Member Name BlendyCat
Additional In Game Names: NostalgicPhoenix, Player3343
How old are you? 15
Location: San Diego, California
Do you have Teamspeak? Yes
How many hours per day do you spend on Meepcraft? (average) 1-2
Have you ever been a Tech on a different server? Yes, multiple
References: Please give IGN's TechnoTyson, NinjaRoxy, Lordusan
Introduction: Hello, my full name is Evan M. Merz but you may know me as BlendyCat. If I had to tell you one hobby that best describes me I'd probably say something along the lines of "building" or "making." And that's for a good reason. I absolutely love making stuff.
Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated with how things work. I was curious how watches work. I was curious how houses were constructed. I was curious how movie popcorn was made (yes, movie popcorn!). Every time I took something apart, I learned something new (although I could never manage to get them back together successfully) and, every time I learned the composition of an object, I felt a sense of achievement. I wouldn't really say I was a mischevious child. Anytime I took something apart, I made sure to ask for permission.
Now, things began to get more real when I got into computers. I'd like to say that the second I got on a computer, I became a child prodigy at programming. But, it went a little something like this.
....
The Microsoft logging on tune sounds as Evan logs onto the computer. "Ok, I have 30 minutes to work with," he mumbles under hist breath, "better do something useful with my time." He opens up a text editor program. "Alright, I bet making a quiz program isn't that complicated." Evan types into the file:
'Question1: What is 10x5?
Answer1: 50
Question2: What is 12+13?
Answer2: 25
...'
"Ok, that looks good so far. Let's see if this will run!" He right clicks the file. A dialog pops up with some options, "Open, Open with, Edit, Delete..., where's the 'run' button?"
....
Of course, you have to give me credit, as I was only 11 years old at the time. I wish I had realized that I could learn simple programming just by using the resources at my fingertips. All I can say is my mind was in the right place, but I just wasn't ready for programming.
Skip ahead a year, and I've already become absolutely obsessed with this game "Minecraft" as it suddenly begins to gain popularity. At church one day, a kid named Hudson told me about how he built a Minecraft server with his dad. He wrote down the IP address for the server on the back of a church handout. The second I got home, I log into Minecraft, go to the servers tab, then type in the IP. I hit enter.
Skip ahead three seconds, I'm in this underground bunker with stone slab walls and rules written on signs attached the wall. I climb out of the bunker and look around the world. The world was worn out, however, it was a fantasy world to me. Towers built from the ground up, massive and made of dirt.
Now, you may be wondering but, no this is not my first time playing Minecraft even though I make it out to be this glorious, heaven-like place. However, instead of telling you how I felt, I'm letting you feel how I felt. Although this may seem insignificant to you, this is what set my engine ablaze.
Skip ahead a month, and I've already learned how to make a server. I cannot describe with words how high my expectations for the server were and it was only a vanilla server. But wait, no one has joined my server yet except me. I get the home phone and dial my best friend Lance,
"Me: Hey Lance! I got the server running!
Lance: Dude, it's like 6:00 in the morning.
Me: let's get you connected to the server.
Lance: Ok...
Me: Try 192.168.1.1
Lance: Uh... Nope!
Me: Try it again.
Lance: No...
Me: Try (IP not shown)
Lance: I'm in.
'Historyguy449 joined the game!'
Me: Awesome! I'm gonna call it the "Redstone Server!"
Lance: Cool, you got a website?
Me: I'll make one. [See links below for link to this old website]
Success! I had made my own Minecraft server! However, that was never enough. I always saw how bigger servers always had 'modifications' that made the server more fun and interactive. It was not until a while later that I learned about CraftBukkit from my FLL Robotics Team Coach. I could now add what they were calling 'plugins' to my Minecraft server. I finally felt like a successful person.
Skip to 2013, I joined Meepcraft as evanmerz909. All I remember is being warned about using caps when advertising myself selling cookies on Vshop (if I'm remembering correctly). When I finally saved up 300k to buy a town I was proud of myself. I lost that very town precisely two days later when I failed to transfer enough money to the town bank.
Please describe your experience as a developer. Now, my experience as a developer didn't begin until late 2012/early 2013 when I began to try to teach myself code. Now, I obviously didn't instruct myself, I learned Java from YouTube tutorials. Those tutorials proved themselves to be helpful in the sense of getting a simple command line programs to run and maybe count to ten or use a Scanner object to pick up user input. Nothing seemed very useful. It was discouraging knowing I had so much to learn before any of this could actually be used.
Skip to late 2013, I finally found a use for my Java skillset: Minecraft Mods. I cannot emphasize how excited I was to learn how to edit Minecraft. I decompiled the MCP (Minecraft Coder Pack) and jumped ahead and observed the Minecraft Code (How I learned random aspects of Java). As I began to adapt to my new environment, I learned how to mimic files that already existed and create things of my own. Later, I created a mod for my close friend Alex. I called it the Bamboo Sandwich mod. I added him as a human entity that wanders the map (very glitchy and took me forever to get working), I made wolves target chickens instead of sheep (as chickens were evil), I added bamboo, bamboo sandwiches (crafted with two bread and a bamboo log). That was an immersive learning experience for me and I would recommend it to those who know a bit more code than I did at the time. Later that year, I watched a TheNewBoston tutorial. Later, I learned how to use Forge Mod Loader to make more dynamic mods.
In 2016, I started my own server. I can't really say this was a mistake because had I not done that I would not be here. At times I wish I had stayed as a moderator on Meepcraft. On my server, I learned CraftBukkit plugin development. This was empowering for me, a developer, I could make plugins that control a players name color in the TAB player list. I worked on a plugin that played music and controlled a theme park's ride mechanics. I worked on a plugin that would allow players to rent a shop and sell items. I made a plugin that showed player events to an external JFrame GUI console using ObjectOutputStreams and ObjectInputStreams and sockets and connections. I even made a plugin that displayed a screen with moving blocks that bounced off the corners of the virtual screen. I have to thank my great pal Lordusan for pointing me to the right spot to get started in Bukkit Plugin Development.
During the summer of '16, my dad insisted that I get a job at a crating company so I did (Tri-City Crating and Packing Inc. if you were curious). I helped around the shop. Therefore, development was slowed down. However, I learned HTML, Javascript, and CSS. I made a decent amount of money by making a skyblock server a homepage (They deleted it because my design was too square although I clearly explained it was designed to fit the Minecraft 'blocky' feel). At the end of the summer, I quit Minecraft and my server as well (not my dream of being a developer).
At the beginning of school, I enrolled in the AP Comp Sci class in which we learn Java in. I'm the best in the class so far and all the other students come to me with questions on how to fix their code. I don't really enjoy the class because I wanted to take it to learn something but everything that has been taught (from the book that we read for homework because the teacher doesn't actually teach) is something I've already known for a while. Bummer. At least I'll be receiving that AP credit to make up for the lack of knowledge I'll be gaining from this dull class (no pun intended, hehe).
About two weeks ago, I learned the basics of the Python programming language in about two or three days (I completely sped through the tutorials). It all stuck in my brain because lots of programming languages have many similarities, not in style but as in there are while loops, for loops, methods, and classes. What I'm trying to say is once you learn one language, it becomes much easier to learn others.
Now, I've been making python programming tutorials for my Youtube channel. Although I'm making Python tutorials, I have not moved past Java. In fact, I'm making a tutorial series on Bukkit Plugin Development next. ;)
What programming languages are you familiar with? Java, Python, and Javascript
What are you most proud of as your work as a developer? Honestly, I can't really decide what plugin/project I'm the proudest of. It seems like as I go it keeps getting better. But if I had to choose one thing it would probably be my BlendyItems plugin. Although it is not my best plugin, it is the one I've worked on the most and is one of my earlier plugins which makes it even better. I'll be posting the source code for that to my GitHub account. It is somewhat old so my technique at approaching a Java project is much more efficient and fancy now. This plugin allows users to use commands such as /rename, /lore (both allowed & as a color code), /fix, and /iron which converted 64 cobblestone into three iron ingots. It also renamed sheep to "[Player]'s Sheep"
How do you plan to enrich the experience of MeepCraft with your development contributions? I've noticed that many suggestions are left with a denial comment along the lines of "that would be impossible". When I've done that exact thing before. I plan to make the 'impossible' a reality. Many developers make everything from what they know. I base my development off of what I already know plus plenty of research and experimentation on different ways to write a piece of code. What I'm saying is, give me any concept and a deadline (usually about 1-2 days if it's easy or a week if it's difficult). I am a very dedicated developer and as a dev I intend to create new content for Meepcraft that will attract new players and even think of new solutions to old problems.
Do you have a GitHub account or personal website? If so, please provide the link(s) here. My Personal Site: BlendyCat - Homepage (Designed from scratch by me :P | I post source code from my videos here)
GitHub: BlendyCat ยท GitHub (I forget to commit frequently :P and I don't post many of my projects there but I will soon)
Site from Introduction (for the history of BlendyCat): The Redstone Server (It's not advertising another server I swear because that server is dead)
Youtube Channel: youtube.com/c/blendycat (I make Python, and Java soon, programming tutorials)
