Monday 22 October 2018
Glasses: Jacobite Wine Glasses
Today I used some of last year's birthday money from my grandpa and bought myself a pair of crystal wine glasses. They're replica Jacobite glasses and I think they're really pretty. I got them from the National Museum's giftshop. They got them in to go with their Jacobites exhibition a couple of years ago and I got some of last ones in the giftshop.
Monday 15 October 2018
Songs: I'll Make a Man out of You
One of my favorite disney songs! It's super catchy and a great film too.
Photography: Carrick-A-Rede
Time for some more photos from my trip to Northern Ireland. After Giant's Causeway, I went to visit Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. It an old fishermen's rope bridge to reach good fishing sites. I didn't get any good pictures of the bridge itself as there were too many people around, but I got some good pictures of the coastline. Once again I opted for HDR to pretend that the light was interesting.
Wednesday 10 October 2018
Songs: True Survivor
Today, True Survivor, by David Hasselhoff. As well as being a great song it's also got quite an interesting story behind it. It's very much an 80s style song, but it only came out a few years ago. It's from a film called Kung Fury. If you haven't seen it, do! It's a short, crowd-funded film making fun of 80s films, and it really is hilarious!
Game Reviews: Still More Android Games
A few more of my favourite Android games. To start off, Disney Magic Kingdoms. This is a game where you build your own version of Disneyland. You get rides and characters based on Disney films. You send your characters on missions to collect tokens and when you have enough you can welcome new characters or upgrade old ones. As you progress through the game you unlock new films with their characters and rides, and also new areas of land to build on. They also have events where certain films' characters and rides are only available for a limited time. I downloaded it because the description made it sound a bit like rollercoaster tycoon, but it's quite different really. It's much more about the collecting tokens than the building. It's quite fun for a Disney nerd like me, and beautifully animated. It is quite time consuming though, it takes ages to start up, and it's also a but clunky and slow to respond.
Seaport. This is a little like Boom Beach, only without the fighting. You have a home port and send your ships on missions to explore new areas and gather resources that you then use to improve your port. To keep it intersting the game continually has a different events running, so that the look of the game and missions are always different. The theme is always to do with famous boats or stories about boats. Themes since I've started playing have included the Titanic, the Mississippi, Darwin's voyage on the Beagle, Odysseus and, for Hallowe'en, Dracula.
Next Word Cookies. You get given letters and blank spaces for words. You need to find all the words you can make out of the letters to fill the blank spaces and progress to the next level. It's a fun game, though I do get annoyed by it sometimes when it omits obvious words and uses obscure ones instead. The ads are quite instrusive too.
Now Machinarium. This is a game that's been around for a while. I first became aware of it as a PC game, but didn't play it until I came across it for Android. It's a really special game. You play an adorable little robot who has to solve puzzles and find objects to get through a city to find your robot girlfriend and rescue her. There's no dialogue at all, so all nationalities can play it. Each one of the puzzles is new and different and some of them are genuinely really hard. Some took me a day or more to work out. The artwork really sets it apart too. It's so quirky and detailed and beautiful. It's not really a game you can play over and over again, but it's certainly worth it.
Finally, Monument Valley 1 and 2. This is another really special game. Again you play a little character who has to make her way through a world by solving puzzles, but a lot of the puzzles are based on optical illusions! It's totally mind blowing to spin the platform you're standing on and find yourself a storey above where you were before. It's so clever and well done, and both the art and music are beautiful. Some of the puzzles are really difficult too. Monument Valley 2 is more of the same except that now you have a daughter and you both have to make your way through a confusing world, sometimes alone and sometimes together. It's not as difficult as the first game though. My criticism for both these games though is that they're both pretty short, and also pretty expensive for a game that, again, you can't really play more than once.
Seaport. This is a little like Boom Beach, only without the fighting. You have a home port and send your ships on missions to explore new areas and gather resources that you then use to improve your port. To keep it intersting the game continually has a different events running, so that the look of the game and missions are always different. The theme is always to do with famous boats or stories about boats. Themes since I've started playing have included the Titanic, the Mississippi, Darwin's voyage on the Beagle, Odysseus and, for Hallowe'en, Dracula.
Next Word Cookies. You get given letters and blank spaces for words. You need to find all the words you can make out of the letters to fill the blank spaces and progress to the next level. It's a fun game, though I do get annoyed by it sometimes when it omits obvious words and uses obscure ones instead. The ads are quite instrusive too.
Now Machinarium. This is a game that's been around for a while. I first became aware of it as a PC game, but didn't play it until I came across it for Android. It's a really special game. You play an adorable little robot who has to solve puzzles and find objects to get through a city to find your robot girlfriend and rescue her. There's no dialogue at all, so all nationalities can play it. Each one of the puzzles is new and different and some of them are genuinely really hard. Some took me a day or more to work out. The artwork really sets it apart too. It's so quirky and detailed and beautiful. It's not really a game you can play over and over again, but it's certainly worth it.
Finally, Monument Valley 1 and 2. This is another really special game. Again you play a little character who has to make her way through a world by solving puzzles, but a lot of the puzzles are based on optical illusions! It's totally mind blowing to spin the platform you're standing on and find yourself a storey above where you were before. It's so clever and well done, and both the art and music are beautiful. Some of the puzzles are really difficult too. Monument Valley 2 is more of the same except that now you have a daughter and you both have to make your way through a confusing world, sometimes alone and sometimes together. It's not as difficult as the first game though. My criticism for both these games though is that they're both pretty short, and also pretty expensive for a game that, again, you can't really play more than once.
Wednesday 3 October 2018
Songs: The Windy City
One from Calamity Jane, which I saw for the first time fairly recently. Reminds me quite a bit of the Kansas city song from Oklahoma.
Game Reviews: Even More Android Games
Here are some more of my favourite Android games. To start, Township. It's a cute game where you build your own town. You build houses, roads and community buildings and expand your town's area to satisfy the needs of your people. You grow crops and make goods in your factories for them. In addition you send goods elsewhere in exchange for building materials so that your town can grow. As you level up you can build additional buildings and make new goods in your factories. The supply chains can get quite complicated. For example you might grow wheat and corn in your fields, combine them in your feed factory to make food for your cows. Once fed the cows can then be milked, the milk can be used to make cheese in your dairy, and it can then be combined with syrup, strawberries and cookies in your pastry factory to make cheesecake. I enjoy playing. It has fun events and mini-games, although it is quite time-consuming.
Next, Klondike. Looking for gold! It's quite similar to Township in that you have a settlement where you grow crops and a dairy and a pottery and things where you make goods. As well as your settlement there are other areas to explore. Your characters use their energy to cut the rocks and trees and things out of their way, and to collect useful materials such as coal and iron ore, and treasure like gold, amethyst and malachite. It's a beautiful game. Really well-drawn and nice music. You do run out of energy really fast though. It often takes three sessions of playing to cut out a single rock.
Diggy's Adventure: Another game that's fairly similar to Klondike. You have a base and also explore ancient Egyptian tombs, looking for clues to what happened to your father. You run out of energy much less frequently than you do in Klondike, which is nice. There's no challenge in this one whatsoever, but, well, it's kind of cool to explore tombs and talk to Anubis and stuff. After all, didn't we all want to be Egyptologists at some point?
Obviously, being a big Harry Potter fan, I've tried the Harry Potter phone game. It's a role-playing game where you play a Hogwarts student a few years older than Harry. You have to solve the mystery of what happened to your brother. You can customise the way you look, and choose a name, pet and Hogwarts house for your character. You meet familar characters, such the Hogwarts professors, as well as people like Tonks and Bill Weasley. To move forward in the story, you need to learn spells and potions, make friends, find objects and win duels. Like Klondike and Diggy, you need energy for this, and like with Klondike, you run out of energy annoyingly fast. The game's storyline is interesting enough, but to be honest, gameplay is repetitive and boring. Fans of Harry Potter will enjoy the familiar aspects of Hogwarts, and the fantasy of seeing yourself having your own adventures at Hogwarts but I don't think this is a game for non-fans.
And finally, Helix Jump. This is a fun and simple game. Think of it as an upside-down Doodle Jump. You control a bouncing ball, and you have to control its fall down to the bottom of the level. There's a pole in the middle with platforms attached to it, and you use your finger to turn the pole around so that the ball falls down the gaps between platforms. There are dark areas of platforms that you need to avoid, as they kill you, and to make it harder there are some very narrow gaps and also some platforms that move. Like Doodle Jump, you need fast reflexes. It's a good game, although the adverts between attempts are annoying.
Next, Klondike. Looking for gold! It's quite similar to Township in that you have a settlement where you grow crops and a dairy and a pottery and things where you make goods. As well as your settlement there are other areas to explore. Your characters use their energy to cut the rocks and trees and things out of their way, and to collect useful materials such as coal and iron ore, and treasure like gold, amethyst and malachite. It's a beautiful game. Really well-drawn and nice music. You do run out of energy really fast though. It often takes three sessions of playing to cut out a single rock.
Diggy's Adventure: Another game that's fairly similar to Klondike. You have a base and also explore ancient Egyptian tombs, looking for clues to what happened to your father. You run out of energy much less frequently than you do in Klondike, which is nice. There's no challenge in this one whatsoever, but, well, it's kind of cool to explore tombs and talk to Anubis and stuff. After all, didn't we all want to be Egyptologists at some point?
Obviously, being a big Harry Potter fan, I've tried the Harry Potter phone game. It's a role-playing game where you play a Hogwarts student a few years older than Harry. You have to solve the mystery of what happened to your brother. You can customise the way you look, and choose a name, pet and Hogwarts house for your character. You meet familar characters, such the Hogwarts professors, as well as people like Tonks and Bill Weasley. To move forward in the story, you need to learn spells and potions, make friends, find objects and win duels. Like Klondike and Diggy, you need energy for this, and like with Klondike, you run out of energy annoyingly fast. The game's storyline is interesting enough, but to be honest, gameplay is repetitive and boring. Fans of Harry Potter will enjoy the familiar aspects of Hogwarts, and the fantasy of seeing yourself having your own adventures at Hogwarts but I don't think this is a game for non-fans.
And finally, Helix Jump. This is a fun and simple game. Think of it as an upside-down Doodle Jump. You control a bouncing ball, and you have to control its fall down to the bottom of the level. There's a pole in the middle with platforms attached to it, and you use your finger to turn the pole around so that the ball falls down the gaps between platforms. There are dark areas of platforms that you need to avoid, as they kill you, and to make it harder there are some very narrow gaps and also some platforms that move. Like Doodle Jump, you need fast reflexes. It's a good game, although the adverts between attempts are annoying.
Tuesday 2 October 2018
Game Reviews: Some More Android Games
Some more of my favorite Android games.
To start off, Boom Beach. You are a general and you have a base on a tropical island. Your job is to free the natives on other islands from the evil soldiers. As you level up you can build more sophisticated buildings in your base, and use more sophisticated troops and weapons. Thre are different missions to play on different days of the week, and you can organise cooperative missions with the other members of your task force. There are also occasional special missions to keep your interest. It's a fun game, easy to learn, no annoying ads, it doesn't ask you for money constantly, and it's not too time-consuming. It's also a beautiful game. It has nice music and I like the animals that live on and around my island.
Next 1010! A simple game, but good for passing a few minutes. You have different shapes to fit onto a board. When you fill a whole row or column it vanishes. Think of it as Tetris without gravity. You lose when you can't fit a shape onto your board. It doesn't have the most sophisticated look, and it does have an annoying habit of playing you an ad when you lose, but nevermind.
Next Atomas. This one is a little difficult to explain. Like 1010! you have different atoms to fit onto a board and you lose when you run out of space for any more. You make space on your board by combining atoms together to make heavier atoms. Ok, it's not how nuclear fusion works, but it's a good way to learn elements' names and atomic numbers, so I guess it counts as educational. Maybe. It's a simple game, but if you're paying attention a game can last a surprisingly long time, though you can leave a game and pick up where you left off later.
Pokemon Go! This game was a surprise hit. Nobody expected it to be as big as it was. Like previous Pokemon games, you catch monsters, level them up, and battle them against each other. What makes this game different to the previous versions is that it's played in the real world. You find Pokemon, not by exploring a virtual world, but by walking around in the real world with the app open on your phone. Yes, you're right, it is very battery-draining. The game has gone through several changes since its release and has a few extra features, but the general idea remains the same. They keep you interested by jiggling the algorithms a bit, altering the odds of certain Pokemon turning up, and have special events where you can catch rare Pokemon. It's good fun to see and catch Pokemon out in the real world. After all, didn't we all want to be Pokemon trainers as kids?
And finally, Tap Tap Fish. Build your own virtual acquarium! Collect vitality, plants different plants and coral and acquire new fish and sea creatures! I think there are other games in the Tap Tap series, but this is the only one I've tried. It's a beautiful game. I'm very fond of my little acquarium, and it's really helped me learn the names of the fish. Hurrah! My mine gripe with it is that a lot of the special event fish are very silly. Like ghost fish for Hallowe'en and picnic basket fish for spring and stuff. I don't collect them.
To start off, Boom Beach. You are a general and you have a base on a tropical island. Your job is to free the natives on other islands from the evil soldiers. As you level up you can build more sophisticated buildings in your base, and use more sophisticated troops and weapons. Thre are different missions to play on different days of the week, and you can organise cooperative missions with the other members of your task force. There are also occasional special missions to keep your interest. It's a fun game, easy to learn, no annoying ads, it doesn't ask you for money constantly, and it's not too time-consuming. It's also a beautiful game. It has nice music and I like the animals that live on and around my island.
Next 1010! A simple game, but good for passing a few minutes. You have different shapes to fit onto a board. When you fill a whole row or column it vanishes. Think of it as Tetris without gravity. You lose when you can't fit a shape onto your board. It doesn't have the most sophisticated look, and it does have an annoying habit of playing you an ad when you lose, but nevermind.
Next Atomas. This one is a little difficult to explain. Like 1010! you have different atoms to fit onto a board and you lose when you run out of space for any more. You make space on your board by combining atoms together to make heavier atoms. Ok, it's not how nuclear fusion works, but it's a good way to learn elements' names and atomic numbers, so I guess it counts as educational. Maybe. It's a simple game, but if you're paying attention a game can last a surprisingly long time, though you can leave a game and pick up where you left off later.
Pokemon Go! This game was a surprise hit. Nobody expected it to be as big as it was. Like previous Pokemon games, you catch monsters, level them up, and battle them against each other. What makes this game different to the previous versions is that it's played in the real world. You find Pokemon, not by exploring a virtual world, but by walking around in the real world with the app open on your phone. Yes, you're right, it is very battery-draining. The game has gone through several changes since its release and has a few extra features, but the general idea remains the same. They keep you interested by jiggling the algorithms a bit, altering the odds of certain Pokemon turning up, and have special events where you can catch rare Pokemon. It's good fun to see and catch Pokemon out in the real world. After all, didn't we all want to be Pokemon trainers as kids?
And finally, Tap Tap Fish. Build your own virtual acquarium! Collect vitality, plants different plants and coral and acquire new fish and sea creatures! I think there are other games in the Tap Tap series, but this is the only one I've tried. It's a beautiful game. I'm very fond of my little acquarium, and it's really helped me learn the names of the fish. Hurrah! My mine gripe with it is that a lot of the special event fish are very silly. Like ghost fish for Hallowe'en and picnic basket fish for spring and stuff. I don't collect them.
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