Entertaining Myself Throughout My Life

I write on a site called +SearchWarp , which I knew as WryteStuff when I first joined in July. This is where I submit the vast majority of my non-fiction work that isn't blog-related. Once a week we get a writing assignment, and I treasure those assignments. I never thought I would, because I don't like being told what to do, but they're not obligatory and I enjoy the challenge of writing something that wasn't my idea.

This week's assignment was 'the book that changed my life' and it didn't take me long to think of one. My post was about Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, because it's about book-burning. If you're interested, it's available here for your viewing pleasure. The idea of book-burning is so horrific to me, that I couldn't read the whole book (threw it across the room, actually), and it formed my views on education.

Then I read the article of another writer who wrote about Green Eggs & Ham. It made me think about another book, and looking back it probably should have been the one I wrote about. When I was four I learned to read for myself. My aunt, when she came to visit, would read Bears in the Night to me, by Jan and Stan Berenstain, and so one night I picked it up and started reading it, cover to cover. My grandparents, who were the ones to 'raise' me (yes, that's sarcasm), thought maybe I was only reading it because I'd memorized it word for word. I hadn't. My grandmother made what amounts to flash cards, which I had no problem reading, either.

Bears in the Night was a great book, and possibly why I like scary stuff. It also instilled in me a life-long love of reading. If I don't have a book on the go, or several, I get nervous and jittery. A weird reaction I'm sure, but I can't stand not having something to turn to for reading material when the opportunity presents itself. Such as while I'm eating, after I go to bed and while I'm waiting for sleep to take over, when I'm soaking in the tub, or anywhere else where my brain is not otherwise fully engaged.

Other things that engage my mind are movies, documentaries and computer games. Aside from my writing, those are the main things I spend my time on. Quite often I do more than one thing at the same time, however. I usually play computer games while watching a movie. Otherwise I have to be doing something with my hands - like knitting, believe it or not. It might have something to do with the fact that I used to be a smoker, I don't know. I've also done artwork, or hand-writing fiction in notebooks, while watching things on a screen. Both my body and my brain have to be engaged, I guess. Before you ask, yes, I'm capable of meditating. To me that occupies both, since it takes a supreme mental effort for me to quiet my mind enough.

I play a lot of casual games of various types. Match-3 games have fallen out of favour with me, with the possible exception of the latest installment of Bejeweled if I'm looking for relatively mindless entertainment. I play certain time management games, such as Fiona Finch and the Finest Flowers (for some reason I haven't gotten tired of that one - I don't know why), one of the Cake Mania games, Sally's Salon/Spa/Studio (three different games), and a few others depending on my mood at the time. I also occasionally play Plants Vs. Zombies, although I'm not certain what genre that falls into - strategy maybe, or shooter platform except you don't go anywhere and just defend your yard with a bunch of plants (stop laughing at me - it won Game of the Year for good reason).

My favourite games used to be Hidden Object games, or HOGs as they're referred to, and then Fragmented Object games came out, which I liked even more. HOGs started as things like the original Mystery Case Files franchise, with Huntsville, Prime Suspects and Ravenhearst. My first FOG that I recall was probably the first Mortimer Beckett, and the second one was even better - the third and fourth were okay, but not as good as the second, which had replayability. Then the Dark Parables series came out, which was awesome. Briar Rose was amazing compared to other available casual games at the time. MCF, or Mystery Case Files, kind of peaked at Dire Grove for me. I don't like the newer ones, and generally never even finish the game, so they're a waste of money from my perspective.

HOGs became more like HOAGs, with the A standing for Adventure. They grew more than a little complicated, and well worth the money. They're very inexpensive games on sites like +Big Fish Games and some of them have many hours of playing time, even with just the first run-through. If you're not like me, and can't spend your life on the computer playing games, it might take a couple of days to finish a story line. I've had some that took me about 8 or 10 hours to complete, which I'd say makes them well worth the $5 or $10 price tag. My daughter finished God of War III on her PS3 in 5 hours, and paid $80 with taxes for the game, so you tell me which is the better deal. Sure she's played it a couple of times, but I do the same thing with most of my games. Tit for tat.

I also play simulator games, with The Sims being the most notable form. I used to play the first one, complete with all expansion and stuff packs. Then I finally bought The Sims 2  and got all the EPs and SPs for that one as well. I still haven't done everything that can be done in that game, even without considering the various modifications that are available through custom content sites.

One day I'll play The Sims 3 and it'll probably take up even more of my time than the second installment did, but it won't be until I can afford a new computer, because this laptop simply can't handle it. The graphics chipset is terrible. It can barely handle the second one, and it's already really old. Granted, it is a very graphically-intensive game. I have modifications that get rid of sprinkler graphics to keep them from bogging down the game, but I still have other issues with lag. Anything with water, though, is terrible, and it doesn't matter what game it is. The graphics are extremely complex with water, so it uses up vast amounts of processing power and available memory. The instant I add a pool to a lot, I get massive lag, and ponds aren't great either.

Other simulation games include the Westward franchise, Civilization IV, The Movies, and Virtual Villagers-type games. Seeing as I don't have a life of my own, I might as well have a make-believe one. There are others, but none that I play with any regularity.

Lately, however, because I've been forced to do nothing but play a lot of games, I've gotten somewhat bored with playing. Considering I could play The Sims 2 for up to 36 hours straight before, and only stopped because my eyes were blown, that's a big change for me. The problem is, there isn't enough mental stimulation.

Most recently I've been playing Kakuro on my laptop. For those of you who don't know, and that will be most of you, Kakuro is basically a math game. Sudoku requires no addition, or even serious thinking. It's an elimination game, basically. Kakuro has a crossword structure, and the numbers for each row or column are the totals the numbers will add up to when you put them in the blank spaces. You use the numbers 1 through 9, same as with sudoku, and you can't reuse a number in a row or column, but there are no grid boxes.

As good as I like to think I am at communicating through words, a picture works better in this case. This is a Kakuro game:

From "Sudoku, Kakuro & Friends" PC Game

This is what I've been doing with my brain lately, to keep it from atrophying on me like my muscles have been doing. I love this game. I used to buy these giant puzzle game books, and they always had a couple of these. At first I crossed them off, moving on to word games, and then when I finally worked my way through one of them I couldn't get enough of them. It tells you something about my mental state that I play math games to keep myself from being bored. I ran through the easy ones until I'd added my name to the high scores enough that I knocked all the other names off. Then I moved on to the medium ones. Having killed all other names in the medium difficulty level, I've now moved to the hard levels. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to do them, because math isn't my strong suit. Maybe I'm just getting better at it because I'm using the skill more these days.

I still play other games quite a bit, but some have a tendency to lull me to sleep. It's hard enough for me to stay awake these days with all the pills I have to take, so boring games aren't a good thing. I like calm games like Civilization. I play the fourth one, with EPs up to and including Beyond the Sword. However, it's turn-based and I can take my time making moves, which means it moves pretty slowly. I never play online, or against real people, just the AI players. I hate community games, frankly. They require the involvement of other people, which is a serious pain in the ass. Every time I play online I run into idiots that ruin the whole thing for me.

Back when I payed Yahoo! pool, I was constantly beset by people asking ASL? in the chat bar. Now, what the hell difference does my age, sex or location make when playing pool online? I wasn't there to find a sex partner, for crying out loud! I wanted to play the game. I got hit on constantly, by both men and women, and simply could not get them to shut up, so I stopped going on. I play WoW for a while, managing to get my character up to level 13 before having to quit.

I was a thief (night elf, I think), and could sneak up on someone almost invisibly. One quest required that I do so, but this other player kept talking to me every time, which rendered me visible. I nearly lost my mind. I don't know how many times I tried to complete the quest, but this moron kept yapping. I never had the chat thing engaged, so I wasn't talking back. Otherwise I would have told the guy where to go and how to get there. People can be really stupid. After six, or so, failed attempts you'd think he would've gotten the hint that he was revealing my location. Then again, a lot of people go on those sites specifically to mess with other people. They'll screw up your quest, or kill you and stand over your corpse until you revive so they can kill you yet again. Some people never tire of doing this, it seems, and ruins it for others who just want to play.

Of course, on World of Warcraft you basically have no choice but to have others join on quests if you want to complete them. They're not labeled as difficult quests, but the requirement of having others helping you actually makes them way more difficult than the level that's shown. I would have to build my character up several levels about the stated number, in order to be able to achieve it by myself. I hated that. Nothing worse than having to rely on other gamers to be able to do something in a game. Especially strangers that might be 8 years old or something. So, I swore off all multi-player or online games. They just piss me off to the point where I get no enjoyment from it.

Of course, one thing that takes up a fair bit of my time these days, is playing with my ferrets. They never bore me. I find them endlessly fascinating. The only problem with ferrets, is that they sleep so much. 16 to 20 hours a day isn't uncommon when it comes to their sleeping habits. That means I don't get to spend anywhere near as much time with them as I'd like. Especially when it comes to Stimpy. Now that he's got cancer, he's sleeping even more than he used to, and I want to spend every waking moment with him, knowing there might not be many of those moments left.

I always cherished my time with him, though. I've never taken him for granted. If he wants to be with me, he's with me, and he probably gets more love and attention than he actually wants. As a result he's pretty emotionally secure. He knows he's loved, and so does Pepper. Of course, if Pepper wants something he'll take a nip at my foot or other body part that's close enough to his mouth. He has definitive ways of getting attention and I don't even mind. Sometimes he just wants me to move my leg so he can curl up on the bed beside me. Sometimes he's looking for attention, and sometimes he just wants to play. He doesn't bite hard like he did as a kit. Just a quick nip with his front teeth. Once he's neutered I'm sure he'll be even more gentle, but he's learned to be gentle from me being gentle with him. He's never been hit, tapped or yelled at. A stern voice saying, "No," is the extent of discipline, and that's usually only because he's trying to chew off the ear of the cat.