Blaugust Day 6 - Mobile games I'm playing

Despite having access to a number of mobile devices, I'm rarely hooked by mobile and tablet games. I find they are often poor versions of a PC game or blatant cash grabs. Two games recently however have grabbed my attention and has me fighting with a four year for my iPad.

The first, which was actually introduced to me by my daughter (aforementioned four year old) is Minion Rush. Featuring those little yellow fellows that seem to be everywhere right now, you control a minion in  a forward facing platform race, following a path, jumping and ducking obstacles and collecting bananas. You are required to collect a certain amount of yellow fruits along with smacking fellow minions (committing Despicable Acts) and other crazy stuff. Overall very addictive with a cash store for cosmetics and life unlocks (which are otherwise timed)

The second game that's been keeping me coming back for more is Warhammer's Snotling Fling. Set in the Warhammer battle universe, this game is similar to Angry Birds, but it's forward facing rather than side scrolling and the enemies are warriors of the empire, stationed in various buildings and the ammunition are Snotlings, tiny goblins trained to be fired from massive catapults. There are also spells you can use to find alternative ways to destroy the enemy, though I struggled to use these effectively. Just as addictive as Angry Birds and has a cash shop to unlock otherwise timed life timers.



This post is part of the Blaugust 2015 initiative. If you are interested in taking part, all the information can be found by clicking the logo below.

Blaugust Day 5 - August begins and with it harvesting!

Despite some odd weather patterns here in the suburbs of London, the allotment is starting to produce in abundance. My Jostaberry bushes still have plenty of berries, but honestly I'm tired of picking them and the plucking off the stalks before freezing. So far I estimate I've had 8 kilos of the things and have made cordial, smoothies, crumble, ice-cream, frozen yoghurt and jam and still have plenty of bags full left in the freezer. The rest will have to be for the birds, mostly because now I have something new to pick - Blackberries!

Blackberries!

I was excited to see my plot had some established blackberry bushes. Year on year I collect them wild, to freeze for crumble through the year and they make delicious pies and crumbles with a few apples.

Kale, Beans, Cucumber, Squash and Blackberries

The squash plants are doing well, despite periods of drought, and I've already had two delicious fruits off them.

Cucumber

The cucumber plants are also doing really well. Two plants in a tub at home have already given us two decent sized cucumbers with more growing away nicely. At the allotment I have several in the ground which are doing less well but time will tell.

Tomatoes at home are flourishing. Lots of cherry tomatoes forming, though nothing has ripened yet. At the allotment, the tomatoes I started later in the greenhouse are catching up and have just started flowering, as have the chilli plants.

My experiment with Cucamelons doesn't seem to have worked. The plants are barely growing, either outdoors or in the greenhouse. Not sure what I'm doing wrong but maybe it's just not been consistantly hot enough.

Beans have given mixed results this year. Borlotti beans haven't done especially but the French beans have been excellent and the plan to grow some in hanging baskets, inspired by my dad, was great. Sadly his own haven't done much at all.

Sweetcorn

Sweetcorn, though not as tall as I'd expected, is producing plenty of cobs, much better than last year. Hopefully they continue to grown and
ripen.













This post is part of the Blaugust 2015 initiative. If you are interested in taking part, all the information can be found by clicking the logo below.

Blaugust Day 5 - August begins and with it, harvesting!

Despite some odd weather patterns here in the suburbs of London, the allotment is starting to produce in abundance. My Jostaberry bushes still have plenty of berries, but honestly I'm tired of picking them and the plucking off the stalks before freezing. So far I estimate I've had 8 kilos of the things and have made cordial, smoothies, crumble, ice-cream, frozen yoghurt and jam and still have plenty of bags full left in the freezer. The rest will have to be for the birds, mostly because now I have something new to pick - Blackberries!

Blackberries!

I was excited to see my plot had some established blackberry bushes. Year on year I collect them wild, to freeze for crumble through the year and they make delicious pies and crumbles with a few apples.

Kale, Beans, Cucumber, Squash and Blackberries

The squash plants are doing well, despite periods of drought, and I've already had two delicious fruits off them.

Cucumber

The cucumber plants are also doing really well. Two plants in a tub at home have already given us two decent sized cucumbers with more growing away nicely. At the allotment I have several in the ground which are doing less well but time will tell.

Tomatoes at home are flourishing. Lots of cherry tomatoes forming, though nothing has ripened yet. At the allotment, the tomatoes I started later in the greenhouse are catching up and have just started flowering, as have the chilli plants.

My experiment with Cucamelons doesn't seem to have worked. The plants are barely growing, either outdoors or in the greenhouse. Not sure what I'm doing wrong but maybe it's just not been consistantly hot enough.

Beans have given mixed results this year. Borlotti beans haven't done especially but the French beans have been excellent and the plan to grow some in hanging baskets, inspired by my dad, was great. Sadly his own haven't done much at all.

Sweetcorn

Sweetcorn, though not as tall as I'd expected, is producing plenty of cobs, much better than last year. Hopefully they continue to grown and
ripen.













This post is part of the Blaugust 2015 initiative. If you are interested in taking part, all the information can be found by clicking the logo below.

Blaugust Day 4 - The sun is setting on some of Lotro's servers

Turbine have now announced the servers that will be closed allowing for merges to create 10 larger servers.

Those affected are Elendilmir, Riddermark, Firefoot, Nimrodel, Windfola, Imladris, Darrowdelf, Silverlode, Vilya, Meneldor, Estel, Gilrain, Eldar, Anduin, Morthond, Maiar, Vanyar, Withywindle and Snowbourn.

That leaves 5 servers in the US - Arkenstone, Crickhollow, Landroval, Gladden and Brandywine, and 5 EUE servers - Belegaer, Gwaihir, Sirannon, Laurelin and Evernight.

Obviously this has left a lot of people sad that they are being uprooted from their home server that some have been at for close to eight years. I personally spent the first five years solely on Windfola and have a roster of 9 characters there. Fortunately, a couple of years ago I rolled a whole new roster on Landroval and the community there made the game a lot more attractive to the point it became pretty much a permanent home. I am actually happy that I can now transfer many of my Windfola characters over, some of which are either at level cap or very close and not only that, my former kinship and some old friends will be joining me on Landroval.

While I feel sorry for those being uprooted against their will, I will say this change will be a good thing and the benefits are a larger community will enrich the game further for you, and give us greater numbers to fight the threat ahead,  at least till the day we sail off to the West and the sun sets on all of Lotro's servers.

This post is part of the Blaugust 2015 initiative. If you are interested in taking part, all the information can be found by clicking the logo below.

Blaugust Day 3 - My Kinship's very own pub in LOTRO

They're a very creative bunch, The Courserrim, my kinship on Lotro's Landroval server but tonight I was invited to take a look at the latest creation, our very own Public House.

There are some very nice touches; yellow and green flowered wallpaper (flock, I'm sure, if I could feel it), tables of tankards and all the kegs and shelves stacked with mugs you could wish for.

The pub was designed by Kin leader, Bredhe and Kin-friend, Daffodilia, with a little colour inspiration from yours truly. Stools were provided by the House of Trecalia.

We are on the lookout for a 'Laden Tasting Table', a fairly rare item, so if anyone of Landroval has one spare, please get in touch. We'll allow you honourary membership and all the beer you can drink!

And, of course, if anyone is looking for a friendly kinship on Landroval, with a strong interest in the source material, The Courserrim, which also incorporates the award winning Remediators band,  welcome new applicants.

Our kinship page is http://courserrim.guildlaunch.com/ and you can contact Bredhe in game for more information. We are also on Anook at http://www.anook.com/community/the-courserrim

Captain Diaspora, enjoying a pint.

A good spot to sit after a pint or two

Another great spot, I think I may have dozed off.

A very sinister looking keg

No shortage of Ale!

This post is part of the Blaugust 2015 initiative. If you are interested in taking part, all the information can be found by clicking the logo below.

Blaugust Day 2 - 5 things you might not know about me

This comes from a writing prompt provided by Jaedia of the Dragons and Whimsy Blog, 5 things you might not know about me, so here goes.

• At the end of school, before college I had two areas of potential study that I could follow. My love for computers, mostly fueled by my love of computer gaming and my love for cooking. Knowing full well that computers were just a fad and there would be no future in a career in so called  "IT", whereas people would always want to eat, I followed my passion and became a chef. I like to think somewhere there's a much richer version of me in an alternate universe reaping the rewards of jumping of the computer bandwagon.

• When I was about 11 whilst doing a paper-round I was hit by a speeding car. I was sent flying straight over bonnet and landing on the road behind. I had neither a scratch or a broken bone on me (but now have a very real fear of cars)

• At around the age of 14 I was on a school skiing trip in Pinzolo, Italy. Our group was caught in the mountains as fog was descending and we were rushed down by our instructors. In the hurry to get clear, I hit a rock and my stick smacked me in the eyebrow. The instructor managed to ease the bleeding with snow and get me to hospital where I had several stitches. An inch lower and I would have been blinded in that eye.

• During my work placement from College I worked in the kitchens of Gleneagles Hotel, the 5 star golfing resort in Perthshire, Scotland. Whilst there I was tasked with cooking breakfast for a well known member of the Royal Family who had just split from his wife. It was 8am and he was smashed on whisky.

• Whilst managing a Wine Bar in Covent Garden I also worked in the company's Cigar shop. There I encountered legendary actor, Edward Woodward who came looking for a specific brand of cigarettes (which we didn't sell) and I ended selling him a Cuban cigar.

This post is part of the Blaugust 2015 initiative. If you are interested in taking part, all the information can be found by clicking the logo below.

Blaugust Day 1 : My Evergreen game - LOTRO

This post was already in mind before I saw a writing prompt from Void of A Green Mushroom blog,  to name your Evergreen game, the game you keep coming back to month after month, year after year so felt this fits the bill.

Of all MMO's I've dabbled in, Lord of the Rings Online is the one keep coming back to. My first true MMO, I discovered just before the release of the expansion, Siege of Mirkwood in 2009.

During those years, levelling was a slow process. It was close to a year before I got anywhere close to level cap on Jestro, my hobbit hunter and didn't even dream of having an alt. I never so much as looked at another MMO for about four years and even when I did it was a brief dalliance to return to my first love.

When my interest began to wane, I found renewed joy by playing on another server, rolling a new character on Landroval, having burnt out playing 9 alts on the Windfola server. This coincided with the Coursera course that revolved around the game and along with a new kinship and a community of roleplayers, it gave me a renewed interest.

A year on, I discovered Guild Wars 2 and that took over. I was burnt out again, having reached cap on my warden and rolled even more alts. I stopped playing Lotro altogether. After about two months I decided to end my sub, for the first time in 6 years. As my sub ran out, I logged in to say goodbye and found myself drawn in again. It felt fresh once more and as I'd been having problems with GW2 crashing, I'd become frustrated so returned to my old flame. My account lapsed for a full 24 hours. I logged in, realised what a pain it was not to have the functionality I'd had before, so I resubbed. That was a couple of weeks ago and I've been playing every day since. 

I've decided to try and focus on one character, my captain Diaspora, and so far it's working. Spreading myself thin quickly leads to burnout and I'm loving running through Rohan again and seeing things I missed before as I rushed through the content. The kinship is more active than ever before with new people coming through every day and with server merges ahead, things are looking rosy, at least for Landroval. I suspect Windfola may be one of those put to the wall, so I may have to transfer most if not all to Landroval. This will give me a diverse pool of crafters though the thought of trying to get all of them to level cap leaves me with cold sweats. 

One day at a time...




This post is part of the Blaugust 2015 initiative. If you are interested in taking part, all the information can be found by clicking the logo below.