Day 20: Hunting for a New Best Friend

Not much to report from today, I set out in search of a wolf to tame, and other then a few creeper mishaps, and covering a lot of ground, I didn't have any luck at all.

I did find a forest fire - for once, it was one I didn't start.

Also...

I've been able to check several more things off my bucket list - I made it to the Nether, I found a dungeon, and got a pig saddle, and rode a pig.  Which, by the way, was very anti-climatic.  I'm still trying to track down some squid though.  Maybe next time.

The Cop-out Catch Up Post

Here's what I've been up too:

I made a treehouse!

The climb up the center of the tree to get up.

My hidden entrance... 

The tunnel leading to the ladder.

I hid the treehouse in forest - clever huh?

My bridge!  Because swimming a few blocks length was too much work.

I'm a little bit proud of it.

Hey, sheep, whatcha doing there?

My garden.  My, aren't I just so domestic?

A sweet island I found that was just begging to have a secret hideout built on it.

Pumpkins!

Oh, hello there.  Please go away.

I was waiting for morning to come so that skeleton archer would catch on fire and burn the tree down.  He didn't.

My first dungeon!

I'm riding a pig, man.

Day 10: Bucket List Goal Completed!

That's right, I dug to the very bottom of the game!  The photographic evidence:

As you can see, the y coordinate is 2.62, which, according to this site, is the lowest you can go in the game (unless you find a hole that leads to into the Void and certain death, that is...)  Time to mark one of the list!

Day 9: I Start Building a Treehouse and Accidentally Start a Forest Fire

I came up with an awesome idea for a treehouse, but I needed to grow a custom tree to make it happen.  So I tried.

Unfortunately, it seems like trees need a bit of room to grow, even with bone-based insta-grow.  I ended up with a lopsided, awkward wooden thing.  I didn't give up on my idea, but I did decide to start over, by burning down my mistake and trying again.

Oops.

So I accidentally start a forest fire...  Please don't hurt me Smoky the Bear.

Day 8: Snapshots

Hey you, get out of my garden!

That looks pretty cool.

Cactus!

Day 7: Adventures on the High Seas

After discovering many wonderful sights while lost, and now armed with a compass, I decided I would set sail to try discover more interesting places and cool items.  I started out by sailing along the coast to the left of my cavern home, and almost immediately ran into a problem, or more accurately, a sandbank.  How silly of my to forget.  Well, there's nothing to do but accidentally ram my boat into the sand, walk across, and build a new one.

I was soon back on the water, and soon realized the land I was passing looked familiar - this was where I was when I was lost!

This was great news, but quite puzzling, since I had sailed in a completely different direction before.  Oh well. I soon discovered something even better - the last shelter I had made before I died while lost!  Amazingly, all my items were still inside, and I was able to get a lot of cool stuff I had given up as lost back.

Night was falling though, so I swiftly stepped inside the ready-made shelter and clicked on the bed to sleep through the night.

Oh, wait.  This shelter killed me last time.  Oops, too late.

Next morning, I started out to get all of my stuff back, and after several tries, and many days, I reached that vile cobblestone structure and tore it apart, brick by brick.  I then sailed back home with the cobblestone and threw it into my lava, destroying it with permanentness.  Take that!

While I was trying to get back to my rediscovered spot, I ended up digging a canal through the sandbank:

I added the water later.

That business out of the way, I headed back on the water to try and find the cool waterfalls I had seen while I was lost.  I spent the night in a dirt and sand shelter, with some friendly pigs to keep me company.  It was a lot of fun, until, as dawn was breaking, two creepers blew up right next to me, killed my pig friends, and leveled my shelter.

After respawning and traveling the distance (again) I gathered up my scattered belongings and turned towards the sea...

Day 6: I Discover Rare Items

Lapis Lazuli (whatever that is) and redstone!

Days 4-5: The Highlights

As of my last post, I was sailing across the sea, trying to find my way back home. To anti-climatically wrap that story up, I was killed when my shelter didn't have enough room when I woke up and got out of bed in the morning. I know, it's embarrassing.  But.  I have also made some great progress after respawning - here's some notable moments.

I added a room with lava to my home in Sphereus, just because.

I discovered this uh-mazing waterfall in Beta World - just one of it's many beautiful vistas.

I made my first flint & steel and tested it out.  It works... well.

I built a glass base on top of a mountain in Beta World, just a few blocks away from where the clouds drift by.

I took this screenshot from the top of a mountain in Beta World, it's pretty sweet isn't it?

My home-sweet-mountain-base-made-of-glass-home was the victim of a sneak attack by a creeper and a few of his friends.

The creeper basically blew half the place away in one huge explosion, and then the spiders, zombies, and skeletons finished me off.  Lesson learned:  Only use glass when monsters can't get nearby.

Aside from a few mishaps, I've been loving the game - look for more posts on Sphereus world as I explore farther and farther from home.  Also, if I may draw your attention to the sidebar of this blog, you will notice I added my own personal Minecraft bucket list, full of things I wish to accomplish in game.  I'm open to suggestions for any additions, if you've got any.

Till next time!

Day 3: Adventure!

Day 3 started out normally enough, with me gathering as much wood as I could find to burn down into charcoal, to then use for torches on a mining trip on a nearby island.  My objective was iron, so I could make myself a breastplate and a bucket.  I really, really wanted that bucket.  Do you have any idea what you can do with a bucket?  Seriously, I'm going to need to dedicate a blog post just to that.  Anyway.

After a success mining trip which netted me plenty of iron for my armor bucket, I decided it was time to start exploring the world a bit more, so I set off in a boat along the coast line to see if I was on an island.  I was in no great hurry, so when I came across a tempting looking hole in the ground, I decided I had time to do some exploring.  Bad idea.  Long story short, I fell down by mistake and got stuck, was shot at by skeletons, got lost three or four times, got trapped in the darkness, started digging my way out and ran into an underground river (twice) and nearly being swept away (twice).  Finally, I broke through to surface - under the ocean.  After nearly drowning (again) I decided it was time to be on my way.

Oh look, I'm lost.  And it's getting dark.  Time to dig a hole in a wall...

Shelter for the night.

 I know that all I need to do to get home is to follow the coast, easy, right?  I set sail, and, wait, is that squid!?  Yes, it's squid!  Yeah squid!

What's the plural form of squid anyway?

 Back on the move, I start to see some examples of just how beautiful Minecraft scenery can be:

You really need to view these screenshots in full screen - just click on them!

The whole coastline was just gorgeous, but made me realize the awkward truth - I'm sailing the wrong direction.  I should be seeing ice and snow, not amazing waterfalls.  Whoops.

I devised a system to help me tell where I've been - triangular stacks of cobblestone, pointing the direction I'm sailing at the time.

I'm still pretty uncertain about my direction, but hopefully turning around will put me back on the right track.  I really need a compass.

Will I ever make it home, I wonder?  Perhaps tomorrow I'll find out, as on I sail...

Day 2: The End of Twinton, and Creation of Sphereus

I started playing again this afternoon, and just wasn't feeling Twinton. It was getting annoying to be continually swarmed by spiders every morning, and after a few creeper explosions, I decided it was time to change. I went back to the menu, and create my fourth world - a world I decided to name Sphereus. I've been doing some reading online about the game, so I've got a good idea of what my initial priorities are, and quickly find a nice looking shelter to spend the first night in. Awkwardly enough though, that first night ends quite poorly - in a ball of fire. Thanks creeper.

However, that death turned out to be a real blessing in disguise, because as I was hurrying across the map to try and reclaim my lost items (which, incidentally, were vaporized by the explosion), I discovered the perfect spot for a base, and there's even some iron ore nearby! Time to start digging!


It turns out that that indeed was the perfect spot for what I was doing, and I soon made it home. Once I got the hang of not dying every night, things got exponentially easier and more fun, as I started really building and exploring the area around me.

Home sweet home! I added a second door was later, which made the whole thing feel less off balance.


I got a furnace up and go to refine my iron ore into ingots, and even roasted some pork chops with it. Yum!


This is the single most wonderful thing I've crafted in Minecraft yet - a bed! Finally, a way to actually sleep through the night instead of waiting up, listening to the monsters outside your window!

Another new discovery I made is farming and conservation - first, my "farm":

Sure, it's a small start, but once I harvest it, I'll have wheat and more seeds to plant, till eventually I'll have a full field of the stuff. I also discovered that those saplings that drop from the sky while I'm cutting down trees can be planted and will grow into new trees after a couple of nights - a very handy fact, especially considering how much wood I've been using.


I also had the not-so-original idea of building a giant tower to help me find my way back home if I should ever get lost. I built until I was almost even with the clouds, and decided that should be high enough.

I also built a shorter tower with a torch on top right on top of the entrance to my cave, which ended up saving my life. I was out in the fields nearby, implementing some farming ideas, when night suddenly fell. I was a little turned around, and probably would have gotten lost if I hadn't seen the light shining like a beacon of hope.

And that's it for day 2 - tomorrow, if I find time to play, I plan on starting a mine on the island across from me to see if I can't locate some more iron, and maybe, if I feel really ambitious, try and add an underground lake to my cavern home. We'll see.