King Squirt’s Anniversary

Squirt's Anniversary

Today King Squirt received this letter in the mail.  It was the confirmation I’d been waiting for – it has been exactly one year since I started playing AC:CF!  Hooray!  (Or is that a bad thing…?  hehehe)  While you won’t find blog entries from last November, you can check the archives… I’m pretty sure I started writing this blog in December of 2008.  But my blog has evolved a lot since then!  :D  Thanks to everyone who’s been reading all this time!!

Attached to this letter from the Mayor was the final piece that I needed for the Model Town room:  The Town Hall Model!

Town Hall Model

To celebrate his awesomeness, everyone in town has decided that Squirt would be the official King of Shaolin.  Tortimer has no comment on the matter.  But I have evidence that the townies have accepted King Squirt as their Royal Highness.  Just look:

Apollo Respects the Beard

Puck bows to the King

Jay is overjoyed by the King's visit!

See?  They all love King Squirt!!  XD

Of course, you probably know what all of this means.  King Squirt’s royal BIRTHDAY is tomorrow!  (It just HAS to be!  LOL I don’t remember exactly what day I set to be Squirt’s birthday.  But I remember setting it as the day following whatever day I started playing CF.  So if today was the one year anniversary of playing, then tomorrow must finally be his birthday!)

I am hoping that Squirt will get a cake.  He IS the King after all.  I will be sure to post and let you know who the mystery best bud will be!  My money’s on Rowan, but who knows?

What kind of birthday would it be if Squirt didn’t have a BIRTHDAY PARTY?  I think I will organize a party for this Sunday, 11/22.  I don’t have to work that day, so I can open the gates whenever.  Please leave a comment/message/email stating what time you’d be available to stop by!  I have party favors for all guests, so don’t miss out!  :)

I’ll also commit to opening my gates at 11PM EST on Sunday, if that makes things easier.  (But please, if that time’s not good and you still want to visit, just let me know what time works for you and I’ll do my best to accommodate all requests!)  Don’t forget to bring PRESENTS!!

<<<  Preferably items from the list over on the left side bar! Hehehehehehe!

Anniversary DLC

This is just a quick announcement…  the new US DLC has been released!  It’s for the 1 year anniversary of playing ACCF.  (This also means that King Squirt’s birthday is going to be any day now!  I wish I could remember what date I had set…  I’m guessing either the 17th or the 18th.  We shall see!)

Anniversary

I really like that pretty stationery.  Anyway, the new DLC was attached, it’s called the Anniversary Cake!

Anniversary Cake!

Isn’t it cute?  It’s an edible cake too.  And you can buy it over and over again from Tom Nook!  But it’s pretty expensive, I think it costs over 3,000 bells!  But Squirt was still tempted to shove it in his mouth…  Maybe he’ll steal a cake from Dan or Twinx, since they won’t be needing it.  Deb will probably add the cake to her Cafe.

HOORAY FOR CAKE!!!  lol

The Ghost and the King

Weather Report

Brrr!  Can’t you feel that chill in the air?  I can… but I think that’s cuz my heater’s not working.  :-P  I don’t really remember seeing snow at the end of last November in AC… but maybe I’m mistaken.  Anyway, Squirt’s birthday is fast approaching.  So of course he sent out jack-in-the-box’s to everyone in town.  (I had like 12 of them in front of Town Hall.)  I wonder who will bring Squirt his birthday cake?

In other news, the day I’ve awaited for a long time has finally come.

LEAVE NOW!!!

Elise is finally talking about leaving Shaolin!  It only took weeks of ignoring her and burying pitfall seeds in front of her house.  Sheesh!

Yesterday, as [King] Squirt was wandering around town looking for a piece of Mushroom furniture, he noticed something shiny and yellow on the ground.  An empty lamp!  It’s been quite a while since I’d seen one of these around.  So of course, later that night I logged in to find Wisp!

Jay aint scared of no ghosts!

Jay did a pretty good job of finding Wisp for me!  (Kings usually let their royal subjects do all the work, after all…)  Squirt had a nice chat with Wisp about living in lamps and then Wisp instructed him to rub the lamp from the attic in his house.  Such is the protocol.  Squirt rushed home, wondering what a guy who has everything should wish for…

I want a Ghost Butler!

Up in the ROYAL attic (as you can see, King Squirt only sleeps in a GORGEOUS canopy bed), Wisp came out and wanted to know what Squirt’s wish would be.  First I chose “Weed!” because I thought perhaps there were weeds around town that I hadn’t yet picked.  But Wisp was very polite and said, “Umm, there really aren’t many weeds in your town.  Would you like to pick something else?”  I was pretty shocked at being given a second chance at the wish!  Since there’s not much of a cockroach problem in Shaolin (nothing that a few stomping feet can’t handle, anyway…) I opted for “Give me stuff!”

But I already have all the ’stuff.’  My catalog is basically complete.  I didn’t think it was likely that Wisp was going to give me a Nook Point item or anything special like that.  I ended up choosing “Accessory,” with a small hope that Wisp might give me one of the very special colored Feathers that I still needed.  But what did he give me?

A DimentioMsk HDLC!!

I didn’t know if I should be laughing or disgusted.  :-P

Jack’s Back – and a RAINBOW!

This morning was unlike most mornings. My friend Vella recently returned home from her WEDDING (おめでと！パチーパチ!) and she’s been playing catch-up in her AC game. Today she was up to October 31st – which means, a Halloween Reprise! Although I slept late (today’s my day off and I was TIRED lol!) I was able to join in and help her complete her Spooky Set.

Attack Jack!

It was pretty annoying when he kept giving us Spooky Chairs, but in the end we were able to find all the assorted pieces to complete the set.  Whoo!!  I also managed to remember to take a photo of one of Jack’s rhymes.  He only does the rhyming thing if you DON’T give him candy:

He sounds like Dr. Seuss!

During the Halloween festivities, I ended up with my pockets full.  I decided to rush back to my own town to drop some stuff off.  When I returned to Shaolin, it was raining!  But it wasn’t really dark or cloudy… kinda like a sun shower.  I thought, “Maybe I’ll see a rainbow today.”  I’d just seen one last week while playing my Wild World game.  But I’ve never seen one in CF before.  Anyway, we continued playing, getting all the Jack prank-shirts and whatnot.  When it was time to stop playing (and go have lunch) I returned to Shaolin and it wasn’t raining anymore!  So of course I looked up at the sky to see…

RAINBOW!!

Isn’t it cute?  I don’t know if it was already fading by the time I got home, but you can see it pretty clearly.  It’s cuter in CF than in WW, if you ask me.  :-)

Thanks, I see it.

But then Peaches kinda ruined it by calling me a biatch.  :-P  Hehehehehehehe!!

Don’t forget, there’s new US DLC coming out soon!  The date hasn’t been announced yet, but I’m sure it will be soon.  I’ll post as soon as I know anything!

JP DLC & UFO News

Orenji is popular!

Me too, Chester!  I just recently discovered that there was new JP DLC announced:  
アニパーサリーケーキ.  When sounded out, this katakana spells “anniversary cake”!  Which means that this is probably the same DLC we’ll be receiving in the USA around the same time (mid-November, maybe the 17th?).  It’s pretty cute, so even if you can’t understand Japanese, go to that link and look at the pic at least!

Annoying...

For the past few days I’ve been bothered by the little lost kitten, Katie.  Yesterday I finally remembered to ask my friend Bella to open her gate!  I haven’t received my special item yet, but I hope it’s something cool!

Basic Painting!

A few days ago, Nook was selling a Basic Painting as the Spotlight Item!  Cool!  I picked it up, and I’ll try to take it over to the city today and display it at the Auction House (if this is a display week, that is…  I haven’t really been visiting the Auction House lately.  Sorry about that folks!).  If it’s not a display week, then it will wait by the gate for someone to pick up!  :)

Other than those few things, it’s been pretty boring around here in Shaolin.  Just looking for the missing pieces from my Mushroom Series.  I keep getting a lot of repeats of stuff I already have.  :(  I hope I can get the furniture I need by the end of the month!!!  EEP!

Oh, there was another exciting thing to share – but it wasn’t in Shaolin.  I found another ‘note in a bottle’ and it had both a message and a picture stuffed inside!

Oy!  Pip here, writing to you from the Shire.  There’s been quite a bit of excitement happening here.  First of all, I’ve met a new friend!  Her name is Yuki and I visited her town earlier this week.  She was very nice and let me catalog a lot of items!  And she also gave me some hybrid flowers to take home.  Thank you Yuki!  (Later I told Sam that the hybrids had magically spawned on their own.  But I don’t think he believed me, as he’s a very diligent gardner.)

In Yuki’s town Mitsukyo, there was a grand department store.  I was finally able to get my hair to look more like normal.  Huzzah!

Remember when I had caught a glimpse of a UFO not long ago?  I had told my fellow hobbits about it and they didn’t believe me – insisting that it was just some conjuring of Gandalf’s, or some other mischief.  But two days ago, Samwise was out watering flowers (as he does every day) and he saw something flying across the sky!  Of course, Sam doesn’t have a slingshot.  So he ran to me and told me about what he saw.

“I knew it!” I scoffed at him.  ”The UFO is REAL!”

So I went outside to look for the flying saucer.  I stood out in the garden behind our house at Bag End and waited for about ten minutes.  To my dismay, I saw the UFO flying overhead… but it was going too fast and I could not hit it with my slingshot.  I felt defeated and came back inside to tell Merry what had happened.

Merry still didn’t quite believe me.  So I told her to go out that evening and look for the UFO herself.  She was smarter than me (sadly, that’s often the case) and waited in front of the main gate to see if a flying saucer would appear.  After waiting for a few minutes, the UFO whirred overhead.  She took a shot – MISS!  Then she ran ahead of the UFO’s path, and took a shot a little quicker than before…  and with a loud CRASH the UFO smashed into the ground near the Old Forest.  Merry ran to the crash site and found a large bird knocked unconscious.

Merry with the UFO.

This bird identified himself as Gulliver.  For half a moment Merry feared that he was a spy from Mordor, but after speaking with him at length she was decided that this animal was friendly.  She even searched the town for the missing spaceship parts that Gulliver needed, and he rewarded her with a special item – a Compass.  Merry put the Compass in our house, and I promptly snatched it and put it in my cupboard.  There’s a Flea Market today, and I don’t want these greedy animals around town (nor the Sackville-Bagginses) to try and get their hands on it!

I was both proud and jealous of Merry.  Sometimes it seems like she always has all the luck!

Until next time,
Pippin/TheShire/3953-6655-4658

Shortcut to Mushrooms

You might recognize the title of this blog as the title of a chapter from Lord of the Rings:  Fellowship of the Ring.  (If so, five bonus points for you!  lol)  I wrote that for two reasons, one being that mushrooms have spouted up all over town, ripe for collecting.  The second reason is that another note from The Shire washed up on Long Beach!  But I’ll get to that later.

Mushrooms!

November is a special month in Animal Crossing.  All month long, you can search beneath trees to find various types of mushrooms!  (They don’t appear under palm trees though.  Not that I have seen, anyway.)  Some mushrooms are better than others.  The mushrooms pictured above are worth a lot of bells!  Other mushrooms won’t be worth as much.  And don’t forget, some mushrooms are actually pieces of the Mush furniture series, in disguise!

Mush Series

So make sure to look for mushrooms all month long, to complete your Mush Series!  I wasn’t able to do it last year, because I didn’t get the game until mid-November.  But I’m hopeful that I will collect all the pieces I need!  From what I’ve experienced, you will find 3-4 mushrooms per day, one of which will be a piece of furniture.

Today was a busy day for Squirt.  He forgot to go to the city yesterday to get the new monthly charm, so that was his first stop:

“I have revealed for you a hidden charm that averts trouble that swarms from the boughs of trees…  You must catch a Koi in Shaolin…”

Hmm… that charm is… okay, I guess.  I don’t think too many people are concerned about bee stings.  But feel free to try the charm when you visit!

Squirt also stopped in at the HRA to see who was given the Model Room Honors this month.  Usually it is someone from ちびくろ, since my Japanese friends are EXPERTS at obtaining high HRA scores!  But to my surprise, the Model Room was filled with musical instruments, instead of the usual Mario set that I usually find.

Congrats, Subi!

I was so surprised to see Subi listed as the winner!  Congratulations, Subi!  Your room officially RULES!  XD

Later on, I logged in as Deb because she was requested to deliver a message to Rowan regarding “fashion flair.”  (He gave her a pair of pink glasses.  Big whoop.)  As she was walking along searching for Rowan, she ran into Chester, who had some shocking news:

CHESTER, NOOOOO!

She tried to convince him to change his mind but he wasn’t being cooperative.  It’s weird, he didn’t mention any of this to Squirt.  Why the big secret??  Sigh…  I’ll keep you all posted on Chester’s residency status!

Now before I go, here’s the latest news from Pippin in TheShire:

Greetings, mystery friend!  Things around here in The Shire are finally starting to get back to normal.  Well, somewhat.  Frodo still hasn’t left his bed.  We are all a bit worried about him, though Merry and I couldn’t possibly understand what sort of recovery one needs after being rescued from Mount Doom.

Apparently Samwise doesn’t need to rest anymore.  At first he wouldn’t leave Frodo’s bedside, but lately he’s been feeling a need to work again.  He’s resumed his old job as Gardener (although it makes him miss the old Gaffer), and has already started creating a lovely garden around our house at Bag End.  He even told me about a beautiful hybrid flower that spawned one morning – a blue pansy!  I almost didn’t believe him until I saw it myself.  I wonder what other hybrid flowers Sam will be able to grow in this land?

Last night I made a great discovery of my own.  I enjoy fishing (although most hobbits will avoid the water if possible) and when I was in the Far Downs fishing by the Sea, I felt a large bite on the end of my fishing line.  After a great trouble reeling it in, I pulled out a brilliant Tuna!  It was the largest fish I’d ever seen since returning to The Shire.  While I secretly wanted to keep this tuna for myself, I decided to donate it to The Shire Museum.  I will have to donate a lot if I want to keep up with Samwise!  He’s been finding all sorts of fossils every day as he tends the gardens and lays out new roads.

Lastly, I recently found my old helmet that I wore during the Guard of the Citadel.  I’ve been wearing it around to remember my days of battle.  I do enjoy living in peace, but at the same time… I miss the adventure from our journeys!

Until next time, my mysterious friend.

-Pippin/TheShire/3953-6655-4658

HALLOWEEN!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Happy Halloween!

Last night was the Shaolin Halloween Party!  It was a LOT of fun, with plenty of unexpected guests, spare furniture items and Pumpkinheads galore!  Thanks to everyone who came to enjoy the festivities!

For those of you who haven’t yet played Halloween (for whatever reason, I don’t judge TT’ers!  lol) I thought I would write a little guide to how Halloween works in Animal Crossing.  It would be a lie if I said I wasn’t just a little confused before I started.  The Wiki page helped a bit but nothing beats actual gameplay experience!  So here’s how it goes:

6 PM:  The sun starts going down, and that means it’s time for Halloween!  Make sure you’re wearing a MATCHING COSTUME if you want to collect all the items in the Spooky series!

Suddenly, all the neighbors (who are outside their homes) are now running around in Pumpkinhead costumes.

Pumpkinheads

Basically, the game of Halloween is that you have to find Jack, the Czar of Halloween.  He looks exactly like the other Pumpkinheads running around your town.  The only difference is, he doesn’t accost you the way your neighbors will.  If a neighbor spots you, they will begin to chase you!  And then they will initiate a Trick or Treat dialog, from which you CAN’T escape!

Trick or Treat?

If a Pumpkinhead neighbor manages to ask you to Trick or Treat, you only have two options.  Give candy, or get tricked.  (By getting tricked, you risk losing an item in your pocket, which suddenly gets turned into a Jack in a Box!  Squirt lost his beloved bubble wand in one of these pranks.  Luckily he’s got a spare in his closet.  XP)  The Pumpkinhead townies will ask repeatedly for candy, and you could end up giving all your candy away before even finding Jack!  That wouldn’t be good, so here’s the plan:

TRAP THE TOWNIES! Go around town, talk to each of them once (tricking or treating is up to you) and then grab your shovel to start digging holes around the townie so they will not be able to chase you again.  Be careful, they could start asking you for more candy if you walk away before trapping the Pumpkinhead neighbor!

Once all of your neighbors have been corralled, it will be a lot easier to find Jack.  (Keep in mind there will be 5 townies dressed up as Pumpkinheads.)  Why is this easier?  Because once you know that the fake Pumpkinheads are trapped, then when you see a Pumpkinhead walking around freely, then it MUST be Jack!  This Czar of Halloween is also different because he does not chase you, nor does he force you into a conversation.

Finding Jack

Once the real Jack is found, you must give him a piece of candy to exchange for a piece of furniture from the Spooky series.  (aka Halloween swag!  lol)  Don’t get all excited that this is going to be easy, because once you find him and get your Spooky item…

POOF!

Jack disappears after every conversation!  You can’t trap him like the townie Pumpkinheads.  You are going to have to search your town every time, to find Jack and get another piece of furniture.  And Jack likes to give out plenty of repeats, which means you should plan on doing TONS of laps around your town!

Considering the amount of repeat items you’ll be getting, you might not have enough candy (even if you stocked up all month with candy from Tom Nook).  Unless you want to get tricked by Jack (I’ll get into that later) you are going to need plenty of candy!  Don’t worry, your character can go trick or treating just like everybody else!  Since half of the townies are out dressed as Pumpkinheads, that means the other 5 townies will be in their houses, cowering in fear of being pranked.  Or just being ‘too grown up’ to dress up.

Trick or Treating

If you go to a house that has lights on inside, you will get candy.  You can go back and get more candy as often as you want.  Your neighbors seem to have an endless supply in their houses.  So don’t worry if you’re running low on sweets, you can always get more from trick or treating!

If however, you don’t have any candy and run into Jack, he will prank you.  It’s basically the same as when the townies prank you, only he tells you a long poem before leaving you with a Jack in a Box.  Now, getting a ton of Jack in a Boxes is fun and all, but what about the other Halloween items – the Pumpkinhead, the Moldy Shirt and the Patched Shirt?  It’s very easy to get them too!  Here’s what you’ll do:

Wear mis-matched clothing!  Put on a hat and a shirt that don’t normally go together.  Make sure it’s something that you won’t care about losing, because you WILL lose it if you want the special clothes.  Once you are fully mis-matched, talk to a Pumpkinhead in your town.  It can be a townie or Jack.  When they ask you for candy, you must refuse!  Then, as their prank, they will transform whatever hat you had on into a Pumpkinhead!  (You won’t get your old headgear back, that’s why I said make sure it’s something you don’t mind losing!)  While wearing the Pumpkinhead and a random shirt, talk to a different Pumpkinhead outside, and again refuse to give them candy.  They will transform your shirt into a Moldy or Patched shirt!  Rinse and repeat to get all the special Halloween clothes!  (Somehow I forgot to take pictures of all this happening.  I was a little over-stimulated at the party!  lol)

I would recommend obtaining all the Spooky furniture items before attempting to collect the Halloween clothes.  Jack will only give you Spooky items if you are wearing a matching costume.  Otherwise, you’ll be yelled at for not wearing a costume on Halloween!

Well, I think that’s about all you need to know about Halloween!  The furniture items sell for over 10K bells, so sell any spares to make some quick cash!

• Note: I still have a BUNCH of spare items at the Town Hall.  I’ll probably sell them tomorrow, but I figured I’d leave them for a day in case any of my loyal readers out there weren’t able to find a particular item.  Let me know what you’re missing and I’ll check to see if I have it.  If I do, I’ll be happy to ship it over to your town!

And just for fun, here’s a few of my favorite photos from HALLOWEEN:

Jack doing a Back-Flip!

Giving Jack candy while an impersonator watches nearby.

Party guests checking out the Spooky Room.

Pumpkinhead Partying!

Of course, as always, there are more photos on my Flickr page.  Click on the pics in the Flickr widget on the right side bar!  –>

Thanks to all my guests who made this party possible:  Bella, ちょこまる, オレンジ, Hery, Miao, Subi, and Ifetayo!  :-D

And don’t forget folks, now that it’s November, you will start to see mushrooms popping up all around your town!  Start collecting as many mushrooms as you can find.  Some of them are worth a ton of bells, and others are actually pieces of the Mush furniture series!  Plus Thanksgiving will be upon us sooner than you think, so keep playing Animal Crossing!

Halloween Party – You’re Invited!

You're Invited!

If you’d like to come to the Shaolin Halloween Party but I don’t have your FC, you’ll need to give me your code before you can enter!  Please post your FC in a comment, or send me a message on Twitter or via Email!  :D

DLC Day!

Last night, I opened the gates to share the new dalmatian model DLC from Europe. Here’s what it looks like:

Dalmatian Model

I think it’s so cute!  But why is the puppy checking out his own ass?  Whatever…  lol!

A few friends came by to pick up a copy of the new Nintendog.  Miao arrived first, and we chatted about one of our favorite games on Facebook, called Restaurant City.  Everyone should check it out, it’s a lot of fun!  And don’t forget to add me on Facebook!  XP

Next, Hery arrived.  He was so happy to get the last Nintendog!  And then he did something very surprising, he dropped an item.  ”New US DLC!” he exclaimed!  Apparently Pete had dropped off the new DLC early?  (I haven’t received anything from Pete… but anyway…)  It’s the Election Day DLC.  Everyone in America has been dreading what this new item might be.  A voting booth?  A dimpled chad?  Uncle Sam pointing at you?

Actually, the new DLC is an Election Poster:

Vote for Tortimer???

Sigh…  I guess it could have been worse, though.  I think the poster is pretty dumb though… considering nobody ever tries to run for office other than Tortimer!  And it’s not like we ever actually get to VOTE on who is running our dear AC towns anyway!  :P

Later on, Orenji came by as well!  He was thrilled that not only could he get the dalmatian, but he was able to catalog Hery’s surprising new DLC!  Then, after everyone else left, Orenji and I went around town hitting rocks looking for a pill bug for Agent S.  No suck luck.  DARNED ROCKS!!!

ATTACK THE ROCK!

EU DLC: Dalmatian Model

The final Nintendog has been released!  It’s a Dalmatian model!  I don’t have a photo yet (only just ordered them, waiting for them to arrive by mail!) but in the catalog it looked REALLY cute!  I heart dalmatians!

I ordered about 6 for my “regular visitors.”  I’ll open the Shaolin Gates tonight at 11PM if you want to come pick up a model for yourself!

Sorry for the short post.  I am working on making a grand invitation for the Shaolin Halloween Party!  So look for another entry from me shortly!  lol

Squirt is a Celebrity!