Fortnite

As a school photographer, it’s my job to make every student smile. Sometimes that involves making funny faces. Sometimes I have to play a certain song that the student likes to sing so that he’s happy enough to smile. Sometimes I convince a shy little girl that I’m going to send her pretty, smiling picture, to her favorite character. (Kids think it’s amazing that I have Elsa’s email and then tend to want to smile for that.) And sometimes, for the boys, it involves talking about food or video games. One of the very things I don’t want to discuss.

When The X and I were married, about 85% of the aggrivation that came out of my body towards him, was due to video games. He buried himself in them, for days at a time. He wouldn’t sleep. He would eat on his own terms, without the rest of us. I was being ignored, on purpose, and it pissed me off. Now, here I am, in another relationship with someone who loves video games. (Insert eye roll here.)

One of the big video games that kids are playing now, is Fortnite. It’s a game that drops 100 people onto a giant map. The players battle each other, building forts to hide behind. The goal is to be the last one standing. Well, SS has developed some sort of addiction to this game. He has gone from playing XBox once or twice a month, to EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Because of this game.

I’ll be honest, this doesn’t have me smiling from ear to ear. However, it does allow me to come up with additional conversation starters for those hard to photograph 6th - 8th graders that don’t like to smile. Silver linings.

Saturdays without NASCAR are okay too.

My last day of housesitting was today. I expected to spend it sitting on the couch staring at the NASCAR truck race on television while cuddling with this poodle…

Which would have been TOTALLY fine with me.

Instead, RJ wanted to hang out. And that was even MORE fine with me.

BFF@work told me about this place where you can play miniature golf in the dark (think black lights), so The X and I agreed to meet up there so RJ could have a little fun.

 

 

 

After all that excitement, we decided to eat. Milkshakes and burgers for everyone. :-)

 

THEN y’all, he wanted to go to the park and show me how he was learning to ride a bike. So, we went.

AND HE FINALLY LEARNED HOW TO RIDE!

Soooo excited!! (Proud Mama moment.)

He was a little apprehensive about riding down this curb, but he did it. Slowly. (Even at 11yrs old, things can still be scary.)

Super fun day.

Tomorrow, NASCAR from Martinsville. Go Kyle. #18

Draw this…

Draw Something

By now, everyone is playing this game. And everyone I talk to or hear talking about it, says they're addicted. Awesome. As I mentioned in this post, I am too.

If you're playing against me, you know by now that I totally suck at drawing. Really suck. It's obvious. I can’t hide it.

My stick drawings and makeshift pyramids don't stand a chance against some of the other people I'm playing against.

Like this...

How can I compete with that? When *I* draw Star Wars, it doesn’t look anything like this.

And this...

I CAN’T DO THAT. And for those that play against me, I won't EVER draw like that. Get used to it.

With all that being said, I still enjoy playing this game. It’s fun. I make no apologies for bad drawing. There are plenty of other things I do very well. Drawing just doesn’t happen to be one of them.

Happy drawing, Readers! :-)

angry birds

What is the freakin’ fascination with this game?

About a year ago, I downloaded the game. I played it for about two days, and found myself stuck and unable to pass level four. I gave up and deleted it to create room for more dumb games I wanted to install.

During that year, I watched the game turn in to much more. There are stuffed animals, Halloween costumes, cake decorations, and much much more.

After finding out Sis plays it, I figured I’d give it another shot. I downloaded it, kind of got excited to finally figure out what all the fuss was about, and BAM! As soon as the game loads, it closes. Awesome. I tried three of four times, before finally saying, It’s official. This game truly is stupid. And I deleted it once again.

I don’t get it.

I know for certain there are people that feel the same way about FarmVille, so I guess I understand.

I guess.

Another addiction

I’ve got a bunch of addictions, I know. First slingo, then words with friends. A few others I can’t mention on this PG-Rated blog. Now this.

A short time after meeting The X (13 years ago), he introduced me to a computer game called You Don’t Know Jack. I became addicted. I played it all.the.time. Seriously folks, this game rocked! Eventually, other games came into my life and I stopped playing YDKJ.

Fast forward to three days ago. I’m flipping through the new apps on my iThingy, and what do I see? The familiar bald head I used to love to see on my computer screen.

My huge smile quickly turned to a frown when I noticed the app price. $2.99? Are you kidding me? To play trivia?

I don’t buy apps. I figured that if there isn’t a free app similar enough, I don’t need it. There have been a few exceptions to this rule, but they were special circumstances. And never over $0.99.

My frown and anger at the $2.99 price tag suddenly became a distant thought when I heard the familiar music start up as the game began.

Ahhh! The comforts of familiarity.

Addicted

I’m addicted. 100% addicted to playing this game. For almost a year, I’ve been feeding this addiction. I have several games going at one time, and it sometimes takes me a few hours to take my turn, but I’m addicted.

Wanna play? Find me:  MsNscr

An addiction I’m not afraid to admit

I can remember 12 years ago, chatting with a friend on AOL. I noticed his answer time got longer and longer, so I asked him what he was doing. Playing Slingo, he says. “What? What is that?” It’s like Bingo and Slots in one. It’s fun. Try it out. Just type in the keyword ‘Slingo’. And thus began my Slingo addiction.

I played for hours at a time. I’d go for hours without sleep just trying to beat my previous score. The X would get frustrated on occasion when I wouldn’t come to bed, or wouldn’t let him on the computer. I clearly hadn’t grasped the concept of sharing. I can’t imagine having to share a computer with someone now. Eek.

We finally dropped AOL as our ISP, and there hadn’t yet been a Slingo website developed. I went through Slingo withdraws, literally. The X bought me the computer game, so at least I could get my fix, but it just wasn’t the same when I had only myself to play against. I enjoyed the trill of playing with other people just as much as I enjoyed playing. (I still have that game, now that I think about it.)

Alas came the Slingo website. I signed up as a member as soon as I found out about it, and began racking up the points. Yay! I had my addiction back. Just in time for divorce to hit. Damn. No more computer. I promise, the computer wasn’t what I was thinking about while I was getting separated from The X, but I do remember wondering who would be my computer tech now.

Recently, I downloaded the Slingo app on my iTouch. The addiction is back, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m back to hours and hours of fun. And I have an old friend from South Texas to thank for my addiction. :-)

Family Feud Questions

While flipping channels this morning, I came across Family Feud and couldn’t stop watching. I thought it would be fun to bring a little Q&A session to my blog. So, here ya go. Give it a try. I don’t know how it will work out, but I’m willing to try anything.

Are you?

My name is Valerie, I’m 31 years old, and I am NOT smarter than a 5th grader.

…And I want to thank Jeff Foxworthy for pointing that out.

Rubik’s Cube

Want to solve the Rubik’s cube?

No more breaking it apart or taking the stickers off only to replace them in the correct order. Read HERE and maybe you can, too. 20 moves or less? Give it a try.