New Poll and More

A new poll is now here. :) I like Mac...yet I like Windows. Its kind of hard to choose between them, :/
Otherwise, I tried uploading a picture of this lace heart hanky we made at Laura's, but thats not working at the moment.

Oh, I just found out that Shannon Hale, her husband, and the illustrator, Nate Hale (not related) made a graphic novel! It's called Rapunzels Revenge, and takes place in the Old West.
More Info here: http://www.squeetus.com/stage/books_rap.html

And amazingly, Nate Hale did all the artwork (sketching, coloring, etc.) for the 140 page novel in 8 months. I wonder how the book will be, since I've never read a graphic novel by novel writers. I think.

Poll Results and Child's Play

Yay! Yay yay yay! JayIsGames posted another IF game! :D
Its called Child's Play (by Stephen Granade), and you can play it online. ^^ According to the review and rating, it seems pretty good (5 stars so far) and the overall story sounds fun. (Type "about" in the game for more info)

Description from the game:

"It is playgroup day and playgroup day is normally a good day, but ever since that little red-haired girl started coming she always wants your toys.

She shouldn't get your toys.

You tried telling the mom this, but she doesn't understand you. She mostly ignored you but then she just shoved a pacifier in your mouth and changed your diaper."

As you can probably tell from the description, you are a baby with very good vocabulary and critical thinking. You are also trying to keep your toys away from that new girl. Im only just starting, so I dont know much about it, but you should get a good idea from the JayIsGames review. Also, you can save and restore your game. Oh, and when that picture of the baby and the fridge magnets appear, just click to continue. You can crawl, you can listen, and you can use your baby tactics. Its easy to tell that this is going to be an amusing piece of IF :) Enjoy~

Now, about the poll. As of now, there are 17 hours until its over. I dont think anyone is going to vote now, so here are the poll results.

Q: Hot Coffee or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Coffee!: 1 (7%)
Hot Chocolate!: 9 (69%)
Blah, neither: 1 (7%)
...I like them cold: 2 (15%)

Hot Chocolate is the majority! I prefer hot chocolate too. Anyway, this will be edited if someone changes or makes a vote. Time for a new poll! (soon)

Small Notes

Only one more day for the poll!

Also, I just read that Shannon Hale is making a fourth book to the Bayern series! :D The other books in the series are going to have different covers for paperback. If you look on her website, you can see them. I like some of the new ones, but I still like the normal ones better. The link is on the side.

And I found the sequel to Once Upon a Marigold, which is Twice Upon a Marigold. Yay! I love that book. Im going to read it as soon as I'm done with this entry.

More IF

Here are more IFiction games.

Downloads:
Back to Life...Unfortunately - You are a king that has come back to life...as an eyeball.
Lock and Key - "Basically, the player lays out doors and deathtraps according to various constraints and then watches an Adventurer try to escape.

Online:
http://www.ifiction.org/games/ - A collection of online IF games.

Interactive Fiction

Ok, I love Interactive Fiction (also called IFiction and IF), so here is a whole post on it. IF is basically a text based story/adventure game. For most IF games, you have to download an IF loader and the actual game. Gargoyle has a nice interface and is good for Windows. For Mac people, Spatterlight will work well, and Glulx for Linux users. Luckily, some are available online, and yet still allow you to save. Lost Pig and 9:05 are such examples.

In IF, you type things for you to do, such as examine chair, open door, dance, say "insert question", and the character will do that, if it is possible and entered in the little database thing. Of course, these commands have to be reasonable and are basic. For example, if there is a locked steel door in your way, you can't just type, "Kick down door with uber Karate skills" and expect it to work. Most likely, you must find a key and unlock the door, unless something insists otherwise. And "find key" will most likely not work unless you know where the key is and have been to that place. You have to look around by opening drawers, looking under stuff, going to other places using compass directions, etc. For a much better in-depth explanation, visit this link.

http://emshort.wordpress.com/how-to-play/

There are many different kinds of stuff in IF. You could just be the traditional knight rescuing damsel-in-distress from evil king, or have completely forgotten why and where you are along with any previous memories (very common), or you could even be the person behind the scenes causing all the traps for an npc (non-player character). You could also make one yourself, except everything is way more complicated in making something than it might seem. Anyway, many of these IF games rely on common sense much of the time. So it might help you get along through the game. Some games have a hint system in the game, so if you type "hint" or "help" then it will provide you with clues on how to continue the story.

Now, if you are looking for a specific kind of IF story, this might help.
http://emshort.wordpress.com/reading-if/

For some IF to start with, I recommend some Zarf IF (check the difficulty), 9:05 (common sense and multiple endings, very short, very interesting twist...) and maybe Enlightenment (fun to play) after you get a bit more familiar with the games. Suveh Nux is really fun too, but might be a bit confusing. Involves a lot of learning and combining magical spell words...

Glass by Emily Short is pretty simple with multiple endings, and relies completely on dialogue. As it is based on Cinderella, the story will help with what to say. Who are you? A parrot.

After playing IF for a while, you'll probably recognise some of the creators of them. If you enjoy some of the games of the same writer, you'll probably enjoy the other ones written by them too. Otherwise, IF isnt for everybody, especially if you're the kind that relies on action and good graphics and animation. I started IF...got bored of it...started again and got addicted to it.

Well, enjoy! :)

Garage Sale

Yay! Nine out of ten of the bookmarks were sold at the Garage Sale at Laura's. :) Lots of labeling and rearranging involved in the preparation though. It was also very hot. Good day for any lemonade stands. Oh, and we sent a crazy e-mail to a few people. :)

Only four more days for the poll! :O Oh, and check out Lily's blog for a word of the day, every day. :) She also has a nice poem a few posts back, so be sure to read it!

Hmmm...I am at a loss for what to do. I really hate sleeping in the day, so thats off. Well, I will post more when I find more.

-Edit-

:D I finished "Square Meal"! All 50! Yay! I just felt kinda bad that I only had level one on it before. The game is kind of easy, its only the last level that gets a lil bit frustrating. Since I have sort of low patience with games, I like it when the characters can move a bit faster than the square monster in that game. The post below has now been updated. :) Ok, my playlist is getting slightly repetitive...anyone have music recommendations? Im going to play another Nitrome game now...

Ok, I got to level 29 in Magneboy... Thats it really. No other things to say at the moment.

Nitrome Game Levels

Spoiler below. (in small text)

Nooo! The snipers are back at level 15! D: I even like the cyber samurais more than them! The reason is because this pink target sign follows you around, and you have to keep moving so that it wont get you. And then you have to find the sniper guy and kill him so that the target will stop following you, except its hard because you dont know where he is, and you have to get past all the shoot-out-green-blobs-of-electricity machines, and try to survive the whole time. And if you dont kill them, eventually, more pink targets come and soon you have 4 of them following you everywhere! Thats because snipers are everywhere. Which is why its always scary to move because you dont know if you stepped onto the sniper's radar. Actually, the guy is using some device to make the target follow you. And this is where the wallsliding gets annoying! If you're dropping next to a wall, it just wallsides and you cant really tell because of the mob of pink targets coming at you, and since wallsliding slows you down, then the targets can easily get you. :/

Oh well, at least its only 5 more levels. Well, I will now name the levels I am at for all the main nitrome games.

• Final Ninja: Level 15 (out of 20)
• Mutiny: Level 10 (out of 20)
• Skywire 2: Level 30 (out of 30) I haven't finished the actual level though :(
• Small Fry: Level 11 (out of 25)
• Knuckleheads: Level 13 (out of 25)
• Cheese Dreams: Level 10 (out of 20)
• Magneboy: Level 29 (out of 50)
• Dirk Valentine: Level 14 (out of 24)
• Aquanaut: Level 4 (out of 20)
• Jack Frost: Level 40 (out of 40) Done! :D
• Snow Drift: Level 6 (out of 20)
• Thin Ice: Level 18 (out of 20) so close!
• Twang!: Level 7 (out of 25)
• Pest Control: Level 22 (out of #)
• Headcase: Level 7 (out of 25)
• Off the Rails: Level 6 (out of 20)
• Nanobots: Level #(out of #) (no levels)
• Yin Yang: Level 2 (out of #)
• Toxic: Level 8(out of 20)
• Square Meal: Level 50 (out of 50) Done! :D
• Hot Air 2: Level 3 (out of a lot)
• Dangle: Level 2 (out of)
• Space Hopper: Level 6 (out of 15)
• Skywire: Level 10 (out of 20)
• Frost Bite: Level 7 (out of #)
• Scribble: Level 3(out of #) (Havent played in a while)
• Tanked Up: Level 2 (out of 8)
• Feed Me: Level 6 (out of 15)
• Roly Poly: Level 2 (out of 30)
• Chick Flick: Level 3 (out of 9)
• Sandman: Level 4 (out of #)
• Hot Air: Level 2 (out of 25)

There. If it says, (out of #) it means I dont know how many levels it has in all.

Paper Mache

Today we continued making these paper mache plates and people. The plates are almost done, but theres still a bunch to do for the people. Hmmm... I'm going to make more bookmarks.

Oh! Nitrome made another new game! :D Its called Final Ninja, and it is so awesome! It is a little close to Dirk Valentine, since it has a story, a grapple/chain thing, and you are someone going through missions, sort of. You play as a ninja that has a grapple, can dissapear, throw ninja stars and wallslide. I love this one, and Im a little further than level 12. A few spoilers in the next paragraph. They appear in small text so that you wont read it unless you want to. o_o

Boss Level on level 10 :O. Sometimes the wallsliding thing gets in the way, especially in the levels where you're trying to escape from being a sniper target. Grrr...Level 9 is so hard!

Its one of my favorite games on Nitrome so far, except its kinda hard o_o. Although, it doesnt have as many levels as some of the others, so I guess the difficulty elevates quickly. Nitrome seems to update games way faster than usual now, especially after small fry, which is totally awesome. :D And I think there's a sequel to toxic coming soon...based on the blog preview...I love how you can recognize Nitrome games by their style. :)

Try it!

http://www.nitrome.com/games/finalninja/

Jing, DUI, and Some Interesting Articles

I've been browsing around looking at stuff like Vitrite - small stuff that is fun to use (and useful sometimes). Anyway, I found another something that is part screenshot taker and part video recorder. Its called Jing. You can take screenshots with it and even select regions to take pictures of.

It appears as a small sun at the top of the screen, which gives you different options. You can also select a place to record something on the computer. This can be helpful if you want to show a friend how to do something. The cool thing is that it gives you an url to the video or image, so no need to transfer or anything!

And here is the link: http://www.jingproject.com/

Check their blog and FAQ for more info.

What else to say?

Oh, theres this nice game called DUI. Its basically physics, timing, and puzzles all in one. You are a geometric smiley who's aim is to stay above the red line, and stay still on a colored shape- except you must destroy the number of shapes it tells you to at the side. Luckily, you can stay below the red line if you are still moving. Use the arrow keys to roll left and right. If you come as a square, you wont be able to roll unless you are tipping.

Here, this excerpt from a JayIsGames review explains much better.

"DUI, an action puzzler from Chinese developing team S.I.T.T., asks you to guide a sprite to safety by rolling it back and forth with the arrow keys and destroying blocks with the mouse.

To advance to the next level, you must rest the sprite on a colored block and destroy any moving blocks on-screen, as well as fulfilling the removed block quota in the corner of the screen. Usually completing these goals go hand in hand, but keep them in mind.

To add difficulty to the mix, the sprite cannot come to a halt below the red line across the screen. If it does, the level restarts. You can get away with having a portion of it above the line or running the ball below the line-- in fact, some puzzles hinge on doing this."

The graphics are pretty simple, but look nice anyway. And you get to skip levels if you are stuck on one of them. :) Plus, you get to create levels! :D How awesome is that?

Link: http://www.kongregate.com/games/logosogol/dui/?referrer=mden

Enjoy!

Breaking News: Moon Disappears from Sky, Supposedly Eaten By Spaceship.
For Nitrome addicts, heres a humorous article on the game, "Cheese Dreams". :) From JayIsGames yet again! If you like that one, be sure to read the Skywire one too.

Cheese Dreams article: http://jayisgames.com/archives/2008/07/moon_disappears_from_sky_supposedly_eaten_by_spaceship.php

Skywire Article:
http://jayisgames.com/archives/2008/07/skywire_tours_closed_due_to_safety_concerns.php

Current Status: Playing Mutiny on Nitrome

Vitrite and Other Unrelated and Unexpected Topics

Well, I already wrote about this on a bunch of emails, but now I realize that posting it would be a lot more easier. Anyway, I found a program called Vitrite that can make any browser and most programs transparent. You can toggle the transparency using the numbers on the keyboard.

Oh no. I just remembered that I forgot to include a link to it in all my emails.
http://www.vanmiddlesworth.org/vitrite
Well, heres one for anyone reading my blog.

Also, my poll has 13 votes on it already! Im so happy! :D Although I wonder who voted in it. There are only a few people who I know read my blog...

And if you haven't already, please read a book by Shannon Hale. Especially the Goose Girl series. My favorite author and series and book all in one! And the covers for the goose girl series are so nice! Now that I think back, all the books in that series have tons of things to wonder about. And there are questionable characters in them all, so you dont know who you want the main character to trust. Some books she's written are in the tags for this post, but it wont let me put too many tags on, so only some are there.

The post used to be called "Vitrite", but with all the other stuff I've typed, I figured it was time for me to make a longer title.

Time to make a list!

Book genres I Like

• Fantasy
• Fiction
• Historical Fiction (sometimes, depends on time period)
• Drama
• Realistic Fiction
• Books with different P.O.V.s
• Romance (just a bit in a book makes everything much more interesting)
• Books including school (I like these, even though I dont always like the actual topic)
• Magic
• Books in different forms (Some have extra stuff at the beginning or end of a chapter)

Book Genres I Dont Like

• Classics
• Books in which most of the story is on a ship
• Sci-Fi (Havent really read many though)
• Books in poem form (You just feel less of the characters themselves, and usually not much info about anything in the background)
• Books on collections of stories (Unless its a collection of complete stories)
• Survival books in which there are no interaction with other human beings

Thats about it. Ill add more when I find more.
(Oh, awesome! I forgot to use bullets for the list, and I realized that it puts bullets next to each of them if I highlight them all and then click the bullet option. :D)

Book recommendations appreciated :)

Snow White Recette

Well, we make this drink sometimes.
Its really good, and the cool thing that its simple to make and get the stuff for it. In fact, you probably have all the stuff you need in your house right now.

Ingredients:

• Sprite (hopefully cool)
• Vanilla ice cream
• Spoon or scooper
• Big cup
• Straw

Got it?

1. Scoop out some ice cream and put it into the cup. About 3-4 big spoonfuls of it, if you have a cup about 5 inches tall with a diameter of 2.5 inches. (I love my orange ruler, its the only one thats in one piece and stays in my room)
2. Pour sprite into cup. But a bit at a time! If you just pour the whole can in, the thing's going to overflow! Basically, the sprite and the ice cream create these fizzy bubbles that elevate very quickly in a tall glass cup if you dont stop pouring. Anyway, if the bubbles reach the top, read the next step of instructions.
3. Take the straw or spoon and stir, but make sure you dont kick off the fizz at the top. If you do, no worries, just get a napkin and clean it up. Stir until it goes down a bit, and pour more sprite, and repeat. Once it wont go down anymore, and no more chunks of ice cream are left, stick a straw in. You're done! :D

TIPS - Clean up whatever drippy mess is left. Also, if you dont stir for a long time, it will turn watery looking, because the sprite is seperating from the vanilla, and the ice cream is going to a better place. So stir. If you have leftover sprite (which you most likely do) you can pour more into the cup, although it will taste more sprite-like.

The reason I like this drink is because sprite alone feels like its attacking my throat. Sort of. But its really hard to gulp down more than 3 gulps of cold, fizzy sprite consecutively. The vanilla softens the impact.

Now, if any of you were wondering what the title is about, its because we call the drink Snow White. And according to Dictionary.com, "recette" means "recipe" in french. I was hoping for a fancier word, like recipuor or something, but I got recette, which also happens to mean, "receipt".

And I know the instructions are a little bit longer than "simple", but having a longer entry makes me feel more accomplished. :)

Pictures, Finally!

I uploaded the pictures of the ribbon bookmarks. I made a few more, so there are six. They look way better bigger, so click them for a larger picture.
Here they are:

That last one was just because I thought it looked cool. :)

More Ribbons

Well, we went to Micheal's and bought 9 more spools of ribbons. We now have: Light Blue x2, White x2, Dark Red, Light Pink, Cream, Light Green, Lavender, and Orange. Yay! More color choices! Im making a red & white one now. Later, we realized that the red ribbon was thinner than the others, but I hope it looks good anyway. I WILL post pictures of them, I just dont like taking the little memory card out of the camera and uploading it to the computer...

Also, we saw Yao Ming's wife at this store, except I dont think anyone noticed until his dad went over there...

And I bought some hand sanitizer! I love how it has bubbles in mid-gel.
"Take a little look at the face of Miss Always Invisible~"
Can you guess what I'm listening to? :)

Ribbons

Well, today I've been listening to Marie Digby and "Miss Invisible". Normally, I turn the music down so only I can hear it, but "Miss Invisible" is just the kind that sounds better when its louder. The lyrics are so sad!

So I was browsing for paper crafts to do because I suddenly have become obsessed with folding paper. Anyway, one thing led to another and I ended up looking at a tutorial on how to make a ribbon bookmark. So I dug up the last of our pink ribbon and found a roll of blue ribbon. (They happen to be the only ribbons we have) And I made the bookmark! Im actually pretty proud of it, even though it wasnt that complicated. And plus, its stretchy! Im going to add a picture of it soon, along with one of the accordion, so anyone reading yesterdays post wont be as confused...

Trip to Bayou

Today we went to this really beautiful bayou, although it was really hot. We also went over there to sketch. I forgot the sketch I made in the car though. Later, Laura let me use a sheet of notebook paper which I used to make this weird accordion thing. I kept messing up, so I only used part of the sheet, and the other was also folded into an accordion shape.. So I would unfold the real accordion and then switch it with the other one and give it to Laura...and she would unfold it and get confused because it turned out weird.

That must have sounded really weird because you have no idea what the "accordion" is.

And then, I go home and listen to music on YouTube and find this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F9q_k5TWqo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SaG6IU-y9w
Ay, I think I've found my new favorite song!

10 Ideas for Your Blog

Ok, so I've been trying to think up blog ideas. I've thought of a few and hopefully it will help me and other bloggers to find out what to post about.

1. Random: Take any object that people overlook and use a lot, but dont think about very much. Type about its importance in your life and all the amazing things it can do.
2. Help: Give people step-by-step instructions of how to do something that many people need help with, because they will thank you for the help. That is, once they get the courage to comment.
3. Complain: Talk about the unfairness of how there are more right-handed items than left-handed items. Or how there are more things you can download on Windows and not as much on Mac, simply because Windows was introduced first. Otherwise, how unfair anything is.
4. Reviews: If you read, watch a lot of a movies, or go out frequently, this idea will be great for you! Simply type up a review on any of them. Perhaps there's a restaurant you go to all the time. Write about the great food or customer service there. And if you're a movie watcher, criticize and praise its plot. For bookworms, write a book review and rate it from one to ten.
5. Talent: If there's something you enjoy doing, share it on your blog! Writers and poets could post their poems and stories, and photographers can upload pictures for all to see. If your hobby is making handbags, you can post tips and instructions for people who have gotten inspired from your work.
6. List: Make a list. Whether its a favorite book list or list of pros and cons, there's no limit to how long it can be!
7. Challenge: Give your readers a challenge. Ask them to write a romance between a tomatoe and a potatoe. Tell them to email you a recipe for disaster. Whatever you do, the results will probably be very entertaining.
8. You: Talk about you. Drama in one's personal life is interesting sometimes. Otherwise, how come readers enjoy realistic fiction so much?
9. Blog: Post about stuff in your blog. The results of the poll, a recollection of last years most interesting entries, or why in the world you put a picture of that poor cat who's head was stuck in a fish bowl.
10. FAQ: Make a small post of FAQ, or interview a fellow blogger or reader. Or even interview a whole bunch of people with the same questions and see how the answers differentiate.

I hope that helps. Now I have few more ideas on what to post about...

Links

Ok, I am going to go through my links so you can get a good idea of what each of them are. Future links will probably have their own summary in another post. I'd add it to this post...but its long enough as it is.

• DeviantART : A place with tons of art that people make, including literature, emoticons, photography, painting, and much more.
• Dino Run : A cute game in which you (the dino) are running to dino paradise so that you can escape the apocalypse. Balance on meteors, eat lizards, collect power-ups, get rides from other dinos, collect eggs, and even race in multiplayer with other dinos. There are many milestones to use, and the overall retro look to it is just too awesome.
• Emily Short IF : Im a big fan of Interactive Fiction (IF). If you dont know what IF is, you can check this website and it will have a good How-to guide to playing interactive fiction. Emily Short has some really good interactive fiction, so be sure to try them out!
• Flickr : A place where anyone can upload photos and share them with others. If you find a picture you especially like, add it to your favorites! The people on Flickr have some really neat pictures. How do they do it?
• JayIsGames : A collection of casual games. I usually find games here, and they have reviews and ratings on them all, along with some helpful walkthroughs. IF, webtoys, grow games, escape-the-room games(although I suck at those) are among the many many games that they have.
• Laura's Blog : My friend's blog. She created it a few hours before mine and convinced me to make one too. She's a writer and poet and I have a feeling she's going to have many interesting posts...
• MiniCity : A virtual city that grows everytime someone clicks on it. Click this link and you'll help my mini city grow. :)
• Neave : Interesting website I found a few weeks ago. Try the lines one. You wont believe your eyes. o_o
• Nitrome : One of my favorite links ever. Nitrome creates its own pixelized games and everything in it is just so cute and squishable. Especially the little characters in "Mutiny". The only game I've ever beaten completely was "Jack Frost". Although they update frequently and have a fun-to-read blog, its always exciting when they come up with a new game.
• Playlist : Make your own music playlist and listen to others. I usually have my playlist on in the background while browsing the web.
• Powder game : Another one of my favorite links ever. This is a sandbox game, so you can basically do anything you want. There are many elements to choose from. Water, seed, powder, player, fighter, magma, c-4, metal, thunder, superball, wind, ice, and way more. The fun part of the game is how the elements interact with each other. blow the ice away with wind and create snow. Sprinkle some seeds on powder and grow a plant. Then burn it up with fire. Create a fighting arena, a volcano, a waterfall, an obstacle course for the player, the possibilities are really endless. For a really nice experience, change the BG to BG-shade. You can even save these and share them with others. Also, scroll down for information about everything, especially player and BG. :) Have fun and enjoy!
• Quizilla : Make quizzes and stories and post them for people to rate, read, and try. Once thats done, see if it will make it to the Most Popular or Top Rated list.
• Scribbler : Draw a simple design. Then click scribble and watch it work its magic. Voila! Change the color of the scribble and you have more control of how the scribble works. Also check out the website of the person who made this. The only thing it seems to be missing is an eraser, although an imperfect drawing seems to turn out really nice anyway.
• Shannon Hale's Website : This is the website of my favorite author. Read up info on books she's written and info about herself that might be helpful to novel writers-to-be.
• Travian: Make a village. Conquer other villages with your troops. Expand your resources. Survive raids and attacks. Then try to make it to the high scores.
• World-o-Meters : Current statistics on population, economy, environment, education, energy, health, water, and food. The numbers might be surprising.

And that concludes the afternoon announcements. Have a nice day!

Hello!

Wow, this is my first post! I will be writing about everything on my blog so far and a few things about myself.
I've been exploring all the page elements and at the moment we have...

• About me: A small description "about me".
• A poll: A place where you can vote on your opinion! I plan on changing the poll every month. I started in the middle of July, so you all only have 15 days to vote instead of the normal 30 or so days. Oh well.
• A links list: A list of links to places that I find interesting. I love links, as some of the people on my email know. :)

Ok, so not much, but I really had to get started on my first post. Hehe... Ok, now into more detail about me. o_o

• I love making art - graphics, pen & ink, painting, etc. (I love crafty projects too)
• I use o_o O_o :) :D and other text emotes. I think it comes from playing too many MMORPGs and using aim.
• I love reading and pasar tiempo con amigas. (Must review spanish before I forget it all!)
• I love chocolate croissants, tapioca(bubble tea), pocky and most things from a bakery. Athough, not counting the cakes since some are too sweet. o_o
• I love reading instructions, tutorials, and intros. :) And guides on some things.
• I love small text. I love neat, simple things. o_o
• My favorite color is blue.
• I wear a watch all the time.

I think thats good enough. o_o Finally done with my first post! :D