Farmville!!! What else?

Gotta say, I never thought I would get hooked on Farmville on Facebook. Used to look at some of my friends played it day and night and wondered what were they thinking? How could an adult be hooked on such a "seemingly" silly game! Then, I finally decided to give it a try one day and that's it, I've hooked on it ever since!

I don't even want to mention the "real" money I've poured into the game, especially at the beginning to bring myself up to speed. I'm not proud of it. It's really silly to spend money on virtual goods, especially in this economy, when my husband is out of job, to say the least. But then, for a small amount of money (not so small sometimes) you get that silly little pleasure when you decorate your farm, expand it, buy plants and animals and feel that you beat your friends and have a better looking and better functional farm. It's like watching a few movies, or buying a few video games.

I think many people are looking for cheats for this game. I know because I searched high and low myself! I've even paid for a guide book, which I didn't find it useful.

Now let me share with you what I've learned from my personal experience playing the game (I'm at level 34 and probably a few more harvest away from getting the million dollar Villa), and from what I read on the internet.

When you begin to play the game, of course what you want is coins. So keep planting. Depends on your schedule, choose the seeds that you are sure to be able to harvest. Withered plants are a waste of time and money. I was told all the berries are the best in terms of cost/profit. Some people said soy beans first and then switch to broccoli when you reach level 35. I'm still level 34 so I don't know about broccoli but if you calculate the time it takes to harvest, soy beans are no comparison to berries, especially blue berries and black berries. So I'd say stick with the berries.

Now, when you accumulate a certain amount of coins, you'll be craving for XP (experience points). With higher XP, you can unlock more items to buy. From the internet, I learned there are two different methods. One is the soy bean plow-plant-delete method. That is planting soybeans and then deleting them before they're grown. Soybeans are the cheapest crop that yields the most XP (it doesn’t matter how long it takes for it to grow because we won’t be waiting for it to grow).

1. Plow Land: -15 coins, gain +1 XP

2 Plant Soybean: -15 coins, gain +2 XP

3. Delete Plot of Soybean: 0 coins, 0 XP

So you get 3 XP for 30 coins.

The second one is the Buying/Selling Hay. This requires you to buy lots of hay and then selling it. It takes some space on your farm to put the hay as well as enough coins to fund how many bales of hay you plan on buying.

1.Buy hay. -100 coins, gain+ 5 XP

2. Sell hay. +5 coins

So you get 5 XP for 95 coins.

I tried both methods and I preferred the latter. It's instant gratification. You click and then your XP is added. You don't need to go through 2 different steps (plowing and seeding) to get the XP. And for the same amount of space you can put more hay bales then plowed lands. No matter which method you choose, selling/deleting in order to repeat the process are equally daunting though, and the Buy/Sell Hay requires you to have enough coins.

Once you reach level 34, like I do, you will be asking yourself how can I get that beautiful villa? It is certainly a milestone in Farmville because you need to reach level 34 and have one million coins to get it. Now, of course, you can do it the traditional way. You plant and plant and harvest and harvest, and find a few hundred neighbors and visit them everyday to help out. Or if you have $5, yes I mean real five dollar United States currency, you can purchase the Haiti sweet seeds. It costs 25 Farm Cash to purchase and if you don't have enough Farm Cash, you can buy it for US$5. I believe 25% or half of the proceeds will go to a charity to help Haiti. The 25 Farm Cash buys you the right to purchase the seeds of sweet corn for one week. The seeds will cost 10 coins to plant, yield 3 XP, can be sold for 125 coins in 6 hours, and will never wither! You also get a sweet seeds flag and you can send the flag to friends in giftable items. Depends on how much you have accumulated, if you have a large farm, and you can find times to plant and harvest 2 times a day, you should be able to make enough money to buy a villa very soon.

Well, I plant to retire after I purchase the villa. Enough time and money wasted on this game. :-) Look out for my posts and pictures. I'll post them here once I reached my goal! Happy farming everybody!

Drop Dead Diva

Just finished watching last night's Drop Dead Diva in my DVR. It's such a fun drama! It's funny, heart warming, and sometimes romantic. No doubt it's a chick flick. Brooke Elliott is fantastic! Good acting and the greatest smile.

What happened to Fred? The angel turned human played by Ben Feldman. He was a lovable character in the show and I'm hoping he will be back later. I'm keeping my fingers crossed this show will be here to stay. Tired and sick of shows being canceled when I just started to get attached to it. Awww...only if life is that simple.

My Son

I was watching my son having his tennis lesson this morning. Chubby little body moving around, sweating all over, trying to hit the tennis ball. It's hard to believe he's eight already. A little shy of 4 ft. 8 in., over 100 lbs. He's doing well at school, enjoying sports and learning musical instrument.

I would not have thought about this moment when he was born. It was a time with worries and grief, and felt just plain helpless as a first time mom. My son was born with a birth defect, Hemifacial Microsomia, that's the diagnosis. He was born without his left ear, with only a small skin tag, no outer ear and no ear canal. A slanted left jaw and a smaller left face. His left body is also a little smaller and weaker compared to the right side.

I had a c-section delivery. The doctor estimated the baby to be over 11 lb., from numerous ultra sound examinations. No even once had they noticed that the baby is missing an ear! After the delivery of the baby, while the doctor was still sewing my up, the nurse came and said the baby was doing well, but there was one problem. . . . . . my heart sank. . . . . . what did they mean by a problem? She said the baby had an underdeveloped ear. How underdeveloped? I had no idea.



When I finally held my baby, he was this cutest little thing! Thick dark hair, small eyes, button nose. He held on to my finger real tight. I know immediately he's going to be my life, the only person I will ever care about in this world. I will sacrifice myself for him in a heartbeat. I had to stay at the hospital for 3 days because of the c-section. Day time was manageable, my husband was there and my mom was there. Night time was tough. Everybody had gone home and I was left all alone. The nurse asked me to nurse the baby but I had no idea what to do and I was afraid I'd do the wrong thing and hurt the baby, so I asked them to feed him formula. For those of you who are shaking your heads, I did give him breastmilk later, for six months. Come to think of it, it's very strange the nurse didn't insist I breastfeed. I guess they understood what I was going through. The pain from the body and the mind was just unbearable. What have I done to cause this? How do I explain to him when he is older? Would he be mad at me for giving him this face? Most importantly, what is his future going to be?

The days after discharging from the hospital were hectic. The regular baby routine plus countless hours on the internet looking for information and solutions. Thank God for the internet, I found many help and support. Even made a few medical diagnosis myself and saved us some miseries. The doctors were not helpful, even the best doctors. Mom still knows best when it comes to her child.

Fast forward to present, my son is a happy and smart eight year old, with an I.Q. tested at a gifted level. Occasionally, he is bothered by curious kids who stare and question about his ear, but he is learning to stand up for himself as this is and always will be part of his life.

I know there will be rough times ahead, especially when he hits puberty, but I know he will learn to deal with it, with the support of his family and friends. I know God is, and will continue to be with us. I know we are blessed.