From the workbench of the esteemed Horati0nosebl0wer

I’ve dragged my feet for a while on finishing my Arabian Knights and have tried to keep the forward momentum going with doing other stuff. Here is what I’ve been up to.

I’m not a very intelligent person but I think there are sparks of insight that hit me from time to time. After going over a podcast on the matter and getting input from the Jonston brothers over a few episodes I think AI is a disruptive technology and it will affect our gaming world. We are a subset community of our societies at large and we have unique aspects of analyzing information around us. I want to take present information, as I see it, and take a slow process without Discord to mull out where we are and might be headed.

The evolution of sensory input of animals/plants

Pressure (?)
Chemicals
Energy waves

On the basest level one might be able to look at the sensory input of any organism and find pressure. The neural firing of a particular set of cells signaling physical relation.

The upward evolution is the sensory input of organs meant to take in environmental data is that of chemical stimulus.

The latest input is that of organizing and interpretation of patterns in variable energy waves. Could the “psychic sense” just be attenuation of individual perception to other wavelengths beyond those more broadly experienced? (Topic of a future thought experiment).

With AI coming into our lives does the human experience of life and living, utilizing factors of sensory experience outside of waves (sight/sound) become more important? I think that the generation of having “experience vacations” and the glorification of the self and sensory input is manifestation of just such a thing. How does this affect the gaming world? We need to damn well play as social human animals. Building up experiences between other humans via tribes of supporting members that “fight” and play with each other in decentralized social environments that isn’t automatically generated for our minds and bodies is key to surviving the AI future as a species.

Am I advocating for “the good old grognard days” where gaming was invisible? No, it’s fun to have friends and know I’m not alone. I think that there is value in having human connection and exercising the input of my whole being other than what television could give me.in that aim I will start to put away some pennies to perhaps see some of you out there in the great wild world… if I only paused buying minis. (Plan: paint the minis I have and save money to travel?)

Is this revelation or just a crackpot idea?

Decoupling the mind of want from need is not easy. If I entertain my brain on wants then they appear as needs. These wonderful toys we play with are wants and we see new ones all the time. Do we need new things? Did the old toys which came before get gifted or were they lost to time and/should they be replaced? I think that there might be more to be said for “legacy toys”.

As we now see Ticket to Ride join the ranks of other games with legacy editions can there be a place for minis? I think that with the historicals Gerry has shown on his trips to Scandinavia and those Lloyd has noted in photos (not to forget that huge table of flats at Salute) figures have a place to be legacy items. Applemak and others have shown that gaming with kids is a means of keeping the hobby alive and our collections relevant. The usefulness of wargaming and the figure painting is a pass time, but what happens with the figures after we pass on? I believe Warren has addressed this as a good project with his own dungeon build. The static nature isn’t to my taste as title can only be a display but that is its purpose. I am too mobile in life to have such things but I might do something like board/terrain build if I weren’t.

We hobbyists have an interest and its something that may not be for future generations. If we don’t gain the attention of others to inspire them to be curious about what we do our hobby lies as lifeless as our tiny fighting men.

Having the chance to grab some figures at the paint and take from a recent con I now have some figures to throw at my friend who I’ve not been diligent on finishing commission work for. It’ll be an apology gift that I know he’ll use in his D&D campaign since some of the models are dragon related.

A long overdue piece I thought would be fun to base for display. I haven’t gotten the black paint to stick so well around the bottom but that’s an issue with working with Black 2.0 from Culture Hustle.

To make stuff that looks cool for the new year is my goal. I’ll be tackling old projects before the Spring Clean gets underway because I know myself and how much I am liable to procrastinate. That being said I’ll dig into some one shot pieces and smaller model count stuff to get it off the desk. I know that I have models I’ll never paint so this will help me to confront the fact and make it easier to part with them as they just aren’t worth keeping.

I think I’ll reasonably have enough breathing room to finish some work on my Arabian Knights. Yes, I will finish them this year… likely before some Pagan Rus or Slavs that Lloyd has been sitting on for a while. ?

I found a nugget of wisdom at random and it makes sense as to why I hobby like I do. I am not ok with being bored and I want to be good at something.

Miniatures isn’t an outgoing and spotlight grabbing hobby. It makes for literal small victories against being lost in the doldrums. I’m not great at many other things, but dammit, I can shine here. I put time into this craft to produce better results. There is art in the creation and process of making tangible the abstract ideas which I have. I want to get my ideas out and sharing a vision makes me happiest when others enjoy the un-sane and non banal with similar wonder.

Its a small and perhaps minor thing to think but pithy poignancy produces profound results if allowed to flourish in the tilled fecund furrows of the mind. Upgrade your grey matter cus’ one day it may matter.

Dopamine, a blessing and a bane. The addictive chemical in our heads that lead us to rise or ruin. I call it all this as I take my break from hobby and do some self relfection and general life analysis. I think about the ebb and flow of hobby and all the other stuff I do that are fun. I got to thinking about this after a video on YouTube got me curious as it mentioned high energy lifestyles and adrenaline junkies. My housemate fit the bill, as what they described, in trying to always be on the move doing something but with diminishing dopamine return on the pleasurableand ending up with no free time.

I turned this on its head and got to thinking of the pleasure principle in painting and building. Collecting has been fun but rather useless other than making moving difficult in the past. Gaming might be fun as time spent with others and making memories over battles which haven’t been fought like I play out.

Putting things into overdrive for projects has seemed like a means of dealing with the crap of the world. Finding a little corner of solace with a warm blanket, hot mug of tea and some well worked minis to show off is my ideal spot and really best practice. It beats flailing about in attempts to try and find the next thing to work on badly with poor results. Trying to get the easy return doesn’t make the models any better. Time, patience and some self discipline to say its ok to set down a project (and then follow through to pick it back up again) is good. We deal with our heads and hearts with this stuff. Its good to take a breather and set the models aside for a few to analyze our selves and how we hobby.

An ent and the goblin from the Shadowrun blister for a commission lot. All sorts of pleasure to see more things done and even better to get cash for them.