Friday, June 24, 2011

Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Minecraft

The appeal of Minecraft can be difficult to describe to others. As of the current beta, players are not given an overall goal to achieve. There is a "score" being kept, but no one bothers to compare or brag, or even care what it means. In fact, I wasn't really sure why I keep coming back to my virtual block worlds until an epiphany presented itself during a recent discussion with my girlfriend:

Being in Minecraft feels kind of like my summer vacations when I was a kid.

"Good parents" today seem determined to plan out their children's time out of school. Family road trips get bookended by sports leagues, lessons, and activity camps. As a preteen, I remember having long stretches of unstructured playtime during the summer. And that playtime was outside.

Sure, we'd play some ball, but even then they were always just unsupervised pickup games among ourselves on the neighborhood streets. What really consumed our daylight hours was simply heading out exploring. Living in what was then exurbia, several square miles of surrounding forest and cattle pasture beckoned us to come out and simply pass time.

Where there was a flood control ditch, there was the chance to discover the channelization of water and the living things in it. Tromping under a forest canopy challenged our skills at not getting lost and sometimes our ingenuity at constructing a tree fort worth defending from random scraps of found lumber. And finding a large hole in the ground was an occasion to stop, peer into the darkness and wonder what dangers or even evil creatures lay within, before racing out to beat the late onset of dusk and make it back home in time for dinner.

We weren't out to "win" summer vacation. We were outside to experiment and experience. And it's in this way that Minecraft doesn't demand that you accomplish any one thing. Instead, this literal "sandbox" game invites us to come up with our goal for the day and explore everything. It's a virtual open-ended LEGO set in a time when actual LEGO sets are sold in boxes that tell children what they're supposed to be building.

P.S. If Minecraft creator "Notch" happens to be reading this: Please consider adding the ability to craft Bikes as a locomotion option in the game. And they should do wheelies too. Just sayin'. I'll even take them with coaster brakes and banana seats.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Impact A Hero 5K

Summer's in high gear now. It's the season where decisions on where to run can pivot on the number of shade trees on the course. This morning I passed up the Heights Fun Run to go to Mercer Stadium instead for the Impact A Hero 5K.

While the stretch of Austin Parkway pavement we used could only be described as partially obscured from the sun by trees, there was no obscurity as to the purpose of the event. This is an annual fundraiser for grants to wounded veterans returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, On their website, the group states an expectation to hit a six-year grand total of one million dollars in contributions this weekend.


I've watched this event grow way up from its early editions as a small neighborhood run at Lost Creek Park. Today at its current venue, the crowds arrived to claim overflow parking at the mall across the street. The national anthem was punctuated by a military flyover. Finishers were treated to piles of breakfast tacos from the St. Laurence KCs and barbecue from Pitts and Spitts. The Houston Texans once again sent head coach Gary Kubiak and cheerleaders to lend some celebrity star power. But the highlight of the morning is still the arrival of the veterans -- many of whom were there to wheel the course -- to rousing applause.

I'd rate my own run as mostly good. I was cruising for two solid miles, but had to take a walk break at the start of mile three because I was feeling cooked. But I really felt inadequate trying to keep up with the guy in the full firefighter gear, which included the insulating long underwear. At least that was his claim, and I didn't find it necessary to ask him to prove it to us.

In remembrance of those we have lost and in grateful tribute to those serving now -- THANK YOU.

Mile 1 --10:24
Mile 2 -- 10:25
Mile 3 -- 11:30
Last .1 --1:08
Elapsed 5K time -- 33:27 (per Garmin Forerunner 205)
Gun Time -- 34:32
Chip Time -- 33:23