Blog: Updates and the General On-goings at the Moment

I recently looked back at this blog to see topics I had discussed in the passed when I realised its been quite a while since I last put finger to keyboard. As is usually the case, life has a way of giving you lots of things to do so here's a quick update on the past 2 months.

IRL

Work commitments have been keeping me busy for the majority of my time as I'm getting involved in a number of side projects which have been occupying the time I would of set aside for writing this blog. These projects included guided talks, exhibition design and lectures for professional qualifications which naturally allow me to make more progress towards my goal of a curatorial / archival role within the museum and heritage sector. That being said, I can't blame it all on that otherwise I could just organise my time more effectively, but the times where I have thought to do blog writing I find myself attending a social event or being incredibly late getting home due to delays on the London transport links. To give context to such a point, last Sunday it took me 3 hours to get home whereas a normal journey would take somewhere in the region of 80-90 minutes. It doesn't stop you from writing, its just takes you out of the mindset.

A somewhat related point to this is the 'fun' of moving as I'm looking to move much closer to work to cut down on my commuting time. Organising viewings between work and getting as much information as possible takes up a surprisingly large amount of time which I haven't had to deal with in the past. This has been compounded by the fact that recently I applied for a job much further afield back in my university home of Plymouth so between moving 20 miles and 250 miles has brought another set of tasks to accomplish at the moment.

As well as this, I recently turned 26 which brought a nice mixture of nights out and time off to do nothing (more on that later). I went out on Halloween dressed up (something I very, very rarely do) and ended up getting home at like 6am which I haven't done a night of that length in quite a while but was welcome the next day by remnants of face paint and quite the hangover to contend with. Again, I could have been writing during this time but I wanted a couple days to myself which has become the topic of a post I want to write about that I have hinted at from time to time; a factor of a player dwelling in a game and how it fits in an individual / solo environment. It basically talks about “the lodge” of architectural theory being a dwelling of personal space and how much private time one can have in a space where you're accessible through multiple means at a moments glance. This may come across as introverted, but we shall see when we get there.

Gaming

The majority of my time gaming has been taken up by the recent release of Guild Wars 2's expansion, Heart of Thorns which has been an interesting time for me. It has been very different to expansions I've played in the past (WoW, Rift, ESO, etc.) due to not having a gear / level cap increase and I haven't felt like I'm in a rush to 'get to the end game content' that I would race towards, which in turn has allowed me to enjoy it a great deal under my own terms. I am going to do a proper discussion on it soon, but it has been a highly enjoyable time over the past week and a half and I look forward to what's coming next from Arena Net.

As my time for Guild Wars 2 has increased, my time in Warframe has decreased by quite a bit. I'm in an awkward space with that game because I enjoy the gameplay loop but the RNG nature of its loot system is causing my enjoyment to wane. The fact that I'm getting a load of new things in GW2 may have something to do with it but I think I may need to have some time away to truly get back into it. Its a bit like last year with GW2 where I took a couple months break and found myself enjoying it all over again. For now, my Tenno is docked with its dailies grabbed each day but not much more than that.

With the recent release of Fallout 4, I have also perked my interest for the franchise by replaying Fallout New Vegas alongside its DLC on a new luck-based character. As someone who usually 'powergames' Fallout with a high-intelligence character on energy weapons, It's been an fun experience going through with a sneak / guns build with high critical hit chance. I've also gone for a karma neutral character role-playing as someone out for personal gain which has opened me up to some new interesting quest-lines that I haven't experienced before this play-through; showcasing the recognised re-playability of these titles years after their initial release. By the time I fully finish New Vegas, I would like to start on Fallout 4, but that depends on my last point of a new PC build.

I have mentioned before how I'm looking to build a new PC as my current one is ~8 years old and definitely showing its age. As my post on low-performance gaming shows, it hasn't been all bad but I've got to the point where I would really like to play modern games on a smooth frame-rate as well as nice graphical fidelity. My PC build is coming in around £900 but I'm currently in an awkward space of “do I build now or wait until the sales?” That being said, it does ask the question “which sale?” because we have black Friday, Christmas and January sales over the horizon and I may just end up saying “f**k it!” and buying it anyway. Time will tell but as long as it stays under £1000 I think I'll be happy.

Well, that's everything regarding the last couple months in my life. Writing this up has been important for me because its a step back into the blog space which is important because I need it to be regular for someone to be interested in. A lot of this maybe words thrown into the twisting nether of the internet and its vast accessible information, but if you find these posts interesting that's what gets me to continue on. Anyway, next topic will either be the 'Player Housing from the individual' or 'Thoughts on GW2:HoT” so look out for that on Monday.

Now back to the 101 other things on the list :\

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 : )