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Noll's 2018 Reads


Nollaig

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On 8.2.2018 at 12:41 PM, Nollaig said:

 

I'm finding it hard to keep it up to be honest. It's given me an idea for an app (I like designing apps since my cert in digital media before christmas!) - a digital bullet journal. An app with tons of icons and cartoons in various colours (bullets, arrows, squiggles, patterns, objects etc) so that you can just click-and-drag your way to a stunning journal page in no time. Can't find an app like it, and I know I'd use it! What do you do in your gratitude journal, do you draw or just write or...?

 

That's a great idea for an app! :smile2:

 

On 8.2.2018 at 12:41 PM, Nollaig said:

 

Thanks, Frankie! My mood is a bit better lately, and I'm getting a bit more creative again. Working on a portfolio website, gonna start working on designing more apps, entered a competition with one app idea, and am back to digital art a little bit with a monkey for my partner's gaming blog!

 

That's really good news!  I hope your creative mood lasts and prospers! :smile2:

 

On 8.2.2018 at 12:41 PM, Nollaig said:

 

My partner has wanted this monkey for ages (his blog is Little Monkey Game Reviews) and his ex-wife (who also drew) always said she'd do it, and never did. And then I said I would, and I got as far as sketching him, but never finished. So, this is my plan for a Valentines Day gift, to get this darned monkey finished for him!

 

That is such a lovely idea for a Valentine's gift! :wub:    I hope you don't mind me asking, but did you have time to finish the monkey? 

On 8.2.2018 at 7:18 PM, karen.d said:

 

I'm quite creative, but I still find some of the bullet journals I see on YouTube, as really intimidating! I might give it a go one day! 

 

Bullet journals need not to be creative or artistic at all! The original bullet journal by Ryder Carroll was all about writing stuff down - not about using colors, washi tape, stickers, whatever. Everyone can make their Bujo as functional as they like - or as artistic as they like. Please don't be intimidated by anyone else's bujo!! :smile2:

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4 hours ago, frankie said:

 

 

 

Bullet journals need not to be creative or artistic at all! The original bullet journal by Ryder Carroll was all about writing stuff down - not about using colors, washi tape, stickers, whatever. Everyone can make their Bujo as functional as they like - or as artistic as they like. Please don't be intimidated by anyone else's bujo!! :smile2:

I've actually sort of started a bullet journal, which has a future log, a monthly log which I use it as a mini journal I suppose. I write a word to describe each day of that month. Then the dailys I use as a gratitude journal. I also have a page for what I read during the year and for a Stephen King Challenge I have set myself. This is probably NOT how you're supposed to use a bullet journal, but i seems to work for me so far.

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You can use a bullet journal in any way you want (I mean, unless you only use it as coaster for a cup of coffee or something :lol:), so I'm sure what you are doing is fine :). It sounds interesting and I'm glad it's worked for you so far :)! I have a monthly page and a to-do and future log, and not much else. But it works for me right now, so :shrug:.

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On 2/9/2018 at 8:11 AM, Athena said:

 

That sounds like a useful app to have!

 

 

I saw the monkey on FaceBook (and IG), it looks so good :). Such a great gift, too!

 

Thank you!

 

On 2/10/2018 at 3:50 PM, Hayley said:

I think your gratitude journal app idea is great, it would be a perfect relaxing and beneficial thing to do, less intimidating to those who don't know where to start or aren't the best at drawing (like me!) as well. I definitely know people who would use that if it existed! 

 

I love your costume too, the medieval banquet sounds like fun! 

 

And that is a very cute monkey :)

 

Thank you! :D I haven't looked at the app idea in a bit, must get back to it. Think the files on are my work machine though :roll:

 

 

On 2/21/2018 at 4:24 PM, frankie said:

 

That's a great idea for an app! :smile2:

That is such a lovely idea for a Valentine's gift! :wub:    I hope you don't mind me asking, but did you have time to finish the monkey? 

Bullet journals need not to be creative or artistic at all! The original bullet journal by Ryder Carroll was all about writing stuff down - not about using colors, washi tape, stickers, whatever. Everyone can make their Bujo as functional as they like - or as artistic as they like. Please don't be intimidated by anyone else's bujo!! :smile2:

 

I did finish the monkey, though I'm not sure how much OH liked him as he didn't seem overly taken with it :mellow: He was very appreciative of the effort that went in, but I think maybe it's not the kind of look he originally wanted or something.

 

Anyway here's the monkey:

barrymonkey.png

 

On 2/21/2018 at 9:20 PM, karen.d said:

I've actually sort of started a bullet journal, which has a future log, a monthly log which I use it as a mini journal I suppose. I write a word to describe each day of that month. Then the dailys I use as a gratitude journal. I also have a page for what I read during the year and for a Stephen King Challenge I have set myself. This is probably NOT how you're supposed to use a bullet journal, but i seems to work for me so far.

 

That seems really good to me. I'm finding that having my daily stuff and my gratitude stuff separate is resulting in some duplication, so I might have to just go back to my original plan of a gratitude journal. And I agree with the others, use it for whatever you want, that's the real point of one.

 

On 2/22/2018 at 9:52 AM, Athena said:

You can use a bullet journal in any way you want (I mean, unless you only use it as coaster for a cup of coffee or something :lol:), so I'm sure what you are doing is fine :). It sounds interesting and I'm glad it's worked for you so far :)! I have a monthly page and a to-do and future log, and not much else. But it works for me right now, so :shrug:.

 

I might have to just have a weekly page at most, I'm finding it impossible to keep up with mine.

 

I originally put in some tasks, but since I got sick those tasks went out the window, and trying to migrate them to a different day... sigh. And then the yearly mood chart (colouring a square a day), I feel like one colour doesn't capture a whole day, so that's a pain too.

 

Maybe I'll have to go back to using the Daylio app. That worked quite well for a while. I really hate that I don't stick with things, but I get ideas and then find faults with them when I start. :roll:

 

A week tomorrow til we go to London! OH's medieval shirt still hasn't arrived, which is annoying as it's only coming from Germany.... I looked up the Ebay shop the other day and only then noticed it says in the Shipping Info - 'items dispatched within 10 days of cleared payment', so if that's working days, and it took the full 10, then it wouldn't even have shipped til yesterday despite ordering it on the 8th! It better bloody get here! 

 

My Masters is going okay too. I'm feeling a bit better about one of the three modules I'm doing, and I think the other two will largely be what I make of them myself. I'm starting to get a bit into research mode, which is good too. For the module I like, we have to develop an idea for a game for learning. I'm not sure what exactly to do - I like the idea of a game to teach history by being like a standard game with a narrative and player action/accountability, to round out the experience of historical events (rather than just reading them on paper). Not sure what event I would pick. Or maybe the idea of a game that accompanies a biology class in high school, not sure what exactly I'd do with that, or else maybe a nature game where the player plays as an animal and its educational about the life cycle of that animal and their habitat or something. There could even be an overarching narrative, where say you can play as a mouse, a fox, an owl etc and all three meet in the story but the perspective depends on which you chose. If you chose mouse you may end up dead. But then you can switch to the owl that killed you and continue the story, etc. Or maybe the same idea applied under the ocean.

 

I really need to think about my target audience, and the balance between game and learning. The more learning focused it is, the more formal it is, but the more tangential the information learned, the more informal it is and the more like a traditional game it could be. 

 

If anyone has any suggestions they would be welcome!

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1 hour ago, ~Andrea~ said:

I like the idea of the history game. What masters are you doing? Does it have to be a computer game?

 

Masters in E-Learning Development and Design, and the module with that project is Narrative and Games For Learning, so yeah it has to be a game-based learning object, it has to be a digital/mobile/computer game and we have to examine the concept of narrative in relation to it. 

 

For the history one, two things sprang to mind - one of the world wars, (think The Book Thief as context) and playing through a story narrative that features a lot of historical fact and realism. The other was a point in Irish history, maybe the famine or 1916 Rising. Could just as easily be a point in history rather than an event - the famine could actually be both. It would teach about Irish life and culture in the 1800s prior to the famine, the famine itself, the impact, the outcome etc. Just real immersion in an era, supported by a story the player plays through. 

 

The 'easy' but boring option would probably be basing it on my work with the UCC website. Design a simulation conducted in a sandbox scenario in which people design a UCC website to certain standards for a certain purpose (say the School of English website), and the narratives would be the overall UCC narrative and the individual's department narrative, and aligning the two in a high quality website. The completed product from the simulation could form the assessment of mandatory aspects of departmental websites, correct use of content and imagery etc, and simutaneously act as a place for users to test out ideas for their site and for us to build their actual structure from.

 

I'm mostly thinking out loud here!

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21 hours ago, Nollaig said:

I did finish the monkey, though I'm not sure how much OH liked him as he didn't seem overly taken with it :mellow: He was very appreciative of the effort that went in, but I think maybe it's not the kind of look he originally wanted or something.

 

Anyway here's the monkey:

 

I'm sorry he wasn't that taken with it :(. The monkey looks awesome to me!

 

21 hours ago, Nollaig said:

Maybe I'll have to go back to using the Daylio app. That worked quite well for a while. I really hate that I don't stick with things, but I get ideas and then find faults with them when I start. :roll:

 

I looked that app up, it looks interesting! Might have to have another look at it some time :).

 

21 hours ago, Nollaig said:

A week tomorrow til we go to London! OH's medieval shirt still hasn't arrived, which is annoying as it's only coming from Germany.... I looked up the Ebay shop the other day and only then noticed it says in the Shipping Info - 'items dispatched within 10 days of cleared payment', so if that's working days, and it took the full 10, then it wouldn't even have shipped til yesterday despite ordering it on the 8th! It better bloody get here! 

 

Oh no :(, I hope it will get there on time.

 

18 hours ago, Nollaig said:

Masters in E-Learning Development and Design, and the module with that project is Narrative and Games For Learning, so yeah it has to be a game-based learning object, it has to be a digital/mobile/computer game and we have to examine the concept of narrative in relation to it. 

 

For the history one, two things sprang to mind - one of the world wars, (think The Book Thief as context) and playing through a story narrative that features a lot of historical fact and realism. The other was a point in Irish history, maybe the famine or 1916 Rising. Could just as easily be a point in history rather than an event - the famine could actually be both. It would teach about Irish life and culture in the 1800s prior to the famine, the famine itself, the impact, the outcome etc. Just real immersion in an era, supported by a story the player plays through.

 

This sounds interesting :). Good luck with your masters!

 

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On 21.2.2018 at 11:20 PM, karen.d said:

I've actually sort of started a bullet journal, which has a future log, a monthly log which I use it as a mini journal I suppose. I write a word to describe each day of that month. Then the dailys I use as a gratitude journal. I also have a page for what I read during the year and for a Stephen King Challenge I have set myself. This is probably NOT how you're supposed to use a bullet journal, but i seems to work for me so far.

 

But that's how bullet journals are supposed to be used: in a way that works for you! :smile2: Everyone's different so everyone needs different things from their bullet journal. You use it in ways that you see fit and that's what it's all about :smile2:

 

22 hours ago, Nollaig said:

 

I did finish the monkey, though I'm not sure how much OH liked him as he didn't seem overly taken with it :mellow: He was very appreciative of the effort that went in, but I think maybe it's not the kind of look he originally wanted or something.

 

Oh I'm sorry to hear that! :(  But he did show his appreciation so obviously he was really touched by what you did, and the idea and effort that went into it! :yes: It's probably about what you said, maybe he had a very different idea of what the monkey would look like? And as it's going on his blog, he'd like it to be a certain way. And you probably didn't know what it was supposed to look like in particular, or maybe he was unable to convey his vision of it to you. You did a great monkey but maybe not the kind of monkey he wanted. I'm sure you could make the exact kind of monkey he wants, with you talent! :)

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7 hours ago, frankie said:

 

But that's how bullet journals are supposed to be used: in a way that works for you! :smile2: Everyone's different so everyone needs different things from their bullet journal. You use it in ways that you see fit and that's what it's all about :smile2:

 

 

I may get into making it pretty at some point, but for now, it functions quite well for what I want it for.

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Oh that sounds like a really cool course!

 

I can just really imagine playing and enjoying a game like the one you describe, especially the world war one! And I loved The Book Thief, it was really insightful and helped me understand what living in Germany might have been like with the Nazis in power.

 

But whatever option you go with I'm sure it will be awesome! Good luck with it.

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On 2/24/2018 at 8:57 AM, Athena said:

 

I'm sorry he wasn't that taken with it :(. The monkey looks awesome to me!

 

 

I looked that app up, it looks interesting! Might have to have another look at it some time :).

 

 

Oh no :(, I hope it will get there on time.

 

This sounds interesting :). Good luck with your masters!

 

Thank you!

 

 

On 2/24/2018 at 9:18 AM, frankie said:

Oh I'm sorry to hear that! :(  But he did show his appreciation so obviously he was really touched by what you did, and the idea and effort that went into it! :yes: It's probably about what you said, maybe he had a very different idea of what the monkey would look like? And as it's going on his blog, he'd like it to be a certain way. And you probably didn't know what it was supposed to look like in particular, or maybe he was unable to convey his vision of it to you. You did a great monkey but maybe not the kind of monkey he wanted. I'm sure you could make the exact kind of monkey he wants, with you talent! :)

 

Yup, that's pretty much what I said. If it was me and my book blog, I'd likely have a mental image of what I wanted, and also wouldn't be too enthusiastic about something that wasn't what I wanted. I did show him the initial sketch last year, but I never said I was going finishing it, he might have adjusted it if I'd said I was. He never really gave me a clear idea of whether he wanted something very simple, or cute, or detailed! I'm not too worried :)

 

13 hours ago, ~Andrea~ said:

Oh that sounds like a really cool course!

 

I can just really imagine playing and enjoying a game like the one you describe, especially the world war one! And I loved The Book Thief, it was really insightful and helped me understand what living in Germany might have been like with the Nazis in power.

 

But whatever option you go with I'm sure it will be awesome! Good luck with it.

 

Thanks! I like the idea of a game like that too, though its primary focus would be educational, so I'd have to clearly factor that in. Still not sure what idea I'm going to go with, I'll have to think a bit more!

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I've pretty much finished Persona 4 Golden on the PS Vita, so might as well do a bit of a review.

 

Really good little game, has a surprising amount in it for a handheld game. I think I clocked over 50 hours, and there was still tons I didn't get to do within the timeframe of the game. It's partially a traditional JRPG, with turn-based battles in dungeons and a team of four characters to fight with. It also has another element that really only exists in Japanese games - social links (sometimes dating in other games). In this, you can spend time with people to build up your relationship with them, which is partially for fun, and partially to boost your battle powers. And on top of those things, you also get jobs, go to school, do exams, fish, grow vegetables and read books! All these things contribute to raising stats like diligence, understanding, knowledge, courage etc, and that in turn enables you to do other things as the game progresses.

 

I really enjoyed it, though I felt it was a bit monotonous at times - the dungeons were all visually different but very similar structure and layout, and the enemies were often similar, just with different colour schemes etc. The battle system was very good, and the story behind the dungeons (potential murder victims appearing on tv) was engaging and really mysterious. I also loved the characters, and enjoyed being able to live 'day to day life' in the game (which takes course over a period of one year). Acing exams was a fun feeling too! My only real criticism of the game is that there is just so much to do, you'll never get it all done - especially because you're forced into a routine by the game (you can do one activity after school, and then you're forced to go home), and some days there isn't much to do so you're tearing through the monotonous routine. There is a plus game, which means when you finish the game, you can restart it with all of your stats and social links intact, meaning this time you can do all the things you didn't get to do the first time. However, I don't really have another 50 hours spare to put into this game again, so it'll be a while before that happens!

 

Overall, a very unique and memorable game.

 

Rating: 4/5

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