Playing the Game Wave- time for trivia!

We visited with Jason's parents a lot over the holidays and since they are big fans of games (especially trivia) we had to bring the Game Wave over so they could try it out. The same night we played Letter Zap with them we also tried out some trivia. With my Bzz Kit I received 2 trivia games: 4 Degrees- The Arc of Trivia Volume 1 and ReWind.


First up was 4 Degrees. Jason's dad and Kt, Zachary, Jason and I all joined in. In this game there are 6 categories to choose from: Art, History, Science, Sports, Lifestyle and Geography. With 4 degrees each player picks a category when it is their turn and that player "rolls" a die. All players are playing for 50 points each round except the player choosing the category- when they roll the die they are playing for the amount of points that they land on. Then you are given your challenge. You are shown a fact and 4 choices for the anwer. The first fact you are shown will be vague and if you don't know the category well you probably won't know the answer. If you do happen to know you can guess and you get lots of points. But BE CAREFUL! Once you make a choice, you CANNOT change your answer! If you guess wrong you lose the standard value of points (50) or if you were the player rolling the die you will lose the amount that you rolled.
The second degree hint gives a little more info than the first. You are given 4 degrees of hints and by the fourth hint you are able to earn very little points. But by the 4th hint you will be able to answer the question easily.

Then we tried ReWind. In this game there are 10 categories to choose from but they are not always the same categories. There is a broad range of questions that can be asked. The person with the lowest score gets to pick the category (with the exception of the first round, of course). You are given multiple choice questions. The counter starts at 1000 points and if you guess immediately and get it right you get all 1000. The longer you wait to pick your answer the lower the points go. But be careful because if you guess wrong and have to change your answer you lose a Re-Take. You are given 6 re-takes at the beginning of the game. If you are the player with the lowest score and get at least a score of 500 (I think it is 500) then you are given extra re-takes. While your possible score gets lower you are given more clues as to what the answer is. You get 4 clues before your time is up. That last clue is usually a dead giveaway. Up to 6 people can play this game but it can also be a one player game. It is a lot like the Buzz Time Trivia game that is available in restaurants and on digital cable.

Even though Zachary didn't know most of the answers he was still able to play and have fun guessing. Later in the week we played a few more times with them. When Jason's uncle Mike came home from Germany he had to get in on the action too. At one point we were fighting for remote time because everyone wanted to play!! These two games are fun, interactive and involve the whole family. But they can also be enjoyed alone. Definitely a thumbs up for ReWind and The Arc of Trivia!

Want to read more about these games and the Game Wave system? Just click on the Bzz Agent category on my blog homepage.

Playing the Game Wave- Letter Zap family challenge

Over the holidays we were able to spend a lot of time with family. Jason's family in particular is fond of games. I had to bring the Game Wave along whenever we went over in case we had time to play. As soon as it was mentioned that I had it, Kt (Jason's step-mom) insisted we give it a try. I recommended Letter Zap (Tag). So KT, Jason, Zachary and I all grabbed a remote. Amara decided she wanted to play too so we gave her a remote and set her up as well. We invited Jason's dad to play but when he learned it was a word game he decided to sit and watch before making a decision to play.
For our first game we set it for 5 minutes. The challenge? Beating me!!
Our game began and we all raced to get as many words as possible. There were shouts of joy when someone would get a big word or beat someone else to a word. There were cries of unfairness when someone would snag someone elses word. We gave Zachary a little bit of a handicap. I won our first game. Jason's dad decided this game was NOT for him but asked us to call him when we played the trivia games.

Trying for big words- for any word- when you have 3 adults racing you is very difficult! The competition is fierce and fun (as is the name-calling!). We haven't played many games in the past few years though we all enjoy it. We had such a blast playing this game and played it for almost an hour. We tried all three time limits and decided that 5 was perfect (I think that was our decision at home too).

Letter Zap is a hit everywhere!

Read all about my experiences with the Game Wave, my latest Bzz Campaign
Here

Making and keeping New Years resolutions- saving my online earnings

I made a few New Years resolutions for 2009. Normally I don't make any resolutions so this is a big deal for me!
The first resolution I made was that this year I will try to save as much of my online earnings as possible to use for Christmas and maybe birthdays. Some of the sites I belong to only give out gift cards and merchandise as prizes and those are the ones I am mainly focusing on for saving. On the sites where I earn cash only I will try to save it in my Paypal account but will use that for bills if it becomes necessary. Over the past few years when I have earned points or whatever I have immediately redeemed them for whatever gifts I could get. Sites like Gather and MyPoints gift some great gift cards and I like to spoil myself sometimes! It's hard to just leave the points there to accumulate when you could get a $10 Olive Garden gift card or a $25 Target gift card and use it right away. But now I am going to leave it alone. Or at least try to leave it alone more than I have in the past!
I have been successful so far but it is only January. I have enough points at Swag Bucks to get a $5 Amazon.com or $5 Starbucks gift card but I am not going to redeem it. I am about 200 points away from a $10 MyPoints gift card and will be there probably in about 2 weeks or so. I will NOT be redeeming it right away! I am getting close to cashing out at a few different sites and I am going to try my hardest to keep everything in my account and save it.

I'll keep an update so everyone (including ME) can see how I am doing. I seem to do a better job when I keep track like this. Wish me luck!

Playing the Game Wave- Gemz

Read more about Bzz Agent and the Game Wave game system HERE

We tried and loved our first game on the Game Wave- Letter Zap. I let my 7 year old son choose the next game and no surprise- he picked Gemz. Of all the games that came with our system that one looks the coolest in the eyes of a child. All of those pretty diamonds and shiny shapes.

So we put it in and once again he was too eager to read the directions before starting the game. This one seems to only be a two-player game. I couldn't find an option to add more players so Zachary and I played and Jason watched. We knew the concept of the game but couldn't figure out what we were doing.
I quit after spending a game not being able to figure it out. I have never played this game anywhere and kind of assumed it would be very similar to Tetris. We went back and read the rules before trying again. And NOW we get it! The idea is to match like Gemz in groups of 3 or more. You are given one gem style to match and you can only trade places with pieces that will make the match go into a group of 3. Does that make sense? I'll have to make a video of us playing so this makes sense! Half of the time you can't find anything but when you do you are given a new gem to try to match. If you can't find anything then you have to move to the next assigned Gem and lose 50 points (I think it was 50).
Zachary played for a few minutes then handed over his controller to dad. Jason and I played through the game but decided we didn't like this one. We both kept saying, "It would be so much better if it were more like Tetris!" Zachary preferred to watch rather than play because he had trouble understanding that he wouldn't always have a match and couldn't figure out how to change it. I think he would have liked it if it were more like Tetris too. Maybe Game Wave will come out with something more like Tetris (HINT)!!

We might play this game in the future but only if we are bored with the other games. It just isn't that fun or entertaining.

My birthday weekend

I have a busy weekend planned. My birthday is on Sunday January 11. I will be 27. Last year didn't seem like a big deal but this time I am kind of freaking out- I am stressing over getting older this time.

Tonight I am going out with one of my friends to a bar. I won't be able to stay out long because of Jonas but I think it will be lots of fun and I am looking forward to getting out. Tomorrow we are going to go to my grandma's and my niece is going to order some pizza and get some ice cream cake (yes, we are aware that it is WINTER but it is SO good!). Sunday- my actual birthday- my mom is going to make me curry and bring it over. She has been unemployed for a really long time so she doesn't have much to offer me so she said she would make me that for my birthday. She let me choose any food I wanted and I didn't hesistate to pick! I can't make curry and I love it so it had to be that. Then in the late afternoon/evening we are going over to Jason's dad's house to celebrate a little more. Last week we went to my other grandma and grandpa's house for a late Christmas celebration and my grandma gave me an awesome pair of pjs. Funny thing was that the idea was running through my mind because the last pair I got I really hated and the pair before that are almost 4 years old- I wanted a new pair. I wear a few other things to bed too so the old ones stayed in good condition but nothing can ruin a good sleep like uncomfortable clothing so I was totally thrilled to get these adorable, comfortable and warm pajamas!! She got a really nice pair too. I am used to cheap pjs from Walmart or Target. They are totally different from what I am used to!

Then at the bustop this morning I heard that it is going to start snowing tonight and will keep going ALL DAY tomorrow and into Sunday! I hope this doesn't ruin my plans. Hopefully it won't be so much that we are stuck. I have heard conflicting stories- from 1-6 inches from one source and from 6-12 from another source. I always do love a good snowstorm.

I was almost born in one...27 years ago my mom was pregnant and past her due date. It started snowing in the days before I was born and on the 11th my mom started feeling some contractions. She knew it was going to happen and knew the weather was bad but was tired so she took a nap. When she woke up she was fully in labor and she said the snow had gotten really high. They couldn't drive to the hospital on their own so they had to call an ambulance. She ended up having to lie down in the snow while she waited for them (and they either got lost or stuck while she waited) and was sure that I was either going to be born in the snow or on the ride. They ended up making it and I was born sometime around 6 in the evening at the same hospital that all of my kids were born.

Not entirely off topic: my mom had a roommate who had a baby boy the next day, January 12. I was always aware of this growing up and I was always interested in birthdays and who shared mine so whenever I met someone I would ask their birthday and where they were born. I met two guys over the years who were born in York on Jan 12, 1982. One of them I met through a church youth group that my best friend invited me to. I remember asking him some questions and when he told me that info I commented, "maybe you were my roommate when we were born." Funny thing is that I never said that when I met the other potential. I spoke to him every so often- he was a fun friend though we only hung out a few times just by chance but I never did learn whether or not he was my roommate. When we were 18 or 19 I got news from some friends that he died in a car accident going to or coming from Maryland. I felt really sad even though I had many friends with whom I was much closer. Normally I don't feel that way when I am not that close with a person. My mom called me shortly after I found out about it and said, "Did you hear about the car accident where they boy from York died? That was your roommate when you were born." I told her I knew him which surprised her. I always had a feeling that it was him. Just a little story- sorry to bore you all!!

Anyway, I hope all goes well this weekend and we have a great snowstorm that still allows me to get out and do what I want! I am such a selfish birthday girl :)

I just won 20 Swag Bucks in a contest!!

The Swag Bucks team had a contest on their blog: Guess the score for 20 Swag Bucks

on January 7th. The contest in short:

Tomorrow night is the BCS College Football Championship game featuring the Oklahoma Sooners vs. the Florida Gators. As if there wasn't enough hype around the game already, I'm going to give 20 FREE SWAG BUCKS to anyone who guesses the correct final score!!

So I figured I would give it a try and see if I win. Couldn't hurt. I e-mailed them the score Oklahoma 14 Florida 24.

I kind of forgot about the whole thing then. I knew it was happening soon but I couldn't remember when. Since SB has introduced all sorts of new ways to earn Swag Bucks in recent weeks I have been checking things out more often so today I checked out their blog and saw that they had announced the winner. I got a flutter in my gut when I read it as if I knew I needed to see what it had to say. And sure enough...Winners of the BCS Score Contest. Here is a little blurb:

Why is Tim Tebow so excited? Because loyal Swaggernauts Lorri L. and Alexandra K. (THAT'S ME!) each just won 20 FREE Swag Bucks for beating The Swag Guy's Challenge and correctly guessing the final score of the BCS national championsip game: Florida 24-Oklahoma 14. He's probably also happy because he just won a National Championship :)

So I won! It was VERY exciting! I have enough Swag Bucks now to get a bunch of things but the two best ones are a $5 Starbucks gift card or a $5 Amazon.com gift card. This time I think I will wait though. I trust them enough now to hold on to my Swag Bucks for a while and maybe get something big...or just cash out a bunch of $5 gift cards all at once.

Since joining Swag Bucks on March 30, 2008 I have received 7 $5 gift cards and a t-shirt. Not bad for a short period of time! This is my most successful paid to search site that I use. I actively use 3 different sites for my searches and they all reward in some way.

Want to search and win too? Sign up free at Swag Bucks or click the banner:

This is a good way to start off my birthday weekend!

Send and receive money for free

Everyone knows about Paypal but did you know that there are other smilar places and that some are totally free to use?
Revolution Money Exchange allows you to send or receive money totally free, up to $1,000 per day.


You can link the account with your bank account for easy transferring. And it is just like any other bank except it is all done online. You can also request a FREE debit card to use at any ATM or location where RME cards are accepted (Full list of locations here ). A few popular locations include Macy's, CVS, Walgreen's and many more!


Not interested in trying new things? If you haven't yet, you can sign up for a Paypal account. You can apply for a debit card (subject to approval but I was approved in less than a week since it is just a debit card, not a credit card), a money market account, a credit card and other services. You can have a free account at Paypal but you are limited in what you can do. With a business account you have a lot more freedom but you are subject to fees for sending or receiving money (I forget which). The fees are really low but still...it's your money.

Playing our first game on the Game Wave- Letter Zap

When my Game Wave (read all about it here) arrived I had to wait for Jason to hook it up for me (which SEEMED to take forever!). It wasn't difficult at all but I don't like to do that stuff. Plus our entertainment center didn't have a spot with an outlet hole so he had to drill that before we could plug it in.
FINALLY!
My 7 year old son Zachary, Jason and I put in the first game- Letter Zap and we each chose a remote. My son was a little too eager to get the game going so he bypassed the directions and we were prompted to choose names. Then we went right into a game. There was a big screen with letters all over the place- sort of looked like a word find. We were blindly playing and it was obvious! We had no idea what to do and how to do it so we just let the timer run out and went back to the main menu.
We discovered that there are actually two different games to play on this disc. One is a 4 player game where you race to make the most words out of the letters on the screen. Every time a word is created and submitted those letters disappear. If two or more people are going for the same letter only the quickest player will get it. The more letters in a word the more points you get for the word. It is hard to get big words when multiple people are going for the same letters! You can set the timer for 3, 5 or 10 minutes for this game.
With the second game, each player gets their own box and the letters never change. The player who gets 10 words first wins the round though it appears that points are accumulated through each round as well and the winner has the most points, not the most round wins. I cannot remember what the time limits on this game are but it is the same every time.

After we read all of the instructions we started playing the first game again. This time we understood and had a good time. My son was even able to enjoy it and found a lot of words. We let him have words if he annouced them before we started to use them. It's a really bad idea to annouce your findings during a competitive game...though also hard to not do when you get really excited! I was consistently the winner of this game!! I love word games. We tried playing with each time limit and decided that we all preferred 5 minutes. 3 feels way too short and 10 is too long. With more players 10 minutes might be ideal.
After playing a few games we decided to try out the other game- the one where you each get your own box of letters. Jason was better at this game but we all agreed that it isn't nearly as fun to play.

We ended up spending the rest of the evening playing Letter Zap- up until it was time for Zachary to go to bed. We all love this game- it is great for all ages! Even my 3 year old daughter wanted to join in the fun. She accidently got a few words too! She didn't stay as interested as we were but had to try it out because of how much fun we were having. She did love being able to have her own remote so we let her set hers up even when she didn't play the whole way through. So far, this definitely is a family game system!