Whoooooaaaaattttt? Farmville cheats? Are you kidding? Do you really want to cheat even at farming? Get out of here – LOL! Well after more than 2 weeks of farming at Farmville, I decided to write this article for beginners – a newbie Farmville farming guide – and believe me, cheating for me is a no-no!

So no Farmville cheats here? Let’s just call it, tricks, or strategies. Well it’s up to you if you if tricks and cheating are the same.

I know there are hundreds of sites out there giving tips and providing videos on how to “cheat” your way up in Farmville. But I am not really that “fan” of game cheats. Yes you can install cheat engine and grid clicker to make farming life easy at Farmville – but, but…

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It just doesn’t make sense at all to cheat ehh? Farmville farming is suppose to be easy, fun and relaxing.

However, if you just started a farm in Farmville, it is quite awful, and stressful. You are given just 6 plots and a few cheap crops at the start. Now if you have neighbors with those great looking houses, decors and stuffs, you will easily lose enthusiasm, not unless the challenge will keep you going and aim to reach that level where you can buy those stuffs.

Farmville farming basics:

1. Leveling up – accumulate XP or experience points to level up in the game. You earn XP when you plow a plot (1 XP), plant a crop (1 or 2 XP), achieve crop mastery, earning a ribbon, visiting neighbors’ farms (5 XP) and lately, when you fertilize your neighbor’s crops (5 XP).
2. Earning coins – earn coins when harvesting crops (each crop has a corresponding market value), harvest fruits/trees, collect animal produce (eggs, milk, wools, feathers, etc.), when you visit neighbors (20 coins), fertilize neighbor’s crops (20 coins), and when you claim bonuses from your friends’ recent achievements (ribbons and mastery).
3. Decorate - obviously, this one wastes money and space but, this makes your farm looks great.

My basic 6 tips to Farmville farming:

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1. Maximize farm plots – maximize “coin” earnings.  When starting up – don’t waste those empty spaces. Try to fill those up with plots where you can plant your crops. Invest all your coins in planting crops.

2. Plant crops according to your farming time/availability. If you have the luxury of being able to go online for about 15 minutes every 4 hours, then plant strawberries (harvested in 4 hours, withers in 8 hours). If you can play only once a day – choose pumpkin (harvested in 8 hours, withers in 16 hours). If  you can only play once every 24 hours, choose crops which can be harvested in 1 or 2 days.

3. Make sure to harvest your crops within the specified time or else those will wither and you will lose money. To determine how much time before a crop withers, just multiply its harvest time by 2.

4. As much as possible, avoid planting a crop which takes more than a day or two before it can be harvested. Crops like squash, artichokes, cottons and wheat will not help you much in leveling up – even though you earn 2 XP per crop, you will earn 3 to 4 equivalent XP and twice as much money if you plant strawberries, pumpkins or rice.

5. As you level up, new high yielding crops are unlocked, so the aim is to earn money fast and level up fast – and just to make it enjoyable, try to plant a combination of 2 or 3 crops. I divided my farm initially into two sections – planting strawberries in one section (gains 1 XP, and earns 25 net coins every 4 hours) and pumpkin on the other section (gains 1XP and earns 30 net coins every 8 hours, which also give me an allowance of another 8 hours just in case I won’t be able to harvest the crop in time).

6. Soybeans are the secret to leveling fast up in Farmville, especially when you just started and want to level up 3 to 5 notches in an hour. How? Easy, soybeans cost 15 coins a crop, can be harvested in 24 hours, give a net earnings of 45 coins and churn out 2 XP! But wait, there’s more to soybeans below so don’t give up reading yet.

How to level up real fast, speed up planting and harvesting without installing cheat engine and hacks?

Installing any cheating and hacking software could be dangerous – you’ll never know if these will “compromise” your system and security. So I don’t use them.

1. Speed up planting and harvesting. Simply trap your “farmer”. Your farmer slows down planting and harvesting since he has to go to each plot to fallow land, plant, and harvest. Save him some energy – by trapping him on the side using any object – hay bales, decors, fence, trees, animals – or if you are a bit “stingy”, trap him with message sing posts – they’re free! Try it if you haven’t, you will see the difference.

2. Earn extra XP and coins by being a good neighbor – of course you need neighbors to do this. For the first 20 visits – you are given 5 XP plus 20 coins per neighbor (1 XP and 20 coins) on the 21st neighbor. That’s a total 100 XP points in less than 5 minutes! Plus – you may also earn extra 20 coins and 5 XP if you get a fertilizer and fertilized your neighbor’s crops. So potential additional 100 XP points – well make it 50 – 80 XP on the average.

3. Soybeans! Well this one will work if you have extra coins to spare. This trick requires some repetitive actions that some will find boring. Dedicate at least 4×5 plots (20 plots). Plant soybeans – it will cost you 15 coins and you get 2XP. Those 20 plots will cost you 300 coins, but you earn 40 XP.

Don’t wait 24 hours – delete those plots you just planted with soybeans – then plow it again, costing you 300 coins (which gives 1 XP) and plant soybeans again (another 300 coins). This whole process will cost you 600 coins total – and 60 XP! That’s 10 percent XP yield. Do it all over again until you used up all your available coins – then wait until your next harvest.

You will be able to level up very fast – until you reach the ideal level which is for me is level 15.

4. Still got lots of coins to spare but doesn’t like the “soybean technique“? Well you can buy hay bales. It will cost you 100 coins each hay bale, but will return 5 XP. Not bad, but XP yield per coin is only 5%.

So in general, try to maximize planting, and earn lots of coins, and you can compensate leveling up by purchasing decors from the Market, or use the soybean trick.

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5. Money wasters – seeders, harvesters, tractors. Don’t buy these, until you earn so much you can afford to buy 30,000 worth of stuff sitting around your farm.  I only bought my first harvester when I reached level 26 – so I would know how it works. The harvester allows me to harvest 4 plots at a time, but the fuel is only good for 150 plots. Fuel is refilled every 6 hours – thus if you have several crops planted, you will probably make good use of it.

Each fuel refill costs 5 FV money, not coins. You can only earn FV money everytime you level up (1 FV money) or when you purchase it (meaning, you will pay real money).

6. Don’t spend real money in Farmville! It’s just a game for FB’s sake.

Just play the game and enjoy it. You will find it really fun, and will test your patience, and creativity. I even recommend this game be played by children. Its better than letting them play YoVille, Mafia Wars and other adult games.

Like this article? Will appreciate a comment, a digg or a stumble. LOL. If you don’t, ohh, well, it’s just Farmville. LOL.

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I know the topic of Nostradamus and his predictions will stem arguments and debates, and I am not going to start one here. What made this interesting and worthy of “blogging” is the fact that his “supposed” Lost Book contains symbols and messages warning the possible cataclysmic event happening when the “sun rises exactly at the center of the universe” – in that “dark rift” of the Milky Way galaxy, between the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpio.

This dark rift, better known in astronomy as the Great Rift is thought to be a very dense cloud of space dust blocking all lights from the stars behind it. This is probably the reason why others believe it is a actually a blackhole, where all stars and planets are revolving around it.

“Doomsayers” believe that this galactic event will trigger unprecedented cataclysmic impact on the solar system, including earth. As with the predictions of Nostradamus, a series of turbulence and disasters brought about by more powerful typhoons, floodings, earthquakes even wars signify the era at which the earth is approaching towards the “great alignment.”

This is what Nostradamus described as the period where the “third Anti-Christ” will emerge, sowing chaos and suffering on earth. Perhaps influenced by the Mayans and Egyptians, his drawings showed some signs telling the exact date of the time when “all these terrible” things happen.

One of his drawings shows the wheel of time aligned with the sun and the earth between a horn (Sagittarius) and a scorpion (Scorpio). There is also a swirling object between these two which probably symbolizes the great rift – which is at the center of the Milky Way.

There are also three crescents shown which others believe are 3 eclipses that will happen on the year the galactic alignment. All these point to 2012, particularly, December 21, 2012, when the sun rises exactly at the center of the universe when viewed from Earth (earth perspective).

For the Mayans, their calendar ends on December 21, 2012, as they have a long cycle based on the alignment of the sun with the center of the universe, which occurs once every 26,000 years. Doomsday people are quick to associate this with the end of the world – however this is not something what the Mayans believe.

The so called Galactic Alignment  have already happened in 1998 – and skeptics are saying there is nothing special with the one on December 21, 2012. But doomsday “believers” are saying that the one in 1998 was actually the start of the 13 year cycle, which will culminate in year 2012.

They are saying that since then, the Earth have experienced abrupt changes to climate, financial stability and peace. Cyclones and typhoons will be getting more fierce and will come more frequent. Earthquakes, floodings and disasters will claim hundreds of thousands of lives.

The Lost Book even contains a burning tower which others associate with the Twin Towers bombing – a sign that the predictions are now unfolding.

Even some religious groups have associated this with the Apocalypse, and that the  tribulations described in the Book of Revelations of the Christian Bible are already happening.

Some researchers also theorized that the passing of the heavenly bodies near the center of the Great Rift cause disruptions in magnetic fields. This has caused the release of 3 trillion kilotons of gamma rays hurling across space that cannot be seen but are only manifested when these hit an object.

Some are saying that December 21, 2012 will be a day of destruction – due to the disturbance and instability of the magnetic field that affects Earth’s rotation (uhmmm, the dark rift is several trillions of light years away). Even “scarier” is that there will be a possibility of a “polar shift” – meaning the North pole will become the South pole and vice versa – whew!

And another one, a planet called Nibiru all of a sudden will emerge and will either hit or closely pass by Earth – causing massive destructions.

But according to some (notice my use of the word “some” so many times – I don’t want to pinpoint these people), there so many flaws with regards to how History Channel, the doomsayers and doomsday scenario researchers presented the facts in its documentary series and beliefs.

There is actually no “galactic alignment” happening on December 21, 2012, but rather, the Sun will just simply pass near the “galactic equatorial” center which will be seen as rising at the center of the universe when viewed from Earth.

There will be no 3 eclipses in year 2012. Yes there will be solar eclipse in November 2012, and Venus will transit on the sun in July 2012 which will only create a tiny dark speck on our view of the Sun, and that the galactic alignment will not create an eclipse at all.

There are so much information regarding these 2012 doomsday scenarios and predictions – something you can just google and read these materials by yourself.

Whether these things are happening or will happen, or are simply a product of man’s flair and fancy of predicting the future are not important. What’s important is how we live our lives, respecting nature and other people’s rights and well-being. What’s important is that, as one, mankind will learn the mistakes of the past, and will finally start doing what is right and just for everyone.

A dream that perhaps, will happen the day after December 21, 2012 – when mankind transition to a new era of hope, unity, peace and understanding.

A dream that will probably exist only in our wishes – something that’s almost impossible to achieve. But at the rate things are happening in our generation, there is no iota of doubt, that unless we heed to these “warnings” and “prophesies” of doom, we are sure to destroy ourselves in the near future.

So if you ask me if I believe these things? Well, see you and let’s talk on December 22, 2012. What about you? What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave your comments.

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Actually, I run a small “cosca” lately trying to seize control other mafiosi families by waging war and win ownership of businesses and trades. Well, I have to mug and whack other bad guys to prove myself and secure a good position in the family.

But after all these violence and earning money in the process – I retreat to the comfort of my farm, a small patch of land surrounded by gentle and kind neighborhood who are more than willing to help me out, shoo away darn foxes, clear up weeds and even fertilize my plants while I am away.

Of course I am talking about Farmville in Facebook - and Mafia Wars as well.

I always love farming. I was born and raised in a farm. I used to see lots of people “fallowing” some land, until the right time to plant comes.

There were lots of farm animals all over the place, I even had my own cows, goats, pigs and chickens when I was young.

I could still remember my Lola’s furious face whenever I and my little brother “steal” a big ripe and juicy “langka” – the sweetest jackfruit of them all or when we trap a grown native chicken using a long bamboo stick and a basket, luring the poor chicken to go inside an opening with corn – once the chicken steps inside, voila!, we were sure to feast on delicious native “lechon” manok.

I have always dreamed of retiring in a farm – a real farm unlike Farmville in Facebook. But for the meantime I am contented with farming online. Yes for some Farmville seems to be one boring game – but it does give me some relief from stress and the ability to focus your attention to something different.

Not to mention that it gives some real cash savings – well, if I’m not farming I’ll be in some malls or gimmick places. LOL.

Do you play Farmville? If yes, add me on Facebook, and let’s play Mafia Wars too – I need to grow my crew.

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BentaOnline.com has been “re-modeled” lately, migrated from complex Joomla CMS to the easier Wordpress CMS platform.

While there are a lot of free online classified ad websites available, BentaOnline.com boasts of its cool free online classified ads features. Some of the features of BentaOnline.com are:

1. Easy and fast registration process. Only registered users can post ads which minimizes frauds and spam ads.
2. Ability to Edit/Manage ads through the Dashboard.
3. Users/visitors can report spam or fraudulent advertisements.
4. Visitors can view the profile of an advertiser and all ads posted by the advertiser.
5. Visitors can respond to an ad easily using the Contact Ad Owner box conveniently placed in the sidebar of every ad.
6. Ad images are viewed easily using the Image Gallery browser.
7. Better looking interface and navigation using the familiar Wordpress platform.
8. Ads are optimized for search engines which give advertisers more organic traffic.
9. Integrated Social bookmarking tool that can be used to share ads in many social bookmarking sites and get more views to posted ads which can increase ad conversion.
10. Google Maps integration.

Check out BentaOnline – Philippines Free Online Classified Ads and Marketplace let me know what you think about the website.

If you like your website or blog be featured here, hit the contact page.

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One such popular posts that is surely generating hits is the PRC Board Exam results posts. That is why you would see familiar board exam results posts in many Filipino blogs. The one that’s going on right now is the October 2009 CPA board exam results (by the way, if it happened you came here searching for the CPA board exam results, just follow the link).

I am among these SEO enthusiasts that optimize board exam results – and honestly, there is a bit of “competition” even between blogging buddies and friends.

And to be straighforward about it, I compete even if the only thing I do is just write an article about it, publish and that’s it. I’m just in it, for the fun of it.

Probably the reason why I was never a “threat” or a “competitor” so to speak. I don’t follow any SEO rule, except those tags and the All In One SEO plugin that I am using.

Nevertheless, it’s amazing to see these guys in the first page of Google or Yahoo search results, bloggers like Ceblogger, Third World Geek, Joliber and Dexter (and lots of other blogging friends) competing with the SEO masters like Coolbuster, Selaplana, James and of course Jehzlau.

This is the reason why blogging for me is always fun. Ohh, by the way, here’s the site where you can see the October 2009 CPA board exam results and list of passers.

Cheers!

Post update, October 19, 2009.

The results…

• October 2009 CPA Board Exam Results: A
• October 2009 CPA Board Exam Results: B to C
• October 2009 CPA Board Exam Results: D to F
• October 2009 CPA Board Exam Results: G to I
• October 2009 CPA Board Exam Results: J to L
• October 2009 CPA Board Exam Results: M to N
• October 2009 CPA Board Exam Results: O to P
• October 2009 CPA Board Exam Results: Q to R
• October 2009 CPA Board Exam Results: S to U
• October 2009 CPA Board Exam Results: V to Z

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Every week, I’m going to dedicate a post “spot” for bloggers who want to showcase themselves and their blogs. A blogger can introduce himself, talk about his chosen niche, his thoughts on blogging, how and when he started blogging and share some blogging tips like creating content, traffic generation and SEO.

He may share a story about his make money online ventures, or simply talks about the latest buzz in entertainment or politics.

Featured bloggers will be given a maximum of two links to their blogs. Interested? Hit the Contact form – first come first served – .

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Google

People with Google accounts and Google Toolbar installed can now go to any website – and write comments or views about the website. In short, anyone can now add any information on any website that they visit.

Entries written in Sidewiki are also posted in Google profiles, and can be passed on to Twitter, Facebook and even on blog sidebar widgets.

Many welcome this innovation with open arms – without any trace of doubt and hesitation, after all “if it’s from Google, it must be good!”

However I view this “revolutionary” tool unnecessary, redundant and reduces a website’s value by taking away the control from webmasters as to who can add information to their sites.

Sidewiki takes away the interactivity from blogs, where comments were designed to be written and submitted in the Comments section.

Not to mention that Sidewiki is a potential new breeding ground for spammers and vandals.

And why would someone allow total strangers to write something about his website and let the world read it without the capability to edit or moderate it?

If you want to share information regarding your website, is the “About” page not the right place to put it? If you want people to share their views and comments regarding a post or an article, why not let them use the Comment forms?

And if you want people to freely write something or add information on certain topics or about your Website or Blog in general, then why not put a “Wiki” section?

I personally believe Google has the best intentions when it designed Sidewiki, however this is also a classic example that not all bright ideas are useful.

So what to expect to see in your Sidewiki? Spams, vandals and ads?

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CNN reported that another typhoon -- a super typhoon estimated to have a sustained wind strength of 240KPH is expected to hit the Philippines in the next 24 hours (Friday to Saturday, October 2 to 3, 2009).

Named locally as Typhoon Pepeng, this category 4 to category 5 super typhoon is moving west-north-west direction with the probability of a landfall in eastern parts of Luzon -- hitting the areas of Camarines, parts of Bicol, Aurora, then to Central Luzon and may affect areas in Metro Manila that were devastated by Typhoon Ondoy.

Local weather bureau Pagasa however told during a news conference today that Typhoon Pepeng will hit land on Saturday afternoon, or may change direction and head towards China, Japan or Hongkong.

Here’s the youtube video of the CNN report.

Whether these forecasts are accurate or not, people will have to be prepared. But if you’ve been to places like Marikina (where I live) which was turned into a vast wasteland, you will see grief, hunger, chaos and hopelessness you’ll wonder how those people left without homes, without food and without clothes will think of the days ahead.

Every time I go to a client in Quezon City after the Ondoy disaster, passing by Tumana Bridge is like a test of patience since the 15 kilometer drive to the client in Quezon City now takes about 2 hours due to the relief operations in the area, plus the big media outfits are mostly blocking the two-lane bridge with their trucks and communications equipments.

But at the same time, you see people walking in the mud in all directions, cars piled up along the road, houses destroyed, dead animals among the litters, and at some point, rescue workers retrieving dead bodies from the river below.

Sorry no photos posted here. Admittedly, I had the courage of taking a few shots inside my car -- too ashamed of going out and taking a good shot at the action and ‘photo perfect’ situations -- as some people may call it. But I chose not to post these photos.

Believe me, passing by the area is not for the faint of heart -- the experience is so troubling, causing you grief and despair as well.

We’re one of the lucky few that were spared from the flooding -- dirty, muddy water which destroyed everything in its path. Even at this time, several areas are without electricity. Our DSL internet just restored today.

Now looking forward, the future is looking dim, even darker for those ravaged by Typhoon Ondoy. A super typhoon of 240 kilometers per hour isn’t a joke. I remembered when Cebu was hit by Typhoon Ruping in the early 90’s which also had a wind strength of 220 to 240 KPH.

Ruping was so strong it can move a car parked with handbrakes on. It crippled Cebu for more than a month.

Now is the time the government should do something right -- not as helpless and dis-organized during the first crucial hours of the Ondoy aftermath.

And now is the time people listen to what the government says -- and minimize if not eliminate loss of lives. Even if the coming days looked so dark, it should give us the will to move on and live life to the best we could.

By the way, it’s now raining hard in Bicol (time is 10:35pm, October 31, 2009) and winds are starting to blow stronger.

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Over the long weekend, I finally had the time to work on a new free job posting and job searching site for Filipinos in the Philippines and overseas.

It’s been a while that the site has been there but finally, my idea of a job seeker and job poster – friendly job site came to a reality.

Thus, Jobjoints.com – the Pinoy Online free job posting and searching site was re-born with cool search features, user friendly interface and better back-end system.

Users can search and apply to jobs without the need to register. Companies can also post jobs without the need to pay anything. Job advertisers are reviewed and approved first before their jobs can be viewed on site.

To minimize spamming, it has a built-in anti-spam tool Recaptcha. However every webmaster knows that spammers are also very creative, thus Job advertisers are encouraged not to post their emails in the Job posts. Even the anti-spam tool can be tricked at times.

More jobs will be posted soon as more Job Advertisers will be joining. Also, more cool featured will be rolled out in phases, like the ability to submit CV/Resume, and the ability for registered Companies to browse the CV/Resume database.

Featured Companies or Job Advertisers will also have their own special pages and can take advantage of the social network functionality.

If you have some Job Requirements and would like to support this endeavor, visit Jobjoints.com and post your jobs there.

Bloggers and webmasters may display the most recent job listings on their sidebars by simply copying the widget codes.

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Those who generate traffic mainly from the search engines can earn more when visitors click on these ads which are matched with the search keywords they typed in search forms.

While Google Adsense is still one of the more reliable sources of website revenue, there are other programs that also offer similar opportunity, and one of those is Chitika | Premium.

Just like Google Adsense, Chitika | Premium is a CPC-based advertising program, which means you earn when somebody clicks the ads on your site. However, Chitika | Premium ads are only served to US and Canadian visitors.

Visitors of other countries will not see the ads, making your site neat and free from empty ad boxes. There are several ad sizes you can choose, and there’s even a plugin for Wordpress blog users.

This snippet from Chitika | Premium says…

Chitika | Premium helps you make money by serving highly targeted, AdSense-compliant ads to your search engine traffic.  Anyone who comes to your site via Google, Yahoo!, etc., will receive an unobtrusive text ad based on the keyword they used to find you.

The Chitika | Premium Referral Program

Chitika pays you 10% of what your referral earns for 15 months from the time your referral was approved into the Chitika program.

The Payout

Chitika will pay you 30 days following the end of the month that your commissions are earned provided that your total revenue has exceeded $10 (for PayPal) and $50 (for check where PayPal is not available).

Over-all Assesment

If you have a good traffic from US and Canada visitors, you’ll earn big with Chitika | Premium. If you do SEO on your posts and draw traffic from the places mentioned, putting a Chitika | Premium ads on your site/blog can increase your revenue than just relying on Google Adsense alone.

My Chitika | Premium performance in terms of average cost per click and eCPM is comparable and at times even higher than Google Adsense.

See a Sample Chitika | Premium Ad

Click on the link below to see a Chitika | Premium Ad (for testing only, clicks will not earn any revenue):

Palace shopping around for new jet for Arroyo

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