This is a question that people bring up every now and then. They ask if your mind was a physical setting, what would it be like? Here's what my mind is like:
My mind is a city. There is a suburb area to the side of the downtown, and it's all encircled by a tall steel gate. The center of the city has three massive buildings: a library, a cathedral, and observatory.
You know the armory scene from "The Matrix," where endless rows of guns appear around Neo and Morpheus? The library's bookshelves are like that. You just think about the desired topic and the shelves will shift around you until the right book is in front of you. This represents my intellect.
By the entrance of the library, where the check-out desk is, you would find a round tables with eight chairs. This is a place where scientists, philosophers, and theologians come to contemplate and discourse. You would find Jesus and Nietzsche talking about the meaning of life; Richard Dawkins and John Lennox debating the existence of God; Leibniz unraveling the intricacies of calculus, and so on. This represents my tendency to think about things, a lot.
The library is on the east side. A cathedral is the second building of the trio, on the north. It's massive, particularly the sanctuary. Enormously tall ceiling with spires, stained glass windows, and imagery. It's a Lutheran cathedral where services are being held nearly all day. Morning services, evening services, mid-day services. Prayers constantly being delivered up, and mixes of ancient hymns and modern worship songs are being played. If you were to step in there any time of day you'd probably see a service being held. This represents my faith.
On the west is an observatory. The pinnacle is a huge telescope which peers into the depths of space. Yet astronomy isn't the only thing happening here. There are also labs for chemistry, physics experiments, research on plant and animal life, and so on. It's an all-around scientific facility. This represents my interest in science.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
[TOU] Someone Make My Brain Work, Please...
This is the second post in a little post series I've come up with called "The Overworked Undergrad."
Holy moley, it's been a heck of a week for me. My brain feels exceptionally out of order, and I feel like I'm having trouble focusing on my schoolwork and sticking to deadlines. I really got a lot going on and I need to sort myself out, somehow. I'm really thinking of finding someone IRL who is good at handling this sort of stuff, and talking with them about it. There are a lot of facets with me right now that I need help with.
There is just so dang much work I have to do right now. I'm balancing five classes, five textbooks, and several assignments all thrown at me at once. I know I need to figure out some order to do them in. Usually it's find the ones which are the most urgent, and work on them first. Or if a particular assignment is due later than others but going to require a whole lot of time, do part of that one first. This is not difficult to comprehend, right? Well right now I'm a little rushed. I only yesterday bought the last of the textbooks I was going to need, and I also found out I needed it for an assignment due soon. Today I'm going to spend like another $60 dollars on chemistry lab equipment. Then I should finally be done with throwing money at the college mindlessly.
I don't feel like I'm using my time effectively. Ideally I would be the sort of person who wakes up, diddle around on the Internet for a bit, and then jump into action with my schoolwork. Unless my night's sleep wasn't very good, I tend to be able to focus and work well in the mornings. I want to be able to get started with something and focus solely on that. Then move to the next thing when I'm done with it, perhaps taking a short break in between. A half hour isn't a short break. That's goofing off, and it's detrimental for me. I know I have the ability to do that. It's been done before. I suppose what's stopping me is that I don't quite have the sense of urgency to get stuff done that I would have otherwise. Deadlines and due dates aren't feeling terribly concrete or immediate for me. I could probably push myself to persist despite that lack of urgency.
Oh yeah, I mentioned money earlier. This dude needs a job. The college had a part-time job fair a few days ago, and there were several interesting job positions open. And dangit, I need one of those. Part of me is really hesitant about going through with the process, because I've never worked while at university. When I went to community college I worked about 18 hours a week, and I still did exceptionally well in my classes. Then again, my classes were mostly online. So it doesn't seem like it should be bad if I'm working at most 15 hours a week, mainly weekends, to compensate with the much bigger school workload I have now. Still, now I gotta ask people to be references, find where half these places are and turn in stuff, and so on. I wanted to be on the web development team for the housing and dining, but I need to be available for at least 3 four-hour shifts during the weekdays, and my schedule would only allow for two. Technically I could do three, but that third slot is in a pretty nasty place until October.
And then there's the matter of my weight, and dieting. College food is not always the healthiest thing around. My weakness? It's really, really good. A lot of people talk crap about dining hall food but I think it's yummy. Therein lies my problem. I have a hard time deciding on the spot what stuff is going to be good for me, and what's not. Or how much of something I should eat. I also don't seem to have access to any scales for the purpose of weighing myself, so I don't have a clue what my weight is. I fear it might be going back up. The dorm has a weight room in the basement, but again finding time for that is a challenge.
On the topic of health, sleep and tiredness has been an issue. Don't get me wrong, I have an adequate amount of sleep. I typically get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. But for some reason it's not doing me very much good once I get into the afternoon. Maybe it's diet, or stress, or whatever, but I've been experiencing more fatigue than usual recently. It's basically one more hindrance stopping me from doing my best. Coffee helps, a little bit, but that could get expensive quickly.
You know what I think my problem really comes down to? I don't have a plan. I have a schedule, yes. You wouldn't believe how much I've planned out already. But I suppose I haven't taken the opportunity to really engage in it. I can do a lot of stuff this semester, but I need to get myself in gear. Maybe the best thing for me to do is start following my daily schedules - because believe me, I have the time to do what I need - but also have a sort of running to-do list, where I'm working on class stuff based upon how urgent it is to finish them. Having a schedule I followed more rigorously would let me be more on task, and would also go a way to helping me be less distracted by stuff.
My mind considers what it must have been like for university students and the other intellectuals of the Medieval Ages. They did not have access to knowledge and technology like I do today. On one hand, it made it easier a lot easier to be focused since, hey, they didn't have the Internet to have things more fun to do than schoolwork. If they did decide to slack off, it was usually with a book or other people. So I would wager they were inclined to be more productive than someone like myself. Plus university back in those days was crazy expensive. On the other hand, the less availability of information meant doing things took much longer. High level math, science, and philosophy must have been a real time sink. Yet you still end up with great thinkers like Aquinas, Augustine, Euclid, and so on. Why couldn't I have the kind of focus that they would have?
My mind considers what it must have been like for university students and the other intellectuals of the Medieval Ages. They did not have access to knowledge and technology like I do today. On one hand, it made it easier a lot easier to be focused since, hey, they didn't have the Internet to have things more fun to do than schoolwork. If they did decide to slack off, it was usually with a book or other people. So I would wager they were inclined to be more productive than someone like myself. Plus university back in those days was crazy expensive. On the other hand, the less availability of information meant doing things took much longer. High level math, science, and philosophy must have been a real time sink. Yet you still end up with great thinkers like Aquinas, Augustine, Euclid, and so on. Why couldn't I have the kind of focus that they would have?
Friday, August 30, 2013
The "College Experience"
I am still mostly of the opinion that college is a good investment for my life. What I learn here will help in my future career as a Web programmer. I've always known I'd go to college, and here I am in what should be my last year. But I'm also here because I want to have the fabled "college experience."
"The College Experience"
That phrase gets tossed about a lot, but there aren't too many definitions given for it. I'm sure it has slightly different meanings for everyone. For instance, partying isn't part of the experience I'm looking for. I don't really like parties. Too many people, too much noise.
The college experience I have in mind is something that has a lot of fun, but also can be very tiresome and draining. It's a balanced idea, really, and one I think is good to have.
For me the central theme of the college experience is independence. At my university I have access to people and resources that I would otherwise never have in my small hometown. It's here that I feel I have the most potential to really grow into the kind of person that I want to be. There are all sorts of subsets to this. Here are a few.
Education. This is, after all, the primary reason that universities exist. To give students educations that can help them to do better in the real world. I question why we need to know things like chemistry or discrete mathematics, but things like computer science or major-related classes are pretty good stuff. I suppose it helps to have a vast supply of knowledge even in things that aren't otherwise useful. I'm here to learn.
Time Management. Freedom is good to have, but it must be tempered with reason. Otherwise you might end up doing more harm than good to yourself. There are a lot of things that I want to do while I'm at college, and I'll probably be able to accomplish most, if not all, of them. In order to do that, time management is a must. I pride myself on being able to manage my time well. Once I get an idea of what I need to do, I can plot out times throughout the day for them, and more often than not I do exactly what I intend. At college, time management is vital if I'm going to get anything out of it besides just learning a bunch of stuff.
Being Social. I have scarce few friend in my hometown. Mainly because a lot of them have moved away, or lead very different lives than my own. A place like Independence isn't really one you want to stay in your whole life. There don't seem to be a lot of twenty-somethings back home. They're mostly at college. But here at university I am surrounded by thousands of peers. The floor I live on has something like 100 people. This is something I really need. I'm a self-proclaimed introvert but that doesn't mean I dislike the company of others. I actually find it important to have some social interaction. Without it I become bored, frustrated, and depressed. Fortunately, many people that live on my floor are friendly and welcoming. I'm probably going to lose touch with most of them, but in the meantime I enjoy their company. And they seem to enjoy mine.
Finding the Like-Minded. In other words, finding clubs and groups of people who see the world similarly to me. My main way of doing this has been attending Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ), a campus ministry. I have learned a lot intellectually and practically by being around other believers who clearly have a desire to serve God. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has a group on campus, and I want to get involved with it sometime this year. Being a computer science major, it would be very beneficial.
Finding Work. This semester, my college experience is all too close to the real deal. I'm gonna make it for this semester, but ever so barely. Money hasn't exactly fallen into my lap in this life, and now it is in my best interests if I find some kind of job to meet the costs of college. To this end I'm going to try and secure a part-time job for the semester. I won't be looking for many hours, maybe 12-15 per week at the most. After about a month working even minimum wage, I would be able to make ends meet. This will make time management all the more important, since I'll be balancing work with classes.
Weight Loss. This hasn't stopped, don't you worry. Finding access to a scale might be a challenge, and I still need to figure out a healthy eating plan for college. But I'm not giving up on this. I've succeeded too much to stop now.
Doing the Unplanned. Some of the most fun and worthwhile things I have done which have contributed to the college experience have been things I didn't plan on doing, but enjoyed anyway. It could have been something like watching a movie with friends, going bowling, swing dancing at a local bar, and spending entirely too long chatting with others when homework would have been the more productive choice. Variety is the spice of life; living solely by routine is lethal to the soul. I don't follow the adage of "doing something spontaneous everyday," but slowly I have become more comfortable and willing to try things I've never done before, experience new stuff, just for the excitement and adventure of it. Do these things become part of my daily life? Usually, no, but they sure do make life ever more worth living.
Preparing for the Future. In about a year I will be finishing college. From there it will be time to stake a claim in the development industry and get to work coding, well, whatever's required of me. I have spent several years preparing for this time - now it is nearly upon me. Right now my planning mainly entails finding a place where I can work using my degree. How many companies would plan to hire someone a year ahead of time, I do not know. This is one of those things that is going to take a while to figure out. Once I get that settled, the next obvious thing would be looking for some kind of apartment. At first I would most likely have roommates. I'm ambivalent about that. There also exists the near impossibility of me getting a car before I have a stable income. Might need to walk to work a lot for the first few months. I want to get involved in ministry, so perhaps I'll find a Lutheran church in whatever city I find myself in and see if they need someone who can act in a teacher role.
Finding Potential Relationships. Yes, I'm talking about dating. I came up with this one last because, well, it's never been very high on my list of things to do. There have been times when I didn't like being single, but for the most part I've been OK with it. I'm already pretty content with life, and I haven't normally felt a strong need to seek someone out. That said, I don't intend on being single forever. Marriage is something I foresee happening in my future. But in order to find a good relationship and possibly a good wife, I need to put myself out there. I generally move slow and cautiously in this area, as it's sort of my Achilles' heel. I'm not interested in jumping from relationship to relationship; rather I'm wanting to take the more level-headed route of going on a few dates with a person before committing to a relationship with them. Something I discovered a couple years ago is that I have commitment phobia - I get anxious about the idea of committing to things long-term. This includes relationships. It's part of the reason I would take the more cautious approach to dating, and if I ended up in a relationship, it's also something I would need to deal with. I imagine it could be partially alleviated by being with someone who I am highly compatible with.
"The College Experience"
That phrase gets tossed about a lot, but there aren't too many definitions given for it. I'm sure it has slightly different meanings for everyone. For instance, partying isn't part of the experience I'm looking for. I don't really like parties. Too many people, too much noise.
The college experience I have in mind is something that has a lot of fun, but also can be very tiresome and draining. It's a balanced idea, really, and one I think is good to have.
For me the central theme of the college experience is independence. At my university I have access to people and resources that I would otherwise never have in my small hometown. It's here that I feel I have the most potential to really grow into the kind of person that I want to be. There are all sorts of subsets to this. Here are a few.
Education. This is, after all, the primary reason that universities exist. To give students educations that can help them to do better in the real world. I question why we need to know things like chemistry or discrete mathematics, but things like computer science or major-related classes are pretty good stuff. I suppose it helps to have a vast supply of knowledge even in things that aren't otherwise useful. I'm here to learn.
Time Management. Freedom is good to have, but it must be tempered with reason. Otherwise you might end up doing more harm than good to yourself. There are a lot of things that I want to do while I'm at college, and I'll probably be able to accomplish most, if not all, of them. In order to do that, time management is a must. I pride myself on being able to manage my time well. Once I get an idea of what I need to do, I can plot out times throughout the day for them, and more often than not I do exactly what I intend. At college, time management is vital if I'm going to get anything out of it besides just learning a bunch of stuff.
Being Social. I have scarce few friend in my hometown. Mainly because a lot of them have moved away, or lead very different lives than my own. A place like Independence isn't really one you want to stay in your whole life. There don't seem to be a lot of twenty-somethings back home. They're mostly at college. But here at university I am surrounded by thousands of peers. The floor I live on has something like 100 people. This is something I really need. I'm a self-proclaimed introvert but that doesn't mean I dislike the company of others. I actually find it important to have some social interaction. Without it I become bored, frustrated, and depressed. Fortunately, many people that live on my floor are friendly and welcoming. I'm probably going to lose touch with most of them, but in the meantime I enjoy their company. And they seem to enjoy mine.
Finding the Like-Minded. In other words, finding clubs and groups of people who see the world similarly to me. My main way of doing this has been attending Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ), a campus ministry. I have learned a lot intellectually and practically by being around other believers who clearly have a desire to serve God. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has a group on campus, and I want to get involved with it sometime this year. Being a computer science major, it would be very beneficial.
Finding Work. This semester, my college experience is all too close to the real deal. I'm gonna make it for this semester, but ever so barely. Money hasn't exactly fallen into my lap in this life, and now it is in my best interests if I find some kind of job to meet the costs of college. To this end I'm going to try and secure a part-time job for the semester. I won't be looking for many hours, maybe 12-15 per week at the most. After about a month working even minimum wage, I would be able to make ends meet. This will make time management all the more important, since I'll be balancing work with classes.
Weight Loss. This hasn't stopped, don't you worry. Finding access to a scale might be a challenge, and I still need to figure out a healthy eating plan for college. But I'm not giving up on this. I've succeeded too much to stop now.
Doing the Unplanned. Some of the most fun and worthwhile things I have done which have contributed to the college experience have been things I didn't plan on doing, but enjoyed anyway. It could have been something like watching a movie with friends, going bowling, swing dancing at a local bar, and spending entirely too long chatting with others when homework would have been the more productive choice. Variety is the spice of life; living solely by routine is lethal to the soul. I don't follow the adage of "doing something spontaneous everyday," but slowly I have become more comfortable and willing to try things I've never done before, experience new stuff, just for the excitement and adventure of it. Do these things become part of my daily life? Usually, no, but they sure do make life ever more worth living.
Preparing for the Future. In about a year I will be finishing college. From there it will be time to stake a claim in the development industry and get to work coding, well, whatever's required of me. I have spent several years preparing for this time - now it is nearly upon me. Right now my planning mainly entails finding a place where I can work using my degree. How many companies would plan to hire someone a year ahead of time, I do not know. This is one of those things that is going to take a while to figure out. Once I get that settled, the next obvious thing would be looking for some kind of apartment. At first I would most likely have roommates. I'm ambivalent about that. There also exists the near impossibility of me getting a car before I have a stable income. Might need to walk to work a lot for the first few months. I want to get involved in ministry, so perhaps I'll find a Lutheran church in whatever city I find myself in and see if they need someone who can act in a teacher role.
Finding Potential Relationships. Yes, I'm talking about dating. I came up with this one last because, well, it's never been very high on my list of things to do. There have been times when I didn't like being single, but for the most part I've been OK with it. I'm already pretty content with life, and I haven't normally felt a strong need to seek someone out. That said, I don't intend on being single forever. Marriage is something I foresee happening in my future. But in order to find a good relationship and possibly a good wife, I need to put myself out there. I generally move slow and cautiously in this area, as it's sort of my Achilles' heel. I'm not interested in jumping from relationship to relationship; rather I'm wanting to take the more level-headed route of going on a few dates with a person before committing to a relationship with them. Something I discovered a couple years ago is that I have commitment phobia - I get anxious about the idea of committing to things long-term. This includes relationships. It's part of the reason I would take the more cautious approach to dating, and if I ended up in a relationship, it's also something I would need to deal with. I imagine it could be partially alleviated by being with someone who I am highly compatible with.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Check-In #13 (End of Summer)
Starting weight: 205 lbs.
Last week's weight: 183 lbs.
This week's weight: 185 lbs.
I am doing this on a Friday evening instead of tomorrow morning. I don't know if the college will have a scale I can use, and we're going to be on the road at 7:30 AM.
185. Oops. How anti-climatic but almost humorous my one bad week is right at the very end - there goes the whole "finishing strong" idea! So what happened? I didn't gorge myself on food, but I guess I didn't do enough physical activity to burn the calories. Totally failed to do any walking bar a few trips to the store or church.
I hereby end my summer of weight loss at 20 pounds. For some reason that doesn't feel like very much. Maybe it's due to seeing all those weight loss programs where people shed pounds like mad. But 20 is still a darn good number, indicative that I lost weight at a healthy rate of about 1.5 pounds a week. My clothes fit a lot better than when the summer began, and I don't have heartburn anymore. My formerly chiseled chin is still hiding, but not to the same degree. So that's something to be happy about.
When I get to college I will try to find a scale and start using that for my weekly check-ins. Perhaps tomorrow I will find one, and record my weight at 8 PM there. Depending on how the scale is calibrated, it might read a little different than the one I have here at home. Until the semester ends, I will use that weight to measure how much I lose. So if I'm 185 right now, and it says something really different, like 188, I will continue at 188. I won't say that I have only lost 17 pounds, though. I probably still lost about 20, but the scale is reading my weight a little differently due to calibration or some such.
As of tomorrow, the real challenge for losing weight begins. You see, most of my classes are in adjacent buildings, so I don't have to walk very far between them. Food is going to be bountifully provided, so I will need to limit that. I also need to make better choices. I have got to find free time to exercise, be it in my dorm building's weight room, or at the recreational center. Plans must be made. Prayers must be made. I have lost 20 pounds. Can I lose more?
Last week's weight: 183 lbs.
This week's weight: 185 lbs.
I am doing this on a Friday evening instead of tomorrow morning. I don't know if the college will have a scale I can use, and we're going to be on the road at 7:30 AM.
185. Oops. How anti-climatic but almost humorous my one bad week is right at the very end - there goes the whole "finishing strong" idea! So what happened? I didn't gorge myself on food, but I guess I didn't do enough physical activity to burn the calories. Totally failed to do any walking bar a few trips to the store or church.
I hereby end my summer of weight loss at 20 pounds. For some reason that doesn't feel like very much. Maybe it's due to seeing all those weight loss programs where people shed pounds like mad. But 20 is still a darn good number, indicative that I lost weight at a healthy rate of about 1.5 pounds a week. My clothes fit a lot better than when the summer began, and I don't have heartburn anymore. My formerly chiseled chin is still hiding, but not to the same degree. So that's something to be happy about.
When I get to college I will try to find a scale and start using that for my weekly check-ins. Perhaps tomorrow I will find one, and record my weight at 8 PM there. Depending on how the scale is calibrated, it might read a little different than the one I have here at home. Until the semester ends, I will use that weight to measure how much I lose. So if I'm 185 right now, and it says something really different, like 188, I will continue at 188. I won't say that I have only lost 17 pounds, though. I probably still lost about 20, but the scale is reading my weight a little differently due to calibration or some such.
As of tomorrow, the real challenge for losing weight begins. You see, most of my classes are in adjacent buildings, so I don't have to walk very far between them. Food is going to be bountifully provided, so I will need to limit that. I also need to make better choices. I have got to find free time to exercise, be it in my dorm building's weight room, or at the recreational center. Plans must be made. Prayers must be made. I have lost 20 pounds. Can I lose more?
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Check-In #12
Starting weight: 205 lbs.
Last week's weight: 184 lbs.
This week's weight: 183 lbs.
In the realm of weight loss for the past week, there's not much new to say. I am now one-third of the way toward my goal weight, which is cool.
22 pounds down. 43 to go.
Next Saturday I am heading back to K-State for my senior year of college. I will start my preparations Monday - let myself have a Sunday to relax. I anticipate hitting the road around noon. I want to do a sort of "Summer Loss Total" count that shows how much weight I lost since I began in May.
I want next week's weigh-in to be really good, so I do believe I will try to put in some extra effort to lose the weight. Nicer weather might finally be moving in so it might be time to get back to taking hourly walks. I finished working my part-time summer job so there needs to be some form of extended exercise. I will do those, and then my Summer's End Weight will be measured at 11 AM, August 24.
Last week's weight: 184 lbs.
This week's weight: 183 lbs.
In the realm of weight loss for the past week, there's not much new to say. I am now one-third of the way toward my goal weight, which is cool.
22 pounds down. 43 to go.
Next Saturday I am heading back to K-State for my senior year of college. I will start my preparations Monday - let myself have a Sunday to relax. I anticipate hitting the road around noon. I want to do a sort of "Summer Loss Total" count that shows how much weight I lost since I began in May.
I want next week's weigh-in to be really good, so I do believe I will try to put in some extra effort to lose the weight. Nicer weather might finally be moving in so it might be time to get back to taking hourly walks. I finished working my part-time summer job so there needs to be some form of extended exercise. I will do those, and then my Summer's End Weight will be measured at 11 AM, August 24.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Life After Minecraft
Two weeks ago I called it quits with Minecraft. A two-and-a-half year obsession came to its end. There were a lot of reasons that I stopped playing.
First off, there just wasn't anything for me to do anymore. While I may not have actually killed the Enderdragon, or conquered a Blaze spawner, the stuff was old news. I'd seen it many a time on YouTube - there really was nothing for me to discover. I didn't see a point in me going on with it anymore. Anything I'd try to do had already been done by other people dozens of times before. It's not like I would contribute something significant or unique.
Second, I've always had difficulty with the main point of the game: building stuff. Visual design is a weakness of mine, but it's the key thing in Minecraft. You know those impressive-looking houses and ships that people make? Yeah, I can't do that. Believe me, I've tried. I've had nearly three years to accomplish it, and I couldn't do it. There is something about visual details that elude me. It would probably take months or years of consistent practice for me to develop real skill, and I don't got the time for that. Which leads me to point three...
It takes forever to make anything notable. The mining, the tree chopping, the farming, the fighting. If you want to build something nice, it's going to require a long time collecting resources, planning stuff out, and then assembling the parts. But the thing is, when it comes to games I don't want something that's going to take days or weeks to do. I spend enough of my time looking at the long run. I'd like my entertainment to be more immediate. Unfortunately there's really no way of quickly making a house that doesn't look like crap.
Fourth, there are few people I can really share my builds with. That's the pity of single player worlds. You could make an awesome city, but you'll be the only one to walk around it. Nobody else can admire your work. Which to me sounds pretty pointless. While there are multiplayer servers, I can't easy access those when I'm at home. The main server I play on is populated with people who I know in real life, which is nice, but it's not terribly active and most of the time we're in different areas of the server map. Also, they can typically build stuff better than me.
By and large I've disengaged myself from the Minecraft culture. I don't watch nearly as many videos of it as I used to. I've unliked the Facebook pages for it that I used to follow. There are a couple other sites, too, but I've made it a point to not mess with those anymore.
In the absence of Minecraft, I found myself very bored and in need of something to entertain me. At the moment there are two games I am starting to get into. Parallel Kingdoms for Android is a MMORPG that uses Google Maps locations as the setting. It's kind of grindy and there is a mess ton to learn, but overall it's not bad. I like that I can see fellow players who live in my area (2 active ones). The other is Ikariam. It's basically OGame but with an ancient Greek theme, and also much more improved visuals. It, like Parallel Kingdoms, has something of a learning curve - which is unappealing but I should catch up soon enough.
Will I ever get back into Minecraft? Maybe. Perhaps something will inspire me. If not, it's alright.
First off, there just wasn't anything for me to do anymore. While I may not have actually killed the Enderdragon, or conquered a Blaze spawner, the stuff was old news. I'd seen it many a time on YouTube - there really was nothing for me to discover. I didn't see a point in me going on with it anymore. Anything I'd try to do had already been done by other people dozens of times before. It's not like I would contribute something significant or unique.
Second, I've always had difficulty with the main point of the game: building stuff. Visual design is a weakness of mine, but it's the key thing in Minecraft. You know those impressive-looking houses and ships that people make? Yeah, I can't do that. Believe me, I've tried. I've had nearly three years to accomplish it, and I couldn't do it. There is something about visual details that elude me. It would probably take months or years of consistent practice for me to develop real skill, and I don't got the time for that. Which leads me to point three...
It takes forever to make anything notable. The mining, the tree chopping, the farming, the fighting. If you want to build something nice, it's going to require a long time collecting resources, planning stuff out, and then assembling the parts. But the thing is, when it comes to games I don't want something that's going to take days or weeks to do. I spend enough of my time looking at the long run. I'd like my entertainment to be more immediate. Unfortunately there's really no way of quickly making a house that doesn't look like crap.
Fourth, there are few people I can really share my builds with. That's the pity of single player worlds. You could make an awesome city, but you'll be the only one to walk around it. Nobody else can admire your work. Which to me sounds pretty pointless. While there are multiplayer servers, I can't easy access those when I'm at home. The main server I play on is populated with people who I know in real life, which is nice, but it's not terribly active and most of the time we're in different areas of the server map. Also, they can typically build stuff better than me.
By and large I've disengaged myself from the Minecraft culture. I don't watch nearly as many videos of it as I used to. I've unliked the Facebook pages for it that I used to follow. There are a couple other sites, too, but I've made it a point to not mess with those anymore.
In the absence of Minecraft, I found myself very bored and in need of something to entertain me. At the moment there are two games I am starting to get into. Parallel Kingdoms for Android is a MMORPG that uses Google Maps locations as the setting. It's kind of grindy and there is a mess ton to learn, but overall it's not bad. I like that I can see fellow players who live in my area (2 active ones). The other is Ikariam. It's basically OGame but with an ancient Greek theme, and also much more improved visuals. It, like Parallel Kingdoms, has something of a learning curve - which is unappealing but I should catch up soon enough.
Will I ever get back into Minecraft? Maybe. Perhaps something will inspire me. If not, it's alright.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Check-In #11
Starting weight: 205 lbs.
Last week's weight: 187 lbs.
This week's weight: 184 lbs.
Very happy! I finally have made it past the 20 pound mark! What's more, I've lost 3 pounds in a single week. How I did that, I do not know. I think I will treat myself to an ice cream-based reward either tomorrow or Monday.
21 pounds down. 44 to go.
Last week's weight: 187 lbs.
This week's weight: 184 lbs.
Very happy! I finally have made it past the 20 pound mark! What's more, I've lost 3 pounds in a single week. How I did that, I do not know. I think I will treat myself to an ice cream-based reward either tomorrow or Monday.
21 pounds down. 44 to go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
