hello again!!

hi guys! it's panda here! omg eeek it's been nearly a whole year since i made my whole dramatic 'i'm quitting' post and today i remembered this blog and decided to check back up on it. :)

i'm so honored to see all the comments and emails and messages you've sent me, and reading them brings me such joy~ you all mean so much to me, and even though i had a pretty awful day today, i'm so happy i decided to check back up on this blog because your messages have made me feel so happy. :') you are all literally the BEST people on the entire planet, and i'm so lucky to have ever had any of you support me.

and today i also logged into animal jam for the first time in over a year and it was so strange? ahaha i haven't seen my animal in so long, or my den, or the interface or the jam-a-gram's, and it nearly brought me to tears, seeing all of these things which i had spent hours looking at when i was littler. i truly loved and worshiped that game, and so it will always hold a most special place in my heart.

i don't know if anyone is still following this blog, or if anyone will see this even? ahaha, but wow, i'm so incredibly honored and thankful for all of you, and even though i've said that already like 100 times, i'll say it 1,000 times more because iTS SO TRUE BAAHAHA <3

in case any of you are wondering what's been going on in my life recently, i'll just say that high school (i started freshman year this past september!) has been absolute torture and so stressful, but i've found a new passion for kpop and am still editing a lot!! i actually have an account on wattpad, and if anyone else does too, i'd love to follow you and we can talk more there, ahaha~

and as i'm sure many of you will be asking, unfortunately no, i will not be editing this blog or updating this blog any further. although i very much would like to, i just don't have the time or the motivation anymore, and i'd almost like to keep this blog as a kind of time capsule of these precious times from my childhood where i would spend hours updating and editing and talking with all of you lovely people. :')

ah, look at me, getting all sentimental again, wahaha~ but anywaysss i guess this is goodbye again for now! i'll try to check in again more frequently in the future, but as i said, i doubt i'll be making any other huge updates to the blog!

question for the comments: what's one cool thing that's happened in your life since we last talked? :)

play wild and jam on! (wow this sounds so ridiculous now omg ahaha)
~ panda

A Very Difficult Good-Bye...

Hey jammers! It's Panda here! (Yes, I had to look at my old posts to check to see how I actually started all of my posts. Because I forgot. ^.^)

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

Nearly 6 months actually. Half a year.

Gosh, I promised myself I wouldn't tear up while writing this post, and I've already failed (and only 4 paragraphs in, too).

I started this blog 3 years ago (and started blogging a year before that), and I had no idea then how much this blog (and my old blog--props to you if you remember it!) would change my life.

I've talked about this before, but Animal Jam truly has changed my life. I know that sounds cheesy and overly dramatic, but it really has. I've met so many amazing, amazing, amazing people, and they have all been so insanely supportive of me, my weirdness and my ambitious adventures.

But I'm quitting.

Wow, I never knew those words would ever be posted on this site.

I thought I'd never quite Animal Jam or blogging. But I guess things change.

School has sort of taken over, and to be honest, Animal Jam sort of lost it's sparkle for me. I got more interested in making edits and commissions for you guys than actually playing the game.

Without starting this graphics and commissions site, I would never have gotten into graphic design, image editing, or learning Photoshop. I've advanced so much as a writer because of my blogging, and as someone who wants to be an author when she grows up, I am forever thankful for that.

You know, I began this blog for extremely selfish reasons. I spent some time watching videos by famous jammers like Julian2, WisteriaMoon and snowyclaw, and thought: "Hey! I want to be famous too!" So that's why I started this blog. I didn't start it to help people, or to make friends, I did just to become famous.

I regret that so much.

But that wasn't my motive anymore once I had blogged for a few months. I had found my passion, and fame seemed arbitrary and irrelevant at that point.

I was actually helping people, both with their lives and their blogs. That made me so incredibly happy, and I threw the whole "fame" mantra away and replaced it with a desire to continue helping people.

Watching my blog grow was one of the most rewarding and valuable experiences of my life. Watching that views counter go from a slowly crawling 3 views a day to nearly 20,000 per month was practically a miracle, and it made me so incredibly proud.

And it seems only yesterday that we were at 1,000 views, and yet now we're at 230,000. I am so thankful for each and every view.

There are over 3,700 comments on this blog, and I still feel like I can recite each one of them. All of your kind words and support is burned into my memory, and I doubt I will ever forget it.

Man, this post is already so jumbled and disorganized. I have so many things to say to you guys, and they're all just spewing out of me at once.

I see this blog as a sort of diary for myself for the past 3 years. When I go back and read my daily updates posts from a few years back, I remember how this blog was a sort of safe haven for me when I came back from school. I had moved, and I was having a lot of trouble making friends, and it was extremely difficult and painful for me to go to school. But when I was blogging, I was happy, and I'm so thankful for this blog, as it helped me get through that difficult point in my life.

I remember spending hours on hot summer days updating the blog's pages and working on commissions in Photoshop. I remember my computer heating up and scorching my legs, but ignoring it, because I was having too much fun designing stuff for you guys.

I remember reading your comments trickle in when I had first started my blog, being so ecstatic that people were actually reading my blog posts. I remember how Arcticpenguinii was the first one to ever comment on my blog, and I remember how nafaria9 made a few appearances after that. I remember meeting Mimi5000 on Christmas day 2014, and meeting Makou a few days after that. I remember meeting Cutepups522 and lovely1147046 and Creaturelover123 and Lostfairy and Cosmic and Princessbg and Ineffable and swirlshine and Spiritpaw and so, so, so many others.

Oh God, I'm actually crying now.

Now that I've lost it, I should probably end this post... but just a few last words:

This is the end, for now. But know that this is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I hate ending things, and I hate moving on from things that I love. 

I might come back for occasional visits, and I might not. I don't know. But I know that I have been blessed by the most supportive, funny, insanely kind and enduring community ever, and that we can make it through anything together.

For the last time,

Play wild and jam on!

-Panda

@Capriicorn AJ

Hello!! Here's your channel art, Capriicorn.

Please don't crop it, as it won't be able to upload.

If you're wondering about the graphic, here it is!

Anyways, that's about it!

Ciao, and Comet On, from Cosmic!

(Ooh wow, the throwback is up with this one! Haven't used it in AGES.)

Themes for a Blogger template?

Hello, my name is Cosmic and.. I'm posting. Yeah, that's what I'm doing. Anyways, I'm looking for a theme to use for 3 Blogger templates, much like Diamond Days. As you can see, on the "Other Test Blogs" page, I already have the Jamaasian Line and the Gemstone Line! Now, I'm looking for ideas for a template!

Anyways, comment any ideas you have below.

That's about it. I'll try to post tomorrow!

Ciao, and Comet On, from Cosmic. (Ooooooooooooh, trying out something new and I like it! I'll switch from the period and the exclamation point)

(I hope you enjoy my new winter signature!)

@Akmlynx

Hello, I'm Cosmic, if you haven't seen by now. Anyways, before I post the commission I just finished, I'd like you all to know that I moderate the chat box in the footer. So if you post something bad, I will post you to our Asana. I'd like to put this out (whoa, Cosmic, with the "formal" talk!) that a few days ago, someone had an inappropriate name and was saying inappropriate stuff. Anyways, onto the commission. (WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAA, Blogger can now add special characters! This is what you get if you've been on sort of a Blogger hiatus..)

Here is a commission for Akmlynx!

I hope you like it, it only took me 5 minutes but that's about the time I use for headers & signatures.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this post/mini rant!

Ciao, and Comet On! (it feels quite nice to type that again..)

Possible New Animals

Hey jammers! After 1 million years, I'm posting! This year is the busiest I've ever been in my entire life...it sounds like an exaggeration but it's sadly true.

In a recent update, AJHQ announced there would soon be a new animal. They said it an option for naming your animals. The last name part usually has the animals. I looked through the list and here are the animals I saw (that aren't already animals you can play as):

-Toucan
-Gull
-Iguana
-Jaguar
-Fish (although there are animals you can play as that are fish)
-Leopard (even though there are snow leopards, so this is not likely to be the animal)
I was actually expecting 'ostrich' to be an option, due to the fact that that was an option on the most recent poll (falcon, which won, then sloths, which were probably 2nd, and ostriches). Then, as I was reading the Jamaa Journal over, I noticed it said this: "Maybe you can ask your buddy for HELP, because when it comes to searching through all those NAMES, two can do it better than one."

I'm probably overthinking this, but maybe it is hinting at a deeper meaning than just asking a friend for help. Maybe it means two animals are coming to Jamaa, or you have to put more than one name together to get the animal's name.

Let me know what  you think in the comments!

Edit: Aparri recently made a video about this topic. Take a closer look at the phrase 'two can do it better than one'. Doesn't 'two can' sound like toucan? Plus, toucan is one of the name options!

CosmicCheetah's Commission Coupon -- 10/23/16

Hey there Jammers, Cosmic here (wow, I used that in all three of my posts today..), and today I have a commission coupon for you! Here it is.

And you can go to the Animal Jam Comet to redeem it or CosmicEdits to redeem it.

Anyways, that's about it!

Ciao, and Comet On!

CosmicCheetah's 10/16/16 Commission Coupon

Hey there Jammers, it's Cosmic here, and in case you didn't know, I pop into the blog (almost) every Sunday and give you an opportunity to request a randomized, free edit from me, since I also have commissions on my own separate blog, CosmicEdits.

Anyways, here's the coupon!

And you can choose to redeem it by going the Animal Jam Comet way, the longer way, or the CosmicEdits way, the shorter way. (For a nice message at the end of the post, view CosmicEdits.)

Anyways, that's about it!

Ciao, and Comet On!

-- CosmicCheetah

(By the way, mind checking out my art contest?)

Bitter Sweets Adventure Guide

Hey everyone; I know I should help out on posting more here, but as always, school has consumed a lot of my time (I just started high school!)

But I do have a special treat for you today: the first adventure guide I've ever made. It's for Bitter Sweets, the new Night of the Phantoms feature. The green dots stand for areas where you need a certain pet to unlock it, and the orange are places where you need four players.

Well, keep calm and jam on, and have a spook-tacular Halloween!