*Yawn*

Hey Jammers! I didn't post for a couple of days because in all honesty, I was lazy and tired. School has really been exhausting and it's hard to will myself to do anything other than sleep when I get home. It's like I REALLY want to post and play AJ, but... sleep... :o

Below are all the items I've missed posting about; today's being the Glitchy Speakers:

The glitchy items are pretty cool, but I love birth flowers even more!

Aster is the birth flower for those born in September. Is your birthday this month? :D

I'm sorry that I don't have much else to say right now, but here's a little list of stuff that I'm gonna be working on this September once I stop being so sleepy:

1. Berry the Koala!!!
2. Buddy of the month (this time, no repeats!!!)
3. Update all of AJ Stream's pages
4. Figure out a new layout for Fall

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

Post coming later today!

Just a notice~ (>^-^)>

Crazy "Birdie" Glitch + Mira Cake Guide

Hey Jammers, I'm back from my grandparents! I'm so happy to be home, but before school starts tomorrow there are a ton of things I'll need to do to prepare and stuff. This post may be short, but I still have a some things here that might interest you!

First of all, we have the Rare Item Monday– sold in Bahari Bargains!

This Tavie Charm Necklace would go along with the other charm necklaces in the AJ BDay Party, if it wasn't an underwater item! 

I actually really like this Rare Item Monday, it feels a little more relevant. Pick this up in Bahari Bargains on the very first page! :D

And as you can see from the red tag, I'm still broke on Animal Jam. XD

Moving on, an anonymous commenter told me about a weird but seemingly harmless chat glitch. Just say the phrase "my birdie is trying to eat mira" in all lower caps and it shows up as...

Another strange thing is that if someone else says it the first time, the glitch will only show up to them. The second time however, it shows up to everyone!

What's kind of creepy is why this nonsensical phrase in particular triggers the text to leave the box. Actually, there are more phrases, but they're all along the lines of a carnivorous bird wreaking havoc in the world:

1. "my birdie is trying to eat u run before it gets you"
2. "my birdie is trying to bite my knee"
3. "my birdie is trying to eat u ppl"

It's weird that all the glitch phrases have the words "bite" or "eat" and I have not the slightest clue why. Do any of you people know?

In other news, the new birthday cake has been a little difficult for some people to figure out so I thought I'd make a very tiny guide for it right here on AJ Stream! :)

Step one:

Click the bottom cake layer, and then the green emerald to the far right side to make the first two phantoms come out.

To make the next two phantoms appear, click the candle light and then the lowest phantom to make all four phantoms appear, as pictured above.

Next step: click the sliced layer right below the top one...

...And Mira destroys the phantoms and shines down in her own chocolatey glory!

Now I'm sure my birdie is definitely going to try to eat Mira...

See you in Jamaa and wish me luck in school tomorrow!

– DoomyPanda

The Eight Paged Update

Hey Jammers! While I may be a little late, this is my post about the update as I promised. From this point on I will update daily unless I'm put in a place with no internet connection, as I probably will this weekend when I go to my grandparents again. I think there's a bigger chance than usual that I'll get a little WiFi, but still I just think I should warn ya if I don't.

Ok, now let's move onto the incredibly long Jamaa Journal which is incredibly long!

I needed 3 more diamonds yesterday when lynxes came out, but guess what I won this morning in the Daily Spin? 3 diamonds!

This is the dance action: (sorry I can't make GIFs!)

Hop action:

Play action:

And my favorite, the sleep action:

Here's some sitting, too:

To be honest, I'm kind of disappointed that once AJHQ made a diamond animal that I'm actually interested in getting, they threw all realism out the window. I've heard that AJ lynxes look like a combination of AJ seals, tigers, bunnies, and all fixed together with a snow leopard head.

Normally AJ is one of the more realistic kids games, but look at this:

Literally no similarities! I would have loved the AJ lynx to have as much effort put into it as all the other beloved animals, but I still got one anyways lol

Ah well. I don't wanna turn this post into a big complaint, so here's the rest of the Jamaa Journal!

Happy birthday to Jamaa! I went and spent a ton of time at the party with my friends. It was incredibly fun! Here are some pictures from the party and all the new stuff it brought: (hint: theres an accessory shop now)

There's a whole ton of new alpha statues since last year! It goes to show you just how many new animals came out in 2014-2015:

Aside from Liza, my favorite statue is Andy the llama alpha. Although, I wish the polar bear and Olive the cheetah were nonmember because I'm losing membership in exactly 2 weeks!

There's also a brand new accessory shop, just next to the brand new music shop that I forgot to get a picture of!

Sadly, none of the lovely Alpha charm necklaces are nonmember and Liza looks like a purple elf for some reason, but yay! Accessories! :D

Items aren't the only part of this new sugary party, so here are some screenshots of me and my friends having fun on top of the cake:

We also did something for Jammer Snaps that came up while we were at the party:

Tell me if I get in! :D

In other news, the Glitchy Gear Set won! I was certain the movie theater was going to, but I guess people like futuristic stuff more. 

Here's all the items so far:

Nice! I love the plant.

Here's an ad:

Here's a NOT-ad:

I noticed all the new pet names a while ago when I named my pet panda "Pawpaw" (the name of a North American fruit) and saw a bee in the Play-as-your-pet-party named "Stopdude"

In honor of Jamaa's new lynxes AKA seal/leopard hybrids, a very cool exhibit has come to the much-ignored Conservation Museum!

Do this pretty museum a favor and maybe hang out in it sometime. I don't know why so many people ignore it– peaceful music! Colorful tiles! Real animal videos! That really cool turtle banner that's been there since the beginning of time! It's just cool all around. Maybe it's not cool and I'm just being a dork. Hmm...

Wouldn't it be cool if Jammers who already were kangaroos could go on some exclusive traveling adventure, too? That would make all the more people get kangaroos! AJHQ, ARE YOU LISTENING!?

We're almost to the last page, Jammers! Just one more lap to go!

As cool breezes start to dilute the Summer heat, Autumn is surely coming soon and the Summer Carnival is having a big clearance sale. Go play some games while you can!

As much time as I spent on AJ this summer, I've only been to the Summer Carnival maybe ten times maximum. I don't particularly like the prizes, but Candy Catch is THE BEST GAME! :D

Finally, we wrap up this incredibly long Jamaa Journal with an advertisement for the new Wild Explorers magazines. I'm interested in these and at some point I'd like to get one issue just to see what it's like! 

The llama issue seems to have some cool stuff, judging by the cover. 'What animal are you?' quizzes, animal word searches, and even some Jammer Art! I would love to have something I draw be immortalized in a magazine. What if a new magazine-featured art plaque started being awarded? Wow...

Unrelated, but I think you'll want to know that the Back-to-school Party finished stocking up its shop items!

As I thought, the globe is nonmember! If you click it, it spins around. :D

• • •

Happy birthday, Animal Jam! 

I've played Animal Jam for a little more than three years now, and I've loved it more and more this year. For me it's not just escape from my life, I like how all the educational stuff connects it with real life a little bit more. I dunno...

Because it's Animal Jam's 5th birthday, here's a quick question for you: in AJ's 5th year, 2015, which land did you spend the most time in? What game/s have you played the most? 

I'm probably going to make the question into a poll later on, but for now it would be cool if you answered in the comments! :)

Also, because September is the month I promised to begin updating Berry the Koala again, just that will happen!

...After I finish my summer homework. :P

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

– DoomyPanda

Materialism on AJ

A while ago out of general curiosity, I looked up some parent reviews of Animal Jam. 

Surprisingly to me, many of the reviews were negative. The majority were just "oh this is so addictive it turned my child into a pixel-starved zombie" which can be true to some degree, but then I found one that really stuck with me:

It was about three or five paragraphs long. At first it talked about the many great things about Animal Jam– no ads, how being a nonmember is okay, and how great it is that National Geographic implemented all sorts of learning into the game. However, the one big thing this reviewer did not like their kid learning was what the AJ community introduced to them right off the bat: 

Materialism.

For those who don't know this word, materialism is basically an unhealthy obsession with items. At the time, I read this and just thought "Haha, MATERIALISM! My beloved Animal Jam would NEVER do such a thing!" and I kind of forgot about reading that review.

As my years of playing this game went on, I started thinking about what I had read more and more. Don't pretend that scamming and hacking hasn't gone up since the past year– it's literally all around you. People "trusting" and "flashing" left and right, people making new accounts and dressing them up like fman122 just to scare others... people being so obsessed with acquiring rare items that they'd use literally illegal methods to hack little kids' accounts and hoard the items like candy from a piñata. It's sickening and disappointing how far people go for mere pixels. 

Yeah, that's right. They're just pixels.

People are risking jail time using illegal hacking software for pixels.

Pixels.

Pixels. 

PIXELS.

When I say stuff like this, some people who got their rare items fairly criticize me of trashing their love for them. This is just a disclaimer that I am not doing that– it's OKAY to like trading as long as you don't hurt others to get what you want. 

Then again, it's important for everyone to look at their own behavior. Even if you don't scam or hack, I want everyone to take a step back for a moment and ask yourselves some questions and answer honestly in your head:

Why do I collect items? What do they mean to me?

When I play Animal Jam, what do I think about most?

If I lose interest in AJ and in a long time look back on my time spent in Jamaa, how will I feel about it? Will I be glad that I spent so much time collecting items?

And most importantly:

Does what I value on Animal Jam carry into real life?

For anyone who's played Animal Jam for at least a year, this game has changed you in real life. Have these changes been positive? Have these changes been negative? Just pull back and ask yourself that for a minute. Maybe you won't notice them immediately, but they're there.

Not making generalizations, but I've found that a lot of Jammers I've met who trade a lot and coat their animals in rares are the same people who talk a lot about their stuff. iPhones, MacBooks, clothes, cars, and other expensive objects are frequent conversational topics.

On the flip side, people who collect rares could also be using Animal Jam to get the stuff that they can't have in real life. Offline, your parents could be strict and you could feel left out when your real life friends are always showing off their expensive devices. You're told every day by advertisements and the people you're around that MORE IS BETTER and that if you don't give in and buy some products, you're socially doomed. You could be using pixel items to feel like you fit, like you belong in the materialistic outside world. That's very sad, but very understandable.

The point is that everything you say or do shapes how you are as a person, online or offline. If you manipulate people into giving you things online, you're just as awful and selfish offline. It doesn't matter if you're a scammer or a hacker and a screen and a million miles are separating you and the person you're stealing from. 

It doesn't matter if these items are just pixels if you knew just how sad and horrified the person you hacked would feel. It doesn't matter if they're just pixels if you took them away.

In that case, the person who's materialistic is you, the hacker. The scammer. The person who wasted time out of their day to illegally steal pixels from a little kid.

Hackers and scammers aren't cool or hardcore. They aren't underdogs or antiheroes or anything to be admired in the least. They're literally just greasy teenagers sitting in their mom's basement eating cold nachos, listening to bad dubstep and snickering quietly to themselves about how cool they think they are for taking candy from a baby. 

Of all the cool and amazing things the internet age gives us access to, you requested illegal access to an innocent kid's pixel toy on a website meant for 8 to 12 year olds. All to see them do crying emotes while you stuff another greasy nacho in your mouth. Pretty hardcore and cool, huh?

It's sad that hacking, scamming, and even stalking has become unavoidable on such a wonderful game. I believe this game separated from the item-hoarding community is in essence adorable and positive and absolutely wondrous. It's important to know that all this game's positive characteristics are still here, and have always been here. 

Through all the scams and the hacker-scares, 

through every Jammer who just wouldn't leave you alone, 

through every time you lost an item, 

through every time you lost a friend, 

Jamaa is still here. Still here in all it's innocent fun that it had when you first joined. It's here waiting to welcome you when you come back.

Thank you for reading, and I'm planning on playing Animal Jam and starting back up to make full update posts tomorrow.

– DoomyPanda