Ishmael wrote:

I love watching Hermitcraft videos because they'll be talking about mundane stuff while zooming around at mach 5 on an elytra, then go "what the heck is that" and spin towards some half-finished build of a giant Cookie Monster sculpture with elf ears, then shrug it off after a couple seconds and continue speaking nonchalantly about clearing thousands of trees or flattening a mountain by hand or some other wildly insurmountable task like they're going out for milk.

They're so surrounded by each other's excellence that they're almost blind to it and it's so funny to see as a casual player. I won't touch Redstone with a 10-foot pole and they think item sorters are "early game". 

 
literally nobody is doing it like the hermitcraft server, and thank god for that i don’t think we could handle more than one

Also hi I kinda fell off for a little bit, I simply did not have the energy to do anything here

I'd argue it's definitely past its peak in terms of fandom and content but it is still going pretty strong. The seasons thing is a little weird because it's been used to describe separate "eras" of the server but from what I've seen floating around Twitter recently, there is plans to start fresh at some point. Not sure what that all entails because like I've said before, I make it a point not to interact too deeply with the online fandom because it's pretty freakin hostile over there on a daily basis. I'm hoping things get more organized in whatever they have coming up though because the current plotlines have definitely suffered for it and a handful of the server members that aren't "major" players are frequently pushed to the wayside.

All good. We’re all busy sometimes.

Went to my local science center yesterday and I forgot how much fun it is. It was crowded as all hell but I still really enjoyed it. I probably picked up 8 new illnesses because there was hundreds of unmasked toddlers running amok but at least I got to see some dinosaurs

In character playlist superhell again

Gotta fix my sleep schedule good lord

But The Roleplay Grind waits for no man and I work best at 3 in the morning eating a copious amount of bell pepper slices and blasting Mars, Bringer Of War in my headphones

I still love seeing the random guest accounts, it brings me so much joy for some odd reason

I thought it was supposed to be a relaxing game, not one of those scary games. What's got you so anxious, the plants not getting water?

My biggest thing right now is I have two files I'm playing. One of them I'm trying to finish the community center (you give it certain items and get other items/upgrades in return) as fast as possible which means I have a somewhat strict timeline in which I have to collect/do things. I don't really mind it all that much but my other save file is a lot looser so I can just mess around and learn mechanics and just experience it at my own pace. The problem is I'm trying to do 8 things at the same time and never write down what I'm doing. Every time I log back in I spend 20-30 minutes figuring out where I left things and what I need to do, but I am awful at sticking to a goal because I'll walk into a new area and immediately forget why I went there in the first place. I spent two real-life hours fishing when I originally was going to buy seeds at the store and never did lol

@xenon what are some mods that you have? I've been meaning to look into them but that's overwhelming in and of itself as well haha

Ishmael wrote:

@xenon what are some mods that you have? I've been meaning to look into them but that's overwhelming in and of itself as well haha

yeah it was definitely overwhelming at first for me too. i started looking at mods because i for some reason cannot figure out the mechanics of the fishing minigame, so i got a mod to auto-complete that for me. some other quality-of-life and maing things easier mods i have are:

- harvest with scythe (does what it says on the tin, makes harvesting a lot faster because you don't have to individually pick each crop and since my crop areas are pretty big in my current farm it makes things easier)
- billboard anywhere:  you can access the billboard and calendar on the front of pierre's store from your e menu, very helpful so you don't have to go running back and forth when you forget stuff
- npc map locations:  shows where npcs are on the map, also helpful for finding people quickly
- lookup anything:  hover your mouse over a thing and press f1 and it gives you the details (if it's a fish, when it's caught, what it sells for, etc, if it's a crop, how many days until harvest, all sorts of stuff). super useful when i was trying to complete the community center so i wouldn't have to look on the wiki for every little thing. also gives you lists of favourite items and stuff for npcs. it's amazing. you can also press f1 + shift and type in the name of something if it isn't available to hover over
- auto gate:  automatically opens gates for you when you walk by them. was made so you don't have to get off your horse to open gates but as someone who struggled with timing it right to be able to walk through it, made things so much easier
- data layers:  press f2 and you can see all sorts of data like where your scarecrows and beehives cover, what crops are watered, what area your sprinklers cover, etc. 
- automate:  this is one of the ones that's a little cheat-y, but you can link chests and machines so things auto-process in and out of them. for example i have a shed that's filled to the brim with preserves jars, and there's one chest i fill with crops and they auto-feed into the preserve jars, and once they're done processing they go int a second chest that's for output. you can also program it (either in the config.json file or with another mod that is so much more user friendly lol) to use paths as connectors, so i have all my fruit trees linked with a cobblestone path into a chest so it auto-collects fruit. saves me so much time
- generic mod config menu:  menu on the load screen that lets you toggle mod options from a menu, rather than going into the config.json files
- chests anywhere;  also kind of cheaty but a lifesaver if you forget things in chests often. you can access every chest you have either by pressing b or by clicking on any chest. this and automate is how my farm runs basically
- stardew notifications:  last one for now bc i just realised this is a lot lol but! gives you notifications each morning of npc birthdays, festivals, salmonberry/blackberry seasons, travelling merchant arrival, if a day is lucky or unlucky, when living off he land or queen of sauce airs, and probably some other stuff i'm forgetting. also a lifesaver for forgetfulness 

Oh I get you Ish, however I think it may just be the opposite for me.

I'm comfortable in official settings and giving public speeches because usually you have a set point to prove or a goal. People are required to have some level of professionalism or respect. I haven't come across anyone yet that will tear you to shreads. I am expecting to at some point, but for most of my time when speaking officially, people will be respectful. Or at give respectful criticism at the worst. I this in your experience as well?

But once it's informal, I think I trip up more since there isn't always a set goal for informal conversation.  I don't have talking points prepared and whatnot. There are much more factors than just what I talked about, but I think I'm weaker in talking informally in public.

You mind me telling of my thoughts on the subject?

My dorm’s heating isn’t on so it’s absolutely freezing in my room, and my carpal tunnel is kicking my ass recently which is a recipe for disaster for my hands but I wanted to whip up a sloppy ref sheet for my deity I haven’t introduced yet and half of the reason was it’s just a giant hare and I think it’s funny

Ishmael wrote:

 This class wants me to write a poem or song for one of my speeches, which are things I'm unfamiliar and uncomfortable with.

Oh NAH. Same here. I wouldn't know what to write if it had to be a song, or talking about a favorite song. I wouldn't know what to talk about.

Though at least the writing a poem may be easier since it isn't really meant to be sung and you can write a lot of things as a poem... Still, I can see the challenge behind it. I do wonder how you're supposed to even speak on that stuff for like, 10 minutes or however long the requirement is.

I realize another reason that I am more ok with formal speaking is because I've had lots of practice. I used to be one of the most quietest speakers when I was younger. I think lots of me practicing my speeches by myself has really made me more comfortable with public speaking. I think it's also my dad. He's a really charismatic speaker and can give me tips.

Looking back on the syllabus and asking for clarification, turns out I don’t have to write a poem or song, I simply have to find one at least 40 lines long and read it. Not sure what that does for me but I will now have significantly fewer and less severe panic attacks about this class bc that was the thing that was really awful for me