Medicine for the Mind

Small things that cure our biggest problems

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - $1,000 Mobile Phone Shopping Spree

The Ultra High End - Board Game Bundle

The Superpremium - Monaco Grand Prix

The Premium Core - Monopoly Deal

The Accessible Core - Medicine for the Mind

The Affordable Luxury - How Do You De-Stress?

The Everyday Luxury - Prompts, Prizes & Online Social Reminder

The Bespoke

Click on the banner to enter The Bespoke Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $1,000 Mobile Phone Shopping Spree [ARV $1,000]

• Odds: For every 130 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) Shopping Spree

• Contest Period: July 31, 2024 at 10 AM CST to September 3, 2024 at 10 PM CST

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winner

The winner of Issue 37 Ultra High End contest is HA from LINCOLN, NEBRASKA! Here’s her submission for “something that is pointy”:

Congratulations HA, you won your choice of Air Tags or Tiles so you can keep track of your essentials with ease. Check out the other submissions:

Some of the submissions were obviously pointy, but some I had to think for few seconds to find the point. Very clever. I even saw Wobbuffet in the cactus before seeing a pointy object, iykyk. Thank you for sending in your submissions.

This Week’s Contest

Click on the banner to enter The Ultra High End Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: Board Game Bundle [ARV $97]

• Odds: For every 70 Ducky Tran premium members by the time of judging, I will give out a bundle

• Contest Period: August 7, 2024 at 10 AM CST to August 13, 2024 at 10 PM CST

This week’s focus is social wealth and one of the most difficult things in this age of technology is finding things to do to keep social. There tends to be a push to spend money while in the company of your friends, like going out to eat, theme parks, shopping, etc. However, there is a simpler, cost-efficient, and socially engaging way: board games.

My family and I love board games! Between everyone in our family, we probably have hundreds of board games with duplicates of many of our favorites. Board games are fun, educational, and great for keeping social with the family and friends.

Board games consist of tabletop games that may include cards, game pieces, dice, spin wheels, buzzers, electronic switches, and many other mechanisms. The variety are endless and they are such an affordable way to enjoy the company of your family and friends.

I found some interesting games that I will be giving to the winner of this week’s contest: Eyecatcher, Wit’s End, and Wordplay.

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is the Monaco Grand Prix. Straight from my bucket list again, visit Monaco during the Monaco Grand Prix and experience F1 racing at one of the most beautiful circuits in the world.

I am a car enthusiast, not much into the racing. However, from as an enthusiast, I know F1 racing has produced some of the most iconic brands, models, and designs in the automotive world. I am tuned into the designs and power of the many cars that are released each year, and I love traveling and seeing the wonders the world.

Monaco, being known as the playground for the rich and famous, have some of the top restaurants and hotels in the world. But also, being located in the French Rivera, it has a warm climate throughout most of the year. Food, weather, and destination combined, Monaco is a must visit to experience the grandeur of mankind and wonders of mother nature.

With F1 being the pinnacle of the sport and Monaco being known for its luxuries, the Monaco Grand Prix is on my bucket list. My goal is to experience the French Riveria, the peak F1 event, and be part of a global sensation, even if it’s in the nosebleeds and I can only people watch. I think many times, it’s more fun that way.

Let me know if you have attended any of the major F1 events, or have traveling to Monaco for the Monaco Grand Prix. Until then, I’ll just watch it on TV.

The Premium Core

Monopoly is my favorite board game; however, we don’t always have 5 days to play a board game so I found a quicker version of it, Monopoly Deal. Monopoly Deal is my favorite card game.

1. A game can be played in 10-20 minutes.

2. There are many different strategies that can be used.

3. It can be unpredictable at times like Monopoly.

4. You can be play it with many people.

5. It is convenient to carry with you on-the-go.

6. It doesn’t require a lot of space.

7. Compared to Monopoly, it is more simplistic without losing its competitiveness.

That’s why this week, I’m giving out Monopoly Deal as a freebie!

Deal #1: I’ll be giving out a Monopoly Deal sets to the first 5 members that send an email to [email protected] and letting me know what your favorite board game is.

If you haven’t played Monopoly Deal before, get ready to get hooked!

The Accessible Core

Medicine for the Mind

As TVs, phones, and tablets become more accessible to children, we are seeing an increase in early childhood ADHD diagnosis. With studies indicating children are over 7 times more likely to be diagnose with ADHD if they spend 2 or more hours of screen time each day. The crazy thing is from Issue 36, we know that as adults we average over 4 hours of screen time daily, so it’s not a far reach to say that most children will eventually get 2+ hours of screen time daily at a young age.

As of 2022, about 1 in 9 children are estimated to be diagnosed with ADHD at some point in their lives. That amount is staggering! Even worse, ADHD has a direct connection to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Our lifestyles may be progressing and becoming more efficient with technology, at the same time, it has side-effects that we will may not entirely understand or comprehend.

However, there is hope. A simple tool, board games, have been found to not only be educational but promote cognitive functions that are both preventive and therapeutic to cognitive-behavioral functions, psychological conditions, and life-style diseases. That mean board games can improve brain function, anxiety, and even metabolism.

It shouldn’t be seen as a cure, but a preventative for a future of cloudy minds. It is inexpensive, educational, and socially-engaging. We are building knowledge, relationships, and our sanity by simply playing board games. Be the change in someone’s life and bring your friends into a game session and help them change their minds about board games and the future.

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 37 Community Poll Results

Here’s the results from last week:

1. Everyone selected they would rather spend 5 hours each Friday than 30 minutes every weekday with their best friends. I would pick this option also. The length of time allows more activities to be done and is more fulfilling than having to leave within 30 minutes. Plus, time apart tends to strengthen and invigorate close relationships.

2. Again, everyone selected they rather have 5 close friends than 20 great friends, 100 good friends, or 1000 people in your network. It’s the pick between quality and quantity, and when it comes to relationships, quality definitely is more important.

3. The trivia question was “Which social platform is the oldest” (between a few choices I’ve listed). 50% picked Reddit and 50% picked YouTube; however, the answer is actually LinkedIn. Both Reddit and YouTube came out in 2005 while LinkedIn started in 2003. I was surprised about this, I thought LinkedIn was a much younger company, like 2012 or 2013.

This Week’s Community Poll

Here are this week’s poll questions:

The Everyday Luxury

I am in need of clever prompts, if you have any suggestions on prompts for the Bespoke or Ultra High End Contests, please send them my way via email: [email protected].

Also, the Bespoke Contest cycles every month, if you have $1,000 to spend, what would you get? Give me some suggestions you may have or want the next Bespoke Grand Prize to be via email.

REMINDER:

What: Online Social - Game and Prizes

When: Friday, August 23, 2024 @ 7:30pm to 8:30pm CST

Where: Hosting link will be included in Issue 40.

Who: 11 slots are available, Premium Members and their guests can use the link to join, after 11 slots are filled it’ll be closed.

(The referral program is only viewable on the email version of the newsletter.)

Visit shop.duckytran.com with the weekly password: board