Odd Seal Glitch + Upcoming Earth Month?

 Hey Jammers! This is gonna be a really quick post. I'm actually currently working on a much bigger post, and it's requiring me to do a lot of research and math. Yes, MATH xD

For now, I'll let the subject of this upcoming post remain secret, but I'll give you a couple of hints:

• It's not a topic I've previously mentioned

• It involves a fun AJ activity you'll be able to do!

I'm super excited to show y'all when it's ready! I think you might like it C:

Anyway, moving on... today I discovered something pretty weird about seals:

Even though this blotch pattern is an option you can choose from while you're making your seal look pretty, it... doesn't actually show up for some reason o_o

In fact, if you try to put a blotch pattern on your seal and hop, this thing happens:

You turn all one color! A much darker shade of the blotch color you selected, to be precise. 

I have no idea how long this glitch has been around, but I think it's crazy that I'm only just learning about it now. C'mon DoomyPanda, have you been living under a rock all these years?

I hope AJHQ makes blotches on seals show up one day, or at the very least removes them from seals at some point. If they don't even show up, then why get people's hopes up by including them as a pattern option? 

In other news, it looks like some Earth-related stuff is about to go down next month:

Whoa, I don't know how fantastic this will actually end up being, but this looks like good news! AJHQ is promising in-game content and fun Daily Explorer challenges. I hope they mean to distribute that in-game content between both AJC and AJPW, but maybe we'll finally be seeing an expansion of the eco-point system. 

And maybe... just maybe... we'll get an eventful AJC update for once. 

I'm not gonna get my hopes up too high, but who knows what'll happen! Everything is always changing, so there's always room to hope for better days :)

I don't know about you, but I've been feeling super motivated about AJ and my blog today. I have some school stuff due soon but all I wanna do is post XD

I'm gonna try to fit both in this evening... 

So, until next time,

See you in Jamaa!

Sig edited with help from Dogo :)

Tutorial: Making a Transparent Image of Your Animal (Easy)

Hey Jammers! I didn't think I'd be writing here again so soon after that giant previous post, but I'm back. With a quick one!

Something I realized recently is a way to really easily get a transparent image of your AJ animal, so I thought I'd share in case any of you looking to make image edits would appreciate it ^-^

Alright, step one:

Go to a Small House Den and locate the big empty patch of grass circled above. Notice how it's just solid green without anything else? Think of this like your green screen. 

Move your animal into the area circled above, and take a screenshot! Try to leave out any blades of grass or bits of your name tag, just to make things easier.

Step two:

Now that you have a completely solid background around your animal, it will be really easy to use whatever image editing tool you have at hand to remove the background. 

Most editing tools have a tool that lets you instantly remove a color from the background. Some examples:

• If you use a Mac, on Preview that tool is called Instant Alpha (or Magic Wand), and you just click on the solid green background to select it, and then press delete.

• If you use the software GIMP, you'll look for the Color Select tool, select the green, click Edit in the toolbar and select the Clear button.

• If you use Photoshop, that tool is called Magic Eraser, and you can find it by right-clicking on the normal eraser tool. The same idea applies.

• And if by chance you don't have any image editing software, the free online tool online-image-editor.com has a Transparency tool that works the exact same way! I've used this site a bunch of times to edit graphics for my blog.

Step three:

And now, you have a pretty good transparent image of your AJ animal with very little effort! Yeehaw. If you accidentally got bits of your name tag in the image, at this point it will be easy to go in with a normal eraser tool and remove them.

You can also use that solid green patch of grass with any den items or pets you have C:

I hope this lil tutorial can be helpful in your image editing adventures!!

See you in Jamaa~

Sig edited with help from Dogo :)

That Time I Was "Stalked" on AJ

Hey Jammers! When I've not been doing work for school or just lying around and staring at the wall, I've been spending a lot of time working on this one video editing project I'm doing for fun! That's why it seems I've broken the promise I wrote on the left sidebar of this blog by letting a little over two weeks go by without a post ^^;

While posting more frequently is a goal of mine, I think I'm just going to accept that a small handful of posts a month is all I can manage for now. 

Also I'm pretty sure y'all are tired of hearing me repeatedly apologize for not posting enough. I've been going back through my older posts and it's kinda embarrassing that even as far back as 2015 it's been normal for me to open posts with "hey sorry for the lack of posting––" :S

So, moving on...

I bet you're surprised to see a post with this title, huh? 

Yep, it wasn't planned, and I've never talked about this before, but I thought it might be an entertaining story to tell! So grab some water or something so you can stay hydrated while you read all about it. 

Keep in mind, all of what I'm about to share actually happened. If only I had the energy to write one of those hilarious Animal Jam creepypastas... but no. This is all from memory!

Aaaand unfortunately, because it happened a while ago and I was actually pretty nervous at the time, I didn't take any actual screenshots. (And if I did, they're on my old computer and I still haven't moved over the files yet pffft)

Because of this, all I have is my non-exact memory and a handful of dramatic reenactments that I threw together just for this post X)

~ ❦ ❦ ❦ ~

Long ago, in the distant age of approximately August 2012, a wolf who looked like the one pictured above followed me and couple of my AJ buddies around for days on end.

Without being on any of our buddy lists.

I guess I'll start where this twisted tale of treachery begins... by the glowing fireplace of the Hot Cocoa Hut.

My AJ buddy and IRL friend Sparkle Alienrose (we'll call them by their current animal name) and I were just hanging out, having a pretty chill day with some virtual hot cocoa. At this point in time, we may have been talking about what the next school year would look like for us– you see, both of us were moving up to a new school, and I can imagine we must have been wondering what awaited us in the fall of 2012.

So we were talking, maybe joking around a little... and then a wolf appeared.

*dramatic reenactment*

Well, he immediately put us off. 

Aside from looking kinda like Fman122 (and possibly even having the same animal name), he was dropping the vampire emote left and right like some kind of roleplayer that got loose from Sarepia Forest. 

And what's more... he was speaking in a really weird and vaguely threatening way. I don't recall anything he said exactly, but it was most definitely more than you could say in chat today with the current filters. (Fun fact: this was probably the time on AJ when you could say pretty much anything you wanted as long as you censored part of it with asterisks) 

Clicking the wolf's animal name, we saw that his username was rememberthe5th. Odd. 

But out of nowhere, he started coming after me in particular. 

*dramatic reenactment*

At this point, Sparkle Alienrose and I panicked and ran away to a different server, leaving rememberthe5th to his devices in the Hot Cocoa Hut.

Maybe not much actually happened... but I remember being genuinely freaked out. 

*not actually what happened*

We thought that would be the end of it...but no.

Because he followed us.

We ran to Sarepia Forest. He followed us there. We ran to a random party. He followed us there too.

And then we ran to Sparkle's locked den...

*dramatic reenactment*

And there he was. 

I was convinced that rememberthe5th was a hacker, and it scared me quite a bit. During this time, I was even more emotionally involved in Animal Jam than I am now, so even though this whole thing happened in the virtual world of Jamaa, it felt like it was happening in real life. I think this is why people hacking into your AJ account can be so difficult for many people– it can feel too real.

Anyways, I don't remember a lot of what rememberthe5th was saying at this point, but I do remember it was freakin' me out. I might have even been on the phone with Sparkle in that moment for emotional support– that may have been how they gave me the username of a Jammer whose den I should go to.

*not an actual screenshot of that den, but just for reference*

That username took me to a den FILLED with trees. Perfect for hiding from certain black-and-white stripey wolves.

You don't see this as much anymore now that Seasonal Trees have been out of shops for a long time, but forest dens used to be a popular thing to make. Perfect for roleplayers, hide and seek, or for just generally creating a feeling of mystery, forest dens were beloved by all.

Unfortunately...

*dramatic reenactment*

The trees did not dissuade our friend rememberthe5th. 

So me, Sparkle Alienrose, and our other buddy catlover25 (who joined us in running around and screaming) ran around from forest den to forest den, hoping to lose rememberthe5th among the digital branches and leaves. 

And yes, we did report this wolf a million times, which eventually banned him... but he eventually came back from the grave as rememberthe6th.

After a while though, it became a lot less nerve-racking. All rememberthe5th really did was follow us, put up the vampire emote, say some stuff, and repeat. 

Later, I finally decided to go back to my own locked den, and what do ya know– he couldn't get in! Though, that didn't stop him from sending a bunch of eerie Jam-a-Grams, so I finally blocked him.

*overdramatic reenactment*

(In reality, I think it was a whole lot of spammed "This is a fun game!"/"You're my best buddy!" Jam-a-Grams. I don't think those phrases are in the pre-written JAG messages anymore, but that's just what I remember)

Things seemed to quiet down for a bit... so Sparkle Alienrose and I went over to catlover25's den to talk and try to get our minds off of it. Or did we? I don't remember exactly, but this whole chaos didn't just happen in one day-- it might have been a few days to a week.

Regardless of when it happened, here's what I do remember. We were all in catlover25's den, calm but still shaken up. And then...

*dramatic reenactment*

Rememberthe5th was completely invisible to catlover25 and I, but Sparkle saw him sitting against the wall.

*dramatic reenactment. Poor catlover25...*

This was the last freaking straw. I was actually terrified.

I immediately logged out, logged into my parent dashboard, locked my account, and it stayed that way for at least a week. Which was a big deal, considering that playing AJ was like breathing to me. 24/7 bro 

In the meantime, I was sending terrified emails to Sparkle and Sparkle was sending terrifying emails back. In fact, I remember immediately deleting nearly every single email I sent or got that involved rememberthe5th because I was scared that my parents would find out that an actual AJ hacker was terrorizing me and stop me from ever playing AJ again. 

One of those deleted emails, I only half-remember. Which is probably for the best! You see, I vaguely remember Sparkle emailing me exactly what they saw rememberthe5th say when they were in catlover25's den and WOOO BOY it haunted me. 

But for the purpose of this post, let's just pretend that these were our friend rememberthe5th's final words to me:

HEY HEY HEY H-HEY HEY BUDDY

HEY H-HEY CAN I GET A 

woop woop

HEY BUDDY

CAN I GET A

woop woop

HEY BUDDY

YAAAAAAAAAAAYYY

wooooo

wooooo

1234!!!!!

1... 2... 3... 4...

1234!!!!!

I love Animal Jam!

THIS IS THE BEST!!!!!!!

~ ❦ ❦ ❦ ~

Flash forward 8 years later to late June 2020.

My family and I were moving between homes, everything is chaos in the world and in my life, but even though we're a bunch of states apart and don't talk regularly, hey, at least Sparkle Alienrose is still friends with me! They don't really play AJ anymore, which is understandable.

So anyway, it was around this time that I started thinking about the whole rememberthe5th incident, and I'll be honest, the thought that someone hacked into the game to follow me around still gave me a little anxiety even all that time later!

I mentioned it to Sparkle:

"...on a completely unrelated side note, do you remember when that AJ hacker stalked us when we were 11? that was freaky"

And then... Sparkle wrote me back:

"i have something terrible to admit. i was rememberthe3rd or whatever and i was just pulling a prank on u. i have NEVER admitted that till now cuz i felt guilty... hgthfjdhsjs i'm so sorry"

FOR 8 YEARS......

And now, 8 years and a couple of horrible image edits later, the legend of rememberthe5th comes to a happy end!

I am super relieved, and I remain super impressed that Sparkle managed to pull a fast one on me for that long.

This post that took me two days to write is dedicated to Sparkle Alienrose, who may or may not ever see this. Thank you for making it so I had alllll this content to post about today!! I hope I'm not embarrassing you too much by putting this on my silly blog <3

To everyone else, I hope you managed to get a smile out of this storytime post! I'm gonna try to shoot for maybe two more posts before the month is up, but we'll see what happens.

See you in Jamaa!!

Sig edited with help from Dogo :)

Who's That Animal? #1 - The Kakapo

 Hey Jammers! Woooo~, it's been a stressful and confusing few days. Still, I wanna get a post out to y'all because this blog and everyone who reads it make me happy C:

Today we will begin... identifying and learning about the animals in the paintings at Gabby Wild's Animal Hospital!

Gabby Wild's Animal Hospital is one of the three locations where you can watch videos about wildlife, the other two being Dr. Brady Barr's Laboratory and Tierney Thys' Aquarium. 

Sarepia Theater also used to house a library of videos from Nat Geo, but since both Nat Geo and Animal Jam agreed to part ways a few years back, all that remains are a few instructional videos from AJHQ, along with the re-done version of the classic Geckos! video. And there's also Modern Major Kangaroo, but we don't talk about that here...

Hopefully there will come a time when new wildlife videos arrive in Sarepia Theater... but until then, we can take our popcorn to Brady Barr, Tierney Thys, or in the case of today, Gabby Wild! c:

So, originally I set out to write this as a basic kind of post, where I would just identify the different interesting animal species depicted in the paintings around Gabby Wild's Animal Hospital. 

However, I got really into researching and writing about this one bird. I believe all of the animals deserve that kind of spotlight, so this will be a series of posts! We'll go in-depth and learn about each of these animals that you might normally just pass by, one post at a time. 

AND! Because many of these animals are endangered, I'll provide links to places where, if you're able to, you can donate towards their conservation.

Let's begin!

This is a kind of parrot, as you might suspect. But this isn't just any parrot...

Photo credit to Joel Sartore, Nat Geo Photo Ark

This is the incredibly unique bundle of joy and wonder known as the kākāpō!  

They are very large and curious birds with strong legs and flightless wings. Their mottled yellow-green feathers match the vibrant mosses of their island homes tucked away off the coast of New Zealand. While they have a diverse diet of plants, fruit, seeds, pollen, and sapwood, the kākāpō have been observed to especially enjoy the fruit of the rimu tree. 

And for some reason, kākāpō naturally smell like honey, and can live up to 100 years!!!

Through history, they have also been observed to preserve certain fruits by dropping them into small pools of water and keeping them there for the summer– a practice which is said to have taught the native people of New Zealand to do the same thing.

While this bird is beautiful and sweet, the story of the kākāpō is riddled with pain. Ever since humans arrived on their islands, they have been relentlessly hunted and targeted, with the vast majority of their homes being destroyed by human agriculture. 

Kākāpō used to live throughout New Zealand, but are now completely extinct on the mainland. The very few 206 who remain alive are currently doing their best to survive, hidden away in the leaves of only three small islands. 

♥ Increased conservation efforts have been essential in supporting the gradual recovery of the kākāpō. If you wish to support the kākāpō, you can donate towards their conservation here. 

(That link goes to the official Kākāpō Recovery Program donate page at globalwildlife.org)

I bet you didn't think that fuzzy little painting had that kind of story behind it, right? 

I think I've written about the kākāpō here before, but I wanted to mention them again because they're the animal who inspired this series to begin with. 

I hope you enjoyed this post! Over time, I'll be coming out with at least eight more in this series, as that's the amount of animal paintings you can find in Gabby Wild's Animal Hospital. Not all at once, of course– I'll be breaking them up with other topics like the ones I mentioned in the previous post.

See you in Jamaa!

P.S. Big thanks to Dogo for making the borders of my signature transparent!