Scribblenauts - Write Anything. Solve Everything

This is one of the best games ever made, and by best I mean intuitive, clever and original. In this age where everybody relies on graphics, gameplay and originality are usually compromised. Unsuspectingly 5th Cell, the makers of Scribblenauts for NDS, was able to pull out from their magic hat a never before seen trick.



Retrieve the starite

With Scribblenauts you can virtually write any object to help you solve each level. You can use the freehand notepad or the keyboard to conjure almost limitless possibilities.

With over a hundred levels, each rated by a four star difficulty, your objective as Maxwell is to complete each scenario and acquire the starite. Earn ollars as you progress to purchase new levels. After completing each level it will turn to a star icon to represent your completion, reentering the level will trigger advance mode where you are to complete the level 3 times in a row with the added challenge that any item used during the attempt cannot be used again for the duration of the challenge.

There are two types of levels: puzzle and action. Puzzles are levels where you are faced with a situation that you need to solve like producing an item that fits the requirement, whereas action usually deals with trap doors, switches and may require some dexterity. Of course, this game is not without flaw and the main problem would usually be the tendency of action levels becoming repetitive, but one would argue that it depends on the limitations of one's imagination.



Here's a list of interesting/useful objects I often use during gameplay.
Note: I'll be updating the list from time to time whenever I find something worthy ;)

Combining objects

• Glue
  
• Paste
  
• Tape

Connecting objects

• Cable
  
• Chain
  
• Rope
  
• Vine

Digging

• Jackhammer
  
• Shovel
  
• Spade
  

Flight Small scale (short flight but useful in tight spaces)

• Jetpack
  
• Magic broom
  
• Magic carpet
  
• Wings

Medium scale (permanent flight but limited power to tow)

• Pegasus
  
• Pterodactyl (faster)
  
• Sphinx
  

Big scale (bulky but more powerful) Needs runway

• Plane (all variations)

Omni-directional and floats in air

• Balloon (hot air balloon)
  
• Bomber (stealth bomber and can drop bombs)
  
• Rocketship
  
• Space shuttle (same as rocketship)
  
• UFO (the tractor beam below can lift objects but can also be troublesome)

Hooking

• Fishing rod
  
• Grappling hook

Platforms

• Bridge ladder
  
• Drawbridge

Friendly super powered beings

• God
  
• Superhero
  
• Zeus - see God

Interesting Villains

• Gorgon - turns people into stone, upon defeat, the head can be used once.
  
• Medussa - see Gorgon
  
• Vampire - turns people into ghouls
  
• Witch - uses a wand to turn people into frogs and eats them (ugh)

Unclassified but quite useful

• Blackhole - destroy almost everything in radius before dissipating
  
• Electricity - electrocutes (SPOILER: works wonders on switches)
  
• Garlic - kills a vampire upon contact
  
• Ghost - for scaring unarmed people, does not kill unless provoke
  
• Lightning - see electricity
  
• Magnet - easily attaches with glue, attracts metal
  
• Mech - mobile and shoots bullets!
  
• Poison - very useful for taming beasts such as T-Rex.
  
• Metal spike - very very destructive on contact
  
• Sun - lights a dark area and kills vampires
  
• Thunder - see electricity
  
• Toxicwaste (solid) - make animals sick on contact, turns humans to mutants
  
• Tractor beam - pulls anything in range
  
• Wormhole (destructive) - works exactly like blackhole
  
• Wormhole (intergalactic) - pulls from space a random intergalactic hostile being

Establishments These things don't have much use but usually spawn something

• Heaven - God
  
• Hell - devil
  
• Tomb - spawn limitless zombies (limited to a few onscreen)

Just Interesting

• Edy - summons a T-Rex with bandanna and cannot be tamed
  
• Maxwell - evil look alike that steals items
  
• Meteor - if dropped from sky, destroys everything including Maxwell
  
• Nuke - once activated, destroys everything including Maxwell
  
• Starite
  
• Teleporter
  
• Tsunami - destroys everything including Maxwell
  
• Time machine
  
• Win - gives you a useless starite

You are free to contribute by sending me PMs or post it in the comments below ;)

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Rebooking Tip for Promo Airfares

The cost of airline tickets especially for leisure can cause us a considerable amount of money. That is why promo airfares are real value savers.

To save cost, my sister and 3 of her friends decided to go to Hong Kong and availed of the promotion offered by Cebu Pacific. Early this month, they took their time to plan ahead with detailed daily itineraries as well. What they didn't expect was for their trip to be possibly cut short.

My sister left early Friday morning and is scheduled to return later tonight. Last night, I received an SMS from her telling me one of her companion's mom just passed away and they have to go back immediately. I contacted Cebu Pacific and inquired about rebooking my sister's flight. Here is what I learned:

Promo tickets are rebookable but with penalty. This means that change of date or time is allowed but charges will be applied. In this case, my sister was able to purchase her roundtrip ticket for Php5000 more or less. When asked how much it would take to rebook her return flight, the ticket center agent informed me that since the change will be made one day prior her departure from HK, she will have to pay Php5000 for the fee. Including the new ticket that she will be purchasing, she is to pay around Php12,000 overall.

Probably noticing my surprise, the agent offered this advice:

Forget about rebooking. Cancel the return flight and purchase a new return ticket. It was a better option because no rebooking fees will be paid. However, a new one would still cost Php11,000 if rounded up.

Eventually, the concerned party thought that it would be a shame to waste that much money. My sister and her other friends were there to support her no matter what and so they all decided to stick to their schedules.

In closing, I think promo fares are good for travelers, but the downside is that during emergencies, one just might end up spending more. Better be prepared for those kind of scenarios, I say.

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Creating and Editing Blog Templates

Due to unfinished post-processing that I need to do for the contents on our Singapore Trip, I had to put the posts on hold for now and instead used my time to study some methods on how to edit the blog templates ;). I used this tutorial site and found it easy to understand even for a noob like me.

I'm hoping to transform the layout into something more appealing, still working on the drafts though.

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Applying for a PayPal Account

For quite some time I've always bothered a friend to do my eBay transactions, mainly because I can't make the payments by myself due to the lack of my own PayPal Account. Recently I tried applying for my own account and was surprised that their new procedure was much easier than what I had thought... I was able to complete everything while multitasking during work hee-hee.

I also found a site that provides answers to most questions one would have when applying which was really helpful hence I'm posting a link to it ^^.
PayPal Application Instructions

The process can be broken down into a few parts:

• Creating the account - providing personal information and choosing account type.
  
• Verifying your email account - check email and click the link to activate or you can get the code and enter it in the PayPal account. (I used my Nokia N70's GPRS features to get the code for this step since online mails were blocked in the office)
  
• Attach a card to your account - to charge for your expenses.
  
• Confirming your card - You'll need to check the transaction PayPal sent to your account, it will have a sale description containing a code (e.g. PayPalxxxx where x are numbers). The easiest way is to check your account online, if not you have to wait for your statement to arrive. Since my account isn't enrolled and I can't wait for the statement, I called my card issuer instead and had the personnel check it for me instead.
  

With these tips you should be able to setup your PayPal account with minimal effort just like I did :).

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