Fallout Shelter

logo

I have been addicted to Fallout Shelter lately. I played it several years ago on my Android cell phone, but I couldn’t keep my vault dwellers alive, and I was frustrated by the amount of caps it was costing me every time I had to bring them back to life, so I literally saved my game to the cloud and uninstalled the game from my phone. I figured when I felt like I could play the game better, then I would come back.

Recently I discovered they brought Fallout Shelter to the PlayStation 4 and I decided I would try the game out again on the bigger screen where I was playing with a game controller and not my fingers. The first couple of days I was doing pretty good, but then just like on the mobile version I started having a bit of a problem with not enough water and power being generated and my dwellers started dying from the radiation, I guess from lack of water. I don’t know how they got radiation, but OK. But, I just kept playing and suddenly they stopped dying and I was actually doing better than I did on the mobile version.

I’ve gotten a lot better at the game and I watched some videos here and there telling you how you should do your layout for your vault, and they showed me some things I didn’t know about the game, and so I went from there. Here is a screenshot of just the top of my vault.

Fallout Shelter Top Floors Layout

I decided to place 4 power plant rooms side by side on 2 floors, and then on the right side of both floors are the strength centers where the dwellers train their strength for working in the power plants. Below the power plant rooms are the water treatment rooms with the weapons center rooms which train their perception for working in the water treatment rooms.

Do you see a trend? See, the vault dwellers have SPECIAL which stand for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. So on the right side I have 2 training rooms for each of those SPECIAL’s and on the left side of the training rooms are the actual rooms that use those abilities. Here, you can see the map I created in Open Office for building my vault. The little rooms with the numbers are elevators. I numbered the ones on the left so I would know how many floors I used. I’ve actually just made an 18th floor for my PS4 vault because I needed more storage.

2018-08-20

There is a good reason I put in the elevators between the rooms. If you put rooms close together, and later you decide you need to get rid of one, and it has a room beside it, the game won’t let you remove the room because there are 2 rooms touching. You can get rid of the room on the end, but that might be the room you want to keep, and you’ll have to get rid of that room too just to get rid of the room you wanted to get rid of to begin with. You can remove a room if it is between 2 elevators.

Anyway, use it, or don’t, it’s entirely up to you. It is your vault after all. I just thought I would share how I created mine.

Terraria Android Cloud Issues Solved

Terraria

I have a little addiction to a silly video game called Terraria. I found out about this game when I got my PS4 for Christmas in 2015 while playing Minecraft. It said Also try Terraria on the Minecraft logo, so I found it in the PlayStation store and bought it. I didn’t love it immediately because I wasn’t sure how to play it, and I kept getting killed at night and it was frustrating to keep burying myself whenever the zombies came out at night, much like Minecraft lol. But once I started to play it more, I became addicted and eventually over time I bought the PC version and the Android version.

I have it installed on my Nook HD+, but recently I decided to install it on my cell phone so that I could play it anywhere. I uploaded my world to the cloud from my Nook so I could use some of the items I had gotten before on my phone. I created a new world, because it’s always fun to start over and build a new house, even though I build the same exact house every time lol. Anyway, I uploaded the world a couple more times and eventually it wouldn’t allow me to access the cloud. Every time I would click the cloud save, the game would freeze up for about 10 seconds before crashing. I’m sure anyone would understand just how frustrating that can be. I tried accessing the cloud worlds from my Nook, but no go. I even installed the game on my old android phone and still couldn’t access the cloud worlds.

My only alternative was to go to Google Play for help. Their help sent me to my email app to send an email to them. I got an email to sign up on their website so I can submit a ticket, which I did late on Friday. Today is Monday and I finally got a reply. They sent me a link to a fix, which I didn’t read right away, but they sent me the link again and I read it and apparently when you save your game to the cloud, your worlds and characters go directly to your Google Drive into a folder called Terraria. I had no idea lol. I didn’t have any special world that I needed anything from. Everything was basically just backup, so I deleted all the files and went to the game and it took a minute, but it cleared up the issue and now I am able to use the cloud again.

Here’s a little cheat tip. If you back up your world on the cloud, then access the back up, then go into one of your bags and grab things, like for example ore, you can exit out and go back into the cloud world and it will still be there as if you never touched it. Use this tip only if you must. Don’t use this tip if you think it might ruin the game for you. I actually did that so that I could duplicate the hearts so I could get the max amount of hit points without having to search for more hearts. I know it’s bad, but I just can’t stand dying so fast, but now I have to deal with the Eye of Cthulhu before I’m ready, so that’s on me.

Anyway, I hope you found this cloud fix and my cheat tip useful.

Fitbit Charge HR Wireless Activity Tracker

I bought The Spark from SparkPeople last year, and it’s nice and all, but it doesn’t do everything I was hoping it would do, plus it’s a little buggy. For example, it doesn’t always recognize what exercise I am doing. I bought a bicycle trainer and would ride my bike on it, and sometimes it logged it as general exercise, while other times it would log it as cycling. When I ride the bike to the gym it logs it as general exercise, and when I walk on the treadmill it logs it as a walk event.

I was going to go with one that has the little dots that spin around to show you your progress, but I want actual real-time numbers displayed on a screen. I already have The Spark from SparkPeople, which has the little dots, I’m not looking to get another one like that. And the Spark doesn’t sync with Noom or Planet Fitness. It’s a nice little doohickey, but I want something that will do more for me since I don’t constantly wear my shoes. I want a watch to wear full time 24/7.

This Fitbit Charge HR Wireless Activity Wristband is exactly what I had in mind. It does everything that I need it to do, and it will sync on my computer, not just my phone. It’s about $146 on Amazon, and I will buy it using Amazon Smile to help the charity of my choice, which is the Gay & Lesbian Center of Bakersfield. Here are all of the things that it does.

  • Get continuous, automatic, wrist-based heart rate and simplified heart rate zones
  • Track workouts, heart rate, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, active minutes and steps
  • Monitor your sleep automatically and wake with a silent alarm
  • See call notifications, daily stats and time of day on the OLED display
  • Sync stats wirelessly and automatically to your computer and over 150 leading smartphones
  • Utilize the sizing tool in Product Details below to ensure proper fit.

This has more features, and it should sync up with Noom and the Planet Fitness app. At least I hope it will lol. Do you have one of these? Do you know if it syncs up with those apps? I would love to know before I buy this watch. Please leave a comment to let me know.

Update: I forgot something. When I say sync up with Noom and the Planet Fitness app, I mean that you can link your Fitbit account with Noom and Planet Fitness. So when I ask if it will sync up, I mean if it’s linked up to Noom and Planet Fitness apps, will it automatically transfer all of the exercise events with the link.

I checked the Noom app and it only connects with Google Fit and Misfit. Planet Fitness connects with more apps, but it doesn’t connect with Google Fit or Misfit. So I guess I have to choose which app is more important.

Terraria mobile issues resolved

Screenshot_2015-05-04-23-30-38

I’m doing a little happy dance right now because I was finally… sorry, that was weak. I was FINALLY able to get Terraria to play on my refurbished Samsung Galaxy S3, and I will tell you how I did it.

The Issue was that when it installed the game, it only installed the obb file in the Android/obb folder. It didn’t install any of the actual game files in the Android/data folder. Every time I tried to load the game, it would give me this message (below). Try as I might I could not figure it out. I didn’t realize the data folder was lacking files. The OBB data file is fine, it installed all 52mb of that, it’s just that it didn’t install the rest of the data.

Screenshot_2015-05-02-19-33-57

The Fix. My phone came preinstalled with a file viewer called My Files, but that isn’t enough. I have an app from Cheetah Mobile called File Manager and that did the job. So what I did was I zipped the data files from my Nook and uploaded the zip file to my OneDrive so that I could download it on my phone. I downloaded it and then went into the File Manager and located the zip file in my downloads folder. I copied the zip file and pasted it in the Android/Data folder, but it kept saying 0kb. So it was showing a file name, but it wouldn’t allow actual data to be inserted in that folder. I then figured out (after days mind you) that in the File Manager there is a option in the settings for Root Settings (Advanced Users). Root Explorer and Change System Folders. Check both of those.

Screenshot_2015-05-04-23-27-29

Once those two options were checked, I copied the zip file again and it actually unzipped all of the files, but for some odd reason all of the files were 0kb. So then I decided to paste the zip file in the SD Card Android/Data folder and it pasted with all 52mb in tact. I then unzipped it and it actually unzipped. I find that to be amazing because before it wouldn’t unzip onto the SD card. So once I had all the files in the SD card, I went into the folder with the files and I tapped (and held) on one file to select it, then I clicked that little icon at the top with 4 squares and it selected the entire directory, then I clicked copy at the bottom of the screen and went in the Device to the Android/Data/com.and.games505.TerrariaPaid folder and hit paste and all of the files actually pasted with actual file sizes too.

To prove it worked, the Terraria image at the top is the actual screen shot from my phone. I cannot believe I finally got it to work. Now, I’m worried about if/when there is an update in the Google Play store and it installs all the files again, but this time it deletes all the files, or it makes them all 0kb lol. If that happens, I still have it on my Nook, so I’ll just be able to copy it over.

I really hope this has helped someone out there who has been just as frustrated as I have been. If you have a second Android device that it actually works on, you will be fine.

Geek U8 Bluetooth Smart Watch

Screenshot_2015-04-09-17-38-57

Facebook has had some really interesting ads lately. One particular ad is for an Android app called Geek where they have hundreds of products at a huge discount. Take for instance this one particular watch that is a Bluetooth Smart Watch that connects to your iPhone and Android phone. I haven’t worn a watch in years because I don’t want to just wear any old watch, I want my watch to not only tell me the time, but also give me many options. I’ve been known to wear calculator watches as a teenager, but they weren’t just calculators, it also stored all of my contacts, like a little address book. Since I don’t need that feature because it is all in my smart phone, there really isn’t much reason to have that old kind of watch.

My partner bought a subscription to a couple of magazines, and they sent him a watch, which he didn’t like so he gave it away to someone, not me Sad smile. When I saw this Geek ad on Facebook, I saw the watch and that was when I knew this was my next watch. Of course I didn’t have the money or the courage to spend money I really don’t have, so I waited for it to go down in price. It was $24 when I bought it, and since I am trying to raise my credit score, I figured what the hell, go for it. It was normally $50.

It came yesterday and I nearly posted a long rant about how much I hate this watch. First of all, it took about 30 minutes to finally connect to my phone, even though the app they told me to install on my phone was already installed. Then I had an issue with it not turning on when I pressed the button on the right. I don’t know why it has been doing that to me, but it was apparently just a fluke because it’s no longer happening to me. Then last night I did the dishes, and totally forgot to take the watch off. It didn’t get too wet, but I guess it did get wet because it started glitching out on me. I would look at my watch and it would be in the dialer pressing random numbers, and then it would go into the calculator pressing random numbers. I would push the button on the right to shut off, and it would come back on. I thought for sure I had screwed it up, by today it is perfectly fine, as if nothing bad (water) had happened.

I personally like wearing this watch because my phone has some real issues. When I am speaking with someone on my phone, it sounds like they are using auto tune. Imagine having a conversation with your aunt and it sounds like Cher singing Do you believe in life after love? It’s not great, and I don’t understand why it is doing that. When I am using the smart watch to talk to someone, it is loud and clear, and no crazy sound issues. Plus it looks sort of cool that I’m talking to my watch like Dick Tracy lol.

Anyway, it was only $24 plus $3 shipping and it came all the way over here from Japan. It came a lot quicker than I was expecting, which I’m happy about because I hate waiting for packages lol. I highly recommend it if you are a huge technology geek or nerd lol. Expect problems at first, but know those kinks will work themselves out.

Here are some pictures. I don’t know why but it is always in military time, which is why I’m using the analog watch image. It would be awesome if I could have more options, but that’s ok.

IMAG0904IMAG0905IMAG0906

Minecraft Pocket Edition

MinecraftPocketEdition

What is the easiest way to spot an addiction? When you have Minecraft on your PlayStation 4, then you also buy Minecraft for your tablet/cell phone. Yeah… I have an addiction. I have it bad.

imageMinecraft Pocket Edition was $6.99 on Google Play, but I actually got it for free. Let me explain that. I have an app on my tablet called Google Opinion Rewards and they send me a survey every couple or few days that may pay .10 cents or $1 and change. The surveys are mostly 1 question, but occasionally they will have 3 or 4 questions and I may get more or less. I’ve been using this app since November and I’ve earned enough that I was able to buy Minecraft PE.

Today I decided that I would go to YouTube and check out some videos. I have to be honest, I only watched 1 video, and it was enough to sell me on the idea. The guy was talking about how easy it was to play on his Apple iPad Mini. He kept having issues where the game was running out of memory, and he couldn’t believe it because he had an iPad Mini. You’d think those would have more memory to play a simple game. Then again, it was from June 2014, so the game was probably buggy.

So I bought the game with my Google Opinion Rewards and I installed it on my Nook HD+ because it has more space and it’s faster than my Android cell phone. The game is very awesome and it does take a few minutes to really get the hang of since I’m so used to the PlayStation 4 controller, and not at all familiar with using 2 fingers (left thumb and right index) to control my character. I’m getting the hang of it.

The first thing I noticed was sunflowers. My PS4 version doesn’t have sunflowers! I would love sunflowers lol. It also has some other materials that my game doesn’t have, such as Diorite, Andesite, Poppy, Blue Orchid, Allium, Azure bluet, Tulip, Oxeye Daisy, Lilac, Rose Bush, Peony and one thing I noticed in the crafting table was Stonecutter. I’m not sure what the Diorite or Andesite is, but it sure would be nice if I did lol. I cheated, I had to look on the Minecraft Pocket Edition wikipedia page to get those names because I forgot them and their spelling. I saw the poppy, tulip and sunflower, but not the rest of the flowers I listed. I only saw them in the wiki page. I mentioned them because again, I’ve never seen those in the PS4 version.

I created a world and used an app called Minebot to mine 100 blocks down. Little did I know he would leave all of the good stuff free floating in the air in their original space. How the hell am I going to get all of that stuff? I didn’t think of that, so I’m not going to use that app anymore. I deleted that world because when I play the game, I want it to be completely honest. I want to earn every iron ore, gold, diamond, and whatever else I would normally have to mine for months to get. It’s less fun if I already have everything available to me. It means more to me if I have to work hard for my rewards. That’s why I don’t like to play in creative mode. What’s the point if I start off with a mansion with all the diamonds I could ever ask for? It ruins the fun.

I will most likely not play this game that often and save all the fun for when I’m either on the stationary bike or bored in a waiting room. Who am I kidding? I’ll probably be on this just as much if not more than I am on the PS4. I am that addicted lol.

This game doesn’t seem to have the option to share video and/or pictures on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, so I guess if I really want to take a screenshot, I’ll have to do it the old fashioned way and manually share it through social media. I probably won’t do that too often, but never saw never right?

The Sims FreePlay January 22 Update

The Sims FreePlay

The Sims FreePlay has finally given us an update and not everyone is happy about it. Well, I should say they aren’t happy because EA still has not addressed some of the issues that some of us are having with the game.

There are really only two issues that I am having, like not being able to log in to Facebook in the game which would allow me to access the party boat to claim daily prizes based on how many Facebook friends I have who also play the game. It also allows me to visit those friend’s neighborhoods and interact with their Sims characters. They have tasks that you have to perform to earn a special currency called SP’s to spend on specific items in the store. If I cannot earn that currency then I will not be able to buy those items.

The other issue that I am having is that I cannot play the game on my new Nook HD+ that I got for Christmas. I have been playing this game on my Android phone since last year and I’m perfectly okay with playing it on there because that is mainly the only reason I even use my phone anymore. Ever since I got my Nook, I’ve uninstalled most of the apps that I used to use on a daily basis because they were causing The Sims FreePlay to constantly crash. Since I can use those apps on my new Nook, I don’t need them on my phone anymore.

Some people are reporting problems that they are having that I don’t seem to be having. They are also really irate that EA has not addressed their complaints.  Here are just 2 comments. I blurred out their names for their own protection.  The first one is negative, the 2nd one, well, if you can understand what that person is saying then you decide lol.  That person is having issues that I am not having.

sims freeplay comments

You know, I am just as miffed as the next person, but let us all have a little perspective here. This is a free game. You don’t pay for it, you get to play it for as long as you want for free. There are premium items you can buy with real life money, but you don’t have to buy them if you don’t want to. Be lucky they are giving us all of these updates because their other game The Sims 3 which is also available for your Android device will cost you $6.99 and from what I have read in the comments there, that game doesn’t have nearly as many cool features and items as the FreePlay game has.

Also, you should be so lucky to have your Android phone or tablet because there are many people in this world who don’t have such luxuries. There are children who are being abused by their parents, some even murdered. There are entire families who are starving and sleeping in the streets because they aren’t as lucky as you. There are people in this world who are being molested, raped and murdered.

There are teenagers who are kicked out of the house and end up living on the streets for years simply because they came out of the closet to their parents. There are gay kids being targeted, beat up, some even raped and then murdered in Russia because Vladimir Putin gave them the okay by making being gay illegal. There are gay people living in Uganda who are being murdered or raped, or both. And finally, there are people being stoned to death in the Arab countries for the same reason, because they are gay. So chill out, it’s just a silly little game. Count your lucky stars that you even have the money to play the game on your expensive little toy.

I am just as miffed at EA because the Facebook issue started when they put out the Halloween update and I have waited all this time and was let down yesterday when I couldn’t log in with the new update. I understand how frustrating it is. I was also let down when I couldn’t play it on my Nook, but even if I could play it on my Nook, if I can’t log in to Facebook to upload my progress, then how will I be able to continue from where I left off on my phone when I try to play it on my Nook?

Someone told me to just buy a Kindle. Um… I have a Nook. I can’t just go out and say “hey take my Nook and give me a Kindle.” It doesn’t work that way. My Nook is a Nook HD+ with 32 GB which only cost $150. The Kindle Fire equivalent is $444 (see below). So yeah, I will not be buying a new Kindle just so I can play The Sims FreePlay. Even if I did, I still have the Facebook issue. If I can’t back up my game, then what point is getting a Kindle Fire to play it on?

kindle fire hdx

One person even said to just go out and buy the cheap Kindle Fire. Again, even at the low price of $139, I still have the Facebook issue to deal with. Besides, why do these people think I have money lying around that I can just go out and buy all these new things? I just cancelled HBO and Showtime because I needed that extra $30 a month. How am I supposed to go out and buy a second tablet that I will only use to play The Sims with? I put $20 into savings and had to take it back out just to buy groceries. Come on, think it through people.

At any rate, I will continue to wait and hope that EA will fix these issues and I will continue not complaining because there is more to life than just a silly little game. I will continue playing it on my phone and be happy that I even have that luxury. How happy you ask? This happy…

sims freeplay shirt

Post to Google+ from Facebook Mobile

google plus

Google+ has been available for quite some time now and I finally figured out how to share to it from Facebook. I have searched high and low for apps or websites that allow you to post to Facebook, Twitter and Google+ all in one app or website. I finally found it from within the Facebook mobile app itself. Although, it’s not an automatic sharing option, but it will allow you to share pictures easily.

This is a picture of my dog Flower. I wanted to share it on Google+ so all I did was click the 3 little dots and click Share, then a little window pops up and I click Google+ and viola, it allows me to share it. You can also email it, tweet it, share it on Facebook, put the image in your Google Drive… however you want to share it.

Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-02-12Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-02-24 Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-03-15

The same works for websites, all you do is click the 3 dots at the top right of the Google Chrome browser, assuming that is the browser you have installed, then click Share and choose Google+.

Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-43-01 Screenshot_2014-01-22-18-37-56

These screenshots were taken on my Nook HD+, but this option is also available on my Android phone as well. If you are using a computer, this isn’t going to help you very much, but if you are using an Android based tablet or phone, this works for you. I don’t know if this works with the iPhone because I don’t have an iPhone, so if it does work for you then let me know in the comments.

I can’t see how this will work with plain old status updates. The share button for status updates will only allow you to share it in your Facebook timeline or page. For that you will just have to select your text (tap and hold until the text is selected, then drag the bars to select all the text you want), copy it and then go to Google+ to create a post and paste the text.

Perhaps the day will come when your Facebook status updates will automatically get posted to Google+ just as they get tweeted automatically, but until then, this is your best option that I can think of that won’t cost you any money.

I hope this helps.

I Lost 63lbs with Noom for Android

weight_chart_full

Well I finally did it, I lost 63lbs with Noom for Android.  My original estimated end date was August 10th, 2013, and here I am on May 31st at my goal weight of 200.0lbs more than 2 months early.

See my weight chart?  That’s all loss, no gain, not even a plateau.  I have lost weight every week since I started on January 5th, 2013.  I honestly didn’t think I would make it by my birthday because I wasn’t exercising, but the last 2 days I decided to take walks and today I weighed in the day before my actual weigh in day and I was at exactly 200.0lbs.  I was shocked.  I mean, it could have been 200.2 or 199.8, but it was 200.0 exactly.

So now that I have lost 63lbs with Noom, I plan on continuing my weight loss journey until I have lost all of the fat.  I extended my plan so I will lose 30 more pounds which will bring my total weight loss to 93lbs.  My new estimated end date is November 23, 2013, but the graph says September 13, 2013.  Somehow in my mind I knew it would be September.

If I am going to meet this new goal, I am going to have to step it up and start exercising more.  I will have to either get my bike fixed, which I don’t want to do, I’d rather get a new bike, or start walking.  I hate walking because of the back pain I get, but it’s free so if I can’t get my bike fixed or get a new one, then walking is all I have.

If someone told me in December when I bought my Android phone from Amazon for Virgin Mobile that I would end up losing 63lbs as a result of buying the phone, I would have told them they were out of their mind, but I did and I’m glad.  So thank you Noom for making it possible for me to lose this weight.  I honestly don’t think I could have done it without the app.  I’ve tried using SparkPeople in the past, but their website is too slow on my computer and Noom is not only faster, but easier to use.

So if I could recommend a weight loss tool for anyone, it would definitely be Noom.  I mean, it took 21 weeks for me to lose 63lbs.  If I could do it, I know anyone can do it.

Here’s to another 30lbs!  Oh and Happy Birthday to me lol.  This is a wonderful birthday present I could have given to myself.

To keep up with my weight loss, visit my Noom page with weekly updates.

Anti-gay Android Game

I have been playing video games since I was 10 or 12 years old. Video games usually consist of you playing a character who is on a mission to kill something to win the game. Not all games want you to kill something, for example The Sims or SimCity. Some games have a different outcome or objective other than killing.

I used to play adventure games from Sierra and those were games where you have to look for clues like a detective. Like the King’s Quest collection, Leisure Suit Larry and Quest for Glory for example.

I’m currently into MMORPG games like EverQuest, EverQuest 2 and Lord of the Rings Online. Although those games are the type that you have to kill something to gain experience points to gain levels. It’s not always a person, sometimes it’s a monster. A monster is one thing because you know that it is something that will kill you if you don’t kill it first. Like take a dragon for example, that is something that you obviously have to kill before it kills you, right? And that’s perfectly fine.

The thing that I have the issue with tonight, and I don’t think I’m overreacting, is that I found a game in the Google Android Market that aims at killing gay people. This game is called gay hunter. In their description they say “it could be a bit controversial too.” Ya think?

gay hunter 1

Description

Your the Ass Hunter, with shot gun in hand you hunt before you get hunted!
This game is just friggin’ hilarious! But it could be a bit controversial too. Don’t get assed yourself while hunting them!

Kill the naked ass pirates before they sodomize you! Don’t forget to find more ammo, and reload.
It’s worse than death to be caught by an Ass, so watch out hunter.

Hunt asses, and don’t get assed yourself.
Watch your Ass and enjoy!

I honestly don’t understand what goes through people’s minds when they decide to create a video game with the intention of killing a gay person who has done nothing wrong to deserve this punishment. A dragon is a harmful creature, a gay person just wants to live a normal life like everybody else. Why can’t they just give us that?

It’s a free country, so you can build your little anti-gay game if you want to, but I’m going to be who I am and I’m not going to let anyone dictate how I should live my life because it’s mine to live. I was born this way and I am happy that I was because it taught me to have more compassion for other people and I feel I am a better person for it. Whoever created this game has no morals and their karma is going to suffer for it, and that is my silver lining.

Awesome Update: I have a plugin that lets me know where there are dead links and I just found out that the link for this app is dead, so I went to Google Play and the app is GONE!  YAY!