My The Hunger Games Phase

Happy 2012!

I think it was back in college (1997-ish) when I've had an epiphany. I was only my way to a lecture with a Baskin Robbins Mocha Blast in hand and I was feeling a bit guilty for my seeming routine to always get a Mocha blast on my way to class. Then I stopped and it dawned on me: I go through phases. That particular slice of time, I was into Mocha Blast. I knew I'd tire of it eventually, but during those days, especially during those lectures, they were my one pleasure. And see, even now, 15+ years later, I do remember those days fondly as my Mocha Blast days.

Just recently was what I call my "vampire phase". Gosh. I had lots of posts about Twilight & True Blood. I am over it now...and i'm thinking I am now in my Hunger Games phase. I have finished the whole series and don't think I've ever loved a series as much. Yes, I thought the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo is GREAT, awesome even, but it was not an easy read. This one was soo un-put-down-able, and I just want to note here..in my journal and acknowledge this phase.

I don't think I do a great job in reviewing books since i'm not a big book person, and so i'll just answer some of the questions they posed at With A Good Book and go with that.

Here are their questions:

Who was your favorite character in The Hunger Games? Why?
While I love Katniss, Peeta has really won me over by the end of the book. I just fall for that kind of character. In Twilight, Edward was supposed to be the epitome of the "perfect man", but I hardly thought so, and his prude-ness was very off-putting. To me, the closest to being perfect in terms of what mean to me is Peeta. And to think that there's really no sex in this book, it's not about that, it's the goodness of his heart that comes across loud in clear in the series


What did you feel was the most emotional moment in book?  Which part was the hardest to read?
The deaths were pretty hard, especially Rue - even though we all knew she was going to die, but I did love the part where she sang the song for her, and even more touching was getting the bread from Rue's district


Why do you think fire is an appropriate symbol for Katniss?
She's raw. She's not one you can easily control.

How does Katniss’ early encounter with Peeta affect their relationship after they are chosen as tributes?
She just felt like she owed him her life, due to the bread and why and how on earth can she kill him? There's really no justification in her mind even if it's for the games to see the person who gave her the lifeline to live die. 


Did your perception of Peeta change over the course of The Hunger Games? How and why?
Yes and No. Ever since he said he loved her before the games, I just knew he did everything for her. But, because the book seemed to set it up that it was going to be Gale & Katniss, I did end up a bit surprised that I was rooting for Peeta in the end. 


Why does Katniss ignore Haymitch’s advice to head directly away from the Cornucopia? Did she do the right thing to fight for equipment?
Wait. Am I mistaken? She was going to go for it...but because she had the split second thought, she ended up only getting the backpack and a small plastic thing, right? Which was why she was cursing Peeta when she saw him going for it and she had to retreat?


Why does Peeta join with the Career Tributes in the beginning of the Games? What does he hope to gain? Why do they accept him when they start hunting as a group?
Of course he wanted to protect her. The Careers on the other hand were a bit stupid to think that he would lead them to her. The question was, what were the careers thinking!?

What did you think of the fact that they changed the rules partway through the games to allow two winners from the same district?
I actually like this part. I think this is what makes this book so compelling. The games are more comparable to Big Brother than it is a football game. The people behind it are real people who end up "falling in love" with the characters on the screen. As an example, in True Blood, in the books, Lafayatte was killed in the end of the first season, but since the actor who played Lafayette turned out to be a fan favorite, I think Alan Ball just could not kill him off. He made a conscious decision to change the course of the series. In a sense, the game makers were seeing that the love story angle was getting them the ratings and the need to prolong it somehow...and it was a brilliant move, for a little while. And then of course, announcing later that the rules have changed yet again. It's just as well.

Overall, I can't say enough about how good this book is, how greatly paced it is and compelling the characters are. I can't wait to see the movie

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!

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?

Random Raider Thoughts

Out of all the professional team sports, my favorite to watch is football. I love the game. It's not as boring as baseball (sorry, baseball fans), and not as fast-paced as basketball. I feel like with football, the plays chosen actually make a difference between winning and losing. But even if I do love the game, I hardly ever watch anymore. Why? I am a sore loser. If my team loses, my whole day is ruined. I get all upset. Why go through that every week? But hey hey hey...Oakland won today! Wheee!

Oh, and Lane Kiffin - the head coach, is only 31. God, he's like...my age! Good for him, I guess. I hope he's the one to turn this team around. We need to start winning again. Maybe then, I'll watch more football.

Bella Bean Collars n Leash

This is too cute! I wanna take that puppy home with me. But check out his ultra cool collar & leash from Bella Bean Couture. It sure beats the plain ole leash you see everywhere. And I know coz I've bought Blue about 20 plain leashes as he was growing up. It's about time to upgrade him from plain to cool.

Bodhi Fortune Cookies

As Blue sleeps on the floor beside me (right now), I look at his sleeping face and realized I haven't given his a nice real treat in a while. And since this is the year of the dog, maybe I should give him this Year of The Dog Bodhi Fortune Cookies. They're cute and cinnamon-y and the picture of that dog is just to die for!

What the hell is Lumines?

I'm not a gamer by any means. But I realized something recently. I love puzzles! For a while I was addicted to Chuzzle, and any other variation of Tetris I can find. I even tried out Sudoku (which Smokedog Blog recommended) and loved it! Hey Mike - I'm no black belt yet, but I'm getting there!

For my new PSP - I bought this game called Lumines. The only puzzle-type game I could find - and it is actually very good! The skins are great. The premise is simple: make squares! It's very addicting, these puzzle games, and that's how I like it.

Dane Cook

I was just watching Dane Cook on Dave Attell's Las Vegas tour show on Comedy Central. It was great! I really love his stuff, but what just dawned on me is that Dane kinda looks like a younger Dennis Quaid. What to you think? Am I right??

What I like about him is that he's a guy's guy and also a ladies man (eww, what's is a ladies man?). He's hot, but not afraid to make a fool out of himself (see his bit about throwing up). Anyway, watch him when you can for a good ol' laugh. A good ol' G-O-L. Links to his stuff can be found on Gorillamask.net

Sliding on the Cheap

Summer is officially over which means we have snowboarding season to look forward to! I know there's no snow yet, but I do want to plug this very good site if you love to ski / snowboard. Sliding on the Cheap tells you what resorts are on sale, what coupons are being used where and which resorts have good deals. You know, things you need to know if you're a cheapskate like me!

Auctions Askew

Kevin Smith rocks. I'm writing about him because it seems everytime I think he's a pretty cool guy, I learn something that makes him an even cooler guy in my eyes.

Like the time he went to co-host the Sarah and NoName show on like, a days notice! And he was really good. I enjoyed listening to him for those three days. And the fact that he loves my morning show and come on the show at random points to plug random things make me happy.

Today I hear that View Askew is having auctions to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. And these are really fun ones:

1) Barbeque at Kevin's House. I think that's pretty cool. Oh hey, what did you do today? Oh, nothing, we had barbeque at Kevin Smith's house. 2) A Walk-On part in "clerks 2" and Kevin assured that it's an actual walk-on part...a part that you will see on the screen (and not edited out). If you're pretty...this may be for you. 3) "Clerks 2" Set Visit - for those too shy to "act" I guess...but still pretty cool if you want to see Kevin in director mode. 4) T-Shirt Collection + A Buddy Jesus. I actually want these. 5) Kevin to leave your voice message. Okay, this is nowhere as cool as the above, but it's totally fun as well.

Plus, I hear he'll be matching all the bids himself. Now that's pretty nice of him.