Interview with Astragali - He does show-notes for The Shaft

Today I got to interview Astragali. He does the show-notes for The Shaft as well as other awesome things! Awesome Guy!
His YouTube!
His Website!


TheRussianPigeon: Firstly, Explain who you are to those who do not know

Astragali: OK :) I'm Mark Cooper, mostly known as Astragali, and I write a Minecraft blog, The Minecraft Scribe. I also help to compile the show notes for The Shaft Podcast, and recently, I became the English-language editor for the Minecraft web comic, Wondercraft.

TheRussianPigeon: Awesome.
TheRussianPigeon: Have you been playing much of the 1.0.0 update of the game?

Astragali: Pretty much as soon as it became available :)

TheRussianPigeon: Haha. Awesome :)
TheRussianPigeon: What's your favourite mob?

Astragali: We're supposed to *like* them? LOL... Erm, I think the skeleton :)

TheRussianPigeon: Haha
TheRussianPigeon: Did you attend Minecon?


Astragali: No *sigh*... I couldn't afford to go. But I *did* watch the stream of the launch :)

TheRussianPigeon: I didn't attend either.
TheRussianPigeon: So, how did you get the position of compiling the show notes for The Shaft?

Astragali: Right out of the blue, actually. Brent Copeland asked me if I could join him and Eric Fullerton in a Skype call, without explaining why... It wasn't until I got there that they basically said, "We love your blog - would you edit our show notes for us?" That was a no-brainer on my part XD

TheRussianPigeon: Haha.

Astragali: I do the Minecraft Daily, Excavation Station, and Sightings sections :)

TheRussianPigeon: Awesome! If you could remove one thing from the game. What would it be?

Astragali: The bloody hunger bar! It pretty much forces people to build a farm as the first thing they have after making a shelter.

TheRussianPigeon: Haha. Have you ever tried creating a mod for the game?

Astragali: I'd love to, but I can't program in Java. I can barely program in BASIC! >.<

TheRussianPigeon: Haha. Do you play with mods in the game?

Astragali: Yes, I have Zombe's Mod Pack (out of which I use Fly and Compass), Single-Player Commands, OptiFine. I've been trying out Animal Tweaks, too, and really like it!

TheRussianPigeon: Awesome! What other games do you play?

Astragali: I've been trying out a few from the Humble Indie bundle (recently I tried out Uplink and Darwinia), and I've also become hooked on Solar 2 and SpaceChem. The latter has been making my brain hurt rather impressively.

TheRussianPigeon: Haha. What game are you looking forward to in 2012?

Astragali: I'm itching to play Scrolls... I won an alpha code for it from The Shaft back in April - and I just wanna play it!

TheRussianPigeon: Haha. Finally, What would you like to see implemented into Minecraft?

Astragali: Rideable mounts... Ideally, a dragon, but I'll settle for being able to ride a pig around a maze without making myself dizzy :D

TheRussianPigeon: Awesome! Thanks!

--End Interview--

He's an awesome guy and you should all go subscribe to his YouTube.

Sincerely

Sam (TheRussianPigeon)