Okay, I admit it. I said MY reading challenge. It is…and it isn’t.
Three years ago, I created a private group on FB and invited only friends to join, if they wanted to do so. I had seen a bunch of online challenges where people read different types of books, some used Bingo cards, some used the alphabet, some only read certain genres, and others were over-the-top complicated or underwhelmingly self-promotion where all the books were by the same publisher. Yawn.
Enter the PolyWogg Reading Challenge. MINE would be different! I’d pull from the best, discard the rest; I’d find some hooks, we’d embrace the same books! Okay, so poetry wasn’t on the list.
Annnnd I made it too complicated. I tried creating a Bingo Card-style exercise, and while it was okay, it wasn’t really creating a “sharing” atmosphere. We were all reading different things at different times. More like people travelling at the same time but to different destinations and with different modes of transport. The only thing we had in common was that we were reading.
Year 2, 2020, I tweaked the setup. I asked for feedback from the handful of people subscribed, we chose some themes/categories, and I added simple badges. It worked, generally, and I tweaked it a bit more for Year 3.
In January, I set the themes for each month of the year, and based on the input from people, I generally have three types of books to read:
a. Reader’s choice — anything they want can fit in here, no one has to listen to me and my choices, they can be REBEL READERS! Embrace their anarchy!
b. Thematic choice — I give a bit of guidance for the theme / category but usually there is a fair bit of room for choice (as people requested); and,
c. Challenge books — these are often a bit denser, and while I sometimes give wide choice, sometimes I pick 2 or 3 books that I want to read and thus putting them on the list helps encourage me to read at least one of them!
Over the last two years, some members have added a few more people, and we have just over 20 or so subscribers. But in any given month, probably only 8 or 9 active posters.
I suspected that we could potentially morph into a traditional book club where in any given month, we might all be reading the same thing. That absolutely hasn’t happened. But what I really like is the sharing and interaction between members. One person will read a book, and recommend it, and then next month or the month after that, the same title shows up on other people’s list for the month, based on the earlier review. People have shared books in physical form too.
But what I love about all of this is that not all of them know each other. They mostly all know me, although a couple are 2 degrees of separation away through another member. And while some of them know each other more than that, most of them primarily interact in the forum. That’s their connection.
Which I didn’t exactly expect, but I should have, probably. When I ran my trivia game by email back in the late 90s, some of the people met through my game and asked to connect to other players who they were competing with regularly. The other person agreed to “match” emails, so they connected. And started talking. Plus I am still friends with someone on FB that I met through that trivia game, a friend of a friend of a friend of someone I barely knew.
I really enjoy reading people’s feedback on the books they are reading, as well as seeing the interactions between people who mainly only know each other through the group. It’s small, it’s intimate, and I would be open to it growing a bit larger, but I would never want it to get above 20-30 active people I don’t think. I like the 2 degrees of separation feel to it.
And interacting with people about books, instead of memes or the news? That always brings me joy.
Jacob and I both tend to run hot, so cold treats are literally, ahem, a treat to cool us down. My love of ice cream is well-known, but I also really enjoy popsicles and freezies. I frequently order multiple boxes early in the summer and we go through them over the course of late spring, summer and early fall. I’ll eat them in the winter too, but they are frequently VERY hard to find in any grocery store, with most treating it as a seasonal item. Last week and before, I wasn’t able to order them online for pickup, and they confirmed last week when I picked up that it is “gone for the season”. Sigh.
I went so far as to look online, and you know who had some? Canadian Tire. I didn’t ask. But it was like one box in Barrhaven, one in Orleans, etc. Not exactly a stash waiting to be looted.
I could order from Amazon, but their prices are frequently nuts. Pass.
I’ve tried in the past to get plastic molds to make popsicles, but it gets messy, you have to wash the handles, they have to be stored upright in the freezer as they’re gelling, etc. Meh.
And then when I was looking for freezies, I saw that they sell supplies to make your own freezies. Whaaaaaaat?
There are some resuable ones that are supposedly silicon bags, and most of the reviews are that the manufacturers lie, the freezies taste like plastic when they come out, and it’s even hard to get them out. Pass.
Oh, wait. They sell plastic freeze tubes? Basically, the plastic that the freezies come in, but with a ziploc sealable end. They’re not reusable, just disposable, but I can control what we put in them? Most of the real freezies are higher on sugar and salt than I would like, so why not?
Tonight, Jacob and I filled up the first six bags with grape Koolaid and cherry Koolaid. Not quite “lite”, but lighter versions than we were eating. The sealer held, and we’re giving it a go.
And as a bonus? Jacob and I got to make them together. He did it willingly even.
Even if they don’t work out, we gave it a try. Fingers crossed, but trying something new with Jacob? That’s #MoreJoy right there.
For those of you who might have enjoyed The Big Bang Theory series, you’ll likely remember the episodes where Sheldon filmed videocasts of a series called Fun With Flags. When I started to write this post tonight, I kept thinking of that episode, as I write about apps that I like. Let’s get to it…
For my iPhone, I have the standard utility apps for messages, social media, files, phone, etc. Nothing too exciting there, obviously. Music could be more exciting, sure, but I generally use Apple Music as my default, and I’ve been too lazy to really get the others going for a bunch of free accounts that come with other services.
But after the standard utilities, I have Feedly. It is an RSS reader, which is a bit anachronistic in the world of the internet. Almost everyone posts to social media now, including me, so why bother? Because it is a simple way to grab regular posts from websites and read them in one place rather than playing “lucky feed” to see it in your list of status updates from everyone else or having the system notify you for each one. I use Feedly for a few comics (XKCD, for instance), a few writing blogs of friends, and then generally a bunch around 3D printing (a future hobby), astronomy (a current hobby), photography (somewhere between current and future), books, education (for work and future writing), tech (interest) and writing (current hobby). Do I read all of them? No, of course not. But I do browse looking for interesting articles rather than relying on the latest news, particularly given the tone of the last 18m of news. I like the feed, easy to scan, find a few good articles, and move on.
After that comes the real fun…the games.
I have to give the first spot to a game called Traffic Puzzle by Piccadilla. It is relatively simple, a pseudo-match 3 game with a small twist. Not the “rush hour”-style traffic puzzle where you slide cars to exit the parking lot, but rather that when the cars have nothing in front of them, they drive ahead until they hit other cars, obstacles, or walls, or they drive right off the board. Way back when I started, it took me forever to get through a few hundred levels. I refuse, generally, to pay for powerups, and in this game I never have. You can earn them through other side-games within the game, so if you get REALLY stuck, you can do some others for a few days to give yourself a small fallback reprieve, and there’s a daily “free spin” lottery that gives you a free resource of time or power. I figured I’d play until level 300 or so, and then it was like, “Why not go to 500?”. New levels intrigued me, extra logic and problem-solving for the right steps, way different than simple Candy Crush in my view, and so I kept playing. I’d stop for a week or so, and then start again. Then I finished the game. Yep, I went to the very last level (about 2100 or so), and I thought, “Great, I’m done!”. Except I’m not. The gamemakers keep adding new levels, and so I’ll get an update notice, and another 20 puzzles appear. Or maybe 40. It’s up to about 2400 levels now. I stay “current” which means I play about once a week, but it sure helped me distract myself over the last two years. Sometimes while waiting at doctor’s offices, or in cars. Or just chilling but not wanting to be productive. I have NEVER done that with a game before, I usually get bored with them waaaaay before that point. Feels weird to “finish”.
The next two apps were advertised in other games, and I’ll be honest, the games are nothing like the ads, a fact that I found interesting when I found out why. Games participate in expanded affiliate marketing, which normally people think of simply someone selling a product on their website, and if someone clicks through, they pick up a few cents or more. This is a step beyond that. Expanded affilitate marketing for games can include a freelance marketing company designing their OWN advertising for a game (not theirs, nor even a client), and running the ads through affiliate game marketing sites.
So an app like Traffic Puzzle has ads in it, and through their marketing, it ran ads for a game (#1), say, but the ads weren’t designed by Game 1 or even approved by Game 1. Instead, they were totally created by a fly-by-night animation company say in Eastern Europe that advertises Game 1. If anyone clicks through, they get their affiliate / referral fee. Since the games are initially free, I assume there is either a period of time by which they get a percentage of future spends or a flat few pennies for every download. Either way, it’s why so many ads you see out on the internet are totally misleading for the actual game when you get to it…usually it isn’t COMPLETELY false advertising, the storyline is similar, but the mechanics are usually VERY different. Because the company that makes the game IS NOT the one contracting, designing or running the ads. I admit that I don’t understand the model to work since having 100K people download the game and then trash it in the reviews doesn’t seem like a good strategy, but maybe it’s like a drug dealer giving free samples. But I digress. That is NOT where the joy comes in!
Tactile Games has two games that I play, and I started with Game 2 simply as I saw it in one of the other games first. In the ad, you see basically someone kidnapping an elderly woman, locking her in a room, and you have to do some escape-room type stuff to get her out, including fixing up the house (a bit Farmville-y, I admit). Anyway, there was a bit of a story to the ads, which you don’t normally see, so I gave it a go. Not surprisingly, the ads didn’t match the game play.
Instead, it was a rather typical Match-3 game like Candy Crush and others where you match things in a grid, get power-ups, blah blah blah, clear the board. I’ve played dozens of these games in the past, including CC, and well, they usually last about 10-20 levels at most, and I’m hitting delete.
This one was different, and I don’t mean the game mechanics. There is a story built-in to the game, which is called Penny and Flo: Finding Home. After each mini-level, you read dialogue between the various characters, and it feels very much like a soap opera. Penny and Flo meet because Flo is a wedding planner, helping Penny and Butch plan their wedding in a few days. You help them set up the venue a bit, Butch leaves, and then Penny and Flo decide to go on a Thelma and Louise-style joyride in a convertible, crashing at an old woman’s estate. Daphne, the estate-owner, is a retired movie star and her daughter, Violet, is trying to get a power of attorney over her to put her in a home and sell everything off. There are about 10 more characters running around the game.
It sounds stupid, right? It’s not just me? I ask because despite it appearing and sounding stupid, the damn thing is awesome. It is the most barebones of storylines, no backstory other than a line or two in dialogue, but so far we have two men who have undergone character growth to find themselves, a sub-plot with a sleazy paparazzi / tabloid reporter helping Violet, plans to renovate the house in time for a big upcoming party, and marriage counselling for Penny and Butch as well as Flo and her husband, Ted, along with their geeky son. As a game-player? Meh. As a writer? It is fascinating to see such content broken into such simple elements. It feels a bit like a choose-your-own adventure story, as there are a couple of places where you choose which way the story goes, but generally, it is tidying up rooms or gardens, choosing decorations, etc.
I’m loving it. Again, the game is basic, but the storyline that goes with it? I get it, you might be asking how good could it really be? I’m not talking Tolstoy here, and that’s a good thing. Lily likes Luke, and his daughter, and when she meets the ex-wife, Rachel, she likes her too. They become friends, all good. Until Regina asks…soooo, if you become friends with Rachel, can you still date her ex? Who would think to put that level of thought into a substory of a Match-3 game? Well, Tactile Games, apparently. Based in Denmark, if that helps frame the zeitgeist.
Again, like with Traffic Puzzle, I am not a “spend money to play” kind of player. If the game is your typical, “Hook them and then make it impossible to advance without paying”, I just move on. Both of these games, I have made it all the way to the middle so far without having to pay anything. I chose to pay something for Lily’s Garden at one point, which actually bothered me in a different way. Just as with Traffic Puzzle, I am really enjoying the game, and yet I have paid nothing for it. There’s no “tip the developer” button, or “donate what you can” option on the website. The only way they make money from me playing is if I actually buy something. So I found a small bundle that would help me, and I threw them a few bucks to say “thanks for the game”.
I have never seen this dialogue approach to a game before, and I swear, it feels like real characters from a book. I’m still playing because I want to know what happens to Lily at the end of the month, and if truth be told for Penny and Flo, I noticed that in the back of the house, there is a large broken down observatory that I want to fix up. 🙂
Beyond those, on the iPhone, I play a few specific games. I’ve worked my way through The Room and The Room Two, both puzzle games, but it’s a bit small on the phone. Andrea did them on the iPad, which seems to have gone well (they’re like escape-room mysteries to solve, very elaborate pieces though, with some magic, so you couldn’t really do it in real life). I also play Ultimate Cribbage, Euchre Gold, Super Yatzy, and Farkle regularly for quick games by myself, or Kryss with Andrea (a crossword game).
If I go back to my Android Tablet, I would be remiss if I didn’t do a shout-out for Puzzle Page. It is available on iOS, but the problem is I would lose all my progress from the Android Tablet to shift over, and to be honest, it is WAY easier to play on a large screen than a phone. There are DOZENS of games in it, and I’ve earned so many credits and powerups over the years that there is no reason to pay for anything other than the subscription fee to play more games than the first few each day. If I could transfer my status from Android to iOS, I would continue my subscription easily, and make the jump. But I’m leaning towards killing the subscription. I just don’t go out and about to use my Android Tablet that much. If I go back to work in the office, I probably would again. I used to play on it every day at lunch, if I wasn’t reading.
Sure, I have other games. Card games, solitaire games, dice games, word games, etc. But these are the ones that give me joy. I really enjoy them, and (almost) none of them cost me any money to play. I see a few ads from time to time, but mostly, the balance is good.
Growing up in Peterborough in the 70s and 80s was not a hotspot of unusual cuisine, neither with my mom and dad’s palate nor with restaurants. Very much a meat and potatoes world, which I am not knocking by the way. Just that I didn’t really have much exposure to anything “different”.
During university, I had Chinese food and LOVED it. I can remember going to Spadina in Toronto and picking almost any restaurant for great food at cheap prices. Later in Ottawa, I was willing to try just about anything. I suspect the most exotic thing I’ve eaten is likely fish eyeball soup while in the Philippines (at a Chinese restaurant doing the whole Peking Duck option).
But somewhere around 1994, a friend introduced me to Lone Star on Baseline. I wasn’t expecting anything special, and the description and appearance of their fajitas was pretty straightforward. Flour tortillas i.e., a bun, some strips of steak aka beef, and some grilled onions and bell peppers or toppings. It seemed like the same ingredients from a burger, honestly.
Until I had one. The flavour and texture is one of my favorite meals. My mother made awesome roasts of pork. Amazing pork tenderloin. My favorite pie (pumpkin) and cookies, sure. But nothing that was like the simple fajitas. I remember thinking it was supposedly Mexican food when I first tried it (no, I didn’t know any better, it was advertised as Tex-Mex hybrid), but it is so not, obviously.
It is not particularly ethnic, or different, or well, anything special. But the fajitas at Lone Star are the best I’ve ever had. We don’t over-indulge too often, keeping it as a bit of a treat, but a friend once pointed out that I seemed to always suggest Lone Star for outings or birthday dinners, if only to garner a ride somewhere I couldn’t get to easily on my own without a car.
But apples don’t always fall far from their trees, nor has Jacob. On Saturday night, we gave him the option for a “special” symbolic dinner to mark the occasion of his first month of being back at school being complete. With a ton of changes for him. New school. New grade. Newly back in person. New city bus to take. New to wearing masks all day. Newly not wearing his AFOs (not all positive). New to being in a portable. It is a LOT of change. And he’s done pretty dang well, all things considered.
I want him to take pride in that adjustment. It was big and he handled it well. I, myself, fear the same level of adjustment if/when we have to return to work. But this wasn’t about me, this was about him.
And when I gave him the choice of “where” for dinner? He wanted fajitas from Lone Star. I love the fact that he likes it too, not that he wants to go there with us, or willing to go, but that he likes it enough to choose it all on his own.
Heck, we’ve even cracked the ordering code with them to get our order “right” for us. We don’t like the queso, don’t eat the rice or beans, and so I ask them for extra shells and chips & salsa. Which they willingly provide. More of what we love, less of what we don’t.
It seems odd to think of as a haircut as a source of joy. I’m not talking wanting a different look, or someone getting their hair done for a wedding, or anything fancy.
Our story for haircuts during the pandemic looks a lot like many people’s story. Early on, we ordered a home clipper set, Andrea found some videos, and we decided to cut Jacob’s hair. She did a good try for both Jacob and I, not bad for the first time, if a little stressful with her constantly saying, “Oh crap” or “Ugh” as she worked away on my head.
The next round, I did Jacob’s while Andrea supervised. Then Andrea did mine, with less swearing by her.
Another round came, and I did my own for the most part and then Andrea fixed it up, and I did Jacob’s. Similarly for the last round. I think there have been four rounds in total, might have been five, hard to remember.
Overall? They turned out fine. Jacob’s were eminently viable, as were mine, and nobody pointed at us in public when we went outside, so we’ll take that as being as good as an endorsement.
But some time ago, I started thinking about a “pandemic” dashboard indicating how I’m doing at re-opening my life, our lives within our bubble of 3. When I asked Jacob what he wanted, a couple of things popped up. He wanted to eat in a restaurant again, which we’ve done. He wanted to go play mini-golf, although I’m not sure they were really closed that much, but he felt that was something that represented being “open” again.
And he wanted to get a real haircut. Back in June, we were just about to pull the trigger on it, and we chickened out. Partly for timing, partly for safety, we just did another round at home.
But this time? He wanted a real haircut. Truth be told, I don’t really care about it for myself. I’d be perfectly fine just continuing to do the same thing for me. Both of us have really simple cuts, so nothing terrible can happen.
Yet the difference is obvious. His crown is right, no extra hairs left on the back of his neck that I have to touch up later. The bangs that hang over the front of his head look “right”. Way better than anything Andrea or I ever accomplished.
We had made an appointment for first thing this morning, went in at 9:00 a.m., did his and mine, and made our escape. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, done in about 45 minutes.
And it did give me joy to see him “back to normal” so to speak. Sure, there’s no place to sit and wait. Sure, we had to have appointments. Sure, we had to wear masks. But it was all good.
So I’ll add it to the #MoreJoy column for the month.
