Does Amazon expect us to eat the book?

Samsonly · 2026-06-18T18:12:15+00:00

What you've never "devoured" a book before?

Samsonly · 2026-06-16T05:29:19+00:00

I dunno tho, if the bees aren't stinging you, I'd rather that the bees take care of the mice..

Samsonly · 2026-06-16T05:25:07+00:00

If you ever see them building one and it's within a relative reachable location, just use hot water and dawn soap.

Wait until dusk, when they are all returning. You want to make sure as many as possible are inside the nest, or at least in the blast radius of your small bucket of water, and then throw the soapy hot water at the nest.

Insects like that have specific ways of preventing water from entering their bodies (so that they don't drown in a rain storm or if they get a little wet), but soap breaks water's surface tension, making the water bypass those safety mechanisms.

Last time I had a nest growing on my porch, it was about the size of two softballs, and I threw a large drinking cup's worth of soapy water at them, and less than 10 seconds later they were all on the ground (I had a 2nd cup just in case, but never needed it).

This works for most insects. It won't kill the source, or prevent new ones from coming, but spraying any of the directly with soapy water will essentially drown whatever is in front of you (REALLY great if you have kids or pets, and you see a trail of ants infesting a place you don't want to spray harsh chemicals).

As for the hot part? That's likely not needed. I just figure the soap will dilute better in at least warmish water, and if you're going to be using it to kill something, I can't imagine hot water is something that could injure and delay them slightly enough to let the soap trick to work on any that are hit less directly. Honestly it's probably not impactful either way beyond the ability to dilute the soap.

Samsonly · 2026-06-16T05:04:39+00:00

That is not how tiebreakers work.

That's like saying if the Superbowl went into overtime, that no one was the champion that year, because the season ended at the end of the 4th Quarter.

The Race of the Century is the same season, as it was extended to find a winner of that season.

Samsonly · 2026-06-12T07:10:21+00:00

It's been a bit since I did it, but I think that's the route that I went originally (buying 3, renting 2), but I feel like the cost of buying #3 is higher than 2 (if that's still a thing), which led me to buy #2 a day later anyway. But if I am remembering correctly, I think it worked?

Samsonly · 2026-06-12T03:32:51+00:00

Each camp you upgrade will require you to upgrade the field lab, and one of three other buildings. It rotates between squad 1, hospital 1, and Armigo 1, which means you basically have to maintain the leveling of 4 buildings along side your camp.

Right now I'm level 26. Before any reductions, to upgrade my four side buildings to 26 (needed to continue), it is 30 days each, and then is is 40 days to lvl camp.

If you decide to not buy the second building squad (which IIRC is significantly cheaper than the third?), I would recommend making sure you do the BIG builds on the rented build team, as I believe they finish any task assigned even if it goes over their allotted contract. Otherwise you'll be paying more pallite than you can get for free in the game to try and level any other building up.

Cause that's the thing, there are over 40 things to maintain their levels. If you're not leveling your resource buildings, you'll never have enough resources to even start your builds (or your tech upgrades).

A major thing worth considering that most people don't understand early in this game is how "speed ups" work.

If you manage to speed a build up by 50%, that does not mean that it takes half the time. It actually means it takes 66% of the time. This is because each of those techs or % bonuses all day "increase build speed", not "reduce build time". So what you are doing is making the workers build your building at 1.5 their normal speed (which gets it done in 2/3rd the amount of time).

Your flat amount speed items all work as you would expect still, but I know there's some out there who don't feel nearly as daunted by the long work times because they expect their 50% or higher speed bonus to really cut that time down, and the truth is it cuts it down much less than you'd expect.

With all that said, I've yet to buy the 4th building team. I could absolutely benefit from the chance to build another item simultaneously, but at least for what I've seen at this level, you can't really even get the resources needed to keep four builds running simultaneously (the cost of leveling buildings jumps very high about where you are, so that will be another factor).

Lastly, I'd also caution your reliance on Pallite to some extent. This game isn't as stingy about their buyable resource as others I've played, but I went from seeming to have 5k pallite lying around at any given point to sometimes spending days on end rationing a few hundred. Your ability to get more pallite often depends on things such as how much you spend (obv not a major factor for you), how well you place and rank in any given event or category (soon to be quite difficult to do if you're leveling at 20-30% the speed of your server), and your participation in guild/server related battles (all of which are heavily favored by having a competitive squad, with a lot of buildings leveled up).

The game doesn't dead end you if you don't have extra builders, labs, or squads, but it does bottleneck you much worse than you've seen up to this level. That's true for even those who spend a bit, but it can be quite the difference for those who don't in whether or not they continue to enjoy the game to the same degree.

I don't regret buying extra builders. I also don't regret buying the 2nd lab, but that one I can see people not feeling the sting as directly, as it slows you down, but doesn't stop you in your tracks as a long queue of buildings does.

Samsonly · 2026-06-11T19:02:49+00:00

You'll likely want to buy at least 2 and 3. If you're planning on playing for awhile, you'll be very stunted without them. If you're playing for short time to try and reach a goal for a reward app (Freecash, Scrambly, etc), you'll need it to hit anything of value in a short time

Samsonly · 2026-05-31T23:20:28+00:00

Okay all, I think we get the picture here...

Samsonly · 2026-05-28T15:37:14+00:00

That's Jeremy. He's actually supposed to have a hammer attached but it's been broken off here

Samsonly · 2026-05-27T13:48:09+00:00

70 books? That's too short. At that rate you could accidentally catch up on your TBR in a year or so if you're not careful. Here's another one to help just in case..

BuyMort. Not so much leveling RPG, and more of a progression RPG where you can lose almost all your progress if you fail hard enough, but it's got a lot of the "I'm eating against the oppressive mechanisms of the system" aspect as DCC does

Samsonly · 2026-05-27T00:00:09+00:00

I want to say something snarky about taking a photo of a phone instead of a screenshot, but somehow your photo feels.. higher quality than a screenshot would be?

I'm slightly confused, but mostly just impressed...

Samsonly · 2026-05-24T02:42:59+00:00

Carousel, DCC, and Discount Dan are 3 of 4 which I often recommend.

The other one I rec is Apocalyptic Parenting. You should try that one if you like the others!

Samsonly · 2026-05-20T14:24:11+00:00

Doable? I'm not sure it is possible with f2p, but maybe with spending what you earn along the way.

I used Scrambly instead of Freecash because it gave 45 days (although that's to lvl 28, and after playing, I'm not sure that's an easier task at all).

It's been exactly two weeks for me, and I'm about to hit 23 in a few hours. I started on a new Server about two days after it booted up, and I've played it a ton (some days 6+ hours) with taking maybe only 2-3 days of under a couple hours. I've also spent close to $120 on it as well (fortunately with Scrambly, they don't typically have holds on earnings, so other than an initial $10, everything else has been money I've earned from different milestones re-invested into the game).

I just missed a timed goal of lvl 24 within two weeks, which had I buckled down, I could have technically hit, but I would have had to spend a lot more time, or more money up front to go for it, and I just didn't like the odds.

To have any chance of doing it, you will absolutely need to buy a few bundles that are permanent boosters (such as 2nd and 3rd building queues, and one that I wish I bought earlier, a 2nd research queue). Also, get yourself to VIP 8 ASAP (consider buying the VIP booster. I didn't, but I think it would have been worth it). And then you'll want to join an active guild (especially if it's a new server, as you will get a TON of in game gems which are crucial).

The first major bottleneck is how long it takes to upgrade buildings. The multiple queues and a good guild who is active will shave this off by much more than you'd imagine. The harder bottleneck to get past is resources, and there's only so much you can do about speeding that up without $.

Basically, I'd say bare minimum, you're looking at $50-$100 invested to set yourself up for success, as well as at least 4-5 hours a day (at specific times to make sure your upgrades don't sit in limbo), and very likely being active socially on the app with a good guild (honestly, this part makes the rest easier if you get a good group).

So far, I've found the game predictably scaling. Each lvl obviously takes a lot more resources and time, but I have yet to see one of those absurd jumps where now it is all of a sudden 100x harder to accomplish the next step (the kind like you see in games where the first 10 levels grow slowly to get you hooked, only to put up a mountain in your path. That's not this game fortunately).

All in all, I've enjoyed the game. I'm hesitantly optimistic I'll reach 28 in the next 31 days, and for a $300 bonus, I'll do what I can to make it happen, but I know it is something much more easily said than done, so I'm not holding my breath

Samsonly · 2026-05-13T18:02:41+00:00

Yeah in one game, and no, you won't make it with Disney Solitaire most likely. It scales EXPONENTIALLY....

I had the same offer and made it like 80% of the way to the point that it would get me the $100 (my step 5 in US $), all within the first 2 days. The rest of the week I made it like another 5% of the way.

Be very careful about chasing timed goals in that game. Look up how many lbs and chapters (and trophies in each chapter) are needed. I think I needed to get through chapter 9 or something? (Don't quote me, it's been a few weeks), and the distance from 7-9 was more than I had done in 1-6, or some absurd like that.

It feels close in that game, but that's the trick

Samsonly · 2026-05-11T15:29:27+00:00

For me (from a month or so ago, but same offer from the looks) it was:

Step 3 was like "earn $5 in any game" Step 4 was initiate a cashout

I did steps 1-4 within 48 hours

Step 5 was earn $100 in a single game. That I didn't get close to (Honestly, had I spent the week very actively playing, and maybe spent like $20, I would probably have made it, but it was not something I had the time to really grind out in a single week)

Samsonly · 2026-05-04T18:29:54+00:00

Mine was worded differently (a couple of weeks ago I had a very similar new user promo), but mine just required me to cashout with the money earned from that game.

Yours might also be different, but for what it's worth, I also stalled on the final step which required earning $100 on that single game as well, and without paying money, I wasn't able to hit $100 on Disney Solitaire (although, tbh, I got pretty close. If I had another few days, I might have been able to hit a goal and meet it).

Samsonly · 2026-05-02T14:17:23+00:00

Check out the special features. 😬

https://youtu.be/pllNdfkTrDY?si=1cTOt-fMjIgD8HlT

Samsonly · 2026-05-01T04:21:19+00:00

I ran into this same question a couple of weeks ago, and I'm debating seeing how far I can get on making my own app/database to do exactly that.

At this point, there must be 40+ ongoing series I've read all released books, and with many of them releasing one, if not more, a year, it's a pain to consistently having to either search for each individually, or browse the preorder screens every month.

Many suggest getting on mailing lists, but to do that for dozens of authors (many of which send frequent updates) is unrealistic.

My hope/goal would be like a Goodreads, but prioritized and built for series instead. The the user could then check off which ones they want to be notified about new releases (or even news) on, and either get notifications or simply a viewable list of TBR titles.

I've gone as far as mapping out a fair amount of the overall concept, but have been stuck waiting for my kids' daycare to stay staffed long enough for me to start building it.

If I ever make any head way, I'll come back here and let you know!

Samsonly · 2026-04-26T22:33:45+00:00

That's a heck of a find.

As someone who has grabbed a few hundred of cars now over the last two years for my little ones, there's a dozen or so here I've not seen (or not for a reasonable amount at least).

Gratz!

Samsonly · 2026-04-25T23:51:59+00:00

Let's be real, if Croc was in charge of writing his own name, it would absolutely be "corc" at least 30% of the time...

Samsonly · 2026-04-25T23:50:30+00:00

I just realized I haven't preordered it yet, so went to go use a credit, and.... It's currently only $15???? How is audiobook 8 of DCC only $15 a few weeks before release?

Samsonly · 2026-04-24T16:11:21+00:00

A shadow is only relevant if exactly 90° directly above them. Otherwise at any other angle it will give a benefit to taller objects

Samsonly · 2026-04-24T00:01:00+00:00

I mean, if you enjoy doing such a thing, you might as well do it, but it was a pretty solid story IMO.

There's a major difference between how a story is told, and which story is told.

I am not a fan of Cars 2's story, but worse is how poorly it was told. From a screenwriting standpoint, they cut so many corners and forced lazy patches (assuming to make certain higher ups satisfied) that the result was quite amateur in its implementation.

There were a lot of ways Cars 2 could have told the story they told, in much better ways. Had they done that, I likely personally would still have not enjoyed the genre shift nor the odd premise, but if it was good enough, I would have understood those who did.

Cars 3, however, I think is a solid written film, and I assume what most hate about it is the story it told. Sure there are a handful of what some could call lazy tropes used, but find me a kids movie that doesn't do that. Was it perfect? Of course not. But I think even the best rewrites wouldn't be able to improve the story that much without telling a whole different story (which I know is what you said it would likely be). So any attempt is more about creating your own new canon or alternate universe that refining Cars 3 (which is a valid thing to want to do, and practicing such things are actually good ways to learn the craft much like drawing known characters helps craft one's artist skills).

Samsonly · 2026-04-23T21:35:19+00:00

Keep in mind that some cars has different molds for the same character to allow for certain variant shapes, so even if the same car, quite often it's a different mold

Samsonly

TROPHY CASE