Month: November 2015

The Elder Scrolls Online for PS4

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, MMORPGLeave a comment

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I have wanted to play this game for such a long time, but it was one of those $60+ games that I could never afford. I saw it used at Target for $40, but I thought I would wait and see if it goes on sale, that’s usually when I buy games.

I got lucky because “The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Premium Edition” was on PlayStation’s Black Friday sale. It’s normally $99, but I only paid $40. It was a good thing I waited.

MMORPG games are my absolute favorite games. It’s a game you can play that practically never ends. There is literally never a time you will find “Game Over.” There is always something to do, like fishing, baking, blacksmithing, brewing etc., and there are hundreds of quests.

I’ve been looking for a game just like EverQuest that I could play on the PS4, but there aren’t any games like it, or so I thought. The Elder Scrolls is exactly what I was looking for.

Here is my character. I’ve only played him for a few days and he’s already level 8. Yes, I named him Xanapus. What did you expect? I am Xanapus all over the internet lol. He is a sorcerer, because I love playing sorcerer’s.

xanapus

The edition that I bought came with 6000 crowns, which is basically what they call the currency that you buy with real money to buy in game items. I bought some costumes and a new mount and a new pet. They gave me a Imperial horse and a crab pet, but I wanted to have an alternative for when I was tired of looking at a crab all day lol.

I am having fun so far. My first night playing, someone came up to me and invited me into a group. I don’t normally do that when I’m on a solo quest because I want to finish my quest when they want me to do what they want to do. But I joined her group and she told me that she was BAKED! LOL I thought that was funny. She was running around the game not knowing where she was going or why. Plus she kept saying “Awww you’re so cute”, which had nothing to do with what she was seeing on the screen, apparently she bought a new pet lol. I’m just like ok, I want to finish my quest now lol.

I’m very happy that I finally got a good deal because I’ve been dying to play this game. It’s a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

Black Friday at home

On By Michel McDonaldIn HolidaysLeave a comment

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Everyone loves a good deal, but who wants to camp out in front of their favorite store just to save a few bucks? Who wants to miss their Thanksgiving dinner aka family reunion only to get into fist fights over the last Star Wars Battlefront PS4 and possibly get killed? Not me! No way!

So here’s what I do, I just sit at home and wait for the Black Friday deals to come to my inbox. and then buy stuff online and have them shipped to me, or enjoy them instantly online. I mean sure, it’ll take awhile to get to me, but you don’t really need those things until Christmas day anyway, right?

This is what I saved on. It’s only a few items, but it’s what I wanted to buy.

I got an email from Choxi about 2 weeks ago telling me they miss me. I bought an iPad for my partner last year and I also bought a phone for myself. So the email they sent me was a $10 coupon. I looked at what they had on sale and what was featured, and I found this cool bed or couch table for my partner for $49. Thanks to the coupon, I only paid $39 and with $2 shipping it came to $41. I bought it for him because he spends most if not all of his time on the couch holding his iPad, and I figured he could just put it on this table at an angle and he can just swipe without holding it. He can also push it to the side when he starts to get sleepy. A couple of months ago he fell asleep and woke up to the sound of his iPad crashing to the ground on the hard wood floor. I can’t remember how much it was to replace the screen. This will prevent that from happening again, I hope.

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Yesterday I got a Black Friday email from Groupon advertising this pet carrier and more. I was telling my partner the last time we went out of town that if I had a pet carrier that was like a suitcase and backpack, we could bring her with us. I went online looking for something, but they were just too expensive. I couldn’t pass up $20, so I had to buy this.

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Finally, I went on my PlayStation 4 yesterday and saw that they had a Co-Op sale with some games I was considering, but I really didn’t want them just because they were on sale. Their sale is up to 90% with a PlayStation Plus membership, but I waited. Today I opened the PlayStation store and saw their Black Friday sale, and the game I’ve wanted forever was there, and it was a very reasonable price. It’s normally $99, but it was on sale for $40. I just so happened to have $41 and change in my account, so I bought it and I now have $1.74 in my wallet lol.

The game is The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited. It’s the most expensive one they had. They had the one without all the extras for a lot less, but what’s the point when I’m going to have to buy all those extras later down the road anyway? I might as well buy the more expensive one while I have the funds in my wallet. And you can’t beat a $60 savings.

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This after I received an email from Microsoft telling me they are having a sale in the Microsoft store for apps, games, movies and music. It was a .10 cent sale. So I bought Imagine Dragons Night Visions album that is regularly $13 for only .10 cents. That’s pretty awesome if you ask me.

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I got to have a Thanksgiving meal with my partner and I didn’t have to camp out for days in the cold with a bunch of strangers who would probably beat the crap out of me over $5., and I saved $172. You honestly can’t beat that.

Bread Machine Spiced Pumpkin Bread

On By Michel McDonaldIn Holidays, RecipesLeave a comment

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I bought a bread machine a few years ago from a thrift store for only $6, and I think it was one of the best investments I’ve ever made because I get to enjoy specialty bread whenever I want, at a fraction of the cost.

Every holiday season from October until December I make Spiced Pumpkin bread, and I thought I would share the recipe.

This is the recipe that came in the book that I had to download since it didn’t come with the bread machine. What do you expect? I found it in a thrift store. I was lucky it had all the parts and that it actually worked. They had some better looking machines that were missing the kneading paddle. Is that what it’s called?

I had to experiment with some of the recipes because sometimes you might get soft fluffy bread, while other times it might be hard and will leave a brick feeling in your stomach. If the bread is too hard, it’s because it didn’t have enough water. If it falls apart, you put too much water in it. This particular recipe says to add 1 egg and enough water to make 1/4 cup. Well, I learned to add 1 egg, plus 1/4 cup of water, and no more water after that.

There are some recipes that have raisins in it, this one does not, but I like to add raisins to it anyway. I don’t add the raisins in the beginning because it turns them into dust. I wait until the machine is finished kneading the dough, then I add the raisins, then the machine starts to knead again for about 15 or 20 minutes before turning off to let the dough rise.

One thing that I don’t like to do is to let the bread machine bake the bread because the container that it is in doesn’t give you a normal shape loaf of bread. I just let it knead the dough, then when it’s finished, before it allows it to rise, I remove it from the pan and put it in a regular bread pan and put it in the toaster oven at 150F for 45 minutes to rise, then I turn it to 350F to bake for 45 minutes.

I love this bread for 2 reasons. 1 it has a pumpkin flavor, and 2 because it’s sweet from the raisins. I like to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with this bread more than anything else. It just makes it better. I have had ham and/or turkey sandwiches, but nothing beats PB&J.

First Person Shooters

On By Michel McDonaldIn GamesLeave a comment

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The first time I ever heard of a first person shooter game, it was a computer game called Doom where you don’t see a character, all you see is a gun and the enemies that you have to kill. I sucked at it the first time I tried playing a FPS because I could never aim the gun on the person or monster I had to shoot and I would always end up dying. I just thought that FPS games were not for me. I will stick with RPG, adventure games and/or puzzle games.

The second time I saw a FPS game, it was Call of Duty and you weren’t killing NPC’s (non player characters), you were killing PC’s (player characters). In my mind, the PC’s weren’t a computer generated character, they were actual people whom I had to shoot to kill, and I just refused to do that because it made me feel like a bully and a murderer. I realize I am not actually killing a person, just their character, but it still made me feel like I was doing something bad. It was a moral issue for me.

When I got my PlayStation 4 for Christmas last year, I was given the choice of 4 games for free with the console. I didn’t want Little Big Planet because I knew I would get bored with it (I eventually got it for $24 and I did get bored with it, so I know I made the right call now). The other choices were Far Cry 4, and I watched videos on YouTube and I found out that not only was it a FPS, but you had to kill people. I am not sure if they were NPC’s or PC’s, but I just didn’t want to kill people. Then there was NBA2K15. I don’t do sports lol. My final option was Destiny. I watched videos and even though I hated that it was a FPS, it was killing aliens, and it was a space theme, so I figured that was probably more my thing, so I chose Destiny.

When I first started playing Destiny, it probably only took me a few minutes to get used to the controls and aim. My aim still needs to improve after almost a year, but it’s getting better. I actually think it has to do with the weapon because some upgrades to the weapons offer better aim and control. I can aim just fine on my Warlock because my weapons are kick ass, but still have trouble aiming with my lower level Titan and Hunter characters.

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I bought the new Star Wars Battlefront game. I actually have 2 of them for my old PSP, but this one is a lot better. I started just playing by myself, but those missions are hard, even on the easy mode lol. I can’t imagine playing the hard mode. I started playing the multiplayer and it’s actually more fun. I know, I’m doing what I hate, I am not only killing people, but I’m killing people who are playing people.

I think that I have evolved in the sense that I went from hating FPS’s and feeling horrible about killing people’s characters, to actually loving to do both. It’s actually fun. I know I am not hurting anyone’s feelings by killing their character, but that’s exactly what I thought I was doing because I thought it would hurt my feelings if they killed me, but it doesn’t hurt my feelings. I mean, NPC’s kill me all the time and it doesn’t hurt my feelings because I know it’s a game and that’s how the game is played. So why should my feelings be hurt if it’s an actual person playing that character? It’s all psychological. It’s actually stupid if you think about it.

Okay, I have to go kill some storm troopers and/or rebels.

I cut my finger

On By Michel McDonaldIn DoctorLeave a comment

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I have an oopsie whoopsie lol. Last Monday I came home from the gym and I was making a protein shake. I have whole strawberries in the freezer that I put there to prevent them from going bad, but I forgot to remove the stems. So I was cutting the frozen stem off by flicking it with a steak knife. It wasn’t working, so I tried to gently push the steak knife into the side of the stem, and I guess I don’t know my own strength because it went right through the strawberry and an inch of the steak knife penetrated into my finger. Continue reading “I cut my finger” →

Laminating Pathfinder Character Sheets

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Laminated Pathfinder Character Sheets

I am geeking out right now with my new AmazonBasics Thermal Laminator that I bought from Amazon. I was watching my shows and out of the blue I thought to myself, “I wonder if laminating sheets can be written on with a grease pencil and erased.” I have this white grease pencil that I’ve literally had for decades that I don’t remember where it came from, I just know I have it. It’s white, so I don’t know what I can do with it. I used it on a business card that I laminated and it writes great. I rubbed it off with my finger and it comes off without any trace.

So I was thinking if this grease pencil works on these laminating sheets, then perhaps it would be a good idea if I laminated the Pathfinder character sheets so that they can be written on with a grease pencil, and when someone is using them and something changes, they can easily remove what they wrote and write a new number, or whatever. When they are finished and they don’t need to keep that information, they can erase the entire character sheet.

My partner joked today that I’ll never use these full page sheets, and that I’ll be buried with them, but I’ve laminated 4 character sheets tonight and 4 pages with bread machine recipes. I’m sure I’ll probably find many other things to laminate without being too wasteful.

Laminating One Side of Earring Cards

On By Michel McDonaldIn EtsyLeave a comment

Laminated earring cards

Yesterday I tried laminating my earring cards and punching the earring holes with the sideways U’s, but it wouldn’t work because the plastic is too thick to be able to punch through. Last night I thought, I wonder if I was able to laminate 2 cards back to back so both cards are laminated on the front only. If I could laminate one side, perhaps it would be thin enough. I was right, because it worked.

Today I took half of my earring cards and placed them all back to back inside the business card laminating pouches and ran them through the laminator. I actually ran them through several times. When they all came out the other side, I cut them around the edges of the cards and then I used the earring display card punch to make the holes, and it worked without any problems. I watched my show and then decided to run more through doing the same thing, but this time it didn’t work the same way. I kept having the same issues I was having when I was trying to punch the card with a full lamination. It just didn’t want to cooperate with me anymore.

The business card laminating pouches are 5Mil and the full size sheets are 3Mil, so I think I will just toss the ones that I have and just work with the ones that I have already punched and not worry about trying to make any more since I haven’t actually sold any earrings in a long time. So it’s really just a waste of my time, but I wanted to see if I could get it done, and I have, so I’m happy. Who knows if someone will buy earrings in the future. It might happen, or it might not, I don’t know. All this work could be for nothing, or perhaps it might bring me a lot of referrals if one person buys earrings.

So I’m happy I was able to figure it out, and hopefully I can get it to work again in the future.

AmazonBasics Laminator

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I LikeLeave a comment

Amazon Basics Laminator

Last week my partner mentioned to me on our way to Los Angeles that he would like to have a laminator so he could laminate some insurance cards to prevent them from tearing or wearing out in his wallet. I had to laminate my insurance card many years ago, but I didn’t have a laminator, so I simply covered it on both sides with clear contact paper. It did the job, but it doesn’t look as good as it would if it were laminated.

It got me thinking that I could use a laminator for my Etsy shop, so I bought one on Amazon. It’s the AmazonBasics Thermal Laminator and I bought a box of 100 AmazonBasics Thermal Laminating Pouches, 3 Mil Letter Size for laminating full size sheets. I also bought the Universal Laminating Pouches, 5 Mil Business Card for my earring cards and my partners insurance cards.

Laminated earring card

I did an experiment with 1 of the new business card pouches to see if it would work. I have perhaps 40 business cards that I use for earring cards. I have the earring display card punch, and I have already punched all the cards. They’re just sitting in a business card holder waiting to be used. I laminated 1 of them and cut it around the edges of the card, then I used the earring display card punch to punch through the existing um… punch? Holes? It didn’t work, as you can see. I tried it on both of them, and you can see in the above image that it just shreds the plastic. But then I punched it on the left side of the card and it worked just fine. You can also see the plastic on the edge of the card.

So here is what I will have to do for future earring cards. I will have to print out the business card sheet and laminate it with a full size laminating pouch, then cut the cards out and then use the earring display card punch. That will be the only way I can do it that will make it look normal.

The reason I want to do this with my earring cards is because the cardboard is flimsy by itself. I’m sure when a customer receives their earrings, they will most likely toss the card in the trash, but it’s all about presentation and quality of the brand.

My partner didn’t want any of this, he just wanted to laminate 2 cards, that’s it. He told me to put it in my room because I can get more use out of it for my Etsy shop. If he wants something laminated in the future, well he can either ask or tell me to do it for him, or he can do it himself. It’s not his or mine, it’s ours.

I was thinking we could both use it to laminate our school papers from when we were children, but he told me that would ruin the charm of the paper. I still think it’s a good idea, but at the same time, all my school papers will be just fine in the plastic storage container in my closet. No one has ever asked to look at them, so it doesn’t do me any good to take them out of the box to laminate them. I do plan on printing some cool patterns to laminate to use as a placemat for our dogs food since she gets food all over the floor. I can also make placemats for the dining room table, not that we ever eat there, it would just like nice to me.

Update: Ok so I was wrong about being able to print a full sheet, cut the cards out and then stamp it with the earring display card punch. I cut a couple of cards out with scissors, and it looked like a 4 year old cut them out. I’m sure a 4 year old would’ve done a better job. Then I used the punch and it was horrible. I tried again with another card and the punch jammed, so that’s not going to work for me. I’m just going to have to deal with laminating the cards I already have printed out and used the earring display card punch, and just poke holes for the earrings. It’s not going to look professional, but at least the cards will be stiff. It’s really the best I can do since I don’t have any other option.

PlayStation Store Coupon Code

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS4Leave a comment

25% CouponA few days ago I pre-ordered Star Wars Battlefront Ultimate Edition on the PlayStation store on my PlayStation 4. I put it on my new PlayStation Capital One credit card. Thanks to me putting this on the new credit card, I got $50 PlayStation code which is currently in my account that I can use to spend as I like. It’s awesome because I paid $50 on the credit card today.

I also got an email from PlayStation with a nice 25% discount code on specific EA games thanks to my purchase. Bonus, right? The only problem is, the coupon doesn’t work. I was going to buy Plants VS Zombies Garden Warfare, but when I entered the coupon code, it said this coupon code doesn’t work for your country. I checked the email and it says it is good for the United States, and I am currently living in the United States. I went to the PlayStation website and requested a online chat with someone from PlayStation and gave them the coupon code and the email address that the email was sent from, and they told me that they are not associated with that email address.

It sucks that I can’t get 25% from this coupon code, but the good news is that I really didn’t want to spend my free $50 right now anyway. I want to wait until there is a specific game or expansion or maybe add-on that I want to buy to spend that $50. So it’s awesome that they gave me 25% off that I can’t actually use, but I think I’m good without it.

PSP Back In Action

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

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Being disabled and not being able to work has it’s disadvantages, and it’s boring, so when you are bored, you watch TV, read a book and/or play video games.

I bought my PSP back in 2007 and had such a fun time. I compared it to my Nintendo Game Boy and I always wonder how I was ever able to see the Game Boy screen since the PSP screen was so huge.

Why did I ever stop playing my PSP when I have not finished playing 99% of my games? They were either too difficult, or I got bored and moved on to another game. I do believe I managed to complete one game all the way to the end credits. The Lego games were so fun and some were easier than others, yet I still have not finished them all. Some of them are just about finished, but I never finished them 100%.

I wanted to get a PS Vita because that talks with my PS4 and I already have PS Vita games in my library from games that I got for free with my PlayStation Plus membership. But the problem with me buying a new PS Vita is that I haven’t earned it and I still have a perfectly good PSP that I stopped playing, and I have loads of games I never finished.

Yesterday I brought my PSP to the gym with me so I could see if there were any system updates, and there were. I had to bring it with me to the gym because I haven’t been able to get online with it ever since we got our Bright House Wi-Fi box. The security is not compatible with my PSP, so I guess I figured it was too out of date for my Wi-Fi. Last night I Tweeted Bright House and they actually fixed it, so now I can get in the PlayStation store again and do updates and even use Skype, not that I ever would since it’s audio only.

I have 2 Star Wars Battlefront games for my PSP, and I’m anticipating the new Star Wars Battlefront game for my PS4, so I figured I would play the PSP version while I wait. Yeah, I remember why I stopped playing now. The little analog stick on the PSP is so difficult to play games with because it sticks. You will be trying to run to the right, and you end up running to the left. Or you won’t even be touching the analog stick, and your character is running in all directions, and you can’t do anything about it. I also have a bad habit of pressing the power button while I’m playing and it shuts the PSP off. Also, the battery doesn’t keep its charge. It says it’s a 5 1/2 hour battery, but I might get 2 hours, if that. I could buy a battery on Amazon that doubles the power.

So, yeah, I will be playing with my PSP here and there now that I can connect to the Wi-Fi again, but I still would like to buy a PS Vita to be able to play all those free games I’ve gotten this year with my PS+ membership. Also, the Vita has the 2 analog sticks like the PS4 game controller that I am now used to playing with. I don’t want to buy a used one because I’ve had bad luck with used electronics, but I will have to wait until I’ve saved some money in my Amazon account. Until then… I want to try to finish all of my PSP games.