Gulliver and an Earthbound Reference

Today, I decided to try making a pattern for the first time in New Leaf. I made my JVGS logo. One nice thing is that you can hang a pattern directly on the wall if you’d like.

Sitting in my house with my JVGS pattern hanging on the wall.I then went outside to check on my cherry trees that I planted yesterday. Good news! It looks like all three of them are going to survive! I’ll soon have some foreign fruit trees in Forest. That will help me earn more money.

My three baby cherry trees, alive and well.At town hall, I displayed my JVGS pattern as my flag.

The JVGS logo as my town flag.While walking around, I saw Gabi out fishing.

Gabi: Hmm... When I'm fishing, I think of all sorts of deep stuff. Like, stuff that's out of my depth!And down on the beach, I saw a familiar face…Gulliver!

Gulliver: Zzzz... I can't believe how seriously unconscious I am right now...He shared some puns with me.

Gulliver: "Canoe" believe it? "Buoy" that was a close one!And then he makes a reference to Earthbound, by mentioning fuzzy pickles. For those who don’t know, the cameraman in Earthbound would tell Ness and friends to say “fuzzy pickles” as he was taking a picture.

Gulliver: Oh, man! This sure is a fuzzy pickle! I'm in way over my head here!Although you don’t have to shoot down a UFO in New Leaf, you still have to work for Gulliver’s gift. He gave me some clues, mentioning animals such as giraffes, and then asked me which country he was talking about. He was talking about African animals, so Kenya was the correct choice.

Gulliver: ...Kenya! That's right! I was headed to Kenya over in Africa!But he didn’t give me the gift just yet. He said he’ll send it to me, although it might take a while.

As I returned up the ramp to town, I saw a construction site. Katt will be moving in tomorrow. A web search reveals that Katt is a cat…a very ugly cat.

Sign: This spot reserved for Katt's new home. -Nook's HomesIn the Able Sisters, I bought the clown mask to look like a jester.

Me wearing my new clown mask in Able Sisters.I also stopped by my town tree and saw that it’s growing quite nicely.

My town tree has grown.Yuka asked me to catch a roach for her. I told her no.

Yuka: No? It wasn't that big of a request. But if you can't...you can't. Maybe another time, Jeff.And then I was informed that a villager wanted to move out. Of course, it was Aurora, my favorite villager! Why her?

Aurora: So I wanted to talk to you about something... I'm leaving town on the 15th of this month.I told her not to leave, and fortunately, she agreed to stay.

Aurora: I was about to make a big decision based on a whim! Thanks so much for making me reconsider!I then went to the island to do some fishing so I could earn some money. Oh look, a new type of fish, a giant trevally!

I caught a giant trevally! Pfff. I've seen bigger!I then caught a dab, or so I thought…

I caught a dab... Huh?But the game was just psyching me out! It’s an olive flounder.

Just kidding! It's an olive flounder! Make up your mind, fishy!I already had trouble telling those two fish apart, so you’re really not helping me, Nintendo. 😛

Shortly after that, I caught my first shark! It was a saw shark.

I caught a saw shark! And yet it didn't see me coming!When I had enough fish, I returned to Forest. I stopped at the museum to donate my new catches, and then sold the rest. I earned enough money to pay off the bridge!

The project's donation goal has been met!My last task of the day was to return to town hall. I talked to my assistant Isabelle, and she confirmed that my bridge would be completed tomorrow! Great!

Isabelle: We've met our collection goal for the cobblestone bridge project! It should be complete tomorrow!That’s all for now. But please come back tomorrow night for another update. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Gifts From Isabelle

My first stop today was to talk to Big Top, who was out walking around. He told me he turned 180 degrees in his sleep and woke up on the opposite end of the bed. I’m having trouble picturing an elephant just fitting in a bed, let alone having room to turn completely around.

Big Top: I woke up this morning, and my pillow was at my feet! I did a complete 180 in my sleep!I then went into the Re-Tail store and saw that they had a metal guitar. I bought it.

Reese: Oh, the metal guitar? This item belongs to Tex from here in Forest.Outside, Yuka was dropping hints that she wanted me to write her a letter. She then compared Pete, the letter carrier, to a matchmaker. Uh, no. No. No. No. Don’t get any ideas, Yuka. I don’t like you in that way. Or in any way.

Yuka: In a weird way, he's like the town matchmaker...I quickly ran away from Yucky Yuka. I’d rather go to work than talk to her! So I went to town hall and talked to my assistant Isabelle. I decided to change my town tune to The Final Countdown. Animal Crossing: New Leaf comes out one month from today (in America at least), and I know a lot of you are counting down to that. I’m also counting down to the 4th season of Arrested Development, which will be available on Netflix later this month. If anyone wants the notes to The Final Countdown, enter BAB-e–zCBCBA-zz.

Isabelle: Oh my! What a wonderful theme! It's like...music to my ears! Literally!I continued talking to Isabelle, listening to all her tips for living in Forest. She then asked me to get a seashell for her.

Isabelle: If you happen to go down to the beach and remember that, it would be a nice thing to do...for me.The way she was talking, it almost seemed like she had a crush on me. But when I came back with a shell for her, she thanked me by giving me three cherries from her hometown. I planted them near my house.

Isabelle: My mom recently sent me a box with a cherry. Actually, she sent 3!Her mother sent them to her, and told her to share…because that’s what good puppies do. That sentence left me rather speechless. So she’s a good puppy? Am I supposed to give her a treat now or something?

Isabelle: And she specifically told me I should share them with people because that's what good puppies do.After finishing up listening to her tips, she gave me a watering can. That was nice.

Isabelle: It's a watering can that you can use to water flowers here in town!However, I’m probably not going to be doing a lot of watering. In Animal Crossing games, flowers are not a priority–at least not at first. For now, I have projects to fund, a house to expand, ugly animals to evict, and so on. (Just kidding about the evictions). I’ll deal with flowers later on. For now, I want to be able to run around town and get stuff done.

Anyway, I headed over to Nookling Junction for my fortune cookie. I knew which item I’d be getting after reading this fortune.

It's dangerous to go alone. Take this. (#35)The Master Sword, of course!

Timmy: Ah, congratulations! The prize for Number 35 is great--a Master Sword!You know, in previous Animal Crossing games, the Nintendo items like this were relatively rare and didn’t come along very often. But in just a week, I’ve already got the Mario Kart kart, a green shell, the Master Sword, and two masks of characters from Zelda games.

I have to wonder, are these things too easy to come by? I guess it depends on how many of these Nintendo items are in the game, but it seems odd to be getting a Nintendo item practically every day–and without spending a bell too. But for now, I’m not complaining. I just realized I’m going to need a dresser for storage though…

My battery was about to die at this point, so I stopped playing for now. I might go back and play some more later to try to earn some bells. I’d like to pay off my bridge and then get started on some other community projects. Well, bye for now. See you soon!

UPDATE: After my 3DS was done charging, I went back to Forest for some nighttime fun. I took the boat to the island, and caught some new bugs and fish.

I caught a ribbon eel! Good for tying on to presents!While diving, I also pulled up some seaweed.

I got some seaweed! I just couldn't kelp myself!I then decided to try another one of the Tortimer tours. This time, I did the dragonfly one. You have five minutes to catch as many dragonflies as you can. I caught five, which earned me a Silver Tortimer award (whatever that means) and four medals.

Tortimer: That's enough to net you a Silver Tortimer award and 4 medals!The tours always seem to take place in the daylight, even though it was after 11 p.m. when I played. I’m not exactly sure how that works, but oh well.

After that, I returned to Forest; I donated my new catches and sold the rest. I paid 70,000 bells towards my bridge; it still needs about 58,000 bells before it’s paid off. I also tried out my watering can. The flowers glisten after being watered to let you know they’ve been watered. But the surprising thing, at least to me, is that they keep glistening! I watered some before I left for the island, and they were still shining when I got back. Okay that’s all for tonight, see you tomorrow!

Big Top Moves In (Day 7)

As mayor, I’m expected to personally greet each new animal that moves into town. So today I did just that, as I went to meet and greet Forest’s newest resident, Big Top. I don’t know him yet, but he’s already my second-favorite resident (behind Aurora of course).

Big Top: And your name is...? Oh, you're Jeff, huh? Nice to meet you. I'm Big Top!I then made a trip to the island. It was actually still light outside!

Taking a boat ride out to the island in the daylight.I neglected to mention this yesterday, but my other island fruit (besides bananas) is mangos. Leila, who I assume is Kapp’n daughter, wants to “play store” and will buy things from you. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have very much money. Still, I played along at least this one time.

Leila: I want all of 'em! Pwease? Pwetty pweeeeeease? I'll give you 4 bells!After catching some island bugs and collecting some fruit, I returned to Forest. In Nookling Junction, they had a star globe for sale. It looked pretty cool, so I bought it. “RCP, here, have a globe. heh heh horf.”

Tommy: Ah, a star globe! A fine item, yes?Over at the museum, I donated a fossil, and then looked around a bit. I found Yuka in the fossil room, with the other dinosaurs. I must admit the amber looks much better in this game. But Yuka is as nasty as ever, complaining about the museum.

Yuka: It's a good thing this museum is free to visit... Paying customers would probably be disappointed.Yuka: If only the people of Forest would donate more specimens...Typical of her to complain about everything. Give me a break, you whiny marsupial. I’m working on it.

I then returned to my house to take a look at my star globe, as well as a green shell I got from my daily fortune cookie.

My star globe and green shell on display in my house.That’s all for tonight, but of course I’ll be back tomorrow with another update. In the meantime, check out this video of my first trip to the island that I recorded yesterday.