PlayFirst Grapevine

Kids are great. You can put a kid in an empty dirt-floored shack with a stick and ten minutes later you've got a kid who's [re-]invented a classic game, like The Stick Throwing Game or The Drawing Rude Pictures In Dirt Game or The Mellifluous Game of Wall Percussion. I'm not recommending you start putting kids in shacks, I'm saying there's something wonderful and magical about that capacity to invent.

Kids will work with whatever they have at hand to entertain themselves, to solve the problems they face, to feel accomplished. As it turns out, that doesn't stop when kids grow up into adults. We keep on using whatever we've got handy to deal with the daily grind.

If we're in luck, the tools at hand are useful for those purposes. They're fun to use, they're powerful in effect, we can take pride in our accomplishments. Whether it's having the exact right word fall off of your tongue when talking to your boss, or recognizing what to do about the noise coming from under the hood of your car, it's special.

Which is to say, it's not normal. It's not common. The usual case is that you get tongue-tied or you take your car to the mechanic who throws her hands up in exasperation that you didn't come in sooner. It's hard to make sure you've got the right tool for the problem at any given time. That's when it helps to remember being a kid and how everything could be adapted. Every stick, every dirt floor, every shack wall, every word.

That's part of why we've got a filter on the forums. It doesn't stop you from having your say. We love to hear from you. It stops you from resorting to the coarse, common words which aren't the right tool for most problems. It challenges you to invent new ways to express yourself, to have your say without making a problem for somebody else.

But there's more to filtering and it's coming up next.

Growing up, winter was all about trying to stay warm. Trying to stay warm while standing at the end of the street in my uniform waiting for the bus. Trying to stay warm while taking care of the horses in the barn. Trying to stay warm in bed once the heat was turned down for the evening. From November thru March, as the snow drifts grew over my head, I simply tried to stay warm.

Invariably, I would end up in the kitchen. When the stove was on, the kitchen was by far the warmest room in the house. For a few small hours, I could discard several clothing layers and feel warm as I worked on homework or helped with dinner.

I learned to make many dishes over the years. One of my favorite by far was halushka. I hope you try it sometime.

Halushka

1 lb wide egg noodles
1 onion, chopped
5 c cabbage, sliced 1/4 inch wide
7 - 8 TB butter
salt and pepper
sour cream (optional)

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add cabbage and cook until wilted. Be careful not to brown the cabbage. If the mixture is too dry, add more butter. Add the noodles to the cabbage/onion mixture and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with sour cream if preferred.

Serves 4

It's official. I've crossed over. A friend recently teased me about how I've become such a "gamer girl" and when I tried to prove her wrong, I failed miserably.

The signs were all there. In fact, the signs are all here... as in right here:

• Instead of going shopping for clothes and knick-knacks on the weekends, I get excited about a trip to Fry's to check out the latest video games releases
• I don't bake round cookies anymore. They all have a triangle strategically cut out of one side and resemble Pac Man. I have also made Pac Man shaped dumplings to adorn my chicken stew but they didn't look as pretty.
• Instead of coming home at 4am after a girl's night out, I'm actually getting up at 4am to be the first in line for the Nintendo Wii. (On a Sunday morning no less!)
• I missed a favorite dance class because I HAD to finish a level in Poker Pop
• While doing Sunday chores, I hum the soundtrack to Elebits or Diner Dash.
• An exciting night out now includes my sofa, a video game and bowl of Spinner's popcorn
• I get a goofy grin on my face and jump up and down when I hear a Wii booting up in the distance

What about you? Do you consider yourself a gamer and if you do, what were some clear signs you had crossed over?

We've whipped up something special for you - a downloadable calendar for February featuring none other than our sweet little Flo. If you're like me, your desk is piled high with papers, unopened mail, candy wrappers, etc. and having a calendar you can thumb tack to a bulletin board is really nice.

Check out Flo's calendar debut!

We'll be adding a new calendar each month so stay tuned!

PS - Flo has a MySpace profile and is looking to add friends! Find her on MySpace here:

http://www.myspace.com/dinerdashflo

Anyone who has ever been to my apartment knows that my husband and I love books. They overfill our bookcases and tables. Opening any drawer will likely find a book stashed within. At one point, I tried to organize the books into easy to find categories, but new additions and lack of space quickly ended my attempt. We have books on topics ranging from programming to decorating, from animal husbandry to poetry, from medical texts to growing vegetables. Every topic we have ever been interested in is represented by a book.

Looking through our shelves, one will likely find Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead lodged between George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and Audrey Niffennegger's The Time Traveler's Wife. No book is immune to being plopped onto a random shelf. The disarray is complete.

Surprisingly, the jumble on the shelves adds to the experience of selecting a book to read. Do I pull down that old favorite or try that new one there? What is sitting on the next shelf? The confusion never lets me focus on a single spot. I have to search through the clutter for the proverbial gem.

I should finish the book I am currently reading this weekend. The quest for a new book will start almost immediately after. What are some of your favorite books? Do you have any suggestions for my next read?

Continued from Part 1 and Part 2.

Now, back in the dark ages of the computer game, they came in boxes. You had to put down your money to even find out what kind of game it was. Then there were game sequels, ads, reviews, commercials, demos and trailers. It became more possible to guess if you'd like a game before you bought it.

But it was still a guess. You might guess wrong. You might have shelled out a big chunk of change to find out you'd been tricked. That's a drag.

Which brings us to now. When you can play a game and not feel like you got suckered. Because the first sixty minutes? They're free to play. If you don't like it by then, you won't ever like it. So you can quit playing and move on. To a different game, to a book you've been meaning to finish or, heck, you could even get back on the horse and head back to the gym. They empty right out again by March of any given year.

Oh, and if you do quit a game and it's one we made? Do me a favor and tell me what bored you about it, what sucked, why you stopped. Maybe you're the only person in the world who hated it so maybe we'll keep that game around, but maybe we'll also come up with a game just for you. We like feedback. We read it and we act on it.

There's a couple places you can be heard. You can use the end-of-game feedback screen. You can come to the forums. You can comment on this post.

OK, I got to get back to work before my boss finds out I'm blogging on the clock.

When I settle into playing a casual game on a cozy night, I liken the experience to curling up and watching a good movie - and what goes better with video entertainment than a hot bowl of popcorn? (Perfect for all of you Super Bowl fans too!)

Here is one of my favorite easy-to-make recipes, it's a munchable mix of spicy and sweet.

12 cups or one package of popped microwave popcorn (hot)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp sugar (Splenda also works)
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt (optional, especially if you're already using salted popcorn)

Combine all of the ingredients sans popcorn in a small bowl to mix. Then toss mixture with popcorn. Serve in a big bowl and enjoy!

What are some of your favorite casual gaming snacks?