My understanding of fun

Over the weekend I was attending NCA 95th annual convention, which is one of the largest communication conferences. This year, it was in Chicago, one of my favorite cities. Other than the conference, I got to enjoy the city, the food and the company of my friends and my fiance.

I had a chance to meet one of my best friends and her boy friend to have sushi downtown. We indulged our taste buds at OYSY with a bottle of wine, 7 sushi platters, and ice cream. We TRIED not to talk about our prelims dissertation or theoretical concepts, and we surely did make fun of each other, as always, remembering good old days.

We were on our way to have some more wine, but Marbles, the brain store tempted us to spend about one hour playing with all those mind games at the store. Here are some that I found really entertaining:

MindFlex - I managed to get the ball into one of the pipes and throw it into the other pipe right across with mere thought!!!!



Abalone - I actually bought this one. It is like a Sumo fight where you are pushing your opponent off the game arena.

Cathedral- My friend and her boyfriend played this for a while. An innocent game ended up with a rather funny fight.

Left the store euphoric, with bags of games and a smile on our faces. We no longer needed another bottle of wine...

Any other suggestions on brain games?

Registering for the Zombiekind, Tweeting for the Humankind

Amusing news from Journal and Courier today!

Purdue students played Humans vs. Zombies tag game across campus, using Nerf guns. Zombies were chasing Humans until their victims managed to get to a building or a bus. And then they chased some more... Once the participants were tagged as "killed" or "starved" they were off the game.

1200 participants registered for the game! How so? By hearing about it via Facebook and word of mouth. Then participants registered to their website, signing vaiwers.

How do the moderators make sure that it is organized and save? Well, they use their Website and Twitter updates, to not only monitor who is on and off the game, but also to make sure that the chaotic running around does not end badly, as if one really gets killed.

Blogging Trends

This article from Tecnorati portrays growth and trends in the blogosphere, and lays out how blogs are shaping the agenda for pretty much lie itself.
Blogs are no longer only "for fun" diaries, they are means for political and financial agenda setting.