Comfort Zones

As I sit down to type this, it's a cold Wednesday evening. The sun has set on us, the cats are going stir crazy(for anyone new to my ramblings, we have six of them) and I've come down with a lovely case of Cold+, for want of a better way to describe something halfway between a cold and the flu. I'm wearing a Sonic the Hedgehog set of pyjama bottoms, t-shirt and socks. The heating is up and the music is down(Surprise surprise, it's hedgehog related music I'm listening to but I'm feeling like crap), but quietly playing in the background. I can't stand the sound of silence but I have a pounding headache from all the coughing. I feel a need to just retreat into a comfort zone, and I wish I'd had this before the holidays because firstly it'd be out of the way and done with and secondly, I don't get paid sick leave so every day I'm off, I'm getting poorer.

To pass the time, I've been playing games that don't take much effort. Amusingly enough, I'm not playing any Sonic games right now - Town of Salem has been reinstalled, and I've been piss-arsing around on GTA 5 on my PS4. I don't really want to play anything that requires much thought or effort; ToS I've just been a gobby little bitch in chat and GTA has been a case of driving around, running people over and getting chased by the police. I also took the time to reinstall C&C: Red Alert for the first time since upgrading my computer to an AMD CPU and Win10(I hate Win10 on a good day) and it's been good fun just playing as the Russians, getting a Mammoth Tank rush on the go.

It's not just computer games I've been messing around with. I enjoy tabletop games too (as do a few of my friends in Team Tuxedo - go ahead and ask Squirrel what he's currently working on!) and a model railway in N gauge. The railway is very much a work in progress, but it's a semi-permanent setup(5'x3' board with the rails firmly attached, but is made to put on top of other tables as opposed to a proper baseboard which is left up) and I currently don't have the strength to either move the railway around, or put any scenery on it(because I have to put it away after each session, the buildings and suchlike are designed in such a way to be able to be removed from the baseboard and put safely away to avoid damage) so I've been resorting to watching YouTube videos and reading magazines to scratch the railwaying itch.

Board games on the other hand are by definition a social interaction activity. Feeling a lot like a cold rice pudding means I don't really want to be sociable and pass this on to anyone, so much like with the railway I've been spending a lot of time reading, revisiting old games and discovering new ones. As an example, I'm a big fan of Gaslands. It's a cheap entry into wargaming - get a book, some toy Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars, and pretty much away you go. Think Mad Max as a board game. It's great fun but the issue I've had is finding opponents local to me so I've put it on the back burner.
Which kinda brings me nicely onto the newest game to come from its creator, A Billion Suns. It's another space combat game, but this one has a few interesting twists that have piqued my interest. I'm definitely going to keep my eye on it, and I'm either going to 3D print my own models for it or re-use my X-Wing stuff.

The point I'm trying to make is, we're all sad bastards. If you're sat there reading this thinking I'm a sad bastard, then turn it into a shirt and let me wear the shit outta it. I don't overly care what others think of my hobbies(Mirtai said I have so many hobbies that one of them is... collecting hobbies) and you shouldn't care too. Surround yourself with people that don't care. Those that mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind.
Unless you're a paedo or similarly unhinged individual. Get help, you sick fucks.

Embrace your favourite past times. You never know when you're going to feel all ikky and grotty and need that safe space to retreat into. And on that note I'm going to slink off downstairs to harass Mirtai and see if I can steal the TV for some more GTA V.

Dream big,
~MoD.

Parting shot: Single player games that don’t require internet are going to be extremely valuable during the apocalypse.