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
-- Please check out my Twitch at www.Twitch.tv/DaemonVirus1
-- Please follow me on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/KyleWelykholowa

     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

Better Than Bottom of the Barrel.

     I've just started a new job two weeks ago. So far, I think it's fantastic; I get to answer phones and enter hours and do whatever other office things and such. It's pretty fun for me so far. There's a lot to learn already which is pretty overwhelming, but I'm sure I can survive and continue here for quite a while. I think the most trouble I'm having so far is that we don't have a proper trainer. I do think we're learning things pretty well, but we're actually supposed to have a mentor to shadow us for some time rather than an associate who also has to keep up with her own work.

     Regardless of that, I feel like I'm capable of doing what is needed of me so far. I think it's really just a matter of doing the work on a regular basis and getting to know how everything works. I think in time, things will make more and more sense as I use the system, solve problems and complete required tasks. Everything seems to be quite organized around here, I just have to learn where everything is.

     I'm looking forward to continuing to work here in the future and learning to do a great job of what they need. It really makes me happy to finally be working somewhere that pays more than minimum wage and rather than being an atmosphere of "do everything faster", it's an atmosphere of "do what you need to please the customer" (even if it takes an hour). At least... that's what it seems like to me.

     Both excitement and overwhelmed nervousness flow throughout me right now. I need to figure out how to properly reallocate my time so that I don't feel so rushed and short on time. I think the future looks good.

Have a wonderful day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle

    

Upcoming Midterms

     Next week will be my first set of tests for this course. I guess I'll find out whether or not I'm truly learning anything in my classes. It's a little bit exciting to get a chance to see how well I'm assimilating information. So far a lot of the information has been a review of things I've already known or previously learned, but there's still things that I need to go over and practice before I'll feel perfectly ready for my tests. If I do well on these tests, then I'll feel much better about more schoolwork coming up in the future.

     That's really my random thought of the day right now. Besides that, I hope everybody has a wonderful day. I know I've been quite happy recently even though I've had to get up so early in the morning. Actually, I really never thought I'd ever be a morning person, but I do find it much easier to wake up in the morning now since working at the kennel.

     Anywhos, that's a story for another day. Have a wonderful day everybody. You're all fantastic! ^_^

~ Kyle

If I Can't Stream, I'll Post To YouTube

     Hey everybody! So I've really been wanting to stream lately in some of my spare time, but it's just not something that I'm able to do. Apparently with our internet and cable both on the same line, it's just not possible to get a faster connection. They've offered to put in a second line, but considering we're going to be moving in the near future, I don't think that really makes much sense. The new fiber stuff that makes InfiNet possible with SaskTel is pretty much completely done in Moose Jaw... except for the area that we currently live in.

     So, failing that, I've been recording some videos in my spare time to post to YouTube so that I still have some sort of way to share my entertainment value with the rest of the world. If you're looking for something to listen to, or watch, or whatever, consider checking out my channel on YouTube. I'm currently posting some gaming videos, but hopefully soon I'll be able to post another song. I also have plans to read a book or two and see if people are interested in that.

     I've made a page on my blog with links to the Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne parts that I've posted so far. You can check it out at  http://intronerdedliving.blogspot.ca/p/age-of-wonders-ii_5.html. Please let me know what you think of my videos!

     Have a great day everybody! You're all awesome! ^_^

~ Kyle

Montreal Pitbulls

     So I've been hearing a lot about this lately and to be honest, it really makes me a little bit angry. I absolutely love dogs. I think they're one of the best creatures in the world and I would happily have my own pack of them if I could. Hearing about this sort of thing going on really saddens me that so many people in the world really don't understand the nature of dogs.

     I've heard it said that Pitbulls are so much more aggressive and dangerous than other dogs. I would have to agree that Pitbulls can be dangerous. They were bred for certain traits such as having large and powerful jaws. Yes, this makes them very dangerous if one were to attack you, but no, this does not make them more aggressive than other dogs. A dog is not born wanting to attack and kill humans. A dog is born being able to be trained to reinforce good behaviours and to not do unwanted bahaviours. What makes a dog dangerous and unstable so that it would attack a person is being in an unhealthy environment, whether that means being abused, or just having an owner who has absolutely no idea what they're doing.

     Speaking of having no idea what they're doing... there are so many people who think a pitbull is easily identifiable just by the shape of it's head or body. This is so incredibly untrue.

Can you tell which one of these fifteen dogs is the pitbull? I'm sure some of you can, but not everybody knows exactly what to look for. And there are some cases where a dog is in fact a pitbull, but won't look like what you'd expect. Visual identification is not recommended by the scholarly community, so why people decide they should do it anyways is beyond me.

     I'm really not sure where to go with this besides the fact that this topic really upsets me. People who don't understand how dogs work are making laws about them when the scientific facts staring them in the fact tell them they're wrong. Yet they make these terrible decisions anyways. It seems like there's a lot of questionable things going on in the world right now, and I almost feel like the majority of them are being done just because people want something to fight about.

     Anybody who's reading this, please PLEASE educate yourself on how dogs work and why labeling a dog based on how they look is a poor choice. It's basically equivalent to labeling a person based on their skin colour or how tall they are. I currently have some experience working at a kennel where I've personally seen some of our best behaved dogs are in fact pitbulls. The worst dogs we have? Usually unfixed males are most aggressive, especially when near other unfixed males. The next worst dogs are ones who are clearly not trained well; ones who don't know their own names. In fact, I've been bitten at work by one one dog so far... by an itty bitty little shih tzu.

     Have a wonderful day everybody.

~ Kyle

Blizzard is dropping the Battle Net brand.

     After years and years of playing some of my favourite games on the good old Battle.net, Blizzard will be dropping the brand and changing it to be Blizzard Tech. To me, this doesn't really change much except to put some nostalgic thoughts of playing games like Diablo II online with friends and other random strangers across the internet.

     I'm always intrigued when it comes to changing up branding and seeing where things go from there. It always seems to be a bit of a gamble to me. That, and I see some brands like Coke changing it up quite often. I can't imagine having an entire brand rely on me coming up with some sales-pitch with the hopes that it captivates the target audience. There's the very real chance that it fails miserably and you actually lose customers in the process.

     In this case (for long-time customers like myself), I imagine it'll be a little bit weird for a bit. Ultimately though, I think it makes a ton of sense; and I think a little bit of weirdness is a minor concern considering new customers will have an easier time adjusting to and finding the new system.

     Really, this is simply a thought-provoking announcement to me. Something which makes me remember the past with games like StarCraft and WarCraft, and look forward to the future. Oh how I love watching the beautiful progression of technology since my birth in 1992. It's amazing to me how I've grown up with it and through it and I cannot imagine how older generations must think about it when they remember their past.

     That's all for now. Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle