Terry Shott - The Game is Life Book 1: The Game

Well, recently I finished this book. I get deals from BookBub sent to my e-mail and whenever I see a book that is free for downloading, I read the description and when I read this one, I was hooked. Thing is, I have another book that I want to finish, but well, this one took precedent. 

The genre of the book is, in my humble opinion, very hard to pinpoint. I'd say that it is the opposite of dystopia but not utopia. Which in itself is a bit of a mindfuck.

Most of the book takes place in a virtual reality called EARTH. And yes, it is an acronym. Only, the full name was only mentioned about twice in the entire book so I don't remember it. 

The premise is that kids in the real world are educated through the virtual reality where they live full lives. The first five plays are free and then they have to buy any additional ones with credits earned through playing. They can also use the credits to purchase different upgrades like long life, charisma and many others. 

Zach is the main character and during this book, he plays his final game as he is nearing his eighteenth birthday after which he will "graduate" from playing and enter the real world as a productive member of the society. He did a lot of careful planning with his team and sponsors. But when he enters the game, a wrench is thrown into all the planes. A wrench in the form of Zach's (ex)-girlfriend Alexandra. 

Alexandra lost everything in her last play but has been awarded a free playthrough for the thirty-year anniversary of the game. Her goal? To treat the game itself as a game. Which may seem difficult to achieve considering that when a player enters the game, they forget everything about the real world. But Alexandra manages this even without her memory of the real world. 

When she and Zach meet inside the game, they strike a friendship and later start dating. They both believe that their lives inside the game are indeed a virtual reality and later they amass a following of people which leads to Zach being assassinated in-game with a special weapon that is supposed to kill you even in the real life. 

And if that is not enough, well, let's just say that the game itself is sentient. And names Sylvia. Well, the game... More along the lines of the AI that more or less runs the game. 

The whole book ends with the Game's creator being told to not unplug Zach from the game as he is not yet dead and done for. 

To express my feelings about the book in a single word: Awesome! It is written in an easy and flowing style and I was hooked after the first page. Which makes it my kind of a book. If I can't get behind a book after the first three pages or so, I don't consider it a good book. So this would be considered a great book. Only thing is, I got this one for free, but when I went to hunt down the following books, well... Headdesk.

Six and a half dollars! Are they fucking crazy? Guess I'll be doing a bit more thorough search of the internet to see if there is a possibility of a free download. I'm sure I'll find one. 

But other than this little problem, I definitely recommend the book to all the ones who liked the Divergent series, the Giver movie or even the freaking Hunger Games. Heck, Star Trek fans might like it! And those who loved the Sword Art Online anime will lap it up and beg for more!

Meh...

Well, I've had it with the dark design. Normally, I wouldn't complain about it, but it was bugging me for a while now. I mean... I like dark colors and all, but in this case, it just wasn't working. I swill probably still have to fix the font size. Probably by a single pixel, but I think it will make all the difference. 

I also had to recreate the introduction page that is at the top of teh side bar. But hey, at least it is better than it was. Or... Now that I think aobut it, I'm not even sure there was an introduction page. Oh well, now ther is. Oh, and the header was a pain to create. Well, mostly. The text and the center and right side were a breeze, but the left side was just empty all the time. And apparently, you can't fill a mask with a pattern from a different picture. I mean, I probably could, but hey, it took a while to even remember I could add masks. I haven't done any graphix in a while. But it is possible to add pattern to a font, so I went and downloaded a bunch of dragon fotns and went through them all to figure out which dragon symbol would be best. I can't say I'm a hundred percent happy with this one either, but it was better than any of the others. The rest of them were too cartoony and childish. And I didn'T want that, but I wanted something that would fit in color vise. This one did. Mostly. I still had to play around with it a bit... 

You know what, I'm happy with it now. And I'm not gonna change it for a while now. And that's the good thing. Cause it was a pain in my ass.

Spiritus

This week was a great update for Star Stable. They added Spirit to the game. The Wild horse from the old Disney movie that a lot of us saw and loved. Dream works made a TV series on Netflix featuring Spirit's son as the main horse. Can't talk about the show, didn't see it, but I can tell you with certainty that the Spirit in the game is great. And the biggest thing is that if you do all his quests, you will be able to buy him and he will be already level 15. 

I myself am already almost there. With a bit of luck, I'll be able to buy him by the end of the weekend. Can't wait. Sure, you can't put tack on him because he's wild, but still, a level 15 horse for only a bit of hard work and 699 or so Star Coins? Who wouldn't want him? I would.  And I'm seriously looking forward to it.  

So I guess this is just a quick update as to what's going on with me. This weekend I'm at my relatives place since my grandmother is celebrating her birthday. We had rice and meat for lunch and then more people came. My cousin's son Mates wanted Minecraft and I tried to install it for him, but it wouldn't work so we gave up. Right now, he's looking at videos on youtube and playing around with Steam while I'm playing Star Stable Online and trying my damn best to get Spirit. 

See ya!

Almost Human [2013-2014]

I had two reasons to start watching this show. One, it stars Karl Urban. Two, there are a lot of fanfictions and when I browse AO3 based on tags, I have to sift through a lot of them and since I wasn't in the fandom yet, it was annoying. Now, I'm probably gonna start reading these. Especially if there's slash. Hopefully, there will be the good pairings. 

At the moment, I've been through a little more than 10 episodes. Very good! So good that I am actually really paying attention to it. Instead of my usual way of watching stuff that has English audio - basically just listening while doing something else on another tab. Or listening while playing Dungeon Hunter 4. 

Well, something about the show, it takes place in the future, but not too distant. Cops are paired with androids. And since so far, all the cop androids are male, I'm gonna call them mandroid. Yes, it's probably a horrible word to use, but hey, I've always wanted to use it in some context. So, the main character, played by Karl Urban, is, after some botched operation that left him with synthetic leg, paired with the usual droid model. The MX. But they are too emotionless, too robotic. And he kicks it out of his car while driving. Then he gets paired with the DRN model. At least I think that's how you spell it. He calls this one Dorian. And then they go and solve a multitude of cases. All the while the MC - his name is John - is trying to find information on this syndicate that is somehow connected to his ex-girlfriend. The syndicate is responsible for John losing his leg and having to have a synthetic. 

I couldn't spoil the ending even if I wanted to, seeing as I haven't finished watching it. But it's really good so far and if you're into futuristic cop dramas or like Karl Urban, I do recommend it. And even if you're not, maybe you'll like it if you give it a try. 

But I'm not forcing anybody. So make your own mind. 

Bye!

Logan [2017]

There will be spoilers!

So, about a week back, I saw the movie Logan. Online of course. And I was disappointed. The girl playing Logan's daughter was good. Really good. At least in my opinion. But the story itself, not so much. The integration of Professor X in it didn't make much sense. I did know a bit of the backstory about Laura, weapon X and all that rot. But not really from comic books, I don't read those. But there is the X-men Evolution and then wikis and also, if something appears in more than three fanfics, I start looking at it as possible canonical information. 

Also, I have absolutely no idea as to where this movie fits with all the other live action ones. I mean, I have a bit of an idea where it fits in comics and other source material, but hey, the movies are somewhat crazy in this. 

Oh well, movie was chaotic and didn't live up to my expectations. If you're a die hard marvel fan, sure, go ahead and try it, it might be necessary for some weird continuity in regards to future movies, but other than that, real disappointment. 

The "avengers" side of the marvel verse is done much better. Can't wait for Ragnarok and Infinity wars.