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Balatro is INTERESTING

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  Hello there, Blogsketteers! Today I'll be talking about a game plenty of you know (I think):  BALATRO. If you don't know, this game won GAME OF THE YEAR last year. I found it when I saw a video by hit YouTuber Markiplier , who played the game, and decided to buy it off the Play Store. What is this game about? BALATRO is a deck-builder roguelite that was released last year in February by LocalThunk . This is a card game where you score chips to beat a BLIND , so you can move up in an ANTE , eventually beating the BOSS BLIND in that ante and moving to the next ante. How do you do that? Well, let's get into the game's main mechanics first so you can beat the blind. First and foremost, when you select a blind, you are drawn 8 cards in a set deck of 51 cards. In order to score chips, you need to select up to five cards and then play those cards. And if those cards line up to a POKER HAND , chips and MULT are added. (Chips being the base amount of points the cards...

Building Future Advocates: Likha’s Cradle’s 'Speak, Sustain, Succeed' Workshop

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  Hey everyone! Recently, Likha’s Cradle hosted a workshop called "Speak, Sustain, Succeed." It was all about learning how to debate — especially for people who had never tried it before — and using those skills to speak up for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (17 SDGs). The 17 SDGs are: No poverty. Zero hunger. Good health and well being. Quality education Gender equality. Clean water and sanitation. Clean and affordable energy. Decent work and economic growth. Industry, Innovation and infrastructure.  Reduced inequalities Sustainable cities and communities.  Responsible consumption and production. Climate action. Life below water. Life on land. Peace, justice, and strong institutions. Partnerships for the goals. We got to meet some awesome experts who taught us a lot about the 17 SDGs. Let me introduce them to you! DAY 1 We kicked things off with opening remarks from Likha's Cradle President and founder, Meghan Uyao , and a prayer led by Ysa, then we were introduce...

Hello Señorita! (How we adopted a cat)

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 Hey! My family adopted a cat a couple of months ago. Her name? Señorita. Señorita came from a nonprofit organization— AMPON ALAGA —which my mom had been following on Facebook. After a couple of interviews, we were approved for adoption. And she’s been… quite nice to have around. At first, she was confused, but she settled in fast. I soon found out how playful she was. She spent her first few days chasing toys nonstop. Pro tip: Don’t use a laser pointer! What media shows may be cool to humans, it stresses them out.) Over time, she picked up new habits—like chasing balls around the house or asking my parents to carry her to the yard where she can look at the world. She loves watching birds from the upstairs window. Since one of her favorite windows is in my room, she often wanders in in the morning. I’ve also helped with her—cleaning her with wet wipes, feeding her probiotics, playing with her, and once, removing her from my science project after she tried to eat it! My brothers are...

Likha's Cradle's Voice for the Voiceless

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  Have you heard of VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS: JAM FOR A CAUSE? It's a concert that was meant to raise money for the unfortunate strays on the street. How much was raised? First you gotta understand why the concert was created in the first place. I already mentioned that the concert was made to raise money for stray animals, but it was also intended for unfortunate pets. Because all children deserve a father, but not all men deserve a child -- this also applies to pets because many “pets” are being ABUSED by their fur parents. At the moment, there are approximately 12M stray and abused animals. 12 MILLION stray animals and non-stray, but ABUSED animals in the Philippines alone! Now that you know WHAT this concert was for, let me introduce to you Lihka’s Cradle and its founder, Megan Uyao. Megan, when she was younger, saw the abuse of a poor stray puppy on the street by several passersby. She took the puppy under her wing. This became one of the core reasons why she started a welf...

Code Campassion: Creative Coding with Pixel and Python to Raise Funds for Animal Welfare

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 Hello there! It's been a while, hasn't it? Now, from the name of this blog, it's about the welfare of animals. Let me get straight to the point. Currently, there are more than 12 MILLION stray animals in the Philippines. Even WORSE, there are about 3,000 reports of animal abuse, and those are just the cases that WERE reported, so there could be WAY more cases.  Recently, I went to a fund raising event hosted by Megan Uyao, founder of Likha's Cradle, where this was a concern. Here is how it went: The Event The event was pixel art coding, and it was called “Creative Coding with Pixel and Python.” It was a fun event, and it started with a presentation by Megan herself and a few others whom she invited, including a Ms. Ilene Riego (who is a friend of my mom, by the way). She talked about her ADOPTED dogs and how there were a few dogs in her neighborhood that were being neglected and even abused. Honestly, I felt really bad for those dogs. The ones she adopted were from an ...