This might be a rambling post, but I'd first like to thank the readers and old pals who connected with me over the past week; as an extrovert, the conversations kept me sane, and I could enjoy myself while my family was touring Taiwan. My social diary was so active I could not start watching the DanDaDan anime, and I could not even download a single game from Steam, so this affected my hobbies, but I generally prioritise personal connections over games.
But I want to talk about one more thing before I run down the hobbies that I have at the moment. Recently, there's been some insight into the fact that ageing occurs in bursts. We tend to age a lot when we reach 44 years old, 60 years old, and then another burst at 78 years old. The effect is that those who reach 44 will have problems with their metabolic rate and might not be able to purge caffeine as quickly as before. Another impact from other sources is that our neurons fire less frequently, so we will find that time passes faster. These insights are recent, and I would probably not go for a third degree if I knew that my mind would slow down when I graduate. But all this will affect the way I view my hobbies moving forward.
Ok, let's rundown what stays and what goes:
a) Reading
Reading is so powerful that it is the hobby most women find attractive on dating apps, but to be fair, most of the stuff I read is not friendly to women. I have read a lot about finance, business, and self-help; there is nothing for me every year at the Singapore Writer's Festival. But as I slow down, I am now more open to more profound and shorter self-reflective books. In fact, every December, I will have a moratorium on non-fiction books to mop up books on gaming history, Japanese fiction, and the latest Korean genre of healing literature.
Reading healing fiction is weirdly practical because it addresses all the post-retirement identity issues that FIRE folks experience.
I also have a new hobby, I'm now a book scavenger at the book drops in major regional libraries, and I'm always hunting for old books discarded by other Singaporeans.
b) PC Gaming
I'm no longer a PC gamer. I will wake up to something like Baldur's Gate 3 that lets me experiment with weird D&D character builds, but otherwise, it will not play a role in my life anymore. But I love following the politics behind gaming, where gatekeepers are waging war against developers who are incorporating Woke and DEI values into franchises people love. I'm clearly on the side of the gatekeepers because I don't like getting lectured for having conservative values, so I sincerely enjoyed reading about the substantial business losses suffered by games like Concord and Dragon Age Veilguard.
I will be willing to get into games if I can convince my son to enjoy them with me. It's hard because he is 8, so the best he can do is assemble some simple Gunpla. I'm checking to see if I can get him into Warhammer 40k, paint some minis, and then roll some dice—anything is a lesser evil than brain rot from TikTok or YouTube.
My peers have yet to successfully share a hobby with their kids, but I still want to try.
c) Board, TCG and RPG gaming
Some old friends from my secondary school caught up with me, and we agreed to play the games we'd slowly collected over the past. However, we needed help finding folks to play with us. These are reasonably complicated games like Dune Boardgame, Legend of the 5 Rings LCG, and Battletech. If we can get a group of about 5, I promise to run D&D 2024 for them regularly.
I was lucky because I doubted I could fit serious gaming into my life if I could not monetise it. But I game in my neighbourhood in Woodlands, so things might work out this time.
Regardless of what game I play, I play the same way I play RPGs. I'm constantly on the attack and will recklessly charge someone if I know the rules. I don't believe in or engage in diplomacy. In L5R, I only play the Lion Clan. For Magic the Gathering, I only play black/red cards. In Battletech... I only know... DEATH FROM ABOVE!
I'm fun to play with because I tend to lose a lot.
Thank goodness I don't invest like the way I game.
d) Trips to Johor
This isn't a hobby, but I might have more friends who can hit JB with me on a weekday to escape the cost of living in Singapore. Yesterday, I attempted to strike a fantastic chicken chop restaurant called It Roo near City Square. Then, I went to Aeon Tebrau to visit Tsutaya Bookstore before heading to a pasar malam at Tun Aminah. Now, I'm asking friends and relatives to devise a plan for Bukit Indah as we attempt a different crossing from Tuas.
Sometimes, we are defined by what we don't do for hobbies. I no longer care about watching shows. If Disney produces more woke series like The Acolyte, I will cancel my subscription. I no longer buy comics for the same reason. I also watch fewer movies because Marvel is rethinking how to do superhero shows.
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