This week’s 5 Fandom Friday is RIGHT up my alley, but as I sat down to write it, I realized how difficult it was going to be. FIVE games? Really? I have to narrow all my love of board games, app games, handheld games and video games down to FIVE? Honestly, I almost just skipped this week on account of it being too hard.

But then I saw some other 5 Fandom Friday posts containing games like Clue and Uno and I realized it was extremely important that I make my list. Learning when I did that there were literally hundreds of actual great games out there after growing up with Milton Bradley was extremely eye-opening, and I love any chance I get to help pass that knowledge on to others. I am writing this list so people can stop thinking games like Clue and Uno are the best this world has to offer. Not saying people shouldn’t ever play and enjoy those games… but there is so much more.

After agonizing over it for awhile, I’ve come up with the following list:

1. 7 Wonders: It was extremely difficult to pick favorite board games for this list, as my personal collection contains over 30 and the list of games I’ve played and love goes well beyond that. But I’ve settled on 7 Wonders as my first one, because it’s probably the game I own that I’ve played more than any other game. 7 Wonders is a drafting, resource-management game where you’re deciding what elements of your city’s economy you’re going to care about. Military? Sciences? Just straight Victory Points? This game got even more fun with the release of some of its new expansions (Cities, Leaders, etc) and it’s really hard to explain why this game is so great, it just is. It plays just as well with 3 players as it does with many, because everyone is taking their turns at the same time, which I really appreciate in a game.

2. Betrayal at House on the Hill: This is an oldie but a goodie; my friends and I love Betrayal at House on the Hill. It’s a standard “explore the haunted house” style board game, but the great thing about this one is that once the haunt starts, you then play out one of a list of about 50 various stories for the game. We’ve played this with it ending in vampires, a literal cat and mouse race, ghosts, crazy people living under the floors, etc. This game probably has the best replay-ability because of that fact and I rarely get bored of it.

3. Ladies and Gentlemen: I don’t actually own this game yet, but playing it at a friend’s house instantly got it on my mental top games list. Ladies and Gentlemen is amazing. You partner up as a “husband” and “wife” though it’s often fun to work in other gender pairs, or gender swap, etc. Basically, the men “go to work and make money”, and the women “go shopping and find the prettiest outfit to spend their husband’s money on”, and while that sounds antiquated and extremely anti-feminist, it’s just self-aware enough to make a parody of the whole situation. It’s hilarious, a lot of fun, and works well with large groups of people.

4. World of Warcraft: I couldn’t make a list of games I like to play without mentioning World of Warcraft. I was tempted to add one of the many app games I love, or any of the Nintendo games that have gotten me through my life, but World of Warcraft is sort of one of those old faithfuls. I got into it in 2010, and even though I sometimes get too busy and have to freeze my account for while… I always come back. I’m not sure what it is about it. The expansive world, the holiday events, knowing there’s more levels I could get my main character up after the last expansion… World of Warcraft has been a constant in my life for nearly 5 years and doesn’t judge me, even if it’s been over 6 months since I last logged in. Except that sometimes I have to re-do my talent tree and reassign all my spells in the action bar. Okay maybe it judges me a little. I wish I had more time to play games.

5. Pokémon: This was just a no-brainer for the final game on my list. I was a hardcore fan of Pokémon Red, collected the cards, had Pikachu paraphernalia in my room growing up – then started playing again in college with Fire Red because I loved the nostalgic feel of the game. It’s been downhill from there, as I loved Pokémon X, Pokémon White and am now slowing working my way through Omega Ruby. I love playing these games as much as I did when I was 11. It’s nice to know that Pokémon is still there for me, and I’m glad Nintendo seems to know that while the younger generation also still loves these games, they’re also still making them for us – their original audience, who still loves it like it’s new.

Should I make a more extensive and detailed list of games I like? Maybe I could make different posts for different genres of games? Let me know if that’s something you would be interested in.

I’m 2 for 2 now  on 5 Fandom Friday! I’m on a roll. For those of you who don’t know what 5 Fandom Friday is, you can check it out here.

The topic this week is: 5 Magical Items I Would Love To Own

1. Invisibility Cloak (from Harry Potter): I’m actually sort of iffy on this one, to be honest. I KNOW I’d always run the risk of using the invisibility for bad reasons – spying, etc. You know you’d never find out anything you actually wanted to know that way. But I think that risk is worth it, because the real reason I want an invisibility cloak is to like, sneak into concerts or other events that are sold out or are extremely expensive. Though as I am typing this, I realize that picking The Doctor’s psychic papers would probably be a much simpler way of achieving this goal. Okay. I’m switching to psychic papers.

2. The Babel Fish (from Hitchhiker’s Guide): I think this one is fairly obvious. Being able to understand any language would be beyond badass. I don’t even think I need to justify this with any more explanation, I just wanna travel and this would make travel so much easier.

3. Transformation Brooch (from Sailor Moon): Okay, even if it like, didn’t actually work, you know? Even if the brooch only transformed me into a girl in a Sailor Scout costume, that’s still worth it. I JUST WANNA TRANSFORM, DAMMNIT. I wanna yell “moon prism power make up” and then I want jaws to drop because of the magical lightshow that engulfs my body. And then I want to be wearing a pretty sailor suit.

4. Everlasting Gobstopper (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory): It’s the only candy you’d ever need. I just want one! I could create a whole review series “today it tastes like popcorn.” “today it tastes like beef stew.” “oooh oatmeal, that’s new. anyone else got to oatmeal yet?”

5. The Clow Deck (from Cardcaptor Sakura): This is sort of my catch-all final magical object, because really any power I didn’t get with my previous objects will be in here somewhere. A deck of 52 cards, each containing a different creature with a unique ability.. yes please. Flying, jumping, control of wind, etc. It’s all in there. Just don’t make me have to catch them all first.

This was a surprisingly difficult list to put together, but I had a lot of fun. In a conversation I had with Joe about this after writing it up, he pointed out that I forgot to mention a Time Turner, which I immediately regretted. But! After thinking about it a little more. I decided I didn’t want one. While time travel would be amazing, I would definitely Hermione all over that thing. I know myself, and I would only use it to get more work done, and in the end that would not be a good thing for me.

What would you pick? What would your magical items be? Let me know in a comment!

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Okay. I’ve had 5 Fandom Friday bookmarked for months and months, and even though it’s totally right up my alley — I just haven’t done it yet. So! That ends today! Today, I am delving into this blog link-up thingy! Woo!

So this week, the topic is “5 Times I Totally Fangirled”. I am a fangirl of many, many things, but there are very few things/people that make me stammer and squee and lose my composure. Usually I can keep it together, but there have been those few moments in my life where cool-as-a-cucumber Kristina might have freaked out a little. Here are the ones I can think of:

1. Meeting “Topanga” from Boy Meets World aka Danielle Fishel at VidCon. When I got word that Danielle Fishel was just chillin’ at the con, I dropped everything and ran. Seriously. If you weren’t born in the late 80’s ish, it’s probably hard to understand just how important Boy Meets World was to our generation. It was everything. It was life. Fridays meant new episodes of Boy Meets World, and I swear to god Mom if you try to make plans for me that conflict with TGIF I will scream. It was a good time to be alive. Anyway, I started by taking some creeper selfies with Danielle Fishel in the background, but then managed to get this gem, pictured below.

2. Meeting “Shirley” from Community aka Yvette at MyDamnChannel. I was asked to be on weird little show for My Damn Channel that involved being interviewed by a mildly inappropriate cat puppet, and lo and behold… so was Yvette Nicole Brown. Nevermind the extremely bizzare parameters of the situation; I got to sit in a green room and make small talk with Shirley from Community. And it was great.

3. Meeting “Andrew and Tara” aka Tom Lenk and Amber Benson at LeakyCon. I’m just going to put it out there – after following Tom Lenk on Instagram for a few years, I can astutely deduce that he’s a weird dude. But he’s a weird dude in Buffy as well, where he’s also my favorite character. So meeting him was pretty awesome, and meeting Amber Benson was just a nice bonus.

4. Almost but not quite meeting R.L. Stine at New York Comic Con. I have no picture, because it didn’t happen. I’m still hoping to get to shake R.L. Stine’s hand someday, but that day is yet to arrive. I heard he was at New York Comic Con and I LOST MY SHIT. I realized I missed his panel, ran to his signing line, saw it was A MILE LONG and cried my way through the rest of the convention. Someday, Mr. Stine. Someday.

5. Meeting Ken Jennings at a PAX after party. Most people laugh at me when I tell them meeting Ken Jennings was a highlight of my life, but let’s get real here – this guy is awesome. My dad and I were already avid Jeopardy fans, but we were ALL ABOUT THAT IT when Ken Jennings went on his 74 game streak. I think I watched every single episode during that time. I don’t even know why; I was just fascinated by watching history being made. He’s also hilarious on social media, and a nice dude in person.

There are so many people I’d love to add to this list, but I guess I have my whole life to do that! Really I just need to meet J K Rowling. I don’t know how, or when, but it needs to happen.

Woo! If you’re interested in 5 Fandom Fridays, the official home for it is here. I hope you enjoyed this post and I am looking forward to doing more.