Link to Denise's Club Journal

January 29th 2013

It's been a while since I have added to my journal.  I was sad this week.  My grade fives have a task where they need to agree on the design of a community centre that meets the needs of different community groups.  I would have loved to give them the opportunity to actually build their interpretations of a community centre that would most of the community needs, on our school site, unfortunately we are still working out the logistics of having access to our server.  I may still have them build their centres in single player and share it, but I don't know if they have had enough time 'playing' to be able to create the centre in the time we have.  I may have to take the rick anyway.  If I do I will have students take lots of screen shots.

April 16th 2012

I did a very bad thing.  In my own defense though, I didn't know what I was doing a bad thing.  I thought I was learning a new skill and helping the Grims out.

My crime:

I built a railroad from the Jungle to the Spooky Village.  

I had no idea that the wooden path was set as a footpath and not slated for further development.  I am so sorry!

BUT learning how to make the powered track was an exercise in frustration that lead to a great sense of satisfaction...until Prax filled me in on the preferred use of the path.  Finding basic information was a lot harder than I thought.  I decided to go to YouTube for the answer since I know I am a visual learner, and thought a video would help me better.  Unfortunately the majority of the videos I found were for creating train stations that were much, much more complicated than what I was looking for.  I ended up using a combination of both written and video instructions to help me out.  I know I could have just asked Prax and he would have happily explained what to do to me, but there is just something much more satisfying doing it myself.  I need to remember this when I am tempted to jump in and offer advice to the members of my minecraft club.

Also, being inspired by all the new builds I have started building an underwater Kingdom.  It's really hard.  I tried to see if I could make an underwater helmet using glass, but it didn't work.  I think I will have to get use to drowning.

March 19th 2012

This is just a quick note to say that I have started playing with the OP codes.  I used them to get materials for building a safe house in the club server.  Very handy.  I have built just a simple structure with the basics in two chests.  I have a feeling I have built it too close to the spawn location, but we will see. 

January 31st 2012

On Saturday I spent a little time in game trying to achieve two goals:
1. Tame a wolf
2. Find Terragrims house

It started off so well! I finally found a wolf (I had been looking for a while) and fed it two bones and it became my faithful friend. After that everywhere I looked I saw wolves. But I didn’t care, I had my wolf. It started to rain and snow, depending where I was standing, (I have a pic) and we went on the hunt for more bones. And that’s when the unthinkable happened. My new found friend got between me and a zombie and I killed him accidentally. I couldn’t believe it.

After a brief period of mourning I decided to try and tame another wolf. I collected some bones and fed them to another wolf. Nothing. I think he knew what happened to the last wolf. I decided to try and find more skeletons to restock my bone inventory and try again, but skeletons are never around when you need them.

Thoroughly lost and despondent I walked through the woods until I came to a clearing and saw a lovely little cottage. Huzzah! I had found Terragrims home! I decided to go in and rest there.

So all in all I achieved my goals... kinda. I think I will amend my first goal for the next time I log in to: tame a wolf and keep it alive.

January 24th 2012

On Saturday I took my nieces on a tour of all the changes that have happened over the last month to the world we are sharing.  They were really impressed by the new buildings and train stations.  Erin has had some difficulty making a good fireplace that works, so I showed her how to make one using flint iron and a block of wood.  So now my attic has a fireplace.  The girls also gave me some advice on opening up that space more.

We went on the train to Lupus Island.  It kinda creeped me out traveling up so high.  I was afraid of accidentally clicking out of the cart.  The girls were concerned too.  It's weird how even though this is a virtual space I feel just as uneasy with heights as I do in real life.  

I haven't tamed a wolf yet.  We were too busy checking out everything to stop and do anything other than kill a couple of spiders.  We looked in some of the chests at the station and I gave in to the temptation and picked up a diamond pickaxe and some diamond armour.  I was determined to mine until I found diamonds and then make armour etc. but I really liked the colour of the armour so I caved.  But I didn't grab everything, I took only the axe, pants and shoes, not the helmet, shirt or other diamond objects in the chests we saw.  I am determined to mine for the rest.  For now anyway.

January 8th 2012

Today I employed 2 children to help me shave my mountain.  Okay, 'employed' is probably not the best word since I didn't actually pay them for their work.  Although, their mom gave them permission to work for me, and encouraged it, so I am not alone in my crime. Liam continues to judge me.  But that is okay, soon my mountain will be nicely shaped and I promise to plant lots of trees to make up for the damage (kinda like paying a fine for dumping toxic waste). 

On the up side I got to slide down a waterfall and see the house the Diana and her family made.

January 5th 2012

I started a project to reshape the mountain in my backyard to look more 'natural.'  I quickly ran out of picks and sticks so I decided that even though it was night at the time I would go out to the front and chop down a tree or two.  I figure I am level 8 and have armour so a zombie or whatever will be not problem. 

Good thought in theory but not in practice.  As I walked back to my house to begin crafting,I was ambushed!  It was a trap I tell you.  Here's what happened: I see a skeleton off to the side shooting at me so I decide to attack.  Then out of nowhere two spiders a zombie and a creeper join the fight.  Needless to say, we all blew up.  My armour had sustained damage in the fight so even I did not survive the blast.  And as it turned out both the spiders survived.  They are currently camped on my glass roof.

I don't have enough iron to make a new set of armour so I will have to goo back into the mine.  I decided to log off and try again later.  Yes, I am being a bit of a sore loser.

I am interested in finding the music app that Liam talked about and checking out Diana's house.  I think that will be the next thing I do.

December 12th 2011

I had fun on Saturday, Skyping with Liam and Diana, traveling the tracks, checking out eachothers places and herding cattle together. I am hoping that when the club gets underway students will collaborate for a variety of purposes too.  

I have been devoting most of my online time to fixing up my house.  I don't know when I will be satisfied.  I also did a little exploring and found a small village that was very well stocked.  I am wondering if it belongs to Melanie.  I don't know if she is playing, but it seems too well stock to just be game generated -there were diamonds in one of the storage boxes.

I have also run into a moral struggle.  The house I built is under the shade of a mountain.  This bothers me.  I enjoy the sun, so I have begun removing the overhang of the mountain to give me the direct sunlight I want.  If this were real life and I heard that someone was leveling part of a mountain just to get a better view I would be appaled.  And yet here I am hanging off a mountainside doing just that.  I know that this is just a game, but I can't help but have a twinge of guilt as I carve away the mountain.

December 9th 2011

Adventures on my own while the server was down:

I found an intricate series of tunnels in the new wrold I entered.  In this series of tunnels I fould lots of iron and coal.  Then I was surrounded by spiders -which I defeated, but then a skeleton showed up and finished me off.  My second time in the mine I found 2 chests and lots of train tracks, but I also completely lost my way.  I ended up digging myself out; which was interesting because more than once I dug out to water.  I got out eventually.  The next time I went into the tunnels I brought signs.

I have sheared sheep and milked cows and built a lovely two story home filled with art.  I really wish I could make furniture (other than a bed) to dress the place up more.

November 6th 2011

Ways I have died:

-attacked by spiders, followed by a skeleton

-was running away from creeper and went out in the water, turned around to see if it was still following me, blew up

-blown up by a creeper (multiple times)

-eaten by spider

-drowning (twice)

-piled on by 2 spiders, a zombie, skeleton and creeper

It's been a while since I have died, but I am trying not to get too cocky.  I found iron the other day.  I'm thinking of holding off crafting with it (other than refining) until I have a better stockpile.  I still need to read up on farming, and I think I need to figure an more practical way to mine.  I think my inexperience with climbing down ladders is hindering my mining operation; instead of a ladder system I have extensive stairs.  I will have to revisit this. 

October 30th 2011

So, first impressions:  I really enjoy this game!  Even though I am currently not experiencing amazing success right now.  As I write this my avatar is cowering in a hole after drowning twice.  Still I think the challenges make up most of the fun.  My next challenge is to find where I have been camping.  Because -thanks to other deaths- I realized the wisdom of creating a box with extra supplies.  Now to go back and see if the night is over so I can find my loot.

I feel like I cheated a bit and read a little here and there about how to craft a few things, but on the otherhand I think it would be great to hear that my students were researching better strategies for creating their world.  I think it would be interesting for students to journal their experiences.  Even if the journal starts off as a simple list of accomplishments/barriers it would be interesting to see how it evolves.  

Anyways, built a nice little cottage today and my mine is growing.  I need to kill a few more spiders so I can make a bow, and figure out how to get a successful crop from my garden.