brightly_lit | Entries tagged with fun

I really love to play video games. Some people consider them a waste of time; I consider them an interactive art form. Plus, I'm really into technology.

There's this super-fun tower defense game I've been playing lately called Defense Grid, in which you're fighting evil aliens with the help of your Jarvis-esque computer buddy, who used to be human and had his consciousness downloaded into a computer. You learn more of his tragic story as the game goes on (the voice acting is wonderful), and it really draws you in emotionally. But the game is also fucking hard, especially this last level I'm stuck on now. I'm caught between my tenacious refusal to stop trying and the feeling that it would be nice to succeed at something for once. (Here is the diagram I had to make to try to beat this f^&*ing level:)

But the expansion packs are even harder, and there's no more Jarvis story in them, which seriously kills it by about 50% for me. :-( I mean, I like a good tower defense game, a lot, but a story makes a big difference. And this also counts for my 100 Days of Happy Day #6!

Another good tower defense game is Toy Defense. Toy Defense is a war game based on technology of the early 20th century, in which you ... basically kill scores of enemy soldiers in WWI/WWII scenarios. Hence the prominence of "Toy" in the title, the careful placement of obviously plastic toy war-game items on a "game board," and spinning wind-up knobs on the enemies' backs, because otherwise, it would be an intensely disturbing game. It's challenging and fun and frustrating and kind of creepy, but empty-feeling in the end, because it has no story. Plants Vs. Zombies, Garden Defense, and Defense Grid are all tower defense games that have good stories to go along with them, which makes them immensely more fun. I recommend any of those games to any of you who like playing that kind of game.

In other news, my SPN-cover EW still hasn't arrived yet. :-(

Today's Top 5 at

spn_bunker was really inspiring, like, REALLY inspiring. I loved the way s_c phrased today's post, because I so strongly believe in that, that only light can drive out darkness, and only love can drive away hate, as MLK Jr. so wisely said in that quote that's been making the rounds.

Because the world is as dark as it's ever been in my lifetime. I take comfort in looking back over history and seeing that dark times occur with regularity in this world. In just the last century, my country and others went through the civil rights movement, and the world faced WWII and the Cold War. Though I'm sure WWII seemed like the end of days as it was happening, the world survived it, along with the Cold War, and we were better off after the turmoil of the civil rights movement, all of which gives me some hope that we'll be better off after these dark days are passed ... or at least that the world will survive.

Still, knowing that doesn't make it less dark to live through, except for the hope of a light at the end of the tunnel. I know we're always wishing there were some way to make things better. Sometimes it seems like there's nothing we can do, but the Top 5 post today, along with y'all's 100 Days of Happiness Memes you've been doing that I've been so enjoying (and at last have been inspired to participate in, myself), made me think of something we could do, however small, to create a haven of happiness and good stuff here in our corner of fandom. With more light in our own lives, we spread light to others, and the world gets just a bit brighter.

So I created this comm, which I hope you join! It's a place where you can share your 100 Days of Happiness posts, or just jump in and post any old thing you stumble across that made you happy that day, whether or not you're doing the meme. I also thought it would be lots of fun to do a Throwback Thursday event (I just love the weekly events at the Bunker, so I couldn't resist doing them in this new comm, too), where you post things that used to be Your Thing when you were younger, even if you can't imagine ever having been into it now; and then also a Future Tuesday event, where you post things you hope to have in the future that you think would make you really happy. I adore seeing your 100 Days of Happiness posts, and I thought it would be great to have them all in one place. Plus, who knows, maybe we'll make some new lj friends there. Here it is:

amilliondays

I called it a million days because, well, a) 100days, 1000days, and 10000days were already taken, and anyway, b) I don't want our good days to stop after the hundred run out!

And please spread the word!

Sign-ups May 10-24 - Click the banner for details!

This one's for

kalliel: Unregistered Horses Meet Under Cover Of Darkness For Kentucky Street Derby

I'm a total software nerd. (A hardware nerd, too, actually.) I'm the only person I've ever known who actually uses MS OneNote--religiously.

I just stumbled across a new MS program, so I couldn't resist trying it out, and I ended up making a little ... presentation, I guess you'd call it, about my favorite musician. Of course they make it so you can share it easily, so here it is, I'm sharing!

The program is called Sway. It probably won't catch on, but despite all the usual MS problems of non-intuitiveness/ease of use, it's really a pretty cool program. I'd love to see SPN ones of these ...

s_c and I have a longstanding tradition of making up songs to the tune of other songs. Vegas might not have been much fun for us, but I DID come up with this ode to spaghetti, to the tune of "Sound of Silence." (This is not in fact my first ode to spaghetti, nor, I'm sure, will it be my last.)

Hello pasta my old friend
I've come to chow on you again
with the noodles softly glistening
and the meat gently sizzling.
And the sweet of the pasta is a counterpoint to the beef
and basil leaf ...
Amid the sounds of slurping.

I put together a couple of little videos for you, each a bit over 3 minutes. I didn't take any video at the con proper, since I saw a million people with their phones out, filming every second of the thing, so I figured other people had that covered. (I actually only have an hour of recording time on my video camera, anyway.) So this is just

septembers_coda and me sightseeing in and near Vegas.

The first video picks up where the last one left off and shows a bit of our travel to Vegas and then some fun stuff we saw while there. Probably my very favorite part of travel was always the weird little things you see, so there's some of that in here, and the majority of it is a trip we took to a chocolate factory/cactus garden--where we saw the Oscar Mayer Weiner-mobile! Don't know why it happened to pull up there while we were having a car picnic before going into the cactus garden, but I got it on film!

MNY2BRN!!

The second video is of Vegas itself, some other random things we saw there, and the strip, for anyone who's interested. Maybe you've been and want to see what someone else noticed about it, or maybe you never plan to go but want to know where the con is held and what it looks like while you're there (I know I was quite interested in this before I went), but anyway, feel free to come along with us on our adventures:

I'll save the trip-home video for a little later. And now I'm going to try to catch up on alllll the posts I missed while we were gone! Hope you have fun watching. :-)

The lead singer of that band I rave about is currently live-streaming playing nerdy games with a bunch of other nerds, which is so awesome and bewildering in a total wtf kind of way. How many times did I wish I could be a fly on the wall of a lazy Saturday of the rock stars I loved in my youth? And today's technology makes it totally possible ... only to discover their games are exactly like gaming with my nerdy friends only even less entertaining. Life is fucking awesome and bizarre.

The quality of SPN this season has been so back up to ~the quality of seasons 1-7 that I'm starting to get inspired to write fic again! I have two fics in mind at the moment, one a Walt and Roy, or possibly Steve, Reggie and Tim, and the other ... has already slipped my mind. Crap.

I love the Bunker, because stuff like last Wednesday's Random post keep going for days. <3 <3 my Bunker peeps!

I get to go to a party tonight! And possibly meet a bunch of new people. I'm excited, and nervous.

I hope your weekends are good, and happy almost-Valentine's Day to you!

Title: Backgammon
Author:

brightly_lit
Recipient:

zelda_addict
Rating: G
Genre: gen, humor, brother time
Characters: Dean, Sam
Word Count: 290
Summary: Dean finds some games in a room in the bunker and convinces Sam to play them with him.

I promised the person who guessed all the code names for bands in this fic a congratulatory drabble (more like a ficlet, as it turned out), and this is it!

zelda_addict, you rock! I deviated slightly from your prompt, hope that's all right.

( Read more... )

Title: Faithfully
Author:

brightly_lit
Recipient and Artist:

mamapranayama
Fandoms: SPN/Psych crossover
Rating: PG for a teeny bit of language
Genre: gen, humor, resolution fic, case!fic (kinda), brother feels
Characters: Dean, Sam, Shawn, Gus, Lassiter, mention of Cain's bees
Word Count: ~3,400
Summary: Sam and Dean follow a lead on a possible werewolf case in Santa Barbara, where no one seems to be who they say they are at the local police department, especially that Shawn Spencer guy claiming to be a psychic ....

Written for the 3rd annual Spring Fic Exchange over at

spn_bigpretzel. With fantastic art from

mamapranayama!

Notes:

- Feel free to read even if you aren't familiar with Psych; I don't think it'll infringe on your enjoyment of the fic.

- Setting: late S9 for SPN (so I could have a little fun with Lassiter/Cain), early S2 for Psych (because that's all I've seen of Psych so far!).

- Setting a SPN fic in the latter half of S9 inevitably brings up Sam and Dean's relationship issues--I couldn't avoid addressing them, but a lighthearted fic also gave me an opportunity to handle them in a way that left me feeling happy--hopefully it'll do the same for you!

faithfullyart

( Read more... )

Because

toratio is doing it!

1. Are you satisfied with the way your life is right now?
RIGHT now? No. But in general lately, yes, very much so. I'm just going through something difficult at the moment, trying hard to find the right path, and it's all very hazy and scary and uncertain.

2. Do you drink enough water?
This question would amuse those who know me in person, because up until less than a year ago, I almost never drank water at all; it made me feel sick. I didn't drink much of anything, but never water. Now I've found kinds of water I can tolerate (spring water, mainly), and I drink what seems to me like a normal amount of water.
( More meme-y goodness! )

Because it looks SO FUN!

Put a number in the comments and I’ll answer accordingly. The mission for those of us who answer the questions, should we accept it, is to stay positive about our writing and ourselves, but to also be fair about our shortcomings.

1. Of the fic you’ve written, of which are you most proud?
2. Favorite tense
3. Favorite POV
4. What are some themes you love writing about?
5. What inspires you to write?
6. Thoughts on critique
7. Create a character on the spot... NOW!
8. Is there a character you love writing for the most? The least? Why?
9. A passage from a WIP
10. What are your strengths in writing?
11. What are your weaknesses in writing?
12. Anything else that you want to know... (otherwise known as Fill in the Blank)