Just a little update tonight that I think came with some quite handy features. However, I have an external exam tomorrow and I promised myself I'd get to bed before 11 so that I can do my best. I've just finished playing through the quests and they were great - I hope to write about them tomorrow along with the other two many features of the update. I hope everyone has / has had an amazing day. The update involved more than I thought it would and was a pleasant surprised. Good night!

I was looking through some of the posts that I have written about Mistfall today and was quite shocked: I have never done a review of the foxes. It’s shocking because of the amount of time that I spend teasing my friends about their own ‘oversized orange rats’ so it’s about time I spoke on here about these little devils.

When I tried the fox out on my sisters account, I found that it was quite similar to the running squirrel that we got (for free). It could stand on some stuff but mostly glitched through objects. It would move it’s head and chase its tail when you were stationary. Quite a sweet little beast, but I think that the price was too much. 450 sc for a running pet? That’s 100sc more than a horse (which is worth a lot more). I think it was over priced by miles. Personally, more than 150sc for a pet is a little bit ridiculous. Think of all of the different things you could have got instead. I like the fox but bearing in mind it’s still very glitchy, I hate the price.

Wouldn’t it be so cool if, on SSO, you could just sit down with a friend, pet or horse. Forget about needing a picnic, BBQ or chair, you could just sit on the floor (where it was flat) in a couple of positions of you choosing - some with horses and some without. E.g. sitting cross legged, stretched out, lying down, leaning against your horse. The options are endless. I started thinking about this when seeing these photos on the SSO website:

But honestly, wouldn’t this make such a great little addition to the game? It would be great for club events (musical bumps) as well as being great for general Instagram photos and hanging out with friends. Wouldn't you love to lean against you horse like in the photo? I really think that this would be a great thing to add to SSO!

Thinking about owning? Well here are some pros and cons from my experience as an owner. I've done five of each but I would just like to say, in my case, the positives outweigh the negatives 100 times. I have owned FR for over a year and loved doing it and will continue loving it for many years to come! There are things that I wish didn't happen but, once again, I love owning and I think that if you're someone who has the time, compassion, skills and motivation then go ahead! Cons first because I want to leave it on a good note.

Cons

1. Everything your club members do, you personally are held accountable
   
2. Everyone expects you to know the answers when really you're kind of making it up as you go along
   
3. You can, at times, feel stuck in the middle of being an owner and being a friend to the club. Sometimes it can feel like they respect you too much and sometimes too little
   
4. You have the final choice on the running of the club and any mistakes are on you. Removing, deranking - you're the one who has to do it and break the news and you have to have been the one to have decided it
   
5. Sometimes, it can feel like people don't understand that you're doing this for fun. I enjoy reading applications, updating the website, posting on Instagram. However, doing it too often, too much or on demand will cause it to lose it's fun. Owning isn't a job, it's a hobby.
   

Pros

1. You're the person that people come to when they need advice or help, that is a privilege that I will always love
   
2. The pride you have of owning your club and each member in it is impossible to put into words
   
3. Ranking someone up or telling them that they can join FR is the best feeling in the world
   
4. I can't describe how it feels when you just mention on club chat something like "I'm climbing at Goldspur's" and the whole club rushes to join you
   
5. And most of all: You get to love a real group, of real people. You get to know them, you laugh with them and you rant with them. They will always have your back and you know that you can count on them to support you through anything.
   

Hi there! A very long awaited update today, we can get to Pandoria at will! Also, we can go there with our friends which I'm really excited about (club events here we come). It was frustrating before so I am just so excited that SSO have listened to player's feedback and opened Pandoria for everyone all the time. You may only enter it on your starter horse. Each day, the portal will appear in a different part of Jorvik (I'm sure there will be timetables coming out soon). It looks like this:

Once inside, I noted that it was the same place as we went to on the last story quests, with just a couple of differences. There are picnic spots and you can call for a pick up to the portal (there is currently a glitch that if you use this feature, you will no longer be able to see other players in Pandoria unless you leave it and come back). It found it very confusing and will spend the next few days finding my way around so that I can hope to spend more time there without being confused. We don't know how long it is staying (but I hope a very long time). Here are some photos FR and I took together in the new area:

Another update (that I didn't actually get the chance to look at) are these headbands to be found in Mistfall:

Personally, it's not something that I would wear but I think it's great how SSO are branching out to be using different accessories. It allows players to express themselves and it is also a lot of fun.

I hope everyone has a great day!

I just got inspiration to write a very short next bit of the story, enjoy!

Watching mist swirl in the valley below was very peaceful and soothing. I did not mind the damp grass beneath me or the cold, uncomfortable stone digging into my back. Up here, in the night, there was no one around to see you cry. I could let the tears form rivers as they cascaded down my facing, hitting the dew covered ground to become, for the next wanderer, nothing more than water.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Mum, but I’m just fed up of her not understanding that I have feelings as well. Ugh, why? I just wanted to go home. Not this strange island where everyone has odd accents and traditions. Not this ranger station that smelt woodsy and unfamiliar. Home in Bristol.

Crack! I heard the sound of twigs snapped. Turning my head sharply, I had hoped to see a deer but it was -

Matt.

I jumped up and turned to run up the hill towards the mountain.

“Woah, woah, woah, no you don’t,” Matt said, not quite calm. His arms were around me very quickly like a soft, warm, bear. He turned me towards him and hugged me, tight, in a way that I’d always imagined a brother to hug. He continued: “I read the email from Mum, ignore her, she’s probably upset about something. She doesn’t always think before sending, you know that.”

Already feeling tears brewing, I cried, completely giving up on my own dignity.

After a few minutes Matt simply said, “Let’s go home.”

I nodded and followed him back to the rangers station.

Hi guys! A little bit of self promo here. I have made a little guide to getting onto Jarlaheim tower which is a lovely little climb that I found. I hope that you find this video useful in your climb and if you liked it please give my channel some love because that makes me happy (and makes me look cool, I want to be a cool kid o.k.). I want to get back into making videos so badly, but time… Ah well, we’ll see!

Just a little though, it's very late and I'm very tired (today has been very productive in the real world, just not on SSO). I really wish SSO would add my climbable spots. I mean, we've found a lot as a club and done a lot but they do get a bit repetitive: Dino Valley, Pi's, Jarlaheim Tower, Firgrove, Newb Hideout, Devil's Gap, Mistfall, Guardian's dale (which can hardly be counted as a climb) are pretty much all there is in the way of climbing. I know it sounds like a lot but if you consider how often we climb, you can easily do them all in a week. It is a little bit boring and I wish SSO would create more with a good degree of challenge. The problem is, the fun about climbs is finding them. This is why I dislike Firgrove mountain as, firstly, it is easy which makes us lose the sense of victory at getting up it and, secondly, everyone goes there which means that it is not as special.

This is why Newb Hideout is my favourite climb, because so few people know about it outside of FR. SSO cannot purposely add new climbs else they'd be too obvious. Therefore, I guess it's just an issue we have to deal with.

Complaining is over!

Another Wednesday, another update. It was high time that Gary returned to Firgrove, and now here he is! But before we jump into the excitement of new horses, let's look at the new loading screen:

I think it's really pretty, perfect for this time of the year., showing that the world is not a Winter Wonderland anymore as the snow begins to melt. I will try and write a little story about it like a did last time (I can feel one coming because I just know that the bottom girl is called Ruth and the other one is Sophie, so I think a story will form in my head pretty soon).

Onto the main thing of this update: the wild horses. I was hoping that next time they came out, they'd be different models or the small ones again, but they were not. They are the same shire modal as last time, which isn't the end of the world, I just wanted something newer. Oh well! Let's go and look at them.

Of course, it's very important to look at the horses in their non-magical form as well. So here they are:

My favourite horse in this photo was the one to the right (the purple horse). I would buy this by itself. The colour is amazing and so is the fade from brown to the coat. I quite liked the black one of first sight, especially liking the texture in the coat and detail on the face. I really didn't think that I'd like the on of the far left (the gold horse).

However, in magical form my favourite was the gold one, but I wasn't sure about buying it just because of the normal form. However, after much debate I did, and I'm glad I did!

Her coat is nothing like the picture. It actually reminds me of my North Swedish horse (which was the first horse I bought so it has lots of fond memories) and is very texture (plus I love the strip on her face). It's just a very pretty little breed to right, especially in wild form:

The club blog has been a bit inactive recently, but I’m starting it up again. If you’re interesting in my club side of SSO (mostly about the events that we get up to), click here. I don’t talk about it much on this blog as I’ve already written it on the other blog. So if that’s the kind of things you’re into, check it out!

Do you like my new website theme? It's meant to be a semi Winter thing to last until Spring. I really love the background in particular! I haven't done a post about the new quests in Mistfall yet, so here it is. You need to be popular to do all of the quests (although don't have to be for t

Na mate, I'm here to unlock the new area!

Oh goodness, I think we've found a Rania fan...

Ok, meet you there to unlock super cool new mini area in Mistfall!

Finally able to get rid of GEDs junk.

And a bit more getting rid of junk. It is actually quite hard to keep up with the van you know! You're interested in unlocking another trail now the area around the lake is open? OK, awesome. I'll meet you up there.

But first...

Alright, let's unlock it!

All done. Wow, nice view from up here! Also a BBQ and picnic spot - awesome. Some people will want to check it out though!

Yay! It's all done and I got a hat as a reward.

The quests were quite short, although they were long enough to get me to level 21. It is nice to have the whole of this area now and you can get some lovely views in it. I think it was a nice little update and it was just nice to continue the rangers quests a bit. I especially loved jumping on the lilypads (lilypad races anyone?).

What did you think?

Just a little theory to finish off my stressful day (exam is all done, the first part went as well as I expected and the second part didn’t). I was up at Mistfall tonight and I noticed that on the flag there are four dots:

Well, the current station is called “South Mistfall Ranger station”. Does that mean that we’re looking at having a North, East and West division as well? There are two more parts of Mistfall to be opened (I hope both will be opened next year, but I doubt it). This means at least one will have two ranger stations in if my theory is correct. I think that it would be so cool to have the rangers doing stuff on a larger scale. I really hope that we will meet three more ranger stations in the future.

What do you think?

Ok, wow. I loved the new update, especially as I managed to get the new star without glitching. I’m also glad that the Christmas decor has gone as I think it’s really messy (although I’m not so happy about there being no Christmas market). The new area too was great and it had an amazing view of the rest of the island. However, I have an exam on Saturday & am freaking out a lot. I’ve been practising and haven’t actually had time to get on today, let alone gather all of the stuff from the update. Things will be good after Saturday, let’s just get this exam out the way!

It’s sad: tomorrow we will say goodbye to the Christmas market. It was a really lovely place, especially as it was the only one with snow in. It was so cosy and Christmassy. The ‘little helpers’ were amazing with all of the stuff they were doing and the quests there just got me into the spirit of Christmas. I managed to get all of the prizes in the igloo, but I wish the market could stay all year long. I’ll really miss you Christmas market, another 11 months until you show up again. I wonder where I will have gotten by then?

I've spent a lovely evening climbing with FR. It was great, I had a lot of fun! We Skyped and climbed so here are just some photos from our evening really. I have a lightly stressful day tomorrow so I don't feel like writing much as I'm in a very strange mood so if I do start writing lots, it'll get really weird. We just jumped on fox island, climbed at Forgotten Fields and then climbed up to the tower in Jarlaheim. I love my club so much and I haven't spent an evening like this in too long, I must do it more.  Enjoy some photos from the evening!

Ok excuse the title of this post, I thought I was being very funny. The other day, something very strange happened to me online. I was taking photos of animals out in Mistfall (for the Jorvik Rangers dailies, but now I'm admired). In my last photo, I was taken back to my home stable since apparently I had been in a "locked area". I was not in a locked area. I thought nothing more of this until just this week.

I was doing the same thing again, but this time I was in Dundull, just taking photos for dailies. And, sure enough, this screen came up:

It had happened before so I was kind of like "meh, it'll just take me back to my home stable". However, it did not. I ended up here with a screen looking like this:

So I got taken to the observatory with my starter horse talking to me? Well, that's logical. I wonder if this is happening due to up coming quests... Just a though!

Oh dear, two days without writing. It keeps happening and I'm not sure why. Well, I do. I sit down to write my blog, drift off on YouTube (while ideas of what I'm going to write swirl in my head) and then I'm so tired that I want to sleep instead of writing. So, basically, I really need to cut down on YouTube to make a bit more time for myself to let my thoughts flow.

This week's update was three new horses - two more Connemaras and a new Hanoverian. They were both in Dundull so (after spending a long time messing around on a rock near the village and getting stuck) I went to see the horses. Dundull is really starting to fill up nicely! I'll do this in the format where I have the photo and will make my comments of it in the caption as I think it looks slicker than writing in a text box below.

It's sad, but we'll never go back to the golden horses of lippis, iceys and arabians. They were great horses that didn't look like a barbie doll. I feel like the connemaras were better than previous horses and SSO are adding texture back in again, which I love and really encourage. However, I don't think that the muscle shading will go any time soon. I'm aware that real horses have visible muscles, which is why SSO probably put it there in the first place, but it just doesn't seem to match the horses in SSO to me. I think that it could be improved by getting rid of them and starting on some proper shading instead. I've always highly disliked the hanoverians so I'm not going into any more detail about that particular beast.

SSO had a few smaller things to announce as well. The game is finally in Finnish after years of people asking, it's here. Finnish is very similar to the Elven language from LOTR so I really love reading it (even if I have no idea what the words are trying to tell me). Also, SSO are moving HQ. I think this is a sign that there's getting bigger, which is great for the company but maybe not so great for the atmosphere in the community and the way that SSO have become further from the community. But that's for another post - good night! (Just realised it's past midnight so it'll look like I haven't posted for three days, well count this post as being posted 5th January)

You may have seen the various Instagram story bingos/ games floating around on Instagram. I don’t normally post story bingos / games on my story but I thought why not do a few of my favourite ones here, on my blog (since blogging is 100 times better than Instagramming). So here are my three favourite bingos/ games. I hope you learn something new about me! If you click on the photo you’ll find a blank copy on the account of the creator. I did not make these, follow the links to see who did.

Yesterday last year, I wrote a post about my achievements of 2016 and my goals of 2017 (read the post here)I thought that it would be nice to write a similar post for 2018 as it's just a lovely little record to have. So, last year, this is what I wrote for what I wanted to achieve in 2017:

1. Post daily on Instagram - I now post more often and more freely. But every day? Dream on!
2. Upload a video twice a week on YouTube - Hahahaha, no. But I aim for that, I just fall very short.
3. Enter more championships - Why the heck did I write this? I never want to enter championships.
4. Every member of FR is active - I mean, they are now really but this was my goal from a time where there were many inactive members and now that's not an issue.
5. Be myself more - Oh yes, I think I have achieved that one!

Here are some of the SSO related things that I achieved in 2017

1. Survived half the club leaving & came back stronger
   
2. 4000 views on my blog
   
3. 400 readers
   
4. 60 applications for FR in a week
   
5. 30+ people at open events
   
6. Began to edit
   
7. Learned how to own
   
8. 100+ likes on an IG post
   

What I want to achieve in 2018

1. Active on YouTube (yes again)
   
2. Write more
   
3. Read more
   
4. Being more assertive
   

It's been a great year. So many great updates from the team. So much amusing drama and excitement. So many friends have come and gone and so many rants have been said, tears cried and laugh laughed. So many hyper nights roaming the server with FR, climbing up high and crazy Skype calls. Getting back on speaking terms with some old FR members. Learning, on the job, have to own. It been a crazy year and it seems to be so long. Things have changed so much and I'm glad of it, so I say BRING ON 2018!