Apples to Apples- Game review

I always find that it’s hard to please little kids at the same time as teenagers and elderly people. “Apples to Apples” is a great board game, or as a family game, because of the simplicity of the rules, and the low maintenance. The first time I played, was on New Year’s Eve, and the rules were extremely easy to pick up, and understand!



red cards- comparing or defining cards



When I wrote that “Apples to Apples” is a simple game, it is. The goal to the game is to win five times, (or get five green cards). To set up for the game, players must organize the green cards (words), and the red cards (defining words). In this process, each player grabs six red playing cards (players are allowed to look at the inside parts of the cards). One player is then chosen to be the “judge” first. The judge’s role for the first round is to pull out a green card out of the green card pile, and flip it over in the middle of the group of players. After this, the other players choose which of their red cards represent the word in the middle (the most), face down. After all the other players have put down their cards, the judge flips the red cards over, and reads them out loud. The judge then picks the red card that (realistically, logically, or in his/ her opinion) represents the green card the most. The player whose card was picked by the judge calls out that he/ she had been picked, and then takes the green card. All red cards go into the “discard” pile, and this session restarts until one player wins five green cards. Also, every ‘session’ the group changes the judge of the game, clockwise around the players.

Apples to Apples is a game of cards that doesn’t let anyone have a “wrong” judgement, play or turn. It is set up with two decks of cards, one (green) that has a word that should be described by the other cards, and the other, (red) that describe the word on the green cards. (Ex: green card: funny, red cards: a comedian, a ghost, or a teacher.) The game is low maintenance, with only cards as the game pieces, and is simple to learn, and play with younger or older people. The game can be a short game, or a long game, depending on how fast you want to play it. Though the ages for apples to apples is ages 9 and up, we played with six year olds!

“Apples to apples” was a great 'board game' (without an actual board). The game can be varied, time wise,

apples to apples cover

because of the loose set of rules. In the game, players just need to win five set of games, and they can win. While playing “Apples to Apples”, players can change the 'winning point' in the game, lengthening or shortening it to their preference. This board game or card game requires very little materials. All the players need to play 'Apples to Apples', is a stack of green cards (words), a larger pile of red cards (defining words), and the players! Lastly, the simple card game is child- friendly. There are very few games that young children (six year olds), teenagers, adults and elderly can all enjoy- at the same time, during the same game. This has actually been quite a big problem in my family, but when we played this game, we were able to all play, satisfied. So, anyone can really play “Apples to Apples”, because you don’t require any knowledge, depending on the style that a group of players play.

There are barely any cons to the game “Apples to Apples”. In the card game, while my family was playing, some of the words (either on the red cards, or green cards) were a little too complicated for my younger brothers. When we played, we played by our opinions, but we couldn’t play (the version of playing in reference to real definitions) because some of the words were more advanced and complicated for the younger people in my family. But overall, I didn’t really find any problems, or confusing components while playing the game “Apples to Apples”, but I learned to play this game while playing with a group of people who already knew how to play. If I were to play “Apples to Apples” from scratch, it would probably be a little different.

As you may have been able to tell, I am quite fond of “Apples to Apples”. I really enjoy games that have loose rules. In this game, there are different ways to play! As a judge, you can “judge” the cards by opinion, or by a dictionary or thesaurus. You don’t necessarily have to make sense in the game; really just depending on the way the judges choose who wins. In a family or group with lots of different ages, I find it hard to find a game for everyone. “Apples to Apples” lets in different interests to people, and levels of knowledge (you don’t have to be very knowledgeable to the topics, depending on the way you play), because there is really no wrong answer, or move in the game!
I would rate “Apples to Apples” seven out of ten, because it was a great game for the family, and had simple rules that can be varied to your personal taste! The reason why I didn’t choose a higher rating is because of the little amount of creativeness of the game. There aren’t many complicated, or thought out rules that would make this game extremely original, comparing to other games.

Watch the tutorial vido of
How to play Apples to Apples!

MR. Samec, my other blogs aren't marked...

for some reason, I can't upload pictures to my blog.

Book Review (PRINT), The Vindico

              The "Vindico"was an amazingly written, planned out and "out of the box" novel! If you enjoy reading about the X-men, (or Marvel/ D.C Comics) this would be a great book to start reading. The story is based in the modern age (now, in 2012- 2013) but Super heroes (called the "League") and Super villains (called the "Vindico") are real. All the two main opposing "teams" want nothing for each other but pain, agony and revenge. Deeper into context, the Super villains decided that they were aging and no longer could
keep theSuperheroes defeated. They kidnap five teenagers, and grant them super powers! I find this book

extremely intriguing to readers, as the fictional super powers from comic books finally emerge, releasing into a larger and unlimited way to see Superheroes and Super villains, in our modern world!

            As on the cover of the book, it says that five teenagers, swept out of their daily and annoying lives, into a mansion belonging to the enemies of their heroes. The Vindico, a notorious group of villains, wanting nothing but revenge on the infamous Superheroes (The “League”), create a plan. The solution to their problems was to create a group of new Super villains, who would become their protégés. They decide to kidnap the teenagers, and grant them any super power imaginable- as long as they pledged allegiance to them. Sadly, the Vindico technically didn't give a choice to the teenagers.
 The punishment for not staying within the mansion's premises was pain- a lot of pain. At some point in the book, one of the characters decided to run away from the mansion, including the villains who were able to kill him easily. He ends up getting caught by one of the villains, and punish him severely (I don't want to ruin the story). After the protégés learn to use/ get their powers, they start to fight side by side with their mentoring Villains. After killing a Famous Hero, by an accident, the teenagers decide that being mass murdering Villains was not what they wanted to do. From that point on, they try to create a plan that would erase the fact that they side the Super Villains, but still make them look innocent enough to not get punished by the Superheroes!

              In the Vindico, there are many characters. In other reviews, some readers find that there are to many primary characters, and supplementary characters. The author gives five main characters (The protégés), all of their families, friends and bullies, six Main Villains, (plus the Villains who'd died previously), more than ten main Superheroes, and their protégés. Despite the large amount of characters, the story wasn't as confusing, as the book progressed through the story. Since the whole novel was basically based in one place(inside the Villain's mansion), it was easy to follow the story. I enjoyed the fact that the characters in the story were clearly thought out. All the characters had a weakness, or a reason to want revenge on something, or someone in their lives. "James Renwick", one of the protégés (age fourteen) who received super strength, was broken hearted at school, after dating, but his x-bestfriend. He, of all characters in teh book would have an excuse to want revenge on his ex-best friend, making it a reason why the Villains would make him one of their protégés. Already having fury and vengeful thoughts within himself, the Villains could simply just toy with his brain, and manipulate him into wanting to "side" with the Villains! James's mentoring villain is the "Torturer", who has super strength, and had a similar backround lifestyle to James. Along with James Renwick, there were four other protégés. Hayden Lockwood, who is sixteen.His family had abandoned him, making him into a lovable, despicable character. His family story is disguised by his funny personality. Before he is kidnapped by the Vindico, he already naturally has "telekinesis" (has the ability to control the motion/ where something moves). Hayden's mentor, known as Leni, is  a strict, brute villain, (who had actually been kicked out of the League of Heroes, which had caused him to side the enemy of his previous Super hero friends.) The next character is Lana Hunter, described as a 'weak' and defenseless teen, before she was turned into a  'mutant'. She gets kidnapped while having a perfect example of her "defenselessness", but gains strength and agility, as her powers. Her mentor, Avaria, has a sad background. Her husband had given her artificial powers, illegally, and he was part of the League of Super heroes. The League killed him, and a villain was formed, after the new powers were given to Avaria. The next protégé is fourteen year old Emily Lau. She is a well online-known hacker, and was kidnapped after she hacked the Super hero (top-secret) website. She and her mentor, "Rono", are technology professionals. The last protégé is Sam Bennett. He's a shy, telepathic eleven year old, and his mentor's name is "Sliver". Sliver is a joking and teasing villain, who was amused by playing cruel jokes on the other protégés minds. Lastly, there is the Barron. He is the center of the Vindico, and previously was the heart of the League of heroes. He is shown as a smart, but aged character. The rest of the characters in the "Vindico" are the League of heroes, and the protégé's parents, friends and bullies.


In my opinion, the "Vindico" was a well written book. the author, 'Wesly King' is a creative author, who blended in the older marvel (x-men) comics with a modern twist, into a novel. It worked out amazingly, and overall, it was quite appropriate for children. The violence wasn't extremely gorry, because the worst punishment done was described in great detail, until the actual part that the character had gotten hurt. "Hayden saw the trees turn around, and wrapped towards him, hovering. The pine trees started rapidly spinning, floating towards him. "This can't be good," he thought."'
Then the chapter ended, making the content less gory. The only thing that I didn't appretiate as much, is that I really don't enjoy romance in books. This would be a point that would probably change the mind of someone who was younger, or who didn't like dating, romance,   etc. Almost every protégé was kidnapped after/ in the                            (Picture of the X-men)
process of being in a broken relationship, or a romance ending. Lastly, the book contained a number of ( my standard) of swear words. Even though it seemed appropriate to the environment/ time, I still didn't enjoy those parts as much.  I find that the story was extremely easy to read, and it was hard to put the book down! Except for a few romantic, or inappropriate (language) this book would be great to start reading! Out of the rating of ten, I'd give "The Vindico" an eight (8/10). I gave this suspenseful novel an eight out of ten, because of the originality of the context, or topic, and the smooth run of the story line.  "The Vindico" should be definitely placed above average. Also, I found that if comic book readers wouldn't read novels, the comic fans would quickly take the Vindico and get drawn to it! It has the same suspense and  story lines of the X-men, and actually gives out more imagination, then some comic books!


In summary, I enjoyed The Vindico very much. Since I liked reading the X-men, I was really interested in this fast paced, suspenseful, and creative story! This book actually won a various amount of prizes, and was in our reading competition, last year.  Except for the overcoming amount of characters, the personal rating of over inappropriate language, and the romance (my preference), this book was an original, fun and easy book! I definitely advise readers to read this novel, or at least skim through it. ( I've already advised people!)
(Author of The Vindico, Wesly KING)

what can mr Samec do to make science class more interresting, or successful?

Mr. Samec is a great teacher, and has taught us science descriptively with vivid demonstrations, and tries to have the grade eight classes interact during lessons. But somehow, all the science classes got an averge lower than 70% average. Still, after a huge review session, the average marks were still extremely low. Why did the classes not get a descent average, after all the work done before the tests and activities? Is his class not interactive, or interresting enough? I think that our class understands the basic areas in the science unit that we had our first test on. I just think that our grade is just not used to the format and questions given in the tests. I don't think that the class is used to 'stretching' the knowledge that is already known, so this is partially the reason of why the mark average of the grade eight science test had been extremely low. Since the grade eights are not very prepared for the tests given, I think that we should have class done quizzes that don't count for marks, then gradually changing to quizzes that count towards our marks. This would help the students understand what the test could resemble, and be more prepared for the tests. This could also help reassure the students,(when pressured by the on coming tests.) Another thing that I realized, for math homework, truthfully,I hadn't finished all my homework for parts of the weeks in September. For some people, this could also be a problem, as it was for me in the first month of school. I think that giving a small penalty for unfinished homework would be appropriate, or giving seatwork of what the topic of the homework had (that they had not finished). Giving the student work to do would make the student do what they were supposed to do, and would know the information better. But on the negative side, students should not have teachers chasing them and forcing them to get good marks. This could be a little bit 'over the top' in some teachers' opinions. Lastly, if there were some after school days where people could come and work,ask questions, or review parts of the material, (an established date) would convince people/students to come and ask for help. Acing an established date would ensure that they could get help. Usually, this could convince students to come, instead of an open invitation, or coming to ask questions on their own. To conclude,since the grade eights are not completely used to the tests and material, I think Mr. Samec should give previous tests to prepare the students, as quizzes. I think this should not be counted for marks, but as a sneak peak into the science test. Sometimes, unfinished homework could affect the understanding to the concept being learned, so I think the students should have penalties ( such as detention, homework, or loss of points). I also think that having a club for talking about the subject after school could help the students who want to get help. Other than the information noted above, I don't think that Mr. Samec needs to do any more!

the bolded words are new paragraphs

do I believe in intelligent life outside our earth, in the Universe?

I do not agree in the belief of intelligent life in the universe. First of all, the concept of alien life is not biblical and I for one believe that the Bible is a historically sound document, with all due respect to other religions. Another is that there is no ‘irrefutable proof about it. Even if the bible isn’t considered completely irrefutable, the concept of having aliens in space is substantially more refutable; we have no documented official events nor proof to show that aliens are non-fictional either. On earth, most living things depend on the conversing climates, atmosphere, nutrition etc. Suppose there was supernatural or intelligent life outside our world, then the beings would have to be drastically different from human beings, since humans cannot live in climates other than earth’s perfect chemical balance. Lastly, the Hubble telescope had been sent years before 2013, and to this day has not found any life in the universe. If there were aliens in space, computers, space crafts, telescopes, or ‘rovers’ should have already discovered a new life form in the milky way, or even the vast, empty universe by this point in time. As I am a Christian I may be biased onwards as to the question: ‘if there is intelligent life in the universe, other than those on earth?’ However, I believe what the bible says is true and in reading my bible I find there is no reference to any other intelligent life than those on earth. I have no intention to offend any reader, but God created man in his image and if there were beings on another planet with the same substantial needs as humans, then humans would not be more important than those other beings. However, if humans are in God’s image, surely he would expect humans to be more valuable than those other beings. This would also mean that we should have this information in the written bible, which we don’t. In the technology of astronomy and space, humans have yet to find any irrefutable information on alien life forms. If they had, there would be no more debates against intelligent life outside the earth. But since the ‘events’ happening have no real credulity, or official proof, I definitely take a stand on disagreeing to the concept of ‘alienism’. The Hubble telescope had been sent up a couple of years ago and has still not found any real life forms along the way. What could possibly be outside of the earth’s atmosphere, if nothing has ever found it yet? Along with the Hubble telescope, rovers track down additional information roaming all over planets. Yet they haven’t found any intelligent life yet either. I really don’t believe that there could ever be intelligent life, with all the advanced technology we have today, already. So far, in our view of life, life has to be supplied with a proper climate, nutrition, atmosphere, and more! It would be extremely rare to find a planet, with the specific life sources provided on our earth. If there were aliens, they would basically be extremely different from humans, because of the rarity of the sources that are on earth. If the beings on another planet do not necessarily need all the foods, climate and atmosphere, the aliens would therefore not look similar to us. The aliens would look different, and act differently from us. To conclude, I do not believe in any sort of intelligent life, even if I’ve watched many sources of other examples of alien life forms. I believe in what the bible says, and aliens have no reference in the bible. Our technology has brought us very far in the world of space, and nobody has ever been able to prove that aliens are non-fictional, and still remains refutable. Even if aliens were real, I believe that there would be no possibility of having a planet, or species parallel to human beings. Aliens would look remotely different. In the end, I have no belief of intelligent life, other than the ones on earth, in the Universe.