phone games Archives - Adulting: Second- Half

First, Friday!

Good morning! Do you realize that this is the first best day of the year??? This is the first Friday of 2022! Enjoy it! It’s meant to be enjoyed. Fridays on the blog are not for deep thought (deep pockets maybe, but not deep thought). Actually, my favorites are not typically all that expensive, but they are fun! On Favorite Things Friday, I list three favorite songs, apps, books, products, etc. and I would love if you would share some favorites with us, too in my Comments section. A lot of us have some Christmas money and gift cards to spend and we need some ideas of good stuff to get! Here are my favorites for this fabulous first Friday:

Kleenex, Dayquil and Nyquil (I’m kidding. I’m almost over my bout with COVID. All is well here. I just have a little bit of lingering congestion.)

GFF Fake Grass flip-flops – My husband purchased a pair of these for me and my daughter each, for our Christmas stockings. I think that he was going for the laugh, but it turns out these shoes are more than a giggle. These flip-flops may be the most comfortable pair of flip-flops which I have ever owned. They get even more comfortable the longer I wear them because the “grass” gets trampled down in just the right spots to nestle around my feet. Those of you who are living in a Winter Wonderland right now, might want to get a pair of these GFFs so that you can walk on grass whenever you want to, just to remind yourself that spring is right around the corner. Another bonus about the GFF flip-flops (see Amazon for purchase) is that they are far more affordable than their Dolce and Gabbana counterparts (shown below which go for over $700) :

DOLCE & GABBANA Sandals Green 62% Polypropylene, 33% Polyethylene, 5% Lambskin

Medisafe app – This is another one my husband found. My regular readers know that our youngest son has epilepsy. He is currently on three different medications that must be taken at specific times of day and evening. (My son is doing much better than he was doing in the fall. He is back to school. Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers. We feel ’em!) Anyway, my anxiety-filled badgering of my son about his medications was driving all of us crazy, to say the least. This phone app has hilarious choices of alarms to remind a person to take their medications (my son chose the Brooklyn guy to yell at him, as his alarm choice. “Dude, take your effing meds! What?!? You wanna die?!” was apparently better than his mother’s sweet, hysterical nagging – go figure!) and it requires you to check off all of the medications you have taken before the alarm stops going off regularly. Then, it gives you the option to allow others to go on the app to see if you have taken your medications and which ones and at what time. (This means no more annoying texts and calls from Mom.) I was proud to see that my son was right on time this morning with taking his medications (and he doesn’t have to know that I’m checking up on him). It’s honestly the best medication alarm phone application we have ever used. It affords peace of mind for all of us. If any of your loved ones, young and old, have to take regular medications for their health and safety, this is wonderful.

Crush Rings Phone Game – This is my new phone game obsession. It’s like playing tic-tac-toe with colored rings. It’s one of those simple games that doesn’t take so much thought that you can’t do other things while playing it, like chit-chat and watch TV and drive (kidding!!). Crush rings is fun and relaxing. (It’s been particularly good to distract me from being sick.) You are not bombarded with too many ads, and one game can go on for hours, if you are good at it. If you like sorting games and pretty colors, this is the game for you.

Have a great weekend! See you tomorrow!! Stay well!! Be well!!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Good Friday

Are you passing on love, or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

My husband said that I better be nice to my readers today. Please forgive my indulgence in fun yesterday, at your expense. At least my blog keeps surprising you, right? My regular readers know that Fridays are called Favorite Things Friday here at Adulting – Second Half. On Fridays, I don’t go much further than skin deep. I list three favorite things, or songs, or TV shows, or food items, etc. that rock my world and I ask you to share your favorites in my Comments section. Here are my favorites for today:

Redecor – This is my new phone game obsession, which I mentioned earlier this week. By now, I am sure that you are thinking, “Wow, this lady plays a lot of phone games!”, but I do other things while I am playing the games, such as watching TV, laying in bed, cooking, driving (kidding). Anyway, this is a perfect game to enjoy the fun of home decorating without the expense, mess, logistics, mood swings, or chaos that comes with actual home decor. It is almost like an adult coloring book. The fun of the game is that you get to vote on other people’s designs, which has opened up my mind to a whole new level of impressed. People are so creative. I love that feeling of, “Wow, I would never have thought of that combination and yet, it looks so amazing!”

Napa Hills Wine Antioxidant Water – This stuff is awesome! It makes you feel like you are drinking an adult beverage, when you aren’t at all. You can drink this for breakfast and not worry about saying something ridiculous and slurry, nor feel like you might need to check into a rehab. The marketing on this flavored water is genius. From their website:

“One bottle of Napa Hills water delivers 10 times the amount of antioxidants found in one glass of red wine, but without the alcohol or wine taste. Our first product is a refreshing Cherry flavor, inspired by Napa Valley Rosé, flavored with hints of cherry and lingering pomegranate finish.”

This drink is pricey, but it is tasty and has zero calories. It makes an ordinary lunch feel more special and Mad Men-ish, without any guilt. Splurge! It’s the little things in life, right?

Thriving as an Empath by Judith Orloff – If you are a person who has been described as “too sensitive”, first of all, you are not. You are wonderful, just the way you are! You are just more attuned to all of the energy surrounding you, more than the average Joe. And that’s not good or bad, it just is. Sometimes this “sensitivity” can make life a little more emotional and difficult, but other times, it can make the world seem more vibrant and overwhelmingly beautiful, than some others could possibly ever imagine. This is a great book, written like a daily devotional, to help you to navigate your beautiful, empathic nature. I have given this wonderful book as gifts, and it is one of those gifts which friends have told me they liked, more than a dozen times. It might come off as “woo-woo” to some, but take a look inside of it, and you’ll know right away whether it resonates with you or not.

Okay, I loathe to do this after my nasty trick, but I honestly take Easter weekend off every single year. I’ve done this since I started my blog (you can look in the archives to see this). As a Christian, there is not a more appropriate time in the year to hit the “reset” button, than during Easter weekend. It’s like a Lenten sacrifice for me, in a way. I love to write! I love to commune with you, so taking this time and space away from my blog, honestly makes me appreciate it, even more. It’s just something that I must do, for reasons I don’t even fully understand. Here’s last year’s Good Friday post to verify this, (since you may have trust issues with me now 😉 ) Have a miracle- filled, delightful weekend and I shall be back on Monday!

Friday is Good

Your Average Zombie

Are you passing on love, or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

I’ve mentioned on this blog, that I like to play phone games. I do not like to pay for anything on these phone games, So inevitably, when I reach a certain level in any one game, it becomes almost impossible to “beat” that particular level without some monetary insertion from Google Pay. So, that is when I say to said game, “Bye for now!” and I download another game that looks interesting, and makes me feel smart again, because I am zipping through the easy entry levels, like a pro.

I’ve noticed that if I leave a game alone, without logging in for a few weeks, and then I show up again after a long break, all decked out in my pretty little login emoji, miraculously there are boosters and extra lives and thousands of “coins” being thrown at me, as if I were the prodigal son returning to the screen, after so long and arduous, a time apart. The previously impossible level to beat, without buying the super-duper, discounted $6.99 value pack of boosters, is now a breeze to get through, as if I were starting on Level 1. And the next three “extremely hard/expert” levels, I am able to “win”, with the aid of one thumb and keeping my eyes closed.

It appears that these video games for my phone, were created by people who are quite familiar with toxic psychology. They are made with the “cycle of abuse” in mind. They work off of the casino model. Intermittent rewards is what keeps you coming back. A game which rewards me all of the time is ho-hum boring, and that game is quick to get deleted off my application list. A game that never rewards me at all, is easy to say “sayonara, don’t let the door hitcha on the way out”. It does not feel good, at all, to always lose. But man oh man, you let me have a fabulous winning streak for a few weeks at a time, and I will always check in, eventually. You, my sporadically exciting and enthralling phone game, will always have some space on my phone. And you know it.

I was explaining this phenomenon to my husband and he said that I was spot on. My husband and my sons are huge Joe Rogan podcast fans, and my husband said that he had listened to a podcast recently, discussing how computer/video games are made. The creators of video games, study all sorts of fascinating psychology in order to make the consumer stay on these games longer. Apparently, we game players will stick to a game, for at least ten minutes longer, if we think that we are saving a “person” versus some other mission. (I guess that is hope for humanity) Also, we like games that involve a lot of “water.”

I was a marketing major in college. I understand the manipulative side of business advertising, sales and consumerism. Therefore I pose this question, “If you know that you are being manipulated, and you are choosing to be part of the manipulative game, are you still being manipulated???” I think that this is a very interesting topic to ponder. I think that this topic can apply to a lot of things besides video games and product advertisements. As we have experienced a lot of, particularly in the last few years, this question about manipulation can easily apply to government, news media outlets, sports, religious cults, and personal relationships, to name a few. We can even manipulate our own selves, by implementing denial and rationalization.

“If you know that you are being manipulated, and you are choosing to be part of a manipulative game, are you still being manipulated?” Does it even matter? Do we even care? I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. My thoughts aren’t fully formed. As someone who prides herself on always trying to seek “the authentic Truth”, this question is one that is worth spending some time on, since I am taking a break from my phone games this week (with the reasonable expectation of some booster/points “goodies”, next week).

“One of the methods of manipulation is to inoculate individuals with the bourgeois appetite for personal success.” – Paulo Freire

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1010!

I’ve mentioned before that I love playing the game 1010! on my phone. It is a grid game, sort of like Tetris, where you are trying to fit the pieces all together, so that when a solid line of ten blocks is formed, it disappears, making more room, for more pieces to be added. The game ends when you cannot fit the various shaped pieces to be played, on to the grid anywhere.

I have come to learn that I am most successful in the game and I tend to get my highest scores, when my focus is on just getting a line to disappear. On the other hand, when I try to make the grid look perfect and set up patterns and I try to make a whole lot of lines disappear at once, is usually, when I set myself up for failure. Invariably, an odd figured shape comes out of nowhere and because I have so many pieces neatly placed on the grid, there is nowhere to put the unexpected shape.

I was a marketing major in college and I have held various sales positions, over the years. “Always be closing!” is something that they preach to you in sales. I repeat that mantra to myself when I am playing 1010!. It reminds me to keep my eye on the goal, racking up points and keeping the grid relatively empty, by making lines disappear, no matter how messily that happens.

It struck me the other day, that life is a lot like this. We get goals in mind, but we get tripped up, thinking exactly how those goals should come about. We want things to be neat, easy and orderly, but that’s not really how a lot of life goes. When we keep our eye on the prize – our goal, we are more open to the different avenues and approaches of how that goal may be attained. We aren’t as easily thrown for a loop, when something unexpected (that dang, hard to place shape) comes our way. When we believe in the goal, we know that there are many possible ways to get to the goal and that forces bigger than us, are helping us along the way. When we keep focused on the desired end result, and we aren’t as worried about how we get to that end, but just hold on to our faith that we will get there, however messy and hard and full of surprises the journey to the goal may end up being, we have a much better likelihood of success. When we hold fast to how we think an objective should be attained, we more easily get stuck and mired in disappointment. We have lost our vision of the goal, because we keep eyeing “the pretty picture” of how we think the goal should come about. When we do that, we have lost our way.

“Failed plans should not be interpreted as a failed vision. Visions don’t change, they are only refined. Plans rarely stay the same, and are scrapped or adjusted as needed. Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible with your plan.”

John C. Maxwell