#i feel kind of weird about the nook miles ticket islands i always have

[ghostcrows]

There are like no rocks on my island I need iron nuggets 😭 I don't want to go to another island just to get them but I want to get this done

[rewind-reviews]

So I've Been Playing... Animal Crossing New Horizons

So I've been playing Animal Crossing New Horizons and I have somethings to say. Animal Crossing is a weird concept to me, I never fully understood why people (me included) enjoy a game where you have no real objective, no one telling you what to do or how to do it, no end goal, nothing. A whole bunch of games have tried to capture the magic Animal Crossing has but personally I never really liked them. I don't enjoy your harvest moons or games like my time at Portia the only thing that came a little close was Stardew Valley but even then I could never play it alone. Animal Crossing is a different story. The Animal Crossing franchise has always been one that I can turn to in the darkest and saddest times in my life to just calm down and bring a smile to my face.

I wasn't really excited for March 20th to roll around and Animal Crossing to turn up at my door I was honestly more excited to play Doom Eternal but you will be hearing about that soon enough. I didn't care about watching the directs and everything they added didn't interest me at all. That being said I adore this game it quickly cemented itself as part of my daily routine and I have put way more hours into it than I expected to.

First off the game look and sounds amazing. Every little detail in New Horizons oozes charm, its all adorable giving everything the look and sound you expect it to make and I mean come on for the first time in the series some of the villagers are actually fluffy!! KK's music is still some of the best to ever exist in any video game and the villagers still talk in that cutesy gobbledygook way they always have. I will admit some of the poses your character makes can look a little demented but that's hardly a big deal.

The Core gameplay is where I'm going to struggle. Like I said earlier there is no real objective in Animal Crossing it's just a game about making friends with some funny little animal characters, decorating your house and doing some activities like fishing, catching bugs and finding fossils. They added a lot to shake up the gameplay a tiny bit without changing how the core game works. This time instead of starting in a preexisting town or village or are on a totally deserted island and it's your job as the island rep to make the place all nice and pretty. I love this being given a 100% fresh space to work off feels great plus you can now put furniture anywhere on the island not just your house so what if you want to make a clifftop cinema facing out to sea? you can do that, you want to make a Zen garden? you can do that! you can make your island look as nice or as bad or any way you want!

I mentioned crafting earlier and it's not something I was really excited about and I'm still not. To me, the crafting is just something that's there. You will use crafting to make all the tools you need to do anything on the island this can be catching bugs, fishing or any of the other things I spoke about. This means you will spend a lot of time collecting resources to make the things you need which is fine but it also means your tools break. I find this super annoying especially with the event that's currently running but I will talk more about that later. You will also use crafting to make basic furniture and some more exotic and out there things providing you find the recipe first. Recipes can be obtained in several ways, some you can buy, some you find washed up on the beach, some just come to you in a flash on inspiration and sometimes villagers give them to you. This is another thing I find a little annoying because there is no guarantee you will ever get the recipe you want plus most of the things you can make look kinda rubish anyway at least I think so.

Another new feature is a handy little thing called "Nook Miles". Nook miles are basically a secondary currency that can only be redeemed at the ATM type thing in the island resources building. Using these you can get a few unique items for your house or island but the best things you can buy are inventory upgrades so you can hold more stuff or Nook miles tickets. Nook miles tickets let you fly to other islands to gather resources that may not be available on your island or maybe meet a new villager you can get to live on your island. I LOVE THIS!! I have spent most nights going to one of these islands to fish or catch bugs I just find them so relaxing plus when there is a villager there they always cheer you on when you catch something which just gives me the biggest boost and on top of that they are a great way to make some extra money so you can buy more stuff!!

Now to the one big issue I have with New Horizons... the Bunny Day event. Up until April 12th you will find six different types of egg around not only your island but every island you visit. You can use these eggs to craft special bunny day items (that all look horrible) you have water eggs, leaf eggs, ground eggs, air eggs, wood eggs and stone eggs. these eggs are obtained when you do the normal things you do like chopping trees, fishing, digging up markings on the floor or shooting down flying presents. On paper, it sounds like a good idea until you remember you only have a certain amount of uses on each tool before it breaks and you have to make a new one. This wouldn't be a problem if these eggs weren't so common!! While fishing one night I went through two fishing rods and came out with over 30 water eggs and hardly any fish. I don't bother looking for fossils because its more than likely just an egg. Chopping trees is pointless because guess what?? EGGS!! all you ever seem to find are eggs plus they don't even sell for much so you are just wasting tools when all you want to do is catch some damn fish!!!! I really do hope they don't make all future events like this because it might just be enough to make me put the game down and go back to Wild World or New Leaf until the event is over.

Animal Crossing New Horizons is an amazing game and everyone should be playing it to help get through the uncertain and downright scary times we are in right now, I mean come on who doesn't want to make friends with a robot duck and a kind-hearted squirrel. It's a game where you can do whatever you want and you don't have to worry for a while and I think right now that's what we all need. Now if you will excuse me I have to go and calm down after catching my 100th water egg.

[nyrator]

random life updatess, some blehs, some animal crossings

today was not a good day again (bought turnips in AC, rip that 110 price, then ate breakfast, and then laid back down until 7PM), then dealt with drama stuffs and me being in general not-a-good person when I got up, and ultimately couldn’t even bring myself to eat dinner (which I’m now regretting since there aren’t any snacks or anything in the apartment either, just completely drained at the moment)

wondering where to go to vent things since I feel too self conscious of social media and don’t want to bother people I know, but bottling it up inside has been very painful to me lately and I don’t handle it well

but enough of that

in terms of life itself

still living the quarantined life, still car-less but getting rides from friends to go shopping which is nice. tomorrow will be a strange schedule (shopping/taking mother to doctor/meeting another friend/dealing with my mother giving me two different times to go to the doctor, one of which interferes with meeting said friend, and I swear they told her not to come because of the virus, but we will see)

also ants are in the apartment which is bleh but I’ve learned to deal with it until I can buy ant traps or something (I wish they’d turn the central air on already, May is hot)

not sure what the future holds in terms of my financial life honestly- my work will be opening up as soon as the governor lets them, but only with the owners running it- It sounds like I won’t be brought back until the fall, if they even stay open that long

ubi sounds really nice right now and I hope one day it passes (politics is still something I pay too much attention to but will keep refraining from bringing up again)

in other news

working on this game jammm

mentioned how I wasn’t looking forward to it, but perhaps that’s too harsh- I always enjoy the jam. But man, at the same time, not looking forward to the work part at alll- but it has to be done. Red Square was extremely painful to work on, but at least the current collab I’m working on will be less taxing on me design-wise (I hope). But there is something massive planned, at least, because with Kresna, there always is. He’s really incredible, and I’m excited to see the finished product.

I still have projects I should work on, but just can’t- Came so close to making a complete reference of console tan designs that I have so far last night, but ended up crashing right down and can’t focus on working at all at the moment.

was debating working on one of my rpg maker games alongside the current project, but I have a feeling that’ll be impossible (or at least, not ideal)

rotten nyan still needs to update, and I still feel too self conscious about it, I think- part of me wants to make a hidden account to do all the twisted things I’d like, and all the disgusting things I don’t think anyone wants to see, but it’s tough and I still don’t think I want to be personally associated with that kind of content. I don’t know. Even then, my mind still isn’t able to visualize what I want to create- Any time I lay down and try to think, it’s either pain from anxiety, or disgusting thoughts I don’t want to share. I don’t know what to make- it feels like I have the power to create anything I want in a sense, but nothing to want to make. Maybe I’m “the Ny that Stole the Sun”.

so much free time, but nothing to show for it, it’s really disappointing to me, but I just can’t focus on things I want to anymore

but anyway, enough about that

Got a nice little pick me-up in ACNH when deciding to play it a little bit ago, a good present from Lala, good friend. Now I can be the purple magical Ny I always wanted to be~ But really, thanks Lala, it means a lot

Also decided to try turning the face icons into sprites to use as custom design signs, I think it’s already been done but I like doing things by hand, got Merry’s done at least.

Been organizing the town, but it is definitely a work in progress- I got my house, the buildings, and four villager houses planned out, but no idea what to do with the other six villagers, or what attraction-y things to add like playgrounds and stuff (it’ll take a while until I have enough furniture to be able to piece things together). Also need to figure out how to properly decorate the Able shop and things like river layouts and stuff.

house interior is still an absolute mess and still waiting to find a site to make it easier to search for certain furniture (I use villagerdb mostly but hard to find things in specific colors still), just need the basement and I thiiiink my house will be fully upgraded?

also wish it was easier to get villagers I’d like (here’s a random thing I made of villagers I like, though doesn’t include the new villagers to this game like jock sheep or lazy goat friends), circled ones I’m most likely going to settle with but mann, it’s hard (why does normal have so many good choices... I randomly got Gayle early on and Merengue from an island visit and they’re both unexpected but good friends)

I was hoping it’d be like in ACNL where you could be like “oh hey you can have nine villagers and a tenth will only move in when you will it to”, that way I could just use my 50,000+ nook miles to get tickets and hunt for villagers, but looks like I’d only have a day or so after someone moves out

there’s amiibo of course but they’re getting expensive (I could get my own NFC things I guess but it feels like cheating), but I feel Stella’s the next one I want to move in and I don’t have her card, rippp

also still adjusting to the personalities in this game, still sad cranky became “old man complains about being old”, but at least it’s not as bad as it was in Pocket Camp I think. Also Lazy’s are now “I am baby who speaks to the bugs, they are my friends, they whisper to me” and honestly it’s weird enough that I like it but hard to picture anyone but Prince acting like that (I’m not a fan of frogs or his facial hair so hmm)

also man lots of use of “Le” in this game, I forgot that was still a thing people did. Peppy and Smug are still great for me to talk to though so I’m happy.

but yeah, I should go to bed I guess, it’s past 4AM

[butchstolemysweetroll]

Tagged by @saxrohmerwon ages ago on my brief other blog and just noticed it, thanks bruh ily <3

Rules:  Always post the rules, answer the questions given to you, then write 10 questions of your own, and tag some friends!

1. Favorite city (or town/small island/et cetera) in the world and why?

I guess it’d be Avalon. I basically spent every summer of my life there with family and it’s really small (only seven miles long) so you wind up going to the same few ice cream places or antique stores or pizza shops all the time but you never really get bored of it. The whole place has a quiet, old-timey shore town nostalgia to it too that’s super sweet. And like some of my all time favorite memories were staying on the beach until sunset when the lifeguards were gone so we could swim wherever we wanted, or climbing on the outfall pipe and walking to see how far out I was brave enough to go (it got “higher” ((read: the sand started to disappear)) the further out over the water you went), or walking on the beach at night. That was my favorite part, the nighttime. It’s weird how quiet but how alive everything got after dark, and I could hunt for ghost crabs or watch fireworks and the lights from town on the water, and the sand never bothered me as much when it was cool from the dark.

2. Describe your favorite scent/s.

Autumn, if that counts as a smell. But the combined scent of really brisk air and smoky burning leaves and fresh damp ones and hay and I guess plant life generally decaying, but in a sweet way? I also like flower smells obviously, and food smells, but those are boring to talk about. Gasoline, the specific kind of fake (cotton) paper money is printed on. Coffee. I’ve learned to kind of like the smell of cigarettes on clothes, because my boyfriend smokes and I like waking up in the sweater I wore the night before with that smell still on it. People have smells too. Like my mom smells like perfume even when she isn’t wearing any, and it’s nice. And babies smell rad and trigger ALL of my maternal impulses (cannot wait to reproduce, it’s gonna be gr8). And the boy smells really nice... Not even in like a what-deodorant-are-you-wearing kind of way but like skin and sweat and waking up warm in a cold house on Wednesday mornings. And when he comes home from work smelling like fresh cut grass and wet dirt it’s v nice.

3. Who is/was your favorite teacher and why?

My Romantic Lit professor currently, because he teaches exactly what I want to teach and I have a career crush on him. He’s also just super excitable and enthusiastic (let’s talk about that WEIRD weekend in Geneva the Shelleys took guys! Blake was an EDGELORD!) which I love.

I also had a professor at my old school who was super cool and helped me through a lot of shit? I took her personal essay class right as I was sort of in recovery for depression following a terrible, low key emotionally unhealthy (abusive? I still don’t know if I can use that word? Either way, OVER-SHARING YAY) romantic relationship and I explored that and a lot of other stuff pertaining to my childhood and relationships and discovering my queerness in my work for her class, and she was super supportive and involved in helping me experiment with new formats and really use writing as a therapeutic tool and it helped me heal a lot. She was also just a super cool lady (lots of tattoos and wispy blonde hair and a quiet voice, kind of a hipster fairy) who hung out with me at a local music festival in town when I was like fresh out of the hospital and having trouble being around my normal friends. She just always made sure her door was open and went out of her way to make me feel better, and to this day I appreciate that.

4. What is your favorite poem?  (Substitute with “song” if you don’t have a favorite poem.)

Oh my GOD, don’t make me choose. I’m obsessed with the Romantics and a few contemporaries have my heart, but I guess I’d have to say “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. It’s just beautiful and hopeful and simple enough that tiny me could fall in love with it and appreciate it almost in its fullness when I was too young to grasp other works.

5. Weirdest thing you’ve ever heard out-of-context?

Ever? I don’t tend to remember stuff like that for a long time unless I’d like hypothetically overheard a murder or something, but last night some girl was walking back from our student center with her friends and angrily shouted that she wanted to “put her dong through a snare drum” which made me laugh.

6. Best concert experience?  (If you have never been to a concert, what do you hope your first concert will be?)

Still gotta say Green Day after just turning 15 years old. I’d never been to a concert before and they were my favorite band at the time. I was so proud to be there because I had 0 dollars to my name and no one would hire me because I was underage, so I had to earn every penny for those tickets doing gross menial work like removing and scrubbing window frames that hadn’t seen soap in maybe a decade (SO MANY SPIDERS), and teeny bopper me thought that was 'punk.’ And at one point Billie Joe Armstrong, who my pathetic little emo self wanted to MARRY told the audience he was proud of everyone who’d worked their ass off to afford to come see them play and I remember turning to my dad and screaming “HE MEANS ME!” It was so wholesome.

7. Favorite holiday (or other special occasion) and why?

Christmas! My house was THE Christmas house growing up. My parents put so much effort into it and it was the cutest thing. Besides the outrageous amount of decorations and the amazing food that takes all week to make and the cute tradition of having my grandparents spend the night to watch us open presents first thing in the morning, the best part of Christmas growing up was definitely the effort my family put into making us kids believe Santa was real for way longer than necessary. One year my uncle got a flashlight and a red solo up and climbed trees in our yard so we’d see “Rudolph’s nose” if we looked out the window. We put out reindeer food every year. My dad would stomp around shaking jingle bells and someone always climbed on the roof making noise, and my mom knew calligraphy, so she’d write us scrolls from Santa on legit parchment and toast it in the oven so it would curl. One year we had an old, old family friend who was a Santa impersonator show up with a legit sleigh and a giant book with all the family member’s names and the years they were naughty and nice in it and stories about why and it was so cute. So whereas most kids found out around like 8 my parents went to extreme lengths so that I believed it until I was like 11 and honestly, I’m really glad they did, because it was a kick ass childhood. I definitely want to be that level of extra when I become a parent.

8. Did you ever play an instrument growing up?  If so, how did it go for you?

Guitar, bass, after I learned guitar I could play pretty much anything pluckable with strings, so I had a Romanian lap harp (I was such a cool kid) and I would sometimes play my sister’s viola (often incorrectly and like a guitar, but it was fun to sample when I recorded stuff). I haven’t sang or touched an instrument in like seven years though. I kind of gave up after sad life stuff happened but I want to pick it back up again. I really miss music.

9. If you were given $100 today, what would you do with the money?

Use it toward Christmas presents for loved ones. Since I’m basically not allowed out of the house after I go home for break I have to do Christmas early with the friends and boyfriend.

10. What’s the scariest movie you have ever seen?  (Define scary however you like.)

I love scary movies so this is hard, but I guess anything in which children are genuinely evil? Like not even in a supernatural way; it’s not horror but watching We Need To Talk About Kevin fucked me up. I guess being a mom is like so much something that I want, and imagining that happening would def keep me up at night. Especially because I would not know what to do.

Now, for questions:

1. What’s your favorite article of clothing?

Dresses but also plain black leggings. And I have very soft sweatpants that fit just right.

2. Do you still sleep with a stuffed animal?

Nope. I can’t sleep with the live one either lol, Bynx likes to sleep RIGHT where I want to roll over and screams and puts his paws in my mouth when he wants attention.

3. Do you believe in heaven? Hell?

Both, Catholic.

4. Do you listen to podcasts? What are your favorite ones?

Not really, but I’d like to, in theory. It just seems like more effort somehow than watching TV and I am always tired.

5. What was your go-to game during recess?

Four square.

6. Where do you see yourself in the next ten years– not in a job interview kind of way, but actually?

Awwww this is cute to think about. I guess I’d like to be living in like a really woodland but not isolating place, somewhere where my house can be on a lake or by woods or mountains but if I drive ten minutes there’s a cozy-sized town with all I need. Maybe in like Virginia or Vermont. I’m a professor of Gothic Literature at the local college, and my students are engaged and inspiring and call me by my first name. I’m in a pretty and not-too-big house, but it’s warm and smells like our fireplace. I’m married to my lovely guy, and both our jobs are flexible enough that we can have dinner as a family and spend time with our brood of kids. And they pay well enough that we might not be wealthy but we never have to worry. The cat’s still with us and we’ve got a dog, too. We go on camping trips and The Lumberjack teaches the kids how to build fires and tie knots and dad stuff like that. One of the kids at least loves reading and the house is full of books - I’ve got a home office full of bookshelves and a reading nook. We’ve got a porch where we can bundle up and drink wine in the evening after the kids are in bed. We’re not rich but not poor, and our families get along and come to visit. My parents still ask us over for Christmas every year. Wherever I teach, my kids can go there for free.

7. Do you have a favorite visual artist? Who are they?

Oh lord, I don’t know. I mean I like art but I hate the process of liking art. It’s so much more involved than “I like how this piece makes me feel” and I don’t enjoy that. I like individual pieces and I don’t know enough about art to really speak on it.

I guess, though, I like Dali and Khalo as people. They seem unpretentious and fun. Which is surprising because I guess the way their work is talked about you’d think the opposite.

8. Do you really like a food that most people think is disgusting? Or, do you like a popular food to a disgusting degree?

Not really but like I put too much hot sauce / jalapenos on everything and it disgusts people. And I put way too much sugar in coffee, and creamer too.

9. What music did your parents play in the house/car?

My mom is a New Wave junkie like me and my dad had more complicated taste. He was never big into music, so he only really likes a few artists for their voices and some songs for nostalgia. So we listened to a lot of oldies and swing and Judy Garland, but he also loved Blondie and Boston.

10. What would you tell your 15-year-old self?

I’d tell her she’s a lot stronger than she’s going to think she is one day and to tough it out. That people love her and will love her. That when you get older, family is hard, but it’s worth it to work on things. That she’s smarter than she thinks she is and should try harder in school, because when she finally does have faith in herself, it’ll pay off. 

Tagging whoever else wants to do this - it’s cold and rainy (here at least) and we could all use a day of warm socks and procrastinating with asks, honestly.