As many of you know, today was a federal holiday in the US, celebrating Martin Luther King Junior's contribution to the civil rights movement. It honors the man himself and his legacy, and symbolically paves the way for February's Black History Month, in much the same way he paved the way for Obama to be elected as the first half black president, to bring balance to the Force.
Wow, it's hard to believe MLK's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech was nearly sixty years ago. I just thought this would be a nice moment to share how each of us celebrated today.
(Cricket may have a unique perspective, as I know due to a typographical error, MLK day is commonly still known in North Dakota as MILK day.)
Anyway, I was supposed to be off today. Not because it's MLK day, it's just that I'm usually off on Mondays. Although I did end up having to go in a few hours early in the morning. I hadn't been able to get a straight answer on how long I'd have to stay since it depended on a few factors, but it didn't end up being too bad.
Sent mentioned that it was MLK day in the Discord, at which point I said out loud to one of the two black people I regularly interact with, something like, "Hey, I forgot today was Martin Luther King day, I guess I can't go to the bank after this."
He said something like, "Oh, yeah?" but to tell the truth I'm not sure if he heard me, my voice doesn't always project as well as I'd like and he's one of those guys that's an expert on making non-commital noises that make it seem like he's paying attention when he's not.
Anyway, then I went home and started playing Minecraft. I mentioned in the Discord thread that Ford had gone and rented us a server the other day. I haven't played seriously since 2016 and there is sooo much new content now I feel like we're playing with mods even though it's all vanilla.
I got really into Minecraft when it was still in alpha, back when creative mode was all there was and we were restricted to little square islands. My interest would wax and wane the way it does with most games, but I kept up with the major releases for a long while. Then at some point it just exploded in popularity and the community became too toxic to put up with. And Minecraft is one of very few games I prefer multiplayer to single player on. Oh, every so often after I basically quit the game I'd get the urge to play again and go try out new map seeds to tool around in my own worlds, but single player just felt so lonely. Ultimately I'd always come to realize that no one was ever going to see any of the giant empty mansions I build, and it would get to me a little and I'd lose interest.
Obviously I had some doubts at first about a server run by Ford, but something about this game apparently just brings out his wholesome side. Or at least he seems to actively enjoy playing too much to excessively fuck with anyone.
There was a turtle he'd spawned in near the original spawn point base. His name was 30. I don't know why, that was just on the nametag when I logged in and found him there. 30 had been there a couple of days and seemed a little listless. Every so often he'd float up in the air and try to swim a few feet, but I could tell his heart wasn't in it. Probably the lack of water.
I built a little containing area around him out of stone bricks and was planning to try and turn it into a pond, and have Sentinel plant kelp in it, when Ford logged in. He was able to upgrade it all to a glass tank and spawn in some fish friends/food. But to me it looked pretty overcrowded, which is something I'm knowledgeable about based on the research I did when I briefly got into keeping an aquarium IRL, before all my fish got itch and died.
So it was suggested he install a new tank in place of DarkSpawn's substandard house, but Dark had a dog there that Ford refused to drown. So a hill right next to spawn point was the next area chosen. He dug a very nice turtle mansion, basically a gigantic, deep swimming pool lined with some of that pretty aquamarine tile from ocean monuments, with glass up above where people would be viewing from. Spawned in all kinds of fish to keep 30 company, and also 30 had babies so I guess he was actually a she.
All of us who were online went over to look at the new aquarium, and he gave us eight minute water breathing buffs so that we could dive down in the tank and swim with the fishies. I was expecting he'd deactivate the buff or let us be killed by some of the more aggressive fish, or otherwise get us killed in there, but no, it was just a lot of swimming around listening to happy dolphin sounds and admiring the aquarium residents.
In fact I'm marking 1/20/2020 down as the day of the most wholesome and whimsical Minecraft experience I ever had.
While in the pool we kept hearing zombie groans, and while clearing out the cave of them directly below the tank, Ford realized there had been a spawner literally right on our spawn point, close enough that he was the only one who could actually destroy the spawner block. I went back to my room to collect my things after the swim and feed Sabley (my chicken), while I guess TheChef and TheCanary went to mess with the spawner. All I know is Chef came running over the hill a couple of minutes later, chased by an entire horde of zombies, and they were all on fire and also catching him on fire.
There were several explosions not long after that and Chef and Canary were running in and out a lot, idk, I was safe inside and got sidetracked IRL putting some laundry away around then.
Actually, I just realized I didn't celebrate MLK day at all. Whoops. But I did finally finish building the second floor of my inn and then write 800 words about vampire hunters. I'm sure if MLK were alive today he'd be...well he'd probably be another Cosby if I'm being completely honest, but also I'm sure he'd otherwise be a great guy and someone who can appreciate a really nice pixel aquarium.
