This Is Only A Game (How Do You Feel About That?)

           Yes, I am a sucker for games--certain games that is, like trivia related and word games.  I don't care too much for those internet games like Farmville.  I started a farm, but everytime I planted crops or accepted the animals people gave me, when I would go back to it the crops were all dead and the animals escaped. I guess if I'm going to devote time to farming I'd rather get a real farm and try to make an income from it.

            What I do enjoy is a few hours with friends or loved ones playing games and enjoying the fun and conversation of just being together.  Scrabble is always one of my favorites if I can find companions who are willing to play.  As a writer I suppose I am just naturally drawn to words.

          Then there is the psychologist part of me.  When I first started going to college my original major was psychology.  Something I used to enjoy was playing word association with my friends.  In case you're not familiar with this psychological testing process, the tester provides a word to the patient who must provide the first word that comes to their mind.  There is some significance to what they answer but the actual usefulness is probably questionable since the test is so dependent on a number different variables --probably vary similar to dream interpretation.  But it is interesting to see what the responses are and it does make a somewhat fun game to play with others.

           So my interest in word association being what it is, I was naturally drawn to a post I saw on Sol's blog,  The Window to My Sol .  This little blog exercise is called the Five Word Association Meme.  You may have seen it before since it has apparently been travelling the blog circuit for some time.  The premise is that you get five trigger words and respond with the first word that comes to mind.

         And now, thanks to Sol, here are the five words she gave me for the Five Word Association Meme, my responses, and my explanations as to why these came to mind first:


fierce:   warrior --- the word warrior just seemed to follow the description.  Fierce is a very graphic adjective and I immediately pictured a muscular warrior adorned in feathers and leather garb, brandishing a spear and baring his teeth in a fearsome manner.

snake:   Betty--  Betty is my wife and she is terrified of snakes.  If she sees a snake in a movie she hides her eyes until I assure her it's okay to look. I am my wife's protector and snakes are one of the things from which I provide her protection  I don't really like snakes that much, but I don't mind seeing them.  I could write pages about snakes since I have a lot of snake stories in my life.  Snakes are strange and fascinating animals and I have had an interest in them since childhood.

cook:     restaurant ---  I go to restaurants far too much-- it's one of the money-sucking vices that my wife and I have.  She doesn't like to cook and I don't cook as much as I used to when our kids lived at home.  I've always done most of the cooking in our household.  But much of the time I go out to eat because I'd just rather have someone else cook and clean up for me.

bliss:   fort ---okay, I know there's a Fort Bliss around El Paso, TX because I've seen the signs for it when I've passed through there.  I guess I could have thought of "marital bliss" but instead I thought of something militaristic.  What does that say about me?  Perhaps some of the most blissful times that my wife and I have had have been on our long trips we've taken.   We always have had so much fun and feel so happy driving across our beautiful United States.  And we get to eat in restaurants when we're travelling.

tomato:     sauce --- My mother makes some great spagetti sauce which requires canned tomatos, tomato sauce, and tomato paste with a number of other ingrediants.  I really like tomatos a lot, by themselves or as a part of something else.  But a good tomato sauce evokes some wonderful memories of childhood and my mother's home and pizza.

        There you go, you can make your analysis about me if you wish.  But I enjoyed that.  My mind was working to the point that I could have written lengthy essays about any of these words.  It's really a great prompt for an exercise in writing.

          So now it's your turn.  If you'd like to play, let me know in the comments and I will give you 5 word association memes for you to play with.    Or if you wish you can go to Sol's blog and ask her to give them to you --but please let her know that you came from my blog.  Either way it's fun to play and it's a worthwhile writing game that can stimulate your writing mind.  Have fun!