Blended Living » frugal fun

Frugal Fun: Boggle or Scrabble

John — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:59:04 +0000

Economy got you down? Looking for some inexpensive things to do? Host a scrabble or boggle night. The games are likely owned by someone you know, or they are not that expensive to buy. Considering the hours of usage, the cost is lower than a night out at the movies. The travel version of Scrabble is easily packed in a bag and can go to any coffee shop or friendly location.

Online Boggle if you want a quick diversion. Random games are setup, you get 3 minutes to type in words, and then it scores it for you. The site has a wealth of other word related things yet to be discovered by me.

A quick boggle game is a nice little segue way between projects or tasks, or a little time shifting boundary between work and after work. Its becoming a ritual as I get ready to leave work, or go to lunch. Its a blended living practice- little habits or rituals that mark the boundaries between work and home time. ( Don’t take work home when you don’t have to. Get it done there.)

The other benefits are that you get to keep your mind sharp, and off the crummy economy or any other negative seed that you would rather not water. It exercises different parts of my brain and lets those other coding, computer problem solving parts get a quick rest. For you NLP types, it can become an anchor to transition smoothly from work to home or play and vice versa.

Frugal Fun: Drawing

John — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:59:19 +0000

I have liked to doodle all my life and I remember fondly my first red Bic flair marker. I drew Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four on every piece of paper I could get my hands on. He is the character that can turn into a human flame and fly around. I don’t know how good it was, but while that Bic lasted, I enjoyed drawing Johnny flying around everywhere.

Later on, my drawing stilted as it does for most people. Other tasks get priority and that drawing skill lies dormant and for most never reignites again. Luckily for me, I started it up again when I became a Dad. It took some work, and some childlike fascination to get past all the bad stick figures. Persistence got rewarded as something clicked and I started to like what I drew.

As the girls got older, drawing fell to the wayside again. However its a very good pastime to get yourself more mindful- and it can be hours of fun for the cheap. Here’s some tips:

It minimally requires some paper and pencils
start with some scenes that you find tranquil-trees, cottage in the woods, geometric shapes, animals, anything
practice makes better – doodle during gaps at work, play, or on line at the grocer’s.
the library has plenty of drawing books to teach, inspire, imitate.
Drawspace is a great online resource.
after some time with drawing you notice that you see things differently
start simple, in small increments you may be amazed at what you can accomplish
Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad is a great introduction to drawing

Enjoy!

Frugal Fun: Chess

John — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:35:32 +0000

Seeing that the news is replete with horrible economic news I thought to add some ideas for frugal fun. Low or no cost activities to keep your mind sharp and off all of those layoffs and news of recessions.

I learned to play chess at around 5 and its been a game I return to now and then. One day I’d like to get past my all time level (which is probably around the 16-1700 rating) and one exercise is to do chess problems. There are thousands to choose from and they are categorized from Novice through to Difficult and even Fiendish.

Chess problems

If you are new to the game here is a site that takes you from the very beginning: How to setup the board, what the pieces are, to how they move, to basic strategies and openings.

Have fun!