Sunshine Bokujo

Do you know what is the talk of the town in Japan right now?

サンシャイン牧場 (Sansyain Bokujo) or Sunshine Farm.

Maybe not Japan but at least in my college, or more specifically, my research lab haha. It all started yesterday, when one of my senpai, Kuri-chan, who was playing this game halfway and he turned his chair to our direction. My classmate, another senior and I were busy soldering the strain gauges at that time on another table. Kuri-chan then started promoting this game to us and pestered us to join him to play the game haha.

"This game is really interesting-lah. Can steal people's crop some more!"

We hesitated whether or not to play the game because we haven't finished our work yet. But Kuri-chan die die also wanted us to play the game. So, he told us how you can grow your vegetables in your own farm, put fertilizers to fasten their growth, water your plants, and etc. Going to other people's farm and throw insects on them is also possible. Doing all this will slowly make your level increase. He really put a lot of effort in explaining to us about the game haha.

So, in the end, we gave in and both my classmate and I went to the two unused computers in the lab. Well, to be honest, to be invited by a senpai to play game is one of the best excuse to take a break from doing our experiments, and who wouldn't want it, right? Haha!

Cinderella has to have pumpkins in her his own farm, right? (an inside joke)

So, what is this Sunshine Farm all about?

Remember Barn Buddy at Facebook? That's right; it is exactly the same thing as Barn Buddy, except the fact that it is an application at a popular Japanese community site, Mixi. Since I have a Mixi account (although it is almost as inactive as my Friendster account), I had my senpai to invite me to play the game. I have long abandoned the similar game at Facebook and now I am starting to play the same game at Mixi =.=

There weren't much difference as I'm already too familiar with the applications and how we play the game.

You water the plants when they dried up.

Sometimes, insects would attack your crops, so use the pesticide to kill them. But the Japanese version of the worms are just too cute to kill them haha.

Besides just vegetables and fruits, we can also plant flowers in the farm at Sunshine Farm.

Just when I was concentrating watering and putting fertilizers on my crops, I realised that someone was looking at my computer screen. My initial thought was that it was one of my senpai and that should not be a problem at all because everyone was playing that game in the lab at that time. Just for confirmation, I turned behind and guess who I saw?

Professor Kondo hahaha!!

"何だこれ、面白そうだね。植物を植えるのか。良いね。" ("What's this? Looks interesting-lah. You plant the crops. I see. Nice, eh.")

What else, since he saw everything already, I couldn't just close the whole thing anymore. Memang got no where to run already. Wanna die also die only-lah haha. So, I just smiled sheepishly at him and gave him a slight nod haha. Prof. Kondo can be really nice, but when he gets serious, he can be a really serious person. Luckily, he didn't say anything this time when he saw us planting vegetables instead of doing our research at the lab haha.

You catch the worms and throw them into other people's farm. Shei Pien, 不好意思 haha.

And the most interesting part of this game is to steal people's crop. Here I stole Kuri-chan's tomatoes haha.

After Prof. Kondo went off, we continued playing the game. This time, we invited more people from the lab who has Mixi account and we fond out that almost everyone is playing this game lol. Damn high, I tell you.

While soldering the strain gauges, we played Sunshine Farm at the same time. Like after finishing soldering one section, we would rush to check on our farm haha. I wonder what would he say if Prof. Kondo knows about this.

Total harvest after Day 1.

I hope he doesn't read this, otherwise sure kantoi one.

Climate Justice

Short note: It is very rare for me to post up any embedded videos, from Youtube for example in my blog, unless it is something special, something which has a strong message which I would like to share. Here is one, which I think most people are still taking it very lightly.

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"For those living on the brink of survival,

climate change is a very real and dangerous hazard.

For many, it is a final step of deprivation."

Kofi Annan

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A video clip from It's Time For Climate Justice.

"We shouldn't take this issue too seriously, because the political figures up there will do something about it. After all, a little contribution from us doesn't make much difference. Just leave it to others to deal with this problem."

That I suppose, is the most common thought we have.

But hey, if the awareness doesn't start from us, then who? It is us, and we should stop expecting others to make the first move. Stop waiting and hoping that other people will be taking the initiative to protect our planet. It is not a matter of how much or how little you contribute. A small gesture will do; because I believe the collective effort will lead to a huge effect to the environment at the end of the day. Try avoid using plastic bags when you are shopping; bring your own bags, preferably made of cloth or paper. This culture is very common in Japan and other countries abroad. However, I could see that Malaysia is starting to join such move as well, which I think is a very positive move.

If you have seen the movie "Michael Jackson's This Is It", then you would realise that the message of the dangers of global warming and the lack of reversible time left was conveyed at one part of the movie. That to me, is a message that came at at the right time and it is still not too late.

The time has come, to take a stand. It's for the Earth, it's for the land.