There was about 20 people running around, eager to grab their spot in this god forsaken river valley. We had been warned that a flood was to come soon and had to build to survive. Easy enough, I thought I meandered around for a few seconds. Time was short and land was even shorter. I found a crater in an otherwise flat land. I thought about it for a second and approved – building a roof and letting the land be my walls would save me valuable time. I decided on a glass ceiling to cover my crater. Apparently some nearby stranger liked my idea and helped. The roof was quickly finished and before jumping down to finish the ceiling and begin room building I looked around my competitors – some built houses as high into the sky as they could – small because they had to do it quick – but a sure fire way to survive. How boring. My befriended stranger took no time in waiting and got to building a passage to his room. A quick bed under the roof and then he was off to tunneling, as I was. Surviving was too easy, expanding and creating the biggest house on the block – now thats a game. So I went off quickly to work, digging in random directions and leaving brick behind me to leave a dirty path. Not ten feet into my fun I actually tunneled into someone else’s house! Took a quick look around before realizing this guy was no fun. A 10×10 room made of glass. He quickly made a room in my much sought after house and wandered off. I shrugged, made a door to his house and continued my tunnel out.

I came across a huge ravine. Apparently under the the river valley was a huge water basin. What screams more epic then a glass road over a hundred foot drop into water…Probably a drop into a lava instead but moot point. I quickly drew out this huge glass road above the basin in my head when no sooner had I discovered another friend making quick additions to my house. He was in the middle of adding a rainbow colored room to my glass path when I noticed one of the dams protecting the basin, also created by one of the original 20, was near breaking point. The huge crowding near the dam meant that overwork was dangerous. Blocks were being randomly destroyed by bystanders. I decided I should quickly finished my path, connected myself to another pitiful excuse of a house and decided building underground would be a better idea. From my original house I dug down. Down and down and down. Then nothing – I hung in mid air for about  5 seconds. Crap. I hit the soft ground pretty hard as a matter of fact. I took a look at my surroundings. A huge giant hallowed sphere in the ground. I was a little confused about what geological movement could have formed it, but my hands were quicker then my brain and no sooner had I begun to think about it, I began to civilize the hole. Buildings stairs from this hole, through the tunnel back to my now crowded house. I wondered what was causing the crowding. I decided to peak at the basin below and realized that it had risen over the dam and people were taking refugee in my house. Damn socialists bastards. I giggled at the thought but decided to let them stay. I had hole to build in.

My rainbow room friend had decided to follow me down there and he had begun room building; gotta have bedrooms for the boarders. I let him to himself and decided I wanted a pool in my hole. So adding a few glass pipes – because water flowing into a pool is amazing looking. So I slowly poked holes up, as to not have water rush in. I had my pipe slowly being built behind me. Poke. Lava. Fuck. As I ran away from the spill, I tried to plug the hole as fast I could to no avail. My rainbow friend was standing on top of the stairs laughing. His rooms would be destroyed, but I guess the sight of me poking for 20 minutes only to have it shoot in my face must have been worth the laugh for him. Oh well. The lava sat in that hole and I was done poking around the world. I walked back up to my glass pathway over the basin and the last thing I saw was the dam falling apart brick by brick. Eep. I walled off the house from the pathway, only to notice through my glass ceiling that water was rushing through the river valley too. I wonder how long that glass would hold…

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Epic adventure! I figured I could try to review this game, but I realized that the game is whatever you want it to. The game in question is called minecraft, a free (for now, in alpha) java web-based game. So before I try to give the rundown, first let me see – its legos. You build and create things with blocks. There are different kinds of servers – some are free build, but my favorite is the lava/water survival maps, where you quickly create a place to stay before lava/water comes. The fun comes when people go exploring after the flood and you have to try and keep your house intact from all those pesky explorers. Play with friends is easy as can be, assuming you have some way to talk, vent, phone whatever, because some of these constructions can get EPIC real quick.

The mast, just the mast of a pirate ship me and a few friends built - and yes we encased the whole thing with glass to protect it from lava.

The more friends you attract, the cooler your designs can be. In one game, we had 5-6(someone wanted to help really bad and I’m pretty sure he was gay because his interior decorating was pretty amazing) people work on one massive house. Everyone flocked to it and the admins of the server pretty much banned anyone who so much as touched a block that wasn’t us.

Lava is our bitch.

Basically lava and water have real physics. They react to open space around it and spread around. Right now they don’t add mass, so they don’t over flow as you can see above, we made a lava pool pretty easily, using glass as pipes with an opening in the middle. Still, you can even play by yourself. I decided to do a quick one before work and decided to make a tree house – apparently the admin of the server loved it so much he decided to do inner work for me.

It had about 5 stories, and everyone tried to connect their house to mine. Green attracts so many idiots!

I recommend this game to everyone who enjoyed legos. The game is totally what you want it to be. What more can you ask for?

Go to minecraft.net to go ahead and starting playing =)

http://minecraft.net/

You don’t need to download it to start playing. Just hit multiplayer and search the servers after registering. If you want to play with me and some buds, we’re ususally chilling on TheOne’s Original Lava Survival server. Hope to build with you soon. Just before careful. Do NOT destroy others homes on that server, or play around when lava is around if you don’t know what you’re doing. you will get banned.

I recently went to go see the Last Airbender with a few friends of mine. I wasn’t really reluctant since we were going to a five dollar theater and I knew what Nickelodeon movies were like (read – childish and oft, so I had no expectations, having not seen the cartoon (at this point). I was sort of smiling throughout the movie knowing it was horrible but having no emotional connection with the characters (again at this point), I was just enjoying my friends company. My friend and his brother who both watched the cartoon kept going on and on, “Thats not what happened” “There was more bending on the show COME ON!”. I figured at this point, I should probably watch the anime; reading all the horrible reviews I guess that means they had missed the mark on the anime which means the anime must have actually rocked unlike it big screen cousin. So I set aside a few hours and decided to watch a few episodes.

I was drawn in instantly. American sarcasm and humor with anime style, something my vast anime library had lacked. Right off the bat I was laughing at Sokka and Katara’s relationship – something I didn’t do in the movie. The movie had completely, completely, been off base with Aang’s characterization. I’m not sure how they managed to screw it up – a freedom, life loving funny kid turned into a semi-serious, void of personality pre-teen. As I got further and further into the series (ultimately finishing it, so if you have not seen it stop reading here) I realized that the play in the cartoon put up at the third to last episode was actually better then the movie. They should have just copied that plays style and they probably would have a ten times better screen play right there.

Also, if they actually get money to make a second one (having seen the reviews, I’m not sure if it will) they will probably have to re-do or re-cast almost every character. And if they fuck up Toph, I will be pissed. Finally a female in an anime with full confidence and strength with zero strings attached. Most anime women who try to play that card tend to have a shady past, have an ego problem, or develop harsh romantic relationships. Toph had none of that shit; she was the ultimate bad ass. “There it is!….Thats what it would sound like when one of you spots it *Waves hand in front of face”

So good.

Now that we got to the end of the post, I guess I should say that there was a loss in the family recently, my grandfather passed last Wednesday. We had the funeral on Friday. My memories of him are few and far between, especially back when he was down to earth. I remember him leading a prayer or two during passover I believe, swimming with us as kid in the pool. He made me want to learn about World War 2, making me into the history buff I am today and I am a better person for it. As a veteran of the war, I can give him my utmost respect.

Still, I always felt calm around the idea around death and I think it became clear when my sister had her 2 babies at the funeral. It is that cycle of life and legacy that makes coming terms to death a little bit easier.

I don't even remember writing this

I should say this first. I’m scared to find out if this disease I have is fatal. I mean I only lived eighteen years, and it would kind of suck to die from a truth telling disease…At least the irony in it would be worth a chuckle. No, no it isn’t contagious- come back. I’m a nice guy I won’t bite you. It would take too much effort to sit up and bite you, and I’m not prepared to spend energy on that. Yes I’m lazy, I won’t lie. Thank goodness for being born with a curious mind. It is what kept me going in all those courses. It sounds like I might have been wasting my mind on electronics during my High School times. I’m not lazy all the time though. When I get started on something I love, I lose track of time doing it. Sometimes it isn’t even something I love. When I feel like I would be proud of the outcome of my work, I push for it. Lying? I can’t lie, though I can sound like an adult, which means I can bend the truth. I wonder where my close friends are right now. I believe in a small group of friends who I could be tight woven with. I always stuck by with them even doing things that weren’t amazing. Imagine Six Flag Great adventures. One of your close friends you see everyday has an extra free gold pass to every rollercoaster in the park to cut in line with- but your friend who you see once a month and really enjoy their company doesn’t like said coasters and would be walking alone otherwise- you stick with them. I pick and choose my friends oddly. I knew this person in High School, not amazingly well, but for 3 years we shared classes. Sometime in freshmen year, they moved far, I figured I would stay in touch for a month before that ‘keep in touch’ mentality faded. Not quite. Slowly people from New York had that mentality fade, but for some odd reason I kept in touch with them over a course of 5 years. Talking for hours when time permitted. I suppose what I’m trying to say I find friendship in odd places. Yes, I know I’m strange, but you aren’t so perfect yourself there mister listening to me rant on like this…though I suppose I shouldn’t bring you down like that over listening to me. I love to listen, I hate being the talker, nothing to ever say. I listen to my close group of friends. I have people confide in me asking for advice.

Or writing this

Eight Minute Life

            Story of my life in five minutes, that is tough, considering my labor was like three hours alone. Lets see, I was born, I went home, which was in Nassau still, then I cried for about 8 years. Alright half time already, okay now I’m like second grade, and I’m figuring out that you shouldn’t eat paper – I actually never figured out why not to, I was only told not to – and then it was fifth grade. Best years of my pre-teen life, which isn’t saying much because I didn’t do much in my pre-teens, not that has changed now. Fifth grade is the last year before I became part of the system, ala Middle School. That is five minutes of my life more or less.

            I guess I need eight minutes to describe my life, since I only got to around three fourths of my life, but it’s not much. I went to High School, where I didn’t do much other then figure out the floor of the Gym was just melted plastic. I applied to college and here I am. That was about eight minutes.

            I’m glad I only spent eight minutes here so I didn’t have to go into my family or friends too much, I mean it is my life you wanted to hear. It isn’t that they aren’t a big part of my life but there were some events, specific ones I’d rather keep out. My group of friends in particular, made a list of moments for me, named after me, which listed every stupid thing I had ever done. Falling up the stairs, getting hit by a falling 2×4, you know, the normal stuff.

I bought the new Flip UltraHD. Pretty snazzy!