2019-03-27 21:16:26

Ohh, I would love to have a horse, and goats, and all the animals!
I think that's why I'm playing Animal Acres, it's the closest I can get to these animals for now.
Great book recommendations, everyone!

2019-03-28 05:33:58

Mirage wrote:

Ohh, I would love to have a horse, and goats, and all the animals!

Haha, made me laugh. It's like saying I'd like to eat a pizza, a slice of cake and all the food on this planet.

As for me, I'm leaving Quebec on Sunday. Spent the whole day trying to convert canadian dolalrs to american dollars without losing too much. I decided to do that a bit late as I realize now because it will take 5 business days to do the transfer and that was just a test to see that everything works fine so there's another 5 days after that. I'll try to get a credit card when I get there. Worst case, I'm make myself a check which would give me a terrible conversion rate, but it's better than having no money in another country.

I'm sad to leave my family and friends here, but I'm also excited to work full-time for MS. I don't like everything they do and I'm always the first to call out when something doesn't work, but I like the company values, the way they treat their employees and I sure do love some of their products.

Starting from next Monday, I'll have one week to hunt for housing. A bit short but hey, I can make it. If I don't, I'll sleep in my offfice without people noticing it tongue.

Also looking forward to April's Fool day, probably one of the day I enjoy most in the year. Nobody is more on their guards than that day, it's fun to see people actually not believe everything they read. There is always funny and cool news, plus a French youtuber makes a big maze every year giving clues where you have to find a secret video and it gets harder every year.

I had a lot of fun with reaper recently. I made a 4 bar song with my montage and reaper. I love to mix and master, more than compose and play the tracks.

That's it for now, cheers!

Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another. ― Lemony Snicket

2019-03-29 10:08:59

@Simba, that is odd, since I did think there were audiobooks of at least some of the valdemar series available.
The first trilogy has its issues (check my aforementioned reviews), but they get better as they go along, and the companions are pretty cool, especially when  start treating them like horses.

though it isn't exactly horse orientated, you should also check out the farseer books by Robbin Hobb, since magic to communicate with animals and form a bond with them plays a massive part in the world, and one of the main characters is the castle stable master.
Beware, these are pretty grim, and where Mercedes lackey's stuff tends to be on the fluffier side, Hobb goes almost too far the other way, actually in her own way she tends to be as much as a sadist as George R R Martin where her characters are concerned, just when you think something is going to go well bang!

I can say though the magic with animals is wonderfully described, Night eyes, the main character's bonded wolf is a major character, and there are lots of other animals throughout the series.
The third trilogy also  probably the most memorable crow in literature big_smile.

The acting workshop was fun, I've got a vocal studdies weekend coming in a couple of weeks so I had a singing lesson and was preparing music. my voice is not doing well at the moment, since its damnably difficult to actually motivate  yourself to practice when your just not getting any chances to actually perform, but I am having a go at fagin's song, Reviewing the situation from Oliver, which should be fun, as well as a glorigous balad, a bit of earth from the secret garden (a sadly under appreciated musical).

I don't know about animal care games myself, a lot of the ones I've seen tend  reduce your animal to a set of stats, where as I'd prefer a game hwich actually gave your animals a degree of personality.
This wouldn't be difficult in itself, just give people a few choices on different activities and have animals stats  in a bit more complex way, EG if you choose the wrong brush when grooming a horse the horses  dissatisfaction increases, however if you then praise the horse, the level of the horses dissatisfaction with said new brush might grow less, or it might not and you could have to switch to something else.

Thus far though all of the animal care games I've seen have been a strictly incremental increase level that basically just require the player to repeat actions and minimax, rather than to adapt to changing  and your animal's quirks as would be more required in reality.

Damn! sometimes I almost think I should teach myself programming just to have a bash at making these sorts of things big_smile.

#Speaking of incremental games though, trimps is still a lot of fun, indeed its a bit too addictive since I do need to get some writing done today as well as phone the annoying solicitors who will hopefully help with my lady's visa.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-03-29 10:36:37

Hi.
@Dark, wow thanks for those suggestions, just what the weekend needed. I really would recommend you start reading the Warringham cronicles by Rebecka Gable if you are a fan of historic books, they aar written very well, at leased in my casual readers mind.
Another fantasy series which I am reading currently is Rangers apprentice By John Flanagan, the first book i think is called the ruins of orlan, at leased I would think so translated from the German title of the books.
The main protagonist is a 14 year old boy who gets chosen by one of the most powerfull rangers to be his apprentice. With a war brewing in the distance, the pace doesn't pick up really fast, but I really like the writing style and the flow of the storie. It is not to bloody, not to staile, personally I  am having a good read, maybe a storie series which you might find interesting.
Another one, even though i am not sure on if you would like these books is the Daimon Books by Daniel Suarez, there are two books in the series, one beeing Daimon and the other one beeing Darknet.
They are pritty good cyber thrillers mixed with espionage, thriller, splatter and a whole lot of technical stuff. It also give a very interesting take on what virtual reality could mean for the world, i would also suggest you check that one out and maybe give it a go.
The rangers apprentice books due also have audiobooks available.
Apart from Fantasy books I have been reading books by Dick Francis who writes crime stories in the fields where he is active in, mainly horse riding, aviation, science and all that good stuff.

hope you might find some of the suggestions for books helpfull.
The Waldermar and Farseer books really sound good.

Greetings Moritz.

Hail the unholy church of Satan, go share it's greatness.

2019-03-30 09:07:56

@Simba, interestingly enough Dick Francis is one of my lady's favourite writers, and though crime isn't a preferd genre of mine, we've read some of his together which I've enjoyed. I'll have to check out John Flanigan, I also do have one of Daniel Suarez's books though I've not read it yet.

What I read is usually partly dictated by what I have to review, and I usually tend to intersperse either short story collections or doctor who audio dramas while I'm writing reviews for the actual novels I've read (I don't tend to review short story collections because I'd have to effectively write a separate review for each story).
That's why at the moment I'm reading through a long collection of stories by Frederik Pohl, one of the most fun sf writers of the last century and someone whose books I've previously very much enjoyed.
Then of course I'm working on my own writing as well (at least when I  distract myself from leading my trimps).

And of course I have my own writing to do as well.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-03-30 21:24:30

Hi.@Dark, well, the pet breeding games you are talking about due actually exist, only in German though and that's the problem sadly. yes, everything is based on stats still, but the animals due have a personality to consider. Let's have a nutshell example here.

I am taking a game I am currently playing, Equine Passion, yeah, you guessed where this is going, right?
What initially brought me to the game is that it simulates real breeding conditions. You have, I think 12 or 13 genes which define your horses cullor, everything from simple brown, black and white is available, up to fancy things as silver, seal bays, silver, Grullos, dunes, Tobiano, Palomino, Overo and so on, if you know the right connection of genes and have some luck.
Then, a horses stats are based on it's interior and exterior statistics.
Interior factors are: situational awareness, inteligence, calmness, tempered, handling and carisma,
These determine a huge number of things. Tempered horses often cause lower competition ratings, very inteligent horses learn faster, a more aware horse will correct competition mistakes on it's own and so on and so forth.
Exterior factors: Head size, neck line, neck, back, front and hind legs.
This determines how well your horse is build, this is also important for breeding, breeding two horses with a to large head might result in a much to large head for the foal and cause issues with training.
Next to these things, a horses mood can change. When it's in a bad mood, it won't learn only half as fast, will make mistakes in competitions.
Also, a horse has a given birth potential, so a number how high it can reach in a competition class in a given disciplin, which you need to train, on the training page you see how far you progressed in training the sub disciplin and the max value it can reach.

the game has quite a few breeds to choose from, from Arabians, Clydesdales, icelandics, quarters, paints, and so on, every breeding organisation has their own rules how there horses can be bred, and I haven't started with the mixed breeds yet.
You see, largely complex, but dang awesome to play.

Greetings Moritz.

Hail the unholy church of Satan, go share it's greatness.