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.

Cosmos: Episode 1 review

Now I watch documentaries and stuff all the time. So I am not new whatsoever to documentaries, and lectures, etc. But for some reason I didn't jump at the chance to watch Cosmos as soon as it came out. I guess I was just busy, or just simply uninterested, but I heard so much hype about the show, both from fans of the show and the creationists who hate science and are upset that Cosmos doesn't mention their deity in it, that I HAD to watch at least one episode.

And holy shit >_> this show is magnificent! For everyone who has even the slightest love of science will love this show. The first episode talked about the history of our cosmos all the way to present day earth. If the timeline of the cosmos was compressed to the size of a calendar year, all of recorded human history would have taken place in the last minute, of the last day of the year.

The whole grand scale of the universe itself is mindboggling, as our earth is less significant in the grand scheme of things than 30C in homeopathy is significant in modern medicine. A single drop of medicine in an ocean of water is more significant than our little speck of dust in all the universe.

I will leave our the science for now, I am a science nerd, but I don't want to post all of my nerdiness into my review of Cosmos. The graphics of this series is simply astounding. We take glimpses of the entire universe and the more I watch, the more amazing it is. Sorry, I guess my love of science is making me a bit biased.

You can actually watch Cosmos for free if you want (lots of ads though, but meh) on their website. Make your own opinion.

I Apologize

I am sorry I have not been making that many reviews lately. Not only have I been busy with many other tasks, writing, research, etc for numerous other blog posts, I also have not been playing that many games lately.

But rest assured dear audience, I am not leaving you in the dust. I am reading Mogworld, playing Tales of the Abyss, Mercenary Kings, The Last Remnant, A demo for Last Dream, and will soon write a review for the recently completed Evoland and Left 4 Dead 2. So once i am done I will try to have reviews for all of those. It may take me awhile though, so in the mean time, I apologize for the delay.

So much work to do, so little time.

Eternal Sonata Demo

Hiya everyone! Lucy back again with another review! This time, I am reviewing a demo!

Eternal Sonata is a pretty interesting game. I really have no clue what it is about from the Demo though. The demo only really showed the battle system and a couple of the characters. This demo is also only available on the 360, I have tried and failed to find it on the PS3, which is the system I plan to buy it for.

The battle system is pretty awesome. It is like a cross between Ys 's hack and slash battle system and Atelier Iris 2 's turn based battle system. Which makes it pretty fun. You basically run up to monsters and hack at them until you earned enough power to do a special attack, which takes about 8 stars, I believe.

You have encounters when you touch and enemy, and you also get gold and experience when you beat them. Leveling up seems pretty decent, even if your HP meter seems a bit too inflated.

All in all, if anything, I suggest that you try out this demo. It's on the 360. If anything, you may be able to find a let's play, but it feels much different when you have the controller in-hand.

Lucy's Latest Addiction: Ys: Origins

Hiya all! Lucy here for another addiction update! Ys: Origins. I bought this game a few days ago, and thus far, I have beaten it. This has been my latest addiction! it's definitely a hack and slash, and I feel like beating myself up for not buying this game or many others in the Ys series sooner, as these games are fun as all fuck.

Now to start off, you can either pick between two characters, Yunica Tovah or Hugo Fact. Both of whom are pretty fun, Hugo is a ranged magic user, and Yunica is a fast axe wielder. To start off I went with Yunica, which is, to date, the only character I beat the game with. I won't ruin any of the story-plot, but it is all pretty personal to the main character. But the three storlines are not interchangeable, it is as if all three happened in parallel universes. Which makes sense, but if Yunicas story is true, neither Hugos or Toals storyline is, and the same with the other two. Makes the game interesting enough.

The game is a hack-and-slash, meaning that you have one button for attack, another for skills, one for jumping, and the last for Boost. it's all fairly typical of hack and slash games like Devil-may-cry and Zenonia. You attack demons, and kill them for experience and SP, which you can trade in for equipment boosts and the like. You also find Cleria Ore to strengthen your weapons, and find new equipment as you go.

The leveling system is odd, as it is REALLY hard to get past level 50 in the game. The higher your level is, the lower the amount of experience you receive from the same monsters, which makes leveling really difficult as time goes on, even with the games built in 2x experience boost during battle. Also, the power system is also really jumpy. If you cannot beat a boss at level 50, chances are, you can cream them at level 51. The power boost between levels 50 and 51, or 28 and 29, etc, are so huge that it'd shock you. Some monsters I could only do 1 damage to. I got a Cleria power-up for my weapon, I was able to do 27-40 damage, and that is only a 5 point strength boost.

I think I beat the last boss at level 51, I can no longer check that because the moron who is me accidentally saved over it when I unlocked Toal as a playable character, but as evidence that i did in fact beat the game:

Toal, bitches!

But I totally suggest to anybody to check out this game. I have barely been able to put it down, like, literally. Thus far I have clocked in at 18 hours of gameplay, and going. A couple of those hours has been me playing as Hugo and Toal.

You can buy this game off of Steam for about 20$, and it's a pretty good price for the fun you'll receive. I definitely recommend this game

EDIT:

I totally forgot, there is one more piece of evidence that I beat the game:

Achievements :-3

Lucy's Latest Addiction: Rogue Legacy

It took almost half my health to get this screenshot, you better be fucking grateful

OH. MY. GOD! Rogue Legacy is so much like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in so many ways that it just isn't  funny. You start off choosing your character. Each character has some array of disorder about them. Be it gigantism, dwarfism, the inability to cast spells properly, knocking enemies back further, or being knocked back further yourself, etc, etc, etc.

On top of that, you have several different classes, from paladin, to knave, to mage, etc. Each class has different strengths and weaknesses. Mages have less HP and higher Mana, Shinobi's are powerful and fast, and Spelunki's are not all too powerful, but allow you to get 3 more gold per gold coin and allows you to see where every chest and mystery is on the map before you reach the room.

Haters gonna hate

 Now, you can offset these weaknesses with a high enough power boost from the Manor, which is a place where you can unlock new classes, raise attack power, defense, Mana, HP, critical chance, etc. And if that wasn't enough, you can also find blueprints in the castle to upgrade your armor and weapons, and not just blueprints, but runes as well to heighten the upgrades and give specified abilities. Weapons and armor raises your magic, attack, and armor, etc, and may also come with secondary abilities, like increased gold gain. You can also attach runes as well, which can give you abilities such as double jump (SOTN), side dash (SOTN), vampirism (heals a small amount per enemy), and increased gold gain. These can even be stacked. You can have multiple jumps, or higher vamprism.

You start off in the first room, which has some candles and a chair which you can destroy and find gold and food under. This game has no save points, and trust me, you WILL die. A LOT. Dying is not only inevitable, but necessary for progress. You only level up and are able to spend your money when you die. Once you go into the castle, there is no turning back. In fact, dying 20 times gets you an achievement in Steam. This game also has no healing areas. If you don't have vamprism, your only hope is you smash a pot that may possibly have chicken in it.

Money is a commodity, each time you enter the castle, the Charon will take away all of your money. Although later on you can lower this to 50% of your money, you almost always start off broke. My advice, break EVERYTHING. And kill EVERYTHING.

Might be a little addicted to Rogue Legacy . Just a little

Each room as enemies and objects to destroy. From mages that shoot fire and ice at you, to giant suits of armor, and zombies, and skeletons that shoot arrows or throw bones at you (as I said, a lot like SOTN) Each room is a mystery, and can hold treasures and monsters, and the castle is ALWAYS altering every time you die. So each new life is basically a whole new castle. A dazzling place you never knew.

The objective is to defeat 4 main bosses and open the final door. I only got to beat 2 of the bosses thus far. There are also minibosses you can beat for extra treasures. once you beat a boss, you never have to beat it again, although you can unlock a much harder version of that boss later on.

EDIT:

Just hours after this post:

Oh yeah

EvilQuest

Lucy here, back again for another gaming review. This time we got a very cheap game (like, 2 dollars on Steam) for all to enjoy.

This game kinda reminds me of Ys, but I have heard it is also like a game called Crystalis that I never played.

The graphics kinda... well. They could use some work. Even according to Ys these graphics are bad. The cutscenes by comparison are 50 times worse. I have seen better artistry from children on DA. The dialog and story? The suck turd. But that aside, the gameplay is pretty fun. You run around pressing X to attack enemies, Square for magic spells, Start for the Menu, and Triangle for item usage.

The dialog is one of those things that makes you want to puke. The obvious "I'm a bad guy, time to burn down a village and kill people at random" idiocy. It would be better if he started off as good and turned evil as the game progressed. Maybe he was forced to kill someone, and then he liked it, and then he burned down a village, or something like that. Some kind of trauma in his life to trigger his evilness. But all I see is the Cliche' evil psychopath who yells at people and kicks drunk guys and then kills said drunk people for puking on his shoes.

This game could have been a lot better when it comes to storyline and dialog. But sadly, it isn't. But for what it's worth (2 dollars) it isn't bad.

PETA Parodies: Pokemon Red, White, and Blue

Hiya all! Lucy here for another Pathetic PETA Power Pwn. I thought I made a review of their last game, Pokemon Black and Blue, but I just can't seem to find it.

Now this game is yet another one of PETA's insane tropes to attack an established game series. And guess who else is being attacked? You guessed it! McDonalds! The fast food chain that is still the highest on the ranks despite various attacks against it, including the terrible excuse for a documentary, Supersize Me.

That aside, this game is very little in difference to it's last one. But PETA certainly let their bias show. The McDonalds customer looks like a fat brainless moron, and Ronald McDonald looks like a drunk Joker on crack and speed. Meanwhile, the PETA protesters are cute and adorable, down with the evil corporations! Or else PETA will toss red paint on you again!

This game is covered in blood from the evil McDonalds killing the poor dehorned and slashed Miltank and bitten and starved Jiggly Puff. The message is the same, we animal owners are just mean pathetic slave-holders who are holding the sentient animals hostage, starving them and yanking them around on our leashes.

I have thus came to the conclusion: PETA isn't batshit insane, they are complete and undeniable poes. It's all just an act. Because even insane asylum patients and Republicans are going "those people are crazy."

But I suggest you play it, the puns are terrible, and the gameplay sucks. But it'll give you a few laughs with your facepalms.

Melody's Escape

Hiya folks, Lucy here! Sorry for the long wait between this and the last review, I have been very lazy with my review writing lately, and now I've decided to get back to the writings. at least for a few reviews. The life of a writer is never done.

Now this game reminds me a lot of what I believe would happen if Guitar Hero turned into a platformer. You play as this girl, who's name I would assume is Melody, and you are trying to get from one place to another. This game has no storyline or anything, it is basically just a platformer.

But get this, you pick the music that the levels are based off of. Your level, what buttons you push, and for how long you push them, is determined entirely by your music selection. If you wanted to play this game to Lady Gaga, you can do it! Heaven Metal? You can do it! Justin Beiber? Possible... but... ew.

There are three levels. Relaxed allows you to easily beat levels, but not too easily, the rhythm isn't perfect, so you gonna mess up, a lot. When you first start out, I suggest at least 2 songs on Relaxed. Then Normal is a lot harder. You have to push the right button, at the right time, and it is highly altered. Then you have extreme, which is basically a "your fucked" difficulty.

Besides this, there really isn't much else about the game. You can play it with a controller, and because I choose it, the music selection is wonderful!

I definitely recommend this game. Now hop to the buying! You can get it on Steam for 10$.

Patio Chicken Burrito Review

Hey, Lucy here! I generally don't do reviews on food, but I'll make an exception for this case. 

This burrito only cost me about 44 cents at Walmart, so I bought two chicken flavored ones. I guess I shouldn't expect to get my monies worth for 44 cents, and I didn't. 

The flavor isn't really all that bad, nor is the size of the burrito. But it is filled with a form of chicken flavored goop. There is no physical substance inside of this burrito. No chinks of chicken, no slices of veggies, nothing. Just gunk. 

I really would not recommend this product unless you simply don't like food in general. But if you are going to get any burrito at all, this one is definitely not going to be worth your time and money. 

Why does Jingit Ignore their Users?

Jingit is a site that I started using 2 months ago where you watch ads for money. But they seem to enjoy fucking over their users more than actually helping them out. I have had basically no ads instead of one single ad that I have seen for the past 2 months. They have not added more ads yet despite promising them will. and they simply reject to acknowledge that their customers are leaving them by the hoards because they are experiencing so many issues.

This site is basically a joke in and of itself. i have been earning about a dollar a week on it. Yeah, that is a dollar more than I have been making without them, but for a site that promises ads, they should give ads. They keep saying that are working hard, but so far they have absolutely zip to show for it.  so in what way should I say anyone should use a site that does not uphold it's own promises for ads, and not only that, copy and pastes the same excuses for why it hasn't gotten any yet? I mean, comeon now, I know many sites that are able to fork over ads to a site like Jingit, I just think Jingit has gotten lazy with their ads.

It would be a great site if it upheld it's promises and care about it users. It would be like a competitor for HitBliss, but it isn't because of this idiotcy.

I do not recommend this site. At least not right now. If it stops ignoring it's users, I might recommend it again, until then, nope!

The Videogame Battle System Trinity

From my experiences in videogames, there are 3 different kinds of battle systems. There may be more, and if you want to correct me, that is what the comments section is for. But I can basically round up all the gaming battle systems into one of three catigories:

• Turn-based
• Tactical, or
• Hack-and-slash

I'll start off with my favorite. Hack-and-slash! I love games in where you can charge right into a battle and deal massive damage. Also, jumping, running, slashing, shooting, etc makes these kinds of games highly action packed, and makes them incredibly fun and adrenaline pumping. Games like Zelda, Castlevania, and Devil-May-Cry, fit into this category. I love these games because you are constantly in movement, you don't just sit there and wait for the next move. There is always somewhere to go, and some enemy to try new maneuvers on. 

I guess the downside to this is that if you blindly just hack and slash without any method, you could just kill yourself numerous times and make you want to toss the controller away. 

Next is Turn-based, this is a system I was raised on. Final Fantasy, Atelier Iris, and Breath of Fire, all incorporate a turn-based battle system. It is be highly repetitive after awhile, to the point where you just press the same button over and over to beat the battle quicker. Once you have gone into 1 battle, you have basically been in them all, but the wide array on badguys and skills are what keeps you pushing through the game. Not a bad system in my opinion, but not for people who enjoy more active gaming. 

Now to the greatest demise in gaming (in my opinion), the Tactical Combat System. Any Advance War-esque game where you can only proceed in combat via a select number of squares, is just frustrating for me to play. Games like Eternal Poison, Agarest War Zero, Phantom Brave, etc, fall into this category. The fact that I have to spend the first 4 turns just getting to the enemy in the battle field automatically turns me away from this battle style. 

It's very slow, very repetitive, and usually comes with the most idiotic of battle rules (Eternal Poison gives you a game over if you run out of MP, other games give you a certain number of turns to finish the battle before game over). It's like they tried to make a board game and turn it into a videogame, and I think that is dumb. It may just be my bias, but I really don't see a redeeming factor in tactical battle systems. It's good for for certain people who enjoy them, but it has gotten to the point where I just start refusing to play games outright if they have this battle system.

But that is just my opinion, I am sure there are people out there who enjoy it, and I'd like to hear reasons why down in the comments section.

FAQ

What about FPS's and Fighting games?

FPS games like Call of Duty, fighting games like Skull Girls and Mortal Combat, and other games which require high amounts of action falls into the Hack-and-Slash category. The weapon of choice may be different, but the result and way it goes about is still the same. (Basically any game where one can button mash could be considered a hack-and-slash)

The Silent Protagonist

This has got to be one of the most annoying, yet strangely enticing, aspects of many videogames. It is also highly common as well, with notible mute protagonists such as:

• Link - Every Zelda Ever
• Ryu - All Breath of Fire games
• Chell - Portal
• Adol - Ys (He talks through silence)
• Chrono - Chrono Trigger
• Your main character in Pokemon
• The main character of Dark Cloud
• The main protagonist of Cave Story
• Amaterasu from Okami
• Flint - Alundra 2

Among many, many others. 

But is this Silent Protagonist simply lazy writing? Or Genius?

No one will question that it has worked rather magnificently in the above games. In fact, Link from The Legend of Zelda never talks, but he isn't mute. He grunts, screams, and even has "Yes-no" answer box choices. So why would the writers simply make him without a single word of actual dialog?

Well, arguably, in my case, it certainly helps with being in the role of the main character. With a specified dialog to adhere to, it is simple to hop into the books of someone and even pretend the dialog for yourself. This doesn't always work though, it is rather hit-or-miss, but nobody can deny that it has worked like a charm for the Zelda franchise.

I personally enjoy games in which the main character is silent. Because I'd rather have silence (or near-silence) than shoddy, terrible, voice acting, or else horrid character dialog.

Who is your favorite Mute Protagonist?

Graal Online Classic Review

If you took Zelda A Link to the Past, eliminated the storyline, gave it the worst controls ever, made it an MMORPG, and allowed friendly fire, you have Graal Online Classic.  It's kinda like if Ragnarok Online and Zelda ALTTP had a bastard child and named him Graal. It doesn't help that basically all the sprites on here are simply recolors of the original sprites.

The idea seems decent. You pick your character and then make your way through the tutorial, and then through the world to.... uhhhh... do typical MMORPH stuff. Like quests, purchasing houses and houseware, and buying new outfits and headgear. You get a ton of pop-up messages when you just start the game. It happens every time to do anything for the first 5 minutes of the game and it is really frustrating. "Congrats! You opened the menu" I KNOW!

It does seem to have one redeeming quality, at least in the Android version:

ERMAGERD! I'm a motherferken RERKERN!!!!!

There really isn't much to do in this game. There is a decent amount to explore, I guess. But it just seems to be lacking in various different elements that would have otherwise made this game a very enjoyable experience. Although I can't really say that to it's hundreds of thousands of fans.

For a free game it works ok. Even in the PC version, where I can play using Joy2Key, the controlls are better, but the game play is lacking in several areas. Including the fact that you cannot be a raccoon in the PC version of the game

Bubblews Review

Hiya peoples, Lucy here.

Bubblews is a place where you can write about anything and get paid per view, comment, or like. You can cash out once you get 50$, which many people seem to get in about a month.

Most articles submitted to Bubblews, stays in Bubblews. I have not seen any article from this site in my average browsing of the web, but meh. You can repost material from personal blogs you own elsewhere as well, as long as you do not plagerize.

People are only in it for the money. They write crappy articles, or journals of what they did or ate, and cash in. For a site that focuses mainly on social interaction, the majority of comments just happen to be "nice article" or "awesome." There are people who like your post just seconds after it has been posted, knowing they didn't have enough time to even read the minimum requirement for an article, which is merely 400 characters. I have already written over twice that amount in this post.

This site reminds me a lot of Gather.com, which had a very similar method of payment, but which people would not interact often with other users. Also, the majority of people on here cannot grammar very well. Which, as a writer, stabs at me sometimes.

But for the fact that it is in fact paying me for doing very little, I really don't mind. At this moment any amount of funds will help, saying that I am unemployed.

Top 10 Educational Books I Recommend

Yeah, I'm a gamer, but I am also a researcher. I like to read many books on topics that interest me, and so far I have found a decent number of books that I believe are really good at teaching particular subjects. If this is not for you, than please ignore this list, but if you are truly interested, here they are:

10. Discerning Truth - Jason Lisle 

Yeah yeah yeah, Don't shoot me, I know know what you're thinking. "That's Creationist propaganda!" and you are 100% right, it is. Now there are probably better books than this out there, but I am listing it for one reason: Logical Fallacies. 

This good is good on two fronts. It 1. is able to teach people how to argue better by teaching them a wide array of logical fallacies and 2. Teachers you what many Creationists actually think and helps people to find better ways to debate them. But I think this book because it was the first book that I got that ever taught me about so many logical fallacies.

9. Too Good to be True - Jan Brunvand

Snopes in a book. That's all I can really say about it. This book tells you about all sorts of myths and urban legends and shows them to be fake. Like the Spider in the Cactus story, and The Exploding Toilet myth. I remember so many times people who try to scare me with these stories, or teach me these stories as fact, and then would get so upset when I didn't take their word for it. I think this book is a must-have for any household.

8. The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins

I love a lot of Richard Dawkins works, but The Selfish Gene is one of my favorites. It teaches Altruism and why the human species is inherently selfish. It is a very nicely written work that is able to explain things simply for even readers who are not all that into science to read. 

7. Hungry Hollow - A.K.Dewdney

I love this book, it's just fantastic! It talks about the world in the eyes of animals. Getting into detail never thought possible. Looking at this land, called the Hungry Hollow, in the eyes of a biologist, a raccoon, a bird, etc. Bringing you to smaller and smaller sizes, the biological changes as one shrinks. It's just a fantastic book!

6. What a Plant Knows - Daniel Chamovitz

This book shocked me when I read it. I never thought of plants having any sort of senses, but this book explained in a very scientific way that plants can respond to sound, light, and even touch. Although incorrectly reading this book, you might think that plants are sentient, and they are not. But this book I checked out days before my college science lesson that taught me the same thing. Plants are more awesome than I thought.

5. Raccoons are the Brightest People - Sterling North

Yeah, this technically is more of a documentary than a educational novel. But this book is what really started to teach me that animals did in fact have emotions, and feelings, and lives. Before this book, I believed animals did in fact have feelings, but I did not know anyone else believed the same. I was told that animals are just mindless beings that ran on instinct. 

This is just one of those books that sold me on the case that animals are indeed living creatures with a mind and reason all their own.

4. Some we Love, Some we Hate, Some we Eat - Hal Herzog

This is a wonderful book that explains why we think about animals the way we do and why we eat pigs but eating a cat is considered taboo. Why don't we eat dogs? And why do we test on rats instead of cats? Ad why are we just hate many animals for seemingly no reason? This book is great for those very questions.

3-2. Don't Cross Your Eyes/Don't Swallow your Gum - Aaron Caroll and Rachael Vreeman

These two books are wonderful for teaching about the numerous myths regarding our health that are out there being perpetuated in the world today. I always get annoyed when someone says something unproven and incorrect like "Sugar makes kids hyper" or "Underwear makes one infertile" and these books helps a ton in that regard. 

1. Animals Make us Human - Temple Grandin

Whereas Raccoons are the Brightest People made a point, this book drove that point home. Animals Make us Human is a book regarding how animals react and why. Temple telling us about her work in the field and how her observation from her Autism reinvented the way we view animals. From mindless beings to beings with a different mindset. She helped create a more humane slaughter house existence. 

Top 6 Free-to-Play Hack-and-Slash Android Games

I feel like the Hack-and-Slash Queen. I actually have two different Android products. One Tablet, and a Kindle Fire, which feels better as a controller. Some games are only available on one Android device, but not the other, I never understood that. I am still playing new games on these two devices, but of my main choices, here are my Top 6.

These are free games for the androids, but they are also pretty well made. The catch? In-game advertisements and/or real money in-game purchases. You can ignore the ads and merchandise, but they make the game better if you want to fork over money for it. Seeing as I am very cheap, I don't fork over money for games. So you can get a good gameplay just by playing these games as they are.

Castle of Shadows - This game is a lot like Castlevania, just... meh. It's free. It's fun, but it's meh. The translation is completely terrible! But the platforming and hack and slash notions of the game are extremely fun.

Zenonia 1-5 - Friggen epic storyline and hack-and-slash awesomeness. The graphics just get more and more awesome as the newer games come out. I really like this game because you can just run around and button tap enemies until they die. You can take quests for extra money and experience, it's a lot like a typical cross between Zelda and Castlevania.

Inotia 1-4 - This game series is also a lot like Zenonia. A LOT like Zenonia. But it does not take away from the feel of the gameplay. Still lots of adrenaline rush goodness.

Destinia - A lot like Zenonia, just... with a different name. This game could easily have been labeled Zenonia and I wouldn't have an issue with it. You just take quests for extra money/experience, but mainly, you are fulfilling a storyline in which you are a cliche' powerful character who was once the apprentice of the main evil character. Very fun though.

Third Blade - This game a little different, kinda like Maximum Carnage fro the SNES. You just go from stage to stage and hack and slash at the monsters, then the boss. No real storyline, or anything. Just hack and slash.

Devil Ninja 2 - You start off running. You have to jump to avoid pits and hack and slash enemies like a Mofo. You have bosses and everything, and have to collect as many points as possible. But you're an epic ninja with a sword and slicey-dicey skills.

If any of these games are compatible with your android device, download and start playing! I think they are pretty fun, especially if you are into Hack and Slash games.

Vladis Story: Abyssal City Review

This game is a lot like a cross between Zenonia and Castlevania. Which makes it fun as hell. Yeah, it looks like a good android app game, but this game is actually on Steam, and you can play it with a real life controller! It's a sidescrolling platformer.

The story of this game is that you are in a wreck when fighting the boss, and you then fall under, landing in a different village. You now have to find your teammates, and reassemble. You do this by earning the trust of a village, and running around and slicing random enemies.

The voice acting for this game, or shall I say, his grunts, are kinda.... Well, they stand out. They sound like they were recorded from far away on a cheap microphone. But... that isn't inherently bad. and does seem to play into the game somehow. There is something about that different, not-clean cut audio that makes the game's environment... better.

One thing does make this game grate on my nerves though. Ice Enemies. Uggghhh! Those buggers freeze you, over, and over, and you just want to rip them apart! They are as frustrating as the Medusa Heads in Castlevania. GAAAHH!!! Thankfully, you get potions that heal you halfway when you die and refill at save points.

No matter what character you play as, the main storyline doesn't really change. Just the speech. They should have made a separate story for each character.

This game as a hack-and-slash seems pretty awesome. It's challenging. It's graphics look fine. It's leveling system seems fair. The monsters can be a pain but are not too much. In fact, many enemies are too easy. The bosses are a challenge without being too much of a challenge. Altogether this game is pretty fun to play.

HitBliss Review

I have been using Hitbliss, which is a downloadable program in which you earn money by watching advertisements and spend it on Pandora, rent movies, or buy episodes of popular TV series.

HitBliss allows you to watch minute long ads, and 30 second ads, etc, and you earn a certain amount per ad. It really does not take much of your time, and it looks very well. But... you have to be engaged. There is a timer which you must click before it tuns out to show that you are still engaged and present. The more you click it, the higher trust level you get, and the less you have to click those annoying buttons. Oh, you also cannot go to a different screen, or mute your computer. But you gain your trust level, which is kinda like playing a videogame. You get bonuses for consecutive clicking, as well as clicking it early. It also gets harder to level up as you earn levels, because the message pops up more and more rarely.

You can only use the money to rent movies for 24 hours, get a 1 month Pandora subscription, or buy TV episodes. You cannot withdraw the money, which sucks, but I can see the point in doing that. They want to limit abuse of the system where people watch ads just to earn money and may not even be engaged, or make multiple accounts to earn a ton of money without actually truly watching the ads. They do this by limiting the ways you can use the money. That way, it differentiates between HitBliss and sites like Jingit, which is very similar and does allow you to earn money and spend it like a Visa debit card.

HitBliss allows you to watch the same ads numerous times a day until your limit is full, which is 6 bars. Or 24 ads in total. Which will probably net you about 6 dollars a day... which is your limit. You can only earn 6 dollars maximum until you spend your money. If you love movies, just a little time watching ads a day can allow you to watch them for free. Awesome? Hell yeah. Of course, I rarely watch movies or Tv... Maybe now I can finally catch up with Dr Who.

There are still some bugs to work out, but it's free. So check it out.

Top 5 Ways I Make Money Online

Cents, because you won't be earning very many dollars
Not unless you are wonderful at it

Yeah, I know many of you are skeptical, although I don't understand why. Earning money online is the new frontier. Although you are probably thinking that I am going to scam you. I won't. And to promise you that, I will not add any links to any of the sites or ways I will list. Yeah, I sound like a typical stay-at-home mom now because i am listing ways to earn money online, but hey, I'm unemployed and all the jobs are still taken!

Swagbucks - Not the best choice, but it's here. You like surveys? Searching? Downloads for cash? Looking for random codes? Then Swagbucks is for you. I do very little on that site. Maybe a some searches every now and then, the daily poll. I have cashed out there maybe once a month. But if you are willing to risk it, you can play game tournaments with other people for decent to sizable Swagbuck prizes. Games like Scrabble. You earn Swagbucks and exchange them for prizes, such as Amazon Giftcards and/or Paypal deposits. Not very grand, but it's a few bucks a month if you are bored.

Selling E-books - Anyone can write. Including me. I am a writer, and I self-publish works at Lulu.com. I have only earned a couple of bucks this way, but it's a couple of bucks well earned. Writing is tedious, can be stressful, and includes lots of probono work, like me and this review blog. I may only be earning cents via Adsense, if that. But if you believe you can write something to sell, go for it. Remember, unofficial strategy guides for videogames are able to be sold as long as you have commentary and not add any pictures of the game.

Selling stuff on Amazon and Etsy - Etsy is a site where you need a lot of skill and networking to get people to view and purchase your stuff. Also, you need skill to be able to craft. I earn a little money on there, although i have not sold anything yet in my new store. Amazon is a lot better. You just post stuff online there, and earn money like a mofo... until you run out of stuff to sell. I never used Ebay, so I guess that is good too.

JingIt - I just found this site today, and it seems VERY well made. You watch ads, you earn funds, and you can use your funds via VISA card to spend on whatever you want, for up to 60 dollars a month! Although when you start off, it'll be 40 a month, and even then you may only get 20 or less a month, depending on how you use the site, and if you use it to its fullest advantage.

Hitbliss - I love this site. I never watch movies or TV series often, but I might do so more now because of this site. It's a LOT like Jingit, but you download it. You watch ads, and you earn a little bit of money for each one. You can earn a decent sized chunk of cash, which you can only use to purchase or rent movies or episodes of TV series. It's fast, it looks fantastic, it doesn't take long, it keeps you engaged, the buffering sucks, but hey, they're paying /you/ so it shouldn't matter. Idk how much you can earn with this site. I'll get back to you on that one.

I don't earn much at the moment, but right now, every little bit can help.

SimCity Review

No no no, not the beautiful, new graphics version of SimCity. I am talking about this:

This boring, retched, crappy, captivating game. Even better because you can annihilate your own creations using tons and tons of natural disasters. I got several achievements from the crappy annoying mayor in all of 10 minutes, and my city flourished. 

In this game, you are told nothing. There is a practice level if you are interested, but you are told nothing. You set industrial, commercial, and residential areas next to each other. Then you get a power plant, a police and fire department so you don't get robbed. yadda yadda. This game is boring.

I loved it more when I was younger though. This one one of the same that was more interesting because you were able to play god, which I loved doing as a child. But even then I bore of it quickly.

You basically try to get the mist people and earn the most money, and protect your village from natural disasters. It's ok though, but you cannot torture your people the same way you can in The Sims.

Try it out, you can get the Rom and Emulator for free at sites like CoolRoms.