Friday, April 1, 2016

The Farming Dead

Dear Diary,
 
Percy wanted to throw a prank party for April Fool's Day.  So of course he comes to my farm for help like he always does, because his rotten parents, Barbara and Walter, neglect and ignore him.


The kid really gets on my nerves, but I feel sorry for him so I often grudgingly agree to help him out with whatever dumb thing he's planning to do each week.



Unfortunately that means I always end up getting stuck having to build some worthless junk for him, because the poor kid is useless and can't seem to do anything for himself.  The little brat doesn't even help me build any of his crap, he just makes me do all the work and shows up when it's done!




This time I have to build a "Prank Pedestal," which is basically just a fancy table that Percy's going to use to stage crappy pranks on his friends.  It's actually kind of shocking this lame kid has any friends at all.




Maybe that's why all his "friends" look a few years younger than him.  Probably no one his own age wants hang out with him.  Look at this little girl pulling ribbon out of a box.  What a thrilling prank, Percy!  Yawn.  At least for Percy's sake she's still too young to figure out what a dork he is.  Look at his blank, emotionless stare.  I'd swear there's something seriously wrong with that kid.  It's like he's dead behind the eyes or something.  The lights are on, but nobody's home.




Oooh, a jack-in-the box!  Another timeless classic!  Congratulations, Percy, you successfully pranked a five year old girl!  You master prankster, you!  Sure, you placed it facing the wrong way, but we won't mention that.  Wouldn't wanna hurt your feelings.  Meantime, this poor little girl is going to grow up hating her mother for that one time she forced her to play with Percy.



So, here I am, hosting Percy's silly little prank parties when Carlos notices and alerts me to something strange going on behind my back.



HOLY CRAP, ZOMBIES HAD SUDDENLY SURROUNDED US!  



HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?  WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?



Fortunately, Carlos and I are huge fans of The Walking Dead, so we knew exactly how to handle this situation.



I took the knife from the little girl...



 ...and then I went to town on those dirty zombies!



The key to killing zombies is you have to stab or shoot them in the brain.  If you get them in any other part of the body they just keep coming!



Unfortunately, killing zombies can get really, really messy!  Yuck!  Zombie blood everywhere!



The only good zombie is a DEAD zombie!


I thought that was the end of it...



But more zombies were coming!  Wow they moved really fast for zombies.  Aren't zombies supposed to just shamble along?  These zombies were like Olympic sprinter zombies!



Carlos offered to hold them off while I fetched my trusty pitchfork.  I knew he could handle it.  Ever since he got stuck in a hot air balloon over the Chernobyl nuclear reactor that one time, he developed the ability to shoot a laser-like beam from his snood.  It comes in handy when I get a sudden craving for fried chicken.




Carlos easily dispatched those zombies!





Then Percy comes up to me and tells me the zombies weren't real?!  WTF?  




This stupid kid talked my neighbors into dressing and acting like zombies to prank ME at his dumb prank party!



Now all my neighbors are dead because of Percy's silly prank.  See, kids?  Pranking is dangerous!  Don't do it!  It all seems like harmless fun until everyone dies.  Then it's not so fun anymore.




Well needless to say, I had quite enough of this little moron...



...it was time for me to introduce Percy to the flowers.



Well I guess it turns out that Percy was a better prankster than I gave him credit for.  I reckon I might just miss that kid a little bit after all.  Oh well.







The Tree Musketeers


Hello, friends!  I have finally decided to start my own FV2 tree-tricking group!  I have named it, "The Tree Musketeers!"  Get it?  Pretty clever, huh?

If you don't know what a FV2 tree-tricking group is, the answer is very simple:  It is a group of FV2 players who band together and mutually agree to visit each other's farms daily to help trick each other's trees!  Sounds fun, right?

I know there are many other FV2 tree-tricking groups out there, but just like my co-op, mine is going to be the best.  Once you read our bylaws and FAQ below, you will understand why The Tree Musketeers is going to be so much more awesomer than any other tree-tricking group, ever!  In fact, if you are already in another tree-tricking group, ditch those losers immediately and join The Tree Musketeers RIGHT NOW!  Trust me, you will not regret it!

If you wish to join us, (and honestly, why wouldn't you?) the first thing you must do is change your Facebook and Zynga profile pictures to one of these lovely Tree Musketeer pictures:





You can choose to be Athos, Aramis or Porthos, it's totally up to you!  I'm not sure which is which, but you may pick one based on your favorite tree if you want; nobody really gives a crap!

I know this may seem rather arbitrary, but there is actually a very important reason that we all must do this.  Simply stated, it is necessary so that our fellow Tree Musketeers can easily locate us on their neighbor bars during daily tree-tricking visits.  Lesser tree-tricking groups just place a tiny little tree icon on your profile picture.  But for those of us who don't see too well, and we are many, that miniature tree icon can be easily missed and result in a non-visit.  You wouldn't want to miss a tree-tricking visit, would you?  Of course not!  Our superior Tree Musketeers profile picture methodology ensures that you won't!

The second thing you must do is download (right-click and select save image as) our advertising banner (it's the picture of The Tree Musketeers at the top of this page) and post it to your Facebook wall and your top 3 favorite FV2 groups along with a link to this page and a message telling everyone that you just joined the best new FV2 tree-tricking group ever, and they should too!  This will help us to recruit new Tree Musketeers, because the more tree-trickers we have in our group, the more trees we can trick!  It's a mathematically sound idea, wouldn't you agree?  Of course you would!  So please, do it now.

The third thing you must do is carefully read the few simple rules we have, peruse our FAQ, and click the link at the bottom of the page acknowledging that you have done so and agree to comply.


Bylaws of The Tree Musketeers

All members of The Tree Musketeers shall abide the following rules at all times, or be forever banished to the forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye:

  • You must have a line of at least ten solitary trees on your farm at all times.  These are the trees that your fellow Tree Musketeers members will assist you in tricking!
  • You must eliminate all superfluous decorations from your farm so that your farm loads as fast as possible for your fellow Tree Musketeers when they visit you.  The more decorations you have on your farm, the longer it takes to load for a visitor, so store all that cutesy crap in your inventory toot-sweet!  Don't be like this disgusting hoarder. Yuck!
  • You must befriend and neighbor-up with each and every member of The Tree Musketeers.  This will enable you and your fellow Tree Musketeers members to visit each other and trick each other's trees!  If you already have too many neighbors to add more, simply remove all of your neighbors who are not in The Tree Musketeers group to make room for all your new Tree Musketeers members!
  • You must visit the farm of each and every member of The Tree Musketeers once each day and water all ten of their trees (This is what we in the tree-tricking business call "tending your neighbor's treeline").
  • Upon conclusion of your daily visit to each of your fellow Tree Musketeers, you must post a message on their Facebook wall saying, "All for one and one for all!"  Optionally, you can add, "I made a beeline for your treeline!" to the aforementioned message should you so desire.
  • The Tree Musketeers is a very exclusive club, so you cannot be in any other FV2 tree-tricking groups, and you must publicly renounce all other FV2 tree-tricking groups and unfriend their members.
  • You must randomly pm at least twelve of your Facebook friends each day demanding that they join The Tree Musketeers, and threatening to unfriend them if they don't.  And, no, not the same twelve Facebook friends each day.  Nice try, but you must rotate it!
 
The Tree Musketeers FAQ

If you still have questions about The Tree Musketeers, perhaps you can find the answers you seek from these Frequently Asked Questions instead of bothering me about it, as I am a very busy tree-tricker who tricks many trees: 

Q. Why can't I be D'Artagnan?
A. Because he was not one of the original three musketeers.  We are doing this group old-school style.  That's just how we roll, ok?  Don't make trouble.

Q. What if someone who is in another FV2 tree-tricking group tries to recruit me or even talk to me?
A. Should any member of another FV2 tree-tricking group attempt to engage you in any way whatsoever, even with innocuous chitchat regarding the weather, you must ignore them, block them on Facebook and report the incident to me immediately.  I will deal with these poachers personally!

Q. How will I know who all the other Tree Musketeers are so I can befriend and visit them?
A. The Tree Musketeers has its own Facebook group (please click the link to join it now) that we all use to connect with each other for tree-tricking, as well as for light banter and other sundry Facebook-related activities, such as posting pictures of our pets and sharing recipes, etc.

Q.  This sounds like it will be a very popular group!  If membership in The Tree Musketeers grows into the hundreds, will I still need to visit each and every member each day?
A. LOL, don't be silly!  Of course you will.

Q. What if I miss a visit due to illness, or I mis-click a fence and only water 9 of my neighbor's trees, or inadvertently break any other rule?
A. For every violation of a Tree Musketeers Bylaw, whether intentional or not, you will be required to send one U.S. dollar to my PayPal account (choodessny@paypal.com).  So, if you fail to visit two Tree Musketeers one day, you owe me $2.  If you miss three visits the next day, you owe me an additional $3.  If you visit all The Tree Musketeers the next day, but you accidentally click on a Tree Musketeers neighbor's duck instead of their tenth tree, you owe me another dollar.  Please rest assured, at the end of each month I will use the funds accumulated in this PayPal account to throw a pizza party for myself and several close friends.

Q. Am I invited to the pizza party?
A. No.

Q. Why not?
A. You're not really a close friend, you're more of an acquaintance.

Q. But I am your mother!
A. Mom, please... I'm doing my blog right now!

Q. I am not familiar with the practice of "tree-tricking."  Can you explain exactly what it is and how it is done?
A. Great question!  I would be happy to do that:

To trick trees, the first thing you must do is pull one tree out of each of ten groves and line them up on your farm in a conspicuous location, so that your fellow Tree Musketeers can find them quickly and tend them easily.  Once you do this, you will have ten solitary trees in a line (your "treeline"), and ten groves containing three trees each.  So far, so good!

First we extract one tree from each grove to create a "treeline."

The next thing you do is you wait for one of your fellow Tree Musketeers to visit your farm and water the ten individual trees in your treeline.  Once you have confirmed the visitor intends to water your treeline by holding your cursor over the visitor and verifying the little highlighted green squares around each tree, get excited, because the tree-tricking action is about to begin!

Then we wait for a fellow tree-tricker to tend our treeline.

The next thing you need to do is place each of the ten individual trees in your treeline back into each of the ten groves you pulled them from earlier.

Then we place the individual trees back into their groves. The trees get really excited!

Finally, once all of your trees are tucked snugly back into their groves, hover over your Tree Musketeer visitor again and click DECLINE on their visit.

Your trick on the trees is completed upon clicking the "decline" button on the neighbor's visit!

Congratulations!  You have successfully tricked your trees!  LOL, those fools never saw that coming!  Trees are so dumb and easily tricked!  

Tree-tricking sure is fun, isn't it?  Click the link below to join us today and you can have this much fun with us too!

I wish to join The Tree Musketeers.  I hereby certify that I have read the bylaws of The Tree Musketeers and agree to abide by same.
 

Walt-in-the-Box


 #63
 
This is the sixty-third installment of Friday Facebook Foto Fun, where every Friday or so we have some fun with a random comment or picture that someone recently posted, shared or sent me on Facebook.



 

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Happy National Spinach Day?


Meanwhile, at Zynga HQ...

Zynga exec #1: "Gee, our FV2 players are all still really super pissed off at us over Thursday's glitch.  Riots are breaking out on our web forums and many of them are threatening to quit the game!  What should we do?"
 

Zynga exec #2: "I've got an idea!  Let's divert their attention from the issue with a post about National Spinach Day!  Everyone loves spinach, right?"
 

Zynga exec #1: "Brilliant plan!  I'll get our art, web and programming teams on that right away.  They're probably not busy with anything else at the moment."


Quests are still missing, hard-earned puppy pageant dogs are still MIA, people are still missing quest buildings and quest-related rewards they won such as animals, fences and decorations, and paying customers are still missing things for which they actually spent real money.  But instead of addressing what they are doing to rectify these issues, Zynga wants us to just forget about all that and plant some nice spinach, OK?  So, just relax, guys.  It's spinach day, and there is spinach for you to plant.  What more could you possibly want?

Also, here loyal players, have a tiny handful of trinkets of dubious value to make up for everything you lost in the latest glitch:


Yeah, sure, you restored my Prank Pedestal, but with negative party invites.  Thanks Zynga, that is very helpful.  Keep up the great work!



Well, gotta look on the bright side, I guess.  At least we have some entertaining new comments to read!



Friday, March 25, 2016

Farmhangs



#62
 
This is the sixty-second installment of Friday Facebook Foto Fun, where every Friday or so we have some fun with a random comment or picture that someone recently posted, shared or sent me on Facebook.