2016 Second Quarter #Reading Challenge - BINGO!

One of the groups I'm a member of over on Goodreads tends to be quite creative with their challenges. For example, the reading challenge for the second quarter of this year, which ran from April 1st to June 30th 2016, was based on a game of Bingo.

This Bingo card was posted:

The goal was to cross off the spaces by reading a book with the description on the space. You could get a Bingo by getting 5 in a row, up down or diagonally! You could also get a Bingo by getting all 4 corners, and also BLACKOUT (if you were really motivated!)

You were supposed to set your own goal from the list below:

1-2 Bingos: Atari Newbie
3-4 Bingos: Tetris Building Machine
5-7 Bingos: Pac Man Master
8+ Bingos: Donkey Kong Champion
BLACKOUT: The Legend of Zelda

Now, despite how fun it sounded, when I read this far in the post, I almost didn't join in. I mean, the card is visual, after all! But it turned out that the moderator who created the challenge had very helpfully provided a list of what was needed under each letter at the bottom of her post. I have no idea if she did it intentionally for my benifit - the whole group does know I can't see - or if she did just do it in order to provide a quick list for reference to the group in general. I didn't ask. But, either way, her doing so meant I was able to join in. So, I did.

This was the full list:

B1- A book with a one-word title
B2- A classic
B3- An ebook
B4- A book with multiple POVs
B5- A library book

I1- A Sci-Fi book
I2- A book set in high school
I3- A first in a series
I4- An audiobook
I5- A book published in 2016

N1- A book off of your TBR
N2- A non-fiction book
N3- A standalone book
N4- A book over 400 pages
N5- A book under 300 pages

G1- A book by a new-to-you author
G2- A book set in the future
G3- A book set in the past
G4- A fantasy book
G5- A book set in college

O1- An adult book
O2- A re-read book
O3- A book that made you laugh
O4- A book that made you cry
O5- A book with a mystery

And here's what I managed to get read:

B1 ~ Ixeos (Ixeos Trilogy, #1) by Jennings Wright
B2 ~ Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
B3 ~ Finding Daisy by Bob Simms
B4 ~ Remnants (Remnants Trilogy, #1) By John Hennessy
B5 ~

I1 ~ RENOVO Grounded (Renovo, #2) by Geoffrey Wakeling
I2 ~ Bloody Zombies by Victoria Leybourne
I3 ~ Quicksilver (The Forensic Geology Series, #1) by Toni Dwiggins
I4 ~ Pathfinder Legends - Mummy's Mask, Chapter 4: Secrets of the Sphinx by Amber Scott
I5 ~ Stars Above: A Lunar Chronicles Collection by Marissa Meyer

N1 ~ Zombie Messiah by Eric Mead
N2 ~
N3 ~ Room 42 by Melody J. Bremen
N4 ~ The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
N5 ~ The Shunned House by H. P. Lovecraft

G1 ~ The Healer (The Healer, #1) by C.J. Anaya
G2 ~ The Martian by Andy Weir
G3 ~ The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories #2) by Bernard Cornwell
G4 ~ The Kitchen Imps and Other Dark Tales by A.L. Butcher
G5 ~

O1 ~ Globular Van der Graff's Goblin Tales for Adults by Jack Eason
O2 ~ Hybrid: Pacifier 6 - Expanded Universe by Geoffrey Wakeling
O3 ~ Blithering Genius (The Other Universes, #2) by Ubiquitous Bubba
O4 ~ The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
O5 ~ The Mystery at Lilac Inn (Nancy Drew, #4) by Carolyn Keene

I wouldn't normally count re-reads, but in this case it's taken a while for the book to be listed on Goodreads, so my Amazon review is from when I originally read it when it came out in February, but my Goodreads review is from when I read it again and put up a review for it when I discovered it was finally listed on Goodreads in June. So, this time I'm mentioning a re-read.

Anyway...

By my calculations, I got six bingos:

B1 through O1.
B1 through O5.
B3 through O3.
B4 through O4.
I1 through I5.
O1 through O5.

That makes me a Pac Man Master.

Of Munchkin, Trumps, and time with family (FD and kinda LBE)

OK, time for a post about the rest of my trip to Wales...

The original plan, when it was decided a little over a week before I actually went to Wales that I'd be going, was for Kelly to travel with me as far as London, and then put me on the last train, before he headed back to take care of the rodent gang, since he wasn't joining me for the trip to Wales (someone needed to stay home with the rodent gang, after all). It would have meant a train up to London, a cab ride across London, and another train from London to the station closest to where my parents live. Dad was then going to pick both my brother, Carl, and me up from the station, since Carl was travelling from Norwich at the same time. Dad was then going to drop me off with my Mam, where I'd stay until some time on the Saturday (apart from a short while on the Friday afternoon, when Mam was taking me to see my other brother, Wayne, and his dog, Maya... I think she's aStaffordshire Bull Terrier crossed with a Whippet). Carl and I would then both be with Dad until some time on the Sunday - since we were going with him to the party, and the party was the Saturday evening - at which point Carl would go and spend some time with Mam, while I stayed with Dad. We would both be with Dad again Monday evening ready for Dad to be taking us both home on the Tuesday by car.

But it didn't happen like that. Not for me, anyway... Carl's journey went as planned, but mine didn't.

My Mam drove down here on the Wednesday with her English Cocker Spaniel puppy, Ebonie, and stayed here the night. Then Mam, Ebonie and I made what turned out to be a very long car journey back to Wales. It was so long because my Mam ended up getting sick early Thursday morning, so we had to make more stops along the way than we otherwise would have done; the journey back with Dad took maybe half the time. I then went to my Dad's place early on Friday because of my Mam being so sick, and Carl and I both stayed with Dad all weekend. Wayne came up to see us on the Sunday, and Carl and I spoke to Mam with our mobiles a bit, but neither Carl or I saw Mam until Tuesday morning when Dad took us to say "goodbye" as we were heading for home. As it turned out, I didn't get to meet Maya, but at least I got to see both my brothers, as well as my parents and my Nan.

So, yeah... It was a good trip for the most part, but it didn't work out quite as planned, and had parts that didn't go smoothly at all. Plus, it was a shame about Mam being sick, and me and Carl not getting to meet Maya.

Even the plans for food didn't go entirely as planned in the first couple of days.

The original plan had been for me to have some of my Mam's quiche with chips (fries) and baked beans Thursday evening. But I ended up grabbing a vegetable pasty on the way back to Mam's place, and just had the piece of quiche on its own when I woke up Friday morning. Then I had dinner at Dad's instead of Mam's on Friday, and Carl brought us all take-away from a really nice place not too far from where Dad and Nan live. Not only was the food excellent, but the portions were big enough that a large portion of chips was enough for the four of us to have a decent amount. Plus, they not only have a pretty good vegetarian selection, but can also offer a 100% guarantee that the chips aren't cooked with any meat or fish (which you can't guarantee in most chip shops). I had my share of the chips with pea fritters and curry sauce.

After that, things went more to plan with food.

On Saturday we ate party food, and Sunday Dad cooked a roast dinner that consisted of roast potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, carrot and swede mash, and sprouts (with pork for those who ate meat, which was everyone but me). Then I brought us all take-away on Monday, so we all had Indian food. Mine was a mild vegetable curry with chips. Yes, more chips. I could have had rice, but I didn't want to. I really do love my chips!

Anyway...

My Dad has this drinks machine similar to the ones coffee shops have. It's pretty cool actually. He has loads of different drinks for it (mainly types of coffee, I think) and also uses it to boil just the amount of water needed to fill a cup to make tea. I mainly drank different kinds of teas while I was there, with the odd mug of Wispa hot chocolate thrown in when I fancied some cocoa. But I also had a sample sip of a vanilla latte. I'm not really a coffee person... OK, I actually hate coffee... But Dad offered me a sip to try it, so I figured I would. It tasted a bit better than regular coffee, but I still didn't think too much of it, and plan to stick to my tea and cocoa. At least I can say I tried it though. I've also tried a cappuccino in the past, which I also thought wasn't anything special, though have to admit it tasted better than regular coffee. Not by enough to make me want to drink it on anything close to resembling a regular basis though. But, again, at least I can say I tried it.

***

Carl and Nan (Dad's Mother) often play Knock-Out Whist (also called "Trumps") when they're together. I haven't really played much cards beyond Klondike Solitaire, Go Fish, and Snap, so they taught me how to play.

I got really lucky with it, and ended up winning a lot of the games. Nan won a lot too, but Carl only won once. We all enjoyed playing it though.

Carl also introduced us to the Munchkin card game, which he has the Munchkin Accessability Kit for. We also downloaded the QR reader on to my iPhone, so that I could use it to read my own cards. But since using it is a slow process, and since Carl was showing us how to play it so it was easier if we actually knew each other's cards in this situation, Carl and I allowed others to read the bits of the cards the QR reader is needed for instead of messing about with the app. It's really cool that the option to use the app, and make the game fully accessable to the blind, is there though. So, thanks for that 64 Ounce Games!

My luck wasn't so good with this one, and I didn't win a single game. The first time, Carl, Wayne, Nan and I played, and Carl won. The second time it was Dad instead of Wayne, and Dad won. The third game I didn't play, because I went for a nap instead, and Nan won that one. Anyway, it was a fun and very amusing game. I'm not sure I'd want to play it all the time, but I would play it again, it was certainly a great one, and it was nice for a change of pace.

***

So... That was my visit to Wales.

At least, all that's worth mentioning but isn't covered in other posts, like my post about the party last week, my post about the creative writing app on Wednesday, and the movie and TV shows I plan to tell you about on Monday (when I tell you about others I watched in the past month).

I came back exhausted and not feeling too well, so spent the first week after I got back doing little more than eating, sleeping, and trying to catch up on things online. The second week wasn't much better. After that I was back to what passes for normal for me though. Luckily, I was prepared for the tiredness at least, so had plenty of posts I could fall back on for my blog while I rested and recovered, since I set up some posts before I went away for while I was away, and about a week after I got back.

The Game Challenge #7

This time the challenge at "The Game" is Bingo:

Using the board I'm about to post, pick 5 in a row in any direction and make a card. Here's the board:



I picked bottom left to top right: make a card, free space, digi image, twine, and paintr.

Here's what I made:



Sorry if the picture isn't too good; we had trouble getting a good shot again.

Anyway, the card was from Craft Planet if I'm not mistaken, the cat image came from the ones June has on her "Olde Curiosity Shoppe" blog, the red paint is glitter paint of a brand that's unknown to me right now (all I know is it came from one of the 2 bottles of glitter paint I got among my craft stuff at Christmas), the blue paint is Ultramarine Blue paint from the collection of Game Colour paints that we have for use when painting our figure gaming figures, and the twine that I used for the bow came among a bunch of craft stuff Susan sent me at the end of last yeaSo, now you've seen my creation, why not pop over to "The Game" and see what the rest of the design team has done for this challenge? And, hey, why not have a go yourself? You never know, you may be the one to win the mystery prize I'm providing for this

The Game

and see what the rest of the design team has made?

And how about giving it a go yourself? You never know, you may be the one to win the mystery prize I'm providing for the winner of this challenge...This time the challenge at "The Game" is Bingo:

Using the board I'm about to post, pick 5 in a row in any direction and make a card. Here's the board:


I picked bottom left to top right: make a card, free space, digi image, twine, and paintr.

Here's what I made:


The card was from Craft Planet if I'm not mistaken, the cat image came from the ones June has on her "Olde Curiosity Shoppe" blog, the red paint is glitter paint of a brand that's unknown to me right now (all I know is it came from one of the 2 bottles of glitter paint I got among my craft stuff at Christmas), the blue paint is Ultramarine Blue paint from the collection of Game Colour paints that we have for use when painting our figure gaming figures, and the twine that I used for the bow came among a bunch of craft stuff Susan sent me at the end of last yeaSo, now you've seen my creation, why not pop over to "The Game" and see what the rest of the design team has done for this challenge? And, hey, why not have a go yourself? You never know, you may be the one to win the mystery prize I'm providing for this
The Game
and see what the rest of the design team has made?

And how about giving it a go yourself? You never know, you may be the one to win the mystery prize I'm providing for the winner of this challenge...

Welsh Weyr Gaming Club

At the time this is being published, I wont be here. Instead, I will be at the gaming club that my Dad runs, which I've mentioned several times in the past, in a building that's about a ten minute drive from my parents' place, and about a 35 minute drive from our flat.

My Dad has been running this club for about ten or so years now. It doesn't have a lot of members compared to many clubs. I mean, there are more than a dozen of us (Dad, Julian, Gareth, Ian, Ryan, Chris, Lee, Christian, Phil R, Phil G, Budgie, Jason, Daniel, Tim, Tom, Dave P, Drew, Dave, Carl, Kelly and I) but only four of us are there just about every week (Dad, Julian, Kelly and I) and only one other person shows up on a semi regular basis (Gareth). Carl has a great excuse, because he lives up in the North of England, where as we're in South Wales. Plus, Carl makes a huge effort when he is coming to visit, and is involved in everything he can possibly fit in to do with the club while he's visiting. The others? Well, they show up when they feel like it. The trouble is, family commitments started happening, and with how the economy is these days people are working more to make ends meet, then still not having much spare money for things like gaming clubs.

And what do we do at the gaming club?

We play figure games, like:

Bloodbowl
Classic BattleTech
Flames Of War
Horde
Monsterpocalypse
Warhammer 40K
Warhammer Fantasy
Warmachine

And others that I don't know the names of.

Welsh Weyr Gaming Club is also our roleplaying group. We try out most types of roleplaying, but currently being played, or planning to be played, are the following systems:

Call Of Cthulhu
Dungeons And Dragons
Mage The Awakening
Shadowrun
Star Wars
World Of Darkness

We also recently abandoned Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying, due to lack of enjoyment and enthusiasm.

Club members also play trading card games, board games, etc, and from time to time movies and books are discussed and reviewed during sessions.

It's a nice little club. It's just a shame that so many of the members show up so rarely.

By the way, there is a forum here, though you wouldn't be able to read much of it without joining the forum. Note: membership to the forum doesn't automatically give you membership to the club, because forum members can come from all over the world, but would find it difficult to make it for even the odd session. Anyone is welcome to join the forum though.

Until very recently, there were a couple of days each week set aside for the club. First it was roleplaying on Mondays, and figure gaming on Saturdays. Then it was roleplaying on Fridays, and figure gaming Saturdays. Then it became roleplaying on Fridays, and figure gaming on Sundays. And, more recently, it was roleplaying on Saturdays, and figure gaming on Sundays. But we had a sort of meeting last Sunday - those of us who were there - and decided that we didn't need the extra days, so figure gaming and roleplaying will now be happening on Sundays. Officially it's figure gaming in the afternoon, roleplaying in the evening. But if someone can only make it in the evening and only wants figure gaming, or someone can only make it in the afternoon, and only wants roleplaying, then that can - in theory - be changed to suit whoever happens to be there. The idea being that it frees up Saturdays for either other activities, or extra time for prep work for games of whatever. Plus, it means we will definately have something happening at club, and wont be paying to have the whole day at the place it's run at for everyone to be done with their figure gaming after a couple of hours, then just go home.

Anyway, I just thought I'd talk a bit about the club, especially with the new changes happening.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend.

Tori

Audio Games - my opinion

Well, I did find a couple of good games. There are a couple of others I'd like to play if I can persuade them to work too. LOL!

The ones I found and have been playing on and off all day are:

GMA Solitaire:
Solitaire (the card game) which speaks with the aid of Jaws (my speech programme) and some other types of speech programmes. I've always enjoyed playing that game, so when I found it I "had to" download it. :)

Sarah And The Castle Of Witchcraft And Wizardry:
Based on the Harry Potter stories, the basic idea is that you play "Sarah" and have to explore the castle finding things, fighting things, etc, etc. I'm not very good at it yet, but it seems like a pretty good game. Only thing is, it's a free trial, so if I decide I like it I'm going to have to pay out some money (not sure how much, but it shouldn't be too much) for the full version.

The games I found and liked that I haven't been able to persuade to work yet are:

Egg Hunt:
A game where you have to collect as many eggs as you can in 3 minutes. It's one Carl mentioned to me, and sounds fun, but I'm having trouble getting it to open properly. Will keep working on it.

Metris:
A musical version of "Tetris." I've ALWAYS loved playing tetris, so I'm eager to try out Metris. Carl says it's a lot harder, but it would be, wouldn't it? Anyway, I'm having the same issue as I'm having with Egg Hunt, so - again - I'll have to keep working on it.

I also tried "Pac-Man Talks" which is an audio version of the classic "Pac-Man" game. Didn't think much of it though. Although they make a noise to warn of the ghost things being around, they don't make it plain where they are, so you still walk in to them easily. So, I've uninstalled that one and wont be reinstalling it.

I'd like to try a Harry Potter game I saw on the list, but I can't get the site to open for some reason. Will keep trying though, because it sounds fun. It was obviously written before the last book though, because it's based on the idea that Harry's graduated and you have to go through Hogwarts yourself learning things, getting points, etc, etc. Then, at the end, you "apparently" get to fight Voldemort. That's what the description leads me to believe anyway. Now, if I can persuade the link to the site to work, maybe I can give it a go? Will have to try again later.

There were a couple of others that seemed "OK" but a lot of them weren't my idea of fun (i.e. shooting games, and games where you have to drive tanks). Needless to say, I have no intention of trying those ones out. I might try one of the "Space Invaders" type games though. That was the first computer game I ever played, so it would be kinda nice to have an audio version and see if I still suck at it after all these years. LOL!

Tori

KB & MP3

I'm borrowing my Mam's old mp3 player - since she got a new one for Christmas - until I get myself one. I think this mp3 player is only about 256 MB though, so, it doesn't hold nearly enough songs. Still, it's nice to have some music to listen to when Kero and I go for walks. It does last long enough for that before repeating songs, but that's about it. LOL!

Got carried away walking today. Had Kero at the park - so he was off his leash as usual - and Kero stopped for a sniff and I just kept going and next thing I know he's thundering along behind me trying to catch up. Oops! LOL! I usually see him stop and stop too, but he was on my left side and I can't see a thing on that side, so, he stopped, I didn't and poor Kero got left behind. He didn't seem bothered though. In fact, he seemed to enjoy the run. LOL!

So, as you can see I've been playing with my blog template again. I was browsing the templates and saw this one and liked it.

Wayne's here for the afternoon and he's playing a card game thing with Kelly. Not sure what kind it is - and not bothered about finding out either, lol - but they're playing it all the same. Wayne's having dinner here but he brought his own meal since, as I pointed out to him, Kelly and I are making for ourselves this week since we're using up stuff from the freezer from before and I'm eating the healthy stuff he's eating the other stuff. Then on Tuesday I'll do a proper shop and get the stuff we need to make our various meals.

Anyway, since Wayne keeps talking to me, so, I'm gonna end this now.

Tori

Note - added 5:30 pm: OK, well, as you probably figured it would, curiosity got the better of me and I asked Wayne and Kelly what they were playing. It's the World Of Warcraft card game. So now you know too. LOL!