Yay! The Internet is back!

Oh my gosh! You never know how much you utilize something until you cannot access it. Our internet was out over 32 hours. I missed two days of class. I finally completed my paperwork for this work at home job. I am supposed to start training on the 18th of November but I am really not sure about it. Working at home sounds like a Godsend, but honestly I do not really have a closed off office area and I feel like my voice is going to carry throughout the house. It may not be an issue right off, but listening every single day to the phone ringing constantly for more than eight hours a day is definitely going to get on the nerves of my family. It might be better to just keep trying to find something. 😕

I get so tired of seeing comments made like "If you really wanted to work, you would have a job" when I have been actively trying to find a job for months!! I cannot even begin to tell you how many applications I have filled out online. I either get no response or an email stating they have gone with another candidate. So, we will see what happens. 

Internet out

Ugh! Between Dr appts and Therapy appts I haven't had much time to sit down and blog, let alone play my games. Finally get to and we get a freak storm with straight line winds that knocks me completely offline. I have missed two days of class. 🥺 Oh , and I finally landed a work at home job only to not be able to complete my paperwork. Grr! Our ISP has no idea when service will be restored. I am actually trying to do this from my phone, so I have no clue how it will look. LOL!

My family and I did get to enjoy Six Flags Fright Fest though. 😀

Awww Mondays

 

Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus. Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays, and post a picture that makes you say Awww - that's it! 

Zac is always a happy doggo when it's Taco Night because he gets to lick the plate!

Roblox - Game Night

Even though we have lost a few people over the weeks, our game nights are still so much fun!! My headset decided to bite the dust and my daughter ended up letting me borrow hers. I will be looking for another one soon.

This weeks theme was called Colors and black, purple, and white were chosen. 

Happy Tuesday!

 

Post a funny picture.

Post a not so funny picture.

Post whatever weirdness you want. That’s it.

One thing for sure is this is a fun and easy meme to do. So come and join us in Happy Tuesday.




Hope everyone is having a blessed day! I have been cleaning and trying to get some things binned up to move to storage - like all my kids school work that I have saved over the years. LOL! We have also been dealing with little field mice. Oh the joys of living next to a ditch and having a field behind your house! We live in an older pier and beam home and they seem to be finding a way in under the house. Our cat caught one not long ago, and one jumped out at me from the pantry. Oh my gosh! We actually opened the front door and the little guy ran out. 😄 We have set a few traps. I just hope we don't catch the cats.

Game Night - Roblox

Another night of fun!! This weeks theme was Dr. Seuss and it was kinda hard trying to put together a Cosplay. LOL! I ended up with Sally! 😀

Minecraft Live 2021

And the Allay wins!!!

Feline Friday

 

Feline Friday is simple to join. All you have to do is: Post a picture, drawing, cartoon or video of a cat (They may be silly or cute).

Click the button on the left to join in!! Thanks Sandee!

Yin and Yang

😄

Intro to Computers ✔️

I finally wrapped up my Intro to Computers course. It has been quite fun reviewing information that I haven't studied since my highschool days, and it has been a long while since I have actually used Microsoft Office, especially Powerpoint. In fact, I have been using LibreOffice, which is considered free and open source software. While it can do exactly the same things Microsoft Office can, the ribbons are quite different. For my last assignment, I had to create and make a slideshow presentation. Since Blogger doesn't allow for the pptx extension, I had to export it to video format. It didn't turn out too shabby. Don't worry! Your speakers are not broken. I did not include any sound effects or music. 😀

This hurts my heart...

Living in America I don't really think about the cost of many things in other countries. I know it never crossed my mind when I purchased both my kids Minecraft premium accounts and then later bought one for myself.

As a parent and a Patreon of Autcraft - reading this post from Stuart, or AutismFather as he is known on Autcraft, breaks my heart. 💔 Stuart created Autcraft as a place for children with ASD and their families. But even those not on the spectrum are speaking out as we have found out in the last couple of weeks. Maybe Mojang and Microsoft will come forward with a solution. A gifting solution would seem quite simple.

This has been a very heart breaking week

A week ago, a Spanish YouTuber named Bobicraft made a video about Autcraft, explaining how safe it is, some of the features of the server, sharing some of our publicity. It was a very thoughtful video has received a lot of attention, garnering over 900k views so far.

The moment I saw the video, I knew instantly that I was in for a rough time, figuring I'd have to deny lots of kids because Autcraft is English only and clearly, they'd be Spanish speakers. However... it was much, much worse than I imagined.

Over the last week, we've received literally thousands of applications. More than I had anticipated. Each night I go to bed and wake up with just as many applications as I had to do the day before. They are still coming in that fast. And as I expected, I am having to deny almost all of them. But not for the reason I thought.

The Problem

When I first started going through applications, I found that none of the names were in Mojang's database, meaning I couldn't add them to our server. It would literally say "Player not found." I thought this was because they were all Bedrock (console/mobile) players but that's not it... as it turns out, they all play on hacked clients with fake accounts. They didn't pay for them.

The reason for this is that the Java version of the game is only available in one place for one price, world wide. At minecraft.net, you can buy the game for about $30 USD. If you go there from another country, it converts that price into your currency but you still pay $30 USD. This means that in poorer countries, they still have to pay what I pay. Here's the problem with that:

In USD, the average monthly income in Columbia is just $1200. The average monthly income in Brazil is $450. In Ecuador, some people only bring in $300 per month.

We've even heard from players in the Philippines, where the average monthly income is just $268.

As you can imagine, paying $30 for a Java account is just not possible.

It Gets Worse

These people love Minecraft, they love the game itself and the ability to play with others around the world, as do many of us. However, needing to resort to a fake account means that they don't get access to the "premium" servers, which includes Autcraft.

Players with "non-premium" accounts are forced to play on offline servers, those that don't check users against Mojang's database. These offline servers are generally unregulated and unmoderated. Owners can't ban players even if they wanted to because there's no real account to ban.

I discovered that these players were using these accounts once the emails, messages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, even my YouTube channel started coming in. Young players, older players, parents... literally pleading with us to let them in.

The reason that we've been getting so many applications isn't because the video had so many views, it's because these people are desperate. They've been forced to play on toxic and chaotic servers because they can't get access to places that care or that can do anything about the toxicity.

We're not just hearing from autistic players, although there are a lot, we're also hearing from so many who are not autistic who tell us that they just want somewhere "quiet" and "calm."

These kids are dying. Literally. I mean, of course it's not all on this one thing, they do live in poor countries and life is hard, but then they turn to Minecraft, to the world online, and they're treated terribly, told to kill themselves, and hated so much.

No Easy Answer

My heart has been breaking all week. It's even worse when they comment. Just a moment ago, a comment came back on an application for a 12 year old Spanish child who wants so badly to join us, but doesn't have a premium account, and all they said was "ok thank you" with a couple of crying emojis after it.

These are good kids who are suffering through no fault of their own. And it breaks my heart every single time I have to deny them because I know exactly what I'm sending them back to.

Recently I've talked with Mojang and explained all of this to them. I am begging them to add in regional pricing for Java Minecraft, make it affordable in impoverished nations, I want gifting options so that we can buy an account and gift it to someone in need, and I'm asking for bulk purchasing options so that we can buy lots of accounts at once, for cheaper, and get those to people.

Recently Mojang accounts have begun migrating to Microsoft accounts so I think this is the perfect time to migrate Java pricing into Microsoft's powerhouse system and make it more affordable for those who can't pay what I pay.

Mojang is pretty awesome and they do care. They really listened. But even if they can do these things, it will take time.

Time that I fear some of those kids don't have.

Maybe I'm just more emotional than an average guy should be but this has truly been one of the hardest weeks for me since starting Autcraft. I just hate, hate, hate, having to let these kids down.

Oh, and to those of you in those countries, who don't have access to these things, who only want to to be able to join us, we hear you. We want to help. We are not going to give up.

Wordless Wednesday

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday from Sandee at Comedy Plus

Somewhere between Texas and New Mexico

 

Wednesday Hodgepodge #437

It's Wednesday Hodgepodge day and this is my first time participating!! 😊 Thank you Joyce for these questions! To join click the button below.

 

 

1. What obligation do you believe you have to your country? Once a soldier, always a soldier.

 

 2. October 12 was National Farmers Day? Do you know any farmers? What do they farm/grow/raise? Are there any farm stands where you live? Do you shop there? I do not personally know any farmers but we have a really nice Farmer's Market that we visit quite often. I love the fresh veggies, fruits, and pecans that we can buy!! My grandfather had a huge garden when I was a little girl. Every Saturday afternoon I would go with my mom to visit and we would go pick fresh vegetables. One of my favorite memories of my mom is snapping fresh green beans ans shucking corn.

3. What's a skill you think everyone should have? Tell us why? Life Skills! I pulled my kids out of public school in 2013 to homeschool and never looked back! Personal finance, home economics, using tools, civics, etc., were all part of the curriculum that I put together for the last eight years. My son graduated in 2018 and my daughter graduated this past August a year early.

4. Favorite thing you've purchased this year? Well, it's not exactly a thing - but a program that me and my daughter are enjoying together called Frontier Girls. It is similar to Girl Scouts, but not an organization and it's for all ages! We are having a lot of fun earning badges and learning together!

 

5. What's your favorite place to visit in the fall? A few years back we had the opportunity to take a vacation to Maine. My favorite season is FALL and since it was September already, the colors were already changing everywhere. It was so beautiful!!! 

 

6. Insert your own random thought here. I cannot believe we are already into the month of October and I have yet to decorate for Halloween! It is FALL and we are finally seeing our temps fall here in Texas and the trees are starting to lose their leaves. 

Tuesday 4 - Blogging

When I actually remember that it is Tuesday, I don't forget Tuesday 4 . Annie poses 4 questions following a particular theme. Come on and join in this week's theme about blogging. I remembered this week! I have missed a few of the memes that I enjoy, this one being one of them. Due to an internet outage, I am late in posting. LOL! 😅

1. How often do you blog? What helps you blog.. what hinders you? Well, when I decided to jump back into blogging after many years I told myself that I would be doing this every day. Yeah, that didn't happen. I find myself caught up in life from dr. appointments, therapy appointments, graduation for my daughter, looking for a job, Frontier Girls, Gaming with my group, working on my website, and recently ... my dive into college at the age of 48 - it has slapped me silly!
 
2. What benefits do you get from blogging? Are there any? Benefits - I enjoy getting to know new people, lots of laughs, humor, and hanging in there during sad times. I remember having lots of blog buds years back. I quit blogging for quite a while and most of the ones that I used to chat with have turned to Facebook and no longer have an actual blog. I have been trying to get away from Facebook, so I turned to my website and decided to start blogging once again. I am happy to have found a few of y'all out here that have kept this going!!
 
3. Have you ever changed your blog theme? I have always just chatted about daily life on my blog and have never been into the reviews or anything of that nature. As for theme, I change it when I change my website theme which usually focuses around holidays, etc.

4. Where do you get your ideas for blog posts? Every day life! A lot of stuff that I share here I do not share on Facebook, like - I haven't told but a couple of people that I have enrolled in college and am working towards my A.S. in Healthcare Administration. On one hand, I think some would be happy. On the other, I think a few would think I am wasting my time because of my age. 

 

My fave movie dissed! Nooo!

This post was shared to one of my book groups on Facebook and I about lost my coffee this morning. My dear Brandon, you my dude - have missed out on the entirety of what this movie was about!!!! 😂

James’s Cameron’s TITANIC is one of my absolute favorite movies, and not just for this love story, but because the Ship of Dreams has extremely fascinated me since I was a little girl. When the movie first starts, we encounter the remnants of the sunken ship and about why it is being explored. We have a guy named Lovett looking for this beautiful diamond necklace that is called The Heart of the Ocean. They find a portfolio that contains a picture of a young woman wearing the necklace. Flashback to Titanic’s maiden voyage and we meet both Jack and Rose. Jack is excited that he won his ticket to board Titanic in a lucky game of poker and eager to return to America. “Somebody’s life’s about to change”. Rose feels a sense of doom as she is boarding Titanic that will eventually take her back to Philadelphia to marry a man she doesn’t even like. “It was the ship of dreams to everyone else. To me, it was a slave ship, taking me back to America in chains. Outwardly, I was everything a well brought up girl should be. Inside, I was screaming.”

It all becomes too much one night after dinner and we watch Rose running across the ship to the stern, where Jack finds her - standing on the other side of the railing about to jump. Jack talks to her about his life in Wisconsin and ultimately, talks her out of jumping off the back of the ship. In the days following, we see the two of them together talking about life and discussing their hopes and ambitions. Rose can open up to Jack and talk about her deepest fears, dreams, basically anything that she cannot share with her family. Yes, it develops into a love story. Rose tells Jack that she will depart the ship with him when they dock in New York. Two young lovers making plans to defy society. But it is not to be. As we all know, the Titanic hits an ice-berg in the middle of the Atlantic and sinks. Rose survives, and Jack does not. Yes, they both could have fit on the door, but it’s a story without that happy ending. Jack makes Rose promise she will go on and live her life, and she does.

Rose eventually marries another man and has three children. We are not told in the movie if it was a marriage of convenience, but I often think it was because Rose never let go of Jack, and the heaven scene proves that. Towards the end of the movie, we flashback to a scene aboard the Carpathia as Rose realizes the necklace is in the pocket of a coat her fiance Cal had put on her, then back to present day as Rose is again at the stern of the Keldysh; she tosses the necklace into the ocean. As Rose is sleeping in her bed that night, the camera pans around the room and we see the pictures that Rose had mentioned when the movie first started. “That’s nice. I have to have my pictures when I travel.” I know that in every picture, Rose is by herself. Rose riding a horse on the beach with a roller coaster in the background. A few pictures of her as an actress. A picture with an elephant. These are all pictures of her achieving dreams of what she and Jack talked about doing together. The movie pushes us back to the wreckage of Titanic, where she materializes into the beautiful Ship of Dreams and the camera leads us down the promenade deck towards the Grand Staircase where Jack is waiting.

Rose tossed the necklace into the ocean as a reminder of her experience on Titanic, and she had finally let go.

POTW - Autcraft

Sans!!!

 

Feline Friday

 

 

I'm joining in on Feline Friday over at Comedy Plus, and it's simple to join! All you have to do is: Post a picture, drawing, cartoon, or video of a cat (They may be silly or cute).

Thanks Sandee!

 

 

 

I know what you are doing Tabby!!! You're trying to get daddy's slippers again! 😹

 

Throwback Thursdays

Top pic is of our Homecoming trailer in October of 2012.
 

Today the sirens started going off and it kinda freaked me out. I made it to the front door and out onto the porch to see the Homecoming Parade coming down our street. In all the years that my daughter was in cheer, the parade NEVER took this route down our street. Of course, both my kids are not little anymore and have both graduated from highschool. But it definitely brought back memories for both of us as we stood on the front porch waving, especially to the cheerleaders.  😊 Go Lions! LOL!

 

Game Night - Roblox

Another great night playing with my group! MOP did a great job theming out her kingdom and our theme was Space-Galaxy. We played a few games that I had yet to play like Freeze Tag, Bingo, and Fart Attack. That was hilarious! 😂

 I missed the last game night because I was celebrating my 22nd Anniversary with my hubby, and I watched the new My Little Pony movie with my daughter.

If you are ever in the mood for some laughs, check out MOPs Youtube!! She posts a video of our weekly game nights from her perspective and it's downright funny!!