kirabug's idea files

Day 464:

Sometimes I dig straight ahead and only veer off for the occasional seam of interesting-looking ore.

Sometimes I veer off for every interesting-looking seam of ore. I have to admit I’ve been doing that more here than in any other mining job I’ve had.

What I’m doing right now, while I’m looking for diamonds, is following every seam of ore, but in a very specific way… I follow them out as far away from me as they go, and then I dig each one in order back toward me, so that eventually I’ll be back where I started.

Granted, I’ll be back where I started with a whole bunch of giant caverns to fall into, but hopefully I’ll have more diamonds.

I’ve got a little more than 64 reasonable sized pieces now, and when I hit 100, I’ve decided I’m going to make myself a pickaxe out of some of the bigger pieces. I think I’ll be able to dig toward the sheep faster that way.

Day 463:

Gold is boring.

There, I said it.

It makes a lousy metal for doing anything except looking at, and I have no need for jewelry.

Even the watch I made, which isn’t much of a watch, could probably work better in steel if I had the patience to work it.

I can’t understand how it got so valuable in the first place.

Day 462:

Some day someone is going to analyze this log to figure out the migration patterns of these monsters. In the meantime, the exploding giraffe-corgis are gone and the rock rats have returned.

The good thing is they’re easier to kill. The bad thing is they swarm.

Day 461:

I cleared the goo and in the process of shoveling it away discovered some emeralds. I have no idea what I’m going to do with emeralds in this place. They’re not handy for cutting or protection the way the diamonds are. (Assuming they are diamonds. Which I doubt.)

There’s no joy in certain kinds of work, no matter how hard I try. I don’t like shoveling goo. I don’t like feeding duckens. I don’t like cleaning, in general.

But if the universe wants to reward me with emeralds, I’m not going to argue.

I wonder what it would take to make a jewel polisher. Probably would at minimum need a flywheel, which is something I’ve never made. But I have iron (believe you me I have iron) and furnaces so I’m pretty sure I have all the raw ingredients.

Maybe tomorrow.

Day 460:

I’m back in the mines, still looking for diamonds.

Let me tell you, there’s nothing quite like crawling through a hole just big enough to pass through, only to find yourself face-to-face with a lime gelatin cube with an attitude problem.

Fortunately, I could duck right back into the hole and cut the thing down to size without being within contact of it.

Unfortunately, that meant when I was done I was walled in by a pile of goo.

I am not fond of piles of goo.