Wonderland Burlesque's Bored? Games! Quiz

Wonderland Burlesque's

Bored? Games! Quiz

Here we are, stuck in Covid purgatory. Isolated. Some of us, alone?

All of our normal 'activities' temporarily (we hope it's temporary!) suspended or altered.

Well, fortunately there is one way to pass the time. (And, yes, something does spring to mind, but then when it does 'spring', trust me, I don't mind.) 

Games! Board games. Card games. Video games.

So, let's take a look at them all and share what's keeping your hands busy these days!

1/ Do you have any games on your phone? Which and how much do you play?

I used to have Words With Friends... and was hooked for a bit. I loved their holiday themed challenges where you play against their AI and I played with strangers, friends and family. But the games involving real people? Well they all got to a point where it ended because they never started a new game or they just stopped playing. And the AI thing was as fun as it was frustrating. I have removed it from my phone twice. 

Otherwise... no interest. I simply don't want that kind of relationship with my phone. It's bad enough Grindr and Scruff are on there. They eat up time when I am waiting for car repairs or at the doctor's office. So, you play your games... I'll play mine!

2/ Windows comes with a bunch of computer games. Every play any of them? Solitaire?

For a tiny time period, I loved Solitaire. It is so easy to play. But then... I start thinking there are better uses for my time. And every once in awhile someone would ask me if I played such and such and what a wonderful game it is.. blah, blah, blah... but I have no interest in any of it. Tetris? Is that one? The appeal simply isn't there. I spend too much time on my laptop or in front of a computer monitor as is.  

3/ Do you own a game system? Which? (PS4, Nintendo, etc.) What video games do you play/like?

I do now. The boyfriend - big game player - made me drive him to this Target Store all the way out in Timbuktu. I might have complained a bit. He went inside and then hands me a Nintendo Switch - Special Edition - Animal Crossings. It's a game he plays a lot on occasion and I told him I thought it looked cute and fun. It was a present. And so sweet.  And I am terrible to complain. So, here is the thing... if you asked me, and the box is not in front of me... I would tell you he got me a Playstation 4 (?) loaded with Animal Planet (?) because I really don't pay attention to any of it. Won't fit in my brain.

I do like playing video games on my laptop. Mouse and keyboard are more my style... not very good at all with a controller, I'm afraid. 

My exposure to video games is via the boyfriend Never played them in my life - well, back in my teens - Pac Man, Pong and the like - but nothing as an adult. And I am a bit long in the tooth to get sucked back in (the boyfriend, on the hand, was raised on video games), but here I am. 

There are a couple of games I adore. Civ5 (Sid Meier's Civilization 5) is my all-time favorite. Have logged many hours playing AI (the boyfriend does not like it) and now play on-line with my youngest sister. And I have played others by myself, but they don't keep my attention beyond the initial stage of obsession. 

The four of us - youngest sister, her hubby (the brother-in-law), the boyfriend and I... we get together on the weekends and play games. We go in phases. 

Past favorites: Overcooked, Friday the 13th, Path of Exile, Don't Starve Together, Earth Defense Force, and Farm Together. 

Currently playing Unrailed! (choo choo train) and Carcassonne - which is really a board game you can play, but we play it on-line. It's strategically placing tiles and I rather adore how little effort it takes. It's much more social than anything else we play. Everything else has a lot of potential to produce anxiety

When it comes to team play, I am always the weakest link. And when it comes to games where you get hunted, I am typically the first to die. I have made my peace with it. 

I have found I can't play 'first-person' games because they make me sick to my stomach, so a lot of haunted house type games are off the table (so to speak).

4/ Bar games? Darts? Pool? Chess? Checkers? Trivia?  

No. 

Booze and games do not mix. Bars are for drinking, dancing and hooking-up. 

I played a lot of pool my first two years in college - way back, because that is what the theatre crowd (older) did. We frequented a biker bar. I was terrible at it, but had fun with it. Gave it my best shot... but after two years, I was like... 'F' it. 

Darts. NO. My older brother would throw them at me. So. No. Don't care for that game. 

Chess. I played with my older brother... who loved the game until I started winning. Then, no more chess.

Checkers. As a kid, yes - it's a cheap game. When I did retail, I always felt sorry for the kids getting the $1.99 Deluxe Checkers game. Sad.

Trivia. I love it, but my blind spots are huge. Like there is a whole period of 90's rap that I can't tell you a thing about. I know it dominated the charts, but it left me cold, so I listened to very little of it and remember even less. Still. I have a curious mind. And like all our minds, bits of information stick to it like lint on a black sweater. I guess that's the fun of it and when you play on a team? Hopefully, everybody is able to cover for each other's blind spots. So, I see the fun of it, but... not my thing.

5/ Pinball machines? Ever play? Favorite machine? Any good?

A waste of a quarter (or four?). 

I am terrible at them. And I have tried. I do love... love, love, love, looking at them. They are like the midway at the state fair. I adore looking at the lights and the colorful illustrated banners. But ultimately? What all that razzle-dazzle promises? It's never delivered. 

6/ Do you play board games? What is your current favorite? How many do you own? How frequently do you play?

I own a few... like maybe a dozen. I play none of them. No one to play with. The boyfriend likes really complicated 'adult' games. There are two categories: Euro games (about building - villages, farms, industry, etc.) and the ones where you kill stuff. I finally put my foot down and said I did not want to play games where you kill stuff. Even the zombie stuff gets to me.

The games I own. Very pedestrian. 

I have Mystery Date, which I think is the bomb. I always wanted it when I was a kid, and now I own it. That dud? Kind of my thing... 

I have several word games. My favorite: Scrabble. Always will be. I rarely win, but I like words. I like letters. 

I also have Checkers. 

Yes, the cheap crappy set. 

Thanks, Mom!

7/ When you were a kid, what was your favorite board game?

Shoots and Ladders. All that up and down action. GRRRRRR! It's a metaphor for life... which, of course, escaped me as a kid, but I thought it was the bomb. I also loved Hi-ho Cheerio - because... cherries! 

I also loved playing Old Maid and Authors. Old Maid because the illustrations were so funny. And Authors because I thought (and this may be where I got the notion from) knowing about the book was the same as knowing the book? 

I liked and, still do... Yahtzee. 

8/ Was there a board game you started to play and hated so much you quit and never played it again? Ever have one of those 'throw it across the room and clear the table' moments? 

My mother thought her college-age children would enjoy The UnGame; a game where you ask each other probing questions about people in the group and everybody tells the truth. Big mistake, Mom. Especially when three of your kids hate one another. Yeah. Instead of the enlightening, honest, warm fuzzy we were all envisioning, the game quickly devolved into a game of 'Here, does that hurt?'  About six questions in and that game got thrown across the room (not saying by whom)(might have been me). Anyway... I mean what 21 year-old college dropout/failure doesn't like to learn exactly what his over-achieving, super-jealous sister thinks of him and his life choices? 

Thankfully, the memory of this incident is only brought up every other Xmas holiday. It alternates with the story about that time my jock strap broke while I was at a track competition, running the two-mile. 

And that sister isn't currently speaking to any of us, anyway. So? Prophetic?

The other time I threw a game across the room? Oh, dear... I think it happened twice with the same game. We were in eighth grade. Once at someone's home and once in a motel room while travelling for a football game (towel boy). My nerd friends loved this game - where everybody was a country and you battled each other... something like that. This kid, 'Billy', we'll call him, was very good at it... big picture thinker... and would take out everybody else completely and it would come down to the two of us and he would destroy me in one turn. I would be absolutely gobsmacked that I could be defeated so easily. Kah-boom. And... zoom... the board game went flying... sigh. 

Yes. I was a poor loser. (So uncool.) I am so much better now (detachment from outcomes), but I used to take everything so personally (low self-esteem). But those are the only three times it ended in 'that' way (that I remember). 

I wouldn't want to play with me either.

9/ Do you play card games? Which? Who do you play with and how frequently?

My mother's side of the family? Big card players. Whist? The adults played at the big table and the kids all broke into groups and played on card tables. I liked the game? Except when I played with my grandfather, because he was a card counter and knew what you had in your hand. So, I made the mistake of accusing him of cheating once and - OH MY WORD! Never accuse a chronic-alcoholic pedophile of cheating. 

Enough said.

I played Gin with my dad. That's how I would, for a time, monitor his deterioration (Alzheimer's). It rapidly devolved into Go Fish and then What Number is Bigger. The day the cards became 'things we chew', well... that was the end of that. 

My mother played Solitaire obsessively until her psychotic break. So, I've always steered clear of that one.

Yeah...  Know what?

I don't like playing cards. 

10/ Crossword Puzzles? Picture Puzzles? Sudoku?

Was obsessed with crossword puzzles for a time... words, you know. But the real ones? The hard ones? Oh, no. My brain? Does not hold that kind of nonsense. 

LOVE puzzles. But I have a limited amount of patience (no, no... it's true!). And the pieces have to be of a certain size or I have no interest. 300-500 pieces. I love animals and houses/villages. I like color.   

Suduko deals with numbers. Yeah... 

You have to pay me to do math. 

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I probably missed something, so feel free to improvise. 

And do, leave your answers in the comments section or on your blog and post a link here. 

That's all for now. Thank you for reading.

And play on!

Computer Games - Mi Sex

The Crying Game - Boy George