Thursday, March 3, 2016

Happy (belated) Leap Day!

Darn it to heckfire! I missed Leap Day! The second most important holiday in February!

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Simpsons Tapped Out

I just wanted to throw up a quick post about Simpsons Tapped Out. I've been playing it on Android for about 3 years now (shortly before Whacking Day, which according to the Wiki was in April 2013). I love it. I was an original Simpsons fan since the Tracy Ullman days. Sadly, I have not watched the show in years (in my mind, it ended on an up note about 10 years ago), but still have fond memories of when I used to watch it every week. I have the DVD sets of the first few seasons too (6 or 7, I believe).
I think the game captures the spirit of the show perfectly. The main cast (The Simpson family themselves, plus Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria) all provide voices for all of their characters, and most (all?) of it is new, not sound clips from the show. The other characters are silent though.
It's a freemium game, but I've never paid a cent, and I have lots of premium items and characters that I have purchases using donuts (the game's premium currency) earned through the game itself. The game used to be pretty stingy with free donuts, but there are now quite a few ways to earn them.
One of the things I love about the game are the events, which happen quite often. Christmas and Halloween are usually big, with lots of things to do. Sometimes it's stressful trying to complete all the tasks before the event ends, but I almost always manage it, and it gives me a sense of accomplishment. The events always contain exclusive characters and items, which are fun to have.
In fact, the Monorail event and Christmas 2015 (the Maggie update) both added new ways to earn donuts. You can earn 5 per week by building monorail track, and you can earn up to 3 donuts every 3 days by playing find Maggie.
There are often in-game sales on premium items too, and I've bought many of my premium characters at a discount by taking advantage of these sales, which stretches the value of donuts even further.
One of my recent purchases was Barney, who finally went on sale. Normally he costs 250 donuts, but during the Space event (which ends today), he was on sale for 120 donuts, and even included an extra outfit. I had been really close to buying him at full price, and I was so glad I waited. He's kind of been my white whale, and I'm glad I finally got him.
One great resource for information about the game is The Simpsons Tapped Out Addicts. I go there during every event to get more information. Sometimes the events are a little confusing at the start, so it's nice to get some tips (I usually wait a little while though, as I don't want everything to be spoiled). Often during events there are items you have to collect to win prizes. One of their most helpful posts is during every event they post a calendar to show how many items you should have on each day to get all the prizes.
As a Simpsons fan (even a lapsed one), I love the game. I think non Simpsons fans wouldn't really get it though, since for me it's about the characters and the humor and charm of the show.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Groundhog Day, 2016

Well, it's that time of year again. The one day a year this site gets any traffic. Let's see, what's happened here since I last posted...
Ugh! 2012! Really? Geez, it's already Leap Year again. I better generate some content here.
So, what's been going on in the last 4 years? Too much for one post, so maybe there will be a few more in the next couple of days/weeks/months.
Let's see:
  • Same job
  • Same house (remodeled the kitchen though)
  • Graduated with a BS in Computer Science 
  • Went to Disneyland a lot
  • Went to Disney World (twice!)
  • Saw some movies (apparently there's a new Star Wars movie. Actually, that's one of the 3 or 4 movies I've actually seen in a theater in the last 4 years).
  • Played a lot of games on my PC
  • Played a lot of games on my phone (I am addicted to Simpsons Tapped Out)
  • Read a few books. 
  • Watched TV on the TV
  • Watched TV on Netflix while running (Ended up watching all of Doctor Who through Matt Smith, then the first 2 seasons of Arrow, now watching Clone Wars)
  • Got a dog
  • Bought a lot of twisty puzzles (Rubik's Cube type puzzles)
  • Bought a lot of Transformers
  • Bought a lot of Legos 
  • Ran a few 5Ks
  • Subscribed to Loot Crate
  • Read a lot of comic books
  • Watched YouTube a lot
Umm... that's about it really.

Look for posts soon about some of these topics. I'm thinking about more musings about video games (such as what I'm currently playing and what I'm looking forward to), discussions about Disneyland and Disney World (loved Disney World!), and other stuff. We'll see.