Mondo Croquet

Mondo Croquet - played with bowling balls and sledge hammers.... (sent in as a comment to my story on Collosal Croquet).

I must apparently add an observation: Mondo Croquet is perhaps the junkiest expression of junkyard sports that I've so far encountered. Sledge hammers. So deliciously tool-like and constructively destructive in their veritable essence. Bowling ball - clearly, bowling balls of the used persuasion - getting hit and chipped and potentially utterly disfigured by the carefully channeled violence of it all. Smashing. Simply smashing.

Thanks to Singlenesia for the find.

Learning by Dying - again

I was delighted to find my article Learning by Dying republished on a blog devoted to educational technology.

I was even more delighted to find Dr Gee's remarkable article "Literacy, Learning and Good Games" on the same blog, in which he says things like: "...the real message we should take from good video games is not necessarily to use games for learning, though that is a fine thing, but to use the sorts of learning principles that good games incorporate in our curricula, whether a game is involved or not."

It is reassuring to see this alignment of playful wisdom. Read the articles. Be reassured.

Robert J. Lang Origami

This remarkable figure of an elk was made out of one sheet of paper. Uncut.

To further your amazement, and amusement, you can download the actual crease pattern. Lang explains: "Conventional origami diagrams describe a figure by a folding sequence — a linear step-by-step pattern of progression. Crease patterns, by contrast, provide a one-step connection from the unfolded square to the folded form, compressing hundreds of creases, and sometimes hours of folding, into a single diagram!...Puzzling out crease patterns can be fun; if you get hooked, there are many more scattered around the internet. Enjoy!"

It is one of hundreds of amazing feats of folding produced by Robert J. Lang Origami - each one a genuine testimony to the power of play.

Lang has been exceedingly generous in sharing his mastery of the art, and science or Origami with the virtual world. He is clearly a gifted practitioner of his art, which makes the gift of his site that much more valuable.

New Games at USC, time lapsed

Yes, a lot time has lapsed since New Games started in, what, 1974.

And today, courtesy of David Lopez and USC, a time-lapsed view of a New Games / Snoopy Thanksgiving celebration, 30 years later.

Yeah, I know, the parachute and Earth Ball are not the official New Games versions. The Earth Ball had an image of the globe painted on it and the parachutes were usually standard military white or grey. But these new-fangled, multi-colored renditions of the aforesaid make the event look like a work of art. Which it is, in deed.

To see the clip, click here and either download the zipped file (22.4 megs) or click and wait very patiently to see it online.

(thanks Janine for letting me know about the clip, and thanks Tracy and cohorts for making this happen)

RPS - 25, as in Rock / Paper / Scissors plus 22

RPS - 25. Rock, Paper, Scissors, that is, the game, thereof, only with more than your basic rock, scissors and paper. Way, actually, more. Like for example: gun, dynamite, nuke, lightning, devil and on, and on, in a manner much like this.

Thanks for this plethora of pointless playfulness go to Bill Harris, author of things like this.

Further thanks, insofar as this is a day devoted to such, to my son Elyon and daughter-in-law Julie, for the birth of my grandson, Zev, one-year-old today.

And thank you, too, for everything.

Finger Food Roulette

It's not so much because of the turkey or the Pilgrims, this holiday. It's because of each other, this Thanksgiving getting together. Hence, the appropriateness of this FunCast being devoted to one of my favorite family food games



Finger Food Roulette

1) Select a variety of finger foods: celery sticks, carrot sticks, pistachios, peanuts, etc. Place each in a separate serving dish. In each dish, place enough of the selected finger food to feed one-third to one-half of the extended family.

1.1) If there are more people than finger foods (as is often the case), prepare two or perhaps even three dishes from each.

1.2) Thus making certain that each finger food is equally represented, and each participant equally finger fed.

1.2.1) For example, were there only three snacks and some 12 people, there would be 4 portions of each finger food.

2) At the appropriate time, distribute the finger food platters randomly, placing one in front of each food fingerer (sic).

2.1) Instruct all participants to take a handful of the snack in front of them, and then to

2.2) pass their platter to the clockwisenly (also sic) adjacent person.

2.3) Continue in like manner: finger-feeding, passing, finger-feeding, passing.

3) The last finger-food left loses.

games, movies and academia

I teach a design class, called "Experiments in Interactivity" with Tracy Fullerton at USC.

Here she is in an article from today's actual New York Times:

"There are definitely some people in the game industry who wonder why academia is taking an interest in them after all this time," Ms. Fullerton said. "It reminds me that there was a moment when film studies really took off and the guys at the studios were like, 'Who are these Spielbergs and Lucases and Coppolas coming out of these film schools with these crazy ideas?' They'll come around."

I am proud to know her.

The International Bone Rollers' Guild

The International Bone Rollers' Guild is more than a treasury of dice games, it's a portal to the art and science of playing with chance. The game collection is formidable enough. I especially appreciated the clarity and practicality of Mitch Klink's classification system: a list of games arranged by the number of dice used, home and family dice games, bar games, games for large groups, skill games and casino games.

Aside from his collection of games, I particularly enjoyed the well-illustrated and apparently comprehensive history of dice. Here's a taste:

"Man's very earliest written records mention dice and dice games... and crooked dice, as well. Archeological evidence points to the fact that dice games were played by both peasants and pharaohs in ancient Egypt. King Rameses III (c. 1182-1151 B.C.) had himself portrayed on the high gate of the temple of Medinet Haboo playing a dice game with two ladies of his harem. Ancient Egyptian religious writings mention dice games that are played by the spirits of the departed in the underworld."

Polyhedral Ponderings - an informed exploration of the relationships between different dice shapes and how they can impact the odds of throwing a particular number is worthy of any text book on solid geometry or game design.

Finally, don't overlook the section on how dice are used in fortune telling. The connections between even the simplest dice games and our attempts to control our personal destinies are numerous and profound, and reveal as much about our psyche as

See also this directory of other dicey sites.

Candles, Mirrors and Blogging

Nancy White, one of my personal heroines, makes a little Quicktime video explaining the connection between blogs, mirrors and candles. It is, as one would expect from Nancy, poetic and profound.

It comes to us via the Weblog Project and my poetic and profound CoWorking colleague Gerrit Visser.

FunCast: Minor Fun

Today's FunCast is about Minor Fun - the kind of fun that generally goes unnoticed, and yet turns out to be, well, fundamental, as it were, to our very sanity.

If you'd like to read this piece, see this.

Junkyard Golf at Southwest Airlines

"The Junkyard Golf experience was a success! We went junk hunting (similar to trick or treating) throughout our Headquarters and collected lots of fun things to use in our golf event.

"We divided up the Teams into nine groups of four. Each was designated a hole. They had 15 minutes to create their miniature golf hole. Then two from each Team played a round of nine holes, and then switched with the next two. They thoroughly enjoyed the game and really got into the creation of their own hole. We gave away Four awards (ribbons) to the most creative hole that truly demonstrated junkyard golf... We also gave one to the highest score and to the lowest (the best golfers) AND to the most enthusiastic Team who really cheered and coached players as they played their Team hole. (We handed out score cards to keep score.... Our Leaders really like competition and this added this particular element for the game)

"Looks like we have an activity that is a keeper for future Camp Cultures. Thank you again for the Guide and most of all for a great idea for a Team Builder, fun event. This fit perfectly with the environment and goal for the morning's activity."

- Cheryl, Director, Leadership Training, Southwest Airlines

(more photos)