This is Me

Well here it is. The blogpost that should shed some light on who I am and why I started this blog. The ‘What’s This’ 2.0 post if you will. Like in that post let's start with me again.

I’m an extraverted person who cares a great deal about the people around him. According to the Jungian personality test I’m what’s known as the ‘Giver’. I quote from the personality page: “They live in the world of people possibilities. More so than any other type, they have excellent people skills. They understand and care about people, and have a special talent for bringing out the best in others. ENFJ's main interest in life is giving love, support, and a good time to other people. They are focused on understanding, supporting, and encouraging others. They make things happen for people, and get their best personal satisfaction from this.” The full article can be found here: http://www.personalitypage.com/ENFJ.html

This may sound extremely praising but that’s because it describes the Giver at its best. Of course I’m nowhere near this level yet but the article does show what kind of a person I am and what I value. I won’t go further into that though. I’ll be talking a bit about my interests now. To put it plainly I have an interest in 4 things mainly: Personal growth for myself and others,  Playing Music,  Writing  and  Gaming. There’ll be an article each about all four of these in the near future.

The second part of this post is about why I started this blog to begin with. What was my goal? Simply put, when I started this blog I didn’t really know. I was going through some major changes, especially concerning personal growth and where I would go with my future. A blog is a way for one to put his thoughts on paper. Go over your thoughts again in your head and write them down. You’ll be surprised by the effect this has. It provides a great deal of structure for yourself and helps you clear your head a bit. I think I needed confirmation of the person who I am and this blog helps me discover that. It may seem clear to those who read it but when I’m writing a post I have to think about everything I say, which gives me the opportunity to look at things from a different angle. So in the end this blog is, to me, a way to categorize my thoughts and discover the person I am. It also helps me to show my true self to everyone who reads it, a skill I haven’t mastered really but I’ll get into that at a later point as well.

In short, I’m extremely grateful if you read this blog and I hope you find it interesting. It should provide some insight in the person I am on a deeper level. Also I hope that you can use topics I write about as a reflection point for yourself. How do you view these topics and what is your stance in life? As for that photo, well I still owe you that I’m afraid.

The Game

Ok as I didn't really have a gameplan whilst creating this blog things might have gotten a bit messy. Those reading the blog who don't know me personally may find it hard to follow some parts I'm writing. I keep rambling on about myself and my views in life without ever explaining who I am. Therefore, the next post will be all about that. Who am I, hopefully with a picture this time.

This post however, will be all about one of my oldest hobbies. See while I've only started working on most of my hobbies in recent years, gaming has always been and will always be a great hobby of mine. I love spending time doing things that would never be possible in real life. I'm not the kind of person who would go on a rampage through the streets, running over innocent people and shooting all around as I go. Yet it's great fun to do in GTA. Though thinking about it, that's probably not the best example.

See I like to immerse myself in the world of a game. It's similar as to watching a film, it only truly comes to life when you are immersed in it and you believe in the world and characters. This is why I love fantasy games so much. Games that put me in a world that could not normally exist. Whether it's an epic struggle for survival against an alien race in Resistance or wandering around the beautifully creative landscapes of LittleBigPlanet. Games give a sense of satisfaction and wonder.

The plus side is that games, like films, can be enjoyed by just yourself or a group of friends. I've spent many a day gaming with friends trying to either work together or against each other to complete objectives. It's great fun. While writing this though, I realise that gaming has actually gotten so big that it's impossible for me to sum it up in this article. There are so many reasons for me to pick up a game and play, so many games for all my different needs that it would take me ages to describe them all. It would be enough to mention that whether I'm coming home from a hard day at work and looking for some relaxation or spending a day with friends trying to best each other, gaming is able to satisfy my needs. It has been since I was twelve and will most likely be when I'm 70. Like film, games can be whatever you want them to be. Even art. If you want proof of that just look for a video on YouTube with a gameplay clip from Flower. You may not get it right away but, having played it, I find it mesmerising.

Keep Me Here

Just a quick post here, nothing too fancy. Though it's actually about the most important things in my life: my life's goal. See as I have so much time on my hands now, after quitting my course, I have decided to spend this time wisely, by searching for my life's goal. I mean: what is it? What would make me the happiest person on Earth? I dunno.

I think it's something everyone would like answered about their life, their ultimate goal. Well in about half an hour I'll be focussing myself on this very thing completely. How am I going to do that? Well I have no idea whatsoever. Really I don't. I think I'll just try some things. Write down things I love, things that'll make me happy. Ask myself questions. Anything to get that brain of mine working. Though I don't think I'll get extremely meaningful results today it'll still be very interesting.

As a popular t-shirt says: "I have gone to find myself. If I get back before I return, keep me here".

Songwriter Special pt. 1

Sometimes when you listen to music you can't help but listen to the text and think to yourself "this is awesome". There are some brilliant songtexts out there which I would love to share, which is why I decided to start the Songwriter Special. This feature is about songtexts which are absolutely brilliant, be they comical, honest or poetic.

The first is a song which is a stab to all the critics who criticized the band for being fake and playing music to make money and be aired on the radio. As is stated "I'm only playing music 'cause you know i fucking love it". Here's the songtext to a song which is, in my opinion, a brilliant opening to an album which may not be praised by critics but which consists of the music the band wants to make.

Cage the Elephant  -  In One Ear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si8qP_isBb4

They say that we ain't got the style, we ain't got the class
We ain't got the tunes that's goin' to put us on the map
And I'm a phony in disguise, tryin' to make the radio
I'm an anti-social anarchist who sounds like so and so

They say I'm just a stupid kid, just a crazy radical
Rock and roll is dead, I probably should've stayed in school
Another generation X who somehow slipped up through the crack
Oh, they'd love to see me fall but I'm already on my back

So it goes in one ear and right out the other
People talkin' shit but you know I never bother
It goes to one ear and right out the other
People talkin' shit, they can kiss the back of my hand

Now I know I'm not a saint, I been a sinner all my life
I ain't tryin' to hide my flaws, I'd rather keep them in the light
They wanna criticize, scrutinize, cast another stone
Burn me at the stake and sit and watch it from the throne

They say the devil is my pal, I do a lotta drugs
The crowd will only like me if they're really fuckin' drunk
They think they know my thoughts, but they don't know the least
If they listened to the words they'd find the message that's beneath

But it goes in one ear and right out the other
People talkin' shit even though they never bother
It goes in one ear and right out the other
People talkin' shit, they can kiss the back of my hand

You hear that? You hear what's comin'?
Oh, you better run for the hills 'cause we're comin' to your town
And we're gonna burn that motherfucker down

Here's the moral to the story, we don't do it for the glory
We don't do it for the money, we don't do it for the things
So all the critics who despise us go ahead and criticize us
It's your charity that drives us, adds the fire to our flames

And it goes in one ear and right out the other
People talkin' shit but you know I never bother
It goes in one ear, and right out the other
I'm only playin' music 'cause you know I fuckin' love it

It goes in one ear and right out the other
People talkin' shit but you know I never bother
It goes in one ear, and right out the other
People talkin' shit, they can kiss the back of my hand

The Half-Year Gap

It's strange, you see I really have fallen into a half-year gap but it's only half as enjoyable as I thought it would be. My course has now officialy finished, I'm done. Not in the "here's your diploma, have fun" kind of way though. More in the "oh it's a shame to see you go" kind of way. I have officialy quit my course, deciding this is not the right one for me. That in itself wasn't an easy decision as it meant I had to find a new course to follow in an entirely new setting. If this wasn't best for my future than what would be? After listing all the pro's-and-con's and having made my decision I haven't looked back however. I had made my choice and fully supported it.

In fact one of the few pro's in favor of my current course was the people I had met. They sure were a lovely bunch and were closer to me than I sometimes care to admit. Losing them would surely be something I would terribly regret. I decided to postpone quitting my course by half a year in order to do one last project with them. It turned out to be one of my best decisions ever. We had a lot of fun slaving away at "Time Therapy" and became even closer as a group. I also grew closer to some new people, who became a huge inspiration for me.

We, as Quark, became an extremely streamlined group all completely used to each other and the proces. Not everything went smooth of course, but overal I think we have become a group extremely well capable of handling our own projects, which is something we'll put to use in the future. You see even now that our project is over and Time Therapy is done we are still working on projects together, the most important being a great concept for a website which I'll share at a later stage. These projects keep us all in contact with each other and may eventually even earn us some money. Hopefully.

Last Thursday it was time for the assessment in which we had to explain how we handled the project and would be awarded EC's for our work and different aspects of the project, for example Quality Monitoring & Implementation. The assessment went extremely well and everyone went home with more than the 30 EC's you should get for a project, the top one getting about 49 I think. After the assessment we had two days to spend with the group before it would all be over. We stayed at a members house those days and went dining out together, which was great fun. It's always the smallest members that eat the most, strangely. After those two days it was time for one final thing: the Global Game Jam.

If you're wondering what the Global Game Jam is this might point you in the right way: http://www.globalgamejam.org/wiki/basic-questions#what I'll also give a brief explanation. The goal of the GGJ is to bring many game enthousiasts together to form groups and build a game over the weekend, following a certain theme. The theme this year was Extinction and our group was, unsurprisingly, Quark. Sadly Daryll and Hanny couldn't come so it was just the four of us and a new person we had met there. Over the weekend we were working hard, or hardly working, on a game that would be awesome and would gain us first place. We ended up with a card-game that involves bluffing about one's allegiance, trying to suck up to both leaders in order to advance and win. Though the game was not at it's best yet, which is logical as we only had 3 days, we did WIN the GGJ at our location. I can't think of a better way to end my fantastic time I had at Communication and Multi-Media Design.

Thanks to everyone who I met during that time and who is awesome. We'll surely keep in contact.