Minecraft is the insanely popular sanbox game from the swedish developer Mojang. It is currently running in a beta. But anyone can buy and download it for 25% off of the sale price when it comes out in November. Anyways enough with the boring description. You want to know how I fail at Minecraft.

I tried to avoid the hype but I couldn’t last, the numerous posts on Reddit and advice from people in real life caused me to fall for Minecraft’s creeper claws. I had quite a few problems with the game before it even started. My current computer is a Hp Mini 311. Admittedly, it’s a little under powered. It is one step above a netbook. So I can’t say I expect all games to run at one hundred frames per second. But I said to myself “look the art is all pixelated why would it need a good computer to play it on? That would be silly”. So I forged on entered my paypal details and hoped for the best. (Okay, I actually did check the system requirements but they were innacurate).

I downloaded the game. Logged in and was confronted with a screen to name my world. I quickly deleted the place holder “New World” and replace it with “Brave New World“. Why? Because I can. It takes a minute or two to get everything running and it drops me in the randomly generated game world. I look around and my frame rate drops to nearly zero. I back out of the game and type into google.

After some failed attempts and repeated google searches I found out how to mod the game and add some changes that would increase my frame rate. (if you need some help check out Optifine and one of the various mod loaders. Downloading optifine seemed to help a little bit and increased my framerates. My first of many obstacles was overcome. Now Minecraft was playable.

I booted up Minecraft and landed back in Brave New World. I looked around and said to myself  ”What am  I supposed to do? Where are all those cool creations that are found on youtube?”.  I alt-tabbed out of minecraft and started googling. I found out I need to cut down trees and build a house. Why did nobody tell me this? I started on my way, but was too slow to create a house before dark and I was killed by some exploding thing. Another lesson I learned the hard way. Things kill you in Minecraft. Again I rage quit.

The lure of the building blocks and /r/minecraft brought me back to Minecraft within minutes. I was determined to set everything right. Cue montage. I chopped down trees, I ate my lunch and built myself a wonderful cave home. Like a Minecrafting BOSS.

That’s all I really got done in my first day. I am now in an endless cycle of wishing I actually had enough resources to build something, and then getting lost in the unexplored abyss that is my minecraft world. Hopefully I will find some redstone dust in the next century. Until then I will keep cutting down trees and being killed by random creepers.

I love my new Kindle. It came into this world as a book-less blank slate on December 25, 2010. Every since then, my life has changed. My Kindle is thin, sleek, simple, and dare I say sexy. Over the past couple of weeks I have read Stephen King’s “Long Walk”, Karl Marlantes’ “Matterhorn”, and A.J. Jacobs’ “Living Biblically” (plus some others, but that’s besides the point). The Kindle is the ultimate gadget for someone who has over two bookshelves overflowing with books (myself). 

The Advantages:

There are many reasons why the Kindle beats regular books. First, I do not have to buy another bookshelf. I have already saved myself a couple hundred dollars there. Second, I don’t have to keep five books on my nightstand all of the time. Seriously, I have five books lying there right now. Books, I wouldn’t have to see if I had all of them on Kindle. Also, I save money by buying ebooks. Ebooks generally are two or three dollars less than their paperback counterparts, and don’t even get me started on their price compared to hardcover books. Secondly, I don’t have to waste my time and energy trekking out to Borders every other weekend. I am receiving books in less than sixty seconds!

The Disadvantages:

One disadvantage is that now that Amazon has my credit card I am more likely to spend money. Also, not all books are available. There are always going to be more books available as books and not as Kindle ebook (for a long time anyways). Secondly, there is no feeling of accomplishment. It is harder to visualize how close the end is. And lastly, there no feeling of the paper crinkling beneath your fingers.

I guess that’s it. The kindle is amazing for people who travel a lot, and don’t have the space for hundreds of books in their home. But it’s not for the weak of heart, and those who enjoy books. 

Fast, yet expensive.

1000 Pages in 5! Days

I officially finished under the dome at 4:33pm today. I conquered the beast at a breakneck pace a little over 200 pages per day.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, I was however, totally unprepared for it. Overall I found the book very interesting and a great summer read. Like all of Stephen King’s word it was a page turner that never backed down. I will definitely recommend it to anyone. It is a long book and is on the expensive side, don’t even considering trying to read it if you haven’t read other Stephen King novels.

I still can’t believe I finished it so quickly.

I will admit I am neither from Maine nor a fan or ginger. But I did buy a bottle of Ginger brew at summer camp. I have to admit I was surprised the second I brought the bottle to my mouth. I was expecting a Canada Dry taste like ginger ale. Oh no this was real ginger. It was absolutely horrible. It had like a spicy aftertaste. It made my wish I hadn’t wasted my two dollars. I don’t know about you but ginger does nothing for me as a refreshment. Luckily there was someone who did like the taste of the horrible drink. It was so bad I just gave him the rest of the bottle. Maybe Ginger Brew is an acquired taste. I sure hope so, but I will never try it again.

As of now, Google Reader is one of the few useful quality RSS feed readers around. I would say that if you still use RSS you probably use Google Reader. The only problem is that GReader is ugly. Its crowded and dull layout is calling to be spruced up.

First instead of staying with Google Reader I thought about changing to a desktop program. Honestly, no programs I tried worked well enough to top the big G. They were either to slow or just plain unusable. Then I stumbled upon one of the coolest “hacks” ever.

Helveltireader is a simple reskinning of Google Reader. From the Helveltireader website you can install an extension that automagically changes the CSS file and V’iola. You are ready to go. Helveltireader streamlines the normal Google Reader interface and eliminated the unnecessary sharing features and buttons. I think Helveltireader is most likely something you will either love or hate. I am in the love camp. Because it makes Google Reader less clunky and more streamlined.

Another cool utility I want to get the word out about is PrtScr. PrtScr is an awesome screen capturing tool. It is a huge improvement over just pressing the “prt sc” button on your keyboard and importing the image into MsPaint. PrtScr automatically takes the picture and saves it wherever you want when invoked by a keyboard shortcut. PrtScr is so useful that it has even earned itself a hotkey button in my AHK script. I would definitely check it out if you are a blogger on a Windows system and need a good screen clipping tool.

Hey guys TechCrunch.Tv just launched. TechcrunchTv is Techcrunch’s new Tv “station” that is always broadcasting either old content or live streams. TTV hosts all things tech from entrepreneurs to CEOs and everything else. TTV takes a different approach to online video instead of on demand media like Hulu it is always broadcasting like a real Tv station. So far as I have been watching this for about 15 minutes there has been a lot of cool interviews and videos.

I especially like their cool interview with FourSquare’s CEO Dennis Crowley. Then they switched to a video talking about how the internet is affecting our brains. If anything the variety and the focus of TTV are the things that make it such a great site. I also like how they produce new content every day. Not just weekly or monthly like a podcast. Go check it out at Techcrunch.tv on your favorite browser!

We got a Scout Camp on the Chesapeake, a camp that’s really worth your while. We’ve seen a dozen other Scouting camps, but Rodney’s got them beat a mile or two or three. You better come to Rodney’s camp today; put on your shorts and come prepared to stay. When Scouting time rolls round again, you’ll say, again, you’ll say, Rodney’s the place for me! Yeaaaaaaaaaa Rodney! ~The Rodney Song

Camp Rodney is a Boy Scout camp that is located on the Chesapeake Bay on the DelMarVa peninsula. It has been around for over a 85 years and is still kicking. I have just come home from my fourth consecutive year at Rodney and I can’t wait for my fifth. Located on around 400 acres of land right next to the bay, RSR has thing to do for everyone and anyone. If you can’t find a merit badge to sign up for you aren’t trying hard enough. From Nature to Handicraft, Scoutcraft and everything in between. There are huyndreds of things to do. Even if you are a leader you won’t be left twiddling your thumbs with exciting oppurtunities such as Kayaking BSA, Leader training, and if you want to you can even stay in on interesting merit badges. I know I always have tons of fun at Rodney Scout Reservation. I have to tell you that the staff are top-notch. No staff is more enthusiastic, fun, and upbeat than the Rodney staff.

From opening camp fire to the OA call outs at the closing ceremony there is never a dull moment. Troops can be located anywhere and still come to scout camp at Rodney. Troops from all over the East Coast come to Rodney, one troop even came from Texas. I guess everything is bigger in Texas except Scout Camps. Really Rodney is such a great place, no I am not getting paid by them to write this. It is just hard to say anything bad about the place. I really reccomend checking RSR out and seeing it if is the right place for you and your troop.

The Box is a somewhat unknown movie that was released in 2009. Its plot literally comes right out of an old episode of “The Twilight Zone”. The Box is a suspenseful story of Norma(Cameron Diaz) & Arthur Lewis who receive a mysterious wooden box that has an ominous red button on top. The Box has a note attached to it saying to wait for Mr. Steward, who comes later that day and tells them the deal.

If the couple pushes the red button they receive one million dollars and a stranger will die. If they don’t push the button they get one-hundred dollars and no one will die. Norma after hours of deliberation suddenly pushes the button. I don’t want to give away what happens next but it is something that you will never see coming.

The Box is an interesting albeit kind of weird take on how people always put their own well-being before others.I thought the movie could have been much better. It failed to produce a suspenseful atmosphere as the movie went along its course.

Also about one fourth into the movie it stopped making sense. People start having random nose bleeds and start following Norma and Arthur around. Apparently Mr. Steward also owns the government and is putting the human race through a test of morality.

Ultimately this movie fails to be suspenseful but proved interesting if you look at it as a commentary on human nature. The movie wasn’t what I was expecting when I read the Netflix summmary, it could have been a lot better but then it could have been worse. I am not sure what to say other than you will either find the story insanely stupid or somewhat interesting depending on how you read into it.