Daily Archives: May 18, 2012

WIP – Work in Progress to begin here on the blog

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It has become apparent to me and to some of those I work with that I just cannot keep going on trying to please every wargamer that is a customer of Alternative Armies and 15mm.co.uk.  By that I mean that for the last eight odd years I have written more than half a million words in free scenarios and material as well as near a million in published email help and printed / ebooks which are now rule sets for both brands.  This is a good output and I greatly enjoyed it, but a lot of it was in my own time (for the free stuff and for the Notables Yahoo Group ) and I just can’t keep doing it.  I am losing my mind! 🙂

Now, I am not quitting or even giving up but I am beginning a new way of working and that is ‘Work in Progress’ or WIP.  This means I will have no more than three projects under way at any one time.  Therefore my output will be less but it will still be high.  I have added a WIP category to the blog and also a WIP tag too so that when I post about a project you will be able to follow it back by these aids.

I feel a need to apologise which I have been told by everyone here is mad since I have made a lot of people happy and I now have many game ranges to look after not just a few.  So I am a little sorry if that makes sense…I will keep on doing my best for all you Flintloque players, fans of the Ion Age, USE ME punters, HOF users and the rest.

As for what the first WIP projects are…well keep on reading they will come soon enough.

GBS

Going Hungry in 21st century Scotland

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Front Page of the Ayrshire Post this week

I do my bit to support the local economy here in South Ayrshire, Scotland.  Part of this is to buy a copy of the Ayrshire Post almost every week even though it is more than half made up of adverts and most of the news in it is…well…rather boring.  But this week the front page told me something interesting, you can see it above, about a subject I had thought would not make much of an impact where I live.  It is true that Girvan is counted as one of the poorer parts of the county (but when your county include the very affulent town of Ayr and with in Doonfoot and Alloway…land of Robert Burns, this is no surprise) but I really had not realised that Children would go hungry here.

While the article concerns another part of the country it does make clear that Girvan will be included in ‘Food Bank’ schemes that are being rolled out.  It also makes it clear that it is not only ‘people of chaotic lifestyles’ (we know what that means) but normal working families who are suffering.  It seems that even with the availability of what I would count as cheap but decent food in supermarkets (many large items for less then one pound) which would allow one to live for a week for not much money it is not enough.  I do not want to go into the reason for this but it seems perhaps unemployment and misuse of funds in budgeting results in those people having this problem.

I have three children and I will admit that a large and ever larger portion of my income goes on food for them and for myself and my good lady.  I do not smoke or drink much in the way of alcohol, nor do a I gamble (how boring am I!) and aside from spending money on the bills, the car and on wargaming (Shussh!  Got to have my latest little metal men!) I do not expend money on many other things.   Even so I do find it at times a stretch to keep the little ones in top class caviar and champaign.  So perhaps without an iron rule on the purse strings it is easy to slip.

This makes me think.  Would I be able to live (just me, I will not inflict my schemes on the family!) on just one pound a day for a week for food?  The amount many claim is the minimum per person in the UK.  I will give this some thought.

GBS