Hey all (and especially Dawn!!!),

Thanks for checking in with me regular. I'm soooooo sorry for not being around so long. I kinda got caught up IRL and I got caught (I must admit that) in a fantastic (new to me) game called Puzzle Pirates Let me tell ya everything about it!

Jobcoaching
Unfortunately I couldn't start my course in April, so now I'm starting it in September. However, I could walk along with a few jobcoaches these last few weeks and it was fun! I had a great time. I'm sooooo looking forward to this new profession! It so different from my current job. I can work WITH people and really help. I like that :)

Scrapbooking
I have to be honest and admit I haven't been scrapping much lately. However, with this new game (I'll tell you all about it, I promise!) I can Scrapbook as well for a contest :) This is soooo much fun! In a few weeks time I'll have a two weeks holiday and I'll go scrapping then. I really want to finish our Switzerland album and I have so many other photos I still want to scrap.

Puzzle Pirates
I told you before I was hooked on the various versions of the game Tradewinds. Well, I still like this game, but I missed a few things. Once you had done all the assignments, there was not much to do but make a lot of money. You couldn't buy a house or anything else, you couldn't get more assignments, nothing. And I wanted to do more than only get my scores up. Someone told me about Puzzle Pirates and I decided to give it a try. I didn't expect I would love it this much. Granted, you don't get assignments, but you're playing with a lot of people together. After all, it is an online game. Like they say: a massively multi-player online roleplaying game. You can choose whether you want to pay or not. Although, if you're not paying, there are several limitations to the game. I started with a free account (you can always upgrade it to a paid account) and tried it at first. As I said I didn't expect much of it. As far as I had understood it, there were no assignments to fulfill, nothing. But as it turned I fell in love with the game and subscribed. Let me tell you more about this game.
Starting your pirate's life
First, you have to choose on which ocean you want to play. There are two subscription ocean (on which you can also play if you have a free account) called Midnight and Cobalt. Midnight is an ocean which has been developed quite a lot already. Cobalt is a fairly new ocean (only two years old). Then there are three Doubloon oceans (Viridian, Sage and Hunter). Here you have to pay for doubloons to be able to buy things and to get certain ranks. I haven't played on one of these oceans yet, so I can't tell you anything about it yet. There's also a German Ocean and a test ocean. I chose the Cobalt Ocean in the end.
Once you've chosen your ocean, you first need to "make" your pirate. This means choosing the gender, the hair style, the hair color, the skin color and the name. If you choose a male pirate, you also have to choose a facial hairstyle. After that, you can begin. You'll land on an island with nothing more but rags. You're lucky, 'cause the governor of the island will also grant you a shack to live in. And then, everything's up to you!
Missions
It's fun to start with learning more about ye'r pirate life. You'll get a special mission called "Loot yer home" in which you'll get a bedroll and a slated crate. And you can pick the rat that scuttled in as your pet. After that, it's all up to you! There are several more missions to choose from. But you can also decide to work at a shoppe (three contracted jobs is the maximum) or go on pillages. However, if you want to go on a pillage, it is wise to start with a few missions with the navy to get some piracy skills.
Piracy Skills
If you're not interested in getting a rank above Pirate (subscribed), you might not worry about your piracy skills. These skills are often used by crews to see if they can promote you. BUT, practicing these skills will also help you be a better (part time) crew member on the ship on which you're on during a pillage. So, all taken together, it is wise to practice your Piracy skills. And what are those skills, you may ask. Well, there are several. Let me start at the beginning. When you don't have any experience at all, you can start with sailing, bilging and carpentry. The better your skills get, the more options of piracy skills practicing you'll get. There's also gunnery, navigation and battle navigation. These are all puzzles (yes, puzzles) you can play by yourself. There are two puzzles for Piracy skills you'll play with more people and those are swordfighting and rumble.
Your Piracy skills are "judged" on experience (how often you play the puzzles and how good you are with these puzzles) and standing (in regards to other pirates on the ocean of your choice). It's not always easy to get a good experience and standing, but it's soooooo fun to play the puzzles and slowly see your skills getting better and better! And this all brings us to the goal of the game.
Goal
The main goal is just to have a lot of fun. You're not playing this game to end (reach the last level) it (like with many offline games). Instead you're playing this game for yourself and you can set your own goals. In example, you can decide to play it and become one of the pirates with the best piracy skills on the ocean. Or you can play it with the goal of having as many successful shops as possible. Or you can play it with the goal to form your own crew. Those are just a few of the many goals you can set yourself. You are totally to reach the goal you want. And the beauty it, you define the goals. There are no given goals, there are no levels to reach, nothing. But how do you reach these goals? And I was talking about shops. "What's this all about" I can hear you think. Let's elaborate on that.
Shoppes
I know, normally you'd say shop and the plural is Shops. But, in pirate language, you'll use shoppes. There are several shoppes / stalls you can buy (I won't go into details right now), like an apothecary, a weavery, a tailor, a shipyard, a distillery and more. Of course these are all fictional, but it's all fun! Before you can buy a stall, you need to earn money (Pieces of Eight or poe). You can earn poe by participating in pillages and blockades, working with the navy or by working in shoppes. And you may sometimes win poe in a tournament. And it's completely up to you which way you choose to earn the poe you need.
Once you've got enough money, you can buy a stall. But that's not all. You also have to buy commodities (the ingredients). And you have to make sure you've got enough pirates working for you (the labor you need), so that you're able to make all the products which are ordered. believe me, it's fun discovering it all.
Houses, ships, crews
And the shoppes are not all there is to discover. I told you, you get a shack once you start. Well, look at it as a small one-room apartment. But you don't have to stick to that throughout your entire pirate life. Once you've earned poe, you can buy new and bigger houses. There are 10 different type of houses to choose from, each varying in price.
And not only can you buy houses, you can also buy ships. And that's where your piracy skills come in handy again. Cause buying a ship is nice, but if you don't know how to navigate, you can hardly use it. And an officer can do a lot of things, which a Pirate can't do.
Having your own ship is nice, but it's even more fun if you're actively participating in a crew. After a pilly many captains will ask if you want to become a full member of the crew. That's nice, because this will give you the possibility to grow in rank (only officers and above can promote someone). And you'll have several people you can ask for help Maybe it's just something you don't know that you want to ask them, or maybe you'd like to set sail with your own ship and you want people to help you on the journey, you'll find it easier to ask your crew members then when you're not in a crew and you'd have to figure out everything for yourself.
When you've got enough experience, you can also start your own crew. But, you'll need at least narrow experience in several piracy skills, as well have a deed of a ship (proving that you are the owner of that ship) and you have to be subscribed. I would advise you, though, to first participate in an existing crew, so that you can learn everything you need to know about how a crew works.
Conclusion
I think this is about all I can tell you about it. I know that I love it! And that's also why I haven't been here for a such a long time. It's an addictive game! Go and give Puzzle Pirates a try.

For now this is it. I'll be back for more! Have Fun!

Babbled by Ilse at 1:04 PM
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Hey all,

You know that I was playing the game Fish Tycoon, right? Well, I was breeding fish and unexpectedly I've saved Isola. I just got this message:

You have discovered the 7 Magic fish of Isola! The Lagoon and the ecosysteem are saved and the island has been restored to its former glory! Your work here will live on beyond your time and the living creatures you have saved will tell your story for ages to come.

Yeah!!!!

Okay, I had a bit of help. If you know there are 441 species of fish to breed, it does come in handy to know which fish is the magic one and which fish you need to get the magic one. And luck is with the players! Because the people of Last day of Work have posted a guide to play Fish Tycoon and this really helped me out. And guess what? You have more options to breed then the two per magic fish they come up with. So, while I was waiting for the right fish to pop up so that I could make the combination, I already had the made the right combination for the last fish.

This is such a fun game to play! From what I have understood, everytime you start a new game, you can get a different set of eggs and thus fish to start with. This makes the game even more interesting. For now, I want to find all the species I haven't found yet. According to the statistics I have found 150 species. Just about 291 more to go :) It's good I'm keeping track of what I'm doing! That way I'll know if I actually have a new fish or if it's one I already have.

If you've played the game, let me know what you think of it!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 8:38 PM in Category: Fish Tycoon , games
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Hey all,

I've been playing Fish Tycoon for a while now and I'm getting results! The game gets funnier with the hour I play it. Right now I've discovered four magical breeds. In total I've discovered 126 new species. And I keep discovering new ones with every new fish combination I make. This is really funny!

I'm glad I decided to make an overview of all my results, so that I could check back to see how I found a certain fish. That really helped me out some tight spots already! How am I supposed to remember what I created several days ago? The list really makes it a lot easier!

I'm still not there yet. I have yet to discover 3 magical fish and about 300 new species. I've learned on the Fish Tycoon website that there are 441 fish species to discover. So, be prepared for a very long list once I've "finished" the game!

The fun thing is that you can continue the game once you've found the seven magic fish. You can just continue making more and more money. *ME LIKES!!!*

Anyway, check out my results here!

Have Fun!

Babbled by Ilse at 3:00 PM in Category: Fish Tycoon , games
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Hey all,

I'm not sure how I found Fish Tycoon. I believe I was looking for the producer of another game when I came across the site of Last Day of Work. I was just browsing through their games,w hen I noticed Fish Tycoon. A game that's real-time. I've downloaded and tried the game. It didn't take me long before I knew this was the perfect game for me! You don't need your mouse too much, there's no fighting and you learn new things every time you're busy with the game. Don't just take my word for it! I can imagine you want to have more information, so let's have a look at the game, shall we?

The story
Now that we know that several species of organismen have been extinguished, many people are looking for ways to safe the current species which are on the brink of extinguish. With Fish Tycoon you have the chance to deliver your part! Because, according to the story, several magic fish species have gone lost. And it's YOUR job to find them!

"There was once a hidden and mysterious island called ISOLA. Hidden in this island was a magical lagoon where the most rare and wonderful fish swam. These fish lived in a delicate balance held together by 7 special magical fish.... One day something happened... Where have all the fish gone? You must find the 7 Magic Fish and restore the balance. You must save Isola!....."

The goals of the game
The introduction of the story already told you about the seven magical species you have to find to safe Isola, right? So that's our goal. Find the seven Magical species and with that safe Isola! You have to this by breeding fishes. You have to keep breeding fishes until you've found the seven magical breeds.
And this is not the only goal. Fish Tycoon is also a Virtual aquarium. You can look at it as your virtual pet. Only you don't need to clean your aquarium. "You won't get your hands dirty". While your keeping your Virtual pet aquarium, you can also earn money. You can make lots of it!
This double goal makes the game very interesting to me. If I don't find the seven magical fishes in a short time, so what? The virtual aquarium in itself already is very funny, so no harm there!

Breeding the species
As I told you before, you have to breed fishes in order to get the seven magical fishes from Isola. So, breeding, what is it all about? Well, in fact it's quite simple. That's the beauty of this game. There's no harm in experimenting, cause that's what this game is all about. You can keep trying for as long as you want. You won't loose any points if it doesn't happen to work. All that happens is that sometimes a few fish may die on you, but hey, what's experimenting for if these things wouldn't happen? Okay, this is experimenting in a virtual aquarium. I have to admit I don't think I would feel the same if it was in real life.
So, how do you actually breed? You put one fish in the isolation tank, you put another fish in it and the first fish is pregnant. There's also an alternative way: buy eggs and let those hatch. In the beginning it's best however to start breeding with the eggs you start with and breed with the fish that come out of it. Also, it's best to keep a record of all the breeding you do. Make a list of the fishes you combine and the results it gives you. And, if your interested in making a lot of money, maybe you should keep track of the money you can make with a certain kind of species.
It's not always easy to breed fish. Especially in the beginning when you have the basic food and the basic environment it is very well possible your crossbreeds will die, just because the food isn't good enough or because the environment isn't good enough. Don't worry about! Try breeding with fish of the same species (the fins may vary, that's no problem) in the beginning. These fish are more likely to survive and you can start making money with these fish. Once you have enough money to research food, start with that. The research will take a while. You don't need to wait in the Supplies screen, because it really takes a lot longer. You can go on breeding fish.
Once you've good better food and a better environment the more fragile fish will have more chance of survival and you can really start the crossbreeding process. The better environment and better food also gives the eggs a better survival chance. You can now start buying the eggs and breed with them too.
Keep in mind that the eggs might give different fish each time you let them hatch. You don't have the guarantee you'll always get the same fish. So try the pink eggs a few times, just like the purple and the yellow-green eggs. It's fun! I think this is just one of the extra perks in the game which makes it fun!

Taking care of the fish
It all starts with the feeding. This is done fairly easy in this game. You click on the food jar that's completely on the left in the upper bar. You have to keep your mouse on the jar and move it to the tank. There you can let it go. Now you've fed the fish. Isn't that easy? And, as in real life, you'll see all the fish swim to the food that you've dropped in the water. This game is as real as it can get!
Like every "real life" pet, these fish can get sick. Sometimes you'll see green spots on a fish, or white ones. These can be cleared with medicine that you can buy in your supplies screen. When you put a fish in the isolation tank, you can also see if the fish is sick or not. Every fish has a health bar and a fed bar. It's not a disaster if the fed bar isn't full. In fact, if you've been away from your computer the whole day and you check back with your fish, you'll probably see that your fish only have half of the fed bar filled. That's okay. Just feed them, and the bar will be filled again.
A whole other point is the health bar. When the fish are obviously sick (the green or white spots on their bodies) the bar isn't always less filled. And this is a state that you can cure. However, it can happen that a fish has nothing obvious. When you put it in the isolation tank (or just hold), you'll notice that the health has gone down. The information will not say that the fish is sick, but the green bar of health has become less extended and the color will have gone to a light yellow or even red. Unfortunately the game doesn't tell why this is the case. That's a flaw I found in it. This way you have no idea what you can do about. Probably the food isn't good or the environment isn't good. When that's the case, you can't do anything about it. The fish will die.
There's one thing you have to keep in mind while feeding the fish. It does occasionally happen that you overfeed the fish. The health will go down too. However, this is something you can act upon. Just don't feed the fish for a while and you will their health going up. Unfortunately, due to the fact that you're not told why the health of the fish is going down, you can't tell if it's because too much, bad food or a bad environment. You'll have to experiment on that one.

The Graphics
A game isn't only nice because of the things you can do, but also due to the graphics used in the game. I think the graphics are very nice. The tanks look quite realistic, the store is great, with all the cartoons of customers and the supplies screen is also very good. In total, the graphics are also worth your money.

Bonuses
Many games have bonuses, like new characters you can play with (Tradewinds versions, Feeding Frenzy 2), screen savers (Feeding Frenzy), Wallpapers (Harvest Mania to go) and more thing like that.
In this game you'll have a bonus in the screen saver of the tanks you can instantly set. It's wonderful. You'll see your computer screen as if it were a fish tank!

Conclusion
I think this is just about everything I can tell. All taken together I really like the game. It's absolutely worth your money! If you want a second opinion, check out Gamezebo Review here about Fish Tycoon!
I'm keeping a record of all the breeding result. You can find the list here

Have fun playing!

Babbled by Ilse at 7:00 AM in Category: Fish Tycoon , games
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Hey all,

It's a nice Sunday afternoon today. I've gone for a walk this morning before breakfast. The weather was nice, although it was too bad the sun didn't shine like it did yesterday. Oh well, it doesn't rain, so that's a good start...... I'll spend the rest of my Sunday in a whole other fashion.

Cropping
This afternoon Bianca and my mother will come to crop again. I'm really looking forward to it! This does mean I have to clean the table again..... Hmmm, why can't this table stay clean :):) I'll be working on the Switzerland album again. And I think I'll start with a little album for James, for Valentines day. I'd like to give him something this year. It'll be fun. I hope I can cover the main basics while he's away with dad to the boat. That way I can spend the coming days every free hour while he's not at home yet to finish the album. That way I'll have it finished by Valentine's day. I want to make an album about our love. What it all means, our little special things and more things like that :)
Of course I want to make a new layout for the Switzerland album too, since that's what I'll show James tonight when he's home again :) That way I will have done something and I'll have something to show. And at the same time I'll have the present for him.

Fish Tycoon
I'm really hooked to this game. It's incredible! I hadn't expect that! Okay, I do want to finish games, so I'll usually work on that. But normally you won't have to feed the "players" or do some other things. Right now I'm regularly checking that no fish have died and I'm checking up on the pregnant ones. I've figured that the following works pretty good:
1. Get a few main fish pregnant.
2. Place the fish you want to sell in the sale tank and sell them all. Just be careful that you don't sell fishes which form the basic of your breedings.
3. Place the remaining fishes (which form the basic of your breeding) in the sale tank. Don't sell them, but wait until the little baby fishes are at least 6 or 7 days old. That way they'll have a better chance of survival.
4. Once the pregnant ones are no longer pregnant, put them in the sale tank too, until the baby fish are big enough.
5. Once all the baby fishes are big enough (you can actually what kind of fish they will become), place all the other fishes back in the tank.
6. Repeat all the steps above.
I've also discovered that probably my first Magical Breed was from eggs I got as a "starting present".
I've bought new eggs and they've just hatched. I wonder what kind of fish I'll get. Perhaps a new magical breed? I guess it will be, because these were eggs from the Lagoon of Isola. I'll just wait and see!

I'll let you know what they've become! And maybe I can show a few photos of the crop results this night!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:56 PM in Category: Fish Tycoon , scrapbooking , Switzerland
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Hey all,

It's Saturday, so naturally we're gonna do grocery shopping. Right now I'm thinking about menus for this week. I can't really think of anything, so I think I'm gonna search the internet for some ideas. I just don't know at the moment......

We've also decided to go look for our wedding rings. We don't have any idea yet, so it's really a day of looking. Next to wedding rings, James needs new shoes, so we're going to look for those too. And we need a tuner for our radio. So, all in all, it's gonna be a busy day today. A real shopping day!

I've also checked on Fish Tycoon. Apparently too many fish were pregnant when I went to sleep yesterday, cause this morning none of them were pregnant anymore, but I didn't have any new fish either. Right now my main goal is to breed as much fish as possible and sell them all. That way I can make a lot of money and maybe buy some extra supplies like the option of Research Fish Environment. Maybe that will tell me why many of the baby fishes die.......

I've been doing a bit surfing today, again for Scrapbook related blogs. I came accross the site of Dutch Dares. I think it's a wonderful idea of having a Scrapbook Challenge every two weeks that's really into a Dutch subject. Wednesday a week ago they posted a challenge with the subject "Say Cheese". Here in the Netherlands Cheese is a very common thing, so why not make a layout about it..... Or based upon the phrase Say Cheese. Maybe I'll use this challenge this time.......

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 9:36 AM in Category: Dutch Dares , Fish Tycoon , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I've been playing Fish Tycoon for a while now. I've discovered several new species. 17 to be exact. Okay, I have to admit I've let 12 fishes die. I'm not sure why, but I guess they died because the tank was full and new fishes were coming. They weren't underfed, at least all the other fishes weren't, so I guess it was the tank. Now I have to save enough so that I can buy a new tank. Than I can breed more fishes. This is really fun!

Now it's the "art" to breed fishes for which customers are really willing to pay. That way I can buy more things for the tanks and the fishes. I just keep on trying :) I have 8 breeds "running" right now. I'm not sure what the result will be. We'll just see. I hope it will be fun and I hope I will discover new magic breeds. I'm curious......... I just wish I knew what fish I used to get the one magic fish I have right now. I don't remember. Anyone happen to know how I got the Greenfin Spotanus?

So far, with hardly doing anything I've already reached level two. And one of the best things is that I don't need my mouse that much. For people with RSI this is really a wonderful game. You can reach several levels, you can do a lot and yet, you don't need your mouse that much, because the game is doing it for you. Isn't that great?

All I have to now is wait and see what happens when I go to sleep. I'll just turn off the computer and I'll look tomorrow morning how all the fishes are doing. Several of them are pregnant, so will this be a problem for the tank, or won't it?

Talk to you later.

Babbled by Ilse at 6:21 PM in Category: Fish Tycoon , games
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Hey all,

I know, it's a bit late, but I wish you all happy holidays and all the best for 2007!

I was lucky this year, I have a three-weeks holiday! I haven't done much these last two weeks, besides celebrating my holiday. But that's what holidays are for, right?

I did find some very good games this week. I have been playing several games I downloaded through Zylom Games and I have noticed these games take up quite some space on my hard drive. I wondered if this was the same with other games from original producers, s I went to look for them. And I got rewarded. Other games do not take up that much space and I have found so many new and fun games!

Right now I'm playing Tradewinds 2. I have finished the Story Mode with Christine McGowan already and that's really fun to do! Now I'm playing the Free Trade Mode with a character of my own. It is so much fun to do!

I've decided to keep track of the progress I'm making with this game here on the site. I'll also include tips I've discovered, Let me know if you have some other tips I can include!

Well, this is it for now. Off to playing some more :)

Regards,
Ilse

Babbled by Ilse at 1:14 PM in Category: games , Holidays , Tradewinds
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