It's Not So Scary On The Other Side

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It's Not So Scary On The Other Side

Posted by saltovergray - September 23rd, 2014

Hey guys.

I haven't been on NG much, been very busy at college (university for you Brits). Making some new friends, adjusting to life away from the home I lived in my whole life, etc etc.

I've been doing much better I think. I've calmed a bit, reached a nice baseline of contentedness for now. I came back to NG because of the abundance of free time I had. I also have some friends here I do enjoy communicating with, and I think they deserve to hear from me every now and then.

I've been working on creative projects with an increased gusto, which is nice. I've had some experiences that released the stoppages and eased the flow of my creative thoughts, something I was looking for and needed for a long time. Perhaps I'll share them here on NG one day.

For those of you who read this blog, how are you guys doing? I haven't had much contact with all of my Chat friends recently (where is that new Chat at? Isn't there a jynx if I ask about it? Oops.) but if you happen to be one of those feel free to drop a comment.

That's all I can say for now, I suppose.

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ChazDude 2014-09-23 11:00:23

*drops a comment*

saltovergray 2014-09-23 11:00:23

Much obliged.

JKSSN 2014-09-23 11:08:19

Everyone is busy these days.

saltovergray 2014-09-23 11:08:19

I suppose so. Busy in the grand scheme, but on the average day I am given too much free time.

But is there ever something as too much free time?

aListers 2014-09-25 06:54:30

Oddly enough I've had less time at university - despite having less class time. I ended up making too much friends and having to try and balance 2 groups of friends. In the end I don't get much sleep at night and end up 15 minutes late for my first class. I've also overbooked myself for the societies and I have to constantly choose whever or not to play board games with my friends or learn how to sword fight. I only have 1 night to game and that's not good for a game programming course like I'm doing.

saltovergray 2014-09-25 06:54:30

Sword fighting sounds interesting, is it like fencing or some other style of sword fighting?

I haven't "gamed" properly in forever, I didn't even bring a console! In hindsight it might have been nice to have something here to mess around with in the event that I really had nothing else to do. Oh well, I guess it's incentive to go out and meet friends (who, per chance, might have gaming consoles!).

aListers 2014-09-25 17:07:41

It's mainly German Longsword but they're teaching things like broadsword and greatsword as well this year. As a noob I only get to do the Longsword (and I'm not allowed to use the proper federschwerts) but it's being treated as a proper martial art (with exercise and everything) rather than a sport.

I only brought a PS2 with me. All my friends are PC gamers too.

saltovergray 2014-09-25 17:07:41

That's really neat. Is the sword heavy? I imagine you have to have a fair amount of strength to hold a longsword. From my understanding of medieval/Renaissance era German swords, they were fairly big and VERY heavy. The Zweihander comes to mind, but I doubt you'd be fighting with one of those (they are upwards of 6 ft long!).

I met a few people upstairs playing a SNES because I hear Super Mario World playing and sought them out, so I could always play with them I guess.

aListers 2014-09-26 13:00:21

"German" refers more to the style of fighting rather than the style of sword in this case. The swords we use are generic longswords which seem to have been used everywhere in Europe. Also, they wouldn't let me hold the real longswords - only the plastic simulations that we're allowed to hit each other with.

We only managed to get the first guy capable of teaching Zweihander this year too and he'll probably be teaching it to the more experienced ones as I'm sure that they mentioned that the sword was about that long.

We have a SNES in the e-sports bar. We don't seem to have much games for it though.

saltovergray 2014-09-26 13:00:21

I gotcha. Would you consider taking sword-fighting as an actual hobby in the future beyond just the group you are in now? I imagine at some point along the line you'll be able to handle real (albeit dulled) swords or maybe the wooden replicas often used for training.

E-sports bar? Sounds very fancy. We don't have any sort of gaming bar like that around here. At least not in my dorm, perhaps other dorms have them.

aListers 2014-09-26 13:58:25

I would actually take it as an actual hobby. I messed around with learning western swordfighting techniques with a bokken before hand and I love the sword fighting in the class. I'm looking forward to the day when I can hit somebody with the sword and for it not to be an accident.

Twice a year we actually have events where we go to the middle of nowhere and do cut testing with real sharpened longswords. I don't think I'm allowed into the next one though.

Our e-sports bar is in the city centre so it's actually ages away because I chose the cheap accommodation. It's the first time I've ever heard of such a thing existing and it only opened this year. There isn't one in my hometown or even Glasgow so I'm guessing it's only open because this city is the centre of most of Scotland's game industry - plus my university is well known for it's game courses so that's probably another good reason to open an e-sports bar.

saltovergray 2014-09-26 13:58:25

Bokken, is that a far Eastern stick thing? I could google it, but i always like hearing a personal explanation, you know? And hey, if the apocalypse ever occurs, maybe sword-fighting will become a commodity/means of survival/protection once more!

That sounds cool. What do you cut? Watermelons and things, or do you use ballistic gel and stuff like that? Why wouldn't you be allowed to the next event?

I don't know if we have any e-sports bars here in Massachusetts. I think that's decidedly a more European gaming culture thing, but who knows! I'll have to look around a bit. You are going to university for game programming then? That's really neat! In a perfect world, I'd probably be an English or Creative Writing major, but I am a Psychology major. That isn't to say that I don't like Psychology, I love it. Writing is just my passion, but I guess it's better to keep it separate from my schooling. Wouldn't want to associate it with work/school.

Speaking of Scotland (I'll admit, I always think of you as being English in my head, even though I know you're from around Glasgow), what were your opinions on the Independence referendum? Additionally, what's life like now that the referendum was unsuccessful? Is there resentment, open or hidden?

aListers 2014-09-26 14:51:52

Bokkens are what the Japanese use to practice their sword fighting stances and cuts. It's basically a wooden stick carved into a sword shape. Somebody had a spare one so they gave it to me. I can't use it in class though because it's considered a live weapon over here but I can still practice German cuts and stances with it seeing as you can do it with a stick as well. I also quite like the idea of prepping for an apocalypse so that half the fun in doing it.

I have no idea what they cut. They just said that the do it. I've just signed up and I don't think I get insured until the event is over so I doubt they'd let me go.

Oddly enough, I thought that e-sports and their bars were something that we got from America.

Yeah, I have a few friends doing psychology in my university. Writing is still something you can do in your spare time though so you don't really need a course to get big in it. The important thing is that you're doing a course you enjoy. Keeping them separate would probably be better for inspiration. I'm having to hold back on certain games want to start making just because it's something that we're learning next year rather than this year.

I was undecided until the final day. All the stuff the yes campaign said were lies but at the same time the no campaign didn't give any reason to stay in the UK. With the racist party UKIP rising in England I decided eventually to vote yes and hope we get our own currency rather than keep the pound - which would turn it into a euro.

After the referendum result I was content with it because they're giving us more power anyway. Most yes voters weren't though and are saying that the referendum was rigged. They're calling for a recount or a re-vote and all have a little picture in the corner of their facebook photos saying 45% because 45% voted yes. Not to mention that the no voters caused a riot in Glasgow by attacking yes voters. The no side weren't the violent ones during the referendum but they've come out now.

Very few people in Scotland actually have British pride (most of them are just Rangers fans who only wave the union jack for of sectarian reasons) - it's the politics that made us vote no. One day we will be our own sovereign nation. I just hope that we can demote the UK into a union to do it. Either we'll have another referendum and leave or the English will leave.

saltovergray 2014-09-26 14:51:52

Very interesting dynamic you've detailed here. Referendums for this sort of thing happen every few years, right? Perhaps the next time around (whenever that is) will have a different outcome. The numbers from what I've seen and what you said were pretty close. The riots started by the "no" side might factor into the feeling from here on out.

It's also interesting how the Scottish have retained their identity despite hundred of years being associated with England and the UK. Considering how closely England and Wales are connected, it's strange seeing an outlier that still wishes to be apart. At least, that's from my understanding of it. And I'll admit, I know next to nothing about British politics besides what I've picked up on international news and what you've told me.

aListers 2014-09-26 15:53:10

Well, the way that the yes side were acting had the effect you mentioned so I think that that is a large part of it. The yes campaign was a campaign or lies, vandalism and cyberbullying and that made me really not want to vote yes. I did in the end because I thought that I should place the future of my country above the people associated with the opinion.

Overall Scotland was never conquered by England. A Scottish king sat on the English throne but never the other way round. Wales was conquered by England and were essentially treated like 2nd class citizens until they had their independence removed. The welsh were actually glad that happened because they weren't 2nd class citizens anymore.

Like the Irish were ignored during the potato famine - the Scottish were ignored by Margret Thatcher. Before her, we were actually very British but very proud of our surviving culture - as we still have a significant amount of it. She destroyed the Scottish economy and introduced the poll tax to us a year before introducing it to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Now we bear a grudge against the conservative party (there's only 1 Scottish conservative who we've voted into parliament) and Scotland is a very socialist country.

England votes conservative while Scotland and Wales don't. We see this as a good reason to go independent. Up here you have either the labour party (who are socialist) or the SNP (who are liberal and nationalist) while the English vote either labour or conservative. Not to mention that they're now also voting UKIP who are racist and Eurosceptic versions of the conservatives.

I have no idea why Wales is so British except for historical reasons. I know for a fact that they hate the English as much as we do. At the same time they don't even get represented in the union jack as they were part of the Kingdom of England when they were unionised - despite that they actually have a single language that they all spoke. I need to ask a Welsh person why. All the welsh people I know tend to be adults or teachers so I haven't asked before.

A possible reason why Scotland is has more national identity is the fact that we had our culture re-invented in the 18th century. That's when the clan tartan system was invented. Before that it was a district system. The Welsh didn't get that till the 20th century. We also speak our own dialect (Scots) in every day life.

LunarHawk69 2014-09-28 12:01:57

He's alive! Hope your digging school. The newgrounds chat can temporarily be found on skype.

saltovergray 2014-09-28 12:01:57

Long time no see! Damn, this makes me wish it was readily accessible on here.

Skype may work for me, where can I find any information about joining/adding peeps on Skype for this? I'll admit, I don't use it that often so I don't know how this sort of thing works.

aListers 2014-10-12 23:13:27

NG Username - Skype
Conal - conalfawcett
floff - xxcinnabunnxx
HKS - harryshaffren
Kogey - k0genta
Rad - theradicalone
Sword-of-Kings - sword-of-kings
SychoSloth - sychosloth
Wegra - wegrax
yurgenburgen - yurgenburgen

According to some "chat is dead" threads, these are the people you should add to get into the chat.

It's Not So Scary On The Other Side

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