Neurovisual experience

Or otherwise known as: imagination. Ingredients: you, spare time, quiet, stuff. I prefer paper and pencil to create a whole army of blobs. But you can just as easily turn a piece of wood into a lightsaber (add the humming noise yourself). Or your shower-head into a microphone. Or a couple of chairs and blankets to turn them into a fort. Yeah, you get the idea.

Get a parrot!

Or something small with fur or feathers. They can be incredibly entertaining to the average human, as can be seen on one of my favourite funsites: http://icanhascheezburger.com. Yeah, you do need a computer or a camera to capture your favourite animals on a series of 1s and 0s. But witnessing them doing all the crazy stuff needs nothing, just yourself.

We have a parrott at home. Sometimes he hangs upside down on his cage defying gravity, or goes insane in front of the mirror (really, he DOES go insane sometimes).

Oh, one more thing. We occasionally let him out so he can stretch those muscles, and he flies all over the house (imagine the cleaning bit...). Important bit: catching him is better than your average whole-night Disney movie.

Thy supper

Thy supper shall provide you with unending sources of fun, including the spoon.* I remember laughing so hard at the supper table that I was, in fact, unable to finish my meal until much later, when my survival instincts took over and decided that oxygen inflow by the way of breathing is paramount to my survival. Sooo... most would consider tabletop conversation to be dull or interrupting the process of eating, or just plain awkward. But suppose you asked the right questions?* Questions like

"What would happen if we gave a yoyo to a flock of flamingoes?"

(courtesy of Disney, Fantasia 2000)

or

"If you were to go to school naked, what would your first word be?"

or just elaborating on the concept of "NAKED MAN!!!!!"

* restrictions apply. You need to have a brother, preferably younger, and as insane as you are. Otherwise the above might end up awkward.

Chess

Remember the good old days when there was no Red Alert, no Supreme Commander, no +45 damage on next turn? All you had was your friend and a funny looking board. The game Chess is not only a game of strategies, but also a game of teachings. Did you know, that great army leaders played Chess to enhance their battle knowledge?

Yes indeed, its a game with a long history, and now it is even considered to be a sport! What a twisted world.. Anyways, you play on one side and the objective is to give a checkmate to the opposing king. You have a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.

A great little game that costs little money (unless of course you want to buy something like this), has stunning graphics, runs at a stable 24 frames per second and is thrilling to no end. Certainly you should invest in one, should the day of all dooms come.*

*opponent sold separately.

Classic Board Games

Like Monopoly, Risk, Cluedo. When was the last time that you played with any of these? My personal favourite is risk. I just love conquering all the continents. Ingredients: the game, a couple of friends, something to eat and drink, and daylight (so no electricity would be used).

A picture of the box, table, units, dice and cards of the game "Risk". Picture courtesy of whoever made it, plus the makers of Risk.

Another favourite board game of mine is CashFlow by Robert Kiyosaki. Ingredients: a game master, at least 3 players, game papers (included, but can be reprinted easily), calculators, pencils and erasers and 3 hours of free time. This game is educational! And I'm usually the game master. Muha. None of them need a battery. (okay, the calculator does, but I'm sure most of you can add two numbers on paper - plus the simpler calculators can run without batteries if enough light is provided - Dan)

Logo of the game called Cashflow. Logo courtesy of Robert Kiyosaki.

Dan - And just to add some of my info to this post, here're my takes on the subject (and also, adding some pictures for the viewer's sake, and labels for Google, because, frankly, Google needs love too).

So what's my favourite tabletop game? The original Tabletop RPG games, of course. All you need is a book of rules, a trunkload of imagination, a game(or quest)master, paper, light, dice (6, 10, 20 sided - depending on the actual game you're playing) and some friends to play with. If you have no idea how this may look like, imagine you are in the world of Lord of the Rings. Imagine you are a soldier, equipped with some awesome elf-sword in a mithril armor, fighting the hordes of Uruk-hai. Did that? Good! At this point, after having your character created and written down, the gamemaster takes over and he tells you what actually happens in the world he created, what quests you may take, who you meet, who you fight. It can be an incredibly fun game to play, and it may even enhance your imagination!

Dan out.

A Toy _with_ Batteries (kidding) - part 2

Hey everyone, this is Dan reporting in from a town near you (which means I'm all over the world), hopefully..

Just by looking at the picture and analyzing what Gabs wrote it is quite an interesting toy, you see. First of all, it is more like Batteries with a Toy (that uses no batteries). This can be noted from the package that says "FREE Lego Set GRATIS" or something like that. Its actually a win-win situation, because dad gets batteries that he can put into cameras, mp3 players, lose some, and so on, and the kiddo can get a lego set which he can build and rebuild and then finally stick the little pieces into the little spaces of the car that dad's hand can't reach, just like I did.

The other funny thing about this set is at the top: "2 to collect!". Does that mean, that if I buy the other part (whatever that may be), I become a collector? (with 24 AA batteries) Strange questions..

A toy _with_ batteries (kidding)

Okay, this is going to be probably the only type of exception when a toy comes WITH batteries. The whole point is to use it WITHOUT them. But nuff said. Look at the picture, and see for yourselves! (also the logo comes from this piece of toy :-))