Blue vs. Red

Yesterday, Gullivarrr was in town and I recovered his communicator (on my very first dive of the day). My dives for Pascal didn’t go as well. In fact, I eventually gave up and didn’t find him at all yesterday.

Alfonso the gator was camping over at the campsite. Now if this was Mario’s town, I would definitely take him in. Even though he’s not wearing the Mario “big bro’s shirt,” he still has the Mario catchphrase, “it’sa me.” But this isn’t Mario’s town, it’s my town. And I don’t really care for Alfonso that much. Sorry, bro. 😛

Alfonso: It's a buncha fun camping on this island. The air smells good, like food. I wanna bite it, it'sa me!

In the area between my house and the plaza, I made some temporary changes to the layout. In fact, I made a game for Friday Night Forest. More on this later in the entry.

Today, I received my reward from Gullivarrr in the mail: Pirate boots. My pirate outfit is slowly coming together, although I would have preferred the shirt/top before the boots. But I’ll take what I can get.

Label was in town, and she wanted to see me in a goth outfit. She gave me another skull tee, so I put it on and spoke with her again. She said she’ll be sending me a tailors ticket, but I didn’t score well enough to get an additional item on the spot. That’s okay with me. I’m too lazy to put much effort into these things. It’s not like in New Leaf where you could get Gracie to move in and upgrade your shop.

I found a scallop while diving today, and Pascal gave me another pearl for it. I’m not sure how many mermaid items I still need, but I think I might semi-retire from diving once I get them all (unless it’s for the daily Nook Miles+ goals or online play). 😛

Keaton asked me to participate in a treasure hunt, and I agreed to play. He gave me six minutes, and it took me about half that to find the buried treasure near the museum. When I took it back to him, he asked if I brought any protective eyewear! 😮

Keaton: There's nothing to be afraid of. ...But, just in case...did you happen to bring any protective eyewear?

But the treasure wasn’t explosive at all. In fact, it kind of fizzled out. It was just a tunic tank. Uh, no tanks.

I then made my final preparations for Friday Night Forest. I double-checked everything was ready for my new game, I dug holes for the frog race, and I buried a few pitfall seeds around the island. 😛

At 10:00, I opened my gate. Logan, Alex from A-Nation, Sacky, Maria, Ryan, Alex from Pawnee, and Timo came over. As I posted on Twitter earlier, only the first six visitors could play the game (it’s a 3-on-3 game). Sorry, Timo!

Ryan, Logan, and Sacky were on the blue team, while Maria and both Alexes were on the red team. I called the game king of the hill. There are three pillars in the center, and the object is to claim at least two of the three pillars with your team’s color.

My king of the hill game.

The match is best two out of three, so you had to win two rounds to win the whole game. In the first round, Logan became the first player to spot the shortcut built into the game. Rather than jumping across the hole directly in front of him (which leads to a pitfall), he moved down a space to jump farther, bypassing the pitfall completely. This helped the blue team to win round one.

Logan (King Togan) jumps ahead to an early lead.

I intentionally added this alternate route (but didn’t specifically mention it) to add some strategy to the race. Players on the red team were far enough away that they couldn’t see what the blue team did.

However, Ryan (on the blue team) saw what Logan did and asked if they were allowed to jump over the pitfall. I said “yes, if you can.” But the mere fact that he brought it up seemed to alert the red team to the strategy. 😛 And they used it to jump ahead in round two, securing an easy win to tie up the match.

The red team (right) jumps out to a lead.

That meant we needed a third, final round for the tie-breaker. Two players from both teams avoided the pitfall in this round, but the blue team was a bit quicker. They got the win! Congrats, blue team!

The game went well, and most everyone said they liked the game. I did find one problem when I watched the video back, however. In rounds 2 and 3, the blue team had one player start with their ladder in their hands. I had told them not to hold tools at the start. Perhaps they thought I only meant at the very beginning (round 1?), but ultimately it was my fault for not catching it sooner. Oh well. If anyone tries to make a game like this, just remember it’s something to watch for.

Just FYI, this game was a one-time thing and I’ll be taking it out soon…perhaps tomorrow.

Anyway, we headed over to the winners’ podium, where we all fired off some party poppers.

The winners podium.

I then gave them their prizes, a gold rose crown for each of them.

Next, we ran a frog race, and Alex won. We had a frog fight, we hung out in my house for a bit, and a few of us ran around with King Tut masks on, frequently falling on our faces.

Two King Tuts fall on their faces in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

While diving, I saw Alex and Maria both dive for the same sea creature. To everyone’s surprise, they both caught it!

Alex and Maria both caught the same sea creature.

Alex from Pawnee left about ten minutes to midnight, and George arrived a few minutes later. We were making music on my marimba and Tummy.

Making music in Forest.
Four of us had Tut in common.

I think I was just getting crazy tired, because I was just running around making myself fall. 😛 Sacky left about 12:15, and I ended the session about 10 minutes later. Thanks to everyone who came, I had fun tonight!

Video update: This is not set in stone, but I’m going to try to post a video of tonight’s game tomorrow (Saturday). And if all goes well, I may post my dreaming video on Sunday. We’ll see how it goes. See you soon!

Ancient Statue

Jolly Redd sent me the ancient statue in the mail today, and I rushed it over to the museum. Blathers confirmed what I thought: It was real. He put it on display, and I went to check it out.

Ancient Statue. August 5th, 2020. Donated by Jeff.

While I was there, I saw Midge admiring the dynamic painting, so I waved hello.

Midge admires the dynamic painting in ACNH.

I ran into Rizzo near the fountain, and he gave me an some old round shades.

Rizzo: Y'see, I already had an old round shades...

But I also had a gift for him! I gave him a skull doorplate for him to put on his door. It’s not for Halloween, I just want the skull to serve as a warning to anyone entering his house. Or I could pretend it’s the symbol for poison…rat poison, to be specific.

At Able Sisters, I ran into Apple. She said she was studying fashion…or at least that’s what she’s claiming to be doing. For tax purposes. I think she must have attended the Yoshi School of Tax Evasion.

Apple: I'm studying fashion right now! At least, that's what I'm saying I'm doing. For tax purposes.

Saharah was in town today, and I cleaned her out for a change. I bought all three of her rugs, used the tickets for a mysterious wallpaper, and bought the mysterious flooring. The flooring and wallpaper were the imperial tile (which I put in my bedroom) and the sea view wall (which I put in storage).

My bedroom in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
My bedroom.

I found a scallop (and Pascal) pretty quickly tonight, but the otter just gave me a pearl.

I did some dreaming last night, and I might do some more either late tonight or tomorrow. I’ve decided not to include that in the blog, though. Look for a new dreaming video by the weekend. At that time, I’ll also have a new page where you can submit and share your dream addresses. So stay tuned for that. 🙂

He Stole

Jolly Redd was in town today, so of course I checked out the art that he had for sale. While I don’t look at art guides to find the answers, I do consult my own screenshots I’ve taken of the art I’ve previously encountered. The famous painting that Redd had today looked the same as a fake I previously bought. Two other paintings he had, I wasn’t sure about. However, I felt good about this ancient statue.

Redd: Can't get that one out of your mind? I know just what that's like. But I say why get it out of your mind at all?

I’ve seen a different ancient statue before, and it had glowing eyes. I’m fairly sure that’s a fake. This one didn’t have glowing eyes, so I think it’s probably real. Please note that I’m not looking for any external help on these, I’m just explaining my own process.

As I was walking along my cliffs tonight, a ghost came out from around a corner. I was not expecting to see Wisp, and it actually scared me for a second! 😛

Wisp comes around the corner and scares me!

I collected his spirits for him, and in return, he gave me a lawn chair. Just one minute later, Keaton noticed my lawn chair and wanted to buy it. I sold it for 247 bells. So all that work searching all over town for Wisp’s spirits resulted in me scoring fewer bells than shaking one native fruit tree.

While I was near Sudden Valley, I decided to add a new attraction. It’s loosely based on a gag in Arrested Development. Technically, it should be a “severed” prosthetic hand, but Animal Crossing doesn’t exactly have one of those. So I put a skeleton in jail bars, along with a sign that says “he stole.”

A skeleton behind jail bars, with a sign that says HE STOLE.

The skeleton was previously in my house, but I didn’t need it after I remodeled. So I found a good use for him. 😛

While fishing in the river, I caught my first soft-shelled turtle. And of course, I donated it to the museum.

I caught a soft-shelled turtle! It's more sensitive than other turtles.

It also earned me 2,000 Nook Miles for being my 60th “fish.”

I then jumped off of Eagle Mountain and went diving for sea creatures. Unlike yesterday, I had no trouble finding Pascal today. I found a scallop on just my 4th dive of the day. Pascal was talking about asking trees what their five-year plans are.

Pascal: Nobody ever asks a tree what its five-year plan is, maaan. Maybe that's why they can grow so tall.

He gave me a D.I.Y. recipe for a mermaid table. I also earned 1,000 Nook Miles for giving him a scallop for the 20th time.

Hornsby asked about moving out today, but I told him to stay.

I know I haven’t done much dreaming yet (only one town that first night to try it out), but I plan on doing more very soon! See you all next time.