I always wanted to go to summer camp when I was little, but unfortunately, things like that were not in the budget.   As you might imagine, I was especially excited when I saw GrownUpCamps.com.

GrownUpCamps.com has done a great job of listing all kinds of fun opportunities.  I don’t usually get this excited about a website that’s basically nothing more than a catalog, but there’s a lot of stuff I hadn’t considered - CSI camps?  Bull riding camps? Tall ship camps?   They even have a listing for railroad camp.

I’ve been getting ready to move, and in one of my boxes, I found an old book of party games from 1940.  I remember the book from my childhood (in the 1980s, not 1940s), as I used to spend hours combing the pages for games that I could play with my little sisters.  Incidentally, I was really lucky to have two sisters, as most of the games wouldn’t have worked with just one.

Anyway, I thought I’d share a couple of the games, given how silly most of them seem now.  It’s hard to believe that any of these were ever termed “Party Games for Adults & Juniors”.   If you’re looking for a zany good time, you should try a few…

The Complete Book of Games by Clement Wood & Gloria Goddard: Some games have been shortened because I’m too lazy to type all their examples.

Game 1: Nut Questionnaire -

Provide silly questions.  Score is given for the cleverest answer in each case. Possible questions:

Who killed the Dead Sea?

Why is the Fourth of July?  (Y is the 4th letter of July)

Who is the Admiral of the Swiss navy?

Which is the other side of the street?

What is the diameter of a square?

Game 2: Advertising Slogans -

Provide each guest with a list of 20 or more familiar advertising slogans to be identified.  Such as: Ask the man who owns one. (Packard.)  Eventually, why not now? (Chase and Sanborn’s Coffee.) Be nonchalant; light a _____. (Murad Cigarettes.)  Not a cough in a carload. (Old Gold Cigarettes.)  Just a real good car. (Dodge.)  Keep that schoolgirl complexion. (Palmolive Soap.)  Your best friend won’t tell you. (Listerine.)

Game 3: Big Game Hunt -

Animals crackers are hidden in the room or the house. The couple who finds the largest number wins; or the crackers may be numbered, and the numbers added to determine the winner.  After the crackers are found, have the guests each select their favorite animals; each one is then asked to imitate the noise of the one he has chosen.

Game 4: Honeymoon Breakfast, Embarrassing Moments -

The guests are paired. Each pair draws from a container a slip containing instructions to act out or represent some embarrassing moment.  As:

The first honeymoon breakfast - and no eggs.

The old maid finds the burglar under her bed.

She is trying to make Him propose.

She goes to dinner with Him - and meets hubby.

These may be amusing, or embarrassing.  The acting must be pantomime, but wordless sounds, such as laughter, may be used.  The other players try to guess the situation being acted.  The correct guesser scores one. If no one guesses, the actors score 1 each. High score for the evening wins.  (**Does this really create the right kind of incentive for the actors??)

I’m not a New Year’s Resolution person.   I keep a rolling list of goals that I edit as necessary, which seems a lot more logical than waiting for January 1 to roll around before doing anything.  Even still, the sheer number of New Year’s Resolutions posts and articles I’ve seen lately has prompted me to take another look at what’s currently on my list going into 2009.   Here’s an excerpt:

• Make it to Affiliate Summit West, SXSW, and BlogWorldExpo.
• Attend circus school or clown camp (or both, if time permits).
• Visit Argentina for 2-4 weeks.  Spend one week on a beach somewhere outside the U.S.
• Learn Italian with the goal of being able to comprehend one or more movies without the subtitles.
• Increase monthly income on web properties by 4x.
• Sell at least 1000 units of my latest project.
• Complete a second product.
• Continue to exercise at least 4-5 times/week for the next 6 months.
• Become well-acquainted with at least 5 other self-employed people and 5 other web marketers over the next month.
• Reduce soda consumption to 3/week for 60 days.

I like my rolling list because I get the satisfaction of crossing things off when done, and it helps keep me motivated throughout the year.  New Year’s resolutions don’t seem to do much past February or March. 

In the last 6 months, I’ve seen about 75% turnover on my list, which isn’t bad at all considering that some of the items on the list will take quite a while to complete.  I think the key here is that all of the goals are listed with clearly defined end points, and most have deadlines (not listed above).  You either sell a certain number of units or you don’t, and there’s no doubt about whether you attended an event or not.  There’s no room to be vague or back out.

Even for ongoing goals, I try to list them in set blocks of time instead of making them permanent.  At the end of the time period, I can cross the item off the list and re-evaluate whether or not it should be present on my next list.  In November, I wrote down the goal of exercising 3-4 times/week for 1 month.  I easily exceeded that and increased the goal for the next 6 months.

Obviously, none of this matters if you can’t get yourself excited about doing things differently, but it has worked well for me.  In the last year, it’s allowed me to improve my income, leave my day job, and change a number of habits that weren’t serving any purpose. 

If you have any other tips or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments!