Threes! - Play It For a Lifetime

I have been playing this game for a while now. Constantly. If I have time, I will grab my iPad mini and play this game. This game is just so addictive. It has very simple instructions, but it will get you hooked.

When it first came out, I heard a lot of buzz about it. Not from the people I know, but from the web. Back when I always read articles on Flipboard, I saw an article about Threes. I pondered about buying the game. The game was only available on iOS at the time, and sold for $1.99. I initially decided against purchasing the game, thinking it wasn't well worth it's price. Thinking about it now, it was the best $1.99 I've (my dad) every spent and I have no regrets.

The game is fairly simple. When you start the tutorial, you are told to swipe anywhere. A pair of numbers show up, a blue 1 and a red 2 tile. You are told to swipe anywhere, and the entire board moves. You combine the 1s and the 2s together to form 3s, the game's namesake. From there, you can only combine like numbers or, as the game refers to them, twins. Which means, 3+3 = 6, 6+6 = 12, 12+12=24, 24+24 = 48, 48+48 = 96, and so on.

The game ends when there are no more moves left to do, and the board is filled up with tiles. The numbers on the board, except 1s and 2s, will make up your score. So the higher the number you get, the larger your score will be. Scores are exponents of 3. Starting with 3 (3^1) = 3, 6 (3^2) = 9, 12 (3^3) = 27, and so on.

The highest score on the App Store is 2,808,147. But according to Sirvo (the game's creators), the current legitimate high score is 808, 989. Even then it's still disputed. Here is a image filled with Threes! stats released to announce the game's arrival on Android:

Taken from www.polygon.com

My personal high score is only 29, 589. Still trying to get that very elusive 1536 tile. The most I've got is Triferatu (768), but I've been seeing him a lot lately. Maybe one of these days, I'll finally get 1536, or even higher. 

Maybe part of this game is the fun in getting the larger numbers. At the beginning, getting a 192 was already difficult, more so for the 384. But now, I have no difficulty in getting at least to a 384 tile. When I get to 768, the game slows down, every move is careful, so as not to compromise the entire board. 

To the person who hasn't played Threes! The game looks very complicated. I've had people play Threes! on my iPad mini. Some people enjoy the game and some can't tolerate it. They get easily frustrated by how quickly they fill the entire board with clutter, but give Threes! time, and the game will grow on you, much like how it says it on the App Store and Google Play Store. 

I've suggested the game to a lot of people. The game is awesome. And even though one game, doesn't take too long to finish. You'll find yourself playing more than one, and this could take hours and hours of enjoyable gameplay. The game has an awesome soundtrack too, paired with the cute voices of the tiles. 

Buy it now and play it for a lifetime :3

Threes! is available on iOS and Android. 

App Store https://itunes.apple.com/ph/app/threes!/id779157948?mt=8

Google Play Store https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=vo.threes.exclaim

Blowing Off Steam

I am well aware that I have a personality. I mean, who doesn't. And by personality, I don't mean the nice one. Notice it in italics?

This personality of mine can be annoying to some, or most, people. I understand though. My friends are like that at times too. Birds of the same feather, right?

I joke around, and some of my comedy is pretty dark. I get a laugh or too, and that's fine. I'm a little bothered that people don't get it, but life goes on. Not every joke works, there's different buttons for people.

I come on too strong sometimes. Other times, not at all. Zilch. It depends on the mood, the setting, and who I'm actually meeting. I could be drunk this time and I could be more friendly towards other people. I could be in a really humid place and be too allergic to entertain the likes of you. Or you could just be ugly. Or too handsome or pretty. Those things can intimidate people, and don't you deny it.

I don't mind my personality. If it gets pointed out, I do take notice. Sometimes, you just don't up and change yourself though. I mean, people can see you this way and think if they tell you to change this side of you then you'll be a better person. But who are they to tell you so? If those people are telling you what to be, then they should have been your parents instead.

At this point in my life, I'm faced with the trouble of having a long-time friend accepting who you are for most of your friendship. However during a long time sharing each other's company, this friend suddenly just decides to stop being one with no heads up. Just like that, I had lost a friend. The friendship was dear to me, I won't deny that.

When that happened, I asked the source if I did something wrong. Apparently, I didn't, but the silent treatment didn't really help. I had concluded that since I didn't do something wrong, I was someone wrong. And I was right. Days passed, and I had proof that the other party stopped trying because of my personality. (Italics for effect, *read in a mocking tone*)

I doesn't help that this long-term event lasted a long while so both of us had to suffer each others' company in silence. But soon enough, I didn't care. If someone didn't want to be your friend, you probably don't want to be theirs either. Since then, I didn't really have to suffer, just silent.

It doesn't help that people ask why we're still not friends. I tell them that it can't be helped. I will always be this guy. Making amends isn't really an option when the bottom line is changing yourself in the process. Why should I try when the other won't? There was no middle ground. Birds of the same feather flock together, but like poles repel.

Oh, did I mention, she's a girl? Yeah, she's kind of a dick too. (figuratively, of course)

I don't like that too. There's a double standard here. I understand that one thing both sexes does exactly the same can be interpreted another way by different people. Most times, females can get away with a lot more things than males can. It's the way the world works, I guess.

So much for that. But in light of recent events, someone else had labeled me as annoying. And I didn't give them any reason to do so, and it irritated me. I was so cautious not to cross this person, and I explained my side of the story. He wouldn't have it.

Sometimes, I think people assume I'm just trying to annoy them. Sometimes, they're right, but for the most part I'm just being me. And it sucks that people conclude that I'm just being a dick because they've already labeled me as such.

If I know you, and you're reading this post. I know you know who I mean, and this isn't meant to put down that person. For the other person, you could take a guess, but I'm thinking there are a whole lot of people you could choose from.

I'm just glad I have my friends, the people worth having around who understand me. Those who I don't really have to watch what I say, who will share a laugh.

It's good to have friends that will stay that way.

The Dark Knight Rises

A little over a year ago, while I was surfing the net, I came across an article that was equivalent to a "breaking news" story. It had a label in all caps and everything. The article was about having to tweet with the hashtag #TheFireRises, and if enough tweets are accumulated will reveal an image; every tweet equaled one pixel on the image. I engaged, and was very proud to help in revealing the very first image of Bane. Thus started the viral marketing campaign of The Dark Knight Rises.

This was the first image to show Tom Hardy as The Dark Knight Rises' villain, Bane. And from that, you can tell how menacing he looks.

Like the previous installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight, a viral marketing campaign was focused heavily on the antagonist of the film which was then the Joker. The words "Why so serious?" stylized with the Joker's smile was one of the more popular marketing strategies for the movie. However when Heath Ledger died, the marketing campaign was steered into another direction; into a more Harvey Dent direction. From then on, it was "I Believe in Harvey Dent."

The very first time I saw the marketing campaign for The Dark Knight, it was just a clip shown before a movie. I forgot what the actual movie was, but I distinctly remember a train passing by then a Batman logo is shown with a pair of eyes on top of it, making it out like the logo was a smile. I knew then that I was definitely gonna watch the movie. Flashforward to more or less a year, and there I was, witnessing one of the greatest superhero movies ever made by far. Only to be beaten by (I'm hoping), The Dark Knight Rises.

I'm not saying that other superhero movies are bad. I mean, I love how they did The Avengers, and all other movies that preempted it. Christopher Nolan's trilogy, for me, just shows a level of storytelling that is just hard to match. Then again, I might be too bias. See here.

When I helped and saw the picture of Bane, I made it a point to tell my friends to clear out their schedule for July 20, even though it was still a year ago then. I told them that we should watch it in IMAX. Nothing else will do. A normal theater would not have held the level of epicness this film will have. I knew it then, as I still know it to be now.

Over the course of the year, bits and pieces of the film came surfacing through: the first teaser trailer, a closer glimpse of Anne Hathaway's Catwoman, more into Bane's cunning persona, and lots and lots of explosions; specifically, a massive explosion featuring a football stadium. And these were all from the internet. Check the first teaser trailer here.

Movie posters soon came into light. I don't remember what the first ever movie poster was. But the movie posters that stuck with me were: the one where you see Batman's mask broken with a Bane walking away and the ones with the characters in what seemingly is rain, and on the top of the poster there emblazoned the word, "RISE." Simple as it may seem, it really gets you interested. 

Soon after, IMAX tickets were made available for advanced purchasing. We were quick to make sure we bought the tickets sooner rather than later. Mind you, this was a month ago. So, a month before the film is to be shown, and only mere days since advance tickets were announced for sale, we had already bought our tickets and made sure we saw the movie on the day it comes out. July 19, 2012, a day earlier than it's released in the States. The amount of dedication we have to watching this film is just so unheard of from us. 

This Thursday is just going to be awesome, I know it. Three more sleepless nights to go!

July 19, 2012. The Legend Ends.

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Buy your tickets now! 

Here are some links to the major cinemas in the Philippines.

SM IMAX Theatre 

SM Cinemas

Ayala Center

If I were you, you'd go with IMAX no questions asked.

One of These Things Is Not Like the Others

A month into starting school, it becomes painfully clear that I'm gonna graduate a year later than my original batchmates. The thought had occurred to me, but the reality has come and it sucks. Fuck you, reality.

Of course, I am happy for them. I'm just bitter, I guess. It's my fault anyway.. for failing in the first place. Some of my original classmates failed too, and we have class together. So I have a little company. Most of them though, have already established themselves with the batch that they've already made a lot of friends. I have made a couple of friends, but most go by mere hi and hello's. Nothing more.

 I don't really expect I'll be close with these guys. On some level, I understand. To them, I am an unknown terrestrial. When I still had a class with my batchmates, I didn't really get to know our irregulars, but I didn't cast them out either.

 The vibe I get with my present classmates now is weird. I feel very alienated. I try to behave as I was with my old classmates, but it doesn't work. I crack a couple of jokes here and there, but all I get is silence and it gets awkward right after.

 Oh, well. I might as well get use to my situation. It's not like I have a choice in the matter. It's all you can do, adapt; survival of the fittest, I guess.

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It's been awhile since my last post. Nothing post-worthy, I guess. I'll try and post again soon.

Wishes and Other Things

I wish everything just sort of worked out for me.

As in the present time. I'd be living in a world that recognized everything that I've ever accomplished but I've never actually went through them. It would be like a flash of light would just pass by me, and in a blink of an eye, I'd be living my perfect life, without problems and free.

I wish everything just worked out for me.

Without me ever even trying to. All the hard work is too much for me. I don't like it, lazy by choice and limited. I don't want to ever work for what I want,  I dislike having to. And if I want something, I can't have it because I can't have it by natural ways.

I wish everything just happens.

I don't want to live in the present. It's too hard, living life, and going at it day by day. Wouldn't it be better if things just went this way, than the other? Wouldn't it be better if this happened to everybody, and conflicts and war would be over?

I wish I didn't have to try for you to like me.

The things I have to do to even make you understand the way I feel are hard for me to keep up. I don't know how to be the guy who is everything and everywhere, and whatever you want to  be. People aren't built that way, which just sucks. It doesn't even feel like you know.

I wish I didn't have to say.

Things are too complicated to comprehend. It's just better if someone you're talking to knows how you feel right away, from the tone of your voice, or from simply your voice, the mood and the body language your convey. Isn't that enough?

I wish all my problems would just go away.

It sucks that you even have them. It sucks even more if there deemed irrelevant to others, and they mean the whole world to you. They just don't understand, but sometimes I don't either. That's just another problem I can't handle.

I wish I were older.

So I can know that everything I've ever tried to do mattered. I don't want to grow up, and seem pointless. I would want to have made a mark for at least a tear or two.

I wish I didn't write this.

I'm quite intoxicated, and left without nothing to say. I don't know whether to be embarrassed or to be proud for everything to be out there, out in the open, for all the world to see, to ignore.

I wish everything just works out for me.

I don't want to have to knowing I might have to make up for something I didn't do.

I wish these just happened.

I wish these were true.

We're Getting Older

I'm four years into college now, and this week is finals week. My lazy personality is getting the best of me, opting to write this post than to actually study. But don't worry about me, I've read a little bit whether it's actually related to the actual test is a mystery.

If I were in any other course, I'd be graduating this year. Or not. It really depends on my determination. Let's just say I am very determined, and I am in fact graduating this year. Then I'd be a very happy camper. But that's not where I am, I'm in a five-year course and I'm already delayed a year which makes my total years spent in college six.

Many of my friends are graduating this year. It's nice to see them move up in the world, getting a degree and starting a new chapter in their lives while I, still stuck in college, am bound to attend their graduation parties, eat and sulk in the process.

Laziness should be classified as a disease. It's not really, but it's a better reason than just being naturally lazy. A friend of mine told me that there's a point of time that we can't rely on not studying anymore, it might have worked in previous years, but it's getting serious. (@mikes41720, Michael Brian Tiña). Tests before had been, in relation to the present, easier. I agree with him, but it doesn't faze me enough to actually start trying, or trying harder.

The painful truth is that we're all getting older. Friends are graduating, and you're left behind. Friends are getting married, and you're alone. Friends are having kids, and you're still one. Four years into my college education, and I find myself thinking that maybe I'm not meant to be a physical therapist. Twenty years into life, and I'm stuck in a rut.

I still want to finish though. All this time and effort, no matter how little, can't go to waste. At least after finishing, I'll have a diploma to show off, and maybe get taken seriously. If you invest in something, you just have to make sure that it's the right thing to do.

A slightly bigger push and I'm almost there. Two years is a little while longer than I had expected but there's nothing else to do than to stick it out and try your hardest. In the long run, it might be worth it.

I hope it is.

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Sorry for the unorganized post, it's just a thought I think I want to get out there. A thought I want to share. It's exactly how my brain is right now, unorganized. I know some people might relate to this, some of my friends especially. Here's to us, and to our cloudy futures!

Gym Woes

Two months now, and a couple of days into my third month since I started going to the gym. Since then, I've lost a substantial amount of weight, or it seems that I have. Either way, it's nice to get a couple of compliments about the weight loss though it is Filipino nature to deny them.

Anyway, going to the gym is not always fun and games. Sometimes, not at all, not even close, but some people do have fun going to the gym, staying fit and lifting weights. So when dreading to have to go to the gym, decide to have a gym buddy, a friend you go to the gym with.

I had one such friend, but he's abandoned the role now to fulfill other earthly duties. Dick. But the times when we went together, it was great. That just means you at least have someone to talk to during your breaks from working out, or if you're just really lazy to workout then that person will be there working out while you annoy him.

Being alone now at the gym isn't so bad. There are other friends I've over the past two months. Most of them, acquaintances really, just giving out the occasional hi's and hello's. That's what you get at the gym. Well, for me that is. I seem to give off a very bad first impression which I've grown to know about myself.

The more and more you frequent the gym, the clearer it becomes, shit's not gonna happen if you eat like there's no tomorrow. Many a people would wish that food contained zero calories, so that people didn't need to go to the gym to burn it off. But if food contained no calories, then what would we run on? If only we were like cars, and just ran on water (to cars that could), or some other form of energy.

Over the months, I've gotten more conscious about my body than I ever was. I was a person who didn't really care much for whatever I ate, but I'm learning. So to remedy this, I actually began using an iPod app that counts my food intake, myfitnesspal (check it out, it's free.)

The good thing about this is it's database is fairly extensive, but only if you've got a connection to the internet.  Using it without the online database, it is still pretty useful. The only downside to this is that there is no way to actually tell that you've eaten the same amount to account for the number of calories that's shown in the app, although it can guide you to become aware of what you're eating.

I've been having a hard time keeping up with my diet recently. Food just seems to pop up everywhere I look, it doesn't help that there's some in the fridge. Today, I was on the treadmill and a show on television went on named Food Network Challenge: Ice Cream Clash. From the name alone, you can infer how much food I wish I could have right then and there. Needless to say, I was on the treadmill thirty minutes more than I usually do.

Summer is fast approaching. With only less than two weeks left, beach parties are bound to be about, to celebrate the ending of classes and the rising heat of the sun.

It's time I get serious about my going to the gym.