Member Name kcschmidt
Additional In Game Names: CluelessKlutz
How old are you? Sixteen
Location: Missouri, United States
Do you have TeamSpeak? Yes
How many hours per day do you play MeepCraft? (weekdays) 6-8
How many hours per day do you play MeepCraft? (weekends) 4-7
Have you ever been staff on this or any other server? No
References: Please give IGN's @Muunkee @Phoosey @SpongeyStar @Lady_Hestia @GroovyGrevous @2leah2 @Mjs6000 @LadyCassandra @Courtneyyy @Hyori @Legend Emerged (L_E_) @Deljikho @cooey @Adam34falcon @Blue_Marlin @DevilSpawn112 (Sorry if I forgot anyone!)
When did you join Meepcraft? First in September 2015, but for real in December 2015
Introduction: Greetings and salutations! As you can tell, I am CluelessKlutz, or kcschmidt here on the forums. I typically go by KC, Ck, Clue, or Clueless; it really doesn't matter to me. I "joined" the server in September 2015, but only played a few rounds of Boomo and left, never exploring Towny or paying attention to global, even (like so many new players that I now try to talk to).
I have been playing Minecraft as a whole since January 2nd, 2013. Bear in mind, I was quite uncomfortable with the idea of multiplayer. As a result of this, I played alone for years, until late May 2015. About that time, I was attending a weekly class with several other Minecrafters(though the class had nothing to do with Minecraft!), one of whom gave me an IP to a server she played on. So I entered it in, and started messing around with multiplayer. After playing survival for my first few weeks, I decided to check out another gamemode on this server: Factions.
As much as I'd love to say I totally dominated right off the bat and came here looking for a challenge, that'd be a complete lie. For the first 4 months, I got blown up at least once a week. The turning point was when I befriended the majority of the top players, and eventually became a part of them. By December, my own faction controlled just about everything, so while they maintained out superiority, I went to look for a new Factions server to train on. Even today, I still speak regularly with my former faction
Somehow, some way, I ended up practicing PvP a lot by playing CTF. Eventually, I started to pay attention to global a little more, and saw something about a "PvP adventure!" When I entered this, I was warped to Dungeon. There, I fell in love with the server as a whole. The way Dungeon was thrilling and challenging in a way that was so appealing to my warmonger nature from Factions. Going to Alpha, I joined a town (that I now know was owned by Cooey at the time!) so I could store all my loot. When the entire plot became filled with chests, I decided to check out "this other Towny world." Upon entering Beta, I received an invitation and joined the first one I got, Dreamcraft.
If it had not been for Devilspawn112 , things would be very different for me then where I am today. After quite a few interactions with both her and Dem0gorgon , they offered me a position as an Assistant; I declined, saying I wished to learn the Towny commands first.You would not believe how long it later took me to figure out /t add, because I was used to /f invite. A few weeks passed, and, deciding to accept, was promoted to Dreamcraft Town Assistant in the last few days of 2015. Thanks to this position, I work with most Towny commands daily.
As for me personally, outside of Minecraft, there is not near as much of a story, nor one as interesting. Currently living in the same area I was born in, Kansas City, Missouri, it is a very temperate climate. It can be 91 degrees Fahrenheit one day, and 42 the next! A few of you may know my younger brother, MasterofBoom, but other than that, the rest of my family do not even play Meep, much less Minecraft, whatsoever. For those who do know Boom, you know he has a rather . . . explosive personality. Being five years apart, we have very different interests, as he rarely logs onto Meep for a community aspect.
One little thing about myself, is I am "technically" disabled physically. By this, I mean it is covered by the Disability Act, but is not obvious from first glance. See, I am not bound to a wheelchair or a walker, as you would often assume when I use the term "handicapped." Instead, I suffer from peanut and tree nut anaphylaxis, which is the most extreme form of food allergies. Due to the severity of it, I cannot even breathe the same air as a PB&J without going into anaphylactic shock (stop breathing, hives, etc.). As of now, this is something I will never grow out of, as sensitivity levels have actually increased over the years. As bad as mine sounds, I know others have it far, far worse than myself. This disability certainly restricts my physical life, which is one reason I have plenty of time to invest in gaming. In one way, this condition has helped me, because when every day has that chance of being your last if you are exposed to the proteins you are allergic to, it really makes you step back and look at the big picture. Dropping a phone, being 2 minutes late to something, accidentally putting an extra 0 when using vshop, and stuff like that isn't worth worrying about.
My hobbies (besides Minecraft) include reading a nice, long book, researching history (specifically, World War II), leading my own clan in Clash of Clans, and many various activities at my church, where I am on the media team, planning committee, and communications team. I could go on and on for days like this, as I can be very long-winded when typing, but I tend to be much more on the quiet and reserved side, especially when it comes to speaking.
Why should you be Helper? Unlike so many of the recent applications, I don't have this huge history as a staff member. I haven't been here for years. Terms like "Meep Networks," "CG," etc. are as real to me as D-Day, where you can read all about it, talk to a person who lived through it, or see traces of it, but they're just things of the past, that you will never experience. With that in mind, I also bring a very different perspective than the majority of players here. For me, the Helper rank is not a goal, but a tool. How you use that tool is dependent on only yourself. My only intention is to give back, in any way possible, to a community that has truly changed who I am, how I think, and how I view the Internet as a whole.
As many people can attest, I spend a good deal of time in Tutorial. In all honesty, it is the least popular world, but one of the most important. Through my work there, I have seen so many different things. Officially, this job is supposed to fall to Helpers and Mods, but usually this doesn't happen, which I completely get. For the most part, official staff are busy, and don't have the time to warp every time some random person joins. Even with having no life whatsoever, it's next to impossible to warp every time. A lot of times, a new player will join, and leave before most people can finish typing "Welcome!" My goal in warping there is to point as many players as I can to the various aspects of the server, namely Towny, and guide them in their own journey. As a result, familiarity with every major aspect of the server and its commands are just part of the job. The other thing this ongoing project has improved myself in is the ability to interact with players who honestly have no idea what they're doing. Thanks to the Internet, and the opportunities presented, I have spoken to new players in English, Español, French, and even Dutch (If only Google Translate was more accurate).
One thing I particularly specialize in is troubleshooting issues, whether they be Redstone, commands, client-side issues, or computer errors. Anyone can answer questions in Global, so I believe it is worth the time to actually teleport to anyone asking for aid, and seeing what I can possibly do. Thanks to my years of experience with the game's systems and mechanics, as well as server knowledge, it makes me ideal for this. Those who have seen my own personal house in Dreamcraft know I am an avid Redstone engineer, always tinkering with something or other (kinda like my house itself, where it's never truly done, only in between projects!). This skill, which is asked about a lot in Global, seems to be relatively unknown to quite a few of the people who'd normally be right there with them, solving these problems. In my own life, I am the manager of all of my home's technology (Not even kidding, I have the Wifi password memorized, but not a single phone number), which has entailed faulty external hard drives, extreme connection errors, repairing printers, and just serving as the resident geek of the house.
Thankfully for everyone here, none of you know what I look like. I definitely fit the definition of the term, "nerd," as shown more so by mental ability. Firstly, is the ability to strategize. I adore strategic games, whether it be Pokemon Conquest, chess, Feudal, Stratego, Battleship, or basically anything of that nature; I love the planning put in. As a result of this enjoyment, I tend to think things out, often running several logic tests to try and calculate what could happen based on my action. So, if simplified, I think before I act, very rarely acting carelessly outside of direct combat. While I definitely take more time than the average person in most things, I do think of things to say very quickly, but always take the time to run through it mentally several times before saying anything. Doing this enough has speed me up a good deal, though, meaning I respond to almost all situations swiftly, yet maturely.
Of course, all of the things I have mentioned thus far can easily be done without the Helper tag, and they come very naturally to me. Mainly, I wish to "help" out more than I already am, by having the ability to take on modreqs, handling hackers in varied areas of the server, and working on various Trello projects, all of which are things one cannot do as a community member, though I have been privileged enough to work with Lady_Hestia on several Trello projects, already. In doing this, it really has helped me to understand just how much work is put in to complete what seems to be very simple projects. Despite it being "work," it's something I enjoy, and look forward to doing more of in the future.
Essentially, my goal is to improve anything, in whatever way I can. There's a lot I have been able to do unofficially, and certainly better prepares me for an official position. One misconception I never want to give anyone is the idea, "He helps in Global so people will +1 an app." Unfortunately, it is so hard to read people over the Internet, where a single sentence can be interpreted in a multitude of ways, as with the intentions behind it. The work I have already done doesn't automatically make me a staff member, but are just some of the skills needed for the job. My personality isn't the kind to "rage quit," and I fully intend to keep doing as much as I possibly can, whether this is accepted or not.
It all boils down to something else, as anyone can say anything about themselves, but it is their actions that tell you where their heart is. In studying history, you see the darkest of villains, and the greatest of heroes. One of the latter group that I have studied immensely is American General George S. Patton Jr., who believed in sleeping in the same tents as any soldier did. Even though he was, by definition, the commander of that particular army, he always was willing to do anything he asked of others. This is a principle I long to reflect in my own life. In short, I want to be real, meaning what I say, being honestly happy to serve others, and, as the band Switchfoot puts it in their song by the same name, "Live it Well."
What are your weaknesses? In all seriousness, this section of applications has been on my mind for months, and I've been using it to better myself not only in-game, but in my life outside of pixels and firewalls, as well. I truly am glad this section exists, because it has made me a better person overall, even without serving its intended purpose.
-Teamspeak
It has been a struggle to even get as far as I am with this program. For the first five months I was truly active, I was horrified of the idea of anyone hearing my own voice. I tend to be very quiet and reserved when it comes to my voice, and would rather be reading words and typing back. I'll openly admit, it didn't sit well with me, and never did I think it would already be on my computer. After that, I began pondering it a little more, and realized I didn't even have a mic! Another few weeks passed like this, and I decided to try an old headset I owned for my work, but the computer had not ever recognized it as a mic, but as mere headphones. However, when I tried it one night while figuring out TS's systems, it did indeed work.
Even after all that, it's still not my strong suit, and due to my home environment, activity on it will always be limited greatly. I can certainly try to be more active with this program, but the way I saw it previously still lingers.
-Inexperience
As I stated before, I have never served on the staff team, and am clueless (literally) about many of the systems staff use in their daily work. I would require instruction from the ground up in usage of Prism, modreq's, spotting true hackers (which I have moderate experience in already), and knowledge of the perms each rank grants. Obviously, the only way to get experience is by doing, but I did wish to mention this, because I couldn't just jump in on modreq's right away.
-Stubborn
Quite literally, stubbornness runs through my veins, as every single member of my family for the past 3 generations (though it probably extends further back) has been stubborn, to different degrees. Whenever you tell my brother, "You're so stubborn!" he simply nods his head, exclaiming, "Yep!" I cannot honestly judge my own degree, but I definitely can be very stubborn. However, on the other hand, I also adore hearing opinions that differ from my own, as I can usually take bits and pieces from their opinion, and therefore make mine better.
-Introverted
As a part of my "calm, cool, and collected" personality, I can be very self-centered in the fact I'm not always as outgoing as I could be. This doesn't mean to say I only care about myself, or this would not be a position for me. As I said before, I see Helper (or staff in general) as a tool, but, more precisely, a tool to serve others. This has been something that's been on my mind for the last few months to work on, but who am I to honestly judge how this is going?
Please give any other information you might think is useful for us to know: ertainly, it has been a journey. I have been fortunate enough to have had so many people by my side, setting the path before me. If you managed to get through all of this, major congratulations for that level of persistence. Feel like talking with me one-on-one? Msg me any time in-game or here on the forums, I love to talk without using my voice. Finally, thank you, thank you for reading, for compliments, for criticism, and for basically everything.
