So it's been a year and a half or so. What's been up?
After an almost blissfully smooth two years at Missouri State, life at Penn State has been a bit rocky. My old nemesis, writer's block, returned in full force, for one thing. I think it's partly because I dropped my feather--this very blog. It got me out of the habit of writing every day, or at least fairly regularly. Which, to be honest, is the main reason I've decided to start again. It'll probably take a while to hit my stride again, and there are no promises that it'll be the same as it was.
I also suffered a major mental breakdown in April, which I mentioned on BGG a while back. I've been diagnosed as bipolar, which explains many of the issues I've had in my life over the years, particularly the extreme instability of my undergraduate days. It's been hard putting life back together after this latest episode, as it's not as though school has stopped and waited for me. I'm catching up, though, but I'm leaving other things (such as BGG trade offers...) behind more than I'd like. Again, I hope blogging gives me some sort of structure as I live on the seven-pills-a-day plan. (Fewer than many; I count my blessings. And they do help a great deal.)
But enough of that noise. What about the games?
I'm lucky to have an excellent gaming partner here in State College in Mr. Cranky, aka Josh Adelson. State College is home to two of the larger game collections in the country, and I think we're about it for regular gamers. It's an odd situation. At any rate, we've discovered some great, good, and (sadly) bad games in these two years, and I hope we get to discover more in the next four years or so.
I'm also trying to get the office into gaming. It's met with some scattered success. Memoir 44 Overlord was a huge hit. I'm fascinated by the reports that the amateur military historians on BGG find it historically unacceptable while we professionals (well, apprentices) eat it up! We've also played Settlers, Carcassonne: New World (too fiddly), Nat. Geo. Expedition (big hit), Bamboleo (big hit), Ingenious (medium hit)...maybe it's working out better than I'd thought. Next up--to celebrate my becoming a doctoral candidate, whenever that is--is a miniatures game of Shiloh. We're doing Volley and Bayonet.
Next week should have interesting posts. I'm hitting the road to northern Virginia, on a research junket. I'll be visiting some battlefields (for fun), and I think I'll be able to hit at least one game night, at the Game Parlor--one of my favorite stores. I'm actually going to Quantico, where the US Marine Corps has its archives. I'm researching the occupations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic during the 'teens and twenties. Once they kick me out, though, I have the whole evening to myself...
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