Category Archives: Misc

Betting with salt

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I apologize for no post last week, I got caught up in a busy week and was unable to write one. That’s okay, though! Today is Labor Day, and so there will be a post!

Many of you may find yourself with nothing to do today. That’s bad. If you’ve got nothing to do and are a fan of hype and fighting games, I suggest you waltz on over to saltybet.com, sign up for an account, and start betting!

Salty Bets is a fictional betting arena that utilizes the game Mugen to set up AI against each other and duke it out. You start with 400 Salty Bucks, and can bet as much as you want (minimum 1) on who you think will win in a best 3 out of 5 matches. The AI and characters range from being ridiculously broken to god-awful. I’ve witnessed some AI that just run around and jump, but don’t attack.

If you go below 0, you get 10 Salty Bucks and are in the “Salt Mines“, a place where it’s hard to make a lot of money. I don’t know how much you need to officially make it out of the mines, but I think it’s once you hit $100 Salty Bucks.

What’s REALLY fun about Salty Bet is the chat. because it’s streamed, there’s a chat for people to talk while betting and watching the matches, and it is incredibly entertaining, especially when there’s an upset. It’s hard to describe the chat – it’s something you have to see and experience yourself.

A warning, though, the chat is very vulgar. If you’re not a fan of vulgar language, I wouldn’t pay mind to the chat. I, however, go almost exclusively for the chat.

Have fun betting!

Just Sayin’.

P.S. if you see SwagTrain on the bettors list, that’s me!

2 week hiatus

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My dearest readers,

I apologize for my two weeks of not posting, but I was working for internal Drive‘s programming academy, a two-week program where kids go to learn how to program while also experiencing a camp atmosphere. I have to say, being an instructor was challenging, but very fun. I now have a lot more respect for my professors in terms of physical endurance and patience. I walk to DePaul and back every day during the school year and I dance; I think it’s safe to say my legs have pretty high endurance. That’s not the case when I taught. The first day of teaching, I was giving lecture and after 3 hours my legs were killing me. It was painful to walk and they hurt the rest of the day. After a couple days I had to sit down and let one of my co-instructors give lecture because my legs just couldn’t take it. Professors have to have the legs of gods. It’s the only reasonable explanation! I don’t know how they do it.

I worked at Lake Forest College the past two weeks, and I can’t wait to work again in two weeks when I go to Princeton University! As a forewarning, I will not be posting entries for that two-week session, as well. I work almost 15-hour days, so there’s just no time for me to be writing. That window of free time is used for sleeping and sleeping only!

But let’s move on to something a little more relaxing… VACATION!!! It’s that time of year where I take a trip down to Florida with my family, and I couldn’t be more excited. To celebrate, I’ll be reblogging my Vacationing 101 entries from last year in the next couple of days.

Expect a review of Animal Crossing: New Leaf next Monday!

Just sayin’.

Frozen Yogurt Tier List

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DISCLAIMER: This tier list reflects my opinion on how good these shops are, and are in no way based on any sort of statistic or research.

A couple summers ago, I had never really been into the whole frozen yogurt scene, until one day when my girlfriend took me to a local Red Mango and changed my world forever. Since then, we’ve been constantly looking for new frozen yogurt shops to rate. We’ve been to so many that I think it’s time for my very own frozen yogurt tier list. And so, in true tier list style:

FROZEN YOGURT TIER LIST

S-TIER

1.Berry Yo (local)

A-TIER

2.Red Mango (chain)

3.Orange Leaf (chain)

B-TIER

4.Cherry Berry (chain)

5.Cocomero (chain)

C-TIER

6.Yogurtland (chain)

D-TIER

7.Menchie’s (chain)

F-TIER

8.Chill Out (local)

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And there you have it. Let me explain the placement criteria:

Price: How expensive was the yogurt? (in cents per ounce)

Quality: The quality of the yogurt against others in the tier.

Toppings: Were there a wide selection of toppings?

And now, for some explanation of placement.

1.Berry Yo: Berry Yo is a local shop about 5 blocks from my house. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a fantastic shop, easily stealing the #1 spot away from Red Mango and earning itself its own tier. It’s cheaper than most shops on the list, has a high quality when it comes to its sweets and fruit flavors, and has just as much toppings as the next yogurt place. Really, you can’t go wrong with this place. The ONLY thing going against it is its peanut butter flavor.

2.Red Mango: My first yogurt shop, and one that holds a dear place in my heart. I have yet to experience a bad flavor at Red Mango, and its peanut butter is the KING of peanut butter flavors (that I have experienced so far). Their seasonal flavors are amazing, and their toppings are fantastic. The only thing that keeps it from taking back its #1 spot is its vanilla and chocolate plus it being more expensive.

3.Orange Leaf: I actually tried this shop not too long ago when I visited my girlfriend for her graduation, and let me tell you, it took me by surprise. Not only was the entire interior decor orange (my favorite color) but it is the only other yogurt shop with a good peanut butter flavor beaten only by Red Mango.

4.Cherry Berry: Cherry Berry is cheaper than Orange Leaf and Red Mango, but it just doesn’t cut it when it comes to its quality. Simply put, I think Red Mango and Orange Leaf are better, which is the only reason why Cherry Berry is a tier below them.

5.Cocomero: Cocomero has the best fruit flavors I’ve ever had, but it falls so far because of its price and its rather limited topping bar. I’ve been to two locations, both of which had limited toppings. This could easily be an A-Tier shop if not for those two factors.

6.Yogurtland: Sitting a block away from Berry Yo in my neighborhood, Yogurtland is basically a more expensive Cherry Berry. Medium-sized toppings, decent flavors. I will say that their nutter butter flavor (or whatever their thanksgiving flavors were) were fantastic.

7.Menchie’s: I’ve only been here once, and for good reason. The flavors are okay, the toppings are less than Cocomero’s, AND it’s as expensive as Cocomero.

8.Chill Out: a local yogurt shop in Bloomginton-Normal. Some of the yogurt is good, but most of it is not. I’ve given this shop 3 separate chances, and it’s always been a let-down. The topping bar is pretty large, the price is very good, but the flavors…ugh.

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And there you have it. If you’ve got any frozen yogurt places I should try that aren’t on this list, tell me! I love trying out new shops!

Just Sayin’

An apology

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PLEASE READ THIS FOLLOW-UP POST: LINK

Spring Break is over, and with it comes a new semester of school, which I’m not very excited about, especially since I finally got my last two grades back. I had been struggling in a couple classes last semester, but was hoping to pull by with a C in both and move onto bigger and better things. Unfortunately, things didn’t go nearly as well as I had hoped.

Mom, Dad, I profusely apologize for the two D’s I received in my other two classes. I promise I’ll do better next time.

This means I’ll have to take an extra third semester on top of the two extra semesters I already have to take to get a C or better in those classes, because that’s what’s required for me to graduate.

Next week I’ll be reviewing the new Blue Man Group show!

Just Sayin’

Lindsey Sterling (Live)

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DISCLAIMER: I wanted to write this the day after I saw her show, but I had too much work to do, so I’m having trouble remember exactly what songs she played and in what order, so forgive me for not being able to remember.

Pardon my lack of entries recently: I’ve been so busy this semester that I simply had to forgo writing a couple entries in order to finish my school work.

A couple Saturdays ago, I got to see Lindsey Sterling on tour, and it was an awesome experience. If you haven’t heard of Lindsey Sterling, I think it’s time you became acquainted with her with this video:

She’s very well-known for doing a cover of popular game series The Legend of Zelda, and for doing a dub step song utilizing the violin. Also, she was on America’s Got Talent, but I didn’t find out about that until recently. LOL.

Anyway, let’s jump into the review, starting with (what I think was) her opener, a boy band DJ group. My friend noticed it while we were discussing aspects of DJ’ing, but one of the DJ’s had a leather jacket and shades (The Cool One), the other in a polo and jeans (The Hard Worker), and the last in a jacket and an awful-looking scarf (The Goof/Slacker). Also, scarf man was pretty bad at dancing. Nonetheless, the crowd seemed to enjoy the music and got them pumped up. I thought they were pretty cookie-cutter in terms of DJ’s, but hey, playing Skrillex isn’t bad in my book.

Once Lindsey finally came on-stage, the crowd really went crazy. I forgot what order she played her songs, but I know she played most (if not all) of her songs from her album a cover of what I’m pretty sure was Evanescence‘s “Bring Me To Life” (someone please correct me if I was wrong. LOL).

She had a couple intermissions sessions, one of which was her acting like a snobby star (which reminded me of High School Musical‘s Sharpay Evans. A reference, Lindsey?) and another of her pianist/music producer and drummer partying to remixed versions of some recent and old songs, which went into Lindsey coming on-stage and finishing with them.

If you’re a fan of Lindsey Sterling, I would definitely recommend seeing her live. She sounds much better live and has an electrifying stage presence. If you’re not a fan, watch that video or see if she’s playing near you sometime and check her out. Tickets for me were a very cheap $30, and you might find yourself a fan with just one or two songs.

Global Game Jam 2013: My Experience

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Last weekend, I participated in Global Game Jam 2013, an event where, in the span of one weekend, people from around the globe makes games. And let me tell you, it was an awesome experience!

Friday, everyone met up at DePaul who was participating, singed up, and we watched the Keynote, which was very cool. Then, we got the theme our game was supposed to center around, which was a heart beat (something that can connect everyone from around the world, they said). I thought the theme was interesting, and after forming teams, we went right into brainstorming. Unlike a lot of those at DePaul, my team consisted of people I didn’t know. I think next year I’ll go into it with friends, but I figured being in a team with strangers would be a good experience, and it was. I had a lot in common with them, and when I find someone to talk about MegaMan Battle Network with, it’s always awesome!

By the time 8PM rolled around, we had our game idea, Murica. We went with a fat guy rolling around and eating various junky foods, trying to balance how much he was eating with how full he was and how fast his heart was beating. You lose when you have a heart attack or starve. It was supposed to strike at a theme about America’s obesity problem due to fast food while being funny and silly.

Saturday, I woke up at 7:30, got to DePaul by 9:30, and began working. At first, we were mainly doing some level design and getting lists of tasks we needed to get done while we waited for our programmer to finish the content pipeline for his engine. Because I was one of the producers, I dipped out now and then to check on some of my friends’ teams (and troll them. LOL), which was very fun, especially when I had one of my friends text someone, “We in there! #swag #yolo.” By the time 5PM rolled around, we had almost all of our art assets done, and by 9PM we were switching engines from our programmer’s custom engine to XNA because his engine didn’t have the ability to rotate a certain way (in programmer’s term, he had no forward Vector, which is bad. LOL). After XNA finally installed on his computer, he began translating everything to it, so the rest of the team relaxed and chatted. Unfortunately, we had to switch engines again due to a content pipeline problem XNA was giving us, and so we switched to Unity so more of us (there was only him and I programming, and since he had his own engine I really hadn’t been programming) could work on the project. By the time 3:30AM on Sunday rolled around, many of the teams looked very tired, and a couple teams were done and polishing. We had just finished a beta minus our heart and stomach features in Unity, and it was awesome. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the time and means to learn the many aspects of Unity and put everything in that we wanted, but what came out of it was a playable demo, and I think that’s what’s important.

By 11 AM, most teams were done and submitting (you can see a screenshot of my game as the header image for this post), and so everyone was pretty much relaxing and chatting about how they wanted to sleep. I know I sure did! At 11:30 judging began, and after all of that, I went home.

Global Game Jam 2013 was really awesome, and I will definitely be joining next year if I can! I learned a lot about producing, a lot about Unity, and I realized that I still have a long way to go before I can program with the big boys. Also, I should’ve taken more pictures so I could’ve put some in this post. LOL. Next time!

Just sayin’.