The world’s favourite new musical TV series is back, and this time they brought along Madonna. An early episode of Glee featured Madonna’s Papa Don’t Preach. Now there’s a whole episode with nothing but Madonna songs. No real Madonna, but there’s a cool video of Vogue featuring Sue Sylvester as Madonna.

Here are the 7 songs featured in the episode.
1. Express Yourself (Glee Cast Version Featuring Jonathan Groff)
2. Borderline / Open Your Heart (Glee Cast Version)
3. Vogue (Glee Cast Version)
4. Like A Virgin (Glee Cast Version Featuring Jonathan Groff)
5. 4 Minutes (Glee Cast Version)
6. What It Feels Like For A Girl (Glee Cast Version)
7. Like A Prayer (Glee Cast Version Featuring Jonathan Groff)

Buy Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna.

I have to admit that I’m a big fan of Neil Gaiman, from back in his Sandman days. Gaiman has done several books for teenagers and younger (Coraline, Graveyard Book) and this new story Hearts, Keys and Puppetry is also targeted towards the same audience. However, even the young at heart can enjoy it.

About Hearts, Keys and Puppetry by Neil Gaiman

“Sam was brushing her hair when the girl in the mirror put down the hairbrush, smiled, and said, “We don’t love you anymore.”

So began the Twitter Audio project, with a dazzling first line penned by New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman. What followed was an epic tale of imaginary lands, magical objects, haunting melodies, plucky sidekicks, menacing villains and much more. From mystical blue roses to enchanted mirrors to pesky puppets, this classic fable was born from the collective creativity of more than one hundred contributors via the social network Twitter.com in a groundbreaking literary experiment.

Together, virtual strangers crafted a rollicking story of a young girl’s journey with love, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Download Hearts, Keys and Puppetry by Neil Gaiman

My Farmville farm at Level 21, day 8.

This is a beginner’s guide, but casual players who have been with Farmville for a while can also benefit. You need to realise that Farmville is a very structured game. Everything that you do has a cost and (maybe) a benefit.

Go for XP first, not money

Be smart about your time and purchases. I don’t have all day to play, and chances are, neither do you. Even if you do have a lot of time in your hands, you don’t need to spend hours in front of the screen. Plowing, planting and harvesting will only take 10 minutes at most (if you have a big farm). What’s important is the 2-3 minutes you spend to think about what to grow.

In the beginning, you want to gain experience points (XP). Every time you level up, you get acces to more plants, equipment and ribbons.

The best thing to start with are the strawberries. They mature in 4 hours, and you get 2XP per plot (1XP for plowing, 1XP for planting). Harvest and repeat.

You do need to work on the timing, though. If you’re working, plant between meetings (make sure your boss doesn’t catch you). If you’re at home, plan between chores.

Let your farmer work while you’re sleeping

There are different plants that mature between 6-12 hours, which are great when you know you won’t have time for Farmville. The pumpkin takes 8 hours to grow, which makes it ideal for you to plant just before you go to sleep, and harvest just after you wake up. As you level up, you’ll get access to more profitable plants for the same time period, so keep an eye out for them. Example : the blueberry and strawberry both take 4 hours to mature, but the blueberry nets you 41 coins while the strawberry gives you just 26. Similiarly, you can replace pumpkins with tomatoes later.

You can forget about trees and animals in the beginning, since they take time to grow and harvest, and they give you very little money in return.

As soon as you can, enlarge your farm. More farm space = more plots = more XP and money. Forget about houses, barns and decorations. There will be plenty of time for that once you’re at higher levels.

Here’s a trick that will help you plow, plant and harvest a little but faster. Trap your farmer in hay bales or in fences, so you won’t have to wait for him to catch up with you across the farm. This trick is only useful when you have a bigger farm.

Watch your ribbons

Another easy way to get XP is through Ribbons. Click on the ribbon button once in a while to see your achievements. You can easily see how far you are from a goal. Once you see an achievable goal (e.g., collect 2 more animals), then you can plan for your next step.

Once you qualify for a ribbon, you get XP, a prize in your gift box, and sometimes coins.

Help your friends out

When I first started, I checked how many of my friends played Farmville. Look in the My Neighbours tab. In my case, 25% of my friends were playing the game, which gave me a good base to start with. Most friends would be inactive. The best way to let your active Farmville friends know you’re in the game is by sending them gifts (which are free) and by visiting their farms.

You can invite friends to be your neighbours. The more neighbours you have, the larger the farm you can buy. However, even if your friends aren’t your neighbours yet, you can still help them. Visit the My Neighbours tab often (reload) and you’ll see offers from your friend to help. You’ll get XP and coins each time you help out a friend.

If you can, ask your friends to send you gifts. The trick is for them to send you useful gifts, like trees (so you don’t have to spend coins to buy them).

Be patient

Yes, I know this guide is about leveling up as fast as you can. However, I have to stress that you need to take the time to think about your next steps. You need to spend a few minutes to decide on the best crop to plant, based on your current available time and your next available time (i.e, when you expect to log in next). If you make a mistake, you’ll have lost money and valuable time.

I hope this guide is useful for you. So, good luck, and happy farming!

Did you enjoy your free dose of Doctor Who the other day?

Now BBC is offering a few more classic TV shows for you to enjoy on Youtube.  You can watch the 2005 version of The Quartermass Experiment  (which features the former Doctor Who, David Tennant).

You can also watch the six-episode 1981 TV series Day of the Triffids.  Of course BBC is not doing this out of the goodness of their heart (and at the expense of the UK taxpayers). BBC is promoting a new BBC production of Triffids, which is set to be aired at the end of the year.

If you’re in the US, enjoy this bit of British history. Of course, if you’re not in the US, you get this frustrating message :

Buy The Day of the Triffids (1981) on DVD.

[ via  TV Squad ]

While we’re on the subject of hit TV show Glee, a DVD is already out for pre-order. The DVD (Glee, Vol. One: Road to Sectionals) will be released Dec 29th, 2009. The first 13 episodes of Glee document the start of the New Directions glee club of McKinley High School, and their subsequent fate at the sectionals.

Spoiler after the jump.

On the way to the sectionals, we experience teen angst, teacher rivalry, peer pressure, vocal showdowns and lots of great music. The music of Glee is something else; they go from the 50s to the current day.

New Directions will win the sectionals, and in the next installment they will go to the regional glee championships, where they will face arch rivals Vocal Adrenaline.

Buy Glee, Vol. One: Road to Sectionals