Wednesday, October 13, 2010

A little about me, my love of 40k and dealing with A.D.D.

Hey all, my name is Rich. I'm a long time reader of the 40k Blogosphere and I though it was about time to contribute a small slice of my own hobby madness so here goes nothing.

A little about my 40k life: I started playing 40k back at the very end of 2nd edition, I played regularly, 2-3 times a month all through 3rd and the beginning of 4th. Then things just slowed down a bit, my local game store moved a few towns over and what was once easy became a bit of a hassle. Also the hobby lost out to other things going on in my life.... mainly women.

Since then it's always been the next thing on my to do list: "get back to 40k". Yet it hasn't happened even after trying a few times. I kept reading the books, I almost always picked up the newest codex, started working on some models but then I would just let it go by the wayside.

Then I met a girl... THE girl. She felt like my best friend of years the moment we met and it wasn't long after that I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her but there was something nagging at me. My ability to get things done didn't just apply to 40k but to EVERYTHING in my life. To be blunt I didn't believe I was good enough to marry THE girl, nor did I trust myself with her. So I went to get some help and had some long time suspicions of mine confirmed when I was diagnosed with A.D.H.D.

Now I don't want this to turn into me on a soap box but I want folks to know out there that A.D.D is not a myth and it's not an American made disorder, it's been around for a very long time and it's a true disorder that effects millions of people, some of whom do not even realize it.

I didn't realize just how serious an issue it could be until I started treatment and the change in me was near miraculous. So much so that on the very first day I took medication for it I asked my now wife of one year to marry me.

That was over a year and a half ago now and since then I have changed for the better in countless ways. Getting help was quite clearly the best thing I have ever done and yet there are still things that I have trouble with. Finishing long term projects is one of them, like say building and painting a small army of mini's.

Since I've started treatment I've once again attempted to get into 40k to no avail, albeit getting much farther with it then I normally would have. After those tries I think I may have came to the point where I was just never going to do it.

Then an old friend invited the wife and I to a party. At that party I met all of my old friends friends and they are simply put wonderful but gets better... a number of them play 40k!

"Just when I thought I was out the pulled me back in!"

So I now have a new group of awesome friends, plenty of them play 40k, I still want to play, Hell I even have most of an unbuilt army sitting in my garage collecting dust! What am I waiting for?!

So here I am, I want to do this, I want to finish something and I thought to myself: "maybe a blog will keep me honest." If even just ONE person reads this blog maybe I will not want to look like a failure to them and that will give me that extra edge to stay on my game.

(This is not a stab at getting attention, it's just how my crazy brain works)

Maybe I will fail, maybe not. If I only churn out a few posts you'll know (I'm sure my post rate will be up and down that's for sure!) but whatever the case I'm never going to give up at this thing we all love so much, not for the Emperor, not for the Dark Gods but for just plain old me.

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Richie! Congrats on finding THE girl and marrying her, and for getting help with your A.D.D. as well. Congratulations also on finding a group of friends who play 40k and for starting the new blog. That's a lot of great things to celebrate, I'm happy for you.

    Best of luck to you with your return to 40k. I started my blog mainly as a way to help me stay motivated and keep track of painting notes. It's been a great experience for me and I hope blogging will be similarly rewarding for you, too.

    Cheers!

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  2. Oops, sorry about that. I don't know where I got "Richie" from. Great first impression, eh? Sorry again, Rich.

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  3. Thanks for the well wishes Papa JJ! It's good to hear that someone else uses it for motivation and that it works. Also thanks for being my first (and only) follower!

    lol, I HAD "Richie" on here but changed it. I've gone by Rich for years but a few close friends of mine call me Richie. I've been thinking for awhile of switch it to Richie for good but it just doesn't look or feel right so after trying to roll with it I switched it after posting...

    so no your not insane nor is your first impression destroyed.

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  4. Congrats for all such nice events Rich! As PapaJJ said, there are a lot of thing to celebrate for!

    I liked your idea of the traitor army, with the SW codex. I'll be looking forward to your selection of troops to accomodate the codex/minis thing, and also the conversions! The best part of such a project are the conversions!!! I'll keep an eye here ;D

    See ya!

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  5. Hmm writing for to motivate oneself sounds like a splendid idea!

    just annoyed that my camera really dislikes taking nice sharp(ish) images of my minis...

    But any way, you got one more stalk---- reader now :D

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