Using Work Skills At Home

     This isn't really something I've thought about greatly previously, but I think I may have had a wonderful brainwave. At work, we have a daily task list. I'm sure it seems simple enough, but it's a really good reminder of what we have to do each day. And of course, we have the option of adding new tasks to future days if anything comes up that isn't normally on the list. I'm beginning to think more and more that this is something I should implement around the house somewhere. I think the easiest way for me to do so would be to use my whiteboard for such a thing.

     In the past I have tried a few different things with varying amounts of success. I've tried to just remember everything in my head... which works alright, unless you get distracted by something or are tired or anything to that effect.

     I've also tried using programs on my computer like a notepad or something; this works alright as long as you remember to open and update it every time something changes. This should be simple enough, but I've notice that if it isn't visible, it can be quite difficult to remember to update continuously.

     I've also used Google Calendar; this actually works really well also if you remember to update it all the time. This COULD be what I will start getting myself into a habit of doing along with updating my whiteboard. I think both options together would be a good habit to get into.

     Anywhos, I just wanted to talk a little bit about something we do at work that I think would be a good tool to implement at home to help keep everything under control and organized going into the future. We'll see where it goes from here. I'll keep you all updated.

     Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Christmas 2016

     The end of the year has passed and the beginning of a new year has begun. I don't know about you guys... but I think my Christmas was pretty amazing. Carley was trying not to give away her gift to me for so long. She was so excited about what she had gotten for me and I felt pretty bad for kind of ruining her surprise for me. I had a feeling that I knew what she had gotten me once we had gone to the store and she kept asking so many questions about Soda Streams. Obviously I asked her if she got me a Soda Stream, and her answer was no. She was actually believeable when telling me that she didn't get me one! Unfortunately for her... I noticed that she had gotten a little bit obsessed with Soda Streams, asking all sorts of questions all over facebook and looking things up about them such as whether or not you can carbonate milk. I believed her for a bit, but I still had a little bit of a feeling that I knew what she was getting me.

     As it turns out, I LOVE my Soda Stream; I like the texture of carbonated drinks. I've made a couple drinks using the specialized syrup, and I've also carbonated water flavoured with Mio. Soon I'll probably try a regular "glass" of juice just to see what that tastes like. I absolutely love what I got and couldn't be happier with my spoils of the holidays. Just for the record... anybody reading this who may be interested in getting one for themselves... the syrup for flavouring the drinks needs to be refridgerated after opening. That would have been nice to know before I opened them all and then left them all sitting out on the counter. Turns out the syrup will stop mixing properly after a while? Ah well, the good news is that more bottles are pretty cheap, so I don't think it's too much of a concern. Just something to keep in mind.

     Other things I got for Christmas include a positionable mannequin which I can use to help figure out how to draw people properly seeing as people are one of my favourite things to draw. I also got myself a set of drawing pencils (even though I don't really know how to use them properly). I also got a couple new table top games to play; one is more family friendly while the other is more for the "gamers" (which is totally cool with me... I just need to find someone to play it with).

     I had so much more fun this year with Carley's gifts though. I left her with the impression that she wasn't getting much this year by telling her that I wasn't able to spend much on her. Oh boy did I manage to give her so much more than she expected. I made her a new jar with love notes in it to tell her of things that I love about her. I got her a Wii U with some money I had saved up over the course of months of planning (she absolutely loves this new system!). And I took the time to set up an appointment for us to get a joint account together which is so much more meaningful to her than anything else. Oh yeah... I guess the dog is technically a Christmas present to both of us as well.

     Basically what I'm trying to say here is that this Christmas in our new house together was the best experience for us. I think we are both more than happy with the end of the 2016 year and are looking forward to seeing how 2017 turns out. With an upcoming child, a puppy, school, a jaw getting broken, and so much more to look forward to, this is sure to be a fantastic year!

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Where has the time gone?

     Is it just me, or does time fly by? Clearly I haven't been posting as much as I would like to be. I actually can't believe that I failed to post anything on the day we got our dear little Furgle. I guess I've been so busy that I haven't had the time to sit down for a while and type something up. It's kind of crazy that I haven't posted anything for the past three weeks. I guess it's time for an update then.

     Since my last post, we now have a sweet little puppy that we've named Furgle. He's a Shih Tzu / Cocker Spaniel mix, I believe he is now nine weeks old, and he seems to be learning quickly. He has a tiny bladder so it can be difficult to coordinate properly with the times that he needs to get him outside every time, but he's started scratching at the door to go outside and he does happily go outside to do his business when you're there to let him out.

     We have a Christmas tree with some presents underneath, some stockings on the wall, and a nice cleanish house. Obviously we try to keep it clean as much as we can, but we do get rather busy with projects and taking care of the dog. Recently we've started doing puzzles that we plan to glue together, frame, and put up on the wall.

     Besides that, I think we're both super excited for Christmas tomorrow. This year we have decided to spend Christmas day together with just the two of us. We'll open presents, probably watch a movie or two at some point, I'm sure we'll use our new presents, we're going to cook a fantastic Christmas supper together including turkey and stuffing. This year is going to be a great holiday; I'm so excited for tomorrow. 

Have a fantastic Christmas everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle

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Thoughts through my head.

     Usually I start a post with a title and an idea of what I want to talk about, but today I just sort of feel like talking about whatever and figuring out the title afterwords. This sort of blends into the fact that I find myself wanting to do quite a few things lately. I want to make some extra money on the side so Carley and I can go out for dates and things, I want to continue recording and posting my videos on YouTube, I want to read books, I want to stream on Twitch, I want to do homework ahead of time, I want to make blog posts. I want to do so much, but I don't even know where to start.

     Usually it's something like "I feel like I don't have the time to do that," but this time is really just a problem of not knowing where I want to start or what I want to do first. It's all so much fun to me that I hardly know how to contain myself, and yet when it comes time to do it... I don't know what to do. I don't think this is all a bad thing though, I think I just need to figure out what I'd like to do first and go from there. As I write I'm thinking of what I'd like to to later on today when I have the time to do so.

     I guess I have a dream of being able to do these sorts of things like blogging and video creating and actually making some money out of it. I think it would be pretty cool to make just $10 in a month solely based on the words I put out to the world, or the videos I've put together for all to see. I'm sure it's possible... I just don't really have a great knowledge of how to go about expanding the number of people my content hits. As far as I know it's sort of a waiting game to get more and more people to see my content and share it with others and have it continue from there. I don't know... I know it's possible, I just wish I knew how to make it happen faster and better and things. Perhaps I should start looking into getting into some kind of forums or something? There are so many options and so little time. I want to be successful but don't know if I have the time to wait for it to happen or if the process needs to be sped up by me putting more work into it. Perhaps this is just something I should take a little more time to think on.

     So here I am creating content for my own website. Perhaps not the most professional and amazing thing you've ever read, but it's me. There isn't any makeup hiding how I like to be or who I am. This is me on a day when I don't have a specific topic, just what comes out of my head as the day goes on. I think it's good to have a bit of a mixture between candid posts and ones that have been thought about more. It's good to be able to take some time to just post something every once in a while that doesn't require me to be all professional about it and give you all the proper details.

     This really gives me more time to think somewhat about how, if possible, I can make just a little bit more money than I am currently without getting a whole new job at the moment. I'd like to find something I can do (such as writing content for a blog) which could make me an extra 5 or 10 dollars every couple days. I'll have to look around and see if I can find anything to lead me in the right direction. More people to see my content and better content to attract more people; anything would help really. I think the most important thing though, is to keep at it; nothing will happen if I don't keep trying.

     Well, I think that's it for this post. I just thought I'd give you some idea of what's going through my head. Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle

It's been a week!

     So we've been living in our new house for a week now. We're not completely unpacked yet, but I don't think that's a bad thing at all. Carley is working herself silly trying to unpack everything all on her own. Well... it's not like I haven't helped, but getting everything unpacked hasn't exactly been my primary concern at the moment. I'm just happy to be working and living in a new place that isn't falling apart.

     I swear, ever since we gave our previous landlord our notice that we were moving, I started finding more and more and more things wrong with the place. And everything just got weirder and weirder and weirder as the time went on. I'm so happy to be out of that place, but oh my goodness the things that happened with that guy... I'm not sure if it was real life, or if I was secretly in some sort of reality-comedy show. Everything was wonderful at first, but over time, it sort of went downhill in my opinion. I'm not going to go into detail about it other than to say, I would personally never rent from him ever again, and if I were to rent from someone else every again for some reason, I would be much more professional about it and cover my bases.

     I have to say I'm really happy to be in our new place. Carley is behind me right now making such a huge dent in everything that needs to be done. Just with my presence here to talk to, she feels so much better about doing things and has accomplished so much. She even says it doesn't seem like it's been as long as it has been. Two whole hours of mostly me talking to her about my day and a little bit of back and forth. So much done in such a short time. I'm so proud of her, and I'm so happy to be at the point that we're at. I can't wait for the new additions to our wonderful family that are coming for us.

Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

5 Days Until Moving Day!

     For anybody who hasn't heard, Carley and I are moving out of our apartment which is currently falling apart. We take possession of our new house on the 25th at 11:00am. How exciting it is that we'll actually have a nice space of our own that we won't have to be embarrassed about inviting our family over to. Once we get some unpacking done, we have plans to invite some friends over for table top game nights, and we have plans to invite family over to visit and have supper.

     Maybe it sounds a little bit silly, but one of the things I'm most excited about is that we'll finally have access to fiber optics, so we won't be stuck on the awfully slow internet speed we're on currently. I'll finally be able to spend some time gaming with my friends without lagging out of everything. I'll be able to upload videos during the day so I won't have to waste so much power by leaving my computer on over night and while I'm gone to work. Also, if I can find the time to, I'll be able to live-stream once again!

     Now that I'm done my spiel on how excited I am for technological reasons... I think Carley and I are going to be super happy having a place of our own which isn't falling apart. We'll finally be able to have everything nice and organized just how we'd like it. There'll be a play room in the basement, a room for us and a room for Isabelle, an office space for us, and a nice backyard that we can actually use including a garden (if I can ever figure out how to grow a plant without killing it).

     I'm quite happy to be moving soon, and I think Carley is too, but she's also a little overwhelmed; she really doesn't like moving. Thankfully, this place will finally be a long-term place. We're already pretty much packed up; just have to pack dishes, the washroom, and food on the last day. Obviously we'll have to take apart the desks as well, but there's not much else to do besides that. We just have a ton of boxes filling our living room at the moment.

     Besides the excitement of moving, I've been at my new job for a little over a month now and I'm absolutely loving it. Working a salary is WAY better than working hourly; especially since my coordinator is so freaking awesome. I feel like I'm getting the hang of things quickly and she thinks so too.

     I still wish I could make a little more money on the side somehow, but I'm not really sure how I would go about that besides my long-term plan to maybe one day make a bit of money off my videos on YouTube and Twitch. I guess I'll just have to keep on making videos for now and we'll see where things go in the future. In any case, it's super fun for me to do and I hope others enjoy what I do as well.

-- Please check out my YouTube at www.YouTube.com/user/TheDaemonVirus
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     Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

(Written Sunday, November 20th, 2016)

Egg Inc. - Mobile Game Review - 10/10

     I've been playing this game for a few months now because it's just so much fun. Egg Inc. is an idle game where you press a button to hatch chickens which then run across your screen into a hen house where they then lay eggs for you to sell. As I read that, it makes the game sound incredibly interactive, but really the chickens laying eggs and making money from the eggs being sold is just something that is implied behind the scenes.

     So this game looks nice. It has a sort of art-style that I like to see and it's a pretty simple game. The most interactive thing about this game is that you get to shoot down drones which either make you large amounts of money, or golden eggs. Money is used to upgrade your eggs and farm so that you make more money faster and to hatch more chickens faster. Golden eggs are used for epic upgrades which persist even if you prestige.

     Prestige is a common thing to see in idle games. It's a way to make the game last longer by starting over again from the beginning, only with the added bonus of, say... + 1% to the money you make for each object you have related to the prestige system. In this game, it's another type of egg called a soul egg.

     (If you couldn't tell, a lot of this game revolves around eggs.)

     I found Egg Inc. on the Google Play store by accident just because I was browsing and instantly fell in love with it. I think it's a great adaptation of the idle genre. A game where you make progress, then continue to make some progress even while you're not playing the game. It starts off quite quickly even without any prestige. You soon find yourself unlocking new eggs, selling your farm to start a new farm where you make more expensive eggs over and over again. Everything goes great! Until you hit that roadblock...

     Like every idle game, it ropes you in with the promise of fast and rewarding progress. Completing missions left and right for those oh so valuable golden eggs. Upgrading your egg to the next level again and again. Until finally, you find yourself with a quest that takes a looooooooooooong time. And when I say long, I mean some of these quests would take a week straight of holding down that "hatch chicken" button until you finally get the number of chickens required to complete the quest. Or longer if you leave the game to hatch chickens for you while you're not there. And during this time, you either can't upgrade your egg because that would cause you to have to start over with no chickens... or you just don't have enough farm value to upgrade even if you wanted to.

     Now, when I say this, I don't mean this is a bad game by any means. That's just part of the idle genre. The game wouldn't last very long if it didn't come to a point where you have much much MUCH higher goals to reach. But at this point... if you're like me, then you want so badly to continue playing because you want to 100% the game. But at the same time, if you have better things to do and more fun things to move on to, it's just not worth it to continue playing.

     Even after saying that, I absolutely recommend this game. I got my girlfriend hooked on it too just by asking her to hatch a few chickens for me while I was busy. If you want something to keep you busy during those times when you're bored out of your mind, this game does deliver. Even if you don't finish the game up to the very end, I absolutely think you should give this one a go. At this point, I firmly believe this is the best idle game I've played.

     Egg Inc. gets a 10 / 10 from me for the idle genre. Have a great day everybody!

~ Kyle Welykholowa