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Teacup the frog has finally made the leap onto mobile devices. Published by Whitethorn Games, this is a short narrative game that will appeal to a very specific audience. And for anyone to whom this appeals, it will provide a few hours of family-friendly entertainment.

The premise of the game is fairly simple. the protagonist is a frog named Teacup, who at best is shy, at worst, potentially agoraphobic. Shes hosting a tea party, but has run out of tea, and only realises the day before her party. Quite the dilemma.

Your job in the game is to help Teacup travel around the woods, interacting with a host of different characters, while finding ingredients to make different types of tea. Call of Duty, this is not.

Teacup is absolutely not a game you should play if you want fast-paced, action-packed, adrenaline-fuelled excitement. It is about as far away from those types of games as it is possible to get.

What Teacup is, is a very gentle, slow-paced game. It is much more like Wind In The Willows. Its very much a narrative game with point-and-click elements, as you approach characters and objects, and press a button to interact with them.

It is a game that would be suitable for playing with children, or for anyone who wants to play something soothing, relaxing and easy. And while this wont be for everyone, there are definitely times in life where easy has its place.

If there was one word to sum up Teacup, it is wholesome. Everything about the game is gentle.

The graphics are almost illustrative in their composition. The sort of artwork you might find in a childrens book. The animals and environments are well-drawn, while the colours are soft, pastel shades. Everything about it whispers relax.

The game itself is very simple, and accessible to almost anyone no prior competence with video games is required. It also has an auto-save feature, so players wont lose any progress if they get interrupted part way through. You move around a 2.5D environment, talking to the characters as you go.

There are minigames to complete as Teacup goes through her journey. These arent especially taxing, and include things like finding objects, remembering sequences, or completing a shape puzzle. but none of these is difficult, and there are hints readily available if you start to struggle.

While you could never call the characters well-rounded with a compelling background story of their own, they are, nonetheless, charming in their own way. From a ballon-vendor whose balloon stand floated away, to a mean-looking gang of raccoons who love knitting, there are gentle moments of humour that manage to raise a smile.

And overlaying all of this is the music. A gentle string and piano melody plays in the background. It invites you into a state of deep relaxation.

Its a game you will probably complete in a couple of hours, so we cant talk about it having great depth or challenge. And its a slow game. Your character doesnt do anything at speed. And occasionally, movement can be a little bit awkward. But these are minor quibbles, and in some ways, thats almost the point of the game. It forces you to go slowly.

There isnt much to say about the controls, other than how incredibly simple they are.

A circle button in the bottom-left of the screen controls movement. A button in the bottom-right allows you to interact with objects and characters. And your tea book in the top-left corner lets you see what else you need to find.

Its very simple, and theres very little that can go wrong. Its precisely as the game is intended.

As we said earlier on, this is not a game thats going to appeal to everyone. It is slow, it is simple, and it is short. But Teacup is a charming game that is very good at achieving what it sets out to do.

If youre anxious, stressed, or tired, and dont want to play a game thats too taxing, then you could do a lot worse than give Teacup a go.

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Teacup Review: Not Everyone's Cup Of Tea - DroidGamers

Four Alices will lead the adventure. Front row from left, Olivia Piervincenti, Emilia Gregori; andsecond row from left, Rory Boyles, Emily Tinder. Photo: Carolyn Chason Photography

Aug. 24. Fans of Alice can prepare to enter the fantasy of Alices Adventures in Wonderland: An Immersive Experience on the campus of Pioneer Springs Community School in Charlotte.

ACTivate Community through Theatre artisticdirector Wrenn Goodrum has conceived the immersive experience and adapted the script from the book by Lewis Carroll.

Up to 16 audience members per Alicein this production there are four Alices must make a choice to follow Alice either through The Garden Adventure or The Forest Adventure.

As the show is an outdoor experience, be sure to have bug spray and sunscreen handy.

The Garden Adventure will guide you from the Duchess and the Cook, Humpty Dumpty, the Gardeners and the Flowers, before navigating an incline to walk down into the Hatters Tea Party. Viewers will find places to rest in and around the school, including its garden.

The Forest Adventure will encounter the Cheshire Cats, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, The Caterpillar Diva and the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, all on a path through the forest near a pond. This trip will have no seating along the way.

Each journey winds up at the Mad Hatters Tea Party, where a cookie and beverage will be served.

Audiences will have a chance to play croquet with The Queen, King and Knave of Hearts. In the grand finale, everyone will witness Alices trial.

Details

11 am, 1:30 pm, 4 pm Saturday, Sept. 24.

1:30 pm, 4 pm Sunday, Sept. 25.

11 am, 1:30 pm, 4 pm Saturday, Oct.1.

1:30 pm, 4 pm Sunday, Oct. 2.

The play will be performed at Pioneer Springs Community School, 9232 Bob Beatty Road, Charlotte.

Tickets are $21.50.

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Tickets on sale for the outdoor exploit Alices Adventure in Wonderland: An Immersive Experience - corneliustoday.com

The hubs and I took our first week-long vacation for the first time in 35 years. Just the two of us, booked flights and a room, gone for five nights (OK, not quite a week).

But to the best of our recollection we had not taken a trip, just the two of us, for that many nights. Honestly, I was little nervous we wouldnt be able to handle that much together time.

Fortunately, we picked a location with plenty to see and do and that kept us busy. If you havent traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, I suggest you put that on your bucket list. We had been to other cities on the East Coast, but not to Boston. So much history, so much education, and so many old establishments.

We started with a Boston Red Sox versus New York Yankees baseball game our first night. That was fun and we randomly ran into a cousin from Austin who also happened to be attending the game. Small world for sure.

The next morning we hit the Freedom Trail and then just started checking things off the list. Hop on/hop off trolley, Duck tour, Boston Tea Party, Cheers bar, Union Oyster House (oldest restaurant in Boston), Boston massacre, Paul Reveres house. Then we ventured off and found a few treasurers on our own.

The Beantown Pub, which is the only bar in town where you can drink a cold Sam Adams beer and look at a cold Sam Adams in the cemetery across the street. Wish I had a $1 for every time I heard someone say that last week.

We visited some very old churches and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, toured Harvard University and the USS Constitution. Boston does not lack for a variety of awesome food. We were told Little Italy in the North End has 87 Italian restaurants. We enjoyed a few of those. And the lobster rolls, crab cakes and clam chowder did not disappoint, not to mention the cannelloni.

Never had a tour guide tell us how many bars were in the area but they were in abundance.

We walked more than 40 miles that week. Probably a good thing, considering all the food and beverages we consumed. We took many scenic detours, not always on purpose. Our first full day in Boston we walked almost 12 miles. As the week progressed we logged fewer miles each day.

A whale watching tour was on the schedule the day before we were to fly out. However, a storm that was brewing in the harbor put a kink in those plans.

All in all we had an amazing time. The weather was perfect, everyone was friendly, the city was clean and safe and we are still married. We might take another trip, just the two of us. Although the next trip may be a day shorter. I really missed my dog.

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Put Boston on your bucket list | East Bernard Express | journal-spectator.com - Wharton Journal Spectator

FILE - The exterior of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington, on March 22, 2013. One of Washington's favorite punching bags, the Internal Revenue Service, may finally get the resources it's been asking Congress for if Democrats get their economic package focused on energy and health care over the finish line. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

One of the most laughable talking points coming from Democrats in the aftermath of President Joe Bidens signing of the bogusly named Inflation Reduction Act is that Republicans are making mountains out of molehills over the $80 billion in new funding given to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to, among other things, add close to 87,000 new agents to their roster.

The lefts responses whenever the issue comes up are to either falsely claim that the new agents will only target the super-rich for audits or to suggest that if Republicans have nothing to hide then they shouldnt be afraid of a little phone call or knock on the door from the IRS just to make sure theyre on the up and up.

For starters, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that at least $20 billion from future audits from the beefed-up IRS will come from those making less than $400,000 a year, with much of that amount actually coming from those making under $200,000 a year.

Further, anyone suggesting people have nothing to fear as long as they havent done anything wrong has a) never had to go through an IRS audit and/or b) doesnt get that saying such things is a whole lot like telling someone that they have nothing to fear from the police and investigators questioning them without a lawyer present as long as theyve done nothing wrong.

Not only that, but because our tax code is so massive and burdensome, its easy to make an honest mistake on a tax return and an honest mistake is a far cry from doing something deliberate to avoid paying your taxes. So no, this is not about tax cheats wanting to get away with fudging numbers; this about honest people not wanting to go through the ordeal which includes a lot of lawyers and a lot of stressful nights worrying and digging through paperwork of an IRS audit.

Consider this, too: In addition to all the new IRS agents, as of the beginning of this year, companies such as PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App now have to report all transactions per taxpayer that total over $600 to the IRS. All of that will be treated as income on which you will be taxed. It will be up to you to prove your son was just reimbursing you for all the dinners and lunches during the year he didnt pay for.

Last but not least, after what happened to Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status under the Obama-Biden administration with the IRS ultimately apologizing in 2017 for screening their applications based on their names or policy positions, [and] subjecting those applications to heightened scrutiny and inordinate delays, Republicans have every right to be alarmed over the IRS doubling in size.

Heres an idea for Democrats who have been spouting off the nothing to fear and only targeting the super-rich pablum: As a gesture of good faith, step up and volunteer to be audited, no matter how long it takes, no matter how much digging you have to do, whether you make over $400,000 a year or not. After all, if youve done nothing wrong, whats the problem?

And when were done with that, we can start auditing the federal government to see if theyve been responsible in how theyve spent our hard-earned tax dollars. Because if theres fraud and underhandedness in this country to be found, that would be the absolute best place to start.

But what needs to be done before all of that is something that is long overdue: We must simplify the U.S. tax code. I repeat: We must simplify the U.S. tax code.

North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.

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MATTHEWS: Republicans have every right to fear the coming IRS expansion - North State Journal

No one will say it, but it is becoming more and more obvious every day. This is not Joe Bidens first presidential term. This is Barack Obamas third.

Obama led a destructive revolution against the United States, from the top, during his eight years in the White House. During Donald Trumps four years there, he stopped and even reversed some of Obamas fundamental transformations. Radical elites inside and outside the government, many of whom were and are connected to Obama, put up immense resistance; and when the 2020 presidential election came, they waged all-out war. That war is still ongoing, with the latest and perhaps most significant battle since the election itself being over an unprecedented raid on Mr. Trumps personal home.

During and just after the Obama years, government agents spied on journalists, members of Congress and the Trump campaign, and they raided the homes and offices of several of his attorneys. But never in U.S. history have government agents raided a presidents home.

The warrant was approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart and was carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its latest and perhaps most egregious interference into politics, apparently on the pretext of archiving presidential records. After the public demanded an explanation for the unprecedented raid, Reinhart unsealed the warrant that authorized it, but he also allowed the Department of Justice to redact most of the names of the agents involved. When an unredacted copy leaked to the public, we found out that not only does this attack on President Trump trace back once again to the fbi, but it traces back once again to the exact same agents who have been attacking him for years!

During an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on August 14, American attorney Kash Patel noted that the fbi raid on Mar-a-Lago starts and ends with Russiagate. Yet former House of Representatives Intelligence Committee member Devin Nunes disagreed, saying the fbis war against President Trump is really a war against the U.S. Constitution that began years before Donald Trump ran for office. I think this actually goes back pre-Russiagate hoax, he said. I think it goes back to the irs scandal where they targeted conservatives. I think it goes back to Fast and Furious during the Obama administration where they ran guns and tried to set people up, you remember, and innocent Americans ended up getting killed. It goes back to Benghazi; they got away with that.

Although even Nunes will not say it directly, the sustained attack by a federal policing agency against Donald Trump goes back to Barack Obama!

Obama began weaponizing the governments administrative agencies against the American people after he was elected in 2008. Both of his presidential terms were filled with scandals, such as the Internal Revenue Service targeting groups with tea party or patriot in their names. Of course, these scandals made headlines when they broke, but many Americans did not pay enough attention to them until Patel and Nunes began exposing how the Obama administration tried to frame Trump of crimes in Russia that he never committed. But the witch hunt against Trump is only the latest development in a much larger witch hunt against anyone who believes in Republican principles and traditions like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties.

In many ways, the Biden administration is even worse than the Obama administration because several of the most radical people Obama appointed to administrative office are now running their respective administrative departments. Freddy Gray, the deputy editor of the Spectator, made this point almost two years ago, when he wrote that the incoming Biden administration is arguably more Obamaish than the original Obama administration was. In 2008, when Barack won the White House, he was a Washington neophyte who had to contend with the considerable power of the Clintons. His campaign chiefs could only stand aside and gripe as Hillary Clinton, the woman Obama had beaten to become the Democratic nominee, became secretary of state and pushed her allies into the best positions. This time, its the Biden campaign people grumbling as Team Obama swoops back in.

The same Obama appointees who audited tea party groups without cause while running guns to drug cartels are now ransacking through Melania Trumps wardrobe while running guns to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the Railroad Retirement Board. So you can say this about Obamas people: They never get tired, they never give up, and they view every day as another opportunity to gain territory.

There should be no tut-tutting about the unprecedented fbi raid on Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate, reported American Greatness. It is exactly what it looks like: a show of force against the opposition leader by the head of state and his personal bodyguards. If this happened in any other country, it immediately would be denounced as the act of a dictator. But since it is being done by Joe Biden, the putative leader of our democracy, we are being told to wait and see whether this extraordinary action was justified as the Left does a war dance.

You cannot argue with that logic. If Vladimir Putin, Recep Erdoan or Daniel Ortega raided the home of a political opponent with no proof they committed a crime, the press would condemn them as dictators. Yet Biden and the Obama appointees who handle him use the deep state to bully political opponents while the corporate media give them a free pass. You do not have to open your eyes very wide to see America is becoming a dictatorship or that this is happening because a group of radical Obama appointees have hijacked Americas levers of power.

Barack Obama came to power by pretending he was a moderate social Democrat, but his goal is to fundamentally transform America into something worse than a Communist dictatorship, my father, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry, wrote in his newly updated book America Under Attack. The late Herbert W. Armstrong warned America decades ago that the Communist Party is not a mere political party, in the sense Americans think of the term. It is a ruthless totalitarian dictatorship. It is run, with absolute power, by a few men at the topall of whom are completely subservient to one man who is Dictator Absolute. This one-man dictatorship is supposed to be necessary because there may be different interpretations of the Marxist philosophy. Therefore, to prevent division, they must have a supreme interpreter (Plain Truth, February 1962). Obama, who was mentored by the card-carrying Communist Frank Marshall Davis, wants to be the supreme interpreter of American communism.

Although news about Obama went quiet for a while after he left office, we at the Philadelphia Trumpet have kept a close eye on him. In the February 2021 issue, my father wrote that Obama was at the epicenter of the election crisis and the radical lefts effort to prevent Donald Trump from being reelected! He based his analysis on 2 Kings 14:23-29, which describe a Satan-led movement in the end time to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, and Daniel 8:12, which exposes an end-time leader who cast down the truth to the ground.

We are now getting a clear look at the agenda of this destructive leader. Radical leftists have taken off the mask, and God is exposing their corruption. The nation-destroying problems afflicting America are not blunders made by a senile president. They are intentional sabotage by the man who is really controlling America.

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All Roads Lead to Obama | theTrumpet.com - theTrumpet.com