=== Mobile Game Review -- Bricky / Blocky Farm - Farming Progression - 7/10 ===

What Are We Reviewing?

Hello everyone, welcome today to a review of... Bricky Farm? Blocky Farm? I'm not EXACTLY sure which one is the truth at this point as the game name on the app store says Bricky Farm, but when the game is loading it says Blocky Farm. The game at this point appears to have a little over 70,000 downloads on the app store as a free game.

Gameplay:
Farming. Farming games are quite popular these days. It's an easy concept to understand where you plant a seed and it takes time to grow dependent upon what kind of seed it is which determines how long it takes to grow, what it's worth, and potentially what it can grow into. What a fun style of gameplay!

There's even options for customizing the look of your animals including chickens, cows, and pigs with sunglasses and hats and things. Animals are quite important as the crops which are grown can be made into food which is fed to the animals who then produce resources which are used along with other crops to bake cookies and make cream and all sorts of other options which all takes more and more time as things get more and more complicated.

What I don't really get is that there's a pet dog in the game which you're given to take care of and some quests are given every once in a while to take care of the dog as well... I haven't really found much use in this though other than it spends money and gains experience in the process.

Speaking of quests and things... a lot of the gameplay revolves around completing orders from people who visit the farm and ask for things or by a nearby board of orders to be delivered by your own truck. There appears to be more which can be unlocked including a train, a fishing boat and possibly even more!

Graphics:
If you've played anything like Crossy Road or other voxel-designed game, then that's the art you're looking at. Definitely a cute design which has been done well in the past and is still done well to this day. Personally I prefer anything which has a painted look to it, but I don't mind the bright colours coming at me in Blocky Farm.

Replayability:
This game... is... alright. I would actually say it's one of the better mobile games out there, but it still tends to lose my interest. Not because the game is bad or poorly designed, but because of the time limits on everything. When I play a game, I want to be able to lose myself in it without having to take pauses all the time... which is exactly what free-to-play games tend to do. ESPECIALLY when they rely on advertisements to make money which all requires people coming back over time when new ads are available to watch. So yeah... I get it. I would come back to this game and play it more if there weren't other games I'm interested in playing.

SUMMARY:
It's an alright game that I would again say is something I'd come back to much more if I didn't have other games on my radar. I'm happily giving Bricky Farm or Blocky Farm (whatever you wanna call it) 7/10 because I think it's well-made, but seemingly unfinished and unfortunately it may never finish based on the research I've done. I guess we won't know until we wait on it for a little while.

~ DaemonVirus

=== Camping For Nerds ===

     This is the story of camping for nerds. Last weekend we went on our first trip of the year out to our favourite spot at Lake Diefenbaker where we did a trial night of camping. Surprisingly, this went very well and I would like to go out again for a longer period of time.

     We could have gone for longer, but we had no idea what Autumn was going to be like as this was the first time she's been out on that type of trip with us. Furgle had a wonderful time which I think was even better than last time because he had someone of his own energy level to run around with instead of just following us the entire time. We also weren't really sure how Isabelle was going to handle sleeping over at my parents' house considering she hadn't stayed there for the night before (though I wasn't terribly concerned about that because she HAS stayed for the night away from us before).

     So what is this craziness all about? I know, I know... I'm a NERD! What is someone like me doing OUTSIDE in the FRESH AIR??? As it turns out, even though I really like being inside in a dark hole playing games and doing whatever with technology, I also really enjoy being outside in the calm fresh air. Do I like walking down the street with a bunch of cars racing past? It's alright, but not my favourite. What I REALLY like... is going outside somewhere nice and quiet and enjoying the peace. There's something about the lack of man-made sound that really gets to me for some reason; really makes me feel at peace to have that every once in a while. I would gladly spend an entire day wandering around in a place like that. This is why we need to go back again (even if the water still isn't warm enough to swim in) for a longer period of time. Like... maybe four days next time would be perfect.

     Sometimes I forget that there's always things going on at home. Unless I'm relaxing and reading a book while everybody else is sleeping, there's probably something going on. I almost always have music or a show playing in the background or off to the side of whatever I'm doing. So sometimes I find myself driving down the street without the radio on and the window down just because it's nice to have some kind of getaway from the constant noise. Maybe that's why I like hiking so much, because there's just the peace and quiet of wandering around in the nice weather... unless I feel like listening to music.

     We had a fantastic time out at the beach; our special beach. The first thing we did was set up a 10-man tent which was a little bit confusing at first, but once we realized what was going on, it was a pretty easy system to figure out. We had time to wander up and down the beach looking for interesting things and to gather "firewood". Everything was rather damp, but that didn't stop us from getting a fire started anyways. It wasn't any sort of large blazing conflagration, but we did get something self-sustaining and it felt like a nice accomplishment... and the marshmallows tasted great.

     I'm already looking forward to the next time we get to go out, though that unfortunately probably won't be until late July. I guess we'll just have to get out for some nearby hiking and picnics to hold us over until then.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Fall Writer's Block ===

     Alright, so I've been trying for the past couple weeks to come up with something fall-related to post about. I've wanted to talk all about the pretty colours, the yummy food, and the perfect temperatures at this time of the year... but unfortunately I just can't think of enough to tell you all about.

     Around here many of the leaves go from green to yellow and then fall off right away. There are a few trees which get to orange and very few which get to red; it's a quick Fall season in these parts. One day I'd like to go travel somewhere where the Fall season would be much longer and more beautiful. I've heard there are some places in the US where things change all sorts of colours and stay that way for a long time.

     Turkey seems like it can take just as long to make as the Fall season. It's a lot of work to get cooked, but once it's done it's one of the best foods around. I know my fiancee would happily eat turkey pretty much every day if she could. I could live without turkey... as long as I had a massive supply of stuffing; that's my personal favourite. We've been working on making more interesting meals around home recently as well, which is another story of it's own.

     Besides the serious wind storms we've had recently the temperatures have been awesome as they always are at this time. We set a new record for wind speed at 130 km a couple weeks ago. And yet, it was still a pretty nice temperature outside. Luckily for me I managed to get home after work before the wind storm started up. I'm hoping everything stays like this for a little bit longer. At least long enough that Halloween night isn't too chilly.

Well anywhos, that's all for now! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== My Extra Child - An Examination of Carley's Brain ===

     Now that's an interesting title, you must be saying to yourself. What could he possibly mean by that? Today I would like to tell you all about something very important to me. Three years ago when Carley picked me and I decided that she made me a happier person in my time of depression, I couldn't have imagined where it would bring me and what I would have to deal with to keep her in my life. Some people thought I was crazy, but I knew there was a reason why I would be drawn to her and feel a need to help her in her time of need.

     Today I find myself in a family with two adults, one dog, and two children. Those who know me would know at this point that Carley and I have only had one child together. Does that mean I've had another child with someone else previously? No it does not. See, Carley sort of accidentally brought a child of her own into our relationship. I realize this explanation isn't getting any better to understand at this point... it just sounds like one of us has an extra child, which is sort of true. See, Carley doesn't have an official diagnosis for multiple personalities, but I can confidently tell you that she absolutely has a complete additional personality.

     This personality came about when Carley was three years old and her name is Kylie. Currently through a process of having birthday whenever she has felt ready to grow, she identifies as being fifteen years old; though she will always have the characteristics of being three. So in essence, I have an extra child running around here sometimes whom I get to take care of. She's absolutely adorable and I love her in every way. It can be a little bit difficult when I'm exhausted and now I have to care for both Isabelle and Kylie at the same time, but for the most part it's really nothing at all. She started calling Carley and I mommy and daddy recently which is nice because we know she feels loved and cared for, which is something she requires to feel ready to grow as time goes on.

     How could I be so alright with this just... happening? Some may think I would have been alright with this because I was so madly in love with Carley at the time and we knew that she was pregnant, but that actually has nothing to do with it at all; well... I was madly in love with her, so that part is true. The thing is that we had already dealt with this sort of situation before. When Carley and I first met, she started having seizures shortly after getting hit in the head. These seizures left Carley in a bit of a silly state for a long time afterwords which a normal seizure event wouldn't do. We went through a whole process to finally find out that the seizures were psychological which is physically the same as regular seizures, only these tend to have more triggers as they are usually due to some traumatic event(s).

     As this process went on, I learned that she had another personality named Little Carley who was five. At first, she grew whenever she felt like she had completed some sort of milestone such as dressing herself or cooking her first sidekick all on her own, but eventually she realized she didn't really feel like she had grown and we figured out that she needed some sort of birthday celebration to make herself feel older. Yeah, sure this was weird and a bit annoying at first, but Little Carley quickly became a part of our little family and we figured it all out together.

     There was a lot of frustration and anger and many other feelings which were incredibly difficult, but we got through it all. Having someone in your life who has this going on is just... incredible. It's so hard to truly explain just how amazing of a journey this has been for us. I think it's unlikely that Carley will ever get an actual diagnosis for this because I don't think Kylie has any want to come out and introduce herself to the psychiatrist. So if you're needing some sort of documented proof by a medical professional, you're not likely to see one. However, I can tell you that this is incredibly rare and that even the medical professionals don't know very much about this phenomenon. There isn't anywhere readily available online or in easily findable books where you can learn about this. It's just not something that many people have, and I don't think there have been enough cases of this for there to be enough research to really know how this all works and what to do about it. Believe it or not, I think I'm one of the few people in the world who really has a great understanding of this phenomenon.

     As far as I can tell, at this point the psychiatrist believes this is a disassociation thing. I guess multiple personality disorder is not what the diagnosis would be called anymore, but I don't really like the thought of calling this Dissociative Identity Disorder because it's not just her acting differently or watching herself do something without being able to control herself. I can truly say this is a complete additional personality which could take control of Carley at will and has different thoughts and likes than she does. There's so much about this to talk about, but it's too much to let out all at once.

     Why am I revealing this to you? We have decided this is something we want to do for two reasons. The first is that this is a huge part of our lives and there are some situations where this can become a little bit strange. Obviously Carley and I go out places sometimes, but I also go out places with Kylie at times so some people do potentially see Carley acting in two different ways and they may have questions about this. Now, we really don't need to explain ourselves and if you don't believe us or if this makes you uncomfortable, then that's your problem; we're still going to go about our lives whether or not people support us. The second reason I feel it necessary to reveal this information is because mental health is a very difficult topic to discuss. There's so much more going on and mental health issues are so much more prevalent than anybody really knows, but we're all so afraid to talk about it out of fear that we will no longer be normal or we'll be judged so heavily if there's something wrong with us. This is the sort of thing we need to start talking about so that more people are comfortable coming forward with this valuable information.

     If anybody has any questions, feel free to comment on here, on Facebook, on Twitter, or anywhere else you might find this post. You're even welcome to email me directly with any questions at Kyle.Welykholowa@gmail.com. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Reactor - Mobile Game Review, Idle City Builder - 6/10 ===

     Welcome everybody to my review of Reactor, what I would call an idle city builder. I have quite a bit of experience with idle building games as I have a phone and a lot of spare time to kill at times. I mean, sometimes I just want to open a game, upgrade some things and close the game. Yay, I feel like I'm being productive and progressing through the game because I'm now getting more than I was getting before!

     Unfortunately with this game, it's just not the best example of this style of game in my opinion. There are some games where you have to press a single button to progress faster than if you were to leave the game to itself. This game has a lot of buttons to press... at first. When you start playing Reactor, you have to build windmills which stay alive for a period of time until they run out and then you have to click them again to bring them back to life. During this lifespan they create power which you must then press another button to sell this power for money. This is all quite a convoluted process which isn't really all that much fun as the game starts.

     As usual there are a lot of things to buy which progressively make more and more money, but as with most games of this type, they're locked at first until you reach some sort of goal or pay an unlock fee or something of that nature. Sooo...

     Then you learn about research. This is another type of building which you can create which will make research points every second. This research can be put towards many different things including the ability to sell this power automatically. Alright, so now we can make buildings which automatically sell some power for money, but they take up a lot of space, and none of this is feeling fun to me yet. Research now leads into other types of power which can be created as well, but then things start getting really confusing and suddenly you realize you don't have any space left and you have to wait quite a bit of time to remove objects in the landscape which are in the way.

     The game seems little complicated for an idle game to me compared to the other options out there. I'm sure there are people who would enjoy this type of thing, but this isn't really what I'm looking for when I'm looking for a mobile game. I just find the way this game tries to balance certain buildings with the space that you have a little frustrating; especially when it makes me wait for 4 sets of 60 minutes every time I want to remove a mountain or a tree in the game.

     This isn't an awful game; I would play more of this game if I didn't already have better and more fun games to play. I'm going to have to give this game a 6/10 because doesn't catch my attention, but it's not bad.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== When Dogs Go Wild ===

     So recently I find myself torn between my love for our dog, and my dislike for him getting into things; it makes me furious when dogs go wild. Our dog is a black shih tzu / cocker spaniel named Furgle; he's super cute and does the most adorable things when he's trying to get your attention, or when he's just TRYING to be cute. I absolutely LOVE him and he makes it so difficult to stay mad at him when he does something wrong.

     Just yesterday we came home after a day in Regina to a torn up pile of swim diapers and a couple other objects from around the house spread around the floor of the living room. That right there is a lot of valuable money that we don't want to have to spend again... but I also understand where he's coming from. Most other dogs don't have a problem with separation anxiety like he does though.

     When I say separation anxiety, I don't mean your average run-of-the-mill "Oh no, my family is gone so I'm going to be sad" sort of stuff... I mean "WHERE ARE YOU? WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? HOOOWWWWWLLLLL!!!!!" Mix that with a little bit of puppy / cocker spaniel chewing on everything destruction and you've got our dear Furgle. I know I make it sound bad, but he's really not THAT bad. He's pretty calm when we're home most of the time and even when company comes over, he calms down pretty quickly as long as they actually let him sniff them... or jump all over them.

     Jumping isn't the only bad habit he has which we'd like to get him out of. I'm sure some of this he'll grow out of as he gets older and after he gets fixed, but he likes to bite SOOOO MUCH. Don't get me wrong, I love to do a little bit of rough-housing, but I HATE being bitten. So currently that's a never ending fight to get him to stop with that along with jumping (which is also pretty cute) and getting so frantic whenever there's a door between us and him. Currently I absolutely no idea if we'll ever get him out of that last habit... we might be stuck with a dog who doesn't want to be separated for the rest of his life. I think I would be alright with that; It's really not so bad having him always want to be around us.

     He's absolutely a sweetheart and the cutest dog in the world when he's not so busy biting us all the time. He's super athletic so we're thinking of getting him into some agility training at some point. There's actually a dog agility club here in Moose Jaw believe it or not. I think that would be good for both him and us. And of course, we'll get our dog to stop going wild with a little bit of help from a puppy-training class after we get him fixed.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Rollin' rollin' rollin' ===

     So recently Isabelle has decided that she understands how to roll from her back to her front and from her front to her back. Lately she's been rollin' rollin' rollin' all the time back and forth. It's kind of adorable that she just does it whenever she pleases, but at the same time it can be a little bit dangerous and occasionally mind boggling when she decides she's too lazy to roll back and then cries about it.

     We used to leave her on the couch at times to hang out in comfort rather than being on the floor, but now we can't really leave her anywhere with some height to it because she might roll right off and hurt herself. This isn't too much of a problem, we just have to be careful to remember to put her somewhere safe before leaving her for a moment to do something else. I can't imagine how awful I would feel if she fell off of anything because I forgot to put her down.

     Then there are times when she wants to roll over a bunch but she's too tired to keep going. Sometimes she will roll from her back to her front then she'll get frustrated that she can't make it back over again. She'll start to cry like a banshee in pain so we'll go help her out and flip her over only to have her do it again and again. Sometimes I absolutely don't understand what could possibly be going through her head. Unless she somehow understands that it gets her the attention that she's looking for.

     I actually watched her one morning after putting her on the bed with Carley roll over onto her tummy... then Carley turned her back and she rolled right over again... so Carley turned her back and she kept doing it again and again until Carley adjusted and picked her up. I'm pretty sure it won't be long now until she starts figuring out how to move and then it'll be all sorts of fun having her wander around the house.

Good luck to us. ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Road Trip To The Beach ===

     This past weekend we decided to go on a road trip to the beach. What a wonderful time we had! I won't tell you exactly where at the beach we went because I don't want to give away our special little place to everybody in the world, but I will tell you that there are many places along the coast of Lake Diefenbaker which are so calm and peaceful with nobody else around.

     I would love to post a bunch of pictures along with this post of our trip, but unlike last time when I proposed to Carley, I decided not to bring my phone with me this time. I'm pretty sure if I had brought my phone, I would have been worrying about what time it was and wanting to take all sorts of pictures and being distracted the whole time. So as it turns out, not bringing my phone was one of the best choices I could have made because it just made my trip all that much more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise.

     Honestly, I would have loved to have stayed there even longer. The water was warmer than last time; still a little bit chilly, but I was able to wander around without my feet freezing off. I enjoyed there being nothing other than the sounds of the winds and the waves to listen to while I wandered around and looked at the beautiful landscapes. I don't think I can explain how amazing it feels to be there away from all the technology and people and everything stressful in the world. It's just nice to BE for a while out there.

     This time around we brought some company with us. Rather than only going with myself and Carley, we decided to invite Carley's sister Tori to come along. The extra company was quite nice to have an additional person to talk to and hang out with for a while. Tori is very much like myself and likes being away from all the people so the two of us can happily be around and enjoy the silence for quite some time. I think I have a greater capacity to enjoy being outside to take in the peace (though I do understand her want to be back home where all the rest of the fun is).

     There was another guest we decided to bring along this time as well. Our fantastic dog Furgle got to come along with us on his first road trip. I was incredibly concerned that he might just decide to go run off into the distance or find a person and chase them rather than listen to us, but as it turns out he's quite fun to have along in the wild. He listens pretty well and even pays attention to us rather than wandering off the whole time. Our sweet Furgle isn't the biggest fan of water, so he spent a lot of time standing on the edge of the dry land and whining at us because he couldn't reach us. Maybe we're cruel, but we made him join us in the water a bunch and learned that he can swim quite well when he must.

     I doubt we'll be able to go again this year, but maybe there'll be some time for us to go on a couple family hikes somewhere nearby in the Fall time. Here's hoping there are much more fun adventures for us to go on in the coming months.

~ Kyle Welykholowa ^_^

Racing

     Why is it that so many people get so excited to watch racing? Don't get me wrong, I think powerful and fast vehicles are pretty cool, but cars are just so common-place to me that I don't find them to be very interesting. If I were to get myself past that first hurdle of vehicle boredom and then actually watch a race go on, I would then wonder why I'm watching bodies of metal, plastic, and rubber go around a track over 100 times for the next few hours.

     Something about watching engines rev around a track really gets some people to be quite excited, but if it's not the vehicles... what is it? It could be an endurance game; it does take a long time to go around a track 100 times and if you go too fast you'll ruin your car. So does that mean the entertainment is in watching drivers try to gauge how far they can take their vehicle before it needs to be fixed? Something tells me that's not quite right...

     There must be some kind of strategy behind racing, right? I haven't a clue what sort of strategy there is behind turning a wheel left and right and putting the pedal to the metal. Oh alright, I do understand that you have to practice to learn how hard to turn and how much to speed up and slow down for every turn. You also need to learn to shift gears at the right time and properly. But... why would people be interested in watching racing for that reason? I mean... you can't exactly see the driver doing what they're doing from the stands.

     I'm pretty convinced the real reason is because everybody wants to see a fiery car crash. I mean, maybe not... but that's probably why I would watch it if I did. Because I would want to see a fiery car crash. I'm sure there's more important things than that, but what other reason would there be to watch such a sport unless you're really into cars. As a nerd, I'm not too much into cars; I only know what I need to know to get from point A to point B not much more than that. Cars are a bit of a mystery to me in all honesty and I'm not really sure why someone would want to race them.

Anyways, have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Tiny Sheep - Mobile Game Review 8/10 ===

     So even after saying I would stop playing Egg Inc., I find myself still playing it just because--oh wait... this is Tiny Sheep. I don't often find idle games to be a lot of fun, but recently I have found a few which I believe are worth mentioning.

     Tiny sheep is a game where you clone sheep in an effort to make money by selling different kinds of wool based on what farm you have. You have to make more and more sheep which passively earn you money until your farm value is high enough that you can upgrade your farm to the next wool type. The visuals are fun and if you enjoyed Egg Inc., you'll enjoy this game as well. The biggest different really, is in whether you would prefer chickens or sheep.

     Now, recreating a previous formula in a new way is not a bad thing at all; this game is certainly fun. The problem I see with recreating something in a different image is that it either has to have some improvements, or it won't be terribly more interesting than the previous iteration. Unfortunately for me, this game is so incredibly similar to Egg Inc., that I feel as though I have to give it a lower score than I gave to Egg Inc. Tiny Sheep does make you feel like you are progressing quite quickly due to using large values of money and giving you lots of large bonuses through watching ads, but upon closer inspection, it feels to me either as though the rate of progress is the same as before, or less.

     I'm not sure what to say about this game that hasn't really already been said in my Egg Inc. review (which I keep mentioning a lot, and for that I'm sorry). I do really like the visuals in this game; I think I actually like them more than Egg Inc. You still have birds (drones) to tap on to make extra money, there is golden wool (golden eggs) for more important long-term research, and you're still filling barns (hen houses) and driving your wool (eggs) off to the world for profits.

     Tiny Sheep is a fun game, but it isn't a new game. It's not bad, but it's not something fresh. I'm going to give it an 8/10 for Idle Games for those reasons and put it to rest after having just got it, because I already know this game inside and out.

     Have a great one everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Apartment Life

     Is there any escape from the noise of living in an apartment? It seems not. Now, I don't exactly have a ton of experience in apartments seeing as this is only the second one I've lived in... but it seems common so far to have a lot of noise to listen to from the other tenants. The family on the same floor as myself seems to have children that I can hear sometimes when they're having a bath or whatever. I don't mind them, I don't hear them often, and when I do I understand that they're children and they're not like... yelling really loudly in an attempt to annoy everybody around them. They're just being kids.

     The girl upstairs on the other hand. I can't tell if she's living with someone else or not, but I QUITE often hear hear bawling or yelling about something. I can actually currently hear her telling someone to "F" off. This, I find to be a little bit annoying. Most of the time I couldn't care less because I have music or whatever to listen to rather than having to hear her. You would think that myself being the interoverted nerd I am wouldn't mind too much and that I would put on my headphones and tune her out... but even I have my limits. My goodness.

     It's honestly less that I find her annoying and more that... it makes me feel bad for the actions of myself and Carley in the past. I'm usually not very quick to anger, but if someone knows how to, they could probably annoy me pretty easily. I'm definitely working on keeping my anger down, I think I've handled things a lot better recently; I could always use a little bit of help though. I don't know about other people, but I find it quite bothersome to have someone get so quick to anger when I'm only trying to be accepting and understanding. What I admire most in a person is them being understanding and forgiving even when it's so hard for them to do. That's something I strive to do.

     So I guess I have to wonder what could possibly be going on up there that I hear this sort of thing going on every couple days or so. Even though I wonder about it... and wonder why she keeps subjecting herself to whatever is going on up there over and over again... I have to look at myself and remember that I have done the same thing. I hope my future is less argumentative and more understanding than is has been in the past. The future will tell me what happens.

~ Kyle