

The shelf isn't crooked, the floor is.

The framed item is my air-brushed Legions of Steel Demo Team t-shirt, circa 1995.  I certainly don't fit into it anymore, so putting in a frame has been one of my goals for years. Thankfully some big sales, coupons, and reward vouchers from Michaels and I picked up all the frames in the room for just a few bucks.

Despite one wargame at the place, and a couple of board games, I'm still trying to figure out life, the universe, and my soon-to-be ex-wife instead of big hobby projects.  The unusually warm and dry winter with the kid's basketball schedules aren't helping things either.  It's frightening to think the AAU basketball schedule just came out and it actually seems easier.   I only need to book hotel rooms for  five tournaments because I already have a room for the sixth...

... because the last tournament is a four-day one at Spooky Nook

... outside Lancaster

... in July

... on the weekend of Historicon.

Hey, it worked for Fall-In! last year...

On the Painting Queue:  The queue really hasn't moved since the fall, but have gotten paint splashed on some Macrocosm Chaos Space Dwarves, some Demonblad Orglings, to add to my legion of sci-fi "Blue Martians", and maybe some block painting of the characters the girls used to put together their "test" Pulp Alley leagues.  

Project 350: With the #CharacterCreationChallenge for January finished, we're down to 477 (317 drafts /160 scheduled posts) from 491 (320/171) mid-month.   I've got a session or two of Gamma World to catch up on, one, maybe two games before Cold Wars, and a pledge to the readers to get something off of the painting bench that has a placeholder post hiding in my blog drafts.