Made Up Word Scrabble

I love games! Which should come as no surprise to ya'll. That'd pretty much be blasphemous (I really wanted to use the word blasphemic but thanks to online dictionaries, alas it is not a real word.). Board games. Sports games. Word games. Pretty much the only games I don't like to play are mind games. And I don't stop at games other people have made up, marketed, and made a shite ton of money off of (or not; I don't know what board game makers are getting these days). Oh no! I make up my own games. Typically with the help of others. This began in my youth with my siblings, making our own board games. And while I don't do that as often now as I did back then, there are still moments such as when-with a little help from my friends-(or a lot of help since I can't actually remember where the idea originated)we created Made Up Word Scrabble. This resulted from the boredom of trying to play the standard version of Scrabble insanely late at night (or early in the morning depending on how you like to look at it), possibly with a few drinks (not of the fruit juice kind) consumed.

How you play:

- Begin like standard Scrabble with each person drawing 7 tiles and taking turns spelling words

Here's where it gets real crazy:

- Arrange your letters in any way that you see fit to make up your own made up words.
- Then, create a definition for that made up word. The more ridiculous the better.

And that's it. I'm not sure if we assigned point values or threw that out the window. But our "dictionary" of made up words is still in the box and added to each time we play the newest version of our old favorite. Yes, this is a game that has lived on beyond that night/morning (even when drinking only fruit juice). We've even had emphatic requests by other friends who weren't present for it to play.

Does this sound like something fun to you? Have you ever made up your own game? If so, what was it? I hope you have fun recreating our Made Up Word Scrabble or your own game in the very near future.

Lack of Motivation

There isn't much fun about lack of motivation. Unless maybe you're curled up on the couch in a daze catching up on 8 million movies and TV shows. But that's different than true lack of motivation. At times we all need an escape from reality. My lack of motivation has obviously manifested itself in the lack of posts I've written lately. I could give a number of excuses. Starting classes for grad school round dos, an internship, writing a book, the bf, the never ending supply of social engagements, surfing, getting settled into a new apartment and exploration of the 'hood. Which in and of themselves are fun(ish) things for me. The actual truth is I'm not entirely inspired to carve out a chunk of time each day to write about fun. Perhaps because I'm too busy having it. Perhaps because no one aside from myself (maybe occasionally some really good friends) reads this. Perhaps I'm just not good at it. Who knows. But it has led to some good things such as the inspiration to write a book, something I've wanted to do since the second grade, so I believe it's something I should continue to do. As the fastest way to Carnegie Hall is through practice.

So in honor of the lack of motivation we all face at times here are some fun ways to get that motivation back:

1. Engage in a wholly different creative activity. This gets the spark going again even if it's completely unrelated to the source of your lack of motivation.
2. Get moving. Exercise is great to spearhead motivation.
3. Dance naked. Now it isn't the dancing naked that will up the motivation but the inspiration of doing something out of character and silly (if you already dance naked all the time try it with some clothes on).
4. Start a motivational group. Chances are you know enough people who are lacking motivation in something themselves and would love to have an accountability factor to get them back on track. You can all even dance naked if you want!
5. Read inspirational books. Oh the Places We'll Go by Dr. Suess would be a good starter.

What kinds of things do you do to get the motivation back? I'd appreciate any and all suggestions as I'll probably try them out myself.