Slow Going and then... FINALLY!

Many of the badges in ACNL require a lot of steady effort over time, so it can feel like you're not making progress even though you're spending a lot of time on it.

That said, I've been catching a ton of bugs in order to get the badge for catching 5,000 insects.

I finally caught an orchid mantis, which means I only have 3 (I believe) bugs left to catch in the game!

I also got another piece of art for the musem (I need most of them):

I was able to get two new badges recently!

By sending a lot of letters, I earned myself this bad-boy:

And for constantly refurbishing the same clock at Re-Tail, I got this one:

I currently have 29 out of 72 medals (about 40%)!  

Which brings our list to:

Skilled Bug Catcher - Catch 500+ insects
Expert Bug Catcher - Catch 2,000+ insects
Master Bug Catcher - Catch 5000+ insects
Skilled Angler - Catch 500+ fish
Expert Angler - Catch 2,000+ fish
Master Angler - Catch 5,000+ fish
Skilled Diver - Catch 100+ dive items
Pro Diver - Catch 200+ dive items
Dive Master - Catch 1,000 dive items
Insect Maniac - Catch 50% of all types of insects
Insect Encyclopedia - Catch 80% of all types of insects
Prof. of Entomology - Catch all types of insects
Fish Maniac - Catch 50% of all types of fish
Fish Encyclopedia - Catch 80% of all types of fish
Prof. of Ichthyology - Catch all types of fish
Seafood Maniac - Catch 50% of all types of dive items
Seafood Encyclopedia - Catch 80% of all types of dive items
Prof. of Seafood - Catch all types of dive items
Balloon Hunter - Pop 30+ Balloons
Balloon Buster - Pop 100+ Balloons
Balloon Master - Pop 200+ Balloons
Bronze Medalist - Earn 300 medals from Island Tours
Silver Medalist - Earn 1,500 medals from Island Tours
Gold Medalist - Earn 5,000 medals from Island Tours
Backyard Gardener - Plant 100 items
Village Gardener - Plant 250 items
Gardening Specialist - Plant 500 items
Weed Hunter - Pull 500 Weeds
Weed Buster - Pull 2,000 Weeds
Weed Menace - Pull 5,000 Weeds
Avid Bell Saver - Put 1,000,000 Bells in Savings
Wealthy Bell Saver - Put 10,000,000 Bells in Savings
Tycoon Bell Saver - Put 100,000,000 Bells in Savings
Amateur Turnip Trader - Make 500,000 Bells on the Stalk Market
Pro Turnip Trader - Make 3,000,000 Bells on the Stalk Market
Master Turnip Trader - Make 10,000,000 Bells on the Stalk Market
Good Shopper Spend - 500,000 Bells in shops
Expert Shopper - Spend 2,000,000 Bells in shops
Master Shopper - Spend 5,000,000 Bells in shops
Refurbishing Beginner - Have Cyrus remake 30 things
Refurbishing Expert - Have Cyrus remake 100 things
Refurbishing Master - Have Cyrus remake 200 things
Catalog Maniac Bronze - Complete 20% of the catalog
Catalog Maniac Silver - Complete 50% of the catalog
Catalog Maniac Gold - Complete 80% of the catalog
Happy Homer Bronze - Earn 50,000 points with HHA
Happy Homer Silver - Earn 100,000 points with HHA
Happy Homer Gold - Earn 150,000 points with HHA
K.K. Slider Fan - See K.K. Slider live 20 times
K.K. Slider Fangirl - See K.K. Slider live 50 times
K.K. Slider Diehard - See K.K. Slider live 100 times
Good Samaritan - Fulfill 50 Villager Requests
Great Samaritan - Fulfill 100 Villager Requests
Town Concierge - Fulfill 300 Villager Requests
Letter Writer - Send 50 letters (*of 10+ characters)
Letter Author - Send 100 letters
Postmaster - Send 200 letters
StreetPass Beginner - StreetPass 100 times
StreetPass Expert - StreetPass 300 times
StreetPass Master - StreetPass 1000 times
Neighborhood Traveler - Visit other towns 100 times
World Traveler - Visit other towns 250 times
Space Traveler - Visit other towns 500 times
Good Hostess - Be visited by others 50 times
Great Hostess - Be visited by others 200 times
Goodwill Ambassador - Be visited by others 500 times
Dreamer - Visit 50 Dream Towns
Heavy Sleeper - Visit 200 Dream Towns
Mrs. Sandman - Visit 500 Dream Towns
Village Representative - Play for 50 hours
Village Leader - Play for 200 hours
Villager of Honor - Play for 500 hours

Expect more progress updates soon! :D
~Mayor Blair

On Hiatuses and Actual Terrible Fates

I took a pretty long break from running around Arcadia in ACNL, and managed to get by without anyone noticing.

Nobody moved out, or even noticed I hadn't played in like 3 months.
How?

CHEATING.

I had already been mucking about with the dates on my 3DS to get different bugs/fish for my collection, so weirdly enough, when I checked my Activity Log to see when I'd apparently last played, it was saying September instead of June anyway, so I was able to just change the date to that day and then play as if I'd never left. I'm not *quite* caught up to actual date, but I'm playing October now, so I'm almost there.

That said, something pretty lame happened after the first bit of playthrough that I didn't feel like trying resetting to reverse.
Remember how I'd been dying to get my Majora's Mask?
I was pretty proud of that thing:

So you can imagine my disappointment when I accidentally sold it along with many other things to Reese and didn't notice until much later.

It was so much later, I wasn't 100% sure if I'd saved since then, and I'd done tons of stuff, so I felt like I might as well just go back to trying to get it in the cookie again.

Here's some of the stuff we've been up to in town:

Listening to Gulliver's terrible puns.

Had a really intense coffee tasting.

Had my face made fun of.

Over and over.

By all my little townies.

Visited the museum.

Enjoyed the shooting stars.

Met Jack for the first time; he wasn't facing the camera, sorry! XD

Cyrano yelled at me for calling him an anteater...

Had a weird conversation about horns with Benj.

Celebrated my (actual) birthday!

Basically, what I learned was that, sometimes you might fall down,

A lot.

but you just gotta get back up and enjoy being the mayor!