Be Good, Have Fun

Launch Nazis into the sun!

I'm mostly active on Twitter these days...

...since the election there's just been non-stop awfulness going on.

Check out my Twitter at XydexxUnicorn. I try to post positive stuff when I can but ye gods there's so much awful stuff going on right now.

Kitchen Renovations

Our kitchen renovations are underway! They've removed our old countertops and installed the new granite ones. Now they're working on installing our new sink. We don't have the painting scheduled yet, but that will be done before Thanksgiving. Strudel is currently curled up behind me in my chair, hiding in my office from the noise and banging around by our contractors. I built him a little fort out of cardboard boxes to hide in, but unfortunately my office is directly above the kitchen and, by extension, all the noise. So hiding behind me is the only place he feels safe.

Last updated: October 31, 2015

Xydexx_ebooks are coming!

Back in 2012 when Horse_ebooks was a thing on Twitter, I came up with my own version of it: Xydexx_ebooks. It's an account with titles of books that don't exist, but should. The account was last updated in 2013, but I realized with such great titles as Benjamin Franklin Undressed and The Eel Drinking Game these are books that probably do need to exist.

I'm thinking of making an actual project of it: Create these e-books and post them online. There's also going to be a mail art tie-in: I'm actually creating the books, and that means actually writing the books, and the covers of the books will end up as postcards.

They don't need to be particularly good or make sense, they just need to exist.

Centralia, PA - Then & Now

Centralia, Pennsylvania - Then and Now

Mail Art and 273 Broadway

I've been doing a lot of research on 273 Broadway in New York City. This was oddly inspired by an antique medicine bottle on display at the Alexandria Historical Society. I saw the address and wondered: "What's there now?" and started to do research. It was all downhill from there. I now know more than I ever wanted to about that block.

I've also been working on another batch of mail art postcards to send out. They're quite nice and you can see some of the ones I've sent previously at WWW.XYDEXX.COM.

You've Got Questions, I've Got Answers.

I've done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide.

Minecraft 1.7.2 Came Out!

I'm busy creating a new village in a new seed in 1.7.2. So much more stuff in the latest update!

Creating a Minecraft Village, Phase 3: Transportation

As mentioned previously, mine as much iron ore as you can. This can take a while. Once you've got a good supply of rail, build a rail line to your new village. Make it as direct as possible, and keep some spare rail on hand for when monsters (creepers, nethermen, &c.) destroy sections of your track. Hopefully that won't happen too often.

Rail Line in the Desert. A rail line to transport villagers to a new village.

You may also want to take the opportunity to improve your village with additional buildings. The more doors there are in your new village, the greater the total potential population will be. It may also be worthwhile to add whatever other necessities you need (i.e., food, trees) if you're going to be working the area for a while, so you can avoid frequent trips back and forth to the old village.

Additional Village Improvements. In addition to the buildings, a small farm and tree farm have been added for convenience.

Personally, I like the have a wide variety of buildings in my villages, but it doesn't matter what you build as long as there are plenty of doors.

View of the New Village. Having a variety of buildings gives your village character.

Once you're satisfied with the way your new village is set up, it's time to move the villagers in.

Back: Creating a Minecraft Village, Phase 2

Xydexx Squeakypony

Creating a Minecraft Village, Phase 2: Stabilization & Preparation

In Phase 2 of building a new Minecraft village, we focus on stabilization of the existing village and preparing the site for the new village.

As I mentioned previously, it's good practice to make improvements to your existing village and stabilize your villager population before attempting to move them elsewhere. This includes improving the lighting and adding doors to your buildings. I like to regrade and make proper cobblestone roads to avoid the awkward Mario-Brothers jumping to get around the village.

Construct a mine nearby (but not too close, or your villagers will wander down into it and it will be difficult to get them out). Dig out as much coal and iron ore as you can find. You'll be needing it later.

Minecraft Village Improvements. Adding roads, lighting, and a breeding hut will help your NPC village thrive.

You may want to construct a breeding hut for your villagers. I built a 5x5 square cobblestone building with 2 doors on each side (for a total of 8 doors), which will hopefully turn the population around as I was down to 2 villagers at this point. 

Villager breeding depends on how many doors the village has. Minecraft determines what a valid door is by examining 5 blocks in front and in back of the door and calculating how many blocks are hit by sunlight during the day. If the number of "outside" blocks is different than "inside" blocks, it is a valid door. At least that's my understanding of it.

The villager population will increase to a maximum of 0.35 villagers per door. After 21 doors and 10 villagers, an iron golem may appear.

Once you've stabilized your village, it's time to prepare the new village site. I've staked out a 41x41 plot of land for my village (20 blocks in every direction from the center) and clearcut all the trees within that area. You can measure out coordinates by toggling stats with the F3 key. I built another breeding hut in the center of my new village. This is where my imported vilagers will go.

Preparing the New NPC Village Site. The new village will extend 20 blocks in each direction from town center.

Once you've built the breeding hut in the new village, stock up on torches and smelt the iron ore you've collected into iron bars—you'll need it for building rail and a minecart to export villagers to their new home.

Back: Creating a Minecraft Village, Phase 1
Next: Creating a Minecraft Village, Phase 3

Xydexx Squeakypony

Creating a Minecraft Village, Phase 1: Project Assessment

The technical details:
Seed name: xydexx-squeakypony (466125152) w/large biomes option

The first phase of building a Minecraft village is assessing what you have to work with. Fortunately, there's a village a mere cat's throw away from spawn at 16, -144. It's a desert village, so a bit hard to see on the Minutor screenshot below, but it has 5 small houses, 2 large houses, a church, a well, 6 farms, and a lamp post. There are an adequate number of villagers wandering about. The roads in town (such as they are) are a mess. I'm probably going to improve the infrastructure and stabilize the town before proceeding. I've claimed the large house at the north end of the village as my base of operations for the moment.

Minecraft Village Assessment. Look at what you have to work with first.

Next, determine where you want your new village to be. I'll be building my new village in the swampland just north of the desert at 25, -400.

Minecraft Proposed Village Site. Just north of the desert village.

As a rule of thumb, I build the center of my villages at least 100 blocks away from the center of an existing village, and with the following guideline: No buildings more than 20 blocks in all directions from the center of the village. This is because villagers will wander up to 32 blocks from the center of the village (or perhaps from the last door they entered?¹) and I don't want to risk my village depopulating. That gives me plenty of buffer space to work with.

More updates once I get my desert village improved. It's generally good practice to improve the infrastructure of your village (i.e., remove hazards like cactus so villagers don't walk into them, fence off any ravines, ensure the buildings are well-lit outside and inside, &c.).

Actually, before I do any of that, I'm going to need to build a bed. Which means:
* Find iron ore
* Build a furnace to smelt the iron ore
* Make shears
* Shear sheep for wool (fortunately there's a flock nearby)
* Build a bed

Next: Creating a Minecraft Village, Phase 2

Xydexx Squeakypony

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¹ On the server, I've noticed unusual villager behavior in that the village center seemed to "shift" over time, with villagers swarming toward one side of the village and leaving the other side completely deserted.

Minecraft

Repurposing this for my Minecraft ramblings, now that I've got my Minecraft tools like Minutor and Amidst loaded on this machine.

Coming soon: Tutorial on how to export villagers to create an NPC village in Minecraft.

Xydexx Squeakypony

So Many Castles, So Little Time

So many castles, so little time...

I think I'll move to Germany. -:)

—Xydexx

How To Delete Drama From Your Life (Continued)

Continued from previous post...

6. Burn your television. How many hours did you watch last week?

I don't really agree with this one because it misses the point. TV isn't evil; it's just a time-waster. You could say that about any leisure activity—watching movies, playing video games, surfing the internet. The message to take away from this one is about getting your priorities straight, not how bad TV supposedly is. And this is coming from someone who pretty much doesn't watch any TV at all. (I do, however, watch movies on NetFlix.)

7. Create a network of healing. What are the characteristics of the most supportive possible environment you can think of?

Totally agreeing with the quote "In order to remove drama from your life, you have to remove those that thrive on it." I've made it a matter of policy in recent years to avoid the dramamongers who thrive on lulz.

8. Enlist your inner governor. Are you treating each experience you experience as a test of what you believe?

I am still perfecting the art of treating things like a six hour lecture on the Lifecycle of Highway Signage, but at this juncture it's safe to say I get a lot less bent out of shape about things than my critics do.

9. Reinvest your misfortune. What would you have to learn from this mistake to make it no longer a mistake?

Adopt, adapt, and improve. I'm all about being flexible and learning from my mistakes.

—Xydexx

How To Delete Drama From Your Life

Scott Ginsberg has an entry on his blog on How To Delete Drama From Your Life, which is good reading, and (mostly) good advice on how to delete drama. Because drama is stupid and who needs it, y'know?

1. When it doubt, write it out. How do you let all of your noises out?

Indeed, letting idiots control what you say and bottling it all up inside is a Bad Thing. I let my noises out in this blog, which I know pretty much nobody reads.

2. Impose your own order on chaos. Do you refuse to be conquered?

My mantra though troubled times is Mom's advice, "This too shall pass." I'm always looking for the silver lining.

3. There are no emergencies. Have you deleted these clowns from your life yet?

Pretty much this. In recent years I've made it a point to distance myself from the Big Drama crowd and those who thrive on it.

4. Intentionally step out of the current. How do you talk to yourself when you experience stress?

I already walk away from drama and drop out of arguments so often that the dramamongers have coined a term for it: "Pulling a Xydexx." I try to avoid arguing with idiots on the internet and go ride my weirdo bike around. There's always room for improvement, though. Some things really aren't worth the energy.

5. Self-importance is self-delusion. What illusions of self-importance are you ready to delete?

Not applicable. My life doesn't revolve around one crisis after another. There's work to be done, and I do it well. The kudos and recommendations I get speak for themselves.

(To be continued... taking a break to watch The Office with Rigel.)

—Xydexx