$#@%#$%#

I discovered recently the joys of using diamonds for armour and tools. It's awesome. I survived a ton of creeper attacks wearing my diamond armour, and cleared away a ton of dirt with my diamond shovel. For example, I obliterated this hilltop. This is the before picture:

Anyway, I ran out of diamonds so I figured I'd head back to my beach front cave system. I was feeling pretty cocky in my new armour and wasn't finding any diamonds so I kept going deeper and deeper. I scored a lot of iron and gold and then I finally found diamonds. Not a lot, but a little. And then I trapped myself in a dark cave. I was trying to claw my way out and a zombie came up behind me and killed me. Boo-urns.

So now I've got to try to remember my way down to where I was and I've got to do it fast. I had my watch with me, my diamond armour and lots of raw materials. Miraculously I found my way down but too late. I lost my shit. So the next time down I grabbed a couple of signs to help me find my way down faster.

I was besieged by creepers and skeletons and zombies and everything. but I had fresh iron armour, I was holding out okay. So fuck you guys:

I dug deeper and deeper and found one piece of diamond. And then eventually a creeper caught me by enough of a surprise that I couldn't escape. I tried so hard to get down there fast enough but I got hopelessly lost. My shit was gone again.

So I rage-quit to write this blog post and now I think I'll go back and build a rail line down to where I was.

Done

I tried all kinds of crazy things with the wiring in the railway hub. I tried having a separate button for each destination but that there were timing issues with the track changes. I built an elaborate system to slow the circuit down and it looked like this:

Anyway, it didn't work. In the end I decided on switches instead of buttons. It's not an elegant solution by any stretch. Two of the three destinations require both switches to be in a particular position.. and sometimes I accidentally hit one of the switches on my way out of the station. As a result I may move the button to the far left with the switches on the right but this is how it looks now:

And that's that. Now I have speedy travel between my:

Spawn Point

Beach House

Hilltop Fort

Floating Island

Castle Pit

For the most part I can travel anywhere at night and gather supplies from anywhere they might be. There are only a couple of dangerous areas where monsters and animals can get too close to the track. I guess more fences come next.

What do I like about Minecraft?

• Surprises. I was digging a tunnel from my train station to my beach front house this evening and I stumbled across several natural caves. One of them was enormous! Tons of charcoal, iron, and even a little gold without having to explore!
• Exploring! In a randomly generated world, I'm seeing everything for the first time. I have no idea what's going to be around the next corner or even under my front doorstep. Remember that expansive cave system under the lake in front of my house? I sure do... even if I'm too scared to visit much because of all the monsters still in there.
• Being afraid of the dark. When I found tonight's surprise cavern, the first thing I did was run away. When I was properly equipped I came back and proceeded to turn on all the lights. I placed torches like a  kid who has just gone home to and empty house after seeing The Exorcist. When I ran out of torches I built walls to prevent any darkness-spawned monsters from chasing me down and exploding. Good thing too.

This is as close as I like to get to creepers when I'm taking a picture

• My Frenemies. Sure, I curse every time a zombie horde kills me hundreds of feet underground when I've been trapped in a labyrinth for virtual days. And creepers blow up my shit all the time, but that just gives me something to fight against. In a world where you can build a skyscraper on your own in a couple of hours, it's important to have something to fight against. My achievements don't mean anything without adversity.
• Building shit. Obviously. =)

Coming Along

Well, the heavy construction is done. In the evenings, the monsters can gather on my glass ceiling and cry that they can't come inside my train station to eat me.

Meanwhile, I'll be safe below. Stopping for only a second or two while I select my ultimate destination.

Of course, most of the destination buttons don't work. I have a couple of tunnels to carve out and I have a whole lot of wiring to do, but everything looks good.

And as long as you're only travelling between the beach station and my floating island, you're totally set. Soon though you'll be able to also choose between all major destinations in either direction. Thanks to this guy for the inspiration and technical details: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvSsSE6MueM

Nearing completion

I hate creepers

Why do they gotta sneak up on me and explode like that?

Glass Ceiling

Construction Begins

Adventure!

Last time we were here, I mentioned I had built a portal in the basement of my beach-front house. "What's that portal for and where does it go?"  I'm glad you asked. It goes to a terrifying alternate world where the screams of zombie pigmen fill the air and giant floating marshmallows shoot fiery death.

"Okay, that totally makes sense. Why would you ever go there?" Well. When you're in this alternate world you're able to cover ground much faster. 8x faster in fact! That makes it easier to go on adventures. For example, I came out of the Nether a long way from home and consulted my compass on how to get back. On my way I found adventure like potential cave-ins!

It looked like it would be pretty epic, and I was pretty sure I was under the ocean so I triggered a cave-in for fun. Hundreds of pounds of virtual sand fell, followed by the ocean. I tried to swim out and couldn't. I almost drowned hundreds of miles from home before realizing I was trapped under ice.

I eventually made it out and came back for a better picture of the place I almost died. Ice is not your friend.

After my long day of adventure I built a boat and sailed home. That's my fire-glass tower in the distance welcoming me home.