Forza 5 Update

Looks like some fun is heading our way

"Turn 10 Studios' first wave of tweaks to the controversial in-game economy of Xbox One launch game F" http://feedly.com/k/IUpiL1

Clash of Clans - Base Update

I spent 1.5 hours yesterday redesigning my base thanks to the new loot system they put in place.  I'm getting attacked way more now since everything I have cost so much and I have to save majorly to get enough to upgrade.  So I needed to be able to defend my base better so I won't lose so much loot.  I had a pocket before with it all in the middle but that design doesn't work once they get in the middle as they get it all.

I think this is one of the better bases I've made and I've won 3 defenses in a row.  I'm really waiting for a hog attack on my base so I can see how it works against them.  A big attack with giants doesn't work at all so far.

I'm up for any opinions anyone might have to make it better.

What I've Been Doing on My Xbox One

So I get my Xbox One on Friday night and spent 2 hours not playing a single game.  I was looking around the menus and I started all my downloads to get all the things I wanted, which ended up being a lot.  I even bought Forza 5 right off the store so that was a huge download to get.  Needless to say when I turned its off I thought it would finish downloading as it should have been int that suspend mode.  Yeah, not the case and I had to finish downloading everything else in the morning.  I even had  to go and start them up as they didn't automatically start downloading when it turned back on.

I tried doing some chats with friends but if you're on an Xbox 360 still you can't chat with anyone on an Xbox One.  It's the Xbox Live Service, how idiotic can you get Microsoft?  That should be a day one item to work right there.  I tried some chats with some friends who got the Xbox One and I didn't make much progress on that either.  First few times, I couldn't get the person in the chat to hear me or them.  You  have to turn Party Chat on or you won't be talking in the party at all.  One night when I did get in with a friend, it wouldn't work at first but after a few tries, we finally got in a chat where I could actually start my Party Chat.  He said Microsoft has some serious issues with the chat.  I agreed completely.  While talking with him, I repeatedly got kicked out of the Party Chat and kept having to rejoin.  You have no noticed or any indication that someone has left the Party Chat.  So if you are talking and nobody replies back, then they might not be there anymore.  Another thing weird is if you send a Party Chat invite.  The message you get doesn't tell you it's a Party Chat.  You'll see it but not realize that's what you're being sent.  Come on Microsoft, the Xbox 360 had some good qualities on chat.  Why would you take away something that works so well.

The Store is absolutely ridiculous.  If there is one thing on Windows 8 that sucks, it's the Store and they brought it into the Xbox One.  If you want to find something, you better know what it is you want and search for it as there is not browse all titles options.  The store on the Xbox 360 was way better than this.  Yet another aggravating and failed redesign by Microsoft.

Want to make a setting change.  Good luck finding it as once you do, you'll have to dig through the buried spot you just found to find what you want.  It's not easy to navigate around and find what you want.

Something recently I've noticed is that the new Kinect doesn't pick me up if I'm too far away.  I know they made it where you can see you closer but how can you not still see me from afar like the old Kinect did?

I played Killer Instinct the first 2-3 days I had it but I haven't gone back to it since.  That game literally wears out my hands and I just can't fight that good on those type games anymore.  At least I did win all the characters from Microsoft and got to play with them all. 

I have been playing Forza 5 since launch and I'm enjoying that game.  However, they were stupid like Microsoft and made a menu that you can't find stuff in and when you find what you want, it's not no where remotely where you think it would be.  I had a bunch of codes for Forza 5 for cars.  However, none of them unlocked in the game and are in my garage.  So thanks for nada on those codes.

I've also been playing Dead Rising 3.  I started playing this but then when my kids got home from school and that first cuss word came out with my daughter repeating it.  I quickly saved and quit the game along with a talk with daughter on not to say that word ever again.  So the only time I play DR3 is at night once everyone is asleep.  I really wish they would have given you an option to turn off the foul language in this game.  Not everyone wants to hear it and I wish it was a standard for all games.

When time has permitted I've played some LEGO Marvel Superheroes with the kids.  They have done a good job on the game and we're still progressing through the story.  All the little things in this game make it another great LEGO game and enjoying all the comical lines they have put into the game.  Another LEGO game worth owning.

That will wrap it up for now.

Grab Them While You Can

"Here's $11 Off Basically Every Xbox One And Playstation 4 Game" http://feedly.com/k/17Gfv52

COD MW3

I finished up every achievement in the game (not including DLC) except one.  I just didnt have the time or I could have got all 1000 in this game.  Just had to get 3 stars in each of Spec Ops missions.  I'm ok with letting that one go.  I had 28 of 48 stars and I know I could have gotten the rest.  

I did take the time to help a friend get 3 stars on the veteran missions.  So now he only has 2 more stars to get and those 2 are for the training courses.  Those timed ones are rough so good luck to him on those.

Overall the game was fun but easier than the previous Call of Duty Modern Warfare games.  Some parts might get you but you don't get stuck for long.  If you want to earn some achievements fairly quickly, you can earn them pretty fast in this game.  It didn't take me long to finish the campaign and go back to get the achievements I needed from the campaign as well.

Survival mode is fun and can be rough.  I'm glad you only need to get to level 15 on all the boards for the achievement.  It would be rough to get up to 30 if they wanted you to go that high.

So now that this is finished, I'm ready for the new console to come out.

Awww Winamp is Shutting Down

I was using Winamp when it first came out.  This week be a sad day next month.

"Winamp, Our Favorite Media Player for Windows, Is Shutting Down" http://feedly.com/k/HZSKz2

Would You Think of This

This would have never ever crossed my mind.  I wonder if Microsoft really put that much detail into choosing the start up and shut down noise.

​When You Start Up The Xbox One, It Plays A Pretty Song" http://feedly.com/k/I4aZUp

Xbox One Controller

Here it is and right out of the box it has scuff mark.  That's just not right.   I'm supposed to make those.

PS4 Shot with a .50 Cal

This is pretty cool.  Be sure to watch the 2nd shot.
​Dude Shoots PS4 With A High-Powered Rifle" http://feedly.com/k/1a95cY2

Xbox One Controller Arrives Today

My controller is available to pick up today at Best Buy. So I'll be running by there after work to pick it up. I'll try to take some pictures and put it up on here later on. One week away and I'll have my Xbox One Day One edition. Hopefully I can find a way to share videos I capture on the Xbox One on my blog. I'll be extremely happy if I can do that.

Modern Warfare 3

I've been working on Modern Warfare 3 for the last 3 weeks trying to finish it before the Xbox One comes out.  I finished the campaign and all the achievements in about 1.5 weeks.  I got 1 star on all the Spec Ops Missions and I've been working on getting to wave 15 for all the Survival boards.  I don't think I can get all 3 stars before the Xbox One comes out for the Missions so that's one achievement that I will be leaving undone in this game.  I'm down to 3 boards on Survival mode to get to wave 15 and I'll get 2 achievements on that.  I just need to get to level 50 to buy all the items I can in the supply boxes for 2 more achievements and that will leave me with just 1 achievement left for the original 1000 in the game.  I don't have time for the DLC and any money I have will go towards the Xbox One now.

LEGO Arkham Asylum

This is pretty impressive.

"It Took One Year to Make This Criminally Insane LEGO Arkham Asylum" http://feedly.com/k/1glo7Tx

COD Ghosts Lower Resolution

Well that just sucks.   I was looking to get this game later on but the lower resolution is kinda deterring me from it.   How can you not have 1080p on a game in this day and age?

"Confirmed: Call of Duty Ghosts at Lower Resolution on Xbox One" http://feedly.com/k/16LnDTu

Ways to Not Yell at Your Kids

This was a good article and have me some good points on things to do.

"How to Stay Calm and Not Yell at Your Kids (Even If You're Really Mad)" http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/vip/~3/p9O4rpAGYng/how-to-stay-calm-and-not-yell-at-your-kids-even-if-you-1452033657

High School Football

I'm at my first High School football game since I graduated High School.  Not my old High School but at my wife's cousins game as her girls are cheerleading. Definitely interesting to watch this game with the family.  Still enjoyable though.

Remote Desktop for Android and IOS

I saw this a month ago and am happy to see it has come out.

"Microsoft Releases Remote Desktop for Android and iOS" http://feedly.com/k/H0kun7

Been a Bit

It's so easy not to post when you're constantly busy.  Lets see if I can sum up everything in small bits.

Work was getting really stressful so that was no fun.  Luckily I got to take a 5 day vacation and was able to relax.

Got caught up on work since the government shutdown so not as stressed out at work.

Mom went into the hospital on one weekend but she is doing fine now.  Looks to be nothing serious.

Been playing Eternal Sonata and actually beat it last night.  To get all the achievements requires another run through of the game but I'm not doing that.  I want to play MW3 before the Xbox One comes out and I've got 1 month to get that game beat to a point I'll be happy with.  So I'll be starting that today.

Still playing Clash of Clans.  I did a trophy push and made it all the way up to Crystal League 2.  I couldn't make it to 1.  Everyone at that level has TH10 already with the inferno towers so winning on Def more so than not is hard to do to keep the trophies.  So me and Ben (co-leader in my clan for TheWretchedOnes) decided to drop to farm as he was trying to get there as well and couldn't make it.  So now we are upgrading all our defenses and getting to TH10 before we push again.  We want to make master on the next push.  So just been earning some money by dropping down in trophies.

The Castle Story game I've been playing on my iPad with my wife opened up some new adventures finally so we are back into playing that more.

IOS7 has made my wife's iPad get really hot and drain the battery down.  Seems to be a big issue with all the devices on the upgrade.  Somehow mine isn't doing it or the wife's phone.  Hopefully one of the patches they put out will fix the issue here soon.

I canceled my Xbox One order with Microsoft.  Mainly because Best Buy put up the Day One console yesterday for preorder.  So I preordered it from Best Buy to get the reward zone points and get some money back from the purchase.  Something is better than nothing and I was getting nothing with Microsoft.  Maybe it'll help me keep my elite status with them before my time runs out and I lose it.

That about sums it up.  I'll try to get back on track and post more again.

Save Battery Life on IOS7

Some really good tips to help your battery last longer.

"11 Tips to Keep iOS 7 From Destroying Your Battery Life" http://feedly.com/k/16zkO85

Xbox Music On All Devices

It's about time the did this.  I dropped it long ago because I was limited on where I could play it at.

"Watch Out Spotify: Xbox Music Is Finally Coming To iOS & Android" http://feedly.com/k/15Lj6jA

Now Someone is Thinking

Instead of reading all the privacy laws on what you want, just get an app to help you do it.

"AVG PrivacyFix Audits Your Facebook and Google Accounts for Privacy" http://feedly.com/k/19lj7YC

Xbox One Can Have 8 Controllers Connected at Once

That's crazy but a side scroller fighting game would make that a lot of fun if you have 8 friends over playing.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/03/xbox-one-supports-eight-controllers/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi

I Agree

"Now That's Some Extraordinary Cosplay" http://feedly.com/k/19cAbA8

Xbox One Possible on Nov 8

I can only hope this article becomes true.

"The Xbox One Might Be Out On November 8" http://feedly.com/k/16MGudl

Xbox One Launch Games

This is what I've been waiting to see.

"Here Are the Xbox One's Launch Games" http://feedly.com/k/1anmQZA

Windows 8.1 is Finally Coming Out

Dull not close but at least the finally put a date on it.

"Windows 8.1 to Be Released on October 17th as a Free Update" http://feedly.com/k/1cBxcqd

Family Gold Membership on the Way Out

Looks like Aug 27 is the cutoff date.  At least everyone affected will get 3 free months.

"Xbox Live Family Subscriptions Convert to Individual Accounts Aug. 27" http://feedly.com/k/15qNY1I

Microsoft Surface Pro Price Drop

"Microsoft slashes Surface Pro price for the month of August, 64GB model down to $799" http://feedly.com/k/12SGZUK

I so wish I could afford to buy one of these.

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

Batman Arkham City Update 2

Well, finding all of Catwoman's trophies in the game plus finishing off the Museum helped me get over 400 trophies.  I was able to find Riddlers hideout and got my achievement.

I was trying to perform one fighting move that catwoman has for an achievement.  Once I get that, I will try some of the fighting parts but that will be it.  I think I'm pretty much done with this game for all the achievements I'll be able to get in the game.  I'm not going to run through it all over again for 2 more possible achievements.

Batman Arkham City Update

I did finish off the Harley Quinn DLC.  It didn't take too much to finish it off.

So I've been running around the city trying to find all the riddles.  I need 400 in order to unlock The Joker.  My biggest problem was that no ? were showing on my map.  So I've been using this guide from over at Games Radar.  You can bring up each section of the city and below that picture, they show another picture of The Riddlers riddles.  They matched them up by numbers so you can compare to yours to see what you're missing, then look on the map to see where it is on the map.  It is helping me find tons of riddles I've missed.  I've cleared out most of the city and realized I didn't have hardly any in the Museum.  So I almost got done with it last night but I couldn't figure out how to get into the back room from the front side.  I might have to leave, go out and around to the back of the building and come in that way if I can't figure it out tonight.

Once I have those, I'll be with in 10 of having the 400 I need.  Actually, just realized, I have to go get Catwoman and go back into the Museum to get 2 or 3 tropies setting in there for her as well so it'll cut my numbers down some.

After that, I'm still missing quite a few in the Steel Factory.  So I'll go there to finish up getting to 400 riddles.  I'll be glad too as the one screen that I don't have hardly any on is where you have to perform actions in order to get the riddles.  Some are probably doable but I just don't want to have to deal with that.  I'd rather just run around and find riddles.

Once I finish that up, the debate is on for where I want to beat it on New Game + and go for Perfect Knight Day 2 or just be done with the game.  I'm trying to finish up games before the Xbox One comes out and this would let me be done with this game.  I might try some of the fights to see if I can't earn a few of the combat ones but that would be all I would do.  Guess I could go for all the catwoman riddles as well just to add a small 10 point achievement.  I will at least go over 1K with all the achievements I will have gotten.

Would you go for finishing the game all over again or just let it be and move on?

SanDisk Connect

"SanDisk Connect is a new series of wireless storage and streaming devices starting at $50" http://feedly.com/k/1323Qqn

Batman Arkham City

Went back to Batman Arkham City yesterday and finished finding the catwoman trophies.  Also found another Batman trophy as well.  When I got those, hostage #5 appeared and I was able to finish that off.  I still need to find more so that I can unlock The Joker so I can fight him to beat him for an achievement.  I'll work on that next.

I did get the Harley Quinn DLC at some point when it went on sale so I played through the entire DLC but at the end I started working on the achievements to knock them out.  I got all but 3 so I'm running back through the DLC again to finish them.  I found all of Harley's balloons before I went to bed last night.  So knocked out that achievement.  The last 2 I have left are to attach the blast sphere to 4 different types of objects, including people.  If I would have read up on that achievement before just running through I would have knocked out that achievement on my first run as I accomplished some task differently so it never counted for what I needed to do in certain spots.  After that, I have to finish disarming the alarms in under 3 minutes.  Gotta love time based achievement.  8(

So I'll try to finish that up tonight and finish the riddler off.  Then I'll be able to start working on running back through the entire game again if I feel up for getting that achievement.

Assassian's Creed 2 Free on Xbox Live

It's up free today.  Grab it before the month ends.

Free iOS Games

"App Store gives away popular iOS games and apps, likely to mark its 5th anniversary" http://feedly.com/k/12f00yq

Alan Wake

I bought this game again as i bought the 2nd DLC like 2 years ago and never could find a copy to borrow.

Overall it was fairly easy to beat but getting through it without dieing got a little frustrating.  Mainly the tornado section where you have to jump and land on moving objects to get up.  Once I got by that i was able to finish the rest easily enough without dieing.  Had a couple close calls but as long as u

You run and use your flares, all will work out.

Attack on Titan

A friend told me to watch this anime.  I had never heard of it so I got around to looking for it last night.  Was looking at it on Hulu and saw that the creators of Deathnote made the anime, I knew I had to watch it.

I watched the first two episodes and I had to continue.  I made to ep 5 last night and I'm going to definitely watch it to where it's currently at, which is 12 at the moment.

Ep 3 and 4 had one funny part in each of them but in 4, I was laughing pretty hard and it's still funny thinking about it.  However, this isn't a comedy anime by any means.  Actually episode 5 surprised me at the end and episode 6 is going to have to take another whole new direction because of it.  I'm very curious as to how this is going to turn out.

Here I am blabing on about what caught my attention in the anime but not actually mentioning what the anime is about.  This anime is where Titans are attacking the humans and they eat them.  They are wiping them out and the humans built 3 sets of walls to stop them.  The Titans have busted through 2 of them by episode 5 and only one remains.  They talk about the Titans during one of the episodes so you know what they do but they don't know a lot about them except for one week spot to kill them instantly.  They haven't killed one yet though even though they know how to kill them. I'm still waiting for one to actually die.

So the Titans are trying to wipe out human kind and humans are trying to find a way to not go extinct.

I'll post again once I'm caught up but this is turning into a good anime.

Leef's Bridge USB Flash Drive

Now this is a good idea.  I wonder why I haven't seen someone already do this.

"Leef's Bridge USB flash drive lets you share files between your smartphone and computer" http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/27/leef-bridge-android-pc-mac-usb/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

Yet Another Game Released With Servers Down

You would think after Doritos Crash Course that another game directly behind it would come out with you connecting to servers to play be down on the day of launch.

Well it has and Spartacus Legends has come out with servers down.  Why? Why would you put out a game and not have the servers online to connect to?  How idiotic can you be.  Im tempted to just delete it and not ever play it.

If its not on by nighttime for me to connect, I probably will.

No Headset For Xbox One

Well that's a bummer but that means they are putting everything into how much better the Kinect is.  As long as my current wireless headset from them will still work, I'll be happy.

"Xbox One: chat headset not included" http://feedly.com/k/135hIWv

Lego Back to the Future

I didn't even know they were working on this.  This will be cool to see what all they bring out.

"Behold the First Images of the Official Lego Back to the Future Set!" http://feedly.com/k/19sVfGh

iPad Display Turned Greenish Yellow

Yesterday I ran into something I've never seen before.  Was using the iPad and closed the lid.  Did some stuff came back and my screen had turned a greenish yellow texture and it ruined how everything looked.  It didn't look like a negative, so changing that setting didn't help.

After some research online, I ran across something that cued me in to what I had done and what fixed my iPad.  While messing with my daughter, I had actually hit my iPad to make a loud noise to try to scare her which is what caused my problem. 

The simple fix was to turn the iPad off, flip it over on its back and smack it really hard 3 times on the back.  Turned it on and I saw improvement in the video display.  Turned it off and did it again, display fixed.

I have a 2nd Gen iPad and from the looks of it, there is some wire or connector that looks to come loose but by smacking it on the back, you can put it back in place for a connection.

YEAH for simple fixes that saved me hundreds of dollars.

Microsoft Goes Backwards

Well it's all over the place Microsoft pulled back and is now going back to using discs again, plus the connecting once every 24 hours is gone, and it's region free now.

Region free is the only thing that should have been a given.  I'm happy to see that happen.  I just hope when they make Japanese games that they add English subtitles to some of the games.

The other two, I'm more frustrated at because by going backwards using old technology, we are losing a bunch of good ones that were coming with the Xbox One.

I was geared up for having my games being able to be played no matter where I was with my account.  I was hoping with the new system that it would retain my games value longer and not drop down to where it's worth nothing after a month.

My console is always online now as well.  Granted, everything should still work if you weren't online but now some games that could have been possible might not come out because you've limited the cloud base.  Unless of course the publisher requires it and then you'll have be online in order to play it.  How is Forza 5 going to work if it never puts your stuff up on the cloud so your friends can race with how you are.  That's a key aspect of being online.

So yes, Microsoft appeased the masses with all the ranting but I think they should have stuck it out.  Steam did and now games are cheaper from them because of it.

Guess will have to wait to see just how things work when the console comes out.

Kingdom Rush Frontiers

For anyone that missed this game last week when it came out, don't hesitate to go get it.  I loved the first one and its the best tower defense game I've played on the iPad.  They only improved on it with the new Frontiers game.

It has its funny quirks in it like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Aliens, etc...  It's always cool to see that type stuff in a game.

Im still working on finishing it.  To me its harder than the first but a friend of mine already beat it before i did.  I've been trying to 3 star everything though and he hasn't so he pushed through quicker than i did.  Im closing in now and beating it on expert is not going to be easy.

All the new towers and upgrades are really neat.  They did a great job on them.

It still looks as good as the first one, so no quarrels there.

This game is $4.99 in the App Store.  You can grab it here: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kingdom-rush-frontiers-hd/id598581619?mt=8

Fast and Furious 6

Finally went and saw this yesterday with the wife.  Yes I know Superman came out but I had a way to go out with the wife and we both wanted to see this movie so it trumped Superman.  Ill be going this upcoming Friday to see Superman.

So back to Fast 6.  We really enjoyed the movie.  The only part that they pushed over the limit was the catch in mid air.  That's just not gonna happen and he wouldn't have gotten up if it did happen.  That's all ill say on that.

Still, the driving and stunts they did were still good.  If you have liked the previous movies then you will like this movie.

They definitely set it up for number 7 very easily.

Xbox One Day One Console

Preordered the console yesterday so I'll have this console right off the bat.  Now to figure out which games I want to buy to start out with on it.

Jeremy McGrath's Offroad

This game was on sale last week so I picked it up as it looked like an easy arcade to complete and I was in the mood for some racing.

The game is ok but it's not no top of the line game you just gotta have.  Hit one glitch where I got stuck in a spot that I couldn't get out of.  Luckily they have a reset button for when that happens.  I did flip a couple times but this game does not show any damage and the flip was not impressive.

In about 1 hour and 30 minutes you can unlock all but one of the achievements.  The last achievement you have to drive for 1000 miles in the game.  I tried doing a spin and letting my truck just spin around all night but it kept going wide and it got stuck.  Going to have to get that 360 turn going better or pick a track with a little more so it won't get stuck.  If you want to do it by driving it all, I think I had around 120 miles after the 1.5 hours of playing.  So around 7 to 8 hours to finish it up that way?  Ill stick to rubber banding the controller while its plugged up and earn it that way.

Backtracked to Eternal Sonata

Talking with the wife other day and she said I needed to finish all my games before we got it.  That's going to be a hard feat to accomplish considering all the games i own that i haven't even played yet.  She said to start on the oldest so I pulled out Eternal Sonata.  

Took me a little bit to get the game of playing and get back i to the story where I left off but now I'm enjoying again.  Actually popped 2 achievements the first 2 days I played it but none sense.  It's a low scoring game and it takes a 2nd play through to get all 1k in the game.  I don't think you can get over 340 on your first run.  It's that or less depending on how much you find and do in the game.

Im still playing some GOW just to mix it up some but will see how long or how many I get through before the year ends.

Clash of Clans - New Clan Got Destroyed

Why does this always seem to happen.  I joined up with another guy and he decided to leave and make another clan again.  So people started leaving to follow him.  Then one of his old clan mates, went on a kicking a spree before leaving being an absolute jerk and then left his self.  People wonder why nobody wants to give out elder in this game.  It's reasons like those right there that they aren't given up.

Sucks all this happened while I was gone on vacation.

Needless to say, I'm not staying in the name the guy made up and I had to leave my old clan name for.  So I will be recreating my old clan name and moving everyone back to it.  At least a bunch of people who got kicked came back.  I was happy to see that.  Hopefully when the move happens in the next day or so, they will all follow.  Just giving everyone time to rejoin before I create the original name I had again. 

So back to TheWrectchedOnes.

Nashville, TN

Drove up with the family to Nashville, TN where my wife grew up this past weekend for the Memorial Day weekend.  Had a good time.  Definitely a lot to do in that city.

Went over to the Parthenon in Centennial Park, took the kids to the Charlie Daniels park a few times, the kids really enjoyed the Adventure Science Center, went downtown to walk around to hear the music playing and go in some of the stores.

Went over to the Loveless Cafe, It was an hour and 40 min wait just to be seated.  That or you could do takeout and get it in 15-20 mins.  So we did takeout and grabbed a picnic table outside that opened up.  Was some good food.

I finally got to eat my first real White Castle burger.  It was pretty good.

Had to go by Red Robin, they always have good burgers.

Tried a new place called Cori's Doghouse.  They have all kinds of ways to make hotdogs.  The bread is like texas toast put together for the bun and they are some big hot dogs.  It's definitly worth trying as it was pretty good.

Went by this Chuy's resturant for mexican.  The chips and salsa were fantastic.  It's worth going for that alone.  The food was interesting.  I didn't like what I ordered that much and my wife didn't want the spicy meal she got.  So we switched plates and we both enjoyed our meals.

Ended up taking the kids swimming at the hotels indoor pool.  My youngest is finally starting to get how to swim.  After 2 hours of working on it, I was glad to see some progress on that 2nd night.

Got a backstage tour of the Ryman from one of my wife's friends.  That was a pretty neat tour and learning about all the historic value the place has.

It was a good trip and had some fun.  Definitely a town worth going too as we still have more to do that we haven't done yet.

Xbox One

The new Xbox One is going to be awesome!  I'm so buying one this Christmas.

They didn't mention the price yet but hopefully they will at E3 as they are supposed to reveal more.

The seamless transition between TV, Games, Music, Movies, plus everything else it was quick, smooth and nice.

If you missed the unveiling, go read up on some news about it.  You'll want it.

Carmageddon on Android

This is awesome.  They actually got the money to port this over to the android platform. I played this game way to much back in the day.

Looks like the promo is free for today only so get it while you can.

Doritos Crash Course 2

How about that, they put out a Doritos Crash Course 2 today.  Just over 300 megs and when you get into the game, it downloads more content.  What's even better is, it says the store is down and try back in a hour.  You can't even play the game.  What a bunch of crap that is.  So now its linked online and I can't play offline at all if their stuff is down.  Way to go Doritos, you screwed up right off the bat.

Clash of Clans Update for Clan

Well, over the weekend, I ran into a guy in the global wanting to merge clans.  After talking, we had the same goals and with his group, it should give us a solid foundation for making a good clan, plus keeping people in the clan that won't leave.  He had 2 things that he wanted, a new clan name and for me and him to make all decisions like elder and such. 

I didn't really want to lose my name I created because I really liked it and nobody else had that name yet in CoC.  However, looking out for my group, I chose the higher rode.  He came up with the name e-LEMON-ators.  I liked the name as I couldn't think of anything as it was late and I was ready to go to bed from all the talking to get the merge going.

I still remained leader and it took me about 2 days to get everyone moved over.  We lost a few as they haven't been online from the looks of it so they haven't seen the message for joining the new clan.  It's going to be hard for them to join in now because as of today I've taken off Anyone Can Join and set it to Invite only since we have maxed out at 50 members already.  The merger is definitely paying off right off the bat, so that's a good thing to see. 

As the weeks go by, will see who is being active or not.  That will decide if they stay or go.  Since we just merged will give them time but I'll be keeping track of how everyone is doing on donating so I can confirm if they really helping out or not.

So here's to another new beginning.

e-LEMON-ators

Clash of Clans - TheWretchedOnes

Say hello to my Clan for Clash of Clans.  It's called TheWretchedOnes.

The clan I was previously in, the leader just up and disappeared.  Then someone went on a kicking spree and nobody was recruiting new members.  Things were going bad and a bunch kept saying I should make a clan.  At one point, a group did break off and create a new one.  I decided not to go and create my own since so many people had asked me.  Had 12 people come with me.  So that's a good start for elders to recruit and pull new people in.  We made it up past the 20 mark after one day.  Looking for other players with at least 1000 in trophies to join.

So hears to a new start.

Xbox 360 Pizza Hut App

Now we're talking.  I can order a pizza right off the 360 now.

"Pizza Hut app comes to Xbox 360, unstoppable force meets immovable gamer" http://feedly.com/k/ZJtK1w

Gears of War Judgement

How about that, I won a copy of this game from Microsoft Expertzone.  Guess I'll get to play the new GOW sooner than later.

I did start it last night and I was told the controls are different.  At first it seems the same but then I realize it didn't.  Trying to get the hang of the grenade toss now and those subtle differences they made for doing those actions quicker instead of having to select it on the D pad like in the past.

Simplicity at its Finest

Simple stuff like this are good things to know.

"Top 10 Awesome MacGyver Tricks That Speak For Themselves" http://feedly.com/k/105Th3J

Animal Crossing 3DS Coming in June

I'm sure a few people will get this.   I know my wife will want it.

"Animal Crossing-flavored Nintendo 3DS XL bundle costs $220, arrives this June" http://feedly.com/k/15mxRrs

One Piece Cosplay

This makes me want to watch the anime as I've never watched it.

"The Revealing World of One Piece Cosplay" http://feedly.com/k/XQPcq3

Pinball FX2 - Star Wars Episode 5 Table

I was sent a challenge request from someone beating my score on the Star Wars Episode 5 table on Pinball FX2 so I've been playing it the last 2 days.  I was doing pretty good yesterday but last night I was dropping the balls out constantly.  At least until the last round I played.  While I was playing, I got the achievement on this table so that made my night just getting that.  I lost the ball soon after that but the cool part is, I was around 160,000 short from beating the score of the challenge I was sent.  Well, when I lost the ball, all the bonus points pushed up over that score and beat The Dren's score as well.  Which also gave me first place amongest all my friends that have played the table.  I don't get send Dren a challenge request ever, so to be able to send him one was a treat last night.  It's nice being #1 for a change.  Last time I had that was on the Hulk table and I need to try to reclaim that.  I still want to raise up my Plants vs Zombies score as I'm 2nd on that one but my current score is over 300M.  That's the highest score I have on any table and the person above is ahead by about 20 million.  So I've go to set down and try to get first on that table again one day.

Old Classic Snake Game Finished

I've never seen anyone beat this snake game.   To watch that gif and see it done is pretty cool.

"Here's How You Eat All the Pellets in Snake and 'Win' the Game" http://feedly.com/k/149ww7z

Interesting Parts of My Weekend

My weekend started a little early as I left work early Friday to go to the doctor.  Sure enough, I got pink eye in my left eye.  I got it in both my eyes last year.  Sucks getting it again.  So he prescribes me some medicine and I go to pick it up.  $100 bottle of eye drops.  I don't think so.  Had the pharmacists call the doctor back to get it changed as the last time I might have paid $10 for what I needed to fix the pink eye.  So I come back once it's ready and when I get home, it's an ointment and not eye drops.  So that makes it more annoying to do as it coats my eye as well.  So this part is no fun but at least the price dropped to $8 for it.  Only thing is it didn't say how long to put this very small tube of ointment on for.  So I called the doctors nurse and she said until it runs out.  That's going to be a good 2 weeks.  Hopefully it works as I'm not sure if it is or isn't right now.

Saturday morning and the first thing I needed to do was put down some weed and feed for the lawn while the dew still had the ground wet.  So knocked that out then I went to working on my car.

I borrowed some ramps to get my car up so I could change out the oxygen sensor on my car.  Bought the part around a week or so ago.  Got it a good price.  When I went into Advance Auto Parts, they didn't have it at that location and only one location in town did have it.  I had a coupon from a book I got from them in the mail.  The guy said if I bought it there, he would take 10% off for having to drive to the other location to get it plus take the coupon off.  Sounded good to me so bought it.  While the reciept was printing out, it printed out a rebate as well for $10.  So a $70 part I'm going to get for like $35.  I was happy about that.

Now to backup a little, I tried with a friend of mine that I got the ramps from to get the oxygen sensor off on Thursday.  We were on a time cruch and I couldn't get it off but the plug wasn't actually connected.  It just fell out when I touched it.  Which made us wonder if that's why it was showing up bad for the check engine light.  So he let me borrow his ramps and I went by Advance Auto Parts for them to check it.  It still showed the oxygen sensor was bad.

So back to trying to fix it myself, I got it up and no matter what I did, I couldn't get that bolt to turn.  I had even sprayed that oil lubricant to loosen up rusted bolts all over it.  Called my dad and if it's that stuck, I would need to heat that sensor with a blow torch to get it to expand so I could get it off.  However, having it up on a lift would make using it easier and just using the ramps wouldn't be a great idea as I didn't really have the room to be using it.  I called a shop I went to recently the last time I had an issue and the guy said if he could change it out in under 30 mins, he'd only charge me $20.  Said I'm on my way.

So I get there, he lifts it in the air and then he grabs a socket with a groove down the side for the wire section to go in for where the oxygen sensor wire is stilling out.  One good hard push and he got the sensor to turn and off it came.  Having the right tool for the job makes the world of a difference.  So $20 and my oxygen sensor is on.

When I was at Advance Auto Parts, that read out showed I was having misfires in the engine as well.  So I bought new spark plugs to replace the old ones.  That I knocked out myself fairly quickly.  Luckily I had a spark plug socket or it would have been a lot harder.

After all was said and done, I unplugged the battery for 10 mins to clear out the computer and then plugged it back up.  My check engine light is off.  My 1997 Saturn is driving smoother now like back when I first bought it and it still has air conditioning in it too.  It didn't lose it over the summer like last time.  I guess I should also mention that I replaced the E.G.R sensor in the car about 1-2 months ago as well.

After getting my car fixed, my 5 year old wanted to take her training wheels off again.  So I took them off and she finally got it.  She rode that bike on and off for most of the day, or rather, the rest of the weekend.  She got it down for turning while riding without stopping to turn around, got her to start pushing back for her brakes, got her to pedal up the drive way for the little hill climb and trying to get her to understand the importance of the rules of the road.  I had to make her get off and go inside since she didn't listen to me one time to make her understand that she has to be aware of her surrounds when riding a bike on the road.  I definitely need to keep a watchful eye on her until she understands when to get out of the way and how to pay attention to what's going on around her.

My wife finally finished Brave, The Disney movie Brave, so I could finally run through it on hard to knock out all the achievements she didn't get.  So I ran through it all and I got stuck, unable to beat 1 of the 4 bosses to finish it on Brave difficulity.  I was so frustrated.  The next day I finally figured it out and beat it only to not get the achievement.  I had to start a new game and beat it all the way through that way.  It's a lot harder without all the upgrades that I had from before.  I was smart though and made a new game save on the cloud instead of the xbox 360 hard drive.  So all the upgrades on the easy setting could be saved and not lost if my kids want to play with it on easy difficulity.  So last night after watching The Voice, I beat the game for a 3rd time and got the last achievement to finish the game. 

Saw on trueachievements.com this morning that beating Brave gave me my 140th completed game.  So that's cool.

I took Monday off to try to knock out this pink eye more but it's not making much of a difference.  So hopefully it'll mostly be cleared out before next week.

OwnCloud

I never realized I could have my own.   Plus you are able to do more with it being on your own site.

"How to Set Up Your Own Private Cloud Storage Service in Five Minutes with OwnCloud" http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/vip/~3/zaZQJ3JQ-jo/how-to-set-up-your-own-private-cloud-storage-service-in-five-minutes-with-owncloud

Wow! 200,000 Lego Bricks

This is very impressive.   I wish I had the money and time to build something like this.

"Mike Doyle builds massive city of Odan from 200,000 Lego bricks [Interview] | The Brothers Brick | LEGO Blog" http://feedly.com/k/XbQ3iv

A New Dragonball Z Movie

It has been awhile since a Dragonball Z movie has come out.   Seventeen years according to the article.

The article has some major spoilers in it but even after reading it, I want to watch it even more.

I hope someone dubs it in English so I'm able to watch it and understand what's going on. Especially since no international release is intended right now.

The New Dragon Ball Z Movie Isn't Deep or Profound, but it is a Ton of Fun [feedly]

Nimble Quest

From the people who made Tiny Tower, which can be an addicting game, they have now made Nimble Quest. They took something very simple and have made something really cool, fun, and enjoyable to play.

All they did was take the old classic snake game where you can't touch the walls, yourself and you eat to get longer which makes staying alive even harder.

In Nimble Quest you do grow but you add Heroes. You start out as a Warrior, skeleton, Mage, and many more Heroes as I have yet to unlock them all. As you progress through the stages, when you kill the enemies, a Hero will appear. All you have to do is touch him and he joins your party. I didn't count bit it looks like at least 20 different Heroes are available to get.

Once you get a Hero you can start off the round with that Hero and work to level him up. Each level increases his abilities and they, can go up 3 levels. I haven't figured out if me leveling up one person is level 1 in the game if I pick him up while playing with another Hero but I'm assuming they are.

So as you can imagine, the party gets longer and longer with the more Heroes you acquire. They do have health and you collect gems to help upgrade abilities along the way.

So if you didn't figure it out yet, this game is a small RPG. Only you never stop moving and kill everything on the screen to move on to the next level.

It's such a simple brilliant idea that they have come up with that I'm really enjoying it. I keep wanting to play it more and more. I've got a ways to go but I definitely want to unlock all the characters in the game.

Controlling your party with swiping which way you go really does make playing it more enjoyable. Just be careful to watch out for the slowly appearing enemies as I've numerously died from one spawning that I didn't see.

They do have an Arena section for online and I played it once but not sure how all the ranking will be. Some people already have some outlandish scores that I know I will never beat. I did create a clan name that all you have to do is type that name in and it looks like it puts you in that clan. Doesn't have any restrictions to keep people from joining anyone's clan. So if you want to join one, join mine for starting out, you can switch later very easily. Mine is called "Hobbits". That should be easy enough to remember.

Assassian's Creed 2

A friend bought me this game for my PS3 a long time ago and I never played it.  It took me two weeks to talk myself into playing the game and I finally started it last week.

It's definitely different than most games I've played.  One of the biggest things is the controller.  Starting out I really don't like the placement of how they make you press buttons to perform actions in the game.  Yes, I'll get use to it as I go along from repetition but I just hate they way they did it.  So that gives me a bad vibe for having to play through the entire game with that in mind.

Some of the buttons don't work but I think I have to learn more skills before I can really say it's not working as some things are starting to work where they didn't at first.  So I'll bring this up on my next post on the game I make.

The graphics are pretty descent but the white lines from the machine, which do remind you that it's not real, to me, takes away from the game some.  It's how they point things out, where to go and grab stuff from the white lines that look like it is computer made. It's pretty hard to find spots where you need to go as well. If its in the middle of the building, you might have to walk around the bottom to find the entrance, go on the roof and find it or a combo of climbing around just to get to the objective. I hope that gets better as I go along through the story.

I've only played it once so far for about 2 hours. Made it to the point of getting Assassins outfit and that's where I stopped.

Kingdom Rush Update on iPad

They released an update for Kingdom Rush on the iPad about 1-2 weeks ago.  This is still the best tower defense game I've ever played and always enjoy going back to it. 

In the new update they released a hard mode and two new boards to play on.  Glacial Heights and Ha'kraj Plateau.  Neither of which are easy to beat and it has taken me this entire time to beat them.

I started out playing the new maps and finally got 1 star in each of them.  I looked at the achievements and noticed one of the new ones was to beat the campaign on hard mode.  Since it had been awhile since I've actually played it, I started working on that.  I flew through hard mode.  It almost seemed too easy.  Was enjoyable going back through and beating the entire game again.

So then I went and started back to working on the new boards that released.  I focused on Glacial Heights first then went to Ha'kraj Plateau.  On both boards it took me using the gems in the game to buy a bomb that blows up everything on the screen to actually win them both.  They are very hard to beat but it is so much fun to play.

If you don't have this game, it's one you should really considering buying.  It's well worth the money.

Yu-Gi-Oh! on Xbox 360 is a Plus now

I was happy to see when they brought Yu-Gi-Oh! back to the Xbox 360 again but I never realized they added a Plus to it.  So I'm definitely a little late to the party posting about this but since I just found out, I gotta say something.

I loaded it up just the other day and had a huge update.  Couldn't for the life of me figure out why it was so big.  I haven't played it since they released it back out so I knew it would have an update but didn't think it would be that big.

So it gets done and I go to play.  Win my first match and the cards that popped up, I was like, I don't have that card, I've never seen that card on here before.  I was confused.  Went through a few matches and realized the players decks had changed as well.  I was thrown off for sure.

So jumped online and sure enough, when they released it back out, they put out a bunch of new cards for it.  I might have all the achievements but now I have a reason to play it to earn more cards to make more decks to play with.  So I'm a little excited for that.

Now if I could just get one of my friends to buy it and start playing it, I know I'll always have someone to play it with.

World of Keflings - Aliens

I finished this game a while ago but I bought the DLC at one point when it was on sale and decided to play it and finish them off.

Starting out on the Aliens one.  I got to the first achievement in the game after getting the lobster built and I upgraded it.  Well, I didn't read the text to well and I needed to make a 2nd lobster before I upgraded it as for the type of resources it was giving out.  So I spent like 20 minutes baffeling my head on a way to fix this without starting over.  Finally gave up, saved it and went to bed.

So of course while I'm laying in bed, I'm always running stuff through my head and the game was stuck in my head.  It finally clicked and I remembered I could destroy it.  Destroying it and rebuilding it should take it back to the original lobster.

So 24 hours later when I got to play it again, sure enough, I did just that and it worked.  Built a 2nd one and have both resources now.  Whew!  Close one.

So when the chicken came up, I built a 2nd one real quick before I did any upgrades.

So working towards finishing off Aliens and I'll move onto whatever the next DLC I got was next.

Dead Island

I bought this game a while ago and was playing through it then I got pulled away by other games.  A friend of mine got it out of the blue so I went back to playing it so I could play with him.  Needless to say I've been playing mostly this and last night I finished the game for the 1000 points.  I'm not buying the DLC to finish it completely so I'm done with the game.

When I first started playing the game, it was really hard.  Everything you do,  you take at a slow pace.  I mean, why wouldn't you, there are zombies showing up everywhere you go.  Actually completeing the game for first time through is going to take you a while to do.  There is an achievement in the game where you have to finish Act 1 with all 4 players.  Which is the last achievement I got.  After replaying that Act 1 for four times now.  I've gotten pretty good at this game.  It doesn't take that long to get through the quests that are given to you.  I even run more and take out the zombies easier.  Mobs are still hard as you just have too many to swing at and can't get them all.  Even so, this game at a fast pace is still fun to run through.

Part of the fun this game has is you get to mod weapons.  You have to find the blue prints in order to be able to make them.  They are scattered around the entire island, so you need to look for them everywhere you go.  Upgrading them changes the look as well so don't just leave them at level 1.  Max out the level of the weapon.  One you will really see change is the Hot Rod mod where your big knife will turn an orange glow like it's on fire.  It does some pretty good damage.

The game does have some glitches but I'm not going to linger on it.  I just wanted to mention to have a 2nd save of your save file as when you connect to someone or they connect to you online, if it freezes up, there is a possiblity that you could lose all your inventory for your character or lose that save file comletely.  So be careful when you start playing online to get your achievements or even with your friends.

There are a few guns in the game that you can make or get from someone who has them that are glitched guns.  I have an assault rifle that never runs out of ammo and kills everything in 1 or 2 shots.  I have shotgun that has lightning bullets that come out and destroys anything it hits.  I also have an unlimited sniper rifle.  So if you want to make the game easy, get your character to level 20 and you'll be able to hold these guns if someone gives them to you.

If you're looking for a good zombie game to play and you like open world, I would recommend picking up this game.  You will definitely enjoy it the more you play it.

What My Weekend Involved

Well this weekend was a result of what started last week. Last week my wife noticed water coming out from under the wall in the hallway. Come to find out it came from our bathroom where it came out from under the toilet. So I got this bladder to try to blow out the clogged pipe outside the house I found.  Tried for 2 days and it wouldn't go down. I was leaving for a business trip the next week so I needed to get this fix ASAP. So one friend suggested the water department and I called them on Friday. I meet the guy at my house and there is nothing in the pipe. It cleared itself out. He could tell it was backed up though. So he got a truck over and pushed a ton of water into the pipe. Nothing came back and it all went through, so looks like the problem is solved. So the weekend goes fine outside of the toilet in the 2nd bathroom gurgling some.

So Monday I leave and my wife tells me she had to plunge the toilet to get the water to go down and through the week it keeps gurgling filling up and going down.

So I get home Thursday and go check the pipe to see if its backed up. Sure enough it is. I call the water department again and the same guy comes out. He sees it is backed up and gets two different trucks to come out. One to flush it out and the 2nd one that brought a camera to put down the pipe. They pushed the pipe all the way down almost into the sewage part where it's not in the pipe anymore. It's still not going down in the water so they pull it out and finally get it cleared out to put the camera down in it. So they put the camera in and through three bends and a belly in the pipe only seeing one spot where the heavy rain is draining some water into the pipe bit it's not clogged up. They start pulling it out and when they almost pull it out of the hole they see roots in the line. The clog is right there almost where it starts. So guess what, it's over 12 foot from the curb, I have to fix it.

That's an expensive plumber bill so I make phone calls and try to figure some things out. One of my friends says he can help me fix it if I dig the hole.  He used to be a plumber so he knows what to do. Needless to say I was digging a big hole in my front yard Friday afternoon.

So I dig down and I find this.

I've got more than just a root problem. The pipe isn't even in the hole. It's half way down. It's amazing this wasn't a problem when the house was built 8 years ago. So I call my friend and I've got to dig it out so we can put in a new piece to fix the problem. So I dug it out until I couldn't see at night anymore.

The next day once I got back from running some errands, I finished clearing it out so we can work on it.

So my friend comes over, we go buy the parts needed and he gets it fixed so the slight angle is fixed and the flow is good.  Didn't have any leaks coming out either.

It's to dark to work on it so after church on Sunday I went to filling in the hole and I put rock salt around the new section where the pipe is connected to kill any roots from trying to grow into it. I didn't realize how many rocks I dug up until I went to fill up the hole. At least I got it all filled back in and will see if me digging the grass up with dirt under it will help it grow back faster.

So now it's all done and I spent around $100 to fix the problem. Bought a shovel, small spade, gloves, pipe, connectors for pipe, glue, cement glue and gave my friend some money for helping me out. Especially since he brought the saw to cut the pipe up where me buying a hand saw would have taken a lot longer. I was very grateful for his help.

So good luck to anyone out there who does this themselves. It's a good weekend project and I've been sore since Friday.

A Real Lego Harry Potter Castle

This is awesome!

Hogwarts Comes To Life In This Incredible 400,000-Brick LEGO Diorama

Wizardry Online

I think this is going to make for a good MMO.

Wizardry Online Launches. Prepare to Die, Permanently.

Tower Defense Game on Facebook

This looks interesting.   I'll have to check this out when it comes out.

The Battle for Steam-Powered Tower Defense Supremacy Begins on Facebook

Finally My Thunderbolt Update is Coming

I just checked and it's not there yet so ill keep checking.   I wonder how many days till it shows up that I can get it.

Verizon green-lights HTC Thunderbolt's Ice Cream Sandwich update

Paperman

I haven't seen Wreck-It Ralph yet but this was the short film Disney added at the beginning of the movie.  

I love these short classics like this.   Definitely worth a watch.

Watch "Paperman - Full Animated Short Film" on YouTube

That is A Pretty Cool Shirt

The Words with Friends Craze Justified By One Perfect Piece of Clothing

iPad Throws Out 128 gig HD and You Can anyone Thank Microsoft

If Microsoft wouldn't have put out the Surface Pro with 128 gig HD then Apple would have never moved over a 64 gig HD.   If you can do it,  why not just put it out and quit holding onto technology.   So thanks Microsoft for pushing the envelope and little.

Apple boosts fourth-generation iPad to 128GB for $799

Pinwar

This looks like it might be fun but I would have preferred better graphics from any new game coming out.

This is Not Pinball. This is PinWar.

Microsoft Surface Pro Arrives Feb 9th

I was right,  $1000 to get the 128 gig model.   I so want this but it's not gonna happen anytime soon.

Microsoft Surface Pro on sale February 9th in the US and Canada, starts at $899

Zombieland TV Being Made By Amazon

I'll so watch this just to see if they stick to the story some.   Loved Zombieland!

Zombieland TV show in the works at Amazon, headed for Instant

Jet Pack

This game has been in the Apple store for awhile but I've never played it.  Friends played it, told me about it and I just never played it.

Well my daughter gets it on her Kindle so I decided to download it and try to beat her distance in the game.  Took me a little bit at first but I beat it and then she beat mine and I beat her.  Now I've beaten my own score 3 times and the only 2 people on my Gamecenter that has it, I'm trying to beat their score now.  I'm just shy of beating one as I just went over 4000 km finally for the first time.

The distance was my focus but it's not just about getting as far as you can in this game.  The game gives you missions and you have to accomplish them 3 at a time.  So I've been working on them to finish it to see what happens.  So during my lunch hour I got the final one I was needed.  Once I got it, I cashed it in for a badge.  Looks like now you get to do it all over again to earn the next badge.  It seems they uped the ante though as you have to do more on this next set.  So I can imagine it's going to get harder by the end.  It definitely has caught my interest and I'm wanting to unlock more of the stuff you can do in the game.  It'll be one of my side games to play beside Clash of Clans.

Disney Infinity

Talk about mixing every thing into our enemy game.   This looks like fun for all ages.

You'll Be Able to Play As Jack Sparrow, Woody, Or Any Other Disney Character In Disney Infinity

Clash of Clans Town Hall 9

Well I've been saving for just over a week, fighting online to gain resources.  I hit up single player last night to gain on some resources and finally got up to 4 million in gold.  So I've officially started my upgrade to Town Hall 9 in Clash of Clans.  Now I have to wait 10 days.  TEN!  The wait time in this game is the worse.  It's either that or pay for gems to finish it now which I'm not going to do.

I guess the more interesting part is going to be who shows up in my searches.  I thought the game went off trophies for who was in your range to attack in the game.  One of the guys in my clan says I'll be compared with more Town Hall 9's once I have it.  I find that hard to believe as I've dropped in trophies and I see Town Hall 9's all the time.  I'm sure I'll be able to still attack other levels.  If he is right, then I will have to strategize my attack more and can't just drop everything down to rush in and steal resources.  I might not never move up if I can't gain resources.  It will make the game more funr and hard if that is true.  It'll push me to get all my troops maxed out which will be a big requirement of exilir that I can never seem to gain on.  I'm going to have to change up my troop building and change how I take out towns from this point forward to gain more and use as little troops as possible.

I did get up to 1 mil in exilir last night but I spent it on upgrading my lightning spell to level 4.  I can make 3 but dropping 3 on the xbow didn't kill it.  I'm hoping with it being upgraded, I'll be able to kill it and then I can attack towns with the xbow since it won't pose a threat since it'll be gone.  Hopefully I'll be able to loot a little bit more if that's the case since all the towns I run across with high exilir have the xbow.  At least, that's my strategy if this upgrade works.  That's 3 days away to find out.  If it doesn't, I'll save exilir until I get 1.6 mil and upgrade my spell factory so I can hold 4 spells in which I know I'll be able to take it out then.

Yu-Gi-Oh! BAM

I've been playing the Yu-Gi-Oh! BAM Facebook game since it came out.  I don't play on a constant bassis but it's nice to be able to play random people with their decks.  Which this isn't quite the same as playing the actual Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG but something is better than nothing when you enjoyed something a whole bunch.

They just did an upgrade to the layout and I like it better than the old design.  So props for them actually fixing it up.

I am hating they are putting cards on last chance to where you can't buy them anymore.  I doubt buying the packs is really going to be advantages for me and might push me away from the game.  It's already hard enough to beat someone who has spent money on the game.  You can tell when you play someone and they have all high level cards.  I'm just not going to spend any money on this in that regards.  If it was the actual game and not this modified version, I would have considered it more.  So will see how all this works out in the end.

I finallly spent all my coins and currency buying cards I wanted but with the last chance cards I spent the money on a card I hadn't planned to buy because it was worth buying the other card I wanted.  So will see if I can't earn enough of the DP in the game to buy the card I wanted to buy to help my do what I wanted it to do.

Here is a pic of what my deck use to be:

This is the new deck I'm going to try out.

It still needs some work but I've gotta start somewhere with it.  In the picture, the 2nd card from the left in the middle row I really need 2 of them for this deck.  However, the bottom right card is well worth more than buying a 2nd of those.  So will see if I can get up to enough DP to buy that 2nd one and go from there.

Clash of Clans on Clans Plus My New Base Design

Well, this happened 2 weekends ago now but it's something worth bringing up.  Especially if you are just randomly joining a clan in Clash of Clans.

I initially joined a clan and was promoted to elder.  Well, someone got in, got elder and kicked everyone out then left.  You would figure after a 2nd time, a 3rd wouldn't happen.  Well it did so a few of us joined up, left and started our own clan.  Been in that clan ever since and was helping to keep it running.  Well about 2 weeks before I was kicked out, the clan leader started changing how they ran things, kicked people out who we're active and wasn't sticking to any word they said.  I wasn't the only one noticing this so I decided to uphold one thing they said they were going to do and didn't.  Anyone under 1200 trophies by Jan 1st was gone.  Leader wanted to move up on leader board so everyone needed to move up in trophies.

I'll will add a blurb in here that you hit slumps in this game where passing a certain level in trophies and upgrading something like your town hall becomes very hard to do.  So you will set at that spot for a good while until you finally break through that barrier.  Getting town hall 6 will be your first.

So back to me kicking people out under 1200 trophies.  I kicked 5 out that I never saw on and were on the bottom of our list.  Granted there were 10 more under 1200 but I didn't touch them as I knew they were all trying.  So I stepped away for about 30 minutes and upon getting back into game, the clan leader had kicked me out.  Didn't talk, didn't understand or want to listen, just, POOF, I was gone.  I really hope some members left because of that but I have no way of knowing.  I'll miss the people I talked to on a constant basis as it was always fun.

I jumped into a clan temporarily to help out until I found a better one.  Which, when I joined, I let the guy know that up front.  Finally found one and they are family oriented, higher level and are great people.  They are all mostly US based so on around the times that I would be on.  So ill be sticking around in this one for awhile.  They are very helpful.

So when you join a clan, make sure it's one where everyone donates so you can always fill your clan castle up.  Don't ask for elder because if you are always around, eventually you will get it if you really want it.  It's not that important to have though.  The clan mates are way more important.



I'm currently on town hall 8 in the game.  Here is a picture of what my setup was before I tried out this new design a new clan mate has.

This new design I'm using is to help keep the wall breakers away but I have learned that someone with level 5 or 4 troops can get through and still take a lot of resources from me.  I really need level 7 walls to really slow them down with this setup.  the pink walls in the picture cost 75,000 but to upgrade the pink wall, which is level 6 to 7, they cost 200,000 a piece.  That is no light feat to accomplish.  In this picture below I'm going to try moving my town hall outside my wall so if someone comes in, takes it out for the 1 star and leaves with victory, I'll get a 12 hour shield and not lose any resources.  I'm crossing my fingers on that happening some.  Normally it would be in the middle, the middle bottom two storages would back out to where the two builder huts are and the builder huts would move back to beside town hall.  So will see how things work out.

Help on Posting

Looking for some ideas to help me post more on what's going on.  I've had a bunch of stuff I could have posted on but I never get around to doing it.

I've watched a few movies, had a big thing happen in clash of clans I still plan to post about but that was last weekend it happened.

I just can't seem to post about it anytime soon after I do it.

So any suggestions for how to do posts quicker and easier?

Lego Lord of the Rings

I finished up Lego Lord of the Rings last night after being stuck for 3 days trying to figure out if the game had glitched on me or not.  Before I get into that, I'll go into how the game is.

They did an excellent job on this game.  It covers the entire story and they hit the main points with all the cinematic parts.  If you somehow haven't never watched Lord of the Rings, you will get the story pretty good.

They do have the talking like Lego Batman 2 in this one which I think is a great addition to game.  The comedy for this one isn't a much compared to previous titles though.  They do still have them but it just wasn't the full funny effect like I'm use to seeing.

You will run into some glitches in the game.  There seems to be a few, especially looking at some online stuff.  I actually fell into the water and even though I died, I lived and was under the water where I was stuck walking around and couldn't do anything.  The biggest one that I was stuck on for 3 days, which I had hit before but it just never clicked until I did something to make me think of it, is when you pick up the scavenger items.  There are 3 per board.  You need to use someone from the fellowship of the ring to pick them up.  If not and you pick one up with say gollum, you'll see him carrying it around like you got it but it never registers that you got it.  If you can drop it and pick it up with another character from the fellowship, it will register and finally count.  I had done this on mount doom and it was down to me getting that to get 4 achievements in the game from the 1 item I needed to finish off and get all the rest.

My kids are really enjoying playing this game as well.  They go back and play all the lego games but I see them going back to play this one more and more like Lego Pirates of the Carribean and Indiana Jones.  It's just fun to play.

So now that I've finished this game, which is the first for 2013 for me, I am back to 100% of the Lego games compelete again.  Now I've got to wait to see what they put out next.

Go Bid

This is a pretty cool auction.   This is a collectors dream to get something like this.   I wonder what the ending bid will be added it starts at 5k.

You Don't Often Get A Chance To Own An Xbox As Cool As This