morethansam

[morethansam]

FFVI Is a Poor Game

There was an interesting post last week regarding FFVI and the way it left players feeling unenthused. I decided to give it another go (FFVI GBA). At first I thought it was an above-average game but after playing it again, my disappointment was amplified with a second playthrough.

Wotcha Harry, you’re really giving off waves of negativity here, you might want to reel that Regal Arapaima in a bit.

You have to remember: It’s a classic, highly revered in the gaming community, a bonafide masterpiece. You’ll be attacking commenters’ childhoods, confronting their nostalgia and causing uproar in the streets of this subreddit. It’s suicide I tell ya!

Well, I’m going to lay the smackdown on a game that seems to bypass criticism. There are positives to this game that I’ll be happy to comment on but because of the length of this post, I unfortunately won’t be appeasing or buttering-up fans of the game. Here are my points as to why I found FFVI to be an underwhelming game.

High encounter rate: This does not make the game enjoyable. “Embrace the grind” I hear you folks cry, “nay” I say, it makes some areas excruciating. Floating Continent, Kefka’s Tower, Zozo and Dragon’s Den were all culpable to the interminable battles I had to endure in those areas.

Aesthetically dull: I thought the game looked terrible (albeit a GBA port), as if the colours couldn’t breathe. A lot of two-toned colours gave it a dismal look which made the game look miserable; so many areas were uninspiring, especially dungeons. The Magitek Research Facility, oh God, my depression levels found new lows in that arsepit of a dungeon.

Airships: Two, giant airships, built by JUST two men. Not manly men with an army of Hill Gigas’ lumping shit around to build that bastard, just two blokes. One of these airships was even secretly stashed away in a cave after crashing, beautifully conserved in mint condition you might ask. The Empire had huge research facilities, magitek armour, WMD and interceptors yet Setzer, bluddy Setzer manages to build an airship. Suspending your disbelief is contextual. It doesn’t work here.

Character Overload: this is what really cemented FFVI as a poor game in my eyes. The mini-arcs were dreadful; the characters lack of determination to defeat Kefka and find their friends was astounding. . shall we go through them, yea, why not?

---- Shadow runs away from his friends, waits patiently in the coliseum crowd before they bet on a cool sword they found in the Veldt Cave? REJOINS!

---- Locke has his dead girlfriend trapped in a lair. He hires a kooky old guy to keep her “fresh”. Finds the Phoenix material. REJOINS!

---- Strago proves he’s a great mage by defeating a bog-standard monster to a man that he has never had a conversation with in the game. REJOINS!

---- Gogo and Umaro are trapped in one of the games monotonous dungeon crawling areas and are then found by a bunch of misfits. REJOICE, THEY JOIN (with poor stats/abilities)! It’s just awful.

Furthermore, partaking in discourse as a team was underutilised and that’s due to a lack of a leader to cement the focus. Dialogue was far too short. One-liners in the airship lacked insight or comedic value except Shadow. The Returners felt like a weak opposition, definitely more could’ve been done to tie in certain towns banding together. Side characters were brutally side-lined ;). The immensity of having to deal with so many harmonious brothers hampered how this game could progress and add weight to the story.

Opera Scene: It was 2002 when I first played this game on my PS1, I had no idea why Celes went full Celene Dion. We had only one moment of character development prior to this and I felt confused, not emotionally moved… at all.

Dungeons: Ok, I’ll admit that Phoenix Cave was a wonderfully designed dungeon & the Dreamscape but everything else? Nah. Just rocks man, just rocks and brown colours. The first half of the game was far too easy and the second half suddenly throws you into a pool deeper than a Bee Gee’s song. The design, lack of build-up and high encounter rates all attributed to a strenuous nature in completing it.

Kefka: Apart from that epic final battle, he’s a poor villain – there’s no complexity to him and if there were hints of humanity, it was never developed. His escalation to power is obvious and laughable and we have no backstory to his “supposed” insanity. The developers try to create that sense of player dismissiveness by having us throw sand into his boots at the beginning in Figaro yet that fleeting moment of doubt is short-lived, as he then poisons Doma and tries to destroy the world (we see this coming already after he manages to nearly conquer Figaro). Progression is vital in a character and all we see is an escalation in actions, not characterisation. If you were unable to see the optional scene with Kefka when arriving as a guest of Gestahl, his depiction to be one of the best villains ends up being minimal.

Speaking of Gestahl, I’ve seen a few posters bash on him but he’s a far better antagonist than Kefka; he’s greedy for power, uses mages as weapons, funds research, tries to befriend the returners and ultimately dies due to his greed. It’s a nice arc. This Joker-esque vibe of Kefka is not a cause to clap frantically. He wins in essence yet this is not backed-up as to what was feeding his insanity – I’ve always had the impression that because of this, gamers give him a free ride.

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There’s more to this game that I could dissect, but I’ll try to keep this overloaded post of awesomeness (crap, it’s utter crap) to a respectable limit. I look forward to as to what players think of this game and what feelings they now have. Most posters here have probably had 5-15 years to mull over this game and I’m excited to see whether you agree with these points or if this negativity has antagonised you to protect this beloved classic.

Thanks for reading.

[morethansam]

What if Type-0 was FFXIII? Would this game change?

I'm a huge fan of Type-0 so I'm going to try my best to give this post a juicy, chunk of fat to chew on.

Character Development

Well if there's one thing that most people agree on about FFXIII, it's that the character development was done quite well albeit with characters that didn't resonate so much with the audience. The magnitude of expectation from a numbered FF game probably had more writers and overseers making sure the characters and story was tight - a far cry from Type-0.

Type-0's character development was handled poorly. The personalities of the class felt like caricatures of anime characters of 'insert series here'. The supporting characters that were focused on like Machina, Kurasame, Cid, Celestia and Arecia received nowhere near enough attention for me as a player to be invested in their motives. Not to mention that this huge cast is on a platform (PSP) that probably wouldn't have been able to fulfil these desires, moreover, the game relies on two playthroughs. Ace was relatively well done; he acted as the sponge to events happening with the class and his backstory at the ranch added more flavour to his arc.

A bigger budget with Toriyama's team rather than Tabata would definitely strengthen the characters, especially their desires, feelings and motives.

Story

That's not to say that FFXIII's story was without flaws. Do you remember the furore surrounding the game after it was released with many not understanding the concepts of a L'Cie / Fal'Cie / Cie'th? Coupled with huge chunks of backstory missing only found through datalog, many players did feel bewildered by events that seemed to take place in the story.

Ho boy, where do we start Type-0? It was an absolute mess. I really don't want to divulge too far into it but I find that the Tempus Finis really needed to be embedded within the story more along with more POV's or an omniscient narration of what Cid & Acrecia were getting up to and the importance of becoming Agito. There was so, SO much missing from the first playthrough that it made the game a convoluted cluster-fuck of half-baked ideas.

As FF fans, we thirst for knowledge within the game so (luckily) being connected with this game I made it my best intention to reap the rewards of a really fascinating story by listening carefully, making mental notes and finding out more information through NPC's and the library. I do not think a bigger budget would help this area of the game, there's a huge chance that the game would still feel rushed and unfinished on a first playthrough, a la FFXV.

Graphics

The cut-scenes were beautiful as expected and the HD remake made the game look wondrous in the Vermillion Peristyrium - on par with FFXIII for sure.

I found the world map area a nice nod to old FF games. I thoroughly enjoyed it so I wouldn't change that at all but obviously the would need to make the textures more appealing and the world more vibrant. Would this be acceptable for a numbered game though, a PS1 World Map? Evidently the towns needed work so you'd expect with a bigger budget that they would be more colourful... but then again, would that commitment to creating wonderfully, designed towns with personality make the world map emptier (FFXV)? I would definitely have loved to of seen sprawling towns evoking the personality of the areas they were situated in. I'd assume there'd be more outposts and less towns so a bigger budget wouldn't change the game that considerably, missions would still take place in abandoned, grainy outposts with a PS2 run-around until areas were cleared of enemies.

Gameplay

With a bigger budget, I doubt Type-0 would take on an ATB system like FFXIII but would develop more towards a FFXV style of play. I guess you would see more combinations for each character and hella lot more special moves. Random battles may have more obstacles and you'd probably see battles having more characters on the screen which would've been so awesome. More bosses, bigger fiends and possibly more tactical battles due to the fact that they'd have more time to personalise enemies. Maybe you'd actually be able to see what the hell was going on with that huge bastard Shinyru in the First Battle of Judecca.

Overall, the main problems that Type 0 had were the characters and story - throwing money at these areas might not necessarily sharpen the game. A bigger budget would definitely enable the game to be embellished graphically but the supposed hindrances that FFXIII and XV had (some I agree with) like poor missions, linear gameplay and empty locals... well it's just as likely that they might embed itself into Type 0's development too.

Love the game though. I will say, if you're going to compare a game with Type-0, it should be FFXV as they contain more similarities than what XIII did.

[morethansam]

8 Things I Dislike About China

Smoking

The total disregard of other people who are trying to get to work without wanting to suck in a cloud full of smoke is a serious issue in China. On any given street, you may have to pass through the dreaded triple-pollution-barrier: Mobile phone shouting, smoggy air and smoke. It’s a disgusting habit.

Vegetables

I remember very distinctively when arriving at my apartment building, a notice, stuck on the wall beside the lift detailing how to cook vegetables. First frame: Do not eat them raw. Second: Please boil them or wash them thoroughly. Last frame: Frying the vegetables. With a population of China’s magnitude, pesticides are needed in order to make sure yields stay at a level high enough to feed the nation. The questions asked by myself are: How much? How often? At what cost? I definitely worry about the food here, even if I buy organic fruit/veg from certain areas in the supermarket I’m still uneasy about it all and my wage isn’t high enough to import constantly.

Laowai Forever

I would assume that most people who take residency in the UK and especially in the US for a certain amount of years would like to think of themselves as part of the country, possibly considering taking up citizenship in the future. Unfortunately, the multicultural nature of our society which is present in those aforementioned countries does not correlate with China. You are forever the 老外 (outsider). You pay tax, contribute to society, marry, buy a house, acquire the green card but that will never be enough. Your skin, your mannerisms, your language and ultimately your birth place define you so if you tick any of those boxes that are not in line with an ‘ethnic Chinese’ you will obtain the laowai badge.

Bring Back Dial-Up

With China Telecom, I paid £20 a week for 250kbs. The internet in China is extraordinary poor. Downloading a picture off Bing (I know, right) could take a couple of minutes.  Contra to this, if I’m solely using a Chinese website, it’ll run swimmingly.  I detest the fact that if you’re on anything other than a Chinese website, the internet will whittle down to snail speed.

P.S – the legendary Great Fire Wall of China is really not that bad. Twitter, FB and Google are the only major casualties.

Environment

It’s heart-breaking to see this country devoured by humans so explicably. Even out in the rural areas. Dirty rivers that are foul-smelling, empty, ghost cities full of unfinished construction, concrete jungles devoid of the rich vegetation South Guangdong once had, decrepit buildings everywhere, sporadic blue skies throughout the year, no stars (L), rolling hills now spent with construction and smog. The country is poison.

Recyclables

At my home in the UK, we have four bins: Recyclables; non-recyclables; food bin and foliage/plants. In GZ apartment buildings, you’re lucky to see two… and even then, most people don’t care. I was so disgusted by my last confrontation with my landlord in my old apartment, she told me to throw away everything I had let that I hadn’t already got rid of. That included two plants, an iron, kettle, decent Ikea storage boxes, a fan, a lamp and a couple of other nice things that the tenant could of made a decision to keep or not.

Mosquitoes

They’re just awful and upset me here more often I thought. Problems:

·        Sleep pattern interrupted by buzzing in my ear.

·        3AM swatting-sprees.

·        Small swells to remind you that you ARE a victim of abuse.

·        Instilling a fear to open windows.

·        Parks uncomfortable due to the constant biting around the ankles.

·        Having a mosquito net conforms the aesthetics of your apartment and having sex... into something unpleasant.

Change

Another major gripe… well I am talking about eight, aren’t I… is being unable to change anything within society to a great degree. There is no opportunity to vote on issues affecting your city, to change your local parliament/mayor or even rally with others to strike home a subject of importance. A mass congregation of people will be separated by the police and this happened on one occasion at Golden Beach, Zhuhai when a good 100-200 foreigners/Chinese gathered to clean this beach. Awkwardly and disappointingly, officials did not allow them to do this.

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I’ll be posting a more positive post later this week about the top eight things I do love.

[morethansam]

Why does FFXV feel like an unfinished game?

From Versus to XV

The weight of expectation attached to this game was probably insane, not just with the fans and new players but also within the company itself. The deterioration of the FF brand is relatively evident and due to the impressive trailer that aired in 2006 (that long, huh) and the fans indifferent reaction to XIII coupled with the first incarnation of FFXIV, many in the high echelons of the company were worried and saw Versus at that time as their way back to to the foreground of excellence. It did show promise. Skyrim, Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 showed how open-world games with RPG elements could be done and set the bar relatively high. FFXV needed to respond and achieve something even greater with more grandeur, something to live up to the FF name... main components were there but it ended up like an 'empty paradise', deprived of sustenance.

Final Fantasy Type-0

I found that a lot of elements from Type-0 made its way into the game. The way NPC interactions are more or less the same, combat has its similarities and it's veiled nature of the narrative. Type-0 in my opinion was a good game but not great, with the poor story-telling being the main culprit of its inability to be considered a top FF title. I noticed that a lot of that team also worked on XV... did they not notice the huge problems with Rursus and supporting characters? FFXV lacks coherency and player investment in regards to the story just like Type-0. Lunafreya, Regis, Iedolas and Ravus were not fleshed out. Do you feel more connected to the aforementioned cast or these supporting characters: General Leo, Budenhagen, Kinoc, Brahnne, Fusoya, Cid Raines.

Small Team

I noticed when the credits rolled that there were only say at the most, three-eight people working on areas such as quests and environments. If you're striving to create such an ambitious game, they probably had to either give more autonomy to these devs or employ more people. Eos seems unfinished; Lestallum felt rich with personality and Galdin Quay ticked the box but what other locations could you possibly say stood out and felt genuinely amazing? Altissia was beautiful but was a chore to travel around and the other areas lacked the required impression they should've made, only from afar did they exhibit wonder. Quests were awful fetching and boss fights were few and far between.

Final Fantasy for New Players

Was this designed for children? The casual gamer?

Judging from quick-time events, open world from the get-go (Skyrim), summons that wipe the floor, elixirs and phoenix downs too easy to use, hardly any strategy to fights and epic battles designed for the player to not lose (the Leviathan fight in my opinion was a right mess; graphically and gameplay wise), this game smacked of appeasing anyone and everyone, chiefly the preceding players I mentioned.

I'm not going to harp on too long about this but I just finished FFXV today and felt I needed to post about it. Looking forward to your thoughts as to why this ended up as an incomplete game or whether you totally disagree with that statement. I think we can all agree that it's a good game but fell short of what expectations we first had. I feel much more positive after this title than I did from XIII though. Can't wait for XVI! 新年快乐

[morethansam]

Love (Writing Comp)

The intricate melodic sound erupting from my phone signals another start to a day of where I’ll be surprised, inspired and most likely exhausted as school awaits me. The morning dawn pierces light through the crevices that have appeared due to the sagging of my curtains most likely put up years ago. I lazily float a hand from the side of my bed, seizing the now painful noise that has awakened my eagerness to confront the day that lies ahead.

Is the coffee in the pot? Tie or no tie? Are my lesson plans for the day complete? Why am I already thinking about lunch? Is Donald Trump really the president of America? What is the meaning of life and death?

In a state of dazed consciousness, the next thirty minutes occur in a blink of an eye. I have made it from home to school. At the point of arrival, the coffee kicks in; igniting a heightened awareness of enabling me to well… to speak and respond. It’s at 7.30am when the caffeine kicks in, the stimulant blocking the effects of tiredness wanting to settle and cultivate within the necessary brain waves I need in order to complete a day successfully.

As I set forth through the giant iron-clad gate, imperious in its design… the thick bars with their spiked tips present a formidable challenge to those not welcome within the realm of education. The chipped paint which allows parts of rust to puncture through suggests that this gate has stood here for decades providing protection for pupils. I exchange ‘Ni haos’ with the guard accompanied with a brief nod, the early morning still chaining ones loquaciousness to just that.

The footpath ahead is enveloped in elegance. The path is surrounded by Penjing trees, their elongated trunks spiralling artistically upwards with the tea green leaves soaking up the morning sun, dappling rims of sunlight splatter the path ahead. It’s a rather striking moment I tend not to admire as often as I would like; China’s beauty is foreign to me yet prickles my senses of appreciation.

Dotted around the area are the older generation participating in Tai Chi whilst fathers and mothers are flying past on their bicycles ready to meet their challenges of the day (the school part of a housing complex). The school building is now imminent, somewhat plain in its design. Signs of wear and tear are apparent in its seven floors of blood, sweat and stone. Despite the simplicity in its construction, the overall layout of the school is of a picturesque quality. The buildings surround a Chinese classical garden so to speak with a serene pond, charming bridge and beautiful flowers all attributing to this aesthetic design that evokes tranquillity.

I’m at ease and I can’t wait to get to class.

By the time I reach the bottom of the stairs, I can already hear the middle school students’ yells and their thudding of steps that reverberate from the stone floor. It’s only 7.35am in the morning yet their excitement levels and youth are penetrating through my grogginess. Cheerful cries now burst from classrooms as they see me linger past through the hall; I can’t help but smile after each ‘Hey Sam… Good morning!’ The door that is now directly in front of me is the classroom that expects me. A portal? A gateway? The domain to educate an individual I ponder. Yet… why is it me stepping into a classroom thousands of miles away from my home?

China? Why? Let the stream of consciousness commence. China has an endearing quality; it’s beautiful, magnificent, and everyone here is just so nice. Chinese culture is so subtle, so profound, so complicated, and so comprehensive that I cannot cover it with my limited knowledge. I’ve learnt so many things here but there is still so much to engross myself within this magical place.

The people are exceptionally friendly and willing to assist in what ways possible, even those with limited English. The food, oh my… the scrumptious, wonderful dishes that China has to offer – especially Guangdong and Hunan cuisine.  The cleanliness and safety of the streets is something remarkable too, Guangzhou taking pride in its city to keep reminding its inhabitants that this is a great city to live in. The scenery is gorgeous, China’s views when arriving at certain landmarks breathe beauty and nothing fills me with prodigious elation than to climb up a mountain and inhale in the crisp morning air whether it is at DingHuShan or ZhangJiaJie.

Most of all, the reason I have stayed here for so long is because of the students. I’ve met some extremely impressive individuals who strive to be the best they can. I think this generation has a lot of expectation to continue the progressive strides that China has made in recent years and I believe that with the current globalisation transcending within our world, the have a good foundation to make a huge difference. Not just within China but for our world.

I use my lessons as a platform for not just the students to absorb content I produce but also as a realm to express opinions. I’m currently teaching literature here in Guangzhou, therefore we are critically analysing everything in order to understand the outcome of certain actions and plot elements that occur in the book. The way to approach literature is to strip back your disposition and put yourself in the shoes of the character whilst omnisciently scanning the story to comprehend outcomes. It’s the critical way of thinking that my students then add to their skill set, whilst also improving their English. We must never stop looking at ways to assess a situation and forming opinions and solutions. Whether this would be with how we approach climate change in our daily lives to something innocuous like, why is the school rubbish bin so far away from the classrooms. Should we change this or does this discourage students from eating in class? I want students in China to expand their way of thinking.

The outcome in my literature lessons that I wish to achieve must be formulated with precision, it's important to be clear and confident in my approach. I question myself each lesson as to what would be the most effective way for a student to obtain that result. A variety of techniques could be used: skim reading, scanning, group work, project work, workshops, lecturing, debates, role-plays, games, creative writing, homework, discussions. It's important to manage our classes successfully. We have to be aware that each student has different cognitive learning styles as to how they react in a class and it's up to use as teachers to use our intuitive and analysis to provide the best environment for the students as not just as a class as a whole but individually too.

Regarding my education, there is a huge sigh of dismay of the wasted potential I had. I did not perform to the standard expected of me and this transcends to a lot of young people these days (based on my own experience in my home country). The apathetic shrug of the shoulders regarding school when I speak to my youngest brother and his friends is disheartening. We need to implant a willingness to learn. My lessons have always been designed to be as active, educational and enjoyable to instil this positive mentality about school. Furthermore, if the students respond well to a class, the greater the respect is and the likelihood of them completing tasks (due to them being invested in the lesson/class/subject) at home or at school is far more likely. In my class, I try to inspire students not just to study English, but even a basic of want as to just to learn and for those who’ve already acquired this natural ability then I look to satiate their appetite for learning.

At that moment, the bell sounds, reality has finally won the battle against my brief serenade of insufferable meandering of as to why I am here in China.

I face the class; we get straight into tackling Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Their keenness to open up their books and confront the literary concepts and language elements astounds me. And to add to that, they are then eager to partake in discussion with one another once I have coordinated what part they must focus on. The lesson ultimately ends in paired work as they get to create a brochure for Transylvania, one of the main settings for the novel. I feel an enormous amount of pleasure from seeing how amazing

The bell rings against once more, definitely not the shrill shriek associated from my days at school but I believe a xylophone. The octaves that sound out from the speakers beautifully caress the lesson to an end. Students then burst out in a clamour. But as I walk out through the chaotic fields of young minds willing as ever be educated, I remind myself again in a moment of clarity…

I love this job.

[morethansam]

AMERICAN FOOTBALL

November 7th

I’ve currently been listening to LP II by American Football which was released a couple of weeks back. It’s magical in my personal opinion… serving up nostalgic sounds, decent lyrics and just an overall feeling of warmth. Like a glow from an old incandescent bulb hanging in your basement with guitars, PS2 controllers and pizza boxes scattered across the floor.

American Football’s return is a triumphant one judging from reviews (it’s such a chilled album), well worth your time and money, and ready to enthuse you with another grand collection of melancholy wandering in the modern world. In the time since we last saw them, 1999, before they reunited last year, Mike Kinsella has been accompanying us with numerous releases under the pseudonym ‘Owen’.

I love Owen. The delicate riffs and soothing yet ardent lyrics really transcend well into the introverted nature I crawl into when at home. It was a shame his last album was a garbage release barring two tracks, so to be able to listen to a not only new but a high quality American Football LP. Well, that’s pretty sweet!

Teaching

Full day of teaching today with six classes. I powered through the morning with a good amount of black coffee and the environment lesson went over really well with the senior students. They were responding very well and we’ll be going in to the next part of the workshop on Wednesday. These classes will also receive a Tell-Tale Heart on that day too.

My afternoon was sprinkled with a couple of junior classes; we’re over half-way with Oliver Twist now. We spent some time looking at key events for each of the main characters. After, students would form into groups and would then tell me after conversing how the characters own personal feelings and relationships with other members of the cast changed with each event.

We ended the class with a game of ‘Articulate’. I printed off cards with vocab from the novel. These cards also have a few words below that they can’t use when describing the highlighted word at the top of the card. It’s a fun 10 minute activity to end the lesson.

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Beer: Two Bottles of Tsingtao

Running: 5 miles

Food: Coffee, Vegetable Bread Bun, Steamed Chicken, Cabbage, Mushrooms, 500ml Soy Milk, Large Spinach & Pesto Spaghetti

Song: My Instincts Are The Enemy - American Football

(Playlist will play all songs from the last five days.)

[morethansam]

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: WHY THE HATE?

November 6th

So after finishing up a part-time class at my home, I was gearing up to watch my beloved Tottenham Hotspur play Arsenal in the North London Derby. In recent years I’ve tried to detach myself a little to try and not let it affect my life so much, and being here in GZ I’ve managed to achieve that due to the late times games kick-off. Win or lose, I’m happy to support the team.

Cartilage Free Captain is the best website for analysis regarding Spurs and post-match write-ups on the internet. It’s run by an American and the forum suggests that the commenters do seem to hail from that side of the pond. However, it’s highly informative, passionate and an intelligent platform to partake in football discourse.

I spend a lot of time on the Guardian too, loitering around the CiF sections revelling in the elation and misery of supporters depending on the how the weekend’s action fared. I love the in-depth analysis they have there. Saying that, in the past year I’ve definitely noticed an increase in a lot of puff pieces, especially as a lot of writers seem to converge and publish articles on the ailments of Man Utd. One thing that strikes out to me when going through these comment sections is how often a lot of fans seem to despise Spurs.

I’m going to go through a few clubs and try to explain their reasoning:

West Ham were on top of the world after a season of Payet heroics. Fair enough, they were playing some fantastic football in their last campaign and the plaudits are well deserved. It was just one season though. I guess because we’re the next London club in front of them, they feel a need to peacock around when they win and evoke a ‘kick a man when they’re down’ mentality when Chelsea or Spurs lose. It’s a little childish.

Arsenal. Oh man. To them we’re a laughing stock and too right we are. 1998-2004 was awful for us. We finished third at the end of last season when it was easier to finish second. We haven’t finished above them since Wenger’s reign. Sol Campbell. The whole St Tottering’s Day thing. The Schzney and Wilshire public demonation of Spurs – it’s not banter, it’s just humiliation. There’s Arsenal fans all across the world, trumping our support in multitudes so it’s hard to engage and change that temperament. They’re a fantastically run club, play good football but their fall-back after season upon season of disappointment seems to be giving it to the Spurs fans.

Chelsea, well…. They hate everyone and are reviled by all! Chelsea feel the need to get respect from other clubs by creating a new history. They’ve practically chosen everyone as their enemies in order for someone to notice them!

Villa/Everton – because we broke away from that mid 2000’s bracket.

Leicester –  we ‘apparently’ tried to derail their title campaign even though we were never in the race. We were top for a total of 10 minutes last season.

Every other club – “Lads, it’s Spurs”, “Major bottlers” or “Spuds”. I loathe these comments - we haven’t been pushovers for a while, I have no idea what defines bottlers anymore and the classic Spuds comment falls into the ‘Ya Mum’ category.

I guess I’m overstating it a little, every club gets it. At the end of the day, we have alright fans, we’ve played attacking football for as long as I can remember… always having a few flair players. Our ground is tight and old school. We run our club well. I guess our newly acquainted success-non-success offends a lot of other clubs.

This was a poor write-up and I aim to explore this topic further in other blog posts.

Teaching

It’s just been finishing up my presentation for Saturday that needs to be sent to the big bosses on Monday. Coming along swimmingly though!

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Beer: 0

Running: 0

Food: One bowl of rice, Coffee, Carrots, Bean Sprouts, Pak Choi, Broccoli, Large river fish, Peanuts, Orange Juice.

Song: The Lazy Song – Bruno Mars

[morethansam]

CASEY NEISTAT

November 5th

Saturday smog run. A decent time of 1 hour and 10 minutes. The haze was certainly trying its best to ruin the weekend and my knees felt a bit sore (there are quite a few steps involved), so it wasn’t the most pleasant of runs by the tower.

Jane and I checked out a new Korean restaurant down near the university. We had trouble finding it though as it was quite small and indistinguishable, not to mention it was mashed in between a lot of other eateries, skewing our perception. Inside however, man, Japanese and Korean restaurants seem to have a knack of making pocket-sized environments seem a lot more spacious. It looked tiny outside! The decor and food was good, nice and simple. Prices were ridiculously cheap.

We ordered a seafood noodle dish, a bottle of blueberry soju, veggie bibimbap and were given free servings of kimchee. It cost about $7.00. We went for a lovely stroll around the university and then set off to a local bar after to unwind as we had spent all day at home.

For the past three months I’ve been watching Casey Neistat, a youtuber residing in New York. He’s a filmmaker, active runner (this guy runs about 16k+ every morning) and an entertainer. He inspires me so much to do more, to be a better individual.

I venerate him due his positive outlook on life, his consistency to produce outstanding content throughout the week and his energy to educe an ‘anything is possible’ attitude.

Check out one of his videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtinbF-Q-fVthA0qrFQTgXQ

Thanks Casey.

Teaching

Next Saturday I’ll be working with the Foreign Expert Bureau to give a 30 minute demonstration addressing what’s life like as foreigner in China. I’ve been given an outline to include numerous topics:

·        Introduction  / My job

·        Visa Application

·        Clothing / Food / Transportation / Accommodation / Banking

·        Holidays & Customs

·        What activities can you do?

·        Q & A session

It’s coming along very well and I’m utilising all my knowledge I have accumulated throughout my time living in GZ. The balance I’m struggling with is that I need to be informative but concise; I must convey this information effectively and once I achieve the balance aforementioned, I know that hte presentation will be a success.

Beer: 100ml of Soju, 3 pints of Blue Ribbon

Running: 12.5 Miles

Food: Blueberries, One Apple, 300ml Soy Milk, Five Vegetable Dumplings, Veggie Bibimbap, Peanuts

Song: Real Love – Mary J Blige

(Music player above will fill with five songs. They’re in chronological order so if you want to check out the other tunes preceding this post, skip to the next track.)

[morethansam]

OLD DRIVER

November 4th

Funnily enough, my time in the classroom equates to the time I spend on the 191 bus on Fridays. I work at a different school in the afternoon and I throw on top a part-time class in the evening as a way to maximise my monthly earnings. The bus provides a nice respite to compose myself for the lessons ahead and is usually quite efficient to get to my destination in good time, especially during off-peak hours of travel.

The cost of taking a bus in GZ is 20p (2RMB) and after using any transportation links after 15 times within a month, it lowers by 1/3. You may also use cash, which is pretty nifty if you’ve somehow left your card in a different pair of jeans… here’s looking at you London.

I’m a big aficionado of busses here in GZ, I’m quite well versed on particular routes around this sprawling city and I have also a great admiration of the bus driver’s skill to manoeuvre a huge, lumping thing of a vehicle through the rather chaotic traffic in central Guangzhou. Bus links are everywhere and you’ll be waiting no longer than 10 minutes for the next bus to come. Taking it at around 12.15-1.15pm when the whole of the middle kingdom decides to nap is the perfect opportunity to cross from one side of the city to the other.

FUN FACT:

Did you know that if you call someone an old driver in Chinese (老司机), it means that you are a pervert. Lovely.

Teaching

Friday afternoon is the only time of the week where I have oral English lessons. It’s a really nice change of pace but it is mentally and physically exhausting to a certain extent. This is mainly due to the performance based teaching I have to invoke when presenting the topic; it’s a lot of exertion as I try to direct the class to the required activity I wish for them to complete.

Today we were focusing on the news.

We went through the different news types we could present followed by a quick matching exercise where students read one line of a story and had to choose the correct news category, also telling me why they made that choice too.

We then moved on to headlines, focusing mainly on sensationalism, alliteration, puns and the removal of articles. Followed by a picture round where groups had to try and make just one headline for any of the pictures presented to them.

We then have a fun round of making up stories as I present to them different headlines trying my best to use the techniques above. It’s a quick fire round where I’d move on to each group and they’d have 30 seconds to add an additional sentence about the story.

Finally they had to create their own news team in groups with each person focusing on a different area of news. I arranged the classroom, downloaded the CCTV music (Chinese equivalent of the BBC) and sat back as I watched the students have a lot of fun presenting their stories.

Beer: 0

Running: 0 Miles

Food: Two bowls of rice, Two eggs, Green peppers (spicy), Shredded carrots, Bean sprouts, Eggplant, Cabbage, 250ml jujube milk

Song:  Even If She Falls - Blink-182

[morethansam]

November 3rd :

A RIGHT MARE

Jane arrived today, always lovely jubbers. Craig David time.

So about the quiz yesterday; out of 9 teams, we finished in 4th place. Just missing out on the prizes. Prizes include a tower of tiger (not much use at 11pm if you’ve got work the next day), 6 tequila shots (which is even worse) or a bottle of whisky (which is of course, the chicken dinner). It’s still a fun quiz as the quizmaster will use a PPT, video/music clips and will try to make it as immersive as possible.

An old friend accompanied me halfway through the quiz last night and after us walking out of the pub at 11, he embraced me, planted kisses all over (nah, it’s not going that way) and persuaded me to stay out for one more ‘bevvie’. At the word ‘bevvie’, I should’ve known what asinine antics would go down. He’s actually a fun guy to be around though he gets very negative and cynical regarding China (he’s been here for 7 years). 

I was a bit flabbergasted by the next the 45 minutes:

We walk past a hairdressers. The staff are being regimented (possibly scolded) by their manager. My friend goads them through the window, saluting and tapping on the glass. Good start.

We reach the store, he knocks items all over the floor.

He tries to plant 0.5RMB (5p) into the cleavage of a shopkeeper. Talking absolutely crap throughout. He later tries to give it to her as a tip?

We sit down, he has no interest in engaging conversation with me.

He antagonises one dude by calling out that he is Scottish as he does not have an accent. He does not know this person and had not spoken to him before uttering this comment.

He later participates in a discussion with a Chinese person (who had lived in California for eight years) about work. List of quotes:

‘Move back to this dump’ ‘My job is a box filler, anyone could do it, you could do it’ ‘Our company is British; they would hire you, unlike here’

The Chinese guy says ‘but wouldn’t they hire only white people?’. So my friend stands up, throws his cup of beer on the ground and remarks for all of the world to hear:

‘This guy has a massive chip on his shoulder… I’m going, coming with?’

I politely declined. The dude later mentioned that his statement was regarding the sentiment that most Chinese teaching agencies and companies prefer to hire white faces. They certainly do and I concurred.

He did have an air of superiority about him though so I grabbed a cab and left. The night had left a sour taste.

Teaching

Thursday is always a long day. From 7.30am – 7.15pm albeit with a two hour break for lunch, I’m educating the young minds of tomorrow :/. 

I was absolutely cream-crackered too, in hangover mode and ready to eat a meal that could leave a small child suffocated to death. I ordered six dumplings in the morning with a side of 糯米 in its banana leaves, a glutinous rice dish. Calorific!

Students had just finished up their exams so I brought out my box of English magic tricks and constructed a lesson involving language and vocab dominating games. It was fun. I explained that we’ll start our short story with Edgar Allen Poe on Monday and that it was required to read ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. They all groaned, lovely.

--------------------------------

Beer: One 3.6% Harbin Bottle

Running: 0 Miles

Food: One bowl of rice, One fried chicken leg, Six dumplings, Glass of orange juice, Broccoli, Tofu, Spinach, Cabbage, Green beans, One coffee

Song: Training - What Laura Says

[morethansam]

November 2nd:

RUN

I awoke at 7.00am this morning to a fantastic message on my WeChat account: Classes Cancelled. Students were being tested from dusk til dawn as it’s their mid-term exams right now and I was not required to be present. Woop Woop. Unfortunately, my excitement lasted for about 8 seconds (as most things in the bedroom do) due to quick realisation that I could sleep more.

Having a free day means my tiredness levels stay low and that I also get to go on my favourite long distance run.

 Up to Gangding, down ShiPaiDong, towards Jinan Uni and then down to Tancun. Run west along the waterfront, cross over the impressive Liede bridge, quick wank, run past the Canton Tower, cross a different bridge, run through Zhujiang New Town, then back up Tancun & Shipai and finally to my home at South China Normal University. 

Sweet. Here’s a picture today, though it seems to have missed the second leg of my journey. I hit about 20km in 1hr 20.

I’m now going for a pub quiz, shouldn’t really be drinking as I had a few last night but what the hell, I’m 27 for Christ sake and I love beer! Two pot luck categories followed by a Simpsons one and a logo round. We’ve got Norfolk ‘N’ Chance.

Teaching:

I’ve been so far finishing up a presentation about the environment for class. It’s a 90-120 minute lesson talking about the environmental damage we as a world are doing at this present moment. I’ve tried to coordinate it so there’s great focus on China and Guangzhou. 

Purpose: There are lots of topics to talk about so they’ll be increasing their vocabulary and awareness on the subject. They get to practice a lot of modal verbs as we talk about future plans to better the environment regarding GZ. An informative writing workshop as to how we can convey and outline information in a documented way. Opportunity to practice their presentation skills. Sounds boring huh?

Beer: Three Pints of Tiger

Running: 12.5 Miles

Food: Orange Juice, Multivitamin Pill, Omega-3 Capsule, BBQ Pork, Rice, Cabbage, River Fish, Green Beans, Pak Choi, Tea Egg

Song: https://soundcloud.com/harx-codername/run-final-fantasy-xii-2

[morethansam]

November 1st:

ALLERGIES

Autumn has finally arrived in China. A cool, crisp air is now biting back against the summer, gone is the hazy humidity. Blue skies, pleasant winds and glorious sunshine conjure a fresh feeling within GZ that has been long coming. As the temperature dropped last evening, the need for a thick cotton t-shirt was required. After rummaging around in the depths of my wardrobe I came across a thick blue shirt I received in Thailand from when I went zip-lining. A nice fit, perfect.

Unfortunately, due to my humongous nose and its immense aptitude to flip out at the sniff of any particle floating about, I woke up at 6am in the morning all bleary-eyed and blocked-up. I decided it was my room and stumbled into the living area to more or less pass out on the sofa bed. I woke up shortly after that, sneezing uncontrollably as if purging a previous life away.

Well, I found out what was the culprit. It was the fucking t-shirt. Musty, dusty and just a nuisance for my nose. Grogginess dogged me throughout the day.

TEACHING

Classes went well with Dracula today mind. Key activities included a scanning exercise where I gave the class eight false statements within six pages of the chapter that needed to be amended. The students worked in pairs, once two were found and corrected and explained why they were wrong, we moved on - I tried the make the statements ridiculous as possible to gain their interest at first.

Funnily enough and very much on topic regarding my morning, we briefly talked about allergies and weaknesses. The latter first; we briefly discussed why antagonists need weaknesses (garlic) in a story. After probing and coordinating the discussion, we started to realise that a weakness can give not just the main character hope but the reader too and provide more ammunition and possibilities as to how a problem could be overcome. We then discussed the weaknesses of certain characters in prominent movies and books and how that affected the story.

I thought we’d end on a bit of a high. So after some quick paired work regarding allergies and whether they were allergic to food (like Dracula to a certain extent) and what would usually happen if said food/drink was consumed.  I then informed the class that they would poisoning Dracula.

Due to their renowned cooking ability, they had been invited by Dracula to his new home in London to cook a set meal for them. After briefly discussing what kind of food or drinks a vampire would like, they then moved into groups of three and conjured their menu whilst also adding an additional sentence to further entice Dracula. Example: Strawberry Sundae - Delicious, sweet ice cream with a juicy cherry on top.

I hope I have a better night’s sleep tonight. My part-time class starting at 7.15pm always exhausts me so I should be all good.

Alcohol consumed: Three 3.6% 500ml cans of Harbin

Running: 0

Food consumed: Pork chop, carrots, rice, tofu (first four see above), 750ml of soy milk, Yakult, Almonds, Vegetable bread bun.

[morethansam]

Sunday Vibes

Sunday was a fantastic day, beaming rays of light, business, old friends and all that natter.

The happy-hour tiger beer went straight to my sunshine swept head.

Light, crisp, fizzy, something to cut the edge off the humidity surrounding you only for a brief second. Cold, cold enough to pierce the temples.

It was very well matched for the Sunday environment. Tiger beer is the most prominent and cheapest (draught) beer in all the bars around Guangzhou at the modest £2 mark. Taste will usually vary and has left me sick on occasions though that may be due to the copious amounts I consumed. It didn't manage to sink its claws too deep this time.

Monday - Wednesday in Guangzhou. Absolutely raining cats and dogs.

I'm off on a trip to "Dali" on Thursday (think of it as a small slice of Tibet) but the past few days have been hell finding houses. I managed to slip over in this weather gloriously and bust up my godly CR7 right foot and my Travolta hip.

[morethansam]

In good company...

I've been here now around a week and feel very much settled in. It's a shame I'm being 'manoeuvred' out of temporary home to embark on the dark and dangerous quest of finding a home. There are some absolutely filthy, pigsties’ of houses here. I hope the agents don't waste my precious GoT pondering for the 5th season for too long... It's now raining, it's 30 outside and I can't make out the top of some buildings.

I've been at my company all of this week, admin'n and demo'n classes until my creative spark diminishes.

I do like it here, but what annoys me most is that the staff watching my lessons exclaim innate, childish phrases during the class like 'teacher, good job' 'teacher Sam, you're so smart'. They believe acting like teenagers, God forbid if they're acting like teenagers (sorrys guys/gals), enhances the demo class atmosphere. It doesn't, it's weird, please stop.

My contract doesn't actually begin until the 1st September, it's nice enough but I do seem to be utilising my money a little too efficiently. May need to watch out for my competence in that regard...

My wonderful company also proposed that for some extra cash I could work in a Kindergarten for a couple of weeks. It's safe to say that as much as this is a fine idea, I'd rather refrain from changing the mindset of how I'm supposed to teach for a year. I love teaching well, I dislike teaching whilst 'winging it' so to speak. AKA; alcoholic, TEFL wielding, lusting lout from one of the many ‘Western’ countries. Myself? :(

[morethansam]

I'm at my old stomping ground in Long Kou Dong/Xi today as I make the journey across TianHeBeiLu (天河北路)...

Still awed by the sight of Chinese food I only remember to open my mouth. I promise that the main course of this blog which is to be pictures and reviews of dishes will come.

Today I fainted expectedly and shamefully.

Ah yes, you can see here that I have arrived for my foreign medical examination check to make sure that I don't have any of these rotten foreign diseases. I boarded on to the ferris-wheel-medical and the first stop was for blood. It wasn't a great start.

Oh well, I'll find out this Friday whether I'll be kicked out of this country with my Poliomyelitis firmly packed in with my Bacillary Dysentery.

Ing cooked up a glorious meal last night. A couple of spicy omelettes, a batch full of 空心菜 (empty heart greens, read in to that as much as you want) and some 冬菇豆腐 , guess that last one. It was scrum-diddly-umptious.

[morethansam]

In Guangzhou.

I haven't been taking many photos here as far due to the obligatory roller-coaster reception from the moment I touched down at HK. Do enjoy some Zheng Jiao (Steamed Dumplings) I consumed this evening though. Yummy.

My flight as mentioned before was delayed, what a pile of arse that was. Oh well. $75 food voucher - $50 HK found on the floor - A bus & ferry arranged (bus taken) and my luggage within the hour. Not bad.

After taking the picturesque drive squashed between two Malaysians in a mini van to the border I felt strangely content. Immigration with ease.

A quick change up at Shenzhen in to a coach was welcomed; large chairs with seasoned leather, plenty of leg-room and the air conditioning spot on. The sweltering humidity here is intense. I stopped off at my arrival in TianHe (GZ) and was met by Ing who brings a smile out of me more than anyone. Soon enough I was consumed by a sense of deja-vu, it continued to swarm around me and continued til the evening. Exhausting.

I've been hung-over all this Sunday. 4.15am I ended up leaving the club and at 4.30 I was consuming my first batch of Yun Tun Mian. It's started :)

[morethansam]

Terminally bored.

Today I’m leaving for China in a state of passiveness. I have no idea or inclination as to what to expect from this next adventure other than utilising what it has to offer, better. Language, self-improvement and business are the key areas, I bullet pointed them on a word document. Also I'll be making sure I have slightly less of the sumptuous egg fried rice that China cooks up.

I’m not exactly off to a flying start as my flight has been delayed by four hours and 45 minutes. My pockets, psp and patience are most likely to be tested by Terminal 3’s overcrowded playground and I worry if they’ll be able to summon up the same amount of courage for the 10+ hour flight.

Nipperkins of gin and of a splashes of (slimline) tonic water will hopefully depart my mind from the rabble, babble of holiday-goers. If not, there’s always overpriced Tolberone. Love x