Blog: New Ventures and General Thoughts

These last couple weeks have been a bit all over the place for good reasons.  After a year and a bit of doing primarily freelance work I got offered a job which I am enjoying a great deal.  It has allowed me continue my work within the heritage sector while continuing to grow my people skills; of which I’m interacting with from lots of different national backgrounds.  In essence, this work is very similar to my small local museum, just on a much larger scale. 

This job has required me to commute for a relatively large distance (~3 hours a day) but it has allowed me to have time to think about new topics and ways to discuss ideas through the duality of architecture and video games.  Well, I would say that but there has been a couple other things on my mind thou.  First of all, I have ~160 years of maritime history to learn alongside local history which has occupied a decent amount of time and secondly I’ve kind of been tripping over thoughts I’ve already brought up.  To give an example, commuting has got me thinking about the occupation of space in transit which I’ve pretty much talked about 3-4 times at this rate so it’d probably be best to leave that alone for a while.  So what I thought I would do is give a couple ideas I’m working on with some brief notes and we’ll go from there.  As the title suggests, think of this as a typical blog over regular stuff.

Facades

I’m currently working in the area of Greenwich which has some great pieces of architecture nestled within its borough.  One piece I have a particular interest in is the maritime museum which has a fantastic façade with its pronounced pillars and wings accenting the main building.  This got me thinking about two things: the grand buildings made in games full of design and intricacy that are primarily used to wow the audience and the everyday building that fills sandbox city games like grand theft auto.  I’m more inclined to talk about the everyday buildings but I need to play some recent titles like GTAV or Watch_dogs to build up a better assessment. 

Transitions

This one is a bit more abstract but pretty much I’m thinking about the process of moving from one space to another.  This was somewhat influenced by the recent play through of Dark Souls by Extra Credits as the game does doors pretty well with its overbearing doors requiring effort from the player to open.  I’ve got a selection of games I would like to talk about this so I will probably be looking to do this next. 

Layered design

In terms of video games, it would probably be better to say “verticality” but I felt that would associate the subject with tall structures.  What I was thinking about was the different between architecture being built on top of each other and the spaces in-between them, creating new experiences.  This was inspired from my travels on the Docklands Light Railway which tends to travel on a multi-layered track which is visible to the everyday traveller.  A game like Deus-ex: Human Revolution comes to mind when talking about this as its hub towns feature a great deal of these concepts, but as with these other subjects I would like to get some more knowledge of the subject. 

So that’s everything to do with me at the moment.  Things have been really busy recently and I wanted to write something to make sure I didn’t just stay mute for two weeks.  Hopefully this will give an insight into my thought process and see what’s to come.  

The Everyday Commute: Taking the Sights in

Over this past week and a bit, I’ve been fortunate to be involved in a number of projects and potential job interviews where I get to be a part of something I enjoy greatly.  The flip-side of this is that it has involved quite a bit of travelling so naturally things like this get pushed back.  Today I want to talk about my experiences of these journeys and the minor details that I found interesting through them. 

The idea of commuting is of course not an uncommon sight to behold, especially in the capital city of a nation, but being unable to drive I’ve always had the concept of commuting in my sight as a means to combat this issue.  For many people, the use of public transport for work is a mundane thing as it naturally becomes an everyday occurrence, but for me I’ve always had an enjoyment of travelling in an environment where I can continue to do other things while in transit.  This may be due to not experiencing said journeys in such high volume as the typical commuter, but time will tell whether this could become a thing. 

The journeys I had last week revolved around a need to commute into London via a combination of Bus and Tube within a timeframe of 1-3 hours, with minimal need to change lines between destinations.  Because of this, I was able to do last minute prep for interviews and consider some last minute ‘blue sky’ thinking for some ideas that may seem a bit odd.  While doing this, I started to consider the change in environment both internally (the train) and externally (local environment) and see how much was truly happening architecturally. 

As my closest tube station is Epping, my journey would always start on the Central line moving into London via Stratford bringing with it a mostly natural environment of trees and fields with a range of typical post-war terrace housing and older Victorian dwellings as I got within greater London.  Most of this didn’t really interest me, but what did was a rather large cemetery around Woodford / Buckhurst Hill (I think within that range maybe slightly further) which featured a range of colours from the donated flowers of loved ones contrasting the grey headstones dominating the landscape.  Internally, the carriage was an older model juddering along representing a line that could possibly do with some maintenance bringing an interesting dynamic to the passengers; with some carrying on their day and others showcasing a visual dislike for the situation.  The advertisements on show presented a fresh-foods monthly sub-box service (something that I personally don’t find much interest in) and vistas of the Las Vegas strip with that ever present ‘what goes in Vegas stays in Vegas’ which in my experience doesn’t really happen these days due to the advent of instant-access social media and my past two weeks of Facebook. 

The later parts of my journeys, in particular one to Harrow, felt rather different to this but in subtle ways (if that makes sense somehow?)  My experience of western London is somewhat limited to Hammersmith and upon talking to a number of friends / family they seemed to think that the area was rather upmarket (generally speaking not specifically the Borough).  What I was met with was a continued lowering of building density you would expect and a range of Victorian / post-war housing and the occasional parkland or stadium.  With that being said, going past Wembley Stadium it was interesting to see the range of corrugated iron sheds near to the track being dwarfed by this iconic structure; making me think about the Concept of high-art ‘Pillar of Fire’ in action around its revellers in their settlements that pale in comparison in the brief time I was able to see it while going past.  The train itself was a much more modern version with larger interior space and a smooth ride, aiding my ability to continue to write some plans and listen to an audiobook without physical or audio interruption. 

Overall, my past week of journeys have been an interesting experience for me and I hope to be able to have this potential means of working with people further beyond my usual local historic environment.  I don’t want to be held back with potential projects / jobs because the commute maybe a bit long and I do enjoy having the time to have some time to jot down thoughts and relax on the way to work.  Of course, time will tell if this viewpoint stays but here’s to joining the ranks of some million+ people who do it every day. 

One last thought, on the bus from Epping, there was an advert for Chlamydia by the NHS showcasing its potential hidden growth and ease of treatment with an aesthetic I would class as a cross between ‘visual novel’ and ‘graffiti’.  A minor point but I found it funny : )

Free to play, PC gaming habits and general thoughts on money

*Sorry for the lateness of this post I wanted to post this last week but life has a way to happen.  hope you like this*

As the holiday season comes into vision, one naturally draws their attention to the custom of giving and receiving gifts in the spirit of Christmas.  This experience can be met with a number of different emotions; from having the best idea for a trove of wonderful gifts accustomed to each person to having no idea and finding yourself mass buying a selection of DVD’s and other media.  I kind of sit in a mix of these mind-sets where I have an idea of some nice gifts I’d like to get for people, but limited funds to truly make it happen.  This has been the case for a couple years, but the gifts in question have been able to add a little something special to the occasion; like a nostalgic piece from childhood or framed photo to immortalise a moment in history.  I've gotten a certain joy out of these experiences and I've noticed a similar action when it comes to my spending in the PC gaming space. 

I have wanted to build a new PC for a number of years now but due to financial commitments this has been pushed to the side.  My current build is a mix of year one university parts and year two upgrades, putting the general age of the machine at around 6-7 years.  As you may imagine, it has a long start-up time of ~3 minutes and there are many, many games that cannot be played well let alone even run.  The most ‘intensive’ games that I've played on this machine have been Witcher 2 (minimal spec ~15-20 fps) or Far Cry 3 (minimal spec 25-30fps), but I’m still getting a lot of enjoyment out of my time spent gaming.  Utilising a number of power options from software like Game booster (which is called something else now in its new update I can’t remember), tweaking the config files (with thanks to pcgamingwiki for some of that) alongside the collection of new titles not being graphically intensive, I've been able to continue to broaden my gaming scope while not breaking the bank with a new build. 

On the subject of costs, these tiles in question have generally been in the £15 or under bracket (with some of the cheapest being like 89p!) which has allowed me to avoid the £40 new releases from the AAA developers which in the past I would be buying up on release.  Of course, I have the massive sales given by online storefronts like Steam, GoG and Humble store; but it’s surprising how far you can get on little or no money.  On top of this, there is the wide range of free to play titles that offer gameplay with no upfront cost, allowing the consumer to try and consider whether they’d like to play more and possibly invest money into the experience.  Over the past two years, my most played games have been dominated by the free to play space, with Dota 2 and Warframe taking the second and first spot respectively.  Both these titles have clocked around 1000 hours from myself (well, according to steam stats but in game losses about 10%) which in the past games which have hit this ‘milestone’ come under the mmo genre like World of Warcraft or Guild Wars 2. 

This section of my gaming time has been an interesting review into the price vs. amount of content on offer which is of course highly subjective.  £15 for a 4-6 hour game like Transistor can be good for some and inadequate for others; alongside a full price yearly release like Call of Duty can be justified via its multiplayer content to some and for others holds little interest from an innovation stance.  For me currently I have a rather tight budget on gaming expenses so expensive titles aren't really viable, but from this it’s allowed me to be more ‘investigative’ in finding interesting gaming experiences for little or no cost.  One could consider this an ‘invention brought out of necessity’ kind of mentality, but of course in a more relevant manner. 

One last thing I want to discuss on the subject of gaming habits via spending is that of a very small, but useful self-generated income for games particularly via Steam.  I have taken time to sell trading cards for the games I own as well as items from free to play games I don’t have an interest in keeping.  Although most items sell for an extremely minute sum of 10p or less, they can add up overtime and give you a nice little wallet on the side to pick-up a couple games when they go on sale.  Being able to sell Dota 2 cosmetics for £1 to £10 has been a nice maker and as such paid for this passing year’s summer sale purchases, which in turn got new cards to recoup some losses (and so on and so forth…)

I hope you find this an interesting perspective into the thoughts of gaming on a budget and that maybe someone finds this useful to get a couple more games from this season’s sale.  

Being 25 (self-reflection)

*I've been playing a hell of a load of the new Warframe update and that has kinda disrupted my usual pace of playing something new everyday.  It'll probably be a topic to discuss soon, but in the mean time here's a piece on a significant event that recently happened*

This past Saturday I turned 25 to a mix of thoughts and emotions as one may do when it comes to increasing in age.  Although I wouldn't say that 25 is a particularly old age, it’s more of the case of considering your place in the world past the world of education (as in my current experience).  At the turning of age; I could have been cynical towards getting older, moving away from the typical ‘youth’ age-group into designated adulthood; unhappy with my default living arrangements or generally apathetic towards the progress in my desired vocation, but this thankfully wasn't the case. 

The weekend was the start of the school half-term holidays and with a large group of my friends being involved in the school system, I found myself having time to myself and my immediate family.  It is in this time that I got to thinking of the progress I have made, but of a positive nature and a factor of resilience to make it work.  I've been a volunteer for a museum, part-time intern and freelance worker for commissions in the sector over the past year with minimal pay and many unanswered job applications; but as time’s gone on I've taken on each experience to try and improve myself.  One year on I’m still going at it and happier than before to try and make it in this sector of work, which to be honest I’m kinda surprised by it. 

There have been times (like with most people) where this past year has been greatly frustrating.  The biggest factor in this frustration has been the limited feedback available from my job applications; as those who have done so have been a wealth of information into my strengths and weaknesses from an alternative viewpoint.  I can understand that with some jobs having many applicants it is realistically unlikely to give that personal attention, it’s just that it can put a downer on a day. 

Overall, I’d say that I have a positive outlook on my future and I don’t feel any resentment towards the aging process.  Alongside this optimistic view, I've created a couple thoughts I would like to achieve in this upcoming year:

1.      To attain full-time employment within the culture and heritage sector, with a specific desire for the museum research at most.  To do this I want to increase my range of jobs I apply for as well as reaching out to specific organisations for advice.  I briefly did this upon finishing university, but I want to get back into doing this now with my relevant experience. 

2.      By gaining full-time employment, I want to return to having my own living arrangements either by a shared house or individual flat.  In correlation to my previous post on ‘space’ having this is important as a means of generating personal space in an environment I own. 

3.      By generating an income, I want to have the ability to travel as a means to learn more about cultures around the world.  It would allow me to give physical context to a lot of essays / journals I've read over the past 7 years. 

These points do kinda revolve around the factor of employment, but in modern society what doesn't revolve around work eh? :-P
What I would say about this experience is that my desire to be involved in a career that I enjoy greatly has been met with a sacrifice of money and social pursuits with the intention of making it worth it.  What I would recommend to those who may have a similar quandary is planning is key; to see if such an action is financially viable and for how long in comparison to the estimated time to achieve.  On top of this, give time for alternative strategies and take advice on your pursuit, considering whether it’s in your best interests.  If you can keep at it and at the end of it be in a career that you love, I wish you all the best of luck and the strength to go on and continue this desire and resilience. 

Writing this had made me happy and I hope and soon enough I can talk of my expanding prospects and in turn make this a more interesting place for my thoughts.  I’m in the process of thinking of what to write about architecturally for next week’s post (back to normal on a Monday) and I hope our see you then.  

My last week (a mix of stuff)

Hello there.  This is gonna be a bit of a mish-mash of traditional ‘bloggy’ content alongside a brief delve into my usual architectural musing so that will explain the potential irrelevance against my previous content.  Regardless, here is my last week and what went on:

I got a cold kinda sums it up :-\

Elaborating on that point; in the later part of last week I got a rather painful throat, drippy nose and the occasional headache that put a damper on my previous plans of travelling and doing some research.  Now I know that the common cold isn’t a particular debilitating thing to happen, it’s just I like to ‘get it over with’ and not do much for the brief day or two so that I can get back on track faster in the long run.  Unfortunately, this was hampered by the fact it decided not to clear after one or two days and that I had a busy weekend / early weekday coming up.  In this time of ailment, there were events I was involved in which I met with varying circumstance and they go along as follows:

• 1.      Field research visit on Sunday morning (5^th October 2014).  This was a rather early start to the morning which was met with a bite in the air and my throat on the mend.  The walk was pleasant but coarseness of the wild was annoying as I was looking to be involved in meetings for the visit later on.  The site itself was an old manor house in my town’s communal parkland and with its age and current restoration in progress was a den of dust; particularly its basement / cellar in which the dust created a short term skirmish with me.  Talking in the later meeting was a case of directed coughs away from the others as we discussed the current research deadlines and potential output.  Other than the respiratory side of me making itself known frequently, it was a nice morning met with some good progress made with the project related to the site. 

• 2.      Architectural talk on Tuesday afternoon (7^th October 2014).  The day before had been an aggravating grab of tissue paper every 5-10 minutes to clear my nose which followed right into the night.  This night / morning in particular I got asleep around the 7-8am mark, giving me at max 2-2 ½ hours of sleep to work on.  This would have been fine any other day, but this was the day I was giving a talk to a group of adults with an interest in art and design.  It was a group I advertised my interests and research to and by that action was hired to give a talk on architecture and its history; so giving a brilliant first impression and enjoyable talk was paramount to me expressing this world that I am involved in.  The venue was packed to some 50-odd attendees and now I had to inform, entertain and intrigue them with some 4000 years of architecture in the space of an hour or so; alongside being very tired and blowing my nose every 5 minutes.  Much to my delight, I charged head on with the talk and in the space of a couple minutes found my stride into the fundamentals of pre-historic concepts of architecture.  As of today, I called it my “academics adrenalin” in a random off-topic chat on skype which I’ll look to put into the vernacular onward.  Anyway, The talk ended to a very happy crowd to stayed around for ½ hour or so to ask questions and thank me, which in the end kept me going right back to my home where I crashed and caught up on sleep.

As of last night / today I’m now feeling very well and hoping to get fully back on track over the upcoming weekend which should be nice.  I’m kinda hoping that I ‘got in early’ so to speak with getting a cold so that any potential bug going around closer to the Christmas holiday period should be suitably avoidable and not affect one of my favourite times of the year.  I’m involved in some fun locally based pub crawls and the likes around Christmas and you can’t be on form with flu meds in your system eh!

During all this time, I didn't really look to play a lot of games which may seem odd to some of you.  With more time dedicated to lounging about, one may image that you want to kick back and not think while you command an army or further a story.  However, I kinda didn’t do too much other than keeping up with my youtube subscriptions and watching a lot of twitch.  In my usual gaming time, I like to have twitch / youtube running on my phone as a peripheral screen with audio but I wasn’t really feeling the mild multitasking it involves.  The games I watched were mostly Dota 2 and Hearthstone but it also involved Heroes of Newerth, Path of Exile and a couple random games that one sometimes browses out of curiosity.  Whenever I watch the more competitive games, I always think back to the vision of when watching competitive games will be more widespread in the entertainment industry with pubs and bars showcasing it alongside traditional sports like Football and Rugby (UK references but of course replace relevant to own culture).  I have been to a couple ‘barcraft’ events and they were enjoyable for the most part. 

As my thoughts were with my IRL work mostly this week, I haven’t really thought about any particular games / architecture crossovers this week.  That being said, while looking through my old university notes, I did feel like I should make a small note on one of my previous posts.  On my post regarding Kitsch Architecture and paint by numbers game design, I do feel that there is a possibility that one could find higher relevance in the term “Vernacular Architecture” over “Kitsch” as it’s a term regarding the everyday.  That could be up to the reader in question, but you may want to personally review whether either term is more appropriate.  However, I may do another piece which tries to address the potential differences / similarities so we shall see.

Other than that, it leaves me with thinking what I want to talk about in the coming week.  I was thinking either ‘signs and semiology’ or regionalism concepts but I’m not sure.  Assume one of them and I hope you found this view into my current life interesting at least.