News: It's Funny 'Cause It's True

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Minecraft: The Spoon Biome

After a few prototypes, I finally have a 3-D perler bead sheep that is pretty accurate to the proportions and is structurally stable.



I'm not sure why Spoon is so worried. Maybe he's afraid he's going to morph from chunky into blocky.

Minecraft: Kids React

These are cute and funny.





I <3 Morgan. "Oh my god! How did you make the farting cat?" She's a major drama queen, but the bit in the second video where she's wondering if she'll need to build a roof to her shelter... that's how a Minecrafter thinks :)

Minecraft: MineCon!

One of the myriad munchkins in attendance at the only event where wearing a cardboard box on one's head makes sense.

I just arrived back from MineCon in Vegas!

I will admit, I didn't go to many of the special events. Relaxing/recovering from work was primary, while waiting in lots of lines with a surprisingly large number of hyperactive adolescents was not high on my list of priorities.

And there were a lot of kids, although overall the attendee demographics definitely favored males in their teens and 20s. Geeky males. Most of the women my age were accompanying an adolescent son (although that doesn't mean the mother doesn't play, too; the game apparently has a large family fan-base.)

There I was, minding my own business, when I suddenly heard a SSssssss sound coming from right behind me!

MineCon marks the full release of Minecraft 1.0.0. After Notch pulled the lever and zillions of kids raced to... where, exactly? I strolled up to my room and met all kinds of glorious creatures like Magma Cubes and Blazes and... yeah, that was about it. I'm too wimpy to visit The End yet.

I also partook of some other typical Vegas pursuits, although in relative moderation: some slots, the buffet, Bloody Marys for brunch... The last night, I was at the sushi bar in Mandalay Bay, having a discussion with the man sitting next to me. He said that there were about 5000 people around attending a conference for a video game. I said I was one of them. He seemed grateful that there was an adult there who could try to explain the game and its appeal with a vocabulary that consisted of more than Star Trek references spliced together with "like." (I can apparently "pass" for "normal" if I'm careful.) Another group of adults had stopped me earlier, seeing my badge, and asked me the same thing.

Me knitting at the Curse Minecraft Forums photo booth!

Anyway, it was a nice trip, a generally pleasant crowd. Mandalay Bay was an interesting place to stay, as I had never done the big resort thing before.

News: Stupid and Punishment

• Yup, we're talking Florida here:
  
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• I bet this cat is also from Florida:
  
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• Amazingly, not Florida, but close; Georgia:
  
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• ...And some more classic Southern stupidity:
  
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• But this is from Canada!
  
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• An infographic on the punishment of various crimes in societies throughout history
• People who get computer malware are also more likely to get mugged in "meatspace."

Other: Buh-bye, Shared Items

Since Google now wants you to share stories via Google+ instead of the "shared items" system I'd been using in Google Reader, I can't add new stuff to my shared Reader list anymore. So, I'm retiring the widget on the side of the blog. Here's the link to stuff I had "shared" before the change.

Air Journal: Duct Tape and Glitter Glue

I finally got a replacement for the carry-on size suitcase I'd had for the better part of two decades. I just didn't feel safe putting my stuff in something being held together by duct tape and glitter glue:



The glitter glue has mostly rubbed off, but it used to be much brighter. I will always smile when I think of the first time I flew out to visit my parents after I applied it. My mother was appalled. “Mom, you’ve never tried to find a black suitcase in LAX baggage claim. Deal with it.”

Good times.

Buh-bye, old suitcase!

Minecraft: Young Frankencreeper

Minecraft: Look Behind You, Dip!

Minecraft: Perler Bead Madness!

I have a new craft addiction: perler beads.

I missed perler bead fun when I was a kid, but when I saw these instructions for making a 3-D perler bead creeper, I had to try. I finished one today!



And because I have a bunch of other colors since I bought one of those buckets, I'm figuring out how to make a Minecraft sheep:

Spoonerisms: How I Know Autumn Has Arrived

1. I wake up wedged in by cats.

2. Feline geopolitical tensions are escalating because both sides have re-entered the DMZ¹.

3. Dipity has started napping in the electric lap again.

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¹ My bed, which makes me the 38th parallel.