Minecraft

This house has been a Minecraft family for as long as I can remember.  Years ago our nephew came to visit and showed everyone this new game and it was love at first sight for everyone...but me.

Sure I was awed by the scenery and amazed by the things my family built but I had resisted the urge because I knew I would like it...probably too much.

Those of you who know me, know I love to game to the point of obsession.  I've never ignored my family or missed a day of work or something like that...but I throw myself into my games and learn all there is to know.  I don't just play; I research and take notes and immerse myself totally into whatever world I happen to be in at the time.

Minecraft is more than just a game; it is an experience and you can choose to play it any way you like. During Thanksgiving, everyone was on our family server while I was Skyrimmin'.  And that was great, everyone was having a super time and I made headway on my Alteration magic...but listening to them talk about their experience and all got to me this time.  Which considering this is what happens whenever our family gets together...was strange.

So on Monday I got on the 360 and decided to see for myself how Minecraft and I got along.  My sister was right, I was better at it then I thought.  The tutorial world makes it easier I guess since you have the ruins of a place to stay and food and all.

Yep...just looking.  That is my story.  So, thinking that I have absorbed a huge amount of knowledge I did the online demo.  You have 5 Minecraft days to see what you think.  At the end of the five days, I had a little house, a bed, an oven, sugarcane, pumpkins, wheat and I had just found some iron.  I killed two zombies and learned firsthand about a lot of things that I had heard them talking about but never seen for myself.

What are the top 10 things I learned from this adventure?

1.  I think I'm in love with Minecraft; it has something for everyone and the biomes are amazing.

I've seen my sister's breathtaking houses and been awed, I've watched my son create parkour courses that really impressed me, I've seen my Father-In-Law make a really complicated obsidian generator, I've watched my hubby create these amazing and complex farms and basically seen over the years all the different things people like to do in Minecraft.  But nothing quite prepared me for being walled in a box with a window with the sun going down and no bed to make the bad things go away.  I could see a spider and a zombie in the distance and I huddled in a corner until day broke again and prayed. There was much rejoicing when dawn arrived and I was still alive!

2.  Baby animals are so cute and you can create babies through a fence.

3.  Mooshrooms are even more adorable; I want to live on a mooshroom island and live off of mushroom soup.

The seed lost (all lowercase) will give you an awesome mooshroom island with tons of mountains running with awe-inspiring caves, waterfalls and pools of lava.  I can't play there yet but hubby let me see it last night and the biomes were breathtaking.  There was an entire world of mooshroom too!

4.  Mining is really exciting; finding that first coal vein was really a happy moment.  I'm ready to dig deep now and follow my sister's shaft digging protocol.  I think I'm going to pack up my bed, crafting table and oven and live in a cave for a while in my demo game.  It has become a race to see how much I can do in 5 days.  In a cave, I won't have to sleep so I can dig...dig...dig.

5.  You never hear a creeper.  My wheat garden was blown to smithereens before I even knew what had happened.

6.  I love growing crops.  It is like Farmville without the need to send stuff all day.

7.  Birch trees are beautiful as are all the other trees, but birch trees are my favorite

8.  There is an ocelot in the jungle biome and I want to tame him and have a house cat

9.  Since I am terrible at directions I have made huge dirt pillars by important landmarks so I can find them quickly.  Next one will have a torch on top.  These pillars have saved me so many times when I lost my bearings.

10.  If you don't have a roof, spiders can get in your house.  If you leave your door open...who knows who you may find.  Some days it will be a cow...some days a zombie.  It is better to have a small house that can just fit a bed so you can have a roof; then to go without.  A crafting table can be built into the walls of your home as well.

I finished Holda and she is lovely.   I just need to steam her and then take a pic and I will have a new pattern to put up.

Happy crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

Iris

So this week I had something really scary happen.  I had a Posterior Vitreous Detachment in my eye. Suddenly there is a little gal that looks like a black iridescent worm dancing around my vision. The above picture was the closest I could come to what she looks like.  Mine looks more like a circle that has a bulbous head (probably where it was attached to my retina before it came loose) that is an opaque black color.

Mom had all kinds of eye troubles so I headed into the ophthalmologist right away.  After a long look into my eye with bright lights, the Doc determined that it is just a floater and no harm to the retina was done.

Praise the Goddess!  I can deal with this little gal floating around my vision if nothing else is wrong. Sure if I focus on the little worm then I can get quite agitated and having my vision blur out is a learning curve but they are both things I can deal with.

I told the Doctor that as long as I just have the floaters and flashers then I will give her a name and make her my best friend because we will be together for a long time.  I decided to call her Iris.  Yes, there is a bit of a pun in that name; but laughter is good for the soul.  Iris is also the Goddess of rainbows and I love rainbows and colors and such; so I think it is a fitting name.

I've read a lot about people getting quite anxious about having floaters as they are always in your face.  I was worried about it being worse then it was, but I don't feel anxious anymore.  I keep brushing away bugs that aren't there out of reflex and I find that when I write a curly little a seems to pop up and that is a little weird but my brain will adapt.

Bifocals were hard in the beginning but now I don't notice that line where it seemed like the world was bubbling up at all.  This too will become a part of me and then I won't notice it so much either.

Of course, the minute I got back from the eye doctor with my eyes all dilated I tried knitting a row. When I look at my knitting the floater hangs out on the right side of my eye and I barely notice it at all.  What a blessing!

This week in the US we count our blessings.  We take a moment to look deeply into our lives and see those things that we are so thankful for that maybe we take for granted the rest of the year.

The simple truth of the matter is that I am blessed.  I have an awesome family, wonderful friends, a job that I love and a career that brings me joy.

This is the first Thanksgiving without Mom and Dad and though we will always miss them; they will always be a part of us.  I am so thankful for the time with them, for the memories that will always be mine to treasure and proud that the Universe chose me to be one of their daughters.

As we spend our first year without our little Widdershins the same feelings lie in my heart.  I miss her but I have such wonderful memories of how she took care of my hubby and our family.  I know she asked the Universe to bring us Frost and he has brought mirth into our home.  He is truly a treasure. And my love-muffin Shadow has become his best friend.

So many blessings...I choose to focus on them instead of some of the little things that are out of place at the moment.  Every day you make a choice how to live, how to face the world...and I choose happiness over any worry or stress.  I choose to embrace my family and friends.  If I need help I will ask and not take the entire world on my shoulders.  I have unpacked my metaphorical knapsack that I carry that was filled with worry and strife and I have worked really hard to let each negative idea go that serves no purpose in my life.  For the things that remain that I still need to work on, I am thankful that I am learning and growing and striving to become closer to my soul's ideal.

Bright Blessings to all,
Ruinwen
:)