May your misery have company

...today's blessing courtesy of the Blessings Game

101 Fun Things to Do

101 Fun Things to Do from the readers of the Business Woman's Advantage.

This is Good Glee - oriented stuff. A perfect example of The More the Merrier principle in action.

Frog Spirits

"The frog," writes Ted Andrews, "is a totem of metamorphosis. It is a symbol of coming into one's own creative power. It changes from an egg, to a polliwog, to a frog. Even after it becomes a frog, it lives close to and spends much time in the water. It always has contact with the creative force out of which it came."

How do you say "croak" in French

Here's a little language sampler in case you find yourself in an international gathering of Frogs of Enlightenupment:

Afrikaans: kwaak-kwaak
Arabic (Algeria): gar gar
Catalan: cruá-cruá
Chinese (Mandarin): guo guo
Dutch: kwak kwak
English (USA): ribbit
English (GB): croak
Finnish: kvak kvak
French: coa-coa
German: quaak, quaak
Hebrew: kwa kwa
Hungarian: bre-ke-ke
Italian: cra cra
Japanese: kerokero
Korean: gae-gool-gae-gool
Russian: kva-kva
Spanish (Spain): cruá-cruá
Spanish (Argentina): berp
Spanish (Peru): croac, croac
Swedish: kvack
Thai: ob ob (with high tone)
Turkish: vrak vrak
Ukrainian: kwa-kwa

The Game of ME/WE/WE as purportedly played by Oaqui

Among the mysteries of the Oaqui is game of "ME\WE\WE." It is said that to play it, the Oaqui would sit or stand or lie down in a circle. The randomly volunteering game-starter would then turn to the personna on his/her right/left and say either "Me" or "We." The next personna immediately would turn to the personna on his left/right and say either "We" or "Me." It didn''t seem to matter which is said, nor to whom. The game would continue in this manner until quite a good speed was reached, or everyone decided which way it's supposed to go around and what - "Me" or "We."

It is also said that the Oaqui would often evoke the Circular Butterfly of Benevolence and even the Circular Frog of Enlightenupment during this very exercise, thus compexifying the experience beyond mortal ability while at the same time giving silent voice to the collective conscious.

"Can Meditation be Fun?"

Alan Watts says "it's supposed to be fun" - and I quote:

"What we call meditation or contemplation -- for want of a better word -- is really supposed to be fun. I have some difficulty in conveying this idea because most people take anything to do with religion seriously -- and you must understand that I am not a serious person. I may be sincere, but never serious, because I don't think the universe is serious."

Consulting the Oracle Butterfly

The Cross-Butterfly of Benevolence, as graphically depicted herein (that's me and Rocky - could you tell?), is known for its uncanny oracular powers.

According to legend, the Cross-Butterfly of Benevolence, when asked a question, will flutter its wings once for yes, and twice for no (or vice versa). Since the Cross-Butterfly of Benevolence is, at one level of reality, two separate people, it is likely that, in answer to a given question, one wing will flutter twice (to indicate no) whilst the other once (as in "yes"). This is considered to be an indication of ambivalence, and the seeker is advised to consider either rephrasing the question or playing something else.

Cross-Butterflying

For some of the many, it appears that though the potential joys of Cross-Frogging are vividly apparent, the desired dexterity is daunting. Hence, Cross-Butterflying (see Two-Handed Thumb-Mouthed Butterfly of Benevolence below.

Cross-Frogging

Many of the Meditation Games I've been designing lately have been for groups of meditators, or meditating groups, or both. These games involve an unyet-documented and significantly amusing leap in the art of Frog of Enlightenupmenting: Cross-Frogging.

Clearly Cross-Frogging is something for which you will require another Frog with whom to cross. Successful Cross-Froggery, then, becomes an act of transpersonal communion, wherein each participant is actually only a half-Frog, and yet combined, becomes a mutually manifested Frog of Enlightenupment. Genetically altered to produce a Frog that is neither your Frog nor the other's.

A frog that can speak for both of you, with oddly one voice.


A Frog of Mutual Enlightenupment.

Game Theory and Popular Culture

I like to think of game theory as a tool for exploring at least two of the three Glees (see below). Fortunately for the frolicsome few, here's a site that relates game theory to fun - which, as any follower of game theory will tell you, is a most praiseworthy accomplishment. The authors have created a compilation of movies that illustrate, in full cinematic clarity, some of the key insights of game theory.

The Good Glee, the Bad Glee, and the, uh, Glee

n 1: great merriment [syn: hilarity, mirth, mirthfulness, gleefulness]
2: malicious satisfaction [syn: gloat, gloating, schadenfreude]

Then there are the clubs of glee wherein songs of both glee-persuasions are often a capella'd.

Of which Glee am I Guru?

You could ask such a question?

A toy maker appeals to adults

This from an article about Japanese toy makers, called "Toy makers see future in adults’ dreams of childhood":

I laughed:

Popular among women in their 40s and 50s is Bandai's Purimo Pueru, a doll that says, “Good morning” in the morning and “I'm sleepy” at night. Patting the doll several times prompts it to say, “Stop touching me.”

I cried:

This wish to return to one’s childhood when life was full of dreams has reportedly contributed to the phenomenon in which adults buy snacks that include figurines of fictional characters popular with children.

Glimpses of Glee in Las Vegas

I could use a little help here. There we were in Las Vegas. 110 degrees and crowded. Who'd think that there'd be so many people willing to endure the heat and the prices (which didn't convey the least hint of off-seasoning) just so they could roam amongst the remarkable similitudes of Italy, New York, Paris, and the Disneyed world whilst gambling and spectating, dining and purchasing kitsch.

Before leaving for Vegas, I promised myself that I'd carry forth my newly restored dedication to the Guruness of Gleefulness that I am, and seek signs of actual delight amongst the myriads. For the most part, I failed. People, especially those with families, appeared stressed and lost. People were gambling like factory workers, pulling handles, pressing buttons, the same expression of tense boredom regardless of win or loss. When I saw something gleelike it was usually from a child celebrating life in general, or, in particular, a cookie.

We were there for a wedding. Odd thing, weddings in Vegas. The chapel we used had a new wedding every half-hour. The service was like another Disney ride - a smiling, rotund chaplian (if chaplain he was), speaking sweet, ecumenical (no mention of uneartlhy powers), carefully timed and choreographed wishes for eternal happiness. I got to hold a baby (glee there). I got to kiss my neice and nephews and manifest the eternity of our relatedness. I got out of there as soon as I could.

Tell me, what did I miss? What is the attraction? Where is the joy? I asked Rocky. She said "in the casino-owners' wallets."

But nowhere in their hearts.

Guru of Glee Goes Global

Global Glee? The avowed mission of the Guru of Glee. But how long, lord, how long will it take? The Guru (who could very well be your personal guru) of Glee vows not to rest until Global Glee has been achieved (except when sleeping or taking naps or watching TV or lying on the beach). To that end, yours truly is offering personal instruction to the broadbanded many.

You call me. We'll talk. We'll get online. We'll play. We'll produce. It'll be like being there, or somewhere else, together. e-me for more. (Remote Frog dialogue is available for the webcam-enabled)

Thanks Chris for the patience and encouragement and the shared Guffaw.

Too deep for fun? - Musings in the mines

So I pretend that there I am, your Guru of Glee, basically waiting there with these men, basically doing nothing else but waiting to get rescued. Or to die. That's it. Water up to my waste. Trying not to breathe too much. And I'm realizing that, after a while, that sooner or later even hope won't be enough to keep my well-grounded fears from overtaking me. I mean, there's nothing to do. Move as little, talk as little, breathe as little as possible until something happens one way or basically another.

As the Guru of Glee, I'd recommend that we all visit our personally inner playgrounds, perhaps to join Silly and Serious for a ride on their Inner Swings.

warning - subtle shifts in the focus of my meanderings

As the mantle of Guruhood settles upon my humbled shoulders and I grow more comfortable with the heft and hew of the yoke of Glee, I am feeling subtle shifts in the focus of my meanderings, so to speak. Consider this a warning - perhaps an apology- at least an excuse for the abovefollowing.

Spider

Spider It's a game. It's a work of art. You jump. You eat. You get burned by fireflies. From the makers of PegBall

(Thanks again Milk and Cookies)

Meditation Games

Meditation Games from Ice Cream for the Soul - for example:

"Spiritual Hopscotch: Play hopscotch using words or one and two footed yoga postures instead of numbers.Label your squares with different numbers, and solve math problems while you hop around the matrix."

Close. Very close.

Your Personal Guru of Glee

You know how you get, after days, weeks of working with people in pain? You get so you forget about fun. You know how you get when you spend too long thinking about all the terrible things people are doing to each other in the world and around the block? You know how things get crazy, sometimes, and after a while you just forget to do the fun thing, so you do the angry thing, or the mean thing, or the impatient thing? Well now, for a mere pittance (as advertised), you, too, can have more or less immediate access your very own, personal, Guru of Glee!


Me.

Shadow Puppets

Haven't you always wanted to play with "real" shadow puppets? Here's one place you can buy them online.

And, should you want to see shadow puppet theater from the second grade at Blake Lower School, you're only a click away.

Panther-Person-Persimmon

Here's a game I wind-up playing alot in my workshops. I guess because it's easy, fun, silly, only remotely competitive, and rich with discussion-worthiness.

There are three positions.

Each position has an accompanying sound. I like to ask people to make up both the position and the sound. The Panther position, for example, might be hands like claws, extended, with accompanying roar. The Persimmon position, of course, will require an leap of silliness. If you don't like persimmons, you can try perhaps porcupines or perhaps purple painted palomino ponies.

Like Rock/Scissors/Paper, each one beats the other - the Panther bets the Person,the Person the Persimmon and the Persimmon the Panther.

People get into three teams. Each team, as a whole, decides what position it wants to take. When ready, all three times line up in a triangle and display their choice. The team that wins gets a point for each team that it beats.

There are two ways that the game can be tied - when all choose the same or when all choose something different. The vast implications of this are quite potentially significant.

Playing to 5 points usually takes around 30 minutes and leaves a lot for processing: leadership, decision-making, strategy and counter-strategy, what was fun, etc.

Have fun with it, and the learning will

follow.

to work lightly with the dark

Gem.Net

It's a gem of a site, this Gem.Net, in love with the precious pretty sparklies, and it shows. This is solid evidence of the power of loving fun.
(via Wisdom)

The Two-Handed, Thumb-Mouthed Butterfly of Benovelence Talks With its Fingers

This just in. Contrary to popular assumptions, it appears that the Two-Handed, Thumb-Mouthed Butterfly of Benovelence does not use its twin-thumbed mouth to talk, but rather, when fully evoked, talks with its fingers. The implications of this finding are, to say the least, profould. It appears that the THTMBB (Two-Handed, Thumb-Mouthed Butterfly of Benovelence) can, if it so wishes, outtalk the Frog of Enlightenupment him/her/itself.

Meditation Games

Those of you who have been following the evolution of DeepFUN Meditation (and who among you could resist the fascination?), will find yourself/ves curiously excited, if not downright gleeful, to learn that everything on the DeepFUN site that used to say things about DeepFUN Meditation, is now saying the same things, and more, about Meditation Games.

Yes, the DeepFUN is gone. I've decided to drop the fun part and the deep part, too. Just in case this time of downturning makes "fun" too hard of a sell. I figured maybe its easier for people to buy meditation games than fun. Games, because they are kinda like things, and people like to buy things more than ideas. Because the Frog of Enlightenupment really doesn't care what you call it. As long as it gets to play with the people and the people they play with, as long as it helps them connect with the sheer fun of it all.

Meditation Games.

More above.

Get out of Hell Free

Get out of Hell Free, and cheap, too, thanks to the unflagging humor of Randy Cassingham who writes a column called "This is True" who says "Truth is Stranger than Fiction Because Fiction has to Make Sense." Examples of some of his poignant observations:

A man sued his doctor because he survived his cancer longer than the doctor predicted.
Two robbers were in the process of their crime when one changed his mind and arrested the other.
A woman had her husband's ashes made into an egg timer when he died so he could still "help" in the kitchen.
Only 68 of 200 Anglican priests polled could name all Ten Commandments, but half said they believed in space aliens.


(link by way ofEverlasting Blort)

The Insanity Test

THE INSANITY TEST answers that age-old question. Oh, the joy, the sheer silliness of us.

[1] Turn on the Speakers and allow the page to load fully
[2] Stare at the Picture without laughing for 60 seconds
[3] If you start laughing consider yourself legally insane

thanks Euan Semple

Icehouse

Icehouse - it's not a game, it's a game system!

The Apostrophe Protection Society

It's about time someone protected our apostrophe's'!

(Thanks for the link, O Ultimately Insulting one.)

Frog of Enlightenupment found on Blort

Blort blogs Frog of Enlightenment. O, it is to hop with froggish joy!

More on 1KBWC

1KBWC? One Thousand Blank White Cards. The Game. Revealed.

Large Group Activities and Initiatives for Community Building

Here is a collection of games facilitators' play. They're scripted. They're for working with big groups. And they're fun, even.

What do you mean, "game"?

Here are the items associated with "game" on thesaurus.com:

deception
amusement
animal
chance
pursuit
resolution
laughingstock
conduct
perseverance
courage
rashness
combatant
failure
intention
equality
stealing
success
retaliation
noncompletion
facility
savoriness
adversity
impenitence
falsehood
cunning
authority
ridicule
keeper
relinquishment
disrespect
cooperation
contention
chance
completion

Fortress Childhood

Dan Baum wants you. To help him. With his book.

He writes:

"Fortress Childhood aims to do for children what Susan Faludi¹s Backlash did for women. It will trace how and why their lives were altered over the past three decades. It will demonstrate that a culture of fear is in itself harmful. It will introduce strategies for alternative parenting. And it will urge parents to relax, take reasonable precautions, connect with other parents, engage politically, train their kids in street smarts, make informed choices about where and how to live. . . and then give the kids a hug, open the door, and let them run."

He is "eager to speak with any and all who can broaden my understanding of this important topic."

Just Because

It's pretty. You can click on things and other things change. You'd almost think it's a game. It doesn't seem to have any point to it. But you play with it anyway. Just because.
(found on Presurfer)

Swami Beyondananda Opens New Online Om

Swami Beyondananda, he of serendipitous silliness, has launched his much improved website chock full of swamiisms. Want to know more? Here's an excerpt from his bio:

The Swami came of age during the “sects revolution,” and Swami too experimented with wild sects. He became a follower of the guru of rock ‘n roll, Baba Oom Mow Mow (his was a simple philosophy ... “Do wop unto others as you would have them do wop unto you” ...), and this in turn led him to explore Presleyterianism; he even became an Elvis’s Witness for a short while, presleytizing door-to-door and asking, “Are you lonesome tonight?”

He went through a period of great exploration, confusion even, and he now says, “I tried so many spiritual paths, I was pathological.” He became addicted to Spirit (“I was hitting the Source pretty hard in those days”) and finally hit bottom. As the Swami tells it, “I woke up one morning in a strange biker crash pad with a terrible sugar hangover. Everything reeked of incense, and I looked around and those bikers all wore orange leather vests and strange ponytails. And that’s when it occurred to me. I had become a Harley Krishna!”

At that moment, Swami looked in the mirror and attained Fool Realization. “I realized, ‘I’m a fool!’ and there’s nothing to do but laugh.” Since that time, the Swami has been practicing FUNdamentalism (with the accent on “fun”) and has as his mission to increase the laugh force on the planet so that “everyone can see farce fields and hear the laugh track.”

Frog of Enlightenupment Extends Family

As I continue to share the Frog of Enlightenupment with the fortunate few, I've found that, for some, the difficulty of frog-making becomes an obstacle to the ultimate experience of the power of Silent Puppetry. Hence, I introduce to you, as representatives of the universe, the simpler, but no less enlightenup-capable members of the extended, and extensible, Frog Family:

The Arm-and-Hand Swan of Serendipity
The Fist Fish of Festivity
The Thumb-and-Fingers Chicken of Cheer
The Two-Handed, Thumb-Mouthed Butterfly of Benovelence

being but an exemplary few.

Of Games and Meaning

There are finally enough pages of my stuff on the DeepFUN website that I can dip into it almost anywhere and get surprised.

Today, I found my article on "Near Myths" (get it? like near miss? o, the cleverness!) and I was, again, surprised by how clearly it states a core concept of DeepFUN Mediation.

Please forgive the self-referentialness of it all:

"I have learned to see games as social fantasies. They are, to me, recurrent dreams in which certain themes are being toyed with - investigated and manipulated for the sake of some future reintegration into a world view. They are reconstructions of relationships - simulations - (myths) - which are guided by individual players, instituted by the groups in which they are played or abstracted by the traditions of generations of children."

So, when we are in a state of DeepFUN meditations, games function as total immersions into the wisdom of the collective conscious. And the meditation and conversation surrounding the game reveal the wisdom of the game, and of us.

The Bubble Solution

Want to know how to make soap bubbles? I mean, really good soap bubbles? Well, here, at last, is the, forgive the pun, solution. From a remarkably bubbly website devoted to, um, what was it?

(thanks for the link, Presurfer)

Playmore and The True Definition of Silly

"Playmore came about when I realized the true original definition of "silly" was prosperous, blessed and happy and I wanted all of these things!"

Living Large

Here's how an interview with Stevanne and Bernie found its much abbreviated way into a story about big kids and expensive toys in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Stevanne:

"Steveanne Auerbach, a Ph.D. from San Francisco who bills herself as 'Dr. Toy,' is a toy consumer advocate, author and a major proponent of play. She believes toys are essential and play is important. And not just for kids.

"'Every adult needs to play. Playing keeps people young mentally and physically fit,'" Auerbach says.

"'Some people mourn things they didn't get in their childhood. I always tell them, Don't look back and feel deprived. Look forward with pleasure. Go out and get the Lionel train set you always wanted.'"


Bernie:

..."Further championing the concept of play and the joy of the toy is Bernie DeKoven, the self-proclaimed "Guru of Glee" who runs what he calls "Deepfun" retreats in Los Angeles. He says that the playful path is the shortest road to love, health and happiness.

"'Adults need fun in their lives, and if people have to spend some money to find out what's fun for them, so what? When you stop playing, you stop evolving,' DeKoven says. ;Don't worry about the cost of things like toys. If it is fun, it's a good investment.

"'My advice to people is to put fun first in their life and all the rest will follow,' says DeKoven, who is author of the book The Well-Played Game. "'So many people today are fun-impaired.'"

Oaqui Siting

There, apparently is a L. N. H. S. (Oaqui Annex) in or abouts Luna, La Union, Philippines. And, wait, here , porportedly, you can find Oaquis 1-4.

Is it possible we have at last stumbled across the virtual borders of Oaqui land?

Koosh-Seekers Unite

Yes, you can still find a mondo koosh ball (though supplies are limited) and regular koosh balls galore through a relatively remarkable resource for young kids with special needs called "Beyond Play."

Adventure Playgrounds

Adventure Playgrounds are places "where children of all ages can develop their own ideas of play."

The rationale for these creative junk piles is ironclad: "Most young people, at one time or another have a deep urge to the experiment with earth, fire, water, and timber to work with real tools with out fear of undue criticism or censure." More power to the playful!

Ten Top Reasons to Play

Linda Naiman's Ten Top Reasons to Play (at Work) is a thought-provoking little manifesto for anyone hoping to validate fun in the workplace. The sidebar to this provocative list: "A work/life balance (not money) is the number one concern of employees at all levels, in Canada and the U.S. The ability to achieve this is the top determinant in whether they are happy on the job, and whether they stay or leave...Play is crucial to attaining a work/life balance."

Letter Mazes

Letter Mazes is an almost random example of the virtual mansion of word puzzles and pastimes that is available to the verbal virtuoso visiting the vast and voluptuous vicissitudes of Janet's Wordplay and Puzzle Site.

Gutterball

Roll your own, in 3D with the amazingly cool, downloadable and online playable Gutterball
(thanks for the astute game hunting Milk and Cookies)

The Truth Will Make You Laugh

The Oauqui is/are quoted to purportedly have said that "the truth will make you laugh." This, coincidentally, is the closely, but inversely correlated to the insight that led me to concocting DeepFUN Meditation. The underlying premis of DeepFUN mediaton is that when you laugh, you are the truth. The purpose of the meditation being to reflect that truth back into the world.

Laughter, claim/s the Oaqui, is a Oaqui invention. The Oaqui explain/s:

"For example, it is likely that the sound people make when they laugh is a genetic memory of the actual sound of the Big Banging: reminding them thereby of the infinite humor of it all when it was all for fun.

"We/I also believe that the real reason I/we invented laughter could very well have been to remind humanity as a whole of something.

"Then there's theory that laughter is the sound of the energy that is released when the unfun becomes fun again: a quantum releasing of fun to yet another level that is more fun than that.

"It also could very well be the sound of the soul applauding, of the whole body clapping, returning to a state of primal health, resonating with universal glee.

"Then it occurs to me/us that I/we might have very cleverly created laughter so that we/I could leave humanity with a spiritual Heimlich Maneuver: whenever the spirit gets blocked by the unfun, a little laughter is all it takes to resuscitate the soul.

"In sum, I/we don't exactly know why, or when or actually if we created laughter or even what laughter is for.

"In the beginning it was fun.

"In the end, it was all for fun.

"And in between is where it tickles most."

Non-Predatory Games

OK, if they're not cooperative, at least they're not predatory. Kate Jones makes a case for Non-Predatory Games in this informative article from an increasingly respected source on commercial games - The Games Journal.

What, you ask, are non-predatory games?

"The goal of getting to the other side first (symbolic of migrations) is best illustrated by Chinese Checkers. No capturing, no chance elements, just the strategy of jumping over conveniently located pieces. It's non-predatory, not even a territorial acquisition game, since each player relinquishes the starting territory to the incoming player. "

Definitely check this article out, and the many remarkably insightful articles collected in the journal's archives.

Cooperative Games - a rationale

Family Pastimes, one of the oldest commer