It's difficult to talk about a lifelong affliction - one that struck me at an early age and has been de-habilitating, costly in terms of monetary impact and emotional damage to my loved ones, and countless hours of pain upon my soul.
Folks, it's time to talk seriously about Early Onset Pre-Lottery Anxiety (EOPLA), which is a condition bought about by the lack of excessive liquidity (also known as f-you money) in my bank account. Every day I wake up with the embarrassing realization that I am just a middle class dude with an slightly better than average job, a mortgage, a wife and only so much disposable income to buy Legos for the past 35+ years.
..what, you thought I am going to talk about my lifelong addiction to Lego bought on by my first set (the 6382 Lego Firehouse from 1983 given to me by my late father) and I've been an infectious carrier of AFOL (adult fan of Lego) even throughout their malaise years of the 1990s? Nah, son - I own that one proudly. No past girlfriends have ever emerged unscathed without stomping on at least one errant brick late at night, and at one was on the losing end of an "either I go or the Legos" argument at an NYC metro area Lego store. Hell, my wife got the ring in June 2015 partly because she bought me the Lego Creator Parisian restaurant set in December 2014 and helped finished 1/3 of it (what, she was also my lovely soulmate, the Lego was simply the shorthanded girlfriend goal that sealed the game). The Lego insanity on the analytical side of my brain is only matched by the military/aviation/rail geekdom, the IT/programming ability, kitchen jiujitsu and my appreciation for cats. You can just imagine my mind going crazy over folks doing military MOC (my own creations) back in the 90s when SNOT (studs on the side) techniques wasn't a thing and the Lego parts library were much smaller. This was before Bricklink allowed you to easily order parts from 3rd party resellers and Bricklink Studios gave you the ability to design virtual sets quickly.
Of course, the thing is that just like every single budding padawan needs a lightsaber swinging jedi to educate, and that's where Dan Siskind and the Brickmania guys come in. Despite my dehabiliating EOPLA condition I still manage to fling money at their general direction for digital instructions, decals and books, and then spend a fairly ridiculous amount (my wife's words, not mine) furthering my collection of Lego plane and tank MOCs - usually built based on BKM instructions and often with my own modifications baked in. I can't really afford their actual sets due to a distinct lack of f-you money, but I still have IT-job-stress-relief money (and thanks to Crowdstrike I am doing more BKM buys these days), so it's more decal packs, Brickarms accessories, minifigs, 3D printed parts and such sent to me from BKM GHQ near Minneapolis. And thanks partly to this hobby I manage not to go into the data center cage at my workplace with a sledgehammer with the intent to "percussively patch" Microsoft servers last weekend.
So yeah, please please please donate your unwanted future winning lottery ticket numbers to me. One day we will overcome Early Onset Pre-Lottery Anxiety, and this adult will have f-you money to spend on Brickmania custom Lego sets. And if not, eeeeh, I'll still buy from them. And one day while doing a layover on a Delta flight I'll stop by for a visit. Until then, pass that Bricklink shopping cart XML file and keep stacking bricks and plates... read more