Make A Minecraft Nether Portal Base
If you've been playing Minecraft for a while, you'll remember the excitement that abounded when the Nether was released. A whole new dimension to play in, with new blocks with new properties. Portals were born, as was the concept of being able to travel great distances through the normal Minecraft world by traveling rather a short distance in the Nether.
If your world is large (my world is very, very large indeed as I am still playing on the scale representation of Planet Earth I reviewed weeks ago) then portals are more than just a tool for skipping out on friends who've invited themselves over for dinner, they're a valid and necessary means of transportation. Some Minecraft players create large rail systems in the Nether, effectively connecting locations that appear not to be linked in the slightest in the normal world. If you like the idea of secret doors and passages and whatnot, then you should love the Nether. What's more secret than another dimension?
However once they've harvested themselves some ever burning Netherrack and zipped between portals, many people find that the Nether outlives its usefulness rather quickly. It's too dark to really be of any aesthetic use, and if you're using the default texture pack or one remotely faithful to the default textures then you'll probably find the Nether a very ugly place too.
But there is a way to make the Nether more comfortable. I did it by bringing the sunshine, long grass and flowers back to the Nether with me. You may be nervous to build anything in the Nether because of all the lava and spontaneous fires and whatnot, but I say phooey to that. Phooey. Obviously it's not the best place for cloth pixel art, but most blocks aren't flammable anyway. Why, you can place all the dirt (and if you're using an Inventory Editor, grass) you want without having to worry about it catching alight. Cobblestone and smoothstone are equally useful in this regard.
A Nether portal base is not complete without two things, 1. Some flowers, and 2. A well or puddle in which to dunk yourself if you happen to be caught ablaze unawares. A good supply of buckets to put out fires that start in the living room might also help.
I've included a couple of pictures of my Nether portal base, Home Base, as I like to call it. It's a little speck of civilization amongst a world gone fiery. If you really put your mind to it, you could probably build an entire oasis in the Nether, complete with sandstone and sandy lava beaches.