So far, I like using kaChing app more than the virtual stocks account I have in Investopedia. You know why? Because I have $10,000,000 in the virtual portfolio which is a higher amount than the one I have in my Investopedia practice account. I can buy more stocks, and trade more here in kaChing. =P

I want to use the keyboard on my desktop though in typing games, so I tried to find other typing games in Facebook that I could play with my old desktop. And I found some.

1. Typing Monster – This App has an old-school design, incomparable to Typing Maniac. The good thing about it though is you are going to type a paragraph, which combines uppercase letters and punctiation marks, while numbers are in a bomb. You should type the numbers as soon as they appear. Of course if the bomb explodes you will lose one life. You have 5 lives to spare, and if all are used up, the game is over.
2. Typing Race – As name implies it is a race on typing, LIVE. On your first time playing, you will choose a car, and your country. Then choose whom would you like to race with: with your friends or with random people in Facebook playing the game at that time. This is a good game to see for yourself how fast can you type against other people in 30 seconds. You will see your typing speed at the end of the game.
3. Typing Speed – This is just a simple and short game. In 30 seconds of typing  you can find out what is your typing speed and accuracy rate. Typing Maniac does not compute your typing speed, so play this game if you want to find out.
4. The Typing of the Ghosts – Ghosts appear together with the words you have to type. The ghosts get bigger and bigger, so you type the words, or numbers as fast as you can. If not, the ghost will snatch your life. You have 5 lives to spare in this game too.
5. pa-Ching Typing Game – See how fast you can type by typing three sentences or 10 sentences. That’s it. I would say that the goal of the developer of this app is just to gain money in Adsense.

Having able to play these five typing games, I realized that Typing Maniac is the best among all of the typing games in Facebook.

To type fast and accurate is one of the skills I have been trying to perfect eversince I got my own computer. I used to practice with Typing games that I downloaded for free online. So when I saw one of my Facebook friends news feed saying she was playing Typing Maniac, I was excited to try the game.

Typing Maniac has a cool game interface, and just like othe typing games, the ability to type fast and accurate will help you advance in the game, and get high scores of course.

The speed goes faster, and words get longer when level increases, but you can get through this challenge with the help of the bonus tiles: Fire, Ice, Slow, and Wind. You can get the bonus tiles by typing the words in the colored tiles which are red, blue, yellow, and purple. Then the bonus tiles pile up on the right column after you got the words correctly on the colored tiles.

Since you can only keep up to 6 bonus tiles while playing, it is best that you strategize when to use your bonus tiles, and what tiles to keep. To use a bonus tile, you have to type the word.

• Type fire if you want to burn all the tiles.
• Type ice to freeze the tiles
• Type slow, so that the speed slows down
• Type wind, if you want to make your error percentage back to 0%, so you could play the game longer

Since the game will be over once you have a lot of misses or 100% error percentage. it is best you have stock up in bonus tiles when you reach the higher levels.

Aside from bonus tiles, you might also have noticed the dark tiles. You have to get the word right on this tile on your first try or else, the speed will increase.

Strategy on Playing Typing Maniac

My strategy in playing depends on what bonus tiles I get while I level up, but I make sure I have Slow and Wind tiles so I can advance. I also to perfect the scores on the first levels, up to level 7. If I don’t have any error in typing, the bonus points I get on these levels help me make my score high. If I miss to perfect a level I make sure I at least have perfected one of the higher levels. The bonus points are bigger at this point. When I want to do this, I should plan well what bonus tiles to keep and use.

So far, my highest score is 331,43 in Level 18. The top 1 one on my friend’s list got 921, 680 in Level 27. I am not sure what he did to reach that score. He’s just a random friend though so I could not really ask if he is cheating or not. Could you cheat in this game? Maybe he is really just fast typer, and good at using his bonus tiles.

Actually, late last year, I already signed up for this practice account or Investopedia’s stock simulator. However, I didn’t know much about investing that time, that I just ignored my account after creating it. So today, I just reopened my practice account in Investopedia.com, and see how the account looks like.  It has a virtual amount of $100,857.75. I think the 857.75 was a profit from a default stock when I opened the virtual account last year. I really don’t remember. But anyway, with this amount I should really be able to get a good start.

Now what? Should I start investing with my virtual money? No.

I will evaluate first the different investment strategies in stock trading, and see what might work best for me. I would think about what risks I am willing to take, and what are my investment goals if this is a real portfolio. Yeah, this isn’t real money, why would I be worried about risks? I should. That’s why it is a practice account so I could test the water before I jump in. I want to take this seriously so that when I get the real money, I will have a better idea what stocks to buy, although of course the market may move differently when that time arrives.

P.S.

I still have not looked up for virtual practice accounts for bonds and mutual funds. I should have them so I would know how to diversify my real investments in the future.

Cotton is a 4-day crop, but cheaper than pumpkin. Pineapple and blueberry are 3-day crops, while pepper and carrot can be harvested in 2 days. The best among these new crops though is the raspberry, which can be harvested in 2 hours, lesser hours than if you have harvested grapes. As long as you have time to tend it, raspberry had replaced grapes as the top crop to plant if you want to gain experience points faster in Farm Town.

It could have been better if one of the new crops is an 8-hour or 10-hour crop.

Hire to Plow

The six new crops isn’t just the big news today in Farm Town. You might even consider this as the greatest enhancement of the game on this latest update. You can now hire farmers to plow for you! That is really awesome if you are keeping a big farm, since plowing at that stage tends to become a boring task.

When you hire other farmers, you spend less than what you could have spent if you have plowed the fields by yourself. Instead of 20 coins, you will spend either 10 coins or 15 coins. This depends if you are neighbors or not. The farmer plowing your field will get coins too: 5 coins if you are both strangers, and (someone told me that you get) 10 coins if he is a neighbor you hired to plow.

Okay now, you want someone to plow at your farm, but what about experience point? Will you lose it? A resounding no! You will still get 1 xp, and the farmer you hired to plow will also get one experience point. So it’s a good deal for both of you. You might also consider getting hired to plow so you could gain experience points faster.

Hiring someone to plow at your farm is just like hiring someone to harvest. You just click on the player’s avatar, and click Hire to plow at your farm. Once he is in your farm he can only plow on fields that are previously harvested or on fields with crops that have gone to waste. He cannot plow on the green fields.

P.S.

When you hire someone to plow, it is best you wait until he is done plowing before you plant your crops. It’s hard to get over the ’saving’ feature. You could try, but it would just frustrate you.

There were several choices around the area, but we had decided to stay in Aveflor Inn, situated along Claro M. Recto Avenue. It was the cheapest and at least decent place we found. We got a Twin Bed room in the third floor. It just cost 650 pesos. The room had no decorations, but I was fine with that since it still looked nice to me, and the room was comfortable. The bathroom in our room was clean and had a hot shower, which was good. Wi-fi wasn’t available though, but at least we could entertained ourselves by watching shows on cable.

( Check out Aveflor Inn’s website for the room prices, more photos, and contact numbers for reservation: http://aveflorinn.webs.com/ )

Finding a Laundry Service near Aveflor Inn

When we got to Davao, we need our dirty clothes washed. Good thing we found a shop that offered a laundry service in the commercial building across the street of Aveflor Inn. (Photo below) We walked in to the center, and found the shop on the right side of it. If I remember it right, the charge was 20 pesos per kilo and could be picked up in 24 hours.

The commercial building across the street

Aveflor Inn and Going to Places

One thing I didn’t like of Aveflor’s location though was that there were no nearby fast food chains. When I say nearby, about 50 meters away. But it was good that there were jeepneys we could get on to when we went to Victoria Plaza or Gaisano Mall. The jeepney we took was Route 4.

Claro M. Recto Avenue

But going back to Aveflor Inn from Victoria Plaza was another story.  Claro M. Recto Avenue is just a one way street so we had to figure out what jeepney to take going back. Well, I didn’t ask the receptionist before we left. So the best we could do was just take the jeepney that goes to Quirino Avenue and get off at the corner of Magsasysay Avenue and C.M. Recto. From there, we walked back to Aveflor Inn.

There are several fast food chains and groceries though in San Pedro, about 800 meters away from the Inn. This is a walkable distance. We just walked to these places when we decided to eat out.

When we went to SM Davao, we walked towards Quezon Boulevard which was kinda far, just to take a jeepney to SM. But we took a taxi going back to the Inn from SM. It cost around 70 pesos which wasn’t that bad. There might be a better alternative on what we did though which I wasn’t aware.

You can take a look again on the map below of the Davao downtown area where Aveflor Inn is located to familiarize yourself on the streets I was talking about.

View Larger Map

Here are 20 ideas to help you.

1. Read a poem aloud, like one of Dr. Seuss’ poems.
2. Watch a movie together. Click the play button at the same time. Someone may adjust the speaker settings though. This would work best if both of you have a fast internet connection.
3. Show to him/her your new outfit.
4. Share the links to the music videos you are watching, or webpages you are reading. So he/she can see it too.
5. Write an article together in Google Docs. You can make romantic sentences all of a sudden, and he/she will see it in a few seconds on his/her screen. You can make a funny remark too to make him/her laugh.
6. Show him/her your place. This would work if you are using a laptop you can carry around the house. It is like giving him/her a tour in your place in person because he/she can comment on each room or hallway anytime in the tour.
7. Play the piano. He/she can sing the song.
8. Just sing a song for him/her.
9. Dance Beyonce’s Single Ladies, or maybe another dance song.
10. Play the guitar.
11. Play an online game together. My boyfriend and I play the Attack app in Facebook. Other players in the map would not know that both of us were allies. But we would discuss our moves in Gtalk while playing Attack on another window.
12. Introduce your friends and relatives.
13. Show him/her the christmas  gifts you bought for your family and friends.
14. Show him/her what you got for Christmas or your birthday.
15. Eat at the same time. It could be your dinner, and her breakfast.
16. Cook a meal in front of him/her.
17. Show an amazing or crazy stuff you got like your Ant farm if you have.
18. Give him/her a tour of your office.
19. Buy a cake or an ice cream and eat at the same time.
20. Read aloud your romantic letter.

On top of these 20 things though are to trust each other, and to keep communication healthy.

Anyway, I was fortunate that I was able to level up quickly in one week and had unlocked all crops in 8 days. So below, I listed the levels and what crops get unlocked when you reach them.

The costs of the crops are also listed according to the: price when you buy them / price when you harvest the crops yourself and sell them / price when you harvest them, put the crops in the storage first, and sell them/ price when someone else harvests the crops for you and  you sell them in the marketplace.

Level 1

• Grapes – buy for 20 coins /sell for 50 coins, 56 coins, OR 67 coins
• Tomato – buy for 50 coins / sell for 126 coins, 140 coins, OR 168 coins
• Rice – buy for 80 coins / sell for 171 coins, 190 coins, OR 228 coins
• Corn – buy for 130 coins / sell for 257 coins, 285 coins, OR 342 coins
• Potato – buy for 40 coins / sell for 89 coins, 99 coins, OR 119 coins

Level 2

• Strawberry –  buy for 30 coins /sell for 77 coins, 85 coins, OR 102 coins

Level 6

• Wheat – buy for 80 coins /sell for 162 coins, 180 coins, OR 216 coins

Level 8

• Sunflower – buy for 115 coins /sell for 249 coins, 277 coins, OR 332 coins

Level 10

• Coffee – buy for 150 coins /sell for 268 coins, 298 coins, OR 358 coins

Level 13

• Watermelon – buy for 35 coins /sell for 83 coins, 92 coins, OR 110 coins

Level 16

• Cabbage – buy for 45 coins /sell for 96 coins, 107 coins, OR 128 coins

Level 19

• Peas – buy for 90 coins /sell for 182  coins, 202 coins, OR 242 coins

Level 22

• Onions – buy for 170 coins /sell for 304 coins, 338 coins, OR 406 coins

Level 25

• Pumpkin – buy for 200 coins /sell for 356 coins, 396 coins, OR 475 coins

P.S.

Please leave in the comment section anything you know that is not accurate on the numbers I listed above. I got the prices when-you-sell the-crops from this Facebook group. Also, there might be updatesin Farm Town that would change the prices. But whatever it is, it is clear you will earn more when someone else’s harvest the crops for you and you sell them to the marketplace, and you will earn less if you harvest the crops yourself and sell them directly without placing them first in the storage.

Despite the low coins when I started the game, I was not discouraged to try the App. Besides games like this really start with almost nothing. I just have to start playing it and I will surely advance.

On my first day, I planted a few grapes, added another App to get free coins, and added my Facebook friends, who are already playing, as my neighbors. I was fortunate I had a lot of friends playing because I could visit their farms and earn coins by working on their farms like weeding. Once I had good amount of coins, I started planting more grapes.

But it was not only the coins from working on my friends’ farms that helped me to advance quickly in the game. I was able to get big jobs from other farmers in the Inn, and Realty. Yeah, me as a newbie got impatient in the Marketplace I went to. So I decided to try the Inn and Realtor without knowing I can just click the Marketplace icon again to be in a different market, and if lucky got a job.

After a few minutes I became determined to upgrade my land to the biggest as soon as possible, so that I could plant more crops, and in return earn more coins, and in return create my beautiful dream farm. Seems impossible eh, but I made it. How?

• I planted and harvested grapes mostly to get more experience points.
• I removed the spaces between fields, so I could make more fields.
• I planned to make my farm as simple as possible. Less expenses on decorations like buildings and fences and trees.
• When in the marketplace, I made sure I didn’t sound begging for work.
• Sent messages to my friends who had crops ready to be harvested if I could harvest for them, and good enough one of them replied and let me harvest his pumpkins!
• I went to the discussion board to look for a good resource and overview of the game, and I did. This one.
• Whenever I was hired by another farmer, I tried to make a conversation so we could be friends and so he could hire me again next time he has new crops ready for harvest.

So these were my strategies. I started playing in the afternoon of June 22nd, and seven days after I hit level 24, and got the second to the biggest land. I was actually aiming for level 25 so I could get the biggest land, but I wasn’t able to. But level 24 was still a good level to hit in just one week.

Now, I am in level 25, already got the biggest farm, but my goal now has changed. I am not aiming to level up quickly but to save more money so I can create a pretty farm. My strategy has changed too. I won’t plant grapes anymore (or for the meantime) since it’s kinda hard to tend on a big farm. I decided to just plant pumpkins, onions, and peas so I can rest. The first week was tiring anyway. In fact, there were nights on my first week  that I got up in the middle of the night to harvest my grapes. lol.

Here are some screenshots of my farm on Day 2, Day 5, and Day 7.

After our visit to Davao Crocodile Park, we headed to Japanese Tunnel. On our way, I was busy looking for stores at the road because I had to buy a swimwear or at least any clothes to wear for our swimming later the day. I didn’t know we were going to swim after our trip in Japanese Tunnel. But also behind my mind, I was anxious what the Japanese Tunnel looks like. I was excited to get pictures of what awaited us there.

One of my in-laws insisted we should see the place. So we went.

When I think of tunnel, it’s dark, in the mountain of course,  and there would be an interesting path inside. And outside there would be a great view of nature. It should be something worth  my time that I would reminisce the years when Japanese occupied the Philippines, but Americans and Filipinos defeated them. So they hid on this big tunnel.

But anyway, visiting the tunnel was the biggest disappointment of the day. Not the battery of my camera, and not having extra clothes either. It was the tunnel.

Well, I guess if am alone seeing the place, I would not care wasting 50 pesos, but we were around 18 people then, including the kids! And all we saw inside was just this tunnel. What made it ‘extraordinary’ for some was the thought that some Japanese armies in World War II used that tunnel.  The tunnel might be around 50 meters long OR less. Then the tour guide would say, this was their armory, this was their meeting area, etc.  Then suddenly my cousins who were walking ahead of me stopped. I found out that’s it. It’s dead end.  A large electric fan was there to keep the tunnel ventilated.  So we just walked back on our way out, looking at the narrow stream, staring at the tunnel’s walls. I wish we just had gone to Corregidor.

P.S.

While walking inside the tunnel, the thought of a big lump of soil around and on top of me made me want to get out sooner. So when they said it’s dead end, I felt relieved we were going out.