Truth be told, I did not really find myself in the mood for gaming today, even if I had planned to do so. I have managed to clear most of the urgent stuff from the work table, but, in the end, I simply cruised through the day sorting out a few matters, watching some tennis, and not really applying myself to gaming proper.
I did have a little bit of a spring clean in my room, though, possibly triggered by having been in the new house for a year, and moved a few items around. One of the most important of these, even if a small change in the grand scheme of things, was turning one of the gaming tables in my office into my composing station. I do have a piano in the house, of course, but for a few minutes of writing here and there it will be useful to have things set up and good to go whenever I find myself in the mood.
It would therefore seem logical that my number of gaming tables has gone down from two to one, but the one that is left is so large that it is perfectly feasible to have two games set up and running at once, even ones of moderate size. Admittedly, the likes of Eldritch Horror might have to be the sole inhabitants of the table when they are out and about but in normal times there is no reason why I cannot have a couple of games set up and good to go.
Looking back on the day, the main reason that I did not play anything was that, really, I did not quite have the energy to set a game up, which is a ridiculous excuse, but was definitely what got in the way. Having a dedicated space for games - for two games - is all well and good, but, just as with the writing, I need to keep things set up and ready to go.
I am also on the cusp of a moderate cull, one which should clear out the few cardboard boxes that I have piled around the office, and which should free up both space and finances. It is not spring any more and has not been for a while, but this did feel just a little like a spring clean, sorting things out for the better.
In other matters…
I decided at the start of the day to take things easy although, as described above, I did get quite involved in moving things around in my office. I have an L-shaped arrangement of tables in there, a luxury compared to what I had before, and now that the first year in the house is up I have a much better idea of how they should be arranged.
The catalyst for this was a chat I had in the morning with KT about my latest compositional impasse. She said something along the lines of our not rising to our targets but instead falling to the level of our systems, which apparently is some kind of well known management thing, but which, for once, makes a whole lot of sense. That is why I spent the day changing my systems.
It did seem a little odd and slightly indulgent to have two gaming tables and no composing space, but, in my defence, I had tried various layouts, including having a keyboard on a stand, plugged directly into my laptop, but there is no real way around it - I much prefer writing onto paper if I possibly can. My methods change from piece to piece, so the symphony was, if I recall correctly, written directly into Sibelius, but I do have an emotional and professional attachment to pencil and paper.
To the right of me, therefore, now sits my Korg which I used to use with my covers band, which is small and replete with awesome noises, so I can use it as a compositional tool but also as something to record with, should the need arise. In front of it is space to write, and underneath it, because it is raised off the table, is space to store sketches. I now need to keep pencil and manuscript there at all times.
Likewise, now that gaming lives on the table behind me, I really do need to get (back) into the habit of leaving things set up and ready to go, because it has been such a positive step in the past in terms of ease of play. It seems silly to fall at the first hurdle so often, and it rarely happens in my professional life, but I know that I would always be grateful to yesterday’s me for getting everything ready for today, so now is the time to start.