Umm.....There's Some Freedom in my Coffee!

First off, I know.....two posts in as many days. Well, don't get your knickers in a knot, I just had something worth posting about.

Last Christmas the Mrs. wanted a Keurig coffee maker. We aren't that big on coffee, or even tea for that matter, but every once in a while....

I bought what I thought was a reasonable machine...not a Keurig, but something I thought would work reasonably well. It could easily brew into travel mug, didn't take up too much space, and didn't come with the dreaded Keurig 2.0 DRM...or at least I didn't think it did.

I never got to find out because my wife wanted to return it and get an "actual" Keurig. Didn't hurt my feelings any....that's the nature of gifts. Luckily there was a pretty good deal going on at Fred Meyer and by the time everything was said and done, the Keurig only costs about 2x what I had spent on the "lesser" machine (my emphasis, not hers). She had the money for the "upgrade", and the coffee, so go for it!

My only real problem at that point was that some of the other gifts I had gotten her, namely some coffee and some reusable cups wouldn't work with the new machine because of that pesky DRM. Now I know it isn't hard to get the Keurigs to recognize the "ordinary" cups, hardly even considered a hack, but my tinkering with the machine was verboten......

.....but not for long!

Making "Wild" Cherry Plum Jelly

Last weekend my In-Laws called and asked if we wanted any cantaloupe because they had several nice-sized melons mature at the same time and it was too much for them. Since we were actually at the grocery store buying cantaloupe the answer was a no-brainer.

When my wife and I headed over there we, well I, wanted to take a look at their yard & garden since we hadn't been in the back yard for months. A surprising discovery was a small fruit tree they weren't aware they had. Now if this was my parents property I could understand because they have hundreds of acres and an actual orchard, but a surprise fruit tree in a small quarter-acre lot (I have no idea how big it is...but they live in town so....) when you've lived in the home for 30+ years.....

Small Free Music Sampler

I love it when bands I already like do cross-promotions with other bands that they like because it provides me a low-investment way to find new groups.

Bowling For Soup led me to The Dollyrots and now The Dollyrots have a small show with three new groups for me to check out. There is no way I can make it to the show, but they have a free (but they'll take donations) sampler for download.

I like being able to listen to a song or two of a new group which may lead me to getting some cool new music. Right now I'm considering checking out more of Go Betty Go, a group I've never heard of before......

I say mission accomplished.

Tiny Towers Game Exploit: Free Bucks!

A couple of days ago  I discovered an exploit for one of my games. As far as I can tell I'm the first to write about it. This is not a cheat or a hack, but a bug exploit.

I play a couple games on my iPad  and one of them is Tiny Tower, from NimbleBit. Tiny Tower is one of those free games that makes some money off of advertising and "micro-transactions" for players buying a leg-up in the game. Usually you can spend a buck or two, or more likely $10-$20 if you get hooked on the game, obtaining some valuable resources.

Tiny Tower is a building game where you build a tower, stocking it with people and shops. Your goal is to build the highest tower and get your residents into their dream jobs in your shops. Your workers earn coins you spend on building and stocking and there are in-game "bucks" that you can also spend to boost things along. You get these bucks when you build a new floor, fully stock a shop, complete missions, and when it is a resident's birthday.

Recently NimbleBit introduced another way to get bucks, which is by watching a short 10-15 second video for another game or product. You can usually only watch maybe six to ten of these little short ads before the opportunity for free bucks dries up until the next day.

Before

I discovered a way to get unlimited bucks without having to hack anything whatsoever. After the advertising video plays the game presents a final screen shot of the ad with a close button and a repeat button. On your first free buck ad of the day just keep hitting the repeat button to show the same ad again. You can just keep watching that same ad over and over again as long as you like. As long as your iPad doesn't get shut off, like you forget to hit repeat and it goes to sleep, and you don't hit the close button, you will continue to earn bucks, one per viewing.

Unless NimbleBit gets paid for these ads I expect them to fix this bug in a

After

future game update, but for now it works like a charm. I've been hitting the repeat button over and over while I'm working on this blog post and I earned 142 bucks! (More time was spent on making the intro graphic than the post itself)

I forgot to mention that after you finally close out the ads you'll have to hit the "Thanks for Watching" continue dialogue button about a bazillion time....ok probably just once for every video you had watched. If you mash the hell out of it trying to get them to close eventually you'll finish and end up hitting the button for purchasing some bucks. You can back out of that transaction easily enough, but there is the chance your button mashing locks things up because of the attempt to purchase bucks. A simple re-boot will un-glitch it.

This isn't cheating the game at all because you aren't doing anything other than playing the game as it is presented. heck, I'd barely call it an exploit, but my guess is that the player was only expected to get between five and ten extra bucks a day from watching the videos, so the ability to watch 142 in one setting has to be a bug.

Free Preview Issue of Cuisine at Home Magazine

For Christmas this year I got a one year subscription to Cook's Illustrated, which I do enjoy reading.  I don't make the fancy-schmancy meals I find inside, but I do love the assorted cooking tips and there is a lot of good cooking information to be gleaned even from the recipes I'm not planning on using.

This weekend I was surprised to find a free review copy of Cuisine at Home in my mailbox.  My assumption was I got this because of the other cooking magazine.  I don't subscribe to magazines in general and the only ones we get are gifts from my In-laws, and a couple membership-type issues from the Boy Scouts, Toastmasters, and SHRM.

I must say I'm pretty impressed by Cuisine at Home.  Right off the bat I noticed the magazine was three-hole punched, which means they know I might want to actually keep it around for a while.  I wish more full-sized magazines made this assumption.

The issue is also full-color, which normally I wouldn't find a big deal, but since it deals with food/meals, it helps a lot.  Every recipe has a half or full page picture and there are great step photos as well.  They didn't actually include step-by-step photos and instead just hit the highlights, which are nice.

Exceptionally cool are the ancillary recipes for side dishes.  Not every "main" recipe has a side dish, but most do.  The others might have a variation on the dish or be filled with a sidebar on technique.

Overall I really like this free magazine, especially since the recipes & meals inside are things I can totally see myself making.  You can get your own free review copy here.

Idaho Youth Ranch Readers Program

I know that all too often I'm apt to rant a bit on this blog and I'm not as quick to rave about some of the cool things I come across offline.

This morning I was needing to kill some time and I stopped at one of the Idaho Youth Ranch locations.  If you aren't familiar with the Idaho Youth Ranch, for most it is just a chain of thrift stores around Boise....which already has a lot of thrift stores.

In actuality the thrift stores are a fundraising element that support actual youth homes here in Idaho, some of which are actual youth ranches.  You can read more about the mission of the Idaho Youth Ranch here.

Today when I was at one of the stores I noticed a sign stating that they were giving away free books

to kids.  I thought that sounded cool.  My grandmother taught me to read well at an early age and as a kid I never had enough books.  This effort to get kids books seems cool enough on its own, but when I got to the register (I bought a couple magazines) I saw this bookmark that took the "free book" thing to a whole new level.

Basically not only can a kid get a free book, but in order to encourage youth reading the Idaho Youth Ranch will keep giving kids books as long as they read them.  If they read five books then they get some "fun" prize.

This just seemed to me to be a good, practical way to encourage children to read.  It makes me wish I had more extra books to donate to this cause, but I've already dropped off a couple of boxes worth.

If you've got some kids who like to read, or who you would like to read more, stop by one of the Idaho Youth Ranch locations. They also take book donations, among other types of donations.

I'm a little biased, but I think youth literacy is the key to adult success in life.  Even if you disagree you'd probably have to admit that illiteracy is a huge barrier to success in life.  That may not have been the case 100 years ago, but it today's time.....

Deadpool at my Local Library!

I had to go to a local library to get some information for a short report I have to do for one of my classes.  I know, not exactly new territory here, but the report was about the library itself, so I had to go.

This was a new branch and a bit on the small side, but I was surprised at just how many computers there were at the library.  I swear they had more computers than library shelves.

I went later in the day and there were a bazillion kids playing various online computer games at the library.  It reminded me of the homeless guys who would spend all day at the "free" computers at BSU.  At least at the library you only get two hours a day if you have a library card.

When I was done walking around taking my notes for the report I decided to see if there was anything I wanted to pick up.  I found an audio book to try out since I have never attempted to listen to an audio book.  On the way to the self-checkout I crossed a nice display of "staff favorites" and one of the favorites was this Deadpool hardcover that collected Deadpool #27-31.

I might have to go to the library a bit more often.

Astrid To-Do List Manager

I know I posted about The Perfect To-Do List back in June, but I was wrong.  I'm man enough to admit it.

For a while I was enamored with ToDo.ly, but over time it just didn't hold up.  I loved the idea of using it as my browser homepage, but the execution just didn't hold up to the expectation.  Usually....seriously, like nine times out of ten, I never saw my to-do list.  When I opened my Chrome browser, my to-do list homepage would just sit there, attempting to load.  Invariably I'd just open another blank tab and go to the page I needed.

The whole idea of a to-do list that would be "in my face" ended up being a big fail.  Not and EPIC FAIL, just a "meh....move on" fail.  I didn't shed any tears for the death of my beloved to-do list.  Instead I just opened my list one last time, logged out, and moved on. It was important to move on.

Free RPG Game!

Now that the HackMaster Player's Handbook has been released, the folks over at Kenzer & Company have decided to make the HackMaster basic PDF available for FREE!

This is HUGE!  I cannot think of a better free GM resource than a whole fricken game!

One of the criticisms that I've heard over the years is that HackMaster Basic isn't a "whole" game, which is complete and utter BS.  This one pdf has everything you need to run a group up to 5th level.  Everything for the players and the GM is in there.  5th level might not seem like much, but to put it in perspective, my highest level PC is 7th and I've been playing this game for the last three years.  Granted it hasn't been all with one PC, but that has been a lot of gaming.

Kenzer & Company have also put out everything needed to transition from levels 5 to 10 in Knights of the Dinner Table and in a few issues of HackJournal.

Even if all you get out of it was a couple months of playtime.......that is a couple of months of FREE GAMING!  I think you'll get a lot more that a couple of months, that is for certain.  I tell you what, if you download the free copy of HackMaster Basic and don't get a couple of months of gameplay out of it, I'll personally refund your money!

To top it off, the PDF comes with three free adventures and an excerpt from the Hacklopedia of Beasts.

I've peppered this post with links to the download page for the free HackMaster Basic book, but in case you need it spelled out:

CLICK HERE!

The Dollyrots

Today has largely been an errand day for me, running around Boise in 100*+ weather using my FJ40 with no A/C.  It actually isn't too bad as long as I keep moving.

One thing that I find helpful when having to "do stuff" when it is hot as balls outside is some rocking tunes.

I'm a big Bowling For Soup fan and I'm usually listening to their tunes.  The other day I ended up with some Amazon credit and decided to try and download some BFS MP3s I didn't already own....mostly their earlier stuff.

When I was looking through my choices I found this collaboration album with The Dollyrots.  Basically each group did covers of two of the other's songs.  I ended up just buying the BFS songs, but a few days later went back and bought The Dollyrots songs.

I'm sure glad I did because this group rocks.

Don't take my word for it.....download one of their singles off of their upcoming album next month.

Zero Dollar Books

Last week I was pointed at a source for free ebooks from Amazon.  Zero Dollar Books is just an aggregation site that combs through all of the Amazon ebook offerings and lists all the free ones.

You still need to have an Amazon Kindle Reader (or Kindle App) and an Amazon account to get the free book, because they all have DRM and are either AZW or AZW3 file formats, but hey......it's free books.

Carolyn got me a Kindle Fire for Christmas and while I'm having some issues with the device, It is a great reader.  If they would just fix the software to incorporate some sort of filing bookshelf system, I'd be using it even more than I do now.

New Project Announcement

The next two days I have a lot planned, but I feel comfortable enough to announce my new project: FrugalGM.com

I've had an inclination for a while now to do a few things to a) make a little extra money and b) give back to the gaming community.  There have been ideas for some game products that I think GMs will find useful in prepping and running their game. I'm going to be selling these items through DriveThruRPG and it's sister sites.

There are also a great deal of good ideas and free downloads from across the web and many home tables that I want to make available for other GMs to use.

In the next couple days I'll have the first items up and will be able to share some of the things I have found useful.  Today however is a big Toastmasters day for me, so I have to get back to my speech.

Silly Goofs

We all make mistakes, some more than others.  There are a few particular grammatical errors I'm prone to making, and even more spelling errors than I care to admit.

The spelling errors I'm fortunate to have help with because my Chrome browser lets me know my mistakes as I type them out.  So far on this article I've made four errors, three of which were caught by Chrome.  The fourth was a capitalization mistake.

This afternoon I was perusing the site of an old vendor that worked for my old company, one that did the company website.  On their blog they had an article about National Proofreading Day, which was back on March 6th.  I found this ironic because this company did a poor job of entering in the website copy I wrote, entering in numerous errors that weren't in the source copy.

Learning to Code

With all of the changes I've been making to my blog lately you might not know that I don't really know how to code.  The last coding language I actually knew was BASIC....of course I don't remember any of that anymore.

Now don't get me wrong, I can play around with HTML and CSS just fine.  I have Adobe Dreamworks CS5 and it suits me well.  Usually I can either borrow or make some code and play around with it until I get it to do what I want.  This blog is proof of that.

Yes, I used some freely available widgets and code, but everything had to be severely tweaked to get it to work the way I wanted to.  If you discovered the Easter Egg I referred to Sunday you found something I haven't seen on other blogs.  I ended up taking some code for something else, tweak it, and test it.  Tweak and test, tweak and test, and then throw it out and try something else.  Yep, that's about it.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Carolyn and I practically tore through the 26 Episodes of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes! on Netflix.

There have been a lot of cartoon superhero shows available on Netflix, and I haven't liked a single one of them.  I'm not talking about Anime, but traditional American comic book superheros with animated shows.  This is the first show that I've liked.

Fuelly

For a while I was using an online "app" to keep track of my fuel mileage.  Actually, I intend on continuing to use the app, I just need to update the log with several months of records I've been keeping on my cell phone.

Fuelly is designed to help you keep track of your gas mileage, but it also lets you compare that mileage with other users.  The idea is to help you work towards better fuel efficiency.

TableSmith

As some of you might know I have been unemployed for a while.  If you've been a longtime reader of my blog.....back to the beginning longtime, then you'll recall I was unemployed for a while back in late 2004 - early 2005 when I quit my job at Fred Meyer to look for work elsewhere.  As a general rule it isn't a good idea to quit one job before you have another, but my odd schedule made actively seeking employment difficult, and I wanted to put my new degree to better use.

Stealing From Webcomics

This morning I started my normal routine of checking in on some of my favorite webcomics before tackling the real work of the day which is getting ready for the interview on my future job.

My first webcomic of the day is Questionable Content.  The artist, J. Jacques, has come a long way since the early days of his webcomic and makes a living  through his art.  He sells related merchandise and attends conventions, and makes a few bucks on the side with his site's ads.

I doubt he makes a ton of money from the ads, but it all adds up (pun intended) and he is able to support himself through visitors to his webcomic.

Meet Balen 3.0

I'm not sure why, but I decided to check out Hero Machine again and was surprised by the fact that have a version 3.0 Alpha.

Now I remember why....the picture I used for my Wednesday night PC, Linian, was borrowed from the web.  I couldn't find the original source for the picture and I wasn't 100% happy blogging on my seldom-used game blog using that graphic.

In playing around with the program I decided to make a new miniature for my Sunday night PC Balen.

PC Record Sheet v1.39 is Up as a Form!

I slaved away today for 5-6 hours turning the PC record sheet for HackMaster into a PDF form.

It is available here for download of the full form, and here if you just want the PDF without form fields.

This files comes in at 1.28 MB compared to the 600KB of the other record sheet, which isn't too bad once you consider all of the fields I had to place and then rename.  Having Adobe auto-populate forms generally doesn't work for this type of thing.