Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Kingdoms of Amalur is a fantasy role playing game published by EA and developed by 38 Studios and Big Huge Games. Perhaps one of the best games released by EA this year. The people involved with its development are well-known for their works of story-writing and game development, names such as R. A. Salvatore, and Ken Rolston. This is one of the best games I’ve played this year, but it still has its problems too.

First, I’ll give you the good news. The story of this game is well written. Your character can be built from 4 playable races, 3 class trees that you can pick and choose from, and various “destinies” that you can unlock as you progress. At the start you are introduced to a world at war and the contenders are mortals on one side and the winter fae on the other. Your character starts out dead, and you are revived via a thing called “The Well of Souls”. However, because you have been brought back to life, you have broken free of your fate and now can manifest and change fate through your actions.

The game gives the player an excellent tutorial starting with movement and picking things up. Then it moves into the various parts of combat: melee, ranged, sneak attacks, and magic. The tutorial ends with you learning one last mechanic on a boss type creature, finishers. You get easily readable messages on the screen telling you which button does what, and that makes it very easy to quickly learn the game’s controls.

The game’s visually very appealing. Characters look good. The environment looks good. Your armor changes as you get new stuff, but certain combinations while they may be the best you have doesn’t always look good together. I have a Wizard that has a light grey-blue robe with green gloves, golden boots, and dark grey pants, but they’re the best pieces of equipment he has, but hey at least his staff looks cool. You also can have the option to hide your character’s helm or head-piece because not everyone likes how they look.

The voice acting for NPCs (non-player characters) is done very well. Voices for each character fits very well, and you can even pick up some feeling in the voice. Sadly, your character remains silent throughout the entirety of the game. Which brings me to the first bad point of the game. After playing several role playing games where your character responds through talking it felt somewhat foreign and intrusive having a character that has conversation choices in-game without actually speaking.

Combat is the majority of the game, so in that case it’s not much different from Dungeon Siege. However, the combat system is very smooth with no noticeable bugs, and enemies have resistances and weaknesses that make sense. There is a dark side to this too, except for bosses and sometimes not even then, combat is easy even if you’re playing the game on “Hard”. My wizard can one or two-shot most everything at his level and getting hit is no problem. I tried a rogue and fighter style of characters and even then combat was a cake walk.

Overall, I do recommend trying this game because it is fun and the story is interesting to follow. I also give it a 7.5/10.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Yard Sale Hopping: Postponed

Sadly, I will not be able to do as I had said I would earlier this week and shall be postponing my scheduled attempt at yard sale hopping until next weekend. Unexpected events have occurred and I have to put it off, but next time I will definitely be posting about it with what I have found.

Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School

It’s not that often that I take a trip down the drama aisle in the movie section, but I saw a preview for this movie and absolutely had to watch it. Mostly because it had two of my favorite actors in it: Robert Carlyle and John Goodman. Also in part because I felt a connection with the main character in the preview. This is definitely a hidden gem of 2005 that did not get the recognition it deserved. The man who directed and wrote it was Randall Miller.

This film is a story about Frank Keane (Carlyle) and Steve Mills (Goodman). They each have their own tale in this beautifully woven story. Keane is a widowed man who moved from Great Britain to the United States bringing his family’s baking business with him. His story is one of recovery from his depression through a dancing school called Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School. Mills’ tale is a sad one, he made a promise 40 years ago to the only woman he loved, that promise was: to not matter what, whether they were married, or had kids, or anything, that they would meet at Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School and from there see what happened. However, because of an accident that happens early on in the film introducing both of our main characters, Mills cannot go and asks Keane to go for him. Mills then proceeds to tell Keane, at Keane’s request, about how he met his love. These two stories intertwine very well and create a fantastic story about the two men.

There are a wide variety of characters, each of them are well made with the perfect actors and actresses playing them. There is light-hearted and witty humor, as well as powerful emotional moments as Keane goes through his healing process. The first time I saw it, this film became one of my favorites, and I hope you find it to be a grand movie as well.

Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School

No More Benders!

Paul Davis’ Story

After his announcement, news stations all over began to talk about how the government declared Vincent DeMoore as their most wanted criminal and a threat to society as a whole. Shortly after that declaration, rumors of fights between Knights of Discord all over the states and government establishments spread all over. For all I know, the world might as well have blown up then and there. I tried to preach safety and order, but the more I did so, the more things seemed to go crazy. I was struggling against some overwhelming force and I wasn’t going to give up anytime soon.

Within a month I spoke about how the Knights of Discord gained the Dakotas as territories and the US Military was being forced back. The worst part was the reports of troops firing upon innocent civilians not knowing the difference between them and the Knights. Naturally, the government and military got all the blame, and I couldn’t help but agree that they should have been more careful, but I also had no idea what was happening over there despite all the reports I was receiving and talking about. Many of our listeners had varying opinions on the Knights still, some loved them, others feared, and many still had no idea what to think. I knew I was in the third crowd.

One day, after work my wife and I decided to take a walk in our favorite park.

I started our conversation there with. “I read a letter from a woman who lost her sister and husband to the military. I wanted to talk about it, but I couldn’t find a good way to begin. The letter was so powerful, sad, and angry. I hope she finds some peace somehow.”

Jenna gripped my hand tightly. “She will. It seems like the world has gone crazy, but it just hasn’t hit us yet. We still have children playing in the playground over there, and kids in the skateboard arena having fun. Life here hasn’t changed much, but I can’t help but feel that is going to change.” She put her free hand on her stomach. “I hope things don’t change so badly that it ruins this one’s future.”

I squeezed her hand. “I’ll do everything I can to make sure our child has a perfect life. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure nothing bad happens here.”

We kissed a long and beautiful kiss. Every emotion I had, positive and negative, rose into my heart. I felt angry at the Knights for their timing and their destructive means. I was angry at the government for not serving the people like it should have, therefor preventing the Knights from existing in the first place. I wanted a safe place for my wife and child to live, and it began to feel like the world was turning hostile against us. I would do anything to make sure that would happen, even move out of the states.

Yard Sale Hopping

So, because I’m always looking for ways to make money via anything, I’ve decided to try hopping yard sales. It kind of feels like a treasure hunt. Here I am looking for a diamond in a pile of coal. I know some people actually can make money by doing this, because I’ve heard from the grapevine about people doing this. So I’m going to give it a try. This weekend I’m going to a few yard sales if I can (at least one) and try and find some valuables that somebody wants to sell for dirt cheap and then turn around and sell it for a large margin… well what it’s worth anyways.

I am kind of excited about this, I’ve been to yard sales before, but not in the search of stuff to sell. People tend to look over the small stuff and anything made of paper, so I have a place to start. I don’t know what to expect, but I’m going to look for trading cards, baseball cards, maybe other similar things I know that I can make some money from selling those. Maybe I’ll be able to find some small trinkets that might be of some value. Who knows? I’ll find out and let you know.

I’ll be using eBay to sell the stuff I find, not because it’s the best vendor site, but because I’m familiar with it. Later, I’m going to hunt for better sites if they exist. I know there’s Etsy.com, but that’s a site for selling arts and crafts, and I’ve no arts or crafts to sell.

I’m hoping for some decent luck with this, but I could walk away with nothing or a few hundred dollars.

When I was Young…

Robert White: Trouble’s Brewing

What happened last night? This thought ran through my head as I sipped from a glass of cold water in my living room. The party I went to last night was the only thing on my mind. The bloody image of my dead best friend was the last thing I remembered before I panicked and ran. God, so much blood. Did I kill him? I hope not. I need to remember.

The first thing I remember was when I was getting ready to go to the Volcano, a night club, for a good time with my two best friends, Kevin and Alex. We were just out to celebrate our graduation. I was going to be a forensics specialist, Kev was going to go for a graduate’s degree in Biotechnology, and Alex, poor Alex, was going to begin to pursue his dream as a business owner. This headache is killing me and this Tylenol is not cutting it at all, but I need to remember last night. Why did I drink so much last night?

I only have so much time before the police come knocking at my door to haul me off to jail for something I may not have done. I left more than enough evidence behind to get me to the top of the list of suspects. I’ve been drunk before, I’m not a violent drunk, but I’ve never been blackout drunk before and who knows how I am then.

Ok, so first thing I remember at the club. We had taken a cab to the Volcano, and good lord were the lights to that place beautiful and annoying at the same time. Who would have know florescent lights could look so good and still bother the hell out of you?

“This is the place,” was what Alex had said as he paid the cabby after we got out. “Ready for a good night fellas?”

I grinned. “Are the lights always this bad?”

Kevin laughed. “Don’t worry about them, once we’re inside it’ll be different.”

“Yeah, then I have to deal with strobe lights and loud music. I’m impressed that there isn’t even a loud thumping sound from out here.”

Alex led us into the club and man it was loud. The sound of techno and the noise of loud conversations pounded and buzzed in my ears. It was Kevin and Alex’s ideal party location, but I wasn’t thrilled, at least not yet. I searched around for a good spot to sit and found one at a bar on the other side of the club. We all went there. It was there we started drinking.

Alex ordered the first round of drinks for us. “Here’s to a successful life in crime fighting, getting a graduate’s, and ruling the capitalist world,” was his toast to us when the drinks arrived.

Kevin leaned over towards me and pointed to a pretty auburn-haired woman at the other side of the bar. “Ever since we’ve gotten here that babe’s had her eye on you. Why don’t you go talk to her and then bring her over here to join us?”

I shook my head. “Nah, she’s probably looking at you or Alex. There’s no way someone as good looking as her would be interested in a guy like me.”

Kevin put his hand on my shoulder. “Dude, she’s not looking at me and definitely not ugly over here.” Alex punched his shoulder for that. “Don’t be a downer on yourself, you’re a better looking guy than you think, and you’re pretty damn smart.”

Alex then had an idea. “You know what? Lets get a couple more drinks in ya before you go talk with the lovely lady. That’ll loosen you up.”

I certainly caved under that peer pressure and eventually did talk with her. I don’t remember her name, and something tells me she had something to do with Alex’s murder. Maybe she saw what happened and remembers. I still don’t remember anything after that.

I got up from my sofa and walked into the bathroom to splash my face with some cool water when I heard a loud pounding at the door. My heart skipped a beat.

The Three Realms

This is a follow up to the new page I made: The Three Realms. I figured I’d tell you a bit about each place. Also each one is clearly separated by a river.

First, there is Valaya (pronounced vah-lie-yah) in the west. Valaya is an empire that once ruled the entire world, but eventually its territories rebelled and it lost touch with everywhere except its neighbors Reneva (ren-eh-vah) and Dragia (dray-gee-ah).

To the west of Valaya is the Wall, a landmark built by the last territory to cut off all connection with its one-time ruler. The Wall towers into the clouds and projects attempted to scale it or go around it either way have failed. The Blood Plains were once the most fertile grounds in the three realms, but after a savage war fought after the rebellions the land became toxic to most plant life except the blood red grass that grows their now. The Darksang Woods produce a sap with an incurable poison and are protected by mysterious energies, only the most skilled or powerful can enter and survive and not for long. The Belt is a strip of wasteland filled with derelict buildings and dangerous predators, many a brave expedition have been sent there only to never return. The Ivory Sands are just that, a desert that has ivory white sand, and this sand is used to construct many of the buildings in Valaya.

Ivorand (pronounced as it is spelled) is the capitol of Valaya and the seat of the emperor and his advisers. It is built on a cliff with two massive trade ports to the east and west edges of the city. Anarcand (an-R-canned) is the city that was founded by the only successful archaeologist group ever sent to the Belt, and they only survive on the fringes of it, which is the safest part. Anarcand is also at the thinnest part of the Belt, therefor being the rest point for any trade caravans going through to the Oasis. The Oasis is the city that gathers the sand for building projects as well as gathering artifacts found occasionally in the sand. The Oasis is also the only plant-safe place in Valaya thus being the major agricultural city for Valaya.

The mountains along the western river are the home of dwarves and gnomes.

The eastern most realm is Reneva. Reneva is a republic run by the Ministry of the People. It was once a part of Dragia, but the people led by Dragian Airstrider broke free from the monarchy and created their Ministry. To the east of Reneva is the Great Divide, this is a tear in the world that was created by the first time the Apocalypse happened, separating Reneva from their neighbors on the other side of the tear. All attempts to reconnect with their neighbors have failed creating the assumption that there is nothing on the other side. Most of the landscape of Reneva is fertile plain lands. The Elvenwood is home to the elves and they have agreed to be a part of the Ministry.

Valius is the capitol of Reneva and the home of several heroes that have had a major part in protecting Reneva and even saving the world. Lourghn (lore-hn) is the home of Dragian Airstrider and his family line. Ravenshold is the elves capitol city within the trees of the Elvenwood. Freeport is a bustling business port with merchants, tourists, nobles, and other people from the other realms, it is from here many trade ships bring their quarry to Reneva.

Dragia is a monarchy with a regency backing and is smack dab in between Reneva and Valaya. They have been long-time allies with Reneva and try their hardest to maintain the truce with Valaya, because neither side really wants to start a war.

The Lilac Plains are named for the lilacs that grow in sporadic locations throughout the plains. Haven Forest is one of the safest forests for those that wish to get away from the laws of Dragia or Valaya, because the forest is owned by the city Haven, with is a home for anyone that wishes to escape or hide from everything. The Titan Desert is a training ground for the hardiest of the Dragian military, which is the most disciplined and tactically powerful military in the three realms.

Lilac City is the capitol of Dragia and home to the most secure and decorative castle in the three realms. Riverforde is a large town responsible to making sure ships make it safely with their cargo up and down river. Southport is the busiest port town in Dragia and a hub for people from various parts of the world. Haven is a safe place for criminals, hunted people, rejects, and other people that wish to be free of Dragia or Valaya. Haven has its own code of law and is the home of the Guardians, an organization created to help protect those that cannot protect themselves. Sunstone Tower is one of the two only remaining schools for those that wish to learn magic. Sunstone Tower has the strictest code and rules for its students and produces some of the greatest and most skilled wizards, but they often are not creative as they follow the rules that were hammered into their minds as soon as the enrolled. Dragonshold is the other great school for wizards, mostly designed to help students educate themselves in the art of magic safely. Dragonshold is led by the Circle of Mages who are skilled wizards that provide the order and rules for safe and free learning.

The Uncharted Territories are places that were once known, but the maps were destroyed many centuries ago. Now they are unknown and the few that dare to explore them rarely ever return. It is not known if anything has come from the Territories into the three realms.

Summary of Ways of Make Money Online

Some of these you’ve probably read from earlier posts and in greater detail, but I decided I would gather some more general information about making money online. While, yes I focus mostly for college students on this post, anybody can get some decent information on this.

Money is always a problem for college students, anybody really, but especially college students. We have loans, bills, gas, food, and other sorts of things to pay for. Sometimes having a part-time job just isn’t enough to cover what is needed. How can one cover the rest? We happen to have the greatest resource at our own hands: the Internet. There are several ways one can make money on the internet: blogging, paid surveys, paid services, and e-stores.

Blogging is a totally achievable way for people to make money. It takes multiple steps and of course it requires having a good sized following. Now, while it is totally achievable, not everybody can do it because it requires some knowledge of the internet which I will go into further detail soon. I spoke with Steve Pavlina via email, he’s a Las Vegas blogger that has made a decent living from blogging, and I asked him some questions about how to make money by blogging. His responses were basically pointers to some of his past blogs which went into great detail about making money via blogging.

The most difficult part is the need for patience, if you cannot wait then your blog is doomed to fail. Then there’s perseverance: you keep posting your topics while you build up viewers. There are ten ways to build traffic in a blog: create valuable content meaning will your content be worthy of being read by many people (“How to Build…”)? Create original content because while unoriginal stuff may be entertaining it’s more interesting to be creative with your posts (“How to Build…”). Create time less content because if people keep checking out posts from five or more years ago that’s a valuable post for you (“How to Build…”). Write for human beings first and computers second, meaning post content that means something to a person not nonsense that’s just going to put you higher on a search engine (“How to Build…”). Know why you want a high traffic site, this is pretty self-explanatory, but isn’t always profit oriented (“How to Build…”). Let your audience see the real you because nobody likes a fake, even if it’s easy to be that way on the internet because no one can see you, your posts will be more natural that way (“How to Build…”). Write what is true for you and learn to live with the consequences, meaning post what you want and understand that it may not be right for one audience but is good for another, but either way something is going to go haywire somewhere (“How to Build…”). Treat your visitors like real human beings, because if you don’t news can spread fast and hurt your traffic pretty badly (“How to Build…”). Keep money in its proper place, you blog shouldn’t be about making money, because sure money might be nice, but your viewers are more important and if you’re doing it all right the money will come with it (“How to Build…”). Finally, and most importantly: if you forget all the rest just focus on the people and rest will take care of itself (“How to Build…”).

Moving on to making money from a blog, this is easier than many people think, but the key is all dealing with traffic. The first and often time the best way to make money, is to use Google’s Adsense program, which is a free resource that Google has for people with websites to make money. What you need to do is sign up with Google, wait until you’re approved, and then copy the html code to your website. Google will then look at your site and post ads based off of your content (Google Adsense). The first $100 dollars goes to them and then afterwards all of the money you make goes to your Paypal account (Google Adsense). Another fantastic way to make money is to have donations to allow people to send money to you through Paypal or even snail mail (“How to Make…”). You can use Affiliate Programs via Amazon or LinkShare which allow you to review a product and anyone that purchases it through your review pays you a little commission for the sale (“How to Make…”). You can sell ad space, which is the only less passive means for making money on a blog, because all the others let you post the item and then the rest is the viewer’s clicking and buying (“How to Make…”). While it might be a great start, you should build more than just a blog and make it a real website this allows you to unlock the full potential of your site (“How to Make…”). There are also some great perks when it comes to a successful blog: people want you to test out and write reviews for your product and often times you get the stuff for completely free to test and keep (“How to Make…”).

There really aren’t any drawbacks to a blog. Starting it up is completely free and afterwards if things start really rolling for you, it’s dirt cheap. It is less than $10 a year for your domain name and maybe $150 a month for your server and bandwidth, but by then you’ll be making more than that a month (“How to Make…”). If a blog fails, it fails and that’s that.

Moving on now to paid services. What are paid services? The definition breaks down to getting paid to perform a service. What paid services are online? I did some digging and found two very good sites to make some pocket change, but one of them is very location based. There’s Student of Fortune and eJuror. Student of Fortune is an online tutoring service, and eJuror is a place where lawyers practice their profession and pay civilians to be their jury.

Student of Fortune is a fantastic way to make some pocket change. What you have to do is make an account and you may hook up your Paypal account to it. There are users that post questions dealing with school based problems and they attach a “bounty” to the question. Then a tutor helps the asker solve the problem and they get paid based off of the bounty (Student). The owners of the site get paid a 20% commission for the first purchase of the tutorial and then if it gets bought other times there’s a 40% commission (Student). While that might seem like a large piece of the pie, you’re posting answers for free and getting paid between $1 and $50 per question. This is really the best if you’re looking for some pocket change.

When I tried out Student of Fortune, I discovered one issue: many people posted answers and not tutorials. It is written in the terms that you must agree on to make an account that you will not cheat and posting an answer to the question is cheating because it is solving the question for the poster and not helping them solve it for themselves. For me that was a make-or-break factor and it broke.

EJuror, lawyers need practice, right? Here is a place for lawyers to go to make hypothetical cases to the public and then pay them to come to a verdict about the case. The biggest problem with this site is it is very locational. If you live in a low-population low-crime location it is less likely that a case will be posted, but it is very different for those in the opposite position (eJuror).

Paid surveys are exactly what you think they are, a site you fill surveys out on and then get paid for finishing them. There are two excellent sites for this: Vindale Research and MySurvey. Vindale Research is the most intensive of the two because it asks you to test out something before you take the survey (Vindale). MySurvey is less intensive, but you may not always qualify for the surveys that you can take because they are often looking for a specific demographic (MySurvey). The worst part of taking surveys to make money is the time it consumes. Of all the ways I’ve talked about and am going to talk about, these are by far the longest and most time consuming way to make money online.

Finally, comes one of the easiest and possibly one of the best ways to make some real money online: e-stores. EBay is probably the worst example and the most popular one, and it’s one I use myself all the time; however, it works and is easy. EBay requires that you make an account and hook up a Paypal account to it. From there you make your account a seller account and then begin to list things in your account (eBay). Also, contrary to common belief, you don’t need a high rating in order to make a profit selling things; people are often willing to take a chance on a new vendor. The most effort you every have to put into it is taking a picture of your product and mailing it to its destination when bought.

As far as the best ways creating your own website is perhaps one of the best ways to earn money as long as you stay dedicated, have an entrepreneurial mindset, and know how to obtain traffic. EBay remains one of the most consistent ways to make money, but you of course need stuff to sell and need to travel back and forth to the post office to send most of your packages. Paid surveys and services are OK if you want to make some pocket change, but they aren’t always reliable and often are a pain in the rear end.

Yes, there is an annotated bibliography:

“EJury.com :: The Online Trial Experience.” EJury.com. Web. 13 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ejury.com/&gt;.

“Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles, Coupons and More Online Shopping | EBay.”Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles, Coupons and More Online Shopping. Web. 13 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ebay.com/&gt;.

“Google Adsense.” Google Adsense. Google. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <www.google.com/AdSense>.

My Survey. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <https://www.mysurvey.com/&gt;.

Pavlina, Steve. “How to Make Money From Your Blog.” Personal Development for Smart People. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/how-to-make-money-from-your- blog/&gt;.

Pavlina, Steve. “How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog).” Personal Development for Smart People.Steve Pavlina, Jan. 2006. Web. 20 Apr. 2012.  <http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/01/how-to-build-a-high-traffic-web-site-or-blog/&gt;.

Pavlina, Steve. “Steve Pavlina.” E-mail interview. 12 Apr. 2012.

 Vindale Research. Vindale. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.vindale.com/&gt;.

“Your Source for Easyonline Homework Help!” Homework Help, Online Tutoring in Math, Science, Physics, Chemistry from StudentofFortune.com – StudentOfFortune.com. Web. 13 Apr. 2012.<http://studentoffortune.com/&gt;.