Triple Town!!!

Move over Tiny Tower and Hanging with Friends, there's a new game for your iPod or Android device called Triple Town! The other day I found this game about three or four pages into the strategy game section of the Android market after getting my new phone. I downloaded it for the cute little bear on the game's icon and started playing as soon as it was installed. Basically, the objective of this game is to earn as many points as you can and gain higher achievements by making combinations of 3 with grass, bushes, trees, houses, bigger houses, mansions, churches, rocks, etc. Sounds boring, right? WRONG. As I began playing the game I was somewhat confused and didn't really like it. For a brief minute I considered deleting it from my phone, but something told me to just wait. And lo and behold I am now very addicted. In fact a friend and I tweeted about it and the creators tweeted back thanking us for playing!

You begin your game with a square filled with a bush or two and some patches of grass. Then you place items together in groups of three and patches of grass turn into bushes and bushes to trees, trees to houses, houses to slightly better houses, and slightly better houses to mansions and so on. As you make your combinations you are plagued by a vicious plight of big brown bears that scare the villagers and block you from making combinations. To rid yourself of the bears you simply trap them into squares where they turn into tombstones (kind of grim for such a cute game) and by combining 3 tombstones you get a church! When you make your combinations you regain the free space on your board which enables you to keep combining and earning points. Earning points gets you achievements and turns your board from a grassland to a civilization! Although, this all may sound confusing or lame, I highly suggest that you try this game. Its adorable, strategic, and free! It may take some getting used to but once you figure it out, I'm sure you'll be in love.

***Disclaimer: my blog will not be held responsible for any homework time lost while playing Triple Town***

Simming=Winning

For Christmas I decided to buy a laptop with the money I received. I got myself a beautiful new Asus with which I fell quickly and madly in love with. Its thin, and clean, and fast and I finally found the time to (re)download my Sims onto it. You see, I'm a little bit of a Sims connoisseur. I started playing these games when I was in 4th or 5th grade and since then I've bought:

Sims 2
Sims 2: University
Sims 2: Nightlife
Sims 2: Open For Business
Sims 2: Pets
Sims 2: Apartment Life
Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff
Sims 2: Glamour Life Stuff
Sims 3
Sims 3: Ambitions
Sims 3: Late Night
Sims 3: Generations
Sims 3: Pets
Sims 3: High End Loft Stuff
MySims
Sims Medieval
and Sims Medieval: Pirates and Nobles

So as you can see, I kinda like these games. Alas, for a while my laptop was broken and I had no means of playing with my beloved Sims but this weekend I decided to have a day of downloading and now I have them back! And in case you have no idea what the Sims are then I will explain. Basically the Sims are a series of games where you control the lives of these little people called "sims." You can make them as happy, or miserable as you'd like and it's probably the greatest thing since sliced bread. If you have any holiday cash left I'd say run to Best Buy and try it yourself. Deuces.

Being "Artsy Fartsy" Kind of Stinks

After listening to Sir Robinson in class I've been pondering Art even more than usual. It was refreshing to hear an adult speak the way he did, and his speeches inspired me to contemplate many things: going to Art school, finding a job, what it means to be creative, and creativity's value in school. It even made me feel like doodling all over my papers and not getting A's in math wasn't a neccesarily a terrible thing.

Junior year has been difficult. With a full schedule I'm unallowed to take any electives (with the exception of AP Psych, which hardly counts as one anyway) which means no Art classes all three trimesters... Both freshman and sophomore year I either had a study hall or an Art class, to which I could retreat and clear my mind for just one hour of the day, but this year if I were to try and make room for Art in my schedule I would be shirking an AP class, and you know-- that just doesn't look good. Nowadays we're all told to take as many AP classes as possible, but why? Coming into high school I was told that AP classes were special, they meant advanced placement and were college level, but now the mindset seems to be that if you don't take them then you're slacking. The same goes with Art. If one has room in their schedule and takes an Art class its almost seen as a joke. People usually sign up for these courses with the expectation that it'll be for fun and an easy A. And they're right. Basically if you come to class regulary and do most of the assignments you'll have no problem getting an A in Art even if you have no interest in it and aren't exactly talented. This is great for those part-time seniors and confused little freshmen who want to take Ceramics for shits n' gigs, but what about the people who are truly passionate about computer design, painting, drawing, or acting? This means that those artsy kids who put the same amount of thought, effort, and pride into their final project as someone in AP Bio does won't get the GPA boost that they do and they'll probably get the same A on their piece as the person who sits in the back of class and cranked his out the night before. To be frank-- it just isn't very fair to those who want to pursue Art.