The Minecraft April Fools Jokes for 2011 and 2013

This year Mojang, the company that produces minecraft,  made the best April Fools joke in history and I fell for it... really badly. Mojang talked to some of the most famous YouTubers and got them in on the prank. They got the administrators of the MindCrack server (a server that only people that are ridiculously famous on YouTube get to play on) to agree to release an exclusive update pre-release video and showcase an "update pre-release". So many things were added to the prerelease like, torches that burn out, the possibility to over feed animals, tinted glass, TNT slabs, and much more. I was so excited after seeing the video that I logged onto a multiplayer server and told everyone about the  pre-release video. This one player then told me, "lol, dude you know that was this year's April Fools joke right?" Well I had to admit it; they TOTALLYgot me. Here's one of the videos by one of the YouTubers who was in on the prank. Skip to 1:40 to see the features of the fake update.

There was also a good April Fools joke in 2011, so if you missed out on that look at this video. The joke takes place from 2:08-3:53

A PVP Server

I haven't done a Minecraft post in a while, but I want to share a pvp server that my friend introduced to me recently. I've attached a narrated video of me showcasing the server's features. As I get ready to post my entry, I realize that some might find the Minecraft vocabulary objectionable. The words "kill" and "die" are used to describe events in the battles between two teams of Lego-like characters. There are no guns, no blood; but bows and swords are used in combat. As video games go, Minecraft doesn't contain graphic violence. In my own life, I support peaceful solutions to problems in our world. I spent yesterday working at the Little Friends for Peace organization in a D.C. neighborhood that is plagued by violence. You may have read my earlier post after the Newtown tragedy, about attending a vigil to end gun violence. I don't think my interest in gaming conflicts with my personal values or philosophy about living an ethical life. I, like most avid gamers, know the difference between fantasy and reality. I hope you take my post in the spirit that was intended, and that you have you have a hobby that you enjoy as much as I do mine.

What Silver Spring is to me

I'm going to have to write this post quickly. I have had a hectic past 2 weeks, what with my Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close project, and exams. But now that I'm done with this my schedule should be free. I'm probably going to have a good next few weeks with the play and the British students. So to quote Paul Revere, "The British are coming, the British are coming!" I have always wanted a reason to say that. Anyway. the video may seem a little choppy , but that was only because of the constraint on the time. Also the fact that a few clips are missing... well that's the reason  need to type  quickly. I tried to re-upload the video, and restore the video files, but my computer came up with a blue screen of death. So as I'm writing this my computer is a ticking time bomb for another blue screen and potentially an unfixable one. Hopefully if I shut it down for the rest of the night the problem will go away, and i realy hope this problem will not persist and that  the computer isn't doomed. Well untill then I better give my computer a rest.

Minecraft 1.4.6 Review

I finally had the time to do something Minecraft related! It's been so long since I last posted something Minecraft related on this blog. So today I will treat you with a visit from a long awaited minecraft video. And before you ask, no it's not a machinima. I've been having a hard time coordinating a time that my friends can log on and be actors, and when I finally coordinated a time that worked for everyone, the universe decided that that would be a good time for my server to crash making me unable to film. Well I got around it by recording my review of the new minecraft update. Remember the last update review with the picture gallery? Remember how it took up so much space? well now that I put that in a video this post will not be as long as the 1.4 update review. I did forget to mention in the video that the Minecraft programmers added a Christmas surprise that only took place on the 24th and the 25th, they made the chests in minecraft look like Christmas presents. For some reason blogger is not letting me post a picture, so I will get you a picture of that when I can. There really is not that much to cover because this wasn't as major of an update as 1.4 was. So without any further ado here's the review video. I hope you likle it!

Model Rockets

Every December, my friends and I go launch model rockets at the college my mom's friend's husband works at (if you managed to keep that straight then kudos to you sir or madam) every year I take video of the event, but I never post it on the Internet. Since I'm already posting on this blog why not make this year the year I finally put this kind of thing online. Anyway, the whole thing is very 1950's-ish in the aspect that the men go and launch things into the heavens, while the women stay home and make Christmas cookies. And before you think I'm a sexist jerk let me explain... the kitchen that is used to bake the treats is tiny and cramped enough as it is and with the 3 teen girls and 5 women there is just no room for the guys in there. In fact we are normally kicked out of the kitchen for taking up too much space. So 3 years ago today my mom's friend's husband (I'm just going to call him Tom from now on) took me, Nick, and the other boys and their dads to go launch their model rockets. And let me say that over the las two years the lost rocket count has dropped significantly. Actually a few years ago a rocket came straight down on us and no parachute deployed so it was going to drill into the ground and what did we do? We stood there like idiots filming the danged thing untill we realized that the parachute wasn't comming out and it was roughly 50 feet above the ground. But don't worry nobody was hurt. Anyways Here's the video I hope you enjoy it!

Capture the Fall

Hey, so, this is the Capture the Fall independent video assignment. For my video I decided that I would take some stills of the woods and footage of the Northwest Branch watershed near where I live--- then add some transitions and music. The end result is a sort of video/slide show that highlights the beauty of nature in autumn. I hike here all the time with my family, including my dog.
This production was also a good opportunity for me to experiment with editing video at home. Up until now, I've spent a lot of after school hours editing in the studio. Equipment's in short supply and it means getting home really late. I tried out Windows MovieMaker on my PC and got a good result even though the software is not quite as professional as Final Cut. It would be great if there was a Windows version of Final Cut. I'm going to look into it.

5x5 project

1. medium shot of tying shoes

2. medium shot of legs walking a dog

3. high angle of running legs

4. medium shot of running on a treadmill

5. medium shot of resting and dropping shoes

I am very pleased with the way that this 5x5 turned out. I went to walk the dog and said to my self, hey I'll do a 5x5 about walking. But I couldn't have done any of it with out the help of my mom who agreed to get on the ground and film a lot of shots of my legs and feet with my flip video camera. I then imported my clips to wevideo, an online video editor. If someone out there wants to get into video, but doesn't have an editing software, then tell them about wevideo. The best part about it is that it directly exports your project to YouTube.

For the next independent video i think it might be kind of cool for students to have a v-log of their interdisciplinary project. It would be cool for other students to see what their class mate got out of the experience and for teachers to see how they influenced us along the way.