Minecraftventures, Part Something (and also some other stuff)

I've been on fall break this week. 'S been nice, having time to relax and do whatever instead of the usual routine of school. I also got the opportunity to see a couple friends from high school, which was fantastic. Had lunch with one on Friday, and today another came over for some fun times on Halo: Reach. I'll admit that I'm not very excited to be going back to school tomorrow, but it'll only be two weeks and then finals before winter break. I think I can handle it.

Anyways, I've also been playing quite a bit of Minecraft this week. The multiplayer mode was recently updated so monsters spawn at night, but we've currently got them disabled since they're a tad bit buggy. My major project this week was a tower based off of the Seattle Space Needle, and I just finished it earlier today. Here's some screenshots of it (Click for pretty large versions!):

A nighttime shot. The clouds actually pass right below the top area.

And a requisite sunrise shot.

According to Minecraft's dimensions of each block being 1 cubic meter, the tower stands just over 50 meters tall (the actual Space Needle is 184m tall) and is just 3 blocks below the vertical limit for building (hence why I wasn't able to add the top antenna-needle bit). A few modifications were also made to make it more suitable for building: the number of "legs" was increased from three to four (since I have no idea how to make an equilateral triangle in Minecraft) and the color scheme was modified quite a bit, since the only white blocks that I'm aware of are sand and cloth - sand being difficult to use since it won't stay up in the air if it isn't supported underneath by another block, and cloth being frustratingly difficult to obtain. Alternatively I could have used natural stone blocks, but you have to stick cobblestone in a furnace for a while to get those and it would have been rather time-consuming.

Overall I'm quite satisfied with the final result, though a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to properly build the top antenna and that the color scheme is a tad bit... patchy? I've already begun to plan my next construction project, which will either be a castle of some type or some sort of circular, gothic-esque tower.

Rumors of my activity are greatly exaggerated

Aaaaand as promised, here's the Real Life Update post. RLU. Acronyms.

Well, let's see. The latest round of college exams is here and, uh, mostly over. I've got an MCDB exam tomorrow evening, but as a friend pointed out, they drop your lowest score. And since I've gotten 90s on the first two... well, motivation is a tad bit low. I took a chemistry exam last Thursday. The exam was supposed to take about an hour and a half. I finished in half an hour. I'm reminded of the time in freshman math when I finished a quiz before the teacher had finished handing them out to the rest of the class. The score comes back tomorrow. I hate to sound cocky, but I'm not too worried. I've never really had an issue with taking exams.

On a less exam-y note, I recently found out that I need to spend about $200 of "Munch Money" that came with my meal plan on food by the end of the semester, or else it will expire. So, I've been buying beverages and gelato like a madman. I think I went out for gelato with friends twice last week. We're planning to go again after the exam tomorrow night. And I've still got $180 left. Gah. Diabetes, here we come? (We actually calculated it, and I could have purchased 40 scoops of gelato with $200)

The last big thing that's happened is that I got a job working as a lab assistant for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has a lab just by campus (I may have mentioned this previously. I do not recall.). Mostly I'm doing data crunching, though some calibration-stuff with the instrument will happen eventually. It can be a bit boring - I think if I had been involved with actually taking the data, even to a small degree, it would be a bit more engaging and, eh, relevant. Nonetheless, it's fairly interesting and I'll stick with it for now. I'm interested in getting a spot at my chemistry professor's lab - he's a Nobel Laureate, Thomas Cech, and his research is very interesting to me.

I've got next week off for fall break and I'm rather excited. Not to be home - I've been heading home most every weekend (because I'm borderline antisocial, alright?) - but to see friends that I haven't seen in a long time. I'm also thinking about visiting my high school when I get back home Friday. Plans, plans.