#trailmix 2016

[projectsvakesjeler]

》 Character Introduction 《

Azoura Hilde is the first POV of the series, and serves as a main protagonist in the series.

She's bold, raised by a father who lived by the land in a cabin just off from town. She learned most of what she knows from him, and she's resourceful with a strong sense of self righteousness.

Her and her best friend Kyro were known in town as the troublemakers, the young adults who have yet to learn respect, and would often get lectured by a kind officer, Onjay, who wanted them to stay out of any serious trouble.

But once things start to unravel, the three will band together to do what's right... whatever right means.

Art is from May 2023

Funfacts and Trivia!

》 Azoura adores chickens, despite Kyro's wariness of them, and someday wants a whole farm for them.

》 She's big on trailmix, her dad got her hooked on it.

》 She would jump at the opportunity to dress up pretty and spend a night absolutely killing it with the looks. She just doesn't get the chance to dress up as much as she wishes she could.

》 Her father is Levintian, meaning he's from a desert region south of Koniskan, and she learned all about Zeir culture from him growing up. She has Solanist influences in her worldview, but is not religious.

》 Her mother is a rich Ovaiskish woman, but was never in the family picture.

》 Azoura is classified as a Sjel, specifically an Unstable Sjel, and due to this deals with unstable health. Certain exertions can lead to a fainting spell, brainfog, fatigue, or dizziness.

》 Azoura was originally made as a Minecraft Diaries OC back in 2016, and has since gone through many rewrites, and is my first human OC ever made!

》 She uses she/her pronouns and is Asexual

[lazygirlgaming]

Love & Pies

I've been playing Love & Pies for several months now and that is, genuinely, the longest a merge game has lasted in my phone since, like, 2016. Let's get into it.

The Game

Love & Pies is a completely free-to-play mobile merge game. It's a lot like the other merging games on app stores nowadays, but there are absolutely NO advertisements! You can spend money for in-app rewards, as with most ftp indie games, but I've had very little reason to do so, and I don't think I've actually given in to any of those urges yet.

The game follows a young woman named Amelia who just moved back to her hometown with her daughter Kate. When she arrives, she finds her mothers cafe had suffered a fire, and her mother was nowhere to be found! Sounds very similar to the draw towards other games like this, right? The story of it, anyways. Well, that's on purpose. The actual game is so much smoother, cleaner, and cohesive than you can find anywhere else on the app store.

Amelia, unlike protagonists of similar games, doesn't just passively let things happen to her as she rebuilds and runs her mothers cafe. People in town come to depend on her to solve mysteries in their own lives - some of them quite dramatic! - all while she tries to solve the mystery of who tried to burn down her mothers cafe, and where in the world her mother is anyways.

I'm somewhere around Day 40 now, meaning 40 days since Amelia returned, and so far I've met her uncle, her great aunt, her childhood best friend, her high school sweetheart (+ his twin brother), a local lawyer, a local journalist, the owner of the rival cafe, and the rival cafe owners horrendous father. There are other characters also mentioned in passing, but the cast is quite diverse in both race/ethnicity and body type! They frequently have an event ran called 'Uncle Sven's Toy Shop' where you help Sven and his longterm partner Otis build toys for the children at the local children's hospital (pictured below).

The Experience

Despite my screenshots looking low-quality, this game is of the highest caliber. The story is consistently engaging, the art and character designs are eye-catching and very down-to-earth. And, most importantly of all, the characters are human. Their dialogue reads like real conversations, and not those poorly written scraps you find in other free mobile games. It's very obvious that the team at Trailmix put a lot of time, love, and effort into this game.

Other than that, there's not much to tell about the experience of the game. You merge a couple things together to get a new thing and then you serve a customer the result to get coins to advance the story. Simple, concise, predictable. Obviously customers order different things and their orders get more complex with time, but the game is constantly supplying you with more items to merge into the suppliers that give you ingredients.

Also, many of the events run (aside from Sven's Toy Shop) can be played by playing the game as normal. The other two events that they often run are "Edwina's Coin Dash" in which you have to get as many coins as possible in 3 days to beat Edwina, the rival cafe owner. The other one is called "Yuka's Date Dash" where you help Yuka, Amelia's childhood best friend, acquire roses for a date. There are multiple levels to each of these events that you have to beat, each increasing how many coins/roses you need to advance. So, as of yet, I haven't beat either of the events, but I've gotten within 3 levels of beating Edwina's coin dash. I'll be taking that crown, yet!

The Pies

Listen, I'd be lying if I said that there was anything totally unique and original about this game. Quite frankly, there isn't. But I think that's what makes it special! The grounded, down-to-earth nature of this game is what keeps me coming back for more. The people in this game look like people I see everyday! That's really important to me, especially because the people I see everyday aren't necessarily represented through games of any kind, let alone mobile games. Trailmix, if you're reading this, you've made something really special. I'd say mission statement successful with this one.

The Conclusion

This is a really great mobile game and I absolutely encourage everyone to make space on their phone and download it. Decorating this sweet little cafe is something I try to make time for everyday. It brings me little pockets of joy every time I open it, and it's a great way to kill a few minutes while waiting for a class or meeting to start. It's completely free! No advertisements whatsoever! And developed by an indie game studio! Hurry up and go get it!

5/5

[wellpersonsblog]

Costco Favorites

Hi friends!

This post has been about 2 years coming and I FINALLY got around to putting it together for you! I get asked all the time what I buy at Costco so I wanted to share all our favorites. We’re lucky enough to have a Costco right down the road so we go every weekend! There’s also a lot of great options at Costco that we don’t necessarily buy, so I tried to share some of those too! Plus, some non-food items we’ve purchased there that you might not know were available. Also note we don’t buy a ton of stuff from the frozen and refrigerated section so I’m sure there are some good pre-packaged options not included in this post simply because I haven’t tried them.

Here are the food items we buy regularly:

Fresh fruit (mostly berries, peaches, pears, other depending on season)

Baby carrots

Avocados

Dates

Little Potato Company potatoes

Sweet potatoes

Organic eggs

Organic hard boiled eggs

Organic 2% milk

Coffee

Organic Valley String Cheese

Aussie Bites

Wine (hubby buys Kirkland Sonoma County Old Vine Zin 2016 by the case)

Dave’s Killer Bread 

Cheerios

Quaker Oats

Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts

Chia seeds

Almonds

Vanilla extract

Avocado oil

Spray avocado oil

Olive oil

Kirkland brand maple syrup

Honey

Rx Bars

Kodiak Cakes pancake/waffle mix

Bottled water

RW Garcia Sweet Potato Crackers

Kirkland Brand animal crackers

Kirkland Organic Ground beef

Honey Smoked Fish Co Smoked Salmon

Tortellini

Feta

Kirkland Brand pesto

Frozen wild blueberries

Frozen Beef Burgers

Plainville Organic turkey deli meat

Trailmix

Pretzel chips

Simple Mills Almond Crackers

Lotus Foods Brown Rice Ramen

Non-food items we buy as needed:

Baby wipes

Laundry detergent

Dish detergent

Swiffer wipes

Lysol

Trash bags

Paper towels

Contact solution

Allergy medicine (Allertec and Flonase)

Lightbulbs

Batteries

Ziplocs

Sponges

Other food options I like. We don’t buy all of these but do buy some occasionally:

Hummus

Guacamole 

Perfect bars

Trident Salmon burgers

Kirkland brand marinara sauce (Rao’s is also good)

Fruit in 100% juice

Dried Fruit

Almond butter

Quinoa

Made in Nature figgy pops/snacks

Chopped salad kits or leaf lettuce

Any of the frozen fruit and veggies

Any of the fresh fruit and veggies

Canned tuna and salmon

Chicken broth/stock/bone broth

Brazi Bites

Jerky

Larabars

Nuts and nut/seed mixes

Protein powder/Creatine (if that’s your thing- my husband buys them)

Not pictured

Rotisserie chicken

Steak

Frozen fish/shrimp

Wild Brine Sauerkraut 

Amylu Kale & Mozz Chicken Burgers

Coconut Oil

Almond Flour

Gluten-free Flour Mix

Canned beans

Cholula/Tabasco

Avocado Mayo

Balsamic Vinegar

Banza chickpea pasta

Skinnypop popcorn

Baby formula

Greenridge farm refrigerated beef sticks

Don Lee Farms Grilled Chicken Patties (frozen)

Like I mentioned, we buy A LOT of stuff at Costco. I tried to remember some of the things we’ve purchased over the years so if you’re looking for some of these things, you might want to consider Costco as an option! 

Eyeglasses

Novaform Mattress (we haven’t actually bought this yet but it’s on our to do list)

Patio furniture

We’ve gotten our flu shots there

Water bottles

Pots and pans

Printer

Printer ink

TV

Dexcom transmitters (for husband’s glucose monitor)

LG Soundbar

External hard drive

Tires

Dog bed

Paper/plastic party supplies

My husband buys pretty much all his clothes there and we also get the kids some stuff

Books

Furniture (our under-tv console, ladder bookshelves…)

American flag

Lawn and leaf bags

Stamps

Fertilizer

Garden hose

Giant poof (bean bag)

Photo prints/canvases

Patio lights

Ladder

Pressure washer

Hope that helps! Would love to hear some of your Costco favs!

Enjoy! –Lindsay–

First found here: Costco Favorites

[aboutict]

Geen nieuwe game, toch 2 miljard dollar omzet voor Supercell

Het Finse gamingbedrijf Supercell heeft vorig jaar ruim 2 miljard dollar omgezet en zeker 810 miljoen dollar winst gemaakt, en dat zonder een nieuwe game op de markt te brengen. In zeven jaar tijd hebben de Finnen uit Helsinki slechts vier games uitgebracht. Clash of Clans en Hay Day vierden vorig jaar hun vijfde verjaardag. Clash Royale speelde een belangrijke rol bij e-sports wedstrijden, met 27,4 miljoen deelnemers. Toegegeven, de cijfers waren hoger in 2016, toen de omzet 2,3 miljard dollar bedroeg. Die hoge inkomsten zijn ook deels te danken aan de lage kosten. Het bedrijf telt slechts 241 werknemers. Wel is men meer gaan investeren in bedrijven als Space Ape Games (Londen), Frogmind (Helsinki) en Shipyard Games (Helsinki). Dit jaar nog werd 4,2 miljoen dollar in Trailmix gestopt. Dit jaar komt er overigens wel een nieuwe game Brawl Stars. Die wordt momenteel in Canada getest. Op de foto CEO Ilkka Paananen http://dlvr.it/QGQj2s