Mayday, Miss Marcy! Breaking a Break, Translation Trouble, No Buy No Cry

Welcome back to another Thursday edition of Mayday, Miss Marcy, which features your submitted questions and then helps provide them with my submitted answers. There's a new month upon us, but that doesn't stop the questions from coming in. This week I've got your standard three questions to reply to, but before we get into those, let's go over what we do here and how you can participate!

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Last week we had a surprising 4 questions to celebrate the Friday edition of the column (actually I just felt like answering those 4 questions), but this week we've got 3 to go through, so let us get on with the show!

Stuck in a Rut

Thank you for answering my last question about being stuck in a pod but I have another question about being stuck.

Without going into specifics my work gives me a break between 9am till 12:30 in the afternoon. While that is great an issue that follows is that there isn't a lot of places that I could work on hobby stuff that are open at 9 or they open at 11 and I wont stay as long as I like to work on 40k minis (i want to be back at work in a timely manner). I've tried to do some painting in my car but its not a lot of space for me to work (Prius for a reference). would you have any suggestions for hobby things I could do in my small car or places where pulling out cards/40k minis wouldn't be awkward? Thank you for the advice.

From "Stuck on my break"

Dear Stuck (Again),

Welcome back and you're welcome! I also saw that you got some comments to your question also that I agree with; to your new question, though, I actually do have a few ideas based on my own working experience with having time to kill but limited space and availability due to the break and other factors. I do think that your car is going to be your least friendly option, and I'm also not sure where you live but I have to imagine that the weather is going to become hotter and far less comfortable to utilize your car in that manner comfortably as it does. I would say that perhaps your workplace itself, but it sounds like either you don't want to be there on your break (valid) or that it doesn't have a space for you to take a break in that either isn't interrupted by others or has enough space. In any case, I'm also understanding that finding places you can go to that would be welcoming to you bringing a bunch of paints and brushes and stuff is also going to be fairly low, so without knowing your actual location, I really have two options for you that make the most sense.

The first would be a public space, like a park, preferably one with tables and perhaps covered tables, specifically. I do think that there is probably a lack of these types of places if I could guess, as I know I can only think of a few around me that would be feasible for this sort of thing. So, my second suggestion is your local public library. You may want to of course clear that doing such a thing would be fine with them, but libraries are very amenable to people doing things other than reading in them, and so painting and working on your models at one should be a pretty solid option. I think the biggest issue you may actually have is just how close or far it is from your work, so the issue that I always had personally was that the time to get back and forth to work was always outweighing the benefit of going somewhere to do something.

My final suggestion is that even if there is no space at work that you can use and your car is too small, perhaps scout around or look for places that could work in that you may not be bothered quite so much. I actually used to read in a stairwell, for example, and while it was not the most comfortable experience of my life, it was in a corner that was never disturbed and I had the space to myself, and I made it work. I hope some or any of these can help; sadly some of my answers here are limited without getting far too personal, but I really do suggest giving the library a consideration!

Translating Turmoil

Sear Marcy,

My friend has the Japan is the best disease, and by that I mean they are constantly trying to bring in or do anything that involves Japan, anime, or similar things to our game nights. They have recently been trying to get us to play various Japanese board games, and while I don't actually mind this, there has been consistent confusion over rules.

When I ask them, they say that they are the one translating the rules and explaining it to us, but they are doing a very bad job, frankly. The games often seem to make no sense, and when we try to look it up, they get upset that we don't trust them, but also the games are in Japanese, which none of us speak. I appreciate this person's passions but we've had at least two game nights go nowhere because the game was unknowable.

Lost in Translation

Dear Lost,

I know that there's jokes about this column sometimes about telling people things directly, and I know that not everyone wants to confront other people or get into arguments, but you have got to tell this person to stop. If they are obsessed with Japanese culture stuff, fine, but the real problem is they keep forcing you to play games in a language you don't speak and they are not doing a good enough job of translating. There's nothing as frustrating as this when it comes to board games, or at least, it is something very specifically annoying. It already sucks playing a game you don't know very well and poorly explained, but it borders on torture to have someone force you to do that with a game in a language you don't speak and they, also, clearly don't know! If they're doing this to practice their language proficiency, they need to only do it with a game they really know and then find a way to explain it. The other problem is that maybe they are good at translating, but they may be bad at teaching a game, and their insistence or permission to railroad your group is where I think the problem really lies.

Why are you letting this person dictate what your group does? Just tell them no. Tell them they have to teach the game or provide the game's details to someone who can properly teach it. Hell, look the game up on YouTube; in the modern era I would be shocked if there is not some video of this game or any game being played; I often find numerous non-translated games and fan games on YT all the time. I do agree your friend sounds annoying, but I think you all are letting them BE annoying.

No Buy Year (3 Months)

Dear Miss Marcy,

My wife convinced us to go on a No Buy Year as part of a current trend. I don't really mind this because obviously spending money is really a pretty good idea, and actually the question isn't about our relationship; I'm not going to reveal she's not letting me buy something while she does or similar. Instead, I'm actually kind of having a problem with my LGS.

Our No Buy Year includes big expenses and things like models, armies, or non-necessary items (paints, for example, I've budgeted for when I need them). My LGS doesn't charge to play, and so the issue is that I went from being a fairly consistent spender to... spending nothing. I can tell that the attitude has shifted a little bit, and I feel like saying that I'm doing a No Buy Year is not going to make that feel any better to anyone at the LGS.

I would love to support them somehow rather than feeling like a deadbeat for using their tables; my friends still are buying, so it really just feels like me, but also maybe I'm taking it too personally? If they charged to play, I'd pay, but they don't, so I'm not sure what or how I'm supposed to "support" the LGS here.

Not Cheap

Dear Not Cheap,

I want to applaud you for sticking to your guns here; it can be hard to cut back on things and then carve out ways you can cheat to continue acting the same way you were before you "changed". The problem is that your conviction to the change can make other people who aren't as convicted, or not interested, annoyed. That really does come down to being a them problem, and so my answer might sound controversial: If anyone says something to you or gives you attitude, tell them to shove it. You mention the LGS doesn't charge you to play, and yes, the space is provided so that people spend money. If your friends are spending money, then at least someone is; you've said you'll still buy things like paint or other items, so you can of course buy them there too, but if the store doesn't charge to play, then don't feel ashamed for playing.

I'm also going to suggest that you don't go out of your way to waste money out of pity. If they sell candy or drinks, don't buy those; let's all be honest, those are all just picked up from Costco and then charged to you at 2x or 3x the price they paid there. A LGS that wants to freeze people out who aren't spending money is a bad LGS, frankly, but it could just be the fact that you seem like you're active but no longer spending; the LGS really hasn't figured out why you aren't spending money, and they may not ever care. If you tell them why, that is unlikely to sway their attitude shift, and realistically, it isn't any of their business.

Keep up the good work, get your budget in order, and don't feel ashamed of not spending money on things that you don't really need. Once you feel more comfortable having the extra money to spend or you've hit the goal you set for yourself that started whatever set you on this path for the year, then feel free to spend it however you want; and, really, if the store is going to act that way, maybe you should spend it somewhere else.

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Tags: mayday miss marcy