I have wanted to restart my blog, but was worried that I would again let it lapse as I always do (I am very bad at keeping up things like diaries). Some friends suggested I instead choose a focus that wouldn’t be too vague and then write posts on other things as I wanted. So this is mostly going to be a review of the books I read for my reading challenge every year. This year, that is a list of Own Voices books! I’ve read a few already, so might do some back posts, but I will at least try to post things when I finish reading something going forward. I will post the list (as well as a reading log that is very detailed, but something I enjoy and thought I’d share) so you can read along if you would like, but I’m not going in any specific order. I will try to do a quick post here to let you know what I’m planning to read/when I’m starting something new. Currently, I’m about two thirds of the way through Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn. I will probably finish it this weekend, so hopefully there will be a review post in the next week or so!
I’m just getting this blog started right now, but watch this space and I’ll have some writings up soon. I plan on focusing first on Astral Sorcery and Advanced Rocketry!
I have finished The Distance Between Us and will review it shortly (spoiler, it was good). This is a different review, and a quick one at that. I bought a Nintendo Switch yesterday and was pleasantly surprised how accessible the packaging was. I didn’t take regular unboxing pictures and was too lazy to put everything back in, so you’ll have to use your imagination as far as the various accessories goes, but here’s the basic box info.
switch box with hand pulling out tab
First, the entire box is cardboard. While the accessories are wrapped in plastic as needed for cushioning, it’s nice that the box itself is at least recyclable. The whole thing is held shut with a simple tab that is actually easy to get out. You don’t feel like you have to rip the box apart just to slide out a single tab.
inside of Switch box showing insert for Switch and Joycons
The top insert has spots for the Switch and Joycons with cutouts making it easy to grab out the products. Then it lifts out easily to reveal the other accessories.
Bottom insert of Switch box for accessories
Again the accessories were wrapped in various plastic/bubble wrap bags, but they weren’t sealed, so you just had to unfold the top and slide out the pieces. All in all I was very impressed how easy it was to unbox the whole thing. Admittedly, the setup directions could have used a little work, but I got there in the end. At least it seemed they were thinking about people with physical disabilities, which is particularly nice since the Switch is designed to be played so many different ways it’s an easy option for disabled people. Sadly playing with the Joycons attached to the Switch seems to be pretty uncomfortable for my fibromyalgia, so I’ll be trying it today with the Joycons separated (I suspect this will be more comfortable and might be how I end up playing most of the time).
Update: I have now spent the same amount of time, if not more, with the detached Joycons and it is wonderful! I wish I could connect these to my PC, I would use them constantly! I thought the tiny buttons might be a problem but they fit my hands so well that it’s not an issue for me at all. They give me the ability to sit however I want so there’s no stress on my back or shoulders and even with pain in my hands I don’t have any trouble using them.
CW: Physical and sexual abuse, prostitution (both chosen and forced), violence toward people and animals
I mentioned in my previous post that I gave this book a 3. I also mentioned that I rarely give books a 1 or 2 star review. Usually 2 stars is for a book that I hated but felt compelled to finish for one reason or another. 1 star is reserved almost exclusively for books I DNF’d and have no intention of picking up again. So why did I give this a 3?
First, the good things. Nicole Dennis-Benn did an amazing job of capturing the patois of Jamaica. Most of the characters use this patois, with one specifically switching back and forth depending on whom she is speaking to. It’s masterfully done and yet easy to read even if you’re not incredibly familiar with the style. She also did a wonderful job portraying the beauty and the poverty of Jamaica. You can easily see the trees, flowers, and ocean as well as the flea-bitten dogs and shoeless children. Her words paint a picture, both audibly and visually.
So why didn’t I like it? Mostly because of the characters. Literally every character is in it for themselves, and that would be fine, but most of them, specifically the three main characters (all women, a mother, older sister, and younger sister) think that they are in it for others. The mother thinks she has sacrificed everything for her children. The older daughter thinks she’s sacrificed everything for her younger sister. The younger sister feels she has been forced into a life she didn’t want because she’s supposed to be the one who makes it out of poverty and lifts up her mother and sister. Yet, despite these feelings, all any of them can think about is themselves. The younger sister has some forgiveness for this, she is a teenager, after all, but the other two women are adults who really ought to have figured out how to be decent people by this point. The mother is abusive to her older daughter, to the point of selling her into prostitution and beating her, seemingly because she’s angry that the daughter’s father didn’t stick around. The older daughter continues the abuse, this time employing other young women as prostitutes to work for the local hotel chain (mostly so that she can take over as manager of the big new hotel and further her own dreams). The younger daughter wants to go to art school, and is, apparently, quite talented. She also sort of wants to give it all up for a boy, which further infuriates her older sister and mother as they both feel men are the problem.
I don’t know, I guess by the end of the book I just didn’t care enough about any of the women. The one I cared the most about was a satellite character that was sort of dating the older daughter, but you rarely actually get anything from her perspective. I would have loved a book just about her! I realize it might be naive to think that the characters should have been better, and maybe that was one of the things Dennis-Benn was trying to support with her writing, that people aren’t better, but I just couldn’t care enough about anyone for it to matter.
I have finished Here Comes the Sun and have been thinking about what I want to say about it. I will admit I rarely give out one or two star reviews. This one was a three which means I was decidedly on the fence about it. At any rate, something should be forthcoming on what I thought.
I wanted to let you all know that the next book I’m reading will be The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande, in case you’d like to join me. It is a memoir about her experiences in Mexico from when her father moves to the states and follows through to her own illegal immigration. CW: It sounds like there is some mention of abuse, but I’m not sure how much.
I will probably start reading it in the next day or two. The blog post for Here Comes the Sun will probably be up around the same time.
Astral Sorcery is a fun mod for Minecraft that lets you harness the power of the stars for magic. I highly suggest the wiki found at https://minecraftguides.net/AS/getting%20started for a lot of information, but there are some things that can still be a little bit confusing. This post will take you through getting started, and further posts will cover later sections of the mod.
If you’re using a modpack that has an Akashic Tome (like All the Mods 3 Remix) you’ll already have an Astral Tome included. In case you have to make one, you’ll need to combine a book with a piece of parchment (four aquamarines around a piece of paper) and three aquamarines.
Regardless of whether you start with an Astral Tome or not, I suggest spending some time collecting a handful of aquamarines, as they’ll be needed for crafting various early items.
Aquamarines are found underwater in sand
You’ll also want some marble and an ender pearl or two. As these last can be tricky to get if you’re early game, look around for shrines and seek out the hidden chests.
In small shrines, chests are located under one of the pillars.
In large shrines, two chests can usually be found by digging underneath the shrine, as well as a large Collector Crystal (more on these later). One of the things you’ll also want to collect from these chests are the Constellation Papers.
Constellation Papers appear blank at first glance, but once placed into your inventory will reveal a constellation.
When a constellation is revealed, a message appears that you’ve memorized it
You can find five constellations this way, Evorsio, Armara, Discidia, Vicio, and Aevitas. Once you’ve found these five, the papers will remain blank when you pick them up. I suggest still collecting 11 blank pages, but this can also be left for later in your studies. By sneak+right clicking your Astral Tome, you can open a section to store your constellation papers, keeping them handy for later experiments.
Collector Crystal channeling starlight to crafting table
Once you’ve gathered some aquamarines, marble, and an ender pearl, it’s time to start some basic crafting. Craft a vanilla crafting table and place it in the room underneath a large shrine. A beam of light will connect the Collector Crystal to the bench, allowing you to create a few necessary items. The first is a Resonating Wand and the second is a Luminous Crafting Table. The recipe for the Luminous Crafting Table requires a few types of marble, which can be made via recipes in the Astral Tome, but you can also use a chisel to create the various pillars, rune, arch, engraved, and chiseled marbles required. A chisel can also be useful if you find you need to convert marble from mod to Astral Sorcery. Once this has been crafted, you will find that another section has been created in your Astral Tome (scroll out from the Discovery section) called Exploration.
After both of these items have been crafted, find an open spot to place your Luminous Crafting Table. Many people build an open, elevated space for this, but all that is really required is space for your table to grow in size, as well as accessories to be added later, and a view of the night sky. At this point, if you are playing on a server, I suggest letting others know what you’re doing, as most of the rest of what you want to do will need to be done at night (which players tend to want to skip).
Rock Crystal Ore from the surface
The first thing you’ll probably want to do with your wand is go looking for Rock Crystal Ore. These ores can be elusive, and the Astral Tome is a bit vague about how to find them. If you stand on the surface at night and hold your wand in either hand, you’ll be able to see globes of white light emanating from the ground. I find it’s helpful to place a marker at these spots and wait until daylight to dig (this lets you avoid mobs sneaking up on you). However you decide to search, you will want to dig down, as these ores are only found between level 5 and bedrock. I find it’s helpful to build a Tinker’s Construct Hammer, dig a 3×3 hole, then a small “shelf” in the wall where I can stand to dig another 3×3 hole, and so on. This gives me a place to stand where I won’t suddenly find myself in lava, and also lets me place torches along the way so I can see.
You can also use your wand underground to see where ores might be hiding lower down, as long as it is night. These ores have to be mined by players, a quarry or mechanical digger will not yield any crystals. There is, however, a loophole. If you have at least a Tier 2 Void Miner from the Environmental Tech mod, it will occasionally find the Rock Crystal Ore. Since this isn’t mined, you can collect it and just use a pick on the ore to get the crystals. Typically you need a mining level of obsidian (diamond pickaxe) or the ore will shatter without yielding any crystals.
At this point, you are ready to start on the Exploration section, so stay tuned for another post with more information!
I’m a casual gaming dragon and thought I’d use this blog to share a bit about me. I’m currently working on a Master’s in Language and Literature and enjoy talking about linguistics and Tolkien, but I’m also fluent in the language of the internet, so don’t expect things to get too academic here! I’m also disabled and suffer from chronic pain, so that might come up from time to time as well. Mostly, though, I thought this might be a good place to discuss various mods for Minecraft (and eventually, I’m sure, other games) since I’ve recently walked several friends through various things. I’ve been frustrated before by mods that didn’t necessarily have great wikis and/or tutorials and wished for a place where someone wrote things out instead of doing a 25 video youtube series on it. Hopefully, this can start to be that place!
Dragon's Notebook 