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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

"Another fine mess..."

Woah, a tale of woe
Well, it was kind of a close run thing this time but here I am, back at the keyboard. There are several reasons why I almost succumbed to the urge just to disappear from the pages of RD/KA!. I'm just going to let them lie. I will however briefly explain why this particular bloglag was so long (at 9 months it's been the longest ever).

Sometimes people just won't own up...
It'll come as no surprise to my regular readers that a serious depression was to blame. Why so serious? Long story short: a home support worker who'd been visiting me for some 4 years took the huff with me one day and indulged in some unprofessional behaviour. The next time we met he manipulated me into withdrawing from the support service against my will. With hindsight I realised that saving his job was surely his primary motivation for being such a shit. We'd talked often of the difficult funding situation in his workplace and of how staff were worried about their jobs. So I think he feared a black mark if I was to ask for him to be replaced, which would've led to questions being asked about why I no longer wished to work with him (which I didn't, naturally enough).

At the time (just after RD/KA!'s 5th anniversary), I decided just to put the incident behind me. After all I reasoned, all the guy did was visit me for a couple of hours twice a week, when we'd mostly just talk, so what could happen? I was wrong. My mood was already wavering and within a couple of weeks it had taken a severe nosedive. Eventually I twigged that I'd been more psychologically dependent on the home support than I'd imagined, a supposition borne out by the subsequent length of the downswing.

And that's about that. I wish I hadn't let the guy off the hook, but it would've been an unpleasant experience to make a complaint which'd've been a matter of my word against his. And y'know, I believe that, deep down, he knows he was wrong. It won't get me back the last 9 months, but it's something I guess.

On a lighter note
It's not been all gloom and doom thank goodness. Sure, I missed this year's Conpulsion and UK Games Expo, so neither my Conflict of Heroes demo nor the Combat Commander tournament were repeated this year. Ah well, fingers crossed, they'll be back.
"A little bit of politics..."
These lowlights aside, the Sunday sessions- which stopped in February, were another significant casualty of my downswing. They too will be back sometime. There was a shedload of gaming nonetheless: I got through hundreds of games in those months; a playing record of which I'm strangely proud (I'm a gaming geek, go figure). I'll talk more about all that another day.

BoardGameGeek was another source of succour during those unhappy days. BGG community culture is not without its irritants (but then, I imagine that's true of any online community which otherwise serves your interests), but I like it for its game-specific forums, which allow me to focus my attention on subjects which particularly interest me; ie. my favourite games. I've also become a denizen of the Wargames forum. In fact, my increasing activity in these forums in recent weeks helped me recover my writing mojo to the point where only a couple of weeks ago I knew that my return to RD/KA! was just a matter of time.

Unfinished business
And so to the embarrassing matter of all those goodies about which I made such a hoo-hah before disappearing from view for so long. I will be sorting this out ASAP. More on that in due course. ;)

12 comments:

grumhelden said...

To paraphrase...
Its about damn time!

Adelaide Gamer said...

Bloody glad to see you back. Live and learn.

"A bit political on yer ass!" said...

Thank you for your kind words gentlemen. It's good to be back I can assure you.

Meanwhile... Oi, grumhelden! Leave the G3 logo alone. The original one is just fine. It's certainly better than any put up so far; and it's coordinated with the G3 blog theme. Why change it? Mutter, mumble.

Also, for the sake of the G3 blog: G3 was founded on June 8th, 1998 and its first meeting took place in the students' union at Glasgow Caledonian University (I still have the old diary in which I noted down the first night). Just thought you might appreciate those facts to add to the 'About' page. ;)

"A bit political on yer ass!" said...

Also: G3= 'Glasgow Games Group'; not GameRs. Trust me, I coined the name. :)

gnome said...

So glad you are back John. I do hope everything gets only better from now on. Welcome back!

Anonymous said...

Was very happy to see you alive and posting at BGG and wondered when you'd be back.

Josef, Sweden

"A bit political on yer ass!" said...

Was very happy to see you alive and posting at BGG and wondered when you'd be back.

You saw it coming, eh Josef? Oh, and there are several Swedish Josef's over @BGG. Why not GeekMail me so I know which you are?

"A bit political on yer ass!" said...

I forgot to say this in the post: but thanks to all my regular readers whose kind words lightened my spirits throughout all those months. Those messages really do help you know. :)

Dangerous Brian said...

Welcome back John.

And here I thought you were just avoiding saying hello when I posted all those months ago.

Nah.

Good to hear from you.

Give my regards to the guys.

Robert Allen said...

Welcome back. Your presence on this site was sorely missed.

Antony said...

Hey John good to see you're back on the Bloggosphere... look forwards to following your adventures

"A bit political on yer ass!" said...

Hey Antony (also known as the mighty Grundi, smiter of librarians- nope, you'll never live that one down!), it's nice to know you're still out there as a reader. All these well-wishes are really encouraging after such a long bloglag. :-D