Option A

Regular Minecraft. Will use Permissions/BigBrother/MCRegion to make everything safe and grief free.

Option B.

RPG Stlye Minecraft. Leveling, Parties, Dungeons. May require users to download SpoutCraft to use the server, but it’s a minor thing

Option C

Anarchy/PvP

Option D

5v5 PvP which I have thought about before, but never had the resources to go through on it. Games would only last about a day or two, so any time the games aren’t “active” the server is going to be reverted back to any of the other 3 options.

There’s a lot to talk about Platteville and the school. It’s a really nice small town and the school is small enough to feel like it’s still a small community, but large enough that you still get the bustle of a school and feel like it’s alive and well.

The dorms are okay. I expected more of a space crunch, but was very surprised how well the room came together. It’s still getting some changes (I moved my desk a little so I stopped trying to view the TV when the loft was in the way) and I can’t get used to these chairs. It’s built almost like a rocking chair, but the legs are only bent, not curved. It’s like you have two stages of sitting: normal, then lean. Sometimes I start falling back into the “lean” stage and I panic as if I’m falling. No fun.

Technology took a massive turn. Being in the middle of nowhere, we don’t get a lot of bandwidth given to us, nor do we get a comprehensive wi-fi network covering campus. It also took a long time to get things working because they block my IRC (which I need), my DNS (which was being sent to Google’s public DNS), and every form of FTP and VPN. It doesn’t give me a lot of room to do some cool stuff. But hey, I manage.

Other technology just doesn’t like me. I bought a router and it doesn’t let people connect 90% of the time. I have my Wii here with homebrew, but it doesn’t play my roommates games (which I promised they would) and I keep on streetpassing the same guy every 12 hours with my 3DS and I don’t even know who he is.

Classes are ok.

Walking to classes is great, since I can stand in any spot and see the buildings where my classes are. They’re at most a 5 minute walk from each other. I wanted a bike because I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to walk fast enough and get to class on time. I was wrong.

My personal mantra of “It will all work out soon enough” tends to actually work here. Everyone (and by everyone, I mean my parents) were concerned about a lot of things not going right, or I wasn’t ready for it. Well…

I seem to be doing fine.

–Briguy

It’s midnight on August 23, 2011. It’s the first day of school in District 214, and this time I won’t be going. This whole summer has just been Roblox moderation, then play, then sleep, then repeat. I’ve been enjoying the whole thing, but it wasn’t until this week when I saw that summer was over. I don’t have any summer homework or any other obligations other than work, but I still have many things to look forward to.

I still have a lot of friends at Elk Grove. I was the only senior that took part in Morning Announcements, and in my friend circle, there were only four seniors out of a good 20 friends and friends of friends. Now they’re all heading back for another year, knowing that the people that they left with will be there when they come back. I won’t. I hope to come to school early and make one last visit to the morning announcements folk. They’re all nice, honest people who do it because they want to.

Meanwhile, the friends I graduated with are starting to say their final goodbyes to the friends they spent four whole years of their life with. Some may be staying around, some may not go far, and some are going so many states away they’re in a whole new climate. I’m heading to University of Wisconsin at Platteville, where no other EG student is going, or ever has. My best friend is heading to a college in the city. My other friend is going farther than I will: Iowa State.

It’s sobering to go on one last outing with a friend, knowing this is the last time you will see them for perhaps a very long time. But it’s always reassuring that you will see each other somehow later in life. Friendship is weird like that.

Here’s to my friends back at Elk Grove High, and to all my friends going off to their new homes at their colleges. No matter where you are, remember where you came from, and who you befriended along the way. They’re never worth forgetting.

–Brian

I’m sitting here, well, out of school. I did the thing that basically this whole blog was me reflecting on: high school. My diploma is sitting on my shelf next to my other achievements. It’s an incredible weight to be lifted off my body – a weight that will be heavier when college starts. But between then and now, it’s just sitting at home and doing work.

But really, there’s tons of lessons that were learned during my 4 year stint at the school. I was never that outgoing and talkative, but things really turned at the end of the time at high school. Even if it was a rough lesson, it’s a good one to get.

There’s a ton of lifestyle changes I noticed need, or are going to happen, once I go live in a dorm during school. Mostly the small dorm and being always close to where everything happens. Here in the suburbs everyone is far and spread out, even though we all go to the same school. Damn. Then I’m not going to be near them anyways. New friends.

None of this is complaining. I’m okay that I’m going off to a new place and leave a lot of friends behind. But hell, in this day and age, you aren’t *really* gone from your friends.

I love technology.

A few days ago I was doing my normal bathroom routine. It’s pretty normal up until the end. I finish and look at myself in the mirror. But I don’t do that just to check what I look like. No, I check to see if I can see my age in the mirror.

I look into the mirror and think “i’m 18, do I look 18?” and look and try to figure it out. For as long as I have been doing it, I can never see it. I’m 16, 17, 18 and I don’t see myself as it. I don’t know what age I see, but it isn’t my current one. Maybe it’s my hair or my clothes or how I stand. I’ve never been able to figure it out.

But back to the story. I was doing my routine. I had finished and was just looking. I had my arms crossed, my hoodie sleeves rolled up, my hair at it’s normal messyness, and facial hair that’s getting too long.

And I looked like I was 18.

This first time looking into the mirror, I saw the adult in me. I was getting older. I have responsibilities now (at least more now), and I have to go to college soon. I see all this reflected in the mirror. All the learning, tricks, fails, and rebounds of my life, all rolled into one person standing in the mirror.

I finally see myself as an adult. Now to act like one.

–Brian

So I was watching Yogscast, these guys who are hilarious as they play on some Minecraft RP server. The people on the server take it seriously, but they don’t. But it gave me an idea for something.

Most servers are either 1vall or have teams with little structure. I was thinking of having a more structured team Vs team battle that would be recorded and become a recurring series.

Here it is.

There are 15 players overall. It is a 5v5 battle. The last five are admins or DM’s or something to keep the game running. (Two for camera, two for helping or watching, and one for running the game) They will be split dead on the X axis of the map, but they will be very far apart – almost 4 minecraft days.

The game will have structure such as set times for the matches, set events, and set quests and goals. The first night, they will be given a stone sword and told to get to where they will set up their towns. (At this point, there will be safe houses along the way)

Once they make it, the next thing will be to build and set up their towns. No one will intervene to show HOW to build the towns.

After they are set-up, random events will occur. Simple or good events such as a no-mob night cycle, or trees/crops growing faster. Some will be bad, such as a double mob night or all pigs disappearing for a few days.

There can be some “major” events such as a Ghast spawning, but that’s kinda severe.

From the point of the towns being set up, the two teams are in a state of war. There can be some random events (such as steal X from the other team) or things to convince the teams to enter enemy territory. In fact, stealing is allowed. Spys are encouraged.

There will be voice chat, however, there are two options. The easy one is a chat for each team. The hard one is a chat for each territory. It never really makes sense how you can chat with someone who are miles away. This also allows the spies to eavesdrop. However, there is no easy way to change chats like this. (Perhaps some way to let spies eavesdrop is to have a “radio” room and let them build a wiretap.)

At the end, there will be some big random event , and whoever completes that quest will win (but it won’t be simple!)

As mentioned, there will be five admins or game masters or cameramen. I suggest have one cameraman for each team, then have the last three either check up on the teams, act as neutral characters (can someone say “traders”?) or help build the buildings for those random events.

It will take a lot of time, but if it is pulled off right, it could be the best Minecraft video series ever.

Somehow I managed to pass all my AP classes, one honors, one normal, and one gym this semester. Why did I agree to this?

Granted, there was a lot I did that was my fault. It’s like a game to me to see how long or how much effort it takes to make it with a good enough grade to pass but not turn into a typical honors/AP student: boring. I took the game much too far and nearly flunked AP Chemistry. I was saved by a near-ace on the Final exam. Woah. (Granted it was curved. 95% after the curve. Raagh I almost set the darn curve)

The rest were fine – I don’t get nearly as much homework from the rest. Heck, my best class, Honors Pre-Calculus I passed with an A. Easy. Guess what? I did no homework. Why? The class doesn’t check it.

Homework to me is this: If I don’t get the material from lectures, I do it.

College? Yep, doesn’t work much that way.

——————————————————

Along the way, I’ve gotten to know a lot of the AP students who have been taking these classes for much longer than me. I just took Honors classes for only Science up until now. They have been doing AP History and AP English since Sophomore year.

Also along the way, I’ve gotten some opinions from my teachers. Most teachers that teach my classes are also “seniors” – They have been doing it for a very long time (Fun Fact! My AP Chem teacher is retiring this year.) These teachers have seen a lot, and while they don’t force their opinions they got from experience, they still share the facts of the matter.

The facts of the matter is that District 214 needs to stop pushing.

A lot of the teachers agree on this: It’s nice to see a lot of students into AP classes, but it is not nice to see them crash because they aren’t ready, didn’t want to take it, or just can’t handle the curriculum. Students who pull straight A’s in normal classes can nearly fail AP. What looks better? I’m not sure, but I’ll go with the A’s.

It is actually one of the district’s goals to get as many students into AP as possible. But my AP Psych teacher tried to show us some hard facts about AP classes and how they help. It was direct from their PowerPoint on the matter.

The PowerPoint takes the time on one slide to stop and say “students who take the class do (some number) better in college” BUT THEN goes on to “students who take the class and do the AP test do (much better number) better in college”

What?! Is the district really suggesting to the staff that we should take these classes, even if we have no real purpose in them? The point of an AP class IS to take the test and earn college credit!

The reason for AP is two-fold: Take a college level class to get ready for college, and earn some credit for the class. But what if you are there for only one reason: to get ready. Would an average student really have enough foresight (is that a real word?) to see that this is really worth their effort? NO. Most want to take easy classes, relax before college, and have fun their last year of high school – They only get one chance.

I’m taking AP Computer Science. I want to be there for credit because THAT’S WHAT I WANT TO DO. This class, however, required no pre-requisites to get in. The class is filled with three kinds of people: Freshmen and Sophomores who thought it wasn’t going to be that bad, Juniors and Seniors who thought “Hey, an easy AP course!” and are now hating the class, then me and a friend who already know what to do because we take what we like seriously.

AP classes should be for people like that: People who wanted to be there and want to take it seriously. Not people who get thrown in to meet some stupid statistic.

–Brian

It was the night before Christmas, and my mind was awake. I wanted to get my mind off that fact that tomorrow was Christmas, so I let my mind wander.

I played this game on Newgrounds called One Chance. I don’t usually go to Newgrounds, but I was there to watch Zanta Claus 3, so I figured I would browse it anyways.

So this game, One Chance, is all about how the main character, you, are a scientist who tried to create a cure for all cancers. Instead the “cure” turns out to be deadly to every cell on earth. You have seven days left. What do you do?

What really gets this game is that when you do finish the seven days, you can’t play the game again. Now, it’s super easy to clear the cache that the game saves in, but after a long thought about this game, I left it to itself. I’m going to respect the choices of the game author.

I was amazed that such a simple game could be so dramatic and insightful. Granted, when I was playing the whole time I was saying to myself “I gotta go saveee the worlllllllld” in a cheezy voice. Near the end, however, when I did save my life (and the one of my daughter) I knew that I didn’t do it. I saved only me and her. My wife commited suicide because I was so obsessed with work and trying to saveee the worlllllllllld.

It was really making me sad thinking of it, so I started to try to think of something else. I found it: Professor Layton.

Warning! Spoilers on Professor Layton ahead!

It’s a great game series. I’ve played all three. The art and animation style mixed with great voice acting, great puzzles, and a great mystery has kept me interested.

But after finishing Layton and the Unwound Future, there were so many questions I wanted to shoot my DS. Here is a quick list:

• Okay, so the “future” is acutally some big set? How did no one notice it? Someone had to dig it all out. Where did all the dirt go?
• The “time machine” is a giant elevator? How did no one notice the elevator when it was “up”? The scientists (who weren’t in on the mystery) sometimes made it out of the place so they HAD to of seen it.
• Clive HAD to of killed people when he did the robot thing. Yet the others were cool about it when they arrested him
• Also Clive sounded like he expected to get out to see Layton at least once. HE KILLED PEOPLE. PERHAPS HUNDREDS.
• Why does Claire pick that ONE moment to disappear?
• Why is everyone cool that the Prime Minister was the one who killed Claire?
• WHY IS THERE ALWAYS A SCAPEGOAT TO SAVE LAYTON’S ASS? Game 1: He can magically build a hang glider. Game 2: He knows how to sword fight. Game 3: THE CAR IS A PLANE WTF?
• The giant robot explodes when it falls into the massive fake future. But the amount of dirt between the top of the fake set and the real ground is so tiny it HAD to of collasped in and KILLED EVEN MORE PEOPLE

I probably forgot a few.

Yeah, its November, and Thanksgiving is next week and Christmas is quickly approaching. School is in full swing and I’m not exactly handing it well. (Mostly AP Chemistry. Should’ve gone with Physics.) I’m enjoying the last year of high school, looking at colleges, getting nagged about colleges, and whatnot.

Yesterday I was thinking about the Announcements I do every morning for school. I remember when I first joined that I hardly spoke and was kinda shy. This was only one year ago.

Now? Whoah I’m loud, friendly, much more outgoing, and ready to take on the day. Even if I forgot to study for AP Chem. Whoops. When does knowing Quantum stuff ever help in my life? I know its to get me to think and to understand the world. I understand the concept, doing all these silly and boring equations is what gets to me.

Other than that, wow, not much going on. I need to find a job or something because man I need money. I don’t care about a car, just having ANY kind of money would be nice. Or a hobby, because coming home and never leaving my room isn’t that great of a hobby.

I’m not a shunnin (wait, what.) either. Tomorrow I’ll be going to play hide and go seek in Ikea. Rofl I love my friends. This year more than others, I’ve been ready to go out and enjoy myself, even if I know at some point things may take a turn. It’s a part of going out and being a thing.

I like writing these to give some insight on myself. I don’t know why I make this public. I guess I really shouldn’t get all personal and deep like this to the internet, but I don’t care all that much. I just like to rant.

On one last note, I looked at myself in the mirror and tried to do something. I tried to see myself as 17 going on 18. Nope, I just see me. I don’t really see an adult yet, even though I got the face, facial hair, and body type. I just don’t see it. It’s like looking at a house you’ve lived in all your life. It may have been super-renovated to look completely different, but you still see it as the way you are used to seeing it.

I want to look in the mirror and see me, 17-year old Brian. I don’t. I see 14-year old Brian with facial hair. Wtf.

–Brian

At first, I was a bit mad that I had to wake up at 4 AM to visit Purdue. 5 AM would have worked if Purdue wasn’t in another timezone.

We (my parents and I) drove off to Purdue. At about 5 or 6 AM, I looked up. Because I’m in the city most of the time, I almost never see the stars. But out here, I just saw a sea of them. I believe I was looking at Orion’s Belt. It was stunning.

I was looking at it for a long time and noticed they were fading. I looked out the other window to see that the sun was starting to rise. At first, it was just a slight blue. But after a while, every single color was there. Red, Orange, and Yellow. The blue from the sky faded into the yellow to give it an almost green tinge. And because this was Indiana, there was nothing there to block my view.

We made it to Purdue on time and started the fair. Purdue is very, VERY beautiful. Today was clear skys and 70 degree weather in the fall. As if that doesn’t seem nice, the school was clean, modern, and looked like it should be really, really expensive (which it isn’t)

I wish I had a camera, because this was just TOO awesome. I walked by the big Purdue University arch and was just stunned by how it looked. Yeah, I like this place a lot.

And then I started on my way home. I didn’t notice it in the morning, but there was a massive wind farm just north of the university. Wow. I love watching these things turn and think “yeah, this is how we should do it.”

I fell asleep on the way back home and woke up to the regular hustle and bustle of Chicago.

I better go finish my Purdue application

–Briguy