March 27, 2012
3rd journal? Who would have thought it possible?
It was just Liragrim, Phisagrim and MissColby on tonight because Terragrim was watching our new DVD of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. MissC had visited our house in person and the younger Grims had shown her all the neat things that had been happening on the Gaming Edus server. MissC has been a busy beaver so she had not been on lately, but tonight she tried to rectify that. Her goal was to build a house in the Nether. Phisa and I decided to guard her as she worked and help out when we could. There were a lot of ghast attacks but we defended the fort well. MissC likes to kill the zombie pig men, even though they swarm her when she makes the first strike. We logged off shortly after she did - after all, it was a school night!
Here's my first Fraps video - of Phisagrim's Nether Restaurant!
March 28 2012
Terragrim's Minecraft Report:
Today there was not much to take note of. It was only Phisa and me online. I accidentally clicked "update" and now the Minecraft on my laptop has gone all weird. Lira generously let me use her computer for the night. First, we played around in the Nether, fighting off two large magma cubes and a Ghast. Then Phisa and I revisited the jungle, in an attempt to find more ocelots. I saw two, but was unable to catch either of them. Phisa did find some jungle saplings and was able to plant them in his tree farm. Though it may not have seemed like much, this adventure really got the wheels turning in my mind. Next time, I plan to build a pathway, like the one to our nature preserve, to the jungle. But that's all for now.
ETA: Here's my second Fraps-made video of Phisa's pet cats. Sorry they weren't able to teleport (although Terra's did).
March 30, 2012
Terra will write more later on, because I didn't get to play with them, due to Terra's updated-too-soon laptop.
To be brief: Phisa was very sad because he fell down a large pit and his cats perished with him. He created a memorial for his deceased pets near the site of their demise.
March 31, 2012
Phisagrim's Report (dictated by Phisa)
In the morning, we were in a cave full of diamonds, gold and iron. We were also trying to find slimes. And there was a success. The slime was captured but of course, eventually, it will despawn. Later on, while we were building the path to the jungle, Lira found a bunch of cats in the middle of the path. I realized it was my cats. They hadn't died after I fell over a huge crater. I felt happy. I couldn't have wished anything better than that to happen. So, we continued on. I had all three kind of ocelot forms - my first one was a tabby, the easiest. The second one I got was the rarest - a Siamese. Last was the tuxedo, the one I wanted. It was in between. We thought lava from the ceiling in the big crater was blood but it was just lava.
In the afternoon, I found a pink sheep. I did not dye it - it can be found natural but very hard to find. I only found two near the jungle. If you want to find one, look around the jungle. We finished the Cat Centre, a place where you can let your cats stay, safe and sound. The reason you would want a cat is to protect you from creepers. We had to catch many of my sheep in my castle to the castle again. Also, I made a wolf puppy. What you do is tame two wolves, then give them two meat, such as chicken, beef, pork chop, and so on, and they go to mate and they make a baby. Even the baby will fight for you. There was a spider jockey on the track to the jungle. It's basically a spider being rode by a skeleton. They're difficult to kill but they are still easy. Extremely hard to find, very rare. You can actually upgrade armor with an enchanted bookcase. If you want to find one, look in Liragrim's house, Phisagrim's house, aka me, and somewhere in the safe house. I made it Projectile Protection. All I know is that it decreased how much arrow damage. We also had a snowball / egg fight. We were throwing snowballs and eggs rapidly. We didn't even take cover. I was surprised. Take it away Lira about our idea.
Phisagrim and I were on our own in the late afternoon / evening (because Terragrim was at a birthday party) and we walked to the Trouble House to update our signs and then we traveled to the Dye Factory to start our next project. I want to make a Mount Rushmore monument to the founding members of the Gaming Edus server. Phisa helped me a lot because I don't know how to dye wool. I looked at our skins and drew a map of the colours I needed in the particular ratio. He gave me what I needed from the dye factory, although we do not have any brown wool and he needs more ink sacks to make grey wool. We are looking forward to more adventures.
April 1, 2012
Praxis updated the GamingEdus server so we were able to play on version 1.2.4. Terra was recovering from her sleepover (since she didn't go to bed until 5:30 am!) so it was just Phisa and me again. Phisa ensured that all his dogs and cats were happy at his house on the mountain top; he even built chests outside so his cats had places to sit and relax. Phisa wanted to fight more "baddies" to up his level and I wanted to start on my Mount Rushmore project. We decided that finding cocoa beans was too hard and so instead of brown wool, I chose to use black wool. I made a pathway so I could walk along the sheer wall where I was to build. I finished Phisa's face and my face (avatars, of course) and I must say they look pretty good! I drew my matrix plans to calculate the number and colour types I'd need to finish Praxis, Terra, and MissC. It'll look awesome when it's done!
April 4, 2012
We had a great day on the TDSB server and a great, though trying, night on the Gaming Edus server!
Terra says her time consisted of getting lost in the jungle (boo!) but through her wandering found two more unexplored jungles (yeah!)
Phisa's menagerie of cats and dogs invaded the Rainbow Dye Factory and the feline guests were shredding the beds. We added more beds but by the time I returned, all but one of his cats had vanished from the room. MissColby, Phisa and I texted lots of references to "the cat came back". Turns out his cats were having a swim in the lake near the factory. Phisa's dogs perished as he crossed the bridge to the jungle (boo!) but his payment for making me all that coloured wool was for me to find him more wolves (yeah!). Two of his sheep escaped but we herded them back inside the Lavender Sheep Farm.
I made several calculation errors on my Mount Gamer project and I had to redo a lot of stuff.
1) I placed the bridge I walk on while working too high up (the faces are 6 blocks high and the bridge hit block level 4) so I had to destroy and reconstruct the bridge.
2) I misread my MissColby face instructions and forgot to order 18 pink blocks for the flesh, so I couldn't finish.
3) I forgot to place one of the other red blocks for Praxis' eyes so I have to destroy a row to add it in.
Oh well, trial and error is the name of the game.
April 6, 2012
Terragrim's Report
Today was mostly spent with our big nosed neighbours, the villagers. It started with updating the 1.2.5 patch. We found out from the helpful Minecraft title screen that the villages were updated. I decided to go and take a look. There I saw that some villagers were in different clothes than usual. We found out this was because villagers had classes now. Priests wore purple, Librarians wore white and Blacksmiths wore aprons.
We even found out that the parents classes affected the baby. Much to Phisa's delight, there were plenty of baby priests running through the streets.
Since we spent so much time there, Phisa and i decided that our village should be classed up a bit. No pun intended. As a slight ode to GameChap, we decided our village needs a mayor. So, we were able to fence in a villager with a cobblestone desk and a chest full of gold and jewels. So that people knew who he was, we put up a sign reading "Mayor Testificate's Office"
Testificates was another nod to older minecrafters, who remember when villagers first came out, with the nametag "Testificate" floating above their heads.
The rest of the village was also adorned with signs and other such things. We made signs for the 4 communal corn crops, the church and the blacksmith's. We also made a treasury in the mayor's house.
Finally, we decided to name the town. Due to the large amounts of pigs surronding it, we dubbed the town Pork York.
But that's all for today.
April 7, 2012
Phisagrim's Report (dictated by Phisa, typed by Lira)
We didn't really do much today but we did have a wonderful time. I basically was finishing my chicken race. When I came in, I was shocked that, by surprise, a bunch of random stuff that I didn't expect to be there was there - a chest and a crafting table - I didn't expect there to be one. I also remembered that there were five Ender pearls in there. I remember I gave Praxis some so I'm not entirely sure. The ladder was shaped weirdly. It was shaped like a P. Well, I didn't do this myself, obviously, 'cause we didn't have so much time today. So, I fixed it up a little, put some obstacles, and some of the animals were escaping because SOMEONE put some stairs (not like the ones like you craft, just normal blocks crafted into stairs). I was wondering who would put ladders on steps like that.
Terragrim was in the jungle, looking for Techna's house. She heard she has a treehouse in the jungle.
Liragrim also got a tuxedo cat. Meow! I only got one. That's it.
April 8, 2012
Well, we intended on playing for just an hour but played for 2.5 hours instead. This wasn't a big problem because it was a holiday weekend. At first, the Grims were just working on the chicken race arena. Phisagrim coerced us into making a spectator area for the zone. Terragrim had a great idea to use lapis lazuli blocks for the pillars so it would look unique. While we were working, our newest server member, Technascribe, came online. We were excited to meet her. Phisa popped over to tour her elaborate jungle village. It was gorgeous. I have to say it's really nice to have "new blood" on the server. It makes us appreciate all the neat things in the world we created with fresh eyes. Eventually, Praxis came on. We took group photos and wandered around. We were going to defeat a dungeon but Technascribe beat us to the punch. Instead, we decided to monkey around with the PvP Battle zones. There are still some snags because we can't have two simultaneously existing battle zones but once we found everything, it worked relatively well. Once we finish the chicken race, I think our next goal is to build a Rainbow Road between a pair of mountains.
April 9, 2012
The server kept booting Techna tonight but four of us stuck around to work on the chicken race track, fight bad guys, and chat with our newest member. We found extensive mines under the safe house, including an enclosed monster spawner. I learned a lesson: never dare Phisagrim to shoot out a window separating you from a dozen irritated skeletons. Technascribe had the opportunity to check out the main area. It became obvious that we need to repair many holes in the landscape because people were falling in, even when they were careful. Maybe we'll have to add this to the list of things to do!
April 11, 2012
(recorded April 16)
Thank goodness for screen shots, or I'd never remember what we did!
We had a blast - literally and figuratively - while playing today. At one point, we had Liragrim, Phisagrim, Terragrim, MissColby, Praxismaxis, and Technascribe online together. We dug underground and found gold in them thar' hills!
The coolest discovery of the night came courtesy of the inquisitive and clever Terragrim. While searching through the help menu files, she found "/kittycannon". Typing this will launch a cat into the air, which will then explode. After briefly discussing the ethics of exploding cats and determining that no cats were being harmed, we had an epic Kitty Cannon battle! It was so much fun; I laughed 'til my cheeks were sore! Thanks Terragrim!
April 14, 2012
This was the first time we met one of our new players, Darkana82. Dark has lots of Minecraft experience on solo and creative mode, and boy, can we tell! He is in the process of building a huge skyscraper that is meant to resemble the Shanghai World Financial Centre. It's massive and impressive. I went to help him out but we have different building styles (e.g. he likes to create the level as a roof, looking up - I like to create a level as a floor, looking down) and I didn't want to mess up his design, so I let him be. Technascribe is another amazing builder. She has completed her jungle city for now and is working on constructing a sandcastle in the desert. She is really skilled! She told me she uses something called Minecraft Structure Planner at school to design and plot her buildings. I'll have to check that out. We spent hours and hours online and we actually logged off to have dinner and then returned to do some PvP in the Nether. We had a big battle and a ghast interfered in the proceedings, nearly annihilating the entire battle zone! Techna and Praxis were well matched foes. After a couple of fights, we assembled at Phisagrim's Restaurant and danced. Phisagrim is planning to create a musical chairs game.
April 16, 2012
When the Grims went on to the Gaming Edus server, we were blown away by Technascribe's gorgeous castle. It's even bigger and better than before! Darkana's skyscraper has also grown! Terragrim was inspired to try her first major building project solo - she made a cat girl statue near her house. She completed it and was very proud. She sketched her design out on a piece of paper. Phisagrim and I tried to find the sandcastle site but had no success, so instead we built tracks from the Cat Sanctuary to Technascribe's jungle pad. While building, we saw a meteor in the sky. It never hit us and we aren't sure where it will land.
April 17th, 2012
Terragrim's Minecraft Report
Today we built a new addition to Techna's Egyptian paradise. We made a huge pyramid, complete with treasure, traps and mummies! (Chests full of rotten flesh and bones) We were very proud of our work in the end, especially Phisa, who put a layer of TNT blocks under the floor to stop beasties and tomb robbers. Then, at night, we fought monsters by our new construction. It was a fun adventure. I think I improved my building skills a lot.
April 18th, 2012
Terragrim's Minecraft Report
Today I began another statue building project. Since I apparently "owed" Phisa for something, I decided to build him a present. On top of his house, I built the orange bird from the Angry Birds games. Phisa was thrilled by the finished product, as was I. He asked me to build him the other birds to keep him company, which I agreed to. But first, I decided to take a bit of a break and admire some of my other work. I looked at my cat girl statue again, and am contemplating making some more statues of my favourite characters and putting them in a gallery by my house. Then I went to our pyramid and was shocked at what I found. I thought at first that my computer was glitching and the bricks weren't showing up, but it turned out to be something else. At night, one of the monsters triggered the TNT trap and blew up the pyramid. We were all quite saddened by this fact. But since there was nothing I could do, I moved on to more building. I finished my second Angry Birds statue, of the blue bird. It was, again, another productive day.
April 19th, 2012
Terragrim's Minecraft Report
I started and finished my third Angry Birds statue today, the green bird. The work is beginning to get easier, now that I know the basic structure. Phisa's happiness has no end, and seems to grow with each sculpture made. I'm very glad he likes these.
Liragrim's Report
I spent most of my time today bailing water out of MissColby's new underwater lair. She said it made a difference - I wasn't too sure! It was up to my waist (or my avatar's waist, if I want to distinguish between my various identities). I was glad to help. We also had a chance to chat a bit about our experience on MinecraftTeachr's AWE-INSPIRING server.
April 20, 2012
Today was a short but thrilling adventure. The booby-trapped pyramid was activated by a monster and blew up. Technascribe updated the pyramid with new horrors and it is FANTASTIC! She has mobs that spawn when you walk on a pressure plate. The sound was just incredible ... doors filled with angry zombies thrumming as the monsters within pound upon the wooden frames. We fought the murderous mobs. I tried to do a Fraps video but it crashed my computer and we didn't get to see the gush of zombies pouring out of the pyramid because our warriors were too effective! I may still post it to YouTube. I also toured Techna's updated sand castle, now with royal throne room. Phisa parked himself on the throne and enjoyed it immensely when Techna and I bowed to him.
April 21, 2012
Tonight's adventurers were Liragrim, Terragrim, Phisagrim, Technascribe, and Redblueshinobi. I chose, with Phisa's permission, to make his sand structure into an inverse pyramid. I was having trouble keeping track of counting the right number of blocks but Techna gave me a good tip: put a torch on every 5th block to mark the spot. It worked! Redblue asked about our server's zoning laws - a very good question! He wanted to know if we were prevented from building 20 blocks away from someone else's place. We never actually spelled out any of these regulations. In chat, we sort of agreed that you could build anywhere you wanted as long as you didn't build/interfere with someone else's project without asking. I said this would have been a useful discussion before that gold Rayman sign was put above my house. Phisa felt bad but I told him not to, because it didn't wreck my house.
Other people had many projects on the go. Technascribe worked on a trap door redstone project with multiple entry ways and then took a break from that to create an Anubis sculpture. An enderman chose to sit right between the ears in the middle of the night, and two endermen slew Techna while she was building it - maybe they object to the art? Terragrim finished her second-to-last Angry Bird statue. Phisa worked on slime spawns and the spawn signs. Redblue wandered a bit and plans on making a little cottage home.
April 22, 2012
(written April 24, 2012)
There were several server changes - we have groups (moderators and builders) and we can switch players between creative mode and survival mode. I was very cranky when I was playing tonight with the Grims for a variety of reasons. Without their usual "/give grim X" powers, I had a lot of requests for items. I gave them creative mode and let them explore and explore they most certainly did. Terra made mushroom cows and Phisa spawned slime, all near Techna's place. It was a little exuberant for me and when I withdrew privileges, Terra reminded me that I did say they were to explore and that's what they were doing. I realized that I was too grumpy to play and that she was right. I was judging their play based on what I would do, which isn't fair, so I logged off and let them do their thing.
April 23, 2012
(written April 24, 2012)
The Grims had an in-game meeting to discuss the use of creative mode in the GamingEdus world. (Even though my crabby attitude had improved, I still had mixed feelings about unlimited resources and invulnerability against enemies. It's my hang-up, not theirs, but I still needed to work through it.) Phisa likes creative mode a lot. Terra said she enjoys it but that sometimes it gets boring. I wish I had written down her exact quote. We thought we might just use it for the first and last 5 minutes of our 60 minute play time.
Technascribe logged on and invited us to see the medieval cathedral she is building. It's beautiful! You can only get the special blocks she used in creative mode (slowly breaking down my personal biases towards creative mode). She is trying to make it as authentic as possible. I loved it when Phisagrim typed "I'm learning about that stuff in school!" (medieval times). The inside is so detailed and she even has a crypt underneath the church. She wasn't pleased with her structure, however, because it wasn't facing west like a proper medieval cathedral. Talk about attention to detail! While she was on, I had a chance to chat with her about Minecraft/education related topics. MissColby had written a post about our visit to MinecraftTeachr's server and about providing structured tasks in-game vs letting the students explore and create on their own. I tend to lean more towards the "student choice" end of the spectrum and I wanted to hear what Technascribe's position was on the issue. She was more of a middle-ground proponent. (Techna, if you are reading this, please let me know if I am portraying your position accurately). She said some kids will never push themselves to try more or do more and will be content with using TNT and lava in the same old way. She has a neat task that she blogged about conducting with one of her classes that involves designing and planning a city in Minecraft and she's had a lot of success so far. That led us to talk about multiserver playing. Her students are only allowed solo play because, despite having rules in place and her present virtually in the game, there were too many instances of griefing and bullying. I talked about my most recent incident with someone from another school striking one of my kids in Minecraft and taking wood from their house and that they stopped and apologized when they were confronted via text. It really made me wonder why there was such a difference between Techna's experience and mine. The ages of the participants were similar, we both had rules, and we were both online supervising the kids. It really gave me food for thought.
The other Grims visited Techna's cathedral and Terra made a good joke - she said this was the only time Phisa would enter a church willingly, if it was in Minecraft!
April 24, 2012
It's taken me several days to sort out my feelings about creative mode and examine why I wasn't a big fan. I believe it is a remnant of my old-fashioned opinions on "cheating". Phisa was giving me tons of levels thank to a potion but I didn't want them because I hadn't earned them the traditional way by slaying zombies. I also saw Phisa accidentally set fire to his cats while exploring his amazing powers. In the past, that would have made him cry but he just shrugged and said "I can just make new cats" - this nonchalance to acquiring what took him weeks of in-game searching disappointed me. I need to re-read Melanie McBride's article on how OP isn't cheating! I'm coming to grips with the fact that many of the wonderful structures that are appearing in our GamingEdus world wouldn't be possible without creative mode, and that there are different ways to play and I need to come to terms with methods that don't necessarily match my own.
The Grims each had different plans for tonight. Terragrim decided to build a sculpture garden of Vocaloid characters. Phisagrim wanted to create a new arena filled with spawn egg monstrosities. I mentioned to Phisa that he has many great ideas for big projects but that, more often than not, Terragrim and I are the ones that are "voluntold" or conscripted to complete them and he backs out of the project (e.g. the trading post / the dye factory / the chicken race / his own house). He agreed to pull his weight. I popped on and off the server to catch up on my wiki journal and he made good progress.
Dark arrived and we had a nice chat about school and authors. It was really nice to talk to him.
April 30th, 2012
Terragrim's Minecraft Report
Today was a pretty wacky day in Minecraft. It started with me going to help Phisa with his Spawn-Egg arena. It was going quite smoothly.
Then Lira was wandering around in the woods by my house, using her new flying powers. She found a floating stone block with a sign on top of it. The cryptic message read "You're lost, it won't stop raining. Sorry." We were all boggled by it, even me, who let my imagination run away with me. I began to make myself think that it was Herobrine who made it.
Next, Dark came on to distract us from the mystery. We took a look at his newly built arena. It was beautiful, with the stone and the diamond and the glass. And, like all of Dark's other creations, it was supersized!
Then, we explored a bit with our God-mode powers and found out we could dig bedrock! We trekked to the Biggest Hole in GamingEdus and continued to extend it deeper into the ground. But then, as I dug the bedrock, I found nothing underneath! Phisa accidentally fell into this void and died, despite being in creative mode.
I went back to look at our Herobrine sign, while Phisa tried to reclaim his loot. Dark and Lira just chatted for a bit.
Then, just as we were about to leave, Praxis arrived. We found out he was the writer of our mysterious sign, which was a relief to me and Phisa. When we mentioned Herobrine, Praxis had no clue who we were talking about. So I got to tell Praxis a story, and eduacate him in the world of Minecraft ghosts and lore. Prax made a bunch of cool lightning effects to suit the mood.
As an added scare at the end, I decided to make Herobrine's famous Glowstone "E" by Praxis's house, accompanied by a backwards sign reading "I like you". But inside the house, I was shocked to find a creeper. We had to get out immediately.
While outside, I fessed up about the "E". Prax was very nice about it and said he would've freaked if I hadn't warned him.
Meanwhile, Phisa was making some creations of his own. First, he created a Flame Charge dispenser to shoot Silverfish out of a barrel. And then, he spawned live squids in Praxis's balcony. We had to get rid of them all. Some escaped, a glitch making them fly off into the wild blue yonder. Phisa dubbed them "The Flying Squids of Justice." as an ode to Gamechap.
And all the while, we hadn't realized Lira had logged off. We had scored another fun filled 15 minutes of Minecraft!
Overall, today was a really great day.
May 3, 2012
(written May 8)
It was just Lira & Phisa tonight - Terragrim's laptop had malware and needed treatment. We flew around, Phisa repopulated a jungle area with dozens of ocelots and we wandered far and wide via flight. Darkana came on and Phisa invited him to come mushroom-biome hunting with us "because you have such awesome ideas". I suggested that Dark might be busy with other construction plans. Phisa found a remote location and made a tent and a warp zone to it. I popped off the server to read to my daughter and when I returned, I found Phisagrim making things right in the middle of Darkana's building project! I was a little worried - I didn't want Phisagrim imposing himself on Dark. He said he got permission and that Dark was really nice to him. Thank goodness for patient players! A new player, Shoyu10, came on and asked many questions. I showed him around and recommended he visit again the next day.
May 4, 2012
(written May 6)
The Grims have a brand-new project they've undertaken: they want to build a zoo, containing all the creatures you can find in Minecraft. They are using bedrock, so creepers don't blow it up. MissColby was on, and we got a chance to peek at all the improvements she's made to her underwater lair. It was a large group - Terra, Phisa, Lira, MissC, Shoy, and Prax. Prax left and chandrasutra came on. I went a bit "momma bear" because I didn't recognize the user name and chandra was very chatty to everyone, including the kids. It took me a while (I was very tired while I was playing) to realize that I knew Chandra - she's connected to Praxis. I felt a bit silly and overprotective. We tried out Mumble and it's not bad.
May 5, 2012
Today was Saturday, which meant tons of time playing Minecraft on the GamingEdus server. Terragrim and I continued to work on the zoo. We decided to do some research to find out how to keep our creatures from escaping. I was elected to do the typing. It was hard to find just what I was looking for, so I had to use a lot of different keywords. I found something in one of the Minecraft forums that suggested that the walls need to be thick and tall. With this information in mind, we began to rebuild. Phisa left us but after cajoling him and badgering him, he came back to help a bit. He was intrigued by Praxis' latest project: a new PvP plug-in that would allow multiple fight zones. After some tinkering, we were able to try it out. This one is pretty impressive. It's not Battle Night - it's called War. You can capture the flag of the opposing team for points, place your helmet in a certain place for health bonuses, and when you die, it generates a descriptive epitath. It took me a while to figure out where the flag was - despite this handicap, the girls won the first game. The boys won the other two. (I also downloaded and tried out Mumble. That was a lot of fun.)
The Grims also decided to go visit a new server we were invited to peruse. It's one based on the "Mr. Grim" Dwimmermount RPG campaign - a Minecraft 3D map of his dungeon. We entered, had some growing pains (it's a survival mode with supplies included only if you enter the dungeon) but I believe James was excited to see his world developed in this way. We got booted from the server, which ticked Phisa off. To appease him, we went on GamingEdus for a few minutes more, to play more War. He actually respected the timer! Bad news was our hostile mobs still escaped - more research needed.
May 7& 8, 2012
The Gaming Edu server was down, so the Grims went on the Dwimmermount server. Phisagrim really likes this world for some reason - I think it appeals to his "hunt for treasure" mentality. He's already found a diamond chestplate and several other items. He and Terragrim were in the village when I last checked. I'm in the main dungeon. It's nice to live with the person who invented the dungeon: he has a map! I wandered around - don't go to area 8 - and popped on and off the server trying to get other things accomplished while the younger Grims frolicked.