I Am Not A Walking Pictionary

So I'm going to talk about something kind of removed from what I usually talk about. According to all blogging advice websites, I am really bad at blogging. They say you're supposed to have a focused topic, and I do not. I mean, unless you count "writing, reading, and life" as a focused topic...


So, I'm going to take the most open-ended of those three: life. One of my favourite group game to play in life (wow that was a horrible transition...) is called Talking Pictionary. Oh, and if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not really a normal teenager. I mean, normal teenagers do not spend time with their friends playing awesome verbal word games. :D


Now, if you're bored with board games/group games, you can peruse my tumblr here instead, and come back for my next post, whenever that may be.


Anyway. Talking pictionary. You probably don't know what that is. When I looked it up on Google, the results were just articles or blog posts where people used improper expressions like "People say I'm a walking pictionary." (DICTIONARY, people, DICTIONARY).

Talking Pictionary is actually a game that I learned from my grandparents. It's an awesome group game and can also be a Theory-of-Knowledge, philosophy-esque game because it gives you insight into how people think. Also, funny quotes. I wanted to teach you how to play because a) it's an awesome game, b) WORDS. You guys like words, right? I mean, assuming most of you are reader/writer types, and c) not many people seem to know about it outside of my family and friends.

All you need to play is a timer and a pack of pictionary cards.


HOW TO PLAY


So you split up your group into two teams. Then each person on each team takes turns trying to get their teammates to guess the words on the card by describing them verbally. Hence, talking pictionary. Once the timer runs out, you count how many words you got your teammates to guess correctly and add it to your team's point total. Whatever team has the most points when you decide to stop playing wins. 


RULES

• You cannot use actions. (Do not follow the example of my grandpa. Grandpa: What's this? *drops pen* Us: Grandpa!! You're not supposed to use actions!!!)
• You cannot say any part of the word on the card. (Ex: If the word is snowblower, and you say "snow" or "blower", you don't get a point).
• You cannot say "it rhymes with" or "it starts with the letter" because c'mon, that's just cheap.
• Oh, and you can't just say it another language either.
• If you get your teammates to guess all the words on a card and you still have time left, you can move on to another card. HOWEVER, if you messed up a word (saying "snow" when the word was "snowblower") then you can't continue onto a new card.

QUOTES


...from playing pictionary with my family members. :) People say funny things under pressure when they are trying to describe a word with limited vocabulary.


Grandpa, describing rain: "Melted frozen snow that's wet!"


Cousin: What do you get when you throw a pile of glue on the floor?
Answer (apparently...): A blob


Friend: "You know when you say I love you in sign language, he's a superhero and he does that."


Emily: Uh.. I think it's something you either spit or pee into.
Answer: Urn
Everyone else: NO!! Haha. :)


Grandpa: Peaches!
Uncle Harold: Apricots!
(and Uncle Harold got this right... they have strange minds)


So. I hope next time you're looking for a group game to play, you end up playing Talking Pictionary and I hope you are amused by what people come up with to describe things!


What's your favourite group game? Do you like learning about how people think?

An Enlightening Interview With A Magic Eight Ball and A Petpet

I'm in grade 12, which means I'm almost done school, which means I have to spend a long time sitting and pondering life decisions like, What do I want to do next year? What should I take in university? and other equally annoying questions that I don't feel like answering.

I also find that there are a lot of questions to be asked that just don't have concrete answers. There's so many questions where you have to think so much, and weigh the options, consider every angle, and so forth. It takes a lot of work and a lot of brain muscle.

Then there's those questions that frequently raise intense discussion throughout the book blogging world, that have answers with so many different sides it gets hard to keep track.

So I've decided instead of going through that whole brain-numbing process of answering hard questions, I will just enter my questions into an online Magic Eight Ball and it will give me all the answers I need. What could make life easier?

Is it OK if what I write doesn't necessarily line up with my beliefs?

Magic Eight Ball: Very doubtful.

Should published authors do book reviews, either negative or positive?

Magic Eight Ball: Signs point to yes.

Is the YA genre going downhill in today's society?

Magic Eight Ball: My sources say no.

Should teens be published?

Magic Eight Ball: Outlook not so good.

Should all YA books with sex, drugs, and violence be banned from the earth?

Magic Eight Ball: Without a doubt.

Are teens and kids capable of picking out books that are suitable to their needs?

Magic Eight Ball: Better not to tell you now.

I don't really like these answers. I think I'll try another approach. When I was ten, I would spend all of my time on Neopets doing who knows what (that's also how I learned how to do some HTML coding which I have now forgotten most of) and you could ask your Petpet questions. I still have my account, so I will log in there for the first time in a hundred years and consult my Petpets.

Well. That's encouraging.

Ouch. 

 I don't know what to say to that...

Well... that was... interesting.

Um, you know what? On second thought, I'll do my decision-making and question-answering the old-fashioned way...

Mid-Nano (And November) Motivation: Cake!

November 15th! Halfway through NaNo (who's doing it? how are you doing?), and halfway through just plain old November. And for all you people bustling through writing a 50,000 MS in 30 days, and because you're HALFWAY THROUGH!, here is something I think you need at this point....

CAKE!

OK, so all you non-Nanoers like me can have some too. It's a busy time, mid-November and I'm sure you are most likely trying to work instead of reading blog posts etc. But who doesn't have time to eat cake (except for my dad. he is not allowed to eat cake. Or his gross peanut butter icing sugar mix that he makes for a midnight snack.)

Anyway, enjoy!

Yes, of course eat the icing last... it's the only way! :)

Happy Nanoing!!

Random Stuff (Including But Not Limited To Blog Awards)

Hey everyone! So Halloween is over and we're in the midst of the craziness of NaNoWriMo (which I'm actually not doing but anyway) and I have some stuff I need to get done... like doling out some more blog awards I've received!

First of all, Monica from Breaking Fantasy gave me the Versatile Blog Award.

The rules are 7 random facts about yourself, plus give the award to 7 awesome bloggers. I always seem to spouting random facts about myself (and my family), so instead I'll just list 7 things on my wall (I'm in the basement right now at my desk, and the wall is stuccoish thing so you can stick tacks into it):

1. "Save the Polar Bears" poster I drew in grade 8 for some contest (obviously I didn't win as I never handed it in).
2. Small piece of paper from a notepad with "Weird Expressions" listed on it.
3. A shelf that I painted white with multicoloured spots that has a red candle on top of it.
4. A picture of me and my friend when we were six, riding on a plastic red seesaw in my backyard.
5. A clown that I bought from Dollarama (or actually, my grandparents bought it for me).
6. A happy face printed on cardstock.
7. A Christmas card my sister made me.

...those are just 7 things, though, I actually have more stuff on the basement wall (that I took over) than that... :)

I also received the One Lovely Blog Award from Julie, who also hosted the Oh, The Early Work Blogfest that I participated in here. I had tons of fun going through some of my old work, and guess what? There was a contest with the blogfest, and I won! Yay! :)

Okay, so now I would like to pass on the awards to... (oh, and whoever I give the award to can take whichever one they want :D)

1. Nick Hight at Writing Fire - I always find his posts funny and insightful and most importantly, interesting.

2. Belle at Belle's Bookshelf - This is a great book blog that you should definitely follow. Everything is very organized and all the features she does are interesting and fun.

3. Alison Miller's blog is also a fun blog that I've recently started following. She's really fun and interesting and she's also a part of the team at YA Confidential which is a new group blog on the blogosphere... hey, can I give awards to group blogs? Is that allowed? Because then...

4. YA Confidential - This blog is super cool and if you're a YA writer/author (or even if you're not), you should definitely follow it. Their entire mission over there is to get into the minds of teens, and do they ever do an amazing job! I'm also one of the "teen analysts" over there if you ever see them referencing the analysts, know that I'm one of them! Haha. ;)

5. Sarah Enni - She is so cool, I love all her posts. There's something to be said about bloggers who can get their points across with amazing clarity, and Sarah Enni is one of those bloggers. Also, she gets bonus points for awesome organization. :D (One of her recent cool posts is this one).

6. Julie at Rosewood Pencil Box - Fun person and fun posts and cool host of cool blogfests... haha. Anyway I like her posts. :)

I know that's only 6 blogs but... oh well.

So! I want to know how everyone is doing... are you doing NaNo? How's it going? How's life and such? See you later!

POPULAR SUFFIX ON SALE NOW! "ISH", ONLY $19.99!

Have you ever felt incredibly STUPID and AWKWARD for declaring something with utmost certainty, only to find out later you're totally, completely WRONG? And then you never want to feel so idiotic again?

Well, NOW is your chance to never feel so idiotic again! No more feeling stupid for you with the NEWEST, shiniest, currently most popular suffix on the market! That's right, it's ISH, the suffix you've all come to know and love!

Whenever you're unsure about something and you don't want to use those awful way-too-many-letter words like "kind of" *shudder* "sort of" *horrified scream* "possibly" or even the dreaded "I don't know" (No! Don't say it!) then ISH is right there to replace them! It's only THREE letters long and you just stick it right onto the end of anything you want! How much easier does it get?? Just look:

"It's supposed to be cold...ish tomorrow" or "I have 1700...ish aliens under my bed". ARE YOU AMAZED YET?

If not, there's more! ISH's usefulness just never ends! Do you find yourself querying agents about your manuscripts? Well, ISH is a perfect addition to that little bugger! Take a look:

"My book is 200,000ish words" or "I promise it's best-sellerish material". Wow! Do you see what ISH did there? No longer will agents be let down or annoyed when they don't recieve a 200,000-word or best-seller MS that they were promised! Now they know exactly what to expect, thanks to the EASY addition of the BEST three-letter suffix out there!

And the list goes on! Can't remember exactly what someone looked like? Add ISH! Don't remember the forecast? Add ISH! Don't want your parents to know exactly how many unicorns you sneak into Narnia via your attic? Add ISH!

ISH is on sale NOW for a steal of $19.99! But for this EXCLUSIVE ON-BLOG OFFER, you'll get ISH, PLUS a general query letter with ISH already added in! Agents will love you! All that only for the exclusive offer of $23.53!

AND if you call 555-0503 RIGHT NOW you'll get ISH, FIVE general ISH-added query letters, AND a year's subsrciption to Suffixes of The World, the most noted suffix magazine known to man (it even won the Golden Suffix Magazine award in 1994!) ALL ONLY FOR A WHOPPING GOOD PRICE OF $50.04!! CALL NOW!!

You can also order ISH online at www.ishsuffix.com! Currently on sale for $17.63!* Order now, while supplies last!!

*online items only on sale in Manitoba, Canada. Because I know you don't know where that is.

How To Feel Good About Your Baking Skills Even When You Make Mistakes

The title says it all, my friends.

Um. I might have been baking today.  Some yellow slug banana muffins. MAYBE.

You cracked an egg imperfectly and now there's an eggshell in there and YOU CAN'T GET IT OUT.

No worries, you say. Eggshells have got nutrients, like calcium. It's all good.

While digging for eggshells in slimy egg guts, you realize you forgot to wash your hands.

OH WELL, you think. Your family needs to build up their immune systems anyway.

While squishing frozen bananas out of their brown hides into your mixer, you notice how much they look like yellow slugs.

And then a friend shows you this link and you never want to eat banana muffins again. Oh, wait. That's not relevent.

You burn the muffins.*

IT'S STILL ALL GOOD. (You don't pay attention to any COMPLETELY NONEXISTENT tears of frustration). Birds like burnt muffins, RIGHT!? And you forgot to fill the bird feeder last week. ALL. GOOD.

You accidentally inject some sort of bizarre chemical into your muffin mix and everything explodes when you turn the oven on and it triggers THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT aka dragonflies take over the Earth.

I mean, you're dead. But at least there's no mosquitoes, RIGHT??

See how easy it is to keep a positive attitude while baking? Good luck, everyone!

*Disclaimer: I did not actually burn my muffins today. :D They're quite yummy, actually.

---

In other news... I have received the awesometastic Liebster award from Jenny AND Brittany (teenage host of the teen writers summer blogfest I participated in for July). I will dole that out later.

Speaking of the Teen Writers Summer Blogfest... on the last day we did this "Ask the Teens" thing... and I think I want to do that again. So start thinking of things you want to know about teens & their reading habits! I will have a post with details on that later.

(Synonyms for Random Go Here) Post

Last night, instead of doing anything sensible or productive like sleeping, I decided to read through archives of funny blogs like this one and this one. (I came to the conclusion that computers should have the ability to have their screen rotated so I can lie in bed with my head on pillow to read blogs, instead of twisting my neck awkwardly all the time).

I was reading one particularly funny post and I suddenly could not stop laughing out loud. (Usually I do not laugh out loud at things. Instead I’ll just go “Haha that’s funny!” but not actually physically laugh). Anyway, my laughter at 10:30 PM last night caused my sister to wake up and go “TURN THE SCREEN DOWN”, even though the brightness (of the computer screen) was already at its minimum (which I reminded her of, and she promptly fell back asleep.)

Anyway, what I really wanted to say is that all these funny posts made me want to tell a random story, so I decided I’d talk about last year in French class when my French teacher made the class believe that there was a subway system in our school.

It started with a janitor driving by the classroom in a... I don’t know the name of it, but it is a thing that the janitors drive around, and it cleans the floor. Anyway, this thing makes loud rumbling noises when it goes down the hallway, and it also beeps.

One of the more gullible students in my class asked what the sound was, and my French teacher decided she was going to have some fun and told the student that it was the school’s subway.

My French teacher went on to piece the puzzle together, saying that the nametag IDs that all the teachers have to wear on a lanyard around their neck were actually subway passes so the teachers could use the subway, because the subway actually goes to all other schools in the division.

There is also a main staircase in my school that has stairs going down the basement that nobody uses (unless you are going down to store musical props) because there aren’t any classes in the basement, and my French teacher said that those stairs actually lead down to the subway platform.

So I’m just sitting there, laughing along with my French teacher (and some other guy in my class who decided to get in on the joke and backed up everything Madame said) while she tried to trick this one gullible student (and actually ended up tricking more than one).

Then all of a sudden my imagination is, well, imagining this subway that connects all the schools in the division, and I can see teachers using it, and I’m like whoa that’s so cool why didn’t I know about this before that’s so cool!!

Of course, in the back of my head (the part that wasn’t asleep from being in school all day) was going THIS MAKES NO SENSE. For one thing, there is a teacher’s parking lot, and I see all the teacher’s cars there, like, every day when I walk through the parking lot to get into the building. I also knew that the rumbling/beeping was coming from the janitor tractor-mop thing, because I’d seen it before, and I also knew that schools being cheap as they are would never put in money for a subway system.

Also, my city doesn’t even have a subway system, so WHY WOULD MY SCHOOL???

Yeah. We still joke about it. *rumbling of janitor’s tractor-mop* “Oh! There goes the subway!”

In other news, I have received my first blog award from this guy and I am now apparently supposed to dole it out to some other people which I think I will figure out later because I would rather you be dwelling on the ridiculousness of having a subway in a school (and me believing it) than my accomplishments.

Thank you!

My Best Organizational Buddies

So I'm pretty sure I spend most of time in front of these two guys...

Yup. My whiteboards. :) They're usually not that covered with marker - this is the one of the main ways I study for tests and so it has physics and up in the top corner a little bit of French. I also have magnets and to do lists and stickers for my dad's health calendar (he gets a sticker if he exercises and eats well).

So today I was excited to study because I could use my new whiteboard markers... heheh. I'm a nerd, I know. :)

How do you organize yourself??