These Are a Few of My Favorite Games

For today's blog we're looking at Ask.fm page, where one of my readers suggested this for a blog topic:

A list and introduction of all your favorite games to play! You can include board games, card games, video games, improv games, speaking games, mind games... anything you can think of!

This was asked before I wrote my blog about the tabletop games we own, which pretty much covers the board games I like, so let me fill it in with some of these other categories!

© 2009 Steven Depolo, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

Favorite Card Game: Mao

You've gotta get the right group to play this one, but when you have, oh, gosh, it's fantastic. I can't really give you an introduction though, because the entire premise is that you learn the rules as you go. Nobody's supposed to explain them to you, you just pick them up as you go along. Most of the base rules aren't too difficult and people who play card games can pick them up pretty fast, but after every round, whoever has won gets to come up with a new rule of their own and penalize people for not following it.

This means it can be tricky to play Mao with people who already know it, because there are quite a few variations, and since you're not allowed to discuss the rules, you can end up with two groups playing two separate rule sets. This can get confusing and frustrating. Plus there are a lot of people who just hate playing this game because you have to figure it out as you go. So, like I said, you have to have the right group... but once you do, the fact that it's so different every time makes it awesome to replay over and over again.

Favorite Video Game: The Sims (any version)

I am a huge Sims fan, and have been ever since the first one. My favorite incarnations are probably 2 (yay Ultimate Collection!) and 4, but they all have their perks. Whether I'm making copies of me and my friends or making a superpowered one who is determined to get to level 10 in as many skills as possible before they die, I have so much fun playing around with them and seeing the crazy things they do.

Favorite Video Game For Smashing Things: Left 4 Dead/Left 4 Dead 2

© 2010 Shane K, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio

I don't play a lot of "real" video games, but I've discovered that when I do, I don't like puzzles, story, or wandering. I just like to smash things. I don't even like shooting that much, so any game that lets me go melee on a crapton of zombies is AWESOME in my book. This was one of the first video games I ever played with Jacob (maybe the first), and I don't think any of the other ones I've tried have had such a good balance of fighting and resting. Last time we played, the first melee weapon I found was the katana, and while I don't consider myself a violent person in general... I have to admit, it is awfully satisfying to swing this thing around in a circle and watch zombies' heads and limbs go flying off.

Favorite Dumb Car Game: Music Prediction Game

I grew up without a lot of gadgets to play with or activities to go to, so my siblings and I entertained ourselves a lot. While most of the dumb games we played wouldn't be interesting at all to anyone else, this one I've successfully played with other people. There's no winning or point to it or anything, it's just more fun than doing nothing on a car trip.

The basic idea is that you set some music running (it can be the radio, though it's more fun if you have an MP3 player with an eclectic selection) and, before every song starts, one person makes a prediction about how the next song is going to reflect someone else's life. For example: "This next song is about the dream job you get in your future." Then, when "Dancing Queen" by ABBA plays, there is laughter and discussion and deep secrets revealed. Or, well, maybe not that. But it's a silly, fun way to spark conversation, and it can be done infinitely as long as there's conversation.

Favorite Improv Game: Just a Minute

Let me start off by saying I really hate improv games. I'm bad at them, and most people are bad at them, and watching people do bad improv is uncomfortable, and being a person doing bag improv is excruciating. But my favorite improv game that I first heard professionals doing and then transported to less professional settings is Just a Minute.

© 2010 Steve Bowbrick, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

This is a BBC radio panel game that has been running for umpteen years, and it's one of the few shows I like to listen to regularly on the radio. The premise is that in a group, one person is assigned a topic, for example, "Santa Claus." They then have to talk about that subject for 60 seconds without hestiation (no long pauses or "um"s and "uh"s), deviation (you have to stick to the subject without rambling about other random things), or repetition (you cannot repeat words you've already used, except for small ones like "the" and "and"). This last one is the trickiest, as once you get going you can't always remember what you've said. If someone else hears you breaking a rule, they can challenge you and take over that topic for whatever's left of your 60 seconds. Whoever's talking at the end wins that round. So if someone talks for 57 seconds and slips up at the very end, you can grab that topic for an easy point since you only have to fill 3 seconds of time.

The game's not only super fun to listen to, it's also a lot of fun to play, and I've used it in teaching settings before, since it challenges people to think on their feet but I've found it can be a little less intimidating for those who hate improvisation.

This is by no means a comprehensive list... but these are a few favorites that haven't gotten to be mentioned elsewhere! What are your favorite games in these categories?

The Christian Stories I'd Love to Write

Today we visit my Ask.fm page for a blog request:

If you had to write a story in the "Christian" genre (like The Quest for Skye or God's Not Dead), what would the plot be?

I have actually attempted to do this a couple times for NaNoWriMo, but it turns out I do not write drama well while winging it. So sometimes I'm going to plan this out and do something for real. But since I get really serious about quality in Christian stories, I want it to be genuinely excellent before I do anything about it -- so I might never get around to putting any of these together the way I want them to be.

Most of the stories I write or want to write are not particularly Christian-centric. They're just stories about people. When I do want to write something that's explicitly about Christians, it's often because I see a Christian story done wrong (like, yeah, The Quest for Skye or God's Not Dead) and I want to do it right -- or because I want to write about something that Christian fiction doesn't typically touch on.

These are a few of the ideas I've tossed around in the past -- some have been written more than others:

1. A fictionalized version of my year at NLDC. It changed my life, and I wish I could find a way to capture some of that on page.
2. A story about a girl trying to be a Christian musician, focusing on her finding her mission statement, so to speak, of God and art and commercialism. (I wrote part of this for NaNo a few years ago. It was horrendously boring. Whoops.)
3. An anti-God's Not Dead. A sheltered youth group kid goes to college expecting that she'll have to defend her faith all over the place. It almost never happens -- and when it does, it goes horribly wrong in ways she didn't expect. She's more than a little shaken up and her faith falls apart a little bit because she feels like everyone was lying to her, and has to figure out how to rebuild her faith.
4. An anti-Left Behind. People start disappearing off the planet and one Christian is convinced they know what's going on (it's the rapture, and they must not have been truly saved) and starts leading other people during what they think is the apocalypse. (I actually wrote a chunk of this last NaNo after I tried writing #3 and abandoned it.)

There have been other stories that I've toyed with the idea of. Frankly, I'd just like to see more Christian stories with nerdy characters. Then maybe I'd have someone to relate to...

Talking About Theater

I had another post lined up for today, but I think I probably need to sit on it instead. Depression appears to have come back full force this week, and I'm not sure that what I wrote was constructive or useful in any way. So instead, I'll be answering one of the last few remaining questions from my last round of blog requests at Ask.fm!

This question is actually a whole series of questions about acting in plays, so let's dive on in and answer!

What was your favorite play you've ever acted in?

Well, let me say this first -- I definitely prefer directing to acting. I can act all right, but it's sometimes more stress and effort than it is rewarding. It's a very vulnerable task, and that can be difficult. So, honestly, I really enjoy being in the ensemble. It lets me be part of the cast and spread the joy without having as much pressure put on me directly. Plus, then if there are dancing numbers they can quietly put me in the back and my crappy dancing won't be so obvious. :-)

So I really loved being part of a busy ensemble in Beauty and the Beast and the Christmas revues we did at Huntington. Individual roles I liked playing were generally in smaller shows -- an overly melodramatic actress in the one-act play The Actor's Nightmare, an elderly man in the one-act play The Bear, a soap opera parody in one of my favorite NLDC skits.

First play you acted in?

The first one I remember that wasn't just made up by me and my siblings (I acted in those all the time) was a Christmas play at our church. One of those shows where every kid had a line. I don't remember my line, but I do remember that I also did some sort of square dance.

I played an angel at the very end of the show, when everyone was in some sort of nativity costume, but apparently I got bored singing all the Christmas carols I already knew. If you watch the video we have of the play, there's one part where I am making up my own hand motions and gestures to go along with the lyrics. The girl next to me turns to see what I'm doing and I immediately stop and just sing normally.

Play or role you wish you could act in some day?

Gosh. There are a lot of roles I'd love to play, but very few of those are parts I'd ever realistically get. But what the heck, I'll dream big. As far as musicals, I'd love to play Veronica in Heathers, Cathy in The Last Five Years, the wicked fairy in Sleeping Beauty Wakes, and Tracy in Hairspray. For straight plays, I'd choose Laura in The Glass Menagerie, Vivian in Wit, one of the aunts in Arsenic and Old Lace, and Agnes from Bug.

Would you ever act in a movie? 

If the opportunity came up, sure. I think acting in movies is way less scary than acting on stage (although also less interesting). I'd like being able to do it multiple times in the moment until I got it right. I'd probably never watch my own movie, though. Watching myself act is weird and uncomfortable.

Networking Tips for Introverts

From my ask.fm profile:

Do you have any tips for professional networking as an awkward introvert?

Well... let me start off by saying that I haven't had a lot of opportunities to practice this, thanks to a lot of working from home or nonsocial jobs. So I'm not particularly good at it. But I would like to address this, so what I've done here is done a little Internet research, found other similar articles, discovered advice I would give myself, and presented it here for you with my own spin on it. So I can't necessarily verify that this works all the time, but a lot of these principles apply to social interaction in general, so they should transfer fairly well to the workplace.

© 2012 Niki Odolphie, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

1. Schedule prep time and downtime at any networking events.

Yup, this sounds about right. I know I'm no good to anybody when I'm overpeopled or stressed, so just like I would for any other big social event, I need to plan for some quiet time, whether that means mapping out time before and after to veg or planning strategic trips to the bathroom to hide throughout.

You can also determine beforehand how long you're going to stay. If things go well, you can extend that time, but I'd suggest that you commit to staying at least 20-30 minutes. Often the first few minutes are the most uncomfortable, and if you leave 30 minutes in, that gives you time to meet one new person or have a conversation with an acquaintance. Measuring it in goals is good too. Sometimes I've gone to social events where I tell myself I can leave as soon as I've had at least five brief conversations with new people. That way, I push myself to accomplish my goals and don't risk standing in the back talking to no one for 30 minutes and then giving up.

2. Start small.

I've found that a lot of introverts have a tendency to be all-or-nothing at work. Either you never talk to anyone ever and are the hermit in the corner, or you go out of your way to talk and chat with everyone because you feel you should, and you come home more stressed than ever. I read an article recently that those who typically go out to eat for lunch should consider spending one or two lunch breaks a week in the workplace for networking purposes with your co-workers. This is an attainable goal. It could be awkward or uncomfortable at first, but it's not impossible, and it strikes a workable balance between hermit and social butterfly.

3. Have some conversation starters in your back pocket.

This is good social advice in general. For those of us who dislike small talk, we may not practice it enough to actually, you know, be okay at it. So keep an eye out for some good icebreakers, and keep the ones that work with you. This site suggests "What is your favorite part of your job?" which is a great one for introverts -- it's not just communicating mindless or uninteresting facts. It's a question that will actually reveal the personality and passions of the person you're talking to.

© 2011 worldwaterweek, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

4. Take advantage of your strengths.

Introverts may not like mingling, but once they get into conversations, they can come across very different than they feel -- particularly because introverts are often very good listeners. Take advantage of that! If you can get someone talking about themselves, you can just sit back, listen, display interest, and occasionally ask questions, and while you may feel like you didn't do anything, the person you're talking to may leave thinking positively of you because your attentive listening felt so validating. Of course, if the other person isn't talking much, share some personal stories of your own -- you don't want it to feel like you're interrogating them for information -- but you'll be surprised how often you can just get the ball rolling and then pay attention to it while it does all the hard work.

While for some of us (including me) it can feel awkward or difficult to mix professional situations with social situations, it can definitely work to your advantage. So it's worth it for us to practice these skills and become so awesome at them that nobody else even knows we're uncomfortable. Magic!

Top Twelve Villain Showtunes

This is another blog requested on my Ask.fm page (remember, if you have something you want me to blog about, submit it there and I'll get to it eventually!). I'm glad I finally get to do this one, I've been sorting through it for awhile:

What are your top ten villain songs from movies/musicals?

This is tough. Even if it was just "top villain songs from Disney movies/musicals," it'd be tough. Because musicals are just awesome at creating awesome songs for their bad guys -- funny, scary, sad, and everything in between.

Looking through my list of musicals, I managed to find 44 villain songs I really enjoy, and managed to whittle that down, eventually to 12... and then I absolutely could not pick two of those twelve to throw out. So I'm cheating and allowing myself two extra songs.

In alphabetical order of song name are my picks and why:

"Be Prepared" (The Lion King)

I wrote about my love for this song back in September of last year on my blog post about great Disney song sung by male characters. I haven't actually see the stage production, but it's really hard to imagine it could be better than this. The tremendous animation REALLY enforces the ominous tone of the song, which is spectacular all by itself. I honestly think this song might be like 60% of the reason I like The Lion King so much. Definitely one of my all-time favorites.

"Cell Block Tango" (Chicago)

Like the rest of this show, this is a combination of dark and funny. When the characters are telling their stories, there's definitely a very morbid sense of humor running throughout, but every time they return to the explosion of rage in the chorus, it gives me chills. Such a simple song, but so intense.

"Dentist!" (Little Shop of Horrors)

Oh, man, narrowing down a song from this show was so difficult. I was stuck for quite a long time between this, "Feed Me" and "Suppertime," all of which are tremendous... but in the end I went with this. I really like songs that mix cheerful and dark elements, and this fits the bill perfectly. The dentist seems so happy about having found a career that lets him just hurt people all the time. (My poor sister Elizabeth watched this movie the night before she had her wisdom teeth taken out -- that may not have been the best choice!)

"Do the Necronomicon" (The Evil Dead: The Musical)

I got a chance to see this show live this October, and it was one of the most fun theatrical experiences I've ever had. In this song, the main characters have just summoned a horde of demons... who appear and instantly do a choreographed dance to honor the Necronomicon (despite the fact that most of them are annoyed they can't start killing people until they finish the dance). It's silly and fun and easily belongs in this list of favorites.

"Everybody's Got the Right" (Assassins)

This song both opens and closes the show, but I particularly like the shorter version at the end. I find this a really creepy villain song (and I've written about it before). The show focuses on several famous presidential assassins or attempted assassins, and this song at the end has each one justifying their actions -- they were reaching for their dreams, they were trying to make a difference in the world, they hope to inspire others to make their own mark, throughout whatever means possible. It's one of the most terrifying inspirational songs I've ever heard.

"Everything You Ever" (Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog)

(Definite spoilers here, so if you missed out on this, go find it somewhere, watch all 45 minutes, and then come back and read this.)

This was another show I had a lot of trouble choosing a song for. It's all ABOUT villainy, so it's no surprise that a lot of the songs work. Do I go with the angry "Brave New Day"? The you-think-he's-a-hero-but-he's-really-the-villain "Everyone's a Hero"? In the end, I chose this song, which closes out the story with Dr. Horrible getting everything he has been working toward, reaching the upper tiers of supervillains... but finding it it's not what he thought it would be. Man, just rewatching this breaks me a little. This may be due for a rewatch soon.

"A Little Priest" (Sweeney Todd)

Choosing between this and "Epiphany" from this show was tough, but in the end I went with this, one of Sondheim's most enduring numbers. It suffers a bit from Cole Porter Syndrome (i.e., when a song has like 500 verses because the songwriter is just having TOO much fun with his clever wordplay) but the lyrics are clever and fun, and seeing the two giggle for so long about baking people into pies is both morbid and entertaining.

"Meant to Be Yours" (Heathers)

The first one I don't have a performance video for, since, well, there aren't any for this song. I wrote about this only about a month and a half ago in my musical spotlight on Heathers, so I'm just going to repost what I said about it then:

"Veronica has decided she doesn't want to hurt anyone anymore, and she tells J.D. so in no uncertain terms. He threatens her, only to come back and sing this song to her, where he describes his plan for killing everyone in the school at once in the hopes of making some sort of statement about society and says he needs her to be there with him. When he opens the door to her room, he finds her (supposedly) dead body, sings his love for her, but then vows to carry on the work they started.

I find the music to this song just fascinating to listen to. It does an awesome job of switching between J.D.'s tender, emotional proclamations of love and his clearly unhinged fantasies of violence. It does everything it needs to to build the tension of his character toward the end of the show."

"No Good Deed" (Wicked)

Another one there's no good live performance of, unfortunately, but it's really a fantastic villain song -- it isn't just a evil character singing about their evil plans, but it's actually almost more about the concept of villainy (as is a lot of this show). Elphaba has been trying her whole life to do the right thing and it keeps backfiring on her, so here she decides to just give up trying to be right and just do whatever she wants. It's a painful, furious cry of pain and injustice.

"The Phantom of the Opera" (The Phantom of the Opera)

You can't compile a "villain showtunes" list and leave this one off. It's so iconic, especially those opening notes. This is one of those shows that no matter how many times I see it, it still retains its magic for me, and this is one of the most magical moments. Is it ludicrous that the candles rise up out of the water in his underground lake? Yes. But it's also so much fun :-)

"Stars" (Les Miserables)

Dang it, Russell Crowe, you very nearly ruined this song for me. But Philip Quast's marvelous performance can bring it back. I find Javert easily the most interesting character in this musical, and this is the first time we hear his inner monologue and see a side of him that's not just "he's the antagonist because he's supposed to be." This song brings out his rigid, inflexible moral guidelines that drive his whole life -- and that he's not just "evil to be evil." He is firmly convinced he's on "the path of the Lord." It fleshes out a character who could very well just have been a nameless, motivation-less villain and makes him so much more.

"Uninvited" (Sleeping Beauty Wakes)

I couldn't leave this one out! This is not only one of my favorite villain showtunes, it's one of my favorite showtunes, period, from one of my favorite musicals. It's a fun angry song sung from the Maleficent character's point of view in the Sleeping Beauty story. She's so snarky and annoyed in the verses, and then chorus just bursts out in extreme frustration... and this is one of the MOST fun songs to sing along with.

So that's my list. What are your favorite villain songs from movies or musicals? Or just who are your favorite villains?

How to Start Blogging (From Someone Who Blogs Poorly According to Experts)

From the Ask.fm blog suggestions collection:

How would you suggest someone go about starting their own blog?

Well, here's the thing. I break a couple of the expert bloggers' blogging rules. While this probably means I won't be making money from my blogs any time soon, it does mean that most of the time, I enjoy blogging and would categorize it as a hobby far more than I'd categorize it as work. So I'm going to speak from my own personal experience and offer my tips.

1) Figure out what you'd like to blog about.

© 2014 Christian Schnettelker, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

Here's where I deviate most from the Rules of Blogging. Most people say you should narrow down your topic and focus on one thing that can draw a niche audience. I've tried that a couple times, but I typically get so bored and run out of things to say about just one thing and want to write about other things too. Granted, it's a little harder to draw in an audience when you just have such a sprawling collection of topics, but for me, having fewer limits on what I can write about makes it way more fun to blog.

Whether you want to blog about one specific thing or a huge spread of topics, it can be a good idea to decide this first, as you may want to think about naming your blog something related to it.

2) Set up a blog.

As you can see, I use Blogger as my blogging service and host, and I have for quite some time. It's probably one of the easiest blogging to get started with. The rest of my family and several of my friends use Wordpress. There are several others, but those are the ones I see most often on other blogs. If you're looking for something with a decent amount of customizability in terms of design, stay away from Blogger. But I don't really do a lot of fancy design stuff. I'm fine just writing and not tinkering with the way the site looks. (Another pro blogger no-no.) Do a little research to find the one that will work best for you.

3) Write things!

I do suggest having a regular schedule, whether that's once a week, every day, twice a month, whatever. This makes it easier for you to keep writing things, and it makes it easier for your readers to follow along and know when you update. But if it starts feeling too much like a chore -- and if you're not doing this with the intention of making money with it -- it's totally OK to take some time off.

© 2010 Owen W Brown, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio

As far as what to write, write whatever you want. This is your blog. Do what you wanna do. That's how I do it, anyway.

I also suggest writing things ahead of time as much as you can and schedule them to be published at a certain date and time. That way you won't find yourself desperately trying to pull together a blog at the last minute. I mean, what? I never do that. I'm definitely not trying to just finish this blog already so I can go to sleep which I should've done half an hour ago.

4. Share it.

You can link up your blog to your other social media accounts through services like Dlvr.it (which I use). That way, it'll automatically post to your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or whatever whenever you make a new post. It's a good way to keep people updated and let your friends know you blog. I have a lot of friends who blog but don't mention it much on Facebook, and while I would love to read their blogs, I often don't even know they have one until like three years after they've started it. So don't be afraid to plug your blog a little!

And, um, that's about it. Once you get going you can figure out what you like to write, what your readers like to read, and how people are finding your blog through Google. But to get started, this is all you really need. At least in my humble very-not-professional opinion.

Any other tips you guys would suggest? And if you have a blog of your own, feel free to post a link! I'll try to follow any of the ones I don't already. :-)

Blog Request: NaNoWriMo

Last week I asked you guys what you wanted me to write about, and I got quite a few very cool ideas -- I will definitely be tackling them whenever I have nothing in particular I want to write about.

I wanted to address this one first, seeing as how we've just passed the halfway point of November:

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? If yes, what's it about? If no, what are the top few ideas you want to write about someday?

I absolutely am doing NaNoWriMo this year, although it's been a bit of an odd journey. I started off writing a Christian coming-of-age story, sort of the anti-God's Not Dead. The central idea was of a very sheltered girl heading off to a secular college, ready to do battle for God in an anti-Christian environment. But when she gets there, she finds that things don't seem to be lining up the way she thought they would. Most people don't seem to be that hostile about her faith, they just don't care and the few times she tries to stand up for God by challenging a teacher on evolution or God's existence, it doesn't go at all as she expects. She wonders if she's not being bold enough, but ultimately she figures out she's not even a little bit prepared for what the real world is like, and she has to find a way to re-shape her faith a little bit without abandoning it.

So I was all excited about this idea, had a lot of cool things I wanted to explore, but about four days in, I remembered why I don't ever write dramatic YA growing-up stories. They're so boring to write.

So then this happened, in the middle of my MC getting advice from her mom on the phone:

I knew she was right. But I was bored of this story. 

Let's take a detour. 

When I got back to my dorm room, it was empty. In fact, I realized, I hadn't seen another person on the way back from class. That's weird, I thought. On Monday the campus was buzzing all day. 

I pulled the curtains back and peeked out my window. Nope, nobody there. I stared at the walkway for almost a full five minutes, but nobody walked past. The ugly gray cloudy sky seemed somehow darker and more oppressive. 

I tried to tell myself I was crazy. Maybe there was a big event going on and everybody was attending that. Maybe it was a sports thing. I hadn't paid any attention to the sports things. Shannon was a sports nut, so that would explain why she wasn't here either. 

I peeked my head out into the hallway and then wandered through the halls, taking a moment to peek in doors that were open. Nobody. 

When I got to the end of the hall, I found Rachael's office, closed but with the blinds open, and with a clear sign on the door: "In from 10-6." 

It was 11:30 right now. 

Maybe she was off at lunch, I told myself, though I tried the door and it was unlocked. Rachael wouldn't leave her door unlocked when she went to lunch, would she? She had given us a huge lecture the other night about how important it was to lock our own doors when we weren't there, just as a matter of safety, because that way if anyone got into the building sneaking in behind someone else, they couldn't go into any rooms that didn't let them in. 

So why would she leave her door unlocked in the middle of the day and not be here? 

Maybe she just ran down the hall to make a copy or check on someone. 

So I sank down to the floor next to the door and patiently waited. 

And that is how my quiet coming-of-age Christian story turned into a survival horror Left Behind-style story, though the one in charge of all these disappearances is definitely not God. I'm not sure what's going on here (and I doubt I'm ever going to explain it in the story), but a huge chunk of the population is gone, and periodically more just disappear. My character is convinced it is God, although she's not sure how or why, since this isn't how she's ever heard the rapture preached. She may accidentally start a cult eventually. Still debating on that one.

Also, Jacob requested that I include him in the story as a murderer. I named a character after him and he turned out to be just the worst person (last chapter, he got punched in the face and everyone cheered) so I don't think people are going to be surprised when he's a murderer.

I'm currently about 5000 words behind, but I'm slowly catching up, so I'm optimistic that I'm going to make it this year.

I don't have any other stories currently mulling around inside my brain, but there are a few written/half-written past NaNo projects I'd love to play around with some more. I'll have to talk about those some other time.

How about you guys? Are you NaNoing? If so, what are you writing about, and how is it going?