Last week was my 33rd birthday, and out of all 33 of them, this one ranked somewhere near the bottom.
This whole Coronavirus ordeal has messed up everything. Jobs, socializing, trips, going out to eat, general optimism. And I'll be honest, I'm pretty much lacking on all of that right now. Well, I work in the health & beauty aisle of the local supermarket, so my job is as essential as can be right now.
It's just stressful as all hell. Any chance of normalcy I've had, or anyone has had, pretty much vanished overnight.
So what better thing to do to feel better about myself than to cross something off the old bucket list?
Behold! I now own a genuine cel from The Simpsons!
And a certificate of authenticity! It means I'm sane now. It's definitely a better cel than the one Bart bought with Homer's credit card.
You might've remembered that for
my last birthday I also bought an animation cel as a gift to myself.
To refresh your memory, this was from Izzy's Quest For Olympic Gold, a legendary piece of lost media that only gets remembered in blog posts like this one.
A better angle of the cel. This was from the episode "Itchy & Scratchyland," specifically the scene where the duo take a break from the violence to announce the opening of the park.
I'm dead certain that it's of this shot, or at least a frame where Scratchy didn't have his tongue out. Regardless, it's interesting to know that the TV frame was a separate layer here.
I bought the cel from
@ThatGuy3002 on Twitter. He's most known for his deep dives into scripts of Simpsons episodes, highlighting jokes and scenes either changed or cut from the table draft script to what ultimately made it onscreen; not to mention highlighting his cel collection or his friendship with legendary animator Bil Plympton.
There's no official ranking in Simpsons fandom, but ThatGuy outranks ME. And if you've been around me or this site at all, you know that's definitely saying something. It's weird to know that I know his real name now, but don't worry, you're secret's safe with me.
It currently hangs above my couch, right where my Banana Splits poster used to be.
How much did I pay for it? Well, I really don't want to say. It was possibly the most I've ever payed for anything in my collection thus far. Let's just say that the money I was saving up for East Coast Comic Con (which would've taken place in May again, then got delayed to July before getting called off) went to this instead. I am not to be trusted with money, and my paycheck was definitely good to me this past month. It was this or 70 transcripts of Nightline.
Couple this with my depression returning in full force and not much else to do with my life are a deadly combo.
But what has been warding off my bad moods lately? Honestly, Animal Crossing.
Animal Crossing arrived at my house on the 21st and it couldn't come at a moment too soon. I needed this charming island life simulator. After New Leaf, I was wondering where the series could go from here. Now I know: owning an island that is 100% customizable. Usually you had freedom to put your house somewhere, and plant trees anywhere you want, and maybe build some things.You could change the town theme song to Megalovania, and change your town flag to Greendale's.
But THIS game eventually lets you terraform everything on the island. You can create paths of custom designs, move rivers, even carve out mountains. Also, every tool you use and a slew of other things are craftable. It was only inevitable that it adopted Minecraft and Breath of The Wild's bullshit, but here we are.
There's also an achievement system now, and I'm honestly addicted to it. You get a bonus for just about everything. My favorite is the "oops, you popped a balloon and the gift landed in the water" achievement.
Also, you can visit random islands and there's one populated by tarantulas.
I made it there on Sunday and boy, did that pay off. You have to clear out everything on that island to fully take advantage of it, but when you catch over 30 of them at once and you get paid 8,000 bells for each one, it's a good paycheck.
I wish the economy worked like Animal Crossing. But then again, we'd destroy the ecosystem worse than what we're doing now if we did.
I also think Tarantula Island is more common than I'd thought. The game has only been out for a little over a week and it seems that everyone will laugh at you if you DIDN'T find that island yet.
Well, that's what I've been up to. I hope all is well for you. And if we all get through this, I'l see you in April.
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