Jav_NE

Very good assumption! Like i said though, this game only works if you ask questions that i can answer with yes/no so you can build the story. So Iun could ask, "Did he do something bad"?". I say "Yes".

Yes. 10 char

Totally agree. SOme of the decisions they make out here begs belief. No-one takes responsibility out here for anything. Your story reminded me of something i saw on the news the other day too. Some guys on a motorbike stole a handbag or something from a pedestrian as they rode by. Further up the street, a man walking along with his bicycle saw the theft and decided to throw his bicycle at the robbers on the motorbike! Pure carnage, down goes the bike and massive injuries ensue. Now, okay. This guy did a good thing. But i'm sure in the west he would be in trouble for doing something like that. In fact the robbers could sue him no doubt as it was all caught on camera. As fas as we're aware though, this guy is a hero according to our Chinese friends translating the story for us. Crazy. I have a blog too in my sig about what we're doing in China, but you're very brave to post an entire entry about their deficiencies! We had a friend who had his blog blocked just for mentioning how filthy it was in one city. We use Tumblr which is already blocked here, but we have a back-door way of using it

I prefer riddles that require a thought process, where the guesser gets to ask questions to piece together what the answer is. The riddler can only answer questions with "yes", "no" or "not applicable". A good one i played recently was: A man is driving to work when a song on the radio jumps. He immediately stops his car and shoots himself. Why? However i'm not sure something like this would work on a forum as you need to ask a lot of questions to gather the right information and figure it out. But meh, see what happens :P

Got it in one. Most, if not all of the students, had never even tasted beer until that night. The funny thing is, Chinese beer is very, very weak. 3% alcohol usually, and just one bottle is enough to redden their faces and make them go crazy! It was so much fun! Aww shucks, i couldn't possibly take that compliment from the love machine!

Haha, forgot how funny it was to see fellow Knee-ers!!! It's been forever since i posted, so here's some quick snaps of me with some very drunk students

Don't go. It is too forward on your behalf. Besides, if you dont go, she will want to see you even more another time. Just make sure you have a valid excuse so she doesn't think its because you are afraid or whatever. Something like your friends threw an impromtu get together. You really wanted to go and see her but you felt obliged to stay. You dont want to meet her around so many people. She wont mean to, but she will abandon you at times and you will feel very awkward. You would have to be pretty sociable to survive!!! See her another time, there's a whole new year waiting

I don't get this 'scanning stuff for pointless information' thing some people love. I find it so boring and dont read half of it. Its one of the reasons why i stopped playing Prime. I gave Corruption a chance too, but, it just annoys me how the game can't decide whether to be a platformer or a shooter. I found myself bored in the 'platform' parts, and like Iun said, there were too many annoying parts where you can get stuck or knocked off a high ledge stupidly. Highly frustrating and very bad game design. So yeah, Prime trilogy wasn't my thing. Don't get the obsession, but, each to his own.

I've met three or four girlfriends online, each had varying success. The longest lasted just over a year, others were as short as a month. But, i do think meeting girls online is fine. It's weird for like 10 minutes when you first meet, but its great once you break the ice. I met my currect gf at university though. Well, more precisely, I met her in a club as she wasn't at my uni or on my course. It's one of those things. I used to go to clubs and have a laugh, get drunk and dance, and once in a while i'd catch a girl smiling at me, so i'd go over and dance near them to see what happened. Sometimes it worked and i'd get 'with them' but it never turned into anything. It was different with my g/f though. She was very forward actually! She grabbed me and said 'youre fit! - how old are you?' and after that we just spent the whole night together. We met at the same club, same night each week until finally i got her number and arranged a daytime date, and the rest was history. The problem is, we cant be that brash as guys. Women would immediately think we were jerks, but it was different when my gf did it. It was refreshing. As for the friend-zone stuff, it sucks for both sides you know. A girl at my old work had a crush on me. I could kinda tell because we would have a laugh on staff nights out and stuff and she would e-mail me at work when she was bored etc. I never really imagined that she thought anything of it though as she had a boyfriend. But one night out of the blue, she told me she had always liked me and wanted more. I had to turn her down because i was with my g/f at the time too. It makes you angry at them really because it was a stupid idea to tell me knowing i was involved in a serious relationship already. Makes you think they are selfish. Anyway, i dont know what kind of advice i'm giving. I guess you just have to pick your moments, stay positive and dont linger over one girl, hoping your situations will change. If it doesn't work out, its time to heal your wounds for a short while and carry on with life until someone else catches your attention.

I can't open that mediafire website :( Can someone send me the file at [email protected] please? I so want to hear it!!! It's been a long year since it began :p

I'm with the manipulation side. Women are defensive, it's just the way western culture has made them out to be. Countless times they have been hit on by absolute knobbers and it has made them weary and cautious of the nice guys out there. So, you have to get through that defense, and sometimes the only way to do it is to use some underhand methods, just so they will notice you in a relationship kinda way. I guess i sound a bit like Hitch here, but it's true. So tapedeck, i would try little things like staying away, flirting, make sure you hint that you like her more than a friend at every avenue. The moment you get a sign that she has not given you the cold shoulder, hit her with your true feelings and hope for the best. Confessions I find some of my Chinese students attractive. They're so small and cute!!! (they're 19-20 by the way, i'm not a paedophile!) Advice How do i chat up a chinese student?! :p I'm kidding. I want to know what is the best way you've found to learn another language? Mandarin is soooo hard.

Not necessarily a present, but i want to download the Coca Cola "Holidays Are Coming" christmas advert to show my classes. Does anyone know where i can download it? (hopefully in .AVI format or something Windows Media Player can play). I have searched for a while but i'm finding nothing apart from streaming videos and sites where you have to pay

Life I'm not sure really. Half way through next year i will have to make a big decsion - do i go home to England or stay on another year teaching in China. It's a question me and my grilfriend toy with often, but it keeps nagging us. Quite frankly, we dont know what there is to go back to. Apart from family =/ So who knows. I may end up staying out here, or i may go home and be completely lost on what to do with my life for a while. My hope is to pursue a career in videogame PR, but being in China has made me lose touch with my contacts. Events Chinese Spring Festival!!! Seriously cant wait to see how it goes down. Also the Winter festival if we get up there to see it. Should be amazing. They have giant ice-sculptures and snowy goodness. Friends/Relationships I'm looking forward to making new friends. I'm always looking and chatting to my students and have a few really cool people as friends already, but it takes time weening out the ones who cant speak English very well, or cant play any sports, which is one of the main things to do out here. As for the love life, i'm just playing it by ear. Me and my girlfriend have always had a rocky relationship. I cant believe we've survived travelling sout-east-asia and teaching in China snce June, but we have. There is an element of, "ill stay with the other person because i have to and it makes it easier" sometimes when we argue, so i dont know what will happen next year. Marriage still seems a good way off for us even though we have been together for 5 years. Places Most of China as we'll be doing our travelling. Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen are obvious places i am looking forward to, but we will see more places as we go. I also have a free stay at the Disneyland Hotel in Paris to cash in before the year is out. They offered me it a few years ago when we stayed in a Disney hotel and my girlfriend was mauled by bedbugs, so we should really try and get over there to enjoy that. I've always wondered what the big hotel is like inside. Entertainment If i do go home next year, then i will look forward to using my HDTV again and playing my consoles. There will be a year's worth of games that i will have missed out on, so i will have lots to choose from! I really want to see Iron Man 2 and Alice In Wonderland too, along with my regular TV shows.

Yesterday was amazing. We found Christmas decorations in China!!! Wahoooo!!!! We bought a 6ft tree for 35 yuan (about 3 quid!) loads of decorations and lights and practically everything we could carry! All in all it cost us all of 15-20 quid, haha. The funniest thing is, the lights are actually from Marks & Spencers! God knows how they got them! They look pretty old, but they only cost a few quid too. It's immense. So we came back to our apartment and decorated with our chinese friends. They were so excited! It was the first time they had ever decorated for christmas so they were super psyched, which made us more excited too. Good times

Well, i've never been skiing on snow, but i did try gass skiing :p I was awful!!!! As evidenced by my n00btastic fall onto my ass below... It's all in the knees aparently, and i have cranky knees so i particularly suck at keeping them bent with a straight back. Still, i'd love to try proper skiing, i'm sure its alot different (and hopefully easier!!!!..... i wish).

Tetris! That damn game is too hard. Also i remember quitting Advanced Wars a few years back. Got too tricky for my little brain and wasn't fun anymore.

Hahahaha, awesome

I turned up to teach a class today only to find an empty classroom. WTF i said to myself! So i rang the class monitor and set her straight, but then i felt bad because the Chinese always have a way of apologising. Turns out my students had a mandarin test and neglected to tell me. They are so genuine when they say sorry though so its just too hard to stay mad at them!

Why dont you talk to her directly? Tell her to get her head right, else you will tell your friend how much of a bitch she is (with examples so its a real threat). If she doesn't straighten up, then tell him. If he is a true friend he will value your opinion. Besides, if it were you, wouldn't you like to know what your friends thought about your partner?

I just want a Christmas tree, some decorations and some Christmas lights. Its funny. Not spending Christmas in England makes you appreciate the little things. I dont care about presents, i just want to make it feel a bit like Christmas here, and that will be enough.

I dont think you should change your style, maybe just adapt it a little bit. Go a bit darker and more twisted. Your style already has that bizarre cuteness to it, so why not make it bizarre weirdness? Think Tim Burton

I'm having a totally weird experience seeing so many people typing fluent english sentences online today. It's like a total mind-blow because for the last couple of months there have only been three other native English people that i have come into contact with where i'm teaching in China. Its so bizarre! On the brightside, we are celebrities out here, and its pretty awesome being so special for no apparent reason. I think i'll have a heart-attack when i go back to England next year. Walking down the street and not having anyone look and take pictures of me?! Damn, i think i'll become rather paranoid and depressed that i'm not special anymore! But, thats a dilemma for next year. Also, coming to N-E for the first time in so long is pretty weird. It's like my old self is here again, but then i look out of the window and see a sea of Chinese students playing basketball, oh and a bunch of diggers slowly but surely taking down a mountain as part of the 'lets flatten China for more space to do stuff' initiative. That and i have a class of 50 chinese girls to teach in half an hour. Talk about displacement! I dont know if i'm a fish out of water on N-E, or here in China =/ Help!!!!

Hey guys! I've been so busy the last few weeks i didn't have time to say goodbye to this beloved forum! I left the UK on sunday for my travels with my girlfriend and we will be away for a year and a half. Gulp! We arrived in Kuala Lumpur yesterday and have already been having an amazing time. We'll soon leave for Thailand, then move up to Cambodia, then Vietnam and finally into China where we will teach English for a year. Anyway, just wanted to say an official goodbye. I will still come online when i can and stalk you all though so this isnt forever! Please feel free to check our blog though which we hope to update at least once a week. At the moment im waiting to put up pics but stupid me forgot the USB cable and these computers dont have SD slots. Boo. Hope i can find the right lead soon so i can share how amazing it is out here. Dont miss me too much Though i miss you sssssh!

Season 2 is immense. I'm glad i stook with it in season 1 as it does take a while to get going. The last few episodes of that season are amazing though as it all comes together. But yeah, season 2 cant be beat - probably some of the best tele i've ever seen, i loved it, and still go back to watch some eps on occasion. Season 3 wasn't so great, but it was still okay.

Nope. PS3 pad is the best. I've tried them all, including the sticks (which are fun, for sure) but the PS3 pad is king. Then again, i play as Chunners so i dont have the annoying prospect of trying to do down-forward moves facing left. Thats the main problem, but the d-pad does a good job of that. I end up switching when i use such a character - stick facing right, d-pad facing left. The PS3 pad allows you to do this fairly easilly, hence another reason why it is the master. I hate the fight pads. They feel cheap and wrong.