Father's Day 2009

It's hard to be a good daughter when your father doesn't live with you, when your father has moved out from the house since your early teenage years, when your father has another family.

My parents are not divorced by law, they are merely separated. I'm sure that there are many other children in the world who are faced or have faced the same or similar situation as mine. The thing is, how do each of us handle it?

Unlike some fathers, I should be thankful that my dad, at the very least, still support us financially and still tries to maintain a communication line between us. However, it still seems unfair to me that the kids on the other side are able to see him everyday and go on holidays with him while we only see him once every few weeks or so. We would see him more often if it wasn't for his other wife, but that's a story for another day.

So how am I spending Father's Day with a father I don't really know? What did I buy for him? Well, for starters, we're going to see him for a while at his house. For gifts, I bought him some wooden stationary from Arch, they have really good stuff. I usually give him pictures and photos of us because he doesn't have any of us, but ever since his other wife harshly commented on this, I decided to stop for awhile to shut her up. Other than that, we got nothing else planned.

My dad would like his other family and us to get along but how do you get along with a woman who stole your dad from your mom, who got pregnant out of wedlock and thereby forced your dad to marry her, and who make snide remarks and complaints whenever your dad is not around? How do you get along with step-siblings who obviously was not taught the Malay culture of being respectful to guests and elders? Like most other people with a step-family, it's hard to the point of being impossible for the two, or even three and four, families to get along. Those with good step-mother, -father and -family should be thankful.

Anyway, for this Father's Day, I still want to wish all fathers, young and old, a very happy Father's Day. However, I have a piece of advice to give to them.

If you really love your children, don't marry another woman unless your children agree to it and unless your children can live harmoniously with her, and unless you are able to treat all parties fairly. Many times, Malay men in particular abuse the Islamic religion that enables them to marry up to four wives. They always fail to remember that this four-wives entitlement is only to those who are fit financially and emotionally, to those who are able to support all wives and children fairly and equally. They never remember this!

My dad does not realize the emotional stress he puts on me back when he and my mom were fighting, and now when he tries to push the reluctant families together. If you truly love your children, then do not submit them to the same emotional stress that I have been through and am still going through.

So.....to my dad, whom I don't even know his favourite colour, whom I don't even know if he wears a tie to work, and many other seemingly minor yet important details, Happy Father's Day.

Socializing in Pet Society Part 5

It is still Easter in Pet Society and by now, I'm sure many of the players have been scrambling around the trees in their neighbourhood to search for those shiny decor eggs and buying up the White Chocolate and Chocolate Egg Surprise from the Food Shop.

[caption id="attachment_1357" align="alignleft" width="148" caption="White Chocolate & Chocolate Egg Surprise"][/caption]

Incase you don't know what the decor eggs are, kindly refer to my previous posting at Socializing in Pet Society Part 4. As for the Egg Surprise, I only found out recently that your pet will get a prize when you feed these eggs to your pets. Apparently inside these gigantic eggs, which costs 250 coins each 8O , is a small, teeny tiny toy.

[caption id="attachment_1360" align="alignright" width="164" caption="Baby Animal Toys"][/caption]

There are only 3 of them, which are the Baby Bunny Toy, Baby Hedgehog Toy and Baby Chick Toy, and it depends on your pet's luck whether you can get all three. So far I've managed to get 2 Bunnies and 3 Hedgehogs. :( I still want that Baby Chick, or is it Baby Duck? Anyway, this might be the last week to obtain these rare toys so you better get cracking and save up as much money as you can to buy these eggs, or get one of your friends to give you any extra ones they have. :D

I finally managed to complete two of the scenery backgrounds obtained from the Toy Mystery Eggs. Here is how Deep Trouble is supposed to look with all its toy vehicles in place.

[caption id="attachment_1363" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="The fully completed Deep Trouble"][/caption]

Okie, some people have been 'googling' on what the giant squid does. Unlike the other monsters, the squid just blinks its eyes, instead of trashing around like an angry seamonster. Well, the reason it blinks its eyes frequently is because the pirate ship is shooting cannonballs at it. However, they seem to simply bounce off its body and not causing an ounce of hurt anywhere. Maybe that's why it's not reacting. Also, if you look closely when you activate the scenery, the submarine seems to be stuck and it looks like it's struggling to free itself from the squid's tentacles.

Now, here's the completed Alien Invasion. The airplane and the helicopter were the hardest to get. The F-16 Jet is the easiest to get among the four toy vehicles in this scenery. By the way, the UFO is essential to this scenery because as it turns out, the UFO is actually a part of that robot alien.

[caption id="attachment_1365" align="aligncenter" width="257" caption="The fully completed Alien Invasion"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1368" align="alignright" width="60" caption="Army Tank"][/caption]

As for the King Kong scenery, I still haven't completed it, but I finally saw the last piece of the toy puzzle in my pet friend's house, which is the army tank, and which is SOOO hard to get. :( But I will prevail.

[caption id="attachment_1373" align="alignleft" width="124" caption="The New Mansion"][/caption]

Has anyone noticed that Pet Society has increased the maximum level for your pets? I'm not sure what is the maximum level now (it used to be Level 34), but those who have passed the treshold of Level 34 have now transformed their house into a bigger red-roofed mansion with a current maximum of 9 rooms.

[caption id="attachment_1376" align="alignright" width="73" caption="Recycling Bin"][/caption]

There's also a new, urm, I don't know what to call it, 'stuff to do' (?). Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that Pet Society has put in a recycling bin into your pet's storage chest. You get points for recycling stuff you don't want or need anymore. Once you reach a certain amount of points, you will get a gift (I don't know what it is) as well as a trophy.

Well, I'm glad for anything new in Pet Society. At least I won't get bored with the same thing over and over again. Now, I need to get more coins to buy those Egg Surprises. I must have that Chick!!

Socializing in Pet Society Part 4

Many Pet Society players have been asking around about these mysterious colourful eggs that pop out from trees that their pets bang into. Well, guess what. Easter has arrived at Pet Society!!

That's right. For this Easter festival, the people of Pet Society have hidden eggs around your pet's neighbourhood. The only way to get them is to go through the trees in hopes of getting some of these decorative eggs. Or you can always get your friends to give them to you as presents. :D

What do these eggs do? Can they be eaten? Are there any prizes for them? The eggs are purely decorative. You can put one near your pet but they won't pick it up or try to eat it or anything. You can sell each egg for 1 coin or you can give them to your friends. So far I've only gotten four different designs. I'm not sure if there are other designs or if Pet Society will put new designs in the new week. Or they could be a piece to a bigger puzzle, who knows what the Pet Society people are up to.

[caption id="attachment_1226" align="aligncenter" width="256" caption="Different Designs of Easter Eggs"][/caption]

I'm not certain but there seem to be a limit to how many eggs you can get. Once I got 12 eggs, no matter how many trees I banged, I couldn't get anymore for the day. One good thing about this Easter Egg Hunt is it encourages the pet to walk around more, ahhahah. :D

Let's move on to the Toy Mystery Eggs. As I've written in an earlier post, I will try to update if I can get anything new for the backdrop toys and so far, I've only managed to get the submarine required for the Deep Trouble scenery.

[caption id="attachment_1229" align="aligncenter" width="218" caption="The newly acquired submarine for Deep Trouble"][/caption]

And I've also managed to get the helicopter that has been eluding me for the Alien Invasion scenery. I'm only one toy away from completing all three of the available backdrops.

[caption id="attachment_1231" align="aligncenter" width="248" caption="The helicopter is finally in the Alien Invasion"][/caption]

By the way, contrary to what I wrote in an earlier post, you cannot give the toy vehicles away to your friends. You can remove them from the backdrops and put them elsewhere in your home or sell them off but you cannot give them away as presents. I guess the Pet Society people want to make it a little harder to complete the new toys.

In my earliest Pet Society post, I mentioned the many different, non-cheating ways to get coins and points. Here's another hint in getting more Paw Points for your pet. Instead of buying a 15-coin meatball to feed your pet, buy 3 5-coin fruits to feed it. Why? Look at it this way. Everytime you feed your pet, or other pets, you get 17 points. So if you feed your pet the 15-coin meatball, you only get 17 points. However, if you feed your pet 3 5-coin fruits, you will get 17 points for each fruit with a total of 51 points and it will still only cost you 15 coins. The more you feed your pet, the more points you'll get.

The same applies to the other pets. When you visit them and if they're hungry, feed them only 5-coin fruits (the cheapest of all the food) and get 2 coins and 17 points for each fruit you feed them. That is one of the fastest way to get points. :)

Socializing in Pet Society Part 3

So, based on the search terms I keep getting on my blog, I'm guessing most of the Pet Society players are wondering about the toys that come out from the new Toy Mystery Egg that arrived last week. For example, someone googled 'why new pet society toys don't move'. Well, the toys you get from the eggs do move but they require their specific scenery backdrops in order to do so. You can click on the backdrop to see what seems to be action scenes from a few famous movies but if you don't have the '?' toys, you won't get the complete picture. Now, so far, I've managed to get three different scenery backdrops and some of the spare toys that complete the backdrop.

[caption id="attachment_1063" align="alignleft" width="248" caption="King Kong Backdrop"][/caption]

This is what I call the 'King Kong' backdrop (unfortunately, I can't capture the movement of the backdrop without my pet jeopardizing the image). You need to collect four toy vehicles to complete this backdrop. I only managed to get three for this backdrop so far, which are police car, ambulance and firetruck. I'm guessing that the green '?' is another vehicle but I can't really think what else would be around with King Kong. Maybe a helicopter?

[caption id="attachment_1068" align="alignright" width="228" caption="Captain Nemo's Squid backdrop"][/caption]

This backdrop is what I call 'Captain Nemo's Squid' because it's underwater and there's a giant squid. :roll: You need four water vehicle toys to complete this backdrop. I only got two so far, a sailboat and a ship, but I have no doubt that the yellow '?' is a submarine, because I saw one in a pet friend's house. The weird thing about this backdrop is that the squid does nothing. It just blinks its one eye at you but doesn't attempt to move or destroy anything.

[caption id="attachment_1071" align="alignleft" width="230" caption="Alien Invasion backdrop"][/caption]

Here's the last backdrop I got from the egg and I call it 'Alien Invasion'. I only managed to get two of the spare toys, which are the UFO and the F-16 Jet, and sorry to say, I don't have much clue as to the remaining two '?'. I'm kind of guessing that the plane I saw in a pet friend's house goes here but I can't be sure yet.

Oh, by the way, don't worry about the toys you drop into the scenery. If you want to give the toy vehicle to someone or put them elsewhere, you can always remove them from the backdrop. Also, if you keep getting the same toy vehicle over and over, you can sell them off for around 116 coins. I'll try my best to update any new toys I can get from the eggs. In the meantime, you can scout out my other Pet Society posts, Socializing in Pet Society and Socializing in Pet Society Part 2.

Before I forget, if you're getting bored of Pet Society, you can always try Playfish's latest online game, which is also available through Facebook; Restaurant City. You can decorate your restaurant, hire your friends, gather ingredients, learn new menu items and other restaurant management activities. I tried playing it for a while and my opinion is that it seems hectic but fun and interesting. :) Happy playing!

Socializing in Pet Society Part 2

This post is to update the earlier posting I wrote on Pet Society (Socializing in Pet Society on March 8th 2009). Since that time, the people of Pet Society has upgraded certain parts of the game, adding new stores and new items, as well as disabling certain methods of making money.

There are now two additional stores to the previous selection, the Mystery Store and the Gadget Store.

[caption id="attachment_851" align="alignleft" width="172" caption="Mystery Store"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_857" align="alignright" width="103" caption="Toy Mystery Egg Dispenser"][/caption]

The Mystery Boxes have now been moved to the Mystery Store and are accompanied by a new item, the Toy Mystery Egg dispenser. This dispenser sells you a toy egg which costs 350 coins each.

[caption id="attachment_864" align="alignright" width="59" caption="Toy Mystery Egg"][/caption]

The egg will randomly give you a toy. So far, the toys that I have seen come out from the egg are unlike those we can get from the stores and from the Mystery Boxes. You can get toy vehicles like police cars and planes as well as a scenery background that moves when you click on it. These are the only things for sale in the Mystery Store so far but I have no doubt that the people of Pet Society will add more in times to come.

Update: Apparently, when you receive one of the background sceneries, like the one below, there are pieces that you need to get to complete the scenery. For example, the scenery below requires 4 additional pieces, one of them is a UFO. Drop the toy (a car, plane or other small toys) at the '?' and see whether it fits into the scenery. If it does, the scenery will accept the toy as part of it.

[caption id="attachment_861" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="Example of Toy from the egg"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_878" align="aligncenter" width="228" caption="Toy with additional pieces. The police car is not part of it."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_866" align="alignleft" width="136" caption="The Gadget Store"][/caption]

As for the Gadget Store, the items in there are just the electrical appliances that used to be in the Furniture store. At the time of this post, there are no new electrical items in the store.

As I have updated in my previous Pet Society post, the people of the game has disabled the money-making method of brushing and washing your pet when the bars are full. I have not been able to get any money once the bars have reached their limit. Also, I've noticed that there are times when you brush and wash the other pets, you only get 1 coin instead of the usual 2 coins. I'm unsure of the reason behind this inconsistency.

I'm glad that Pet Society has upgraded the game. I was getting kind of bored with it but it seems to be tougher to get money now. :(

Socializing in Pet Society

My heart lifted in happiness as I opened the official-looking letter. I won 500 coins in today's lottery!! No, not a real lottery, the daily lottery in Pet Society. :D

When my friend first invited me to play Pet Society, I went in, took one look at it and promptly forgot all about it. Then, one day, as I was cleaning up my applications on Facebook, I saw the long-forgotten game and decided to just have a look-see.....and immediately got hooked on it.

What's Pet Society? Designed by Playfish, it's actually a social game where you become a pet. Unfortunately, you are only able to play the game on Facebook, so join up if you want to play. :D You'll have a house and a neighbourhood complete with shops. So far, there's a Furniture store (to buy chairs and beds and such for your house), a Luxury store (more expensive goods), a Clothes store (to clothe your naked pet),a Food store (for your starving pet), a Stylist (for a whole new look), a Bank (to get more coins to buy stuff), a Stadium (for exercise and to win more coins), a Cafe (to find more friends), and a D.I.Y store (to style your own house in your own unique design).

You can add friends as well who play Pet Society and visit their houses to earn points and coins.

[caption id="attachment_734" align="alignright" width="273" caption="Your house & some parts of the neighbourhood"][/caption]

Now, other than socializing with your friends in a whole new environment, there's really nothing much to this game. The only thing I see people doing in Pet Society is buying the new furniture and clothes that come out every week, and having the chance to get a rare stuff from one of the mystery boxes in the Furniture store. The aim is to get more points to reach the high levels (and to increase the rooms in your house), and to earn as much coins as possible to buy stuff. Yep, that's it. Simple, right? ;)

At the moment, the highest level is Level 34, which takes more than 140,000 points to achieve. The maximum number of rooms for your house is currently 6, with 3 on the ground floor and 3 on the upper floor. Even though you can still earn points, your level will not increase, well, not until the Pet Society people does something about it.

[caption id="attachment_741" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Visiting friends"][/caption]

Now, on to the most asked questions from everyone new to Pet Society: how do I earn more money? Let me tell you straight-up, although I know that there are cheats available online (WAIT!! DO NOT GO SEARCHING FOR THEM YET!), I have to tell you that Pet Society WILL ban you from playing the game should you be found cheating in any way. And yes, they will know, and the players themselves will know as well. It's not very hard to detect as cheaters tend to get too excited when 'gaining' coins and 'earning' points.

Now, this is how I earn money, and I earn quite alot.

1. Enter Pet Society everyday. Each new day, you will get a lottery mail, which, depending on your luck, will earn you 50 coins, 100 coins or 500 coins. I managed to win 1,000 coins the other day (very rare!!). Do not be fooled into thinking that the lottery mail will pile up if you didn't visit your pet. The lottery mail will be replaced with a new one everyday should you not visit.


2. Visit each friend everyday. Each new visit will earn you 20 coins and 5 points. Every other visit on that day will just earn you 5 points.


3. Brush and clean all your friends. Brushing will earn you 2 coins and 7 points while cleaning will earn you 2 coins and 6 points. Please keep in mind that there are times when you won't earn coins or points. This is normal.


4. If you have the money, buy food and feed your friends. Each feed will earn you 2 coins and 17 points. Don't buy expensive food, just those 5 coins fruit will work. Even if you feed your friend a pizza that costs 20 coins, you'll still only earn 2 coins and 17 points.


5. Brush and clean your own pet. Same as your friends, you will earn 2 coins and 7 points for brushing and 2 coins and 6 points for washing. What some people don't notice is even if your pet's hygienic and happiness level are high, you can still brush and clean them, and still earn coins and points. My record for brushing, so far, is a straight, non-stop 24 coins. *Update: It seems Pet Society has disabled this money-making-method after its latest upgrade. I have not managed to get any coins when my pet's happiness and cleanliness bar are full.


6. Run through the trees in your neighbourhood. When you pass through a tree, you may be lucky enough to earn 1 coin from each selected trees. Everytime you enter a house or store and you re-enter the neighbourhood, run through the trees again to earn coins. I get an average of 12 coins whenever I 'bang' the trees.


7. Everytime your level increase, you will get 100 coins as a reward. So work hard for those points.


8. Everytime you earn a Trophy (such as for playing softball or visiting friends), you will earn 100 coins. Playing the frisbee, jump rope and softball will earn you 1 coin at random times as you play.


9. 
   
   [caption id="attachment_743" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Hurdle-racing"][/caption]
   
   Run the race at the Stadium everyday. Each day will give your pet 10 races. Each time you win a race, you will earn 30 coins and 20 points. If you get second, you'll earn only 10 points, no coins, and last place will earn you 5 points, no coins. If you just want to earn points, you can select 'practice' and earn 20 points each time you win. Here are some hints to the hurdle race:-

• To ensure your pet successfully jumps over the hurdle, click on your pet just as it reaches the start of the hurdle's foot (that long dark grey thing on the floor).


• If possible, click on ALL the banana peels on the track, yours and your friends. If you're lucky enough, you can earn 1 coin for each banana peel.


• Once your pet is about to reach the middle of the speed-mat, click on your pet for maximum speed. When the mat turns green, it's the maximum speed, yellow means medium speed and red is usually unsuccessful.

There are other ways to earn points such as buying furniture and food (the more expensive the item, the more points you'll earn) or giving your friends a gift. You'll find out more as you play. :)

[caption id="attachment_748" align="alignright" width="274" caption="The Mystery Boxes"][/caption]

One trend that everyone who have money does it to buy those Mystery boxes in the Furniture shop, as I mentioned above. There are 3 mystery boxes; a 50-coin box, a 200-coin box and the whopping 500-coin box. The 50-coin one will get you mostly food, cheap furniture, some accessories and some rare clothes, such as Apron or Playfish t-shirts. The 200-coin box will get you pretty much the same things, but more expensive stuff. I usually get plants. If you're lucky, you can get a rare prize such as a toy (I got a black toy duck), but if you're really unlucky, you'll get really cheap stuff, like the Fragrant Hyacinth (a 50-coin cheap flower) I keep getting. The golden mystery box is the one you want. The stuff you get from there is sooooo rare; a grand chandelier, a piano, a rare mask, a rare carpet, the stuff is endless. But, again, this is only if your luck is good. If not, you'll still get cool stuff from time to time, or bad stuff that just makes you want to scream. :) For a list of items you can get from these boxes, check out http://kogaweb.net/.

It can get kind of addictive so trust me when I say, play only when you have lots of time to spare. Have fun!!

Get A Clue

I know nowadays people have less time for fun and games because of work and commitments, or they rather relax with their Playstation, X-Box and Wii(correct spelling?) in front of the TV . I used to be like that too, unless my younger cousin re-introduced me to… board games. Yes, board games. Yep, you guessed it, way back to Snakes ‘n’ Ladders and dices.

One board game in particular has always been my favourite and playing it with my cousins brought back such nostalgic memories of murder, motive and mayhem. The game is (cue the drum roll) Cluedo.

Originally published by the company Waddingtons in 1949 (it’s now published by Hasbro), Cluedo is a crime-mystery board game where the players have to find out after many rounds of accusations (1) Who is the killer, (2) Where was the murder committed, and (3) What weapon did the killer use. If anyone remembers a 1985 movie called Clue, yes, the movie was based on the board game. It’s a good movie, watch it if you have the time. Apparently, there were also television shows based on the game but I’ve never heard or seen one before. You can check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluedo for more info if you’re interested.

Anyway, back to the game. Back when I first played it, it was simple and fun. There are 6 characters; Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlet, Mr Green, Mrs Peacock, Professor Plum and Mrs White. One of them killed a rich man, Mr Boddy (North America version) or Dr Black (UK version), and the players have to find out the suspect, weapon and room. Each player is allocated the same amount of cards which consist of the characters, the rooms and the weapons of the game. A random card from each of the characters, rooms and weapons are put in an envelope. This envelope holds the answer to the 3 questions above.

All you have to do is run your chosen character around the board, which is actually a floor plan of a mansion with different rooms such as Dining Room and Kitchen spaced across the board. As you enter any room, you are allowed to make an accusation, ‘I think Colonel Mustard killed Dr Black in the Study with a gun.’ The rest of the players will try to disprove your accusation by showing you a card of either the accused, the crime scene and the weapon. If nobody can prove you wrong, then you are allowed to look at the cards in the envelope. If you are right, you win. If not, you’re out of the game and the remaining players will continue on to solve the murder.

The 2008 version, which is the one I’m playing at the moment, has greatly evolved from the one I used to have. Cluedo still has the same lovable characters and if I’m not mistaken, there are more rooms in the newer version, but the way the game is played has changed. Now there is a stack of cards called the Intrigue cards that you can select throughout the game if you roll a ‘?’ or land on a box with a ‘?’. Stuck among the Intrigue cards are 8 time bombs. The person who pulled out the 8th time bomb card is automatically out of the game as he/she has been killed by the killer. The rest of the Intrigue cards are advantage cards such as ‘Take another turn” or ‘Add 6 to your dice roll’ or ‘You are allowed to see one random card from a player you have shown a card to’. There are also character cards, which have one individual power for each character. However, you can only use the power once in the entire game.

There may be other differences that I can’t think of right now but even though it has changed so much, I still find it a joy to play. At least, it gives my brain a work-out. The only problem I have is that Cluedo must be played by more than 2 people. The thing is only my younger cousin and I have time to play it and no one else wants to join in. Sob, sob, we’re so sad. Do you hear me, cousins, family and friends? Come join us in the crime world (hint hint).

Sigh, I wonder if there’s an online version that I can play. Hmm, something to search for. But seriously, try this game out at least once. If you enjoy watching CSI or love to watch the Crime Investigation channel, you'll definitely enjoy Cluedo.