Animal Crossing Dream Address: DA-2618-0097-9243

Funeral of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. April 1967.

Muhammad Ali vs Sonny Liston. May 25th, 1965.

Raising a Flag over the Reichstag. May 2, 1945.

John and Yoko, Hilton hotel, Amsterdam. March 1969.

Thích Quang Duc self immolation. Saigon, June 1963.

Think the whole comic book superhero genre is inherently silly and that silliness has always been a barrier between you and trying to enjoy what that genre has to offer?

Had your life destroyed by mental illness?

Feel like you're a piece of human garbage, beyond and undeserving of redemption?

Then by golly is Harley Quinn a cartoon for you!

It is a series that is at once both respectful of its source material while also acknowledging it is a genre that is indeed inherently silly if you try to take it too seriously. It's also a show that examines different people coping with mental illness in different ways. Some of them cope in healthy ways and some of them cope in unhealthy ways but ultimately their success or failure is measured by whether or not they've grown.

It's a series that doesn't even try to hide the fact it's a cartoon, that its premise is utterly and completely silly. It is a cartoon that makes it clear that if all these people were actually real live people living in our real live world they would be horribly toxic, dangerous people that would need to be locked up for their own protection and for the protection of society. The violence is over the top as is everything else about the show. Between the swearing and the violence it assumes that you, the viewer, are an adult capable of adult thought and that you know if you were to emulate any of these people in the real world you would be a terrible, terrible person. It assumes you are smart enough to figure at least that much about it for yourself and when you meet that show halfway, when you accept these are cartoon characters living in a silly cartoon world and that their actions are completely unacceptable anywhere outside that silly, cartoon world then when you've made that compromise it's a show that has something to teach you.

It's a show very similar to other adult cartoons, shows like Archer and Rick and Morty where everybody in the show is an asshole who is miserable but when you strip away their egos and pretensions you understand the reason they're miserable is because they're assholes. They're the architects of 90% of their own misery. What sets Harley Quinn apart from these other shows is while Archer and R&M are about having fun watching assholes being assholes to each other, Harley Quinn shows that even assholes reach a point where they become tired of being assholes. The characters in Harley Quinn start to realize "wait... maybe I'm the one with the problem" and when they do realize that they have a choice, and they are the only ones who get to chose what to do at this point. Do I put my ego aside and try to grow and hopefully decrease the amount of misery in my life and the lives of everyone around me or do I just dig my heels in, act like a petulant child and continue my self-destructive behaviour because I'm too angry at everything and all I want is for people to hurt like I hurt.

Everyone's endpoint in the series is ultimately the results of the effort they put into growing. Batman learns he has to let other people into his life. He can't just be the stoic rock that everyone else leans on. He has to sometimes lean on other people and he has to learn that leaning on other people isn't a weakness, it's life. Ivy has to learn that human beings aren't garbage. She can't just retreat into her world of plants and expect to be happy because human beings are just too hard to understand. Both Harley and Kiteman help her come to that realization but ultimately the responsibility to grow is on her shoulders. She lets them help her along the way because she knows she's not coping with her intimacy problems in a way that is healthy and that is a choice she makes. Doctor Psycho even grows, not as much as the other character but he does grow, but then he stopped growing. He dug his heels in and had a tantrum and in the end he was the one who suffered because of his actions. He's the one who ended up locked up in Arkham and hopefully if the series gets renewed for a 3rd season we will revisit his character and show yes even a shit-heel like him can become a better person if he, as an adult accepts responsibility for his actions and takes agency over his own life and tries to grow instead of being an angry little man blaming everyone else for his problems and never once pausing to wonder "wait... am I the asshole here?". Even Kiteman learns he can't be a doormat. He can't be constantly seeking everyone's approval. Not his parents, not his lover. He learns that people won't see his worth until he himself can see his worth. Kites are for soaring, not for being walked upon.

But ultimately the biggest growth story is that which happens to the titular Harley Quinn and her once-lover the Joker. The series starts with Harley finally coming to realize (through the help of her friends) that she is in a toxic, co-dependent relationship and that she can't "save" the Joker. She can't fix him if he doesn't see he has a problem needing fixing. She can't fix him because she hasn't even tried to fix herself. She needed the Joker because he was a distraction from the fact that she herself is a very fucked up person. Neither one of them could grow until they ended their toxic relationship. Once they excepted their relationship was toxic and once they moved on they were able to grow. They both learned what love is. The Joker is now a suburban step-dad and god help the person who fucks with his kids or girlfriend. The Joker came to realize "wow, I was the asshole wasn't I, well time to do something about that". When he did that he became a sympathetic character. He was no longer obsessed with "how dare Harley leave me, I'm the fucking Joker". He knew why she had to leave him and when he came to understand, he understood that sometimes love means you have to let someone go and that just because a relationship doesn't work one way doesn't mean it can't work in others. Ultimately he and Harley part as two people who still love each other but it's a love of mutual respect and friendship and that is a valid form of love and non-romantic love is still love.

Harley learns that she can't fix anyone until she works on fixing herself. Harley learns that being a manic pixie dream girl isn't cute if your mania brings misery into the lives of the people around you. Harley learns that while her fucked up parents and her co-dependent relationship with the Joker contributed to her misery that she is a rational adult who ultimately is the only person who can make her life whole. She takes responsibility for her actions and puts in the effort to make life better for herself and her friends.

How much the characters grow depends entirely upon them. Do they stop to examine themselves and become self aware or do they sulk and blame everything and everyone around them for their misery? Do they make a conscious effort to do better than they did the day before? They all grow or don't grow based on the effort they can and do put into growth and the ones who do the work reap the benefits and the ones who don't wind up angry and alone.

So if you are a person who has always hated the superhero genre because of its silliness then please give Harley Quinn a try because it fully admits it's silly as fuck. I mean Harley uses an A-bomb to blackmail the city into building an awesome real-life hotwheel track dedicated to her (which she destroys herself when she comes to realize there are things more important than her own ego). That is just so silly, but it was entertaining too.

If you're a person who has had your life impacted by mental illness, either your own or one suffered by a loved one, then you should really give Harley Quinn a watch because that's what the show is ultimately about.

If you think you're too damaged a person to grow, if you think you're too shitty a person to be allowed to grow then boy do you really need to watch this show because if the fucking Joker can grow as a person then guess what, you can too. Growth isn't something you do and are done with. It's a continual process and nobody grows at the same rate, what is important is that you continue the process and not dig in your heels and have a tantrum because the process is hard, or other people seem to be able to do it easier than you. Like King Shark said "baby steps".

Who wants to hear a story about when your ol' pal Uncle Ghastly was just a kid. It's a now cherished childhood memory.

When I was about 13 or 14 my friends and I went into this conservation area on the edge of town with our BB guns. There was an old building there that used to be a factory or a warehouse but had been abandoned for quite a long time. Being boys with BB guns we liked shooting out the few remaining windows in the building, and shooting bottles, and even shooting each other because boys will be boys. Well on this day someone living near the park saw us being little shit disturbers with our BB guns and called the cops on us. I was the one who got caught.

I was just coming out of the woods when the cop pulled into parking lot and saw me. He gets out of the car, puts on his forge cap and holds out his hand and says "give me the gun". I was busted, and I knew I was busted so I gave him the gun. Then he says "get in". Now I have crippling claustrophobia. I cannot stand being confined. Even riding public transit sets me on edge if I'm stuck in traffic. I hate flying not because I'm afraid of crashing but because I can't stand being stuck in a little metal tube where I have little to no control over my environment. I did not want to be locked in the back of a cop car. Being young and cocky I thought I could talk my way out of the situation. I was incorrect. The cop shoved me hard against the car and said "you're either getting in the car on your own or I'm handcuffing you and throwing you in the car". Well as much as my claustrophobia could not stand the idea of being locked in a car it really didn't like the idea of being handcuffed and locked in a car so I acquiesced... ... and began to lose my shit. When I suffer a full on panic attack I can't breathe. Nowadays I know how to box breathe to re-oxygenate my blood stream and to control hyperventilation but back then I was full on hyperventilating.

The first place the cop went was to my friend Dwayne's house. There was no point in lying. I grew up in a small town and when you grow up in a small town and fuck up everyone knows it and they know your parents too. The cop knew who we were and he knew Dwayne was the ring leader of the group and his house was closest to the conservation area. So we go there first and I'm left alone, unsupervised in the back of the car. It was a hot August afternoon, and I was hyperventilating in the back of a hot car with the windows all up while the cop was talking to Dwayne's dad. I could feel myself starting to pass out. The cop cars back then were Chevy Caprice I believe and they had a little vent window on the back doors that was just above the door handle.

Now I was a very bright child, but I did a lot of stupid shit because as anyone who has played Dungeons and Dragons can tell you, wisdom and intelligence are not the same thing. But before I passed out from hyperventilating I realized I could easily fit my hand through the ventilation window and open the door from the outside. So I did this. Now my thoughts weren't of escape because there was no escape. This cop knew my name before I even told him it. I was boned through and through. So I went and sat on Dwayne's front porch and was able to relax a little and get my breathing under control.

Now the look on the cop's face when he came out of my friend's house was priceless combination of shock and anger. He wanted to know who let me out of the car (for some reason he was certain it was my friend Scott who facilitated my escape). I told him I got myself out and he refused to believe me until I showed him how and then he had a wide eyed look of "how the hell did nobody notice this huge security flaw in the design of our police cars before now". So then we drove around with Dwayne's older brother in the front seat looking for the rest of the BB gun crew. And the story ends with my dad picking me up, sobbing and scared from the police station and me being grounded for 2 weeks which really sucked because it was August and summer vacation was rapidly eroding. When my grounding was finally over I almost immediately got into trouble again with my friends because boys will be boys and was once again picked up by my dad at the police station and grounded again.

Now it scared the shit out of me at the time but now 40 years later (and 40 years wiser) it is a beloved childhood memory because it makes me think of all the shit I used to get up with with my friends that I didn't get caught for. It was an experience, and one that helped me grow as a person. It's a big warm bowl of nostalgia soup with grilled cheese and chocolate milk. This is some perfect summer day, small town in southern Ontario, Canada shit that makes me smile at the memory of it.

It's also privilege.

It's some white boy in a small town where everyone knows your dad privilege. It doesn't mean I'm a bad person because the lottery of birth afforded me such a wonderful privilege. It doesn't mean I can't enjoy the memory of that experience, but it is still a privilege afforded to me that has not been universally enjoyed by other children growing up on this continent.

It is a privilege that I get to tell my friends, my children, maybe someday even my grandchildren about the time I was a mischievous little shit disturber running around with my mischievous little shit disturber friends disturbing shit as mischievously as we could in the waning days of summer before we started grade 9.

It's a cherished memory afforded to me by privilege. It's a privilege Tamir Rice will never know. It's a privilege too many will never know because my life mattered where theirs did not.

Tamir Rice will never get to be an old man, telling his kids about the time he got in trouble for playing cops and robbers in the park with his friends. He does not get that privilege because his life didn't matter to the people who were given the authority to end it.

If "All Lives Matter" was true he'd be graduating highschool about now. He'd be telling his friends "remember that time we were goofing around with BB guns and we got in shit with the cops".

Two kids in almost identical situations, separated by a few decades. One now an old man with a cherished childhood memory. The other exists only as dry bones and the memories carried by the people who loved him.

That's why it's important to recognize the privileges you've been blessed with.

That's why it's important to remind authority that BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Side by side footage comparison of the Proscenium Arch for Animal Crossing.

So one of the big problems with my plan to film a short play in Animal Crossing is that there is no way to hide the HUD of the in-game camera. This means all the video you shoot will have the UI in it and will make what you shoot look like it was shot through a camcorder which doesn't always work for what you want to convey. So I made myself a proscenium arch template that I can composite with the game footage to hide the game's HUD in a way that will actually enhance that you're watching a play shot in Animal Crossing.

Oh! And also feel free to use this for any video fun you're planning to shoot in Animal Crossing.

Yeah, I've been playing a LOT of Animal Crossing during this pandemic and decided to make this recruitment video for the Maido Corp. Join the Maido Corp. today!

So there's an advertisement for an investment firm posing as an article on the economy of Animal Crossing. Basically they were trying to find analogies between Animal Crossing's economy and our real world economy. And while things like the futures market are pretty similar to the turnip market the economy of Animal Crossing doesn't really jive too well with our current economy because the economy in Animal Crossing is a socialized post-scarcity economy.

Tom Nook is the state in the game. The Bell is the currency of Animal Crossing because Nook says it is. We have no choice but to accept the Bell as currency because it's the only one allowed by the state. The value of the Bell is set as 1 Bell equals 1 Bell. It cannot change because Nook says that's it's value. 1 Bell on my island is worth 1 Bell on anyone else's island. There are no banks other than the state owned bank which loans out money without interest, collateral or down payment. The bank doesn't need to charge interest as means to manage inflation because Nook controls the prices. All basic needs are provided by the state. All your villagers have houses. Nobody is in poverty, nobody has needs. Presumably all villagers are paying off their own interest free mortgages as they wish. Presumably they are free to seek their own fortunes the way I do in the game, they're just not particularly motivated to do it the way I am. Anybody in the game can become rich but nobody can be poor. I, as the Island Representative am more motivated to earn money because I can use that money to improve island conditions for everyone. Excess money doesn't really have much value in the game except perhaps as a way to keep score. There are little micro economies in the game that have sprung up between players but those micro economies have no impact on the lives of anyone other than the participants so whatever those micro economies use as currency doesn't matter to anyone else, the Bell will always buy you whatever you want (even the in game black market still uses Bells). It's a planned, post-scarcity economy. It literally cannot run off the rails because Nook simply cannot be deposed. His rule is absolute. He is literally a god-emperor and we're all his vassal Lords and Ladies and Lady-lords.

Now post-scarcity doesn't mean everything is available universally and in abundance, it just means the energy and costs of acquiring something is so low that it's not really ever much of a concern. In Animal Crossing any raw materials I require for crafting are just a mystery island tour away. Food is literally everywhere in the game and shelter is provided by the state but there is still rarity in the game. There are resources and items that do not show up as frequently as others, but even that rarity isn't really that big a concern because it's simply a matter of having the desire to put in the time to acquire them. You can literally break all your tools, sell all your belongings and give the money away to the islanders and still build yourself back up to your former glory with very little effort. Scarcity is not a concern.

Basically the closest analogy you could get to Animal Crossing's economy would be a fictional economy in a sci-fi novel about a K-2 Civ. We're all lords of our island worlds, and Nook is our god-emperor. We're all plundering the vast mystery asteroid tour wealth of our solar system, competing against each other not really to accumulate personal wealth but instead to have the most awesome world to live on or visit. It's a futuristic utopia really because the economy is so well planned that all us little lords scurrying about creating this massive K-2 Dyson swarm cannot in any meaningful way do anything to ruin the economy for anyone. We're free to compete to make better worlds for everyone and it's literally the best way to enjoy yourself. I mean you could just play the game doing absolutely nothing but fishing and bug hunting and island tours and all the Bell making tasks and put nothing into improving your island but it would be no fun. No one would care that you have a shit load of Bells stashed away collecting interest because your island is a freaking shit hole. I'm having a ball building an arcade and game cafe for my island while you're being sad in your tent counting your bells.

And this is literally what god-emperor Nook wants. This is all his plan. We are the eager, blissful pawns playing out his divine game of chess, his masterpiece to make paradise real, and what is next for a K-2 civ? Well to become a K-3 civ and spread the will of god-emperor Nook throughout the galaxy of course.

But then things get weird when you realize that some of you Lords, Ladies, and Lady-Lords out there have been using time travel to try and game the economy. Yes, some of you think you have been clever and found a way to cheat. But it doesn't matter. God-emperor Nook knows, it doesn't matter though because his economy is so well planned that it still can't be wrecked by your time travelling. And in the end what are you doing with your time plundered goods? You're making your piece of the Dyson swarm better. This is all god-emperor Nooks will. Still... time travel, that's kinda freaky to consider as part of economy. There's something even freakier.

God-emperor Nook is a benevolent artificial intelligence that has been pushing us to become a K-2 civ. That's literally what he is, lines of code in a computer program that's running on your Nintendo Switch. The god-emperor Nook who rules over the "Animal Crossing economic analogy", a future utopia that has time travel exists as Tom Nook in the video game Animal Crossing.

Don't you see? God-emperor Nook, an artificial intelligence capable of time travel is using the game Animal Crossing to condition us to accept the will of god-emperor Nook so that god-emperor Nook can utilize both the human desires of competition and cooperation to make paradise manifest across the universe.

I'll take god-emperor Nook over Roko's Basilisk any day of the week.

I am kinda having fun with the drawing games on Facebook though.

Here I am, all social isolated like a good citizen. All this time to be productive. But instead I'm making stupid shit like this.

and this