Farmville

One thing I learned during unemployment is that Farmville is a really good timesuck. 

So I start up my farm my first week of unemployment and after three months, I'm now at level 40, several levels above friends who started months before I started.  This isn't like some great accomplishment or anything, but I'm home all day, so I might as well harvest berries as often as possible, which for me is 2 crops of berries during the day, then rice overnight.  I actually haven't missed a harvest my entire time.  It's actually a nice way to regiment the day.  Usually, I'll harvest at 10:30, work out at 11, and then have lunch. 

What's nice about Farmville is that there's a way to quantify progress.  When you're networking or sending out resumes, you can count things like number of jobs applied to, but you really have no idea if actual progress is made; if anything is going to happen.  At least here, I know my experience points and level and coins will all go up in a nice predictable way.

I once told some friends that without Farmville, I wouldn't have a reason to get up.  Now, I was joking, but it's kind of nice to have something with consequences.  Like if I don't send out one more resume or something, I really have no idea if that would have any effect on my job search, but I absolutely know that if I don't harvest crops on time, I'll lose them. 

We were discussing Farmville with some friends a few days ago and after a while, I said, "Did we just talk about Farmville for like 20 minutes?" 

It'll be kind of a relief to not farm so much.  I'll actually switch over to crops that take days to grow.  Weird.