Balderdash

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

Party games are popular among cruisers.  Given the lack of 24x7 TV, that's not surprising.   Our favorite game is Balderdash.

Balderdash is a word game.  It works as follows.   We have a stack of cards.  Each card lists 5 real (but obscure) words.  On the back of the cards are the real definitions.

One person is the dasher.  The dasher chooses a card at random, and another person selects a number 1-5.  The dasher reads the word aloud and spells it.

Now each player takes a slip of paper and writes his/her name, plus a made up definition for the word.  Meanwhile, the dasher looks at the real definition and writes that on a slip.  Then the dasher collects all the strips.  If 6 people are playing, there a 6 slips and at least one of them is guaranteed to have the correct definition.   The dasher reads them all aloud.  Then people vote.   Each votye for the definition I wrote, gives me one point.  A vote for the correct definition, gives the voter two points.  Zero correct votes gives the dasher three points.

The game is hilarious, primarily because of the diverse and imaginary definitions that people make up.  A bit of alcohol shared triples the fun.

I like to play the game for laughs rather than points.  To me, a home run is to write something on my slip so funny that the dasher is unable to read it out loud, and just giggles instead.

By the way, we found a brand new Balderdash game in the book exchange.  It was in the original box, unopened.  We don't need it.  If you would like that game free, let us know and I'll send it.

Extremely Useful Stuff for PC Users

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

Yesterday I sat down to help a friend set up his own blog.  What actually transpired though was me teaching him a few really basic but really important things about windows.  I did the same thing last winter when I taught Excel up in New Bern.  If you memorize a really short list of things about Windows, it will make your computer use 300% easier. These things are hardly secrets, but I'm always amazed that the vast majority of Windows users don't know about them.  Here they are:

• Select one thing – left click, sometimes double click.
• Select many things or many words – select the first thing, hold left button down while moving the mouse, left button up
• Right click on the selection to see a menu of things you can do with it.
• Keyboard Shortcuts that work in almost any Windows app and that are much easier to use than finding the functions on a menu.  Memorize these.
• Cut – CTRL-X
• Copy - CTRL-C
• Paste – CTRL-V
• Undo – CTRL-Z
• Redo – CTRL-Y
• Select all - CTRL-A
• ALT-TAB   - switch between open windows

ALT-TAB

The last one, ALT-TAB is especially useful and amazingly not known by many people.  I am dismayed to see some people tediously close every window to switch to another program. THAT IS NOT NECESSARY. Learn to use ALT-TAB with the YouTube video, or read the paragraph below.
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Skip this paragraph if you watched the video. Start in the case where you have three windows open.  Your browser in one window, file explorer in a second window, and maybe Word in a third window.  Now, hold your left thumb on the ALT key, and press TAB once while keeping the ALT key down.  A little ribbon will appear in the middle of your screen.  It will have four icons, one for the browser, one for email, one for word, one for the desktop.  By pressing TAB several times, you can switch from one program to another.  Let your thumb off ALT to finish.

Disable The Touch Pad

One other thing essential to laptops and a major cause of user frustration and annoyance on both Windows PCs and Macs.  That is brushing the heel of your hand accidentally over the touch pad while you are typing.  That causes the cursor to suddenly jump to a random place unexpectedly.  You may suspect that something is flaky with your computer. If you are using a mouse, it is doubly annoying and unnecessary.  The solution is to turn off the touch pad when you are using a mouse.  Unfortunately, the way to do that is brand specific.  A keystroke does it on my laptop, but I have to redo it every time I turn my PC on.  On a friends Mac we had to go searching for online help to find out how.

Uh Oh, Addicted

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

For most of my life, I've been a big coffee drinker. At work, I would drink coffee continuously during my average 12 hour work day. I think my consumption was 2-3 quarts per day.

When I stared traveling to Scandinavia where the coffee was much stronger, my volume of consumption remained the same. That amazed and shocked some of my hosts. One couple laughed at me when afeter dinner, I declined the customary demitasse coffee cup in favor of a breakfast tea cup.

But during those years, I wasn't fussy. Good coffee, bad coffee, any coffee would do the job.

When we started cruising, my coffee consumption dropped considerably to about 16 ounces per day. I never drank coffee after noon.

But the winter at New Bern gave me free unlimited Starbucks Coffee at The Hilton Hotel. I drank 32 ounces every morning. Now, back on the boat, 32 ounces remained my morning quota, but any brand would do.

The past couple of weeks, the coffee stated tasting bad. My consumption dropped to 16 ounces, and I threw away the second 16 ounces. (Libby doesn't drink coffee at all.)

But this week, the coffee tasted great again. I wanted 48 ounces (1.5 liters) for breakfast I asked Libby what changed. She said we ran out of Chase & Sanborn coffee and she bought Starbucks brand at the supermarket. Uh oh, I think I'm hooked for life.

 

Science Fiction Fans Needed

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you already know that I like to write. I like it a lot. In my lifetime I've written huge volumes of nonfiction stuff, but never before a single word of fiction. Now, I would like to try my hand at fiction. Real fiction with dialog.

I wrote a short story that I plan to submit to a SF magazine. I have a draft. Several friends have read it. My friend Walt is a SF fan. Walt gave me some very valuable feedback that I used to rewrite the story and greatly improve it.

I invite you to do the same, so that I might improve it more. But only if (1) you are a SF fan and (2) if you are someone previously known to me; not a stranger. If you would like to be a critic for me, please send me an email and I'll send you the current draft of the story. But do it soon, I would like to submit it two weeks from now.

Dog Waste Is Not Considered A Recylable

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

Above:  Everyone likes it when manatees visit.  We had this family of one mother with two children that came to visit the dinghy dock area recently.   People around here have been warned not to touch them, or pat their heads, or to feed them fresh water.  Most people comply.

I was at a loss for words when I saw the above sign. I never considered dog waste to be recyclable in the first place.  I'm even more dismayed at the idea of someone who paws through the recyclables carefully enough to find dog waste to complain about.  Put it down as part of the inevitable result of communal living facilities.