40 for 40: February

 February was an interesting month, for reasons beyond the goals that I’ve set for myself. On those, I made some steps forward with the models, kept it steady with the games, and sadly fell on my weight loss goals:

Weight

Target weight loss: 40lbs. Net total weight lost so far: 0lbs.

Ugh, dropped the ball a bit here. There’s no excuse for it really, I basically eat too much, and – last week particularly – didn’t move around enough. But that doesn’t mean I’ve ruined it forever. It’s lent next month, so maybe I can pick things up a bit then.

Board games

This month: 3. Total played so far: 14.

I slowed down a bit this month, but I still played the following games: (there were a few more, but some of them I’ve played before in the year)

·        Fairy Tale Inn: a nice game involving stacking various fairy tale characters in a “Connect-4” style grid to maximise the profits you get from them. Me and Kirsty break it out every now and then, as it doesn’t stay long enough to wear out its welcome and the different characters mean that the experience is slightly different each time.

·        Enchanted Forest: I’ve had a lot of mileage out of this one over the years. This involves rolling dice to move your character around the board, trying to remember which treasures are where, and winning the treasure cards on the castle at the end by correctly guessing them. The random movement means a lot depends on luck, but it’s a solid enough experience – if a little frustrating for younger children who may not have developed their long-form memory skills yet!

·        No Thanks: A fiendishly simple card game where you aim to achieve the lowest score by taking as few cards as possible, putting a limited number of chips on the cards you don’t want. While it doesn’t have the range of activity some of my other games offer, “How do I win this?” becomes a very different question when the answer is tied up in one of two things you can do from the very beginning – which nonetheless potentially influence a much larger number of outcomes.

Gigs

This month: 1. Total played so far: 3

Just the assisted living centre this month, as between work and family commitments, there wasn’t much room for open mics. I also haven’t rehearsed an open mic set in a while, so I may need to get back on that in the coming weeks. I have at least one more gig lined up for March, though – I’m playing bass for Sam Draisey and the Revolt on Saturday 1^st at Katie Fitzgeralds in Stourbridge.

Video Games

This month: 2. Total beaten so far: 4

I managed to beat another couple of games:

·        Super Mario World: This was amongst the first console games I remember playing, and I enjoyed it enough to come back to it every now and then. I remember being absolutely fascinated by it when my age was in single digits, and every so often I feel that small tingle of wonder as I explore the overworld map – but I’ve done this one before, and by the time I got to the end of it, I was ready for it to be over.

·        Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions. Another fighting game! This one is an arcade boxing game based on the Rocky / Creed saga. I bought this game on holiday a few years ago, and if I’d bought it for anything other than the Nintendo Switch I’d have been disappointed, but for a pick-up-and-play game, it’s fine. I beat the game with all 20 boxers, and while the lack of additional content means I’m unlikely to return to it, it was a nice experience while it lasted.

Models

Models painted so far: 10

I finished painting the Votann Hearthkin I was talking about last month, and made a start on the two character models that come in the boxed set – the Einhyr Champion, and Uthar the Destined. I’m about two thirds of the way through, with some highlighting and work on the base to do now, at which point I’ll move on to some different models.