19. Portal

One of the things that are very good about this place, is that when you think of how remote it is, there is wonderful internet here. I will get back to the internet later, but first, let me explain how remote the place I am staying is. The nearest town (or rather, village) is ten or fifteen minutes by car. But we don't have access to cars, so you have to walk there, which takes more than half an hour I think. The village is  called Chateaubelair if you want to try to find it on a map (you will need a detailed one, or google maps). I haven't been there yet. In that village you can buy food and snacks, and there is at least one church there. You can also take a public bus from there to the capital, Kingstown. That ride takes over an hour. You have to go to the capital to buy other necessities like toiletries (I think), sun screen, bug repellent, pharmaceuticals, and clothes. You also have to go there to go to the bank (which you need to do in order to get cash) or to buy notebooks and pens. The closest shop to here is what we in Norway would call a small kiosk. It's five minutes from here, and you can buy soda and some other things there. I haven't been there either... I will admit that I'm a bit weary of the locals, and I don't carry money. I hope I have now explained how remote it is here.

Now, over to the internet. It is wonderful that the internet is so stable and fast here (I think they have a direct connection with the central or something). That means that I can check facebook, chat with people, call home on skype, and also post blogs. But it also means that I can spend time on YouTube. I like watching YouTube videos, and in November last year I discovered a new genre of YouTube videos: let's plays. These are videos in which a person plays a video game and talks/comments at the same time. You hear and see the things they get from the game (so you're experiencing the game), but you're watching someone else play the game and comment on what is happening. I'm not a gamer myself, but I like watching other people play video games. So this is a good form of entertainment for me, especially when the comments become hilariously funny (as they frequently do in the ones I watch).

The let's plays I am watching are from hankgames on YouTube, which is Hank Green (from the vlogbrothers) playing different video games. Recently he has been playing Portal 1 (also known as just Portal). Portal is a puzzle-solving game that becomes more of an adventure/action game with puzzle-solving later. There is no way to explain it adequately, it's just a really cool game. I have been watching the let's plays of this game, and I really like it. I especially like the fact that there is no killing (except if you count shutting down robots that are trying to kill you). I also like the graphics: it's a nicely visualised game. I hope I can try playing it myself one day.

So that is what I've been doing lately (when I'm not working): waiting for these videos to appear on my YouTube subscriptions page. And now, there will be even more Portal, because Portal 2 was just released (as far as I know)! Portal is a really fun game to watch let's plays of, and from what I've seen of trailers for Portal 2, there is some humour and funny dialogue in the game too. So I join many gamers in being excited about this release, and I hope I didn't bore you to death with this ramble.

Books read: 18
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