Flight Rising: aka "So I heard you like dragons"

My friend Ash recently got me into an online game/social site called Flight Rising.

"It's awesome! It's like Neopets, but with dragons," she said.

"Dragons?!" I shrieked back.

Long story short, I basically signed up within .05 seconds of her telling me about it.

First Impression
It was a bit confusing at first, not going to lie. There are various things that you can do on the site: breed dragons, buy dragons, play games with dragons, battle other dragons, dress up dragons... you get the picture.

Do all the things!

Starting Out
When you first sign up, you get to pick a clan to join (which you can switch at any time). Depending on the clan, it confers a few benefits that I won't go into in this post.

After that, you get two dragons--one which you can customize the colors of, and the other with a random breed/color scheme. You can then start breeding them (they'll produce 1-5 eggs that have an incubation period), but it's a bit of a crap-shoot as to whether you'll get starter dragons that can make pretty baby dragons.

Here's a hint: I didn't.

I made a Fae-type dragon with a sunny-yellow color scheme, and then I got a Guardian with blue/green colors. They look nice separately, and even when placed next to each other, but not when combined.

I kind of wish I had a screenshot of the poor babies I hatched... on the other hand, maybe it's better for all of us that I don't. I promptly sacrificed--er, I mean, sent one them to serve the dragon god. Yes, there are dragon gods in the game that apparently oversee each clan.

The other I sold on the auction block for in-game money. It sold rather quickly, much to my surprise. But hey, money! Not going to complain. Hope you have a happy life elsewhere, unfortunately-colored dragon baby.

Where to Next?
I wasn't sure what to do while I waited the 5-ish days for my eggs to hatch. So I played some of the mini-games in the Fairgrounds section. My favorite has to be the Tidal Trouble one. It's basically a casual bubble-popper (much like the Fairy Bubbles game on Neopets).

It's so chill (and kind of addictive). And, like Neopets, you get in-game money each time you win! My kind of game.

Okay, I'm Rich: Now What?
After I accumulated a decent amount of moolah, it started burning a hole in my figurative pocket. So of course I had to figure out what I could spend it on.

That's when I discovered the Auction House.

More specifically, that's when I discovered you can buy pretty dragons at the Auction House.

And that's the moment that I fell in love into dragon hell.

What I've written about in this post is just the tip of the iceberg. There are forums that you can post in, and from what I can tell the community on there is pretty nice and supportive of new players. You can buy/sell items, train your dragons in battle in the Coliseum, and play around with other features of the site. I'm still getting used to the site, myself, but I may write another follow-up post in the future.

So, has this post made you want to start playing with dragons? Unfortunately, you might have to wait a bit, because Flight Rising only opens up to new player sign-ups on a periodic basis--I happened to get lucky because Ash let me know the last time sign-ups were open. But honestly, if you enjoy casual online pet-raising games, I think it's worth the wait. 

Practice Plan for February!

I've been practicing piano since I got my Yamaha digital piano in December (I plan to write a review on it later, so look forward to it!).

My piano upon unwrapping it--you'll have to pardon it for being so shy!

However, while I've been having a ball and feel like I've been learning a lot, I haven't really been committing to an actual practice of... well, practicing.

I've mainly been wandering up to the piano and playing whenever the mood strikes me. Fortunately, the mood's struck me fairly often, but I've noticed that it's starting to trail off a little. And that concerns me, but I also believe that this "malady" is rectifiable.

Know Thyself
Based on what I know about myself, I am fascinated by things I find new, interesting, and a bit challenging to figure out. I'm really competitive (ask anyone who's ever gone up against me in a board game), so that probably has something to do with it--I've got to beat the system!

But this also means that once I get used to something, there's a chance I might just drop it because I "figured it out enough."

I don't want that to happen with my piano.

Fortunately, the piano is a fantastic, many-many-many-headed creature. There are so many songs out there to learn and play! So I'm keeping that in mind as my "guiding star," in a way, to keep going.

It also helps that my piano was expensive, and who wants to flush a wonderful, expensive skill down the drain like that without putting up a good fight? Not me.

So I've decided that I'd like to start up a "practice plan" for the duration of February. I'm going to try and stick with it as much as possible... but if I miss a practice here and there for whatever reason, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. In my experience, beating myself up about small things never ends well.

Practice Plan for February '15!

• Practice 3 days a week for 30 minutes a day. 

I've found that I'm fine playing for around 15 minutes, and then it really helps me get back into it if I take a brief break (around 5 minutes). So I'll be operating on that schedule for the rest of the month.

If I go over the time, fine! If I decide to do a little less, I can deal with it. As long as I get any practice at all in, that's what matters in the end.

Don't Jump In Head-first
With me, it doesn't do any good for me to take on a huge amount of a hobby/interest at once--if I do, I end up crashing and burning more often than not. I'm trying really hard to pace myself this time with piano practice, all while reminding myself that:

1. This is not a race. There is no finish line.
2. "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." -Confucius