Need More Candy

When I start a new computer game, I prefer to have as much information on it as possible before I begin playing it.  Frequently, especially nowadays, that is not always possible.  Let's take Candy Crush Saga.  I barely knew anything about it before I started playing.  I could see that there were six colors/shapes of candy pieces that I had to line up in rows of three or more to clear them off the field.  It took me a few tries before I realized that I had only x number of moves to accomplish the goal for a level (such as getting a minimal score, destroying certain blocks, moving special pieces to the bottom, or setting up combinations of matches), and even more before I noticed that I was being compared to all my friends who were playing as well.   Still, I got into the hang of it.  Now, I frequently set up strings of multiple wins so I can get special bonus pieces at the start of each level.  I get more bonus pieces through gameplay, as rewards for winning, or via purchase (although I have never tried).  This is especially necessary when facing a new level with many obstacles.  As the game has gone on, many of the challenges have gotten harder, and I sometimes have to start a string of wins over.  I use a friendly loophole in the game to do so.  I replay easier levels to start a new string.  Players are actually encouraged to replay levels as a means to get bonus pieces that can be traded n for rewards.  My favorite levels to replay are the timed ones.  Unlike regular levels, instead of having a certain number of moves, you have unlimited moves, but only a limited amount of time to get a minimal score.  Initially, these levels last from one-and-a-half to two minutes long, with extensions of five seconds for each special piece cleared.  Usually, these levels only have four or five types of candy on them, making it easier to make chain reactions of multiple lines.  Very high scores are possible.  My favorite one was Level 27.  It has few obstacles, and they are easily cleared and not really in the way.  Once, when I really wasn't paying attention to the time, I managed to score over 900,000 points on it, easily taking the high score among my friends.  I have no idea how I did it.  Whenever I needed to refresh my winning streak, I always try to include this level.  However, I have a new favorite, Level 252.  When you first arrive, it is swarming with obstacle blocks and only a few pieces of candy.  Having at least one special piece on the board at the start is a must if you want to get a minimum score to clear it.  However, if you use multiple special pieces at the start, it is much easier.  All of the blocking pieces usually get removed in under thirty seconds this way.  Then the fun begins.  For some reason, it is very easy to set up a cascade of chain reaction matches on this level.  I am lucky if I can set up more than five on most levels and maybe up to twenty on most timed levels.  Here, I can easily rack up thirty or even fifty from just one move.  I have even been able to get past ninety on occasion.  My first time through, I thought that my score of over one million would have been good.  It didn't make the top three.  I have since gotten over five million points on the level, with the top score among my friends at over twelve million!  I actually have to find a way to stop playing that level, just to  get the rest of my work (and playing time) done.  It has gotten a little sad lately, as I have started to outpace many of my friends.  Only about half of them have made to the point I am currently at.  I have tried a few new games lately, but many are just lower rate clones.  Same rules, different window setting, and many of them are not on the same level of quality.  I really need something new, or at least something a little different.

Fore and Forfeit

About a year ago, I made a somewhat snarky comment about golf to a friend.  In retaliation, he invited me to join an online golf game, Golf Clash.  It plays mostly like golf.  Players alternate turns trying to get the ball to the hole in as few strokes as possible, with ties broken on a playoff hole, nearest to the hole wins.  I have actually lost on playoffs where I landed less than a yard from the hole, but my opponent was a fraction of a yard better.  Winners immediately get trophies and in-game currency, as well as a chest with some more coins and equipment upgrades that gets to be opened later.  Rankings are based on currency won, not matches.  Higher ranking players get better prizes, usually rarer equipment upgrades. Losers lose two-thirds the amount of trophies and half the currency the winner received.  I have had some wins, but I frequently get on these frustrating losing streaks for no reason.  I had lost almost half of my progress around Christmas, and I am only now about caught up.  Lately, I have win not only through my skills (such as they are), but by my opponents forfeiting their matches.  I have found at least three ways to forfeit a round.  First, one can just quit, for any reason.  I have stuck out all of my games, even when I knew I couldn't win, so I would at least get practice.  Just last week, I played against someone of a similar skill set.  His tee shot wound up in a water hazard, forcing him to replay the shot his next turn.  On my first turn, I easily went over the hazard and landed with a great approach.  On his second turn, my opponent played the shot the same way with the same result, forcing a third attempt.  My second shot landed in the rough, but very close to the green.  On his third try, my opponent finally cleared the water, but the shot didn't get that far down the fairway.  My third shot landed on the green.  On his fourth shot, my opponent faced the truth; his club wasn't good enough to get onto the green.  He tried, but the ball landed in the rough.   As I was going for the putt, he forfeited the round.  That was understandable, but still kind of dirty pool doing it so late.  You see, the game awards a bonus chest for every eight putts made.  He cheated me a stroke, but it really wasn't bad.  A day or two later, I face a more experienced foe.  On his first shot, he played a tight approach that would have gave him a great shot at the green.  At the last second, his ball bounced into a bunker.  As I was aiming my first shot, on a different approach, my opponent forfeited.  While he would have had a hard time making the green from his position, he still could have won.  I could have had my second shot land in a different bunker or even land out of bounds in the ocean (that green was on an island).  He still had a chance, but I have no idea why he didn't take it.  The second way to forfeit is by losing your connection.  Many play with a mobile device, so the signal could always cut out.  It wouldn't be fair to the either player to lose via a missed signal, so the player with the bad connection loses.  I have actually lost a few games myself to this, and I have only played on a desktop.  When I first started, the missing connection message appeared under a player's name.  Now, the message appears on a huge block in the middle of the screen.  It hides the field.  I almost missed a turn not realizing I got the first stroke because of one.  I think some unscrupulous players might intentionally to something to try and unnerve their opponents. This brings me to the third way of forfeiting, cheating.  I was starting a round, when a message popped up on my opponent's turn saying he had tried to cheat and forfeited the match.  I had no idea how someone could cheat, or why, as I have yet found any monetary reason to do so.  However, just a few days ago, something weird happened.  I had hit my first shot, but it bounced a little wild and landed by a tree.  My opponents shot also went a little wild, landing in the rough on the other side.  My next shot got caught in the tree branches and didn't go too far.  My opponent's second shot acted strange.  It went further than it looked like it should have and landed on the green.  The image stayed on it a very long time before the game went onto the next shot.  However, it began to replay my opponent's last shot instead of coming back to me.  I didn't, and couldn't, do anything.  I thought that he and to replay the shot due to a bad connection.  When he didn't do anything, I thought it was a glitch or he had missed his turn.  When that turn ended, the game went back to my opponent on the green instead of going to me.  He then managed a very long and winding shot to make the hole, all but miraculously.  Somehow, I lost a turn and therefore the match.  I don't know what happened, but I now will be suspect every time the game gets glitchy.  How many of my bad attempts were my own fault, and how many were not?

Going to the Dogs' Show

I have been watching the Westminster Dog Show ever since I was in grade school.  I may have missed a few years, here and there, but I have watched it fairly consistently since I knew it was being aired.  I usually only watch portions of the first night for my favorite groups of dogs, Toy and Non-Sporting, and then the Best of Show at the end of the second night.  I have some mixed feelings about this year's winner, though.  On the one hand, I could tell that "Flynn," a Bichon frise, could win it all.  He had this exemplary quality that could not be matched but any of his competitors.  On the other hand, he beat out my favorite breed to win the Best of the Non-Sporting group.  I kind of wanted him to loose because of that.  My favorite breed, the Boston terrier, came in third.  It is my favorite not just because it is the oldest American breed recognized by the American Kennel Club, but because it is the breed of the only pet I ever had.  Strictly speaking, my dog was a mixed breed of Boston terrier with another, probably bulldog or something else, and it was a part of the family even before I was born.  His name was "Robby," possibly spelled a different way.  I really liked him when I was really young, but as I got older, I started not caring as much for him.  As I started getting more stuff, I started getting afraid that he would tear something up or otherwise ruin one of my possessions.  I also started to see him as unclean, as a certain dislike of dirtiness and the outdoors grew on me.  I never treated him badly, but I did stop playing with him so much.  I never really was the one who took care of him; my mother must have thought I was not old enough or I didn't want to do it.  I did help out bathing him and getting him ready to be taken for his shots and such.  I never had to 'walk' him or clean up after him.  I just had to be there for him.  One day, when I was in second grade, or so, he died while I was at school.  He just fell asleep beside the big tree in the front yard, and never woke up.  At least that was what my grandmother told me.  Considering how she would sometimes treat me and my things, I now cannot be quite as sure.  She could have lied to me to protect my feelings or just so I wouldn't suspect the real reasons.  She had him buried well before I got home.  There was talk that we would get another dog, but it would never happen.  It wouldn't have been fair to raise a dog and leave it alone for so long.  I also couldn't let it around my stuff so it could destroy it.  The main reason was that I didn't think I could handle losing another pet.  I didn't break down when Robby died, but that was about the same time I started getting sensitive to such things.  Even today, I can fret for a good half-mile or so if I accidentally drive over a chipmunk.  I just care too much at times, even when I shouldn't.   I also developed a liking for cats, even though I may be allergic to them, but that is another story entirely.

Bowling Me Over

This past weekend featured a major sporting event, the NFL championship game, which goes by a registered trademark so I will not mention it to make sure I won't get into any trouble.  I barely watched any of it.  I watched the last few minutes of the first half so I would be prepared for the halftime show (Justin Timberlake underwhelmed).  I caught the occasional play before watching the final fifteen minutes straight to see who won, although that was only about two-and-a-half minutes of actual game play.  Frankly, I find it hard to watch an entire game or sporting event, especially football, which I still have a hard time of figuring out.  I just never got into sports as a kid, and it has become harder to do so now as an adult.  I actually watched more golf this past Sunday than football.  I technically hate golf, too.  Okay, I actually used to like golf when I was younger, maybe when I was in my early twenties.  I a got older, I found a distaste for the sport, barely paying much attention to it at all.  Last year,  a friend invited me to join an online golf game (the same one a mentioned last week) and it began to rekindle something in me.  For the last few weeks, I have found myself watching golf, especially the numerable playoffs that seem to be happening.  In the next few weeks, my attention will be turning to NASCAR racing and I will be watching a lot less golf.  Still, I might find myself watching a few rounds for a half hour or so, like I did this past Sunday.  I doubt I will ever play though, unless a friend tries to forcibly take me to a course (or wants to legally adopt me, either option might work 😉).  There was one other 'sporting' event a watched on Sunday, Puppy Bowl XIV.  I have watched it more many of the last few years.  However, this year's episode may have been over-the-top.  I normally like watching the pups and finding out about the histories.  I frequently find myself crying, at times.  This year, there was an 'official' pre-game show, a chicken performing the anthem, barnyard cheerleaders (piglets, bunnies, and ducklings), a manipulated kitten half-time show, and the usual antics.  The assistant referee sloth was too much!  Sure, they are trendy animals, but their exotic nature puts them outside of the normal for the show.  The product placements were more prominent than usual as well.  I watched a little more than half of the show over the many times it re-aired over the day.  It didn't even feature my favorite dog breed!  I rarely does, but still.  Anyway, there is always the Westminster dog show next week.  Now that is a real event.  More about dogs next week in honor of the show.