Welcome to the first edition of "Outside the Blocks"!
In this series, I will be interviewing different members of our community in order to get to know them a little better!
Today, our guest is Oplegoman - a moderator on our server since the 22nd of November, 2019!
Oplegoman is the owner of the famous BuildyBlocks and is currently a co-mayor of the town Code!
For those that do not know Oplegoman just yet, here's a brief description by a friend of his:
"Lego boi is an excellent, well-spoken, mature and intelligent guy. Very friendly and easy to talk to, definitely the kind of friend you can trust to
take you home if you were, let's say, drunk at a bus stop at 3 am. I really enjoy his presence."
Brenda: I always think it is nice to start at the origin of something, would you'd like to share with us where you are from,
where you grew up and how you found out about SentinelCraft?Ople: I have had quite a busy childhood. For the first 6-7 years of my life, I lived in East Yorkshire, England but I don't remember much of this.
After that, for the next three years of my life, I lived in Southern Italy. This was a different experience, partaking in schooling in a completely different language!
Their teaching was so different, I had school for six days a week from 8 am till 1 pm. Fast forward some more, the financial crisis happened, and we moved back to England.
Then just before I went to college the server I used to play on died rather quickly! I needed to find a new one, I stumbled on SentinelCraft in the summer of 2014.. and I have not joined another survival server since.
Brenda: What! Italy? So there's a little Italian dude hiding within our Oliver? Does this mean you actually speak fluent Italian?Ople: Yea, I was really good at Italian but not good at speaking it. Studying French all through high school ruined any chance of me remembering the language.
I did get a GCSE in it when I was 12 but I didn't do that well! I loved the people and the places in the south of Italy. It was so tranquil and I would love to go back once I can afford to!
Brenda: That's such an interesting fact, guess you could say I am a little shooketh. You mentioned that you joined Sentinel back in the summer of 2014..
went inactive for a while in between and now you're back! Was there a special factor, special someone (!!) or something else that convinced you to stay with us?Ople: I lost interest in Minecraft once I started college, I found that college was hard and did spend a lot of time studying to make sure that I could keep up with the classes.
Later I went to university which was even more work and socialising, leaving me less time for the server or quality time.
I stayed with the server as it was always much more open than any of the other servers I have ever been on.
Sentinel has an active Senior Admin team, I found this to be a great sign of a really promising server, the admins their approach really set the tone for everyone else.
About a month after I joined, RogueFriday joined and has been an active member still this day, as a lot of you may know and some of you might not; Rogue is my father and it's so fun seeing everyone's response!
Brenda: Ooh! I always find people their reactions so fascinating, especially when they've interacted with you two for a while.
Do you and your father do a lot together in-game? Speaking about college/university - most people know that you are a huge fan of mathematics.
Would you'd like to elaborate on this a little more & were your grades for mathematics always higher in secondary school?Ople: Back in 2014, which was the beloved Pern, we had our houses/bases rather close but over time have done our own things as we have different styles and are usually on at different times.
Even though I am still the pickaxe repairer!
Yea, if I talk through my studies in maths from the beginning.. I was not that good at maths at highschool but could say above average, I did well in my high school exams.
I think I was just good enough to torture myself with Maths, Further Maths and Physics! I can imagine them being some peoples worst nightmare.
Through college, I got better at maths as I had some great knowledgeable teachers. I also put in a lot of studying once exams came around.
I ended up having 14 maths exams and 6 physics (passed them all with A,B,C: maths, further and physics), which were the most exams I have ever done!
This allowed me to go to university and study Mathematics. When I first started, I thought I made a mistake!
The lectures were just too difficult and I could not follow it at all! (the partying didn't help though..)
I kept with it for a few months and felt much more at home with the course, even though none of it was easy.
Two more years studying, I finished my mathematical education with a high 2:1 (no idea what that is in other systems) and I was happy that it was over!
But as time passed I was drawn back to mathematics or the more interesting parts of it, and my favourite
text explains it well.
I later got into tutoring and using my big brain helping more disadvantaged and struggling students with mathematics.
My explanation usually is different than their teachers, for a lot of students this really helped them.
I felt like I could make a difference to many others, this is one of the reasons why I am aiming to become a teacher!
Brenda: Does this mean you're actually studying or following some kind of course to teach mathematics in a secondary school? Ople: From September, if at all possible, I hope to be on a mathematics teaching course which would take one year to complete and I will be well on my way into my career and hopefully inspiring more people about mathematics and hopefully make a difference.
Brenda: Twinsies! We're both going to educate some kids, I'm excited about your teaching course! Hopefully, it works out for you!
Let's get back to some more Minecraft related questions... Besides restocking BuildyBlocks actively and trying to destroy Market's reputation - what do you like to do on a regular Minecraft day?Ople: The first I'll do when I get online is checking BuildyBlocks and collecting all the profits. Next, I look at what I need to stock up on; most of the time this is sand, gravel and quartz.
Then I usually go off building my little kingdom which I have spent many months on - building slowly as I have found when I build so quickly it always turns out terrible!
Recently, I have made a great guardian farm which has been popular and is now helping my shop out so much more.
During this I help people wherever I can as the community is everything, this could be helping from commands to other more complex things.
So thinking about it, I don't seem to be doing much! I have tried more creative approaches to things such as the new spawn video we all got!
And..some other secret things that could be on the way!
Brenda: Speaking of BuildyBlocks, a member of our community asked if you think that you can 'beat' HvPanda with your advertising skills! Ople: I don't think could ever beat Market with my advertising skills! Market sells so much more than me anyway.. but I like to think that BuildyBlocks is a strong and coming up store!
Also just because this is a good moment for it, BuildyBlocks is looking to expand into other areas and to do this, I am looking to hire a fellow player to help with this!
With a few more months BuildyBlocks might become the household name, overtaking Market! #BuildyBlocksisBest
Brenda: Pfff shameless advertising excuse you?? I was about to ask about your future plans but that's definitely clear now!Ople:
BUILYBLOCKS!
Brenda: You mentioned helping people whenever you can in the community, would you say you enjoy being a moderator? Are there some challenging parts to it?Ople: I do enjoy helping the community and I hope that the community can attest to that. I am always available to help, I think a lot of people like me because of that - could I be the moderator of the people?
I found that starting out as a moderator could be quite difficult at times. There is much more to remember and much more responsibility that comes with a role like this.
Over the last six months, I believe that I have grown into the role well and use my new skills helping where I can!
Brenda: The moderator of the people huh? Now, if someone *cough* me *cough* accidentally kidnapped Migas and you were to be the owner of the server for a while,
what are three big changes that you would make on the server? Ople: Wow! Three big changes, that is going to really hard to think of as everything is going extremely well at the moment :open_mouth:
Three things that I would change. First would be the server render distance up a little (I know this isn't possible at the moment but would be so nice!)
Second, I would send a search party for Migas; need Migas to fix everything after I break everything!
Finally third, hmmm, I can't think of anything as I would have already broken everything by then with my clumsy hands and tinkering!
Brenda: Woah, as a third thing I would've guessed something related to your recent videos - something that is worthy of putting on your resume!
That server spawn video was majestic, is this something you plan to continue working on? If so, what kind of content can we expect?Ople: I am so happy everyone loved the video I made! Truth be told, this was the first time for me trying anything like this and took a long time to create a short 2 minute video.
Currently, there are many ideas flying around as a way to highlight mega stuff around the server; a video to do with Pern something you would all like to see?
Other than that, some more informative videos might be on the way, so I would keep an eye out and subscribe to the servers
Youtube Channel to keep up to date on all future videos!
Brenda: Now, Ople, the world needs to know your opinion on this. If you had to choose between Ace & Creepy on the server, who would you choose and why?Ople: I'll be choosing Ace.. as I find Ace funny! Watching people gang up on Ace at times is hilarious xD (Sorry Creppy!)
Brenda: Oof! Time to break some more hearts (; Smooch, marry kill with all the staff members, go!Ople: Wow, you want all the gossip! If I have to answer it would be smooching you, marrying Banana and killing Rich. He scares me!
Brenda: Smooching me?? That's some gossip right there, I'm sure you must have heard more spicy things in SM/Mod chat, would you care to share some with us?Ople: Oh no! I have a brain like a sieve for things like this! But one I might have once overheard was #Migas4Member! No idea how far their crusade as gotten though or even if it got underway
Brenda: I 100% support that movement, where can I sign the petition? Thank you for being my first "test" subject, do you have anything else to share with the community besides promoting your shop? (;Ople: Apart from BuildyBlocks (I had to do it!), I look forward to the long future that I can see SentinelCraft having and all the amazing updates that are coming up! I'm also looking forward to playing together!
I hope you all liked this and learned a little more about me, your favourite and only Lego on the server!
Thank you for reading my very first interview, I hope you enjoyed! Don't forget to leave a cheeky comment and the real gossip down below. Hope to see you soon for another edition of Outside the Blocks!
