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Monday, April 9, 2012

UOP CKI EOTY Banquet: Hagoo?

There were three icebreaker minigames during the end of year banquet at UOP - one being ipod wars, two being Hagoo, and the third being a drawing contest. (What is hagoo? Look it up on Google. Or on Urban dictionary...)

Minigame: Hagoo: Form two teams of people and get a person from each team. Walk over from one end to the other after saying 'Hagoo', staring at the person at the other end, and don't smile. Some people may find it easy, others, difficult.

I was surprised that Davis arrived due to a previous conversation from a friend there that there was an event over there the same day that would prevent Davis from attending, but still happy to see those that came.

Post-Event: Links released as part of images over to blog commentary prove rather ineffective. Also, it appears that it's better to focus posts that were intended for CKI members towards a more general audience, so I'll go ahead and make all the changes as mentioned in my closing statement.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Solitaire Blitz + Tips


Video Replay of this.

Solitaire Blitz is a timed card game that tends to play more like Golf than Solitaire, but you get three decks to play cards with and the game tends to progress very quickly especially with the ability to use powers (which require silver, which is obtained by collecting treasures at the end of the game).

Tips:

  • Extra time might be helpful, but you are confident you can finish your game before the timer runs out, you should switch your power with another one if you don't need the extra 30 seconds because it doesn't count towards your time bonus at the end (if you full clear). The time bonus is 1200 points per second by the way.
  • Try to focus on unlocking the draw piles as soon as possible to create more opportunities to create longer runs.
  • Try not to make any illegal moves - it both resets your combo and deprives you of an accuracy bonus (10k points) after winning the game.
  • Focus priority on stacks with more cards - if you even out the piles you most likely won't be stuck with a single pile left which limits your options (and you will most likely lose).
  • If you're going for a high combo, try to avoid situations like 3-of-a-kind (which awards 3000 points) - you'll most likely have to flip new cards from the deck, ending your combo. Royal family (5000 points) is a bit better.
  • Additional jokers are extremely helpful for making large combos, this should be the last thing you play if you're out of valid moves.
  • Use starfish, mine, or depth charge if you can't make any more moves. They can safely send cards over to the decks and open more moves without breaking your combo.
  • The mine doesn't destroy cards but sends cards to the piles instead which might mean more matches. The same goes for depth charge.
  • Although Mine is generally used to clear a row of cards at anytime, they are extremely effective when used when you have one card left, and especially when you have a high combo. It added 100K+ to my score as seen above.
  • Although full clears are partially based on luck and more on how you play your cards, you will need a lot of luck to get 50-60 card runs. This luck is generally improved by way of powers.

Additional Stuff:

Treasure Loot List (as of April 9, 2012, missing a few rare loot entries)

Solitaire Blitz Gifting Guide

This will probably be one of the useless-useful guides I will write up, however I think this is kind of important to send/silver quickly without having to play lots of games for small amounts of silver (and by that, an average of 1500 per game if you play enough times)

TIP: MASS SEND SILVER COB to friends. (or Pearl), at 300 silver per gift. The rest is trash (or less than maximum), as essentially sending the following items to them gives your friends the following silver:

(Updated with gifts that were sendable as of July 8)

Scallop: 20
Sand Dollar: 25
Fish Eggs: 25
Snorkel: 150
Mussel: 25
Sea Glass: 25
Bottle of Rum: 300
Shark Jaw: 200
Crab: 150
Conch Shell: 40
Starfish: 200
Crab (purple): 200
Feather: 30
Pearl: 300
Spear Tip: 250
Lost Letter: 200
Compass: 250
Wooden Buckler: 250
Sea Cucumber: 250
Coffee Beans: 300
Horseshoe: 200
Cannonball: 250

Like Zuma Blitz, you can still use the fortune cookie method of sending players multiple gifts. The amount of gifts that players need to play a full power game here are around the same as a player who uses full powers+beetles per game on ZB (which is 35 of them).

Friday, April 6, 2012

Scoring in Diamond Dash

The scoring for the game Diamond Dash appears to be very simple unlike the more complex scoring mechanics covered in Zuma Blitz. They are as follows:

  • 3 or 4 matches: 100 points per block destroyed.
  • 5+ matches: 200 points per block destroyed.
  • (blazing speed) 400 points per block destroyed, if you make a match adjacent blocks are also removed.
  • Diamond: removes blocks from the column it was in and the bottom row, 800 points per block removed.
  • Bomb Powerup: 600 points per block destroyed, removes adjacent blocks as well (2 if blazing speed)

Essentially: Unlike other blitz games, where they are mainly based on skill (Zuma Blitz being Gap Shots, Solitaire Blitz being ways to get a high combo, and Bejeweled Blitz ways to get Lightning Powerups), this game favors fast people who are also accurate as well, as score is based on how fast you can click on groups of blocks.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Creative CKI Event Titles

On the other hand I tend to excel in a bit of creativity in the form of personal titles for CKI events that I've attended (or haven't). Many friends from Circle K might or might not know these alternative titles, so feel free to look. These are the titles that I would normally place on my blog when documenting events.

I like referencing stuff, but some people don't get it, so I've provided links as reference hints.

Note as years go by, titles start becoming less direct and more interesting.

Official Event Name Alternative (blog) Name
Safe Trick or Treat 2009More Volunteer Work
Laser Tag (Feb 2010)Laser Taggeded
Pixie WoodsPixie Platformer
Asparagus FestivalOne Day at the Asparagus Festival
UOP EOY Banquet (April 2010)From Just Khin to Kelly
STC 2010 (May 2010STC and Davis
Sushi Buffet (May 2010)Five Down
Fall 2010 CKI TablingTabling IRL (preceded by a sketch)
UOP CKI First Meeting (Sept 2010)CKI's Intro Meeting
Greek Festival (August 2010)in the long run
KFH Bricklaying (Sept 2010)Window Washer's Dream
Dixon Corn Maze (Oct 2010)A Mazed
Ihop, Davis (Oct 2010)Meanwhile in Davis
Mtg: Sac State / UOP (Oct 2010)Charades, Anyone?
UOP CKI T-ShirtsUOP CKI T-Shirts (before t-shirts out)
L&L FundraiserEvent Planning, Pt 3
UOP CKI Last Meeting (Dec 2010)We Sing, We Dance, We Draw Cards
Campus Day of ServiceCleanup on the Bike Path
DLSSP 2011Ascension
DCON 2011DCON's Champions*
Sac State + Sushi HookHooked on Sushi*
UOP EOY Banquet 2011Improv in the Banquet
Oz Korean BBQAt the Oz Korean BBQ Resturant
STC 2011STC Revisited
Vic's Ice CreamFirst Hangout of the Summer: Ice Cream Social
July DCMOne Day in Tahoe
August DCM (Emigrant Gap)Jumping off of Cliff Edges*
Sac State InterclubbingService in the Soup Kitchen
Ice Cream SocialIce Cream (Leatherby Style)
Garrett's HouseI Can Has Camera?
Social at SacramentoThe American River Trail
DSSS 2011On the Caravan
DSSS Day 2The Great Mall Hunt
DSSS Day 3Moar Cards N Stuff
DSSS Day 4Service over the Years
DSSS Day 5Welcome to Paradise Division
Greek Festival 2011already here
UOP CKI First Meeting (Sept 2011)Intercapital Interclubbing
California Coastal CleanupBike Path, Second Playthrough
UOP Book FaireBook Selling Floor
September DCM*Capital's DCM
UC Davis First MeetingLegend of Davis
Dixon Corn Maze 2011Corn Fields and Zombies
UOP MeetingSingin' the Poncho
Crazy Komp 2011Kompetitive Games
UOP Family CompetitionBlack Curtain of Mystery
Fiona's Gee DanceNo Gavel Gee Dance
Habitat for Humanity (2011)Tunneling Trenches
LHS Snackbar VolunteerIn The Snackbar Now
FTC 2011 Day 1Winter Came Early
FTC 2011 Day 2Penny Madness
Sierra Social (Nov 2011)Sierra Roller Games
November DCMPiper Opera
November DCMFire and Ice DCM
(referencing both wildfires and snowstorms that day)
UOP New Member Banquet 2011Cup Flippin Competitions
At Denny'sDenny's Storytime
Go West*Kiwanis Float Engineering
Winter RosebowlRosebowl Parade
January Intro*Badass Triana
January DCM24: The Interclub at Davis
Palak's Kiwanis Crab FeedCrabfeed and Nom Noms
Key2CollegeKey2College Audience of One, DCM
Key2CollegeDCM, Looking Forward
Laser TagDavis Crew
St. Mary's InterfaithSoup Servers
Car SmashPacific Car Smash
Campus Day of Service*Bike Path 2.5
DLSSP 2012 (Leonne)DLSSP In Stereo
MESA WorkAre You Smarter than a 6th Grader?
March DCM in FresnoCapi-Coast Capture the Flag
DCON TeaserN-Cubed
DCON: Service Legacy (2012)DCON Evolved
Nam + Boris WorkshopBro-nam-ced
Talent Show + DanceEnd of Line, End of CKI
April UOP MeetingCapitalFnMcrew
Davis Spring Mtg/Bowling Social (hidden event)Striked First
Pixie Woods Cleanup*Revisiting the Fairytale
UOP End of Year Banquet 2012Hagoo?
Sac State End of Year Banquet 2012Pinning and Pieing
Alex's HouseBlokus Mindgames
ZooZoomZoorunner
Capital Banquet 2012Epilogue: The Capital Banquet

Sunday, April 1, 2012

CapitalFnMCrew

Capital Film and Media Crew: After hearing about the recent successes and productions from the UNLV Film and Media Crew (like an Asian Drama), a new team was assembled in order to compete with the Desert Oasis school. By request of the new LTG, Fiona Cheng, filming and production started as early as this.

If you want something good, it's best to start early. I should probably allocate more time to presentations... it's costing me quailty points on my grad work.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

End of Line, End of CKI

Closing thoughts about being both a Historian at CKI and as an active member.

DCON - it was amazing entirely, but unfortunately the year's over, and it's time for me to retire my position as Historian as well as my an active role at Circle K within a month after this post (the last two events being the End of Year Banquets). Given the fact that I am currently a senior and planning a co-op this point forward, it's time to step down.