Category: Distractions

Brain Fun

Oofta, my friends. Spent a little over two hours tonight putting together a console table. Now it houses my coloring and art supplies and I’ve largely reclaimed my dining table but for the pencils and book I’m currently using. Still much to do, but I’m going to squeeze in an art walk on Saturday with friends (and hopefully get some good photos of Halloween decorations for you), and perhaps check out the props/costume sale at Shakespeare Theatre Company on Sunday. I also need to get a new phone as mine is about seven years old and I’m starting to run into compatibility issues with apps. Galaxy S8, I’ve loved you well.

In the meantime, I’m trying very hard to resist buying any Halloween or spooktastic games. I’m a member of Big Fish Games after taking about 10 years off from casual gaming, and they’re having a sale where you can buy bundles of games. Of course they’ve bundled three of my favorite series: Puppet Show, Redemption Cemetery, and Dark Tales, which is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s works. Three games for 15 bucks—and I have no time to play any, boo hoo! I recently told a friend that if I won the lottery, I would have to play all of the series I used to play, in order, including catching up on all the insallments I’ve missed. It would take me a year if I worked at it like a full-time job, heh.

Ooh, this one looks good. A creepy carnival!

It reminds me of some of my favorite casual games of all time, Madam Fate and Fate’s Carnival. They’re old but they’re surreal and the puzzles are some of the weirdest I’ve ever seen in a game. They’re difficult, too. Most of the puzzles in casual games are intuitive to some degree. Not these. Some of these are just off the wall. Imagine opening a screen and this is what you see:

That’s it. You have no idea what the objective is or where to start. You basically have to just click on something, see if it does anything, and go from there.

At any rate, I may have to carve out some time on Sunday night or Monday to play a creepy casual game. Cracking the puzzles makes me feel smart—which brings us to today’s candy: Smarties! I used to love those. I’d devour them and then bounce off the walls because they’re all sugar. Really, it’s a wonder my pancreas didn’t explode and I still have any teeth.

Three Snaps from Z

Pretty tired. (Translated: I’m exhausted.) So here are a few random pictures from my phone.

I wish this had come out clear. The look on this little one’s face was precious.

A squirrel climbing down a tree and looking toward the camera.
Caught in the act! Of what, I don’t know. Just being a squirrel, I guess.

And now the entry turns raunchy.

A sign that says "12 Days of Nutmas!"
Every guy’s Christmas dream.
A Christmas tree.
Some big balls on this tree, boy howdy.

Sunday Stealing: Pink

Doing some Sunday Stealing today.

1. Do you tend to have a guilty conscious?

Sometimes I wonder if I didn’t give Inigo enough of a chance to heal from his leg injury before I took him to say goodbye. But he was in pain, his quality of life took a deep turn for the worse because he couldn’t walk or climb, and I sensed he wouldn’t come back from it. As one friend said, freeing him from pain was a final act of love that I could offer him.

2. Do you still have your wisdom teeth?

No, and that’s actually a Christmas story, as I had them taken out over a winter recess while I was in college. That was also the year my father cut a gash in his hand sawing the trunk of the Christmas tree. We made quite a pair sitting on the couch. My mother said she was running an infirmary.

3. Peanut Butter – creamy or crunchy?

I like both but usually get creamy.

4. Get up off your butt. Take 5 steps. Which leg did you start out on?

Right.

5. What color is your favorite kitchen utensil?

Wood.

6. Did you watch the Michael Jackson memorial/funeral?

No.

7. Do you know anyone who graduated from high school this year? Were you invited to their graduation party? Did you go?

Nope.

8. White with black stripes or black with white stripes?

Zebras are black with white stripes.

9. If we were to call your 6th grade teacher, what would they say about you?

“She’s very bright and a joy to have in the classroom. She enjoys science and English.”

10. Can you draw a perfect circle?

Nope, but I can listen to them. LOVE this song. A friend once cracked a joke that this song might be the first time Maynard James Keenan wrote something in a major key. The sound is ridiculously happy considering the subject matter, which is the stupid ways humans spend their time and money when we could all die tomorrow. I love the hat-tip to Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (TW: There is one scene of suicide, and the whole thing is about nuclear annihilation. If you’re easily triggered, watch the second one, which is just dolphins swimming.) Bravissimo hip hip hooray!

11. What was your favorite scratch & sniff sticker scent?

As a child, root beer. As an adult, gardenia. I found these Filter Fresh sheets that you can attach to your air filters and the “Scratch for Scent” sticker on the gardenia one smells just like the perfume my mother wore in the ’70s.

12. How many light switches and electrical outlets are in the room that you are in right now?

One light switch, three electrical outlets, and one defunct cable/landline phone outlet.

13. Do you know sign language?

Just how to spell my name and how to tell someone to eat shit and die. No joke. Back in college two of the girls at the end of the hall were legally deaf and they taught me that.

14. Do you step on cracks in the sidewalk?

Not intentionally.

15. And the sheets on your bed look like….?

White with white stripes.