Meta's Cozy Place

Light The Heart

A test! Enjoy my painting!

This is just a test! Please ignore!

My SweetTreat island project is bust, but I'm going to leave those posts up. I'm tired of starting over again and again.

No pics this time. My campsite villager was Jacques. He will not be staying. Gonna do some mini builds as practice for the main island, but I still am lacking in a lot of choice for furniture. The DLC will help with that but I must keep progressing in it. I plan on making some interiors for my island villagers when I get to that point, working out from their default layouts.

New Passport Who Dis

WAIT WHAT

IT WAS THE CAMPSITE????? I THOUGHT IT WAS POST-KK

We're going to take a hard turn off-track. Just for a little bit.

I FORGOT TO TAKE THE ACTUAL FREAKING PICTURE.

Tutorial House. Comfy Reading Space.

This one wanted baskets. I like the ranch set as much as the next person, but this just makes me feel a little itchy? Do baskets make anybody else itchy?

All Apples: All The Time. (Pears were also an option for some reason???) Note to self: This is a bad picture. Get a better one next time.

I wasn't going to keep Poncho on my island once I started working towards the theme (pastel/sweet) but he and Pinky have been sitting together like this for hours in the morning when I play for the past two days and I can't deal with it. I have to keep him now. I'll figure it out.

I also have Pheobe, who is one of my favs, but she doesn't match the theme and she isn't going to stay. She was my Big Sis Villager on my very first island, so I vibe with her for sure. At least I remembered how to get village posters, so I can keep a memento of her.

Isabelle is here to free me from my self-inflicted purgatory. I've build the campsite which will be finished tomorrow. I have plenty of bells to build whatever I need to after... iirc it's a slope. Maybe another bridge? I also have tickets for villager hunting to fill more houses. Three stars, here I come!

THE FLESH NOW MATCHES THE VIBE!

BEHOLD MY FIRST ART

Did you know that the water effect is only transparent one way?

These two were sitting here the entire time I was doing my morning dailies. Cute AF.

CAN YOU TELL I'M BORED YET?

Should only be one more day of tedium. The Resident Services will be upgraded tomorrow. No availability. The day after... on Friday... I should be able to unleash the flood gates and finally start making Actual Progress. I have saved up a chunk of change. I have quite a few villager tickets. I'm keeping two of the villagers on my island currently since they match my theme closely enough for my taste.

I'm not sure when the Brewster Quest starts, but I've met the Museum requirements. Donate at least one fish, bug, fossil, and art piece, and you too can go villager hunting for our favorite Pigeon Barista.

Just waiting for the last villager house to autofill. I think after that is upgrading the Resident Services. Fun times!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Early game in the summer without time traveling really sucks. I cannot recommend it.

I have never been so happy to see the museum in an Animal Crossing game IN MY LIFE! Everything was packed with bugs and fish. My storage, my house, my yard. Awful. So awful. Also got the shop, Harv's Island, and my first visit from Redd and his polluting broken-down trawler.

Basic-Ass House. We'll get there. Just needs more time.

Waiting for the Museum to finish upgrading. Building new houses for more villagers. Trying to get to a point where I can start villager hunting before that happens.

Starting in Summer where there is an absurd number of bugs and fish to catch when you can't donate any of them REALLY SUCKS.

THE FACE DOES NOT YET REPRESENT THE SELF.

I started with cherries, a green airport, and a Resident Services perfectly* aligned with the airport.

*I haven't actually checked this, nor am I certain it's even possible, but it LOOKS right.

I remember when I was a kid and I had some WILD dreams about what I could do in the original Animal Crossing. I wanted to travel from town to town selling clothing patterns. I couldn't easily do that back then on the GameCube. Sadly, now that it was possible, I didn't have the time or energy. I'm not even using Nintendo Online right now, so I don't know if I can do it this time either. Lol. Lmao.

But seeing K.K. never fails to make me feel nostalgic for those heady days full of dreams and excitement. I want to reclaim that feeling as an adult. I don't care if it seems childish. Tempered by the world, sure, but still idealistic enough to work for something better for everybody. To dream what most people would deem "stupid" or "unrealistic" I guess.

The more bad going on, the more I want it. The more important it feels.

This game is so pretty. I plan on doing some virtual photography in AC:NH as I go along. Might as well start with something simple, right? I don't want to put virtual photography in my Cara portfolio, but sharing it on Tumblr seems like the best option.

That's a little off-topic. Not time-traveling through the start of the game has my progress going fairly slowly, even with the changes they've made. It does give me time to build up ideas. I can't complain that much.

The island has a name and a theme! SweetTreat! A pastel village with a candy theme! I don't intend to time travel for this, so it's going to be a Slow Burn kinda project. Once I get out of the tutorial I'll have pictures of what I'm working with so far.

My (Unnamed) Island building experience starts off with a fundamental task... replacing my Switch 1's battery. This is a Switch 1 from the initial release in 2017. It's old. Very old. I'm lucky the battery lasted as long as it did.

I didn't take any pictures while I was working because I was extremely nervous about the process. I've taken plenty of electronics apart before, but most of the time it wasn't with the intention of putting them back together. I did do self-repair on my 3DS in the past, but working on the Switch felt different.

It felt risky.

Luckily my Fiancée works IT and has experience with electronics and he was able to help me where I needed it. That was mostly with making sure connectors were fully-seated... and getting the battery out... It was glued in so tightly I could barely budge it myself out of fear of damaging anything.

(SIDE TANGENT: I don't use Apple products. I don't like Apple's policies on self-repair. Despite the fact that has supposedly been getting better, I don't trust it. I feel Nintendo is going the same way as Apple. I don't intend to buy a Switch 2 for a very very long time, if ever. I won't get into all the things I dislike about Nintendo's current trends here, but I will say I feel it is very important for people to be able to fix the things they own, no matter what it is. I don't judge anybody who buys a Switch 2, but I just can't justify the expense and increasing lack of ownership for myself.)

I will also say the battery lasted very well all the way up until it didn't. It failed pretty quickly once I noticed what was happening. I do tend to play it docked, but apparently even docked it won't run without an internal battery. So it goes.

The repair worked wonderfully as far as I can tell. It was fun watching the new battery drain all the way to 1% in a single minute, then last on that 1% for hours after during the initial calibration. I used the iFixit kit specifically for the Switch 1, and the instructions and tools were pretty spot-on.

I'm really glad I was able to make this repair. I'm looking forward to repairing other consoles and electronics in the future!