The Beginner's Guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPP9pdApRQE

I watch a lot of youtube videos in particular game videos posted by jacksepticeye and one of the videos he recently posted caught my eye. Its called The Beginner's Guide and it is made by Davey Wreden who is the same person who made The Stanley Parable. This game was such a powerful game to watch and it touched upon some really sensitive issues that really hit home with me.

The premise of this game was focused on Davey Wreden and his friendship with a guy called Coda who used to make games that he never released to the public. Davey would play these games and try to understand Coda's reasoning behind each game as they werent always clear. As the game progresses we see that the games that Coda creates become quite dark and isolated and its almost as though Coda is trying to show how he is feeling through his games.

The Beginner's Guide was actually created as a means to an end, it was created by Davey to try and get Coda to start making games again by introducing the world to some of the games that he had already made. As we play the game we get to know some of the history between Davey and Coda and understand why Coda stopped making games in the first place.

I don't want to delve too much into what the game is about as to gain a true representation of the feelings involved in this game you need to experience it for youself, either by playing it or by watching someone play it but either way, once you have seen it, your eyes are truely opened to the world. 

Coda's games paint a picture of Coda's personality but in The Beginner's Guide we only see the picture that Davey is painting for us, showing us this lonely man who is expressing himself through his games falling deeper and deeper into never ending depression. But maybe Coda's games werent intended to be like that at all? When you look at someones Facebook or Twitter how many of the life updates are true? People put on Facebook that they are married but it doesn't mean that they actuallly are! Perhaps these games were just Coda's imagination running wild and don't mean anything. Maybe his games were a way of expressing his repressed memories and his feelings but we will never know and any interpretation made must not be taken as truth. 

Humans are complicated people and there was a particular aspect of the game that summed up humans quite nicely.

Above you see a maze that twists and turns and has many dead ends. As you go about your day to day lives you come to many different choices like you do in a maze.You don't know where to go and if you have made the right choice but somewhere along the line you will come to the right solution and will find your way out of the maze! 

This game really hit home with me as I know that I have gone through difficult times in my life and I know that the path ahead will never be smooth but I think that people just need to remember to stay positive and not judge a book by their cover because you never know whats underneath. A person may look happy on the outside but they could be really struggling on the inside.

This game has a lot of truth in it and it really makes you think about a lot of things including how you act towards other people and how you expect that person to be. You can't change a person, only they can do that but you can always be there for that person when they need you. Davey may have completely misinterpreted Coda's games and Coda himself but it shows you just how complicated human beings really are. 

We just need to take that little bit of extra care as everything matters. 

My China Adventure

I never anticipated that by the age of twenty two I would be teaching children and I especially didn't expect those children to be Chinese. My plan in life was to become a speech and language therapist and a trip to China to teach English has never been on the cards, so when the opportunity arose as you can imagine, I jumped at the chance.

I have always been a bit of a 'home girl', I prefer to be close to home so that I have my friends and family to fall back on should things go disastrously wrong for me, so travelling this far away  on my own was quite daunting to think about. Not just for me but for my mum too.

When I arrived in China, I was overwhelmed by how different it was to back home, it felt like a different world and I was fascinated by every little detail, in particular the food, which was so different to the Chinese food you get in take always in the UK. Within the first few days  I had tried a number of strange dishes that I never thought I would ever try, including fried locust and a ton of street food! As well as this I have already seen some really bizarre customs in China that you wouldn't get back at home, for example a child who is being potty trained in China is not likely to wear a nappy but will wear trousers with a hole in the back meaning that you can see their bums but allows them easy  access when they need the toilet.  Strange or what!

As with any country however you need to acclimatise to the weather and I did not for one second imagine that it would be as hot as it is. This led to me becoming sick and dehydrated and having to have an IV drip in my hand in the first week of my being here (I'm all better now and have water permanently attached to me now!).

As for the teaching side of things I am really enjoying it! To begin with we have three summer camps lasting three days each where each of the foreign teachers were paired with a Chinese teacher and were split into competing teams. The children in the camps are so lovely and hang on your every word because you are foreign which is a big change to at home where the children would misbehave and not listen to you at all. After the summer camps the foreign teachers get four days off and we are planning on going to explore Shanghai before beginning teaching in the WenJoy classrooms.

As I am writing this, we have a day off between the second and third summer camps and we are going to see the Mini Terracotta Army in Xuzhou. Everything is so exciting and interesting and so far I am loving every second.

 

Hannah Harvey - 12 Hours

Two months ago, Riley's heart was broken when her boyfriend James left without so much as a goodbye. Now, when she's trying to move on with her life, he shows up again.
It's midnight and she receives a message.
I'm outside. I need you.
It's the first she's heard from him in two months. There's no way she can ignore it.
Over the next twelve hours, Riley faces the ups and downs of having him back in her life. While trying to work out what she wants, now that he is here again.



Hannah Harvey is an avid writer whom I have known for a number of years! She is about to publish her fifth book - a novella called 12 Hours.  She has a very interesting writing style and I have read a couple of her other books i.e. 'How I Got Here' and 'After Summer', both of which I thoroughly enjoyed!

Pre-Order on Kindle for £1.00 on Amazon

Publication Date - 11th April 2015

New Year's Resolutions

It occurred to me that over the past year I have become incredibly lazy, and that it was about time that I made some changes.

I never normally make new years resolutions however this year I decided to make a few and review how well I have done at the end of 2015.

1) Lose Weight - Very stereotypical resolution I know!

2) Procrastinate less - I procrastinate way too much, especially when I know that there is things I need to be doing.

3) Write more - In 2014, I didn't write any of my solo works and I really need to fix that.

4) Read more - In 2014, I didn't read nearly as many books as I thought and I really want to get back into reading again! I have set myself a Goodreads reading challenge to read at least 20 books in 2015, more if I can manage it! You can follow my progress over on my Goodreads page.

5) Do things when I say I will - I have noticed that when I see someone I haven't seen for a long time I have a tendency to say "We'll go for a drink sometime..." and six months down the line I still haven't been for that drink .... Carpe Diam!

6) Youtube More - Youtube has become a huge aspect of my life and I really want to become more dedicated towards it. I am hopefully planning to set up a weekly schedule.

7) (One I have just thought up now) -  BLOG MORE! - My last blog update was January 13th 2013 ... that was two YEARS ago.

I hope that in writing these resolutions down for the world to see it will spur me on to completing them! Let me know what your resolutions are and whether or not you have kept to them so far .... I have so far resisted sugar in my tea which will undoubtedly help my lose weight!