2024 Hobby Log

From the first post in this project:

1. Play more games. Last year I got to meet Woodstock and had some great game days with them. I played with a few other people and, even when I didn’t enjoy the rulesets, the games were fun. This year I’d like to play more games with more new people. If I could get to the table with something twice a month, that would be fantastic. Solo games would also count for this. Failed – only four or five games played all year, only one new person met.
2. Paint for more charity events. I used to do a 24 hour charity stream every year but my health doesn’t really mean that is possible these days so focusing in on other ways I can contribute to charity work would be nice. After the success of The Ginger Dwarf raffle and the Space Ducks projects over the last two years, giving my hobby time feels like a logical way to do that. I did paint a handful of models for a charity raffle back in the first half of the year but it feels like maybe this is just a thing that has passed now.
3. Finish up the year with more models painted than unpainted in my collection. I have fallen back into bad habits over the last couple of years, especially when my mental health is bad, buying models I don’t need and can’t really afford and then doing nothing with them. Being honest with myself, there needs to be a big cull but also just working on painting existing projects will help. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…. Failed. This year I painted around 400 miniatures (counting smaller scale minis by bases only… I’m not working out how many tiny space marines I painted!) but my overall painted % is abysmal right now.
4. A big group game for a big celebration in the summer. Failed.
5. Try going to tournaments – likely Kings of War. I’ve never been to any kind of tournament and it is a side of the hobby I’d like to try. I’m a scrub player but I want to see what another way of playing looks and feels like. Failed.

So, that’s a whole lot of failure there. With the exception of goal 3, all the failures were related to the social side of the hobby. I’ve really struggled over the last year with being social in any way, shape, or form and so it’s not a surprise that those goals were amongst the detritus of my personal life. 

Goal number 3 was an unmitigated disaster. Not only did I not fix it, I made it significantly worse. It is however something I have been quietly focusing on for the last two months and will be a goal over the next couple of years.

1. Play games. This  isn’t about playing more, beating previous goals or meeting new people. I just want to play games. I’m not going to suddenly fix my social anxiety but I can try to be a bit better about it. 
2. Paint more than I buy. I paint a lot of models but I also, especially when feeling low, buy a lot. Like the first goal, this isn’t something I have a magic fix for but painting more than I buy feels like the kind of mantra I should be able to keep in my head.
3. Finish projects. I have a swathe of unfinished projects in my wake this year and I don’t feel great about it. The projects I have finished (or got to defined break points) feel really good. So in 2025 I’d like more of the latter feelings and fewer of the former.