Building in Minecraft

So there is more to this then just breaking block.  After watching a tutorial a couple of times as the sound was very low so I needed to go over to understand what to do. I was able to build a craft table. This was not easy as I was not sure about the cross hair tool the video showed to highlight the spot they intended to break on the tree to get blocks of wood. It was such a concern for me I Googled missing cross hair then downloaded and installed and extra resource pack which gave my world a new look. The issue with the cross hair was not resolved as I found I only needed to press and hold and I would get the hunk of wood I needed to get started. See the different view below.

I was also a bit more comfortable traveling as I learned I could fly which came in handy to scout out locations. I found the birds eye view better for navigating the landscape and helpful to decide where to build.

Sadly I met my demise early on. I was having trouble with the day/night cycle and found myself in a desperate situation where it seemed the world above me was collapsing.

I was able to spawn another life but it was not a reincarnation as I came back with out any of my resources so back to square one. This was not a problem as it reinforced skills recently acquired and to me this is a good way to keep some of this new found knowledge.

With Craft table in place I now could put to use some of my real life experience. I created planks and sticks crafting tools for building. Sadly the key ingredient at this point was wood. This meant I would need to destroy trees. I did notice there were new ones sprouting. They may have been plants but I was thinking about the environment and wondering if cutting down the trees would affect my oxygen supply. 

I made an effort not to take more than I would need for my little house in fact I decided to use the side of the mountain to form a wall reducing the number of blocks. I also wanted to be close to water and near trees for shade. I was thinking ahead for how I might like to live in the real world.

I was surprised to find I got caught in the rain a real downpour making it not possible to work.

Here above you can see my simple house near the water with my pic in hand. I think this is a nice location but do have concerns about flooding.

I have yet to sort out the day/night issue. In forums there are options to adjust the time or set it for one or the other. I did notice our classmate Jasmin had built a beautiful home and furnished it too. She had torches lit for  night time.

I will say as we build in Minecraft you can get the similar sense of satisfaction and pride when building. Here is me and my first structure early in the morning with the sun just starting to come up.

Lastly I recall how we posed for selfies in Second Life. We must be fascinated by our own image even if it is a virtual representation in pixels.

Minecraft

OK this is a bit intimidating. I have a four year old grandson that plays Minecraft and so does his dad my son. I thought this would be easy to do but then I know I am always challenged with games especially electronic ones. I was able to set up an account but was not sure what to do once logged in. I managed to start breaking things but need a tutorial or to visit the kids in Delaware.

It appears I really needed to pay attention to instructions to get this game going. I was concerned about taking a screen shot with my character in it. I needed to learn how to change the person view of the camera to see me in the shot

So I manage to break some blocks and take a screen shot.  You need to press fn + f2 to take a screen shot in fact I decided I should check out more of the keyboard shortcuts. My Mac didn't have a mouse so it was necessary to borrow one to do some left and right clicking. It was important to set up the buttons to click. I notice that it gets dark quick and thus must have to do with the amount of time you are working. I found it made sense to start another world.

You find additional information as is displayed above. After taking the screenshot I did not know where to find them. Thankfully a youngster had create a video online which I have shared.

The key piece of information is go to finder>folders then add ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/screenshots/

I watched the tutorial to build a table but will need to review how to get the wood from the tree. Sadly I kept busting it when I needed pieces to turn into planks. Unfortunately my 40 years building trades experience have not been helpful to this latest endeavor.

An Impromptu travel with classmates Second Life Machu Pichu

As a few classmates were unable to attend the Thursday meeting a few of us had agreed to meet on Sunday. We met at Rocca Sorrentina, 1785: Italy and the "Grand Tour", Rocca Sorrentina. I had a chance to enjoy Impressionist and listen to classical music.We were able to share some links from Poem's tour and visit the Aquarium. In addition we went to Machu Pichu walking to the top. I explored a bit on my own and found a hang glider and was able to take it for a flight and navigated back to the group.  This was a very different virtual trip truly just exploring and sharing. It was unfortunate that the sound was not working which gave rise to communication issues. Like in real life folks were keen to get together to take selfies this I did find a bit odd not knowing how to face but thought it was fun especially as it was spontaneous and we had a big group show up. It seems that second life is a success for Sunday nights.

I was a bit exhausted having traveled to Marlboro to present on Friday and class on Saturday the long drives take away from school work. For this extra meetup it serves the class well and at the same time was a leisurely way to relax, learn and virtually get together with classmates.

Meeting With Poem

We had another guest tour guide this week in Second life named Poem. There were a few challenges with audio but we were able to visit new worlds. I tour guide was in real life from Uruguay and a Spanish speaker who could also Speak Portuguese. She showed us around Edunation and provided views of what appeared like and aviary and a tour under water.
There was scuba gear you could access to swim with the fish but we were all able to access and view the scenes without any concern for running out of air.
It was an opportunity to see how this world could be used to virtually visit other places and practice different languages. Poem noted that she had worked at the United Nations as an interpreter this is a very challenging profession.
An important thing we learned was to become friends so you can share things like landmarks and invite others to join you at different locations. This required some planning or you would lose your tour group members or the guide. Ultimately we were treated to Holodecks where we saw very different virtual worlds  providing a new level of virtual worlds. I liked the aquarium as it reminded me of Hawaii.

Virtual Meetings in Second Life with Gentle Heron and Real World Meeting Coverage at United Nations

We had a special guest meeting in Second Life with  Gentle Heron where we had a chance to learn a great deal about how people with disabilities are able to use second life. She pointed out that from her avatar you would never know she sits in a wheel chair and is living with Multiple Sclerosis.

During this meeting we learned more about how people with disabilities are able to use virtual worlds. In some case they are able to travel virtually to other worlds. There was a box in the center of the room that contained a number of virtual destinations we could travel to. I found it interesting how teachers could use Second Life to share with students and also rules related to youth.

For example you must be 18 years of age to access Second Life. There is a limited option for 16 year old youth where they have limitations to what they are able to access. In addition there is potential to have place in world where younger children can access but with strict limitations to the region specific to their special access.

We also had another guest Esme who many of us had taken course with previously. Gentle Heron was curious about Jokaydia grid. I believe Jokaydia was a great place to begin and learn many skills in a relatively close environment. Rarely did we find visitors or distractions. It was described as sandbox. I see the Second Life world is much more developed with a greater number of visitors. It was noted that this could be a way to meet people speaking other languages. Portuguese surprisingly was a top language along with Spanish and English. Gentle Heron noted that there were also a lot of German speakers.

When I arrived to the destination I found a couple of characters and as we all had new names I asked it they were here for class. Then one spoke Spanish and I realized the other who was trying to communicate was not a native English speaker. As it happened one stumbled into our meeting and when addressed they did not respond. Suddenly there was a lot of loud background music as the visitor had their microphone with music piping through unknowingly and apparently efforts to speak English did not connect. I do think they realized they had landed in the middle of a meeting then left.

The lesson here was to be aware of your surroundings. I t was interesting to listen to Gentle Heron who brought back memories of a good friend who had MS. At work we pay attention to accessibility and have frequent meetings that require attention to details and access.

She mentioned Education initiatives from Australia and this week at work we hosted a forum on education with very special guest speakers to include the former Prime Minister of Australia, the Director of CERN along with many different panels and advocates for education.

I was working as a Photographer at this event where a colleague Frances from IISD took this image. I am actually seated at the table in the center. It is interesting to note that this room is accessible with ramps to take you to the podium on the dais. You can follow this link to see where I work this is the news group IISD that covers our programs http://www.iisd.ca/hlpf/2015/

HLPF 2015 participants heard a keynote address from H.E. Julia Gillard, Former Prime Minister of Australia,and Chairman of the Global Partnership for Education.

You can see examples of my photos on the slide show of our offices web here https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/

Note the photos on the slider change as the images from the High Level Political Forum is what I had been covering.

The connection here is that all the speakers were stressing the value of education especially to starting early and the value of ICT. Internet Communications to play a bigger role in our work and the key to success is education. Virtual meetings now take place using Video Teleconference as the image below the Secretary General participate in our meeting held in NYC while he was on mission in Norway

L-R: H.E. Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Norway; UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; and H.E. President 

Paul Kagame, Rwanda, adressed HLPF 2015 via remote video from Oslo, Norway

We could have meeting virtually as avatars. I think the possibilities to level the playing field could provide new solutions by removing cultural bias and eliminating hierarchy.

Second Life Adventure

First visit to a new land in Second life

Second Life is the new destination for this traveler. The move from Jokaydia was not too terrible as there were familiar controls. It seems  a lot of learning from travels to Marlboro Island were transferable. What was new is that there were a lot more visitors to interact with. I surprised that I found myself being a but shy as I did not really want to start up conversations with others. Actually I was more concerned about too much time being spent hanging out. It is unfortunate but reality for me is I simply don't have much time to socialize and have to focus on lessons and assignments. What immediately did get my interest was how there were groups socializing. Then is became a bit strange and it seemed like people were partnering up like at a night club. In this case there were Spanish speakers  - Hola, que tal. I thought wow what I great way to work on my Spanish then realized it was more like these two were in dating mode. I then thought maybe I can meet some Serbo Croat speakers another time but for now I need to focus on assignments.

A view from above

Exploring a new Island 

As part of a choice assignment I visited a Virtual World developed by NTID the National Technical Institute for Deaf which is part of the Rochester Institute of Technology. As I was a student at RIT and later had done some work on the campus located in my home town I was looking forward to meeting other travelers.

I also thought what a great opportunity to interact with deaf as we could chat via text. It was a challenge to learn how to communicate using sign language. Today we could easily text to have conversations and share information. Unfortunately this virtual world created to share learning on the subject of Physics was no longer supported since 2011.

Example projects of physics

The familiar brick paths from the real world campus with a message regarding status. Sadly I did not find any visitors and took a visit to the facebook page that only had a few likes.