Weekly World Facts - A Day Off Track

Hello, I return today to give you this week's Weekly World Facts. You might have noticed I did not call it Wednesday's Weekly World Facts. That would be because 1. it is not Wednesday anymore. 2. I did say - A Day Off Track at the end so that might give you a clue. Basically, I did not make this yesterday so I am creating it today. But enough of my rambling, I must get on. Last week you might remember our Question Asking Person saying this: No, wait! What about my last question? The Biggest Country question? You have to answer that! Of course, I did not answer that question (on purpose). I promised I would answer it this week (on Wednesday) so I am going to have that one be the first question answered. Read on now to see this week's Weekly World Facts!

Finally you are going to let me ask this! Now tell me what the biggest country is... please?
I know you are going to be mad because I made you wait so long but the biggest country is... (drum roll please) Russia! You thought I would name a place you probably never heard of before? Well, all of those places are tiny. If you are wondering, Russia's national animal is the Russian Bear and Russia is known for very long, cold winters.

Okay... I have seen pictures of Hummingbirds but what is so special about them?
Hummingbirds are really cool for many reasons. First of all, a humming bird can flap its wings up to 70 times per second, and it does not flap up and down like most. A hummingbird will flap in a figure-eight style with its wings. Another cool thing is how many times its heart will beat in a second. A hummingbird's heart will beat on average 1,260 times per second. Isn't that fast? One thing I like about hummingbirds is that they are so small and colorful. They are no more than 8 inches long, and they do not weigh any more than .7 ounces. Not to mention there is over 300 different species plus they pollinate. To the right is a picture of just one type of humming bird.

How many more questions can I ask? I don't want to but cut short again.

If I don't count that as a question - which I don't - one more. Seriously? Yes. But... Fine. Here is my final question: What is the biggest animal in the world? I am shocked you asked that. I was thinking you would ask something like: What is the rarest insect in the lowest part of the mountains of China? Well now you got to tell me that too! Maybe next week (probably not because finding that answer would be super hard). As to your question, the answer is the Blue Whale which also happens to be the biggest sea animal. They are about 100 feet long and weigh about 200 tons. An Elephant weighs 15,000 pounds and I bet you know how big Elephants are. Imagine how this would look in real life! I can't imagine anything that big. Can you tell me a size of something small? Nope, I am not letting you trick me into answering more questions. I have to save some for next week you know. If you say so...

I hope you enjoyed this week's Weekly World Facts even if it was a day off and I only answered three questions. If you don't like the questions asked by the little Imaginary Person, or you would like to ask your own, you can always ask me in a comment and I might answer in the next week's Weekly World Facts if I can find an answer to it. I am going to work on editing the Hero's Prophecy series now (while listening to original Minecraft songs on Youtube) so I will be signing off here. Be ready for next week's Weekly World Facts and of course, Minecraft Monday!



 

Minecraft Monday - My New Creative Land

 Minecraft Monday is Today!

Hello, I return today to give you the next Minecraft Monday. Now before I go on, one thing you might notice is that I added no pictures to today's post. Well, that is because I added a video I made instead. Yes, I know I said in the past that my camera does not work well for videos, but I still tried for a few hours yesterday. Well... I had some problems like these: 1st try I was too quiet, 2nd try the camera froze, 3rd try the camera shut off, 4th try there was a buzzing sound and the color was messed up, and for all the other tries there was still the buzzing and color problem plus Katie could not stop laughing for some reason (she was helping me with the video from 2nd try on). So once I showed my dad one of the videos, he decided to do the recording for us with his camera. Luckily that worked (first try) or else I would probably have to take 100 screenshots just to get some of the world shown. Anyways, down below I described my new Creative World if you don't want to watch the video or if you would like to read as well. Note: The video isn't too long, so I recommend watching it (plus Katie added some comments). The video is below, and it is also on Youtube if you are wondering.

This is going to be hard to do without pictures, but I might as well try. I made the new world, Creative World, when I was bored but it ended up becoming this week's Minecraft Monday. How? Well, I guess you can say it is because I liked the idea of an Ocean/Dessert house. And since this was on Single Player and not Multiplayer, no one besides Katie and me could see my new world. Considering I spent 2-3 hours a day working on the world, I really wanted someone to see it.

So... the first thing you should know is what update I used for this world. I used 1.8, but I once made the mistake of going on there in 1.7.10 and everything disappeared. The paintings in the main house were dropping to the ground, and even the normal items before 1.8 were gone (the ones in the chests). Luckily I was able to get it all back in 1.8. Well, sort of anyways. The paintings and items were gone but the building was not. With about 10-20 minutes that was fixed and then I went to creating the outdoor kitchen/seating area. Then I made the Small Pond Park deeper, added the Squid Machine, chickens, lily pads, fencing, and the entrance sign. Then I made the gardens, Rabbit House, Harry Potter Sheep Farm, the Farmer's Garden, and finally the roller coaster. Between the creation of these areas, I worked on improving the outdoor Kitchen/Seating and the main house.

One of my favorite things about my world is the bricks I used for making the main house. The flooring is nice, but I really like the walls. If you have ever seen a Wither and have a good eye for catching details, then you might have noticed that each brick for the walls has a Wither carved into it. If you are wondering, a Wither is a floating, three-headed boss you can create. They are considered the boss of the Nether because they can throw explosive, poisonous mini wither skulls at you or any other mob.

And, since my favorite movie and book series is Harry Potter, I created the Harry Potter Sheep Farm. There was already grass and normal sheep, but I fenced them in, raised the grass and stone so they could not go mountain climbing, and then colored and named them based off the Harry Potter characters and actors/actresses. I still have to add some more sheep, but I already have 8 sheep, 2 Iron Golems, 2 Horses, and 1 Shepherd (a villager).

The Roller Coaster is basically finished now because I spent about an hour and a half improving it, and after this post I will go and improve it even more. The roller coaster goes up, drops down like a cliff (looks like it is griefed) and then goes downhill underground. After that it falls down another cliff, goes forward through a natural cave, drops down a cliff again, goes on top of the bedrock, climbs upwards, turns a little bit (now on the surface), climbs upwards towards the sky, and zooms down a wooden track, cutting right through a tree and ends up next to the outdoor Kitchen/Seating area. Oh, and I forgot to mention, when it is underground, before climbing upwards, it passes over a raven filled with ores, water, lava, caves, and monsters. Cool right? Well, maybe I will make next week's Minecraft Monday about it...

I think this post is shorter than the average Minecraft Monday, but most of it is in the video. Keep an eye out for new posts and announcements, and if you have 5 minutes, 50 seconds to spare, please watch the video! That is all for this week's Minecraft Monday, but I will be back again soon enough.

 

Announcement - The Next Minecraft Monday

Announcement!

 

I am here today to give an announcement on the next Minecraft Monday. As you might already know, on every Monday I create a post related to Minecraft. This week's Minecraft Monday post was an interview with the Hero's Prophecy characters. Last week's Monday I showed my hardcore single player survival world. The week before that I talked about the Minecraft Server, UCC. And the week before that... well, there was no such thing as Minecraft Monday. Now that Monday is coming closer by the second, I am here to make an announcement on what the next Minecraft Monday will be about.

Yesterday I created a creative world in Single Player because I often times play late at night so no one is ever online. Plus I don't have any good creative worlds in Single Player (most of them are Katie's). I don't want to go into too much detail since that is for Minecraft Monday, but I will say I built this very strange house in 1.8 that is a mix of Dessert and Ocean style. Strange right? Well, you will have to wait until Monday to find out for sure!

Animal Pictures from the Past

I return again today to show more of my pictures. Last week I made a post showing some of my nature pictures I took in the past. Well, this is basically the same idea but it is of animals. All the pictures I will be showing are from different trips to the two Zoos in Seattle that has happened throughout the years. I hope you enjoy!

Tigers, like the one in this picture, are my second favorite animal. My first favorite is the Giant Panda if you are wondering, but that could change. It was hard to get the picture to turn out right with the fence and people in the way, but I would rather have a fence in the way than have no fence any day. I took this when me and Katie were over in Seattle with our grandma this summer, and I had to take like twenty different pictures of the Tiger just to get one or two good ones. And, like I said in a past post, I normally don't edit pictures but I did crop out some of the fencing in this one which also makes it look like the tiger was just a few feet away from me.

This is a very strange, big, unmoving, and alive fish, but I have no idea what it is called. It looked even bigger and brighter in person but a camera can only show so much. This fish was in a tank with other ones such as an ocean sunfish, smaller fish, and some bigger ones (I really don't know the names of most of them). I liked this one though because it was so colorful and big, plus it was right next to the glass so I could get a few pictures. Actually, it might be a Humphead Wrasse, but I don't know for sure.

As you can see, this is an Elephant (what type, I would have to research first). If it happens to be an African Elephant, it is the heaviest land animal on earth, but I am not sure yet. I like Elephants, but it is hard to imagine how big they really are even when you're at a Zoo. Or maybe I always think they will be bigger, but when I get to see them I find the Elephants are short (in my opinion). But they don't hold the record for being the tallest so I should not see why I think of them as huge. Maybe I get the idea of a huge dinosaur's size in mind when someone mentions an Elephant, but who knows? I have to admit though, Elephants are pretty cool even if they aren't super tall.

This is a picture of the world's tallest animal - the Giraffe. Only thing is, in this picture it does not look all that tall. Unless you notice its head nearly reaches the pine tree's branches of course. Anyways, I did edit this picture by cropping out some things, but I took it so long ago I can't remember if I added any contrast or lighting to it. I probably did, but it does not really matter. I also noticed something - the heaviest land animal and the tallest animal are both in Africa. The Elephant (heaviest land animal) and the Giraffe (tallest animal) hold those two records. It would be really cool if I could actually see these animals out in the wild, but I have a feeling they would squish or attack me before I could even take a decent picture. 

The last picture I have to show is that of a brown bear. I don't know how I did it, but this one actually looks like I am out in the wild. Well... maybe not since I don't think the water would be like that and you can also see the top of a fence down in the bottom left corner. But, if you forget those things, you could imagine this was taken out in the woods. How did I not get eaten or chased? Well... let's just say it is a secret (if you pretend this was not at a Zoo). I like brown bears too along with Giant Pandas, Tigers, Wolves - I like almost all animals.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post and these animal pictures. Sorry I could not get more recent ones, but this is sort of like a Blast from the Past type of post based off animals. I would really like to see these out in the wild, like I already mentioned, but that would not be possible right now. Until then I can look at pictures of them online, at the Zoo when we go to it, and on my camera. I'll be signing off now so I can work on some things, but I will return again tomorrow.

Wednesday's Weekly World Facts - The Biggest... The Smallest

I have returned from reading to give you today's Weekly World Facts. You might think, from reading the title, what does The Biggest... The Smallest mean? Well, it is really simple. Today's Weekly World Facts post is going to be about the biggest and smallest of all sorts of things. And to make this even more interesting, I added pictures of some of these things too (I always add pictures!). Read on to learn about everything big and small:

Yes, I get to ask questions now! First question: What is the world's tallest mountain?

This is Mt Everest, not Mauna Kea

Well, most might say: "Mt Everest is the biggest!" but really, it is not Mount Everest (in Nepal/Tibet) has the highest altitude, not height. The tallest - from base to point - is actually Mauna Kea (in Hawaii). But how? Well, Mount Everest, like I said, has the heighest altitude but that is only because most of Mauna Kea is underwater. Mauna Kea is about 33,500 feet overall, but only a small bit of it is above the surface.

So that is the tallest mountain, but what about the longest river?
 The longest river is the Nile which is in Africa, followed by the Amazon which is located in South America.  Now if you want to know the shortest river in the world, that would be Roe River in Montana. Why should I know the shortest river too? The more you know the better...

The Chinese Giant Salamander

Okay, I get it, but what is the largest amphibian?
Largest amphibian... that would be the Chinese Giant Salamander. It can get up to six feet long, and that is thanks to its long, thick tail. Any other animal-related questions?

Yes, I have another animal question. What is the tallest animal?
The Giraffe is the tallest, reaching 18 feet for males and, believe it or not, six feet for the calves (baby Giraffes). Now if you wanted to know the longest animal, that would be the Blue Whale.

I have so many questions! Okay, last one - what is the smallest country? And the biggest?

Vatican City

Hey, you said just one more question! The smallest country in the world is Vatican City, located in Rome. Its size is about 0.2 square miles, so really, really, really small. Now I'll be... No, wait! What about my last question? The Biggest Country question? You have to answer that! Sorry, you did only say one more question and this post is already plenty long. I guess you'll just have to wait until next Wednesday. But... but I want to know! I cannot, at all, wait until next week! If you really must know, look it up. If you can wait, then wait until next Wednesday, okay? But...

Anyways, I will be signing off now. I hope you enjoyed this post and the pictures... and don't worry, I will make another Wednesday's Weekly World Facts post next week so be ready! Note: The Bold is my imaginary person filled with questions which I used in another post before. Sorry I did not mention this until now, but at least you know.

Coding and Animation - Two New Skills to Learn

I am back again today to tell you all about two new skills I am trying to learn. One, which I think I already mentioned before, is HTML and CSS coding. I have been using CodeAcademy along with a library book and an online collage class for creating web pages. Well, the other thing I am just starting to learn is 3D animating. How did I come up with the idea to do animating or 3D over 2D? Read on to find out!

Well, I guess the idea to do 3D animations came from watching Slamacow's Minecraft Animations. I think I already mentioned Slamacow in past posts... or maybe that was somewhere else. Ever since watching Slamacow's animations I have liked animating. Why had I not tried before? Well, I saw something that said the good 3D animating programs were sometimes more than $3,000 which was just way too much. Luckily for me, my mom found this free 3D animating program that even Slamacow recommends called Blender. I downloaded it today, but I still have to get around to watching tutorials on YouTube so I can start. Maybe - if I ever get good enough - I can animate the Hero's Prophecy series I am writing... just maybe. Note: The video below is not mine, but it is a sample of what can be done in Blender.

One thing I know about 3D animating is how long it takes to make one single, four or five minute animation. Slamacow's animations take multiple months to create, and he is skilled in animating. For me? Um... I have to first learn how to even create a basic, unmoving object. I would like to do some real animating, but I have a feeling it could take a while to get there. Meanwhile, I have coding and animating practice to do.

So, what is HTML and CSS? I don't really know how to explain that... Oh well, I might as well try. HTML and CSS is what creates things like webpages. Coding is sort of like a different language, one that a viewer to a webpage cannot see. HTML consists of... what would you call them? Tags? Okay, I'll just call them tags. One HTML tag is this: <p> (The paragraph goes here) and </p>. I would show you more examples, but HTML is much longer than normal words thanks to all the tags.

First one is 2D Mario, second is 3D

Why am I learning these two things - coding and 3D animating? Well, first of all, I think they are cool and good to learn. Secondly, I am thinking of a computer related career which animating and coding both are under. You might also ask, like I listed in the first paragraph, Why are you doing 3D instead of 2D? Isn't 2D easier? Well, here is my answer to that: I would rather do 3D because it looks cooler even though it is indeed harder to do. 2D, in my opinion, just is not as cool as 3D. And why do I care about everything being "cool"? I am not at all like Hero from the Hero's Prophecy, so why do I care? Well, I would rather learn something cool or fun than doing something boring. I sort of classify the word cool as fun, so that could be an easier way of explaining that. Simple answer: Cool = Fun. So as you can - or maybe - see, I like doing fun things and I find coding and animating fun.

Okay, enough with my ranting on Cool = Fun thing. I really want to get that tutorial done on YouTube so I can get started with basic object making in Blender. Also, the video above is a Blender Demo - not one that I made, obviously - that I thought was pretty cool. I am really wanting to do another one of my Daily Life posts, but I had decided to do those only once a month. When October comes I will do it, but that is still a little ways away. I am also trying to decide when I should do my blogging so sorry if one day I post in the afternoon, one at night, one at 2:30 am, another at midnight, so on, but don't worry, I'll decide soon enough. I'll be signing off here so I can get back to work, but I will do the Weekly World Facts for tomorrow's post so be ready!

Minecraft Monday - The Hero's Prophecy Character Interview

 Minecraft Monday is Today!

I am back again today, after forgetting to post yesterday - sorry about that. Well, it is good I returned on the next Minecraft Monday, right? Right, because if I did not post today either, then where would Minecraft Monday be? In the void... Anyways, let's get on with this week's Minecraft Monday post. If you remember, or even if you do not, I mentioned in an announcement last week that I would do a Character Interview on the Hero's Prophecy Characters. If you want to see how exactly I came up with that idea, here is the link to the post: Last Week's Announcement

 Okay, now time for the actual interview. Read on to discover more about the characters and what they have to say, starting with... Steve! Note: Some of the Questions and Answers go into some of the books such as Book 4, and I can't remember if I explained those ones yet, but try to follow along.

A Skilled Survivor - Steve

Question for Steve: What would you do if a Spider tried jumping at you?  

Answer from Steve: Simple. I would draw my bow and shoot the thing down. I don't fear monsters.

Question for Steve: What would you do if your brother was captured?

Answer from Steve: I would go after him with my bow in hand ready to destroy anything in my way because no one at all is going to hurt my brother. But, in reality, I would probably be more likely to get caught thanks to my great curiosity.

Question for Steve: How do you feel being the Prophecy Child knowing you one day have to kill the extremely powerful Ender Dragon?

Answer from Steve: I... I don't really know. I lived almost my whole life on a farm, and only recently started training in the Nether. If my father, uncle, and great-uncle could not kill the Dragon, then what is the chance I can? I might be brave, and I would never admit this to anyone, but I don't think I can do it alone.

This is not Hero, but that is his enchanted iron sword

Question for Hero: What would you do if a Zombie tried to attack you while you were talking to someone outside in the middle of the night?
 Answer from Hero: First of all, the Nether has no time. It is both day and night. And I don't go outside unless I'm on guard duty. Not to mention the Nether has no Zombies. But if I was in the overworld... I would slice off the Zombie's head with my awesome iron sword with a quick - but still cool - swipe. I still like being cool while fighting, you know.

 

Question for Hero: Your best friend is Sadie, but no one knows her story besides you. What happened in her past?

Answer from Hero: I promised Sadie I would not tell a single person. Her past is horrible... all I can say is she experienced more than one death thanks to the Dragon.

Question for Hero: What do you remember about your mother? If you mind telling everyone that is.

Answer from Hero: She... She was amazing, skilled, kind, smart - everything I could ever want or need. Mum is the one that convinced my father to let me have my first sword. She was an amazing sword fighter, baker, and a great mother in general. I feel bad that the only part Steve remembers of her is when she died. No one mentions her anymore, but I don't know if it is for my benefit or Steve's.

The best picture I could find of Sadie...

Question for Sadie: What are you best at - Archery or Sword fighting? And who trains you?

Answer from Sadie: Everyone says I am good at both, but I feel more at home in sword fighting. And as for who trains me, it really depends. Hero mostly trains me in sword fighting, but sometimes I get his brother, Steve, as my teacher for Archery. Steve is not really a good teacher because he expects me to catch onto what he is teaching right away and he is really boring and strict.

Question for Sadie: What do you think about the upcoming fight with the Dragon? Do you think Steve can handle this?

Answer from Sadie: First of all, Steve can't do it on his own. He even told me and Hero that once. As much as I find him annoying, ever since Hero, Steve, and I went to New York City (In Minecraft) to destroy the portal, I don't think any of can survive alone. And what I just said basically answers your first question. But... I have to say something - I don't fear the Dragon, I hate him for hurting and killing so many people. I want all this darkness to end so our lives can go back to normal - as much as it can... not all of us have a life to go back to.

Question for Sadie: How was it being possessed by the Dragon?

Answer from Sadie: I don't really remember. I saw some parts of what I was doing, hearing, or saying, but I had no control over myself. I remembered when I called Steve a monster though... and I could hear the Dragon whispering in my head, forcing me to say and do things that I would never even think about. The Dragon is pure evil, and I cannot wait until he is destroyed for good.

A quick thing about the Characters:

•  Steve is a natural survivor and based off the Prophecy, it is believed he will slay the Ender Dragon in the future. Steve is just like how he is in the first picture if you are wondering.
• Hero mostly cares about being cool, but he can be very serious when it comes to training. Oh, and I forgot to mention what he looks like: he has blonde hair and white eyes.
• Sadie is big in researching. She would rather read non-fiction about monsters than actually fight them. Sadie is not part of the Herobrine family, but she lives with them now after her town was completely destroyed by the Ender Dragon.  

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's Minecraft Monday! Sorry about the last two pictures... I could not, whatsoever, find a picture that looked like Hero or Sadie. For Hero's picture I ended up taking a screenshot of my skin with his sword (with the same enchantments too). As for Sadie, I spent quite a good time trying to find a girl with long, brown hair who was not wearing pink or bows, but without a good result. I used to have a minecraft skin that looked like Sadie, but I got rid of it sadly. Oh well, I guess I will be signing off here now. Be ready for next week's Minecraft Monday!