Minecraft - In The Beginning

I need to join a support group... Hello, my name is Ebi and I am an addict. It all started in May when I was at my brother-in-law's house visiting family. He had been telling me about this game called Minecraft that had just came out on the Xbox 360 and the fun he was having with it. I had heard about it a bit online, so I knew the basics of it already, but was still interested in seeing it myself. Well, I had an opportunity to play it some, so I created my own world on his system and started to explore a bit. About an hour later, I was hooked. I had created my first house and a fairly decent tunnel. I had built a few paths through the side of the mountain I was on and a bridge to an island across the water. It was so much fun.

When we returned home that night, I had to have it. I pulled out my credit card, bought some Microsoft Points and downloaded the game on my own system. With the basic knowledge of how Minecraft works now under my belt, I took off into my own world like a runner off the starting block.

My first "house"

I explored northward from my spawn point through snow, ice, sand and hills until I came across a small island in the center of a lake with a decent tower of dirt on top. I thought it would be the perfect place to start my first base, and so it began. I started digging inward and before I knew it, my little hole in the wall soon turned into a 3-story cobblestone tower with a tree on top. The tree was eventually chopped down and replaced by a glass dome on top. I had my bed on the top floor and torches all around to create a nice glow from the outside at night. It became my beacon to find my way back home again.

The underground lake

The start of my tunnel

From here, I dug down and began to create my first mineshaft in my own new world. I dug and dug and dug and created a long shaft that ran from my basement, under the lake surrounding my house to the shore on the other side. I discovered a small underwater pond and was so proud of myself for stumbling across it.

Standing at the top looking down

Standing at Bedrock looking up

By now my supply store was filling with dirt, sand, stone, iron and coal, but I wanted diamonds and more goodies. Back into the mines I went. There was a small hole I dug out when following a patch of coal just off my main shaft. It was from here that I created a small chamber and began my trek to the bottom of the world. Two wide and three high, I created a perfect staircase from my tunnel to bedrock. Later I would discover that I missed a lava pool by only one block.

The "lava pool" room

Needless to day, I found my diamond. Several of them in fact. I also gathered a small supply of Lapis Lazul and Redstone as well as a ton of Iron and Coal. With diamond tools in hand, I mined obsidian from the before mentioned lava pool. I didn't do anything right away with it. I just stored it away for later use.

The Tree Farm.
Mine entrance on the left.

From near the bottom of my staircase, I branched out and mined more side-shafts gathering materials along the way. I busted out at the surface once more near my house and here I created a small tree farm to expedite my wood gathering. After creating more land bridges across the lake, my tree farm, second mine entrance and house were all connected and my world began to come together.

The inside of my remodeled house.

Just to make things interesting, I began to do some work on my house. I tore out the second floor making the first floor really tall. I next added water to my roof and created a waterfall pouring down over all the sides. It was fun at the time and I thought it made it extra special.

Little did I realize this was only the beginning of my Minecraft journey. I would soon begin building my house. And I don't mean my Minecraft House, I mean a model of my real life house. But I'll save that bit for our next session.

I'll start writing it after I mine one more block...
One more block...
One more block...
One more block...
One more block...
One more block...