Saturday, October 13, 2018

Rainy days and... Saturdays.. Always gets me down

OK,  so rainy days,  and Saturdays,  don't usually get me down.  Usually,  rain is soothing to me..  But i have been suffering eye and sleep issues of late,  and it seems i have a constant companion in headaches. Still,  i muddle through somehow.
I have been trying to get back into ol mabi of late.. Feels a little lackluster though.. Prolly just my general attitude.  Today i am feeling a bit shuffled and marginalized...  Its been a trying week.
Theres always housework.. -.-
There is also youtube..  And minecraft.

I hear the next update is going to be a good one..  Not to say,  this last one wasn't... It's nice to see a little color and usefulness come to the ocean. The next one will deal with villagers. I'm hoping it means they too will become more colorful and useful. Unlike some of the builders i have seen on YouTube,  i find it difficult to build up a whole area without something like the villagers to enjoy it. Sure hope they give some defens-a-bility to the villager ai.. Like adding a guard or militia to the villages so they don't all become ghost towns before i can get to them.
I'm not so fond of the pillagers idea of the planned update.. It looked like they might do more than trample vegie patches and shoot at villagers (shooting at them is hard enough to defend against as it is) i sure hope they won't destroy fences and buildings.
Andandand!!!   They will also be updating stairs and slabs at long last!  Yay!! (Now,  to get them to update the window panes!) Hopefully this will be something we see before early next years planned update.




Update: well.. mojang is giving no love to the low-end computers.. they are removing the option of turning off vbo's (which is the only way i have been able to keep the game from crashing on me.. if not crashing my computer right along with it.) in efforts to "improve performance". thus far I have seen anything but. the latest snapshot wont run for me at all and i have to back up to the last release and turn off vbo's once more just to be able to play the game once again. sigh

well.. in some odd chance, they get it all worked out for the betterment of all, by its official release sometime in January, I have wandered around in my world fortifying the town fences. :D


Since I finally have the moment, I determined to see my way clear toward learning to make a nether hub... even though I suc at math, and its been a really confusing time of 2 days rl.. but think i finally got it... so here's how... in my own words for better understanding... by me.

A: make a portal. B. F3 to take down x - z coordinates to the portal. take the coords and divide by 8 for each one. if there's a negative - just transfer it to the new number (ie.. -428 x coord. 428 / 8 = 53 so -53 x coord in the nether) make sure you have enough obsideon for another portal, and flint n steel. C. enter the nether. D. crash your nether portal in and go looking for the nether equiv. of those coords you came up with. E. once at your coord (go straight up for a safe(r) hub area), make another portal. F. go through. you should appear where your original portal in the over-world is. you are linked. if you screw it up.. youl likely appear wherever in the over-world... try not to screw it up. if you are up -far enough- in the nether, you shouldn't have to make steps or anything... nor will you have to make blocks under your feet to walk on. (the number for Y is totally ignored btw. just go about your merry way as if it didn't exist.)


Sunday, September 09, 2018

Ugh! & b-day wishes

Supposed to be a special day and i think i caught a summer cold. (Sniff) stuffy,  runny nose,  sneezing,  headache, weepy tired eyes,  feeling rather bleh.  It figures,  don't it? I'm fine all the rest of the past several weeks, but today,  when i really need to feel fine and i got the achoos. (Sniff) geez... Need to lie down again.... Where's the tissue box?  Grumble,  kofkof.

Wednesday, August 08, 2018

Out for the moment but still in for the battle

Surviving the dog-dayz of summer once again. Flippin cactus flat heat waves are too much for a lowly kitty o' the mountains to handle.. Whew!! I miss the higher altitudes!!

Been a few changes in living of late,  and the heat even makes the tolleratable adulting rl stuff a serious strain... And other than the occational hissing of my complaints,  the place is filled with the constant sawing of zz's.... Its still better than it was in the not so distant past.. And its cooler as well.

I watched a fun movie.. brace of movies? That have given me a new favorite.  Reminiscent of a big ol giant king of monsters with a horrid case of atomic halitosis.. Enough to make me squeal with fan-girl excitement,  is Pacific rim. (1&2) The kaiju are on the rampage and it's up to the intrepid humans with their giant yeagers to stem the tide. Check it.  Great movie.  :)

Been playing minecraft modded 1.12 of late. Yeah,  i know 1.13 is (finally) out now.. But i wanted a chance to see some of the newer(well,  new to me anyway) mods for 1.12.. especially as I'm not sure when/if some of these mods are gunna update for 1.13... Considering ala changes. Hoping they do.  Not that i have anything against the straight 'vanilla' update..  The additions of the drowned and the phantom are fairly exciting..
But since i have been woefully slow on learning the the different aspects.. (Very slow).  Just getting started on enchanting and slowly getting brave enough to step tippytoe into the nether.) I figure i'll just take my time getting into the new update. Yeah... That's it... Just take my time.. Yeah.  Loving the building aspect though.  My only frown would be.. No changes to the window panes?? You like all those pixely gray streaks? I mean OK.. The 'preview' had a cruddy change to the cobble texture..  (And really,..  Still no stairs for the dorite?? Really?? Aww comeon, Mojang!! You put the purty white stuff in the game with the dorky-lookin patterned cobble... and andisite and..the pink granite! (That plainly goes with n a d a!). The least you could do is give it/them stairs, walls/fences and slabs like the cobble has! ) ... The changes suggested in the preview was a good one for the window glass. You could actually see through it! And here we are in1.13 and it's that grey pixelated glass texture again.  Ok,  fine..  So make that 'preview' resource pack work for the update then..  Ill live with the patterned cobble for a chance to actually see through the windows!
I reciently learned of the value for the mending and looting enchantments.. However did i live without them?!!  What a wonderful addition to my fishing rod and sword!! Now.. Will mending work on my sword?.. Will looting.. Or is it fortune.. work on my axes? So exciting!!

How goes my japanese self-study,  do i hear you ask?  Well...  Interresting you should ask... Kinda.   A little discouraged,  i think.  Feeling once again that I'm not -really- getting anywhere. Can't seem to remember stuff i feel i should have, by now. So backing away a bit... Again.  I have gone through this before,  and managed to recover my motivation,  so long as i don't go totally hands-off. (I got halted into reflection by a double negative sentence, which goes against the grain of -a lot of- growing up grammar learning.)

That is about it for now.. Think i need a cat nap... It's so ooo quiet here...

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Once again now, .. one and a two..

I'm trying to see change,  by changing my attitude.. Thoughts.  Still difficult to see,  at times,  but i am seeing it.. Little bit by little bit. Very subtle.. But yes.. Things are changing.. Maybe just my perception.. But that's OK... It's still change to me.

Trying to define the English lang still flusters me at times.. Today I'm caught on... In 2 weeks vs the week after next. (Or even the week after the next one) to me they are pretty much all the same thing. Just saying the week after the next one is a fancy long-winded way to say in 2 weeks. To me, a week is simply a block of time ... 7 days. It doesn't indicate a certain day or the start of the week,  .. It's just a 7 day block of time.  2 weeks is simply that. 2 of those 7 day blocks of time.  So when i hear someone say that something is happening the week after next.. I think,  ah,  it's in 2 weeks.
And i follow that thought with,  it's not rocket science after all. So,  it kind of boggles my mind when someone says they are not the same thing. How can that be true? Unless they think it means in 3 weeks.. Not this week, not next week,  but the week following that next week... -.- but that's just annoyingly splitting hairs.

Monday, February 26, 2018

its funny... ok, not really


you struggle and struggle to drag yourself out of the ratrace pit, you try so hard for months.. years even. scratching and clawing, then just when it seems you are at the bitter edge... something gives and you fall... straight back into the same exact dark place you just crawled out of. why does it always happen? is there really such a thing as cursed? am I really? why cannot I not see something different, some actual progress? why must I always fall straight back into the same exact space?

what must I do to avoid falling into the same spot? how do i change the outcome? what am I doing wrong?

I'm getting tired of seeing the same-o everytime. I need a change badly. I have given up sooo much already. I even tire of the sad state of me at times like this. it isn't much wonder I've grown rather bitter and cynacle. its the same thing again, only without my buddy... my poor sweet meow is gone.

and Where's my Silver Platter?!!!

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Minecraftin' it

not feeling much joy in living of late... I keep trying.. and well.. maybe all the fizz has left my pop since sir coo died. not much i can really do with and in my current rl position.... just lots of hoping things will straighten out. sure have been quite tired a lot and so cold! burrr!

Been playing a lot of minecraft.. pretty much as its all i can really play. (and now that ive said that.. my laptop is complaining. I also found some rather nice mods to help peaceful gaming stay interesting.


I discovered the concept of modpacks and peaceful setting.so... since I can't trust just what my computer will and will not do, and the packs are often huge, I went looking for the individual mods that suited me.. I wanted mods that would reflect my peaceful play intents. I wanted some interesting changes to the villages because the game is pretty lonely without the villages.. and the vanilla villagers (squidwards) don't seem to help an iota.I also wanted a larger inventory (its the packcat in me) and storage.
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Forge and Optifine are essential if you want a modded game. forge helps with adding mods into the game and optifine adds.. dynamic lighting!..as well as a bit less lag on the system. I tried to get several villager type mods to work (helpful villgers sadly woulnt loadand millenaire isn't even close to being updated for 1.12.2..) (Update: They did though, just before 1.13. That knocked forge for a loop-de-loopand threw the mods metaphoric 'tables' across the pasture through 1.13 and into 1.14)(forge, as i understand. finally updated to 1.13.. just in time for 1.14 update... and thats still before many of the good mods out there managed any sort of update... I guess Mojang is on a roll now!)
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but the only one that seems to function was MCA which at least gave those villagers a nice make-over and added guards to their communities.. which made an attempt to defend the villages at night. Can't really get them to do normal tasks though, without having to pay thm in gold.
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then i added Toroquest which had even better guards. but the lord questor had a whole lot to be desired...and I wasn't down with having to fight 36 skeletons, 30 spiders or somesuch... and if i didnt accept that one quest, that was it. no more quests outa him. Also liked and didn't like the town-to-town infleuence. Yu could gain rep in one town then go to another and the good rep was still with you.
I didn't care a whole lot for the town zones though... how am i supposed to grow you 64 potatoes if i have to lose rep for taking from your fields?.. even when i'm not in your town by a fair ways, having created my own plot to grow those required potatoes? -.-
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so i added Baileys Dailies.. which was better for a quest system... a bit glitchy.. but better. it added several peaceful quest choices everyday. it never would count my fish as i caught them... but she'd still accept them in person as a quest commpletion.
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pam's harvestcraft, rustic, and peaceful hunger. pam's harvestcraft was great!.. maybe a bit too much though... My goodness! there was a companion mod called something like cooking for dunderheads.. or something to that tune.. that offered a stove/fridge/storage for all that food! which was rather handy. they all worked together too! need bigger storage options tho.. pam's is a huge mod, with lots n lots n lots of food.
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Rustic was a bit like a mini version of pam's offering apple, olive and ironwood trees and a rather nice bee/honey set-up that went with the juice/oil making.
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peaceful hunger.. a nice tweek so being on peaceful didn't mean you were immune from getting hungry.
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I found a nifty, not often talked of 'backpack' mod created by someone called Brad16840. it seems pretty much just what i need... although i think the crafting recipe could use to be a little less... complicated.
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I tried to find a mod that would peacefully give me access to a few mob drops .. attained drops.. but the people who updated it made it so you have to hunt the mobs for the items to grow them. -.- not worthy at all. I can only hope to find something like that mod, only, made for peaceful playing in particular.
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Vein-miner was a rather handy mod...seemed somehow better on the trees then on the rock but.. who's complaining? it knocks out the ores and wood in the blink of an eye.
added along with this, would be fastleafdecay for amazingly quick deforestation .. then all youve got left to do is clean up the random ufo bits n bobs in the sky.. if any, and replant.
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finally found a version of minecolonies that will work past the set-down of the town hall glitch. Had to go to curse for it though, any other mod site seems to be content with the older non-working versons. then I encountered another game crashing bug.. i tried it twice, it ditched me both times...
the delivery person steals whet from the baker before they can bake it into bread. and will take whatever the baker did make, along with whatever is found in the citizen homes, and deliver all items to the warehouse... there to stay, while people starve and happiness tanks through the ground.
then, the moment the happiness score has been at 1 for a bit, the game crashes and I cannot get back in.

My advice to any one of the coders working on that mod, either give us an opportunity to adjust just what is taken by the delivery person, or, perhaps a way to turn off their pick-up visits to certain buildings would work. (there is no reason to be picking up the wheat at the bakers either) as it stands, considering the mess i have to go through to restart everything all over again, i'd rather feed the villagers and deliver stuff without the delivery person.

also, sad for me but i have yet to get the colony level above third.. nor have i quite figured out just what would make my villagers happy? (bot happiness to a 1.5 for adding barracks and 3 towers.. sigh) before something goes wrong and the game is corrupted. This last time, I was beset with an amazingly horrible lag and when I finally returned to the game... all the colony boxes were gone. Still have no real idea what caused it to happen...but i could say the lag was gone.. with the boxes and colonists.
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Animania and Better Agriculture.. very cool concept. I loved the different kinds of creatures.. the 3d forms are beautiful. only difficulties? keep yer rams in their own enclosure or things will very quickly and wildly get out of hand! and.. no way to dye sheep? awww! was sure a nice way to get the colors you needed then was having to color the White wool(only) individually.
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weather mods.. another wonderful idea considering the lackluster attempt by minecraft vanilla to make rain storms. and the dust storms.. wow!! But there was no love from me for the tornadoes n hurricanes throwing everything everywhere. Still I enjoyed it right up until my computer's complaints were finally heard and I took it down.
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Pam's get all the seeds. sweet idea... giving a random chance to gain potato, carrot, and melon seeds when clearing the brush.
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bird's nest, another very nice mod.. it's tiny, like the get-all-the-seeds one is. Gives a random chance to gain a few random things when chopping down trees. (I did try the tumbleweeds one, but the bouncing things were forever destroying gardens and planted fields!)
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unfortunately, birds nest isn't such a grand idea when paired up with minecolonies... the lumberjack has a love for picking them up, and clogging his inventory. So I thought to give another mod called loot bags a try.. well, its a good idea, i suppose.. if you can get the blasted things opened. thus far, every site i have so far visited but one, says nothing about this problem. one complained, same as my feelings, but the only answer anyone had was, right click to use the bag. which i have tried and tried to no avail.so, until i run across a working answer to the issue i'm faced with, this isn't a mod for me.

Dynamic Surroundings. interesting. ohh i like the water bubbles and the lava jets! very nice. the sound affects on switching tools, I liked not so much. (shiver) creepy and too loud. now if only you could cut the creep and get together with Ambient Sounds for background!
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Guess I'll give minecolonies one more chance... off to search for enough flat land to start once again! and No delivery person this time! Maybe I can manage to keep the folks happy for a bit longer.

I would love to play a questpack like peace of mind, .. but can find nothing small enough to work effectively on my computer... which is sad sad for me. there are small paks, but thus far, all but the one (which is huge!), nothing will work for peaceful.

edit: ... after several weeks of trying to get somewhere with minecolonies, 4 huge crashes that would forever glitch my game and having to start all over again...I have come to the conclusion that i cannot play minecraft of any size o ram... I suspect it has something to do with java se platform.. since its usually what crashes me.. my laptop already being sensitive on the whole boot-up idea as it is.. is not of much assurance.

so I am rather bummed. there just doesnt appear to be much of worth to stick with of late. too disapointed in my situation.. and the sorry state of an already sorry laptop...

I even tried watching another drama, got most of the way through, it was a good subject...even if it was a typical time-traveling doctor type. then i left it for a moments break/boredom... and never.. well.. haven't yet wanted.. to go back to it.

I watched a good movie.. wasn't too impressed with friends and family's 'eeehh' response though. lackluster doesn't become any of them. so.. guess its another of those subjects I am on my own with.

So don't let the nay-say-ers lead you astray.. I thought it a good movie... even if it did have a body count. it's name is "Bright". It stars Will Smith as a cop in a rough city where fantasy meets the gritty streets... much like alien nation the tv series did for the aliens... only with fairies, orcs, elves... and a magic-using, class of infernals looking to usher in the return of the evil dark lord.. and with them, comes the smell of the elusive long coveted wish-granting Wands that nearly everyone desires.. to the point of mass killing for even the hint of gaining one. And with this cop is a somewhat fumbling Orc partner and an elf, needing protection from all comers.. including other elves hellbent on retrieving the wand she holds dear.

(and just in case, you don't recall or didn't know of,Alien nation... here's a wiki on it. Link


Edit:

Found an old Mod being updated and I'm so happy about that!! It's a good mod, another really good idea.

Millénaire
now, the issues, are plenty, but it has some amazing potential. its a bit, like minecolonies, in the form of being a growing village, assisted by your gathering skills. that's.. pretty much where the resemblance ends tho. this french original is more a take on history.. with 4 different cultures, Mayan, Indian, Japanese, and byzantine. with each one pretty much speaking its own language. Rather than building anything yourself, you are more of a visiting trader, selling items each village needs to allow them to expand (such as wood, and iron). the more you help the village out, the better your reputation becomes, which will not only give you coin of the realm, but give you influence and access to some of their special items. (such as a village building wand)

Now all of this is great, and i'm loving how with each thing you sell to each village, the more buildings and villagers there are, and many of them have little quests to go here and there around the village, deliver food to a hungry soldier from his forgetful wife, solving mysteries, and seeing what you can do to improve their lives by a bit of land flattening or bridge-building or more resource -gathering.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be many coders to keep things moving along...which means your horrible, possibly game-breaking bug might not get got to for some time.

and too, I hesitate in reporting some of it, having gotten the back-side of banning before.
an example might be....

its something been reported before... back a few pages... but I can't help but think it might be related to the circumstances in which the bug happened. my first town, I got as many resources as I could and tried selling them... they didn't want everything i had, go figure... but eventually I think i got them up to max, or near max buildings(to go with their available space), but the baron still gave me a blank stare when I tried to speak with him. then I wandered on for a bit, eventually finding another village.. which turned into a cluster of little villages all in the same area... so I saved t-port at each one, intending to help them all... but, it seems they didn't entirely like each other and I started getting updates about this town disliking that one. so I got a bit more savoy on what else rep can do.. and tried to sooth ruffled feathers... only it backfired. no sooner then I praised my home to the villagers before leaving to gather more material, then they were gleefully at each others throats. I received a scrolling update saying the little village I just left raided my first village, now quite prosperous. in a near panic, i teleported back to the village and was told by the chief, that he had just raided my hometown! Trying to make the situation better, I went to the village board, intending to sell my wares.. and no one would meet me, curious as to why, I walked through the little village to find all the chatting townsfolk, 'stuck' in their homes. yees, all of them, even the chief, as I later found out.

now, I know my rep might have suffered a hit when I was unable to complete a quest because the little tyke wouldn't speak with me, to be able to give him the cake I had for him, I still had the cake in inventory and was hoping to give it a third.. or 4th try when I had returned. (that little boy was the first to get stuck really)

right after this incident, I was at the nearby village (literally over the pasture-field) and I saw several villagers from the 'stuck' village 'moving in'. huh, I thought. ok, maybe its the other merchant I have seen... so I didn't give it much thought, until arriving back at the stuck village, where everyone was still stuck in their homes.. including the villagers I just saw moving into the nearby village. so.. there's 2 of each of them now?

all of this and yet no mention of the horrendous lag i have been experiencing of late. everything slows to a jerking stop and go. including the pigs in the field... but not me... unless you count the instant reforming of blocks I just tried to break with a pick. (is this involving the newly updated forge perhaps? I might have to do a clean reinstall of minecraft for this one.)

gosh!