Bite the bullet
I found a lot of inspiration online but there was a common theme. Most islands had an orchard. I wanted my island to feel untamed and an orchard was far from that. The way I felt about a lot of things changed with the farming update. I set up a pumpkin farm and an orchard followed. The wonderful thing about AC:NH is that the entire island is modifiable (well most of it) at any time. I demolished a few paths, set up some fencing and voilà, I had a little farm. And now my island mirrors a bit of my real life. We have a lot of forests and a lot of farms here!

Cozy spaces
I wanted small spaces around the island to tell a specific story. I don’t keep my villagers for too long because I want them to spread their wings. But definitely are some who love the island too much to leave it! But for those who are new to the island… What would it have to offer them? I created cozy spaces to help tell a story. My favorite spot is right next to the stores. It’s a small area with vending machines and places to sit. No one has ever used it yet… But I love how it turned out. I’d love to replace the green machine with a white one but I don’t have someone to trade with!

Filled out empty areas
And it’s rare that I trade with other players. Reaching out to other players scared me. So every morning I visited the store to see if there was something new to buy. I used what I had in the space I had to work with. And each month there’s been an increase of new and magical items. The Halloween event just ended in October and now I have tons of pumpkin themed items now. Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming soon too!

Message preserved
In the beginning, I didn’t want to mess with too much because I loved how natural it was. As a result, I wanted it always feel organic. And it still is. In a way my island is an extension of me and who I am. I change everyday, as does my island. Sometimes the change is an improvement and other times it’s not. But it’s always there, right where I left it. And that’s important to me because the world is a scary place right now. For a few hours I can forget about what triggers my anxiety and I can listen to the waves on the beach.

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Playing games with purpose
I love playing video games but felt guilty about doing it. I’ve spent a majority of the year drawing and finding other ways of being productive. But there’s only so far self indulgence can go. I get so much joy when I write and get reader responses. The same goes for my channel. It’s been a slow slog through the mud since Youtube is so saturated, but it gives me a sense of purpose. I love planning out the videos for the week and follow through from beginning to end. This space has grown so much and still has a long way to go…

But in the end it’s still a non profitable space for me. I figure if I keep working at recording videos and playing games, maybe someday I can make some revenue from it. And I’m not doing it for the money. If I was, I would get a steady job. I just want to learn and grow as a person, and even possibly make new friends along the way.

Learning new things
I don’t want to stop learning new things but there was a hole in drawing. Drawing takes years of time, effort, and hard work. It’s going to take years before I see improvement and some days I feel helpless to my own inabilities. With recording, it’s all technical. If I don’t know something, I can just look it up. I went to school for these sorts of things and it feels good to revisit those skills. I missed them! They say you never stop learning and I wholeheartedly agree.

Now this isn’t a plug for my channel, because it’s so small right now and it’s a personal project. But I just wanted to put these words out into the universe. I haven’t forgotten about this blog but there’s not much for me to write about. So instead of sitting around all day, I’ve put my energies into something else. If you’re curious about it you can check it out from the link in the sidebar. And until next post, I hope you guys are staying safe!

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I’m still playing though! I love the laid back feel of it and the idea that you should play a bit daily. I don’t time travel and I don’t have any friends to play with so every day there’s something new to discover. And with the free updates that keep coming, it’s hard for me to play anything else on my Switch.

As August is right around the corner, I thought it would be nice to finally share my island. It’s a 4 star location littered too many trees and weeds. Most of it is still under construction but I didn’t want to change much of the original island. I’ve kept much of it as is and I’m working to preserve the original feel of it. It’s a digital space that I sometimes visit to walk around and be quiet for a time.

The villagers are sweet, never bound in place, and always fun to talk to. When one moves out I go out island hopping to find another. I never reject a villager because there are over 400 to meet. I’d like to read all their dialogue because they all have something fun and unique to say. It’s funny that I keep ending up with Peppy villagers though… I’ve only had one Cranky one too! Coco is the newest addition to the family and I’m so happy to have her!

So allow me to introduce you to Rapture.

Rapture was the name of my first New Leaf town. I named it after the underwater city featured in Bioshock. I flew the city flag above my town house and I was so happy to spend my time there. I’ve never been a social person or gamer so it was great to get into bed and play Animal Crossing New Leaf for hours. What made me sad was that I couldn’t have a natural looking town. The perfectionist in me wanted paved roads, strict structure and that left little room to be wild or free.

I wanted to keep my island as close to when I got it as I could in New Horizons. I’ve only made little changes here and there. The most structured area I have is my little neighborhood which has all 10 houses in 2 neat rows.

I wanted to keep the “town” as small as I could. The shopping district sits before the homes so that everything is tight. My favorite time to play is 7pm. The lighting is brilliant, the music is beautiful and it’s the only time I can hop on! I’ve been a bit busier than usual so after dinner is when I can play for a bit.

The Orchard Walk is another area I’ve worked. I have a long, winding path that goes up onto the cliffs for a view of the ocean. Fruit trees line the path so that if you get hungry you can stop and pick something! I’d like to fill in all the empty space with flowers but I’m too lazy to water them!

Right below this walk is the Japanese Garden. I know everyone has one, but with so many Japanese themed items, how could I not!? It’s my favorite place to hang out and is the most developed part of my island. It’s got two waterfalls and a ton of Tanabata Trees. Tanabata is a Japanese celebration where 2 lovers, separated by the Milky Way, reunite once a year. People write and tie wishes to bamboo trees in the hope that they come true. I like to think of this space as a magical place.

Many of the other locations are bare and still in progress but I love them all the same.

I made the last payment on my home last week too! It wasn’t too difficult and playing the Stock Market was a huge help in doing it. Now I can save money for big ticket items and any future stores that may come. I hope that Gracie will return! I loved her high end fashion and that Bow Hair Wig!

My house might be huge but it’s mostly empty. Right now I have the summer stuff up and a few uh… Visitors. I have a strange obsession with Sunfish! I can’t stop looking at them!

That’s it for now! I hope you enjoyed the few pieces of my island that I enjoy the most. It will never be perfect and it will never be a 5 star island and I love that idea very much. For the first time in my life I’ve allowed myself to ignore the bite of perfectionism.

The post My Animal Crossing New Horizons Island Tour appeared first on A Daily Lee.

Day 1
The 1st day is July 25 and begins at 10am. During a normal GO Fest, the event location is split into several “habitats” where specific spawns generate. This year the habitats rotate so that it’s easier to catch Pokémon. The changes take place every hour so you won’t have to wait long. There’s also a Global event challenge where trainers team up for a huge challenge. Completing the challenge presents bonuses! There should be over 75 different Pokémon to catch in all of the events to do. The 1st day ends at 8pm so there’s plenty of time to get out there and hunt.

Day 2
The 2nd day is the 26th and event hours remain the same. No details have been presented for Sunday so it’s going to be a surprise! You bet I will return to update this post about what happened!

You can find more information at Pokémon GO Fest 2020

Saturday Review
I’m not sure how well you’re acquainted to the Dutch weather but boy was it bad today! Nothing but rain from morning until night. Sander and I started right at 10am and stayed out in the rain until noon. We carried umbrellas and took cover under as many trees as we could. The rotation spawn types were a cool idea. After 12pm, we drove around in Sander’s car for a little while. We hit up popular spots that we knew would have little car traffic and be safe for us to idle if we needed to. After a while we got tired and went home for lunch. From there we got cozy on the couch and played for a few more hours from the comfort of home. The special tasks we had to do weren’t too difficult and easy enough to finish before 2pm. Sander felt bad that it rained all day but that’s something that couldn’t be helped. We both ended up with a lot of unique shiny Pokémon, so that was a huge plus! I’m not sure what will happen tomorrow since the details are secret but I hope the weather clears up!

Sunday Review
Let me just preface: I had high hopes for this day and was super excited. What this day ended up being was a recycle of previous events. The Team Rocket events have been pushed quite often this year because players are stuck at home. Unfortunately, that means that the event planners thought it would be a nice idea to have us play it again… and again… and again… So once again, we had to battle Team Rocket Grunts, fight their leaders and free Pokémon. Fun idea right? Not if you’ve played this exact premise for most of the year. It’s stale content and a nice way to let players know that the people behind the scenes aren’t interesting in bringing out new events. Now, I also have an older phone which doesn’t support the game very well so the best way I could play was on my Ipad on the couch. Which actually turned into me binge watching TV while idly checking my screen every so often.

Was it worth it
I’ve stopped Pokémon GO months ago. Sander’s been using my account and that’s fine with me. For me, the game lost is appeal when we had to rely on other players to take on events. I understand that the game is about uniting communities, but that’s not the game I grew up with. I enjoyed the original Pokémon games because I didn’t have to worry about other players. I had my own little world and my own journey. Pokémon GO just continues to milk the players for money while bringing lackluster content to the table. And while I don’t mind that Sander continues to play and have fun, I feel bad when he has to play alone and I’ll tag along. So I can say that I only play for his sake, and most of the time I’m mad about it, haha. If you don’t mind the bad business practices, the terrible support, and the “same old same old” that the game continues to provide, then I think the event would be worth it for you. For me, on the other hand, I think it was a waste of €15.00. That money was spent playing the frustrating game from my couch. The idea of the Pokémon GO Fest is that players travel from all over the world to join in the fun. I understand that the world isn’t that place anymore, but the game developers don’t have the balls to give the players something good. I hope the next time is better but I can’t say I have high hopes for that.

Sander, on the other hand, had a blast. He came away with 20 shinies between the two days. He walked around for about 3 hours because the sun was out! He says that he enjoyed Sunday more because of the free spawns. The rotating habitats weren’t fun for him but he liked when everything was up for grabs. He said he’d do it again but he hopes that next time will be another location festival. The ones in Europe aren’t too hard for us to get to. We were supposed to go to the Liverpool Fest but it was cancelled due to the virus. I will admit I love the idea of travelling to attend a Pokémon GO Fest but doing one in my backyard isn’t appealing at all.

Now you can be the judge!

The post Pokémon GO Fest 2020 appeared first on A Daily Lee.

Easy to Pick Up
The game is easy to fall into. In all cases, you’re relocating to a new place and the story follows your travels. You buy a home, decorate it, talk with the cute animals and play as you want. There’s no pressure into paying for your house. You can water the flowers each day in your own garden. You might want to design custom clothing. What if you want to be best friends with all the animals in the game? And there is a beautiful museum that relies on you filling it up. The options are endless in this game. In New Horizons you move to a deserted island and build it up into whatever you want it to be.

Carefree Living
Oh man, I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to take a walk on the beach. Sure it’s not a real beach but when your feet hit that digital sand, the music dims and all you can hear are ocean waves. It’s been ages since we went to the beach and we might not even get the chance to this year. The newest way to decote the island, is by getting items and placing them on the outdoor ground. Before you’d have to limit these items to indoor use. Now you can put a bonfire on the beach or put a hammock by the river. The possibilities are endless!

Calming Music
If you’ve never heard the Animal Crossing soundtrack, stop right now and head to Youtube. Play a few songs. I love the 7pm song and it brings back such nostalgic feelings. The songs change hourly and bring such a flavor to the game. I would love to wander through the trees on summer evenings and listen to the in game music. I’m a terrible night owl and some of the nighttime music is gorgeous. Of course the day time songs are as charming!

Friendly Neighbors
I love the animals that you meet on your travels. I’ve got a handful of favorites that kept me company on late nights. I hope that someday I can meet them again in my game! All the neighbors are random but there are methods of getting your favorites. It’s worth it to log into the game each day and be greeted by a familiar face. In these times, it’s so good to see a familiar face when we’re on lock down. They all have unique and special dialogue too, so it’s not like talking to a brick wall.

Adorable Fashion
I used to spend hours staring at the tiny pixels on my screen to get a skirt design right. I haven’t gotten to make new clothing yet but I love that we get the option to do so. The series has a way to make your character much more personal than it already is. Have a favorite outfit you can’t live without? You can make it in game. I wore a school uniform in my last game. It was a super adorable one that looked like what I wore in high school. Sometimes I reminisce on fond memories and think about how far I’ve come in life. It’s not much but the create a style in Animal Crossing makes me smile from ear to ear.

The post I love Animal Crossing appeared first on A Daily Lee.

So here is a collective update on all things Pokémon!

Pokémon Go
Sander is still active in Pokémon Go but I’m taking a break. I still play when we go out to do shopping but I don’t play during the week. My main goal in the game is to complete the Pokédex and it’s impossible to do at the moment. With new generations and more regional catches I’m not sure I’ll ever finish it. And there’s a new pay to play feature that I know I’m never going to give in to. I want my play of Pokémon Go to be free the entire way. I’ve only had to cave once and it was for the first Legendary Pokémon run. Sander convinced me to buy a few raid passes and I regret the decision. If anyone visiting still plays the game, I would love to have you as a friend!

My friend code is 5520 9003 7579

Pokémon Ultra Sun/Moon
Ah I just completed my Pokédex for Ultra Sun and took out the Elite Four! I didn’t want to finish the game before my Pokédex was complete and I’ve finally had everything fall into place. I still need to do the end game content though. I’ve got Rainbow Rocket and a ton of other bad guys to defeat but I’m too busy to play every day. I hope that someday I’ll have the time to knock it all out!

Pokémon Sword and Shield
Oh boy the hype is real! The newest generation of Pokémon will be out on the Nintendo Switch on November 15th. Sander and I only have one Switch so we decided to splurge and get the Limited Edition Nintendo Switch Lite Zacian & Zamazenta. That way we can both play at the same time and trade with each other. I’m more than excited for everything to come in! I’ve seen some of the new Pokémon and I’m dying to get my hands on them!

Entire Pokédex
I’ve gotten about 55% of my Pokédex complete. This number comes from every generation since generation 1 and ends at generation 7. I still have much more to play and catch so I don’t think I’ll finish soon. I’m thankful that I have copies of most of the games to play. I had a leave a lot of games behind when I moved but I’m lucky most of them are in the 3DS online store. I want to someday complete the National Pokédex (that means every single monster)! My Pokémon journey is going to be a long one but I don’t mind one bit! I love the games and the franchise so I hope there will be many more years to come.

The post An update on our Pokémon journey appeared first on A Daily Lee.

We submitted our usernames and were rewarded with tickets! Now these tickets were €25 per person so it wasn’t a free to attend deal. And it was in Dortmund, Germany from July 4th to the 7th. The park opens at 10 AM with unique spawns and closes at 6 PM. This is a sprawling park that can accommodate large numbers. We’re estimating around 5,000 attendees for the first day. Which is when we decided to go. It would have the least amount of people in attendance and less likely to sell out. That’s right folks! Saturday was sold out!

So Sander and I packed my bag full of tasty treats and sunblock before we headed out to Germany. The ride itself wasn’t bad. It was 2 hours through a forest landscape until we arrived. It’s important to take note that the area where the Dortmund is, is protected land. Attendees need to buy a Green Sticker and more information can be found here.

These events are loaded with interesting things to do. First of all the number of while shiny Pokémon are boosted. Sander found a whopping 16 shiny Pokémon! I only found 3. I’m so happy for Sander. He’s the one that goes out all the time to search for these elusive recolored monsters but his luck isn’t always the best. So I’m excited that he got paid back for all his efforts.

The second noteworthy monster to collect was a specific regional. For this event we got to catch Carnivine, who is a NA exclusive. The Unown spawns this time around were W A K E U P! to help promote the new app Pokémon Wake Up. This is a new wellness app coming soon.

The main event Pokémon was Jirachi, a newcomer to the game and an exclusive! Only players who attend the GO Fest can obtain this rare little guy… For now. It will world wide soon enough.

To celebrate this new arrival, the Go Fest quest involved real world “locations” that the Niantic crew created. Each area of the park was transformed into themed locations so that spawns were unique and interesting to farm. For example, there was the Steel Factory and the Mysterious Forest. I don’t want to spoil any of the details but it was so much fun traveling around and doing specific tasks in certain places!

The whole event was loads of fun. There were special places for each team to sit down and relax too. It was nice to be among other team mates from all over the world. We heard lots of different languages as we walked around and it’s so cool that a game like this can bring us all together.

We walked close to around 11 miles (18km) from start to finish. There was a 2 km and a 5 km designated route around the park so that players who wanted to hatch eggs could do so with ease. Sander and I ended up catching so much that we had to empty our digital bags the entire day. We also walked away from the event with a limited edition tee shirt and a cute little key chain for each of us. You can bet we’ll be ready and waiting for the next Pokémon GO Fest Dortmund!

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Here’s what we have coming up for the next few months:

More community days
We’ve got confirmation that the Pokémon for June will be Slakoth. While it’s not too powerful by itself, it’s final form has a huge CP number. We all know by now that Pokémon on Community days are special because of a special move and coloring. So for those of you who need the other evolution in this line, now is your chance!

The other community days are as follows but we have no news on what the Pokémon will be. Keep in mind that there will be a community day every month! These are just the dates that have been revealed to us.

• July 21
• August 3

Pokémon GO Fest Dortmund
From July 4th to the 7th comes the return of the Pokémon GO Fest. If you recall the first one was a bust. But newer ones have been only getting better and better. This year the Pokémon GO team has decided to allow for 4 whole days of events. Players signed up in game and were put into a lottery to purchase tickets. This year Sander and I can go! We’re going to take a day trip out to Dortmund to spend the day catching Pokémon. We’re heading down on an unsold out date, Thursday, so hopefully the ride and the experience will be one to remember. There will be special finds available to catch and I want to complete my Pokédex!

My main goal for playing Pokémon GO is to complete my collection. There are still tons of Pokémon that are only available to specific reasons. That’s what makes the Fest days so important to players like me. These events host at least one regional Pokémon so that it’s possible to catch it without leaving for another country. While traveling the world for a Pokémon sounds less and ideal, these events shake it up!

I’m excited to keep playing and see where the game takes us next.

The post Pokémon GO Updates appeared first on A Daily Lee.

The weather was dry enough that some of us went out. A majority of the group stayed at home due to the promise of rain.

This time around we split into two groups. Group one consisted of the players who wanted to catch everything. Group two went at a slower pace and took its time. You can guess which group we were in! For me these events are also a good time to get out of the house. I’m very much an indoors person so I like to enjoy while we go out.

And enjoy we did. Autumn has hit The Netherlands like a ton of bricks. The days are cold and filled with colorful falling leaves. The nights are cozy due to candles and heavy blankets.

But on to the Pokémon. Cyndaquil came around in the 2nd generation of Pokémon. At the beginning of the game the player can choose which Pokémon he/she wants to start with. Cyndaquil is the fire choice! Like the last Community Day, we went on the hunt for shiny variants of these little fire mouse monsters. The special move for it’s evolution, Typhlosion, was Burn Blast. Unfortunately for us, this doesn’t make it a better choice in battle. It’s fine though. It’s fun to collect Pokémon even if they aren’t considered the best in the game. I want to collect and complete the Pokémon log (the Pokédex) more than I want to battle strangers.

At first I was a bit worried for myself. Everyone around me had several Cyndaquil by the time I had found my 2nd. But by the end of the event I had caught 7. This was a fruitful day for sure! I can’t wait to find out what the next Pokémon Community Day will be for and I hope we don’t freeze when we go out!

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So why Gengar? We assume that it should have been live the previous weekend as a Halloween event. Gengar caught on this day also have a special move – Lick. Gengar might be more powerful than Mewtwo with this quick DPS move. But this goes make Gengar much quicker to go down in battle.

In the end we did 17 raids and Sander found 2 Shiny Gengar. I didn’t get a Shiny Gengar but Sander is saving one for me. That’s the unfortunate outcome for these events. There will always be a handful of people who don’t get the Shiny variant. The last time we did this, I ended up with 4 Moltres! There were 2 people who couldn’t attend the event with us so they will get my extra Moltres.

The wonderful thing about being in such a big group is that we all look out for each other. There’s a lot of communication and any suspicious behavior from other players are reported and shared within our group. This way we look out for our entire community and not the people we play with.

There is also another event going on as well. A new safari event is taking place in Tainan, Taiwan. Participants there get to find ultra rare regional spawns. The rest of the world has increased chances of finding a Shiny Pinsir. Sander and I managed to find them!

The highlight of the day was when the both of us caught perfect stat Gengar. And of course Sander with his amazing luck found a Shiny 100% Gengar. He’s becoming quite famous as this is his second! His first was a Shiny Lugia a few months ago.

Sander has also finally reached the max level of 40! I’m still at level 38 so I have a long ways to go. I’m not sure how we’ll continue to play everyday with winter coming in as fast as it is. We were standing out in the cold for 3 hours and had to warm up when we got home.

It doesn’t matter what comes this winter. It will be more exciting to play because there are so many that love this game as much as we do!

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