I’ll admit it. I’m not proud, but I’m willing to own up to the occasional unfortunate side effect of my cat-killing levels of curiosity. Facebook gaming is one such effect: I marvel at the phenomenon, get swept away in the crowd of my friends peer pressuring me daily to help them build a chicken coop or drain the blood from a small child, and jump into the deep end.

I go full force for a couple days, and sometimes a couple weeks…heck, two games have had my attention for a couple months…which is saying a lot. But for the most part I quickly lose interest or find myself embarrassed by my own shameless begging for pixel charity by way of spamming the hell out of everyone’s status time lines.

If Google’s advocating name changes for youths looking to escape their mortifying Facebook updates, I’d like a name change to escape my mortifying Facebook gaming past.

But here’s the rub: the only way you can stay really competitive in many of these games is to do precisely what the game makers steer you towards doing, which is to buy Facebook credits (or in-game currency). After all, these games are commercial enterprises and somebody has to pay the costs of serving up millions of virtual farm acres across the globe.

I refuse, however, to spend my hard-earned cash on something as frivolous as Facebook credits (I reserve my hard-earned money for far wiser purchases such as Linden for Second Life).

Unfortunately this clashes very badly with my habit of losing all perception of time, since if you’re not buying credits/game cash, you’re relying on timed tasks like growing kawaii crops or baking oddly mouth-watering cupcakes to make ends meet. These cost money to plant/produce, and every time I let a crop die or burn a pastry, I’m up a creek sans paddle. Is it any wonder I drove my virtual clothing store into the ground? I appear to have all the business sense of the potatoes I famously fail to grow. Repeatedly.

And now I find myself with a meager 35 gold in a game that costs hundreds of gold to do anything remotely cool in, and I’m seriously considering throwing in the towel. Again.

But I have dozens of friends who’ve been playing these games successfully, many without ever buying a credit, for months on end. How do they do well where I cannot seem to measure up? And (excluding my friends, of course) I’ve seen some utter idiots who can keep wicked farms going full force. I’m in my thirties, I’m university educated, I’m an experienced gamer, and I’ve given it the good old college try. I should be able to do this. What am I doing wrong?

Here’s what I’m doing wrong: I’m having a life. I’m breaking every rule in the geek handbook by doing things like working and – for shame – sleeping. I’m checking my Facebook just a handful of times a day. And I’m not tattooing Zynga’s name on my buttock.

(The latter would likely not even impress the folks at Zynga – the leader of whom, Mark Pincus, famously said “I don’t f***ing want innovation” with regard to the gaming giant’s not-so-diverse offerings.)

So what must I take away from all this? That successful Facebook gaming and successful living are two completely separate concepts, and never the twain shall meet? (The cynic in me says this is more or less true. The rest of me says I’m running dangerously close to cheezing off half my friends list.) Perhaps it’s more a lesson of there unmistakably being too much of a good thing. Too many games, too many (pointless?) ambitions, too little time to spread around.

Thus I approach you, fair reader, for your advice when it comes to Facebook gaming. Is there a way to reconcile your Farmville farming and your actual job? Is it possible to play Baking Life and tend to things like circadian rhythms and personal hygiene? Can you keep up your Cafe World and still live in the real world?

And if so, how the heck do you do it, without caving and splashing cash?

The fate of my frontier, my bakery, and sundry other pieces of Facebook real estate rests in your hands. Because I’m about to throw mine up and say “f*#$ it, I’m screwed’.

Related: Hotel City: Just Another Facebook Game App

This holiday was first celebrated in August 13, 1976, due to the initiative of a group called Lefthanders International. The aim, obviously, is to further the cause of left-handers, who can be considered as minorities in this predominantly right-handed world.

Not convinced that left-handers are the minority? Consider these things:

• Name 10 friends. How many of them are left-handed?
• Go to a computer store.  Do you see a lot of mouses (or mice, if you prefer) made for lefties?
• Pick up a pair of scissors, and try using your left hand to work it.  Get my point?

Left-handed people are also called “southpaws,” something that boxing fans will know.  Here are some famous southpaws:

• Manny Pacquiao – Filipino boxer.  He is the only fighter to win nine world titles in seven different weight divisions.  Definitely the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world today. (Yes, I am biased.)
• Adolf Hitler
• Bob Dylan – perhaps one of the best musicians ever.
• Steve McQueen – all he needed was a fast machine!
• Osama bin Laden
• Margaret Thatcher
• Angelina Jolie
• Barack Obama

A lot of studies have been done about left-handedness, and some suggest that left-handers are more creative than right-handers.  On the downside, left-handers are supposed to be more forgetful.

Other pieces of information about lefties:

• Sinistrophobia is the technical term for the fear of left-handedness and everything related to the left side.  The term could have been derived from the ancient Roman word “sinister,” which meant “left.”
• The Incas believed that left-handed people were blessed with good luck.
• Native Americans would strap the left hand of babies down in order to prevent left-handedness.
• Being left-handed used to be grounds for divorce in Japan. (Thank goodness this isn’t the case anymore!)

So what are you – left-handed or right-handed?  In any case, give your left-handed friends a special pat on the back today, will you?

Photo credit: Jeff the Trojan

During the even Open House 2010, which took place on the 28th of May this year, Sony Computer Science Laboratories (CSL) Inc. showed off what they call a lifelogging device for cats. The idea is for a cat to wear the collar, which will automatically broadcast the cat’s activities online.

The device was developed with the help of people from the University of Tokyo. It incorporates a camera, a GPS device, and an acceleration sensor among other things. It is also equipped with Bluetooth, which transmits the data to a computer, which can then upload the cat’s tweets.

So what exactly is posted on Twitter? Let’s say the cat eats something. A set phrase such as “This tastes good” is assigned to the activity. There are only 11 phrases that are currently available with the lifelogging device, but the makers are already thinking of expanding the selection.

Being a non-cat person, I already know I will NOT spend money on a device such as this. However, it is interesting – to say the least. Just imagine the potential this device has! For the moment, though, merely reading about it is enough to satisfy my curiosity.

Cat people – would you buy this gadget for your precious pets?

There’s not much to say about the game other than that it allows you to show off your bacon baking skills on your iPhone. And it’ll rip you off for $1.19. Dept. of Uselessness as far as I am concerned, not because we don’t like bacon here at FG. we love bacon, if used interestingly but this is just another stupid money costing app.

When things couldn’t get crazier anymore and we have given up posting about all the stupid thumb drive sticks the market has seen lately, things always seem to get worse. Take this new dress presented by tennis star Maria Sharpova.

It lights up to incoming phone calls! WTF!?!?

It’s the work of British fashion student Georgie Davies, who worked with Sony Ericsson on ways to merge technology and chic threads. “When you’re in a pub or a bar, you can never, ever hear your phone,” Davies to Reuters. The solution? A short-sleeved, knee-length white dress that’s covered shoulder-to-hip with translucent scales that move and blink. Davies plans for the dress to incorporate Bluetooth technology so that it can wirelessly interact with phones.

Exactly what we need, as if your custom ringtones aren’t bad enough yet, now everyone will see when you get a phone call and how popular you really are! Dept. of WTF without a doubt for us here at FG HQ.

If you thought we had had it with the useless iPhone apps, you are wrong. Apple long has promoted ‘There’s an app for that’ and the fun site App for That can someone bring the occasionall laugh, but sometimes things just go to far.

We all know the Lightsaber now, the Cylon Detector and the different Mootools. Needs moar cowbell.

No, it doesn’t! Especially not because the ridiculous app development continues, with the latest Sexy Screen Wash as the prime example of how stupid apps can be. More even, this application will set you back $0.99. Whatever rocks your boat, it certainly won’t be installed on my iPhone!

This portable speaker is more expensive than the iPod it’s attached to. At US$76.16 I couldn’t imagine grabbing this low-powered (0.7-watt) speaker and look the wife straight in the eye. Boy, if I did I’d surely get a black-eye for sure! LOL.

With recession hitting everyone worldwide ONLY the fashionista may have the “balls” to pull this purchase. Yuen’To’s Music Balloon speaker has a rechargeable battery that lasts about 2 hours. One of the features I like would be that it can just be used anywhere as it dangles quite well. It only needs to attach itself to your MP3 player’s speaker plug. But considering it’s a mono speaker system, sound quality may be a little AM-ish. That’s why I was freaked out to see the price at about US$80. This will be available by mid-February though, so if it catches your eye… get one.