Why does English have both C and K that make the same sound? Gwen and Jane asked me this question today. I have researched it before, but couldn’t remember. So here’s a little explanation. Maybe it will stick in my
Remembering Neil Peart
I just learned that Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for the band Rush, died from brain cancer this week. The depth to which his death has affected me was surprising at first. But as I thought about it, I realized
Primalcraft: A Breakup
I haven’t posted for over two months, and my Minecraft modding plans have changed quite a bit. I had gotten very stuck on the world gen features I was planning for Primalcraft, and couldn’t find a way around or through
Pure Copper d20 from Norse Foundry
Today’s post is about dice. I have friends who’ve gotten aluminum Gravity Dice, and they are very cool. I’ve also been following Artisan Dice for several years, slavering over all the interesting and unique dice they make—ancient bog oak burl,
Primalcraft: New Survival Foods
One of my goals with Primalcraft is to add true survival foods to the game—food you can find out in the wild that aboriginal cultures or our ancestors might have eaten to avoid starvation, and that you can still eat
Realistic World Gen Mods for Minecraft
I’ve been researching Minecraft mods that add realistic, or at least improved, world generation. There aren’t that many. Because Minecraft world gen is a bugger. I’m particularly interested in mods that offer more than just new biomes. I’m not looking
Primalcraft: A Time for Every Season
From the very beginning, I always wanted Primalcraft to have seasons. I love Minecraft’s open world concept—a world that I can change and reshape as desired. But there’s also something special about a world that changes on its own. Seasons
Primalcraft: Switching from Eclipse to IntelliJ IDEA
I haven’t been entirely idle during the past month or so. From day one, I’ve been coding Primalcraft using Eclipse as my IDE (integrated development environment). The main reason is that every single tutorial I found used Eclipse. As a novice, I
Primalcraft: Stone Age Spears
I took a few weeks off from modding to build some shelves in our basement storage room, and then the holidays got all crazy, with lots of sickness in the house. After more than a month away, I’m back at
Primalcraft: Hardcore Darkness
In vanilla Minecraft, it’s never completely dark. Although the default brightness is set to “Moody,” the lowest available, in practice virtually everybody manually sets their brightness to 100%. I do it, myself. Not because I hate the darkness, but because