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Red Beryls–Better than Diamonds?

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By Dayton Kennard

This post is for editor Makena Behnke’s “plants/opinions” theme, Dayton Kennard presents the argument that red beryls are better than diamonds.

Hello! Today I’d like to present a little argument about why I think that red beryls are better than diamonds. Now, I understand that diamonds are widely used in jewelry and the standard for wedding rings, but hear me out.

Red beryls are one of the rarest gems in the world (which is probably why you haven’t heard about them). There were only three mines on Earth that they were found in, and only one of those mines produced gemstone quality specimens (stones that are large enough and flawless enough to be cut without shattering). That mine was the Ruby Violet mine in the Wah Wah Mountains of Utah. It’s dried up now, meaning all the gems that were once in it are now gone, mined away over years and years.

Only a small fraction of the red beryls that were mined are actually gemstone quality, as they form under such extreme pressure that they are under one centimeter long and under one-fourth a carat once cut. Most of these gemstone quality red beryls are sitting in collectors’ possessions as un-faceted pieces (not cut into a gemstone shape). This is most likely due to the fact that even if an un-faceted red beryl is inspected closely for hours upon hours to determine if it can be cut or not, it can still shatter unexpectedly during the cutting process.

Does that last bit sound familiar? That is because emeralds can also shatter unexpectedly during the cutting process. In fact, these gems are the same gem, but in different colors. Beryls can be green (emerald), blue (aquamarine), pink to orange (morganite), red (red beryl), yellow (heliodor/golden beryl), deep blue (maxixe), light green (green beryl), and colorless (goshenite).

While certainly not as large or mass produced as diamonds, red beryls are certainly very unique and come from a family of rare and valuable gems, and should get more recognition and respect than their mass-marketed rival–the diamond.

Editor: Makena Behnke

Good Snacks To Eat While Doing Stuff

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By Dayton Kennard

Hello! Today I’m gonna give you a small list of snacks that I enjoy when I’m hard at work on something but don’t quite have time to get up and make myself a whole meal. Granted, some people will have different opinions about best snacks when working. These are not listed in any particular order.

  • Raisins. A tasty and healthy snack. They often come in small boxes, so it’s easier to avoid over-eating.
  • Goldfish: Colors. A colorful snack that is not nutritionally bad for you. They aren’t drowned in salt like potato chips are, do not use any corn products, and use only natural food dyes such as beet juice.
  • Diet Ginger Ale (Canada Dry). No sugar and no caffeine and also good for the digestive system. If you get Ginger Ale with sugar in it, though, it pretty much cancels out its health benefits.
  • Nutella. Aside from tasting good, Nutella is make by Ferrero, which only uses responsibly farmed palm oil and was the first company to volunteer to have its farms satellite monitored by an independent organization 24/7.
  • Ferrero Rocher. Also from Ferrero. Tasty and chocolaty.
  • Hi-Chew. Basically and edible/digestible version of chewing gum made in Japan. Originally created because in Japan it’s rude to take any food out of your mouth–even chewing gum.
  • Honeycrisp Apples. Satisfyingly crisp and not overly sweet or juicy.
  • Water. Keeps you alive. Good for not dying.

Editor: Makena Behnke

Monster Prom 2!… Well, Almost

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By Dayton Kennard

Hello readers! If you can remember, a while back I did a post on Monster Prom, a dating sim that’s also a competitive multiplayer game entirely about romancing monsters who are probably too old to be in high school but are anyways. The game developer, Beautiful Glitch, made a wonderful and unique take on the classic dating sim and continued to bring more intriguing and outlandish adventures to their fans through seasonal updates, as well as new downloadable content. But just this week, they’ve done something many fans have been eagerly awaiting…

Beautiful Glitch has officially released their KickStarter for Monster Prom 2: Holiday Season!*

Where is KickStarter? Who is KickStarter? Why is KickStarter? Kickstarter.com is a website that allows content creators to raise money for a project through “pledges” of money from interested people in exchange for rewards for their loyalty! Beautiful Glitch used KickStarter to fund their first game (Monster Prom), and are now using it for funding their second game (Monster Prom 2)!

While they only released the KickStarter for Monster Prom 2 this week, they surpassed their funding goal in nearly one hour; they went on to raise over $100,000 in about 12 hours, and now have raised over 400% of their original goal in just about 24 hours! This is likely due to the tempting rewards they have made for their backers, including (but not limited to) dakimakuras, custom characters, polaroids, and even a trip to Barcelona, Spain!

While it’s not even been a week since its launch, the Monster Prom KickStarter is already surpassing expectations rapidly, and seems to continue growing daily!

Editor: Luke Langlois

*https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/corintio/monster-prom-2-holiday-season

Dead By Daylight Game Review–A Legion of Glitches

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By Dayton Kennard

If you’ve been playing Dead by Daylight recently, you’ve definitely been hearing about the new Darkness Among Us downloadable content (DLC) and all of its problems, and if you actually bought it, you’ve been experiencing those problems firsthand. The sad part is you don’t have to download the DLC to experience the problems. Note: it should be taken with a grain of salt– not all of these problems are actually glitches. Through this post, I’ll cover four problems that have been reported by the community and problems that I’ve experienced firsthand. Just a heads up, if you haven’t heard of this game before, it’s basically a multiplayer game where four survivors try to fix five generators in order to escape before a killer finds them and–you guessed it–kills them.

Problem 1: Random Legion Chase Music

Some people have described that while they’re playing as a survivor against the Legion (one of the killers you can play as), they’ll randomly hear the Legion’s chase music (something that occurs when you are about to be attacked) for a few seconds before it suddenly disappears with no explanation. This has even happened to me! However, this is not a glitch. While playing as the Legion, a killer can bring in an add-on to their unique power that causes all survivors to temporarily hear chase music when the killer successfully lands an attack on a survivor.

Problem 2: Red Highlights After Chase Ends

When the Legion successfully lands an attack on a survivor while in their Feral Frenzy mode (their unique power that makes them faster for a short period of time), they will see nearby survivors highlighted in red temporarily so that they can easily attack them as well, but this highlight ends once the Feral Frenzy times out. Or at least, it’s supposed to. Sometimes the red highlight will persist if you continue to chase a survivor after Feral Frenzy times out, only going away if you either down the survivor or your chase with the survivor ends. This is most certainly a glitch, as nothing like this is mentioned in Feral Frenzy’s official description or any of the Legion’s add-ons.

Problem 3: Loss of Previously Purchased Characters

When players first load up the game after purchasing and installing the Darkness Among Us DLC, they may see that some of the characters they had previously purchased are now missing, and even be told that they have to purchase these characters again. This may be alarming to hear, and even more alarming to see, but it seems to only happen with characters purchased using Auric Cells (an in-game currency) rather than characters purchased with real money. This is a known glitch that’s already being worked on, and it’s easily fixed by closing and re-opening the game.

Problem 4: Two Killers vs. Three Survivors

This may seem impossible given the game’s unchangeable format of one killer versus four survivors, but it’s actually something that can happen. While this is a legitimate glitch, it is quite rare to see on accident, and it’s more likely someone causing this glitch on purpose. This is because the game will sometimes attribute the wrong character ID to a character that you are playing. So, while you joined a game as a survivor, you will load in as whatever character that ID truly belongs to, allowing you to join the game as a second killer rather than a survivor. Being that this problem only happens when a character ID is swapped, it’s fairly easy to replicate this glitch by editing the game files, which is usually what’s happening if you do see two killers in a match.

Editor: Holden Hartle

Review of “The Good Place” — Becoming a “Good” Person

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By Dayton Kennard

The Good Place is an ongoing NBC/Netflix show that’s currently in its third season, with each new episode being uploaded to Netflix a few hours after its original airing on NBC. The series starts off with Eleanor Shellstrop waking up in “The Good Place,” a heaven-like town where only the kindest of the kindest people go when they die. She’s introduced to the town, shown her new home (which has been made and styled to perfectly match her personality), and matched with her soulmate, Chidi. In this perfect place, the only problem is her. Eleanor quickly figures out that she’s been mistaken for someone else, as the memories shown to her are not her own and there’s no way that she was as good a person as anyone around her.

This sets up the main theme of the show: becoming a good person. As Eleanor doesn’t belong in “The Good Place” due to her actions when she was alive, she sets out to become a good person and fit in with the rest of her neighbors. Each episode will have a specific problem that needs to be faced, and there will be flashbacks that allow us to see the difference of how she handled a similar problem in the past compared to how she’s handling it now. We get insight into how she’s evolving emotionally as she feels guilt over bad decisions and actions rather than just passing it off as someone else’s problem. Without spoiling much, I can say that these flashbacks are often amusing and absurd, providing a good break between the serious situation and the attempts to fix the current problem. Even though this seems like just a comedy at first glance, the show does teach its viewers better morals, whether it’s little acts of kindness or learning when to take one for the team.

I don’t want to spoil anything about the show, but I can tell you that they pack tons of action and plot into the 22-minute episodes, and the plot twists at the end of each season leave you shaking in your seat anticipating what will happen next. I recommend taking a day of relaxing on the couch with your blanket and snacks to binge the first two seasons in around 10 hours if you’re watching on Netflix with no ads. I hope you have fun watching it, and remember, you’re constantly being watched and judged for your every action to determine if you’ll spend your afterlife eternally suffering! 😀

Editor: Makena Behnke

Monster Prom Game Review–Better Than Human Prom (And Cheaper, Too!)

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By Dayton Kennard

 

Hey there! If you watch YouTubers Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, CrankGameplays, or TheRPGMinx, then chances are you’ve seen them play Monster Prom. If you haven’t, then hopefully this post gives you a good idea of what it is.

 

WARNING: Monster Prom would likely be M for MATURE by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), meaning that it would generally be suitable for people aged seventeen and up due to sexual content, strong (explicit) language, drug usage, and alcohol consumption. Monster Prom was released on 27 April, 2018, and developed by Beautiful Glitch, programmed by Elías Pereiras, published by Those Awesome Guys, written by Julián Quijano, Cory O’Brien, and Maggie Herskowitz, and illustrated by Arthur Tien.

 

The game itself is a dating sim/visual novel that mocks typical dating sims as well as mocking itself. The game includes easter eggs that can range in allusion from 50 Shades of Grey to Disney. The game also has a built-in multiplayer mode where you and up to three friends can compete to see who gets a date to Prom, or even compete for the love of the same character!

The story takes place at a school called Spooky High in the player’s Senior Year, three weeks before Prom. You’ve narrowed down your prom-date choices to six monsters: Miranda Vanderbilt the Mermaid Princess (age 19), Damien LaVey the Reckless Demon (21), Scott Howl the Werewolf Jock (21), Liam De Lioncourt the Hipster Vampire (4XX), Polly Geist the Party Ghost (22?), and Vera Oberlin the Ruthless Gorgon (23). After the intro, you’ll take Monster Prom’s Stupidest Pop Quiz Ever™ that “will throw a bunch of absurd questions at you and turn your answers into your character’s stats.” Said stats are Smarts, Boldness, Creativity, Charm, Fun, and Money, which affect your interactions with the characters. You’re then introduced to the game with a short tutorial that explains how your character’s stats work, how the activities you do give your certain stats, and how events can either help or harm you.

A few more cool things are that your gender doesn’t affect who you can and can’t date, and there are two game types you can choose from: Short Game (around 30-minutes long) and Full Game (around 60-minutes long). With the goofy situations, fun characters, quick gameplay, and forgiving penalties that you can quickly recover from, Monster Prom is a captivating game with lots of replay value! If this sounds interesting to you, I recommend you head over to the game’s Steam page* and buy it! It’s only $11.99, which is over 50% cheaper than a typical $50 prom ticket!

Editors: Peter Kadel and Bella Bier

*https://store.steampowered.com/app/743450/Monster_Prom/