Luanti Asuna Minetest - the two kinds of rice, and the two kinds of salt and sugar

 I am still quite enjoying the Asuna mod pack for Luanti Minetest.  There is still a LOT that I have yet to explore.  I've spent the past month or so looking for the 'other' kind of salt and the 'other' kind of rice - and finally, found them, or at least, part of the puzzle.

 I could find nothing about the other kind of rice for a very long time - then I realized that it wasn't just 'Asuna', it was probably part of the X Farming or the Farming Redo.  One of the rice forms is from one, and the other from another - maybe even one of the biome packs.  So, they clash a bit and it is hard to tell what comes from what.

 The one rice is a white seed that comes from jungle grass, when it doesn't break into cotton, it breaks into rice seed.  This rice is easy to harvest and easy to replant.  It is a 'normal' crop.  It can be used with a raw fish to make sushi, or can be mixed with green beans and tomatoes and a few other things to make chili etc.

 The other rice I have not found the actual source biome or location for, but I finally found a few of the grains in a hamper (wayfarer chest) in a jungle environment, and then went on a trek to figure out how to plant and harvest it.  After some vain attempts to plant it in regular dirt, or dirt under water, or dirt surrounded by water etc etc... I found by accident the 'silt loam' block, which says on the description, used to grow rice!  The silt loam block can be made with a block of clay (4 clay lumps on the crafting grid), a block of any Enverness sand or dirt, and a block of any regular type of soil / dirt.  Those three things together make the silt loam block.  Then, those blocks can be planted underneath a layer of water, and the new rice grains can be planted in it.  They take about five stages to grow, but then they can be harvested and will yield the rice sheaf and also more seed.  The sheaf can be put in the oven to make it into cooked rice - which can be used with kelp, fish and other things to make more food.

 

 how to make silt loam soil used for farming rice

It must be placed one block under the water in order to plant

 

 a rice to the left that is almost, but not ripe - two rice seeds just planted on silt loam soil blocks under the water

Finding out about this, I also found info about Palm Wax and candles - which had not come up before, and also about more potions, including flight potion, requiring etherium dust and a fire flower powder (those flowers in the ethereal red desert that bite when you hit them, still haven't harvested one yet).  The etherium dust is found in some desert environments inside blocks, showing up as bluish purple dots in the block.

 

 

this is the second or third stage of growth right here - it begins underneath the water

It does not grow well when you are absent, you have to stick around.   Some crops grow while you are absent in Minetest, and some are greatly accelerated or only grow when you are present in that area.

 

 

 

 

This is the final stage of the growth of the sheaf rice 

Notes on the two kinds of sugar : one comes from Stevia, which is found growing wild in highland grassland near jungles, and it is made by putting four Stevia sheafs on the crafting grid.  It is used with fruits and flours and soy milk to make baked goods.  The other kind of sugar only comes from burning papyrus, and is not used in recipes, but can be made into a block.

 

The first kind of salt comes from putting a bucket of water in a furnace.  The other kind is made by using a mortar and pestle on salt crystals, which come from the ice tundra regions near Alpine areas.  Watch out in Alpine areas, the bears bite (and take a good amount of hearts away when they do).

In real life?  Rolling along.  Planting in the garden some more, beans and nasturtiums and cucumbers are coming up, along with the kale, arugula, summer squash and mizuna.  Some marigolds are coming up in a pot that I had thought definitely wouldn't - having been planted weeks ago.  I'm bouncing between the Spanish-to-French and French-to-Spanish and picking up some Japanese and even some Greek lessons here and there.  Other than that - trying to get enough sleep and not eat junk.  

 

 

Rabbit Tiles from Tasha McKelvey

They arrived today!
These are for Bazooka as well.
Tasha included not one but two beautiful tiles!
They are made of blue stoneware and her own design. I sent her a picture of my old rabbit tile as an example, and asked her to just make it approximately the same size and her own design.


The old rabbit tile.The blue tile on the left is almost _exactly_ the same size as this one, just small enough to comfortably squeeze in the palm of my hand.

Modeling Clay figures

*philosophy, psychology and art meet here in a personal mythology. Kind of difficult reading*
A modelling clay figure of Cosmic Bear.



Cosmic Bear modelling clay figure

These are the kind of figures and deep ideas I presented in my art show in 2004. I don't really expect others to get the same meaning and realizations out of them as I do. Perhaps they will see something else in the symbols. The worst fears I had at expressing these mythological ideas is that they are not in line with 'religious' ideas. There were those people I knew who couldn't see the difference between talking about these creatures in a mythological sense and believing in them religiously. I feel these 'spirits' or personifications have nothing to do with religion - it is much closer to psychology and examining the very nature of human thought.
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'Cosmic Bear and Fox': These are two 'archetype' characters developed from my automatic drawings. I was drawing and forming Cosmic bear for almost a year before I realized that his story was partially a mythologized version my own history.

Cosmic Bear is brought into the world by Fox, a half-seen spirit who, by her curiosity, created the World Tree out of the dust and dreams of a Sleeping Dragon. The dragon sleeps forever, although not peacefully, and the world grows on his back. If he wakes, the world will be shaken off.

Fox is wise and at the same time irresponsible. She is in possession of Great Knowledge, but never keeps her mind on one thing long enough. She is always whirling, toying with humans and other spirits. She's actually always trying to help, but is often leaving things undone in a Chaotic state.

Cosmic Bear is just one of the things she created. She forms him out of a leaf growing out of herself. She sings to him and tells him all of the great knowledge she has, but he is too young to understand. He is a child, playing and amazed at being alive. Then, she is gone - and he is plunged into a despair. Finally he brings himself out of the cave he was born in and sees the Silver Forest - part of the base of the World Tree that Fox accidently created. He goes to the Silver Forest where he goes through many trials and adventures.

There are several 'myths' I had written that involve Cosmic Bear. Some of them he is a child learning, others he is the advisor or the doer of great things (such as bringing the stars into the sky). He grows to be a great Protector and a 'Wise One' himself. He remembers more and more bits of the Song Fox had sung, and they make even more sense to him as he discovers other things. Then he comes to understand the nature of Fox and takes new perspective on both his creation and childhood and what he has done since.

I see the Cosmic Bear archetype and the Fox archetype in myself. It is by seeing those archetypes we can take their good points of their personality and take warning from their bad ones. Eerily, I can also see elements of my childhood re-expressed through the Cosmic Bear creation myth.

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Another figure. A bit more strange and needing more explanation. This 'creature' is not a representation of an actual living object - but of an internal process. The idea portrayed is that there is something within all of us that brings knowledge from somewhere subconscious, or spiritual.

The bird is a symbol of the messenger or bridge between that other source of knowledge and our conscious selves. There are many myths where the bird is a messenger between the Spirit World and our own world.

This figure has a piece of yarn stretched through the top of the head (knowledge) through the beak of the "inner bird" mask and out the mouth of a human mask which represents the exterior, what others see and what we choose to show them. It represents the receiving, channeling and expressing of deep thoughts, philosophy and myth to bring greater understanding.

This figure is my expression of how the complex and strange exploration of dreams, psychology and myth can feel almost like a temporary transformation. The yarn is the message received and interpreted.



Channeling messages from the subconscious

Other articles:
Pre-socratic philosophy
The Hero with a Thousand Faces book by Joseph Campbell
Use of masks for transformation and mythological retelling
The concept of the myth and psychocultural evolution

We Play with Clay (again)

Yesterday we tried our hand at a very simple animation, and had some silly fun doing it. I did the camera work on the animation and Mark moved the little creatures around attacking each other.


Click to Open in New Window
This animation is rated: PG for some clay violence!
Hit 'escape' when finished viewing to stop the animation.


I had just let the big red dinosaur eat one of the other ones....

Mark says: And these go right here.

We used different clay than for the other dog - this stuff was easier to work with and to move, but harder to clean up! It promises to get much more interesting now that we've seen some of the problems with lighting, forming and what our (very simple) software can do with the product.

Thanks for all of the suggestions on what to make for the shop! I have some 'chocolate brown' felt that could make some cute 'chocolate bunnies' with embroidery.

Also: I saw this little bird pincushion today on Etsy. I have some wool felt coming in the mail and really want to make one of these! I currently have no pincushion and haven't had a good enough idea to sit down and make one.


Not perfect, but this is how my version turned out.

A good place to keep pins ;o)

Doggie Tales

We've been discussing some ways to illustrate some of the funny doggie tales around here. Yesterday we tried out a few different methods in clay and ink.



The modelling clay would work well, especially with a tripod setup and good light. Mark made the bone for the little puppy :o)




My drawing needs to get a little better - trying to get the shape of Blaze's head down is difficult, there are so many angles!