Doobie Doobie Do
March 21, 2008
Written on Thursday 20th March 2008
Just want to disperse a few ideas that have been on my mind in the past two weeks.
Lately
Lately my studies and life have been traveling at a manageable pace. Thanks to the Easter holiday weekend I have already completed my 3rd week of Univeristy. I used the word manageable as I can feel the presence of strain from many out of study pressures slowly mounting. I hope that I will be able to continue to keep them at bay at least for a while longer.
I am not sure but I am continually finding that I have less time on my hands to meet my own personal demands. Some of which I will talk about later. I am trying to balance University studies with additional language study with my Chinese friends, marketing and writing for my Gamer Blog as well as par taking in other social activities in and around Uni. Maybe I have alterered my perception of the time it takes to do things but it seems that everything that I work on requires a dedicated chunk of time.
For example, some of the blog articles (lets say the 3-4 page articles) that I write can take about 2-3hrs to write, another hour to proof read and then another 2 hours to gather any additional media or links and finally post on the site with a bit more uploading. It is a challenging task.
It is a similar case with Chinese, although I am continuously improving, I don’t find that I have enough time to fit everything that I want to in. Even though I practice with my friends for 8+ hrs a week I still find that we don’t manage to plough through all of the pre-prepared material. It is not a case of inefficiency but rather time not matching with demand.
Maybe this is all a sign that I am doing too much which is probably true. In anycase I have to figure out a way of managing myself under these circumstances.
Beyond my daily pressures life really has been fine. I am enjoying my classes and am continually finding myself surrounded by more people I know which as I mentioned previously is very pleasing. I enjoy good conversation and for most people I feel that it is what is taking place.
A Demand For Better Writing
I feel somewhat enlightened and inspired by some of what is going around me. In the past 3 weeks I have felt a move in me to push for a high quality of writing within my Gamer Blog. I have been enlightened of course by some of my fellow bloggers whom are constantly raising the bar in terms of writing quality. But it hasn’t just been these guys that have shifted my perception on video game writing.
In one of my courses at University we study language, technology and the relationship between the two. The whole vibe around this courses has encouraged me personally to think about how I can improve my own level of english when sharing ideas under these fields, one pre-existing outlet of this is obviously my gaming blog. As our course director puts it this course is really our own, we navigate the ship in terms of what we want to cover in some areas. An example of such is our major assignment where we choose an a topic of interests, we study and research this ourselves and provide a report on our findings. Our tutor even talked about the University possibly publishing these as journals if the quality was there. I find this so whole course so exciting because the study of language and technology, conversational analysis and technology, language as a second language tool all of these things are something which I am familiar with as a student of language and an enthusiast of tech and yet the research into these areas is lacking. I feel somewhat motivated into contributing into this area of writing despite being only a lowly blogger.
From this idea I have been thinking about what I can do to make my gaming blog much more intelligent. I want to raise the profile of writing but ensure that my writing is still accessible to the masses. Under my niche of video games I feel as though there is a divide among smaller video game blogging niches. There are enthusiasts blogs like myself, from there the next level comes in talking about game design and philosophies etc. So in following the previous model I would have to move my focus to a more philosophical way of talking about video games. Which is fine, unfortunately this is not exactly what I want to do.
With exclusions in mind I find that most video game blogs of this, high profile nature are simply unaccessible. I have read through hundreds of video game blogs dedicated to game design, creation and the like and they all have one thing in common. They all speak of a foreign language of which I am unfamiliar with. I find this deeply offensive as someone whom has been gaming for his whole life why is it that these game design blogs are simply nonsensical to me? Maybe I am too stupid for my own good but what is the point of having a niche of blogs of this nature if they are inaccessible to others wanting to pick up and read about this topic.
(Stay with me on this one) I have recently been thinking a lot about game design and soon enough I will post up numerous posts on DP’s Gamer Blog about this. Something which I find so fascinating is casual gaming and how I believe all games can benefit from taking the soul of the casual gaming design principles; that is accessibility. I think that a game like Super Mario Galaxy represents this mantra perfectly; the casual player can pick this game up and feels welcomed, they can understand the fundamentals of this game and enjoy it yet someone like me a ‘core’ gamer can pick this game up and play it and also feel completely satisfied but on a different level.
I wish to adopt this scheme to DP’s Gamer Blog. For as many articles as possible I want people that don’t play games to be able to read my blog, understand it and feel satisfied. I also wish that more thoughtful gamers can read my blog and also feel satisfied.
Talking about video games requires at least some background knowledge of software in order to understand which will be my biggest issue. But with this in mind I want to talk more on game design and industry issues as well as my usual observations and thoughts of new and old gaming software. My main goal is to ease people in, to draw them in with writing that makes sense and keeping them in all the while not only speeding up the linguistic rhythm but also increasing the depth of industry and software relevance.
It is all a focus on understanding which I see as crucial. The more people understand the reasoning behind why we play video games the better our industry will be. I think that the rise of bloggers like News Week’s N’gai Croal are pushing video game journalism into new, more intelligent areas. I want to be a part of that but I also want to ensure that this type of writing can still be accessible for everyone. To greater improve understanding among classes of readers.
I want the enthusiasts, the casual players, the non players and of course the people that write for these game design blogs to all be able to get something out of my writing. Such a movement obviously is a difficult task and something that I honestly wish to pursue. It is something that will take me a long time to think about and understand what is required to write in such a way. But it is something which I find is improve and will drive our medium forward.
BTW I have also found the work of MIT’s Henry Jenkins to help push me towards this idea.
Study Abroad
Well I am glad to get all of that off my chest, now I just need the time to be able to write those types of articles. The other thing which has constantly been on my mind is studying abroad. After much though I have realized that my time has come for me to finally study abroad in China.
I am planning on enrolling into a Chinese University and hence obviously living in China tarting this September. Clearly it is a while off which is why I am trying to get ideas of where I will study. I have 3 main opportunities, I can apply for a University in ShanHai with my main University, I have applied for a scholarship for a second year University or I can find my own University and enrol hopefully grabbing a grant in the process to save me some coinage.
Whatever the case I feel as though this is the necessary step. I have built up a clear foundation of Chinese grammar, you know I am just ready. I have the language skills, enthusiasm and money in the bank to do this. I know that it is my time to take this challenge which I have been supported by friends whom agree that it is my time.
I am always pushing for new frontiers in my life. Co-developing and selling my first video game with my twin brother, building a series of websites, most notably a video game blog in which I have had to learn the ways this medium works and have adapted to it and come to a point in which I am thriving off this type of culture. In year 12 I proved that I can actually hold my own in a series of subjects which had indeed been taunting me for some 9 years (long story that one). Then finally crawling my way back to where I wanted to be with my Chinese study.
I don’t like to wank over myself or proclaim that I am better than anyone else because I am not, I am actually extremely modest in real life. What I have found though is that all of the aforementioned examples are all milestones. Are all instances in which I never thought that I could amount to. Returning to Chinese classes this year has starkly reminded me of my efforts(studying Chinese) over the past 8 months. Its alerted me of my progress but much more importantly it has set in stone and made perfectly clear what is required of me to continue down this path. I feel that this trip to China, which will be at least a year of study abroad (from there it depends) is the next logical step.
Tags: Life
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Happiness; Coming and Going
March 10, 2008
Originally Written on 8th March 2008
The title is a line from Lucky Man – The Verve a truly inspiring song. Of late this line has moved me considerably.
I want to talk about something that has contained a considerable amount of happiness; this past week. As you may have noticed from my previous post this week has been the first week back at University. What can I say it has been an incredible week, I am so surprisingly delighted with how the week has unfolded.
People
I used the word surprisingly intentionally. This past week has not been enjoyable because I am back at Uni, moving around and seeing people again because frankly I did plenty of that over the holidays. It has been the surprises that are hooking me.
Firstly I should mention that I do a fair bit of traveling, this semester I have to go to 3 university campuses spread over 2 Unis. Usually this results in me catching 6 ‘pieces’ of public transport a day just to get to my most distant campus and back home again. Anyways, I have been simply amazed by the number of friends that I have met on my travels, this week about 5/6 times that I have required to use public transport I have seen and chatted with someone I know. Its not that which surprises me though, its that everyone I have met are different people whom I bump into around the place occasionally. It is like everwhere I go there is somewhere ready to talk to, it has almost reached ridiculous levels.
It isn’t just on the move though. Around Uni, in classes where I wouldn’t suspect to know anyone I am meeting more people and engaging in great conversation. I also heard from one of my Chinese buddies whom has returned to Australia. I met up with him Friday and we are both so stoked about it. He is one of my best buddies and it is great to have him back in Australia. ^_^
Classes
Something else which surprised me was how much so I am enjoying my classes. There are two, new classes in particular that I have been pleased with. One is a marketing course which a friend told me was simply God awful and the other is a course which deals with language and technology. I can already see how the marketing course is going to benefit me and I find it to be an interesting class. The other class is even more so right up my alley, we learn about language and technology, namely computer technology. Some of the topics we are covering are language learning thru technology, blogging, Google, Second Life as communicative tool, the methods and limitations between certain communication methods etc. I am so excited to be a part of only a class of 5 people studying this subject. It is all focused on learning through exploration and flexibility. The course allows us to gain education in something relevant to us. This means that my tutor has encouraged me to study more about blogging. Infact just being in these classes has encouraged me to want to go out and do more research and to an extent write papers on this kinda stuff. Its so complelling.
DP’s Gamer Blog
Thats right, my gamer blog. Theres been a lot of developments here as well. There has been an increase in posting frequency which I admit is unintentional but I just have had to share it. I have reached a state where I simply love writing in my blog and I really wanted to share some more articles.
The most significant surprise is with my traffic which is looking to 2.5x that of the traffic 2 months ago. My RSS readership has peaked as well. Also just yesterday I think I got a plug on the Brainy Gamer podcast. Micheal whom runs the site offered free plugs so I took him up on that offer and nearing the end of the podcast there is an advertisement by Matty Jay. Micheal also added his own kind words afterwards which I am very thankful for and I really wasn’t expecting.
Conclusion
Yeah so this week has been awesome. I am meeting up with even more people at and around Uni. I am throughly enjoying my classes and my blog is picking up steam. I am just so wrapped with how life is progressing.
Tags: Life
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My Happiness
March 4, 2008
Originally Written on 3rd March 2008
I have probably said it a few times in this blog already but I will repeat it again as today’s topic. Hopefully once I have written this it will all be out of my system.
There is a saying that has consistently become more and more apparent over the past year, I believe that it the past several months the significance has risen even more so. So I just want to talk about it, the expression roughly goes something like this:
You are who you surround yourself with
Actually Nate Whitehill; a blogger I read first brought this to my attention. I feel as though this post speaks a lot of what I am about to say. But perhaps less in the business sense though.
Essentially it goes that if we surround ourselves with people whom make us happy and push us in the right direction then we are happy people ourselves. In a way it does pain me to say this but it is a fair statement; I feel as though over the past year I have removed all of the negative influences in my life. That is; I have said goodbye to the people which aren’t worth the trouble and that aren’t pushing me in the right direction.
In the process I have gained friends from across the board that really do make me happy which I feel is very important. Today was the first day of Uni for the year and the most important lesson that I learnt was how relevant this is.
Good friends improve all aspects of life, because I have good friends I generally feel much happier, I work better and my overall well being is better.
Another point that I want to gloss over is how important differentiating friends are. In and out of Uni I spend time with my friends from high school, my Chinese friends and my Uni friends. Because I study a good variety of subjects my social network is also consistently varied as well and that helps.
Anyways, just thought that I would share my thoughts.
Tags: Life
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And Thats the Holidays
Originally Written on 2nd March Sunday 2008
Its Sunday morning, the last day before the holidays start again. Fortunately if I remember correctly there are two preceding long weekends on the way in the coming weeks so its not too bad.
Today I am tieing up all of the loose ends. Which means that I will be compilating the 10 pages of entries which I haven’t uploaded over the past couple of months. I’m also putting together all of the other articles, videos and media that I have to sort out for other projects.
I also want to use to time to fill in some of the gaps over the past few weeks. Theres been some interesting stuff going on, some of which I am afraid that I would prefer to keep to myself. But for everything else, heres the spill:
A few weeks back I went to my Chinese friends 22nd Birthday. We went to a Chinese restraunt out of the city. There were about 15 people in total, 13 Chinese people, 1 Japanese guy and me. As you might expect this was a great opportunity for me to practice my Chinese which I did.
I should probably mention that I didn’t like the restraunt, it didn’t even look like a restraunt, the price was incredibly expensive, the staff were terrible and I think that I got sick from the food there (even though I only managed to eat one small plate of food).
Despite the awful restraunt I had a lot of fun, I met a lot of friendly people. Unfortunately I often found myself completely overwhelmed with the situation at hand. I’d be talking to someone in Chinese and could barely hear them because it was so loud in the restraunt furthermore other people were interrupting saying that I couldn’t understand etc. It was hardly the ideal place to converse in a foreign language.
Fortunately someone moved seats and sat next to me so it was much easier to talk. We were there for maybe 3 hours I think and I only managed to eat a small plate of food because I was too busy talking and listening.
Afterwards we went back to my friends place and did some stuff and then people slowly started to leave. Two of the guys had a PS2 set up, my friend told me to bring some games so I chose KOF XI and Street Fighter Alpha Anthology. I only played a few round of KOF and got my ass handed to me. I don’t think that it was my fault though as my controller was busted and I couldn’t pull off some moves.
I spent more time to become acquainted with the people around me and we talked until quite late. By that time I was so exhausted, I don’t think that I have ever felt so drained. Translation requires so much brain work and when you have to constantly keep that up for an extended period of time its exhausting. So I almost gave up speaking Chinese.
I also gave my friend her present and she liked it very much. I was woken up 2x in the night or should I say in the morning. The Japanese guy couldn’t find the bus stop back to the city and the second time someone poked me asking if I was cold. I wasn’t cold but I was frickin’ asleep!!! Infact I was having a dream about this shmp on the Xbox 360, Raiden Fighters I think it is. ><
From there I just got up and went home with some of the others. I had heaps of fun and made some more Chinese friends which is great. I don’t really want to add any more as I am currently writing a Chinese article about what happened. It has lots of difficult situations for me to put into Chinese so I want to write about it. Currently 800 characters thru, will probably be a pretty large article as I am still no where near getting to the restraunt yet.
Yeah so by the end of the weekend I was exhausted, I had realized that I had probably eaten something bad an got some kind of bug because over the past week I was not feeling very good. Sick in the stomach, tired, sore eyes etc.
I also had a pretty tiring week beforehand as well. Lots of running around, meeting people.
So for the past 2 weeks I have been trying to recover from whatever I caught and doing the usual business; Chinese revision, catching up with friends, writing blog articles, playing games. I guess with a lean towards writing blog articles and Chinese revision. I have been on a roll with my blog articles and I have a fantastic selection of some of my best articles yet on the way. So I am looking forward to posting those.
I have also been organizing my stuff for Uni which starts tomorrow. But beyond that, thats it.
Tags: Life
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