One year and a week later.

This is a minecraft survival world started the day after Thanksgiving dinner 2015, after a clean install on my computer. The server world in the previous post, is still fine and going on without me, it's just that we've been in-between a good internet connection lately. It's pathetic really. I've been playing this world off line. I managed to transfer my digitally facilitated depression from one video game addiction to the next. What the heck am I doing? I decided to build a 1,000 x 1,000 block area, a million blocks at sea level. This million blocks, all hacked away in survival, in-spite of the fact that I happen to fly up in creative mode to attempt to take screen shot pics of it. I'm gridding out 100 block by 100 areas with chests and cobblestone fence with torches. I have dug my way around the edges. from -1000 to 0, to 0 62 0, to 0 x -1000 to -1000 x -1000 back to where I started at -1000 62 0. I have plugged a crafting table in the 100 x 100 intersections, and made check patterns in only a few areas, because, without any hesitation this "project" is crazy. It's just something I'm doing... why? Please don't ask. I can't exactly tell, this post is perhaps a confession? Or an attempt to shame myself into a better use of our life transition time. ... like perhaps making art, or even doodling storyboards or something?


☮UO a.k.a. Sneeb, Feb. 10th, 2016.

Sneeb in minecraft

To make a long story short, BFF decided to host a server, and join me in minecraft. Now we're both playing. I guess it's a vacation from afterwork evening TV watching i.e. slightly less brain-dead leisure time ?

On my own with TV running in the background I made more then one crazy mountain top temple.

Also, been looking at the achievements. For example, if you feed animal MOBs the correct food they make "baby" cube critters. See baby cow? I think I like the cows the best.














Then after discovering a few villages plagued by mobs of zombies and other bad cube critters. I decided to read the village blue prints in the wiki and improvise my own custom village in a bad-critter free-zone, i.e. this mushy mushroom landscape. So far so good. The Iron Golems are bored. The villagers are running around and they have made some baby villagers. Overall pretty fun results.




Still playing for now, Feb. 4, 2015. Will post more later especially as we wrap up this game and get on with our lives or move on to the next game.

This is BFF's city. It not only looks really cool the buildings are full of villagers.

 This is inside one of the neighborhood he's been cloning. There is a swarm error. The sound all the villagers make as a crowd is really funny.

This is another shot of BFF's city during the day. I mapped it a while ago, it covers over 7 minecraft maps so far, June 2015.

Peace ☮ Sneeb Oxide

Well? so much for peace. August 13th, 2015. Been playing in survival mode for a while. I completed a million block rail road from my home base at /tp 0 100 0 to 1,000,000 97 0.

After that I made maps and tp hubs at rail stations built along the way every few thousand blocks or so.

Then? Still stuck in the box, still playing this game and not knowing why, started playing in the world I build in creative mode, while in survival. This battle photo from last night? I took because it was funny. Multiple skeletons and two creepers, made that pit I'm standing in. Killed them all in the rain no less. What one can't see in pic, is that two chickens, a sheep, and a cow were also slaughtered in the battle. I'm loathe to kill animals. Why? they try to run away, turn red and squeak so sadly. Also, the cube critters, are cute, why kill them if one doesn't have to. So I tend to mostly eat cookies, mushroom stew, apples, watermelon, bread (yes, that's bread in my hand) and sometimes pumpkin pie or cake. Damn, MUDD!!! reading this I confess, I'm addicted to my 2rd virtual world video game. ( not counting other non-Multi User Digital Dimension games ).

virtual MUD and the evolution of Sneeb

SneebOxide in untucked undershirt, in village.

back of edit 1, SneebOxide char

The brief history of Sneeb since the late 80s ( Sneeb = original Nintendo Game Cube user name, Sneeb 1 Nintendo DS, Sneeb 2 Wii and Sneeb 3 Playstation user name, Sneebdubple old Apple game center ID and now SneebOxide via the latest incarnation. Too bad I don't have screen shots of the funny Wii character.

... years ago, ( 2005 I think? ) after a metaverse conference my BFF asked me to check out Second Life, saying that he didn't have time, (very true and very common for those in the tech industry to not have time for screen time after all day staring at miles of code in damn computer boxes, anyways). I've abandoned that game, SL, now years ago and got addiction level occupied by another way more stupid therefore not to be named game, because it was / is brain numbing, in a peaceful way. Then a few weeks later I picked up another video game my BFF asked me to check out, Minecraft.

BFF's orders: "Make an account in Minecraft. Check out the limitations of very simple graphics. Report back."

Me: "Hmm..okay?"

Confession, I made an account and let it sit there un-used for a few months until I discovered some children of another computer programer were playing the game on a LAN, and asked if I could log-in to their shared server and join them. They helped me to learn how to play, showing me all the "wonderful" stuff they were doing with their virtual blocks, strange cube animals, plants, dirt, tools, etc... So, first I'd like to thank these minors, ( age 9 and 11) for showing me how to craft a pickaxe so I could mine cube stuff. And for informing me that certain "mobs" were bad guys, er.. why I was dying all the time. And for helping me to survive so I could have fun. Turns out I'm a peaceful mode type of player. No surprise there really. In grown up life we all deal with more than enough zombies and stuff that blows up metaphorically, IMO why struggle in our virtual lives unless it's cathartic for some reason.

Here is house #1, before I lost it and ended up building 4 or 5 more houses.

Here's a bridge I built :) check out my shirt sleeves, ha ha.

Here's SneebOxide at X, Y, Z ( 0 , sea level, 0 ).

Soo..? Now what?
I mean I explored, made it to X, Y, Z ( 0, sea level, 0 ), found 4 out of 5 of my houses. Do I turn on the Zombies and other monsters now? I'm sort of 'impressed' in a let's play legos sort of way. But? I guess I really want to spend my "spare" time building my own real art or writing fiction, so unless destress puttering counts, this may be the limit and thankfully the level of my addition to Minecraft as of Jan. 14th, 2015.

End of report. 

visit to virtual 2012

It's been a while. I think I wandered in one other time this year, 2012 till my old computer crashed. This time I went in with our mini mac. It has a sub-par graphics card as can be seen by the pics I took today. One is art from the first person I met in SL, years ago, Dan Coyote . The 2nd pic, is the last place I owned land, is underwater and tho I don't own it, is still where I go when I hit the "home" button. Thought this was funny for some reason, then logged out. I did see dots from a couple friends, but I was just wandering, so didn't bother anyone. Strange and sort of sad, quiet in there from my POV looking for art.

digitally facilitated depression

First, let me say to my one follower, this post is 'not' about Second-Life. Second, it really isn't about any game in-particular and yet at the same time, 'is' about a game, IMO the worst, most OCD addictive impulse control cruel game, I've even fallen victim to. It's so bad I'm not going to name it. If you are one of the 35,000+ people this game has already ensnarled, then you know what it is. If not, then this post is about digitally facilitated depression that just happens to center around an addictive "collecting" game.

I started this game (sometime in 2010, after Christmas or early 2011?), and have tried to quit 3 times. I say "collecting" in quotes because, it's a random generator, where you add frogs to an index, and hop around in a pond and eat flies. There are 53 frog breeds, each breed has 16 accent or hue colors and 23 main body colors. 368 x 53 = 19,504 frog to collect in this index. It isn't much of a game. And I'm very confounded as to why I can't quit. My explanation to myself, is that I'm depressed right now, and this mundane hopping, and hatching eggs, 'bits' in my art and fiction, it doesn't matter if I don't want it to. And I'm hoping that if I post this, I can say goodbye to the others, playing and escape. Unfortunately, I will write a bit more when I finish that last 19% / 3,849 digital frogs. Until then ☮ I hope you are well.

(continued some time later )... shuts my brain off. It's very, very low level like watching TV. Also, there are other people trapped, making sets, playing this game and you can give them frogs and receive frog gifts. I wonder about them. I wonder if they feel trapped. Are they in a basement ? like one guy who calls himself "Dave in the basement." Are they traveling? Or in some suburb or city condo somewhere. I know one player works a graveyard shift at a desk and she, (I guess she is a she, I'm not sure) they play while they are bored at work. Today, 08-12-2012 I'm 81% finished with this index of frogs. 15,655 / 19,504 and I've been playing for just over a year. The photo in this blog was taken 10-12-2011 when I was several months into the game. I think I started playing in July? I'm writing this post, because everything we do has an influence on our lives. I need to make a record of this ... this...? brain numbing activity, because, it will relate back to

Sneeb - Sneebdubple, A.K.A. Uva Oxide

Update: I quit this "game" a 4th time. 11/28/2012, 18,091 frogs, 1,198,020 flies eaten, last time I checked my score before deleting the game from my ipad. The game designers had added 47 new frog patterns, 368 x 100 = 36,800 frogs so I was at 50% and knew that it would take me at least 2 years, playing every day to finish, and I just wanted to do other things, play other games even. .. I sort of used Plants v. Zombies as my "methadone",.. to not quit the mind numb activity cold turkey. But, I'm almost done with that game update already, and for whatever reason the cute zombie game doesn't bother me, I'm not pondering what frogs are hatched or zero stamps in my virtual mail box. "Evil-brain-drain-yuck...shudder"

It's December, 16, 2012, so it's been long enough for me to feel like I did actually quit for good this time.

Failed a 5th time. Still going 01/29/2014. 28,000. frogs later.

This photo of the Dex taken March 24, 2014. Note: there are 100 frogs now not 52 or 53 or whatever. 

May 7, 2014.  A friend gave me these frogs. I thought they looked like a set. 

I seem to be getting beyond this game, as I play less, often letting things hatch and grow before I return. 

July 3rd, 2014. dex 91% or 33,150 frogs out of 36,800. 

Lifetime? frogs 78,682 low #10 out of 57 friends #382 overall. (IMO a good thing, the less frogs I make to complete this dex the less time I have wasted).

Flies eaten: 2,222,315 #2 out of 57 friends, #49 overall (Top 10% of 35,110 players).

XP 254,511,950 #5 out of friends. (Top 30% overall ).

Gifts sent: 2,340 #5 out of friends, #61 overall, (Top 30%).

Coins: 3,835,855 #11 of friends, #4,571 (Bottom 40% of all players.

Starting to take parking shots of stupid habs before I sell of gift off the "prizes".

First sign to stop there was a crash and all my 'frogs' in all 15 had reverted to eggs. Then a couple days later all my neighbors disconnected from me. That was key. 

8 / 23 / 2014 Last stats: XP 276,680,039 ( 25 Frog coins ) # of flies eaten 2,344,157. Gifts sent 3,157 Dex 34,339 or 94%

Yes I took this photo, a stream, very clear runoff from a mountain. I'm placing it in this post because I need to change my game center icon.

Saturday Dec. 6, 2014. This post makes zero sense. But, here I am. Sometime after our last move, missing my friends and studio I started one last time, and this time I finished this "Dex" index of 36,800 cute digital frogs. 

Since this game took a bite out of my life I'm going to next type out my "stats" feel welcome to wonder what they mean. I don't have a clue. 

Rank 6 of 58 friends. And #1,249 overall out of 3,631,031 players. 

While playing this game from 2011 to 2014 I "ate" 2,489,079 flies, rank #328 / 3,639,887 players? Note to self, there is a gap in All time players and many of the stats listed here are obviously hacked.

The only other stat that is of interest to me at all is Lifetime Frogs, 91,657! crap. What a total waste of life and time. I'm 10th worst out of 58 friends. 

I can't believe I played this entire damn game. I guess I learned what to watch out for. I think I'm going to read some books now.