Dear Cia Column

dear Cia

Are you ready for Freddy?



--Tex

Dear Tex,

Nuuu. ^-^


--Cia

Dear Cia,

What is your favorite Minecraft mob? Me, I like the endermites, because they're so useless, even endermen hate them. XD

Thanks, Radda

Dear Rad,

Hmmm, that's funny, I've never really thought about that.  D:

Well I tend to LOVE mushrooms a lot (maybe not to the extent of Yogscast Zoey and her Mushbury, but that's debatable), so I would have to hand that title to the Mooshrooms.  They are not only adorable, but they give you mushroom soup, beef, leather, mushrooms, and of course milk if they get turned to regular mushrooms.  And they're just SO CUTE!!! XD



--Cia

Dear Cia

I f you could describe me in one picture what would it be and why?
(Just tryin to ask a unique question)

--Tex

Dear Tex,

Maybe this...?



...Cause... TEXAS!  XD


--Cia

Dear Cia,

What color is plad?

Dear Piggy,

That's easy, it's the color of ludicrous!   Don't ya know anything? !  ;D




--Cia

Dear Cia

Why can't I stop making so many skins



And this isn't even half of them ( sorry it's a big picture)

-Tex

Dear Tex,

Hmmm... I think it's your brain-gut mechanism trying to manifest its desire for skin. That may mean you will have to significantly-increase your dietary intake of pork skin/rinds, so hop to it...!




--Cia

Dear Cia
So, as of late I have begun to enjoy learning about other cultures (and I even have a class dedicated to it in school! ^u^) and this has caused me to wonder, is there a country's culture or language that you are/were once interested in?

-Audrey

Dear Audrey,

Ooooh!! A most intriguing and enlightening question!  You'll be the first person in days to actually gain a point!  

From a purely cultural standpoint, I have a lot to love (and learn) about my own native Mexico. Especially after the best and most beautiful Dia de los Muertos for me, combined with increased general awareness of the holiday thanks to the brilliant 'Book of Life', I feel that even despite its problems, Mexican culture has a depth, history and richness to it that puts it on a league of its own.  And I owe it to family, my children and of course myself to become more versed in it, since it surprises me still how little interest I've given to learning more about it growing up.

I used to have a crush on Japanese culture growing up (in part thanks to the therapeutic effect of anime), but that has kind of subsided after a while after some recent events.  In fact, I don't watch much anime anymore, aside from the occasional thing I still have stuck on my eternal watchlist, but I've long stopped trying to learn its language.  

Currently I'm actually curious to learn more about Russia and China. As I mentioned in a previous answer, and despite the ramblings to the contrary by the mainstream media, those two -- and in fact the BRICS, the MINT, and various other emerging multifaceted powers -- will be pivotal players in the new world economy.  Once Hollywood and the Western media conglomerates cease to be the primary "narrative engines" of global mindshare, all bets are off since reality is regularly distorted by what we're told, not how things are -- whoever controls the narrative controls reality.  If the narrative does change, it'll be beneficial to us to know as much about the new paradign shift as possible so we can adapt, succeed and prosper in what could eventually amount to a global geopolitical, monetary and cultural revolution.  Even if that doesn't end up being the case, all of these countries have fascinating cultures and deep-rooted histories that are never a waste of time to learn about.

Speaking of history, probably my most passionate interest is in the ancient cultures of the world, and more specifically pre-Deluvian cultures of the world, and the many artifactual and architectural wonders left behind that defy conventional (and rather mediocre) beliefs on the age of human civilization and the breadth of its intelligence.  Well known wonders such as the Pyramids of Giza, Teotihuacan in Mexico or Machu Pichu in Peru are a given, but the even older structures of Tiwanaku, Pumapunku, Göbekli Tepe are both mysterious and mind-blowing, already doubling or tripling the age of human civilization as we know it.  Bear in mind that at this point we're talking about civilzation that existed before the great glaciers of the last major Ice Age melted, so no doubt if humans back then built as they do today, most of their cities and buildings would have been along water.  Given the rise in water levels after the glacial melt (and the many "Great Floods" that would have resulted from that), is it any stretch of the imagination to assume that a lot of our ancient history is also trapped under water, inaccessible due to our lagging interest in deep sea exploration as well as our own self-loathing for the past?  

Regardless of whatever we know and whatever we can establish as fact, I still believe that we as a human culture owe it to ourselves to recover our lost identity.  So much of what we know nowadays is biased towards making us feel alone, unwanted and imcompetent as a species, when the reality could be the exact opposite -- we could have once been tall and strong (and yes, even the women), intelligent and observant, capable of building amazing megalithic structures, wonderous medical feats, uniting the peoples of the world, flying, and possibly even traveling to the stars.  

And with that note on the extent of human potential, I will talk about my favorite subject... food.  Since my new dietary change it may seem like I might lose some interest in eating exotic foods since many are composed of bread items (think naan bread in Indian and middle-eastern area foods) or heavy use of other grains (think rice in Asia or maize in Latin America).  But nothing could be further from the truth, and I have enjoyed a cultural explosion of the palate having opened my eyes to a world beyond sandwiches and wraps.  There is so much fuss made about the so-called "Mediterranean Diet" for the fictional representation of olive oil, sunkissed vegetables and flatbreads -- when in reality, the diets of the Mediterranean cultures are in fact and have always been (even during the time of Ancel Keys) very rich in meats, organ meat, and heavy fat.  You could have self-proclaimed health experts tripping over themselves to attribute good health, lower cardiac incidents and longevity to meager consumption of olive oil, all the while willingly-ignoring the generous consumption of Pâté in the people they're studying (or insultingly lumping them into some idiotic "paradox"... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_paradox ).

Short of that, I can explore many traditional foods or old homemade recipes that before I would have feared and balked at due to the overwhelming abundance of "icky" saturated fat and cholesterol... even here in the US, where any glance through vintage cookbooks will greet you with ample use of butter, cream or lard:

http://resources.library.lemoyne.edu/content.php?pid=210266&sid=2761858

And similar to what I stated earlier, it also gives me the opportunity to learn about even earlier foods that would feed us and help us survive as a species throughout the millions of years we've been on this earth.  This is how i know, for instance, that yams and tiger nuts have always been a part of our diet, as have sources of saturated fat especially in the form of ofal, so prized for millenia, now relegated to the waste bin by so-called "experts" and their processed junk.  Life is truly good when you open your heart to the foods that have defined the very cultures we admire, and the long rich histories that have written in their wake.  


--Cia

Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead)? I watched a vid about that in Spanish class
So how was it? Did you have the fun? And also, did you bake that "Pan de muerto" (That's what I think it's spelled like XP)?

Danger! Danger! Invalid Question Format Detected! XD

DEAR CIA,
Sorry XD

Dear Cykrion,
Apology accepted.

--Cia

PS: wow, what a short question, literally just one word and an emoticon. XD

Dear Cia

Why are ninjas so mean?



--Tex

Dear Tex,

Traditionally, ninjas were vegetarians in order to disguise any kind of body odor, so depending on how extreme the "odorless" diet was, there's a possibility that most ninjas may have suffered an extreme nutrient deficiency or even high levels of blood sugar (not impossible with a high intake of rice or starchy roots).  So surely that might have affected their mood a lot, causing random anger, social anxiety, manic depression and overall meanness.  XD

Yep, sounds legit.  


--Cia

Dear Cia, When you first opened the server, did you plan Spawnington. Or did you build spawnington just on a whim without a plan?

Dear Candy,

Ooh, interesting question that few people have asked me about.  

If you recall from my anniversary address, Big Sister was originally set up as a literal "sister server" for Gunia's server, during the time it was offline for weeks.  Cay and I wanted to pitch the idea, but in order to truly sell it with Gunia, Cory and the rest of her staff, I wanted to make sure it looked kind of nice. Sadly, I only had two days to set something up and have it get shown to them, so I had to act fast.

Gunia's spawn was a bit on the plain and lonely side, so the first thing I wanted to do was have a Testifcate village at spawn to at least give the notion of a living environment.  So the very first thing I did was search for a seed with a village at spawn, and lo and behold I found a nice one.  It wasn't particulary-large, though, with only 4 houses and one shack, and a handful of testificates.  So it was at that point that I figured I should physically expand the village to make it a little more intriguing, and after checking out some villager blueprints online I succeeded in creating all the basic villager structures (and some new ones I saw on Deviantart.  But even then it wasnt very interesting, and besides the little size-changer there wasnt a whole lot to see.

Then it occurred to me to try and import something into the map so i could get something quick-n-easy and thematic without having to spend a lot of time on it.  Something cool and epic, but gentle and subtle... then I remembered the Twilight Forest trees and thought that would make a great addition!  So I crash-coursed in WorldEdit (using SPC), figured out how to convert blocks and import object into another map, and lo and behold I managed to add the WORLD TREE!!  I was very proud at my fancy newfound world editing skills, but given we couldnt run WE on a Gulliver server, I kind of felt I would never be able to do it again -- and in fact it would be 3 months before we ever did another import.  

But the seed had been set, and I was so enamoured with my quick and easy spawn village that I suddenly had the idea of maybe expanding it to be something greater!  Like an entire city... all walled up and protected!  Full of amenities and interesting things to do and explore.

Though granted, I couldnt get all that done right away, but as Cory and Co. were debating on what to do with the new server, I steadily chipped away at my city idea, adding more buildings and infrastructure.  Even as players were streaming in, i was working on the spa and bank -- it was in fact when we finished the bank's clock tower that I got to meet Gunia for the very first time ever!  

It was around the time the market was finished that I thought of adding shops and a pseudo economy to the server.  And it was also when I started really planning out the rest of the city using wool outlines, although by comparison to today's Spawnington the original Spawnington plan was only 1/3 the size (it's gotten to be a BIG city). XD

The sewer was one of my favorite additions and it was potentially a great way to expand the depth and living area of the city, but sadly it hasn't fully taken off as a concept.

The walls didnt come until much later when we got sick and tired of the constant mob attacks, but that was a cool community project that got done in about 3-4 days (we affectionally called it Wall Sina).

And Burger was originally entrusted to build the Transit Hub, but he was so epically lazy it never got done; ergo, that was another community project that helped unite the server locations ina  very cool manner.  It was the dawn of the MCEdit importing age, and it was a good time to go global. ^^

Spawnington was always meant to be a low-tech villager city, so I never planned it to be so big; it only took off when we managed to enabled WorldControl (the lighter version of WorldEdit), and with the ability to create massive ambitious structures really quickly, I was finally able to make it look like a proper city, complete with an industrial sector and Little Nether.  ^^

And the rest is history... a mixture of preplanning (the transit hub), and impromptu structures (the Great Ghastby or the Spawnenburg).  But the general goal is still the same... to make a really cool, relaxing and believable spawn for our server.  


--Cia

Dear Cia,

I'm having trouble finding that "special person" who likes me for who I am. Should I change myself? Also, should I stop wearing these green boots I've found in the attic? They have fluffy insoles tho...

Dear cia,
How do you normally remember things? I've been having A LOT of trouble remembering things recently (ex. the dear cia I was going to write here). Also, whats the worst thing you've ever forgotten. Also also, wait, I forget *facepalm*.
OH RIGHT, does this commonly happen to you; you think of something you need to grab and then you go to get it, but halfway there you forget what you wanted and when you are going back to where you came from you remember. That happens to me a lot.

I remember what my question was going to be now *facedesk*

Dear Piggy,

Lol, I'm so used to seeing some silly-filly questions from you, it's almost jarring when you actually post something semi-serious. [though I note some silliness in there] XD

Anyway, regarding the boots, I can't say for sure since I dont know what they look like, but if they look nice and are practical and don't hurt your feet and help individualize you, I guess it's okay. Not everyone is concerned with the shoes other people wear, so you sort of get a free pass in most cases.

As for your first question....

I understand this is a cliched notion that you should love someone who likes you for who you are, and to a certain extent it's not incorrect. After all, if what you are when you date is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from how you'll be like in a long-term relationship, cohabitation or marriage, then love will die out very fast. For a successful life, you and your loved one have to be able to appreciate and respect each other's similarities and differences, masteries and deficiencies.

But given the many changes in my own life this past year, I have to posit a very serious question that we should do ourselves the favor of asking...

Do you even know who YOU are?

This takes me back to the small bit of tough-love advice I gave to Tex some questions ago about having confidence when asking out a girl he was interested in -- that's another cliched notion, but it has bearing of truth because a person that is incredibly self-confident is more likely to know who he/she is at heart. Your own body and mind are not a mystery to you, you KNOW what you are, what you like, what you want and what you plan to do with the rest of your life. It seems self-evident, but it's amazing how people, even very late into their adult lives, don't have such sure footing, and dont' even know much about themselves.

This can happen as a result of improper schooling in this regards (schooling does more "training" than it does "education"), limited family and social interactions, media confusion, mental health conditions, hormonal imbalance, improper diet and of course medication. A person afflicted by any or all of these handicaps may not be himself, but may in fact be that cool character on TV, or the psychotic side-effects of SSRI medications, or that doctor or lawyer that his parents always wanted him to be, or that carbohydrate addict voraciously guided around by the opiate-like gliadorphin peptides of wheat bound to his brain. This person may live his whole life as a prisoner of his own body, and the aspirations or expectations of others; and without knowing this is a problem, this person may not know there is anything to change. For this person, this usurper consciousness IS himself, and he is simply along for the ride watching the story of his life unfold while these externalities lead him to a life of accidental propserity or soul-crushing ruination.

So if you plan to change "yourself", make sure you know what yourself is first before you go poking around in there, potentially breaking anything.


--Cia

Dear A4,

Oh my! Shad is going to have a buddy! XD

Anyway, memory is a very curious thing for me because, up until recently, I used to have quite a number of memory problems as well. Only for certain things mind you -- I would have a biting memory about things server-related, but totally suck at remembering things from school or a person's name. But it was overall part of the general "mind fog" of growing up as a grain eater, and I certainly wasn't alone... one of my best friends coined her own frequent forgetfulness as "Someteimer's" (which is a cute play on words of "Alzheimer's"), and indeed her inability to remember things from only an hour ago was legendary and scary. XD

[and as we know, lots of people can't remember what happened two weeks ago, let alone 10 years ago, so the Mainstream Media makes a killing off rehashing their old garbage as news, and getting away with it]

Now I mentioned "grain eater" because, knowing what I know, I feel this almost ubiquitious forgetfulness is not so much a product of personality defects, lazy youth, or even bad genes (although those may apply in some instances at a low level), but of modern dietary and environmental factors that severely impact the development of our brains. And it's very fitting that the last couple of generations have been especially affected by this given all the extreme dietary changes that have been mandated by government, namely an absolving of carbohydrates as having any negative impact on the body (which they do), an obsession with stuffing humand and livestock alike with "healthy whole grains" (as if being fattened up for slaughter), and all occurring in parallel with admonishment of saturated fat, cholesterol, red meat, eggs, salt, etc.

My auntie used to say that to improve your memory you should eat more almonds and walnuts, and know I know she was right... albeit perhaps not for the reasons she thought. Nuts are a great source of dietary fat; and just like with ALL good dietary fats from healthy whole foods like meat, eggs, fish, avocados, coconuts, olives, nuts and so forth, these serve as a critical component for helping your brain grow and maintain itself. After all, over 60% of your brain is made of fat, and the nerves keeping it together rely on cholesterol to work properly -- and one of the greatest crimes that a government can perpetruate on its people is to mandate that schools nearly cut-off intake of fat to schoolchildren during a time when they're growing and need this essential nutrition the most. With no fat, your body has to do what it can to keep you alive, which is to ask the liver to make its own fat and cholesterol from carbohydrates via the process of lipogenesis, an act that's okay for temporary relief, but harmful and damaging if kept on permanently.

What results from a diet too high in carbs and processed junk foods and additives, and too low in fat and essential nutrients, is the prevalence of neural-degenerative diseases much younger in life than ever seen before... forgetfulness is simply a lighter symptom, in comparison to more severe impacts such as ADD, ADHD, Asperger's, Autism, Depression, various life-threatening eating disorders, and schizoid conditions. All of these can be severe enough to require harmful medication with terrible side effects that harm the child even further; and this of course is absent any other serious consequences wrought on other body parts, from the gut to the pancreas to the thyroid to even the heart. Regress to a diet low in grain, sugar and cheap carbohydrates, and high in wholesome fat and protein from animal and plant sources, and you may find yourself gaining better energy, reflexes, focus, cognition and, above all, memory retention. This is because you're minimizing the amount of sugary gunk circulating through your body (and damaging things through the process of glycation), and increasing the intake of things your body ACTUALLY NEEDS, mainly protein for your muscles, fat for your brain/skin/nervous system/autoimmune system/hormones, essential vitamins and minerals, soluble fibers, and fatty acids.

TL;DR: Watch this film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evcNPfZlrZs

Of course my memory isn't spotless, especially for long-term things like appointments -- but for that, I've gotten quite good with scheduling things on my calendar on my phone (whereas before I'd be too lazy to do that). ^^

So nowadays, no, that doesn't happen to me often unless I don't get a lot of sleep (and that damages your brain in much the same way as I described above, albeit only on a temporary basis).

As for what was the worst thing I've forgotten, hmmm...

I guess for some people it was that time I forgot to take a test in college, one that I had forgotten was at 8am, and I was happily sleeping before I got up in a fright at about 8;45am. But it was for parapsychology which I hated, so I just went back to sleep and didn't get a crap. I did end up getting an "F" in that class, but it wasn't for missing that test... mainly because of my willingness to let the professor know she was often full of crap. XD

[and nowadays I might actually have some balance to back that up, lol] >v<


--Cia