How to completely unload a visa gift card into Rixty or to purchase Rift credits

How to purchase Rixty:

1) Activate your card
2) Go to the store and buy pre-loaded cards (Wal-mart, Kroger brand stores, 7-Eleven sell them). You can't buy Rixty online with a wells fargo visa gift card because the transaction comes from Ireland and out-of-US purchases are not allowed. BUT because the store is the one who pays Rixty for the cards, using your credit-card in store to buy rixty works because you're paying back the store. Confusing. But it works! I did it.
3) Cash them in on the Rixty site.


How to purchase Rift Credits

This is trickier because if you activate your card online, you can buy rift credits, but just not so much that it completely unloads the card. There is a way around this. You buy Rixty money as above and cash it in to buy credits.

I started off explaining the process it took me to learn all of this, but really, it's just a bunch of bureaucratic poo. In short, I did file a ticket with Trion to let them know about not being able to completely unload the card directly through them, and how crappy that was because I've been able to completely unload cards for Riot points.

Sorry Random Brownie recipe

So sometimes I see a recipe and want to try it, but I'm afraid the link will break. Hopefully, one day I'll get to try these. The author said the brownies cook better when you take them out in the middle. I mean that's an easy trick to remember, but I've been dying to get my hands on a home made brownie recipe for a while now. My dad never gave me his (yes, you read that correctly, my DAD not my MOM. My mom can cook desserts, but it's the men that have the big guns when it comes to desserts in my family...) 

FUDGY BROWNIE THINS WITH SEA SALT
Ingredients:

• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate (100 percent cacao), chopped
• 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt 
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (any type, as long as it’s unsweetened)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• Maldon sea salt, if desired
• EQUIPMENT: an 18- by 13-inch rimmed baking sheet (a.k.a. half-sheet pan)

SEE MORE: Slow Cooker Fudgy Brownie Cake

Preparation:

FUDGY BROWNIE THINS WITH SEA SALT

Heat the oven to 325°F with the rack in the middle. Lightly grease or butter the pan and line it with parchment or foil.

Melt the chocolate with the butter in a large metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and whisk in the sugar.

Add the eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition, and whisk the mixture vigorously until it is smooth and cohesive. Whisk in the vanilla and salt. Sift the cocoa over the batter and stir with a whisk until it is incorporated and the batter is smooth. Sift the flour over the batter and stir with the whisk in the same manner until the batter is smooth.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan and, if desired, sprinkle the top lightly with flakes of Maldon sea salt. Bake 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and let the brownies rest 15 minutes at room temperature. Return the brownies to the oven and continue to bake them until a wooden pick comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.

Cool the brownies completely in the pan on a rack. Cut the brownies into serving pieces.

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate (100 percent cacao), chopped
• 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt 
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (any type, as long as it’s unsweetened)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• Maldon sea salt, if desired
• EQUIPMENT: an 18- by 13-inch rimmed baking sheet (a.k.a. half-sheet pan)

SEE MORE: Slow Cooker Fudgy Brownie Cake

Preparation:

Heat the oven to 325°F with the rack in the middle. Lightly grease or butter the pan and line it with parchment or foil.

Melt the chocolate with the butter in a large metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and whisk in the sugar.

Add the eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition, and whisk the mixture vigorously until it is smooth and cohesive. Whisk in the vanilla and salt. Sift the cocoa over the batter and stir with a whisk until it is incorporated and the batter is smooth. Sift the flour over the batter and stir with the whisk in the same manner until the batter is smooth.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan and, if desired, sprinkle the top lightly with flakes of Maldon sea salt. Bake 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and let the brownies rest 15 minutes at room temperature. Return the brownies to the oven and continue to bake them until a wooden pick comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.

Cool the brownies completely in the pan on a rack. Cut the brownies into serving pieces.

The Pain He Wouldn't Let Me Feel

So I have a friend who is struggling with a pornography addiction. This friend is literally thousands of miles away from me in Belgium. I figured if he was coming to me under these circumstances, that he didn't really have many people who could come to for help fighting it. That makes me feel like I have a lot of responsibility for helping him. So I decided on the next time I would fast, I would fast specifically for him. I also wanted to make this fast special in that I wanted to show Heavenly Father how much it mattered to me. As part of that, I decided to eat a special meal just before I started it. This meal would blow quickly through my system, despite having enough calories. I wanted to make this fast hurt just to show Heavenly Father how invested I was in getting him to help my friend.

It seemed to work. Two hours after my meal, I already started feeling hungry. But then things got wierd. The closer it got to my dinner time, the more my hunger seemed to fade. Usually when I've tried fasting for a dinner, it just has been unbearable, but this time it worked. Not only that, but I slept fine, which is also weird, because the few times I've done an overnight fast, sleeping hasn't gone too well for me. In terms of hunger pangs, this has been my easiest fast, which is super weird, because everything about the way I set it up should have made it hurt.

Looking back I think that this was Christ trying to show me that he suffered for my friend. And because he did that, he didn't want me to suffer for him too, even if I was trying to. I guess I'm posting this to show the world that I know that Jesus Christ is real and he suffered for us so we don't have to. Because of this experience I've learned that he not only hears prayers, but wants us to be happy. And I'm grateful for that.

Oatmeal, the breakfast of champions (revisited)

I love oatmeal now, which is ironic because I hated it growing up. I thought it tasted bland and no matter how much brown sugar or fruit I added to it, that bland flavor of plain oats still grossed me out. Well, when I decided to switch to a low-fat diet (ish, I still have 1 low-carb meal a day, far after my blood sugars have dropped), I needed a simple breakfast idea, and I found one for oatmeal in a cookbook for athletes called The Feed Zone. I was skeptical about if I would be able to eat it, but it seemed the easiest meal to make given my schedule as a college student. I changed up the recipe a bit too, but I noticed that cooking oatmeal with the little bit of brown sugar, molasses and chunks of frozen fruit totally changed the quality of the oatmeal. You see, when my mom made oatmeal, she made it plain and it was my job to add in stuff after. When I'm cooking it, the stuff I want cooks into the oatmeal and consequently drastically changes the flavor. I guess the recipe I used also calls for cooking the oats in a little bit of milk later and that might be another factor, but my point is, oats aren't gross when other flavors are cooked into them, and if you haven't had oatmeal prepared in this way, you should give it a shot. My energy levels are so much higher after eating this kind of meal as opposed to my scrambled egg breakfasts.