Mine Craft (by sarah)

There is a new craze in the Snell-Pym household - it is a game called MineCraft and it began with Alaric, now me, Jean, Jean's friends and my Dad all have our own worlds which we are constructing homes and farms and mining in.

Initially I was very bad at it, I could not even work out how to look up let alone move and as for fighting the monsters of this almost eden-esk world - that was impossible. But after being attacked by a spider, a skeleton and a zombie, being stuck in a whole, being suspended in the air and drowning.... I finally seemed to master basic movements.

Being me I skipped the tutorial and refused to play in creative as I like there to be a challenge. Anyway I finally after a week of playing managed to construct a one room house. It started off in mud and then I mined cobble stone which I clad the outside and then mined the mid away from the inside.

The idea is that you mine and farm things and make stuff. I started off by making a crafting table, then a chest to keep things in. I was on the hunt for stuff for torches and a bed - but this proved tricky and so I found myself hiding in a dark corner of my house - it had a door I'd made on the crafting table but no light as I need to make charcoal or find coal.

Fortunately no monsters spawns in there with me - this was why it was all still earth - a monster called a creeper did blow my house up from the out side though which hacked me off! (I may have said a rude word).

Eventually I found the resources to make my torches - I had to build a furnace. So now I have light, food (due to killing poor unsuspecting cows and cooking them in the furnace), shelter, a crafting table and a double sized chest but still no bed! This means I can not sleep during the games nighttime which is annoying.

The game is made of large pixels and I can only play a bit at a time as the motion on the screen gives me motion sickness!

I also keep accidentally hitting the left hand toggle as a button instead, this changes the perspective of the little avatar - not helpful when you are fighting zombies!

I am really enjoying it - even more so as there is a quest to be completed!

Each world is a new generated one - mine is called Gaia, Alaric's is Genesis, Jean's Bob and Dad's one is the un-named My World. If I remember I may post the world seeds (the code that other mine craft players can used to generate the same world though devoid what you have built in it!).

Unsigned Sessions and Mention the Bear (by sarah)

Me and Alaric finally made it out to see some live music - something which has not happened yet this year! We went to the Unsigned Sessions at The Playhouse in Cheltenham. These are run by The Record Shop down by the Norwood pub.

It was the first time we had been in The Playhouse which has a nice light fitting I took photos off to try and sort our how my camera works! I only found the black and white setting after the gig!

The first band was unfortunately ill but a young guy came on and played some cracking tunes - I can't remember what his name was unfortunately.

We then got a band called Red Shift who were a three piece band, a guitarists with two guitars, a saxophonist and flutist in one and the dude at the back with the squeeze box who I unfortunately was not in the right place to photo.

They played some lovely covers - some of which had a depth the original songs never had.

The guitarists voice put me in mind of David Bowe meets Pink Floyd with a little Bon Jovi thrown in.

My one issue was I felt the Gnarls Berkely cover needed more energy, but having it sung by a warm female voice was genius 🙂

Then we got on to our friends' band, Mention The Bear, they were doing a 68 Come Back Elvis Special with guitar cases for percussion and more guitars than you can shake a stick at!

There was some serious hand blurring on the fret board happening and Richard did not disappoint with raw performance - if Elvis and Jim Morrison had had a love child... just watch the video I took!

Neither the film nor photos are as good as I wanted as I was just mucking about with settings to see what I got and some of them I didn't realise weren't quiet there until I got them up on a computer screen!

See guitar case drum!

Guitars galore!

Dan rocking out!

Richard absorbed by the music.

Jumping around time!

I was really happy to have an chance to wear my fifty style skirt I made last year (with modernish heavy metal themed material!) and my ancient blue suede boots 🙂 Though I am still disappointed there was no black leather!

Postcards and Stickers (by sarah)

I decided it was time to get some postcards and stickers made, I used moo.com which isn't the cheapest but is the most accessible for what I wanted plus they had a sale!

I needed stickers for the Poetry Writing Challenge I am running and then I needed postcards for the Science-Art Exhibition I'll be running at Centre Arts in March, plus I wanted to give little copies of my Inspira pictures to friends who were struggling with various things in their lives.

I have been over the moon with them - people have been saying I should be selling them but not entirely sure where to do that for best affect at the moment.

Bristol Mini Maker Faire and My Creativi-Tea (by sarah)

Saturday the 23rd of March 2013 is the Bristol Mini Maker Faire, maker faires are were arts, crafts and technology makers all get together to show off what they have been doing and exchange ideas etc... we are going and a few others people maybe coming with us which should be fun.

I have also been planning a Creativi-Tea event where friends can come over and we can exchange crafty know-how, so I am thinking it would be best to hold it on the Sunday so that friends who are visiting to go to Bristol anyway will be able to hang around for it 🙂

There will be cake and tea and sandwiches and limit of ten people. There has been quiet alot of interests in glass cutting and stuff so that is probably what we will focus on - though it can be tailored to those who come. There will be no charge for resources used but a collection bowl/url for donations to Shelter will be present.

Cuggles! (by sarah)

Little Mary is now two! The last two weeks have seen her suddenly saying more understandable words, she asks for cuddles (cuggles), she says Dean (Jean which used to be meemee), she repeats and put her hands on her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, arm etc... she will sort of count with Jean as long as Jean goes slowely enough - just mimicry at the moment. And I was startled to hear her doing the alphabet with my mother.

She still mainly uses the baby sign and asks for milk in Lojban rather than English, she does appear to have taken to only trying to copy the English words though she responds best to the Lojban ones.

She is a little cheeky monkey who climbs on everything and escapes from everything!

She pretends to give herself injections in the tummy (just like my Dad does) and has started proper imagination play.

She was potty training and doing really well and then she forgot to pull her trousers down and now refuses not to have a nappy on. Unless it is near bed/nap time, she will tell us she needs changing - she knows that having her nappy changed is what happens before bed!

She is obsessed with cloths! She has opinions on what she will and will not wear and gets excited - she will even try and steel Jean's cloths - like the rainbow cardigan my mum knitted - 'MINE! Mine!'.

She sings nursery rhymes enough for me to guess what she is singing (normally twinkle twinkle little star), her grin is so large if I get it right 🙂

She mimics sounds so clicks like indicators (Jean did this too), makes a squeak like the broken tumble dryer and the scraping noises of zombies in Mine Craft.

If she wants to go out she will go to the clean laundary pile, select cloths, put her wellies on, get her ruck sack, fill it with toys and beaker, put her coat on and drag a blanket around - she gets very annoyed when you then say it's nap time. Sometimes we take her out just because she's put so much effort into it.

She is getting there with petting the cats and they tolerate being used as warm fluffy pillows.

She is still diddy but seems robust enough - not as much as Jean was she can't take the cold very well where as Jean never seemed to notice or want to really ware cloths!

She will tiggle tiggle you! This is high pitched and involves lifting your top and tiggling your tummy 🙂

She is a putting things away baby 🙂 She will tidy up putting stickle bricks away etc... unlike Jeany who is a messy little moo 🙂

She can get very cross - not laid back at all like her sister and is more clingy but at the same time is more likely to sit and play on the carpet next to the dest rather than having to have me entertain her. She loves her sister most of the time and runs up and hugs her but not when Jean is asking for hugs! Though if anyone is crying she will hug them.

I made Jean cry by telling her off about tidying bedrooms, Mary took one look at the poor sobbing Jean and instantly joined in and this was proper crying from both of them. I felt like a really bad mummy but had to stick to my guns.

Mary is definatly a hobbit - she has second breakfast though you are hard pushed to get anything other than a snack into her for the rest of the day.