Blaugust 2022 Day 15

Since this is creator appreciation week, I was going to talk about some more of the blogs that I’ve been reading from Blaugust, but I ran into some issues pulling down the images, and then I had a dramatic experience in Minecraft so I figured that would be a better focus for today.

The Rundown

• Lost Podcasts

Today was going along well until I got to work. Somehow when I picked up my headset after my run, I grabbed the wrong one. The one I did get had only 60 minutes of power left, and I went through that…well, in an hour. No more podcasts for me. No more audiobooks. I was in the middle of episode 77 of The Gaming Persona podcast, and Dr. Gameology was discussing how playing video games have been shown NOT to reduce wellbeing. It was a cool discussion, but I got cut off when my headset battery died – I’ll have to pick up the rest tomorrow.

• Noob Torch

Ok, so I am new to Minecraft, but there are plenty of people who are just starting out or who have never played. I know enough that I need to craft torches so that I can explore caves or light up areas where I don’t want mobs to spawn. My first day in Minecraft at least allowed me to grab some wood, and I dug out a little cave in a hill. That gave me a decent start, but somehow, I turned all my wood (other than the door, a couple of tools, and the crafting table) into buttons. A lot of good buttons are gonna do me during my first night in a dark cave. Tomorrow I gotta chop some more wood and make some torches, so things don’t get so dark in my cave.

• Running 3.37mi

Another run to add to my streak today, and I felt pretty good afterward. While I felt good, I did go slower than I have recently, and I think the fact that I had a rough night sleeping might have contributed to the slowdown. With 3+ miles, I was able to reach my goal of 10k steps and surpass it by a long shot. Getting this run done in the morning really sets things moving in the right direction and gets my day started well.

First Death in Minecraft

Well…I did not last long in Minecraft. I suppose even though I did research and was trying to be careful, I was not prepared enough for the dangers I would encounter. And they say you die a lot in Elden Ring…

Actually, I got stuck in a wall.

Hmm… I’m not even sure how it happened, but I had made it through the first night – even without torches. The night seemed to last forever, and I later figured out that it was 2 nights. Apparently, I stayed in my cave extra time because there was a thunderstorm. It was cool with lightning and rain, but I could not tell if it was daytime or night when I looked outside my door.

I suppose it really didn’t matter since the mobs were still out there wandering around – do they get extra opportunities to cruise around whenever the sun doesn’t come out?

In any case, I made it through the long night and was able to go out and chop some more wood the next day.

I had to look up how to make a torch and figured the best way to get charcoal was to build a furnace and use more wood. Charcoal, charcoal, charcoal, and I made plenty of sticks, so torches were easy once I got the wood.

With torches in hand, I was able to light up my cave and start exploring a bit further.

While exploring, I also was watching some videos about starting in the game, and I saw that one of my next items should be a bed. Fortunately, there were a few sheep around near my cave.

My wood ax was not the best weapon, but the sheep were no match for it. Whack, whack, whack, and I had plenty of wool to make a bed…back to the crafting table. Bed made.

Now how to place the bed? I selected it in my inventory and click…nothing…click click…nothing. Hmm – I’m playing on the iPad, so I’m not really sure I watched a video on how to play the mobile version, but I figured I should be able to click on a space to drop the bed.

Click…click…click…oops?

What’s going on here? It seems like I am looking at dirt right in front of my face. Click…click…click…nothing.

What’s this? A countdown? Click…click…click…ut oh!

I’m dead.

Somehow I got stuck in the wall. So much for playing on Novice level.

The good news – I guess – is that I spawned close by, and it was daytime, so I walked back to my cave, and there was my bed placed where I wanted it.

I gotta figure out the user interface before I kill myself again, but like my enjoyable time in WURM Online, I found that dying is a way to learn faster.

It’s a Wrap

The moral of the story is to learn the interface and controls before you start playing a game where you can die. Minecraft was pretty forgiving in my death since my stuff was dropped where I died, but I still could have avoided death if I had a better understanding of how to control my character.

In any case, I’m looking forward to making the rest of today a good one, and I hope you all have a great day.

Ramble 201 | Falcon 9 | 2022.147 | Blaugust 2022 Day 15