What're you into, what're you looking forward to, what're you happy about?
Please
I am feeling terribly self-harmy in advance of my birthday next week
I got to the point of making a pros and cons chart
give me something to be vicariously happy about or something to look forward to, please
I just finished a minecraft farm. It's a mob farm, then I filter out the gun powder. I also have a sugar cane farm, and use the new autocrafters to make rockets automatically. The redstone was complicated but felt really satisfying to finish.
Oh also my pet snake started eating again. She was on a hunger strike for some reason but ate this last time I fed her, so hopefully that's over and I'll be able to start handling her again.
thank you ❤️
this is a brilliant distraction - a sentence where I understand each word separately but adds up to something utterly baffling! "Mob farm"?? 😂 I know it's not this, but the idea that you're growing little Minecraft Sopranos guys really tickles me. "Filter out the gunpowder"?!?
And how does a sugarcane farm end up creating rockets?! If sugar powers the rockets, do you think maybe the exhaust smells like burnt marshmallows??? 🤩
What's your snake's name? How old is she? When she's feeling friendly, in what way do you hang out? Does she explore your home or does she usually prefer hanging out on the nice warm people?
A clear cut case of me not wanting to over explain, so I under explain
I hope this comes out semi readable.
A "mob" in minecraft is all the non player characters/entities. cows, chickens and pigs are all passive mobs, creepers, zombies, spiders and skeletons are all hostile mobs. There's more, but those last 4 are what this farm "spawns" (they just appear out of thin air). Mobs all have their own spawning conditions, but these four need somewhere dark, on a solid block, and somewhat close but not too close to the player. There is also a cap on how many hostile mobs can be in the world at any one time. We exploit these mechanics by building in the middle of an ocean. This ensures mobs can't spawn in caves or other areas on the surface, slowing the farm. The place for the player to stand is way up in the sky, so nothing can spawn in caves under the ocean We have multiple platforms stacked up for them to spawn on, and then have a machine periodically place water, to flush the mobs down the kill chamber where they die from fall damage.
The filtering out part is going to sound complicated, but is actually very easy to build. First I should say that creepers drop gunpowder, which is the main thing we wanted from this farm but my friends build the farm wrong (creepers have subtly different requirements, for example zombies and skeletons need a full two blocks to spawn in, but creepers need more like 1.9 blocks. If you place trap doors on every block mobs can spawn, you will block zombies and skeletons from ever spawning. Unfortunately we missed a few spots so we get a few of those.). Gunpowder has two main uses, rockets and tnt. Personally I never use tnt but one of my friends was insistent that we have some separated out. Rockets are incredibly useful. When you fly with an elytra its more of a glide without them to boost you along. With the rockets you go way faster, and can fly up instead of just gliding to the ground. Obviously flying everywhere is more fun and faster so we go through a lot of rockets.
Anyway to filter the gunpowder out we have all the items (string, bones, rotten flesh, and the gunpowder) through a line of hoppers. Hoppers are a block that take items from one place and move them to another place, like another hopper, autocrafter, or a chest. So we have this line of hoppers, that will take all the items and underneath is a hopper that only has gunpowder in it and can't move the items anywhere because it is powered/"locked" (funny how that works isn't it, usually things only work when powered). So it can't move items from itself, but can still pick them up. When it grabs one more item, it triggers a comparator (just a little redstone component that detects how many items are in a hopper or chest). This is linked up to unpower the hopper for a brief moment, letting the locked hopper release one item. This line underneath now only has gunpowder. I take that to a bunch of chests to store it in, and then once all those chests are full it takes the gunpowder to the rocket making part of the farm. Also a quick note, the unfiltered items (rotten flesh, string, etc) just get put in some other chests or discarded if those are full. They weren't the focus of the farm (we actually took a few steps to not get any, but alas).
Whew! That was a lot of information. Hope I didn't lose you. Let's talk about my snake for a minute before I talk about the rocket half, which I am very excited to talk about because it was all my own design.
I'm kind of terrible with names
I usually just call her the banana, because she is a banana ball python. She's actually a lot brighter of a yellow then any of those pictures, like unbelievably yellow. Her brightest yellows look more like the yellows on an albino. But she is not an albino, she doesn't have any white and she has those cute looking black dots. I would post a picture but snakes can have fairly unique patterns and I am overly cautious (paranoid). I can DM you a few pictures if you want though.
Anyway (my god I can talk, right?) She's around 6, I've had her for about half that. I bought her from a breeder who was moving out of state, and couldn't keep everything so she was already an adult. Most of the time when she's out, she's wrapped around my arm or someone else's. I will put her on the ground and let her wander around for a little bit every time I get her out, but there's a lot of places for her to get lost (hide, in her mind) and once she does she isn't going to come out willingly. Once they have found a little crevice or hide for themselves, they go from "oh let's explore" mode to "I am hidden, and will stand my ground against anyone who wishes to take me from my safe space" mode, so that's a bit of a problem
Snakes have very distinct behavioral "modes" they go in to and keeping them in the right one is really important (but not very hard!).
Wow I love talking about snakes. Let's see... we had just finished sorting the gunpowder from everything else, and bringing it to the sugar cane farm. The sugar cane is harvested automatically by a flying machine. I have some observers (another redstone component, this time it powers when a block "updates" [which can mean a lot of things, in this case its when the sugar cane below it grows]) that trigger the harvesting. It triggers both the collection system (a hopper in a minecart which loops around under the sugar cane), and the flying machine to break it all. Honestly I don't understand how it works well enough to explain it, but its two pistons pushing and pulling each other and it just works. The hopper minecart unloads all of the sugar cane it picked up and the flying machine returns to the activation mechanism.
A hopper takes the sugar cane and puts it into an autocrafter. A comparator measures how many are in there, and when it hits three sends a signal to craft it into paper. This paper is then combined with gunpowder to make firework rockets. I use comparitors to make sure both are at least somewhat stocked and if they both are, that generates a pulse to make the crafter spit out rockets. I wired it up to repeat this pulse until it runs out of either ingredient, then it shuts off. I know it sounds like the lamest part but getting it to loop properly with the timings and not triggering more then its supposed to (if you trigger the crafter at the wrong time, or put too many items in you can get the wrong output which would fill the firework/rocket chests and look ugly) was really challenging![cheems cheems](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/7cecf97d-f24e-433a-a51d-498bd1eb909c.png)
I have always thought of them as like ancient Chinese fireworks, having them be sugar powered makes them even more low tech then that and I love it.
and it's wonderful – reading this comment like
that shit was fascinating, thank you for taking the time to type it all up! I hope you had as much fun writing it as I had reading it. ❤️![meow-coffee meow-coffee](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/e4c1e8ae-5634-4f87-a129-0bda89187e58.png)
I love "The Banana," I think that's a great name!! I didn't know about snakes' behavior modes, that does sound like a challenge! Are you into reptiles generally or just snakes?
You have an incredible talent for explaining things. I haven't played much Minecraft (I couldn't figure out a pov that didn't make me super motion sick), and though I've watched my husband and kid play enough to know a lot of vocabulary and a few mechanics, I don't actually understand very much of it.
Your explanation of your farm and the amazing process you've got set up to make fireworks was perfectly comprehensible for me – like, actually perfect, it was never boring, it was the exact right amount of detail, it was perfect. 🤩
You are awesome and your posts rock. Thank you very much for sharing your time and interests with me, I love it.![lenin-heart lenin-heart](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/372316cf-7e74-4cca-994f-2bcfea0b5288.png)
I did have fun writing it! I rarely get the opportunity.
Its actually not that bad, once you understand there are very clear signs and its easy to read their body language. Their modes being so distinct is really helpful, like knowing if they are hungry and want to eat, feeling scared, or if they are just exploring and checking out their surroundings.
I love all reptiles! I especially love how diverse snakes are as a group, and how easy they are to care for though. You can really find a species that works for you, and I love that. I actually have another snake, a corn snake who is so chill I can hand them off to anyone and know it won't be an issue. There are lots of cool lizards, I'm a big fan of the argus monitor, everyone I've heard talk about them has talked about how personable they are (plus they look so cool!). A dream reptile for me. One of my favorite trips was when my family went to an alligator farm, and they let me hold some of the babies. One of them was like three feet long (quite the baby, lol). Now that I think of it, I have a lot of fond memories of reptiles at zoos and such.
Aw thank you, that means a lot. I'm glad I did a good job, it felt long winded.
That's unfortunate
I've never had to deal with motion sickness thankfully, but from what I've been told it sounds really awful. I know you didn't necessarily ask for advice, but I know on PC there's a view bobbing setting, and I've heard turning it off can help with motion sickness a lot (and honestly I can see why, its a little much for me too). Maybe that's worth a try, if you haven't already? (also I find the default sensitivity is really high, but again maybe you already played with that/and I don't really understand what actually causes motion sickness) Glad your husband can play at least, I remember when I was younger (well and still now, I suppose) how special minecraft was and how much I loved doing that kind of thing with my parents so I'm sure they appreciate it.
No you are awesome! Your enthusiasm has really made my day. Thanks for listening! You are such a good listener! Your family is really lucky.
I've gotten motion sickness ever since childhood. I remember being able to read while laying in the floor on a some road trips in early elementary school, but I had to stop by the time I was 9-10, and eventually got to the point where I needed to keep my eyes on the road to make the data from my inner ears and eyes agree, or I'd be miserable the whole time.
San Francisco Rush was the first video game to cause it and make me stop trying to play it, and I couldn't even watch my brother play Descent for more than a couple minutes, let alone play it myself. Multiplayer stuff is a lot easier; I can play Mario Kart with the family just fine, but I get very sick if I solo.
I don't usually actually throw up, it just feels terrible (overwhelming nausea, hot and cold chills, dizzy, eventually my whole body feels heavy and I have to lay down) and lasts for a while after the stimulus stops. Dramamine helped when I was a kid but even the non-drowsy kind knocked me right the fuck out, so I haven't tried it in a long time.
I just do my best to avoid situations that would cause it 🤷 it's nbd. Watch other people play dizzying games from far enough away that there's enough "standing still" in my periphery to keep my eyes and ears in agreement, watch the road carefully when I'm in a vehicle, avoid spinning carnival rides, etc.
SEE! I can talk, too! 😂
Now I'm gonna go look up "Argus monitor" and find out what they look like! Do you have any thoughts about why they're so personable?
Edit: I looked them up! 🤩
What a cutie!!
😎
fun things I learned from their Wikipedia article:
😂 Large adult sons indeed!! Would you want a male or female?
omg 🤩😍🥰
Better stay swole! 😂
You totally need a mating pair! It's for conservation!!!
That's so interesting and weird, especially how some games effect it more then others. I've never felt anything like that. At least you are still able to drive! Has it always been this way for you, or did it get worse/better with time?
I think its because of their intelligence. Monitors as a group of some of the smartest lizards. Apparently they can count and know their name (not impressive by mammal/dog standards I know but for reptiles, that's something). And yes they are so cute! I really love their long necks, they look like a dinosaur. Monitors are also a group that hasn't changed much with time, like crocodilians.
I'd rather a male, if I had space. They are actually very lean and have big tails, so I don't think a four foot lizard is actually quite as big as it might sound. A side note, for snakes the sexual dimorphism is the opposite! Lizards tend to have big males, and snakes almost exclusively have big females. Something to do with if males have to fight to reproduce.
Yes the tripoding is so cute
and they do it so much too. Just stand up and have a look around.
Mostly small rodents and large bugs, but transitioning and losing my strength is an actual concern of mine for this reason
They obviously couldn't actually kill/eat me but I'd hate for my love of reptiles, especially larger ones to put me in a bad spot post hrt. Maybe I'll end up with a female, haha.
Reptile, and animal populations in general are in such a grim place. So much habitat loss.
I'd love a mating pair! One potential problem is most reptiles don't like being kept together, so you end up needing basically double of everything.
I'm sorry to have taken so long to reply! My problems with motion sickness have unfortunately only gotten worse as I've gotten older, and like most of my fun little bodily quirks, it got worse after carrying a child. I'm actually calling this morning to try to see a doctor finally about it all, because I think it might all be Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which would explain some otherwise very strange occurrences in my family's medical history. And it would mean that actually my generally pretty good luck didn't actually take a horrible turn in my 20s, it has been fine, because being pregnant with EDS could have killed me and so could have several other issues. Happy to discuss more in DM if you're curious, but yeah, I keep dodging the reaper somehow. 💃
I had no idea that any lizards were capable of counting! I know beardies are supposed to be smart and personable too, but it sounds like monitors are smarter? That is so cool. Huge and smart – lizard puppos? 😍😂
I knew that transitioning causes women to lose strength and bone density, but I hadn't really thought about how that would affect their ability to participate in their established hobbies, even though it's obvious. 🤦
Do you have the time and resources to do strength training to help? I have enjoyed the little bit I've done, but I'm a little worried that some of the things I do are making some of my joints worse, and if I do have EDS, it's a really stupid thing to be doing to myself. And that's why I need a doctor and an approved exercise program! How do you feel about exercise? Which kinds do you like?
Do you have a doctor that you like? Do you find talking to medical professionals as dreadful and terrifying as I do?
I've even been excited for my son to gain strength and maybe even a little height as he transitions (we think/hope he started early enough to help with height), because then he can help me reach and lift more things! 😂 Obviously I love seeing him become more himself, and I know he's having challenges too, but it's only been a few months he's already over half an inch taller and his voice is changing, and I'm really looking forward to him patting me on the head someday and calling me his smol mom 🥰😍 and then getting that thing out of the cabinet on top of the fridge for me! 😂
How did your reptile fascination start? Do you have the opportunities and resources to do any related volunteer work? I'm from a rural area and wished very badly to be closer to a big city when I was little so I could volunteer at a zoo or aquarium. Do you have any interest in doing anything with reptiles professionally?
I have loved talking to you and appreciate your kindness and brilliant distractions very very much. I'm doing better now, and you have very much helped. Please don't feel obligated to keep entertaining my questions, but also please know that I love and appreciate it. You're a wonderful person with fascinating interests, and you generously and patiently share your knowledge and enthusiasm.
You're an absolute delight.
Thank you so much for your time and care.
I think discussing in a DM would be a good idea, I'd feel a lot more comfortable talking about myself there too.