I've been feeling quite happy lately and have been enjoying my summer break. Spending time with friends and family has been great, and I have been learning here and there too. I'm currently planning to make a little game as a side project while I work on starting my third and final year of university. The game will be inspired by what I have learnt of Indonesia. I am going to design a new world based on the idea of multiple cultures and take inspiration from the interesting temple designs and symbols Indonesia has inherited. My research into the country has advanced since my last post.
I've also decided later on I'll be writing about something quite close to my heart yet potentially controversial to my friends and possibly even my family, though I hope I manage to be academic in my approach.
Also, I plan to review some games here and there, apps, write about more philosophers, books, le etc. I need to write about my excellent holiday in Hungary - which'll probably be in two posts with plenty of photography! Alas, I enjoy thinking about these small things ahead.
I've also written a horror story called Born to Learn. Do check it out if you have time.
That's it for personal life.
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Thursday, 29 August 2013
AdventureBar Story Lite
Time to update my blog with an app review. In this entry I will be reviewing AdventureBar Story Lite available on the Android.
This was quite an exciting app to test out for me, because I immediately recognised that the game was made using RPG Maker XP. I was curious how the 'bar' was involved, and was up for creative use of tiles, interesting characters and possibly some nice little boss fights. But did the app meet my expectations?
The game runs almost like a typical romance rpg - you can do a limited number actions each day. In this game, every time you open your bar, the day is over and you receive the profit (if you manage to make any!) from the sales you make. For the bar to make profit you need to sell food. To sell food, you need to make it, but first you need to find it.
In short, you go out in the morning, slay the monsters, and bring their flesh to the kitchen to boil into stew.
You with me?
Fighting is not too tiresome but repetitive - though most rpg fans will be willing to settle for the varied skills characters can learn from fighting monsters. Levelling takes place only when party members eat food - so one needs to be strategic about levelling up and keeping their bar profitable.
AdventureBar Story is the kind of game that you should feel guilty for playing, but you're too addicted to care.
The Lite version ends shortly after the tenth day which is quite the disappointment. It is not an overly complicated game, yet it is fun for what it is - a light hearted, adventure bar story indeed. For a one off £2.32, it seems good value for money in the app world. If I have a long journey ahead, I will consider unlocking the full game.
That's it for now, expect more app reviews in the future.
This was quite an exciting app to test out for me, because I immediately recognised that the game was made using RPG Maker XP. I was curious how the 'bar' was involved, and was up for creative use of tiles, interesting characters and possibly some nice little boss fights. But did the app meet my expectations?
Yes and no. AdventureBar Story is defiantly a refreshing story-focused RPG, with light-hearted (if not damn cheesy) dialogue and a clear aim. To create an exceedingly good and profitable restaurant or 'bar', to prevent some blond dude in a purple suit stealing your home.
Sounds fair enough to me.
The maps are small which makes them good for tablet uses, yet they are pretty, creative and during towns leave little empty space. Overall, the game is astatically pleasing to the eye.
The game runs almost like a typical romance rpg - you can do a limited number actions each day. In this game, every time you open your bar, the day is over and you receive the profit (if you manage to make any!) from the sales you make. For the bar to make profit you need to sell food. To sell food, you need to make it, but first you need to find it.
In short, you go out in the morning, slay the monsters, and bring their flesh to the kitchen to boil into stew.
You with me?
Fighting is not too tiresome but repetitive - though most rpg fans will be willing to settle for the varied skills characters can learn from fighting monsters. Levelling takes place only when party members eat food - so one needs to be strategic about levelling up and keeping their bar profitable.
AdventureBar Story is the kind of game that you should feel guilty for playing, but you're too addicted to care.
The Lite version ends shortly after the tenth day which is quite the disappointment. It is not an overly complicated game, yet it is fun for what it is - a light hearted, adventure bar story indeed. For a one off £2.32, it seems good value for money in the app world. If I have a long journey ahead, I will consider unlocking the full game.
That's it for now, expect more app reviews in the future.
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
Bulbsaur no tail
I always thought Bulbasaur had a tail. But I was wrong. So wrong. In Bulbasaur and the Hidden Village you can clearly see an image of Bulbsaur's behind which lacks a tail. And that concludes this entry today.
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Zen Judo
I was first introduced to Zen Judo by visiting the Trowbridge Zen Judo Club. Mike Healy runs the club as a non-profit, which is enjoyed by keen members of various levels and ages.
Since then I have found that Zen Judo is a beginner friendly art that aims to avoid competition. Mainstream Judo was founded by Jigoro Kano, and though he brought Judo to the UK in the 1920s, he did not want it to be associated with the Olympics. Nevertheless it did, making it the first Japanese Martial Art to become involved. Later on, in 1974 Dominick McCarthy founded Zen Judo, striving to avoid the competitive side of mainstream Judo, most likely sharing Kano's fears that it would ruin the art.
He also happened to teach Mike Healy.
Trowbridge Zen Judo Club is also associated with the International Gentle Arts Society, which holds events for various different kinds of 'Gentle Art' which they define as traditional and a 'non-sport' - Competitive success is not meant to be the ultimate or primary goal of achieving promotions.
Learning about the club has inspired me to learn more about martial arts as a whole, and well, you never know. Maybe you'll see me there joining in next time too.
Saturday, 27 July 2013
Kickboxing
Kickboxing was my second try at getting involved in martial arts. I gave Karate a go after seeing a kid in primary school do this routine in his little white suit, but my attention span grew thin very quickly - and the bowing. I didn't like the bowing at the time.
But when bullying started to become more physical as I grew up, my mother decided to take me to something else, and thus, I was introduced to kickboxing.
I loved the energy, all the fitness training, wearing the gloves and the instructors suited me. I admired how kickboxing could be silent, you didn't have to shout when you struck, you didn't have to say anything to anyone - you could show respect with body language - helping with the mats, giving a wave, a nod. Sometimes jogging, skipping, push ups, shadow sparing - despite being in the same hall as everyone else - it could feel quite solitude and that was very comforting and relaxing for me at the time. Then there was the sparring with other members. I was very competitive. My mother would proudly say that the boys were afraid of me. It was most likely because I was fast and didn't shrink away like a few of the other girls, (though most girls tended to be quite like me.) but it might have been because I was the shortest. I imagine it was quite a strange sight to see a short girl fight a tall male teenager. The poor guys were probably more worried about knocking me back too hard!
Kickboxing was hard work, and as I grew older my health started to challenge my progress, but nevertheless I made it to blue belt, which in our club, was three away from black. (Totally not over-proud, ho ho ho!) It also taught me to duck, which helped me in a lot of situations. Funnily enough, it also helped me to run faster too, which has became useful in it's own right.
My club moved three times while I was there, and always seemed to be struggling. Eventually, they got their own place, but the prices rose high and it wasn't affordable anymore. So I dropped out. Haven't been to another club since.
I want to learn more about martial arts in general, but I also want to give things a go again. Will I join a kickboxing club? Who knows. Perhaps, if they have one in the city, and if I miraculously get a job to pay for it.
But when bullying started to become more physical as I grew up, my mother decided to take me to something else, and thus, I was introduced to kickboxing.
I loved the energy, all the fitness training, wearing the gloves and the instructors suited me. I admired how kickboxing could be silent, you didn't have to shout when you struck, you didn't have to say anything to anyone - you could show respect with body language - helping with the mats, giving a wave, a nod. Sometimes jogging, skipping, push ups, shadow sparing - despite being in the same hall as everyone else - it could feel quite solitude and that was very comforting and relaxing for me at the time. Then there was the sparring with other members. I was very competitive. My mother would proudly say that the boys were afraid of me. It was most likely because I was fast and didn't shrink away like a few of the other girls, (though most girls tended to be quite like me.) but it might have been because I was the shortest. I imagine it was quite a strange sight to see a short girl fight a tall male teenager. The poor guys were probably more worried about knocking me back too hard!
Kickboxing was hard work, and as I grew older my health started to challenge my progress, but nevertheless I made it to blue belt, which in our club, was three away from black. (Totally not over-proud, ho ho ho!) It also taught me to duck, which helped me in a lot of situations. Funnily enough, it also helped me to run faster too, which has became useful in it's own right.
My club moved three times while I was there, and always seemed to be struggling. Eventually, they got their own place, but the prices rose high and it wasn't affordable anymore. So I dropped out. Haven't been to another club since.
I want to learn more about martial arts in general, but I also want to give things a go again. Will I join a kickboxing club? Who knows. Perhaps, if they have one in the city, and if I miraculously get a job to pay for it.
Sunday, 21 July 2013
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Mary Solberg
Published in the late 70s, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy edited by George D. Goldman and Donald S. Milman has been an entertaining if out of date read. The book is certainly pro-Freud, and mentions many theories, with a particular chapter on resistance and transference.
I quote "Sooner or later the patient cones to the additional realization that everyone else is in the same boat as she. Parents, spouses, lovers, friends -- all living out transferences and repetition compulsions with her and with each other. She induces others to play allotted roles in the drama of her repetition compulsions. Simultaneously they are inducing her to play an allotted role in their dramas, and none of the players is aware that old scripts are being repeatedly acted out with minor variations."
"Let us suppose that temporary despair resolves itself and the patient is ready for the next phase of therapy. There is another discouraging discovery. Repetition compulsions do not vanish with awareness of their existence. The past hangs on stubbornly. It must be caught in the action, so to speak, again and again, mulled over and renounced afresh in the light of new memories and deep understandings." (Pages 58 - 59)
Also known as working through coined by Freud in 1914.
Just under the description is a poem written by Mary Solberg, that I cannot find published anywhere else. I don't tend to like much poetry, but I feel this deserves to be shared.
My mother's gone into hiding
behind you.
Your motives are agonizing replays
of mine, in search of mother
behind me.
I can see the shadow of her martyred smile,
long suffering, knowing, pained,
and hear the echo of her voice.
You should know better
(and so, dear God, should I, so should I).
We take such trouble to copyright
our own translations of the same ancient texts,
you'd think we'd written them ourselves.
But no, we only spend ourselves
trying to come up with that one new word
that will change the meaning just enough
to make a difference.
- Mary Solberg
I quote "Sooner or later the patient cones to the additional realization that everyone else is in the same boat as she. Parents, spouses, lovers, friends -- all living out transferences and repetition compulsions with her and with each other. She induces others to play allotted roles in the drama of her repetition compulsions. Simultaneously they are inducing her to play an allotted role in their dramas, and none of the players is aware that old scripts are being repeatedly acted out with minor variations."
"Let us suppose that temporary despair resolves itself and the patient is ready for the next phase of therapy. There is another discouraging discovery. Repetition compulsions do not vanish with awareness of their existence. The past hangs on stubbornly. It must be caught in the action, so to speak, again and again, mulled over and renounced afresh in the light of new memories and deep understandings." (Pages 58 - 59)
Also known as working through coined by Freud in 1914.
Just under the description is a poem written by Mary Solberg, that I cannot find published anywhere else. I don't tend to like much poetry, but I feel this deserves to be shared.
My mother's gone into hiding
behind you.
Your motives are agonizing replays
of mine, in search of mother
behind me.
I can see the shadow of her martyred smile,
long suffering, knowing, pained,
and hear the echo of her voice.
You should know better
(and so, dear God, should I, so should I).
We take such trouble to copyright
our own translations of the same ancient texts,
you'd think we'd written them ourselves.
But no, we only spend ourselves
trying to come up with that one new word
that will change the meaning just enough
to make a difference.
- Mary Solberg
Saturday, 20 July 2013
Pencak Silat
A while ago I mentioned a martial art that's been adopted by Betawi culture. Well, with a bit more research, it seems like it's quite popular in the whole of Indonesia and Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand and Southern Philippines. In fact, it's even hit the UK with official website Pencak Silat UK. And apparently, the UK does pretty well too. Pencak Silat is an umbrella term used to described Indonesian martial arts. There seems to be some kind of judo-like moves, taekwondo like moves, and weapon fighting. What is there not to admire? I wish I knew more about this martial art, it looks quite cool.
Sources
Pencak Silat UK
Combat Silat
Martial Arts of the World: Religions and Individual Arts By Thomas A.Green, Joseph R. Svinth
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