With all of the awesome-y goodness of
Jeb's weekly Minecraft Snapshots, I finally decided to go back to
Singleplayer for a while and make a new world, because I WANTED A
JUNGLE. After doing several random generations to no avail, I thought
I'd try doing something a leeetle more specific. I've tried different
word combinations to generate seeds before, with generally lousy
results, but I had some time to fool around for a bit, and was
pleasantly surprised.
So, I decided to share what I've found.
Seeds should be entered into Minecraft exactly as typed here, spaces
and capitalizations as given.
SEED: Jungle Boogie
This was the first one I tried, and is
one of my favourite songs from Pulp
Fiction. This seed will give you a nice jungle biome with several
pools of water nearby.
Jungle Boogie
SEED: Jungle Fever
This one is from the Spike
Lee movie of the same name, and gives you a nice intersection of
jungle, swamp, and taiga biomes.
Jungle Fever
SEED: TarzanBoy
From the 1985 song by Baltimora,
this seed gives you a river and epic mountains of epicness! (I'm
building on this one – you know I love mountains!)
TarzanBoy
SEED: The Lion Sleeps Tonight
By The
Tokens, and the first song I actually sang karoke to. I know, No
“jungle” in the title, But the first line has the word “jungle”
in it twice (it counts, people! *grin*) This seed has a hilly
area as well, and spawn backs up to a wide ocean view.
The Lion Sleeps Tonight
All this was inspired by
@kalen_nighteyes
Tweeting of the jungle seed “Welcome To The Jungle”. I haven't
checked the seed out myself, so go give it a look...and check kalen's
You Tube channel here.
So I checked, and there was Chibi
Thefre, Teddanator and I, straight off of Thefre's private server,
set up to be 3-D printed at Shapeways,
sooooo CUTE!
Then was the awesome part.
Thefre was doing this to help me
fundraise for the camper! Here's the incentive:
Donate $100 or more, and you will
receive your Minecraft avatar, rendered in Chibi style by Thefre and
produced as a 2 x 2.4 x 0.7 inch 3-D sculpture!
Donate $100 or more by clicking
the “Donate” button below.
In the “Message” section on
PayPal, include your full name, Minecraft IGN (In-Game-Name), and
the address that you'd like your avatar sculpture shipped.
Thanks to Thefre, now donators can have
a little something in return for helping me keep warm and safe while
homeless.
Thank you all!
-------------------------------------------------
Donations are now at $357, and I've
tried contacting the owners of the less expensive campers on
Craigslist. Haven't received any responses as of yet, and some of the
ads are gone when you search on the site. Please pass this blog
along, and donate if you can. I appreciate everything the community
is doing-THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!
Thanks to all of you in the Minecraft Community, we have surpassed our goal of $1375.00 by reaching $1386.00!
I've been asked to leave the donation button up for people who still want to participate. All monies collected will go directly to Mark Cooper to assist in his housing needs, but we have reached our current goal.
Reading Connecticut tenant law, he may still be forced to move, but will be able to pay the arrears, so it should give him 3 months if the rental company decides to still pursue eviction.
I would like to thank every single one of you who Tweeted, Retweeted, posted video, auctioned items, and donated. This community showed its true nature today - a community full of caring individuals.
This is the true meaning of Thanksgiving, and this community has given one of its own a reason to celebrate this year.
Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.
=Update #2=
SamCube of WonderCraft is auctioning two prints, one signed by Notch and one signed by Jens, to raise money to donate to Mark's living situation. Check them out here: http://wondercraft.net/?p=2627
=Update #3=
Thanks to SamCube and the folks that we kept the donation button open for, the Minecraft community has raised a total of $2288.68 for Mark's Eviction Fund! Mark has already received the first $1800 (which is enough to pay the back amount, and perhaps the legal fees), and I'll be sending the rest later in the week (waiting to clear eChecks and handle possible reversals, of which we have had a couple).
Thank you all for opening your hearts (and wallets!) this holiday season for one of our own!
It's Thanksgiving Day in the USA, and most of us will be sitting down to a meal with family today. While we do this, and give thanks for what we have received in the past year, one of our community members is facing eviction.
Mark Cooper, known as Astragali, The Minecraft Scribe has provided a source of information and humor to the Minecraft community on his blog since February 2011. He is the English language translator for SamCube's Wondercraft, responsible for vetting contributions to The Shaft Podcast (where he has appeared as a guest as well), is a player in The Unholy Triumvirate's Minecraft a Trois LP/gameplay series; has appeared as a guest/done voice work on the Pretzelcast, The Half-Bakes, Chick with a Pick, and much more.
Unbeknownst to most of us (because who likes talking about the bad stuff?) Astra lost his job late in the summer, after having his hours cut to so few that it was unsustainable. After a couple weeks, he was able to obtain another job, but the damage was done - between the cut hours and weeks with no pay, he was in the hole to the rental company. Of course, he went to the landlord and arranged to pay the back rent - since he was now working again, this was no problem, right? At the time, the rental company was absolutely fine with this.
Apparently, not any more. When he came home last night, the rental company had posted an eviction notice. The only way Mark can keep his housing is to come up with $1375.00 by the court date, which, at this time, we don't know when it is (but we can speculate between 10-30 days.). Unfortunately, this amount is impossible for him.
After finding out, friends burned up the Twitter main (and DM's) last night, looking for solutions. This is what we came up with:
So this is what I'm asking: please donate to keep a roof over Mark's head.
Please help if you can. I know some of you have been to Minecon, and are strapped. I know that it's the holiday season and you have to do things for your family. I know the economy is bad.
But please, if you only have a dollar or two, please, please donate. Use the Paypal donation button below.
Donate to help someone who has provided the community with information, humor, friendship, and joy.
Everything donated will go directly to dealing with Mark Cooper's housing needs.
So there I was on the Pretz, working
away for my first Ninja Decorators client, when I began to hear
whispers across the Twitterverse about something called “Sanctuary”.
Reportedly a server where you could build some awesome stuff, where
you were actually asked if you wanted either vanilla or
builder/creative status right at the start-amazing! I was led by
Astragali to the MinecraftGeek, who linked me to his whitelist
application, where all I had to do was tell him who I was, along with
my favourite type of cheese, and voila! I was in.
Spawn was set on the top of a gorgeous
tower from which you had to take a “leap of faith” to reach the
bottom. Stepping outside, you found a beautifully manicured small
city, outside of which rested the 'Geeks jail and (gasp) Execution
Chamber. Traveling further outwards, you'll cross a rail line that
seems to extend from horizon to horizon, and just a bit past THAT, a
creepy, ruined house. If you venture inside, you will find a very
interesting tomb that leads to a VERY interesting, five level
dungeon. That dungeon, in turn, leads to a Nether portal, and all
this dungeon-y goodness was created by the Geek himself.
Further out from this was Astra's
house, where I took a little breather to get oriented before moving
on to find a home of my own. On our way out the door, we were jumped
by spiders, and learned by Astra's swift demise at my hands that PVP
was enabled (I would make much use of this later-Astra got used to being arrowed in the butt.). I trekked on, ever outwards, and found
a cozy little cave to call home, where I started to build a huge crow
in the sky...but I ended up struggling with the location in terms of
building my home. It just didn't seem to fit, no matter how I worked
at it. Seeing my frustration, Astra suggested wolf hunting as a bit
of a break, so off we went.
You brought them home, YOU clean up after them!
We found very few wolves, but we found
HAVEN.
You know those places in Minecraft that
are simply gorgeous, that are breathtakingly beautiful, that make you
stop and gape at the landscape for minutes? Haven was all this AND a
bag of chips: pools of water, stunning outcrops, thick trees, secret
grottoes, an amazing aerial archway, and potholed with caverns as far
as the eye could see. THIS was a site that dreams were made of.
Haven, Pre-Construction
So I turned to Astra and said, “Wanna
build a house?”
That “house” ended up being the
complex that is Haven. The main house of sandstone and glass,
capturing the sunrise, complete with a balcony covering most of the
first floor, embedded into the rock wall of one side of the enormous
archway. It connects to the main entrance by a suspended walkway,
which hovers over the twin pools at the heart of the site (pools
which are perfect for plunging into, if you have fly mod...which
never gets old, btw!). Flanking the main house to the left is the
Administration building, which sports a staircase leading to The
Minecraft Scribe's office as well as leading to the meandering path
down to the tiny town made entirely of tree-houses. The Ninja
Decorators office is located in an outcrop at the back of the site,
and my crow, moved from his previous home (yes, I built it TWICE)
spreads his wings in flight above the site.
The Main Complex at Haven, Sunset
Main Floor, Dining Area-Cake for everyone!
The Crow spreads its wings over Haven.
Haven is home, and I love it dearly.
Unfortunately, all good things must
come to an end. By the time you read this, Sanctuary will be gone
forever, existing only as a single-player map. The server will go
down on October 20th, never to return. Once again, I am
bereft of a home, and though I can visit any time I wish in
single-player, it just isn't the same.
Thank you, my dear MinecraftGeek, for
allowing me the pleasure of unleashing my creativity in your
playground. It was a glorious experience while it lasted.
The MinecraftGeek unleashes the Endermen to dismantle Sanctuary. *sniffle*
Early this morning, I woke up from a vivid
dream of being chased by a man in a dress, sporting a snappy pair of
red high heels. And he hadn't been alone. Coffee first, then
explanation.
Surprisingly, he can run in those heels!
<cue veritable inhalation of copious
amounts of coffee due to being awake all night playing Minecraft>
Last night was the fourth incarnation
of Capture The Record. The guy in the dress? Astragali,
due to a tweeted quip from a friend about how “Astra's
(theoretical) dress” would hamper his gameplay. Of course, that
meant I had to design him a Minecraft dress, complete with those sexy
high heels. That he hadn't been alone? Those other folks would be the
complement of Team Gold...except the ones with the swords. THEY were
the Green Team, hell-bent on our destruction.
We Haz Highbrow Covered: Evil Genius Artwork, Titled "Green Sucks"
Funny how something you've been
planning for a few weeks can become part of your dreams so readily,
and my dreams had a lot of fodder after last night's event. We were a
team full of Evil Geniuses, complete with Patented Evil Genius
Laughter (demonstrated willing and enthusiastically several times
over the course of the game) and with the typical Evil Genius
Laboratory (aka The Pretzelcast server) to perform our Evil Genius
Experiments (testing devious gameplay strategy). We had Evil Genius
brainstorming sessions, complete with spreadsheets, flow charts and
Google docs. There were Evil Genius hashtags and taunts flying across
the Twitterverse for two straight weeks. And did I mention that Astra
was wearing a dress? Low cut down the back and with flowers in his
hair? Oh, yeah-I did. Right-must need more coffee.
We. Were. READY.
We built Evil Genius contraptions,
designed fiendish Evil Genius traps, had an Evil Genius secret
hideout...and an Evil Genius hot tub. After five hours of
preparation, we armed for battle appropriately, in white,
lab-coat-like iron armor. Lightning crackled in the Minecraft sky. We
flew at the opposing team, and like Evil Geniuses, we DOMINATED. We
got so much loot from the opposing team that we ran out of storage
chests. TWICE.
The Evil Geniuses relax in the hot tub as Mirosta explains the facts of life...
But we didn't win.
We didn't lose, either.
The game ended at a draw, the first
Spawn CTR game to ever have done so. At the end of the two-hour PVP
time, neither team had discovered the other team's record. Both teams
had missed by miles. We Evil Geniuses of Team Gold had hidden ours in
a layer cake of falling blocks, burning lava and running water, where
the chests themselves went totally undiscovered by the opposition. We
found later that Team Green had hidden theirs in a suspended lava
cube, which we had duly ignored. When the search began,
SeriousCreeper
said, “No-one ever hides anything up there” to which Green Team
Captain stahscream later responded “One had our record, the others
were full of lava”. At that point, I chimed in with “We were
going to do that, but decided not to because I thought it was too
mean!” (I'd better watch it, I'll lose my Evil Genius Union card!)
The Evil (floor)Plan
My personal high point was, after
getting killed well over 50 times while playing CTR 3, I only died
ONCE in CTR 4. This was at the hands of RPGamer99,
who said, “I was putting you out, you were on fire!” Indeed I
was, but he didn't have to help THAT hard!
Relaxing for pictures before killing the monument with fire.
And Astra looked REALLY good in a
dress. Those high heels didn't hurt his running ability one bit.
There are many, many people who applied for the waiting list. I'm sorry we could not accommodate everyone, since server spots are limited. I would have loved to play with all of you!
Special thanks to ashrossy for hosting
the server, and stahscream for asking, “Is anyone interested in
doing another CTR?” Without you two, this wouldn't be happening!
You say “AY-ther” with a Long-A, I say EE-ther with a Long-E. This is the tempest in a teapot surrounding the awesome long-awaited and newly released Aether Collaboration Mod developed by Kingbdogz, Kodaichi, Shockah, Flan and 303 for the popular indie game Minecraft. After watching YouTube LPers and their audiences alike struggle with, and forum-fight about, the pronunciation of the word “Aether”, I decided to take a look. Before we degenerate into Dan Quayle-ism, lets see what we can actually find out about the word.
So, checking the mighty Merriam-Webster online for the pronunciation key, I find the definition of aether listed as: “A variation of ETHER.” Hmm. I then check what I'm here for, the pronunciation key. No pronunciation listed on this word. Neither is the audio playback of “aether” offered. Hmm. Checking “ether” as advised shows it to be pronounced, predictably, EE-ther with the long E, \ˈē-thər\. And the audio playback option confirms “EE-ther” as the pronunciation. Time for a new source, hopefully one with information linked to “aether”. Goodbye, Merriam-Webster. Dictionary fail.
Maybe we can learn more from the etymology of the word than the piddly bits in the dictionary. Let's take a look at some classical literature. Greek gives us Aither, one of three gods of the heavens, as well as the rarefied air those gods breathed. There, it is pronounced Long-A “AY-ther”. Aristotle gives us “æther”, referred to as the fifth element of essence or spirit, as well as the force or material that gave celestial bodies their circular orbits. Here we are given an entirely different pronunciation: aith-EE-r with the long E moved to the second position. I get this-it is where “ethereal” or “aethereal” (ih-theer-ee-uhl)comes from. But still, no joy here, just another variant added to the mix.
OK, Google, time for you to do your stuff. Finally, a definition of aether that includes an audio playback and a pronunciation, (thr) . This one is another long-E aether, and lists Aristotle's aith-EE-r as well as the Latin, in which the pronunciation looks like EE-th-EE-r, with two long E's. Hmm. I also see a variant based in Greek that includes the Greek pronunciation chart: (ˈiːθə). This seems to be pronounced with the “ae” sound as a long E yet again.
Now, let's take a look at the mod itself and some of the “ae” words used within, specifically focusing on the “Aer-” prefix. How is this pronounced? Most people would pronounce it with a long-A, as in “aerosol”, but given what we've seen with this troublesome “ae” combination, lets sound out some words.
Aerwhales: Clearly Long-A usage. Can't see calling them EARwhales.
Aerclouds: See above. EARclouds? Naw.
Aechor Petals: Could go either way. Long-A-chor or Long-E-chor.
Aechor Plants: See above. Either/or.
Aerclouds: Long-A for sure, since EARclouds just sounds silly.
Primarily long-E from reference sources, but the long-A is well represented, too. Our named items from the mod itself seem to be primarily long-A, but some could possibly be long-E. Hmm.
Still as clear as mud.
From what I remember of long-ago school, I SEEM to remember that either variant, be it long-E or long-A, was correct. Then I remember-I have the definitive source. My mother. She's a retired ENGLISH TEACHER. So I call.
“Mom? I have a quick question.”
“OK?” (with trepidation, Mom knows me well)
“How do you properly pronounce aether? Is it AY-ther or EE-ther?”
“Either way is proper usage, dear. Why do you ask?”
“Mom, it would take way too long to explain. Love you, bye.”
There it is-Mom is always right.
TL;DR:
You may now feel free to pronounce “Aether” any way you wish, and so may everyone else. Stop being the pronunciation police, and go out, play in the Aether and have a good time.
th
r) .