My exposure to Sesame Street has largely been background radiation; a mention of Big Bird here, a mention of Cookie Monster there. The Elmocize DVD. So it never really held the nostalgia for me that it does for people who were raised on it.
…This is my new favorite Sesame Street anything.
They got the cast (read: Muppets) to do the WIRED Autocomplete Interview, featuring questions like “How does one get to Sesame Street?”, and the amount of comedy and consideration they packed into an eight minute video promises that those kids who do grow up with Sesame Street are having a good time. With absolutely zero prior emotions attached to this concept, I went back and watched it again! And then watched the second one! I liked the first interview more – Cookie Monster’s comedy especially – and if this was a cornerstone of your childhood, I expect you’ll enjoy them both!
Previously, I mentioned a blog I follow on Tumblr, @herpsandbirds, which covers animal photos and fun facts for, more or less, any animals that aren’t mammals. As a counterpart to that experience, I also follow @mammalianmammals, which exclusively covers mammals and has had some really odd ones recently! My favorite of which may be Demarest’s Hutia, pending changes. It’s cute, it’s educational – it’s a good time!
In which a real-life EMT does sketch comedy about it! What’sGoodMedia is, first and foremost, hilarious – the pacing, physical comedy, and “just rolling with it” attitude can always make me laugh. Some such examples include How EMTs enter the Emergency Room, Things I say as a Music Festival EMT, and POV: Getting into a music festival, in which he’s scanning tickets. At times, he also posts more serious videos, like how first responders might reach someone in a crowd; all told, it makes for a really cool combo of down-to-earth, hilariously specific, and genuinely helpful to know. Most importantly to me, though, is the reminder that EMTs are just people – maybe exhausted, maybe a laughing a little, but most of all they’re here to help.
In other words, the people behind Woof Days, Cat Days, and Dino Days came out with another set! Space Days, Pirate Days, and Dungeon Days, all of which follow the old mechanics and have their own thematic variances. In Pirate Days, one of those variances is the addition of dice!
The dice, I was glad to find, don’t seriously alter your turn structure; rather, certain cards will call for them, like the photographed Cannon. In that case, what you roll will determine which day on your opponent’s board the Cannon hits! We usually save this until the board is nearly full, of course, to maximize the chance of hitting something. This marks Pirate as by far the most Munchkin of any of the Days games, and the one that most lends itself to planning ahead, while Dungeon and Space are more reminiscent of the first three! More sci-fi and high fantasy, though, with Space straddling the border of real astronomy and speculative, and Dungeon offering a clear homage to Lord of the Rings: the Elf and the Dwarf can’t stand being placed together. Legolas and Gimli, anyone? There’s also the Mimic from D&D, Medusa, and a Boulder Trap, which (beyond reminding me of Indiana Jones) adds an interesting “this space can no longer be used” effect!
As always, these games are a blast (no Cannons intended… currently), and perfect for a two-player household. I wonder what kind of Days they’ll make next!
American Sign Language is one of those language I’ve been meaning to get to, and because it’s not on a platform that I’m familiar with (read: Duolingo), it’s taken me a while to get there. But! I finally found one that works for me! At least for the basics.*
SignSchool is, first and foremost, passably similar to Duo. This is my gold standard for learning platforms, because I know it works for me: new material, structured practice, and reviews anytime, with lessons grouped by topic. Repetition and diversity of context long-term memories make, after all. Additionally, there’s some commentary on the “why” of a concept, or different ways a concept can be phrased; an explanation for the order of the previous sentence, mayhaps! (There is not – that was whimsy.)
Alongside the lessons, there’s a dedicated Learn My Name tool – a great place to start -, a fingerspelling game, and other review games. And a dictionary! My favorite aspect, though, is the Sign Of The Day. What better way to expand my vocabulary and feed into that thriving-on-chaos? I’m still working on the language’s basics, “good evening” and whatnot, and yet I know “cactus,” “blood pressure,” and “geometry.” Truly, a platform after my own heart.
*No shade to SignSchool – I just can’t speak for anything past these yet. It should also be noted that my experience is with the website, rather than the app. They do have both!
Because what everyone needs is to collect dragons and visit them! No? Is that… not the takeaway of the game?
It is, more or less. Wyrmspan is about excavating caves for dragons, inviting them in, and exploring, picking up resources as you go! Despite sharing a system with Wingspan, it is quintessentially a dragon game, a process I had hardly considered the difficulty of until I was staring the results in the face. There are a lot of little shifts between the two sets of rules, ones that alter the internal balance while still coming out with the same results!
Crunchy bits aside, Wyrmspan approaches its material with the same enthusiasm as its predecessor, presenting dragons of different sizes, temperaments, and abilities, a booklet all about them, and a guild track for rewards! The little adventurer pieces, visual design and so forth are stunning, and if you like dragons and lots-of-moving-parts mechanics, you should definitely check it out.
Tragically, every episode I’ve watched is from seasons now unavailable. Still, the binge to watch them before they expired has made my opinion on the show clear!
Samantha Brown’s Places To Love is a PBS program that features cities around the world. Arts, history, activities, nature – the program highlights them all, both the iconic and the obscure. This is the perfect balance! It makes the massive, larger-than-life feel real and grounded, and the small and locally-owned better known. Even for places I’ve been, she chooses activities I didn’t, filling out my concept of it and making me excited to go back. What else is there to see?
Designed by people who have been to all our National Parks, Trekking The National Parks features a comprehensive map, fun facts and pictures, and plenty of replay value! With many different ways to score points, it’s anyone’s game.
Cards are used both for movement and to claim Parks, depending on whether you’re using the number or the color/symbol; Parks have the matching symbols next to their point value. The more cards they take, the more points you get! To claim a Park, you have to be on that space on the board, and play the right cards – and this is a separate action from movement, which is terribly important! Because you only get two actions per turn, and sometimes your buddies will Sorry-style bump you back to Start. Our own games got progressively more competitive and Munchkin-esque the more that we played.
Beyond claiming Parks (which I’ll admit may have involved some favoritism, especially towards ones that I’ve already been to), you can also score points by camping at Major Parks, picking up stones, and having the most stones of a given color. Stones are laid out randomly at the beginning of the game, and picked up the first time someone visits a Park; Major Parks are selected, three of the six for each game, and have an effect when or after you camp there. Yellowstone, for instance, lets you draw a card off the top of the deck when you claim something. This is especially useful because drawing takes up actions, one per card, and is the main factor slowing down your tourism. Camping is done the same way claiming is, except Major Parks accepts multiple campers!
As a nature and travel nerd, this game is a delight. Most of the National Parks have cards, giving you incidental exposure to Cool Things The World Has To Offer, and the parks that aren’t on the cards are in a little booklet to the side. You can tell that the creators truly love the subject material, and that they were careful to weight the mechanics so you can revisit it again and again.
(Note: my understanding is that the “claim” mechanic is called “explore” in the third edition, and that it adds rules for solo play. What I played was the second edition, so that’s what the post’s about! Very excited by the possibility of playing as the bear, though, which is usually the First Player token.)
Hard sell, right? I’ve recently been availing myself of Freebooksy’s daily deals, featuring free e-books from many an author. Though they mostly target Kindle users, other platforms do make an appearance; books are also organized by genre, making it easy to skip to the sections that you like. I’ve been especially delighted by the variety of cookbooks! Regardless of your taste, there’s likely something that matches them – if not today, then tomorrow. As long as you’re willing to peruse the list, of course.
Wizard Kittens asks and answers the question, “What would cats get up to if they had magic?” Which is, of course, making a big ol’ mess and then trying not to get caught. Players are student cats, who have accidentally unleashed a whole host of Curses and have to defeat them before their teacher finds out.
This is an excellent game for Young Gamers! The mechanics come in tiers, so you can introduce whatever degree of complicated is right for your players, and there are no hidden cards. Each kitten has a standard set of actions – Summon, Sling, Swat, and Switch – with the Advanced version replacing one of those with a character power. Progress looks like collecting the right ingredients in your Ritual Circle’s chapters to defeat the corresponding Curses, with a chance that the other players may get to them first. Victory looks like defeating all the Curses, and scoring the most points between those and Extra Credit.
…Usually.
See, getting caught isn’t an idle threat. In the deck, on one of the last eleven cards, is Professor Whispurr, and if the Professor is drawn then the game ends prematurely. At this point, you do not want to have the most points – you want to have the least, so you can plead innocent of being involved! Luckily, Extra Credit only applies if you didn’t get caught, and managed to seem passably responsible; these cards usually award points for cards left in your Circle once the Curses are done. Also available is the Magical Monsters expansion, which doesn’t change too much and does add Monsters. They function a bit like Curses, but with effects pre-defeat!
This game’s adorable, and I love the variety of “pick your poison” in difficulties, character powers, New Rules, etc., as well as the duality of the end conditions. Most especially, however, I love the expansion’s new kitty’s name: Van Meowsing.
