ring around the rosy
—
“the whole universe is based on rhythms.
everything happens in circles, in spirals.”
-john hartford
Nov2
Tag Archives: games
May12
spies.
it’s naptime
in the kinder room
one ‘sleeps’ in the cot garage
and
a hand reaches out
one ‘sleeps’ outside
barely on her cot
and
sees the signal
secret notes
get passed
in silence
letters
and
numbers
and
pictures
and
very, very
important scribbles
of all kinds.
let the spy games begin.
—
in my head, i think i’d make a perfect spy,
but in reality, i don’t think i’d fare very well.
Mar1
space.
f and m are transported to a place deep in outer space
—
“the only thing that scares me more than space aliens is the idea
that there aren’t any space aliens.
we can’t be the best that creation has to offer.
i pray we’re not all there is.
if so, we’re in big trouble.”
― ellen deGeneres
Dec19
just be patient. let the game come to you. don’t rush. be quick, but don’t hurry. – earl monroe
three people.
three different ways
to play
the same game.
hurry, be patient, worry.
who wins?
Jul29
hopscotch.
came upon
what seemed to be
the world’s longest hopscotch
must have been
‘cuz it just kept on going
even when the one who drew it
counted as high as they could
and they
had no more numbers
so it ended at 82
but the boxes just kept on going.
Jun14
Sometimes, a winner is a dreamer who never gave up. – Unknown
while much of the globe is preoccupied with the world cup from june 12-july 13,
here is an alternative championship that could give fifa a run for its money.
the world toe-wrestling championships.
in 1976, when pubgoers in derbyshire, england grew bored with arm wrestling,
they began locking big toes and trying to pin their opponent’s foot to the ground.
rules state that competitors must yell out ‘toe much!’ if they want to throw in the towel.
competition is serious.
world champion, alan ‘nasty’ nash
has come home with broken toes nine times!
—
just play. have fun. enjoy the game.
michael jordan
—
credits: cameracrewgermany.com, bbc news, mental floss magazine
Dec30
nun the wiser
one of my favorite christmas eve memories, was when my aunt, a catholic nun, mother superior of her order, came to town for the holidays. she came over early, to chat and hang out at my place. the rest of the family was running late, so for some reason, my daughters and i decided to keep her busy by playing a holiday game of ‘quarter bounce.’ open-minded, liberal nun that she is, she asked the rules and played right along with us. she actually did quite well, and we secretly wondered if she might have played once or twice before.
later, when the whole family arrived, we decided to play ‘would you rather?.’ imagine our joy and endless laughter, (including hers), when the card she drew asked, ‘would you rather – a) have no breasts but saucer-sized nipples -or- b) huge breasts and no nipples? could there have been anyone better in the family to have drawn that card?! sometimes the universe just lines up perfectly and offers you an unexpected and joyous gift. she chose the huge breasts option, by the way.
Life must be lived as play. – Plato
Dec27
the games people (try to) play
If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger. – Frank Lloyd Wright
technology has never been my strong suit, to put it mildly. oh, i can open up my laptop with the best of them, and use my cell phone, and text, and email, and write, and listen to music, and even use my electric toothbrush, but when it comes to video games, i realize i am in a totally a one-sided dysfunctional relationship. i consider myself ‘on a need to know and desperate to use level of understanding’ as far as technology goes anyway, and the games really push the envelope. won’t take my word for it? need a bit of evidence? here a just a few examples:
Technology is anything that wasn’t around when you were born. – Alan Kay
years ago, i was super hyped-up when ‘pong’ came out, one of the very first home video games. i found myself so excited on my first turn playing it, that i snapped the joystick right off of its base. all these years later, my brother is still holding a bit of grudge about this incident, as the game was his dream come true, and my parents also snapped, and said they were not replacing it since ‘we’ broke it so quickly.
when one my daughters was quite young, she told me, (as i was trying to share a mother-daughter quality bonding time with her, by playing video games) – ‘mom, i’m not trying to be mean, but it’s not really fun playing these games with you. it’s kind of boring actually, because you’re sort of slow, and you don’t know the shortcuts and your guys always get killed so fast and you have low points and then you are out and i always win.’
flash forward to more recent times, apparently i have not made a lot of progress in this area. i played wii tennis against my son in law, and hit him with my hand held thing. hard. by accident. once again, i was a very enthusiastic player. i felt like i was really on the court. soon after, the ‘tapping’ incident, it flew out of my hand and hit and broke something in the room. i was ‘asked’ to wear the wristband to protect us all after that.
I play the the Wii without the wrist strap, thug life. – Unknown quote
for my birthday this year, i put ‘one hour of random tech support, (of my choosing), without judgement, snottiness, mocking laughter, or a crabby voice’, on my birthday wish list. coincidentally, all three of my daughters individually decided this was not humanly possible for them, as the conditions i requested were absolutely un-doable. they each said they would rather get me anything else on my list.
my new strategy is to stay one step ahead of the grand babies, as i can sometimes take them in the games at this point, though one is soon to be six years old, so my short reign may quickly come to an end. i’ve decided that i can cross ‘gamer’ or ‘video designer’ off of my list of potential next careers. but – give me a good game of twister and i will show you who’s boss. and perhaps even do so, without judgement or snottiness or mocking laughter, or a crabby voice, though there is no guarantee.
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. – Albert Einstein
Apr5
say ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this game was in the silent auction at school and i was not surprised at all that no one bid on it. as it was a leftover, it was very generously offered it to me on behalf of my kindergarten classroom. i happily accepted and looked forward to sharing it with the kinders.
then i put my glasses on.
one in-focus look at this box and i was immediately horrified. between the grinning ‘dentist’ holding the gigantic tooth in massive pliers, all of the other monster-sized tools laying in wait, and the ‘patient/victim’ with missing teeth and a horrified look on his face, i was beside myself. aside from my own dental fear, i imagined that most children seeing the cover would develop a phobia even if they did not have one before.
my free-spirited friend offered to take it home to try on her children, (as well as one of her unsuspecting neighbor kids), to gauge their reaction. this experiment was to serve as an ad hoc litmus test to see how young children might react to it.
upon laying eyes on the game, ‘pearly whites,’ the 3 children in our focus group – sophie, clare, and natalie, instantly loved it and had absolutely no fear of it whatsoever. as a matter of fact, they giggled with delight as they roved around the gaping mouth, moved ahead to the canines, climbed up the bridge of dental floss, slid down mouthwash falls, and moved back 2 spaces as ‘punishment’ for having a cavity. their collective review was, “it was really fun and we want to play again!”
what? perhaps it is just me?
————————————
some tortures are physical
and some are mental
but the one that is both
is dental.
-ogden nash
I didn't have my glasses on.... 
