Monday, January 11, 2021

The New Year Resolution

I've been putting out fires since the new year started. One of which has caused me to think. Not to go into the ugly details but somehow I've been charged outrageous amounts of money for playing Fortnite. My son plays this game. Long story short, I almost had a heart attack Friday when I got my credit card statement. It might be him, it might be someone who hacked my credit card. He claims he didn't buy anything. Do I believe my 8-year old? Yes and no. I might not have intentionally bought things but maybe he did. At the same time, the frequency of the purchases seem very suspicious. 

It got me to thinking about my own spending habits. I'm not speaking for anyone else in the gaming world, just me.  I tend to spend and spend and spend. I have a lot of miniatures still unpainted. I tend go after any new shiny thing I see. For the past week, I've been contemplating some new areas of gaming to get into. Even when I paint my miniatures or build my scenery, games don't get played. I set goals that don't seem to be ever reached. It reminds me of my graduate school days. Many of my follow grad students would continue to work on and on doing their research, or writing the dissertation because they felt it was just not quite perfect. I did the same thing. "If I just add one more datum point to the analysis, it would be perfect."

Out of this, I decided that:
1. I will make due with what I currently have. 
2. I don't need to follow any shiny new things. No new projects.
3. as a result of (1) and (2), I am going to stop buying things for my hobby for the foreseeable future.

No new rules, no new miniatures, no new board games. 

I had to suspend my credit card so that Epic Games couldn't charge me with anything. As a consequence, I got notices from several vendors that they couldn't process my order. I suppose I could have sent them a different credit card to use, but instead, I just cancelled the orders. I do have some orders that are on their way here. Those will be it for quite a while. 

But just so that there is something for you to look at here. I found a number of metal cookie tins at my Mother's house. The Bovatopian army now has a new home in a single box and not scattered among many tiny boxes.