Have Stopped Writing Here

NEW BLOG HERE!!!

Hiya, It has been a wonderful time, but Blogger is just not doing it for me anymore. Most of my views are from bots, the site is basically dead, I never get very many responses at all, and it is just time to move on. My review blog is literally the only one I had left on Blogger, whereas I removed or relocated all of my other blogs to Wordpress, which is what I am using now.

So if you are still interested in viewing my reviews, please meander on over to my new blog Raccoon Reviews. 

Theories of Relativity Book Review

This book was a pretty fascinating read. It's about a boy who gets kicked out of his home and finds a life on the street, where he dodges thugs and the cops while stealing and begging for change to get by. Winter is on its way and he is hungry and cold.

It's a story of broken families, abuse, and living on the streets as a young teen. Drugs, booze, hookers, shelters, good sameritans, the whole 9 yards. I am not going to ruin anything, but I have to say that this book was wonderful

However, I do have a few criticisms of it. It is very vague. things just happen, and sometimes from one chapter to another you are not entirely sure what happened. It feels like a DVD skipped over some details at times. The ending feels kind of rushed, with a huge scene near the end that involves Einstein that seems a bit out of place.

Aside from that the characters are very stereotypical. Which is probably what the authors were trying to portray, because at the end of the book in the authors notes, they do talk about this motivation for writing the book. The thing is though, some characters, like Twitch, or the father, are overly stereotyped. It just kinda felt as if it dulled the story. Some of the situations seemed a bit rushed and highly stereotyped as well.

But aside from some minor flaws, this story is pretty good. The main protagonist boy is smart, and has a very good heart, and life is just shitting all over him as he tries to learn how to deal with it and succeed.

And this story did portray what it was supposed to portray. There are many homeless teens who were either kicked out or ran away at a young age to avoid violence and abuse at home. Many of these people turn to drugs to dull the pain, once hooked they fall into stealing, prostitution, and begging to get enough money to even eat. Putting themselves in dangerous situations just to find a decent place to sleep and clean up, usually doing such in libraries and fast food restaurants. They are generally dirty, have no degree, and have no address, and therefore cannot get a job. They can usually get in trouble with street gangs, drug dealers, and pimps.

So for a book trying to bring attention to the issues street kids face, it definitly did its job. It's an excellent book, the storyline is pretty awesome, definitely a page-turner in my opinion. And that is saying something, because it usually takes me MUCH longer to finish a book.

Splenda Review

Now I usually don't do a lot of reviews on food, as I am not that good at food reviews. I usually just stick to videogames, TV shows, and books (Although it is not as if I never reviewed edible items before). But today I am going to go a little out of my way, because I have started to eliminate sugar in my diet and replacing it with this stuff.

First of all, what is Splenda? Splenda is made from about 5% Sucralose and 95% Maltodextrin and Dextrose. Meaning it has a whopping 3.35 calories a packet. I am not going to go into that hellhole of conspiracy idiocy on whether or not artificial sweeteners are good or bad for you. I don't conform to the fear-mongering that anything not natural is automatically bad for you. But I'll leave to politics to my other blog.

Splenda tastes a lot like sugar. Not exactly, but very similar. As I was trying to decide which product to use as a calorie free sweetener, I also tried Sweet n Low and Stevia. Both tastes... kinda bad. But Splenda was the only one that didn't taste bad, and actually tasted decently good. It did not leave that bitter aftertaste in my mouth and actually sweetened my tea and coffee instead of making it taste like crap.

Now don't get me wrong, Splenda is not perfect. I am still getting used the to taste of it in coffee, as it makes my coffee taste awkwardly not sweet the same way it makes my tea taste good. Not that it tastes bad, but it's not sugar. But as a sugar replacement, it tastes fairly good.

I still need to try Equal, as I heard that is good too, but I will save that for later. Maybe edit this post when I do.

ThisIsSand?

Thisissand.com is a excellent site for people who are interested in a new take on Microsoft Paint. When you first start out, the colors are random, but by simply pressing C on the keyboard, you can choose any color you desire. Pastel, earth tones, etc.

Is it fun? No. Is it interesting? Yeah. This is yet another medium one can use to express themselves, and there have been quite a number of artworks that people have made with this that I find pretty awesome.

If you doubleclick the mouse, you can use the sand continuously. You know, in case your index finger gets tired of holding down the left mouse button.

This game is also available for the Iphone, I can't test it out to see if it is as good as the internet version, saying that I don't have an Iphone. But I do recommend this. It is free, and certainly gives you something to do if you are bored out of your mind.

Art.

You Have To Win The Game

This game has no background music, which is good, as it will probably piss you off more. As it already pisses you off as much as Eryi's Action. There seems to be a lot of games where the main goal is to kill you every chance you get. It's not much of a puzzle game, just a don't die game. You know, like The impossible Game, that god-forsaken rage-quit creating blip on the gaming world.

The setting is pretty nice, as it actually looks as if you are playing the game through a badly rendered version of an old-school TV set. You can't expect too much from this game though, as it is a Free To Play game on Steam.

There really isn't much else to say about this game, because all you do is jump, and try not to hit spikes, bats, etc. The game itself is just frustrating, scarcely fun at all unless you are one of those people who completely love tossing your computer out the second story window of an apartment complex.

The games color scheme is pretty nice. It has pink, blue, black, and white. So retro. Aside from that I can't really recommend this game. But hell, it's free, break a leg... or a computer monitor.

Vertical Drop Hero's HD

If you are a fan of the all wonderful Rogue Legacy, than you will enjoy Vertical Drop Heros. They are pretty much the same game. The main role of the game is to choose between 3 choices of hero with varying different abilities, and fight an army of monsters to get gold, which you can use for upgrades to health, money, and strength for future heros after this one has died. And trust me, this hero will die. a lot!

The main differences is that while Rogue Legacy is a lot like Castlevania, Vertical Drop Heros doesn't have different rooms. On the bottom of every map is a main boss. Defeat it and it will open the door to a portal that will take you to the top of the next map. Each map getting increasingly difficult, but filled with better rewards.

You get to keep all of your money when you die, so make sure to use it sparingly. Because that money is going to be the difference between life and death. Obtaining green crystals will even allow you to skip a level, which has you miss out on valuable money, but allows you to go straight to the larger rewards and harder enemies for more of a challenge.

One of the most promising features of this game is it's multiplayer function, in where you can play this game with a friend.either online, or split screen. Which is one thing I would have liked out of Rogue Legacy. Which makes this game kinda like Mercenary Kings as well.

I recommend this game to all people who like games like Castlevania and Rogue Legacy.

Great Mashup

Just listen to the awesomeness, and you will see why I enjoy it. This is one of the best mashups I have ever heard.