I have tried to make a web skin viewer for minecraft for a long time and it always seemed an impossible task, but now I have managed to combine scraps of code from all over the net with some really clever bits in it to make the viewer work. It has a pre-defined skin (mine) and capes. The only problem left is that it flickers a little on iPhones. Still usable though, and in general, this isn't supposed to be a mobile-oriented website. I try to make it usable on small screens wherever I can, but it has never been a priority

Sometimes, maybe twice a year, I find myself reminiscing about the 'good old days' of playing mc together with friends. I feel like S1 was the season of setting everything up, getting the server management right, enjoying the first encounters with new people and learning about them. This was the classic. I remember specifically being in touch with Adobo, and his Nebula mini-game. S2 was what I would call the golden age. We knew what we were doing, we invested time into the game like crazy and the outcome was fun and honestly impressive. The double island - the shops and the VKD. The library and the court, the seasonal districts, the beautiful Nether hub! I would call S3 the silver age. Glorious, fresh, somewhat bolder than the previous seasons. Everyone was so close together, and the bases were so ambitious. Remember fights in the colosseum? And the Nehther hub roof! And Erin's... whatever it was =P S4 was a flop because it was pre-planned. Planning was fun, but building a copy of the plan is kinda boring. Still there was creativity and the sence of community, but it left people tired. Yet, the Five Koalas pub was something that is still stuck in my head. S5 was the revival that was so needed. Fresh mind, hands itching to fight bosses, build bases, prank each other and hunt for advancements. The industrisal districts with the usual farms neighbouring half-tick-dropping-id-forcing stasis chambers and chunk loaders, the ice boat race, the Noir Tar, the treasure hunts, Fil's crazy terraforming and finally getting a legit HDWGH advancement and Kate finally joining us by the end - are all vividly colouring this season in my head. Hopefully at some point we all get to be both in control of our time and willing to come together again for the sixth time.

I started playing in about April 2012. I don't really remember it that well, but what I do remember is always hearing about this weird new game about blocks, and seeing tributes to it in other games, or even then - lots of knock-offs. And in that cloud of vague awareness I stumbled upon a new let's play series over on youtube - the Call of the Creeper it was called. It was a series of short-ish ~10-15min videos in which eligorko was walking the viewers throough minecraft's shiny new pre-release version of 1.2.5. I was captivated and, now knowing a few tips and tricks, I downloaded minecraft and started playing. I don't remember how I got to play minecraft - was there a free version of the game? a demo? Did I get a cracked launcher? I think i distinctly remember it being the original, but, nontheless, I did have a mojang account and I remember having to play a free version for a while. I remember that in my first world I was afraid items wouldn't be saved in chests if I die for some reason, so I had blocks of iron and gold placed in the world. I thought torches would eventually burn out or be put out by the rain. When I saw villagesr I thought they were players, but I couldnt use chat, so I confirmed their NPCness via sign communication - or, the lack thereof. My first house was the obligatory one-layer dirt pyramid. I remember the excitement of finding friends on X's plotworld and later sharing a 10+ year journey with them. I remember when they added ocean monuments and guardians, and they seemed scary I remember how fun was truing to fing the first totems and how cool I felt having a couple. And shulker boxes! Imagine, both on the same update! I started watching Hermitcraft from season 5 and I watched most of season 4 retrospectively from false's perspective - and there are a lot of memories related to that. We were playing on our server, inspired by Hermitcraft, and somehow some of the things we did were repeated on Hermitcraft as well - crazy coincidences! I also remember when microsoft bought minecraft and everyone got a cape - which was both cool, because it was a new thing on your character (as most of us couldn't attend minecons). It was also a little lame, because everyone now had the same cape. Yet, it started cape-hunting, I tried to recieve all capes that I could. The 2 that I'm missing are the pride cape, which they made unavalable in my country, and the cherry bloccom cape, which would be nice to have, although I doubt I would ever wear it. New baby villagers are meh. I like the old ones - just small adult models - it's so indie and it's so minecraft. A corporation wouldn't have made baby villagers just smaller adults, they would have made them chibi and cute. But an indie dev would absolutely have just size:0.5ed them. It's so funny and precious, and they have got rid of it.

[original]

Season 5 of Koaland has ended on the New Year's Eve, and, since there was little activity in the community, I took the opportunity to just use the server to play together with Kate. Unfortunately, while setting up the new version I had forgotten to enforce whitelist and the world got destroyed. However we didn't give up, double-checked the settings and started playing again, and... it's been fun!

"Descend, beast. I have climbed the eucalyptus spine of the world to demand your name," I shouted into the canopy, branches tearing at my resolve. The wind was still. The leaves whispered. Then he blinked — slow, deliberate. His eyes were galaxies trapped in fur. "I was old when your kind still dreamt of fire," He murmured. "You cannot bear the weight of my name." "Try me," I said, drawing the blade carved from the bone of the First Dropbear. He yawned. "You are made of hunger," he said, "and I am the forest that does not feed." He stretched, ancient joints creaking like glaciers shifting beneath soil. Bark split open on trees all around us, revealing pulsing veins of silver sap. "You carry a blade," he said, "but not the silence to wield it." I stepped forward. The forest recoiled, branches drawing back like breath held too long. "Name yourself," I demanded, though my voice faltered beneath the weight of his gaze. "Let the heavens hear it and tremble." He tilted his head. A single leaf spiraled down between us, slow as a falling verdict. "I am the god who sleeps with one eye open," he said, "and dreams in tongues your soul cannot hold." I raised the blade. It hummed with old fury, bone remembering blood. "Then teach me the language of gods." He laughed — a low, creaking sound, like a tree breaking under the moon’s gaze. "Very well," Koalandir whispered, stepping closer, voice now inside my head, behind my thoughts. "But know this: once spoken, a god’s name cannot be forgotten. It will rot inside you. It will root." The eucalyptus groaned. The sky split — not with thunder, but with something softer. More final. He leaned in. And he began to spell it. The sound wasn’t a sound. It was the memory of thunder before lightning. It was the crack of seedpods splitting open in a firestorm. The vowels tasted of sap and ash. The consonants bled into my teeth. Each syllable dug into my skull like roots into loam. I dropped the blade. He did not blink. "You asked for the name," he said, "not the meaning." My knees buckled. The forest shifted. The leaves no longer whispered—they chanted, quietly, in the same rhythm as my heartbeat. A rhythm not mine anymore. "What—" I tried to say. My mouth did not cooperate. "You are soil now," he said gently. "You will bear my fruit." The ground swallowed my feet. Bark bloomed along my arms. I felt the photosynthesis begin — slow, hungry, eternal. "Your hunger brought you here," Koalandir said, curling back into the canopy, his outline vanishing in dappled green and shadow. "Now be still. Grow. Watch." I screamed, but it came out in leaves.

[original]