June 17, 2008

Tuesday Teaser for June17, 2008

Can you identify the item depicted above? Take your best guess and post it in the comments below. If your guess wins, you’ll get a nifty prize. Here’s how it works:

1. Write a comment giving your guess as to what the item is. Be as specific as you can. A table is too vague - a clamp on a card table leg is specific.
2. First person to identify the item wins. If more than one person provides the correct answer, time and date stamp will determine who was first.
3. The author of this blog will be the sole judge as to what constitutes a correct answer. Sorry - no hints will be given. I will attempt to respond to your answers at least every few hours, but I am not continuously at the keyboard so please be patient.
4. The contest will end in forty-eight hours, whether or not a correct guess has been submitted.
5. Skeet’s Stuff is a do-follow blog, so you get some link value just for commenting.

What will you win?

1. The author of this blog will write a LINKY LOVE POST (review) about the winner’s blog (commercial sites ineligible.) The LLP will contain the url for your blog plus at least two deep links and will be posted here on Skeet’s Stuff, a PR4 PR2 PR0 (bah google!) Ha! PR3 blog. Skeet writes good reviews.
2. The weekly winners will be entered into a monthly drawing for a $10.00 gift card from Starbucks or Amazon or a ten dollar payment through PayPal.
3. Drawing for the monthly prize will be held on or about July1, 2008, and will include all weekly winners for the month. There are four Tuesdays in June thus the maximum number of people who will be eligble is four.

Comments submitted with commercial links will be deleted. If you would like to market your product, service or website through skeet’s stuff I’ll be happy to discuss your needs and my prices. Please submit your request via email.

Technorati Tags: contests, photos, photo contest, ohoto puzzle

June 16, 2008

Discovery! A Seek and Find Adventure - new hidden object game

The latest exclusive hidden object game release from Big Fish Games is pure hidden object game fun. Discovery! A Seek and Find Adventure is modeled on a game show, complete with all of the fanfare, hoopla and audeince noise. Players begin the game by spinning a wheel to determine the value of prizes in the upcoming round and the type of mini-games that will be available.

Different locales provide the playing field for each round. A list of objects is given and the player’s task is to find each item hidden within the scene. I found the objects to be clearly and fairly defined, but had some trouble seeing some transparent objects. The challenge level is high, but all objects can be found. The game creators have made no attempt to achieve the photo-realism we’ve seen in some recent games. The graphics for each round of play are fun and colorful, with some having a decidedly cartoonish appearance. Each background is cluttered and busy, distracting the eye and incresing the level of difficulty. Hints and a zoom feature will help you out if you get in a tight spot.

The two types of mini-games I played are a fun segue between segments of the real action but won’t strain your brain. Flipping tags and matching the pictures on them came up several times on the wheel for me, so I didn’t get to sample all of the mini-games. Blizzard Bucks - grabbing falling dollar bills - is fun but mindless. The U.S. Roadtrip Jackpot Round requires the player to find a single hidden object in each of ten scenes, presented in rapid succession with a short time limit for completion of the round.

You can download a demo version of Discovery! A Seek and Find Adventure for a free hour of play before you decide whether or not to buy the full version. Purchase price is $19.99, but you’ll pay as little as $6.99 to own any game from Big Fish if you decide to join the Game Club.

You can see all of my hidden object game reviews in the games category for skeet’s stuff. Each review gives my observations on the game and will provide you with a link for a free download. Have fun!

Technorati Tags: Big Fish Games, Discovery! A Seek and Find Adventure, games, hidden object games

Fans of Tuesday Teasers

Are you a fan? Do you have to visit every week and try to solve my Tuesday Teaser photo puzzle? Could you hook me up with some linky love? We’ve got a great group of regulars who play every week, but wouldn’t your readers like to join in on the fun? It’s likely that your most faithful visitors have interests in common with you, so you’d be doing them a favor by letting them know about features you enjoy on other blogs - like Tuesday Teasers on skeet’s stuff ! My stats will thank you and the game will be more lively with the addition of some new competitors. How’s about a post today (Monday) linking my Tuesday Teaser category so they can see what it’s all about, or a post early tomorrow linking the new puzzle for this week? Feel free to help yourself to my Tuesday Teaser badge if you’d like to enhance your post with a little visual interest.

And hey - all you lurkers? I know you’re there because I get a lot more visitors than players. Come on out of the shadows, y’all. Most of us don’t bite and the game is more fun when you get involved! Give it a try and see!

Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much) for giving Tuesday Teasers a boost!

Technorati Tags: contest, games, photo puzzle, Tuesday Teasers

June 15, 2008

Self Portrait Sunday for June 15, 2008

“I was born in Corsicana, Texas, the home of Wolf Brand Chili, The Collins Street Bakery and me. Nothing much else ever came out of there.” That’s how I’ve been known to introduce myself when I’m feeling silly. Not true, of coures. It’s true that I was born there, but it’s a pretty interesting little town and has a few things going for it besides the two outstanding features mentioned above. We moved away when I was five, so I have more history in other places, but I’ve visited from time to time over the years. I got the shirt on either my last trip there or the one before that - I think the earlier visit. That means my Derrick Days shirt is probably between fifteen and twenty years old. The fabric is wearing a little thin and it’s got some stains and a few bleach spots on it. I don’t wear it anymore except around the house when I’m having a cleaning and chores day like today. It might be years before I ever make it back to Corsicana, so I thought I’d commemorate the shirt before it falls apart.

I need to do another progress report on my decluttering, but I think I’ll do that another day. I’ve been steadily plodding on, so there are improvements every day. Today it was little stuff. I was going to finish emptying out the front shed and maybe go shopping for HDMI cables, but the rain is coming down in buckets so I’ll keep working inside until it’s time to cook my dinner instead.

Ha! Cass over at Midlife Musings has two outstanding features today, too! You’ll have to go over there to see hers. You can follow me if you like. I’m going to visit all of the Self Portrait Sunday participants and her comments are the place to find them all.

Technorati Tags: photo, self portrait

Posted by skeet @ 6:35 pm • Photos, Meme • 2 comments  

Her opinion counts

Chatbug Karen is an opinionated woman. She has something to say about everything. Do you want to know what’s right (or wrong) in pop culture? Karen will give you the scoop on movies, books, TV shows, games and music. Being a mature woman, she’s got enough mileage on her accumulated some wisdom over the years and honed her wit to razor sharpness, so it’s always interesting an informative to look at celebs from her viewpoint or to consult her opinion before you plop down your hard-earned bucks at the box office window. I enjoyed comparing our thoughts about American Idol during it’s most recent incarnation, and Karen is the one who finally got me interested in perhaps getting a Wii. I thought they were just kidstuff, but Karen’s post about family fun changed my mind, and her blog is where I found out that you can download games so that Wii has the stuff that really interests you instead of just the arcade and racing games they always show on their commercials. Maybe everyone else knew that, but I didn’t until Karen told me. Her blog is accurately called My Opinion Counts and it certainly does with me. I value her insight, and not just on the fun and frivolous stuff of life. As a small-business owner I really appreciate the stories she relates about the business she and her husband run. I’m still kind of new to it, so their years of experience operating a small business have taught me some things I would otherwise have had to learn by trial and error. Since I’m pretty much stuck on my little island, I also enjoy Karen’s travel reports. She’s a great resource for armchair travelers like me who don’t get out much. Her archives and categories are user-friendly, so when you find something you like it’s easy to find related posts.

A little criticism: Karen, is there a reason that your posts aren’t dated? I enjoy browsing through your blog, but it makes me crazy when I find an interesting news item you’ve referred to and I don’t know if it’s something that happened last week or last year. And about those news items: why no links? Some of the current events you provide commentary on are well known and I can make the connection, but some refer to stories that are new to me. I’d like to learn more about them, but never know where to start. How am I supposed to decide whether or not to steal your ideas if I don’t know where they come from, hm? Your story about con artists devouring neighborhoods is fascinating. I want to know more, but need a source, know what I mean? It’s not annoying enough to make me quit visiting your place - nothing could make me do that - but my visits might be enhanced if a little more information was provided. Some news sources like to link back to bloggers who mention them, so sending them some traffic them could bring some good karma your way, too.

Speaking of stealing content, Karen ran a hilarious but thought-provoking video a while back. I’ll paste it below so you can see. Well, no, wait - that would be so wrong! I want you to go visit her, so start with the video, then come back and tell me what you think about it. Take your time though. There’s a lot of good stuff over there that you’ll want to read. I’ll still be here when you get back. Go! Go see Karen!

Technorati Tags: blog reviews, blogs, reviews

Mystery Stories: Island of Hope - new hidden object game

Mystery Stories: Island of Hope is a new hidden object game available exclusively from Big Fish Games. Like all games of the genre, the player’s goal is collect specific items which have been cleverly hidden in cluttered scenes. The storyline involves solving a mystery, so you’ll be collecting clues towards that goal as you play.

The artwork is bright, clear and colorful. Objects to be found are well defined and fairly hidden within the crowded scenes. Some are pretty tough to find. Hints and tools are in generous supply and can be earned along the way. I needed hints a few times. The items to be searched for are presented either as a word list or as silhouettes. Some items require the player to perform a simple action: in the top photo above, find the film, find the camera, insert the film in the camera.

There’s nothing earth-shakingly innovative going on here, but it’s a good game. Searching in the dark and other well-known devices keep gameplay challenging and interest levels high. I found the game to respond sluggishly when an object is clicked and when swithching screens - very frustrating with the clock ticking in timed play - but have no other complaints.

Some of the objects collected along the way are clues to help the player solve the the mystery at the conclusion of the game. Additional clues are earned with mini-games like the eye-pleasing one shown above.

I’m giving Mystery Stories: Island of Hope points for fairplay and for providing a medium-level challenge. It’s a relaxing game to play at your leisure, not a high tension one to get your blood pumping. A demo download is avialable for one hour of free play. If you decide to buy it’s $19.99, or as low as $6.99 for Game Club members.

You can see all of my hidden object game reviews in the games category for skeet’s stuff. Each review provides a few insights on my experience with the game and a link you can use to acces a free demo. Have fun!

Technorati Tags: Big Fish Games, games, hidden object games, Mystery Stories: Island of Hope

June 14, 2008

Eating fruit

I don’t eat fruit. I have a condition called short bowel (or short gut) syndrome. That means that I don’t have enough intestine to process food normally. My food goes through me very quickly and is not in my system long enough to break down so that I can absorb all of the nutritional goodness (or junk) that goes in my mouth. Rough textured and fibrous things are the worst. They don’t break down at all and cause me a lot of cramping and pain. I can handle vegetables that are cooked until soft (thus robbing them of nutrients,) but no raw fruit or vegetables, seeds, nuts, beans - all of those things cause me serious grief. Oh, I cheat sometimes, but only when I know I have at least a half a day I can lose to non-functionality due to pain and frequent bathroom visits. I susbsist mostly on defatted or low-fat meats, starches, soft vegetables and some dairy. I took nutritional supplements and vitamins for years, but apparently don’t absorb them, either, because they didn’t make a bit of difference. They’re expensive and their benefits were wasted on me, so I gave them up. The good news is that I seem to have lost the lactose intolerance that I had for a while after my gut surgery, so I gradually added more cheese other dairy products back into my diet. The bad news is that this has been going on for almost fourteen years and there’s no cure. I’ve lost a lot of teeth, my hair and skin are dry, my nails split and tear off easily and my bones and joints hurt - a lot. The overall state of my health is … well … crappy. Since the lactose intolerance faded, though, I’ve decided to try fruit again. Maybe I’ll be able to eat it and maybe I’ll absorb some of the good stuff. I started yesterday. I ate a half a banana on toast.

I don’t like foods that have a slimy texture. Cooked or canned fruit - bleh! The texture is so disagreeable it makes me gag. Yeah, like I’ve needed another dietary limitation all these years, hm? Seriously, I think it’s a genetic thing. My son has it worse than me - his avoidance extends to things that are creamy. He quit eating anything slimy, creamy or mushy as soon as he was off of strained baby food and rice cereal. He’s never eaten Jello or pudding. I eat those, and cooked cereals and yogurt and lots of other things that he won’t, but slime - no way! I just can’t do it. Bananas are slimy, but if you mix one with peanut butter it becomes creamy instead, with just a hint of slime. Today’s breakfast was much more agreeable than the half a banana I ate yesterday.

So okay, this wasn’t bad at all. I could see myself eating banana and peanut butter on toast every morning. I like it, but wouldn’t say it’s my favorite food. I don’t “love” the slice of dry whole wheat toast I eat right after I get out of bed every morning, but I “like” it okay and it’s part of my routine. It helps with the extreme nausea I have each day when I get up. It’s kinda like having morning sickness for fourteen years without having a baby to look forward to. Nausea is a background feature in my life all the time, but it’s really bad when I first wake up, thus the toast. (Yeah, those are my flabby thighs in the photos. I meant to edit before uploading, but I’m not gonna go back into my photo editor, crop each shot, delete the originals from Flickr and upload the cropped versions so I can switch them out on my post. I’ll live with the humiliation instead!)

Family tradition: Lance gets the last bite of pretty much everything I eat. This is the first time he’s had banana with his peanut butter. I think he likes it.

When I was in the hospital they made me eat papaya with every meal and they encouraged me to drink a lot of papaya juice. Papaya contains a digestive enzyme that is good for everyone and especially recommended for folks with screwed up guts like mine. The ancient Hawaiians knew that and the Western world discovered it with the invention of Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer. The main ingredient is papaya (or it was - Lawry’s owns it now and papaya is not listed on the label anymore.) I resisted the papaya a little at first, but by the time I’d been eating it several times a day for a week it had become a part of my routine - a part I didn’t like at all. I liked the taste okay, but had had enough to last a lifetime, or so I thought. Tomorrow, or maybe tonight with dinner, I’ll have papaya again for the first time in fourteen years. Wish me luck! I hope I love it because it needs to be a part of my life for a while, at least until I find out if I can eat it without (literal) gut-wrenching pain.

And now for a brief editorial statement: Are you opposed to stem cell research? I hope you will look at the issue from as many sources as you can, instead of just what you hear from the pulpit, which might be based on something other than scientific reality. I’m not asking you to abandon religious convictions, just to take a look and see if there is a valid conflict with your beliefs and what actually goes on in stem cell research. No one is getting pregnant just so they can abort and make some money on stem cells. It’s not happening and is not going to happen. The materials needed for stem cell research are readily available though abortions performed for all of the usual dreary reasons, so there is no market to lure anyone into planning pregnancy and abortion to satisfy supply and demand. The supply is already there, but most of it is being discarded as medical waste instead of being used to help people. Is that what you really want?

Why do I care about stem cell research and want to encourage you to take an educated look at your opposition? Because it will some day make all the difference for people like me. Notice I said will, not may. It is inevitable that scientific discovery will go forward, with or without opposition. Opposition just slows it down and makes already-expensive research cost more. Someday, probabaly not in my lifetime, but maybe while my son’s generation is still kicking, people will grow their own new guts from implanted stem cells engineered to grow guts. There will be new spleens for people like my vet, who lost his when he got kicked by a cow and who lives with his own medical nightmare. People on dialysis will get fresh-grown kidneys and no longer need to be tethered to machines and clinic schedules, greatly improving and extending their lives. Organ rejection will no longer be a problem because the new organ will be grown from the body of the person who needs it. I expect to be dead, probably as a result of something related to nutritional deprivation, long before that happens, so I have no vested interest in the state of research today. My support of stem cell research is based on a wish for future generations, that they might have healthier more funcitonal lives even after their bodies throw them a curve ball.

Technorati Tags: diet, food, food and nutrition, fruit, short bowel syndrome, short gut syndrome, stem cell research

June 13, 2008

Need a cheap web host?

I got lucky when I was selecting a web hosting service. I asked a friend who she was using and went with her host. I was fairly new to blogging and had previously used a free platform. I didn’t know what quesitons to ask or what features to look for. Fortunately, my friend’s provider turned out to be a reliable service with good pricing, but it could have turned out quite badly for me. The wiser thing to do if you’re looking for web hositing is to consult web hosting tutorials first so you can make informed decisions. You’re in luck, because the link will take you to a place that knows everything you need to know about cheap web hosting. Yes, I said cheap. Many providers can set you up for premium service at low prices. Cost is not a reliable measure of the quality of web hosting services. Do your homework. Read the tutorial essays first. Most people don’t start out as ignorant as I was, but most people also don’t know everything they need to know. Ask friends about their experiences with the providers you put on your short list. Browse around the website - you’ll think of new questions as you go and can find many answers there. I got lucky, but I don’t recommend my selection method to anyone!

Technorati Tags: cheap web hosting, web hosting, web hosting tutorials

June 12, 2008

Four Foods on Friday #33

Our gal Val is scaring me a little this week. Instead of asking her participants in Four Foods on Friday to answer four questions she’s … well, see for yourself:

I’ve written down the first four letters of the alphabet, and two foods that start with that letter. I’d like everyone to post a recipe or menu idea based on at least one item from each letter. I think it might be fun to see the different answers you all come up with when dealing with the same foods.

D - dressing, dumpling

I wasn’t real clear on what she was asking us to do, but someone beat me to the question. If you go to the link above you’ll see Val’s answer in the comments below the post. If I’m understanding correctly (I’m still not 100% sure that I am) we’re to take one item from each pair above, then combine the four of them into a single recipe or menu. Why do I suddenly feel like a contestant in a quickfire challenge on Top Chef? I’m pretty sure I’d be called in to the judges table with the bottom three because the list is not stimulating my creative genius. Entering into the spirit of the thing, though, I could see making some plump, juicy applesauce dumplings with cinnamon and maybe a pinch of nutmeg to wake up the flavor. (Dumplings are kind of a boiled bread, right? So I’ve got four items covered, one for each letter.) I don’t have a recipe for plump, juicy applesauce dumplings flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg. If I ever decide to make them (which I’m pretty sure I won’t) I’ll take notes and photos as I go so I can share it with you.

I’d suggest that it be served as dessert following a savory chicken and asparagus with zesty balsamic vinegar dressing.

Technorati Tags: food, meme, menuu suggestions

Oh My Wordle!

I love playing with words. In the past that’s always meant creating puns and silly rhymes, doing crossword puzzles or playing word games like Scrabble with my son when he visits. My friend TW just turned me on to a way to literally play with words and turn them into art that can be displayed and shared. You can see the results of my first visit to Wordle above. I copied the text of Skeet is not a dirty word, a post I wrote way back in December 2006. I pasted the text into a box, hit submit and - voila! - I have my very own Wordle. Don’t you just love it? TW did it with a poem she was giving to the love of her life, I chose a blog post, but you can do it with any group of words you choose. I’ve just sent a letter to my great niece in which I asked her to tell me all about what makes her world go ’round. I hope she’ll write back and tell me about her friends and hobbies and all the things she likes to do. I’d love print her own personal Wordle on card stock and send it the next time I write to her. My head is spinning with possibilities! I have some old school essays of my son’s around here somewhere. Oh, and maybe I could make a card for my friend who’s losing weight with nuphedragen - just a little encouragement to help her keep going and let her know I’m proud of her, ya know? Hee! I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun with words! My Wordle is now featured in their onsite gallery and they have tools that let you post to Delicious so you can always find them later. The tool to copy the code to your blog or a message board wouldn’t work for me so I did a screenshot in order to let you see it. Whatever, it’s still a fun site.

If y’all get sick of them you’ll have to let me know, because I suspect that Wordles will be showing up on my blog pretty frequently in the future. Yeah, I love playing with words that much! You know I love illustrating my posts with pictures. Now I can combine both passions and highlight my posts with word pictures. *Too*much*fun*!*

Technorati Tags: art, playing with words, word art, Wordle