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Badge Drop #8: Get Outside!

by andrewjmac

Alright, Summer Gamers, it's August! August means hot, sunny days just begging you to GET OUTSIDE! How can the AADL Summer Game help YOU to get outside? Surely this is a game all about sitting in front of a computer? NO!! It's Badge Drop #8, the get-out-of-your-houseinest badge drop in Summer Game history! What are you going to do when you are out and around town?

-Finally get all of those Operation: Park Explorer badges done, including the all-new County Farm Park badge!

-Visit all of the AADL locations to track down all of the codes and earn all of the BRANCH EXPLORER badges!

-Get around downtown Ann Arbor to find all of the TWIG TERRARIUMS at various businesses!

-Take your picture at any AADL location and show us on Instagram or Twitter to earn the AADL SHELFIES badge!

-Take a picture of AADL materials out in the world (maybe even you USING them) and show us on Instagram or Twitter to earn the AADL IN THE WILD badge!

-Beat down your friends' doors to make them sign-up for the Summer Game so you can get a 500 POINT REFERRAL BONUS and work towards your RECRUITMENT MASTER badges!


Oh, and did I mention that this is the BIGGEST BADGE DROP OF SUMMER GAME 2014? Let's get to it!


2014 Badge Drop #8
echo theme_summergame_badge(838,841,840,839,842,851,852,853,845,846,847,848,849,850,837,836,856,857,859,844,855,854,834,835,858,860);
?>




So what are you waiting for? The sun is shining. The birds are singing. The codes are waiting. GET OUTSIDE!! And...



THANKS FOR PLAYING!

Comments

Submitted by Cloverdale on Fri, 08/01/2014 - 6:20pm

Hi there,
Last code for Mytholo- tree badge is "not recognized. " the code and link are listed in the catalogue, but the link doesn't work. Thanks.,

Submitted by Zekicmom on Fri, 08/01/2014 - 9:03pm

As my teenage son likes to remind me, I know virtually nothing about technology. I have a question about the new badges that require you to upload a picture to twitter or instagram. Will those images be for public viewing, or just for the aadl staff as proof of our dedication to all things library? If I do manage to figure out how to share a picture I'd like to know where it's going first.
Thanks!

Submitted by Bookbird on Sat, 08/02/2014 - 11:22am

Yay for the Branch Masters Badges having the same super-cute design! Now I must try even harder to get them all before any future design changes :)

Submitted by SBNB on Sun, 08/03/2014 - 4:07pm

I was relieved to see that the pokemon badge only has four codes (+ four bonus codes). Thanks for that!

Submitted by Naverick22 on Sun, 08/03/2014 - 7:47pm

I'm now up to date with the polkamania badges and their bonuses.

And another thing

Why horn,

Why.

Submitted by willow on Sun, 08/03/2014 - 10:34pm

We are definitely enjoying the park badges! The County Farm Park was absolutely wonderful -- it was great to explore the trails, as none of us had explored there, or certainly not recently.

We did encounter three separate small dead rodents lying in the middle of the trail, with minimal physical damage, which was a bit of a mystery.

Submitted by beeniepie on Sun, 08/03/2014 - 10:54pm

@willow -- We ran into two dead rodents during our badge hunt at Parker Mill. Weird!

Submitted by sara on Mon, 08/04/2014 - 10:02am

Does anyone know how long you get to keep games when you check them out? Are all the unusual things to check out the same borrowing length, or are they all different?

Submitted by kathscot on Mon, 08/04/2014 - 11:21am

I'm having trouble with the 2nd clue on the Mytholo-tree badge. When I put in the frost giant's world (anglicized) I only get a Nancy Farmer book that has no code. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

Submitted by hcf on Mon, 08/04/2014 - 8:33pm

My kids and I enjoy getting to explore the parks around town. Thanks for helping to motivate my teenage son to spend some time with me :) THAT is certainly worth a badge!

Submitted by Zekicmom on Mon, 08/04/2014 - 11:58pm

I just earned the Death Worms By The Numbers badge, and I am so impressed with the haiku! How do you people come up with this stuff?

Submitted by amym on Tue, 08/05/2014 - 7:58am

I'm so happy you have clues for the library branch badges, plus the number of badges per. I never knew if I was missing something, especially in the main branch.

Submitted by willow on Tue, 08/05/2014 - 9:22pm

I would also like to say that we found the directions for the County Farm badge much clearer than those for several of the other park badges, and this was very much appreciated. Or maybe we're just getting good at this? Actually, County Farm is impressively well labeled! Every intersection was accounted for. Dolph Park felt like stumbling around in the woods, hoping to happen across the code...

Submitted by Zekicmom on Wed, 08/06/2014 - 7:51pm

I'm really confused about the number of codes in the downtown branch. On the badge list it says that there are 24 codes. I was there today and the person at the resource desk told me how many codes were on each floor of the building, and together with the branch code, Josie's Chickens, and the terrainium, there were 28 codes total in the building. I have entered them all but didn't get the branch master badge, it tells me that I only have 23 out of 24 codes. Has anyone else had a problem? I guess I must have missed one somewhere, but the numbers don't add up.

Sorry to hear that, Zekicmom. Sounds confusing.

Every year the branch codes seem the most confusing; it was a bit of a help to end new code placement before the summer game concludes, and at least now the number of codes is listed, but it's still unclear. I also think it's not ideal to put codes in places that can only be accessed M-F, 9-5. Some people work during those hours! ;) This seems different than event codes that are for specific times, so I wish there were some evening or weekend availability to Josie Parker's office.

I've decided the best thing to do is to enter codes WHILE at the place, via text. I have been able to find out I had codes wrong when I texted the imposter code to the library, and saved myself a return trip. Also saved on having little slips of paper go missing.

Willow,
Thanks for the sympathy. I've decided it must be karma that I messed up somewhere because I had dared to go to the library without any of my kids. I should have known better.

I can only find 23/24 branch master codes as well. There are other codes at that branch which are not part of the branch master badge. The 24th code I cannot find is somewhere in the Youth Department, but I have looked and looked and not been able to find the missing one. btw, 2 of the codes in the main branch are the same as they are the building code and are located at 2 different information desks.

Hey @wonderwolf! The building code is posted at every information desk because code-hunters should be able to approach any desk to find out the building code, as opposed to the other codes which are meant to be hunted down and found on your own. It is posted behind the desks more for staff than for patrons so that staff can give it to people as they ask! That's why you saw it behind both desks. :)

I've got a problem with the main branch badge too. I have 24 codes (25 if you count Josie's) but I don't have the badge. So I don't understand why I haven't earned the badge. I've sent a message but no one has responded to me yet.

@AprilCDB: There are actually 28 codes total in the downtown branch, but 4 of them aren't required for the badge for varying reasons. So if you want the badge, make sure to hunt down all 28 codes! There's a helpful code-finding sheet you can pick up at the Youth Desk to make sure you have all of the building codes for downtown.

@Thundercat,
I have 28 codes found in the downtown branch, which is why I'm so frustrated that I still don't have the badge. I've got the branch code, Josie's chickens, the terrainium, 5 codes from the third floor, 7 from the second, and a total of 13 more from the first floor which includes youth, teens, adults and garden. What am I missing?

@Zekicmom: Hmm, have you checked the hint for the code it says you're missing? There's been some shuffling of codes as the Helen Keller display had a code and it was removed when the display was. Are you aware that that code is not included in my count of 28? Sorry, I know that's a bit confusing. Try checking out that badge hint!

Thanks for the suggestion Thundercat. I'll have to get myself to a computer to check hints. I do most things on an iPad which for whatever reason I have never managed to figure out how to view them on it.

Zekicmom --- I cannot read the pop up badge information pages on the iPad either; I can only see the first (small) "screen" of them, as the scrolling doesn't work.

@bookbird thank you SO much for the iPad tip! This is the one thing that drove me nuts while playing the SG on my iPad, that I couldn't get the hints if I needed them. Wish I would have known this at the beginning of the summer. Better late than never though, right!

We (Lat and I) were able to get the DT Library codes and the badge with no problems. But, I am using a computer and Lat knows what she's doing. So that helps.

Submitted by SBNB on Fri, 08/08/2014 - 8:46pm

Could someone help me out with the code that's in the courtyard thing off the youth department downtown? I took a picture of it, but the picture is blurry and I can't make out the code.

Submitted by tbbrown76@yahoo.com on Fri, 08/08/2014 - 9:22pm

Yeah, I don't think I will get the Recruitment Badges. Everybody I know is already doing the Summer Game. But, hey, I don't have to get them all, now, do I. Or do I?

Submitted by ginarae3 on Sat, 08/09/2014 - 3:41pm

I was able to get the chicken code by asking at the desk when the office was locked up and I couldn't see it for myself.

Submitted by readingqueen76 on Sat, 08/09/2014 - 4:24pm

Coolay

Submitted by mtrax on Sat, 08/09/2014 - 4:49pm

Finding the terrariums was fun. I hadn't ever been in Rock Paper Scissors and had meant to, so this gave me a good reason to check them out.

Submitted by ValerieL Staff on Sat, 08/09/2014 - 5:43pm

The Pokemon badges need to come with stock in pain medication companies! Goodness they're hard! I've only gotten the first three done. I've found everything, but they just seem to take FAR longer than any of the other badges I've done.

I'm almost thinking about not doing the last two just because they haven't been as fun as the other badges for me since they're so difficult. But I'm a glutton for punishment so I'll probably do them. ;)

You are not alone. The Pokemon badges usually take me the longest to do. On the upside(?), I now know about 5000% more than I used to about Pokemon.

Submitted by willow on Sat, 08/09/2014 - 8:19pm

Thanks for the tip on the iPad, Bookbird! It works great.

I was glad to get a chance to stop in to some stores downtown that I had never been in before, including getting to see all the 826 Michigan's robot supplies! If those aren't the cutest thing, I seriously don't know what is. I managed to walk RIGHT PAST the *giant* library sign in the window and was looking everywhere for a tiny terrarium....that was hilarious.

Submitted by SBNB on Sat, 08/09/2014 - 9:12pm

I finished the County Farm Park badge today, and I have to say that the third to last paragraph of directions just about drove me crazy. Maybe it was that I was trying to follow the directions while walking and reading them off my phone. In any case, I threw in the towel only to realize that the purpose of that whole paragraph was to get me a surprisingly small distance down the trail and that I was already there. So I did finish it and I did enjoy the trails and the park, but it definitely was the most annoying park explorer badge that I've completed.

@SBNB

Sorry SBNB. The directions were quite wordy for such a little distance, but others had complained that park explorer directirons were unclear- so I tried to be as precise as possible. I should have changed the route, but I wanted explorers to see all the sections of the park without having to go too far with kids. I'm glad you finished. And, remember, these badges are written by your fellow players who are just trying to make the game more fun and get people outside to visit new places and enjoy nature.

Sara -- funnily enough, we had trouble in every other park badge but found the County Farm Park the least confusing. I put my kids in charge of navigating us out of the back part of the park using the posted maps, and they had a great time at it. I think the park is better marked off than the other parks, to the point that the glut of signs (4 -->, and then a bit farther down the path <--4) was itself confusing! Dolph Park was absolutely baffling and it was only through exhaustive effort that we managed to find one of the codes! We will *definitely* go back to County Farm park; the badge was very helpful in getting us to go on the trails, instead of just the playground.

@sara - I definitely enjoyed the park, and I think the route was a good one for getting people familiarized with the park. The part that threw me off, I think, was the stuff in parentheses. I read those instructions, figured them out, and then went on to the next sentence thinking these were the next instructions, when in fact these were further explaining the stuff in parentheses. And I'm sure part of the problem was that I was trying to navigate using my smartphone while walking while my husband was whining and complaining next to me. :)

Submitted by sharmas on Tue, 08/12/2014 - 3:42am

Hi Summer Game Players,

I am having a problem with the 3rd clue of the Mytholo-Tree badge? Any hints?

Submitted by mjanen on Tue, 08/12/2014 - 11:27am

@ravianjalis I had trouble with that one too. If you look at the wikipedia page for the tree, check the figure captions. There's one with maidens pouring water, but little to no English in the caption; use the word in quotes as your search term.

Submitted by beeniepie on Thu, 08/14/2014 - 2:19pm

@SBNB -- I've lost the string where we were discussing the toddler-friendliness of County Farm Park, sorry. Yes, the sand between the playground equipment and the Project GROW garden is the "sand box" area I was referring to. There use to be a water pump at one time, but it seems to be fenced in. There were kids playing with sand toys today, but that's not always the case.

Tip to those going to get the County Farm badge -- the bathroom doors near the pavillion were not working today. I called someone at the Washtenaw County office, so hopefully this will be remedied soon. My preschooler and I were walked in on, and made the mistake of walking in on someone else while using the potty. I suggest knocking.

Submitted by beeniepie on Tue, 08/19/2014 - 10:13pm

Will there be a Terrarium master badge? I guess I'm surprised that the Terrarium event is tied to the badge, and that would make the master badge completely unattainable for those that didn't make it to the event.

Anyone know?

@ beeniepie There will be a Terrarium Master Badge and attending the event will not be part/required to attain a Master Badge of for exactly the reason you stated - it was a limited event.

Submitted by yaldah on Wed, 08/20/2014 - 2:32pm

I need help with the second code for the "Little Green Men" badge. I thought I had found the name of the sheriff (initials J.B.H.?) but I've tried multiple versions of his name and none of them work. Can anyone help me? Thanks!

@Loryn I thought the instructions were a bit confusing and got lost in there. Luckily it's like a giant loop, so I found my way back. Made finding the last code a trip though that's for sure.

Submitted by takako on Thu, 08/28/2014 - 11:33am

We just went to the country park. It is so nice and pretty. We really enjoyed looking for the codes

Submitted by takako on Thu, 08/28/2014 - 11:36am

It would be nice to have a fitness challenge badge or something like that at the Country Farm park, We followed up to Fitness station 3 and got taken off the route to look for the codes.

Submitted by estermyer on Thu, 08/28/2014 - 4:38pm

I have all of these except the first terrarium one and the talking back series ones :-)

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