May 22, 2015

 This morning and into the afternoon I did school stuff. I read two textbook chapters and an introduction. I also watched several videos (school related) and made sure I could log into the virtual desktop. One of the videos was a librarian talking about the future of libraries and he started with some interesting facts that I can only vaguely remember so they may be slightly off. He said that the greatest predictor of success later in life are fourth grade reading scores. The greatest predictor of fourth grade reading scores is reading level at the age of five. And kids who grew up with at least 500 books in their home had a much higher reading level by the age of five. So the takeaway here is have several well-stocked bookshelves.

Later in the afternoon I played Minecraft. I laid out the fence to outline the area that will be my field for potatoes, carrots, wheat, pumpkins, sugar cane, and watermelon. I also dug all the holes for water, so now I just need to plant everything. It will take me awhile to fill all the space but I think it will look pretty cool when I'm done. I had to go adventuring for the sugar cane and while on my journey I think I picked out the spot for my Nether portal. A nice stone hill with a flat top on the other side of the field across the river from my house. And speaking of that field, my next big project is clearing out all of the trees and making pens for animals. The field used to be pretty barren but I started planting oak trees there so they would be closer to me, considering my house is on the edge of a spruce biome. And now the field is packed with oak trees. Once I figure out how I want to set up the pens I can start planting trees again. Originally I was envisioning an fairly open design with a path in between all the enclosures but I just had an idea for a barn like building that all four animal pens were connected to so animals would have the option to be inside or outside. That idea might have some potential. I'll have to take a look at things the next time I play. I'll have a better idea of what I'm working with once I get all the trees cleared out.

Tonight I played GTA5, mostly online, but didn't really accomplish anything. I bought another garage, because I came across another vehicle I wanted and my other two garages were full. I believe I added that first vehicle along with a motorcycle. I spent most of my time just driving around, kind of looking for particular vehicles but mostly just enjoying the scenery. At what became the end of my online play I went to join a job and the host left as I was transitioning from my current spot into the job lobby, which caused me to go into some weird limbo. I was stuck on that above the map screen for a minute or two and then the game couldn't connect to the online session so it kicked me back to the singleplayer. I still wanted to play so I did a couple Trevor missions and customized a really cool motorcycle. I also bought a garage to store it in but I'm not quite sure how that works in singleplayer. It doesn't have the tracking and insurance options like it does online so I'm kind of worried I just spent a bunch of money upgrading my motorcycle and then it is going to disappear when I leave it somewhere or will be irreversibly destroyed at some point. I need to experiment with that at some point.

It's now after one o'clock in the morning so I'm going to go to bed. If it doesn't rain overnight I want to go over and dig up Ping Pong in the morning and find a place to rebury her at the new house. That is my main goal for tomorrow.