The Vast Realm of Imagination

I got a game yesterday called Scribblenauts. It's produced by WB games, so I was a little nervous about it being aimed at children, but it got such stunning reviews I had to check it out. In Scribblenauts, you play as Maxwell, the kid in the funny hat. Using only your notebook and your imagination, you must come up with ways to solve the puzzle and obtain the elusive "starite." It's simple: write in your notebook the item--almost any item--you need, and it will appear above your head, ready for use. From God, a chainsaw, a windmill, Cthulu (not joking), to a glass of lemonade, you can create almost anything you can think of to solve your puzzle and get the starite.
Each world has two sets of levels: the puzzles, where you must solve a problem to get the starite; and the action levels, where you can see the starite, but must overcome an obstacle to obtain it. For example, one of the puzzle levels, there is a man in a desert. Your puzzle is that you must refresh him to get a starite. I mastered the level (complete it three times in a row without using the same objects) by giving him a shower, dropping him in a river, and giving him a glass of lemonade. One of the action levels requires you to get a starite out of a tree. I used a beaver to cut it down, set it on fire, and climbed a ladder.
The gameplay is simple, effective, creative, and a bit fiddly at times. Moving Maxwell around can be difficult and he's picky about how he uses some objects. But aside from that, the grading on each level is interesting. Besides the normal points for completing the level fast, you get extra points for completing it with "style." I got more points for using a river than I did giving the guy lemonade. They encourage you to use your imagination.
The only things I've found so far that I can't use are "corpses/bodies" and "earthquakes." Armageddon produces a bomb that destroys everything. Cthulu appears and just smashes the hell out of anything he can--including you. You have to be careful, because some of the living objects you summon are friendly, but a lot of them are not. God, the wizard, and a panda bear are all friendly. A brown bear, a shark, and Cthulu will all maul you if you give them the chance.
All-in-all, this game is absolutely great. The title screen is sandbox style, meaning you get free reign over the space that they give you, without the possibility of dying. Patrick and I spent a good deal of time in the title screen making things fight each other. God with a chainsaw against Cthulu, pirates versus ninjas, aliens versus each other...

I love it.

As for knitting, I was been designing a scarf pattern, which is when my mom tells me she already has the same thing by someone else. I was disheartened.

But I do have another scarf on the needles.

This is Patons Kroy Socks, in Paint Box. I don't like the colors, personally, and I don't know how it snuck into my stash. But I wanted something easy with instant gratification, and scarves are great for that. My next choice was baby booties, but I don't know anyone with a kid young enough to receive them, even in advance of birth. So I'd originally planned this scarf for my friend Caryn, who likes odd color mixtures like this. But then Patrick's sister found it and fawned over it for ten minutes straight.



So when it's done, it'll go to Kelly. It's just the Yarn Harlot's One-Row Scarf, so it won't take long to complete. I'll dig something else out of my stash to knit for Caryn.

Bob needs something hand-knit, too.

Hmm....






"We are what we think. All that we are arises from our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world."
~The Buddha