gamegirlcollect

Note for any random person who stumbles across this journal: 

This is my personal journal where I geek out so my friends offline who don't care about comics, games, or anime don't have to hear me talk about what imaginary characters did today.

I have strange pet-names for each of the X-Men.  I am a HUGE fan of Angel / Archangel / Warren Worthington III and call him "Mr. Fluffums" because of his big, feathery, FLUFFY wings.

This.  
is
the greatest thing ever!  I saw this at the comic shop the last time I was there.  It takes several cheesy, old romance comics from the 50s and 60s that I love to snark on and updates it.  Though some old romance comics, usually from Marvel comics, are actually pretty good.  I read some written by Stan Lee back in the day that were very enjoyable and didn't creep me out.  Charlton comics seemed to have produced the most disturbing content.

Here's a little sample from the first story.  GOLD HAHAHA!  This book is just way too enjoyable.

I was able to get my cats and dogs up from their sitting positions!
It happened when I checked out the latest snapshot.  I am so excited for the large biome setting!  It feels a lot more natural and makes exploring more challenging.  I also loved the feature of being able to grow cocoa beans on jungle trees.  I HATE the feature where you have to log into some unknown server in single player and you can't pause your game.  I also found it absolutely impossible to play the game unless my internet connection was on.  Wtf.  So I won't be able to play Minecraft unless I'm in a wifi spot??

After having fun with the latest snapshot, I wanted to return to my original game and be able to pause to my heart's content (because not only will I need constant internet access, but pausing will no longer work in the future, I'm considering not updating my game even though I really want that large biome feature).  I had to "force update" the game to get the 1.2.5 version back.  Once I did, I noticed my animals were able to get back on their feet and follow me around!  


I also checked out TheSheWolf's Featherlight texture pack.  I LOVE it!!

Look, cats are tiny tigers and leopards!

I also finished the Sky Survival map.  It looked like the diamonds were going to be a pain in the butt to get my pixelated hands on until I got really curious about how large was the custom map.  When I chose a direction and built a bridge, I saw at the very edge of the world map a HUGE pile of diamonds clustered together with a chest on top of it.  There had to have been 75 diamonds in that pile, well over what I needed.  I explored around the world map perimeter and didn't see anything else like it so I was very very lucky in finding it.  


Finally being able to be on real land again was pretty fun.  I built a swank building made almost completely of glass.  I really missed being able to make that much glass!

I also tried multiplayer for the first time.  It was an absolute disaster!  For the first server, I searched online for popular servers.  I logged into the first one that caught my eye and it was horrendously confusing.  The spawn point had these huge walls filled with rules that had terms that I didn't know because I'm so new at multiplayer.  As I was reading through all the rules, every few minutes I would be transported back to the start.  I thought it was a glitch until it happened 3 more times, each time before I was able to read all the rules in that area!  It was so frustrating that I couldn't even walk a couple feet to read more of the signs before I was transported to the beginning.  I didn't know what to do so I just logged out.  I thought maybe I was too newbish to try the big servers, so I searched a smaller one.  

Searching for smaller servers, I found someone advertising their server.  I logged in and two other people were on it, including the creator (I could tell because their name was exactly the same as the name of the person on the website forum advertising their server).  I said hi and they said hello back.  I told them I was new to multiplayer, told them the website where I had found their server, and I was excited to explore.  They promptly ignored me and talked among themselves.  I continued exploring the server to see what cool things people have built and tried to find a spot where I could build something.  Suddenly, the creator requested that they teleport to where I was.  I agreed to it and they appeared beside me.  They asked me who I was so I told them my name, the website where I found their server, I was new to multiplayer, and complimented what they had built so far.  They thanked me and told me to have fun.  I explored a little bit more and they kept following me while not saying anything.  I found a nice spot to start building and asked them if I could build here.  They told me, "Yes, that's what this server is here for!"  I began the foundation of an epic mansion when suddenly... they booted me from the server??  EH???  I was so confused and now I worry I did something wrong.  So it's single player for me from now on!

Princess Tutu

Episode 20:  "The Forgotten Story"

"Once upon a time, there was a young woman.  The young woman was to marry a groom chosen by her parents, and not her sweetheart, whom she loved.  She knew that her groom loved her very much, but did her sweetheart care for her even more than that?  The young woman wasn't certain.  In the end, after wavering between the two of them, the young woman even became unsure which of them she really loved."

What a dilemma!

So this story is about the character Rachel in this episode, but I can't help but wonder if it's somehow paralleled to Tutu as well.  Tutu is fated to love the Prince in the story and she obviously loves him very much.  The story/fate could = the "parents" who are pushing her to love someone.  Fakir COULD mean the sweetheart, but then there has been absolutely no gooey squishy lovey love bits between Tutu and Fakir like Mytho and Tutu have shared so far.  Maybe I'm thinking too much into this.

This episode starts with Fakir angsting in the old bookstore over a sheet of paper and having lots of internal monologues.  He's trying to shove Mytho back into his book.  "In searching for a way to return Mytho to the story, I just took to hand whatever books struck me.  So why do I choose only books whose endings are missing?  Why?!"  Because they're all Drosselmeyer's books!  

ANGST ANGST ANGST

Suddenly, a cute girl walks up behind Fakir, says "I found you!" and kisses his cheek.  He's surprised and his angstfest is broken.

Ahiru and her friends are walking down the street when they see Fakir all smiley and hanging out with the mystery girl.  Pique and Lilie assume that Ahiru is going to flip out when she sees Fakir with another girl so they try to prevent her from looking.  It fails after Lilie, the sadist, forces Ahiru to look in hopes it will crush her heart.

Pique and Lilie are depressed that Fakir is acting cute instead of a grumpy "bad boy."  

Pique:  "He smiled!  It totally ruins his badboy appeal."

Lilie:  "That's right, we need him to become a full-fledged juvenile delinquent!"

Pique and Lilie decide Ahiru should do something about this and shove her right in front of Fakir and the other girl.  Ahiru really doesn't care and tries scrambling back into some bushes that Pique and Lilie have hidden in, but it's too late, she's been spotted!

Fakir calls out to Ahiru with an "oi!"  Ahiru turns around and says, "Fakir!"

The girl beside Fakir looks happily surprised, "Are you a friend of Fakir's?"  Aka:  "FAKIR, YOU HAVE FRIENDS?!?!?!"

As Fakir and Rachel were going to Fakir's house, Rachel invites Ahiru to come along with them.

Fakir doesn't look pleased about this, but Rachel insists.  

'Stop inviting random people on the street to my house!'  
Fakir hates this so much, he walks off without saying anything else and continues to his house walking in front of everyone.  No more allowing Rachel to hang on his arm.  Wow, he really doesn't want to hang out with Ahiru.  

When they arrive, Karon is very happy to see Rachel!  They have tea.

Why is the guest serving tea for everyone?  Karon or Fakir should be doing that, it's only polite!  Though maybe Rachel insisted.  Ahiru just sits there looking incredibly awkward as they all catch up with someone she doesn't know in Fakir's house where she isn't even invited by him.

Rachel leans in and whispers to Ahiru, "It's all right, I'm like an older sister to Fakir."  (hint hint: DATE HIM)

Ahiru seems relieved and smiles, "Older sister?" and then she becomes nervous, "I mean, no, I wasn't really..."  I think this is the first out of very VERY few hints in the series that Ahiru might like Fakir at least in some tiny way.  If she likes him at all that way.  I can't really tell.  I'm so confused.

I don't know if that's a "oh crap she's found out my secret crush" face or a "I truly do not want" face.

Fakir adds from Rachel's comment, "Ever since my parents died and I was taken in by Karon, she's been like a surrogate mother to me."

Uzura comments that it looks like Karon and Rachel might be "lovey dovey."  Rachel is very happy about this, "How flattering.  Do we really look like that?  That would be nice."  

Karon comments, "You shouldn't tease adults."  

Rachel:  "You're going to treat me like a child, as always?"

Fakir and Ahiru's eyes both widen as they stare at the two.  Is Karon and Rachel... flirting???

Oh my god.  Someone call Gossip Girl.

Rachel:  "I'm at an age where it wouldn't be odd if I married someone, you know."  

Fakir and Ahiru continue to stare.  

Karon:  "To me, you haven't changed one bit.  You're just like when you were romping around with Fakir and Mytho."

I need a flashback with little Rachel, Fakir and Mytho catching grasshoppers in the field.  I need this!!  It sounds so cute.

Rachel then asks where Mytho is.  Fakir stumbles around, "Oh yeah... he uh is at school.  He's completely wrapped up in being a hobag his dancing."  

They talk a little more and Rachel says she wants to take a walk with Ahiru.  Rachel comments how Fakir is with a cute girl like Ahiru.  Ahiru is angry and says, "I always fight with him and sometimes I can't stand him!!"  I didn't hear a "I'm not with him"......  

Ahiru suddenly looks embarrassed.  Oops, she's badtalking Fakir behind his back to a girl who grew up with him.

Rachel says, "I wonder if it's thanks to you that Fakir has changed."  The mood suddenly changes and they walk under a bridge.  It's very dark.  Rachel asks with her eyes concealed by her hair, "Is Fakir still writing stories?"

Whoa, total shift in atmosphere.

Ahiru has no idea what Rachel is talking about.

Rachel:  "The stories that boy wrote sometimes came true.  He loved to write stories from the time when he was very small."

OMG CUTE BABY FAKIR FLASHBACK.  

Rachel:  "They were just silly little stories, but sometimes parts of them came true."  

Look, his parents!  

  

Rachel:  "But after he came to Karon's house, he completely stopped writing."  Rachel looks sad about this but then looks embarrassed that she's said too much.  

Ahiru buys this story a near stranger has told her without question.  "To think Fakir wrote stories and they came true!" Ahiru wonders.  "If he can do that... maybe...!" and a happy Mytho with a full heart is shown smiling!

Ahiru runs off and Rachel turns around after noticing Ahiru is gone and calls after her.  Ahiru yells back, "I'm sorry there's something I forgot to do!!"  Rachel, now alone, is at the watermill where her wedding dress is located.  She comments that Fakir isn't the one who has changed the most, it is herself.

Meanwhile, Fakir is angsting in a horse's stable, clinging to his sword.  Thinking back to a comment Rachel said about how he was always saying he'd protect Mytho, Fakir asks himself, "How do I protect him?  Who do I fight?"  He thinks back to Mytho asking for his help and then telling him that in the story Fakir is no longer needed.  He also thinks back to the time Tutu was hurt and he couldn't protect her.  Fakir says with determination, "I'll protect Mytho with this sword." even though he has no idea how he's even going to do that.  He's never even seen the raven.

That's when Ahiru busts in and without even a hello (Ahiru is seriously lacking in tact and social grace) and tells him that since he writes stories that come true then maybe he can use that power to write a story where Mytho is saved...

Fakir makes a really scary face.  It's horrifying.  He's totally flipping the fuck out.  I'm not even going to screencap it.  D:  He gets short with Ahiru and tells her to shut up.  

Ahiru is shocked, "Why are you speaking to me like this?  If I could help Mytho by myself, I wouldn't ask you to do this!" she says desperately.  

Fakir looks down on Ahiru hatefully and growls, "I'll protect Mytho as a KNIGHT."  Fakir... is this about you sucking with the sword again?  "I won't take orders from you!"  

The shot is angled so that Ahiru looks very small as she looks up at him to exaggerate Fakir's height and how emotionally tiny and scared Ahiru must be.

Fakir then locks Ahiru out of his house lol!

Ahiru, not getting the hint that Fakir is having a nervous breakdown/wants to be alone/is upset about something, bangs on the door and screams, "FAKIR LISTEN TO ME!!  Fakir!  Come on, Fakir!  If you can help Mytho, then why won't you?!"  

Um... Ahiru...

Meanwhile, Fakir has curled himself up in the corner of some room and.  He doesn't look well.  He's sweating, hyperventillating a little, and is on the verge of needing a padded room.  Again, I'm not screencapping this because it's terrifying.

Later, Pique and Lilie throw Ahiru a party to cheer Ahiru up after what they think is her being heartbroken over Fakir having a girlfriend.  Ahiru doesn't enjoy anything, isn't appreciative of their effort (even if it is pretty weird), and is pissed off the entire time because she apparently couldn't break down Fakir's door and bludgen him into doing what she wants.

Meanwhile, Mytho dances with that theme from... I don't know what it is, but it's the music that plays in Fantasia when Satan bursts out of the volcano and starts the apocalypse or something.  I haven't seen that movie in so long.  But anyway, Mytho is being freakin creepy.  However, images of him as the kind but suffering prince is overlayed, showing his conflict.  I suppose he's trying to work out his emotional problems through dance.

Girls watching him dance through the big classroom windows comment how scary Mytho is.

The girls run off, but Rachel is left standing and she smiles at Mytho.  They talk and Mytho puts the moves on Rachel.  "I've gotten my heart back.  Now I can even accept YOUR love for me."  Oh Mytho.  Such a charmer.  .....*cough*

Rachel laughs a little and says, "Well, that makes me happy.  Maybe I'll call off the wedding."  She's obviously being sarcastic.

Mytho stops putting the moves on Rachel and sits with his back toward her.  He says "Congratulations," with a rather flat tone.

When Rachel says, "Thank you," sadly, Mytho then says rather giddily, "You don't look very happy.  Could it be you're wavering?"

Rachel looks surprised and says while sweating a little, "Of course not.  What I said before was a joke!  Hans will love me from the bottom of his heart.  With him, I'm sure I can be happy."  

Mytho grabs her hand and says, "You can't lie to your own feelings." and then lays on the raven hypno powers, using her weaknesses as a tool to control her.   However, before it's able to take effect, Rachel tells him that she has to go and she walks away from him.  Mytho stares after her mumbling to himself, "You have to love me.  Sacrifice your life and love me!"  

Mytho, just stop.  D:

Rue is watching Mytho from the bushes.  She looks pained and sad at what Mytho has become.  He's obviously crazy and always flirting with other women and never faithful to Rue.  He displays next to no interest to her at all.  She replays the familiar recording in her head, "If I do as father says, someday he'll be my prince alone.  Right, father?"  She isn't sure if this is the best course of action.

Ahiru is thinking about how she wanted Fakir and herself to work together to save Mytho.  She suddenly runs out of Pique and Lilie's party, shouting, "I DON'T WANT THINGS TO BE LIKE THIS!!"  This firey redhead is going to GET WHAT SHE DAMN WELL WANTS.  Ahiru is so strongheaded, stubborn, and firey, I don't think I'd want to get between Ahiru and anything she wants.  This is like Fakir standing in the hallway between Ahiru and Mytho all over again.  Be afraid, Fakir, Ahiru is coming to bulldoze you to the floor again.

Ahiru tells Rachel on Fakir and explains everything that has happened in a just-vague-enough way to not spill the whole "We're all trapped in a fairytale" thing.  Rachel is upset, asking Ahiru to forget everything she said earlier about Fakir writing stories because Fakir will be hurt.  Rachel then tells the rest of the story.  "A long time ago, a lot of ravens showed up in Gold Crown Town.  The ravens attacked the townspeople indiscriminately.  Fakir was a child, but he must have wanted to do something to help.  He wrote a story where he became a hero and defeated the crows.  Just like Fakir had written, the crows came and attacked him.  But the ending was different than his story."

This flashback showed the adorable baby Fakir flashback from earlier as darker, covered in ravens.  It showed Fakir's parents protecting him from the ravens and as a result, the parents dying.  :(

"Afterwards, it was as if he'd sealed those memories away."  Move over, Rue, it's Fakir's turn to have partial amnesia.  

Ahiru leaves the house where Rachel is staying.  Now humbled and her desire to break down all the doors in Fakir's house gone, she tells herself, "I didn't know that Fakir had something like that happen to him."  Ahiru looks really sad like she's about to cry!  She thinks how Rachel told her, "Fakir must still be unable to recover from it...  Please, Ahiru, give Fakir space."

Once Ahiru is gone, Mytho continues to stalk Rachel and calls her his "bride."  Wow, he's really laying it on THICK.

Ahiru then notices there are TONS of ravens all over the watermill where Rachel is staying.  She immediately wonders if Mytho is doing anything weird.  Of course he is.  Rachel is finally under Mytho's spell.

Princess Tutu comes to save her!  Fakir also shows up, intent on protecting Mytho... uh... somehow.  He pretty much just stands around for a little while before doing anything.  Rachel spills her beans.  Rachel is in love with Karon but he won't return her feelings.  Her fiance, Hans, is in love with Rachel and Rachel is in love with him too, but she still has baggage feelings for Karon and came here to make her final decision.  
Mytho tells Rachel that if she loves HIM, then she won't have to waver between Karon and Hans anymore.
Rachel is like, "seems legit."  LOL!!!!!!!!!

Tutu grabs the wedding veil that Rachel has dropped and... WHOAWHOAWHOA.  That is the same freakin flower veil headdress thing that shows "dead" Ahiru wearing at the very very end of the series.  WHAT.  

Anyway, Tutu and Mytho argue for Rachel.  

Tutu:  "Both of those are your true heart, Rachel-san, but is what you're trying to get right now your true feelings?"  aka 'step away from Mytho, it's ok to be confused and search yourself between two loves right before you get married.  It's called cold feet.'

Mytho:  "True" and "false" have nothing to do with it!  People just love others because they want to be loved!  So she wavers because she wonders which one will love her!"  

Tutu:  "That pain is how you really feel!  So wake up!  You want to be happy with the one you truly love, right?"  

I love the message behind this:  To not run from your pain or cover it up with something else.  Face it, even if it makes you feel horrible.

Rachel starts crying.  "I weighed their loves against each other for the sake of my own happiness!  To escape from the pain of my wavering, I set out to get Fakir to write a story about me even though I knew it would hurt him!  I'm a horrible woman..." she covers her face with her hands.  Aww, Rachel, it'll be ok!  We're all human, here!  Well, except for Tutu who is a duck.  And Mytho who is an imaginary person.  And 25% the population of the town... still!

Tutu comforts Rachel, "Everyone wants to be loved by the people they love.  It's not bad to feel that way.  I'm sure it's painful to waver between two loves but if you run away from that, you won't be able to escape the pain."  

Mytho flips out and tries to gain control again by screaming, "YOU SHOULD ONLY LOVE ME!!"  and screams her name.  Fakir finally steps in, holding the sheath of his sword out and tells Mytho to STEP. BACK.

Mytho only amused at this and laughs at Fakir.

He then uses some magic Raven power stuff...

To summon a big, scary sword!  With an adorable raven on it.

Tutu is surrounded by costumed ravens while Mytho and Fakir are free to have a showdown!  Fakir questions Mytho whether he  feels anything using Rachel like that.  Mytho just makes fun of Fakir and calls him pathetic and a useless knight who couldn't even die.  You know, the usual.

Mytho kicks Fakir's ass.

Mytho taunts Fakir, "You know you can't lay a finger on me!"

Fakir:  "This sword isn't for slaying you.  Mytho, remember your true self!"  Fakir's sword is suddenly accidentally and conveniently at an angle where Mytho's reflection is shown to Mytho.  Mytho stumbles backwards, suddenly going into one of Princess Tutu's patented "WHO AM I???!" existential crisises.  

And he looks so cute doing it, too!

Mytho suddenly starts crazily shouting, "Shut up.  Shut up!  SHUT UP!!", unarms Fakir with a single swipe of his sword with a dramatic flair,

and is THIS CLOSE || to stabbing Fakir in the face  

when Mytho regains his senses just enough to stop himself, though it seems difficult for him.  He shouts at himself, "Don't hurt Fakir, you evil raven!"

Oh god, imagine if Mytho wasn't able to stop himself.  That would have been REALLY. MESSY.

Mytho tells Fakir and Tutu to run and not to come near him as he disappears in a swirl of black raven air... stuff.  The ravens all disappear with him.

Now that the threat is over, Fakir wanders over to see how Rachel is doing.  She's lying in Tutu's lap, tears threatening to fall.  She's begging for Fakir's forgiveness because she was only thinking about herself and that she did something to hurt him.  Awww, who can not forgive that??

Fakir smiles at her and tells her that it's ok and it wasn't her fault.  Rachel's tears spill over her cheeks and she smiles, looking happy that she is forgiven.  

Tutu tells Fakir, "Rachel was suffering so much but she told me to give you space.  Rachel didn't want to hurt you." 

This seems to be enough to finally motivate Fakir to try writing again.  While sitting down to write later, Fakir thinks about Mytho's pain and the pain of seeing his parents lying dead on the ground the last time he tried writing.  The image of himself was blackened over in the flashback, but suddenly he is revealed staring at the dead bodies of his parents, wordlessly symbolizing Fakir's acceptance of his past instead of running from it.  Writing is what he can do to try to solve everyone's anguish.

The next morning, we finally get to see Han, Rachel's fiance!  Rachel is finally at peace after facing her feelings and has decided to go through with marrying Han.  She'll probably tell Han all about her crazy dream involving a magical ballerina princess and Mytho, her childhood friend who tried to have his way with her.

Rachel sees that Fakir has written a story for her and she takes it before walking off into the "sunset" with Han.  I wonder what that story was about?  It hints that the story Fakir wrote didn't come true (Fakir gave Ahiru a rather vague answer to whether it came true or not).  Fakir then says that he's going to try to write another story.  :)

Aw, look how happy they look.

Fakir says he's going to try to write a story about Mytho.  Ahiru is pleased!  Drosselmeyer says from the shadows, "That's dangerous!  That power is truly dangerous!"  Drosselmeyer isn't worried, though.  "You couldn't even become a knight, do you really think you can master it?"  So, Drosselmeyer and Fakir have the same power.  Gee, I wonder if they're RELATED.  

This journal is so full of spoilers but it's not like anyone but the 2 people I know who have already watched the series is going to read this, right?  RIGHT???  Sorry for the random person who somehow falls into this hellhole of a journal and gets eaten by spoiler monsters.

GET. OFF. YOUR. ASSES!!!

Next, I tried hitting a dog.  That only made him pissed and he continued to sit.  He wouldn't stop growling at me no matter how much I apologized and fed him.  Later, he ended up disappearing.  T_T


I tried hooking a cat with a fishing pole and pulling them toward me with it.  Still didn't work.


I tried feeding them so hearts would appear above their heads.  Surely, they'd want to make a puppy, right?  RIGHT?  Nope.  I even pushed them together until their noses touched, but they were content just to sit around.


I then lured enemies in, allowed them to hit me while I flailed and ran around the dogs screaming, "OH NO HELP ME HELP ME!!!"  The dogs were completely uninterested.


I give up.  D:

I went and snazzied up the surrounding area.  Instead of braving the outside at night when I ran out of food, I attached a greenhouse to my house so I wouldn't have to go out at night.  It looks pretty snazzy.


I've been doing a lot of modifications to the house to make it bigger and have organized all my inventory.  I have chests for specific types of blocks and have set an example next to each chest so I wouldn't forget which chest is in what.  I'm such a hoarder.


I also double-reinforced my chicken pen.  Ocelots kept getting to the chickens by mean of some glitch.  They would stand right up against the fence so that their faces were able to peek through and wait until a chicken would pass by and then... poof.  Feathers and raw chicken meat would be all that was left.  Now that I've put double fences side-by-side, the ocelots have left the chickens alone.

DIE, DRAGON!!!


YES!!!!
It was actually pretty easy the second time, knowing what to expect.  It was just a little time consuming.

Also, look how cool enchanting tables look in the Medieval texture pack!


Not sure what to do next, I then decided to check out some more texture packs.  Abby Eve suggested Derelict by TheSheWolf.

I felt like I was suddenly transported to Silent Hill.  It had a really unique look, I really enjoyed it.  The doors and pictures were especially interesting with their dilapidated and creative looks.


What I got the biggest kick out of was what the Iron Golems looked like.

Hahaha!  (I was also surprised that my NPC village had two of them now!)

While wandering around town during the early morning trying to find NPCs to screencapture, I turned around to see this guy staring at me.  *screams*  He genuinely scared me!


The creepers are the scariest.  I mean, just look at this thing!

What an ugly mofo!!!

I then tried out Glimmar's Steampunk texture pack.

I had to screencap this just for the Star Trek reference!

This texture pack is really pretty!


Check out my robo kitty!


I got a big kick out of the frail-looking robots that made up the NPCs.  I find them so cute!


Iron Golem:


I love this room so much.


Now having a better sense of direction so that getting lost wasn't quite as easy as when I first started playing, I set off to explore far-off lands.  I found a mushroom island!  (texture pack is LB Photo Realism).  An island where you'd NEVER starve to death.


It's actually kind of boring on Mushroom Island.  No monsters, plenty of food... but it was nice not to have to worry about anything for a change. 

Right now, I'm trying something new.  Survival maps.  I'm trying my first one called Sky Survival:  Islands of Junara.  I don't even know how many times I've died already.  I once died 3 times in a row in a span of 10 seconds because of 3 creepers blowing up in my face one after the other.  I kid you not.  Creepers.  Everywhere.  There were TONS of creepers at my spawn point even though there were 10 torches in the immediate area.

You even start off on a tiny floating island filled to the brim with TNT.  You have to flip a switch and have 12 seconds to grab as much as you can out of 4 chests, then fall down a tiny hole into a tiny pond below before the entire island explodes.  I nearly peed myself!

Then you have to find your way to the other islands with very little resources at your disposal so you can build a monument.  It's really fun!  I'm playing it on Hard mode to make it more challenging.  Easy mode apparently isn't good enough for me anymore.

I love the paintings in this texture pack!  Here is the interior of my mansion in construction.

The moon looks AMAZING!!!


This rooms looks cozy.


However, NPCs and Iron Golemns creep me out!  Their glowy eyes stare into my soul.



OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!  D:  HE'S BLOCKING THE DOOR!!!!  THERE'S NO WHERE TO RUN.  Quickly, change the texture pack to....

I spent a long time hunting Endermen for Ender Pearls.  Endermen are so creepy when you piss them off, their jaws unhinge and you see all the way through their heads, and they're teleporting all around you trying to hit you with your back turned! 

I was able to create a portal to The End using Ender Pearls and Blaze Rods.


I spent a long time preparing, gathering my items, and bringing every single arrow I'd collected in the game so far.  I stepped through the portal and was able to meet the Ender Dragon!



I was busy blowing up the dragon's healing cubes when the dragon swooped down and pushed me right off the edge and I fell to my death into the black pit of doom!  NOooooo!!!!  All my work!  

I started a new game in creative mode, flew around, and blew off steam.  In the meantime, I discovered that when you fly up far enough, the only thing you see are the sun and moon circling around you in all 360 degrees.  I looked down and saw the sun below my feet among the night sky.
 

The sun and it's sunrise colors almost to the horizon.


I burrowed deep into the earth and explored below the ground and into the black, bubbling void.  It was really pretty watching the particles and bubbles from the pitch-black void sparkle in the light of the hole I dug.


Next time:  The fall of the Ender Dragon.  This I swear!!

Here is the Medieval town of Kargeth.  It is HUGE.  And so beautiful.
Me standing on a ship's mast.

The view on top of a lighthouse.

Me standing on a watchtower.




Inside the church by town square:


Snow!


I've spent a couple hours discovering and furnishing/redecorating the interior of some of the houses.  All the while gasping, "This place is SO COOL!"  I still haven't seen everything. 

I also downloaded the City of Arches. 




So pretty!!

I've also seen people creating custom maps to download that have quests or custom games inside.  Some are so amazingly creative in what people have been able to create.  I watched an LP of the Eden Project, which was really fun to watch.  Someone also made a copy of the Portal games created within Minecraft (you even get a portal gun and get to shoot the blue and green portals!).  Another game is "The Drop", which I found to be a really creative use for a simple game mechanic within Minecraft. 
I must play them all. 

I'm still addicted to Minecraft.  I want to see and do everything in the game! 

My treehouse is getting really swanky.  I am REALLY high in the treetops.  I found the tallest tree on the highest hill to plant my Swiss Family Robinson treehouse of awesome.

This is the view from the living room deck:

The front of the house thus far (I love seeing the phases of the moon change every night):

It has a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, and two other rooms I'm still deciding how to furnish.  To the left is my sugarcane, wheat, and tree farm.  The great thing about living in the trees is even before I had my house well-lit, monsters rarely spawned that high.

The kitchen and eating area:


My first home on the ground by the lake is getting a serious upgrade.  Into a castle!

After mining so much, I had all this cobblestone and didn't know what to do with it.  So this happened.

Inside, the first thing you see is a fountain.


The NPCs in the town next to my house (that I had to minecart two NPCs in to repopulate after the tragic zombie apocalypse) exploded in population.  They're a little scary.


Also, The Nether is a pain in the butt!!  It is essentially "hell" with lakes of fire and way too many enemies shooting giant, exploding fireballs at me.  I died so many times there.  The worst part is, the fire eats up your items so you can't pick them up later.  Ugh!  After losing a few precious items, I now only go there with crap items.

Luckily, my portal was right next to a Nether Castle.
I was so excited.  These giant structures just scream, "I HAVE TREASURE" inside!  Unfortunately, there was no treasure. 
NO.
TREASURE.
I can't...
There needs to be treasure in these things!

But no, those corridors are empty.

Because I want to try everything, I tried Superflat (Survival Mode) for the first time.  Superflat is a world of 1 layer of bedrock, two layers of dirt, and one layer of grass.  Everything is flat.  There are NPC towns scattered quite a distance away from each other and you sometimes find animals.  At first glance, it looks like you really can't do much.  I hear most people use it only for creative mode to build elaborate things on a flat surface.   Essentially, it's a wasteland.  But if you play on Survival Mode, it presents its own set of difficult problems.



IT IS A WASTELAND FILLED WITH SLIMES.  These things are SO. ANNOYING.
I built fences around my NPC town and dug giant pits outside to catch hoards of them just to keep them in place.  They quickly get out of hand/swarm to epic numbers and you do nothing but fight them day and night if you don't block them out.


Also, i don't know if it's just because the land is flat and you're able to see farther, but it seems as if there is a significantly larger amount of enemies that spawn at night. 

I get most of my resources from NPC towns.  Chests sometimes have saplings, which I can use to plant new trees.  I started forests that way.  I also started piling up dirt into hills to make the landscape more scenic.

I kill skeletons at night and use the bonemeal to fertilize the grass to make them grow tall and also grow flowers.  I transport water in buckets to make waterfalls.  I found I had to be really creative and more patient in finding materials.  I had to find a new way to make coal because mining is impossible.  I had to use water and lava creatively to make cobblestone.  Iron items are precious because it's so hard to get more. 

I visited 10 different towns to get enough obsidian to make a Nether portal and through it I was able to obtain more resources (beautiful glowstone!  And Netherrock to set ablaze in the slime pits hahaha!).

NPCs love Nether Portals!  I shoved an NPC into the portal and trapped him so he'd stand in it, but he didn't transport.  :\

I enjoy the regular game much more than Superflat, but Superflat was really fun because of how different it is and how creative you had to get in finding resources.  I really miss sand, though.  Specifically, being able to make glass.  I wish there was a way to make soulsand into glass (even if it's cloudy, I'd be fine with that!).
I think I've binged enough on Minecraft these past few weeks.