I Survived Another Orbit

If you'll allow me to get philosolophical for a moment...

Yesterday marked another birthday, another complete orbit around the sun, if you will. It used to be a cool birthday, 9-1-1 I'd tell people. Easy to remember. Nowadays, not so much. I tend to try to just let it slide by. I can't tell you how many times someone has looked at my ID or noted on a form and said, "Oh, I'm sorry." It's not really something requiring condolences, it's just a coincidence and a date subject to the ravages of time and history, like any other date. I know several other 9-11 birthdays, including two relatives, one of whom died much too young before 2001. It's just a day.

Anyway, to bring it back to hobbies, my wife did buy me a book I'd had an eye on, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks. It's described by the author as a "combination travelogue, pop culture analysis, and memoir. The book is an exploration and celebration of fantasy and gaming subcultures — what they are, who are these game-players and fantasy fans, and what explains the irresistible appeal of these fantastic adventures."

I'm sure I'm not the only one who was introduced to gaming by D&D back in the early 80s. Now north of 40, I'm looking forward to reminiscing with Ethan Gilsdorf about not only the various underground (and above) adventures, but how it fit in the larger social context of our youth. It's more of a nostalgic thing with me, I suppose. While I haven't played D&D in 20+ years and have sold off some of my stuff, the core red and blue boxes remain, along with all of the old Grenadier minis. I still get one out every now and then and give it an updated paint job if necessary now that my skills are, well, now that I actually have skills. While today's sculpts are certainly fantastic, there is nothing like a little glob of lead from 1983 to bring out the pure joy of painting. Which reminds me, I need to go get some photos of some of those...