Day Thirty-Two: Minecraft and Melee

7/13/12, 10:00 AM PDT

Woke up at 9, had breakfast. Sister watched Big Time Rush on TV a bit and I have to say, Nickelodeon has really gone downhill. It's less cartoons and more crappy sitcoms. Shame.

Now watching EVO 2013, eagerly waiting for the Melee stream.



Same day, 11:49 AM PDT

MORE EVO, JESUS CHRIST. THE DR. PP VS. ARMADA MATCH WAS THE MOST INTENSE SET I'VE EVER SEEN.

LOOK AT IT. LOOK AT IT.

RIDICULOUS. I SCREAMED SO LOUD THAT MY MOM ACTUALLY HAD TO CHECK ON ME TO SEE IF I WAS IN RISK OF CERTAIN DEATH.

And I'm sorry if all of my recent posts are about EVO, I'm just SO HYPED. Grand finals tomorrow at noon, CAN'T WAIT. SO MANY GOOD PLAYERS.



Same day, 9:54 PM PDT

Finished off the Melee EVO stream, then played a bit of Minecraft with Ivan and Elliot. Felt good to scream like an idiot again, even though my window was open half the time. My neighbors probably hate me, but I never go outside, so they'll never get the chance to take it out on me. Hah.

After Elliot left, also played a bit of Stickman Arena with Ivan. Pounded his head in a few times with a sledgehammer. No contest, victory on my side of course.





RFotD: EVO 2013 has 3,538 competitors in total, beating previous attendance records. Super Smash Bros. Melee ranked third in highest number of players, at 696. 

SGAT: None really.

Day Twenty-Three: Two Animals and a Dead Lemongerine

7/4/13, 3:51 PM PDT

Woke up pretty late again since sister doesn't have school. Decided to let my SCP get deleted without revision since it really wasn't that great anyway. Still keeping the idea though, don't worry.

Nothing much really happened today so far, apart from my mom making mango smoothies today, which she hasn't done in around five years. I've missed them so much, you don't even know.



Same day, 7:21 PM PDT

Pretty much spent the entire day on the Internet today, doing unproductive things. Break day? Sounds good to me.

Don't worry, I'll go do productive things tomorrow, when my sister goes back to school.



Same day, 8:39 PM PDT

Leaving the house for the 4th of July, awwww yeah.

Found a big, yellow, citrus-y fruit on the ground that looked like a big tangerine, but colored like a lemon. I figured it was feeling pretty lonely, so I decided to kick it to the rec, where all the fireworks would be.

Hello, new friend!

Unfortunately, I accidentally kicked it too hard and it cracked open. It died by my feet, and that is a fact I deeply regret. My sincerest condolences, dead lemongerine. I have failed you.

Now sitting on a foldable chair in the park, waiting for the fireworks. Did a bit of walking around the park with my sister to look at why stuff they had for sale. They had funnel cakes, pizza, shaved ice, and god damn bacon-wrapped hot dogs. Fun fact, I actually tried those last year. They tasted awful.

Also saw Ian, Alan, Matthew P, Angelo, and Noreen, which was pretty cool. Didn't really make much conversation, just kind of said "hi" and left. Note to self, learn how to deal with seeing people outside of school with minimal awkwardness.



Same day, 11:32 PM PDT

NOOOOOOOOOOOO. SAW MY PRECIOUS LEMONGERINE CRUSHED BY THE CRUEL FOOT OF FATE. OH GOD, I'M SO SORRY.

"I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU, MICHAEL!"

Ah well.

Anyway, Minecraft with the Skype Group again. We found another ocelot trying to break in to our chicken farm, so we caught it, renamed it "Swiper," and freed it into the wild.

Swiper, no taking other peoples' property without consent!

Swiper has a lonely, lonely life ahead of him. Since ocelots are considered hostile mobs, they respawn and despawn unlike most other peaceful mobs. But, if you name an ocelot, they'll never despawn. So he gets to live out his entire life with his ocelot family until one day, they despawn and he's left all alone.

Tragic. But he deserves it for eating all my chickens.

Speaking of chickens, we named one "Cousin Kony" and swore on our lives to protect him from all harm.

I don't even know. Ask Kayla, she thought of the name.

Will we succeed? Only time will tell.

Oh, and Mr. Enderman visited our biome today! He really likes it, I can tell.

"I really do, Michael. I love it."

RFotD: “When people feel lonely they are actually far less accepting of potential new friends than when they are socially contented.”

SGAT: None really.

Day Twenty-Two: The Battle for Tetherball

7/3/13, 10:01 AM PDT

New story! Morning Never Comes: An SCP Related Tale. Read it!

Anyway, dropped my sister off to school. Then, at around 9-ish, my mom's friend's family dropped their dog off. If you've read previous incarnations of this summer post-a-day, you'll know who he is, but if not, I'll give a bit of backstory.

My mom's friend's family is insanely wealthy, so they go on vacation every chance they get, a fact that I am very, very jealous of. But I guess our family benefits from their vacations too since every time they leave, they drop off their dog, Mocha, to our house while they're gone.

And I swear, this dog is a genius. Especially when he plays fetch. He predicts where the ball's going based on your elbow position, he knows when you fake him out, and when he brings it back, he nudges the ball towards you with his nose. Clever, huh? And he's adorable too, with his fluffy, wool-like coat.

But today, when they dropped him off, I noticed something off.

They cut his hair.

AND HE LOOKS HILARIOUS NOW. SERIOUSLY, LOOK AT HIM.

SO SHAVED.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.



Same day, 3:20 PM PDT

Woo! Finally caught up on Doctor Who. Took me a little over three months, a bit over my promise to Camille to finish it in two weeks, but hey, what can you do.

Aaaaaaaaagh, I can't wait for the new episodes to come back on November, I'm hooked. It's a great series, I love it.

Now I'm not sure what I should do. I kind of want to work on my script. I think I'll go do that now.



Same day, 10:47 PM PDT

Submitted my SCP to the SCP Wiki. 1365, my first child.

And it's currently sitting at a -4 rating.

But I'm glad. They've pointed out a few bad things about my SCP, like the fact that it requires a 30 METER CUBE TO CONTAIN. I didn't do my conversions too well and that's roughly the equivalent of EIGHT-EIGHT THOUSAND CUBIC FEET. And the fact that the origin of the poem has no set backstory.

Gonna go revise it now so as to maintain my reputation as a writer.



Same day, 1:20 AM PDT

Minecraft. Brandon brought back saddles and a bunch of horse armor from the Nether, so we decided to put it to epic use. As you know, my server's on Hard mode, which means that there are a ridiculous number of hostile mobs that spawn at night. First night after we got the armors and saddles, we decided to test them out by defending our village.

We were ready.

What resulted was the most amazing battle in Vanilla Minecraft that's ever existed. Arrows fired from our horses filled the night sky and pierced the flesh and bone and carapace of the mobs. Creepers exploded left and right, leaving dozens of impact craters scattered throughout the world. Tetherball, our village chicken hanging on a nine-block tall pike near the outskirts of our town, watched the entire battle from close-up. In his honor, we have named this battle "The Battle for Tetherball."

For Tetherball.

Later, I spawned in name tags so we could name our horses. Afterwards, went to check on my beautiful, bustling chicken farm.

What the hell.

So after a bit of snooping around, managed to find this ocelot. Still had a chicken bone in his mouth.

You can barely see its tail behind the leaves as it's running away.

HE ATE EVERY CHICKEN. EVERY SINGLE ONE.

I killed him on the spot and mourned my dead chickens. The Skype Group couldn't stop laughing at the fact that a single ocelot took out 100+ chickens in one day.




RFotD: Ocelots are considered hostile mobs in Minecraft and thus, can despawn. They do not spawn naturally in Peaceful mode.

SGAT: None really.

Day Twenty: A Whistle Pen

7/1/13, 4:19 PM PDT

Oh boy, day twenty. Summer only gets faster from here on out.

Watched "The Call" this morning since it was on TV. It's those kinds of movies that make me so thankful I'm not a white blonde teenage girl. I'm so lucky, you know that?

Anyway, kind of a late entry since I've been pretty deep into writing this script. Transitioning from the rough outline on a word document to actual script format. Expect it to be done by the end of this week.



Same day, 6:23 PM PDT

Played a bit of Minecraft 1.6.1 today since it just updated. And I do mean a bit, not the entire day like the last few times. We lynched a pig. It was awesome.

Now, I'm writing my spy script again, back in a bit!


Same day, 11:24 PM PDT

Wrote a lot, but also took a bit of a break for Minecraft again. Figured out how Redstone comparators and daylight sensors work, which I'm very proud of since I've figured out how to build lights that only turn on at night as well as more complicated donation booths to unlock doors.

Also, repaired the pen for my old ideas notebook after a year or so. I've missed you, RhinoBook.

"I missed you too, man."

While looking for pen cartridges to replace my old one, I found this... thing.

Pen... Whistle?

...What?

It looks like a pen with a built-in whistle? And the... Diet Coke label? I don't know what their PR was thinking, but I guess it worked because I've been looking at it for awhile now...

And the whistle doesn't even work. Based on the shape of the labium (the slicey-whistley hole part), I should be blowing into the end opposite of the writing tip, but there's a pocket clip in the way and it won't come off. I haven't tried tearing it off exactly, but I'm scared to break the tip off. But I have applied a decent amount of pressure and it doesn't come off, so I'm guessing it's not intended to be removed.

Weird.





RFotD: Aspartame, the artificial chemical in Diet Coke had previously been thought to cause cancer. This is false.

SGAT: Wrote a lot of my script.

Day Nineteen: Sandcastles and Shotguns

6/30/13, 11:55 AM PDT

Woke up early, went to church, it's HOT outside.

Well, not really. It's actually quite mild. I don't know where I was going with this.

Anyway, we're headed to Toyota because my parents think they got overcharged for the car repairs. It's a bit worrying since they can get into some pretty heated arguments, and I don't really want that to happen in public.



Same day, 1:22 PM PDT

Well. That wasn't as bad as I thought. Sister and I explored the Toyota shop thing. We found a free coffee machine and made people out of styrofoam and coffee stirrers.

Here's mine. I call him "Stormageddon."

My sister's. She called it "Cup."

We may have gotten a bit too attached to them, since we brought them with us to the car.

Now, we're headed to Imperial Beach to go look at the sandcastle building competition. On the way, we got hungry and decided to stop at Filippi's Pizza Grotto. Man, we haven't eaten here in forever, we used to eat here all the time. This place is the best, they gave me a chunk of pizza dough to play with every time we ate here. Their food is the best too.



Same day, 3:08 PM PDT

So there was only one sandcastle. And it was pretty crappy.

The castle was happy because it mocked us. It knew we drove far away
and got stuck in traffic. So it mocked us

JUST KIDDING. THERE WAS ONE MORE AND IT WAS PRETTY BEAST.

WOAH.

HOW THE-

HOLY CRAP, WHALE.

The people who owned the magical, magical hands that built this.

The entire sandcastle. Daaaaaaaaaamn.

Still, there were still only two, and they weren't that great. Last year, it was an entire competition that took a huge chunk of beach. Shame they didn't do that this year.

But hey, there were bird people!

Quetzalcoatles? Quetzalcuati? What's the plural form of Quetzalcoatl?

A red flamingo? A phoenix with a really long neck? Hope it doesn't come
any closer or else I'll-

OH JESUS.

The guy that controlled the giant red ostrich thing had a pretty killer mustache.

See what I mean?

And a single guy played the music for the entire event, one-man band style. Homemade kick drum made out of a bucket and a kick pedal on one foot, tambourine on the other, a ukulele in his hands, whistling simultaneously... Damn.

A bit washed out, and I had to stealth-pic the guy.

Same day, 11:27 PM PDT

Whoops! Didn't get to write so much today, too busy playing Minecraft since it was Christina's last day here before she gets deported to Vietnam so her crimes against humanity can be punished. She promised to bring me back a copy of Pokémon Vietnamese Crystal when she escapes their concentration camp though.

Hmm... let's see, what happened in Minecraft... first days we played in Hard mode. Wasn't that bad, except forHOLY CRAP, ARMORED MONSTERS.

WHAT THE-

OH GOD, BUTTER SKELETONS.

And apparently, a special little Enderman really likes our mini underground biome. I've seen him warp here a few times and all he does is move the grass blocks to his liking.

It's quite cute, really. Once you get over the fact that he can
brutally murder you.

Occasionally, he picks up flowers.

AWWWWWWWWWW. He's like the shy kid in school that's actually really nice but has murderous intentions when you make eye contact with him so he has to wear a dog cone all day.)

He's even tried to make a tiny island.

Aww, don't walk away, Mr. Enderman. At least you tried.

Enderman, you're welcome to live here whenever you like.

Also explored the Nether a bit with Kayla and Brandon. Later, when we got back, Kayla had the genius idea to give our tree farm a "controlled fire" to take out some of our wood, which we had much too much of.

The entire thing burned to ashes.

WEEWOOWEEWOOWEEWOOWEEWOO.

I found a dog too. Named him "Hates Christina" because he kept trying to murder her. But as I was walking home, he decides to take a little detour...

GOD DAMN IT. NOT THE RAVINE.

Later, we decided to take a group picture in the Crab People shrine that Kayla built in our attic. Christina "misfired" her bone shotgun and "accidentally" killed me.

This started a war. Many died. And this was the picture.

Was it really worth it? You decide.

RFotD: Endermen noises are actually the voices of normal people reversed, slowed down, and distorted.

SGAT: None really.

Day Eighteen: The Great Virtual Chicken Exodus

6/29/13, 6:50 PM PDT

Late blog entry, didn't really get a chance to write until now, my bad.

Had a dream that I was back in school. It was the first day of Junior year, yet for some reason, there were a bunch of people wearing white graduation robes. Then, I walked to Carl's Jr, but took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up walking down a dark forest path with trees on my left and right. It was nighttime and pitch black. Then, I woke up.

Maybe it's trying to say something? I don't know.

Anyway, pretty much all Minecraft today. Worked on an underground tunnel, which quickly turned into an awesome underground room.

But then, an Enderman showed up.

Sup, Enderman.

And he dropped off a grass block.

"How's it going, Michael?" Pretty good.

So, as to not waste it, we decided to build an ARTIFICIAL BIOME. WITH WOOL CLOUDS AND SHIZZ.

AND WOLVES.

AND OCELOTS.

EVEN MORE OCELOTS.

At one point, I accidentally punched a wolf and it got incredibly angry at me. So did the rest of its family. I logged out, attempting to escape it, but when I relogged, they formed some sort of demonic circle around where I disconnected.

KALI-MA. KALI-MA.

HECK YEAH!

Also, all of the villagers died. We tried guarding them, we really did, but they were just so stupid. I mean seriously, what kind of villager opens the door when there's a zombie trying to break through?

If the Skype Group and I were all parents, the US' infant mortality rate would be way, WAY higher.



Same day, 11:47 PM PDT

Pretty much all Minecraft today. I feel bad that I wasted an entire day playing, but it was pretty fun. Guess it's a guilty pleasure.

We managed to bring in a pair of cows, sheep, and pigs from faraway lands, so we have a very good animal farm going on now.

But our chicken farm was still microscopic. So, I decided to expand. How could I expand without reeling in more chicken? Easy.

I dug a tunnel. And had a chicken exodus.

So, as a refresh, here's how the chicken farm looked earlier.

Tiny, huh?

And, EXODUS.

THEY'RE TRAVELING DOWN THE UNDERGROUND
RAILROAD! I'M HARRIET TUBMAN!

Speaking of Harriet Tubman, we made fun of Kayla for being an American that didn't know who Harriet Tubman is. Remind me to change the sign over her bed to something Harriet Tubman related so as to mock her.

Anyway, here's the chickens' current home.

It's... beautiful.

Recap, here's the entire village as of today.

Note the completed mansion roof and the sugar cane farm.

We did good today. We did good.

Also, Brandon finally joined the server.

In cat form. Ignore Christina's bed sign.

RFotD: Chicken can be fed with Nether Wart to initiate breeding.

SGAT: None really.

Day Seventeen: We Built a City

6/28/13, 12:36 AM PDT

Doing a bit of late-night homework for my film. And by that, I mean I'm watching Casino Royale.

See, these are the perks of being a filmmaker. Homework? Watching movies. Sounds like a fantastic deal to me, what do you think?



Same day, 3:00 AM PDT

Finished Casino Royale. God, my head hurts. But it was a pretty good movie.

I'm going to bed.



Same day, 12:19 PM PDT

Sister's still sick. Mom's gonna take her to the doctor for a bit, so I have the house to myself for a bit.

So, I'm formally announcing Michael's house party 2k13. Bring anyone and everyone you know! There's gonna be beer pong, karaoke, guitar hero, gladiator fight pits, pin the tail on the amputated horse, lawn darts, the roast of Abraham Lincoln, and other classic party events. Order now!

...Or, I could just write and do nothing all day. That's plausible too.

God, you know my summer's becoming less and less interesting when I have to write about a fictitious house party to try and spice things up. Please come faster, film camp!



Same day, 7:04 PM PDT

Minecraft with the Skype Group, sans Brandon. We decided to play survival with a gun plugin since normal survival was too easy.

We quickly found a village in the middle of a grassland area and we swore to ourselves that we would protect the village and its inhabitants at all costs. So we went pretty smoothly the first day. Got basic supplies, started a chicken farm, and decided to live amongst the villagers come nightfall.

Love my chicken farm.

We could not believe how ridiculously hard it was to protect.

So apparently, I set the difficulty on Hard. And the gradient between the two was INCREDIBLE. There were a ridiculous amount of mobs EVERYWHERE. Spiders crawling on the rooves, creepers exploding left and right, god damn SPIDER JOCKEY waited right outside of our house to kill us.

A 1% chance of happening. And it happens the first night.

There were a ton of villagers huddled in one house and we tried to protect that area, but zombies were quickly breaking in, so we had no choice but to leave and kill the zombies. We succeeded.

But the creeper got us. It blew up and took out a chunk of the house where all of the villagers were clustered together. A few of them got out. And by a few, I mean all of them.

By the night's end, we lost 60% of our villagers.

And that was only our first night.

Sure, we got a bit better as the days passed, but every night was still hellish. We didn't have beds and we lost a lot of resources because Kayla decided to build a fancy house right out of the bat even though we had next to nothing. But we managed.

I think. I left the server running while my parents and I head to Coronado to eat at a fancy restaurant for my parents' anniversary.



Same day, 7:40 PM PDT

Coronado. Oh, so pretty.

Thanks, sign!

Downtown San Diego skyline. If I were a hipster, I'd be all over
this picture.

This one too. #nofilter

Skyline/pier. Beach up in there too. So pretty.

Also, wearing my Doctor Who shirt. A girl about eight or nine years old commented, saying that she liked my shirt, which was pretty awesome. She looked suspiciously like Amy Pond as a child. Red hair, blue eyes. Hell, maybe it was the actress?

Nah, probably not. This is America, not England.

Also, gotta learn how to take a complement since I don't get them often. Since it was so sudden, I kind of just nodded and gave an expressionless "thank you." Remind me to at least smile next time, maybe lead into conversation.

Also, a fat guy riding a skateboard was wearing a backpack with speakers on it, blasting "I'm a Barbie Girl." Highlight of my day, right there.



Same day, 8:50 PM PDT

A WHOLE HOUR. NO FOOD. Hot damn.

I mean I know it's a fancy restaurant on a very busy night, but god dang, this food better he fantastic to be worth the hour long wait.



Same day, 11:00 PM PDT

FOOD. Well, it came at 9:30, but WHATEVER. Sister was complaining about hunger, so she got her food first. I happily gorged myself on her French fries for a bit.

Then, my food came. New York steak with garlic mashed potatoes and onion rings. Mmmmmm. And pineapple juice too, awesome.

I'm stuffed. So very stuffed.

Oh, and there were fireworks too. Sweet. Happy anniversary, parents.

Yes, I paid for the fireworks. I'm that good of a son.

The water was amazingly still this night.

Same day, 11:47 PM PDT

WOW. The Skype group got BUSY while I was gone. They built a big ol' mansion next to the village!

Overhead shot of it all. Notice the cactus wall, courtesy of Kayla.

Mansion face. Dear god, it's beautiful.

One of my few modifications. Happens to be my favorite part of the
house.

But they let all of the villagers die. They failed to protect them. This was their only job and they failed. And now our hands are stained with the blood of the innocent.

So I made a graveyard to commemorate the fallen.

Kayla's paying respects to her fallen dog.

Yes, I took the time to edit every gravestone.

The gang's all here.

RFotD: Ghast sounds were made by C418's cat.

SGAT: Wrote a bit.