3 posts tagged “entertainment”

What do you do for fun when you're broke? 
Submitted by Kim. 

Oh, tons of stuff!

Depending upon the time of the year and what's going on around town, there's Free Day at the assorted museums and the Zoo, there are free concerts here and there, sometimes you can pick up free "sneak preview" tickets for movies, if you arrive late enough at some theatrical performances, they'll let you in for free if they have seats open.

Then there are the parks and all the things one can do in parks.

Then there are wilderness areas where you can collect nature materials and go back home to make all sorts of interesting crafts.  You've got triple fun from that - the walk, the making, and the look on people's faces in the giving.

There's Game Nights - where you gather to play assorted games:  card, board, RPG.

There's Bob Night - where you get together and figure out a yummy meal based on what people bring from their pantries.  I don't know why it's called Bob Night, it started out being George, but there you go.

We can always play with the assorted critters that are always hanging about.

We can read aloud to one another and take character parts.

We can stage a home-grown play, with or without props.

We can build a fire in the grill and sit around it toasting marshmallows and telling stories.  Or we can go to the lake and do this.

We can make collages from pictures cut out of discarded magazines.

We write letters to friends and email them- from a library computer if we don't have our own computer.

If anyone has a TV and VCR/DVD player, we can watch old movies - and add in our own popcorn and snacks.

We can gather up old toys and stuffed animals and play games with them.

We can do big chores together - like heavy gardening and yardwork - with songs and really bad jokes, this can be very fun - especially if we take pictures.

We can pretend we're wealthy, dress up and go window shopping in fancy stores.  Or we can slum it and wander through Walmart.

Or we can go garage saleing or flea-marketing.

There's always the free picnics and parades at some holidays, or gathering to watch the parades broadcast on TV.

And we enjoy getting together to go do volunteer work:  washing dishes for Thanksgiving and Christmas, debris clean-up after storms for neighbors, working at the Friends of the Library Book Sale, and other such things.

There's always feeding the ducks, geese, and swans at parks.

And then there's just plain cloud-watching.

If anyone has a GPS, we can go geocaching for hidden treasures. This is the most fun when you dress up in pirate clothes and talk like a pirate.  Pictures are essential for this, too.

We can sit in a coffee house and listen to the local bands play.  A cup of house coffee isn't expensive, and a dollar in the collection cup for the band is nice, too.  It's a lot of fun.  Do it often enough, and you start getting to know folks that are doing the same thing.

We also give "workshops" where we teach one another something new - pottery, beading, a new dish to cook, perfumery, mad computer skillz, and more.

We can have coffee or tea parties - making our own coffee or tea and adding a batch of fresh baked cookies or finger sandwiches is cheap, and we can discuss poetry and politics, or kvetch about our home lives.

We can go sit in the food court of a shopping mall and make up stories about the people we see.

We can gather for a Bad Poetry Night, where we read or write really bad poetry, so long as we avoid Vogon Poetry we're good.

Punday Night is always fun, too.  It's like Bad Poetry Night, only with puns.

Ditto for The Limerick Hour, with mocktails and limericks of all sorts.

Moosemasses are always popular, too - the Mobile  Vertautumnal Equi-Solstice Celebration that involves moose, mousse, and meandering pronouncements of random nonsense - in jammies, can be a lot of fun.  We have a copy of the old Bullwinkle cartoons to play when we do this.  Inserting bad Bullwinkle puns and references is a bonus.

Elf Chess is another good game - using found object and natural materials, we build an ephemeral work of art on a table top, one piece at a time, while telling stories and just casually chatting.

Where is the farthest you have ever been away from home? Did you get homesick? 
Submitted by Melissa.

Hmmmm.  I guess I'd have to have a home first, or rather, a place I call home.  It's kind of weird that I am buying this house, and yet, I still don't consider it "home".

On the other hand, because nowhere is really "home", everywhere has become "home".  I'm comfortable wherever I go.  I tend to fit into almost any situation, and folks tend to accept me as belonging there, whether it's in the shrubberies where the homeless people hide from authority or in a five star hotel.  If I wanted to be a spy, this homeless/homey-iness would be an asset.

I've never been homesick for a real place.  Occasionally, I do get homesick for a place I've never been and never had except in my mind.  That never lasts long because, being in my mind, I can get there for a while.

Someday, I may try creating that place and then I can inhabit it for real, and finally be home.

Film & TV writers are on strike, which means everything except reality TV could halt production.  Do you support the strike?  Are any of your favorite shows in jeopardy?

Of course I support the strike.  I sent a donation to the WGA to help the writers make it through the strike, and will send a donation for each month the strike continues.

Since I rarely watch TV, I'm not concerned about missing anything.  I watch the news, which isn't affected by the strike, and the few TV series I like have either been long out of production or canceled earlier in the season, so I'll watch those on DVD (assuming they ever come out on DVD - I'm waiting for Special Unit 2).