How to be motivated.

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Sometimes you start with a crazy idea or something you wanted to do for a while now. You might even do several new projects at the same time and might feel overwhelmed. Wondering if what you’re doing is the right thing, could it be a waste of time, etc. Whatever it might be that makes you feel like that, today I will try to keep you motivated with some personal advice.

As stated above, I can not guarantee that what I will share will keep you motivated. Everyone has their own personality and freedom to choose if they want to follow any advice or not. With that out of the way, let us get to it, shall we? First things first. Ask yourself why are you feeling less motivated? Have you been doing something for  while now with no results or not the results you were hoping for? Are there new developments in your life that could be the cause of demotivation? If you can somewhat get an idea what it might be, you’re already half way back on track to motivation land.

Getting demotivated doesn’t have to be because you’re undertaking something huge and it’s not paying off. Sometimes it can just be something small aswell. You could have reached a milestone in your life and have a empty feeling afterwards, making you less proud of said milestone and could withhold you from realizing other goals. A trick for that is to try and see beyond that milestone, especially when it’s getting closer. Think about what you might want to do after it and make that your new milestone. When you do achieve your goal, you won’t be left with an empty feeling. Think of it as binging a series and already knowing what other series you will watch afterwards.

If your motivation is decreasing because of dissappointing results, cheer up. Don’t expect too much out of anything. The worst case is failing, yes that’s a possibility we all want to avoid, but it’s always there. Still have some expectations in what might happen if you keep working on it, instead of thinking what will happen. Nothing is set in stone after all. So if you just started with a project, give it time. Try to maximize the potential to succeed ( e.g. new business, try as much advertising on social media from the start, even if almost no one sees it. Maybe you’re new to the gym and those exercises are getting tough, take some bigger breaks if needed, as long as you keep returning to the exercises ). Everything needs time to grow, most will say time is your enemy ( time is money, in most cases ) but don’t rush things. Rushing it will bring two major problems that will contribute to whether or not you will stay motivated. You will start making small mistakes that might end prolonging your journey to your goal. Depending on who you are as a person, you might also get stressed by wanting quicker results. Combined they can destroy any undertaking, big or small, if you don’t get a hold of yourself.

But how do you get a hold on yourself? You might be the somewhat lucky type who was born with the gift of stubbornness. People often think being stubborn is a negative trait and in general I do agree with that. Most of the time it is used in the wrong way, not wanting to admit something after making a mistake or cutting ties forever with people, things like that. However, you can control that same power to pour energy into your motivational levels. You don’t want to be defeated by a minor set back, you keep pushing because the amount of stubbornness is greater than what life can throw at you. Sure a set back will happen, but if it does just strike back twice as hard back by putting in the extra effort. It’s one way of taking more control over yourself and unexpected events in life.

If you can’t rely on stubborn traits, you could always take another approach on how you view things. As mentioned earlier, everything requires time to progress. Instead of focusing on deadlines getting closer as if it’s this huge undefeatable monster, just think about the flow of time. Time only goes forward, so yeah that deadline will come closer, but it will pass just as quickly and before you know it it will be in the past far behind you. Time is a one way traffic road, just let things come at you and deal with them when they arrive. No need to fret about it before the actual moment. In the case of our gym example, you can use this way of thinking too. During exercises, think to yourself ‘ I’ve held out this long, I can hold out for a couple of seconds more ‘. Get yourself motivated by your own strenght by simply doing a little bit of math. Suprised? Well, sticking with the gym, go like this; do an exercise for 10 secs, do it again and again. Keep counting in intervals of 10 secs, but also count your number of exercises. Try to go for 10 exercises. By the end of it you will have spend 100 secs and let’s assume this is a lot, be proud of it that you fulfilled it. Breaking up bigger things in smaller pieces is a great way to still achieve the bigger goal, while making it mentally easier for yourself. In this case you could just set a timer at 100 secs and simply try to do 10 repeats of the same exercise withing that time frame. The difference is you’ll feel more pressured to do so and it will feel longer to do so. Again, this might work for some people while others are more comfortable racing against time.

Lastly, this is something I am personally dealing with, is that you can get demotivated by repeated failure. Or atleast the feeling of repeated failure. Even if it’s something out of your control, if you try to do it with different approaches or styles and it still ends up bad. Just drop it. This is might seem like giving up and thus the opposite of keeping yourself motivated. But in this case, if you tried it enough that you can almost predict how it will end up. Just leave it alone entirely. Don’t expect anything from it. Weirdly enough it could still happen, when you least expect it, since everything falls within the realm of chance. It could just be that focussing on it, might hurt getting to that goal more than it would leaving it alone. It’s a bit of a contradicting one for sure. One that could also affect anything else you might want to accomplish. It might take away time, a sense of self worth and it can make you less rational when you let emotions run up high.

In the end, being motivated and keeping that motivation isn ‘t easy for anyone. Sometimes you just need a bit of luck, other times you have to rely on your own. I hope my words are motivational enough for anyone who needs it. Know that you’re not alone in this matter, as we all have experienced it and can experience it again. It’s one of life’s eternal battles.

 

Business photo created by jigsawstocker.

 

Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

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Tomorrow is the big day for a lot of long time Halo fans, especially those who played Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 on pc. For on the 3rd of December, Halo Reach will be the kick off to MCC on pc!

I consider myself a big fan of the franchise, been with it ever since I got my first Xbox bundled with Halo 2. I wasn’t there from the beginning technically, as I only played Halo: Combat Evolved after playing Halo 2. I know, I know, blasphemy! But at that time it wasn’t the big game icon as it is today. I didn’t even know Halo 2 was coming out, yet on that faithful day something told me I would be hooked on that game and the franchise itself.

I sunk countless hours into the games, trying to memorize every enemy location so I could eventually beat them on the hardest difficulty. It took me a while but the journey to my goal shaped me as a person aswell. The more I played the game the more connected I felt with the characters, the established universe. With just the first 2 games, there was little to go by besides the general threat of the alien species aliance, called the Covenant, which was bent on the destruction of Humanity. Halo 2 gave a lot more lore and after they released the first 3 books, I was hooked on the lore entirely. I still collect every book and comic to this day, but sadly most still waits to be read. The games however, I’ve played them all except for Halo Wars 2 ( it’s on my to do list ). Though I did enjoy the rts variant of the universe through Halo Wars, my main passion was, is and will always be the first person shooters within the franchise. It still gives you more of a sense of being there when you walk around the various levels and settings.

So am I excited for the release of Halo Reach? Absolutely, definitely, 100% yes sir! Okay that might be a bit cringeworthy, but it gets the point across. Halo Reach was a bit of a mixed bag of feelings for me when itfirst came out. It introduces armor abilities and after playing Halo 1-3 for so many hours, I felt like it didn’t feel like Halo anymore at first. Yes, Halo 3 had some new mechanics aswell in the for of equipment, but it was still seperate from your characters mobility. Reach tried to spice things up and succeeded, but I could help but wonder why they needed to be their own thing, you could have just the jetpack ability and not the armor lock one aswell for example. Game wise, I know it is because of balancing issues. Still my instinct was wonder ‘ why isn’t this just build into the suits that the Spartans use? ‘. Again, gameplay and balancing choices decided how they would implement it all. But I got over it quickly once I started the game and got further and further in the story. Now it’s been a long time since I last played Reach, so I’m curious how good I’ll still be.

I also remember the countless hours of fun I had with my friends and one friend specifically, who’s as big of a fan as I am. We spend a lot of time trying to beat the levels in all kinds of way, from trying to beat them as fast as we could, to doing it with just a specific weapon and of course trying to find exploits. Halo CE and Halo 2 were the best games for finding exploits. I might be seeing everything through the lenses of nostalgia when Halo Reach finally releases, but I don’t care. I know I will have a lot of fun once more. That is, if the game releases stable enough. The MCC on Xbox didn’t really have to best of launches. Personally, I had just one complaint about it and that was that I couldn’t count on checkpoints being actually saved in Halo 2 when playing on Legendary difficulty. Meaning, the checkpoints did work while playing the levels, so when I died I would just begin from the last checkpoint. If I would close down the game, it meant having to restart from the beginning of a level, regardless of how far into it I might have been. I can assure you, those were long days to complete the game on that difficulty. That’s the only downside I experienced as I didn’t touch the multiplayer, but from what I’ve heard and read, that’s where most of the bugs and player aggrevations were.

Of course there have been beta tests, called Flights, to asses the state of the game. Some are worried that after the last Flight, some things still need polishing because it might impact the launch of MCC on pc negatively. To that I say 2 things:

  • Every game will have it’s issues so give it time to get patched. This doesn’t mean we should expect a unfinished game, but I really doubt that will be the case. They learned from the Xbox version, so besides maybe a glitch or two here and there, we have nothing to worry about. Even if it would be a glitchfest, let them know in the forums in a civilized manner and let them patch things up.
  • When a game launches, even if it’s 100% perfect in it’s coding and has no bugs or glitches, there’s always the chance it might not have as big of a following. Of course this is a big franchise, but still it’s a somewhat ‘old’ one too. Give it time to grow it’s new community, show the strenghts of it. Don’t start thinking it’s doomed because there’s only a player base of 10 000 instead of a million.

All in all I’m mostly happy that pc players finally get to play beyond Halo 2. It creates a new influx of players to the already established community. One that has been divided over a lot of decisions made throughout the Halo games, but also one that welcomes anyone new. In the end we just want to share our passion with like minded people just like any other fanbase. And as long as we take the opportunity to play together, against each other, I think we are in for a wild ride. See you guys online!

To all the Halo fans out there,

“Wake me, when you need me.”

Streaming on Twitch

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Today I thought to myself ‘Let’s make the next blog a bit different’. Now I’m still getting the hang of it all and I’m learning daily. But I wanted to try and make a more organic blog today, meaning I would like it to feel more like a conversation to you, the reader.

Now the question is what would be a good topic to do so? And suddenly it dawned on me, I did a stream earlier today, so why not share my experiences with it as a beginner. There are lots of people asking how to stream, mostly the interactive part rather than setting up the stream itself. Because let’s face it, anything online is difficult when you first start out. Especially if it involves you directly, this blog for example is easier to just do and build something out of it. You just write about any topic you want and publish it on your site. Sure at first you might not have much traffic, but it’s still easier then streaming with maybe 1-2 people watching you.

The first and most obvious part when you stream is to choose a game that will be able to keep you talking. Preferably a game you haven’t played yet before. Your reactions will be extra genuine and you will have tons of stuff to react to verbally. Talking shows your invested in both the game and your audience ( yes even if you are talking to yourself ), so when someone does decide to pop in, they don’t see just some random gameplay. They also experience you and how you experience the game. Think of it as playing couch co-op with a friend. It’s more fun when people get invested in a game together after all!

Of course if you’re not used to talking that much, like myself, you might find yourself getting quiet a lot and you’ll have to correct that to keep the audience their attention. Trust me, it sounds easier then done, in my experience it’s making sure you have something to drink by your side. You’ll get thristy quickly from all that talking. But when you do have an audience, no matter how small or big, it gives you a feeling of accomplishment and the interaction really energizes you to do your best even more. I’m by no means an entertaining person unless you really get to know me, so my streams are still somewhat awkward. Like everything, practice is key. Know what you want to focus on first, don’t bother trying to be the super professional streamer yet. In my case, I just boot up the game and my streaming program, then just start streaming immediately. No ‘going live/starting soon’ screen for me, I want to pratice being more comfortable speaking and in general be more entertaining while gaming. That way I will be able to build a nice following and perhaps after that I can be a bit more professional in how I start my streams. A welcome message at the start of the stream is only necessary if you want to give your followers some time to grab something to eat and drink before diving into a game.

And who knows, maybe you’ll be streaming one day and suddenly get your first raid, just like I did today. Granted it was a raid of 2 people, but it was so unexpected, it did made my day. Simply because it’s part of being a streamer at some point and it’s those milestones that you want to achieve, experience and share with your viewers. I know it sounds like I’m already a big streamer, but I’m definitely not. Big streamers are still happy when those things happen, but are also more used to it. Yet here I am, a bit baffled about today.

It should be of no suprise either, that concistency is key. For me I try to stream every sunday and when I have my day off from work if nothing comes up. Might even do a quick and short stream if I’m really in the mood. Which brings us to social media. Again, i’m not perfect when it comes to that, but announce your stream any time you can on Twitter atleast. It’s a given if you want to promote anything these days and yet I haven’t even made an Twitter account to promote my own blog.

In short, if you want to stream, just do it. Set up your program of choice, know what you want to achieve and enjoy doing it. Oh and get used to hating how you sound haha. But that will better with time too. And if you’re really unsure about it, but do want to try it, do it together with a friend. Play a co-op game and talk with each other. Hey if it helps, you can always hit me up for help.

Mental Health.

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Mental health is a tricky subject from my experiences. Mainly because it’s so personal and individual ( aside from the general diagnostics you can get from going to a psychiatrist ). Yesterday, here in Belgium, an even called “Rode Neuzen Dag” ( Red Nose Day ; referring to brighten up children their day in the hospital by volunteers dressed as clowns ) came to an end. though it has the word “Day” in it, it’s actually spanning a few weeks, organizing several charities to raise money to help out the youth. This year they raised money for kids with weak social skills or general mental apptitude. As said, it ended yesterday and they raised a little over four million euros.

Now I’m all for charities, because by definition they are to help others out. However, I always ask myself if it’s really needed. Of course this depends on the nature of what you are raising money for. Cancer research for example is obvious or people who lost limb, but need the extra financial support to get the bionics ( not everything gets refunded by the health insurance or the tech might be too new and thus very expensive ). So I do see the good in charities, no doubt! Remember I’m only giving my two cents on any subject and I do want to know what others think about it.

So why am I a bit negative when it comes to mental health charities, right? Well, that’s because I have had a period of instability when it came to my mental health. I know it exists and can cause troubles, maybe I was just the exception on how I dealt with it. I will keep my story short for now, might make a blog about it another day. My darkest hour was when I was still searching for a job, the only thing I knew then was bills and I only saw what little I had go to just that. After countless rejections I just couldn’t bare it anymore. Every passing day, the thought of just ending my life became bigger and I kept that for myself. I was even getting recurring anxious dreams. Simply put those dreams were a manifestation of the feeling of failure. The last dream was different however and when I woke up it felt like something snapped in me. Now I am a stubborn person, so maybe that’s why, but I suddenly refused to give in to those thoughts. A few weeks later, I stepped inside the place where I’m working now. It still gives me a weird feeling thinking about it, how it seems as if everything was meant to be or if it was just a random string of events that just happened to not be the end of my life.

What I’m trying to say is, do you really need help or is it better to deal with it on your own. Help might make you dependant on outside support and conquering your problems solo makes you stronger. It vastly depends on the person to begin with, however I’m leaning more to the solo side, even setting my own experiences aside. To me, there’s nothing better then being able to fall back on yourself, in any situation. So doing anything on your own ( as far as you feel comfortable with it ) makes you a more resilient and self sufficient. On the other hand, you could argue what help is. Is simply listening to someone helping, because talking to yourself in an empty room might not help ( most might even feel this is a step towards going mad, but it’s not what I want to convey by giving this example ). I don’t see talking/listening to someone as helping, since to me it’s part of who we are. We’re proud to be social creatures, but often we neglect that part of ourselves when it is needed the most. So basic human interaction is just a given and shouldn’t be seen as something on it’s own or as an extra. Which help is in my eyes, to do something extra for someone so things will be easier.

Which brings me to what they are planning to do with the raised money. And I do have my doubts about the examples they gave. Most will be done at schools and will involve, but are not limited to silent rooms and white rooms. Silent rooms, like the name implies is a place of quiet. One can go there to escape the busy playground, because a lot of students seem to ask for such a place. It does strike me as somewhat odd, if a lot ( and I assume this means the majority, we still do things democratically after all ) want this, then my question is ‘ why need a seperate space for peace and tranquility if everyone can just be calm and quiet themselves from time to time? ‘ It might seem weird to ask, but at the same time it’s also a valid and logical question. If however this doesn’t apply to the majority, I can understand it a bit more. But then I tend to think of the age old debate extraverts vs introverts. I’m not saying it is that, it might just be one of the causes for example. The second type of room, white rooms, is to give kids a place to doodle and let their creativity run wild on white walls. This is something that might seem as weird as the silent rooms, but I do have more understanding for what they’re trying to do with the creative approach.

Even if you’re not the creative type, you can always make the worst doodles in existence and still get a satisfied feeling from it. Getting your mind off of other things in that moment. This might come from a problem that has been created for years now. Some simply want to be ‘wild’, it’s a bit strongly worded but I mean it in the way of climbing trees, have little scuffles with other kids ( no real fighting though ). You know, just kids being kids when you let them loose on a playground or in a park/forest. These days you have almost none of those places. They’ve either been abandoned or removed because of complains from the neighbourhood. Sure there are still parks, but again, no dedicated place for kids to be themselves. So this might translate to cropped up bursts of wanting to let loose and a white room, pristine white walls, ready to be ‘vandalised’ is just the thing that will eleviate some tension. Oh and those that might argue that it means those same kids would vandalise a playground, every action has a cause and it’s how you deal with that cause that decides what someone will or will not do.

All that being said. I do hope it actually will make a difference, if not the money is just wasted and nobody has gotten the help they expected. Will they be stronger in life because of it? Time will tell. Let’s just hope all the effort impacts them now and relatively quick too. If they still have lingering problems by the time they’re expected to be fully functional adults contributing to society, we might have a bigger problem on our hands. Forgive the pessimist in me for a moment though ( but personally, being ready for the worst has made me stronger ).

If anyone reading this does need a talk, I’m always willing to listen. Just let me know in the comments or on Twitter .

Politics, à la Belgique.

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Welcome to Belgium! Land of chocolate, beer and fries. Oh and politics that rival any circus.

I want to put a little disclaimer first, this is in no way or shape a piece written by someone who’s an expert in poltics, but rather by someone with a broad view on the matter and speaks from own experiences.

Just like most countries these days, my own government fails at establishing a new one after elections. To the suprise of almost no one who voted. We still have the luxury of being in a stable enough economy or we would see a lot more riots aswell. Of course this is a bit of speculation, as human nature is fickle and unpredictable, especially over here. We are the world record holder for the longest time without a government.

We’ve been in a similar situation before back in ’10-’11, then we went without a new government ( we still have a interim govt, but new laws and investments in society can’t be approved ) for 541 days. Today we are at 1/3 of that again and it seems things won’t be any better for the foreseeable future. Though this time they might just do re-elections instead of breaking our previous record.

Just like with any country, it’s ideologies not mixing well or collide head-on. It’s a give and take deal, but with higher stakes. However, if you take a step back, regardless of what party you are from, you will see what needs to be done. It’s time to stop the popularity contests and start listening to what the voters want.

Now, over here, we too have a steady rise in people voting for rightwinged or farrightwinged politicians. Before anyone starts to panic, the reason for this is because the traditional parties have failed at their jobs of delivering what people want. We’re one of the last countries that has mandatory voting, yet just like any other place, voting means nothing because everyone has a deal already and is ready to block those that do not meet their perspective. Even if that means blocking the biggest party.

Those 541 days were a prelude to things to come. At that time the traditional parties suffered loses and, at that time, a more centre focused party won with 30% of the votes. This was the biggest Flemish party, the fact that it’s also difficult to come to an agreement between Flemish and Walloon parties is a whole other story. Still even amongst the Flemish parties, this would sturr things up.

Fastforward to today and history already repeated itself, but with bigger issues regarding the feelings of the voters. And feelings can be a dangerous thing in times of uncertainty. Something anyone should know, especially those that have to run a country. So here we are, with a temporary governtment and no new one on the horizon. At the same time concerns amongst voters have not been dealt with. One of the biggest being the refugee crisis.

In short, over here the majority has no problems about helping people out. All things said and done, we wouldn’t want to suffer thus no one else should either. This sounds great in theory, but realistically, no place on Earth can suddenly deal with an influx of people. All kinds of problems arise immediatly; housing, food, health, communication and of course contribution. These are the concerns of the voters even without the refugee crisis. Everyone wants affordable homes or rent, wants to have a filled stomach, get the needed medical assistance, language is key ( can’t explain anything if you don’t understand each other ) and then there’s employement.

No country has an employment rate of 100%, that’s unlikely. That alone causes a trickle down effect. If you don’t have a job, you can’t afford a place, food, health insurance/assistance and don’t pay taxes to pay for the retirement of others etc. . So in reality, even without thinking in (far)left/(far)right terms, no country can say they can help 100% of its population. Yet the expectations are there to contribute to society. If it was just 10 people who were jobless on a population of 10 million, that wouldn’t be a big issue and you could still support them in certain ways. But it’s not just 10 people and it’s not just having a job or not that’s a problem. Even if you work, atleast half of your pay goes to rent or paying of the bank for your house. People still want to do fun things to, like vacations or maybe something smaller that makes you personally happy. Not everything costs the same and solid advice is to not live above you pay, but it’s human nature and you can only compromise with that. To do so, you have to listen to your voters.

So why aren’t the polticians listening then? It’s an age old question and yes you could just say ‘they don’t care, they just think of themselves’ and maybe you’re right. But right or not, it doesn’t change anything. Instead the only thing left is to seemingly take matters into you’re own hands. For some problems this isn’t an issue, but when people aren’t heard or feel ignored, things can get heated. Literally.

A few days ago, there was such an event. A new refugee centre was about to be opened, when someone torched the place. There were no occupants yet so nobody got hurt, just structual damage. The people living there are very straightforward with not wanting such a place and frankly in this case I agree. We still have a shortage of housing our ‘own’ people ( born and raised here ), so I don’t think it is wise to spend resources on others. It might sound cruel, but the world isn’t perfect. Like I said in the beginning, the willingness to help is here, but not at the cost of ourselves. You might read this as racist, but I can tell you it’s not ( though I will agree the line between that is thin and is being abused by both sides of the debate ). Yet, again it does not matter what you or I or anyone thinks it is. The fact remains that people want to see their needs fullfilled first, not to be seen as second rank citizens. A feeling that is on the rise and one that feeds into the rise of the rightwinged parties. It doesn’t take a genius to know where the trend will end up if you keep ignoring these issues and/or tackle them without any real thought.

I can say this, if we have to go to the elections again, then the farright will be the biggest winner. Even if they are not the biggest party. I could be wrong in that, but I would be very suprised if they didn’t gain any voters from the current political mess. People vote for them as a message, because it’s still easier to get it across then let’s say, stop paying taxes. Those in power are afraid of two things; losing their positions and having a civilian uprising. I’m not advocating for that last one, though the true power does lay with us, the voters. Even if our votes don’t seem to matter, we can always try something else without having to repeat the 1930’s and on. as many seem to fear with the rise of the (far)right.

So to anyone who reads this, be it today, tomorrow or even in a hundred years time. No matter what challenges a country faces, no matter your own personal ideology. If you stand alone, you will fail. This is not a utopian idea, it’s common sense. You have to reconcile the personal with the bigger picture. You can’t solve everything in one day or on your own or even in one place. Don’t give into the extremes of the political spectrum, use your brain to deal with each situation and that situations place in the world. No one has all the answers, but if you talk, think and work together things can be better and stay better. Once a situation has been dealt with, it doesn’t mean it can’t ever happen again. I’d say something about history repeating itself and how we must not forget it, but I feel that makes things worse. Because we tend to look at what happened already and expect the exact same to happen again, thus witholding ourselves from doing what is needed at times. I hate that I even have to mention this, but writting this I can already feel the thoughts of some. So no, this isn’t the justification of racism or persecution like the nazi’s. I don’t care about your looks, your heritage or ideology; as long as it doesn’t affect the bigger picture negatively. I’m not sure if I have a ideology, I always say I think Left, act Right and deal with the unexpected through a touch of anarchism. Translation: I’m open to anything, make quick decisions ( and stand by them with all consequences ) and expect the unexpected because life can be a little bit chaotic at times. Simple.

What it’s like to work in retail.

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My main full time job is working in retail, more specifically a supermarket. When I started out I had already heard stories about how aweful customers could be, but I always took those with a grain of salt. Today I will give you my perspective and experiences, to hopefully give you the right view on the sector.

First of all, I have to say that the place I work at is just one of many owned by a larger company. So even between stores, operated by the same working rules as any other withing the same company, can bring different experiences. Those are mostly tied to how the personel go about with customers and even customers behaviour can differe greatly depending on location. So with that in mind, let’s get to it.

My first few months were a bit awkward and hard at times. Mainly because I didn’t have experience with retail, but also with the universal motto ‘ the customer is always right! ‘. See I’ve always been one to think a step ahead or place myself in someone else’s shoes. So when I get into a situation in which it is obvious the customer is doing something wrong or generally a stupid thing… we can’t really talk back, even in a civilized manner, because at the end of the day the customer will always win.

Of course there are situation that are annoying for both the store and customer, think of a product gone bad within the expiration date. If that happens common sense and decency is to ask the customer for a refund or if they wish to exchange the product for another. Those kind of things are the easiest to deal with and even if you have a angry customer, you’ll be done with it quickly. On the other hand, every store has a handful of people that seem to live to taunt you and it is those that make most either quit the job after a while or make you lose faith in common sense.

A collegue of mine once had a customer at the checkout who was going to buy several frozen pizza’s. She scanned in one, asking if they were all the same ( so she could simply multiply it in the system instead of scanning each ). The customer said ‘Yes, but now that I think about it I wanted different ones.’ She suggested to put some back while getting others. My collegue told the customer she could do that, but know that it meant the pizza’s she had, were going to be thrown away ( you could already see from the cartbox that they’d been out too long to be put back ). The customer said she didn’t mind that and went for the other pizza’s. When she came back, she had some different ones, but also a few of the exact same ones she didn’t want in the first place, meaning we had to throw away pizza’s for nothing.

On another occasion, there was a customer shouting and making a huge scene out of the fact that our fruit was rotten. Now if someone makes this complaint we take it very serious. So we checked it out and only found 2 rotten kiwi’s ( which can slip through especially if it’s one of the last ones and those tend to get crushed under the weight ). We showed what we found, to show we actually checked, but also to mediate in the way the customer reacted in the first place. We got the ‘ I’m never coming back! ‘ answer and that was that.

The biggest pain we had was a customer who complained about everything. The kicker was that she even complained about the cheapest products, how they were still way too expensive for the quality it provided. This went on for a lot of products in the store and for months ( she came by almost every day ). And everytime she had a complaint, we did the necessary steps to trace the product, test it for deviations of quality, etc. … and getting back in touch with said customer to provide feedback. Again, even after a hundred complaints, we still couldn’t do anything. If we even said something back, explaining the products quality and what not, she would get in contact with customer support and file a complaint about however tried to help her out. This ended several times with her getting a compensation for the troubles suffered. This is what’s hard on me, I have a lot of understanding and patience, but enough is enough. It was what made me realize that people aren’t actually entitled to anything and that we didn’t have to move heaven and earth for them. I know, I know, not everyone is like that, but a lot do assume it’s evident. These were just some of the more difficult ones. Most still think they can do and demand everything, no matter how small it might be. And that’s all in a store that does get a lot of praise for having very friendly personel.

In the end, you can’t change anyones nature or character. But I still hope each day that by sharing my experiences and stories, people will think a little before acting. Yes you have the right to complain about something, but do it in a orderly fashion. What if you were in my place? Do you like to be yelled at or have to deal with dumb little things that take away precious time to get something else done by the end of the day? I want to say I think the answer is Yes, but without trying to offend anyone, that’s where I have a lot of doubts. Working in retail has lessened my trust in people’s ability to use common sense. I’m just glad I don’t work at a store in the more rich area’s. Boy, the things I’ve heard from there…

My life’s motto always is and has been, to do nothing I myself wouldn’t want to either. Don’t go ranting without assessing the situation, everyone works for a living and everyone wants that to be as pleasant as possible. I’m not saying we can’t handle an argument or a difficult customer/situation, just be civil is all I’m saying. No matter what job you do or what situation you are in. I still love my job regardless, but it can be a challenge at times for me personally and my way of viewing things in life.

COPPA, age ratings and restrictions.

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As most of us already know, all movies and videogames have a rating dictating for what demographic a product will be. Now recently there’s been some turmoil in the land of entertainment, more notably Youtube, where there’s a bit of debate whether or not the new Youtube update ( COPPA ) and how it will impact videos.

Now let’s make some things clear from the start. First, COPPA isn’t something new, it’s been around since 1998 and was designed as a protection against the collection of online data from children under the age of 13. Atleast that’s the short version ( read more in detail here ). I’m not going to re-itterate the entire wiki page, because that’s not the focus of this article. I will be talking about the use of restrictions and how most of the time they play out for the consumer.

So why are Youtube content creators a bit fuzzed about COPPA? It’s always been there, so how could it affect new content right? Well it has to do with the nature of how some channels and companies are today, how they try to monetize videos and products with shall we say less than morally justified means. The new COPPA update is to prevent truly predatory tactics being used to lure in young viewers or to make them buy ingame products through microtransactions. Atleast that’s what I percieve as the objective of the update.

For the moment there are 2 ways to make a lot of money by gaining a younger audience. Children have always been a great source of income for companies ever since toys have existed. But in this age of digital products it becomes a bit harder to regulate what can be sold or made money from at the expense of children. So what are those 2 ways right now?

1- If you are on Youtube, you might make it big through time and effort or you could just start a ‘kids-friendly’ channel. There are quite a few now, ranging from simple children toys reviews, to puppet shows and to sadly enough clickbait videos specifically aimed at children. Youtube has dealt with some of those clickbait channels already, but it seems people keep finding ways to get around the system. So they simply lure younger viewers knowing the contents of the video aren’t per se interesting or even kid friendly, but kids being kids, they let the video play out and that get’s the channel views and view time and thus the get paid for it. That’s where the COPPA update comes into play. It forces Youtubers to tell Youtube whether or not their videos are suitable for kids. By doing this it makes it easier to check those videos for any violations of COPPA. If one says a video isn’t suited, then it won’t be shown to children, atleast that’s what I hope ( we are talking about Youtube after all and they’ve been known to say one thing and do another ).

2- The second method isn’t directly linked to Youtube, however it will become more clear why it’s still part of the COPPA update. Youtube also has a lot of gaming content, some of which have microtransactions showing ingame. With the crackdown on these kinds of practises by several countries, as it is seen as gambling more and more, channels with gatcha content. Gatcha games are mostly mobile games downloadable for free, but with paid content ( read gambling like mechanics ). Often these games are bright and colorful, the fact that they’re free to download makes them even more appealing to younger audiences. For a company a gambling customer is worth more than a one pay deal. “Yeah you could get that car for maybe 10 bucks, but you could also get this ultra rare car too, you just got to keep trying and spending money for a chance at it.” If adults are easily addicted to gambling, what might it do to kids, is what COPPA is saying right now.

So what does this all have to do with age ratings and restrictions? Well, ratings have always been there as a guideline. Yes it’s true that you can not sell a product to a person if they are not of the right age, however in practice there’s some flexibility as long as the product does not harm a person their health. And we all know that even if they did uphold it in the most strict way, parents or someone else they know who’s old enough would buy it for them.

If you ask me, I’ve always found those age restrictions to be weird. You could see a horror movie if you were 16 or older, but play Grand Theft Auto and you had to be 18 or older. yes different media, but both have violence in it ( you could argue potential drugs in the GTA franchise, but let’s be honest… it’s always about the violence in media ). But in today’s world, if you create content, it’s always a gamble if your content will still be kids-friendly enough. Even if your target audience aren’t kids. And if you keep in mind that a big part of Youtube’s audience is already an adult, who grew up with a much more free platform, it gets even weirder the longer you think about all the ‘protection’ online for children. The real question is, will this protective behaviour be a good influence on the children or not?

Besides, if you really want a solution that works for everyone equally, I might have a simple idea. We all have ID’s, so you want to make an account that’s age verified? Get an E-reader device, plug in your ID as a mandatory registration step and verify your age. If you’re to young, certain content will be locked untill you’re old enough. On the other hand, content can be created and shared without restrictions or fear for backlashes because the wrong audience saw it. If we had this system in place, there would never been an adpocalypse on Youtube, there’ wouldn’t be any uncertainty for content creators and there wouldn’t be a need for handholding parents either, because responsibility would lie with them 100%.

For the love of Synthwave.

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Synthwave ( also known as retrowave or newretrowave ) is a music genre I looked for my entire life, yet besides being featured in 80’s movies as parts of the soundtrack, eluded me. Though since about 2 years ago, I finally found it. And it brought me nostalgia, a sense of belonging and a rhythm for any moment of the day. Now of course I can hear you wondering ” what is Synthwave? “.

Now I’m not going to pretend I’m the all knowing guy when it comes to the genre, anyone who can google can take a look at the wiki page for it. But in short; it is a genre based on the 80’s movie culture, more notably action, horror and sci-fi. Think of Escape from New York, slasher movies ( Halloween, Friday the 13th, Jason, etc. ) and Bladerunner. Now even though these tend to lean to the more heavy side when it comes to the genre, Synthwave also has a more idyllic sound of the nostalgic 80’s, think of those coming of age movies or the typical love story. There’s something for everyone.

Granted, I’m the type who goes for the music based on action, horror and sci-fi. I like a good love song like anyone else, but it tends to lose its magic real quick if listened to song after song, unless the mood is really there. However, once you dive into Synthwave and it’s various talented artists, you will quickly find it’s not all black and white.

If you want a small taste of it all, you can check out my Bandcamp page. It’s a great start, even if I do say so myself.

Now about some of the artists and their respective niche withing Synthwave.

If you’re looking for that more mellow, relaxing sound or you’re in a love mood; I can recommend

New Arcades

New Arcades makes you feel like you’re wandering the city at night, in the middle of summer. Stars are shimmering while you contemplate your life, maybe hoping to find that special someone to share your life with.

NINA

NINA is similar to New Arcades, however her songs have just a tad bit more spunk to it. The remixes of her original songs do go towards a more club/lounge feel at times.

The Midnight

The Midnight really takes you to the 80’s. If you got a cabrio, then go for a ride while listening to them. A song for any occasion, be it a rainy day, driving towards the sunset or even a though time with your significant other, The Midnight has it all.

There are more artists out there of course, but these are a great start off point.

If you’re looking for something more beat-filled, some extra bass here and there or you’re looking for something you can dance more freely to, these will do just the trick

Scandroid

Scandroid’s music falls right into the category of sci-fi. Each album tells part of a story in his own created cyberpunk like universe. You could make a movie out of it and use the instrumentals as the soundtrack. Great stuff!

Moonraccoon

Moonraccoon has high-tense beats, making you feel like you’re living in a metropolis but freedom isn’t always what it seems there. A feeling of resistance is what’s being conveyed.

OGRE

OGRE makes music specifically designed to feel like soundtracks. Both 194 and 195 are the archtype of an action movie soundtrack. I recommend the older albums.

DANCE WITH THE DEAD

DANCE WITH THE DEAD takes on several movie genres from the B-movie culture. Think of that cheesy swamp monster movie or an alien abduction. All songs have an eerie atmosphere to them, bring some tension and mystery to the albums. If you like a heavy beat, this is the one for you.

Carpenter Brut

Carpenter Brut is the master of horror sounds. If you love the soundtrack from the typical 80’s slasher movies, Carpenter Brut will not dissappoint you. Want to feel haunted or stalked? The master’s got your needs covered.

 

Remember, there’s a synthwave song out there for everyone. I only gave a small list of talented artists, so just see what they have to offer and explore the world of the neo-80’s. Stay rad!

I’m not just blogging.

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The title is pretty self explanatory. Obviously this site will contain blogs, but like I said in my previous blog. I have a passion for gaming and I wanted to delve a bit deeper in that. I already mention qucikly I started with the original GameBoy, then moved on to the Playstation. Later on I saved up for an Xbox too. Playing videogames has taken a bit of a backseat the last few years, but recently I started streaming on Twitch. I’m still a beginner, so don’t expect too much of it yet. However, the audio from my microphone is decent and the stream itself is stable too, so I couldn’t ask for anything more at this point. Streams will also be uploaded to my Youtube account in more manageable bits, for those who can’t load a 3 hour stream.

As you can tell, I’m trying to build an online following. To bring people together and have a good time.

If you are interested in it, check out the links below:

My very first blog!

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Oh boy! I never really thought I would ever start a blog, but it’s so excited now that I’ve started. I checked out some tutorials to get me started, though I always did prefer to just start tampering with something and learn through trial and error.

So what to talk about in this first post huh? I guess next to the about me page ( I think, therefore I am ), I can go a bit deeper into who I am, what my interests are and what you can expect from blogs on this site. If you haven’t checked out my small biography, you are welcome to it! If not, don’t worry, I will still touch on it in this article.

My life started on the 12th of January 1991. I was due for the 31st of Dec, but decided to stay a bit longer inside the womb. My life as a kid was pretty awesome. I had ( well still have ) a loving mother and a dad ( who was working a lot, but we couldn’t complain since we had it good due to that ). From a very young age I’ve been playing videogames, my very first was Tetris for the original GameBoy. When I got older, I saved up my allowance to buy my first console, the Playstation. I still remember I had to restart my games everytime, because there were no memory cards available for a while. But that didn’t stop me from having fun!

When I got into my teens, I wasn’t really the defiant one. Some might call it an old soul, I call it common sense. Mature behaviour was more prevalent for me compared to others my age. This sometimes was beneficial, but also at times hard to overcome. Especially when you first experience love. at the same time I was one who stood his ground. If I made  a decision, i stuck with it and carried the consequences regardless. This is still something I hold high today, as I feel a lot of people tend to go back on things they say or promise. 

Whoever, I never regretted anything I did. Everything was a gamble or a calculated risk, that ended up being experience for my future life. Though nothing in during my school years could prepare me for what awaited me after graduation. In 2010 I finally got my degree and was ready to pursue higher eduction. But about a month or two when I started, my parents got a divorce. It didn’t go down well and like most divorces, money was a major point. My dad insisted on the house being sold, which left both to having to rent a place. I decided to move in with my mom, so she’d have to pay for us both from one paycheck. That’s why I cut short my higher degree and tried to find a job.

Mind you, this was just 2 years after the economy took a nosedive, so there I was. No real, longtime experience yet, trying to apply everywhere I could when companies wouldn’t hire, but rather lay off people. This period last about 4 years, with endless mails saying I wasn’t good enough or that I couldn’t be on time because I didn’t have my own transportation, etc. But those who persevere, will get rewarded and mine came finally. I got a job in retail about half an hour walking from where we lived. It was as if it was meant to be, because I got a number from the store to which I shouldn’t even have been able to call to. yet I explained my situation, goty through the selection and voila. Now I’m working there full time for 4 years and recently moved to a house of my own just across the place I work.

Now I’m just trying out new things, starting with this blog. Funny how life can work out sometimes. This is just the first of many to come, hoefully inspiring others, just as I’ve been inspired to do so. Weirdly enough, I’ve learned how lonely life can be, but at the same time I can’t turn my back on those who might need a good listener or just a small bit of advice. Even total strangers, can change each others lives.