Read Today: Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

I finished reading this book today.

At the BookShelf

Treasure Island was the first major novel of Robert Louis Stevenson. It was first published in 1883 and has remained a much-loved book. First penned as a story for boys, it was as a young boy that I first came across Treasure Island. It was the first real book that I ever read – certainly of my own choice. If I remember correctly, the copy I had was a small book, not much bigger than my hand and illustrated throughout. The illustrations weren’t coloured as such, but I think I may have started to ‘colour them in’ as I read the story several times. The name of the ship, ‘Hispaniola,’ came back to me in one of my first compositions at school. In that early attempt at writing I wrote a story about piracy and a ship called the Hispaniola. I believe I was written into the story, along…

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Lagoonia

Today, after ending my 6 month break, I’m posting a link to a new game that I have come across called Lagoonia. Lagoonia is the new browser game from InnoGames. The game is set on a South Pacific Island following a plane crash. The player has control of up to 15 individuals in the game, with the focus being on survival and social interaction with other players. Various tasks are performed, such as building a fire, shelters and gathering food, etc.

Lagoonia is still in beta, so there are still bugs being sorted and it continues to be developed. There is an introductory video for the game, which follows, as well as a link to the game site.

http://en.lagoonia.com

Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) Browser Game: Travian

Travian is another Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) browser game. It is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game in which you are up against thousands of other players building online villages at various levels of development. The game is set in Roman Times and your objective is to quickly build a village and then participate in defensive/offensive strategy/battles. Of course there is a lot more detail to the game than that. This game is also similar to Land of Destiny and Tribal Wars, but again it is a different experience to them both.

I play all three of the games that I have mentioned in the last couple of days and enjoy them all. I think if you like one, you would like them all also. I’m sure, like me, that there would be one you prefer above the rest. For me it is Tribal Wars, followed by Land of Destiny, then Travian – but I do not want to make it sound as though Travian is a poor game. It is a great game also.

Play the Game at:
http://www.travian.com/

 

Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) Browser Game: Tribal Wars

Tribal Wars is a Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) browser game. It is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game in which you are up against thousands of other players building online villages at various levels of development. The game is set in the Middle Ages and your objective is to quickly build a village and then participate in defensive/offensive strategy/battles. Of course there is a lot more detail to the game than that.

The current online world started in early June 2011, so it’s early days yet. There are similarities to Land of Destiny (see yesterday’s post), however this is a different experience to that game. I play both, but I do prefer this one.

Play the Game at:
http://www.tribalwars.net/

 

Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) Browser Game: Land of Destiny

And I’m back (again – I know). For the next couple of days I’ll be posting links to various browser games that I’ve been indulging in (or perhaps, wasting time in). I’m not so much into the shoot-em up type games and/or the SciFi/Fantasy type games that are so popular these days. For some reason I’m not big on all of the Facebook games either – probably because my news feed is full of them (which I block by the way). Anyhow, there will be a few games that I have started to play a bit over the next couple of days.

Land of Destiny is a Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) browser game. It is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game in which you are up against thousands of other players building online villages at various levels of development. The game is set in Roman Times and your objective is to quickly build a village and then participate in defensive/offensive strategy/battles. Not only is it necessary to be aware of potential attackers, you also need to contend with the weather (the season changes on a weekly basis and each day the weather can be different). Of course there is a lot more detail to the game than that.

The current online world is coming to an end in early July 2011, so a fresh start is just around the corner. I am using the remaining time to learn the game and develop my strategies for the new gaming world when it arrives.

Play the Game at:
http://www.landofdestiny.com/

 

penzu

Some people like to keep a personal and private diary or journal. It may be for just jotting down thoughts that you want to remember for some reason, perhaps private reflections on daily happenings or whatever reason it may be. I have tried to keep a diary on a number of occasions – with varying degrees of success. I was never able to keep it up for great periods of time however.

I am trying to keep a journal again now. I use two online resources for doing so now. The first is penzu – which I really wanted to test out and see if it was any good and if it met my needs. Penzu is an application that is allows users to have their own personal and private diary or journal stored online (or in the ‘cloud,’ as they say these days). You are also able to share your entries with the world should you so wish – but they are private by default.

Penzu is free to sign up for and there is a permanent free version of the application. There is of course also a premium or paid for version which offers more options.

The free version also allows you to insert photos (including those stored at flickr). There is a very useful auto-save feature, which means you won’t loose your entries by forgetting to save them. Should you choose to share an entry with others, there is a comments feature for others to share their thoughts on your entry.

The ‘pro’ or ‘premium’ version has a lot more to offer. I don’t have the premium account, just the free one at this stage. Should you choose to upgrade you are of course able to do so. Should you wish to secure your entries to a greater degree than the free version, the premium version allows for that. The premium version also allows for larger photos, more than one diary or journal, the ability to export data in a number of formats, mobile diary ability, email posts to your diary, set reminders, tagging of posts, etc.

Check out the site at:
https://penzu.com/home

skinnyo

As I try to get back into Blogging on a regular basis again (yeah, I seem to be struggling with that at the moment), I thought I might use my daily posts on this Blog to offer up some links to some more web applications and social networking sites. I generally think that most of these are applications of some type or another, even though some of them will have a social aspect to them.

The first is skinnyo. Skinnyo, as the name probably suggests, is about getting ‘skinnier.’ It is an application to assist the user in loosing weight. Skinnyo gives you a personal weight loss diary that includes embeddable graphs and a photo history for tracking weight loss – which also includes a target goal that you can set and aim at.

If however you are unable to find the motivation to stay on track by being a private user of the application, you can also pull in friends and other users to assist in your weight loss efforts. This is done by setting challenges and/or joining other challenges set by others. This is where the social side of the application and community comes in. Of course there is also a status and news feed of others within your circle of skinnyo friends, so you can keep track of your friends weight loss efforts and share your own with them – setting up something of a support network.

As for showing others your weight – that doesn’t happen. Skinnyo will only show your differences in weight (that which has been lost – or perhaps gained). So no need to be too embarrassed by it all.

There is interaction available with both Facebook and Twitter accounts as well – should you wish to do so.

There is also a widget that is available allowing you to embed your weight loss efforts in a website or Blog (only showing the weight loss – not your weight).

Did I mention it is free to use?

Me? Well, I’m on my way loosing weight and to reaching my goal.

Check out the site at:
http://www.skinnyo.com/

Blogging with Tumblr

It’s no secret that I use wordpress.com a lot for Blogging. I have close to 10 Blogs/sites hosted at wordpress.com. These days there are a large number of Blogging platforms to choose from – many of which provide a very easy and simple user experience. My platform of choice remains wordpress.com, though coming in at a very close second is tumblr. I do have a tumblr Blog which is called ‘Daily Dribble,’ which is a Blog that captures posts that I don’t post elsewhere. I love to Blog and often find myself thinking that I’d like to post that website/article/thing somewhere, but it doesn’t quite fit into what I’m doing on any particular Blog that I have set up – this is where my tumblr Blog fits. It captures this overflow if you like.

There are many things to like about tumblr, apart from the fact that is very simple to use. You don’t need to be a HTML expert to use it, though you can use HTML for your posts should you choose to do so. Since I like a certain formatting appearance I choose HTML mode for my posts and it really is quite simple to do (if you know a little HTML of course). If you don’t know HTML tumblr remains very easy to use and is one of the very simple Blogging platforms out there for people just getting started in Blogging or for those with more experience.

I also use the Chrome browser from Google and the little Chrome Extension I have for posting URLs straight into tumblr (with the post) is a fantastic way to add content to my Blog. You can also set up your tumblr Blog to post straight  to your Twitter account or to Facebook, which is all very convenient.

There is so much more to having a tumblr account – all worth checking out at:

http://www.tumblr.com/

My tumblr Blog is at:

http://particularkev.tumblr.com/