All posts by mhuffman

Video Games

Minecraft

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I’ve been playing Minecraft for a few years now, mostly in survival mode.  Because I’m a fan of LEGO, most of the time, I collect resources so I can build stuff… safe houses, castles, etc.  And the virtual creations do help with physical creations in LEGO, although I’m more limited in the physical.

2011-08-18_00.08.47A while back, I started a blog where I posted screen shots from the game and some of the creations, called The King’s Road.  The idea was, I’d adventure around, building garrisons or forts and connect them all back to a central castle by a road; written from the perspective of the adventurer doing the work.  And I’d post some of the wonderful terrains that the game generates, or the things I build along the way… Nothing too elaborate or flashy, since with almost every major upgrade, I tend to start all over again with a new world; I seem to never find the time to do something as elaborate as build a full scale Enterprise ship or Kings’ Landing.  I respect the people who can have the time and ability to coordinate such builds.

Anime, Geek

Ore Monogatari!!

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For a few weeks, I had been reading articles from an Anime blog about an anime called, “Ore Monogatari!!”  My first impression was, ok, I get it… a misunderstood giant high-schooler falls in love with a cute petite girl and their awkward, inexperience relationship.  Figured I’d watch the first episode to see what the blog was raving about and write it off as silly and unwatchable.  To my surprise, I’ve actually enjoy the show…Ore Monogatari!!

After watching enough animes, the whole awkward, shy teenager and the easily misreading of the situation thing is very cliche.  Once you get past that, there’s a very tender hearted story there, within the relationships of the characters.  The relationship between the two main characters, Takeo and Yamato, is very syrupy, but there’s a innocent sweetness to it, like all young love.  Between Takeo’s giant ogre-like, larger-than-life, socially awkward qualities and his handsome, stoic-like, super-popular friend Sunakawa, there’s a genuine friendship.

This anime is my guilty pleasure.  I like the slice-of-life elements to it.  And I like the small glimpses into the back-stories — I like stories with multiple layers.

Geek, Video Games

MineCon 2013

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So after sharing photos from Tampa Bay ComicCon the other day, I figured I share another geek-achievements.  Back in 2013, a friend of mine and I decided to pick up tickets for MineCon.  Until then, we had been playing on a server he set up — occasionally play as a team with friends, or just alone when we had time… Survival of course.  I mainly focused on building, while he focused on exploring.

Anyway, I got talked into volunteering for MineCon, where basically I wore a shirt and did line/crowd control for a vendor booth.  Not grueling work, but it did teach me how unorganized the convention was.  Now keep in mind, I’ve volunteer/helped organize a few LEGO conventions in the past; although not nearly the attendance nor size of MineCon.  In the end, volunteering was more of an excuse to meet the people of Mojang up close and personal.  Some guys from the Mojang team were friendly enough & thanked everyone for their hard work, but they weren’t as popular as Notch or Jeb.

I even got to see Notch as he made his way through the crowd of volunteers.  He briefly stopped to talk to a few families, then was whisked away quickly.

So this plugin I’m using only displays 20 pictures in its free state.  If you want to see the rest of my Flickr album of pictures, it’s here: 2013.11 – MineCon

Comics, Geek

Tampa Bay ComicCon

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Last weekend I got to go to Tampa Bay ComicCon with a few friends. The line was short on Sunday and I think the rain kept people away until later in the afternoon — the crowds started to pick up around lunch time. I managed to pick up a few trade paperbacks, got a autograph copy of Brat Pack from Rick Veitch, and some comic artwork from a local artist, Brian Reedy.

Here’s some images from my trip to Tampa Bay ComicCon:

LEGO, Travel

Legoland Billund

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We got an opportunity to visit Legoland Billund in Denmark — the original Legoland park — this past summer.  The park is very old school.  I have LEGO magazines from the late 80’s with pictures highlighting new rides at Legoland Billund… Honestly, not much had changed.

19490946160_bff64cdcd4_zNeedless to say, to a fan of LEGO, this was really fun to experience.  My only complaint would have been the cold weather — it still felt like early spring with temps in the low 50’s.  And my only regret is not getting in contact with local AFOLs for a meet up.

The prices were expensive, because of the exchange rate, so we only picked up a few LEGO items.

The room was amazing!  It overlooked the theme park.  Compared to our room in Copenhagen, it was spacious.  The floors in the bathroom were heated (which I totally get), the towel rack was heated.  The beds were very Scandinavian both in design and comfort.  We really enjoyed watching Big Bang Theory in English, with Danish subtitles.  The internet was free in the hotel.  And the food (although expensive) was enjoyable — we ended up discovering a new cheese that we like from breakfast.  And I wish we could get the whole grain breads here in the US, that we did at breakfast in the hotel.

Anime, Geek

Bodacious Space Pirates

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Bodacious Space PiratesI’ve been watching a lot of Anime this past year; partly it was due to a renewed interest from a co-worker.  And partly because I needed something new to watch.  Right now I’m watching Bodacious Space Pirates…

A side note, first.  I try to stay away from “trendy” anime shows.  Or ones that tend to be over-hyped.  I avoid the whole “mecha” genre as a rule of thumb.  I don’t classify myself as an otaku.  And if I’ve seen more cos-play characters from one particular anime at a comic convention, I tend to avoid it as being over-hyped… Although, I do like/seen Trigun and I’ve known about it for over 10 years now; so it’s one of my few exceptions.

What I like about BSP so far is the Firefly-like narrative.  I won’t bore you with a review just yet, since I’m only about 10 episodes in, but so far I like it.  I like the artwork and spaceship designs, although the story drags a bit.  More to come later…