PP is not a great fan of displacement activity.
Or so I thought........
Early evening yesterday, I was in the kitchen preparing dinner, when I was alerted by gales of laughter to something going on in the study/office. Upon investigation, I discovered PP and Small Dog, completely engrossed in front of the computer screen, Small Dog's head swivelling like one of those car back shelf nodding dogs.
The source of the amusement turned out to be FarmVille, an application now available on Facebook.
Apparently, according to PP, Facebook does not qualify as displacement activity because she is performing the function of family archivist, gradually uploading a collection of old family photographs.
Fair enough.
I'll accept that.
Except several of PP's family members have recently acquired 'farms' courtesy of FarmVille, and she has been sucked into a whole new world of displacement activity.
She started her farm yesterday and has a modest plot on which she's growing soya beans, strawberries, potatoes, eggplants and wheat. Crops grow in real time and have to harvested when they're 100% ready, at which time they can be sold at market. Gradually, over aeons of real time, the virtual farmer can acquire cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, horses etc, and extend the ol' farmstead to include drinks gazebos, porch seats, ponds and so on.
You get the idea.
Sadly, as with most things in life, timing is everything, and this morning PP discovered that her strawberry crop had rotted in the night. Undaunted, she has since re-ploughed the field and planted soya beans, which do not require so much cossetting.
Apparently a valuable lesson has been learned vis-a-vis the optimum time to plant stuff, ie not just before going to bed.
Small Dog is enchanted. All the animals make different noises and she is particularly taken with the sheep and a duck. Sadly PP is as yet too inexperienced to be allowed to buy any animals, which is perhaps just as well given the strawberry debacle, but she is assiduously tending her small plot and hopes to have animals by the end of the week. At present Small Dog is getting her animal noises 'fix' by PP visiting other people's farms, where you can get virtually paid for helping out, weeding, picking up leaves and the like. While PP is thus engaged, Small Dog runs around, poking the animals to make them 'talk'.
Far be it from me to cast aspersions on anyone else's displacement activity but..............
Anyhoo, for the curious would-be farmer, here is a promo of FarmVille in all its virtual glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment