The Short Names

I already wrote about Mafia Wars, one of the games I play on Facebook.  Well, I thought MW was starting to take up too much of my time, but let me tell you, it’s nothing compared to Farmville.

It starts out innocently enough.  You plow a few squares, plant a few seeds and add a few of your friends as neighbors who then gift you some trees and animals.  But after a week or so you begin to realize that you are plotting out your plots, arranging trees, zealously seeking gifts of new and better animals and watching your coins so you can buy even more land with your riches.  At this point, you’re hooked.

Soon, you find that you are trawling the Farmville fan page, looking for strangers to add as Farmville neighbors.  Thousands of names all begging you to add them, extolling their individual virtues:  ”I gift daily”  ”Level 30″ “I need neighbors, please add me”.  It’s all too tempting and so you add a few, safe-looking Farmville players.  It never stops there because they have friends who add you and their friends add you and so on, and so on, and so on.

Needless to say, I completely forgot about Mafia Wars and began farming as if my real future depended on it.  If they added a new animal, tree or decoration, I had to get it.  Before I knew it I was level 47 and watching the levels of others to see if they were getting past me.

Truly, Farmville is addictive.  I am trying to wean myself off by planting long-term crops and selling off some of the animals.  I mean, I didn’t really need 50 sheep.  

If you’ve successfully beaten the Farmville addicition, please let me know how you did it.  I need to beat it before they come out with the Easter specialty decorations…

Rollo has been spiffing things up around here for Spring and part of it is this new and shiny site design. In honor of my new template, I offer a little automotive post. Car companies think long and hard before choosing a name for a new model vehicle. Animal names have always figured highly, but it’s got to be the right kind of animal. For instance, you might be enticed to buy a car with a sleek and fast image, like a Cougar, but you’d never consider one called Possum. But some names seem to come directly out of hometown America, named for cities and towns across the country.

For instance, Ford is in Mississippi while Chevrolet is in Kentucky and Buick , Plymouth and Pontiac are in Michigan. You can find a Dodge in both Kansas and Massachusetts, but only California has a Honda.

There’s a Thunderbird in New Mexico and a Seville in Ohio. If you want something sporty, there’s Mustang, Oklahoma or Monte Carlo, Kansas.

For a full list of automotive-related town names in the US, visit this site. They also have lists of other types of unusual names for towns and some will make you laugh aloud.

It isn’t just somnambulant hotel guests that walk the night in Britain, a host of ghosts do too. The National Trust boasts many haunted properties and has just released its list of the top ten most-haunted houses.

Number one on the list, Blickling Hall, is home to no less than the ghost of Anne Boleyn, one of Henry VIII’s wives who lost her head. She is said to appear every year on May 19, the anniversary of her death. Her headless body rides in a coach driven by a headless rider and she holds her head in her lap.

But if that isn’t enough for you or you don’t want to wait until May for ghost-hunting, you can try one of the other nine most-haunted properties.

Dunster Castle, Somerset A man in green walks past the shop only to disappear without a trace

Quarry Bank Mill Haunted by a gang of former workers

Newton House, Dinefwr Carmarthenshire Lady Elinor Cavendish was strangled by a suitor in the 18th century and now is seen as a young girl disappearing into a cupboard

Gibside Hall, Tyne and Wear Haunted by The Unhappy Countess
Lyme Park, Cheshire Haunted by a phantom furneral procession complete with a weeping woman all dressed in white

Lanhydrock, Cornwall Haunted by the Grey Lady and a man who was hanged by Civil War Royalists

Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister during Victoria’s reign, is said to stand by the stairs, smiling at visitors

Powis Castle, Welshpool A lady in black sits by the fireplace

Belton House, Lincolnshire A ghost in black haunts the Queen’s Bedroom

A phishing scam on Hotmail led to the publication online of 10,000 passwords and even more accounts could yet be compromised. The scam has widened now to Google and Yahoo and there could be millions of users whose personal information has been accessed.

You’re more at risk for multiple accounts to be hacked or compromised if you use the same password net-wide as many people do.

Using phishing scams and mirror sites, people are often tricked into revealing their passwords. Always be sure you are on the official site and never give out personal information unless you are sure you are dealing with a verified site that you are familiar with. Changing your passwords often and using different passwords for different sites will also increase your security.

I was one of the reluctant Facebook users who didn’t really find very much of interest to do there – that is, until one of my Facebook friends conned me into joining his mafia.

Mafia Wars is the most popular game on Facebook and it starts you off as a small time hood who works his way up through hard work and a show of guts and strength. Inviting your friends to join your mafia increases your likelihood of surviving and winning fights. Buying the right weapons for your mafia members is also important. It’s not impossible to fend off a larger mafia if your weapons and defense are superior.

You make money and work your way up by doing “jobs”. Each job requires a certain amount of “energy” points and yields a certain amount of experience points. Acquiring experience points helps you achieve new levels. Some jobs are also “loot drops” where you can acquire valuable items needed for collections and weapons that you can use to do more advanced jobs. Money you earn can be kept or stored in the bank. Putting the money in the bank will cost you a laundering fee, but carrying it around leaves you vulnerable to attack and robbery. Buying properties will help you gain an hourly income but beware, the properties can also be robbed so buy insurance on them.

When you reach level 35 you can leave New York and fly to Cuba to set up a new operation there. Mafia Wars is adding new vistas for crime in Russia and Western US.

I reached level 166 before I started to tire of MW. It doesn’t take a lot of time and it’s exciting to build up your mafia. I still keep leveling up by playing a few times a week, but Facebook led me into another obsession. More on that later.