I've always been a girl who loves animals, and now that I have two pet rabbits, both adoped within the last year, I am extra excited about the return of Nui Cobalt's Critters collection! This collection isn't entirely sweet cuddly woodland creatures, but it does have a lot of those, including three of my all-time favorite Nui Cobalts: Little Brown Rabbit, Little White Rabbit, and Lilac Rabbit. When Forest posted in the Facebook group asking which Critters we'd like to see return, or which animals we'd love to see emerge as new Critters, I waxed rhapsodic about the Rabbits and suggested a bunch of other colorings of rabbits that could become amazing perfumes... so I'm hopeful that we might even get a new Rabbit this year. I would just about die of happiness if she really did make a Blue Otter Rabbit after my sweet bun Hazel. She also teased a Ladybug scent for this year, which would be SO CUTE!
Anyway, the Critters are due back this Friday, with the newsletter announcing them on Thursday, and I am excited. As usual, I thought I'd post my thoughts on all the past Critters I've tried in case that might help you formulate your wishlist. And if you've tried any of these, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Was your experience similar to mine?
My preferences: I especially love snuggly scents, incense, golden amber, cardamom, black tea, beeswax, non-gourmand vanillas, and white florals (particularly tiare, honeysuckle and tuberose; sadly I am allergic to lilies and jasmine doesn’t work on me). I don't like hay, overly sweet gourmands, excessive musk, dragon’s blood, leather, patchouli, labdanum, or any really dark scents in general. To my great devastation, Nui Cobalt’s apricot and pear notes don’t tend to work on me, though I haven’t given up hope and I continue to try new blends with those notes occasionally.
Most of these perfumes were provided as press samples by Nui Cobalt in exchange for an honest review.
​

Rabbits

Little Brown Rabbit [Nutmeg and tonka bean nuzzle up against fluffy marshmallow, cottonflower, pink pepper, and a trace of carrot seed] (this perfume is so popular that it is also in the Continuous Collection and available all year 'round!) - This is one of my absolute top perfume oils. It comforts me on hard days, it cozies me on laid-back evenings, it cheers me on rainy days. My husband recognizes it immediately and honestly I think he finds it cuddly too when I'm wearing it, and it's also his primary frame of reference when he sniffs a new sample I'm trying - "that smells a bit like Little Brown Rabbit" is high praise from him. Wet, it's very strongly nutmeg and caramel, almost mapley, but also with just a bit of pepperish bite from the carrot seed - this is as gourmand as I'm willing to get. Once it dries, the caramel dissipates and it becomes the most marvelously snuggly scent. Having a bad day? Little Brown Rabbit can cheer you up. Having a cozy day? Little Brown Rabbit will make it that much better. Wanting to unwind in the evening? Little Brown Rabbit is my go-to snuggly evening scent. And I think it's the absolute must-try from Nui Cobalt.
Little White Rabbit [Nutmeg and tonka bean nuzzle up against cottonflower, white peppercorn, clove, vanilla marshmallow creme, pale blue cashmere, carrot seed, and honeyed almond] - When the news broke that NCD was releasing a new little rabbit variant two years ago, I was SO excited (little did I know that it would seemingly become an annual thing!), and I blind-bought a full-size (something I never do). Especially because Little White Rabbit adds that wonderful cashmere note to Little Brown Rabbit, this one was a no-brainer for me, and my trust was easily rewarded. Nui Cobalt has outdone themselves with this, their most snuggly of perfumes. I expected this to be a lot like LBR only less mapley and perhaps more cashmere-y (and yes, it is both of these things), but truly, LWR feels even more like it's built on a base of Spidersilk vanilla (Starlight and Spidersilk: [Slender strands of cotton flower hung with trembling dewdrops, cold crystalline musk, and tiny black vanilla beans]), with some of the LBR spices (the peppercorn and carrot seed, but I don't sense any cloves) plus the comforting warmth of the cashmere and almond of Silver Fox (see below), another favorite of mine. And then finally, the marshmallow ties it all together into a pillowy cloud of coziness. It's frankly astonishing. Love at first sniff even just from the vial, and on my skin it blossoms into the most comforting scent. Do I love it even more than LBR? I still can't tell, even years later. I love them both. One final note that may be helpful to some of you: the cottonflower is pretty strong with this one, which is part of why it reminds me so much of the Spidersilk vanilla, but if you're not so much a fan of "clean" laundry-like scents, this one might not be quite your cup of tea - go for LBR instead.
Lilac Rabbit [Nutmeg and tonka bean nuzzle up against toasted marshmallow, carrot seed, summerweight cotton, allspice, and pale lilac in a smooth fur accord] - Oh friends, I hoped and pleaded for another new Rabbit last year, and the universe (and Nui Cobalt) answered! I'm not actually all that fond of lilac and I think I have ended up destashing all of my perfumes with lilac notes, but I was willing to risk it for the chance of a floral Rabbit. Lilac Rabbit is gorgeous - but really, did you expect it to be anything else? I get primarily marshmallow, allspice, and cotton. It sits exactly halfway between the other two Rabbits, with the allspice and peppery carrot seed spices of Little Brown Rabbit (but without the maple quality), and also with the silky, slightly soapy fabric aspect of Little White Rabbit. There is perhaps just a touch of musky lilac, but it doesn't really read to me like a floral perfume. Lilac Rabbit is comfortable. The closest metaphor I can think of is a day when you're wearing a new outfit, one that fits perfectly and really suits you, but it's also completely comfy, with no itchy spots or seams that dig in, and it moves with you. It's like a day where you feel perfectly yourself, fully at ease, and completely put-together. This new Rabbit is everything I could have possibly dreamed of, and it immediately became one of my favorite spring & summer scents.

Squirrels

In past years, they've offered a complete set of all the Squirrels, which was how I tried them all a few years ago. (They've since been discontinued, but sometimes discontinued things return again, or perhaps you might run into one in the swaps, so I'll include all my Squirrel reviews here.) All of the Squirrels are built on the same base of almond + apricot + benzoin, and then each one has different additional notes. Like the Spidersilk variants (all built on the same Spidersilk vanilla base but with different additional notes - my reviews HERE), the Squirrels each have an entirely different vibe. Interestingly, the actual proportion of almond to apricot also seems to vary by Squirrel, perhaps because of the interactions with the different added notes, or perhaps because they actually use different proportions in the Squirrel base for each one. It means that they don't feel anything like near-exact copies of each other, but each have a really distinct identity.
Black Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, deepened by black oak, black currant, vanilla bean, and myrrh] - When I first put it on, it's very strongly and exclusively almond - a warm almond that reminds me of baking almond cookies, and it must be the vanilla that helps to make that association. The almond veers slightly towards cherry. As the oil warms on my skin, the apricot emerges and then overtakes the almond. It's apricot skin, soft and velvety, rather than the fleshy fruit of the apricot. These two notes, paired with the woodiness of the balsam and (presumably) black oak, makes this a very bookish scent, perfect for the dark academia aesthetic of my wardrobe in autumn. It's not really an incense-heavy perfume; the myrrh just grounds it and gives it a beautiful dark richness. On me it's not terribly fruity (though I know some folks get mostly dark stone fruits; isn't skin chemistry fascinating!) It's the longest-lasting of the Squirrels, too - the second time I wore it, its throw was a bit too high at bedtime so I washed my wrists, and even so, I could still smell Black Squirrel the next morning!
Flying Squirrel [Raw almond, spiced apricot, and rich benzoin borne aloft by lavender, cotton flower, and tart kumquat] - This one reminds me a lot of Napping in a Flower [Tender ripe apricot, Bulgarian lavender, spiced summer honey, plum blossom, daylily, honeysuckle, and ylang], which makes perfect sense since they share a lot of the same notes, but without the honey and honeysuckle that made Napping too candle-y on me. Husband said this reminds him strongly of Little White Rabbit - he said it's the spices that make that association for him, and I suspect he was also picking up on the shared cotton flower and almond notes. I'm finding it easier to compare Flying Squirrel to other NCD scents than to describe it on its own; its combination of notes feels quite erratic and the concept doesn't feel terribly unified. I couldn't classify this as a "cozy" perfume even though it does have a strong cotton flower note, nor is it citrusy enough for me to think of it as a fruity perfume (even though it has the strongest apricot of all the Squirrels), or herbal enough for it to go in my lavender section (in fact, I'm hoping that some aging brings out the lavender more). If you like Napping in a Flower or Little White Rabbit - two perfumes that are really nothing alike! - you'd probably enjoy this one too.
Grey Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, softened with cotton flower, cashmere, and teakwood] - This one gives the effect of eating an almond cookie while snuggled in a wool blanket. This one is super cozy - the autumn cousin of my beloved wintertime snuggly scents (Silver Fox, Snow Cat, Chionophilia, all of which also feature almond and fabric notes - see their full notes lists and my comparative reviews HERE). Grey Squirrel stays pretty static, not morphing like Black Squirrel, and the apricot is only barely present.
Red Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, warmed with red musk, red sandalwood, and smoldering amber] - This one is pretty heavy on the red musk, and was in fact partly responsible for me finally figuring out that I don't personally enjoy red musk. The almond, apricot, and sandalwood combination does give this a rather gourmand-adjacent feel to it, more so than the other Squirrels. It's a very rich and warm perfume. It's funny how actually "red" this scent feels - it feels like the experience of watching a bonfire die down, even though there's no smoke note at all. "Smoldering" indeed.
White Squirrel [A playful blend of almond and spiced apricot, grounded in rich benzoin and copaiba balsam, cooled with aloe, white musk, and smooth white amber] - Even without looking at the notes, it was easy to identify the white amber in this one, even though Nui Cobalt only infrequently uses white amber as a note. White Squirrel is very like Grey Squirrel, equally cozy but lighter and airier, with that white amber instead of cashmere. White Squirrel is cooler, more standoffish than Grey Squirrel - that "cool" effect must be the aloe - more a wintertime snuggly scent rather than an autumnal cozy scent. Even the now-familiar almond + apricot base feels daintier and even less foody here in White Squirrel.
Overall--

• Grey Squirrel and White Squirrel are the snuggly ones. Wear Grey Squirrel for cozy blanket vibes, and White Squirrel to be even daintier.
• Wear Red Squirrel for sexy outdoorsy gourmandy vibes (is that a thing? I think Red Squirrel makes it a thing)
• Black Squirrel is the dark academia sibling, and Flying Squirrel is the playful cousin

All the other Critters

Akhal-Teke [Fine ecru suede, raw silk, pearl musk, white amber, precious Hawaiian sandalwood, and creamy pistachio] - As someone put it, "super shiny horse". Silky yet fuzzy and soft, sophisticated yet snuggly. I recognize that pearl musk + sandalwood combination from Cancer [Cotton flower, steamed rice, soft sandalwood, vanilla orchid, coconut milk, and pearl musk] and I love it here too. All of these notes, suede + silk + pearl musk + white amber + sandalwood together, are gentle and just the epitome of softness, yet with just enough body and presence to be soft-on-purpose, assertively soft if that makes sense. This is not a wallflower scent. On to more specifics about the literal smell. At first, the nutty pistachio is pretty present, but it melds beautifully with the gentle suede. The silk and white amber give an elegance. I also definitely get the pearl musk and sandalwood, which take more prominence in the drydown when the pistachio dissipates a bit. This is my favorite stage - just soft, gentle, creamy, and absolutely lovely. Akhal-Teke has low throw but high longevity. I should note that after a year of aging, the pistachio amped quite a lot, overpowering that gorgeous pearl musk/sandalwood base that I loved so much. I'm hoping someday Forest might make one that's basically just pearl musk and sandalwood, without any gourmand elements!
Black-Capped Chickadee [Dogwood saplings, cedar resin, the tang of young stone fruits: still tiny and green, sugar maple, pine nuts, and barely-thawed soil] - I'm not one for dirt notes, so I completely passed this one up for several years, but enough really glowing reviews finally convinced me to try it. In the vial, it smells of wood, honeyed fruits, and hay. On my skin, it's soil, slightly nutty and incensey, with plush fruit and some very cedar-forward wood notes - and yet it's surprisingly dainty, and a perfect encapsulation of a black-capped chickadee. There's something about this scent that reminds me of snow-covered pebbles, and also of Shakespeare's poem "The cloud-capp'd towers" from The Tempest. After much sniffing and pondering, I finally figured out why I made that snowy association - the fruits read to me like cranberry, making this feel like a wintery scent. As for "The cloud-capp'd towers," I think I'm getting that Shakespearean reference from the combination of daintiness and dirt.
Blossom Bat [Humid rainforest blossoms laden with nectar, dense moss, passionfruit, black fig, and bamboo] - This was an order freebie that I wouldn't have picked out for myself, but it's so fun, and it went straight into my "Aloe and dewy" section of my summer perfumes, next to Waimea Mist and Aloha from the Big Island summer collection. Blossom Bat is velvety flower petals against a lush background of aquatic notes. I don't often enjoy moss notes (they often turn into honeydew melon on my skin), but here the moss contributes to the especially verdant feeling.
Blue Jay [Sturdy blue spruce and young oak support the bold elegance of white peony, angelica, blackberry bramble, and rhubarb] - In the vial, it's extremely fruity with a hint of trees. On my skin, it matches the description much more closely: evergreens and forest floor, brightened by fruity sweetness and a hint of floral. If you loved None of Your Beeswax [Thorny brambles of blackberry, elderflower, violet, fennel seed, sacred benzoin, and unfiltered honey] from the Bees collection, do give this one a try - Blue Jay is like None of Your Beeswax's summer cousin. I once wore this to a community theater production of Into the Woods and it was perfect.
Copper Fox [Warm chai with steamed almond milk nestled in sumptuous cashmere, crimson musk, sarsaparilla, and budding birch] - I once went on a quest to find the perfect chai perfume, and of course I had to try Copper Fox! Immediately on application, Copper Fox is root beer, spicy root beer - there's that sarsaparilla in a big way. As it quickly dries, the overwhelmingly root beer-ness of it backs off somewhat, and it becomes much more chai spices + the woody birch (and still with an undercurrent of root beer). Chai latte this is not - it's all the spices of chai (cinnamon and black pepper especially, and probably a bit of ginger as well) without any sweetness or milky creaminess. I should note that at this point my skin has a slight reaction to this perfume; this perfume ended up being part of my discovery that like many others, I too have a slight skin reaction to cinnamon. It didn't hurt a bit and the redness went away fairly quickly, but be forewarned, if you're a person that has a reaction to cinnamon, this might be a blend worth steering away from, or at least planning to wear in a scent locket or in your hair instead of on your skin. Finally, several hours later, Copper Fox has a third stage, and to me the most lovely: chai spices backed by gentle almond and cozy cashmere (and at this stage it's clearly a "Fox" like Silver Fox).
Elf Owl [A bright concoction of liatrix, yellow sandalwood, beach-tumbled teak, solar musk, crushed coriander, and a scant pinch of pale cinnamon] - With the teak and cinnamon, and of course the obvious cue of the "solar musk", I was expecting this to be in the same family as Nui Cobalt's Sun, Heliophilia (Love of Sun), and Sunrise on Spidersilk (comparative review HERE!). Those sun-themed perfumes can be a bit too sharp and masculine on me (I tend to prefer snuggly scents or white florals), but as a great lover of owls (and a huge fan of Nui Cobalt's Snowy Owl [Dried coconut flakes, pale woods, frozen tuberose, vanilla orchid, and fluffy feather musk], with which it admittedly shares not a single note), I absolutely could not pass up Elf Owl. I'm so glad I didn't. This actually isn't in the sun-themed family, nor, of course, does it match the highly white-floral Snowy Owl. Instead, Elf Owl turns out to be much closer to Squash Blossom [Cocobolo wood, orris root, carrot seed, sunflower petals, mandarin zest, and acorn squash baked with brown sugar] from the Autumn 1 collection, though much less vegetal. It's a very well-blended perfume and nothing in particular stands out. The overall effect is gentle: gently floral and slightly vegetal, with vanilla and baking spices but without any sugary sweetness. (Liatrix, for anyone who doesn't know what that note is--I had to look it up myself!--is a "sweet, coumarinic, herbal, tobacco-like floral and offers a pleasant vanilla-like scent".)
Fennec Fox [Blush sandalwood, amber resin, antique Egyptian cotton touched with saffron, spiced peach preserves, and sweet cedar resin] - It's gentle, warm, and spiced, with that snuggly feeling that you get with anything that has NCD's cotton note. If you really look, you can distinguish the wood, saffron, and peach, but they meld together extremely well. Surprisingly, I actually get quite a lot of the same sand note as in Flying South [Pink lemonade, warm sand, tiare blossoms, and a flowy cotton sundress] even though sand is not listed. I wear Fennec Fox in autumn on days when I don't feel like a pumpkin.
Glasswing Butterfly [A diaphanous veil of coconut water, elderflower, moonlit gardenia, silver musk, green lavender, and a slender twist of lime] - Nelophilia (Love of Glass) [Elderflower, silver musk, coconut water, cardamom, silk tree, lime blossom, and smooth hinoki wood] is one of my favorites from the Valentine's collection, but it's been discontinued for some time. So I was delighted to see this one because its notes read like a combination of Nelophilia and Queen Bee [Creamy white gardenia and fluffy whipped honey], both among my favorite NCD perfumes. It's not quite - it's not the same almost-spicy gardenia as in Queen Bee - but it is absolutely divine. Glasswing Butterfly is basically Nelophilia with all its smooth, cool, rainy, white floral nature, but here the cardamom is more present (YES! I love cardamom), and with a bit more floral. After a year of aging, it became quite a LOT more white floral; the heady gardenia came out with a KICK, and it's nearly but not quite indolic.
Honey Badger [Black amber, raw honey, smoked maple wood, and cardamom-infused cream] - I mean, duh, I had to try this one just for the cardamom cream. This is somehow so recognizably a NCD scent. Honey straight from the comb, dripping and golden, rich and sweet, backed by maple wood (but not really maple syrup) and a whiff of cardamom spice. Not nearly enough cardamom for my taste - but then, we all know what I'm like! I'm so glad I tried this one. Since its notes list starts with "black amber," I expected this to be quite a dark scent, but while it's quite rich, it's not ominously dark. Husband really likes this one, which is always a special success.
Hummingbird [Darting from oleander to orange blossom with ripe nectarine, hibiscus tea, and traces of tuberose] - White florals with orange and nectarine fruit notes, chirpy and cheerful. It's a juicy but not sugary scent. I love it for warm spring days - it's an absolute staple of my springtime perfumes - though I find it a little cloying in very hot weather.
Opossum [A bold nocturnal potion of Hatian amyris, soft black suede, red patchouli, freshly-turned earth, copal resin, and Peru balsam] - I get suede, red musk, and brown patchouli; meanwhile Husband, sniffing my wrist, gets pine and petrichor. Yet the combination of all these things is surprisingly gentle, not a shouty, in-your-face kind of scent. Absolutely none of the notes we're picking up on are my thing, but just about all of them very much are Husband's thing, so guess what - he immediately snaffled this one.
Orchid Mantis [Ripe Philippine mango, dragon fruit, tamarind, Indonesian teak, clove bud, sandalwood, tuberose, and a touch of ylang] - This one is bit too sweet for me on application - at first it's all sugary mango - but as it warms on my skin, the other notes creep in: more fruit (but less sugar), a bit of sharp clove for balance, and hints of woodiness and florals. As it dries, those hints of clove and woodiness amp further (and at this point, all my husband smells is cinnamony clove). For some reason, this is one of the very strongest of my NCD scents, with high longevity and even higher throw.
Raccoon [Sepia cashmere, guaiac wood, Egyptian amber, Copaiba balsam, golden musk, a twinkle of coriander, blonde oudh, resinous Himalayan cedar, and myrrh] - It's so well-blended that I can't pick out a single note individually, but something about this feels so quintessentially NCD. Right on application, it makes me think of Cheat Code [Windswept teakwood, cedar, coriander and tea are grounded in black tonka with a hint of fine leather], another one I had trouble describing, and it has a similar level of elegance and polish. Meanwhile, Husband smelled a bit of cola or sarsparilla, and noted an almost chocolatey undertone. As it dries, the cashmere and musk come forward, quite woolly and plush and just a touch animalistic. It seems a similar cashmere musk as in Arctic Fox [Soft amber nestled in sumptuous cashmere, steamed rice milk, winter white musk, and snow-covered fir trees]. If Arctic Fox worked for you, you absolutely must try Raccoon. Since Arctic Fox doesn't work on me (my skin amps that cashmere to unpleasant levels), Raccoon ultimately won't win a place in my collection either - which is a bummer because that opening is so pretty. I'll have to stick with Cheat Code for my polished, sophisticated vibes.
Robin's Egg [Dainty forget-me-nots and lily of the valley, a dollop of whipped blueberry creme, and a cozy birch nest tucked into a flowering dogwood tree] - This one has the same amazing blueberry as Grey Cat [Dry smoked vanilla, fluffy marshmallow creme, fresh blueberries, the gentlest touch of lavender and a warm cup of Earl Grey], House of Transcendence [Top notes of wild blueberry and morning fog, a heart of pale lilac and cashmere, with a base of orris and white amber], and Choreophilia [Wild violets, warm Earl Grey, Dominican blue amber, orris root, a handful of blueberries, and a touch of lime marmalade]. This iteration of the blueberry note is juicy and floral. After a few years of aging, Robin's Egg has become even more gorgeous and creamy, with that stunning blueberry and a vision of dainty blue flowers. This one is discontinued and I'm really sad about that (but you could maybe find some in the swaps if you ask around).
Silver Fox [White tea with honey and rice milk, almond macaron, soft grey cashmere and cool woodland musk] (this perfume is so popular that it is also in the Continuous Collection and available all year 'round) - Stunning. Sophisticated yet snuggly. The cashmere is the most prominent, followed by fir, the sweetness of white amber, and NCD's gentle whipped honey note. I also wouldn't have been surprised to read that copal was a note - there's just that little bit of resinous almost-smoke. When it dries, the sweetness goes away and the fir comes forward. This was a freebie with one of my orders - I hadn't actually bought a sample of this for myself, worried that I wouldn't like the rice milk (which, as it turns out, I don't actually smell), but it has since become one of my favorite wintertime scents.
Sugar Glider [Raw cotton, sugar cane, flannel flower, macadamia nut, pearblossom, palest musk, and dandelion puff] - So here's the thing, I'm wary of gourmands (in fact I always sit out most of the April Fool's gourmand collection). Sugar is listed in the notes description in the very second place, but I am a sucker for cute woodland animals, so that's how I ended up with this sample. After a first sniff in the vial, I got a little nervous about it, because it smelled very sugary, but I figured I'd wear it once, review it for you all, and then in a worst-case scenario, destash it to someone who does love sugary dessert scents. But wait! There's something strangely intoxicating about this one, and it's not really a gourmand. Immediately when I put it on, it reminded me a bit of the Sweettart-ness of my beloved Somniphilia (Love of Sleep) [Lamb's wool accord, orange blossom, barely-budding lavender, melissa, green fig, clary, cloud musk, and weightless vanilla marshmallow meringue]. I was pleasantly surprised that Sugar Glider is not at all dessert, instead more sugar + wood, and really rather cuddly. And then when it dries down, it reminds me so strongly of the blue raspberry note in Dewdrops on Spidersilk [Cerulean strands of cotton flower bejeweled with dewdrops, cold crystalline musk, tiny black vanilla beans, frozen blue raspberry, and gentle incense], except it's not "blue" (nor is it raspberry, but neither is "blue raspberry"). How did they achieve this effect? I have no idea, but it's so addictive: such a delicate, cheerful, springtime scent. It really does remind me of the experience of picking a perfect white fluffy dandelion and making a wish as you blow it. Definitely a springtime favorite.
White-Tailed Deer [Soft brown suede, golden musk, wild forest berries, and roasted chestnuts dusted with maple sugar] - I am always hesitant about suede, but was very happy when this was included as a free sample because I'd heard lovely things about it but wouldn't have purchased it for myself. It's an interesting one because my experience is of it is very different depending on distance. When I'm just smelling it as it wafts around me, it's such a warm, cozy scent, the suede mingling with chestnut and brown sugar. When I bring my wrist directly up to my nose to sniff, the suede does get a bit overwhelmingly leathery, and overtakes the other notes. Once it dries, though, that unpleasantly smoky leatheriness dissipates (even right up under my nose), leaving only the highly autumnal coziness behind. It is indeed very "golden" - or maybe a really rich, warm brown. I don't get any berries at all. It reminds me of the very stylized acorns and hedgehogs that fellow autumn-lovers love to idolize. (And for some reason, Husband gets saffron!)

Personally...

Robin's Egg, Sugar Glider, and Elf Owl are some of my TOP favorite perfumes for spring; Fennec Fox for fall; and Silver Fox for winter. Black Squirrel is my favorite of the Squirrels (in fact I ended up destashing all the others since I continue to have some issues with NCD's apricot note) - it's so beautifully dark-academia. And in my opinion, the three Rabbits are absolute must-tries (and I hold so much hope for a new Rabbit this year!). If you try nothing else from this collection, try whichever of the three Rabbits most calls your name - they're all different but all absolutely stunning.
What are you hoping for this year? Any particular animals you're keeping fingers crossed for? Do we think it'll be mostly woodland creatures this year, or perhaps we'll get some oceanic or other Critters too?

This has probably been asked a bunch in the past... but I haven't seen it recently, soooo. ^_^'
My favorites would be:

• maple bar (I agree with Sam)
• ice-cream (why do none of the NPCs love this?)
• stuffing (don't know why I like stuffing more than most people. I always expect it to be popular, but most people seem 'meh' about it)
• clam chowder
• maki roll (I would say sashimi also, but I think the raw fish is better when paired with rice and seaweed, tbh)
• strawberries (I agree with Maru and Demetrius. regular store bought strawberries are usually pretty bad, but good home-grown ones are really good -- if you can get to them before the birds and slugs that is)
• maybe truffle oil; tbh I've never had it, but I like fancy oils, and I like truffle flavored alfredo sauce

I tried to think of loved gifts that aren't edible, but... couldn't think of anything. ^_^' Also, that's a lot of loves anyway.
I would have most of the same universal loves/likes/neutrals/dislikes/hates (mainly since I'm trying not to be too particular), but some noteworthy exceptions are:

• I hate mushrooms; they're the only thing I literally can't eat even if I make myself because I will puke. Truffles are an exception because they don't have a mushroom flavor (that I noticed -- I've never had truffles, just truffle flavored alfredo sauce, and that was pretty good).
• I like spring onion (considered putting it as a loved item)
• I like ginger
• I like blackberry
• I like holly (can't understand why this is mostly disliked by NPCs! it seems like a pretty cool gift to me)
• I think I would be at least neutral to fish if not actually like them as a gift. O_o' Is that strange? As long as it's edible, that is. Fish seems like a pretty cool gift to me, anyway. Especially tuna or salmon, but I'll take a chub or whatever else also. Free fish! Who wouldn't like a free fish!?

Hey! Some of you may not know yet, but the 1.6 update added a new headpiece for us to craft: the Golden Crown 👑
In order to get it, we have to sweat a little (a lot actually. A lot) tho. We need 100 golden sticks, and each one needs 99 common sticks in order to be crafted
So, 100 golden sticks = 9.900 common sticks… yeah,
First I thought “there’s no way in hell I’m going to be crafting this goddam crown😐” but I always make sure to have all clothing items and just couldn’t live while knowing I had such a special one missing🤡 ‎
‎
So, here’s what I plan on doing in order to get as many sticks as I can per week and that you can do as well, if you want and/or can!
My calc will include the one island bouquet we get per week💐
I’ll not be including the bonus sticks we may get with TopHat as a companion, because that’d based on luck and he hates me anyway lol🥲
A month = 4 weeks ‎
‎
👑 1°👑
I’ll gather all 15 sticks we can get per day/reset. Along with the bouquet, that’d be 120 per week already.
👑 2°👑
I’ll gather all 14 worm tails we get per day. With two worms, we can craft one stick. That’d be more 56 per week.
ATT: You need to have all levels of Merry Meadow unlocked in other to gather them all OR you can unlock the first level and ask for the null with the collector hat to gather them all for you! ‎
‎
These are pretty simple steps, and with them we can get 176 sticks in total per week. That’s 1 golden stick with 77 to spare for the next week! In a month, it’d be 7 golden sticks.
Now, I’ll add the other two methods I’ll be using in order to get even more sticks per week! These ask for a little more work in order to get sticks 🙅‍♀️ and the fourth one is a spoiler of a new content we got with the 1.6 update. ‎
‎
👑 3°👑
I plan on fishing at least 15 sticks per day. That’d be 105 sticks per week.
120+56+105 = 281 sticks. That’s 2 golden sticks with 83 common sticks left for the next week. In a month, that’s 11 golden sticks.
Tips: Make sure to fish bog clamfishes at spooky swamp. They always come with one stick each. Also, do not get close to the edge in order to fish. Distance yourself as much as possible while still being able to cast the fishing rod. This makes the process sooooo much faster! Honestly if I had to fish close to the edge I wouldn’t fish at all 😂
👑 4°👑
For this one, you’ll need to be up to date with the >! Merry Meadows!< map. It’s a minigame we unlock after reaching the temple. The game is basically a claw machine, where you grab a crate with an specific item inside. With each game ticket, you can get 5 sticks per game in easy mode or 10 sticks per game in hard mode.
>! We get 3 game tickets per day, plus one more with Badtz-Maru bonus as a companion. In total, that’d be 31 game tickets per week, so we can play the minigame at least 31 times a week.!<
>! Now, I know this minigame can be hard for a lot of players and that, even if we got the hang of it, we’ll probably still fail to grab the crane sometimes. Therefore, I’ll make two calcs, one with easy mode(5 sticks per crane) and one with hard mode(10 sticks per crane), with a 7/10 wins for both modes. I’ll also round down the 31 tickets per week to 30.!<
>! In easy mode, per week, you’d get 105 sticks. Plus all the other steps, that’d be 3 golden sticks and 89 common sticks. In a month, it’d be 15 golden sticks.!<
>! In hard mode, it’d be 210 sticks. Plus all the other steps, that’d be 4 golden sticks and 95 common sticks. In a month, you’d get 19 golden sticks and be left with 83 common sticks.!<
>! Tips: depending on your level of friendship with WMM, she has a perk that slows down the speed of the lotus leaves. Right now, we have a bug were you can have WMM + another companion following you, so be sure to call WMM and then Badtz-Maru b4 playing the minigame, so you can get a free ticket but still have WMM’s perk active. In my experience, having WMM on easy mode makes it harder to get the timing right, but it helps a TON in hard mode.!< ‎
⚠️⚠️⚠️Make sure to always have chococat with you before crafting any golden sticks!⚠️⚠️⚠️ ‎
I really hope I got all the numbers right😭🙏 and hopefully I managed to help some of you guys who are after the golden crown as well! just remember to have fun while playing💗💗💗

I took template for my django project (https://themewagon.com/themes/free-one-page-bootstrap-4-html5-personal-portfolio-website-template-clark/)
I took navbar

{% load static %}  

and footer

{% load static %}    

and created base.html to use for every page of project (navbar+block content+footer)

{% load static %}                                  {%block content%} {% endblock %}    

then tried using base.html as parent template

{% extends 'base.html' %} {% load static %} {%block content%} 
lave
 
alo 
 {% endblock %} 

Problem is I get this text in navbar area that is supposed to be in {%block content%} area.
​
https://preview.redd.it/fsd9jt43kvrc1.png?width=3699&format=png&auto=webp&s=2ea741ffb6dbb3a08269d46e5a66f5478c922e30
When inspectin the page I get this error
​
https://preview.redd.it/p78bj3b6kvrc1.png?width=1370&format=png&auto=webp&s=774f62c365cc4c3f65d4c8340e8cb920e20c5819
​
Could it be that some js file is restricting me from showing block content where it should be?
​
Here is main.js

 AOS.init({ duration: 800, easing: 'slide' }); (function($) { "use strict"; $(window).stellar({ responsive: true, parallaxBackgrounds: true, parallaxElements: true, horizontalScrolling: false, hideDistantElements: false, scrollProperty: 'scroll' }); var fullHeight = function() { $('.js-fullheight').css('height', $(window).height()); $(window).resize(function(){ $('.js-fullheight').css('height', $(window).height()); }); }; fullHeight(); // loader var loader = function() { setTimeout(function() { if($('#ftco-loader').length > 0) { $('#ftco-loader').removeClass('show'); } }, 1); }; loader(); // Scrollax $.Scrollax(); // Burger Menu var burgerMenu = function() { $('body').on('click', '.js-fh5co-nav-toggle', function(event){ event.preventDefault(); if ( $('#ftco-nav').is(':visible') ) { $(this).removeClass('active'); } else { $(this).addClass('active'); } }); }; burgerMenu(); var onePageClick = function() { $(document).on('click', '#ftco-nav a[href^="#"]', function (event) { event.preventDefault(); var href = $.attr(this, 'href'); $('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: $($.attr(this, 'href')).offset().top - 70 }, 500, function() { // window.location.hash = href; }); }); }; onePageClick(); var carousel = function() { $('.home-slider').owlCarousel({ loop:true, autoplay: true, margin:0, animateOut: 'fadeOut', animateIn: 'fadeIn', nav:false, autoplayHoverPause: false, items: 1, navText : ["",""], responsive:{ 0:{ items:1 }, 600:{ items:1 }, 1000:{ items:1 } } }); }; carousel(); $('nav .dropdown').hover(function(){ var $this = $(this); // timer; // clearTimeout(timer); $this.addClass('show'); $this.find('> a').attr('aria-expanded', true); // $this.find('.dropdown-menu').addClass('animated-fast fadeInUp show'); $this.find('.dropdown-menu').addClass('show'); }, function(){ var $this = $(this); // timer; // timer = setTimeout(function(){ $this.removeClass('show'); $this.find('> a').attr('aria-expanded', false); // $this.find('.dropdown-menu').removeClass('animated-fast fadeInUp show'); $this.find('.dropdown-menu').removeClass('show'); // }, 100); }); $('#dropdown04').on('show.bs.dropdown', function () { console.log('show'); }); // scroll var scrollWindow = function() { $(window).scroll(function(){ var $w = $(this), st = $w.scrollTop(), navbar = $('.ftco_navbar'), sd = $('.js-scroll-wrap'); if (st > 150) { if ( !navbar.hasClass('scrolled') ) { navbar.addClass('scrolled'); } } if (st < 150) { if ( navbar.hasClass('scrolled') ) { navbar.removeClass('scrolled sleep'); } } if ( st > 350 ) { if ( !navbar.hasClass('awake') ) { navbar.addClass('awake'); } if(sd.length > 0) { sd.addClass('sleep'); } } if ( st < 350 ) { if ( navbar.hasClass('awake') ) { navbar.removeClass('awake'); navbar.addClass('sleep'); } if(sd.length > 0) { sd.removeClass('sleep'); } } }); }; scrollWindow(); var counter = function() { $('#section-counter, .hero-wrap, .ftco-counter, .ftco-about').waypoint( function( direction ) { if( direction === 'down' && !$(this.element).hasClass('ftco-animated') ) { var comma_separator_number_step = $.animateNumber.numberStepFactories.separator(',') $('.number').each(function(){ var $this = $(this), num = $this.data('number'); console.log(num); $this.animateNumber( { number: num, numberStep: comma_separator_number_step }, 7000 ); }); } } , { offset: '95%' } ); } counter(); var contentWayPoint = function() { var i = 0; $('.ftco-animate').waypoint( function( direction ) { if( direction === 'down' && !$(this.element).hasClass('ftco-animated') ) { i++; $(this.element).addClass('item-animate'); setTimeout(function(){ $('body .ftco-animate.item-animate').each(function(k){ var el = $(this); setTimeout( function () { var effect = el.data('animate-effect'); if ( effect === 'fadeIn') { el.addClass('fadeIn ftco-animated'); } else if ( effect === 'fadeInLeft') { el.addClass('fadeInLeft ftco-animated'); } else if ( effect === 'fadeInRight') { el.addClass('fadeInRight ftco-animated'); } else { el.addClass('fadeInUp ftco-animated'); } el.removeClass('item-animate'); }, k * 50, 'easeInOutExpo' ); }); }, 100); } } , { offset: '95%' } ); }; contentWayPoint(); // magnific popup $('.image-popup').magnificPopup({ type: 'image', closeOnContentClick: true, closeBtnInside: false, fixedContentPos: true, mainClass: 'mfp-no-margins mfp-with-zoom', // class to remove default margin from left and right side gallery: { enabled: true, navigateByImgClick: true, preload: [0,1] // Will preload 0 - before current, and 1 after the current image }, image: { verticalFit: true }, zoom: { enabled: true, duration: 300 // don't foget to change the duration also in CSS } }); $('.popup-youtube, .popup-vimeo, .popup-gmaps').magnificPopup({ disableOn: 700, type: 'iframe', mainClass: 'mfp-fade', removalDelay: 160, preloader: false, fixedContentPos: false }); })(jQuery); 

​
and aos.js

!function(e,t){"object"==typeof exports&&"object"==typeof module?module.exports=t():"function"==typeof define&&define.amd?define([],t):"object"==typeof exports?exports.AOS=t():e.AOS=t()}(this,function(){return function(e){function t(o){if(n[o])return n[o].exports;var i=n[o]={exports:{},id:o,loaded:!1};return e[o].call(i.exports,i,i.exports,t),i.loaded=!0,i.exports}var n={};return t.m=e,t.c=n,t.p="dist/",t(0)}([function(e,t,n){"use strict";function o(e){return e&&e.__esModule?e:{default:e}}var i=Object.assignfunction(e){for(var t=1;t0&&void 0!==arguments[0]&&arguments[0];if(e&&(k=!0),k)return w=(0,y.default)(w,j),(0,b.default)(w,j.once),w},S=function(){w=(0,h.default)(),O()},_=function(){w.forEach(function(e,t){e.node.removeAttribute("data-aos"),e.node.removeAttribute("data-aos-easing"),e.node.removeAttribute("data-aos-duration"),e.node.removeAttribute("data-aos-delay")})},E=function(e){return e===!0"mobile"===e&&p.default.mobile()"phone"===e&&p.default.phone()"tablet"===e&&p.default.tablet()"function"==typeof e&&e()===!0},z=function(e){return j=i(j,e),w=(0,h.default)(),E(j.disable)x?_():(document.querySelector("body").setAttribute("data-aos-easing",j.easing),document.querySelector("body").setAttribute("data-aos-duration",j.duration),document.querySelector("body").setAttribute("data-aos-delay",j.delay),"DOMContentLoaded"===j.startEvent&&["complete","interactive"].indexOf(document.readyState)>-1?O(!0):"load"===j.startEvent?window.addEventListener(j.startEvent,function(){O(!0)}):document.addEventListener(j.startEvent,function(){O(!0)}),window.addEventListener("resize",(0,f.default)(O,50,!0)),window.addEventListener("orientationchange",(0,f.default)(O,50,!0)),window.addEventListener("scroll",(0,u.default)(function(){(0,b.default)(w,j.once)},99)),document.addEventListener("DOMNodeRemoved",function(e){var t=e.target;t&&1===t.nodeType&&t.hasAttribute&&t.hasAttribute("data-aos")&&(0,f.default)(S,50,!0)}),(0,d.default)("[data-aos]",S),w)};e.exports={init:z,refresh:O,refreshHard:S}},function(e,t){},,,,,function(e,t){(function(t){"use strict";function n(e,t,n){function o(t){var n=b,o=v;return b=v=void 0,k=t,g=e.apply(o,n)}function r(e){return k=e,h=setTimeout(s,t),S?o(e):g}function a(e){var n=e-w,o=e-k,i=t-n;return _?j(i,y-o):i}function c(e){var n=e-w,o=e-k;return void 0===wn>=tn<0_&&o>=y}function s(){var e=O();return c(e)?d(e):void(h=setTimeout(s,a(e)))}function d(e){return h=void 0,E&&b?o(e):(b=v=void 0,g)}function l(){void 0!==h&&clearTimeout(h),k=0,b=w=v=h=void 0}function p(){return void 0===h?g:d(O())}function m(){var e=O(),n=c(e);if(b=arguments,v=this,w=e,n){if(void 0===h)return r(w);if(_)return h=setTimeout(s,t),o(w)}return void 0===h&&(h=setTimeout(s,t)),g}var b,v,y,g,h,w,k=0,S=!1,_=!1,E=!0;if("function"!=typeof e)throw new TypeError(f);return t=u(t)0,i(n)&&(S=!!n.leading,_="maxWait"in n,y=_?x(u(n.maxWait)0,t):y,E="trailing"in n?!!n.trailing:E),m.cancel=l,m.flush=p,m}function o(e,t,o){var r=!0,a=!0;if("function"!=typeof e)throw new TypeError(f);return i(o)&&(r="leading"in o?!!o.leading:r,a="trailing"in o?!!o.trailing:a),n(e,t,{leading:r,maxWait:t,trailing:a})}function i(e){var t="undefined"==typeof e?"undefined":c(e);return!!e&&("object"==t"function"==t)}function r(e){return!!e&&"object"==("undefined"==typeof e?"undefined":c(e))}function a(e){return"symbol"==("undefined"==typeof e?"undefined":c(e))r(e)&&k.call(e)==d}function u(e){if("number"==typeof e)return e;if(a(e))return s;if(i(e)){var t="function"==typeof e.valueOf?e.valueOf():e;e=i(t)?t+"":t}if("string"!=typeof e)return 0===e?e:+e;e=e.replace(l,"");var n=m.test(e);return nb.test(e)?v(e.slice(2),n?2:8):p.test(e)?s:+e}var c="function"==typeof Symbol&&"symbol"==typeof Symbol.iterator?function(e){return typeof e}:function(e){return e&&"function"==typeof Symbol&&e.constructor===Symbol&&e!==Symbol.prototype?"symbol":typeof e},f="Expected a function",s=NaN,d="[object Symbol]",l=/^\s+\s+$/g,p=/^[-+]0x[0-9a-f]+$/i,m=/^0b[01]+$/i,b=/^0o[0-7]+$/i,v=parseInt,y="object"==("undefined"==typeof t?"undefined":c(t))&&t&&t.Object===Object&&t,g="object"==("undefined"==typeof self?"undefined":c(self))&&self&&self.Object===Object&&self,h=ygFunction("return this")(),w=Object.prototype,k=w.toString,x=Math.max,j=Math.min,O=function(){return h.Date.now()};e.exports=o}).call(t,function(){return this}())},function(e,t){(function(t){"use strict";function n(e,t,n){function i(t){var n=b,o=v;return b=v=void 0,O=t,g=e.apply(o,n)}function r(e){return O=e,h=setTimeout(s,t),S?i(e):g}function u(e){var n=e-w,o=e-O,i=t-n;return _?x(i,y-o):i}function f(e){var n=e-w,o=e-O;return void 0===wn>=tn<0_&&o>=y}function s(){var e=j();return f(e)?d(e):void(h=setTimeout(s,u(e)))}function d(e){return h=void 0,E&&b?i(e):(b=v=void 0,g)}function l(){void 0!==h&&clearTimeout(h),O=0,b=w=v=h=void 0}function p(){return void 0===h?g:d(j())}function m(){var e=j(),n=f(e);if(b=arguments,v=this,w=e,n){if(void 0===h)return r(w);if(_)return h=setTimeout(s,t),i(w)}return void 0===h&&(h=setTimeout(s,t)),g}var b,v,y,g,h,w,O=0,S=!1,_=!1,E=!0;if("function"!=typeof e)throw new TypeError(c);return t=a(t)0,o(n)&&(S=!!n.leading,_="maxWait"in n,y=_?k(a(n.maxWait)0,t):y,E="trailing"in n?!!n.trailing:E),m.cancel=l,m.flush=p,m}function o(e){var t="undefined"==typeof e?"undefined":u(e);return!!e&&("object"==t"function"==t)}function i(e){return!!e&&"object"==("undefined"==typeof e?"undefined":u(e))}function r(e){return"symbol"==("undefined"==typeof e?"undefined":u(e))i(e)&&w.call(e)==s}function a(e){if("number"==typeof e)return e;if(r(e))return f;if(o(e)){var t="function"==typeof e.valueOf?e.valueOf():e;e=o(t)?t+"":t}if("string"!=typeof e)return 0===e?e:+e;e=e.replace(d,"");var n=p.test(e);return nm.test(e)?b(e.slice(2),n?2:8):l.test(e)?f:+e}var u="function"==typeof Symbol&&"symbol"==typeof Symbol.iterator?function(e){return typeof e}:function(e){return e&&"function"==typeof Symbol&&e.constructor===Symbol&&e!==Symbol.prototype?"symbol":typeof e},c="Expected a function",f=NaN,s="[object Symbol]",d=/^\s+\s+$/g,l=/^[-+]0x[0-9a-f]+$/i,p=/^0b[01]+$/i,m=/^0o[0-7]+$/i,b=parseInt,v="object"==("undefined"==typeof t?"undefined":u(t))&&t&&t.Object===Object&&t,y="object"==("undefined"==typeof self?"undefined":u(self))&&self&&self.Object===Object&&self,g=vyFunction("return this")(),h=Object.prototype,w=h.toString,k=Math.max,x=Math.min,j=function(){return g.Date.now()};e.exports=n}).call(t,function(){return this}())},function(e,t){"use strict";function n(e,t){a.push({selector:e,fn:t}),!u&&r&&(u=new r(o),u.observe(i.documentElement,{childList:!0,subtree:!0,removedNodes:!0})),o()}function o(){for(var e,t,n=0,o=a.length;ne.position?e.node.classList.add("aos-animate"):"undefined"!=typeof o&&("false"===o!n&&"true"!==o)&&e.node.classList.remove("aos-animate")},o=function(e,t){var o=window.pageYOffset,i=window.innerHeight;e.forEach(function(e,r){n(e,i+o,t)})};t.default=o},function(e,t,n){"use strict";function o(e){return e&&e.__esModule?e:{default:e}}Object.defineProperty(t,"__esModule",{value:!0});var i=n(12),r=o(i),a=function(e,t){return e.forEach(function(e,n){e.node.classList.add("aos-init"),e.position=(0,r.default)(e.node,t.offset)}),e};t.default=a},function(e,t,n){"use strict";function o(e){return e&&e.__esModule?e:{default:e}}Object.defineProperty(t,"__esModule",{value:!0});var i=n(13),r=o(i),a=function(e,t){var n=0,o=0,i=window.innerHeight,a={offset:e.getAttribute("data-aos-offset"),anchor:e.getAttribute("data-aos-anchor"),anchorPlacement:e.getAttribute("data-aos-anchor-placement")};switch(a.offset&&!isNaN(a.offset)&&(o=parseInt(a.offset)),a.anchor&&document.querySelectorAll(a.anchor)&&(e=document.querySelectorAll(a.anchor)[0]),n=(0,r.default)(e).top,a.anchorPlacement){case"top-bottom":break;case"center-bottom":n+=e.offsetHeight/2;break;case"bottom-bottom":n+=e.offsetHeight;break;case"top-center":n+=i/2;break;case"bottom-center":n+=i/2+e.offsetHeight;break;case"center-center":n+=i/2+e.offsetHeight/2;break;case"top-top":n+=i;break;case"bottom-top":n+=e.offsetHeight+i;break;case"center-top":n+=e.offsetHeight/2+i}return a.anchorPlacementa.offsetisNaN(t)(o=t),n+o};t.default=a},function(e,t){"use strict";Object.defineProperty(t,"__esModule",{value:!0});var n=function(e){for(var t=0,n=0;e&&!isNaN(e.offsetLeft)&&!isNaN(e.offsetTop);)t+=e.offsetLeft-("BODY"!=e.tagName?e.scrollLeft:0),n+=e.offsetTop-("BODY"!=e.tagName?e.scrollTop:0),e=e.offsetParent;return{top:n,left:t}};t.default=n},function(e,t){"use strict";Object.defineProperty(t,"__esModule",{value:!0});var n=function(e){e=edocument.querySelectorAll("[data-aos]");var t=[];return[].forEach.call(e,function(e,n){t.push({node:e})}),t};t.default=n}])}); //# sourceMappingURL=aos.js.map 

​

ExcitingishUsername was removed from /ModSupport

• Link to the removed post
• Was a selfpost with score: 4
• Submitted 2024-03-27 00:06 (UTC) - 0.50 days ago
• Probably removed within the past 0.00 days
  • Was last seen up around 2024-03-27 12:02 (UTC)
  • Removal detected at 2024-03-27 12:02 (UTC)

Quick search

• Search for all removed posts by this author

Title

Signup/account creation CAPTCHA is clearly broken, as evidenced by bots flooding our communities using a new account for every single post

Post contents

A significant problem as previously reported is that a portion of these posts cannot be detected or removed by Automod, bots, or post requirements, so there is no way to reliably block them. Probably due to the sheer volume of them, they keep triggering that bug and showing up hours later in our reports queue, without ever having been visible to us in any feeds.
Banning them is futile, as they immediately re-post with a fresh new account; despite banning several tens of thousands of them, we've not seen any picked up by the ban-evasion detection either.
The overwhelming rate of these suggests that something is seriously wrong with signup controls. A not insignificant number of communities appear to be completely buried in these posts. The site-wide anti-spam does eventually catch them, but only after about an hour, and the rate of reposting is fast enough to keep several of their posts continuously at the top of most of the communities they are targeting.
To give a sense of scale, here is a portion of the new accounts created by the "sinder" group alone within the past hour:
NoButterfly2744,Money_Trash7086,Ill_Chemical_6217,Realistic-Change-843,Beneficial-Fail7092,Aggravating_Movie367,Comfortable_Dish_702,Lost_Spare8787,National-Ask2642,Cautious_Debt6682,Puzzleheaded-Age2060,Shot_Emu_4394,IllustriousCell1076,Patient_Ingenuity_71,Specific-Choice8319,Odd-Blacksmith-8459,Realistic_Skin2599,BodyAffectionate2206,Comprehensive_Box971,Disastrous_Jump9280,Haunting-Poem897,Imaginary_Fly5984,Impressive_Jacket614,Whole-Dragonfly-4419,Icy_Carrot_3313,Muted-Tax2819,MarketingEqual7001,PerceptionDouble2355,Helpful_Piglet9030,Square-Maximum-2178,RepulsiveFeedback622,Bitter_Hedgehog7686,Upstairs-You-7890,Shot-Screen1785,FillGlittering583,No-College7800,Ok-Marketing667,Expert_Reaction_3782,Busy_Writer6806,Brilliant_Study_5123,Intelligent_Value504,Curious-Delay-9135,YogurtclosetFunny336,Academic_Lecture_396,Icy_Cap322,BridgeAny8774,Top_Map_3063,CarpenterOk2935,Top_Second_4476,Intrepid-One512,No-Midnight747,Little_Increase_9412,Minimum_Asparagus_59,Distinct_Type_4466,HatPsychological7407,Aggravating_Local497,Fine_Section5051,Equivalent-Ask-7527,Remarkable_Head3108,AdJunior3081,Negative-Maize4886,MaximumAccording5116,Euphoric-Bus5140,Round-Cow8629,AffectionateClerk976,No_Doctor_2920,BasicIllustrator154,Better_Chain_1202,Ok_Mud29,StaffAccomplished489,Due-Internet-7257,Ready-Comfortable836,Sorry_Sir_8847,No_Cucumber_3790,FeistyBookkeeper6557,Important_Tear2455,DependentLong7496,Murky_Bar5112,TraditionalSpeaker73,Secret_Fix_5334,UniqueReporter7277,OpenTurnover3385,Candid-Material-708,No-Pair2779,Nice_Improvement_231,Intelligent-Park8477,Efficient-Stable7744,Ok_Pair352,Any_Direction9142,Common-Pay-3054,Ok_Temperature2178,Electronic_Poem4964,InformationOpen3908,JuniorPlan765,InterestingFennel202,Pale_Chair2397,TrainingTable1921,Subject_Constant3054,Mundane-Function9121,DapperCarrot4515,Academic_Climate3205,Ok-Wall7081,NoCredit2731,Previous_Monitor_615,AppointmentOk6610,Tough_Principle_3209,Mobile-Government-59,Historical_Medium791,BumblebeeGreedy7989,One_Pianist9160,No_Painting2976,No_Respect7373,Major_Patience_4542,Thin_Bed2155,OkSleep4446,Ok_Measurement_7486,ConsciousSwordfish45,Fluffy-Inspector-48,RoundApprehensive661,Sweaty-River-6351,Big_Store_2823,Salty-Status-5033,Equivalent-Front-832,Top_Ticket_9464,Outside-Restaurant62,Maleficent-Exam-7910,Illustrious-Guest427,EmptyRefrigerator558,PositionSensitive439,PuzzleheadedFile9201,DealNo3543,ConfidenceFull4020,Upbeat_Ad_3688,No-Organization-9558,Resident_Effort_3718,FarFruit5911,Gullible_Recover_681,Ok_Championship5354,Aromatic-Honeydew-23,Interesting-Egg540,Any-Knowledge-3209,AdFabulous9359,Leading-Collar-8,ProperTadpole9381,PublicFollowing8931,DifficultySad5930,SpiritedBasket5161,Secure-Nature9251,CharacterDevice978,Greedy-Writing5378,ExternalNarrow987,Wonderful_Teacher5,Cool_Ad_6626,ComfortableOk868,Flaky-Action208,Weary-Adagio-8354,Worth-Pool-2125,Willing-Opinion-189,ResolutionUnited2198,Difficult-Ad2040,According-Salad4043,Vegetable_Sense1727,Far-Cycle-498,ReviewProper5389,Away-Variety-3204,Free_Wing6378,Individual_Clerk_591,Miserable_Way_5058,PrudentExplanation80,Far_Amphibian4991,NeighborhoodLess5277,Separate_Collar_8547,Pristine-Reason-6953,Immediate_Law_5888,New_Independence3126,Impressive-Dingo-917,CarpenterSlow5665,Hopeful_Somewhere684,Quirky_Shopping7621,Artistic-Brush259,Patient-Band-4674,DisciplineBoring1011,ChoiceBusiness357,Recent_Parsley2668,Traditional-Bug-8050,Life_Educator8625,Minimum-Elk-3823,Low_Adeptness1599,MixEast8765,Additional_Dog_61,OccasionZestyclose85,Intelligent_Day3696,Hairy_Basket8939,Unique_Friendship_27,Empty_Egg_9619,Past_Exit3218,ArtSea220,Glum-Ad5584,Limp-Piccolo-8578,StorageDizzy1031,Worried_Cry_2842,DazzlingType4668,BlackberryExpress219,Puzzled_Platform_567,Pure_Big5156,Away-Following-2856,Vegetable_Mind3554,Flimsy_Debate5175,Sure_East3119,Numerous-Class-8084,Infamous-Cry-311,National-Gas-9417,Aromatic-Shock6690,Legitimate-Wash-2658,New_Vehicle_3184,No-Mission173,Front_Lavishness9212,Competitive_Heat_733,Due-Republic-9517,Significant_Day2203,Usual_Awareness654,PretendHall1778,Life_Oil_1676,Ok_Security_7862,Foreign_Hair_2846,Equivalent_Cry_618,Turbulent_Data4655,No_Speech_4940,MolassesNo7967,Specialist_Book_5571,Electrical-Goat2273,KookyBell4940,Timely-Cut8721,Affectionate-Bill287,FullAd2119,AnalysisSpirited253,Dapper_Bison5364,Money_Situation_9360,Several_Border_7404,Important_Street_715,Technical_Pie_9689,Wonderful-Wear6550,ShopFeeling7924,Ok_Tooth5260,Next_Investment_4621,NoBasis637,DepartureHeavy5426,Sea_Background201,Old-Strike6187,Outrageous-Meat-6897,Fast_Editor_2958,Horror_Ferret_6240,Foreign_Berry2442,GeneralBroad223,SearchTimely314,Fancy-Scallion-2413,Competitive_Smile381,Adept-Negotiation-32,Antique-Incident-159,Full_Specialist6211,Responsible-Drop-959,Minimum-Afternoon-20,Anxious_Ad_4905,NoTransportation660,ParkResponsible8246,Big-Potential6916,FollowingMain5657,Life-Bid-8001,Charming_Strike1681,Flashy_Anxiety_4850,Diligent_Sun2568,Disastrous_Author703,Ok_Anywhere8667,Independent-Wave4388,Next_Manufacturer637,InternationalIdea898,Mindless_Cycle_5775,Resident_Medicine326,Prudent-Bathroom-853,InternationalFile226,Legal_Load291,Full_Gap4331,Other_Blueberry6766,OneSalamander7387,Melodic-Ad-7456,PhilosopherGlass5789,EfficientListen5753,No-Strain-6674,Ok-Hunt-9341,Solid_Luck7224,No-Leather-4121,Prestigious_Cap_6629,Some_Mobile_4266,Cool_Basket8878,ProgramMost3469,Good_Customer9624,Fit-Apple-7886,DingoIndependent2360,Ancient_Exercise2688,Alert_Leg2786,Specialist-Lab-6075,Top_Refrigerator2103,Own-Study7317,RubNervous8567,Strange-Net-4825,Fantastic_Watch6986,LogElectrical6939,SignificantCap3197,Most-Classroom7844,Annual-Difference452,Few_Mirror8556,OkTemperature4359,Better-Kitchen4673,Visual_Plan_2827,CommunicationIll6848,Confident-Pride-1413,Ok-Raise1277,Beginning_Treat_7884,Sufficient_Fig9288,Prior_Tune6654,Substantial_Field337,Positive_Owl3525,Ok_Pop_7434,Brilliant-Bear-3524,ArtistBrilliant2661,Hairy-Reindeer9847,EndEnvironmental4848,Every_Hovercraft_405,Tough-Translator1083,LastLettuce4092,InternationalFix250,Signal-Following-230,Hefty-Bet2840,OpenMood810,Big-Two-2723,Automatic_Top_1622,Intrepid-Attempt7130,Sea-Cauliflower-2456,No-Philosophy8105,RoutineRoyal1727,Substantial-Cap-5141,Both-Roll585,ExpensiveCounty1062,Ok_Impression5322,Competitive-Way-3323,Additional_Mall_699,Muted-Fee-2977,Frosty_Match3905,Important-Spring8646,FarmBusy5634,Fair_Country8455,EntrepreneurActual82,Fun_You_2985,Pure-Painting-7072,Moist_Sky5212,Advanced_Carrot5732,Swimming-Pay-6188,Alive-Incident4787,Amazing-Hunter-4574,Only-Foundation-1028,AnxiousEvent4485,Prestigious_Fee_2370,Ok_Editor_1474,No-Finance-2461,AdmirableStranger892,Feeling_Drive_5979,No-Investigator-2350,Alternative-Food232,North_Emu1258,Sufficient-Horse2862,Ill-Performance6814,Spiritual_Error_5463,Used_Anybody_6070,Due_Village5601,Impossible_Degree973,Wrong_Collection543,Sensitive_Gain4209,Legitimate-Bet8123,Top-Explanation1991,AffectionateElk3646,Necessary_Pipe9742,Wild-North2191,Relative_Shoe7273,FinishExciting7466,FuzzySherbert9403,Far_Obligation9959,Temporary_Slice_4149,Outrageous_Lie_8437,Impossible_Tax7505,This_Ask_6102,No_Frosting_4542,Ok-Temperature-5297,Left-Kiwi8221,Pleasant_Constant_45,Murky_Ladder_6792,Strict-Part-5643,PoetryOk9727,AgentSufficient3962,Money_Funny_488,Original-Spot-9026,Independent-Tough796,Maleficent-Shirt-237,Ashamed-Flounder-863,TemperatureLonely186,This_Artichoke_2547,Fragrant-Middle-3592,CuriousSand8727,Massive-Shirt-8290,SkyReady7476,Additional-Still3249,Witty-Specialist-812,Additional-Fold9635,Particular-Jelly-739,No_Tie6939,Old-Current5132,Prestigious_Drag1582,Tasty-Ad401,Kindly-Sort-4522,Efficient_Gap8499,Intelligent_Elk5247,SpecialistGarbage730,Few-Pipe28,Key-Argument-8935,ArtExciting625,No_Union6776,Spirited_Egg_9056,Excellent-Slice5764,More_Brick_9504,AdComfortable8832,Puzzled-Dimension880,Candid_Register9054,Just_Avocado1164,Ok-Address8024,Apart-Stuff4808,Dull-Gazelle81,Complete_Bell_6306,Defiant_Mixture_603,Rare_Worldliness3487,Formal_Site_9532,Icy_Factor5212,Honest-Training6911,BroccoliCivil6181,Personal-Oil3428,WonderfulStranger994,No_Orchid7347,Ecstatic-Act-3595,WildNeedleworker1971,Nervous-Check9514,Small_Setting5911,First_Parsnip_590,Ok-Thanks2058,No_Asparagus_2430,ExpressionShoddy7808,Trick-Camel9980,ProfessionalGas3337,Affectionate-Draw872,VirtualQuality9110,Capable-Pitch-7862,Plastic_Big_1160,Infamous-Studio-8931,ManufacturerShot9112,Worried-Ship4157,Annual-Reveal4484,Equivalent_Gold4388,Fluffy-Welder2918,Wild_Cartographer523,Embarrassed-Most3081,Few-Plastic2110,AppleComprehensive91,IndependentOk755,Quirky_Field_1167,Holiday_Slice_6609,Electrical-Pen6966,Remote_Ad_672,Real_Help4203,PermissionWitty1787,Regular_Decision_268,Quick-Detective-2260,Mean-Rate7122,No-Huckleberry-5360,Typical_Implement838,Able_Drink_9306,Dry_Reality_9277,Consistent-Diet-5127,Mindless_Tap_6243,Ok_Cable1049,Cute-Worldliness-995,Square-Persimmon2215,Key-Confusion-2316,Muted-Watercress2772,Boring-Teaching790,Odd-Rice3281,ResourceOver9082,ApprehensiveAct3407,Wonderful-Drink-5840,Successful_Mood_4333,Live-Average-25,Far_Entrance1941,GeologistSuperb6068,SenseAlert7741,CriticalCommission71,Fantastic-Trip4651,Junior_Donkey_82,Recent_Impact_6593,Particular_Copy7178,Crazy-Letter4802,YogurtclosetAbject28,That-Tune-3868,False-Pen-543,Fast_Practice805,Visual-Ad8687,Mediocre-Elevator-95,First-Key-6842,Vivid-Stuff-5132,Southern_Set1867,OkWriting6809,Impossible-Acadia136,Silver_Smoke_6656,WhichEqual2484,JustAir6509,Otherwise-Age2728,Environmental_Rip511,Individual-Fondant25,Expensive-Incident67,Puzzleheaded-Rub7852,StraightCharge3915,Complete_Mud1219,FriendlyDiscipline89,Aromatic-Meaning-165,Familiar_Koala_5098,Mediocre_Bit_8285,Odd-Tea-7885,OldInvestment8596,Perfect-Stuff2902,Few-Buyer-4491,Zealousideal_Pay8658,Antique_Dog_8858,Hairy_Letterhead_802,Quick-Invite6498,Ok_Boat4252,Specialist-Bass5588,Substantial_Hand_717,Traditional-Set3486,Agreeable_Worth_314,Icy_Bar_7486,Ok_Engineering8484,Asleep-Pin2293,Sweaty-Comment5947,Icy_Firefighter2010,Abject-Garden-865,Certain_Mode1759,ExtensionMedical9993,Conscious-Daikon1081,Flaky-Let3254,HolidayAdvice4254,Ok_Airport2317,Character_Big_8827,Master-Crab-101,Jaded_Session_9771,Ok_Spend6565,Still_Date_7862,ReporterTall5860,Naive_Tackle_6009,Responsible_Two_8199,Pure_Net1730,Financial-Print8778,Affectionate_Try7122,Alone_Vermicelli7341,Upbeat-Narwhal-5066,Ok-Candidate-922,Apprehensive_Pay7231,OneCombination5520,Brilliant-Bat8684,EfficientSearch6223,Born_Wrangler9131,FederalScallion2678,Cheap_Committee3653,Different-Secret-919,StrangeDate9949,NoticeOutrageous4379,Inevitable_Newt8429,No-Cod-1397,Big_Fox3198,TemperatureDismal123,BigDramatic1800,Open-Traffic413,Emotional_Dig3395,No_Independence7239,Fun_Year224,Normal_Ebb_9645,CandidAgent8905,Fun_Lie_9890,One_Significance1224,Live-Total4887,IndependentBaker782,Major_Series3960,InfiniteAd4710,Pristine-Row-2021,Great-Assistance-358,Responsible-Most-410,Old_Albatross_37,Used_Eggplant_4631,Ok_Employer_9629,Hefty_Worth8600,Own_Willow_5257,MoreAssociation2880,No-Concern-3857,ResponsibleTune8790,Intelligent-Monk-825,Born_Needleworker306,Electrical-Level-485,Bitter-Shock-3884,BroadBookkeeper8777,Secret_Test_3517,Same_Persimmon_2444,Antique-Ad-6322,No-Oil-3324,CommercialTill4788,Intrepid_Plate_290,Glad_Reception_6361,Impressive-Hand-2618,Prestigious-Shirt341,Ok-Stay-3918,Responsible_Can_3742,Sharp_Flounder2203,Desperate_Dentist140,Free_Sherbert6883,Adorable-Syllabub313,Silver-Brief3632,Leather-Map-6258,Dramatic-Plate-5169,ExperienceSafe8272,Far-War-8327,Brave-Way-8238,Chance_Ad_4147,Valuable-Side3873,Status_Diamond6596,Significant-You6167,SuccessfulTooth49,Right_Engine8090,Virtual-Possession48,SecurityConscious509,Former-East-6105,Sensitive-Panda-2078,United_Town_2300,Dry_Survey_9025,Much-Bobcat-3264,Illustrious_Log4584,Gold_Aardvark_303,HotArm588,Wooden-Pin-6370,Repulsive_Dentist_71,Additional-Smile5682,Pitiful_Entrance5257,EnergyInner7536,Charming-Library-167,Mediocre-Rise3017,BothLettuce4680,Ok-Acadia2089,Massive-Laugh-5932,Winter_Eggplant_4702,Human_Helicopter_901,Immediate-Sleep-5003,Latter-Excitement-43,Unhappy-Radish759,IllustriousIce1463,InformationNo6420,Complete_Research127,First_Pay_2302,Powerful-Current8225,Recent_Seesaw5117,AliveLiving1786,Ok_Library_4280,Unlucky_Contract3221,Short_Sherbet8803,FixInteresting8086,Embarrassed-Sand1594,Salty_Dragonfly7958,Organic-Owl-6590,One_Guitar6147,Wise-Calligrapher703,Select_Bathroom5510,Elegant_Entrance_181,GiraffeOk8469,Which-Business5625,Glittering-Tree6225,Silent-Bother-5434,Extension-Bat3560,Alarmed_Pack5644,Sad_Presentation9769,Pitiful_Patience_795,Fine_Menu_3238,RuinZealousideal6689,Big_Flounder5491,PossibilityRare2024,Gloomy-Breadfruit131,Medical-Coffee1627,PersimmonNo4937,Hour-Fly2058,FineZookeepergame167,Grouchy_Piano857,Dizzy_Coffee_9683,Dry_Aerie8800,Big-Profession6755,Vegetable_Cow9807,Trick-Secretary-1987,OkCollege8844,LevelMousse6167,Livid_Conflict_3586,Left_Bass_7301,Mean-Resource7295,Kindly-Character-985,Waste_Appearance865,Top-Improvement7215,MissionRange3581,Kitchen-Cod6868,No_Avocado8710,Large_Leading_1058,Ok_Chemical_3894,Left_Test1933,Smooth-Matter4470,Inevitable-Pitch-177,Any_Software_8022,Creative-Tap-9140,Head-Garlic5766,Neither_Title_5813,InstructionLimp9934,FarmPutrid7917,Large-Form1261,Aggravating-Hawk5953,Individual-Fall-7103,One_Cream347,TraditionalWasabi865,Wonderful_String_258,WrongdoerEmergency49,Over_Area_3009,Individual-Length874,Signal-Heat7687,Accomplished-Drag622,IndividualMission269,Disastrous_Fall7307,FicklePop2694,Double-Patient1972,Some_Succotash_2571,Inevitable-One-3392,Minimum_Vegetable648,Familiar_Cost_6847,AdAntique7967,Frequent_Hunter8971,Fun-Particular3221,Responsible-Law299,Possible-Finance5488,WholeOk6966,Best_Future3414,PalpitationUnfair498,Ok-Aide5219,Pretend_Teacher_8953,Apprehensive-Pace842,Desperate-Fan-166,Few_Feed8393,Fine_Math162,OkInteraction3530,Own-Dig-4594,Prestigious_Cod136,Secure-Grab8699,Brilliant_Kale_9999,Dangerous-Bee17,Historical-Love-7067,Livid_Intention_4155,Vegetable-Base-4242,Kind_Dream_8320,PageDesigner1312,No-Chest-3757,Ok-Department-7802,OutrageousCarpet6372,Soft_Dealer_5915,AnxiousAlgae8933,Legitimate_Buyer8451,Easy-Ad3220,Disastrous-Read-6664,Least-Breath-2478,Honest_Courage_233,Humble_Lab_5675,YellowNo119,Low_Macaroon_2012,Apprehensive_Fox9677,Due-Example4126,Limp_Apricot_1255,Impossible_Catch2665,Accurate-Brother7868,Ok-Hornet-3595,Far-Cantaloupe-9459,Relevant-Cap-2388,Educational-Cod-5790,No_Change_549,Slow_Ad223,Bright-Fan-3990,SpiritNo8769,Mundane_Sand9429,Dry_Bet3121,FindingNo302,Prize_Description700,Current_Fortune4485,Ok_Fee7917,HorrorAcanthaceae994,No_Economist3060,Affectionate_Fig1756,Top-Succotash-6696,Maximum-Cut-5112,One-Veterinarian1251,Tasty-Cup-3163,Same-Chapter7353,LawFlimsy4738,Zealousideal_Try3804,Wooden-Season-4444,AdventurousAct1361,Aggressive-Camel9551,AccomplishedMath9225,ContactAccording9986,IndependentAir1986,Several_Journalist13,BoysenberryOk5812,Kindly_Amount132,TrainingStandard2456,Spare-Activity-8823,Spiritual_Salary_807,Eastern-Simple-3258,Think-Telephone3585,Gloomy_Sign5307,Different_Actuator70,Existing-Try-7993,Spiritual_Alarm7706,Single-Feature-9733,Budget_Chapter1066,ProgrammerFar2413,Useful-Teacher-7571,TelevisionJunior7367,Capable_Mountain1322,Competitive-Towel309,Best_Bear_5278,Final-Razzmatazz5109,Top_Substance_2569,EntrepreneurRight844,Professional_Drag891,CoolConference8774,Rude-Marketing-41,Glittering_Love_7736,HeadReplacement2412,Grand_Ad9297,Ok_Author3315,Happy_Ad4763,Personal_Cow_8994,PresentOk2305,Kind_Athlete_6309,Putrid_Surprise4859,FlounderPast9034,Regular-Work-8689,Dry_Tennis8074,Itchy-Preference5903,No_Brother_8449,HostRevolutionary573,Lazy-Experience-8416,TrainerNo8496,BodybuilderNo6063,Effective_Diamond_54,Sea_Manufacturer_233,Gullible-Design-3192,AltruisticDriver7241,Much_Moose3207,CryptographerThis25,Low-Palpitation9498,TrueReference8280,EntireDiscipline2870,Special_Occasion_775,Dismal-Insurance7162,Few-Mud8130,Southern-Leg-3557,Beginning-Meat27,Secure_Homework6818,Efficient_Rub_5070,Extension_String_814,Separate-Cupcake-447,Past-Philosophy-9,Kindly_Cauliflower95,Strong-Cake-9421,PartyEmployer1627,Sufficient-Rub7699,Ok-Trash6800,Hungry_Run_677,Open_Situation3425,Ok_Bit6702,AlertLeg5965,Great_Treacle_5513,Forward_Blacksmith38,Responsible_Rent5933,Still-Bridge2155,Latter-Chain-9818,Temporary-Cat6432,Ok_Wrongdoer4756,Nice_Outside_6771,Hot-Cup-2728,Chance_Respond_2999,Ok_Yak_9922,Excellent_Boot_1064,Sufficient_Ebb_6555,Physical_Ebb5436,Equivalent_Bird_4571,No-Mode2388,Commercial-Stick9124,Reasonable-Hyena4565,Pretend-Flower5281,Deep_Importance_647,Medical-Positive-906,ProfessionalMix1010,Consistent-Deer-7081,OkAssistant7953,Repulsive_Spare1598,Alert-Possession-766,Initial-Ad-960,SaltyPossibility64,Whole-Revenue3673,Solid_Crab_1784,Huge_Dependent_984,Straight_Pickle7684,Dependent_Compote438,Aggravating-Cold5358,AvocadoSea6863,This_Contact9912,Anxious-Ad4104,Dull_Math645,Independent_Berry677,Alternative-Shoe306,Own-Barracuda8331,Cheap_Charity539,Pretty_Junket_2757,CoffeeExciting9394,Grand-Story-5179,Ill-Elderberry-7354,Logical_Question6281,Ok-Association6522,Jazzlike-Sun-8307,Straight-Stop934,Key-Chocolate8196,Professional_Pain367,ConsequenceSad1020,Salt_Pass_8791,Mission_Associate_45,Low_Environment5581,Sad-Carob733,Beginning_Detail_940,FreshLeader7551,Fit_Calligrapher_576,Ok-Interest-4096,MissionAnnual5685,Livid-Airport2478,Long_Skirt_2906,Educational-Age-8730,Hot-Analyst3698,Apprehensive-Fig3622,Western_Train_697,Top-Treacle-2526,ProfessionalCar2543,Overall-Secret-2166,Exotic-Cut4522,Ok_Bridge_2440,Conscious_Tart3084,Soggy_Ad8896,Either-Solution4316,Mysterious-Dirt-711,Few_Protection_9720,DragOk5331,Ambitious_Wafer3688,Slight-Pineapple-807,AdvertisingUsual6956,Kind-Peak9057,ExistingShower2322,Enough-Thanks2346,Huge-Brilliant5856,GoldStrange1933,BaseballKey5888,Able_Passenger_4528,Worldly_Bunch_8629,Infamous-Study244,Huge_Insect_4067,Business-Policy-9977,Evening_Syllabub_155,RollSufficient1191,Illustrious-Light773,AccomplishedPanic669,Queasy_Surprise_9178,Early-Highway-6917,Pristine-Act3449,Winter-Plankton957,No-Flan3111,Wide_Associate9870,Impressive_Syrup3402,Slight-Cantaloupe350,Regular_Television51,Separate-Win4061,Disastrous-Peak414,Loud_Research_7489,No-Woodpecker7678,Loud-Water-6788,Inside-Efficiency875,No-Coconut-5978,MusicianOver6044,Choice-Translator436,Live-Patience3017,Fair_Ad_7268,Excellent_Doubt_5646,StormZealousideal704,Realistic-Top3094,GroceryClassic6720,InfluenceExtra304,Popular_Piccolo5319,Historical-Tear2897,Valuable-Camel8866,No-Location7976,Electronic-Hyena-850,ApprehensiveEgg2072,Fickle_Motor_2833,Aromatic-Net8152,Maleficent_Tea_3823,Royal_Shop3536,Ashamed-Grocery-1933,Familiar-Buy-9499,Timely-Technician507,Main-Pension4889,Fragrant-Angle-1773,Familiar-Clothes3071,ComposerOk7734,Particular_Fix_9694,Practical-Bed4786,Hot_Calligrapher2563,Curious-Unit-9690,Inevitable-Thing5824,Better_Fondant3057,Grand-Chance-826,Automatic_Nose1998,Effective-Staff-2576,No-Draft-6882,Future-Antelope7277,Key-Flower5767,Opposite_Tooth_8365,CivilNinja459,Imaginary_Motor_6199,Total-Werewolf-7558,Comfortable_Wall6323,Perfect_Luck_7974,SillyAd5548,No-Pineapple-5067,Routine_Company_192,Competitive-Cell-421,InvestigatorExtra362,Mundane_Chapter3053,Successful_Party_468,Technical-Savings151,InvestigatorBig8564,Loose-Variation4675,FoundationRemote1868,Mean-Level7944,Typical-Airport8386,Early_Gur_134,Future-Fondant2991,Complete-Ear-8753,SignificantSmoke3779,Hungry_Finger5773,Putrid_Flatworm_5483,Big-Pound-5962,Defiant-Pressure-423,ApprehensiveWin6951,Glum_Advertising_729,Impossible-Tackle164,ConcentrateOk8752,Old-Relationship3796,Commercial-Guard1014,CalendarNo1573,Winter-Welcome1594,Adept_March4636,Acrobatic-Street8838,Physical-Ad-4973,Silly-Spinach5607,Adventurous-Fly-2315,Competitive_Form7723,Extreme_Novel6511,Popular_Patience_488,ManufacturerWise9261,Expensive_Ask1272,Several-Employer60,No-Independent-8892,Mobile-Pay6236,TemperatureSame7038,CelebrationFew7879,Constant-Front-729,Electrical-Fee-6301,Own_Calligrapher8233,Ok-Drag7436,These_Slide_1271,OrganicTwist3395,Constant_Antelope_28,Own_Role_2365,Ill-Trick-8060,West_Cheek_8735,Mountain-Ad-7084,Best_Interview_165,Eastern-Courage-1896,Odd_Caregiver1179,Excellent-Hurry9333,DryCharge7988,PaintingTall2929,Sufficient-Twist-833,BandSignificant6304,Basic-Ad-472,BlackberryOpen5999,No_Reception_7459,Affectionate-You-40,Visible-Capital2612,RiceTime9900,Responsible_Help4444,Negative-Kale8015,Zestyclose-Base2050,CreamRelative6297,Intrepid-Set-5566,Apprehensive_Aide462,Enough_Fortune_2974,Gullible_Duck8076,Chemical-Monk-7396,Positive-Spirit7569,Little_Bottle7776,CoconutAggravating47,EmergencyJaded7128,True-Throat-7775,Active_Temporary_446,FitVictory4644,Thin-Connection7969,Cultural-Feedback208,Fluid_Project6606,Appropriate-Swan5921,Scared-Membership727,South_Grand_9681,Every-Sun-2406,Individual_Class8219,Content-Ad-499,Ancient_Limit_9221,Money_Process_7852,AppropriateClick5862,Classic-Procedure-31,Careless-Necessary67,Apart_Wafer2577,ComplaintDue5590,WallRadiant7114,Money-Ranger5740,AcceptableTrick3296,PossibilityHairy6996,No_Room6472,Tight-Efficiency-323,Tall-Cucumber-8332,Beneficial-Injury161,JackfruitMediocre438,This_Wrongdoer_8390,No_Charity5035,SetDazzling840,Appropriate_Load6445,Afraid-Basket7163,Beautiful_Sea_4269,Confident-Limit2675,Overall_Constant2760,That_Decision_4693,Unique_Barnacle9567,TripGroundbreaking66,Aggressive-Fee-6213,Former_Mud_4633,Strict_Abroad_2878,Usual-Promotion4695,Responsible-Set-3751,Fuzzy-Persimmon-4119,PalpitationOk9063,Rare-Wrongdoer6325,Zestyclose_Cow_1644,Safe_Laugh_8791,NoRelationship7471,ZestycloseStomach760,Humble-Fail-8022,Electronic_Bridge874,Efficient-Scratch-69,Unlikely-Oil2330,Present-Raspberry107,PrudentGear5993,Individual-Drag-4640,Opening_Back3684,Distinct-Canary9884,ComprehensiveFace682,Funny-Ad-7304,Successful-Sport-356,Salt_Wrongdoer7054,No_Till5407,Background-Judge-595,Important_Length_179,Infinite-Month-648,BodyFun3762,BodyProfessional998,Current_Bend3842,Powerful-Wear-335,Slight-Lime-4780,Top_Worldliness4073,Ok-Bench6161,Classic-Winter7124,Hot_Priority752,GlitteringMost9158,DragonfruitSpare6304,According-Act-175,Patient-Locksmith758,OkPersimmon9368,Human_Pea_700,No-Earth-5584,BuildingOld603,GroundEmotional8184,Long-Pie-534,Purple-Corner1997,Any-Leg1532,Creepy_Jackfruit_384,Embarrassed_Item_313,Super_Two4578,Ancient_Ad3251,National_Stress6189,Maximum-Revenue-3053,Objective-Courage-92,Substantial_Tone9405,No-Lengthiness-994,Glittering_Event5897,Lumpy-Delivery5873,Short-Race2090,Dry-Date-7346,TrafficMysterious866,Dismal-Zombie-9406,Empty-Bus8704,Flashy_Actuary8494,No-Rip8027,Temporary_Tart1827,DramaticMortgage2676,Flashy_Water5468,Every_Emergency6450,NeedleworkerMean2665,Any-Reception1559,Own_Scale4633,Quick-Importance-280,Comfortable-Deal-161,Novel_Discount5833,Relative-Warning4680,Due-Benefit-1771,Key-Map8181,ColdUnited9433,Time-Trash-2229,WeddingSuspicious410,Conscious-Lobster814,Careful-Can-8259,Comfortable-Wish8784,Hot-Horror847,No_Somewhere_1938,Legitimate-Shape8722,Far_Art8591,OwnGuarantee5608,Wise_Resident_6641,Financial_Wall_1107,Frequent_Ad8468,Jaded_Trust_8037,OrganizationNo9213,Few-Plastic-5838,National_Condition32,FileSavings8973,Historical-Jury3676,Busy_Firefighter607,YakBackground1540,Kitchen_Key_3578,Desperate-Flow-8620,Possible-Anywhere-53,Left_Sprinkles5453,Present_Screen4815,Ok_Working_8266,Dazzling-Group-5268,Excellent_Demand_115,AccordingPickle2713,Strange_Kangaroo855,Tiny-Help-6787,Express_Safety_9036,Winter-Ad3850,Radiant-Concept-2046,Routine-Muscle-237,MenuElegant1424,Otherwise_Employ_903,Narrow-Highway-8367,Antique_Parfait_3152,East-Door-2062,Glittering-Expert595,Double-Aerie2050,Jolly-Rough-9382,United_Reception8946,Anxious-Hope-8968,Elegant-Mammoth355,One_Drummer1150,Apprehensive-Day3257,Lonely-System9909,FunPatient9889,Accomplished-Hat5201,West-Rooster1847,Ok_Significance5213,InternalReflection31,Powerful-Ad8596,AdCold8956,Obvious_Register4607,OkMinute4919,CurrentInside8322,Rough_Whereas_994,Patient-Test7311,Ok-Prize6207,Responsible_Carob781,Parking-Ad-8230,Common-Technician-72,According_Agent_7962,Loose-Eggplant5742,Queasy-Broccoli-1113,Salt-Might-995,Fresh-Trainer832,Sufficient-Wasabi-17,Prize-Tennis217,ImaginationGood7277,MagazineExpert8783,Particular_Ticket958,InternationalPick468,Necessary-Anxiety725,Terrible-Second-9929,Next_Mycologist_394,Middle_Ad1253,Financial_Aioli1058,Fine-Possibility-458,Other-Tiger4853,Amazing-Manager5053,Straight-Speed-5501,Suspicious-Hawk-3190,ConversationLanky668,No_Assistance_9317,Alternative_Echo6291,Just_Opportunity3558,Difficult-Dog8553,Powerful_Can7730,StringWarm3970,Turbulent-Wing-8930,Most-Can3742,Remarkable-Listen706,Senior-Guarantee-496,AtmosphereLower1841,One-Guide-9690,Acceptable-Ant1335,Commercial-Dot9941,Shoddy-Use-2007,Wonderful_Pizza_31,Ok_Two4741,AcademicRow6349,Expensive_Insect3279,Western_Bullfrog_986,Complete_Signal_9291,Fun-Capital44,Appropriate_Fan_5853,Free_Cantaloupe_8654,Classic_Car3578,Rude-Vanilla-8063,ApricotMore9573,Basic-Sugar-4253,Head_Competition4800,Chemical-Luck7711,Ok-Yogurtcloset1122,False-Obligation-728,Difficult_Pin_7824,Suitable_Hedgehog_42,MasterMembership5879,Dry_Captain_7902,LongjumpingMix731,ProfessionalEast5439,No-Barber-5069,Same_Theme7938,Weekly-Distance-7913,Broad_Will_9934,Clean_Weight_3125,Ok-Wolverine-303,Fit_Enthusiasm2134,No-Quarter-6356,GarlicCommercial8390,Strong_Tree6639,Few-Chemist4466,FirmTadpole1612,ObjectiveWriter7066,Dear-South-8524,Disastrous-Carry7657,Legal-Ad3518,Unusual-Quit2274,NextPainter2332,SufficientPatience84,This-Ambassador7758,BikeLow2997,Expensive-Dark7866,EfficiencySecure981,InteractionKey7426,Virtual-Shake8040,Proof_Road_6378,Imaginary_Minute4294,Amazing_Meaning4802,Individual_Novel_501,Green-Definition9417,ShowerNo4525,AssistanceUpper6549,Temporary-Milk-3190,CraftyCause7829,Left-Vehicle3328,Competitive-Good-577,Far-Day-9673,Similar_Reaction9347,Impossible_Leg_3120,Effective-Refuse-177,Proper_War_9439,CarBeautiful8282,DazzlingAioli6225,Commercial-Drama-126,Lost_Squirrel_4130,No-Assist-7512,Bitter-Society-5385,Suitable-Fix8939,Last-Suggestion-2461,PieSpiritual7042,FormalChart4015,Unfair_Camera6991,Responsible_Fuel_326,Alarming-Love490,NeedleworkerLive6223,Dramatic-Win6002,Resident-Cucumber126,Remarkable_Area_9607,Key-Efficiency-4281,Fine-Indication8041,EasyPlatform2471,SecretaryWorldly9262,Dangerous_Cloud_7888,Rough_Material_1432,WolverineOptimal7736,ProfessionalTiger352,Hopeful-Waltz-8107,Zestyclose-Spirit796,Zealousideal-Let6004,Available-Ebb-6643,Electronic-Emu3853,PrettyWay2480,Born-Philosopher-330,Dry-Risk6248,Wise_Elderberry8103,Top-Avocado3508,Turbulent-Trick9506,Medical_Cat_5070,Extension-Point-5212,Last-Sample186,ZestycloseRhubarb415,Exotic-Ratio1889,Appropriate_Gur2849,Prestigious-Road6526,Background-Belt8154,SignificanceSure4127,Straight-Candle-3668,West-Response4948,Character-Hearing-70,Patient_Warning_5758,ManufacturerQuiet109,New_Solid5780,One-Zone1319,Training_Night9533,WatercressIcy1123,Worried-Orchid7721,Top_Theme_2765,Ok_Print4486,Any-Dependent4150,Lazy-Recording6451,ContributionLazy6312,Ok_Understanding1693,Lopsided-Clock-2435,CandidateMean3024,Temporary_Clerk2852,Clear-Delivery1680,Chance-Let-2469,Educational_Entry336,MortgageEcstatic9195,Antique-Document1504,Icy-Ingenuity4993,Ok-Firefighter-3420,Educational_Buy8705,No_Catch_83,True_General960,Same_Tomatillo_8370,Mediocre_Mixture4027,Educational-Meat6141,Quiet-Ad1281,Extra_Egg_4411,Odd_Consequence_1391,RemarkableWing2897,Senior-Mulberry92,Maximum-Week-317,Prudent_Caregiver_77,MysteriousPublic301,Lonely-Arm7146,Valuable-Canary-6204,AvailableBison3477,NearbyMulberry713,PartAffectionate4801,NarrowPatient1054,Available_Primary647,Numerous_Shirt_3699,OkJoke339,Old-Crow-4996,Guilty-Garbage-1133,Tasty_Row6390,Cool_Income6762,Electronic_Chart_712,Constant-Stress8798,Most-Bad-2269,ReadyFloor8941,Flaky-Claim-3513,Temporary-Dare9089,Practical-Reward2687,Hot-Commission3855,AmbitiousAd2665,Interesting-Dig-3573,Brief_Eye_8214,Which_Ad_6067,Illustrious-Edge650,Fun_Leg6850,Swimming_Walk_3135,Worldly_Basil8466,Agile_Fan_263,ElectronicAerie8844,Junior_Watercress742,NoTooth5596,Firm-Method-1895,Hot_Orchid_6215,Cultural_Emu_1584,Street-Friend1563,Beautiful-Rub5710,Weekly-Court-5857,Loose-Survey-1730,RevolutionarySky2632,Putrid-Ad6794,Due-Reaction-2537,Chemical_Ratio_131,MetalCommercial8893,Other-Dragonfruit900,FreshCorner9126,Ok-Tax440,AggravatingBaby1507,Prestigious-Band4676,Southern_Cabinet3959,ScheduleExtreme8237,MentalStatistician90,Parking-Swordfish543,Otherwise-Sundae-859,Small_Engine7608,WhereasMaleficent547,Secure-Landscape-397,Loose_Ad_1671,Ok-Brilliant-5605,Advanced_Type3738,Ok_Leave7380,National_Frosting_76,Busy_Display9173,ScaredCollar6866,Ok_Negotiation_6940,West-Ad-9372,Recent_Market7653,Ok-Understanding2260,Cultural-Concern7257,Correct-Fisherman613,True_Ad_1740,ZealousidealReply672,Intrepid_Chef4291,No-Programmer-8996,Electrical-Sir-2528,Sad-Extreme-2367,Desperate-Low-8309,Ok_Breath5100,ManufacturerWhich118,Abject-Swimming9060,MycologistFeisty7201,Beginning_Tip_4107,Amazing_Marketing861,SpecialTypical6171,Far_Lengthiness7028,OkTear3871,Late-Obligation4608,Financial_Impact_639,New_Dog_7084,One_Butterscotch4179,Livid_Elderberry597,Alternative-Bee9776,New-Reference-2677,Character-Cookie6629,Bubbly_Ad4948,Agile-Nebula1920,Ok_Access1129,Prestigious-Block184,Heavy_Direction_8105,Known_Perspective662,Safe_Personality_236,NextAnt1184,Substantial-Bus8449,Opening_Turnover9990,Remote-Bus-9818,Loud-Spray4505,DifficultyOk4182,HauntingStudent9720,Ill_Suggestion9657,AlbatrossPlenty2043,Candid_Judgment_4978,Acceptable_Result968,Visible-Routine-2629,Neither-Cat8303,Top_Training7493,Responsible_Fix3697,Hot_Sundae5164,Brilliant_Rub8913,Accomplished-Log1741,Extra-Lifeguard-8153,One_Initiative_7576,Strange-Counter9133,ChefAggressive5373,CryApprehensive5368,Outside_Target194,BathSpecialist7280,Economy-Garage-9525,New-Whereas5781,Specialist_Crab1106,Powerful_Tie8269,Legitimate_Menu_2188,Advanced_Security341,Old-Mechanic639,MobileIll112,Lumpy_Wolverine_8625,Certain_Safe4457,Dull-Magician398,Commercial-Diver1439,Embarrassed_Dark3329,MarionberryCivil2192,Due-Bid8557,Actual_Ad2058,Neat_Account7604,Ok-Management-5227,Conscious_Dig_4739,Responsible-Can4155,ScholarSeveral3476,Worldly_Criticism305,Plane-Contract-356,Parking-Team3916,Then_Proposal6071,No_Lemon_557,AdNeither342,Dull-Manufacturer858,Appropriate_Lock3092,Sea-Afternoon4896,Antique_Cow6470,BaseballFree1416,Complete-Fishing7354,Severe-Vegetable-780,PuzzleheadedDog2580,Remarkable-Chain4544,Spiritual_Damage2234,Winter-Natural-7451,Unique-Activity5260,More_Cry_3035,Appropriate_Part960,AnalystMediocre1380,Practical-Network971,Exotic-Apricot-3035,Embarrassed_Shift621,Reasonable-Ease-4149,Working-Park-9211,Artistic_Air_1153,MemorySavings4004,RevolutionaryAsk152,No-Bee5493,Weird_Winter_771,Guilty-Economics-708,Square_Warning_9765,Square_Finding_5133,Huge-Bill953,Visible-Valuable-970,Careless-Sun1484,EmergencyDirection57,Sea_Recognition7924,Icy_Dog_1853,Turbulent-Remote-991,Creepy-Chain8516,Aggravating-Rough839,Maleficent-Film-8979,Double-Law-1978,Effective-Comb-3557,Basic-Individual-833,Short_Steak5165,IndependenceBulky750,Major-Bumblebee-5758,EducationalBake4702,Sea-Presentation6312,Dry_Management3404,Remarkable-Bed-3077,Capital_War_3300,Business-Net8075,New_Performance_3772,Emotional-Rice6910,Visual_Risk3675,Hour_Ad2048,Real-Bad-1492,KeyMany4627,Infinite_Remove2599,InfamousLion8200,Excellent-Frame-6991,Plane-Composer6892,SimilarResolution617,DueMirror9271,Best-Measurement8531,Sea-Theory-6206,PsychologyFar9204,Academic-Junket-5154,One-Construction563,PresenceBitter6023,Dry_Combination_4149,InevitableBath2745,Salty-Advantage9471,Suitable_Mobile8069,Tight_Speed_9303,Brilliant-Tap-1113,Interesting-Key-2919,Financial-Fennel2352,Initial_Security2794,Eastern_Art_171,Grand_Bee4456,Famous_Knee_1428,Dramatic_Eagle8330,Important_Set8818,Livid_Weekend_5870,AdditionalExpert8625,Specialist_Seat_3902,Jaded_Revolution_59,Sensitive_Sign3056,AppointmentSlow1790,Strong_Twist248,CharacterAd9819,Shot-Block-8213,DragonfruitTiny7922,Inevitable_Party9899,CompoteLeading7354,CauliflowerDry2450,Quiet_Onion_9882,Grouchy_Till_297,Adept_Addition4195,Only-Excuse7026,Glittering-Cry-6286,Severe-Banana3553,Commercial_Cap_2953,Guilty-Deal-7111,Radiant_Parsnip_1007,Beautiful_Cancel_940,Single-Land5136,Mammoth_Stable_242,Independent_Metal642,Several_Historian_52,Living-Thing-1071,AggravatingChip6525,LawfulnessCalm5537,AccomplishedDrama684,MeanPair8060,Designer_Mistake_574,Thin-Bandicoot262,Unique-Hovercraft325,Realistic-Stomach998,DingoMission5221,No-Understanding5486,LeadingBusy2751,ExtensionFudge9960,Useful_Industry_5020,Excellent-Feeling798,Technical-Study4745,Additional-Shame-372,Unusual-Flamingo-149,North-Grapefruit7824,Guilty-Refuse-2788,ForwardIndependent23,Legitimate-Art5443,JobPuzzleheaded7984,ScheduleRight9634,National_Feature1328,These_Atmosphere_564,Prize-Meal9882,CremeIcy144,PhysicsLegitimate573,No_Flounder_663,Admirable_Loquat6303,Dull-Signature-8053,MurkyImprovement3041,Wonderful_Affect_889,Top-Mycologist9441,Obvious-Elevator5649,Strange_Project_54,Specific_Set7630,Ancient-Oil6767,Pale_Macaroon_6285,Main-Application7140,Maleficent-Edge7654,Charming_Tart_7081,ShineSpecialist5418,Suitable-Ability-467,PublicSand5521,Available-Court-6457,Rude-Emotion2365,Dismal-Ad3635,FormalPriority8576,RefrigeratorLimp8895,Creative_Room_7708,Pretty_Match6551,Adorable-Ad4042,NoDepartment8614,Think-Finding1966,Kindly_Fig_7827,Ok-Answer-8700,Nervous_Recording_79,Adept_Cherry_9837,EngineeringFit5349,Ok_Cow4369,Important_Heron_8795,No_Breath7497,Expensive-Bird1939,Different_Wash416,ManagementFresh2075,Parking_Agency_4657,VegetableIcy5539,Sufficient-Note-9210,Guilty_Tip7792,Odd-Kaleidoscope1474,Pristine-Donut-7131,Fit-Ice-9027

1.6 Stardew Valley 1.6.0 was released on 19 March 2024. New content & features Added new festivals and events: The Desert Festival is a three-day event in spring which can be accessed after the bus is repaired. Two mini fishing festivals: Annual trout derby and SquidFest. A new environmental "event" in summer. Added a "mastery" system, accessed via a new area, which grants powerful perks and items… Added a new farm type: Meadowlands Farm. It has a chewy blue grass that animals love. You also start with a coop and 2 chickens. Added many new NPC dialogues. That includes... custom gift reactions; dynamic dialogues which react to things that happened; custom flower dance acceptance dialogue; restored missing dialogue (like Emily and Shane's flower dance custom accept-dance dialogues when married to the player, Shane's dialogue when browsing the Saloon vending machine, Lewis congratulating female farmers after their wedding, a line in Maru's 14-heart event, three dialogues from Sam related to Kent, two randomized dialogues when an NPC buys an item you sold to a shop, two speech bubbles from Marnie and Robin when you enter their shop building, and a fortune teller dialogue for your potential spouse); and more. You can now get multiple pets (after getting max hearts with your starter pet). Added a world map for Ginger Island, visible when visiting the island. The world map now shows your actual position within the world in real-time (instead of showing you at a fixed point for each location). In multiplayer, you'll see other players' positions in real-time too. Pets that love you will sometimes give you gifts. NPCs now have winter outfits. Festivals now have map and dialogue changes every second year (except the night market and desert festival). Added a golden Joja parrot, which you can pay to find all remaining golden walnuts on ginger island. Added perfection waivers, a new Joja way to bypass perfection challenges. Added a prize machine in Lewis' house. You can collect prize tickets as a reward for completing quests and special orders, and from repeated egg/ice festival wins. A bookseller now comes to town twice a season. Added mystery boxes. Added a big tree, with a quest line which ultimately gives you some new neighbors. Added four new crops (carrots, summer squash, broccoli, and powdermelon) which can't be purchased at the store, and two new giant crops. Added four new home renovations: dining room, attic, expanded corner room, and cubby. Added new items: Big Chest, which has almost double the size of a regular chest. It can also be placed "onto" a regular chest to upgrade it. Dehydrator, which turns fruit into dried fruit and mushroom into dried mushrooms. Mushroom Log, which produces mushrooms and interacts with nearby trees. Bait Maker, which can produce fish-specific baits. Heavy Furnace, which can process more bars at a time, and yield bonus bars. Fish Smoker, which produces smoked fish, doubling the value of the fish. You get one by default when starting a new riverlands farm. Text Signs, which can be written on. Anvil, which allows you to re-roll trinkets. Mini-Forge, which acts as a Dwarvish Forge. Statue Of Blessings, which grants a random blessing each day. Statue Of The Dwarf King, which allows you to select one of two mining buffs for the day. Tent Kits, which allow you to build a tent which can be slept in for one night. Treasure Totems, which spawn a ring of diggable spots. Mystic Seeds, which grow a unique tree which can be tapped. Mystic Syrup, a valuable tapper product. Deluxe Bait, gets fish biting faster than regular bait. Challenge Bait, which allows for up to 3 fish to be caught at once, but loses 1 each time a fish leaves the bobber bar. Deluxe Worm Bin, which upgrades the regular worm bin to produce deluxe bait. 19 unique Books Of Power, which grant special perks. Skill Books, which grant experience in a skill. Book Of Stars, which grants experience in all skills. Moss, a new resource type which grows on old trees. Mixed Flower Seeds. Sonar Bobber, which shows the fish on your line before you catch it. Raisins, which have a special use. Sea Jelly, River Jelly, and Cave Jelly, a new item that you can fish. 7 Trinkets, which grant powers related to combat. Red, Purple, and Green fireworks. Stardrop Tea, which makes an excellent gift for anyone. 25 new hats. 280 new furnitures. New unique furniture catalogues, which contain themed furniture sets. 41 new floor styles. 24 new wallpaper styles. Golden Animal Crackers. Mannequins, which can be dressed. Spouse Portraits which can be purchased after reaching 14 hearts. Butterfly Powder, which allows you to remove pets... Blue Grass Starter. Moss Soup. Secret items. Added Goby fish. Added some new remix bundles. You can now place hats on cats and dogs. You can now upgrade the copper pan into steel, gold, and iridium pans. You can now enchant pans with Archaeologist, Generous, Fisher, and Reaching. Added a "Special Items & Powers" tab to replace the wallet. The wallet area now tracks a selection of progress markers. Added an animals tab that shows all your pets & animals. You can now build pet bowls in Robin's shop, with three variants. The farmhouse and pet bowl can now be moved through Robin's menu. The farm computer can now be used anywhere to see a summary of that location, instead of only the farm. The mini-jukebox can now be used on the Ginger Island farm. Added a new interaction with your horse. Added a new side-tunnel to the quarry mine. The community center fish tank now becomes an actual fish tank when you complete it. Added more secrets & easter eggs. Added two new cat and dog breeds. Added turtle pets. Added 8 new achievements. Added 4 new cabin variants. Added a few more accessory options in character creation. Added a new bobber machine in Willy's shop, with 39 bobber styles to choose from. New styles unlock by catching new kinds of fish. Added a cameo appearance to Maru's 14-heart event. Emily has a new rare "socialize" daily quest if you've completed the introduction quest. You can now add anchors, treasure chests, and pearls to fish tanks. Pierre now sells a few random items at the winter star booth (at a markup!). Added a jingling sound when running with the cinderclown shoes on. Baby toss now has a chance to crit. Added a skull cavern statue that can be used to toggle hard mode in the skull cave (after completing Qi's challenge). Added additional chests to Skull Cavern levels 200 and 300. Added unique skull cavern chest appearance for level 100, 200, and 300 chests. Added a high note (C5) to flute block. Added iridium golem to wilderness farm. See changes for mod authors. Visual improvements around the valley Added waterfalls. Added more holiday decorations in winter. Added more pathstones to various maps. Added jack-o-lanterns after the Stardew Valley Fair in fall. Added seasonal world map variants. Added a new rare ambient critter. Added some rare summer butterfly variants. Added an uncommon little brown bird variant. Redrew the world map to better match the in-game locations and be more detailed. Boat journey textures are now seasonal and reflect the latest valley map. The bus stop now has a wider map, though the distance to traverse it is the same. (This is to prevent black bars from appearing at the sides of the screen.) Jelly, pickles, wines, and juices are now colored based on the ingredient item. Many town trees are now actual tree objects, though you can't cut them down. Slight adjustment to the way items pop out when dug from the ground. Updated volcano gold ore node sprite. Some trees have a chance to lose their leaves in the fall. Riverbanks and lakeshores in the mountain, town, and forest areas are now less jagged in some places. Graphical improvements to building interiors. Improved the art of George & Evelyn's roof. If you destroy a mines chest, it now shows some graphics debris. Added special backplates to fortune teller TV show if you get a perfectly good or perfectly bad luck day. Lighting changes: It now gets dark an hour earlier in winter. Night tiles (e.g. town lamps) now activate an hour earlier in all seasons. Indoor daytime lighting now smoothly transitions to night lighting over the course of two hours. Night lighting in non-farmhouse indoor locations is now slightly darker. Farmhouse lighting on rainy days is now slightly moody, and lights stay on all day. TVs and trees of the Winter Star now give off light at night. Added light sources to window light glows so there are no more "dark but lit" windows. Made some improvements to the intro bus drive cutscene. At night, hats are now drawn at the night-time color in the game menu portraits. Removed lighting quality option. It's now permanently set to ultra quality. The submerged fishing bobber is now recolored automatically to match the water. Multiplayer changes You can now have up to 8 players on PC. Many improvements for multiplayer performance and stability. That includes: Steam players will now use Steam multiplayer authentication, potentially improving connection issues significantly. Large multiplayer packets are now compressed, reducing bandwidth usage and latency. Internal optimizations to data syncing. You now need the same build number (in addition to version) to join a multiplayer server. This prevents crashes due to game changes between builds. Accepting a Qi challenge that increases mine difficulty now only kicks other players out of the affected mine type, not all mines. Purple shorts no longer show a chat message when placed into the Luau soup. Jump down mineshaft sound now plays for all players in the level rather than just the jumper. Balance changes Added a box with three tent kits to the Ginger Island jungle. Weapons found in the wild now have a chance to come with a basic "innate enchantment". You can re-roll "innate enchantments" (if the weapon could have one) at the forge using a dragon tooth. Slime Hutches are now significantly smaller (11x6 → 7x4). Farm animals now gain a little happiness if you close the animal door behind them at night. Grass now survives in the winter, though it won't spread. However, cutting grass during winter is much less effective. The mushroom cave now comes with a free Dehydrator. Changed recipe skill requirements for: charcoal kiln (foraging 4→2); cookout kit (foraging 9→3); survival burger (foraging level 2→8); tapper (foraging 3→4); and worm bin (fishing level 8→4). Price changes: Most home renovations now cost money, which is refunded if you undo the renovation. (The game knows whether you bought it though, so refunding a pre-1.6 renovation won't give you free money.) Reduced fairy dust sell price (500g → 300g). Reduced tea sapling sell price (500g → 250g). Reduced life elixir sell price (500g → 250g). Building cabins no longer requires materials, only the 100g price. Raised price of second house upgrade (50,000g → 65,000g), but reduced number of hardwood needed (150 → 100). Reduced worm bin's hardwood needed (25 → 15). Increased cost of warp totem: farm in casino (500 → 1000) Raised price of bombs in dwarf shop. Raised some hat prices from Hat Mouse. Shop changes: Put limits on some casino stock. You can now buy all brazier recipes in Robin's shop at once instead of in sequence. Item drop changes: Chopping down a fruit tree now yields the appropriate fruit sapling. If the tree is mature (i.e. the fruit quality is > basic), it will yield a sapling with the same quality as its fruit. The higher the quality, the faster the sapling will mature. Chopping down a tea bush now gives back a tea sapling. There's now a small chance to find cosmetic items and other goodies while doing random tasks. Snake vertebrae are now easier to get. Train cars which carry wood can now drop hardwood. Santa's train car can now drop gifts. Reduced prismatic shard drop rate from iridium nodes (4% → 3.5%). Rare yellow slimes now drop money. Brown slimes now drop wood (doesn't affect the copper slimes in the quarry mine). Botanist perk now applies to items dropped from trees (e.g. coconuts). Reduced chance of fishing void mayonnaise at the witch swamp. Gift taste changes: Adjusted gift tastes for several NPCs. Treasure chests are now a universally liked gift... except by Linus. Skill XP changes: Mushroom Logs and Mushroom Boxes now grant 5 foraging XP on harvest. Harvesting berry bushes now grants 1 foraging XP per berry. Harvesting forage crops from wild seeds now give much less foraging experience, but grant some farming experience. Monsters on the farm now give combat experience, but it's 1/3 of normal value. This excludes slime hutch slimes. Adjusted combat: Extended the area of effect of downward facing melee attacks (and slightly extended the side attack of daggers). Topaz ring now gives +1 defense, rather than the unused precision stat. Raised insect head's damage (10-20 → 20-30). Raised kudgel's critical attack power (+4 → +50). Bombs now affect terrain features (like trees and crops) within the round explosion radius rather than a square area. Slightly increased rate at which skeletons throw bones or shoot spells. Adjusted Junimo Kart: Added grace jumps in Junimo Kart: when you run off the track, you can still jump for a short time to recover. Your score is now saved if the minigame forcibly exits while playing endless mode. Noxious gas emitting mushrooms no longer appear in pairs. Reduced bubble spawn rate on whale level. Adjusted machines: Worm bins now need a lower fishing level (level 8→4) and produce more bait (2–5 → 4–5). Loom now has a higher chance of double cloth when processing quality wool. Fish ponds now have a chance to produce extra roe whenever they produce roe. Geode Crushers no longer require coal to operate. Adjusted penalties when knocked unconscious: You can no longer lose the Golden Scythe, Infinity weapons, or tools. You can no longer lose more than three items. The amount of money lost now scales to how much you have. It's now less punishing if you don't have much money, but more punishing if you have a lot. This also raises the maximum lost from 5000g to 15000g. Adjusted food buffs: Joja cola now gives a very short speed buff. Green tea now gives +0.5 speed. Mine and dungeon changes: Added coal nodes to the volcano dungeon. Barrels now spawn on skull cavern levels divisible by 5. Reduced the maximum possible effect a bad luck day can have on finding a prismatic slime. Reduced number of bugs to kill for monster slayer goal from 125 to 80. Bundle changes: Made remixed specialty fish bundle (and analogues) reward 5 Dish O' The Sea, to make it consistent with the classic bundle. River fish bundle now gives deluxe bait. Improved some community center rewards. Adjusted crafting recipes: speed gro now requires 5 Moss instead of 1 Clam . deluxe speed-gro now requires 5 bone fragments instead of 1 coral. quality fertilizer now requires 4 sap instead of 2, but produces 2 per craft (still only requires 1 fish). Spouse changes: Spouses now have a seven-day "honeymoon" period after marriage which prevents them from laying in bed all day due to being upset. Kissing your spouse, and giving them a gift on the previous day, each reduce the "minimum heart level threshold" for a bed-ridden day by one heart (12→10 if you do both). Friendship gain is reduced by 33% for spouses. Rebalanced the crop fairy event: the chance no longer depends on the number of planted crops, it can no longer happen on the last day of the season (to avoid growing crops that might die overnight), and it can no longer choose dead crops to grow. Increased the shaving enchantment's effect on giant crops. Each giant crop now has a 60% chance of dropping an extra six crops while the shaving enchantment is equipped, spread across the number of hits needed to break it. For example, a base axe which breaks the giant crop in three hits gets three 20% chances of dropping 2 crops. The mushroom cave now provides mushrooms every second day. It was unintentionally changed to daily in Stardew Valley 1.5. You can no longer plant trees in the beach farm tunnel. Randomization no longer produces simple repeating patterns in many cases (e.g. clay farming, mushroom level prediction, crab pot fish offset, etc). (You can enable "Use Legacy Randomization" in the advanced save options to use the old randomization, though some specific patterns may still change due to the underlying changes. That option is mainly intended for speedrunners; most players should keep it disabled for the intended experience.) Spreading weeds can no longer destroy artifact spots. Increased the number of monsters that daily monster quests will ask you to slay (in some cases). Added more custom quantities, for example Dust Spirits will ask for 10-20 kills. Tilled dirt on the island farm now decays in the same way as the regular farm. Slightly increased time you have to push against farm animals before passing through them. Slightly boosted quarry output. Daily quarry output now increases each year, up to a limit. You can no longer plant trees in town. Secret notes are no longer created during festivals (except passive festivals like the night market and desert festival). Adjusted fish variety in ice fishing festival. Quality of life changes Performance improvements. NPCs now shove chests out of their way instead of destroying them. If Pam won't be coming to the bus for any reason, she now leaves a sign informing you and you can drive yourself to the desert. Audio changes: Made more sounds positional (mainly players, tools, and machines). Positional sounds now fade with distance when off-screen, instead of cutting off abruptly. Softened the bomb fuse sound. The music now "ducks out" and then resumes when certain sounds are played, instead of stopping. You can now "strafe" while charging a watering can or hoe, allowing you to reposition your tool hit area without changing your facing direction. You can now refill slingshot ammo by right-clicking it with the same ammo. Previously that would just swap the item stacks. Planting cactus seeds on the farm now fails with a message, instead of the seeds dying overnight. Holding a tea sapling or seed over a garden pot now shows the green/red placement tile. You can no longer pick up rugs if there's something on it. Checking a pet bowl will now show a text bubble with the pet's name. Added a new post-fishing sparkling text to indicate when you've caught something for the first time. Torches can now be placed on sprinklers. You can now sit in chairs during festivals. You can now move filled chests by hitting them twice with a heavy tool (previously only with bare hands). The chests will shift one space at a time. You can now place flooring underneath most buildings. Crystalariums now have to be removed and replaced before a different gem can be put inside, to help avoid wasting gems accidentally. Daily billboard quests now have a more informative tracker notification when you make progress on them. Added a small checkmark icon on special orders you've completed before (only on town special orders board). You can now skip the pet adoption scene, which causes you to adopt the pet. Reduced the amount of time you need to push against a pet before they start shaking and then let you pass through them (1.5 → .75 seconds). Reduced time for mini-obelisk warp (750ms faster). Male farmers are no longer forced into wedding clothes on their wedding day, so you can choose your own outfit for the wedding. Emptying a fish pond with fish still in it will cause the remaining fish to flop out of the pond. Slime hutch changes: You can now change the flooring of the slime hutch. You can now remove the starter incubator in the slime hutch. Slime balls no longer appear on crafted flooring. UI improvements: Added an hourglass cursor shown when you're waiting for something to load on the title screen. Notification messages in the bottom-left corner now last 50% longer before going away. "Sound in the night" events now show an icon on the screen to indicate that a sound is playing. Dialogue question selectors no longer remain selected when you hover away from them, to reduce accidental selections. Robin's building menu now shows how many days a building will take. If an item menu exits while you're holding an item, the item is now always retrieved. (Previously only some item menus like chests would do it.) Marnie's animal shop now centers the camera on an appropriate building when purchasing an animal. Marnie's animal shop now shows prices in the tooltip, in case the tooltip covers the price display. The achievement menu now lists all potential achievements. Hidden achievements you haven't unlocked yet are shown as "???". The museum reward menu now prevents picking up a reward that won't fit in your inventory. The museum reward menu now lets you exit while holding a reward. It'll be added to your inventory if possible, otherwise it'll drop at your feet. The save creation farm selector now has two columns instead of one, and no longer overlaps the back button on small screens. The shipping menu category pages no longer take up the whole screen, as long as the screen is beyond a minimum size. Inventory tooltips for food that gives a buff now shows the buff duration in the tooltip. The map now closes when you press the map button again. Exiting the Junimo Note menu from within the game menu now returns to where you were in the game menu rather than exit the menu. Shops now truncate item names which would overflow the menu width. Shops now have a slight delay before you can buy/sell items, to help avoid double-clicks doing it accidentally. Deleting a save on PC is now much faster. Significantly reduced save loading time when there are many custom locations. If a default farm building (like the greenhouse) is somehow removed, it'll now be rebuilt next time you load the save. "Menu background" is now a drop down option, which includes "Standard", "Graphical", or "None". Attempting to put something in a machine but failing will no longer cause you to try and consume or activate the object you're holding. Kent intro event and Robin flute block event are now skippable. (PC) You can now shift + right-click an item on the toolbar to throw it out of your inventory (if possible). (PC) You can now press the Y or N key to confirm or cancel the "leave festival" confirmation box. (PC) Holding left-shift + left-ctrl + 1 when buying from a shop will attempt to buy a stack of 999. Other changes Adventure guild now stays open until 2am, though the music will not play after midnight. Gender-specific clothing variants can now be worn by any gender. If you have 12 hearts or more with your spouse, the chance they'll say a neutral dialogue in the afternoon (which sometimes comes across as negative) is significantly lower (25% → 5% chance). Penny's forest picnic event and Leah's forest picnic event now only happen if it's sunny. NPCs now try to avoid walking through trees and other terrain features. Cabins have been combined into one entry in Robin's menu. Replaced pet icons on the inventory tab with the current date. The “Organize” button now sorts items in a more intelligent way. You can now drink mayonnaise and jelly, and eat pickles. Some colored objects now count as their color for qi quest and dye menu. Clam is now considered a "fish" just like all the other shellfish. Added more descriptive titles to daily quests. Added Cyrillic sprite text and some translated world pixel art text. Adjusted the date/time/money box in Chinese. The about page now shows the build number. Skull caves now have a chance to also play music from the upper mines. Changed parrot flap sound to be different from bat flaps. Pans now have a chance to yield bone fragments. Made the character randomization a little less random, and added some of the newer hairstyles and accessories to the mix. Pan no longer yields the same thing if you pan in the same spot twice in a day. The about page no longer hides the version if a tip message is shown. The order that you'll get forge enchantments is now unique per player rather than per farm. The Ginger Island shrine item pedestals are now normal items. Modded players can spawn them to display items decoratively (though they're not obtainable in vanilla currently). Map no longer closes if you click on an area of interest. Fixed some NPC schedules that weren't previously applied: Lewis visiting the library on winter Sundays; Maru and Penny hanging out on summer Sundays; Maru tinkering on summer Mondays; After reaching six hearts with some NPCs, they won't visit their rival love interest anymore. This affects Alex visiting Haley, Elliott visiting Leah, and Haley visiting Alex. Gameplay fixes Fishing fixes: If you're fishing when the pirate cave changes to pirate mode, you will catch your fish. Fixed artifacts found in fishing chests not counting for the collection tab. Fixed fishing crash if a treasure chest appears while the player has a large number of stacked fishing buffs.

Hi, all! I am requesting a beta readereaders. This is a draft of my first novella or novelette. My first draft of this story was hand-written. I typed it up, and I've been editing it on Google Docs. I've had two alpha readers give me feedback, and while that was super helpful, I want some unbiased, outside opinions. I know this story isn't done, but I've been looking at it for so long that I need to take a break. While I do so, I would appreciate some feedback from all of you strangers on the internet!
Story Blurb: The protagonist is Renée, a little, nonbinary grey mouse who lives in the blackberry brambles. Renée is a bit of an introvert and prefers a quiet life in the woods, preferring to talk to plants than other animals. On the evening of the midsummer festival, Renée has a vision that their forest will burn in a wildfire. The only hope of stopping this is to request the aid of the Goddess of the East, who can change the winds of fate. When Renée finds the goddess, she has taken the form of a human and forgotten her true identity. While leading her back to the forest, Renée must convince this human that she is an immortal, omnipotent goddess born of stardust.
Content Warnings: Wildfires, death and loss, and climate change. I want this to be a children's story that is enjoyable for adults to read as well. While it tackles heavy topics, I don't want it to scare anyone. I want to present a magical yet realistic snapshot of the world thousands of years in the future.
Feedback: Constructive criticism about my writing style and the presentation of the overall story are welcome. I am searching for ideas about what to add to build the world and give the characters more depth. My maximum word count goal for my final draft is 40,000. I divided this story into four sections, and each one gets shorter and shorter. I want to make each section roughly equal in length while still fitting the theme and adding worthy details and plot points to the story. I want to depict all the creatures of the forest as sprites and fairies while still making it clear that they are beetles, ladybugs, etc. Spoiler**:** This story does take place on Earth thousands of years after human extinction, but I want to drop hints about the setting as the story progresses. I want the audience to think the story takes place on a different, fantastical planet, but as more details are revealed, it's clear that it takes place on Earth.
Preferred Timeline: As soon as possible. I'm on no timeline but my own, so I am flexible. I'm just excited about this story.
Critique Swap Availability: I have about 20 hours of free time per week that I can devote to swapping manuscripts and beta reading, so I would prefer it if whoever reads my writing could match that.
Link to the first page: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WLqWBoOIciqIldFpBL06_HFdJiUfsc7Z5YZ8qko6ypA/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you in advance!

Just got back from 14 days in Japan. I found trip reports on Reddit super helpful and thought it might be nice to write one, sort of pass on the favour.
We are a couple in our 30s from the UK and this was our first visit to Japan. We are interested in food, art, museums and generally wandering, my partner is also really into video games. We really wanted to spend time exploring and enjoying ourselves, but weren’t necessarily aiming for a min/max approach. We are quite keen planners and did a lot of research on things to do in advance, but tried to give ourselves room to adapt and stumble across things. Neither of us are big nightlife people. We saved in advance and tried to put ourselves in a position where we didn’t need to worry too much about spending, but we also did do things a bit on the cheap like just getting konbini breakfasts.
I think I’ve also realized we probably aren’t very discerning since we loved basically everything.
Some thoughts below!
TRAVEL

• We flew with China Eastern Airlines with a stopover in Shanghai. Personally I think long haul flights are something to be endured rather than savoured so to my mind the flights and layover were fine for the price. Quite a funny selection of films on board with 2014’s Interstellar listed under “Hot new hits”. If you fly with the same airline, I would recommend downloading a few movies/shows to your phone to pass the time.
• We used Pasmo passports to get around. I think people generally prefer Suica but we’d read it wasn’t available at Narita and I don’t have an iPhone. I kinda feel it was much for muchness, and Pasmo worked fine and was convenient for us to top up.
• We pre-booked Shinkansen tickets from Tokyo to Osaka, and Kyoto to Osaka. Could not believe the size of the overhead luggage racks on the train - our cases were H75 x W50 x D30cm and fit up there.
• We used google maps to navigate and this worked well for us. We didn’t find the transport system too overwhelming (the station numbering on the metro is genius, why don’t more places have that?), but we DID find Japan’s unreserved love of the shopping centre built into/on top of train stations a bit overwhelming, like just constantly being expelled from a busy train into a Parco was a bit much. We started just trying to find a way out quickly and go from there rather than trying to get to the right exit.

HOTELS

• In Tokyo, we stayed in Sotetsu Fresa Inn Higashi in Shinjuku for the first stretch. The room was really tiny so we did have to regularly pull suitcases up onto the bed, but the location was really convenient for getting around, and also great when we’d had a long day and decided to eat near the hotel. Had a coin laundry and set up luggage forwarding for us.
• In Osaka, we stayed in Hotel the Flag in Shinsaibashi. This was a bigger room with a bigger bed which was nice, and again the location was great for getting around. There was a coin laundry and they did luggage forwarding for us. The only thing here was that the room didn’t have an openable window so it was really warm and dry, we both kept waking up with sore throats.
• In Kyoto, we stayed in Yu No Yado Shoei. This was a Ryokan and was really nice. It was a bit more away from it all but that actually suited us at this point in the trip. It had a tattoo-friendly public bath which we loved, so restorative after so much walking. We went everyday. The only drawbacks were that they couldn’t set up luggage forwarding and there wasn’t a laundry, and we probably should have checked this before booking, but we booked before we knew the luggage forwarding existed. It just meant when we got back to Tokyo we had to go to the hotel near Nippori first.
• Back in Tokyo, we stayed in Hotel Wagokoro near Nippori station. This was a really nice hotel, enough room to pack which was handy. Did not have a laundry but was opposite one, amazing bakery not far away.

PLANNING AND PREP

• We booked flights first and then worked from there on how to split the time and sort hotels. We booked flights when they felt most affordable/convenient to us, but actually think the timing was good - we caught the odd bit of early blossom but definitely felt like we would have found it overwhelming during the busiest periods in some places.
• For hotels we took some recs from the internet and friends but ended up basing the choice mainly on cost and locale as well as online reviews. In Kyoto we wanted to find a ryokan with a public bath which narrowed our options.
• To plan our itinerary, we set up a google map and started pinning things we were interested in over a couple of months, including attractions and places we might like to eat. From there, we started grouping things that were close together into possible day plans, and then put this into the Wanderlog app. We found Wanderlog quite helpful as it flagged when things were closed as we were planning. We did get the free trial of pro and played with the optimization features but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it, but did like the app. We also updated it at the end of each day to record where we’d been.
• Splitting the time: We settled on bookending the trip with Tokyo as that’s where our flights were from, with 3 full days in Osaka (one of which was a trip to Nara) and 2 full days in Kyoto. I know lots of people say Osaka can be a day trip but we really liked it as a city, I actually would have loved to spend a full day in the Expo park where Tower of the Sun is, as we could have spent much longer in the Ethnology Museum and there were other museums there as well as beautiful gardens. I also felt like our two full days in Kyoto were really touristy and we didn’t see much of the city proper - these were great days and I wouldn’t have skipped what we did, but I was grateful for the day we arrived where we got to see a bit more of the actual city.
• Our main sources for recommendations were Reddit, Google (searches like “things to do Tokyo,” “Shibuya itinerary”), friends. I think it’s sometimes easy to get caught in loops and see the same things again and again, especially with recs on TikTok, and I do wish we’d done a bit more just looking at google maps to see what else was in areas, like in Arashiyama we would have planned in the Orgel Museum if we’d spotted it in advance of actually being there, but it didn’t get mentioned in any recommendation articles, we just saw it on the map when we were there and didn’t have the time.
• Duolingo: we both did 4 or so months of Japanese Duolingo in the run up which was sort of helpful, but I think we should have also done some specific phrase learning for travel. I felt like it would have been useful to know, for example, numbers 1-10 and I just didn’t make it that far in Duolingo, probably used more from the phrase book we took with us than that. Mostly we said please, thank you, excuse me and google translated anything where we needed help bridging the communication barrier.
• Planning food: we didn’t want to do much queueing, so we weren’t sure how much we’d follow recommendations online. We pinned some places to the map and often used them for ideas when we were out, but didn’t stick to them too much. We booked one meal in advance for my partner’s birthday, at Bird Land in Tokyo. In general, we would decide what we were in the mood to eat and just plonk that into google maps and go somewhere highly rated nearby. This likely means we didn’t discover the most interesting spots but ultimately this approach served us well, we enjoyed every meal. Where we ate is in the itinerary below.
• Booking in advance: we booked Umeda Sky, Tokyo Skytree, Sagano Romantic Train in advance. These were useful anchor points for our days but it was nice to not have too many commitments in place. We also booked the Ghibli Museum in advance – we had a few days we could do this which was helpful, and my partner set up booking over 3 devices when it went live. Ultimately I think this is just luck though, he got to be 67th in the queue on one device (others in the deep thousands) and so we got our first choice date. Would recommend having multiple cards you can pay with ready to go as one got rejected for an unknown reason but it worked with another.

PACKING

• We took one big suitcase each and half filled them so we could easily bring stuff back. We took clothes to last a week and then planned to do laundry while away. We did not plan to buy extra clothes there (we’re both tall and plus size). In the end, we could have probably taken a bit more as we did not buy nearly as much as expected (it looks like most “hauls” are clothes and cosmetics which just aren’t huge areas of interest for us).
• We took some medicine with us, like paracetamol, ibuprofen, because we figured it would be easier to take than to find there if we weren’t feeling well. Ibuprofen was good for sore feet.

OTHER THOUGHTS AND CONSIDERATIONS

• It was very dry! Not weather wise but like, the air? We didn’t expect this but especially the first few days in Tokyo it just felt like we were shriveling up, even in the rain. We ended up needing to buy moisturizer and lip balm and we got through nearly all of it trying to make our skin feel less like papyrus.
• Weather was colder than we expected, if you’re going at a similar time I would definitely take a good raincoat and options for light layering. Most shops and attractions have umbrella storage which was amazing. It was also very windy in Tokyo.
• For data, we used Airola e-sims. We had good coverage throughout the trip, they were easy to set up and quite cheap for 20 MB each, which more than covered all of our navigation and messaging. No complaints.
• Cash - we always had cash on us, generally taking out 7 or 8k yen every few days. However we actually found that, outside of small restaurants, more places took cards than we expected, like museum/gift shops and konbinis. Cash (especially 100 yen pieces) was useful for when we saw cute gacha, goshuin seals, arcade games. We had a lot of change at some points so did sometimes try to pay with it, but we’d make sure to count out in advance so we didn’t hold up queues or waste people’s time. We also found uniqlo had self-checkouts that took change so I bought some socks for the flight home and paid almost entirely in 10 yen and 1 yen bits.
• Trash - definitely do carry a tote or ziplock bag for rubbish as there are not a lot of bins around. Most konbinis have bins though so we would often drop whatever we were carrying whenever we stopped in for a snack or drink, so we didn’t accumulate that much each day in the end.
• Toilets - Japan is really amazing for public toilets. I will envy this of them for the rest of my life. Most train stations, larger shrines or temples, parks and shopping centres have public toilets. This was great. They do not all always have bins for menstrual products though which can be a bit tricky - I found the shopping centre ones tended to though.
• Eki stamps: we bought an Eki Stamp book towards the end of the first day in a bookstore in Shibuya (I think Books Keibundo) and collected these throughout the trip. In general, this was really fun and made a great souvenir. We started trying to work out the stamp location before getting to a station so we could pick the right exit, aided by the website Funakiya's Travel Stamp Book, which was a good approach because on the occasions we hadn’t done this we sometimes got a bit stressed trying to find them when we were tired. Generally we loved Eki stamps though occasionally it did feel like an albatross around our necks, but we definitely have slight completionist tendencies.
• Goshuin seals: I ended up LOVING visting temples and shrines so we did a goshuin journal that ended up pretty full. We bought it at the first shrine we visited. Getting the seal normally costs 300-500 yen, the majority of temples and shrines will write directly into your book but some (especially bigger or busy ones like Kanda) will give you it on a sheet of paper instead. This is my favourite souvenir of the trip and I think really worth doing if you plan to hit a lot of temples.
• Walking: we walked A LOT. I’ve included our step count in the itinerary below, but almost every day we did 20k+ steps. It was a great way to see different parts of cities, but there were times we overdid it because we maybe hadn’t planned the routes well, or because we thought walking and public transport would take a similar amount of time and decided the walk would be nicer, neglecting to consider public transport might at least offer a chance to sit. Overall we managed fine, a few sore feet and blisters along the way but it felt manageable for us, but definitely worth considering what your own limits might be.
• Breakfast: we ate melon pan from a konbini basically every morning as we decided this was an area we didn’t mind compromising on. Also melon pan is great. We did this for lunch sometimes as well.

ITINERARY
Will attempt to keep this brief as this post is already long but happy to discuss anything! The below is what we actually did, rather than what we planned. A lot of the shrines and temples, especially in Kyoto, are ones we stumbled across while walking and went to look around, rather than what we planned in.
Day 1: Tokyo

• Arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport and got Pasmo cards
• Travel to hotel in Shinjuku
• Immediately purchase a Family Mart Family chiki snack
• Wander round Shinjuku and Kabukicho
  • won a coin purse on the UFO catchers, very useful in the coming weeks!
  • Went to Don Quijote Shinjuku but bottled it after the second floor, it was so busy and just too much after a long day’s travellin
• Dinner: Kitakata Ramen Bannai Yotsuya in Omoide Yokocho
  • Small place doing pork based ramen where you order via a vending machine, also does great gyoza
  • Really delicious and exactly what we wanted after a long day of travel, not super busy for the area especially considering it was a Saturday night (maybe we had beginner’s luck)

Day 2: Tokyo
26, 708 steps

• Gotokuji temple
  • Arrived at 8am and it was very quiet, only a few other people there
• Shokokuji temple
• Shoin shrine
• Shiro-Hige’s cream puff factory
  • Arrived about 15 minutes before opening and were first in line (it was raining), by opening there were a few other people. This was absolutely delightful.
• Japan Folk Crafts Museum
• Meiju Jingu
  • Thought this might be very busy but it was raining so not too bad
• Harajuku
• Shibuya (Pokemon centre, Nintendo Tokyo, Tower Records, Scramble Crossing)
• Lunch: Tonkatsu Wako Shibuya Mark City
  • Inside a shopping centre selling tonkatsu and katsudon
  • Queued about five minutes
  • Very generous portions, really nice and crispy food
• Dinner: we got a konbini picnic to eat in the hotel room because we were tired

Day 4: Tokyo 29, 174 steps

• Inarikio Shrine
• Kōkoku-ji
• Jimbocho Book Town
• Kita No Maru Park (we had planned to do Museum of Modern Art and the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace after, but neither were open in the end which we hadn’t anticipated)
• Ginza
  • Itoya was the highlight for me
  • We aren’t big shoppers so Ginza was architecturally interesting but not thrilling for us, felt similar to Regent’s Street in London where I would only go there if I wanted something specific
• Back to Shinjuku for a wander and dinner
• Lunch: CoCo Ichibanya
  • Chain of places selling curry, was very cheap and pretty nice
• Dinner: Kameya in Omoide Yokocho
  • Unbelievably cheap soba and tempura
  • Queued for >5 minutes and I think we were lucky to sit together
  • One of our favourites from the whole trip, just really delicious and a fun one to watch the staff cooking in; they made the vegetable tempura by eye and watching them mix it up was amazing
• Dessert: Square Enix Artnia
  • We went for pancakes, they were pretty good
  • Not the cheapest but quite a funny experience

Day 4: Tokyo 22,200 steps

• East Gardens of the Imperial Palace
• National Museum of Modern Art
• Square Enix Cafe in Akihabara
  • Was Octopath Traveller 2 themed at the time so quite quiet, think it would pick up for FF7
  • Food was nice though more on the expensive side of the places we went
  • Quite a funny experience and we enjoyed it but not a top tier rec from me
• Yanagimori Shrine
• Yushima Seido
• Kanda Shrine
• Wander round Akihabara (my partner got some retro games in various places)
• Hanabusa Inari Shrine
  • Don’t travel specifically for this but this was a real favourite of ours, and definitely worth the few minutes detour if you’re in Akihabara - tiny shrine nestled in between skyscrapers
• Dinner: Mensho Kamayoshi
  • Curry Udon ordered from a vending machine
  • Has a slimmed down English menu which they were quite insistent we used, also brought us cheese to put on the udon which they didn’t do for any non-westerners (we found this funny)
  • Was really nice and a very generous portion

Day 5: Tokyo
22,210 steps

• We planned to do the Mitaka City Gallery of Art but discovered it was closed - think this is just evidence we sometimes found Japanese websites run through google translate hard to parse
• Ghibli Museum
• Walk through Kichijōji and looked at Kichijōji Petit Mura which was a cool set of buildings
• Nakano Broadway
• Back to Shinjuku for dinner, UFO catchers and wander
• Hanazono shrine at night
• Dinner: Kakekomi Gyoza
  • Didn’t queue
  • Really enjoyed the gyoza, very cheap and some surprising ones (some came in a honey mustard sauce which felt not very traditional but extremely good)
  • Service is quick and orders done through an ipad
  • Very cheap

Day 6: Travel to Osaka
19,194 steps

• Shinkansen to Osaka, armed with bento bought at Tokyo station
• Namba Kimba shrine
• A few shops in Shinsaibashi
• Amerika Mura
  • ate great donuts at BPC donuts
• Checked into the hotel
• Dotonbori
  • ate some melon pan at melon bread and had the melon pan song in our heads for the remainder of the trip
• Bunraku exhibition at National Bunraku Theatre
  • I love puppets so this was amazing for me, just a small room of exhibition cases but a great insight into the art form when there aren’t performances on
• Namba Yasaka Shrine
• Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shopping Street
  • This was cool but we knew we were going to do Kappabashi in Tokyo later so didn’t buy anything
• Hozenji
• Dinner: Oretachino-curry Ramen Koji Labo Osaka-namba
  • Didn’t queue
  • Sells curry and ramen, ordered on a vending machine
  • The world’s largest serving of green onions ever seen, completely amazing
  • Small place where you can watch them cooking, they filled up a giant rice cooker with a spray hose from across the kitchen and I’ve thought about it ever since

Day 6: Osaka
31,365 steps

• National Museum of Art
  • We planned to do the Nakanoshima Museum of Art afterwards but it only had a Monet exhibit and no permanent collection which didn’t appeal to us at the time, so we skipped it and the nearby rose garden and went to Osaka Castle instead
• Osaka Castle (just the grounds, didn’t go in) and Hokoku Shrine
• Osaka Tenmangu
• Tenjinbashi-suji Shopping Street
• Tsuyuten Jinja (Ohatsu Tenjin)
• Umeda Sky Building
• There was a popup video game store at the Parco in Shinsaibashi which we popped into
• Lunch: BUTAGOYA Tenjinbashi
  • Didn’t queue or plan this, just wandered in when we saw the signs outside
  • Pork Donburi that was really flavourful, really good, very filling and cheap
  • Also had unlimited kimchi
• Dinner: konbini snacks in the hotel as we were doing laundry

Day 7: Osaka
26,393 steps

• Tower of the Sun
• National Museum of Ethnology
• Japan Folk Crafts Museum
• Kuromon Ichiba Market
• Nipponbashi
• Shinsekai
• Dinner: OKO Fun Okonomiyaki Bar
  • Queued to order for ten or so minutes, then went inside and sat and waited for food - just one person runs the whole show so service can be slow but that was fine by us as it had a good vibe and comfortable sofas
  • Vegetarian okonomiyaki place where you can pick different vegetable portions, massive portions even when ordering the medium and very tasty
  • You prepare drinks yourself from a very wide selection of options (like you could be making cocktails there) which felt completely alien to me as I feel like brits would definitely abuse that system… (felt like if I had gone here age 20 I would’ve served myself a tall glass of something straight up and never made it home)

Day 8: Day trip to Nara
29,596 steps

• Travel to Nara (we arrived about 9 I think)
• Nakatanidou Mochi store
• Nara Park to feed the deer and visit Kasuga Taisha, Meoto Daikokusha and Ki’i Shrine
  • for feeding the deer definitely head into the park a bit and find a chill looking one, we saw some people getting swarmed by the cracker stands
• We walked past Todai-ji but decided not to pay to go in (a lot of the larger temples and shrines in Nara had an entry fee which we decided not to go for)
• Naramachi Toy Museum
• Back to Osaka
• Lunch: Tonkatsu Ganko Nara
  • Queued about 20 minutes I think, but it felt like everywhere was busy and we needed a rest
  • Tonkatsu place in a shopping arcade, was really nice
• Dinner: Hokkyokusei
  • Omurice place with tatami mats where you sit on the floor
  • We wanted to try omurice and were glad to do so, this was perfectly nice but not a highlight

Day 8: Travel to Kyoto
27,032 steps

• Travel to Kyoto
• Kyoto Gyoen National Garden
• Shimogoryo Shrine
• Kodo Gyogan-ji Temple
• Honno-ji Temple
• Tensho-ji Temple
• Yata-dera
• Eifuku-ji Temple
• Nishiki Market
• Nishiki Tenmangu Shrine
• Somedono-in Temple
• Nintendo Store Kyoto
  • Much quieter than the Tokyo one! We bought joycons which were cheaper than in the UK
• Sawano cafe
• Checked into hotel
• Hotel onsen in the eve
• Lunch: Micasadeco & Cafe Kyoto
  • We just walked past having heard about this from Eric Kim on instagram, we didn’t queue
  • Souffle pancakes! They were great and very jiggly
• Dinner: Gyoza-dokoro Sukemasa
  • We waited about 5 minutes to be seated
  • Amazing and very flavourful gyoza, only one option on the menu really, extremely cheap
  • Best gyoza of the trip imo, lovely and gingery

Day 9: Kyoto
25,187

• Arashiyama Bamboo Forest
  • Got here at about half 8 and it was quite quiet, it was also raining which might have made it a bit quieter
• Nonomiya Shrine and Mikami Shrine
• Arashiyama Observation Deck
• No one else up here, amazing views even in the rain - the mist rising off the hills was incredible
• Arashiyama Monkey Park
• Arashiyama Arhat
• Seiryogi Temple
• Sagano Romantic Train
• Hotel onsen in the eve
• Lunch: Houzan
  • Does soba noodles and tempura, really nice, lovely view over a garden while you eat
  • We got there before opening so waited 5 minutes for them to set up, filled up pretty quick though
  • It was a cold and rainy day but they had the aircon on so we were quite cold
• Dinner: Kyoto Ramen Lab
  • Didn’t queue
  • Massive bowls of delicious ramen and also a good selection of sides - we had fried squid and the best kimchi of my life

Day 10: Kyoto
32,175

• Fushimi Inari Taisha
  • Arrived at half 8 and it was already quite busy at the bottom end
  • Walked about half way up to an observation point and it was quieter after the first bit of this
• Higashiyama Jisho-ji (paid entry)
• Walked the Philosopher’s path (some of the shrines below were along the way, we also started at the northern end)
• Honen-in temple
• Otoyo Shrine
• Koun-ji Temple
• Kumano Nyakuōji-jinja Shrine
• Okazaki Shrine
• Yasaka Kōshin-dō Temple, plus area around this
  • We got here at 2pm ish and it was almost unpleasantly busy - a very popular spot it seems!
• Kyoto Ryozen Gokoku-jinja Shrine
• Ninenzaka
• Kiyomizu-dera (paid entry)
• Hotel onsen in the eve
• Lunch: Gion Duck Noodles
  • This was the only thing we queued a while for as we did really want to try it, we waited about 35 minutes
  • They don’t do one in-one out, they seat the whole place at once. I think there’s about ten seats, so if there’s over ten people in front of you, you’ll wait for all of them to finish and for the staff to clear up before you get seated.
  • Menu is in emoji which we honestly found more confusing than if it had been in Japanese
  • I had the classic ramen and it was very delicious, my partner had the dipping ramen which I actually think was the better order here - it was amazing with this kind of berry sauce and then a broth
  • A really great meal and I am glad we did queue for it, but also made me glad we’d been lucky not to do much queueing otherwise
• Dinner: Mister Gyoza
  • Waited about 5 minutes to be seated
  • Cheap and cheerful, very lovely gyoza and also great chicken karaage

Day 11: Travel back to Tokyo
21,068 steps

• Shinkansen to Tokyo
• Took our bags to the hotel and were able to check in
• Tokyo Waterworks Historical Museum
• Brief stop in Akihabara to buy a game my partner had reconsidered
• Ikebukuro for a wander, including cinema Rosa, le bois Hiraki and Ike Sun Park
• Sunshine City
  • We felt like we were running on empty a bit this day but ultimately I’m not sure Sunshine City was worth the trip - we felt a bit fatigued with shopping centres and this didn’t have much we hadn’t already visited. I think maybe we should have done some of the museums in Ueno park but not sure we would have enjoyed that since we were wrecked
• Dinner: Kamamaru in Nippori for Pizza as the tiredness really hit us this day. It was great pizza though.

Day 12: Tokyo
19, 526 steps

• Otori-jinja shrine
• Meguro Parasitological Museum
• Mori Art Museum plus a bit of a walk round Roppongi
• Akasake Hikawa Shrine
• Toranomon Kotohiragu
• Kikuchi Kanjitsu Memorial Tomo Museum for Kikuchi Biennale ceramics exhibition
• Dinner: Bird Land in Ginza for my partner’s birthday
  • This was amazing, a real treat. We had the tasting menu with 8 skewers and other elements in between. Everything was delicious and it was so fun to watch them grilling, plus the service was attentive and friendly. Like they gave us a salad with tomatoes in and even the tomatoes blew our minds. One word of warning: the chicken is served a little pink, they obviously know what they are doing and it was juicy and incredible but as someone who grew up in the UK it was definitely a moment of adjustment before the first bite
  • We thought it was good value for the experience but was obviously the most expensive meal of the trip (has a michelin star)
  • Booked one month in advance

Day 13: Tokyo
31,610 steps

• Yanaka Cemetery
• Ueno Park including Gojoten Shrine and Shinobazunoike Benten-do
• Sogenji Temple
• Kappabashi - I bought a knife and some plastic ramen
• Asakusa wandering
• Nakamise-dori street and Senso-ji
• Really busy! Extremely beautiful but very busy
• Hikan Inari-jinja Shrine
• Tokyo Sky Tree
• Lunch: Asakusa Chicken
  • No queue
  • Very cheap, extremely friendly staff
  • The best chicken karaage of a trip with a lot of fried chicken
• Dinner: Burari in Nippori
  • No queue
  • Chicken ramen ordered through a vending machine
  • Delicious, deeply flavoured ramen - probably the best of the trip
• Snacks: we also had baked goods from Higurashi bakery first thing (amazing) and a creme brulee sweet potato from Imo Pippi in Asakusa (delicious)

Day 14: flying home at like 6am from Haneda
HIGHLIGHTS
In terms of things to do, my highlights were the Ghibli Museum (honestly, it is magical), the folk art museums and ceramics exhibit at Memorial Tomo Museum, the Tower of the Sun (we thought it would be an interesting building with a viewing platform, so the interior took us completely by surprise and was so cool and fun), Sagano Romantic Train (it was windy and rainy so we were pretty much the only people in the outside car so could move around to follow the views, which were lovely), the Nara Toy Museum and wandering round Kappabashi and also the shrines and temples. Sawano cafe in Kyoto was also a real treat - we stopped in for a drink and the owner made us some adorable, delicate animals carved out of fruit, he was a lovely person.
In food terms, my favourite meals were at Birdland (Ginza, Tokyo), Burari (Nippori, Tokyo), Kameya (Shinjuku, Tokyo), Asakusa Chicken (Asakusa, Tokyo), Gyoza-dokoro Sukemasa (Kyoto) and Gion Duck Noodles (Kyoto).

Ok, so…um. Yeah, well. This is going to be tougher than I thought.
No one is going to believe me anyway, so fuck it, right? Might as well just go for it. I killed my wife. There. Probably not in the way that people think, but people might be pretty close.
I’ve never discussed what happened at Aunt Mary Jane’s house that night. I always thought she was made up by my Grandma, a figment, not a phantom. Just a name to give the house and make it scary enough not to play there. I figured no one named Mary Jane had ever lived there until I found her picture and the thin memory of the grave marker came flooding back. Either way, my grandparents were in cahoots and they had me fooled. It took me years to figure out the truth and I bet they shared a few good laughs about it.
I spent a lot of time with my grandparents when I was a kid. My mom was 16 when she got pregnant, 17 when she had a shotgun wedding, and she was 19 when she divorced my deadbeat (and I suspect, abusive) dad. She needed support, and they helped. I don’t know if my mom was determined not to move back home or if it wasn’t allowed by Grandad, but paying all the bills was difficult for us. The result was I got to spend a lot of time at my grandparent’s house and I loved it.
I remember Grandma telling me spooky stories. Sometimes Grandad too, but mainly he would sit around with us and chime in to add a detail or two, making her stories even scarier. One favorite story was about the ghost of Redbeard Pete, a pirate who was known to be stubborn in life, and too stubborn in death to move on. That’s not what this is about. I’m trying to delay it. Or avoid it altogether. If you saw her the way I did, especially then, when I…when I did what I had to do.
What I need to say involves Aunt Mary Jane’s house, and I will only speak of this once. I need to say it, and after that I’ll never speak of it again. If I’m going to tell the story, I need to tell it all and say everything I need to say about it. How I came to know the house is part of our history. It might not seem related to what happened that night, but everything I know about it is relevant to me.
My grandparents lived in a yellow house on a corner lot in rural Virginia. The Northern Neck of Virginia, to be exact. Big yard, the neighbors were family, woods out back, and everyone was a farmer, hunter, or a fisherman, and more likely they were all three. The main road there didn’t have yellow lines until recently. Their house sat in the corner crook where an even smaller side road turned off and led to who-knows-where. It was paved, but just barely. The narrow kind of road where folks usually just drove down the middle until they met another vehicle, then both would wave as they squeezed past one another and tried to avoid the ditch. And if someone ended up in the ditch, you already knew you’d stay and give them a hand getting out. Their house faced that road.
My Grandad’s workshop sat near the edge of the property and barely spitting distance from the smaller road. (Forgive me, it’s been so long that I can’t recall the name of the street. Probably Route something or other.) About a hundred yards down from his shop was an overgrown lane - an old driveway. Aunt Mary Jane’s house.
As kids, my cousins and I rode our bikes past there all the time and never even noticed the house. The lane, yes, but not the house and the dirt driveway was so overgrown with weeds that none of us ever thought to go investigate. In hindsight, maybe there was another reason.
Anyway, the property was overgrown with pine and locust trees, and a few pecan trees. The house was situated among a stand of trees closer to the road than you might expect. It was invisible from the street. The house was hidden, not because it was buried deep in the forest, but because the property was being devoured by weeds, blackberry brambles, and neglect.
The reason I knew about it is because Grandma told me about Aunt Mary Jane. She explained that’s just what everyone called her, and told me to my dismay that she was not my real aunt. Later, she and my Grandad would scare the hell out of me and for years I was oblivious to the truth.
I can’t remember what kind of story Grandma concocted, but I remember it was about Aunt Mary Jane and how mean she was - when she was alive before she turned into a ghost. And how she got even meaner as a ghost. Her story spooked me and I’m pretty sure it was meant to keep me from finding it by accident one day. I used to play in the woods all the time and I guess I might have. It was more visible from the woods on my grandparent’s property than it was out front. Saplings grew through the tottering, tumble-down floor inside, the droopy roof sagged down, bulging into the kitchen, and the dry-rotted old window frames had panes of jagged glass sticking every which way. Needless to say, if our group of cousins had ever discovered the place on our own, there would have been a lot less glass in the windows, and a lot more rocks being thrown through the glass that remained. The house was a donkey mile beyond repair, and far too dangerous for anyone to horse around in or to explore.
Despite my fear, I had trouble believing her story at first, and I told her so. All this time, how could I not know about a ghost who lived right next door? A nasty, bitter old ghost who was a nasty and bitter old witch when she was alive? I would know if there was a ghost, I thought.
She reminded me about the tooth fairy and how I didn’t know about her until I had a loose tooth. This was different, I told her, because I hadn’t always had a loose tooth, but Aunt Mary Jane’s house had always been there.
She told me she would take me over there and prove it. She may have been bluffing, but this was more exciting than the State Fair. I wasn’t calling her bluff, I was dying to see a real life ghost. She put on her shoes and that’s when I got scared. I wanted to chicken out, but she wouldn’t let me, so she promised she’d hold my hand the whole time, just in case we ran into Aunt Maru Jane. And off we went, walking out to Route whatever-it-was and down the road about a hundred yards.
Grandma picked our way through the blackberry briars that sprawled across the lane, holding back the pricker vines I wouldn’t get too scratched up. I ducked under the last tangle and emerged onto the sparse but overgrown lawn in front of a dilapidated house. It looked like every ramshackle haunted house in every movie you ever saw. The paint, which used to be white and probably lead-based, curled back in thick peels, revealing the sun-bleached wood underneath the layers. Reptilian scales to armor old bones. A massive locust tree grew at one corner of the house. One of its limbs thrust into a room on the second floor through a side window. Inside, it angled like an arthritic elbow, and stretched back outside and rested on top of the porch. The front door was partially opened and stuck like that. The rood sagged so badly that a deep slouch had developed in the ceiling and now its weight wedged the door in place. Not wide open, but enough so you could stick your head through to sneak a look. The porch had held up fairly well.
She told me if we were extra careful, maybe we could peek inside, but first she wanted to look around and check if there was a better place than under a collapsing ceiling.
The backyard was also overgrown, but the shade of the house and the tree canopy above kept the weeds sparse enough so it wasn’t difficult to walk around. We were picking our way through the overgrowth when she stopped and shushed me. Then she pointed toward the rope swing.
“The swing?” I was just a little kid and even I could tell that rope wasn’t safe.
She shook her head and pointed again, but lower, and then I saw it. A headstone, beyond the swing, near where a fence might have stood once.
“Is someone really buried there?” I had seen cemeteries before, but discovering a grave anywhere else felt unusual.
She nodded and we walked a little closer, but she stopped me before I got too close. “See? That’s where she’s buried,” she whispered. “Don’t walk on her grave because she might, snatch your ankle and pull you down to hell.”
“MJW” was all I could see. The dates, if there were any, were too low and hidden by the grass and moss that grew in a thicker patch above the grave. I was amazed thinking that a spooky skeleton was almost right under me.
So, a little explanation - it wasn’t unusual to be buried on your own on their property back then. This house was, I imagine, built sometime in the late 1800’s, so these types of grave markers were fairly commonplace for the area. The other thing to know is that this area is full of country folk, real salt of the earth types. My family was Southern Baptist (but not me), so hell was a very real place. Not a metaphor for eternal suffering, but a specific locale full of sulfur, brimstone, and fire. I did not walk on Aunt Mary Jane’s grave. Turns out that when I returned as an adult, it wouldn’t matter anyhow.
Grandma said she was worried we might disturb Aunt Mary Jane, so we could have a quick peek, but we weren’t going to stick around long. Plus, she was worried about the broken glass and rusty nails or something else hiding in the grass. You never knew when you might have an unfortunate encounter with a copperhead. I was more scared the house might turn into a monster and come alive with a front door for a mouth to eat me. I was terrified and I loved it. I might have felt differently, but at the time I couldn’t imagine what came to pass.
She told me the rules. Hold her hand. Don’t go any further than she does. If she says to stop, stop and don’t move. Don’t touch anything. Don’t make too much noise in case there’s a raccoon or opossum who lives inside. That was fine with me. I didn’t want to be too loud and get a ghost angry at us.
She poked at the boards with her toes, checking if they were rotted, but they were okay. The porch window teased an easy look inside, but curtains and the ceiling bulging down blocked it, so she took a peek inside. It was all clear. No sign of ghosts, she told me, so I peeked in and looked around.
I didn’t see any ghosts and it looked mostly empty. Kinda boring. Just a lot of dust, a dried out mouse, a few pictures left hanging on the wall.
“Shh! Do you hear that?”
I hadn’t heard anything/ “What is it, Grandma?”
“Sh. Hear it?” she had a hand to her ear, listening. “I think I hear her coming. I think it’s Aunt Mary Jane!”
I didn’t hear it at first, but that didn’t stop me from being afraid. I still held her hand tight. Then, I heard it. It was quiet at first and I strained to hear it, but after a moment, it got louder. There was no missing it anymore. Spooky moans and groans that rolled through the house like swelling waves, growing louder, then soft, louder, softer again. Grandma got scared and I was already scared. We reckoned Aunt Mary Jane was giving us a warning so we probably ought to listen to her and be on our way. If she didn’t have a grip on my hand like she did, I would have already been tearing through those berry brambles like a dozen wild rabbits.
Next time my cousins came down, I told them how I saw Aunt Mary Jane’s gravestone, and how I almost went inside a haunted house. I was the youngest and they didn’t even listen at first, but when I told them how we heard Aunt Mary Jane spooking around, me and Grandma both? That got their attention alright, but they didn’t believe me. I told them how Grandma went with me and I told them they could go right ahead and ask her if they wanted and they did.
She said it never happened and I must have dreamt it. I cried because everybody thought I was lying and nobody believed me because I was just a little kid. Later, when nobody else could hear us, she explained that, if the rest of the boys knew, they would want her to take them too. She said the last time was too scary to go back. She asked me if we could just keep it between us whenever we heard a ghost. That was even better to me.
After that, Grandma or Grandad would walk the hundred yards or so down Route whatever-it-was and we would stand by the old mailbox to listen for the ghost of Aunt Mary Jane. Sometimes we heard her wailing, sometimes not. We didn’t get too close after the first time.
The following year, Grandma got sick and she died exactly one year after her first trip to the doctor in Richmond. Life moved on and I mostly forgot about Aunt Mary Jane’s house except for the odd occasion when friends start trading ghost stories. Now, I don’t talk about it at all. Not anymore.
Another few years passed and my Grandad Curtis died. It was the day after my 11th birthday and he willed the house to mom. We never lived there and I barely saw it again after that. It sat empty, neglected, and full up with Radon as far as I knew. After a while, the roof sagged, a stripe of tall weeds grew down the middle of the driveway, and the ceiling sank lower and lower until it finally jammed against the front door.
Years passed and eventually, so did my mom. I always figured she had sold the property, and I was surprised to learn she kept it and now I owned it. I can’t say I felt much joy about it, but I guess I wasn’t upset either. It was briefly disturbing, like when you feel something slither against your foot and nearly die from a panic, then realize it was just your dog’s nose. That odd moment when you experience something hideous but the realization comes so quickly after the sensation you aren’t capable of feeling relieved yet. That’s what I felt.
This is where it gets difficult to talk about, but like I said, no one is going to believe me anyway and I need to say it out loud and get it off my chest. If I didn’t have the scars and the medical bills to remind me, I would wonder if I hadn’t hallucinated it. It was real though, and I do have the scars and the bills. I just can’t share what happened with anyone, or I couldn’t before now, here. I can’t tell anybody I know because there’s two ways it happens - One. They don’t believe me and assume I’m crazy. The bad kind. Or two. They do believe me. In that case they don’t have an option and things might be worse. Either way, it could end with me behind bars, with or without soft walls. The truth? Well it doesn’t matter that the truth is because it’s impossible to believe! Trust me, I know how far-fetched it will sound, but listen. I’m the one with trauma, with a broken heart I can’t make sense out of, and a hole in my thigh so deep the doctors filled it with a solid chunk of my rear end the size of a baseball. I lived through it. I know the truth. I know what happened. That doesn’t mean anybody will believe me, or believe the whole truth.
It was a couple months before I made the trip to the property. The thought of my grandparents’ home looking anything like Aunt Mary Jane’s house felt wrong to me. Disrespectful. Like knocking over somebody’s headstone and leaving a bag of garbage on their grave.
Nearly 20 years after my Grandma held my hand and showed me the inside of a real haunted house, I was on my way there. Nearly 20 years after we scurried through the weeds and briars, terrified, running away from the ghost of Aunt Mary Jane’s, it hit me. All this time, my entire adult life and suddenly, on the ride there, I realized it. Only one of them usually walked me over to listen as she wailed at us from the haggard old house. Occasionally, the three of us would go but we didn’t always hear the ghastly groans. It seemed obvious now that I saw it. How could I not see it?
Grandma walked me over, Grandad snuck through the woods. She distracted me while he found a good hiding place. I like to imagine the smile they shared the first time she peeked her head in to be sure “the coast was clear”. I’m sure they loved it, and I love them for the memory, despite everything else.
When I got to their old yellow house I found it looking much better than I had expected. Better than I remembered from before, actually. I distinctly recall the ceiling had reached down to the top of the door and jammed it so you could barely rattle it back and forth. I remember it reminded me of a door that might grow teeth and a house that might eat me.
I walked around the house, peeking through each window. The house had been in such ill repair last time I had seen it, I couldn’t trust it was safe to enter, regardless of the straightened roofline and a door that now looked completely functional. As I went, I became more amazed and more confused. Inside, it looked just like when I was a kid. The same carpet, the same Jesus painting with eyes that opened and closed depending when you looked, the same coffee table I hid under to play, the same television, same sofa, lamp shade, recliner, everything was exactly the same. It couldn’t be. This couldn’t have come about from repairs. None of it made sense. I was bewildered.
I called Leslie to tell her I made it there and to see if she had any rational idea what could be going on. Mom didn’t have the money to stage an elaborate prank like this. We’d always been poor, and she hadn’t sold the property. None of it made sense. Leslie couldn’t think of a logical reason either. After the amazement wore off a little, I asked if she remembered the story of Aunt Mary Jane’s house. She did, so I told her about my epiphany on the ride down. She responded with, “Yeah, I know. You really didn’t know until now?”
At least we had a good chuckle. Sometimes we believe it because we perceive it. I had never had a reason to reconsider the reality of it, or to think about it much at all.
Not until it got up close, in your face, and bared its teeth.
After we hung up, I grabbed a burger from Fermin’s place down the road and had dinner sitting at Grandad’s work table in the shop. I hadn’t gone inside the house yet - I was unsettled by the whole thing. I ate my burger and, on a whim, I took a walk. I went down the barely paved side road side road that led to who-knows-where.
Sure enough, about a hundred yards down, still visible, same as it looked two decades ago. It was the same dirt driveway grown over with brambles, briars and weeds. Further back, a stand of tall hardwoods and pines, a dense crown of leaves to guard the roots and shadows below. It looked just how I remembered it. Surely the walls had given up by now and fallen in on themselves, I thought. The old house should be an overgrown heap of rusted nails, broken glass, and sawdust by now.
I’m not sure why I did it. I wish I could go back and stop myself, but I can’t, so I gotta live with memory. For whatever reason, I was compelled to go on, to see it again. I worked my way through the thorns and found myself standing on the unkempt lawn, staring at Aunt Mary Jane’s house. Thick peels of paint were still there, curled back like scales covering bones. Around back, the headstone sat undisturbed. The jagged glass remained in the dry-rotted window frames, still sticking out every which way. The front porch was still sturdy, the ceiling still hung low, and the locust still made a pass through two of the upstairs windows. But things were a little different than I remembered.
The front door hung open like it always had, but the ceiling, as low as it was, no longer dragged the top. The door wasn’t jammed now. I nudged it open with my foot and it swung easily. I’d had no thought or desire to come see this place or to see inside again, but there I was, tugging the door open, stepping inside. I didn’t know why. I don’t know why.
A pall of dust and sticky cobwebs lay across everything inside. If not for that, the place would have been immaculate. The kitchen was like a time capsule, a snapshot of the mid-1970’s. Teacups hung from hooks under the cabinets, the green toaster had a braided power cord, the linoleum matched the toaster, and the whole room smelled delicious, like someone had a roast in the oven. That was the point when I stopped questioning things and just accepted it. It may have been strange but it wasn’t my concern. It smelled delicious, the home was warm and cozy, and despite my head feeling slightly foggy, I was energized. I felt great, actually.
I noticed a small grandfather clock on the sofa table, its pendulum swinging back and forth. It worked. I accepted it. Sunlight angled through a crack in the curtains and raced across the room. It made me think of sharpened gold and I accepted it. Sunset was less than an hour from now, and through the spotless windows, it was morning outside. I accepted it. That’s how it was, and that’s the way that it should be.
I wandered back towards the kitchen hoping the roast was ready. A teacup swayed on its hook, drops of water on its pattern, curved and magnified, washed clean and hung to dry.
“Honey, could you give me a hand up here? I think my zipper is stuck.” Her voice was melodic and I could almost recall her singing, I couldn’t catch hold of the thought yet.
“Of course dear, I’ll be right there. How’d you get your zipper stuck?” I answered her, of course.
“Oh, I don’t know. It’s this dress. It happens every darn time. I think Mr. Sanderson knows which zippers tend to stick and picks them out on purpose and gives them to me.”
“Now why would Mr. Sanderson do a thing like that?” I was at the top of the stairs.
“Well, because of Marge. Don’t you remember?”
“At the party?” I saw her. She stood with her back to the open door where I now stood. She wore a rose-mauve dress with an ivory lace detail on the shoulders and cuffs. The back of the dress hung in an open V, waiting for help with the zipper. She faced a mirror, and I could only see the angle of her cheek bones, but I knew she was beautiful.
“Yes, at the party!” It was mock exasperation, and of course I remembered. Who could forget a scene like that?
I recalled the stairs, the top of the stairs, standing at the door, and now she was close. Her perfume was familiar. It smelled pretty and I thought it suited her. I have no memory of walking closer, but I was glad to be there. We had never met, but I knew that we had. I knew her intimately. I knew that I had always loved her deeply, and that she loved me. I didn’t question it; I just knew.
“Well, yes, but why would he give you a dress with a stuck zipper? That was Marge’s hullabaloo.” My fingers worked her zipper free. The tab felt familiar and I knew this wasn’t the first time I’d helped my wife like this.
“Because he thinks that I’m the one who told Heath about the conversation at the post office. He thinks that’s why Marge was throwing a fit.”
She swung her hair back and forth, then let it settle down her back. I noticed the nape of her neck. I was lost for a moment, she was all I could see. I felt a need to be closer, to touch her, to kiss the back of her neck and to lay down with her. I still held the tab between my fingers, her dress fully zipped, and there was a moment of stillness, of quiet intimacy. I leaned forward and didn’t question if I should kiss her neck. I was supposed to kiss her there. I needed to feel her skin with my lips. I stopped and savored the fleeting anticipation and I could feel her warmth near my lips.
I was finally there to taste her when she spun around, a whirlwind of beauty and hair and perfume and she flung her arms around me, around my neck and she smiled, a brilliant smile, wide and toothy, and it was no longer a smile and she was strong and her arms were too tight, and her grin grew wider and wider and stretched and contorted into a hideous maw. It happened fast.
The pressure around my neck made me sputter for air and that snapped me out of my daze. Whatever this thing was, it was evil. I felt it now.
I struggled to slip out of her grasp. Her arms had become gray and mottled with purple stains, like old bruises, misshapen. Her hands were large and the proportions looked wrong. Its fingers spindled into hooked claws, sharp, dangerous looking. The thick smell of mold and rot filled the room and I would have struggled to breathe with or without her squeezing me this way. All the air had been sucked from my lungs and they burned. I wriggled back and forth to find any small gap my chest could expand, to breathe.
She spoke again. “What’s wrong dear? Don’t you want a kiss?” This time, her voice was different, no longer melodic, no longer the voice of a woman. Her words came out in a quick raspy growl that reminded me of worms and insects, and as it hissed out that last word, thick fluid strung across its rows of elongated teeth, not saliva, some disgusting mucus that clung like stringy threads over sharp and serrated teeth. Teeth meant for tearing flesh. A few tiny drops of the fluid broke free as I fought against its strength and burned the skin of my cheek where they landed.
I needed air. Now.
I struggled until I was almost convulsing, then when I looked back at the creature…well, there was no creature. There was only my beautiful wife, befuddled, concerned about me.
“Are you okay? Please, you’re scaring me. What’s the matter?” What was wrong with me? Why had I frightened her that way? My chest ached inside hearing that tone in her voice, hearing how it slipped out, how she meant to keep it hidden. The tone that said she was scared. Scared for me, maybe. But her tone said she was scared of me, too..
I embraced her and pulled her to me. I needed to comfort her, to make it right before it was too late.
It’s no small miracle what happened next. If not for plain old dumb luck, the thing would have had me. Eaten me, I guess. Taken my soul, tortured me, I don’t know what, but I’ve never seen anything like that creature. True evil, the deep down core of evil.
The room had looked like a tastefully furnished and decorated bedroom moments ago. An ordinary bedroom for an average husband and a normal wife. And then it was a room with holes through the floor to the room below. The stout limb of a locust tree grew through the busted out window, into the room, and elbowed and angled its way out through the other window.
As I embraced this woman, my wife, desperate to soothe her hurt, desperate not to wound her more, the awful thing with hungry teeth was there again, chirping its unsettling clicks when it lunged. The mouth worked back and forth, scraping teeth together. The mucus had become thicker, and foamy. It had begun to leak and drip from its grotesque mouth. It was a split-second, that I noticed. Only an adrenaline fueled mind could have registered all of it to sort and file them into compartments of how deadly they might be.
I needed help, and somehow, it came. A small miracle, also a creature, but wildly different from this enormous lunging, fang-toothed monster. A miracle that arrived in the form of an opossum who made her den in Aunt Mary Jane’s dilapidated, ramshackle house.
It was all a blur, but I suspect she was a mama opossum, or maybe she was upset at the commotion. All I know is that it snapped and I barely reacted in time. I felt the unnaturally sharp point of the thing’s tooth followed by the searing burn of the mucus foam. It nicked me just under my jaw - way too close to my throat. At that moment, the opossum charged down the locust limb and hissing so loudly that it stopped us both dead cold for a split second. I was overflowing with adrenaline by then and my body was running on autopilot. I felt my body react without my input, and it shot into motion. I lurched away from the thing, trying to go anywhere I could to get it off. It had my leg, but I managed to grab hold of the tree limb and held it tight. The opossum didn’t like how close I got and she reared back on her hind legs. She was ready for a fight to the death.
I kicked and pulled, but I couldn’t shake the nasty thing off my leg. It was too strong and too quick for me to do any more than hold on and to keep trying to pull free. It didn’t work.
It felt like a full block of hot knives plunged into my thigh. I heard myself yelp from the shock of the pain. It hurt something awful, but it got worse. The creature had its long teeth buried in the meat of my leg and then chomped down. The jaw snapped shut and tore out a chunk. I think I felt it hit bone and I could see strands of muscle and fat inside. I almost passed out. Everything turned to gray and quiet nothingness, then the world rushed back in like a full alarm. I knew I had to make it count, right then. If not, this creature was going to have its way with me however it wanted.
I shook and pushed and yelled and pulled and tried to whip loose. I was losing too much blood, too fast. I could smell it, but I didn’t understand until later what it was I smelled. I heard the wet sound of it pouring onto the floor, before it drained through the cracks and holes to the floor a story below us. I didn’t register that it was my blood. It only registered that liquid was leaking and making a mess somewhere.
Both legs were soaked with red, but fortunately the blood made me slick. I yanked hard and jerked loose from its claws a little. Not much, but enough to gain some leverage. I let him pull me towards him, then sprung away, using his momentum against him to slip free. I grasped for anything I could reach, any weapon at all..
Sharp claws raked through my shirt, ripping jagged tears into my back. I ignored it and stretched toward the window and tried to grab a shard of the glass. The things must have had barbs somewhere because when I reached for the glass, I felt a sudden sting and felt the barbs grab and dig even deeper as I fought against them. I ignored that too and shoved myself as hard as I could.
They ripped gashes into my calf. I heard the sound of my body tearing as they pulled through. I got hold of a piece of that glass, though. I knew the glass would cut me too and I ignored it all. I felt it slide through the meaty part of my hand but I just clenched down even tighter. The deeper it was in, the better my grip was.
I whirled around and went after the thing. I had the glass with both bloody hands and swung the shard high over my head, then down as hard as I could. The glass jammed it into whatever part of the creature I could reach. I stabbed it. And stabbed it. And stabbed it.
It screeched and clicked and made odd, wet sucking sounds, then suddenly it was kicking, trying to get away from me. It didn’t last. It was only trying to gain an advantage.
I was no longer choosing fight or flight and there was no logic, only survival. If I had retained any logic, I might have launched myself out the window. Instead, I went after it.
I knew the blood loss might kill me, but I knew if I didn’t do something now, I was dead anyway. Some deep-down, instinctual, snake-brain took over and I leaped on it. I felt it doing things to hurt me, but I felt nothing except animalistic blood-rage. I felt claws and barbs and teeth push through my flesh with a soft pop, but it didn’t matter. There was no pain.
I don’t know how many times I stabbed it before it finally went weak. It wasn’t dead, but I’d hurt it. I was on its chest, heaving and out of breath. I was suddenly weak. I was too cold, shaky.
I looked down at it, ready to finish it. There was a waft of perfume, sexy and feminine, all around me. I noticed how the mirror was trimmed with gold leaf on its scalloped edges. The mirror my beautiful wife had been staring into when I worked her zipper free. I loved her so fully, so completely.
She was beautiful and it pained me to see her look at me the way she did. I’ll never forget that look. I wish I could take it back, to change things, but I can’t.
I had no choice. I understand that. I apply that logic everytime I remember, which is everyday. But the logic doesn’t matter to my heart.
Our eyes met and I saw it. I saw that she knew what I was about to do. I saw that she wasn’t afraid, she was hurt. I hurt her beautiful heart because she knew what I would do. And I did it. I knew the creature wouldn’t show its true self. I knew it would be this woman who felt so familiar to me whom I’d never seen before now. The creature made sure it stung me back as it died.
I kept hacking for I don’t know how long. Eventually, I raised myself up off the body. It was barely recognizable anymore. My arms were limp, and there was no part of me left dry. I was drenched in our blood. Somehow, I lurched across the patchwork floor and down the steps. I hadn’t noticed on the way up, but most were rotten or missing. I maneuvered down on the framework. I got myself to the door but didn’t know if I could make it back through the briars but the human spirit is amazing I guess, because here I am.
On the way out, I noticed a small, ornate picture frame that hung near the front door. A photo of her, my beloved. It was tinted with the brass sepia of old photos. Later, when I got home from the hospital, I looked it over more closely. There were three letters and a date written on the back with a flourish. It said, “MJW” and “1908, April”.

Hey Guys,
I thought i'd share my story on my journey of using different modded WhatsApp throughout the years, and where I had put my trust. From WhatsApp+ by Rafalanse in 2013 to my current FMWhatsApp by Fouad Mokdad.
Heres my story:
I started my journey on WhatsApp with the Blackberry Curve 8520, in 2012, but that was short-lived due to the phone dying by water damage. I eventally ended up purchasing a cheap Chinese android Phablet (this thing was a pain, miserably slow, got really hot and the screen kept getting lines) ...
Anyway, I was excited for my phablet and I remember when I got it I was researching different apps to download and try out. Google was (probably still is) my best friend, so I asked a lot of questions, seeking whatever I could put my hands on to try.

1. WHATSAPP+ - By Rafalanse

After some time I had stumbled on some videos talking about WhatsApp+, and I wondered. What is this WhatsApp+? Why is it so different from the original? What also caught my eye was the app icon. It was a light blue/cyan which is my favourite. So, I opened up the video. I vaguely remember it being an Indian guy talking about how to get WhatsApp+ on your PC, via Bluestacks.
I decided to go do some more research and stumbled upon the XDA thread where rafalanse; the creator of the original WhatsApp+ basically had a forum post on what WhatsApp+ was and it's features.
At the time I don't think privacy was a concern, I can't exactly remember if last seen was a thing back then (circa 2013). We didn't have blue ticks then, blue ticks were only released until 2014, and the Status (sometimes referred to as "Stories", now called Updates) was released until Feb, 2017. What drew a lot of people to WhatsApp+ was it's ability to have the app customized with themes. Something that even to this day, the Original WhatsApp doesn't have, the most you get is a light and dark theme.
Facebook eventually purchased WhatsApp for $19 Billion Dollars (and I downloaded it off of Google Play for free? lol), a few months after that aquisition, rafalanse got hit with a DMCA notice from WhatsApp, and he was forced to shut down modding the applicaiton. On January 21st, 2015. Users who were once using WhatsApp+ were hit with a 24 hour ban and were forced to switch to the official WhatsApp. We were broken hearted. WhatsApp+ had officially shut down in 2015.
XDA Article - Cease and Desist: Extract below

Developers in trouble

So, now... it was time to hunt, who would create a new modified WhatsApp? Would rafalanse leak the source code to his mod? Will anyone make themes and remove that pesky blue tick so we can have some privacy?
Rafalanse eventually moved on to create Plus Messenger, a modified version of Telegram Messenger, another popular messaging app (and in my opinion, better than WhatsApp, I just cant convince people to convert... You could even migrate messages from WhatsApp to Telegram and Telegram had the features that WhatsApp has now. They did take a while to add Stories and Video Calling but before those were popular, telegram already had a bunch of features that WhatsApp just didnt have yet.
I decided to stray my own path, I remember Lucky Patcher had a patch for WhatsApp to include the privacy features.

2. GBWHATSAPP - By Omar (@atnfas_hoak)

After some time I stumbled upon this mod called GBWhatsApp. It became widely popular. Created by Omar (Twitter Username: atnfas_hoak). I honestly never really knew what the"GB" in GBWhatsApp stood for, and I was skeptical if he was indeed the original creator since there were starting to pop up a lot of clones with the same name. However I was eventually convinced that this was the original creator based on my research. All the other clones were updating after his release, which means they were all borrowing and copying his mod. His Telegam Channel (Search GBUser on Telegram for the Official Channel) and Group along with Twitter account also frequently updated, giving some insights and plans and there were also other moderators in his telegram group that were keeping everyone engaged.
GBWhatsApp boasted a whole new bunch of privacy featues and the ever popular Anti-Ban code (which prevented users from getting banned for using a modded version of Whatsapp), themes and even very exclusive features! Things like hiding view status, hiding the forwarded notification on messages, Block Calls with/without showing Ringing, Increase on Photos and Videos limit, Auto-Reply, Custom Privacy settings for each contact, etc. I could be wrong but I believe Omar's WhatsApp was based on the WhatsApp Beta versions, because I do remember having access to features that weren't yet available to the public on the official version.
This mod stuck with me for a number of years, until 2019. I can't remember the exact month, but there was a huge ban wave going around, and even I was hit with it. I remember the frustration of people asking me the question "Why was I banned???". It wasn't just GBWhatsApp, but other mods too, like Fouad Mokdad's FMWhatsApp which was another popular mod but was basically copying code from GBWhatsApp, just rebranding it. I tried explaining to people that it's unofficial and according to WhatsApp, (oversummarizing their terms of service) using a modified version of their app is bad, no-no. If anything goes wrong they could be held liable and their excuse is they don't want people to be hacked or data leaked because of these mods, they weren't totally wrong. There was an article from India Today about a mod called WhatsApp Gold. A gold-themed WhatsApp that was basically stealing your private photos back in 2016, It also resurfaced in 2019.
GBWhatsApp got one final update after the ban and.. well... that was it. We never heard from Omar again. WhatsApp usually has their base expire over time to force you to update to a newer version. As time went on we were getting closer and closer to this expiration date but no word from Omar about anything, AT ALL, not even a base update. The other mods of the Telegram were saying the same, Omar either did not respond, or his responses were vague. Eventually... the day came, there was no surprise updates... nothing and On August, 1st 2019. GBWhatsApp was declared DEAD officially by Omar.

*GBWhatsApp Shuts Down* We are really sorry to announce that we have completely stopped the development of GBWhatsApp. It was a great time with all you people. 

3. YOWHATSAPP - By Yousef Al Basha

So, here we were... hanging by a thread with almost nowhere to turn. All the other mods that existed were also shut down because they had relied heavily on Omar's apk to modify and rebrand, without him, they too didn't exist (except for one.. which i'll discuss below now)
I jumped on to using FMWhatsApp but it didn't last long, it too gave the notification of the version was expired. I remember one of the users in the Telegram Group was having a discussion with us, and they recommended "YOWhatsApp" he even linked the Telegram group. YoWhatsApp was different. This was unlike the other mods out there, It didn't seem like it was relying on Omar's GBWhatsApp for it's base nor seem like it was just rebranding GBWhatsApp. This YoWhatsApp had a cleaner UI for it's Mod Menu, it almost seemed like it was actually a part of WhatsApp and not just a random mod menu. GBWhatsApp's menu was a bit cluttered and the UI for those menus were a lot less neat.
...and... IT WORKED! We finally had some hope! Yousef Al Basha continued updating his WhatsApp for some time but it was unfortunately short-lived. Yousef Al Basha also went dark. The notification came up saying that the WhatsApp version will soon be outdated and we would have to update. However Yousef wasn't posting any updates in his Telegram Channel (@YoMODS). On November, 6th 2020 he issued a notice that YoWA v8.50 was not an official YoWA update. This was because someone else faked an update and claimed it was official but Yousef did not issue an update.
And well.... that was it. The group chat was locked, and we were forced to move on in Late November - Early December of 2020. That's where FMWhatsApp by Fouad Mokdad came in.

4. FMWhatsApp - by Fouad Mokdad

After the version had expired I decided to move on to FMWhatsApp, I just couldnt go back to the Official WhatsApp. I had spent the past 8 years on modded versions and it was either I gave WhatsApp completely or find an alternative. I chose the latter and decided to give FMWhatsApp a try. I had stumbled upon the Official Telegram group for FMWhatsApp and began using. Fouad basically was known for copying other's work so when he released his update, it still used to say YoMods in the mod menus or about sections. But what made a lot of people eventualyl migrate to FMWhatsApp was that on February 8th, 2020, Yousef Al Basha sent a message in his telegram channel:

Great work by FouadMODS, walking the same path of YoWA by adding Exclusive Features 👏 I am sharing it here to benefit my subscribers who miss YoWA🔮😇 

and forwarded a message from the official Telegram Channel of FouadMODS (@FouadMODS) showing an exclusive feature to mark a status as viewed if you had turned off Show View Status.
... and well. I have been using it ever since! I've come across other mods like TMWhatsApp and WHatsapp Aero for example which are other popular mods that I see a couple of Youtubers talk about, but they fundamentally take FMWhatsApp's code and just rebrand, WhatsApp Aero actually does it in a cleaner UI than FMWhatsApp and other mods. Though it takes them some time to rebrand and release their newer version.
As far as I am aware, I don't think there is another mod that exists that does it's own mods without relying on reversing and taking apart FMWhatsApp.
I thought that i'd share my journey with you as a guide on my experience in trusting mods. There are so many fakes and clones out there it's really hard to tell who to turst. Im not saying trust these mods either. There is a risk to them all! It's just that these were the most trusted as the years went by, not just by me but countless others.
And as of recent, It seems a new ban wave has been happeneing. Users are now forced to use the official WhatsApp but they are met with a banner message that gives them time to backup their chats and let them know that they're using an unofficial version. I'm not sure what the future will hold, I do hope there's a new anti-ban code and we can enjoy modified WhatsApp again.
Goodluck to you all! Hope my story inspires soemone and atleast points your head in the direction to help find a trusted modder.
For you Rooted users, you guys may have some hope. WATweaker

14 day trip - Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and Osaka - End of March .
Hi everyone! Me and a friend will be going to Japan for the first time. One of us is a big Pokemon fan. Our trip is during Cherry Blossom Season so we want to visit the best spots to view the blossoms.
.
We are not interested in Theme Parks (at least not for our first trip), Zoos or Aquariums. We would like to have a second opinion about our plan, what can be improved, are some days too packed? Is it doable? Any suggestions? .
Any advice would be great, thank you
.
We already have our flights and hotels booked.
Day 1 (Saturday) - Narita Airport, Shinjuku

• Arrive at Narita airport T1 @ 12:30
• Get Pasmo Passport (or whatever IC card is available at Narita)
• Go to Terminal 2 to Pokemon Store
• Take the Narita Express to Shinjuku, leave luggage at hotel in Kabukichō
• Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building South Observatory?!
• Omoide Yokochō, Hanazono Shrine, Shinjuku Golden Gai

Day 2 (Sunday) - Chuo, Shinjuku

• Ginza Chuo Dori Street - Uniqlo Ginza, Ginza Loft, Daiso, MUJI Ginza Flagship Store
• 15:05 Pokémon Café and Pokémon Center Tokyo DX
• Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building South Observatory

Day 3 (Monday) - Kyoto

• 8:00 Shinkansen from Shinagawa Station(Tokyo) to Kyoto
• Leave lugagge at hotel near Gojō Station
• Higashi Honganji Temple
• Pokemon Center Kyoto
• Nishiki Market
• Pontocho
• Kiyamachi-dori
• Hanamikoji Street
• Yasaka-jinja Shrine

Day 4 (Tuesday) - Kyoto

• Fushimi Inari
• Sannenzaka
• Kiyomizu-dera
• Ninenzaka
• Hōkan-ji Temple
• Nanzen-ji Temple
• Eikandō Temple

Day 5 (Wednesday) - Kyoto

• Arashiyama Bamboo Forest
• Tenryuji Temple Shigetsu
• Kinkaku-ji

Day 6 (Thursday) - Kyoto -> Nara -> Osaka

• Train to Nara - Kintetsu line
• Leave luggage in Lockers at Kintetsu Nara Station
• Kofuku-ji
• Tōdai-ji
• Nara Park
• Kasuga Taisha
• Retrieve luggage, Train to Osaka-Namba Station
• Take trains to Hotel near Bentenchō Station
• Solaniwa Onsen

Day 7 (Friday) - Osaka

• Osaka Castle (visit around) and Nishinomaru Garden
• Umeda Sky Building
• Pokémon Center Osaka, Sanrio Store, Uniqlo
• Tsuyuten Jinja (Ohatsu Tenjin)
• Osaka Tenmangu

Day 8 (Saturday) - Osaka

• Leave luggage at hotel near Namba Station or at Namba Station
• Namba Yasaka Jinja
• Amerika-Mura
• Pokemon Center Osaka DX
• Shinsaibashi-Suji Shopping Street
• Dotonbori, Glico Sign, Don Quijote
• Hozenji Yokocho, Hozenji Temple
• Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shopping Street
• Den Den Town
• Shinsekai, Tsutenkaku Tower
• Shitenno-ji Temple
• Abeno Harukas

Day 9 (Sunday) - Osaka -> Tokyo - Chiyoda

• 8:00 Shinkansen from ShinOsaka to Tokyo Station
• Pokemon Store in Tokyo Station
• Leave luggage at hotel in Kyobashi
• Imperial Palace Gardens
• Kita-no-maru Park
• Chidorigafuchi Moat

Day 10 (Monday) - Shibuya & Harajuku

• Pokémon Center Shibuya in Shibuya PARCO
• MEGA Don Quijote
• Shibuya Crossing, Hachikō Memorial Statue
• Meiji Shrine
• Yoyogi Park
• Takeshita Dori
• Omotesando,Tokyu Plaza, Kiddy Land

Day 11 (Tuesday) - Asakusa, Ueno

• Sensō-ji temple
• Nakamise-dori Street
• Asakusa Soratsuki
• Sumida Park
• Tokyo Skytree, Pokémon Center Sky Tree
• Ueno Park
• Ameyoko Shopping District
• Don Quijote Akihabara

Day 12 (Wednesday) - Roppongi, Tokyo Tower, Tsujuki

• teamLab Borderless in Azabudai Hills (already have tickets), Observatory in Azabudai Hills
• Tokyo Tower
• Atago Jinja
• Hamarikyu Gardens
• Tsukiji Outer Market

Day 13 (Thursday) - Tokyo

• Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
• Sunshine City - Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo, Pikachu Sweets Cafe, Sanrio Cafe Ikebukuro
• Rikugien Gardens
• Seibu Ikebukuro Roof Garden

Day 14 (Friday) - Gotokuji Temple

• Cat Tram (Kofuku-no-manekineko Densha) (From Shibuya, ride the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line about five minutes to Sangen-jaya Station, then transfer by walking two minutes to Sangen-jaya Station on the Tokyu Setagaya Line.)
• Gotokuji Temple
• Carrot Tower - Free Observatory
• Nakameguro

Day 15 (Saturday) - Tokyo -> Narita Airport

• Leave luggage at Tokyo Station
• Stay around Tokyo Station Area till 12:00
• Take Narita Express to Narita Airport T1
• Eat at T’s Tan Tan in Tokyo Food Bar
• Departure

If you’d like to add an event to our calendar, submit an event here. Please check with the event organizers to see if events change due to weather. Have a great week!
See the full weekly calendar on our website.

Featured Events

Durham LoveRaiser at DPAC

• Come celebrate with art and music that inspires and touches the soul. Paperhand Puppets with Nnenna and Pierce Freelon present Where Our Spirits Reside — an enchanted evening of giant puppets, masks, stilts, dance, poetry, shadows and illumination all set to live music from the Grammy nominated album AnceStars.
• Wed, Feb 14
• 7:30 p.m.
• $28.50+

Saxsquatch Presents: Bigfoot Rave at Motorco Music Hall

• Dean Mitchell, better known by his stage name Saxsquatch, is an American musician notable for wearing a Bigfoot costume and playing cover versions of popular songs on the saxophone.
• Thu, Feb 15
• 8 p.m.
• $15+

Multi-Day Events

Intergalactic Bead & Jewelry Show at Durham Convention Center

• Love vintage beads? How about Chinese crystal or Ethiopian Opal? Find all this as well as large selection of rare beads, findings, tools and more at the Durham Bead Show!
• Sat, Feb 17, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sun, Feb 18, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Romance is Dead: Sketch Comedy about the Darker Side of Love at Mettlesome

• Whether you're single, taken, or sporting an upside-down pineapple tattoo, join us at Romance is Dead: A Sketch Comedy Show About The Darker Side of Love for an evening of consensual fun. Spend 90 hilarious minutes with our (devilishly attractive) cast as they explore romance, dating, breakups, heartbreak, and the meaning of love.
• Thu, Feb 15 - Sat, Feb 17
• 7:30-9 p.m.
• $15+

Dianne McIntyre Group: In The Same Tongue at Reynolds Industries Theater

• IN THE SAME TONGUE is a vibrant full-length movement, sound, and language based-work, dance legend and choreographer Dianne McIntyre unites a vigorous company of dancers and musicians to explore how dance and music “speak” to each other.
• Fri, Feb 16 and Sat, Feb 17
• 8 p.m.
• $35+ ($10 for Duke Students)

Drew & Ellie Holcomb: Feels Like Home Tour at The Carolina Theatre

• Drew and Ellie Holcomb are a husband and wife Americana duo from Nashville, TN. The band has supported many national touring acts including, The Avett Brothers, NEEDTOBREATHE, Don Henley, Willie Nelson, Amos Lee, and Darius Rucker.
• Thu, Feb 15 and Fri, Feb 16
• 8 p.m.
• $37+

Movies at The Carolina Theatre

• 36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime
• Plan C Documentary
• Leave Her to Heaven
• Clue: The Movie & Deathtrap
• 2024 Animated Oscar Shorts
• 2024 Live Action Oscar Shorts
• 2024 Documentary Oscar Shorts

Valentine's Dinner at The Durham Hotel

• Celebrate your special someone over a romantic three-course Valentine’s Dinner in the Restaurant.
• Reservations are required on Wednesday, Feb. 14 and will be secured with a credit card.
• Wed, Feb 14 - Sat, Feb 17
• 4:30-9:30 p.m.
• $85 per person

Valentines at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham

• We're bringing the love to you on Valentine's and beyond with specials to warm your heart.
• On the 14th, bring a date (or a music loving pal) to "Stupid Cupid" Trivia Night with all music rounds of love songs and heartbreak ballads.
• And enjoy our special Sweetheart flight of 4 beers paired with 2 heart-shaped macarons (while supplies last) for $15.
• Wed, Feb 14 - Sun, Feb 18

Platinum-Palladium Photographs at Through This Lens

• Natural landscapes & architectural scenes by Les Real.
• Sun, Feb 4 - Tue, Feb 13
• Free admission

Snow Day Getaway at Velvet Hippo

• The Velvet Hippo, your neighborhood tropical escape, will be transformed into a "Snow Day Getaway" this season complete with festive limited-time drinks, a chill après-ski vibe, and a snowy mountain lodge makeover inside and out.
• Runs through Feb 18
• Free to enjoy, no reservations

Monday, Feb 12

2 p.m.
Board Game Night at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham
5 p.m.
Arts & Drafts at Fullsteam Brewery
6:30 p.m.
RPG Book Club at Atomic Empire
Trivia Night at Ponysaurus Brewing Company
7 p.m.
Cha Cha Chocolate Lover's Ball at Arthur Murray Dance Studio
Duke Men's Basketball vs Wake Forest at Cameron Indoor Stadium
Community Board Game Night at Moon Dog Meadery
36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime at The Carolina Theatre
8 p.m.
Bachelor Mondays! at Durty Bull Brewing Brewing Company

Tuesday, Feb 13

Events at Boxyard RTP

• 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. - Live DJ: Fin The DJ
• 5:30-6:30 p.m. - Boxyard Run Club
• 6-7 p.m. - Book Club: Genre Challenge

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Brewing Company

• 12-8 p.m. - Food Truck: Mike's Vegan Grill
• 7-9 p.m. - Bull City Beer Runners Run Club

Events at The Carolina Theatre

• 6:30 p.m. - Plan C Documentary
• 8 p.m. - The Robert Cray Band – 50th Anniversary Tour

5 p.m.
Galentine's on the Roof at The Durham Hotel
5:30 p.m.
Mardi Gras Parade Watch Party at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham
6 p.m.
In Other Words at Arcana
Rosé and Roses: A Galantine's Wine Dinner at Copa
Trivia at Durham Food Hall
Durham Mardi Gras Celebration at Motorco Music Hall
Bring Your Own Vinyl with Jaffar at Rubies on Five Points
Women on the Wall at Triangle Rock Club - Durham
6:30 p.m.
RPG Book Club at Atomic Empire
7 p.m.
Fat Tuesday Trivia at Beer Study Durham
Not Rocket Science Trivia at DSSOLVR Durham
Mardi Gras 2024: Mel Melton & the Wicked Mojos / The Cajammers at The Blue Note Grill
8 p.m.
Boom Unit Brass Band / Rhonda Robichaux and Meaux at The Pinhook

Wednesday, Feb 14

Events at Atomic Empire

• 6:30 p.m. - Magic: My Bloody Valentine
• 7 p.m. - Dragon Ball Super Masters Tournament
• 7 p.m. - Universus TCG Tournament

Events at Boxyard RTP

• 12-2 p.m. - Hear & There: Reggio-Garnett-Mitchell Trio
• 5:30-8:30 p.m. - Game Night

Events at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in RTP

• 5-10 p.m. - Dark Valentines
• 6:30-8:30 p.m. - Team Trivia with Pickle

Events at The Pinhook

• 8 p.m. - 12 a.m. - Queer Country Night
• 7:30 p.m. - Palestine Comp Release / Show / Coopting of This Day!

Events at ZincHouse Winery & Brewery

• 7-8:30 p.m. - Laughs Comedy Night
• 7-8 p.m. - Signature Wine Tasting

11 a.m.
Valentine's Day at Urban Axes
12 p.m.
Douglass Day 2024 at Historic Stagville
4 p.m.
Valentine’s Dinner at Alley Twenty Six
4:30 p.m.
Valentine's Dinner at The Durham Hotel
5 p.m.
Free Wednesday Wine Tasting at Beer Study Durham
Duke Softball vs North Dakota State at Duke Softball Stadium
An Evening of Art, Wine, and Romance at Truist Gallery
5:30 p.m.
Valentine's Day Dinner at Plum Southern Kitchen & Bar
Dessert & Wine With Your Valentine at Sticks & Vines
6 p.m.
Potions and Portraits and Tarot with Joy at Arcana
Valentine's Day Dinner at Bull City Burger and Brewery
PAL-entine’s Day at Bull City Solera and Taproom
Valentine's "Ghost" Couples Pottery Class at Delores Pottery
Witches Brew at Fullsteam Brewery
6:30 p.m.
Marion Meadows at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
Trivia Night - Stupid Cupid Theme: Love Songs and Heartbreak Ballad at The Glass Jug Beer Lab in Downtown Durham
7 p.m.
Solo Beats: A Self-Love Dance Party For Sizzling Singles at Durty Bull Brewing Company
Hammered Trivia at Hi-Wire Brewing
Music Bingo at Ponysaurus Brewing Company
Brett Chambers Open Mic at The Blue Note Grill
Leave Her to Heaven at The Carolina Theatre
No Love One Year Anniversary Show at The Fruit
7:30 p.m.
Durham LoveRaiser at DPAC
8 p.m.
Air Hockey Tournament at Boxcar Bar + Arcade
Trivia Night at Bull McCabe's
Valentine's "Ghost" Couples Pottery Class at Delores Pottery
Karaoke at Moon Dog Meadery
Valentine's Day Stoplight Party with Stormie Daie! at The Velvet Hippo Bar & Lounge
9 p.m.
Marion Meadows at Missy Lane's Assembly Room

Thursday, Feb 15

Events at Arcana

• 6 p.m. - Tarot with Virginia
• 8 p.m. - Também + Bergamot

Events at Boxyard RTP

• 12-2 p.m. - Taking Back Thursday: Wake Moody
• 5-6 p.m. - Fondue & Raclette with Meat & Graze

Events at Durty Bull Brewing Brewing Company

• 12-8 p.m. - Food Truck: Mike's Vegan Grill
• 7-9 p.m. - Thursday Trivia with Nick

4:30 p.m.
Valentine's Dinner at The Durham Hotel
5 p.m.
Thirsty Thursdays at Dashi
5:30 p.m.
Connecting to the Soil Beneath our Feet at Sarah P. Duke Gardens
6 p.m.
Vinyl Night with DJ Deckades at Gizmo Brew Works
Board Game Night at The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
6:30 p.m.
Line Dance Classes at Mystic Farm and Distillery
Science of Wine at Museum of Life + Science
Space Code Youth Open Mic at NorthStar Church of the Arts
Boulders & Brews Meetup at Triangle Rock Club - Durham
7 p.m.
Trivia Night at Beer Tooth Taproom
Open Mic Night at Common Market
Bring Your Own Vinyl Night at Congress Social Bar
Eagles Nest Jam featuring NCCU Jazz at Missy Lane's Assembly Room
Community Board Game Night at Moon Dog Meadery
UNC Faculty Jazz w/special guest Sharel Cassity at Sharp 9 Gallery (sold out)
7:30 p.m.
Trivia Night with Big Slow Tom at Clouds Brewing Brightleaf Square
Romance is Dead: Sketch Comedy about the Darker Side of Love at Mettlesome
Marcia Ball at The Blue Note Grill
Rhymes & Reasons at The Pinhook
8 p.m.
Single Mingle Masquerade at Boxcar Bar + Arcade
Blackberry Smoke at DPAC
Trivia at Fullsteam Brewery
Saxsquatch Presents: Bigfoot Rave at Motorco Music Hall
Drew & Ellie Holcomb: Feels Like Home Tour at The Carolina Theatre
9 p.m.
UNC Faculty Jazz w/special guest Sharel Cassity at Sharp 9 Gallery
9:30 p.m.
Karaoke Night at The Tavern
10 p.m.
Ill Digitz & Play Play at Rubies on Five Points
​
See the full weekly calendar on our website.