Castleville Outranked / One Up bug

Many, many people have had issues with the Outranked / One Up mission in Castleville. Using a Gloom Dragon Potion would produce a warning that "You already have one gloom dragon in your kingdom". Meanwhile, activating Myrick's Flask would produce no results.

I have posted on both Zynga forums, submitted their google docs form, waited for weeks for a reply and all with no results. Meanwhile the bug report post has grown to over 200 comments of people having the same exact problem.

I noticed, among the comments, a moderator saying to send a DM on twitter and that's exactly what I tried.
I sent the following to @ZyngaSupport
"castleville, outranked/one up, can't summon dragon, can't defeat dragon supposedly already there. uid [uid]"

In less than 3 hours the issue was fixed!

I got my uid from this page.

Anti-Semites on FaceBook

Newest addition: Hank Cardinal

List of possibly American anti-semites on FaceBook:

Austin Chapa (Winter Part, FL)

Gabriel Perurena (Austin, TX)





Hank Cardinal (Saddle Lake, Alberta, Canada)
Owner of Dr. Hank's Hrebal Remedies

John Matthew Taylor (South Jersey, NJ)

Ken Robin Johnson (Stavanger, Norway)

Morgan Launikitis

Sarah Ballard

Mystery Manor - Zodiac - Bedroom

UPDATED: 03/25/2012

♈ Aries: x2
♉ Taurus: x2
♊ Gemini: x1
♋ Cancer: x2
♌ Leo: x2
♍ Virgo: x2
♎ Libra: x2
♏ Scorpio: x2
♐ Sagittarius: x1
♑ Capricorn: x1
♒ Aquarius: x2
♓ Pisces: x1

Mystery Manor - Zodiac - Living Room

UPDATED: 3/19/12

Mystery Manor - Cloakroom

Bow
 - Red dress on the right | On bench, below left bag | 3rd back left shelf
Butterfly
 - On red bag, bottom left | Back, top left shelf
Drapery Cord Tassel
 - Bottom of mirror | Right side of bench
Fan
 - Far left ceiling | Behind box back right
Feather Duster
 - Right side of bench | Right leg of mirror
Fire Alarm
 - Far left ceiling | Above shelves on the right
Gloves
 - Floor, center back | Floor, bottom left | Open drawer back left
Hair Brush
 - Middle of bench | Floor, bottom left
Hanger
 - On chandelier | 5th back right shelf | Back left commode
Iron
 - Floor, center back | Floor, back left | Top back shelf
Keys
 - Left side of mirror
Magazine
 - Floor, center back | Floor, bottom left
Man's Sock
 - Bottom right | Floor, bottom left
Mask
 - Grey jacket on the left | Red dress on the right
Measuring Tape
 - Right commode | Floor, back left
Necktie
 - Left commode | Top shelf, back right
Petunia Flower
 - Behind bench, on the left | Bottom of mirror | Under red dress
Phone
 - Bottom left | On bench, left
Scissors
 - Back, top left shelf | Bottom right
Sewing Machine
 - Back left | 3rd shelf, back right | Under bench
Shoe Horn
 - Second shelf, on the left | Back shelf, center
Sunglasses
 - In mirror | On bench, left | In front of bench
Tag
 - Red coat on the right | On red bag, bottom left | On clear bag on bench
Woman's Hat
 - Bottom shelf on left | Top of mirror | In front of bench
Yarn ball
 - On top of back left commode | Bottom left of mirror | Under stool

Mystery Manor - Bathroom

Angel - Top left.
Apple - Middle of mirror.
Ball - Inside alcove.
Bell - Bottom of cart.
Candlestick - Bottom left of bathtub.
Champagne - Above cart, on left.
Clock - On top of cart.
Detergent - Behind cart.
Fire Alarm - Ceiling above bathtub.
Duck - Left of mirror.
Gear - Inside alcove.
Glove - Bottom right.
Linen Basket - Behind cart.
Perfume - Wall left of bathtub.
Plunger - Ceiling above cart.
Scale - Bottom left.
Seahorse - Ceiling above bathtub.
Shell - Left corner of bathtub.
Ship - Bottom center.
Small Broom - Bottom left.
Vase - Front table.
Wine Glass - Bottom left of bathtub.
Woman's Shoe - Bottom left.
Wrench - Above bathtub.

Mystery Manor - African Room

African Diamond - Floor, right.
African Elephant - Top right wall.
African Mask - Right side of hut.
African Scorpion - Roof, bottom right.
Basket - Right of roof.
Bananas - Held by monkeys.
Butterfly - Right wall, center.
Crocodile Skull - In hut in fire.
Cup - On drum, front center.
Feather - On spear, right of hut.
Goggles - Right wall, bottom right.
Gun - In vase, left of hut.
Knife - Stuck in drum, floor, right.
Pineapple - In hut on table.
Pith Helmet - Floor, right.
Rhino - Left window.
Shaman Amulet - Right of roof.
Shaman Potion - On drum, front center.
Shell - Top of roof.

Posting Thanksgiving RSVP in Frontierville

Open FrontierVille in one tab.
After FrontierVille loads, open Application Privacy in another tab. Open FrontierVille's settings and delete "post to wall".
Go back to FrontierVille tab.

Click Post Dinner Invite.

Click Yes and then Allow.

Go back to Privacy Settings tab and again delete "post to wall".

You may now manually post the invites.
You may have to do this each time you play.

Mafia Wars - Boss Fights - Las Vegas and the Feds

In another attempt to make the game more "fun", Zynga added extremely unbalanced bosses in Las Vegas and the new Beat the Feds challenge.

Beat the Feds
On gold, these are brutal and DEA Iverson and DA Embry are the worst. The trick is to stack stamina and use consumables.
Since Feds don't regenerate stamina, the only useful consumable is the shiv. Grenades do too little damage while the shivs were doing more damage than my regular attacks.
Have friends send you a lot of shivs. Accept 10 and keep the rest in reserve. Accept another 10 after you use the ones you have, etc.
For stamina, make sure you start your fight within 4 hours of leveling and your next energy pack and make sure you level before using the energy pack. Have 5 crime spree requests primed as each will give you 40 stamina.
Install the toolbar. Hopefully, you'll get the 200 stamina refill or the 25% energy recharge. At worst you'll get 200 energy.

Las Vegas
Here, the 2 nasty bosses are Juliana "Black Widow" Trieste and 'Red' Jackson.
In this case, it's the stun guns which are crucial. Shivs and grenades are great for getting rid of henchmen but will do little damage to the boss. Stack a lot of stun guns, again accepting them 10 at a time.
Don't bother wasting time on health refills as the help they provide is too insignificant when compared to the stun guns.
While in Beat the Feds, you'll need very powerful allies to help you do any kind of damage, Las Vegas bosses' attack and defense seem to depend on the attacker so any one of your allies will prove useful.

War Metal FAQ/Guide

Attributes
Get stamina, stamina, and more stamina. You'll need 120 energy and put an equal amount into attack and defense. Each time you level, add at least 1 point to stamina and when you train with the Emperor, train stamina.

Alliance
Grow your alliance. Not only will a large alliance aide you in PVP, you need people to exchange gifts with.

Gifts
Combat units are useless. Do not send them and if someone send them to you, take the +5 Energy instead. Trade tokens for collections, stamina for epics and energy for advancing quicker and for getting those elusive bonus units that are unlocked when you finish all missions in an area. Components are for those interested in hosting epics.

Missions
Don't complete all 4 missions in an area, even though that unlocks the area bonus. Complete 3, go to the next area and get the better formation and commander.

Collections
Do swarms to get a better formation. As you complete sub-missions, see if there are any Attribute collections you can complete. Focus on getting Dune Runner, Isabelle, ExoDrone, SkyCom, Tiamat and the 3 below. SkyCom is more or less easy to put together because of the low token requirement and is essential in epics. If you're lucky, you'll get at least half of them when you complete the sub-missions in The Red Sands and Blackmarsh. Don't try to find the missing tokens in other areas. Even though the probability is higher, it's not high enough to warrant the the amount of energy you'll end up spending.

Epic battles
Scorpions and Dozer Tanks may look powerful, but they're useless in epics, and so are any units without a secondary attack. For structures, use SkyCom and missile silos. Until you get missile silos, use Thermite Bunkers and Command Center. For units, Dreads and Infiltrators until you can get Sabres and Hatchlings. Then Mech Walkers, Chimeras, Razors and the better units from Collections and Combat Rank rewards.
Do not break cap and when you host, don't forget to set a cap.
Hatchling swarms, especially those with 3.5k and below caps are a good way to get better units and tokens.
Wyrms are a lot easier than Chimeras so do a couple 105k ones for silos, and if you're lucky, 5 fangs for your own personal wyrm.

Hatchling Swarms

Once you collect enough Mech Walkers and are doing these just for the tokens, be nice. Unless the battle has too many ghosts, I tend to stop at 30% to allow lower players to get their Mechs.

I do, however, check back often to make sure cap has not been raised.

Chimeras

If the chimera is killed before 100 people join / the Rail Cannon is brought online, there will be no chimera drops. Once 40 hitters join, start asking for ghosts and be careful not to kill it accidentally before the event is maxed out.

Xeno Mothership (XMS)

Loot is damage based and there is no point in chasing cap breakers. The only thing chasers are doing is wasting stamina and taking away loot from lower players.

Here are 3 useful sites you can refer to for proc rates, location of tokens, general info and an epic battle damage and percentage calculator:
blem.org
War Metal Guide
Proc Rates

Setting up a Facebook Page for your blog

You may want to set up a Facebook Page for your blog.  You can set it up separate from your regular profile and show a different email that you only use for your blog.

Category
When setting up your Page, make sure to choose the correct category.  "Webpage" will only give you a place to put your url and an "established on" date.  "Writer" category, on the other hand, will allow you to add location, birthday and a more extended info.  You can experiment with the different categories to see what the difference is.  Have in mind, however, that Facebook does not allow changing the category of a Page, you would need to delete the page and recreate it under the new category.

Publish blog to Notes
Go to "Edit Page" which can be found under the Page's picture.  Click "edit" by "Notes" application.  Click on import settings.  For those who are using blogger, the rss feed link is http://[blog url]/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss.  When I was importing my blog, it took me 5 attempts before Facebook stopped giving me an "empty feed" error.  Keep clicking until your feed is accepted.

Placing a Notes box on your page's wall
Go to "Edit Page" which can be found under the Page's picture. Click "application settings" by "Notes" application.  Add "box".  Go to "Boxes" tab and click on top right corner of the "Notes" box and select "Move to Wall tab".

Username
You will be able to set a username for your blog once you have 25 fans. To set your username, go to http://www.facebook.com/username.  Once set, you will not be able to change it and if you delete and recreate your Page, the old username will not be available again.  Make sure it's the username you want and that it's spelled correctly.  Once set, your Page can be accessed by going to http://www.facebook.com/[username].

Other settings
Go to "Edit Page" which can be found under the Page's picture.  Under "Wall Settings" you can change the landing tab and what's shown on your wall by default.  The default setting is that only what you post is shown on your Page's wall.  You can also set posting permissions.

War Metal - Hosting a Hatchling Swarm

You want to host a Hatchling Swarm but not sure what cap to set? The popular ones are 4K and 3.5K. 4K depends on a lot of ghosts and is not a good cap for private swarms with everyone actively hitting. If your cap is low, be ready to raise sufficiently in the middle of the event and don't leave cap raising for the last 2 hours.

Cap	Avg Dmg	Ghosts
2.8K	2,750	0
3K	2,950	1
3.1K	3,050	2
3.3K	3,250	3
3.5K	3,450	4
3.7K	3,650	5
4K	3,950	6

Text Twirl

Having trouble with Text Twirl? Here are some combos that you can quickly enter at the beginning of your round:

x4
tea eat ate eta, teas eats ates seat
spa asp sap pas, spas asps saps pass
x3
are era ear, ares eras ears sear, sera
art rat tar, arts rats tars star tsar
top pot opt, opts post pots spot stop tops
pat tap apt, pats taps apts spat
sup pus ups, sups puss
x2
sue use, sues uses, sued used dues
tin nit, tins nits
bin nib, bins nibs
tan ant, tans ants
ten net, tens nets
ore roe, ores roes
doe ode, does odes
lie lei, lies leis
ale lea, ales leas sale
car arc, cars arcs scar
bar bra, bars bras
eon one, eons ones
tin nit, tins nits
fer ref, refs
dos sod, sods
ash has
hes she

Facebook news

I recently created an account on facebook. I entered my profile, uploaded a picture and searched for any friends and friends that already have an account. Then I set to doing what I do best, well, one of the things I do best, using my powers of persuasion and annoyingness I managed to force a lot of my friends and some of my family to join. I also created two groups, one, "Family Levitansky" I mentioned before and it's a group for my extended family. The other group is "Jews who love anime" and so far I got nine members.

Facebook is a great alternative to myspace. I created an account on myspace but don't have any real interest in using it. Besides the core problems of bad design, allowing users to set background music and background pictures which make the whole page unreadable, there's the spam factor. The moment you join, you'll get invites and messages from other users advertising porn and not the safe kind. Altogether, the idea you get from myspace is that it's a place for infantile teens and nothing more.

Now, on to the main point of this post. Whenever one of your friends does something like update profile, join a group, become friends, you get a news item on your homepage. One of my friends, in an attempt at humor, entered thinking as on of his Activities in his profile. Later, deciding that it's not as funny as he thought, he decided to remove it. Now this is the news item that me and his other friends saw on their homepage, "...has updated his profile. He removed Thinking from his activities." That is gold. That's what I call hilarious. My only regret is that the staff of facebook never saw what kind of a sense of humor their creation has.