Computer Games and Free Rice!

So, while we are up to our ears in work, homework, and various responsibilities and activities, Chris manages to find time to play those free games that come on the computer...we are talking games like Free Cell, Spider Solitaire, etc. There is also a great online favorite called Sewer Run. Oftentimes, I tease Chris for his enjoyment of these silly games.

Until today...

This afternoon, we stumbled onto a website called Free Rice: http://www.freerice.com/
Here is the shtick: Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free, while also helping to end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free. I know what you are thinking..."What? A word game that provides rice for hungry people? You have got to be kidding me." At first, those were my sentiments exactly. Fortunately, upon further investigation, we had found Chris's dream game! For every word you guess correctly, Free Rice (through the UN) donates 10 grains of rice to poor countries around the world. It is challenging, fast paced, educational, AND it helps to reduce the number of people going hungry in our world today!

Now, you may be wondering...exactly HOW many grains of rice can be "won?" Well, the game has been in existence since October 7th of this year...and 3,993,119,57 grains of rice have been donated to poor countries. I am proud to say that this afternoon, my husband (with a little help from me) contributed 3,620 grains of rice...the product of 362 correctly-defined words. No how is THAT for the healthiest and most productive time waster ever!

Finally an update...

I can't believe it has been five months since we got married...my how time flies when you marry your best friend!! At this point, everything has been so hectic and busy, that I think back to our beautifully relaxing honeymoon in Thailand...and wonder where the time has gone. We have certainly enjoyed every moment of our new life together; and we have certainly kept busy!

Alas, my busy-ness has made me a rather poor blogger. In fact, my lovely husband has posed as myself for the last few blogs. I think he thought it would help me to get the ball rolling. So much for that plan! In an attempt to inform the three or so people who read this, here is our update.

I am ecstatic that travel season has finally ended! I used to love the feeling of arriving in a new city all by myself...I can remember Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, New York, Honolulu...there was something so romantic about exploring a city so independently. Well, now, I am so over it!

Earlier this month, we traveled to a higher ed conference in Kentucky together. Chris presented a few papers about higher education in developing countries. It was so fun to see him in his element...I am so proud of him! He made some great connections while we were there - in fact, he was just asked to write a book chapter. I am one step closer to being married to Dr. Chris Collins.

My own schooling has been exciting and busy all at the same time. I could (or should) be doing homework every night of the week! While the work is certainly time consuming, I absolutely love what I am studying. If anyone is interested, I have been working on a large project about minority enrollment at Christian universities.

Nevertheless, we have had a bit of time to ride our bikes down to Venice Beach, visit my brother in Riverside (he is a freshmen at CalBaptist), host my sister and her boyfriend as some of out first houseguests, and perfect our Thai recipes!

Expect more updates now...I promise!