Best Puzzle Type Games for this Generation

I love puzzle games. I was a Tetris queen as a youngster, not because I was great at it (I was ok), but because I loved playing the game. While my love for Tetris has died, my love for the Puzzle type game continued, and here are some of the best ones I've obsessed over the years:

Puzzle Fighter
This was my husband & my obsession for a few years, back in the glory heyday of Playstation 2. I can still hear the background music when I think about this, and the specific glory cries of each character (Sakura was my favorite!) This is a match game, good for 2 players.

It's pretty much in the tetris format where things are dropped down. Premise is simple: Create gems by combining colors together and when the swirly icon comes, it's the detonator and the bigger the gem you detonated, the bigger the shitload of gems to drop on your opponents side. The first one to have their screen fill up with gems loses.

Chuzzle
This one is a PC game, I believe, but it does work well on the iPhone. As my hubby loves puzzle games too, this was one we've wasted too much of each other's time trying to "beat" each other's score. Too bad it's not a game we can play with each other. We were just relegated to giving each other smack talk while the other one plays. (Or we both play on our own phones and see who gets the higher score. We are dorks, we know.)

You start with a screen full of chuzzles and you move the chuzzles in a grid, up-down, left-right, until you line up 3 or more in a row and they detonate. You keep going until it gets harder. As you pass levels, you will get "locked" chuzzles which will not allow you to move a row.  FYI,  if you run out of moves, you just wait for one of the Chuzzles to roll their eyes and AHA! there's the move I was missing. You die when you run out of moves.

Bejeweled Blitz

My Bejeweled Blitz obsession was not as long as the Chuzzle, but I did still find it very very addicting. I only downloaded it after months of hearing Sarah (of Sarah & Vinnie) talk about kicking ass on that game. My hubby did not quite get into this one, I'm not so sure why...I was all alone with my Bejeweled Blitz love.

If you ever played "Sweet Tooth" in the PC games, this is similar. Like, Chuzzle, you already start with a boardful of jewels. you "swap" the jewels until you make jewels 3 in a row. The more you pop, the more points you get. You die when you run out of moves. I have never reached high levels, I don't think I've locked all of it's secrets, but it's good clean puzzle fun.

Birzzle

You're like, Bir...what!!? Yes, it's a weird name, I think they're trying to go for Bird-puzzle? Haha, regardless of it's funny name, it's my new obsession with the iPad. They try to get you in by giving you the free "lite" version. I finished all 8 levels in one sitting and was wanting more. 

The premise of the puzzle is the same. Get three of the same birds in a row to get a power bird, which can have great powers later. The higher the level, the more variation of birds, etc. etc. I can tell this will be one of our go-to games as the kids love it too. 

Know of any other Puzzle type game I'm missing? I'd love to know!

Team Food: A Sesame Seed Bagel shout out

I just want to give a shout out to the sesame seed bagel. Every monday, while it sucks to get out of bed, thinking about the entire week of work ahead of me, there is one shining spot. Every Monday at the office is Bagel Day! We get quite a selection of Panera Bread Bagels (yum!) with all kinds of shears.

The funny part is that within the eagerness of Bagel day is the subset of people called the Sesame Seed Bagel People. I started noticing since if I just end up getting in a bit late, all the sesame seed bagels are gone! So, I started keeping an eye out every Monday for the bagels to come in and... Ka-Bam! I'm maneuvering my way to the kitchen. Lo and behold, all the other SSBP are also in the kitchen! It's like 5 people all toasting the same fuckin' bagel. What is up with that!? They eventually figured it out and added more sesame seed bagels to the pile (it used to be 5% and now, it's like 30%), but it's a bit funny what people will do to food.

Go Team Food!

Replenish Cleaner

This is interesting! I happened upon this one reading this week's posts on Apartment Therapy regarding cleaning products. The idea is that instead of paying for the "mixed" in cleaning product everyone else is selling - why not pay only for the concentrated version and then add you own water. It helps keep packaging small, you get more for your money, and help the environment.

Replenish! The bottle looks pretty cool, and they have a few scents available.

I haven't tried it yet, but next time I go to whole foods, I will keep an eye out. The biggest question for me now is: will it really clean good?

Boon Bath Fun!

I'm already a boon fan. I have bought the frog pad for the tub for the kids and I love it. It's really great. It's really just a place for the kids toys, but why not make it fun?

Since my boys are a bit older, I've been out of touch to the next new! cool! toy! but came across this - soo cute! It's called "creatures".  Again, they're bath toy, but it's got fun colors and cool creature to create. I hope to see this the next time I go on a Target run. Hah!

Dr. Horrible's: Freeze Ray

So, it's no secret that I am a big big Neil Patrick Harris fan. He's just so good that when I hear him sing, my love for theatre grows. 

This one is from a really good movie slash musical slash he did with Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. It's a really cute little production. Here's my favorite song on there..

Video is the new Photo Album

This was one of the first video compilations I've made where I thought: huh, that was a decent job. I mean, really, this iMovie thing really works. As we are now a generation of YouTube viewers...seems to make sense that we resort to videos as a way to reminisce, and remember. 

I also can see the evolution of the movies I've made so far. In the beginning, eager to learn all of iMovie's goodness,  even had a beginning slide of Joshua's foot. I thought he had the cutest baby feet of all (Ha! As a Mom I should've known all moms would think that of their own baby's feet!), but I totally thought I can carry it through and showcase Josh's foot as he grew older.

YouTube was also still growing as back then we had a 100 mb limit (or was it 20??), and that really hindered the quality of the video. At my own computer, the quality of the video is great, but translated, it's a bit grainy. Oh well!

As I watch this back, it takes me to that time of my life, and see the places we've been, the people we hung out with, the events that have happened, and that's where we're at. It's a video album, a snapshot of that time and I think for the next generation, it'll be the way to compile memories. 

Audio: Float On by Modest Mouse

Orla Kiely & The Cabin Upright

One of the things I dream about in the "when-i-become-successful" variety is being able to travel and jet set around the world! Part of that is having the oh-so-cute-est travel luggage. That perfect luggage is, of course, Orla Kiely. I mean look at this, it's just the awesomest looking thing ever. Now, it must be small enough that it fits the overhead compartment. You won't trust this to be milling around with the rest of the luggages of the checked-in variety. That's because this luggage would be more expensive than anything inside it. 

Sigh. I just saw this one at See Jane Work and it's already marked 25% off and I still couldn't afford it. But who am I kidding. I should first wait for the opportunity to travel, no?

The Cutest iPhone SLR!

One of the best things about having a great gadget like the iPhone 4 is to have even better accessories! My friend has turned me on to Photojojo because of all the cool photography gifts for that photographer (or budding photographer) in your life. For my father in law last Christmas, we got him a thermal cup that looks like an SLR lens. Very very cute!

Now, look at this! It's a cute little SLR lens for your iPhone! Don't you want it? I know I do...