Happy New Year!

Hey Jammers! I'm baaaaack with a full post! Tomorrow.

Because tomorrow is the biweekly update, and today is not.

So I'm going to use that as an excuse to be lazy today.

But don't worry, you'll still get your boring new item reports. 

Starting *drumroll* now!

The last Jamaaliday gift is a string of icicle lights! You can click them to turn them on and off. :)

And the new items in Jam Mart Furniture and Epic Wonders:

That's all for now, Jammers, see you in Jamaa!

–Doomy

Fluffy Rug + Snow Fort Parts!

This is going to be a bit of a long post, so brace yourselves!!

Hey Jammers! How was your Thursday and Friday? Yesterday's Jamaaliday gift seemed like a big glitch: the daily spin showed up and while you got to spin the wheel, every time you only got zero gems. 

The Jamaaliday calendar was nowhere to be found, but then the gift... magically appeared in your inventory? What an irritating glitch. Anyway, I'm back to posting–

...For now.

You see, from Saturday (today!) to Monday or Tuesday, my family will be going away to see more family. Whether I will have Wifi or not is not decided, so you can very well expect me to not make any posts from tomorrow to Tuesday. Or Monday, in case there's a schedule change.

Anyways, here is today's Jamaaliday gift!

As you can see, I lost my membership on Thursday. XD

It's a big, big fluffy carpet-like thing. This one comes in a couple different variations– one being just like this one, except with a creepy/cute yeti face stitched onto it? I honestly just hope it's a cloth yeti face and they didn't stitch an ACTUAL one onto it. Weird... Was this intended to be a yeti fur? Ew.

While we're still at my den, I just wanted to show you a quick screenshot of my Jamaaliday-decorated den:

You can click the image to enlarge it. I'm actually really happy with it!! I gave my wood floor back, and that could have added something extra but even without it I think it's still really cool! :D

I don't have many rares so I used a lot of plain regular items. And I think that I will get questions about this, so here's the answer already: I got the nonmember clothing rack at the eagle-only shop above the den store in Coral Canyons. My brother was kind enough to buy me one so thanks, grandmapolly! :D

And now, the new items:

All sold in Jam Mart Furniture. ^_^

And here's a little typo I found in the Conservation Museum:

"Near the poles, many fish have a special antifreeze proteins in their blood"

Just kind of interesting. :/

That's all for now, Jammers, I'm afraid I have to go!

See you in Jamaa and Happy Jamaalidays!

~ DoomyPanda

Notice!

I'm really sorry, but my family celebrates Christmas so I'm not going to post for a couple days. Thank you!

ACTUAL Hat & Beard

Hey Jammers! Today's gift is thankfully, not a South Pole sign. It's a Jamaaliday Mailbox!

The new item is exactly the same as yesterday's R.I.M.– only the green patch is gone and you can actually CHANGE the colors.

Same as last year, same as the year before. Now I can get a pink one!

Recently, there was an AJ Academy post on the Daily Explorer about snowflakes that, well... Didn't really teach you much about snowflakes.

Click to enlarge the screenshot. Around the beginning it starts off with an overly-punctuated opening telling you that you're going to learn about how snowflakes are formed. What comes after isn't really how snowflakes are formed but a bunch of loosely connected trivia. 

Here's how snowflakes are really formed:

1. Some bacteria or dust goes up into the air and into a cloud. Some water molecules attach to it; the more humid the cloud, the more water molecules attached, and the bigger the flake.

2. A snowflake starts off with a sort of hexagonal shape. Branches are added in patterns depending on the conditions inside the cloud. Because no conditions of a cloud can be exactly the same for each flake, no two can be molecularly the same!

3. There are around 36 classified shapes of snowflake. Some can be very rare!

Happy Jamaalidays!

– Doomy

Rare Hat & Beard

Hey Jammers! Even though it is Jamaalidays, Rare Item Mondays are still coming out every week! I wonder how much work that must be for AJHQ...

But first of course, the gift.

Oh wow, a way to the North Pole!

So yeah, I'm assuming that there will be a SOUTH pole as tomorrow's gift. But this item is pretty big... pretty nonmember... pretty sweet... Yep.

And the R.I.M.:

Its on the tenth page of the Jam Mart Clothing catalog. The only things that make it different from the others is the green tumor-like patch on the head as well as the fact that you can't change it's colors. So yeah.

Along with the R.I.M., there are a bunch of other cool new items!

A snowflake tiara so you can be the snow princess ruling aside your mother, the snow queen. All will bow.

And there are also two nonmember items; the Jamaaliday planter and the "winter" mailbox. Interesting.

If you've been to my den in the past week, you'll notice that it is completely empty. Like embarrassingly empty. I don't know why I haven't decorated yet; it just seems too frustrating. 

Also I'd like to remind everyone that even though when I'm offline you can send me buddy requests (for some glitchy, buggy reason) I'm really not accepting any right now. Sorry. :I

Happy Jamaalidays!

– Doomy

Elf Shoes + Ideas

I hope you're liking the new layout. This won't be a background forever, just FYI– I have a ton of others saved to my computer that I'll switch around with as seasons pass.

Anyway, today's Jamaaliday gift is a pair of... elf shoes.

I don't have much to say with this item, other than... I don't know. A ton of these Jamaaliday gifts if not ALL of them have been very "unnatural" looking. But I guess no one but me is complaining.

The new items are sold in Jam Mart Clothing and Jam Mart Furniture. :)

Now before I wrap up this pathetically boring post, I wanted to share with you a few ideas I have for AJ:

1. Day and night as well as settings to turn it off. We have a clock item in Epic Wonders that whenever you view it, it spins and if you look closely you'll see it adjusts to your own time zone. Why not a day/night system that adheres to the time where you are? What about weather, too?

2. Items you can store other items in, such as a wooden chest or a box like thing. This could make more room in your inventory. It would be cute too, right?

3. Another series of den RP items: den shop related items. This could make having a clothing/den item "store" easier and more fun.

That's all for now, Happy Jamaalidays!

– Doomy

Buddy of the Month – December!

I've decided that because all of the other BOTMs have been a little late in posting, I need to step up my game and ACTUALLY post them on time for once.

This month's featured buddy is a friend of mine who because of my busyness on weekdays, hasn't talked with me for a bit. I send them Jam a Grams a lot, and sometimes they respond back. I used to talk to them almost every day, but now it's kind of a pen pal thing.

The BOTM for December is...

MagicWitch906!

Like me, she made her user back before capital letters in the middle of usernames were banned for reasons no one knows. She and my other friend Cutie222 know each other in real life so we all talked together most of the time! I'm hoping to be able to be online more so maybe me and MagicWitch906 can be on at the same time.

That's all for now, see y'all in Jamaa!

– Doomy

Bows and Arrows!

Hey Jammers! Today's gift is yearly. It could be considered a sort of "Jamaaliday Tradition" for AJHQ to give these out!

Bow and arrows! This is the 2nd collection of them. AJHQ decided to preserve the "rareness" of the originals by creating new colors and sticking rare icons on the 1st generation. That way, Jammers who haven't played for very long can have their dream item! (Sort of)

Remember, if you don't like the color of the bow you get, you can change it by refreshing the page before you click KEEP or DISCARD. It may show the same color a few times, but it will get you another with a little more refreshing.

The new items are sold in Jam Mart Furniture:

AJHQ certainly has been busting out the unnatural items lately. I'm not saying that's an inherently bad thing for the game– we do need variety –but too many of one type of item is... a bit much, don't you think? 

Ah well. At least we have a whole load of nonmember Jamaaliday items!

– DoomyPanda

Icicle Horns!

Hey Jammers! Today's Jamaaliday gift is certainly a weird one. I have no real clue how they thought "hey unicorn horns kind of look like icicles and icicles are a part of WINTER so yeah lol lets make it an item"

The one I got was pink so it goes with my seal's outfit!

I just realized that when you put it on it looks like someone stuck an ice cream cone on your head like

Okay, anyways... I'm sure you've noticed AJ Stream's layout change. It still has some way to go– I need to make the side icons transparent and neater. It isn't very Winter-y anymore, but I feel that sticking to a single layout will be a ton more easy than switching every season. 

I'm still not that happy with the background, though... I finally figured out how to make a background full-page (if you want me to say how, comment!) and I'm glad it's not pixelated. I just want something more original, maybe less busy. But I dunno, should a blog's background appear busy? This blog IS a pretty busy thing so leaving the background blank-ish seems a bit... misleading.

I'll still be toying around with some backgrounds, so I'm sorry if the header temporarily appears GINORMOUS or if the background glitches.

Until next time!

–Doomy

So Many Nonmember Items!

Hey Jammers! DoomyPanda here, with AJ's biweekly update news. The Jamaa Journal may be a little bare, but if you look into the shops you'll see that AJHQ has totally pummeled us with new items– many of which are for everyone!

But before that, let's flip through the pages of the Jamaa Journal:

It feels like 2014 went by faster than you could say "two thousand fourteen." It feels like I just saw the invitation to the 2014 new years party yesterday, and now it's 2015. It's amazing how far Animal Jam has come! 

I'm pretty sure that at this rate Animal Jam will reach the ranks and immortality of Club Penguin– which turns 10 years old in January.

And now the new items. *deep breath*

I have to go now, happy jamaalidays!

Notice

I'm going to be late today, post coming at around 4:00 EST today!

Nonmember Clothing Shop: Day 1

Hey Jammers! A while back I talked about wanting to make a clothing shop in my den that sells only nonmember colored clothing. Because nonmembers can't change the colors of clothing available to them, I thought that going into Jamaa and saying "Nonmember colored clothing store at my den, everything just one necklace!" would be nice.

Because it would be a bit of a hassle to run the store as well as advertise, my brother gave me permission to use his account as a sort of "assistant." Plus, I had too many items on my main account to fit in one trading list, so I sent them over to my brother's. A few people who came in offered to help, which was always nice. 

I used two browsers at once. I used Safari for DoomyPanda and Firefox for my brother, which is the notoriously slow browser on my computer. Still, it was pretty difficult. I had to keep the sound on at all times in case I heard a trade notification on the other browser, which probably annoyed everyone else in the room. Sometimes people would come in like it was a den item store and I'd have to explain to them why the wood floor was not up for sale AND at the same time keep repeating "Nonmember colored clothing for 1 necklace at my den!" in the other tab. Overall it was pretty hectic.

While I specifically stated that all of the clothing is NONMEMBER and UNRARE, members always came in. In fact, members made up a large chunk of the people who came. But it wasn't their presence that bothered me-- just their rudeness. 

Members would come in, give up a hundred necklaces for colored friendship bracelets or whatever, and make it so that actual nonmembers got less. This is what drove me to create a five item limit, but even then that wasn't enough. When I tried to tell them that they can just go and buy all these items for gems at Jam Mart Clothing, (I thought they just didn't know) they just whined and complained saying things like "Ooohh but it's not my fault that I'm a member.... i have feelings 2..."

Ok, first of all: You or your parents bought your own membership consensually. And if you didn't like it after a while, you could just cancel. 

Secondly, you have a clear advantage over nonmembers. You have way more abilities than them. The nonmembers who I'm trying to help can't just go over to Jam Mart Clothing and get the exact item they want. They need to trade for it, sometimes even overpaying for something so common as a colored hat that just came out today for something as rare as nerd glasses. By making this store, I'm trying to make that whole process fairer and easier.

I'm sorry for ranting just there, I just thought it would be necessary to add that there.

I'm going to continue running this shop, but to make things simpler I'll take the den part out of it. I think I'll sit in Jamaa with a trade list of nonmember colored items saying something like "All items on list available for just 1 necklace NONMEMBERS ONLY."

Wish me luck!

– DoomyPanda

Adorable NONMEMBER Hot Cocoa Set!!!

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS MONTH'S BERRY THE KOALA UPDATE!

Hey Jammers! Today's Jamaaliday gift has previously appeared in the Jamaaliday Jam as well as the seasonal maze adventure Jamaaliday Rescue. It's one I mentioned was incredibly adorable in an earlier post, too...

♫ And on the 17th day of Jamaalidays, AJHQ gave to me,
a hot chocolate set thats so cute I'm going to scream ♫ 

It feels like everyone but me fully understood that this would be a Jamaaliday gift. I guess it just looked to me like it would be members only! Luckily, that's definitely not the case.

This cocoa set is very interactive. You click either cup to drink it, the marshmallows or the cookies to eat them, and click everything a second time to refill.

I have to go now, so have a happy Jamaalidays!

– Doomy

New Berry the Koala post!!!

As promised, I've written up a new Berry the Koala post just for you! For those who don't know, Berry the Koala is my side Animal Jam blog. It's a story/journal blog based on the adventures of a blue AJ koala plushie. I write a new entry up each month, and each one is rather long– I hope you have time!

Click here to read the latest journal entry!

My Pony vs Pony Addiction

Hey Jammers! I'm sorry for not posting yesterday. I would give you an intricate lie about how hard I was studying or reading, but because you're all my best friends I'm going to tell the truth: I literally cannot stop playing Pony vs Pony.

I'm not too into MLP, but this game is really cute. You should go play it.

ANYWAY, onto the real news of today:

Both items are sold in their respective Township shops. You can change the colors of both, if you're a member!

I'm really sorry this post could not have been longer. I have to leave in 5 minutes to go to school. But I do promise you one thing: this month's Berry the Koala entry will be up by the end of the week!

Happy Jamaalidays!

Striped Socks + No more News Crew Assignments?

Hey Jammers! Today's Jamaaliday gift is a pretty pair of striped socks~ ♫

♫ And on the 14th day of Jamaalidays, AJHQ gave to us...

a cool pair of cute and stripy socks. ♫

You know I'm desperate when I rhyme "us" with "socks"

The color I got was red. Because it kind of paired with the candy cane tie, I thought that there was only one color so I didn't think to do the refresh trick that I talked about in an earlier post. The socks actually come in a bunch of colors, including peach, pink, and turquoise!

I hope someone in the Township will be willing to trade. :I

My panda's Jamaaliday outfit was previously red-centric, but I've been wanting to mix it up a bit. Maybe pink? That would be cute.

And now, the new items:

Both are sold in their respective Township shops, both nonmember! What a day, two nonmember items at once.

Now today I want to talk about the News Crew. With my membership, I can walk around with the camera badge on my name tag. A lot of people Jam a Gram me saying "OMG AJHQ" or "OH WOW YOU'RE IN THE NEWS CREW" or just simply, "NEWS CREW!!!!!!"

Sometimes they ask how to get my badge, and I've always responded with "Win a News Crew assignment." But I've been looking at the Daily Explorer every day and I can't seem to find any articles labelled "News Crew." Where did they go?

Here's the answer: Diamond Challenges.

There are a couple types of currency in our world today: fiat money and commodity money. US dollars and other banknotes or "paper moneys" are considered fiat because they have no inherent value. Paper and cotton are common and there's no direct survival-based need for them; the only reason why banknotes are currency are because the government decrees them so.

Commodity money is like gold or food. Gold can be used as a currency because of it's rarity, and food can be used as well because it's a basic survival need.

Diamonds in this case are fiat money. Same with gems, but diamonds are pushing the limit and I'm going to tell you why. 

FUN FACT: Even in real life diamonds are pretty much worthless. You can make a diamond out of peanut butter. Despite the fact that they're really common, the diamond industry is massive and cruel-- taking children away from their families to work in mines. In other words, don't support that industry by buying diamond rings.

First of all, unlike other virtual currencies (such as eCoins and gold on Fantage), diamonds can't be exchanged for gems and gems can't be exchanged for diamonds. The only way to get diamonds is to

A. Buy them with REAL money

or

B. Be a member (which is still technically buying them for real money)

or

C. Go up against hundreds and win a diamond challenge

In real life, you can exchange coins for banknotes, regional currencies for other regional currencies and vise versa. It just seems really weird that diamonds are just so exclusive!

But diamonds aren't really THAT rare in Jamaa and we all know it. A diamond can be achieved so easily and quickly (if you're a member with some IRL money) but the rare items that are being sold in the Diamond Shop used to take so much time to find, to bargain for-- Now I'm not trying to say that rares are special in any way, but it doesn't feel very fair that they're just FOR SALE for an exclusive currency.

The very definition of RARE on AJ is that it's not in stores, or hasn't been in stores for a long time.

I don't know... am I making too much of a big deal out of this?