Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

"FUN: a gleam in the eye, reflected in the faces of others."

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

"FUN: a gleam in the eye, reflected in the faces of others."

- Craig Conley

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Boing, Swoosh, Boff

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

"The game," wrote Jon Jenkins, many years ago, commenting on my Verbal Ping Pong article,

"...is quite similar to one Maureen uses. Her game has three sounds boing, swoosh and boff. Each sound sends the imaginary ball a different direction left, right and straight across sort of like Hearts. We could have:

backhands be bong
straight forehands ping
forehand slices be slish
backhand slices blish
Smashes would be pong
Top spin twong said quickly
back spin bwong said slowly like bwoooonnnng
right hand spin rwong with medium speed like rwoonng
left hand spin lwong with speed like rwong but it would be of course lwoonng.
Extra spin would be gained by lengthening the first letter of the spin so extra top spin would be ttwong perhaps with a bit of a stutter like t-t-wong.

The return would have to be made on the last letter of the sound (hard with a sh sound).

The referee would make the missing sounds. Too early in the word would land the ball in the net and the referee would say dunk. over the end would be biff (in honor of Calvin).

Major FUN comments editorially: in a non-refereed version, both players make the missing sounds simultaneously.

Recently, I received an invitation to join in celebrating Jon's "completed life." Our mutual friend, Gerrit Visser, wrote this about Jon. Jon's wonderfully playful contribution says a great deal about his legacy.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Solitaire, computers and motorcycles

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

The other day I was sitting at the dinner table with a deck of cards. Not sure what led up to this. I had a long solitaire-playing period many years ago when I lived at the farm, playing solitaire for at least an hour a night, just sitting, drinking tea, shuffling, laying the foundation, dealing cards three at a time - you know, solitaire.

Not that I had given up the game. I'd played it a lot since the farm. But not with cards.

Playing solitaire on the computer has a lot going for it. It's the most popular of all computer games. It's so wonderfully orderly - the cards always so well-stacked, the piles so even, the dealing so automated. There are hundreds of variations, each so easy to learn. There are pleasing sound effects, sometimes spectacular "reward displays" when you win a game. There are games that come with in-depth statistics, tracking how many times you've played what, and how often you've won.

But playing with an actual deck of cards, the wonderful sound and feel of shuffling, the ritual of laying the cards out to start the game, and, for me, above all, the opportunity to cheat, in so many instructively soul-searching ways. Aside from the sensory engagement, there's a freedom you get when you're playing with real cards that is completely unlike the experience of playing on the computer.

Playing solitaire on a computer is like driving a car on a freeway. You get your speed, ease, comfort, predictability. Playing with real cards, however, is like driving a motorcycle on a back road. You get your freedom.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Q-tip wars

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

You need: duct tape, sunglasses, straws, Q-tips, and two different-color markers.

One kid is 'IT'...you wrap them in duct tape, sticky side out. From shoulders to knees. (Give 'IT' sunglasses for protection.)

Two teams stand about 5 paces from 'IT.'

Each team is given straws with color coded Q-tips (red and blue?) (If you color them in the package with a marker you can get all the tips at once.)

You blow the whistle (or clap your hands or scream or something) and everyone starts shooting their Q-tips through their Q-tip-straw blowguns at 'IT,' the target.

When they are finished...count how many of each team stuck to the target.

(To add difficulty...'IT' can move and wiggle)

(It is a huge waste of Q-tips, but a great amount of fun.)

contributed by Sally Franz

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The game of GHOST

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

You know how to play GHOST? The word game?

Let's say it's you, me and Tom over there. Tom starts. He says: C

So now it's my turn. I have to think of some word that starts with C. And add a letter. So I say A

Now it's your turn. You better not say T, or, come to think of it, N or R or P or M or B or D... 'cause then you'll have spelled a word. Which you don't want to do. Because then, depending on how you play, you'll be one-third of a ghost. Or something else you don't want to be.

So you say L. Clever. Very clever. There's at least one word that I can think of that starts CAL.

So now it's up to Tom. Tom says I.

My turn.

I. Hmmm. CALI. Oh, I see, like in CALIfornia. Except everybody knows you can't use proper nouns. Hmmm again. Why, I think I just might challenge old Tom there. So I say: "I challenge you, old Tom there." And he says CALIPERS. Calipers. Darn. I shoulda thought. So, OK. I'm one-third of a ghost. Couldn't happen to a nicer Funsmith.

So you start the next round. And on and on we go, letter by letter. Until someone actually spells an actual word. Which can happen. Or someone challenges the player before them. And then another round starts. And so on. Until someone is a whole ghost (having lost three times). And then that person gets to start the next round.

Some people play five rounds instead of three, so instead of being one-third of a ghost, you become a G or a GH or a GHO. You could play as many rounds as you want before anyone has to lose. But it's a good idea to decide how many before you start the game.

Then there are the variations. You need variations, see, because after a while, especially if you're playing with the same people over and over - on a car trip, for example, or right after dinner or something - you start being able to predict what people are going to say. Like, for example, if you start with G and the next player starts with H you can pretty much predict that the word's going to either be GHOST or GHASTLY. So if you just count ahead, you'll know who's going to lose way before the round is over.

So there's SUPERGHOST - at least, that's what we called it. And in SUPERGHOST you can put letters before or after the letters that you already have. You can't change the order of the letters. So if you have, say, LAUG, and it seems pretty clear to you that you're going to have to spell LAUGH, you can say, SLAUG. The only thing you can't do is put a letter in between any of the letters you already have. Unless, of course, you're playing SUPERDUPERGHOST.

And then you could play themes, like THINGS YOU FIND IN A GROCERY STORE or LIVING THINGS. Or you can play that you have to say TWO letters at a time. Or you can say that only proper nouns are allowed. And by that time, you should have arrived at grandmother's house.

- for Chris, Heather, Rachel, and Will - who asked

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Ready, set, play

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

"When we're doing our lessons, the teacher doesn't say, 'Ready, set, work,'
"They say, 'Ready, set, play,' and I always took that word seriously."

Bobby McFerren on NPR

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Funsmithing

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:58:00 +0000

I've been calling myself a "Funsmith" for a while now. And I've been calling what I do "Deep Fun" for a very long while.

Oddly enough, this thing's become so intuitive that it's still a bit of a struggle to make it clear to people who don't know me. So I've been working on it. Playing with it.

My most recent attempt begins like this:

Say you want to make something more fun - a game, a toy, your job, your company, your relationship with your spouse or kids, your life...

So you call or email or Skype your local Funsmith, and you say: "I want to make something more fun." And you arrange to meet, by phone, by email, over Skype, at a coffee shop, or at a local park for a walk'n talk. For, say, a couple hours. For some agreed-upon, agreeable sum.

You know this Funsmith is a fun guy - warm, welcoming, caring, insightful, and most of all, playful, very playful. An expert player, in fact - someone who knows many different ways to play, many different kinds of games and many ways to play them, who knows how to have fun, how to create fun, how to share fun, how to be fun. A professional player. Someone so playful and so knowledgeable that you'd pay to play with that person - for a lot of reasons. Because it's fun to be with that person. Because you like yourself even more when you're with that person. Because, during the time you or your child or your parents spend together with this person, you can, without any sense of guilt or obligation, expect that that person will focus all that playful expertise entirely on them. On having fun with them. On helping them find ways to make things more fun.

Let's say you are the one who goes to that person, every week, for a couple of hours, every other week, or month or whenever you feel like going. Even if all you did was play together, it'd be worth it. Because it'd be fun - real, meaningful, personal, deep fun. And because this professional player always makes the rules negotiable, adjustable, the only goal being to find a way to play so that you can all enjoy the game, all be challenged, together - it'd be a lesson in how you, too, could make things fun again, even if they were only games.?

Here's the whole thing.

I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, random associations, and especially appreciate the opportunity to be yours.

Let your kid play with your iPad. It'll be fun.

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

Tod Lappin shared a brief video of his 2-1/2 year-old daughter playing with an iPad with Laughing Squid readers. And now, I'm sharing it with you.

That's his daughter, of course, the same one who gets to play with his iPhone.

At the end of the clip you can hear her say "I did it! I did it!" Which, of course, is what this is all about, this iPad - an invitation to delight, a gateway to accomplishment.

No, I don't think anyone's recommending that you buy one for your precocious preschooler. But I do think that the clip gives us a very clear insight into what makes the iPad such a noteworthy technology. It's what Apple has been about since its inception. The accessibility of it all.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Will Scrabble be more fun in England now that proper nouns are allowed?

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

This just in: Mattel of the Isles (British, that is) endorses the legality of proper nouns of the generally capitalized kind. Ultimately, it is believed, that UK Scrabble players will find that words spelled backwards (e.g. sdrawkcab) will soon be acceptable. And, if you can imagine this, bachelor words, completely unconnected to anything else already on the board, will some day find their home in England's parlors.

Of course, that's Mattel's doing. And Mattel only owns the rights to Scrabble in England. Here in the States, it is sold by Hasbro, who, it is believed, will never endorse such basic violations of the essential game.

It's almost 15 years since I worked at Mattel. During much of my tenure I advocated, nay, begged Mattel to consider such bizarre reframings of the Scrabble rules. They resisted me. I resisted them. And then I quit.

I am feeling belatedly justified. Perhaps, in their newly acquired wisdom, Mattel will go so far as to endorse variants of the wackier kind - such as these - varying further the very reasons for playing Scrabble.

Let us play.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Animals at Play: rules of the game

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

Setting aside the fact that Marc Bekoff is a Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society, Guggenheim Fellow, recipient of the Exemplar Award from the Animal Behavior Society for major long-term contributions to the field of animal behavior, ambassador for Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots program, member of the Ethics Committee of the Jane Goodall Institute, cofounder, with Jane Goodal, of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: Citizens for Responsible Animal Behavior Studies, let's contemplate his even more significant contribution - his children's book, Animals at Play: rules of the game.

For me, the beginning of his book is the most revelatory part. This is where he not only makes his assertion that animals do, in fact, play; but, furthermore, that play is actually good for them. "Their play is for exercise, gaining strength," writes Bekoff, "and developing muscles for when they grow older, so they can travel long distances and run fast. They are the prey and must run away to avoid being a meal. Or they are the predators, trying to catch their meals. Playing is also a time for learning. Learning how to fight, hunt and mate - social skills they need when they become adults. In their games, young animals learn the rules of the group - and how to communicate or 'talk' with each other. They learn to cooperate and play fair. Life in the wild is tough. It's even tougher when you're alone, so play helps to create bonds and a sense of community." And then he goes on to make an observation which effectively bridges the empathy gap between child and animal: "And," he writes, "...playing is fun!"

That's exactly why kids play, why we all play. Not because it's good for us. But because it's fun. And that's also why we play together - adults, children, animals - because we have more fun together, with each other. And therein lies the profundity and importance of the wisdom contained in this lovely little book.

"Animals," notes Bekoff, "even follow rules!" He exemplifies:

1. Everyone has to want to play.
2. Everyone has to cooperate - they work together - to keep the game from becoming fighting.
3. Everyone needs to communicate and pay attention to each other's movements, sounds, and smells.

As for rule number 2, he observes: "Animals also become very excited when they play. Sometimes they don't realize how strong they are compared to their friends. A nip turns into a painful bite. Shoving becomes ramming, knocking a smaller friend over onto his back. What do they do? They apologize, of course, just like you!"

He takes this observation even further: "If you have little sisters, brothers, or cousins, you know how to play with them. In a race, you don't run too fast. When playing catch, you don't throw too hard. During a board game, you help your younger sister take her turn....When grown up red-necked wallabies - cousins of kangaroos - box with younger wallabies, they punch gently or just slightly touch. They don't push hard or move too quickly. The older wallabies make playtime last longer by not frightening or hurting the little ones."

So much wisdom. So many lessons. So clearly, compassionately written. So accessible. Such a loving gift for our children, for our species.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

"The secret to great work is great play"

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

"Bringing a spirit of play to work," writes Garr Reynolds in his post The secret to great work is great play,"...improves learning and stimulates creative thinking. But often it's good to play for no other reason than to have great fun and feel good and recharged... We can find inspiration in play itself, and we are inspired by those teachers and managers who understand that play is too important not to bring to work."

"A spirit of play," he continues, "engages us and brings us into the content and into the moment. Children remind us that we need more play in the classroom, in the lecture hall, and especially in the typical conference presentation. But first we adults must give up the notion that play is not serious. We must abandon the notion that work (or study) and play are opposites. Work and play are inexorably linked, at least the kind of creative work in which we are engaged today and hope to prepare our children for. As Bill Buxton likes to say, 'These things are far too important to take seriously. We need to be able to play.'"

Read on and on. This is an useful and inspiring post - useful to all of us who care about the quality of work and play in our lives - followed by equally useful and inspring comments.

via Chris Saeger

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Hot Bread and Butter

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

In Philadelphia, they call this game Hot Bread and Butter.

Children's games are social fantasies. They are shared 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 - which are guided by individual players, instituted by the groups in which they are played or abstracted by the traditions of generations of children.

In "Hot Bread and Butter" you gain power through risk and luck - not through direct confrontation - but only once the power has already been abdicated. As a child grows towards adulthood, he is approaching the time in which adult power is left to him - if he can take it. It is the opportunity that he must seize, not the person that he must confront. The power of the adult cannot be taken from an adult, it must be discovered within the person of the child.

Most children who play "Hot Bread and Butter" are between the ages of nine and fourteen. When I tried to play it with younger children, the equilibrium was lost. Many children didn't leave the base. Those who found the belt either hit too hard or spent the round trying to keep the belt for themselves. I had to teach the game I had to control. I had a lousy time, and so did most of the children. "Hide and Seek" however, which is related in structure to "Hot Bread and Butter." was a total success.

In other words, when children chose to play a particular game - when they establish a contract for what they are going to play with - they do so because the game is related to other experiences, because it provides them with a platform upon which they can create and explore a model which helps them define their relationship to other experiences, experiences which they are beginning to perceive as themes in their daily lives. They call this pursuit "Fun."

The cartoon that illustrates this little story is by Donald Jefferes. It's one of several he made for the Streetplay website, in an online slideshow called Extreme Streetplay. Take a look. It might remind you what some kinds of fun are for.

Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

No Post - April Fools

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 09:01:00 +0000

April First is our traditional day of religious observance here in the Funsmithy.

Hence, there will no post.

According, by the way, to the Oaqui, it is by no accident that April Fools Day coincides with the beginning of the most solemn of all the celebrations of the Oaqui, Rosh Ha-Oaqui, the Oaqui New Year, the beginning of the High Oaquidays.

While you and your readers devote an entire day to getting fooled, being foolish, and fooling around, we/I Oaqui devote our/myselves to inner reflection, the making of binding promises, and the playing of Conceptual Oaqui Ball. April Fools is to us/me so delightfully Shadow Oaqui. If there weren't an April Fools Day, the laws of irony would demand that such a day be invented, just so it could coincide with the one day on which the true Oaqui simply do/es not fool around.

On Rosh Ha-Oaqui, the Oaqui devotes him/her/themself/ves totally to the pursuit of the truth as found in Conceptual Oaqui Ball. Be that as it may (or, in this case, April), we/I am/are not fooling. Here it is. Right here in your virtual desktop, the actual game itself, Conceptual Oaqui Ball, as played by the Oaqui on Rosh Ha-O-aqui day, revealed.

After you have sufficiently focused and centered and stuff, you try to conceptualize a playable, plausible, but not necessarily actual game, that effectively and playworthily combines two or more actual, but not necessarily playful sports. I/We for example take the first turn, and consequently open with a mere third level synthesis:

VolleyFootBasketball. I/We posit the existence of a football field. At the 50 yard line, a volleyball net, strung to goal-post height. Where there were goal posts at either end of the field, baskets. Where there was a football, a basketball. There are (two, three) teams and baskets, (one, two) ball(s). When the whistle blows, team (A and/or B and/or C or not C) begin(s) to dribble the ball towards the net at the 50-yard line, until ready to kick the ball over the net towards the opposing team (')(s) basket. If the kicking team manages to get the ball into the opposing team(')(s) basket, that team, naturally, (loses, gains) (1, 2, 7) point(s).

The player with the ball is the only player that can legally be tackled, though illegal tackling is allowed once the ball-bouncer crosses the 50-yardline. The ball can not of course be dribbled, passed or carried under the net. If a team scores twice in a row, players must rotate positions so that there are new quarterbacks, etc. Every time there is a new scoring team, teams rotate quarterbacks, the quarterback from team A now becoming the quarterback for team B, etc. There are four quarters. At the end of the fourth quarter, the team with at least one more point (wins, changes the rules). And if you, Mr. major, and your entirely virtual network also want to play, it is up to you to (continue, take the next turn) in Virtual Oaqui Ball. I/We have had ours/mine. No fooling.

And, by the Oaay, happy April, if you know what we/I mean, Fools Day.

Your friend and mine/ours,

The Oaqui

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Deep talk makes us happier

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

According to Dr. Mathias Mehl from the University of Arizona, people who spend more of their day having deep discussions and less time engaging in small talk seem to be happier.

As reported in the New York Times Blog Dr Mehl found that "substantive conversation seemed to hold the key to happiness for two main reasons: both because human beings are driven to find and create meaning in their lives, and because we are social animals who want and need to connect with other people."

He is quoted as saying: "By engaging in meaningful conversations, we manage to impose meaning on an otherwise pretty chaotic world. And interpersonally, as you find this meaning, you bond with your interactive partner, and we know that interpersonal connection and integration is a core fundamental foundation of happiness.�

Deep. Fun.

article Roni Caryn Rabin

via Douglas Germann

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Animals, play and morality

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

I have long been a happy follower of Marc Bekoff's explorations of animals at play. His compassionate, disciplined investigations of animal society have helped me understand the profundity of play and its power to transcend culture and species. Having an opportunity to meet him again at the TASP/IPUSA conference, I at last found a good excuse to resume our correspondence. He told me of an article he wrote with Jessica Pierce, "Moral in Truth and Claw," where he was able to make some clear and undeniable connections between play and morality. Here are a few:

"Although play is fun, it's also serious business. When animals play, they are constantly working to understand and follow the rules and to communicate their intentions to play fairly. They fine-tune their behavior on the run, carefully monitoring the behavior of their play partners and paying close attention to infractions of the agreed-upon rules. Four basic aspects of fair play in animals are: Ask first, be honest, follow the rules, and admit you're wrong. When the rules of play are violated, and when fairness breaks down, so does play....

"The social dynamics of play require that players agree to play and not to eat one another or fight or try to mate. When there's a violation of those expectations, others react to the lack of fairness. For example, young coyotes and wolves react negatively to unfair play by ending the encounter or avoiding those who ask them to play and then don't follow the rules. Cheaters have a harder time finding play partners....

"When children agree, often after considerable negotiation, on the rules of a game, they implicitly consent not to arbitrarily change the rules during the heat of the game. During play, children learn the give and take of successful reciprocal exchanges (you go first this time; I get to go first next time), the importance of verbal contracts (no one can cross the white line), and the social consequences of failing to play by the rules (you're a cheater). As adults we are also constantly negotiating with others about matters of give and take, we rely daily on verbal contracts with others, and most of us, most of the time, follow myriad socially constructed rules of fairness during our daily lives."

Deep, like I said. Fun, like I implied.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

A Coliberating Passover to You, Yours and Theirs

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

I find myself thinking about coliberation in connection to the Exodus and Passover. Maybe it's because I've been finding myself thinking of late. Maybe it's because tonight is "different from all other nights" - the night of the first Seder.

I began framing the idea of coliberation when I was playing a game of ping pong with my friend Bill. So you can understand why the ping pong - Passover connection might not have been immediately apparent to me.

Bill was so much better of a player than I that there was actually no reason for us to even try to play a "real" game. Playing for points was clearly pointless. So we decided instead just to see how long we could keep the ball from falling off the table. It was a perfect challenge for each of us. For Bill, just getting the ball to hit my paddle was an exercise worthy of his years of "pongish" mastery. And for me, it felt like I was really playing something very much like ping pong with something very similar to actual competence. After half the night of this, we managed to sustain an almost infinite volley, hitting the ball back and forth that we actually lost count. I remember how the ball seemed to get brighter, to take on its own life; how our playing seemed to take on an intimacy, an encompassing wholeness. ? ?Something happened to us during that game. There was some kind of shared transcendence that made us each feel just about as big, ME-wise and WE-wise, as we could get. Larger than life. Enlarged by each other's largesse. Beyond time.

Let me draw you a picture.

On one axis we have ME. On the other axis, WE.

The higher or farther out we go on each axis, the more fun it becomes to be a ME or WE. The closer in, the less.

When the WE and ME are in balance, there is what you might call an experience of "mutual empowerment," what I call "coliberation." This is indicated by a channel, diagonally equidistant between ME and WE. Here the fun things happen. And here, when we're really playing and really together, when collaboration is at its best, so are we. ? ?

I like the word - "coliberation." It's cute, because it almost sounds like something beyond "collaboration." But "liberation" is only part of the truth. It's about freeing each other from whatever constraints we usually impose on each other, and ourselves.

The experience of coliberation becomes more powerful as each participant becomes more thoroughly engaged, more wholly involved, and as the group itself becomes more unified, more totally involved. Given the wholeness of the self and the group, we approach something beyond collaboration, beyond the game itself. Some coincidence of selves that undefines the limits of our capabilities. A coincidence having almost nothing to do with the game, and everything to do with the human spirit - shared moments of unusual clarity, vivid communication, spontaneous combustions of understanding.

And should we lose our way, should we forget that we are playing for the fun of playing together, we find ourselves, on one side, feeling alienated from each other, superior or inferior, not just in connection to the game, but in connection to everything. Or we feel alienated from ourselves, as if the game was the only thing that made life worth living, that made us worth being whoever we were being.?

?And then there's Passover, reminding us of when we 1) finally freed ourselves of slavery, and 2) we were free together, in our own community, under our own and only G-d.

So it seems to me, like it probably seemed to you, Israel, that the idea of coliberation is maybe a useful depiction of what Passover is all about - not just about our managing to free ourselves from slavery, but more about our being able to free each other.

(Look for this article in my column in the coming issue of the National Jewish Post and Opinion.)

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Well-Played Game eBook - introductory discount until April 1st - no fooling!

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

You, too, can have a copy of the updated version of the Well-Played Game on your very own eReader, iPod, iPad, netbook or notebook - and, until April 1st (obviously) at a 40% discount!

Click on Smashwords.

Enter this code RT25Y

You'll thank me in the morning.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

The Playful Universe

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

"Perhaps the truth is something quite different. Instead of youth being the time for play, maybe it is play that keeps us youthful. Perhaps the boundless free flow of creative expression is what keeps us physically and mentally supple, as a child. When we attempt to control it, limit it, mortgage it to the acceptable and safe, then the bounds of that safety project themselves onto body and mind, subjecting both to a severely limited range of motion that hardens over time."

And

"Consider the possibility that childhood play is practice, yes�but practice for adult play, not adult work! For in fact, the same qualities that characterize childhood play apply equally to the most creative, productive activities of the adult. Childhood play is practice in the exploration of limits, the loosening of inhibitions to creativity, the creative dialogue with the environment, the reimagining of the world presented us. Play is not enslaved to a preset end, but allows the end to emerge spontaneously through the process itself. Play does not require willpower to stay focused and overcome our natural desires; it is natural desire manifest. When we play, we are willing to try things without guarantee of their eventual usefulness or value; yet paradoxically, it is precisely when we let go of such motivations that we produce the things of greatest use. "

And

"Another way to look at it is that we never stopped playing, but we have forgotten that we are playing."

And

"We are the universe's channel for play, an aspect of a universal playfulness expressed through our minds and bodies, employing our mental skills of reason and expression but originating beyond them."

"We are the universe's channel for play." Even it's not true, we could pretend it so.

Charles Eisenstein, The Ascent of Humanity - Chapter II: The Origins of Separation - The Playful Universe

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

34 things to do at your PlayDay - and more

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:10:00 +0000

When we were at the TASP/IPUSA conference, I was approached by a wonderfully glowing woman, Dr. Joyce Hemphill, PhD., who, carrying copies of both The Well-Played Game and Junkyard Sports, immediately endeared herself to me.

Dr. Hemphill, who teaches a Play Class at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, leads a PlayDay Initiative, which, according to the site, "is an initiative to bring free and unstructured play back into the center of children�s lives."

"Free and unstructured play," the site explains, "offers many benefits to a child�s physical, social and cognitive development and is being slowly removed from daily routines due to issues such as parents working several jobs, over-scheduled free time and the systematic reduction and elimination of recess in our nation�s schools. PlayDays, which can range from a matter of hours to an entire day (England), are beginning to gain popularity in the United States and Madison, Wisconsin is at the forefront of this movement."

Looking at the site, I discovered why my books were so valuable to her, as exemplified by this list of recommended PlayDay activities (and even more ideas in the library of photos of past events) - almost all of them in one way or another, using junk. "Junkyard Sports," Dr. Hemphill explained, "is a source of constant inspiration. The Well-Played Game helps us understand why."

Needless to say, I was conceptually dancing the Dance o' Glee.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Hey, Dude!

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

Cory Doctorow write: "Here's video of some subway buskers in NYC's Times Square station getting the entire station to help them sing the finale to 'Hey Jude.' That's some heartwarming stuff right there."

Hey Jude Times Square Subway Station from 39forks on Vimeo.

Yup. This is the very stuff of fun. The soul-reviving embodiment of a Fun Community in action.

via Boing Boing

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Water Music

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

These people are having fun...beautifully.

Yet another exotic flavor of fun, via Meara Oreilly and Boing Boing

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Estray Bonajour is Escravos de Jo

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

This just in:

Estray Bonajour:

Is actually

Escravos de J�"

See this for the full story.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Turtle Racing at your local bar and zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

Wikipedia informs us that Turtle Racing that is "a popular event in the Central United States which is usually held at county fairs or picnics in which turtles are placed in the center of a circle by children and are allowed to walk around until one of them crosses out of the circle."

The neat ones at Neatorama recently posted an article about the aforementioned semi-sport having purportedly become "a trend in metropolitan bars like Bucky�s Grill and Pub in Indianapolis." As a newly converted semi-Hoosier, I was especially intrigued to learn that such goings on actually go in locally, at Bucky's Bar and Grill.

My subsequent Internet searches, however, led me inexorably to this video, which was taken, not at Bucky's, but at Brennans Pub in Marina Del Rey, CA, nigh onto my former Redondo Beach stomping grounds (I sigh for the stomps of yesteryear). An illustrative, and preternaturally exciting video, nonetheless.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Some children's games from China

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

Our new collection of some children's games from China.

One of my favorites:

Nestle a Person

Players are divided into groups of two, which are scattered on the playground. Make sure there is a distance between the groups. Players in each group stand in a line. One group volunteers to be the runner and the chaser. The game begins with the chaser trying to catch the runner. Both the runner and the chaser must run along outside of the play groups. The runner can join one of the groups at any time, either in the front or at the back. Once the runner has joined one of the groups, the person at the other end of the group must start to run as the new runner, and the chaser continues to try to catch the runner. Once the runner is caught before joining one of the groups, the runner and the chaser switch roles.

Courtesy of Dr. Tong Liu , PhD, Professor of Early Childhood Education, Hebei University, China; Post doctoral fellow of Yale Child Study Center, U.S.A

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction - a new resource for cubicle warfare

noreply@blogger.com (Bernie) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:01:00 +0000

If I could travel back in time and give my early adolescent self a gift of potentiation and portends of power, it would be a copy of John Austin's Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction. If I were my father, on the other hand, I'd take that book away from me in a most timely and uncompromising manner, hide it in a place where only I could find it, and read it from cover to cover.

On yet another hand, my going on 8-, going on 21-year old granddaughter loves this book.

Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction contains 241 pages of detailed, painstakingly illustrated instructions for making (and here I read from the table of contents) launchers and bows, slingshots, darts, catapults, combustion shooters (combustion shooters!), minibombs and claymore mines, and, finally, concealing books and targets.

Did I mention combustion shooters? Like the famous match rocket which you can make out of paper or wooden matches, with nothing more than aluminum foil, a needle or pin, a medium binder clip (Austin loves those binder clips), a toothpick and a large paper clip? O, there are warnings. "Eye protection and a safe firing range are musts" declares the ever-pragmatic Austin. "Match rocketry is not an exact science," he cautions, "misfires and modifications will be needed to find the perfect balance." Match rockets! How inexorably cool is that?

There are two things that make Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction such a fun read: 1) every "weapon" is made out of common household objects, and 2) the instructions are exceptionally clear and well-illustrated. OK. There are three things: 3) the sheer ingenuity of the designs. It's the very kind of book MacGuyver might have read during his training course. For fun. Of course.

Want more? Visit John's site. Learn a little about him. Print out a few targets. Get instructions for building more. Meditate on the nuances of "implements of spitball warfare."

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith