From the Ashes: 75 Days Sober and Rebuilding One Hex at a Time
What I’ve Been Up To at The House Game? Well… a few things.
Turns out the soot ruined all my computer and music equipment. That was a sad day for sure. I never thought I would end up throwing out basically everything I owned because of some dirt. But apparently soot from house fires is very acidic and it corrodes the tiny wires inside electronics. So I made a huge list of basically everything I owned, put a number on it, and sent it over to the insurance company. Now I just wait.
While I’m waiting around, I figured it’s a great time to get some other stuff done. Most of my miniatures and terrain made it out alive. I lost a lot of the tokens for Maladum though. The little weapon tokens and character boards got soaked and destroyed. So I’m switching gears and leaning into solo Warhammer Fantasy for a while. (I’m currently reading the core book.)
This brings me to my new hobbies.
I have been sober for 75 days now. No drinking, no vaping, and no drugs. It has been rough. It was tough every single day, and then the house burned down. Talk about an eyeroll moment. There are still times I could really go for something to numb all this away, but I stayed the course and I’m still rocking sobriety.
Those new hobbies. Right. Okay, so…
I decided to read every night before bed. It’s a nice way to wind down from the day. Turn off all the blue screens and relax with a book. So far I have read the entire Tiny d10 core book, three Wight-Box zines, the Corpse Kings core book, and now I am onto Warhammer Fantasy.
The next hobby I finally started is making a website again. If you are reading this right now, congrats. This is what I have been working on. Let me tell you though, every day I spiral through so many emotions. Half the time I don’t know what I am doing. The other half I am excited for the future. I just needed something to occupy my time, and I have wanted to build thehousegame.com for a while. Since I have nothing else going on right now, I figured I might as well start.
Another little hobby I am starting is mapmaking. I used to love making fantasy maps when I was a kid. Just pen and paper, top-down maps with their own little stories. (Gads, I think I was like 8 or 9… wow.) Anyway. I lost my Huion graphics tablet as well, so when I went to buy a computer I decided to get a 2-in-1 Dell. It is a laptop with a touch screen and a pen. You can fold the entire screen so it becomes a tablet. Hence, it is also a drawing tablet. Not as grand as my old 24-inch Huion, but it works. So I bought Clip Studio Paint because I found out that Josh’s Map Effects brushes work with it. Such a win. Well… so I started making maps again. The first one I am having fun with is the little solo hex-crawl I am doing called The Land of Time.
I plan on doing other types of maps with Map Effects too. Dungeons, houses, castles, interiors. I have a few ideas on how to make these fun for everyone, but for now I figure if they come out nice enough I can publish them here on the site and let others use them for their own games. Still working on it though. It is tough to get inspired on any given day. Some days are great and then two seconds later I am back to being completely devastated.
Another thing I have been doing. This one is a bit weird, but I have been learning one new word a day and trying my hardest to actually spell words and sound them out instead of using autocorrect. I have always had a hard time spelling certain words and now I am trying to figure them out myself. It is a little dopamine hit each time I get one right on my own. There are still times I use autocorrect, but I do my best to look at the word and learn how to spell it. It is a fun little habit that is building on its own.
I am still trying to keep up with my workout routine. I was doing pretty good before the house burned down. I did not have a huge gym or anything, just an original Total Gym, a pull-up bar, and a couple weights. But since that is all gone I decided that pushups and sit-ups will have to do for now.
I am also doing my best to save money. Since I started my little sobriety journey I have saved a whopping $2,000. I know, crazy right? I figured that on any given day I was spending $24.86 on vape pods and beer. Oh, and coffee. So now what I do is every day I put $24.86 into my savings account. If you multiply that by my 75 days sober you get $1,864.50. So it tracks perfectly. I try to save as much as I can but $24.86 is the bare minimum per day. Now I need to figure out what to buy. My thought was to save up to fix my car as it needs some repairs… or use it for a down payment on a newer car since my current one is not worth the money I would spend fixing it. Choices… choices.
Anyway… besides all those adult life choices to make I have been playing some very retro type games (which I love). My 4090 needs replacing so the high-end games will have to wait for a while. I had just bought Crimson Desert and was playing that before this all happened. MechWarrior 5 was a daily enjoyment for me and I will have to repurchase my NXT EVOs. All good though. I have some shopping to do.
So besides all that, my main focus for the next few months is going to be working and saving, trying to figure out a new gaming table for this apartment. Pretty sure I am going to have to build it, which is a bit difficult because all the tools were burnt up in the house fire and this apartment is not exactly a maker’s paradise. It is okay though. This is where the other healthier habits I hope kick in.
That is about all I have been up to. Life is crazy. Just when you get all settled in it, it switches up the game. The track your train was on can run out in seconds. Shit changes and so does perspective.
Well… until next time.
Nathan