A Close Race!

What's going on everyone!?

Today for the #2019gameaday challenge my dear ol' dad and I played a game of Ticket to Ride.

It was a very close game and surprisingly I came away with the win somehow!

As usual, it was a good game and he sure doesn't make it easy, lol.

As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)

-Tim

Why You Have To Live In Your Mother's Basement (Monday Musings 69)

Best book on Peronal Finance

During my Twitch streaming (channel link), I discussed plans to write a synopsis of Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi's All Your Worth, which really can help improve your financial health, as my streamed video-blogging series focuses on health in general.

In this politically divisive time, regardless of what you think of Sen. Warren, please don't be too concerned that she co-wrote the book (with her daughter) and keep an open mind even if you don't like her politics, as the advice here has helped lead to my own financial stability, even in tough times.

You can go to the library and check it out, if you want to read the best book on personal finance for the average person without giving the authors further funds. I read quite a few personal finance books and this is the best I've found, where it shows how to take concrete steps and learn what you need to do now to improve your financial situation.

Warren and Tyagi write very clearly and interestingly; I found it a page turner. Indeed, it's riveting to find out that you can take charge of your finances and live well!

I'll have to re-read the book first before I summarize in detail, so thank you for your patience.

In the meantime, upon doing some preliminary number-crunching, I'd say this book can work if you make $10/hour at 20K (though I will have to do more research and work the math so I may have to revise these estimates), if and only if you can somehow manage to live with your parents or friends to obtain "cheap" rent.

The average American income is around $25,000, according to the Census Bureau. The numbers could be as high 47K on average, though billionaires can be skewing the curve.

After taxes, let's say your income goes to $20,000 for easier math.

Ideally, the place you live should cost 1/3 of your net income, per All Your Worth. Indeed, research has shown that people tend not to fall into debt as readily if their rent/mortgage is 1/3 or less. Americans have a tendency to "buy more house" than they can afford to "keep up with the Joneses".

At any rate, 1/3 of 20K is $6666. Divided by 12 months, the rent should only come to $555.50, or let's say $500. In Philadelphia, you can get a "cheap" apartment for $800, so let's say $1000. We're left with $20K minus $12K or a mere $8000.

In NYC, rent would be at least $3000/month (this is a "cheap" apartment) at $24K/year which is above the entire income.

Those who live in NYC, and you're making $25K, you can see why you can't live on your own, and you must live with your parents or friend(s) or other roomies. Hopefully that leaves you with a rent of "merely" $500/month.

As for those who live in more "reasonable" cities, we are down to $8K with the rent being on average $1000/month. Food is $400/month, if you pinch the pennies, coming out to $4800. We're now down to $4200 (8K - 4.8K dollars).

That leaves $350/month (4.8K/12). Utilities run $200/month at best so we're now at $150/month. Gas costs, say, $20/week (I live in New Jersey, so can buy relatively cheap gas for the Eastern Seaboard), so $80/month down to $70/month.

For internet/phone bill, that cone out to over $70/month, so no streaming for you!

With at best $70/month left over, what if, among the potential emergencies, your car breaks down, which you might need to get to work. Then you're wiped out completely and in crippling credit card debt (if you can charge auto repairs on your credit card). With the compounding 20% annual interest, you may have to declare bankruptcy or go homeless.

I know I'm being dire here, but I think this is the reality for a lot of Americans.

In other words, to be more financially sound, you'll have to live with your parents or friends or otherwise share living space.

The intent of this post is to argue against the snide dismissal of the phrase, "he probably lives in his mother's basement", and recognize the realities of life today in the US.

A lot of hard-working people shouldn't be ashamed when they have to move back in with their parents given the rising living costs, to prevent crippling debt, bankruptcy and/or homelessness.

What do you think? Should we make fun of those who have to live with their parents, or understand that with the realities of drastically rising cost of living with stagnating wages, that we should be more understanding and have more compassion?

The How of Happiness Review

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Top 8 Best URL Shortener to Earn Money 2019

LINK.TL
LINK.TL is one of the best and highest URL shortener website.It pays up to $16 for every 1000 views.You just have to sign up for free.You can earn by shortening your long URL into short and you can paste that URL into your website, blogs or social media networking sites, like facebook, twitter, and google plus etc.
One of the best thing about this site is its referral system.They offer 10% referral commission.You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.
- Payout for 1000 views-$16
- Minimum payout-$5
- Referral commission-10%
- Payout methods-Paypal, Payza, and Skrill
- Payment time-daily basis
Short.am
Short.am provides a big opportunity for earning money by shortening links. It is a rapidly growing URL Shortening Service. You simply need to sign up and start shrinking links. You can share the shortened links across the web, on your webpage, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Short.am provides detailed statistics and easy-to-use API.
It even provides add-ons and plugins so that you can monetize your WordPress site. The minimum payout is $5 before you will be paid. It pays users via PayPal or Payoneer. It has the best market payout rates, offering unparalleled revenue. Short.am also run a referral program wherein you can earn 20% extra commission for life.
Clk.sh
Clk.sh is a newly launched trusted link shortener network, it is a sister site of shrinkearn.com. I like ClkSh because it accepts multiple views from same visitors. If any one searching for Top and best url shortener service then i recommend this url shortener to our users. Clk.sh accepts advertisers and publishers from all over the world. It offers an opportunity to all its publishers to earn money and advertisers will get their targeted audience for cheapest rate. While writing ClkSh was offering up to $8 per 1000 visits and its minimum cpm rate is $1.4. Like Shrinkearn, Shorte.st url shorteners Clk.sh also offers some best features to all its users, including Good customer support, multiple views counting, decent cpm rates, good referral rate, multiple tools, quick payments etc. ClkSh offers 30% referral commission to its publishers. It uses 6 payment methods to all its users.
- Payout for 1000 Views: Upto $8
- Minimum Withdrawal: $5
- Referral Commission: 30%
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- Payment Time: Daily
Wi.cr
Wi.cr is also one of the 30 highest paying URL sites.You can earn through shortening links.When someone will click on your link.You will be paid.They offer $7 for 1000 views.Minimum payout is $5.
You can earn through its referral program.When someone will open the account through your link you will get 10% commission.Payment option is PayPal.
- Payout for 1000 views-$7
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- Payout time-daily
Ouo.io
Ouo.io is one of the fastest growing URL Shortener Service. Its pretty domain name is helpful in generating more clicks than other URL Shortener Services, and so you get a good opportunity for earning more money out of your shortened link. Ouo.io comes with several advanced features as well as customization options.
With Ouo.io you can earn up to $8 per 1000 views. It also counts multiple views from same IP or person. With Ouo.io is becomes easy to earn money using its URL Shortener Service. The minimum payout is $5. Your earnings are automatically credited to your PayPal or Payoneer account on 1st or 15th of the month.
- Payout for every 1000 views-$5
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CPMlink
CPMlink is one of the most legit URL shortener sites.You can sign up for free.It works like other shortener sites.You just have to shorten your link and paste that link into the internet.When someone will click on your link.
You will get some amount of that click.It pays around $5 for every 1000 views.They offer 10% commission as the referral program.You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.The payment is then sent to your PayPal, Payza or Skrill account daily after requesting it.
- The payout for 1000 views-$5
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- Payment methods-Paypal, Payza, and Skrill
- Payment time-daily
Linkbucks
Linkbucks is another best and one of the most popular sites for shortening URLs and earning money. It boasts of high Google Page Rank as well as very high Alexa rankings. Linkbucks is paying $0.5 to $7 per 1000 views, and it depends on country to country.
The minimum payout is $10, and payment method is PayPal. It also provides the opportunity of referral earnings wherein you can earn 20% commission for a lifetime. Linkbucks runs advertising programs as well.
- The payout for 1000 views-$3-9
- Minimum payout-$10
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- Payment options-PayPal,Payza,and Payoneer
- Payment-on the daily basis
Adf.ly
Adf.ly is the oldest and one of the most trusted URL Shortener Service for making money by shrinking your links. Adf.ly provides you an opportunity to earn up to $5 per 1000 views. However, the earnings depend upon the demographics of users who go on to click the shortened link by Adf.ly.
It offers a very comprehensive reporting system for tracking the performance of your each shortened URL. The minimum payout is kept low, and it is $5. It pays on 10th of every month. You can receive your earnings via PayPal, Payza, or AlertPay. Adf.ly also runs a referral program wherein you can earn a flat 20% commission for each referral for a lifetime.

[Three Hexes] The Resistance Versus The Supers!

Campaign: The "Last Great War" (World War 2) ended abruptly in 1944 when the Axis superhumans ("supers"), Der Ubermensch, La Donna Meraviglia and Sugoi Samurai, displayed their powers in Russia, Africa and the Pacific respectively. Today, the world is ruled by the Triumvirate Powers and all others have been slave-states, watched over by the Axis supers who act as overseers. In the region that was the United States, a resistance group "Sons of Liberty" fight against the Axis Occupying Forces (AOF) while dissident scientists work in secret to find measures against the Axis supers and regain their freedom.

Homebase (Hex 0) (0101): Lakeside - This Great Lakes city is watched over by Übermensch Drei and a large force of German and Italian AOF soldiers. The city is to be the site of an upcoming meeting between German, Italian and Japanese high level officials. The Sons plan on kidnapping secretaries and deputies of those officials to get information on plans for the factories that are increasingly polluting the waters and sickening the people, as well as any details that will help the Resistance.

Three Hexes
(Hex scale is 24 miles)

Location 1 (0202): Town of Cityville - This sleepy suburban town is the center of activity for a special cell of the Sons, consisting people who've been training and taking experimental drugs to give them small extra-normal abilities against the Axis forces. They hide in plain sight as ex-veterans of the war; managing to hold off the effects of aging on their bodies through serums. They are protecting the scientists who are eagerly awaiting arrival of the alien equipment from the Dig Site, and fearing that the AOF may have already penetrated their secret group.

Location 2 (0203): Verschuer Army Barracks - An armored and airborne cavalry division of the AOF (known as the "Grun Shirts") support Drei as he monitors the region in and around Lakeside and the eastern Great Lakes. During recent training of a new set of cadets, he was actually injured by a young woman, whose touch caused him great pain! This has not go unnoticed by both the Sons, who want to draw the mutant over to their side, and the training commandant, who will contact the Office of Science and Health to take her away for cleansing!

Location 3 (0302): Dig Site - A secret archaeological excavation, disguised as a construction project, has discovered four large metallic flying vehicles that date back almost 150,000 years ago; they contain advanced medical equipment that have strange effects on humans. One brave test subject is already exhibiting signs of super strength and ability to walk through solids! The Sons are trying to move the objects to the town Cityville, but a collaborator has tipped off the police and they're planning an ambush for the convoy.

"Three Hexes" are simple campaign starters to show that you don't need to do a lot to have interesting settings for people to play in. Feel free to use these in your game, campaign or as ways to spur on your own creativity and imagination!

I've purposefully left a lot of detail out because these are supposed to spur on your imagination! The scale is what I would use in my own world, but if something else suits you better, then go for it. I may have the features moved about on the hexes for clarity, if they don't suit you, move them!

Three Hexes by Michael "Chgowiz" Shorten (chgowiz@gmail.com) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sintel The Game Has 3 Playable Levels (Alpha 2)

Sintel The Game Alpha 0.2 was released years ago but you might have missed it, just as have I.

The three levels have the following features:

1. Snow landscape, puzzles, no fights, no ending (I think)
2. Desert landscape, no puzzles, 2 enemy types to fight, no ending (I think)
3. Village/port environment, one puzzle with one variation, 1 enemy type to fight (maybe more), has an ending, possibly has multiple endings (not tested).

Gameplay Video

As a game alpha, it is OK.

As a alpha game made in Blender Game Engine (BGE), it is actually impressive: controls and window behavior feel OK, compared to smaller games I sometimes run into, which often seem to have resolution, mouse control/sensitivity or window manager related issues.

And it looks nice.

Download the Alpha (1GB) from https://github.com/jonburesh/sintelgame/releases