Minecraft: How to Make a Simple Sleeping Bag

Are you going on an expedition? Well, you'll need a sleeping bag. To create, choose an area for your sleeping bag and dig down one block deep. Place a bed in the dug-out area. Then, holding shift, place down two red carpets, leaving the head side of the sleeping bag open. That's it!

A view from inside the sleeping bag.

Minecraftfurniture.net

We all know that a Minecraft without decorations is boring. Most of the time, furniture is useless in Minecraft, but nonetheless it looks nice and is great for fleshing out houses that merely pile chests and furnaces all over the place. 

I definitely look to Minecraftfurniture.net when it comes to, well, furniture. They have various collections of furniture for each part of a house, as in "Bathroom," "Kitchen," and "Entertainment." You can learn how to make anything from the most basic chairs to a cotton candy machine. Also, if you're someone who likes to "invent" furniture ideas in Minecraft, you can submit your ideas to the website. If you're a skilled interior designer, you can join the website's server.

Regardless of whether you're a beginner or decoration guru, Minecraftfurniture.net offers excellent inspiration for tiny details to create. I bet you'll be just as shocked as me to see how many ways blocks can be assembled with a little imagination.

Wikipedia vs. Blogging

Image by EFF (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Wikipedia

Pros

• Worldwide collaboration
• Your written work may be seen by millions
• You feel very important as a volunteer helping to gather the "sum of all human knowledge"

Cons

• Credit for your work is indirect; your name and such are hidden in the back at the "history" page
• You must follow Wikipedia's guidelines
• No personal opinion-- everything is neutral
• You can only write about prominent subjects

Blog

Pros

• Freedom to write whatever you want in your own voice!
• The ability to monetize your work
• Credit for your work is direct; every post flat out tells you who wrote it

Cons

• Most of the time it's just you or your small group of bloggers doing the writing
• Your work has a chance of being seen by millions or just 14
• Your blog must compete with dozens of other blogs and social media

Minecraft: 10 Things We Didn't Have in 1.0

Building by MC user Rawther

The Minecraft 1.7 update came out recently. It includes new biomes, flowers, fish, and fancy glass. When I started playing in 2011, Minecraft was way different. For example...

• We didn't have the rainforest biome
• We couldn't place upside-down stairs
• There was only one type of wood plank
• Crafting slabs cost 3 blocks but only gave 3 slabs (illogical crafting)
• Emeralds didn't exist
• Villagers didn't talk
• Sheep neither ate grass nor regrew wool
• Nether warts didn't grow in the Overworld
• Carrots and potatoes didn't exist
• Horses didn't roam the land

What will Minecraft look like in another year? Who knows? Probably more awesome!

Minecraft: Functional Small Barrel

Deposit items into the barrel by dropping them in!

Requires:

• 1 hopper (with maybe also a chest underneath it)
• 1 slab (recommended wooden)
• 2-4 trapdoors (depending on whether or not the barrel is against the wall)

Step by step of how to put it together, from left to right.

The Medium: Minecraft

Do you play Minecraft? Does your brother/sister play? Is your son/daughter into Minecraft?
These questions have become icebreakers today.

It's incredible how such a strange game garners so much attention. I bet it has to do with the creative aspect of the game; there is plenty of freedom! It's sort of like Legos in the way that you have to assemble the blocks to create the structure. You also have to use a little imagination to innovate, using stairs to make chairs and pistons to make tables.

Minecraft isn't rigid, so it never gets redundant or boring. You never run out of things to do.

There's no aggression or violence- just enjoyable playing. People can relate to the game, be it their latest masterpiece or about how obsessed their child is with it. Maybe that's why it's so great.

Minecraft Furniture/Detail: Small Chandeliers

Perfect for areas of limited space!

Requires:

• 1 iron bar (not ingot)
• 4 item frames
• 4 glowstone blocks/torches to put into the item frames
• 1 redstone lamp (optional, if you'd like the chandelier to actually give off light)

Minecraft Furniture/Detail: Flamingo

Perhaps a lawn decoration or the latest addition to your inanimate zoo!

Requires:

• 2 blocks of pink wool (body)
• 2 nether brick fences (body)
• 2 item frames with 1 nether quartz piece each (wings)
• 1 button (beak)

Minecraft I&D: Functional Fire-Charge "Cannon"

This is a tutorial on how to make a decorative "cannon" that uses fire charges as ammo.

Warning: This is not a TNT-cannon. Using TNT for this cannon will result in it blowing up. :P

You Will Need:

1 Dispenser

1 Dropper

1 Redstone torch

1 Button

Fire charges

How to build:

1. Place a dropper facing the direction you want your cannon to go. Then, place a dispenser in front of that dropper.

2. Place a button and redstone torch on the back of the cannon. The redstone torch is used as a decorative "fuse."

3. Load either the front or back with fire charges; both will work.

4. Fire the cannon! & enjoy!

Minecraft Concept: Caravan

 Donkeys & mules in Minecraft can carry a payload. Therefore, if you're a merchant with goods to sell, you might want to travel by caravan. Holding the leash to a donkey, ride one yourself. Have one of your crew members riding the donkey you're pulling, while they pull another one. This continues so on and so forth.

Only the person in front actually has to move, so it's nice to kick back and relax if you're a passenger. Now you've got a little train across the desert!