#WriteAStoryChallenge - March Day 1!

Unfortunately, I fell off the horse in February. I started a new job and kind of fell out of writing as a whole, including the Write a Story Challenge. I was pretty excited about that one - maybe I'll have to go back and do those prompts again anyway?

But despite all that, I want to try to get back into this fun challenge in March. Starting with these words:

As per usual, I have no idea where this is going. I'm sure it'll be great! Haha

What are your goals this month? Anything good? Let me know down below.

#WriteAStoryChallenge - February Day 1!

It occurred to me that all my post titles would be nearly impossible to keep track of if I didn't put the month!! That's handled now, though. Here's my bit for the day!

Obviously, I've decided to start another story, and this time with a new character. I suppose it would be best if I could find a reference image for my dear Daniel, but we'll see. Perhaps, perhaps not.

Here's this month's blog post on April's site!

I've updated my Word Count page - I finished writing my short story for January, and I'll do some editing on it before I call it done. I'm excited to create a portfolio of characters that I can pull into novels or stories as I continue writing these challenges. 

I'm trying to use Instagram as a platform now, to write out my story and all of that. I think it'll look much better this way. Not sure if I'll keep using the InstaQuotes app (I don't really intend to pay for it, and if I make them on my computer I can make them look similar at the least), but it'll do for today!

Let me know what you think about the images! What do you use when you want to put words on your Instagram?

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 31!

I can't believe it's the end already! Here's my final sentences, be as they may:

Wow. It's been a whole month since I started writing this story. I've been itching to fill it out and edit it, and now I can! It doesn't have a good conclusion yet - I lost track of the days and was totally unprepared for the final day! I'm not sure whether I'll write again next month, or take a month off to edit this one. I loved writing it, and I suppose it doesn't take very long to write something up each day. 

Perhaps I'll try the February challenge! I like the challenge of fitting in the words in creative ways, though sometimes they didn't quite seem to fit.

Until tomorrow, and next month, dear readers!

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 25!

On the Bright side, I've stayed pretty consistent with the writing on this one. It's becoming more interesting by the day. Here's today's sentences:

I get the feeling that I'll have some editing to do on this one when the month is up, but I'm excited about the work that I've been doing on it. Each day is a new adventure, and I'm learning lots of new words. It's really exciting for me to do this, and I plan to keep up with it - so long as April keeps posting the monthly prompts. And even if she doesn't, I could use previous years, since I haven't done them before. 

How do you feel about challenges like this? Are they worth it? Do they accomplish their goal - to keep us writing effectively?

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 17!

Here's today's little bit of writing!!

This one was kind of tough. The word was "X-Ray", and honestly I had no idea how it was going to fit in. So I just let it happen. The toughest part was getting it in 3 sentences.

Once this is written, I'll be excited to go back through and kind of fluff up passages like this. I wanted it to be a few sentences, but I could only have three. Then again, I've always been a fan of using run-on sentences with little to no punctuation to indicate frantic speaking without having to say "he was frantic" or the like.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

I created a page for word counts. I'm going to get graphics for the progress/stage bars instead of words. I might regret saying that later, but I am going to try!

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 16!

This was the only way I could think of to include the word!

I've been keeping up with the challenge pretty well. What I haven't been keeping up with is the blog posts about it. Instead of posting a few every day to catch up, I decided to leave you with a piece of the story missing and continue from today.

As of now, Word Count Wednesday probably isn't going to happen. I may post periodic updates, but I'm not sure they'll be their own blog post. Perhaps I'll leave it on a separate page. We'll see.

I've felt off lately, but writing is keeping me sane. So I'll do it until I can't do it anymore.

Thanks for reading.

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 10!

Good evening, everyone! It feels good to be keeping to the routine of things.

I only wrote two sentences today, but it felt like the right place to stop. I haven't really been looking ahead at the prompts, so I can't be sure adding that one more sentence wouldn't ruin everything.

Of course, the true mark of a writer on the fly is being able to run with sentences that seem to "ruin everything" and turn it around into something perfect.

I'm working on the editing stage of The Ringmaster's Dilemma. I have a lot - and I do mean A LOT - of work to do. I started a spelling & grammar check in Word last night, and didn't even finish it. But I guess that's pretty normal when you have over 80,000 words and you wrote them all off the cuff.

Do you have any editing tips? Let me know below.

Fortune Cookie Musings

I appreciate the rhyme and rhythm of this fortune. You see, the rhyme gives it a kind of fun feeling, whereas the rhythm gives it memorability. But that's just words on paper. Let's talk more about the meaning of the words.

Obviously, a garden full of weeds is not desirable. We weed our gardens to remove the invasive plants, and usually they aren't as pretty or as nice as the plants that they could potentially choke out.

So a person who speaks of greatness, but does not act out that same greatness is like a garden full of weeds, not anything much to look at and not worth much anything, either.

It's easy to look at a problem and talk about how to fix it, what steps need to be taken, and how much time or money it might cost to do those things. But it is another thing entirely to raise the money, to make the time, to go out and do and fix and learn. And sometimes, you learn something new and exciting on the way. 

It takes a special kind of person to rise above and do things. Most days, I am not one of those people. But I would like to think that there are days when we've all weeded our lives a bit and flowers can start to grow again.

Lucky Numbers: 12, 19, 38, 10, 25

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 9!

Today's word was "determine". Very versatile!

It's becoming easier to fill in the story, now that it seems to have a direction. Almost. I'm still excited to see where this little story goes. I hope it's wonderful and the best story ever. But something makes me doubt that.

And the success of this story will help me determine whether I want to do February's Write A Story Challenge. Perhaps if I write 12 stories, I could edit them and put them together in a book?

But that's a long way away. In the present, I think I'm going to start something along the lines of Word Count Wednesdays. Just to keep myself liable to post and to keep my word counts updated.

It will be the word count of all current projects, and perhaps a chart to watch them grow. Or shrink, as I'm sure my NaNoWriMo project will be doing in the next month or so as I edit.

Do you have any word count goals that you're getting close to? Let me know in the comments below!

#WriteAStoryChallenge Day 7 & 8~!

Weekends are always so busy for me! This weekend more so than usual, but that's okay! Today is going to be another two-for-one. Hopefully not the first in a habit!

Day 7: Inhale

Day 8: Fester

These words sure don't seem to lend themselves to a fun and happy story, do they? We shall see how this goes.

I continued that other small project, but I don't know whether I'll keep working on it. If I do, I'll post periodic updates here.

I finally finished the initial writing for my NaNoWriMo project. Its working title is still the same. I haven't moved all the words into Scrivner yet, so I don't have a final count yet, but, again, I'll be sure to keep everyone updated when I do!

What are you working on right now? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 6!

Today's sentences actually came pretty easily.

I was honestly surprised to find myself easily writing these words. Day 5 was such an issue, and Day 6 was a breeze! I suppose that's how many challenges go, especially writing challenges.

I'm excited to see what's in the kitchen. I have no idea. But I'm sure it'll be great!

What do you think Katelyn will find? Let me know below!

#WriteAStoryChallenge - Day 5!

I wrote this out yesterday and then had quite the busy schedule, so didn't post it. Here is it, though.

Again, and I'll probably say nearly constantly throughout this process, it's so difficult to write only a few sentences. But I did it, and have added a level of intrigue to the process.

If your curious, I have as little an idea as to where this is going as you do. But! I'm excited for it.

Yesterday, I started a battle on 4TheWords that was 1100 words long, when I intended to really only do 200 or 500. So I started a new short story. It was flow-of-consciousness, so I'm not really sure where THAT'S going, either.

Do you have any projects you're working on? Let me know by commenting below!

#WriteAStoryChallenge ~ Day4!

Today's was a bit more of a challenge.

When I started this, I though it would be really fun. But now I'm just... panicking a little. It's so hard to write just a few sentences and incorporate the new daily word.

Any readers out there also participating? Be sure to share your stories with me! I'd love to read them.

Today, I worked for the first day of 2017, so I didn't get a whole lot of writing done. I am rounding toward the final scene of my NaNoWriMo novel, and I'm so excited to move from this step to the editing process. I'm really just excited to be this far in the novel writing process.

#WriteAStory Challenge ~ Day 3!

Another day of writing done - Day 3 "Growl"

The hardest part of this challenge is only writing 1-3 sentences!! I find myself wanting to dive deep into this story, to just write it. There's something special about restraining oneself, however.

I think this is a wonderful challenge still, and I'm excited to keep going, and to discover more of this story each day.



Current Projects:

• NaNoWriMo: The Ringmaster's Dilemma (writing/editing)
• #WriteAStoryChallenge (writing)
• Character page for Mirage (research)
• I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting!

I'm always looking for critique and always looking to improve. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know in the comments below!

Thank you as always,

#WriteAStory -- January 2017 (Day 1 & 2)

I stumbled upon this challenge while on 4thewords. I had never heard of it before, so I did some google sleuthing and found their website!! Here's the blog for this month.

I'll be posting the final result of each day in a new post, so keep a lookout for it. Since I didn't find this until today - January 2nd - I will go ahead and write the first 6 sentences, using the first two prompts. One at a time, of course.

The trouble is what to write ABOUT. Perhaps it'll be a mystery until things develop?

I think I'll have a female main character. Let's see. Katelyn "Kate" Walters. And we'll go from there.



Day 1:

The sun was low in the sky as Katelyn Walters made her way into her apartment complex. her whole body ached, but she was glad to be home. Once inside her apartment, she changed from her work uniform and into more comfortable clothes - a pair of shorts and a tank top.


Day 2:

Her job was simple - making pizzas. But she was still sore, and still hated every moment of every shift. She made herself a meal of a salad topped with heirloom tomatoes and a grilled chicken breast, and sat at the table to read the newspaper and eat.



There's day 1 and 2. I'm not sure where this is going to go, but who knows!! I'll keep my 4thewords draft updated, but I'll be leaving it as a private draft. I'm so excited to see the end result of this!!

Sincerely,

Welzoo - A Worry Free Way to Help Out!

Why hello there, everyone! Time for another wonderful blog post.

Today, I want to talk about giving back. There are hundreds of thousands of ways to give back to so many charities. And I think it's really important that those of us who can do give back! And while a great way to give is with monetary donations (or physical items), sometimes, it's just not possible for us to do that kind of giving. So I do a lot of giving from the comfort of my own home, doing things I do every day already (like surfing the Internet and searching).

But there are lots of ways to give back online, too. So I'm only going to talk to one today - Welzoo. I just started using this site, and I'm totally happy with it. In Google Chrome, it downloads an extension, but in all honesty, I have no qualms with it and have found no reason to stop using it. Welzoo does not provide a "how much you've donated" field, but my organization has raised over $10.

Now, that may not seem like a whole lot, and it isn't. But here's the thing. Welzoo gives my organization  1 cent for each supporter each time they go online (and onto the Welzoo homepage), up to 6 times a day per supporter. That means that I personally can donate 6 cents per day. Again, not a lot. But it adds up. And the more people we have supporting us through Welzoo, the more money we'll earn.

I signed up for this "campaign" last month, and since then, 33 supporters have donated $10. At up to 6 cents per day per person, that isn't bad.

So what do you have to do to get this money to your organization? It's easy! Just set Welzoo as your homepage, and look at the content when you open your browser. It's up to you whether you interact with that content, but Welzoo tries its best to show you stuff interesting to you. Then, just navigate away from the page and move on! It's completely passive after the signup, and it doesn't cost you anything.

As of writing, $98, 273 had been raised by everyone using Welzoo, and the number just keeps going up. If there's a charity or organization that you know of that could use this tool, encourage them to check it out. (I suggest starting with their FAQ)



I am currently helping out Kappa Kappa Psi (a music/leadership fraternity at my university). If you'd like to check out Welzoo and help out this or many other great organizations, please check it out! [referral link] [non-ref link]

What other ways do you give back? Or is giving back not really your thing? Let me know by leaving me a comment below. I'd love to hear from all of you.

~Lemmy

Badge Mania

I am a member on the site Kongregate, which is a site for hosting flash games. On this site, you have a "level" and in order to increase your level, you have to earn badges.

Badge Difficulty	Points
Easy	5
Medium	15
Hard	30
Impossible	60

I am currently level 75 with 7880 points. It's taken mea long time to get this far, but I still have a long way to go. That's what this "quest" is. There are a LOT of badges on Kongregate, on a LOT of different games. And it's hard to get them all. My goal, as always, is to earn as many badges as possible!


LET'S BEGIN.

Badge of the Day: Spore Shopping Badge (Mushroom Madness 2)
          The badge of the day gives you bonus points. So, while I already earned the badge, I got 5 bonus points for playing the game again.

MUSHROOM MADNESS 2

          This game has 4 badges, for a total of 65 points.

• Spore Shopping Badge (easy) -- earned
• Spiritual Adventure Badge (medium)
• Inevitable Shroom Doom Badge (medium)
• Seein' Psilocybin Stars Badge (hard)

 The game is simple in theory. Bash the animals before they can get to your mushrooms. (Yay for violence!) For each level - each increasingly difficult - you can get 3 stars, which open up other modes of gameplay. There are 16 levels in Adventure, and 8 in each of: Animal Rush, Vault Defense, Safe Breaker, and Survival.

Of course, it's easier in theory than in reality.Playing through these levels allows you to buy upgrades which in turn makes the other game modes, and earning stars, easier.

I am not a fan of this type of game, but Mushroom Madness 2 is well done. It has nice graphics, good scaling, and seemingly balanced mechanics.

So because of personal bias, I give it...

3 GC controllers out of 5.

GemCraft

I played a new game today. GemCraft, hosted on Kongregate.

 This is the title screen! How cool does it look? Seriously. There are little black birds flying through the morose, cloudy sky... This is pretty impressive.

And this is the company that created it. Game in a Bottle. Cool name, I guess.

So. You go to the title screen, hit "New Game". Up comes a story about dueling wizards. You, of course, are the good guy, fighting against the bad guy. And then you are taken to the map screen.

From which you can choose a level. There is also a bank of menu options at the top. You can upgrade your magic skills:

On that screen. Obviously I'm not all that far into the game, so I don't have many skills. But they're easy to upgrade on each level. It's an interesting system. The higher the level of upgrade, the more skill points it takes to upgrade.

Another thing in that bank of menus is "Save Game". I love that Flash games have progressed to the point that Save features come in handy. :) I took a picture of that screen, too.

8 different save slots. It blows my mind. But I'll fly into a rant if I let my mind go that path any further. So we'll move on.

Once you select a level, you go onto the map of that level. I have conveniently placed numbers in strategic places on this picture of a level so that I can explain it all to you.

1. Wave Bar. This tells you which wave you're on. You can preview waves to come, and even speed them up. If you click on the next wave coming, it speeds the whole bar up until that wave hits. It comes in handy.
2. House/Tower/Brush Pile/Rock. This is where the monsters come from. 
3. A tower. These are placed to hold gems, which shoot at the monsters.
4. Hut. This is what you need to protect. Don't let the monsters touch it!
5. Creation Center. From here, you can throw a gem bomb, create a tower, activate the mana pool, build a water trench, create a gem, or combine gems. This is a very nice set up for a tower defense game.
6. Gem Holding Area. This is where the gems you have created are held until you combine them with other gems or place them in a tower.
7. Mana Bar. This shows you how much mana you have. It takes mana to create gems, towers, and trenches; combine gems; and to activate "Mana Pool". The more mana you have, the better.

The gameplay is like every other tower defense game. But where other games let you automatically upgrade with money or whatever you get when you kill monsters, this game makes you combine gems with other gems. This changes their shape, sometimes their color, and upgrades everything. An odd system, actually. One that takes some getting used to. But once you do get used to it, it's pretty impressive.

Alright. So, #4 is what we're trying to protect, right? And you know how usually you can let one guy slip passed and you just lose a life or something? Not in GemCraft. If you let even one monster slip passed your defenses...

Your game is over. You have to start the level over.That part stinks. If each level had a few lives, even 3, this game would be better.

All in all, it was a good game. I liked playing it, save one stinking level I couldn't get passed. >:( But some things could have been improved.

I rate this game:

THREE OUT OF FIVE CAMECUBE CONTROLLERS!

It's difficult, but fun. It lasts a long time, but it isn't too complicated. The graphics in-game could be better.

Other Games I Tried Recently:

Kick Out Beiber: 

A launch game in which you smack Justin Beiber. 

Power-ups, violence, blood, and guns. Too violent for my tastes.

Anti-Idle the Game:

It's a simple concept, but extremely addicting. Many different upgrades, and achievements.

It's a blast to play, but graphics could be better. It's a really good one. Try it out. :) 

*Face Desk*

I'll be honest. I tried. I truly did. I tried five different disks, two different computers, and lots of commands. Ubuntu just isn't working for me. I'm working on it, and only once did it ever come up with a desktop, after I had given up and let my brother mess with it. It's aggravating.

On a lighter note... I'm done with school for the year, so I have plenty of time to mess with it. I have one week in each June, July, and August that are already booked, plus a few days for volunteer work and graduation parties.

And now for the Game of the Day!

I spent at least 5 hours playing this game, mostly because I only get one free session through "WildTangent Games". And I love it! Drum roll please................................. *Drum roll*




It's CHOCOLATIER! I absolutely love it! I only took screens at the end of the game, so the rest is going to be words.

You start off (in this version, anyway. It's a big franchise.) as a budding chocoholic. I mean... chocolate maker. And you are thrust into responsibility by Alex Fletcher, the previous CEO of Baumeister Confections. You learn how to make chocolates and are handed the keys to your first factory.

And then you get this award:

Through a long and difficult journey, you learn many recipes for chocolate bars, infusions, truffles, coffee, coffee blends, and exotics. You also get to make your own confections. That makes it even better.

And then, you get the news:

You become a real CEO! And once it's all done, once you have made 12 of your own concoctions and made a whopping 200 of each... It gets even better!

And that's the end. That's how you win the game. Just keep working at it. :)

You should play it. I rate it...

4 out of 5 GAMECUBE CONTROLLERS!

Do you like my new rating system? I do. I think I'm gonna do a separate post with what each GameCube controller means. Note to self: Do that.

Alright, I'm off to go troll children's games. BWAHAHA

See ya!

Castaway 2

Today I'm going to start what I hope will be a regular occurance on my blog. I shall pick a game and just talk about it. For right now, this is what I've got.

I got on my favorite game site today, and one of the featured games was "Castaway 2". I'm going to review it as I play it. This should be interesting. :)

I started it up, and it came up with my character walking across the screen. And then it hit. A protagonist with amnesia. He says his "mind is empty". Great.

As instructed, I keep moving along the map. So far, so good. After entering a second sort of "room", I'm presented with my first puzzle: the path ahead is blocked by thick undergrowth. I can't get through. Following along the only path available, I locate my first weapon: a stick. Wow, that'll be really helpful.

For the record, I just spent the last five minutes hacking at bushes. There are a lot of bushes that I unnecessarily hacked to pieces. It's an addiction. And way more fun than I make it sound.

Into the third room, I find myself face to face with the MOST HORRIFIC MONSTER I HAVE EVER SEEN! A beetle. My first monster of the game!

It and its nearby friends are easily dispatched by the might of my stick. A quick few presses of the space-bar and they're gone. Of course, then I see an EVEN BETTER MONSTER:

That would be a snake. Most of the time they ran away from me. It's really annoying to fight a fleeing snake with a stick. :) After about 15 of these monsters, (I wasn't really counting) I level up! W00t! LEVEL 2!

In the next room... OMG, WhAt Is ThAt?!?!? 15h 4 fuzzy li77l3 d09! (For those of you who are not 1337 literate, I said "Ish a fuzzy little dog!")

I got me a pet! You cannot possibly understand how happy that makes me. :)

Here's the thing. I'm going to take a bunch of screen shots and stop talking for a little while. I feel like I'm babbling about nothing right now. And I want to focus on the game. I'll come back in on level ups and new weapons and pets. Let's do this.

Still in the room where I got the dog. Both myself and my pet leveled up! I'm 3, Castaway is 2!

Ooh, this seems important:

This statue just talked to me... Her name is Sigil. And she just told me I'm on the Isle of the Titans. Glad we got that straightened out.

Oh, and while I'm in the mindset of writing, I'd like to say this about the game mechanic: Half the time, I walk away from items that fall out of the carcasses of my enemies because I kill them, and they fade and I walk away, and then I look at the little map in the corner, and it shows an item. >.<

So the statue lady gave me two quests. One to make armor, and one to make a new weapon. Here's how they look equipped:

For completing the quests, I got a key to move on to the next room. And I did. I'm level 4 now, but so are the monsters. I plan to train up to level 5 or 6 before I move on to the next one.

Holy crud! Before I could move on to the next room, this happened:

I got swarmed. There were four of them all at once, all level four! It was mildly insane.

Speaking of... I flew through the next few rooms, not really fighting anything... 

Holy shiz. It's the first boss. I'm so pumped!! Imma use my newly acquired skills and my modified stick! FEAR ME, BIG BLUE!

He goes down without much trouble... And then I experience my first game over. Battling big blue dropped my HP a lot more than I thought it did... And then I had to battle my way to the next door. :( I didn't see it till it was too late.

I just got to the city of Bastion. It's the first city, and once again I'm greeted by Sigil. Sigil is everywhere. It's so weird.

The next step on my journey seems to be to seek out a monster by the name of "Sister Pedro"... Onward and upwards, I suppose.

After a whole lot of searching aimlessly... And a few game overs, I've found her.

Two things absolutely blow about this silly little snake. 1) She can poison you, so your health depletes while you aren't paying attention, and 2) she spawns little helper snakes to destroy you and distract you.

I must say that this is the most frustrating fight I've ever been in. This is too complicated for a flash game. I'm done.

And yes, seriously, I'm completely done playing the game for today, perhaps forever.

So... What did I think about it? 

I think the concepts are there, and pretty well done. There were some flaws in the background of the entire game, and there were a few mechanical issues I would've personally fixed, but all in all it's a good game.

Would I recommend it?

Yes, yes I would. It's a good way to waste about two hours, at least that's how long I spent on the parts I did. The art is pretty, and as far as I could see, it had a decent plot line.

And where can you find it to play it?

It's called Castaway II (2). You could probably just google it, or search for it on whatever site you play games on. I personally play on Kongregate, because it isn't blocked by my school's web filters... I mean because they have quality games. >_>

On a lighter note, I think I'm going to steal my brother's old PC so I can run Ubuntu. I'm so pumped for this!

Castaway 2 courtesy of Likwid Games, hosted on Kongregate.com. All pictures are screenshots from this game which I took myself.