Lucky Gem Casino Levels (and other tips)

Peggle Slots = large jackpot payouts, this is 1/3 of the maximum possible payout.

Below is a list of levels for Lucky Gem Casino. (Up to what level I'm currently at)

Probably one of the games where the rate which you level is purely based on luck - from video slots. Only you're using virtual money. And there is really no point in hoarding your (virtual) cash anyways, since you'll need to use them anyways to reach the top of the leaderboard. Also needed to raise your level, which gives you more money when you get your free coins per four hours (one for happy hour.)

Notes + Tips:

• There are 40 different ranks that you can achieve in this game, over 300 levels.
• XP ratio is one coin spent -> 100 XP.
• Featured Games gives double XP (and in some cases, even more)
• Happy Hour is typically on Wednesdays, all day, and you can collect your bonus each hour. You should also check their app page for some bonus coins as well.
• Higher levels = more coins per payout interval. Also, it increases your betting limit.
• It is better to save up multiple coin bonuses and playing a higher bet on a slot machine than using it all up the minute you get the coins. The XP gain rate is the same whether or not you play .25 per line, or 5, or 10. The latter however allows for biggger payouts, which you can then use to level up quicker.

Board Recommendations + Tips

• Monopoly Party: Bonus round place at least one house on each property. That way you get the most of guaranteed wins before the bonus game ends. (Having a get out of jail card doesn't help much - you'll probably end up in jail after around two more rolls, the first landing on Free Parking.) You'll need to bet max quite often in order to raise the bonus round multiplier to an acceptable multiplier.
  • Another small note: The dice are indeed loaded since you can be very sure a six won't come up at all on any die during the bonus round.
• Battleship Command. Always max bet, since it's the only way you'll get the full jackpot if you do sink a ship in the bonus round. (This is a rare occurrence, even if you do happen to get 4 gunners in the bonus round you can still end up not sinking a ship.)
• Peggle. Extremely high paying Bonus Rounds (and Peggle bonuses, when they happen). This is offset by the huge number of spins required to get this. Renfield is recommended imo b/c wilds remain on screen after each spin, and enough of them (especially four in a row) guarantees large payouts per spin.
• Big Money High Roller - exactly the same as Big Money with double the max coin bet. Equity bonuses seem to appear more often here than Big Money slots.
• Bejeweled Blitz Cascade - use the boosts whenever possible with max bet. They recharge every 15 minutes, can increase your payout / chances of a bonus round, and does not use up any coins when a spin is made with a boost (although you will get no xp for those spins). This recommendation no longer applies as of Sept 2012 as its boosts are extremely expensive, you get no XP, and you'll most likely lose in the long run.

Level Table

(Stopped playing at lvl 100)

Lv  Rank                   XP         Reward  Coin Bonus* (4hr)
1   Beginner Spinner       0          0       200
2   Beginner Spinner       20000      25      200
3   Coin Scrubber          100K       50      200
4   Coin Scrubber          250K       75      300
5   Coin Scrubber          500K       100     400
6   Big Fish               850K       125     400
7   Big Fish               1300K      150     400
8   Big Fish               2000K      175     500
9   Arcade Apprentice      3000K      200     500
10  Arcade Apprentice      4300K      225     500
11  Arcade Apprentice      6000K      250     650   
12  Plucky & Lucky         8200K      275     650
13  Plucky & Lucky         11M        300     1000
14  Rising Star            14.4M      325     1000  
15  Rising Star            18.4M      350     1000
16  Rising Star            23M        375     1000
17  Bandit Buster          28.2M      400     1000
18                         34M        425     1000
19                         40.5M      450     1250
20  Slot Prodigy           47.5M      475     1250
21                         55M        500     1250
22                         63.2M      525     1500
23                         72.5M      550     1500
24  Spin Sensation         83M        575     1500
25                         95M        600     2000
26                         109M       625     2000
27                         125M       650     2000
28  Arcade Ace             143M       675     2000
29                         163M       700     2000
30                         185M       725     2000 
31                         209M       750     2000
32  High Roller            236M       775     2500
33                         266M       800     2500 
34                         299M       825     2500
35                         335M       850     2500
36  Wild One               374M       875     2500
37                         416M       900     3000
38                         461M       925     3000
39                         509M       950     3000
40  Reel Genius            560M       975     3000
41                         614M       1000    4000
42                         672M       1025    4000
43                         734M       1050    4000
44  Class Act              800M       1075    4000
45                         870M       1100    4000
46                         944M       1125    4000
47                         1022M      1150    4000  
48  Big Cheese             1104M      1175    4000
49                         1190M      1200    4000 
50                         1280M      1225    4000
51                         1374M      1250    4000
52  Virtuoso               1474M      1275    4000
53                         1582M      1300    4000
54                         1692M      1325    5000
55                         1810M      1350    5000
56                         1934M      1375    5000
57                         2067M      1400    5000
58  Hot Shot               2200M      1425    5000
59                         2342M      1450    5000
60                         2490M      1475    5000
61                         2645M      1500    5000
62  The Hammer             2806M      1525    5500
63                         2976M      1550    5500
64                         3154M      1575    5500
65                         3340M      1600    5500
66                         3536M      1625    5500
67                         3739M      1650    5500
68  Spin Supremo           3948M      1675    6250
69                         4164M      1700    6250
70                         4392M      1725    6250
71                         4625M      1750    6250
72  Bonus Baby             4868M      1775    6250
73                         5123M      1800    6250
74                         5386M      1825    6250
75                         5660M      1850    6250
76                         5944M      1875    6250
77  Action Jackson         6238M      1900    6250
78                         6542M      1925    6250
79                         6856M      1950    7500
80                         7180M      1975    7500
81                         7514M      2000    7500
82  Jackpot Jumper         7862M      2025    7500
83                         8219M      1636    7500
84                         8590M      1735    7500
85                         8968M      2100    7500
86                         9366M      2125    7500
87  The Magician           9771M      2150    7500
88                         10190M     2175    7500
89                         10622M     2200    7500
90                         11061M     2225    7500
91                         11520M     2250    8750
92                         11988M     2275    8750
93  Slot Wizard            12468M     2300    8750
94                         12965M     2325    8750
95                         13476M     2350    8750
96                         13996M     2375    8750
97                         14534M     2400    8750
98                         15084M     2425    8750
99  Super Hero             15653M     2450    8750
100                        16230M     2475    8750

Tetris Stars Ranks

Could use a few aesthetic improvements. Note that the game will no longer be available on August 31, 2012, and you can only get 16 stars most a game (12-13 average for good players), so good luck on ranking up as far as possible before the game ends.

Level	Rank	Stars Required (Total)
1	Spark	0
2	Twinkle	15
3	Asteroid	40
4	Firefly	75
5	Meteor	125
6	Moon	180
7	Moonbeam	250
8	Gamma Ray	325
9	Planet	425
10	Hotspot	540
11	Flare	660
12	Corona	790
13	Cosmic Ray	930
14	Planetar	1080
15	Protostar	1235
16	Tetris Star	1400
17	White Dwarf	1600
18	Subgiant	1850
19	Bright Giant	2125
20	Super Giant	2400
21	Pulsar	2700
22	Quasar	3100
23	Nova	3600
24	Supernova	4200
25	Neutron Star	4900
26	Nebula	5700
27	Star Cluster	6600
28	Galaxy	7800
29	Graduate	9500
30	Crewman	12000
31	Apprentice	13000
32	Digger	14000
33	Technician	15000
34	Engineer	16000
35	Designer	17000
36	Architect	18000
37	Co-Pilot	19000
38	Pilot	20000
39	Artisan	21000
40	Rocketeer	22000
41	Flight Leader	23000
42	Lieutenant	24000
43	Commander	25000
44	Captain	26000
45	Admiral	27000

TILT Arcade Machines

If you can't get the prizes... buy it. Not the prizes, the machine itself. jk.*

Not sure if they're going out of business... or they just want to make some quick cash.* Other than that, this place (TILT) at Tracy seems to have a lot of games purely based on skill rather than luck (as there are RNGs in most ticket games to determine whether it's a jackpot or near miss).

It's been a while since I've been to any places which dispensed tickets (John's, Boomer's, etc.). I've instead introduced myself to actual slots less than a month ago. I've found something in common: They both print vouchers in order to redeem them for something.

This Machine: Woah. 5 cent machines? That's new. (You still need to insert at least a quarter, but it's five plays there)

Chinese Cultural Camp: Second Year

The return of Stockton Chinese Cultural Camp - this being the second year they have done this. This image? Dennis, Bryan, and Jana doing the lion dance.

Location: Stockton Confucius Church
Duration: 1 Week (June 25-29) 8:30am-12:30pm
Cost: $75
Brief Summary: Learn about the Chinese Culture and engage in a variety of activities, ranging from using chop sticks / abacuses to learning Chinese yoyo / jump rope as well as calligraphy/brush painting, crafts/clay modeling, and folk/lion dancing.

Although it's intended for grades 1-6, who get 'camper' status (red t-shirt), anyone who wants to volunteer can consider for next year - you'll get a free camp t-shirt for helping out.

Final Performance: Friday, June 29, 2012 at 11:30am - open to the public. This video gives a summary of events there if you missed it.

Anything Else: Offical Site

Capital Division, Perler Bead Version (Final Version)

I've been in CKI for three years, and was planning to attend events for a bit of the summer, but my physical presence was cut short when rides to events were not available in my area. I had other things in mind, and the logo is one of them. This... is Capital Division.

Brief History: The original post regarding creating the CKI Logo can be found in this post.

After reaching week two with twelve plates (29x29 pegboards), I realized that when trying to create the top part of the circle, the circle itself wasn't entirely symmetrical, so the entire logo had to be redesigned with the circle being the first thing made into a 4x4 grid size, and the flag/C made last.

I also noticed that I can't build the entire logo on my desk - I ran out of space. That means moving it to another table for better lighting. But wait! There was a 3000 piece puzzle in the way (as well as ten others underneath it) so the most logical thing to do was to finish it up, and complete a goal at the same time. The project was moved and continued from there (albeit destroying most of it to compensate for downsizing the design.) Many of the materials were bought 'as needed' as it was hard to obtain all the perler bead materials at the same time (there were at most two 4 grid packs available per week, and three 1000 bead packs for a single color).

The final logo designed was completed by the third week in June. It was well received and jaw dropping at the same time.

Build Order: On the new build, the original capital division logo was resized, and edited to make the circle symmetrical. The red 'K' was built first, as well as outlines for both the capital building and the blue stripe. It is not an exact replica of the printout - some of the shades and lettering were improvised as there were no colors available for half shades, and some areas were redesigned altogether if I didn't think it looked right from a distance.

Next Steps: Several more (large scale) Perler bead projects exist in my queue:

• Zuma Blitz Gratuitous (golden) beetle.
• MCHS modern Dragon logo
• Sac State Squirrel (2011-2012, colored)
• UOP Logo
• 'Important' CKI people.

Additionally, there will be posts regarding Zombie Playground concept art (with my interpretation of how the game might look) - my cousin Jason Chan designed most of the art design for the game, and I would like to play a role in shaping it.

Stats:

• Bead Consumption: Approximately 12,000 beads.
• Cost: $72 over six weeks, with the majority of the materials bought at Joann's Fabrics. Tip: Each Sunday there's usually a coupon that discounts one item by 40%, and in some weeks, coupons are available that discount your entire order by a small amount. Take advantage of these.
• Likes: 22 (new record for non-group images)

On The Rocks: Lake Tahoe Hiking

Facing one of the largest obstacles in the history of my life in the form of hiking - Maggies Peak in Lake Tahoe, CA. Facing at least four miles and five hours to hike up this mountain in Tahoe, as well as climbing on the rocks in order to reach the top, the grand view is definitly worth it as the longest hike I've completed so far.

The goal was originally intended to be completed with Julie Ton last summer, but money issues delayed this indefinitely. I was given an opportunity to hike last month when one of my cousins were planning a hike at Tahoe in June, and took it.

Meanwhile at CKI: They have their June DCM at King's Beach in Lake Tahoe. They're way up north. And we're in the south.

Trails: Eagle Falls, Bayview

Hike Difficulty: Advanced Beginner. I've been informed that it wasn't too bad, with gradual slopes throughout the trail. My experience on this hike, however, says otherwise. There were some misleading paths and a LOT of rock steps to climb up on.

Recommended Equipment: Mosquito repellent, some water (at least 2 Liters), and some food.

Tips: Train yourself before going on this - there's around 5-6 miles that you'll have to go through, going up and down 2000 feet.

Goal Completed: #79. Go hiking somewhere with someone else. (Goal done at Lake Tahoe, with 8 others.)

3000 Pieces, 1 Month

A 3000 piece puzzle assembled within one month of buying it. That is all.

#95E. Finish at least a 3000 piece puzzle. (Goal Completed)

There were a few hitches initially - one including that the size of the puzzle is larger than the table it was built on - good thing the felt surface of the puzzle saver had enough traction to hold the pieces down, else pieces would've fallen off the sides.

This will probably be the one and only one time I build a puzzle of this size.

Keep Note: Do not attempt to store the puzzle in its rolled up form for an extended period of time - you are very likely to lose your progress upon unrolling it if it's not fully inflated and/or pieces don't interlock very well.