Spring Break

It's finally here for me. In addition to a few projects to finish up, I've completed a lot of goals since the last update: (It's been a long time since I've done a post regarding Day Zero Project goals. Those pages will be updated soon)

Classic Day Zero Project

• 26. Fully play out a game of Civilization IV. (Completed)
• 48. Create a distinct HDR image using an SLR Camera. (Completed)
• 49. Learn PHP
• 56. Watch all the episodes of South Park [update: 9 seasons completed]

Day 1001 Project

• 6. Acqure a ooVoo / Skype account OR successfully get into a video conference. (Completed by suggestion by friend)
• 15. Reach 400 total friends on any site that counts friends. (Increased by 50)
• 46. Create a Vector Art picture or diagram. (Completed, not the best imo)
• 78. Watch a movie in the Pacific Theatre (Completed - Watched Iron Man 2)
• 80. Get a HDTV (Completed. Watching shows in HD never looked better.)
• 83. Successfully host an event. (does LNL count as one? I think so.)
• 96. Reach max level in two FB games and then quit playing them. (Completed - Pirate Clan stopped after reaching a set level of 1000, and Social City after reaching lvl 44, last unlock).
• 100. Ask 50 Formspring Questions. (up to 25) It's unfortunate that all of my friends (and most who are friends of friends) have stopped using it. I managed to get my # of questions asked to 25 though, which the 25th one was marked with a smile. Time to search elsewhere...

Spiral Orbits

This week's board is called Orbits, which some people have said is just as hard as last week to gain a lot of points, despite the fact the devs are expecting some higher scores.

I've gotten 3.2 million so far, but I ran out of mojo and need to refill. I do know that 4+ million is possible on this board though (maybe 5m). Thankfully I've got an entire week to do this. (Also, thought of a powerup idea in mind that might solve mojo problems for high level people and take the place of a daily bonus)

TIP: You might want to wait a bit if you're going for mass gapshots. To save some mojo, epic fruit may be removed as a powerup.

Tip 2: Towards the end of the week, they added new potions, and raised the multiplier for mojo gains to 3x. They did double the idol price of 24-hr potions, so make them count. (Use this if you are a slow player and can play more than 40 games in that day.)

The 7 Story Egg Drop

MESA Egg Drop at Burns Tower. Things look a lot different from the 7th floor (where they were dropped).

Context: You need to build some sort of enclosure that houses 12 eggs and can be dropped from around 100 feet with minimal damage to the eggs. The box needs to be under 10 inches in diameter.

Color The Sky

The skyline today looks like that someone just took the clouds and used the smudge tool on it.

Detailed Point Stats

This might be slightly boasting / ranting about how many recordings I do for Zuma Blitz and my high scores, but... I wanted to do this for a long time.

So I've decided to figure out my average score of the board (in this case, this week's board) in 13 games on level 73 with just Tempus Fugit / Multiplier powerups. Ended up with a 2.7 million high score, which is quite nice.

(Note the graph on the bottom - green bars indicate points gained from the extended time gained from time balls.)

IMO the game needs to have a graph like this one for the game they were playing. I realize why the developers haven't implemented this graph feature like they did in Bejewled Blitz: the amount of time in a game varies b/c of the time balls and the resulting graph might end up a bit squished at 250px, but it might be possible with a horizontal scrollbar with the table tab up on the top left of the results screen.

Fun Fact: Tempus fugit = time flies in Latin. And a single 13-game recording eats up a DVD's worth of memory on the computer.

That One Gap Shot Board

After having a tough time on the valentine's theme board (and almost getting 3 million... on level 70*) I attempt for higher scores on a new unique board that they displayed.

This board is choke-full of gap shot opportunities, though there are mixed reviews on this board*. Perhaps I should've moved my double gap challenge to this board, where you actually have a good chance of doing it. The games site games.com promoted my post on that, if you were wondering.

TIP: Go for gap shots. triple gapshots are actually possible for the first time, and they're starting to throw in a few unique boards as well. Curve clears are also a viable option; due to the nature of the board, hot frog is a viable strategy as you can repeatedly curve clear a side (note the balls have to go pass the first curve after it's cleared before you can clear it again).

Also, it might be just me, but yellow balls tend to blend in with the ball path if you aren't looking directly at them...

Recommended Powerups: Epic Fruit, Tempus Fugit / Timelord, Multiplier. You may swap Epic Fruit with Sun Frog if you want curve clears.

Cleanup on the Bike Path

The annual cleanup of the bike path is today. This is the Pacific Campus Day of Service. Tasks range from painting over graffiti to picking up trash (there were a few surprises along the way).

Click image for larger version.