5 things I can't wait to do in Minecraft 1.3

People have been waiting for the Minecraft 1.3 update for a long time(since march!). Through the snapshot updates, people have gotten glimpses of many awesome things. With the official release of the update on August 1st, here are 5 things I'm excited to try:


1. Write a book

In Minecraft, books have existed, but only to make bookcases, which were entirely cosmetic.

With the 1.3 update however, if you take a book and craft it with a feather and an ink sac, you can make a book with quill,

which you can open and write in.

And if you sign the book, you can share it for anyone else to see!

Hello, journals!(you are not allowed to read those)!

2. Use an Ender Chest
Has this ever happened to you? You are minding your own business, walking into your cave house from a long night's mining, when OH NO, a creeper got in and blew up your chest, scattering it's contents all over your floor! It'll take forever to clean up!

NOT WITH THE NEW ENDER CHEST!!!

THIS MARVEL OF CRAFTING IS MADE FROM OBSIDIAN WITH AN EYE OF ENDER! IT HAS ALL THE POWERS OF AN ENDERMAN, WITHOUT THE MURDERING YOU! IF YOU PLACE YOUR DIAMONDS INSIDE THE ENDER CHEST, YOU CAN GET IT FROM ANY OTHER ENDER CHEST! EVEN FROM THE NETHER!

THE NETHER?!

THE NETHER!!! 

AHem...It's also explosion resistant, and people can't steal your stuff from it. I'm sold.

3. Trade with Villagers

You know this fellow? He is a Villager from Minecraft. Also known as Squidwards for their appearance or Testificates from their initial testing:

These fellows(some are girls because they have babies, but we can't tell) have a reputation for having no purpose. But not anymore. Enter trading.

This is an emerald. You can find them in the ground rarely. The Villagers use them as currency to trade for goods and services.

They will also enchant stuff for you(at the right price...).

Now we have a(n optional) reason to visit villages besides to loot/burn them(burning the village would be a bad idea though; it would provoke the iron golem).

4. Exploring the Temples
With Dungeons and Strongholds and Nether Forts, you'd think there were enough places to explore in Minecraft.Well guess what. THERE'S MORE NOW.
First off, the Jungle Temple.

Inside there is a puzzle. using pistons and levers. A PUZZLE. Which reveals TREASURE!!

And you see this other chest? ITS A TRAP(you can see the dispenser...right?)

You'd think this would be the most clever generated structure in Minecraft yet. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE: the Desert Temple.

I'm pretty sure those are supposed to be Ankhs. Hidden inside at the bottom of a pit is TREASURE!!!

But wait. There's a pressure plate. That means there's a trap. But what kind of trap?

DYNAMITE TRAP. It will kill you and destroy all your items, and the loot. So, plenty of stuff for your inner Indiana Jones.

5. The Singleplayer/Multiplayer Merge.
   Once upon a time, Minecraft had two uniquely coded modes: Singleplayer and Multiplayer. Whenever anything was updated, it needed to be updated in Singleplayer mode and separately in Multiplayer. This equalled twice the work for both the programmers who code Minecraft and the modders who work with it. But starting with 1.3, that all will change. The Singleplayer world will use a Multiplayer server to run, meaning only 1 mode to update, making it easier to add new things and remove bugs.
   But why am I so excited about this? Well, since every Singleplayer game is a Multiplayer server, you can, over Local Area Connection, join a Singleplayer game. While I'm not fond of random people joining my singleplayer world, I would be more than happy to pop in on my friend's singleplayer and do crazy stuff.