Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

• Sony Store – Get 15% off select camera and camcorder accessories.

• Buy.com
  • $5 off $50 All Stores Coupon! New Customers Only – See Site for Details! exp 4/30/07

  • Get $10 FREE when you use Google Checkout for the first time! Over 2 million items to choose from. exp 4/30/07
  • $10 OFF $175 or more in ALL Stores at Buy.com! New Customers Only! exp 4/30/07!
• Kodak EasyShare Gallery
  • Print Sale! Get 10 cent prints from Kodak Gallery!
• Barnes & Noble
  • 10% off for Members. Use coupon code D8V3R7U. Expires 4/10/2007.

  • $5 off $50 When you use Paypal to Checkout. Use coupon code L9H7N4X. Expires 4/15/2007.
  • 15% off the most expensive item in your cart. Use code R4J9F3V. Expires 4/9/2007.
• drugstore.com
• Spend $100 on Comptoir Sud Pacifique and get free 1.6 oz spray
• Lane Bryant
• FREE Shipping on $75. Use coupon code 006958084. Expires 7/13/2007.

• $25 off $75, $50 off $150, $75 off $225. Use coupon code 025008111. Expires 7/13/2007.
• 25% off $75. Use coupon code 000258098. Expires 7/13/2007.
• 20% off any order. Use coupon code 000208109. Expires 7/13/2007.

[Cross-posted at my epinions account.]

We have friends over fairly often, and the game of Cranium is definitely one of our favorites to bring out. The game is terrific because it relies on teamwork and a variety of creative and intellectual tasks.

This is no “Candy Land“; if you want to win, you’re going to have to use your… cranium, as it were. You can get the basic board rules from the game’s instructions; the more important information you need to know is about the different tasks you could be assigned.

The Basic Stuff

Each space on the Cranium game board is marked with a color, either red, blue, green or yellow. At the four “corners” of the gameboard (actually located in the middle of each side) is a purple “brain.”. Regardless of how many spaces a player is supposed to move, they must stop when they reach each brain, even if their roll would have taken them further. Between each “brain” spot is an inside track and an outside track; the inside track has fewer spaces, so you get to the next brain more quickly. The team that goes first is the team including the player with the next birthday. I’m not kidding; this is in the rules!

At the start of the game, every player is on the initial “brain” spot, and therefore they get to pick their first task. If they are successful in their first task, they get to roll the dice and move to the appropriate color via the inside track, and on their next turn, they will draw a card from the deck of this color. If they do not succeed in their first task, their turn is over. When they do successfully complete a task, they must go along the outside track until they reach the next brain. The inside-outside path resets at each brain, so you can still catch up even if you miss your first challenge.

Once you’ve made your way around the board, you enter the center “brain” – the big brain, if you will, and you must answer, on each of your subsequent turns, a question from each of the four categories. Once you finish the fourth, you move to the middle of the brain, and on your next turn, all of the other teams get to pick a card for you. That’s all of the teams, not each of the teams. They will have to agree on a category. Usually this category is red (Data Head), unless your team includes one of those people who just knows everything about everything. In order to win, your team must successfully complete this last task.

So What Are These Challenges?

The game’s challenges are broken up into four key categories: Word Worm (yellow), Creative Cat (blue), Data Head (red), and Star Performer (green).

Yellow is “Word Worm,” and contains such wacky tasks as:

• Gnilleps: One player from the team must correctly spell a word backwards on your first attempt, and without writing anything down.

• Spellbound: The same as Gnilleps, only you get to spell it the normal way!
• Zelpuz: The team must unscramble words using a very vague clue.
• Lexicon: Multiple choice definitions. Be careful – these aren’t SAT questions. Here, they ARE trying to trick you; watch out for homonyms, because inevitably both words’ definitions will be potential answers
• Blankout: These are the hardest; you must complete a word with letters whited out. You do get a clue, but the clues usually aren’t too helpful.

Green, “Star Performer,” is my favorite; it involves various physical performance skills, including:

• Humdinger: One team member must hum the song on the card, while the other members attempt to guess the song. Generally when we play, we allow the team member to hand over the card to another teammate if she doesn’t know the song; she is forbidden to guess. If no player knows the song, then we allow them to pick another card.

• Cameo: Basically, charades. In theory, you’re not supposed to be allowed to give any indication of how many words or whether your team is on the right track, but we generally just follow the rules of charades instead.
• Copycat: The performing team member must get her teammates to guess which famous person she is imitating by mimicking the person’s speech, actions, characteristics. No names of people or places are permitted, and the team member cannot respond to anything the guessers ask. This challenge can either be really boring or absolutely hilarious, depending on how strictly you adhere to the rules. Given “Elvis Presley,” some people will say something boring like, “I have left the building,” or “Thank you very much.” More creative performances will involve hip thrusting and curled lips. It’s up to the game’s players to decide what they will and will not allow here.

Blue, “Creative Cat,” is my other favorite; it involves artistic tasks such as:

• Cloodle: Basically, Pictionary.

• Sensosketch: Like Cloodle, except that the drawer’s eyes must be shut. This can be extremely entertaining, and I like to hold on to the most brilliant “Cloodle” masterpieces for reminiscing in future games. If you do this, you might want to label it after the turn is over; some of them will be pretty unrecognizable later on!
• Sculptorades: The player has to translate the answer into sculpted form. No gestures/acting/pointing is allowed; this isn’t charades!

Red, “Data Head,” is my least favorite, although some people are freakishly good at this. The tasks include:

• Factoid: Random trivia questions. No list to choose from. These can be ridiculously hard.

• Selectaquest: Trivia, but with multiple choice answers.
• Polygraph: True or false trivia. The logical answer is rarely the actual answer.

Things You Should Know

• Sculptorades: We need to get a jar of Play-Dough; the Hints: Generally in “Star Performer” and “Creative Cat” you will have to rely on hints in order to give you some context as to what the answer might be. However, we find that sometimes

  As you can see, this game can be a lot of fun, and as in other popular board games like “Monopoly” and “LIFE,” you’ll probably find yourself modifying the rules as you go along. This can be the most fun part! After all, by tweaking it, you make it your own. 🙂

Welcome to Spring! 20% Off at eBags.com – Offer Ends March 28th, 2007

• 20% Off your purchase through 3/12/07.
  • At checkout, enter code EMDAYLITE.
  • Expires March 12, 2007.

Will post more if I can find any!

• Get 10% Off PLUS Free Delivery on Orders Over $40 at eBags.com
• Get 10% Off plus Free Delivery at eBags.com
  • Use coupon code: EMSPRING.
  • Expires March 11, 2007.
• Save $35 on any purchase of $150 at eBags.com
• Up To 50% OFF JanSport at eBags.com
• $10 off your order with first use of Google Checkout (Exp. 3/31)
• Get 15% Off All Luggage Orders Over $75
  
• 15% Off All eBags branded products at eBags.com
  

FINALLY! A sale that inlcudes prints! I’ll be using this one myself! With the discount, you can get prints for about 13 cents apiece.

• Kodak Gallery: Five Day Sale! Get 20% off purchases over $15.
  • Use coupon code “PRESIDENTPRINTS”
  • Expires 2/23/2007

• 20% Off Presidents Day Sale at eBags.com – Ends Monday 02/19!

• 1-800-FLOWERS.COM: Save up to 40% on Valentine’s Day gifts.

• Netflix: Try it FREE for two weeks!
• Dell.com: 25% off Select Inspiron™ 1501 Notebooks.
• Mrs. Fields: Use code 7LVN for 10% all Valentine’s items.
• Office Depot: Save $30 off any $150 purchase in February.
• SecondSpin.com: 20% off all video games with code “gamesale” at checkout.
• SecondSpin.com: Free Shipping with code “freeholiday” at checkout.
• Lancome: Receive deluxe samples of Color Design Eye Shadow in Designer, Couture, Faux Pas, and Daylight; L’Extreme Mascara in Black, with any $35 purchase. Use code “DESIRABLE” at checkout.

I may already have posted a couple of these, but here are some choice coupons:

Store	Offer	Code	Expiry
Barnes & Noble Online	Additional 15% off after membership discount	E7J6C7K	2/18/2007
JoAnn.com	Free Shipping with order of $25	FEBFSA725	2/28/2007
JoAnn.com	40% OFF the regular price of 1 item all month	FEBA740	2/28/2007
JoAnn.com	50% OFF the regular price of 1 item all month	FEBA750	2/28/2007
Dell Home	$300 off $1499 on Inspiron notebooks, limit 10000 uses	QQ0PKWMH$RVZ02	2/15/2007
Dell Home	20% off $999 Inspiron notebooks, limit 10000 uses	9J8GXZ1S0RXMB?	2/15/2007
Dell Home	25% off $999+ on select Dimension desktops, limit 4000 uses	6TD9G$5C07?T2W	2/15/2007
Yankee Candle	Free shipping on orders over $40	XF702F1	2/11/2007

Behind the cut!

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If you’re here, I’m sure you already know that before you make ANY Internet purchase, you should Google (or BLINGO!) to see if there are any active coupons! Before you start searching, though, xpbargains.com is the site to visit; they have a wide range of online merchants, and they’ve got great deals. For example, you should never, EVER purchase a DELL computer without first checking xpbargains.com for coupons sometimes exceeding 25% off your order! SERIOUSLY. This could save you hundreds of dollars, and not just on tech purchases. No, I get no referral fee for telling you about this. I just think everybody should know about it!

(Of course, the next think you’ll want to do is figure out whether you can get cash back for the purchase on eBates…