Friends Chat

Rod, that sounds like a dream! We would have so much fun! Of course, Jade and I would have to come up with some great vegetarian meal options because we wouldn't be able to eat any of our animal friends. Lol

Kili, that sounds tough. I am really lucky that we can afford for me to mostly stay home right now. Nate's job has given everyone the option to work from home, and only 3 of them are currently going into the office. So they can stay away from each other. It's great because the kids and I would be so distracting if he had to stay home. Lol

Yes, our oldest, Zeke, would just adore you! I know just enough to get by, but he can talk about Pokemon for hours! His second love is Zelda. He is dying for the next Breath of the Wild to come out. :D He and Jade have just recently gotten into Minecraft. I don't think they are aware of the Pokemon mod, or he would be asking for that every day! Lol

Well if you ever want to get it for him, he’ll probably love every second of it! I actually work on a network that’s PG-13 and runs both the Pixelmon (Pokémon mod) and normal Minecraft servers. If he ever wants to play online, I’ll make sure he’s taken care of!

Yes, Zeke will talk and talk and talk about Pokémon. But it's good for him to have interests, even if I can't understand him half the time. And it's not like I'm video game alliterate. It's just there there is a lot of canon and technical details to Pokémon, and I never got into the game to begin with. I'm more of a Zelda / Puzzler / Platformer gamer.

It would be awesome to live in such a commune. And that Library would have to be shared... though if I'm honest, I've gotten way to used to the convenience of reading library-loaned books on my Kindle. I haven't read a paper book in years now. I'm speaking of a Kindle e-paper reader, not a Kindle Fire tablet. Once they added the unique non-backlit lighting, I was hooked.

Kili - unfortunately, our kids play it on the XBox, (and soon to be on the Switch, once the package gets through the "up to 6 week" delays in media mail postal sorting). So... no mods for them, unfortunately. But they will at least be on the bedrock edition once we get the Switch version. I'm starting to regret ordering that, though. I had no idea there was a pokemon mod, otherwise I would have gone for the PC version instead.

Well I don't know your financial situation or how much/little you want to "spoil" the kids, but you could always consider getting them Minecraft accounts on the PC for Christmas. I think it's around $25 now? But the mods and such are all free of course! I'm unfamiliar with the Xbox and Switch versions as I've had PC so no need to get it for my Xbox, but I know that with PC, you get the ability to have a custom character skin and access to public servers (which most are usually at least PG/PG-13 but I always suggest making sure your kids are practicing safe internet usage because I've seen some "interesting" conversations happen).

And myself, while I can read on a device, I just can't ever fully replace the pleasure of curling up to a hardcover book with a cup of hot tea and my favorite sweater! Especially on a car trip!

Ok guys. What would you recommend for my kids on Minecraft. It seems a good game for the builder in Ike or the designer in Izzy.

I would suggest one of two styles: either regular Survival Minecraft or Creative mode. Both of these can be offline/individual save files or on a public, online server. They would be able to build in both, but with Survival, they would have to farm for the resources to build whatever it is they want to create while also playing the game (fighting monsters, eat, farming, etc.). With Creative, they have access to that gamemode and can get any item whether it be by finding it in the directory or using a command to spawn it. Both gamemodes have their pros and cons from my perspective, but either could work.

There are modded versions that include more complex building/decorating custom items, but the public server has to either offer them or you have to find a modpack that includes decorating mods in it. Both are feasible and easier than it sounds.

Survival sound fun and a good logic puzzle for them. And if I could feel comfortable with the online it would be such fun to build virtually with Jade and Zeke and you Kitty. Perhaps the Masters kids play? Is is possible to limit the online to certain friends and exclude others like a chat room? In second life, I would have had to buy an entire island of server space to restrict interaction with strangers. There were Hard divisions between the underage and the adult builds, but any private divisions were expensive. The universities came together as a collective and bought multiple islands that they called EduIsland that they restricted but where the individual universities managed their own private access lists. I started the U of Texas Island between Rhode Island creative writing department and the U of Hawaii art department. We did a collaborative build where I terraformed a volcano on my land I managed with a temple for assembly and classes, and then terraformed Hawaii’s lagoon and RI’s forest. The SL guy from Hawaii in turn programmed the lava flow off the volcano and RI set up a series of outdoor classroom animations for avatars throughout set to various fairy tales. My point is that with land next to you, there is a lot of overlap that’s hard to exclude and fun to explore, but I wouldn’t want to do that with kids except with ones I know.

You could buy your own server, they can be a cheap payment of a couple of bucks a month. If you didn’t want to do that, I’d bring them to the server I manage so that I know they’ll be watched and taken care of by myself and my staff.

oOO maybe I can start play this vacay. Let me look into it. We plan to do some hill exploration tomorrow as dvds and hot chocolate can't entertain us forever. The Izz had seen Frozen at a very long chiropractic/evalutation family visit once. She just told me this. That's why she didn't want to watch it again and instead read her book in another room. Ike and Aslan had no problem watching it full on again. I loved the story! Sad that Christi has restricted them from watching movies like this. I can engage Izzy with Harry Potter, but Ike has only read through one of the dvd's that I brought, so I'm stuck with a limited selection. Minecraft could certainly fill that void.

saw the sun begin to dim
And felt that winter wind
Blow cold
A man learns who is there for him
When the glitter fades and the walls won't hold
'Cause from then, rubble
One remains
Can only be what's true
If all was lost
Is more I gain
'Cause it led me back
To you
From now on
These eyes will not be blinded by the lights
From now on
What's waited till tomorrow starts tonight
Tonight
Let this promise in me start
Like an anthem in my heart
From now on
From now on

Thank you Nate and Tina for introducing me to The Greatest Showman

The moment he told me that he was going to watch The Greatest Showman, I both fangirled myself, but also told him that he'd love it! Never has Rod sent me more messages that I didn't prompt! I was doing the dishes while he watched and every time I was done washing a portion, I'd dry my hands and check my messages to see 6-8 messages with lyrics in them and the occasional comment about the movie in there. I was so amused!

Hey, you started it! lol :P

hahahaha. I told you it had some of the best music in a modern musical! Not to mention a good moral or two. A little lax on historical accuracy, but that can be forgiven, right?

I’ll be returning those dvds Sunday. I’m on a romantic movie kick. Nate, do you happen to have The Holiday?

Yes, I'm pretty sure we do. I'll have to dig it out from the messy room, though.

Just suggest to Tina that the room is messy. You might get lucky... and HAVE to clean it.

I'm not making more movie suggestions if you're just going to make poor Nate and Tina clean up for them! :P

Sheepishly goes and cleans the room myself.