The Best Update in Months! :)

Hey Jammers, here I am!!! As I said before, I've been having problems managing my time now that school has started for me. Every day I just get home, sleep, and do my homework too late. I'm going to consciously try to stop that pattern now because I wanna post more often!

I can't believe it's only my second full week of school... it feels like it's been going on for a month :\

Even though you are probably very very familiar with the update by now, I still wanna talk about it because it feels like the first genuinely 100% cool update since the beginning of summer. It is a landmark that should be remembered.

We start with news of a genuinely 100% cool den!

Because AJ has reached 1 Million players (wow!) an autumn-themed small house den is here for all Jammers!

Even though it's just a themed version of the preexisting Small House, I love it for what it is! This way, it's easier to change with the seasons as the leaves gradually turn red. 

While the reason for this den's release is the accumulation of 1 million Jammers,  I wonder if there will be more seasonal NM dens in the future.

Leaves haven't turned red where I am yet, so I'll be leaving my Autumn Small House in storage until they do. :3

There is a cute new Jam-a-Gram to commemorate the beginning of Autumn:

I like the visual style of this. The colors are prettier and more natural than usual! Also, the tiger is from this image:

Nice.

While the new den is definitely a highlight of this update, a new long-awaited change has been made. While you're obviously aware of it by now, I'd still like to document it:

YEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

For those who don't know, free chat was originally available for everyone, but sometime around 2014 it was quietly restricted to members only. This restriction on nonmembers never affected me personally, because I had free chat as a nonmember long before, but I am very happy for all the nonmembers out there who have struggled to type out something. Your suffering is over! ^0^

Of course, safe chat isn't just defaulted to everyone now. You need to make the switch through your parent account.

But the update isn't over yet! The third highlight:

World Rhino Day is on September 22nd– in three days! Get ready, guys... I'll have a special post for you on that day :)

Rhinos are actually one of my favorite animals to play on AJ. Their horns are exaggerated, yes, but in a really cute way.

I already have a rhino, but because I'm nonmember and didn't choose to use it once my last membership expired, I had to make a new one :/ At least they're only 500 gems!

When I saw the above page of the Jamaa Journal, I thought the art of the red rhino plushie looked really cute, so I painstakingly made a transparent image of it for you:

His name is Rambutan, after the spiky red fruit that happens to be native to the habitat of certain Asian rhinos. Put him on your blog, graphics, or wherever you want! <3

To close this post, here is a message about the upcoming October festivities:

Leaves are changing, something's waiting in the dark. The Night of the Phantoms is sure to make its mark!

Be you vampire, witch, goblin, or ghoul, prepare for the month when Phantoms come to rule!

I celebrate Halloween, but I have no clue what I'm going to dress as this year. I've been a vampire... I've been a witch... goblin/ghoul/thing too... what's left? 

Oooo, what if I recreated some AJ Night of the Phantoms masks? Gonna add that to my infinitely long list of stuff I want to do when I eventually stop being lazy...

This update made me ridiculously happy. After a lazy summer, after hearing so many people feeling like AJ is in decline, we get a great update that erases almost all worries. It was my theory that AJHQ just went on vacation this summer, and maybe I was right! I like to think that things are back to normal now. :)

So yeah, just making this post to review all these cool things as proof that AJ isn't in a downward spiral. Yay!

See you guys soon! Posts should be coming more regularly now!