A LITTLE WHIFF OF HEAVEN

Ahh, nothing quite like having a pecan pie cooling in the next room. I've made I-don't-know-how-many of the things, and making another one still brings a little joy into my life. Still, despite how much I like pecan pie, I don't make it all the time. I don't have a pie in the fridge at all times--at least not a pecan pie. I mix it up. Key Lime Pie is my second-favorite, but I make them about as often. Or spice cake, or cookies, or ganache, or...

I remember reading, once, about a lab rat the psychologists had made addicted to a particular chemical. Whenever the rat would push a button, it'd get a hit of the juice. Eventually, it'd just keep hitting the button until it collapsed from exhaustion.

Left to my own impulses, I can sometimes turn into that rat. I find something I love, and do it and do it and doitanddoitanddoit...until boom, I'm sick of it and never go back to it again. The idea is to avoid that, so as to spread out the joy over a much longer period. Hence the dessert rotation.

This leads me to consider Boardgame Burnout. Mike Siggins was a (relatively) famous sufferer; Sodaklady is a more recent example. It sounds as though she was pushing the button pretty hard there for a while. Me, I guess I'm still hungry after all this time if only because I only get in a face-to-face game once every six weeks, plus a little online gaming for ten minutes a day, and maybe a solo play-through here or there. The game-buying intake plateaued a while ago, and has drifted down and down. I'm kind of at a steady-state, where I have almost all of the games I want, and lack only regular opponents.

Burnout, in my case, seems fairly unlikely. Blogging is probably a bigger chunk of my time and effort, but--again--it's not something I spend an enormous amount of time on. Yuo might notice once in awhile that I dont edit these thinngs. Stream-of-consciousness from top to bottom, baby. I mean, for this post I started it thinking I'd just toss away a line about my latest pecan-based delicacy, but branched out.

I'll close with a little piece of advice for entry-level gamers:

Once you get, say, ten, or twelve, or twenty games...stop. That's plenty for now. Get a little deeper into those. Which do you really like? What do you like about them? Which do you not like so much? Why not? After a few weeks, poke around, see if there are games that have the things you like. Get rid of the ones you don't like, and trade up to the promising-looking ones. Play games...not every night. Maybe not every week. If you find yourself ever saying "gosh, I've been playing a lot of games," it's time to cut back.

It's easier to keep things subdued early, than subdue them later.

Take up other hobbies, too. Such as baking. Baking's good since you can combine the two--everyone likes gaming with someone who has fresh cookies, or a cheesecake, ready to hand. (Unless they're a jerk otherwise.)

"Moderation in all things," as they say, be it pecan pie or gaming.