Announcing my next project: May Translation Challenge

I am very excited to be announcing a new project that I'm calling the May Translation Challenge. Every day in May I will be (attempting) to release a translation here of something in Mandarin Chinese to English. This is most likely to be translations of songs I like, but it could be other things. I'm …

Brightest star in the night sky, please light the way for me

One of the things that has inspired me in life is a song called 'Brightest star in the night sky' by Escape Plan, and I'd like to explain why it has impacted me so much. Please find the song below so you can read as you listen. They are a Chinese band so I will …

Why objective morality is more terrifying

The objective moral values gained through grounding morality in the Christian God seems great until you come across a passage in the Bible like Numbers 31. Here, God tells Moses to take vengeance on the Midianites, commanding his soldiers not just to kill every man, but everyone who isn’t a virgin girl. In modern times, …

If there was a God, what would they be like?

Several recent conversations I've had with one of my Christian friends has led me to imagine what God would be like if they were actually real. I used to be a Christian, so I know what I used to believe he was like. There would definitely be a temptation to go back to this mindset. …

“The Gospels were Written By Eyewitnesses”

If you asked me this question 5 years ago I would have said of course the gospels were written by eyewitnesses. But in truth, there are many misconceptions that many are unaware of. Let me explain why I've come to the strong belief that the gospels are extremely unlikely to be written by eye-witnesses. 1. …

I Started Learning Japanese!

I've wanted to learn Japanese for the past 10 years or so, and last week I finally made the decision to start learning seriously. So what motivated me to do this in the first place, why did it take me 10 years, how exactly am I learning and now that I've started, how good am …

How to Learn Any Language as Fast as Possible

Hi. This is how to learn any language. I've made it as short as possible. Please skip anything you are not interested in. All fields that are marked with an ^ should be skipped if you aren't interested. I also promise to answer any questions you leave in the comments. This is what worked for …

My Christian Testimony

Recently, I found an old document that I had written 4 years ago which contained parts of my original testimony from when I must have been around 16. As my blog has many posts talking about Christianity, I wanted to release it here so you could understand my faith at that time. Unfortunately I couldn't …

Explaining my addiction to Keigo Higashino Books

One day I was looking for a book to read online and saw one with an incredibly well designed front cover. It was a dark cloudy night, and a lonely black cat was walking over a brick wall lit by a window in the house behind it. The light shone out brightly, and the darkness …

Faith Seems Unhelpful for Finding Truth

Many people use faith to support their religious beliefs, and encourage me to have faith and believe in God. But what seems to be taken for granted is the belief that faith is a good thing. How helpful is this concept really? The strongest argument for faith points to how common it is in our …

10 Questions for Christians

I recently enjoyed answering 10 questions for atheists which gave me an idea, why don't I also write 10 questions for Christians? To add more information, none of these questions are intended to trap you or to disprove God; I only ask the questions because I want to know the answer. This is not intended …

10 Good Questions for Atheists, Answered (200k views)

I am writing this post to celebrate reaching 200k views on my blog! Thanks for reading guys. I wanted to do a Q&A, however I have changed the theme of my blog, and basically the only people who want to talk to me are anime fans who are interested in talking about religion, and I …

When I Met A Jehovah’s Witness

It's sometimes funny to me when a person tries to do something, yet achieves the exact opposite of what they wanted to do, obtaining a result much worse than if they never tried at all. This is essentially what happened when I opened the door to greet a Jehovah's Witness in my area. You'll see …

Anyone at the Time Could have Easily Disproved the Gospels if they were Mistaken…

In my lengthy blog post about the massive amounts of evidence against the case for Christ, there was one argument that I didn't include, because it never even crossed my mind, and wouldn't cross the mind of someone who researched the material thoroughly. It was this idea that the gospel writers were walking around, parading …

Did Jesus Rise From The Dead? Why we Have Reasons to Doubt

Introduction The resurrection of Jesus is the most fundamental belief to Christianity, as if Jesus never rose from the dead, there is no reason to believe it. Therefore, as the claims of Christianity are so huge, and so meaningful, it's important to check whether they are correct thoroughly so that you can believe what is …

LingQ Update – First Impressions

Yesterday, LingQ had a huge interface update which changed a lot of things, and I was really excited to talk about some of the changes that were made to the site. Considering LingQ is something that I use everyday without fail, I feel this update impacts me a lot, and therefore am a good authority …

Mandarin Immersion Guide for Beginners

Immersion has proven to be the most effective way to learn a language, however doing it from ground zero is definitely not easy. When I first started learning mandarin it took me about a year before I could give up flashcards and material for language learners and just immerse with content made by natives, for …

OK – A lesson On Language

What is the problem with phone companies? Why do they, unlike every single other person in the world say 'OK' instead of 'ok' . No autocorrect is needed to fix the word 'ok', everything is fine. There is however many major problems with the word 'OK'. The first issue is that the word 'ok' is …

Why Don’t Team Rocket Fire Jessie, James and Meowth? Theory

Jessie, James and Meowth are some of the worst criminals you've ever seen, failing miserably time and time again, yet they are treated to machines worth millions, a submarine, a hot air balloon, and a small salary instead of being fired. So rather than accepting that this is just part of a children's TV show …

Revisiting the Pokémon Anime

I have criticised the Pokémon anime in the past, but recently I've gone back to watch the original Pokémon anime in mandarin, and I've been enjoying a lot. Approaching the series with the additional aspect of learning a language has made it more interesting for me, and allowed me to appreciate the better aspects of …

A Simple and Easy Guide to Mahjong

Mahjong is complicated, however it is very satisfying and interesting once you understand how to play. There are so many different kinds and varieties that it's hard to know where to start. This guide is for Hong Kong/Guangdong style, which is a very good style to learn as it's not only fun but an amazing …

Sorry Mum – You Didn’t Throw Away My Atheist Book

This is embarrassing. In July, I wrote a post called "My Mum Threw Away my Atheist Book!" because I genuinely believed that she had. However, I now realise that she didn't, because she actually found the book and showed it to me! So sorry mum. Let's talk about what happened today. So what actually happened …

Why You Couldn’t Learn a Language in School

If you spent many years studying languages in school, only to leave, look back, and realise that you don't remember anything, you are not alone. I strongly believe that this has very little to do with your skill and natural talent, and rather the methods used to teach in schools. If I told you that …

Drawing Your Favourite Iconic Manga (Badly)

Welcome back to my drawing manga series, where I draw really good manga really really badly. Perhaps it's nice to see someone else's take on a character, or perhaps it's just nice to watch someone fail. Either way, you are reading this, so please brace yourself for what is to come. Although I don't have …

My Mum Threw Away my Atheist Book!

Before reading, please check this post here as it turns out she didn't throw my book away at all, however for about over a year I thought that she had. I have left this post up as a snapshot into what kinds of things you go through when you keep your atheism a secret and …

Why I Can’t Stop Learning Chinese

Since I wrote my post about the importance of immersion 6 months ago, I have learned nearly 4 thousand words, that's 2 thousand words every three months (double what I was learning when I wrote that post in the first place) - however if numbers alone don't convince you of the effectiveness of immersion, then …

The Paradise Given to Lucian of Meres – Chapter 2 – Chains

Lucian saw a dark red sky and found that he couldn’t move. His initial thought was not of panic or worry, but confusion. He lied in the ground, only his face was exposed to the elements, while the rest of his body was stuck underground. This was not heaven. The red sky, and smell of …

The Paradise Given to Lucian of Meres – Chapter 1 – The End

If you asked Lucian what he thought would happen after he died, he would say “I simply don’t know”, however this, like many things he said, wasn’t the whole truth. He suspected that all we had waiting for us at the end was an eternal sleep, and he was content with that. Infinity, in terms …

Frozen 2 is Seriously Not Ok and we All Should be Outraged

When I sat down to watch Frozen 2 with my girlfriend, I expected a fun, interesting and musical adventure. What I did not expect was an unscientific, uneducated advert for homeopathic pseudoscience.But first of all, what is homeopathy? It's a kind of alternate medicine which claims that by diluting natural substances in water over and …

Animal Crossing Still Needs to Fix This!

I really love animal crossing as a game franchise, and I have played it for far too long than I would like to admit. But there has always been one thing incredibly frustrating for me which I have to put with for to long, and it's time to speak out. The most infuriating thing about …

Professor Layton and the Curious Village Review

A game where you travel to an odd remote village in the middle of nowhere in order to solve an inheritance dispute probably sounds like the most boring game imaginable, but the truth is anything but. Professor Layton and the curious village is a charming short game about a British gentleman named Hershel Layton who …

“A Relationship with God”

On the day before my 18th birthday, I realised something that in combination with all of my other doubts pushed me over the edge and made me an atheist. The being I claimed to love more than anything else in the world, the being who I worshipped, the being who I lived for and the …

How I Learned 1000 New Chinese Words in Three Months Without Trying!

Learning 1000 words in any language is certainly an achievement to be proud of, and on the face of it, achieving this goal is quite doable - simply learn 10 words a day or more until you reach the 1000 mark. This is definitely a challenge, but still possible if you work hard. So how …

4 Years of Blogging!

Four years ago today I started my blog, and now it is still going, having been active for much longer than I had ever expected it to be! Let's take a look at what has been happening on this blog in this last year! First I would like to start with an apology. There were …

Satan is Controlling You!

One Christmas, my mum bought me a book called "Battlefield of the mind for teens" written by Joyce Meyer. She had just read the book "Battlefield of the mind" and having found immense value from it, bought me the corresponding book for teenagers. I was very receptive and thankful for this book. However instantly upon …

Super Mario Galaxy: A Game of Two Halves

I was one of the many people who never really got to play Mario Galaxy before, and now with the new Super Mario 3D All Stars collection I have my chance! I will be reviewing the games individually, only reviewing after playing one fully to completion. As this takes time, I have only completed Mario …

Why You Should Watch Jackie Chan Films

It's always strange to pick up a strong interest in something you had previously overlooked. I went from watching Jackie Chan DVD's loaned to me by a friend, to physically buying the DVD's myself, to creating a website to catalog which Jackie Chan films you've seen and all in less than one month, and without …

我学中文一年了，我的中文怎么样？

我学中文学了一年了，现在我的中文怎么样？对我来说我的中文还是非常差，但是我的进步很快。我今年用了很多时间学听力和阅读。因为我很少学口语和写作，所以我的听力和阅读能力比写作和口语好。我还没考HSK4是因为新冠病毒，我要是去考试肯定会通过。 如果我很少说中文，很少写汉字，我怎么学习？看电影，看电视剧, 看书。现在我一边写中文一边听有声小说，叫“查理和巧克力工厂” 因为我的中文水平不错，所以我可以看各种中国的娱乐节目和书，但是我并不是都明白。这是我学习的方法。看电影的时候，如果我不明白，我就查那个我不知道的词的意思。我不会去试图记住这个词，只是想明白我现在看的句子。因为翻译很快，我可以享受中国电影，所以学习不会让我感觉太烦。 学习的开始最难了，因为每个词你都不知道，所以你必须要学基础的词。可是一但你学完基础的词和语法你可以更多享受学习。我看过 ‘Well intended love’, ‘Accidently in Love’ and ‘Take my brother away’  (这个电视剧在Netflix上所以不知道中文名）都比学基础的东西有有意思，而且有用。 虽然这些节目很有意思，但是看它们还是让我累了。大部分的中国电视剧都是45分钟。因为我有工作，工作以后难以看45分钟的电视剧，所以我用‘LINGQ’看书。 你想要学中文的话，我最推荐看书。首先书很方便。你有5分钟或者5个小时的话都可以看书。不用看完45分钟的节目，你在想看的时候可以随便看书。中文口语是中文的一部分。书里不仅有中文口语，还有比较复杂的句子，描述的句子很多。还有，看书很慢，如果你想，就可以花时间让你明白每一个句子！ 现在我的方法不是每天试图记住很多生词。我就是享受用中文接触各种的有意思的中国的视频和书。虽然我没有试图记住词，但是我还渐渐学会了新的词。你看书的时候会看到同一个词很多次，因为你看过这个词很多次，你自然会记住那个词。多有意思和好玩的方法！ 我自信有一天可以说流利的中文。在我达到那个水平之前，我打算继续享受学习中文！   谢谢你们来看我的博客文章！如果你有学习的建议请告诉我！ 我差不多每年发一个中文博客文章，如果人们喜欢的话，我可以发更多的文章！谢谢！  

Ode to My Lost WordPress Website

It was four years ago that my blog started. I knew not to which name it should be regarded, Thinking that my blog adventure would be over so quickly I named it like my thoughts at the time: ‘my brain is completely empty’ Writing anime blogs is how I spent most of my days, Thoroughly …

1 Ticket to Hell Please

Generally, and especially in recent times, I have been more indifferent in my opinions towards Christianity, as long as you're not harming anyone, it's fine. However recently I've been made to feel angry by how some Christians deal with the issue of hell. 'God does not send you to hell, an eternal endless torment of …

Can you Beat Ocarina of Time With No Magic and Three Heart Containers? – Forest Temple – Spirit Temple

Welcome to the Ocarina of Time Majoras’ Mask continuity run! Where I (a normal person with no knowledge of speedruns or glitches) will try and beat Ocarina of Time without a magic bar and just three hearts! Full rules can be found here. But more or less we will play the game in the usual way, …

Chinese Parents Would Hate Me…

Chinese Parents is a game about the difficulties of growing up with Chinese parents. Many things that the game throws at you are reminiscent of the exact same things real people in China will face. These problems and difficulties compound onto each other until (generally) it will all get too difficult and you will not …

Why The Dungeons in Majora’s Mask Suck

Majora's Mask is potentially one of the coolest Zelda games. I love it's general atmosphere and all the side quests a lot. And I generally think it really has a lot of great things in it. However unfortunately today I am talking about something that I don't like about the game: The dungeons. There are …

Can You Beat Ocarina of Time With No Magic and Three Heart Containers? – Child Link to Adult Link

Welcome to the Ocarina of Time Majoras' Mask continuity run! Where I (a normal person with no knowledge of speedruns or glitches) will try and beat Ocarina of Time without a magic bar and just three hearts! Full rules can be found here. But more or less we will play the game in the usual …

Zelda Ocarina of Time: Majora’s Mask Challenge Run Announcement!

The legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D has always been one of my favourite games, as well as my favourite Zelda game. But there has been one thing that has always bothered me slightly about it, and that is the following game: Majora's Mask. I know it's of course a natural part of the …

Different Versions of Writers Block – Why I Haven’t Written in a Long Time

Although the last post I wrote was on the 31st of March, and it is the 23rd of July today, I have been writing this entire time. I think that now the total number of drafts has reached 37, so yeah, I guess this is what writers block is. It's not that I can't write, …

Kaguya Sama Love Is War, Something Special

Indeed, Kaguya has some kind of magic which just makes it special. I returned to my second year of University completely dejected by the prospect of running as secretary for my university's anime society - anime just didn't interest me anymore. However I still got the chance to suggest an anime for us to watch, …

Duolingo+ Review – Spanish

The last time I reviewed the normal version of Duolingo based on the Chinese version, now I will review Duolingo+ based on the Spanish version and talk a little bit about the Spanish course itself! So what does Duolingo+ offer? Well a couple of things. The first one that surprised me quite a lot, was …

What Mistakes I Made In Language Learning (Chinese)

When learning a language for the first time, mistakes in your methods seem inevitable, after all you don't know where to start, and even when you follow good advice from people who have become fluent, it's still possible to make mistakes and mess things up. So that's why I'd like to talk about my mistakes …

The HSK3 Exam Process Has Some Problems

On Saturday I took the HSK3 exam at my university after 9 months of studying the language. Normally I discuss my general thoughts on the HSK exam itself - difficulty, studying for it, difference between previous HSK's and etc however before that post is released I would like to discuss something different, the exam process …

The Tragedy of Memrise Removing Decks

For those who don't know Memrise is a very useful tool for free education of language learning. It's a spaced repition software which helps you learn words by exposing you to them over long periods of time, helping them to stick in your long term memory. It's actually very useful. When Memrise made their change …

From HSK2 to HSK3 – Thoughts on HSK, And The Different Methods of Language Learning

On December 1st I took my HSK2 exam after roughly six months of preparation, I knew beforehand that I would pass, as even months before that I found that I could pass the HSK2 exam, and I had only learned more since then. My test results came back, so how did I do? Well pretty …

On Selling Atheist Books To Children

Yesterday I reviewed Richard Dawkins' "Outgrowing God" however there was a major discussion topic that I missed out that I would like to talk about here. That is the issue itself of selling a book like this to children. I don't think it should be done. But obviously that applies to religious books as well. …

Outgrowing God By Richard Dawkins – Book Review

Outgrowing God fills in a much needed gap in atheist literature. Though there are many books for adults there isn't necessarily a popular or famous one intended to be more accessible for a young audience. This book seems to solve these problems, but how well? When you think of marketing books towards a younger audience …

Facts In Genesis: Is The Creation Account In Christianity Correct?

The Genesis account of the creation of the universe is certainly interesting and fascinating. But now that we have such an amazing understanding of how the universe began, we can actually analyse Genesis to see how much it complies with science. So do the accounts match? And if so, how much? And if they don't …

Three Years Of Blogging!

Three years ago today I started my blog and never looked back. To be honest, I think this recent year has been the most interesting year so far. A lot of things happened. I completely changed the nature of my blog, and probably started releasing the largest variety of content I've ever made. Of course …

The War On Christmas Seems Irrelevant

Before we begin, here is the initial duck duck go image results for when you search "christmas" I feel like the difference between saying  "Happy Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" is besides the point to the war on Christmas. Don't get me wrong, it makes perfect sense to say "Happy Holidays" as there are many festivals …

Sexual Repression In Christianity

Its interesting the ways that religion's routes can have long lasting consequences over you. I count myself lucky that my deconversion was so simple, with my faith in all things Christian slowly diminishing in every possible way over time. Starting with simple observations such as prayer working at the same rate as chance, and things …

My Only Encounter With The Supernatural

Why give this the title of "supernatural" when it's something that I don't believe in? Well essentially, at the time of being Christian, I thought it might have been. Though later I would come to dismiss my previous experiences and encounters with the supernatural, in rather easy ways, this one sort of just got forgotten …

What Losing My Faith Was Like

When I tell people I used to be a Christian there is a temptation to assume that it was caused by a traumatic or horrible event that turned them away from God, but this is far from the truth for most people. So I thought I'd share my story of what it was like. But …

How I’m Learning Chinese At University

With university going on you have to ask the question, how are you able to keep up with learning Chinese when your so busy? The first thing I have to say is that you do have to prioritise. I have sacrificed my free time in order to learn. When I am not eating, cooking, studying, …

Why I Haven’t Come Out As Atheist To My Family

I always said to myself that if someone honestly asks me about my religion I will genuinely tell them. But that has happened, and it's not exactly happened that way, in fact it's only happened that way once, when I mentioned a thing commonly said by atheists that prompted my friend to ask the question. …

I Wear Christian T-Shirts|World of A Neutral God| New Testament Worse than Old|Afterlife|Deathbed Conversions

It's been a while since I made a blog post, so I thought I'd make a simple post about what I'm thinking about right now. The issue is, that you can always make time for things that you like, unfortunately blogging doesn't fall into one of these things. Not that I don't like blogging, I …

我忘了吃月饼!

今天我刚记得我应该吃了月饼，但是我太迟到了！中秋节是两个星期前！当中秋节的时候你只可以买月饼！ 好的,好的,好的 我为什么忘了？ 你知道了我是英国人吗。。。好的， 你知道了。 在英国找月饼非常难！我有一些中国朋友们但是，他们都住在谢菲尔德。 当中秋节的时候我住在了诺丁汉，我这个周开始住在谢菲尔德! 我不认为它很重要， 但是我还要尝 哈哈哈哈 因为明天是中华人民共和国国庆日所以我要写一个中文博客文章！ 如果我的中文不好，对不起。我四个月前开始学习！请有耐心！如果我有错，请告诉我！ 我以后要写很多的英国博客文章，可是我也要写一些的中文博客文章！ 你认为什么？请告诉我！ 再见！

Why I Bought Memrise Premium

Memrise premium is something that is advertised to you a lot whenever you complete your daily target, you always get a 20% discount off. But is it worth it? The short answer is no, yet I bought it anyway. Why? I feel like free education is a good thing. And memrise has helped me so …

Veganism Is Almost Persuading Me

Recently I've been watching and listening to stuff about veganism, and sadly I find myself being persuaded by their arguments. I think it's likely the most moral option. Animals are treated very cruelly. The mass production of as much meat as possible treats animals insanely horribly. Cows are raped for milk, then have their newborn …

Mandarin Is Really Difficult

I don't know if I'll release this, but I just want to write about the difficulties of mandarin. Because I'm stressed about it right now, which is something I haven't felt ever towards language learning. Before this the most primary difficulty was with Japanese, which I found fun at first but just became a problem. …

Why Talk About Atheism So Much?

Instead of launching into writing and releasing so many blog posts first I maybe should have explained my reasoning. After all, what's the big deal? Why not let people believe what they believe and leave them alone? Why spend so much time talking about something you don't believe to exist? Well let's start. The first …

Testing Immersion For Language Learning

I've never really been a fan of the tactic of immersion for language learning, that by simply watching media in the language your learning you will pick up on it and start to understand the language better. Granted this includes taking notes and things like that. So today what I'm going to do is what …

I Still Fail To Follow My Own Advice

Remember when I made my post, blogging is supposed to be fun? Well this is written directly after that with literally one minute in-between! The reason for splitting the posts up like this, is that I didn't want to take away from the previous message and loose people in what I was trying to say. …

Blogging Is Supposed To Be Fun!

We can sometimes find ourselves so easily bogged down and set in our ways of blogging about one particular subject that we can forget why we started doing it in the first place. To some of us, blogging can feel like a job, or an obligation to the community that we're in. We don't always …

Book of Mormon Review – Nephi 1

I am not a member of the church of jesus christ latter-day saints and am just a non-believer who took it upon himself to read it and pray about it as I did so. I read this book over the course of one week, and made notes on what I thought as I went. This …

Methods For Language Learning

You can't learn a language fast without a good method. So what methods have helped me that could also help you? I'll start with the most obvious, so feel free to skip if you already use techniques already. Also please comment with tips if I didn't include anything that you do already! Flashcards An easy …

On Having A Relationship With Jesus

I am not a Christian, but the sad thing is I feel like all Christians will be able to empathise with what I'm saying, because this is also what many Christians I knew felt like when I was still Christian. What are the benefits of Christianity? If you asked me back when I was a …

Nephi 1 – Full Notes and Discussion of Every Chapter

If you would like to catch up with where I talked about the introduction and testimonies of the people who found the golden plates you can find the first part here. The way I will break this down is that after I've done my reading and praying for the day, I will write any thoughts …

Advice For Staying Motivated For Language Learning

I'd argue that the most difficult thing about learning a language, is not the grammar, nor the words, but finding the motivation to learn it day after day. It can be difficult, and I don't want to claim that I'm perfect when it comes to learning my second language, it's just that these things help …

Book Of Mormon Review [1] – Testimonies & Explanation

Recently I've been discussing Christianity, religion, and Mormonism with a member of the church of jesus christ latter-day saints, and we made a deal, if I read the book of mormon he would read the CES letter. So here I am! For those who don't know, the book of Mormon is allegedly a book translated …

HelloTalk Review – Find Language Partners Easily!

I had heard of this for a while but never really considered using it until recently. I thought that there was no harm in checking it out so I did! What I found was surprisingly great. HelloTalk is a way to find language partners without meeting them in person, it's genuinely as simple as saying …

What Is The Endgame For Christianity?

Nearly all sects of Christianity claim that there will be a doomsday, or judgement day, as is described in revelations. People use bible maths to calculate when  this day will be, but so far none of these calculations have proved to be correct. I think this event would be impossible to predict, based on the …

Thoughts On Monty Python’s Infamous, Insensitive Crucifixion Scene

The controversy of Monty Python's The Life of Brian has mostly passed, and that's because the message of their film was not intended to be controversial. As John Cleese and Michael Palin say in their debate about the nature of the film, it is by no means intended to debunk Christ. It is far too …

The Monks of Meres Will Release Soon!

I'm very pleased to announce that soon I will be releasing my next book on this blog for free! It is quite a lot longer than the previous book, and I have to warn you that the chapters are quite long as well. But that's not a bad thing, as I like the extra immersion …

Thoughts On The Book I Wrote – Major Spoilers

If you've not yet seen my book you can find it here on this blog free to read. Let's look at the positives, which will take much less explaining than the negative. Obviously the fact that I finished it was a great start, most people don't finish their books, and though it's not published, I'm …

The Broken Tournament – Full Book/PDF

I wrote this book and want to release it online for as many people as possible. I hope you enjoy! Prelude I had ridden for days, but at last my work had been rewarded, this was it, Withwood village. I never thought it would or could exist, to most people it was simply a myth, …

Sacrifice – The Broken Tournament -Chapter 31

The story so far: Maron, Kil, and Rob tried to stop the tournament from being run by killing all the lords running the tournament and burning down their offices. But on the way Kil died, Rob escaped, and Maron was taken prisoner. I woke up in a large wooden room with slight slits of light …

The Smell of Burning – The Broken Tournament – Chapter 30

Our story so far: Rick has been executed, with nobody being able to win the tournament anymore, they must do everything they can to prevent the tournament from continuing, as the alternative is the destruction of the kingdom. Rob had never told us what his plan was, however, collectively I could guess that we had …

Wink – The Broken Tournament – Chapter 29

Our story so far: As they tried to negotiate Rick was taken as prisoner, now the characters proceed with the hope that he will be released, and so need to take a tournament book to find where he will next be placed in the competition. Maron had insisted and insisted and insisted that Rick would …

You’ve Thought About Eternity for 25 Minutes, and Think You’ve Reached Some Meaningful Conclusions?

How long is infinity? Let's take a massive huge number, let's say a google, that is a number starting with a one, and then a following 100 zero's. This is a number that towers over the length of time that the total number of humans on this planet ever has lived combined in years, and …

Negotiation – The Broken Tournament – Chapter 28

The story so far: The group has been prevented from continuing in the tournament from a group of criminals who attacked them. They now go to the tournament organisers to attempt to place them back in the tournament, as missing their matches weren't their fault. This would be the first time we encountered the corrupt …

Getting Back to the Tournament Grounds – The Broken Tournament – Chapter 27

The story so far: After Ricks fight, the group returned to find that their tent, and all of their belongings had been stolen and taken. Deeming that it wasn't safe, they found a house outside of the city. But now they have to deal with getting back to the tournament grounds. Kil and Maron are …

Why I hope Yahweh is Not Real – Comments, Thoughts, and Responses

Obviously I released a post titled "God is not real" and there was a heck of a lot of discussion! You can find my initial argument here. However to summarise it, I don't want any God to exist, because as a minimum, any religion being correct would result in 72% of the population having eternal …

Rick Fights Again – The Broken Tournament – Chapter 26

After two months the next release is back again! Considering I would have written this about two years ago it's long past time since I got this book out! I have been busy lately so I'm sorry. Let's recap the story so far: Kil and Rob brewed potions to make the contestants fall into a …

Thoughts on HSK 2

If you want to see my thoughts on HSK 1 you can find that here. So it's been 20 days since then (as I write this, waiting for my 30 day challenge to finish before releasing) and in this time I have done two HSK 2 tests. I wanted to do this early so that …

This Is Not An Anime Blog Anymore

Many of you may have noticed it by now, but this is not an anime blog anymore, and if this is a sudden shock to you, why are you so shocked? It's been this way for a while. I'm not just talking about the Asian drama challenge, but the last post I made (provided it …

So How Many Asian Drama’s Have I Actually Seen?

This is the one that I have been looking forward too the most, I have made it through 29 days of Asian drama's so let's see how much of it I've actually seen! My total watch time on MyDramaList is... 2 days, 15 hours and 39 minutes! Yeah I've talked about Asian drama's for 27 …

Simona Wang

During the course of this challenge there has been one thing that has been asked a lot but never done, and that is to talk about actors and actresses, which ones you like, and which ones you don't. This is because I never follow actors and actresses and they don't tend to be the things …

Why do Good Shows Get Under-hyped?

This question is very subjective, and some may argue that a show is only as popular is it should be, however if shows can gain massive popularity, only to retroactively have it's fan base turn on it and realise how bad it is (SAO) then surely it is possible that a good show could have …

How Bad Shows get Over-hyped – Using Kid’s Cartoon’s as Examples

Big head son, little head daddy is a series that brings a smile upon every person's face who has known it and grown up with it. The series has been recommended to me by multiple people and followed up with by friends to see what I thought about it. However, much to their disappointment it …

Describe Asian Drama’s In One Word

Obviously when you go to try and summarise Asian Drama's in two words, immediately two words come to mind "Asian" and "Drama", however which is better? The one which describes the location and the culture of which the drama comes from, or the one that describes the genre of the entertainment, and the kind of …

What An Ending Must Do

Arguably one of the most important things not to mess up is the ending, because it can make up for a messy middle or a shaky start! So what do I look for in endings? The only real important thing for an ending, is to be remembered. If it's forgotten, you've likely done something wrong. …

Top Five Asian Drama’s!

I have seen at least five Asian drama's, which means that I can make a top five list of the best ones I've seen! 5. Kaili Blues This is a Chinese film that I love for the setting, though it has absolutely nothing that a normal film tends to have, the world is just so …

How Did I Start Watching Asian Drama’s?

This is kind of a part two to the first post I made in this challenge, where I talked about why I chose Asian drama's in the first place, if you want to read that you can find it here! But this is more of a how, and when I started watching kind of thing. …

I Like These Scenes In Drama A Lot – And I Still Dislike Superlative Questions the Most!

See the kind of joke in the title? Yeah that kind of thing is my favourite. Yesterday I hoped that I would not be asked for a superlative question, and I thought I had nearly gotten away with it, but I hadn't. Today I need "A picture of your favourite scene in an Asian drama" …

I Hate Superlative Questions

I'm currently doing this 30 days Asian drama challenge where I need to answer a different question every day from a list of thirty, and I'm starting to get a little annoyed by the frequency of superlative questions. What are superlative questions? It's stuff like "favourite", "least favourite", "best", "worst" Let me give you a …

I Don’t Tend To Re-watch Anything

Even if I really liked the show a lot I will rarely re-watch it. There are of course plenty of reasons to this, and of course reasons in the specific cases where I would overlook these reasons to re-watch it! So why go back to re-watch something? The obvious reason is that you enjoy it, …

Air City – When Korea Gets Meth

If you were to say "Western drama" and "Meth" it's not difficult to assume that you would leap towards thinking about Breaking Bad. Now could you imagine a version of Breaking Bad, but it's an Asian drama instead? I personally couldn't, and if there is a show like breaking bad but Asian then please let …

Why Watch Shows Seasonally?

Today's question was "Favourite drama season and why?" but I may spoil you now and say I don't have one, because I do not really watch anything seasonally. First of all I didn't even know that seasons for Asian drama's existed, the length of drama's tend to be longer than 12 episodes, more like 20, …

Are Anime’s Also Asian Drama’s?

It's hard to imagine anyone really taking this question seriously, but if you think about it perhaps theirs a compelling case. Of course, they're so different that we need both words however let's think about this properly, or well try too. Asian drama's are obviously not anime, however that doesn't mean that the opposite is …

In A Story, I Think I Like Openings The Most

This is something that I've learned slowly, and obviously it's not a rule that is always true, it just tends to be that I like the introduction the most. This doesn't mean that I don't anticipate an ending, and enjoy it, perhaps the finale is what I sometimes like the most in shows. But in …

Shows With Ridiculously High Episode Counts

To many people the number of episodes in a series can be off-putting, and people may not want to get into something that is so long since it might distract them from other things. I think shows with a large episode count would be much more of a problem/concern for me if I actually cared …

How I can Drop Shows So Easily

The most recent episode of an Asian Drama I watched was episode one of "I hear you" and I thought it would be good to run through what made me drop it in about ten minutes. But now of course that I've explained this, I will likely have to watch the rest of the episode …

My Favourite Genre’s of Asian Drama’s!

What a difficult topic to talk at length about! Oh well, shouldn't be a problem, we'll carry on regardless. It's honestly difficult to say, because what I have watched of Asian drama's isn't typically what I look for. Ok let's start with country, which country of Asian drama's do I look for? The answer for …

Introductions Count For Characters, Please Use Better Writing!

If you introduce a character to be a certain way, then if they suddenly change in the next episode for seemingly no reason then it's kind of clear that there was an error with the characters introduction as they seemingly give off the wrong impression. The character like this for me was Chu Yun from …

This Has To Be The Most Messed Up Start To A Relationship In Asian Drama!

Netflix has a certain drama called "Well-Intended Love" and if I'm being completely honest, "Well-Intended" are the only really good ways to describe it. Because although it's fine now, and smooth sailing, it wasn't always like that. Let me tell you the story of how these couples came to be. A person called Ling was …

To Download or To Stream…To Pirate or To Buy… What To Do? Yeah… What To Do?

Should you stream or download? It's a question asked surprisingly a lot yet I don't personally think there should be much of a debate. Surely it's stream right? Like why bother downloading when it's freely available right there? I might see it like this. Streaming is more convenient, whereas downloading (and we all know we're …

What Makes Me Watch… Well Anything?

Yesterday I talked about what makes me keep watching a piece of media once it's already got my interest, however what about from the outside looking in? What makes me choose to watch that thing in the first place? Well not a lot, I'm a simple person prepared to try things without much of a …

What Makes Me Keep Watching… Anything Really?

If you find a TV show, film, or anything else that you like, what makes you keep watching it? Do you watch it for the characters, the actors, the story line, the music, the visuals or what? The obvious answer is everything, however what is the most important really? To me it has to be …

My Favourite Song From An Asian Drama!

How do you define best OST? It's not necessarily easy, and I suppose it boils down to which one you like listening to the most on repeat. Now it may not surprise you that I'm going to twist this definition slightly. What if there was an OST with one song so good, that it could …

The Excellence of Parody – IPartments Amazing Inception Episode

When I think of how to introduce people to Ipartment I have two options, the normal route of episode one (which is amazing) or just the Inception episode of season 4. And I think I have to say, it depends on how much you like the Inception. If you watched the Inception episode of Ipartment …

My Worst Asian Drama Experience Was With “The Handmaiden”

I cannot really talk about the worst Asian Drama's I've seen, because I've honestly seen so little bad that I don't want to talk about it, because it would be unfair on the thing I was talking about. So instead how about we talk about some really, really bad viewing experiences. So enter the handmaiden, …

Please Sub The Rest of IPartment! (And the Rest of The Asian Drama’s I Like) – Where My Chinese Subs At?

I am currently watching several Asian Drama's however one of these is "IPartment" or "ai qing gong yu" and if you want a brief description of what you might be in for by watching it, it's like China's absurd version of "Friends" - or so I've been told. I've not actually seen "Friends" Essentially we …

Why I Avoid Live Action Adaptations From Anime And Manga – Using Liar Game As An Example

Before I even got into Asian Drama's I was a fan of this manga called Liar Game, and thought it would be interesting if there was an anime adaptation of it. There wasn't so I settled on watching, and actually reviewing episodically the Japanese version of Liar Game. I didn't watch it out of enjoying …

Why Asian Drama’s?

I started outwardly seeking Asian Drama's after a film called "train to Busan" and it was amazing, perhaps not for the reasons why you might think though. It was dumb and silly, and made you laugh, however outside of that it was very emotional and heart-warming. Ultimately ending very emotionally in a very nice way …

Time For A Change Time For More Posts

Hey I've not done any regular blog posting in a very long time, so I thought I'd try one of those 30 day challenge things to see how it went. I've done the 30 days of anime challenge already so that leaves me with doing the 30 days Asian drama challenge! Here is a sneak …

Spaced Repetition – Language Learning

When learning a language one of the challenges you face is learning vocabulary, and a lot of it. So how do you learn so much so quickly? Well SRS or spaced repetition systems are the answer. But what are they, and why are they useful? Here is a graph to demonstrate When you learn new …

Thoughts On HSK 1 – Chinese Exam

As you know already, I have been studying Chinese seriously for just over four weeks now. While I did have lessons, they were two years ago, very basic, I didn't care about them, and I had forgotten nearly everything. But it did give me a head start. When I was doing these lessons I passed …

On Deleting 200 Blog Posts – What It Looks Like

Well I had 200 blog posts that I didn't like, so I decided to delete them, and film it. So if you want to see what it looks like to delete 200 blog posts, then here it is! https://youtu.be/7xspqmY4wYE It should never be easy to delete blog posts, and I'm sad it was so easy …

How To Use Memrise Effectively – Or How I Learned Three Hundred and Four Words in Three Weeks (at least)

I don't know if 304 words sounds like a lot for three weeks, after-all 14-15 words a day sounds doable. However I must also specify that this was alongside a lot of grammar study and hanzi memorisation. As well as that, this only accounts for words used by memrise, I didn't actually use it very …

YouTube Music Review – Use It

I, like every single other person who heard the news, was very sceptical to YouTube music as you can get the exact same thing on normal YouTube. And while that's true, there is a certain special reason why you should still use it if you want to listen to music. It is better than YouTube …

Why I Hope God Is Not Real

This doesn't necessarily apply to all Gods, just the ones that promise an afterlife, a heaven and a hell. My point essentially boils down to what benefits the most people. There is no single religion that has a majority, every single person in the world is a minority when it comes to their religious beliefs …

Learning Chinese Update: Why I Purposely Broke My 61 Day Language Learning Streak on Duolingo

A while ago I announced that I was going to learn Chinese, and I also did a review of Duolingo's Chinese course praising it a lot. So consider this a part two to both of those posts. Duolingo is great for getting you through the door, getting you into the routine of things, and making …

Why I’m Deleted the ADB (Like 200 blog posts)

First of all what even is the ADB for people who don't know? The ADB is a series of blog posts that was intended to act as an anime database. It was supposed to be a collection of every anime I watched, giving people recommendations and other shows to look at as well as information …

My Ridiculously High Language Learning Target

Well now that I've explained the first ridiculously high target I've set myself over the summer - it's time for the next one! This one is a little bit absurd and is going to sound crazy until I explain it, and even then it'll still sound outrageous. So here's the commitment - by the end …

This 100% Accurate Website Will Rank Your Blog!

When I was shamelessly checking how well my blog ranked in google searches I came across a website ranker, and much to my surprise - I was one of those websites on that website. So naturally, I was curious. This is what I found. Yay! What an amazing and glowing review! Nothing on the actual …

So What Happened to Kaiji? Kaiji Part 6 – Chapter 62 – Revelation – Review

So I know all of you have been waiting with baited breath to finally find out what happened to Kaiji! This section of the manga, with Kaiji planning his escape and then executing it has taken 22 chapters and now it seems like it's finally over! While it was great for most of it, there …

Becoming Ippo

One day I was sat down at the computer desk or looking at my phone, likely as you are now. I was just browsing YouTube and getting myself distracted, sort of passing the time, when a video from the best guy ever popped up. Considering that this was indeed, the best guy ever, I naturally …

Detective Pikachu – Simply A Good Time

I saw detective Pikachu today and it was pretty great! Pokemon is a series that I've grown up with for such a long time and it might just be one of my favourite game series' - until before the 3D model change, which was still ok, just not as good.  So honestly a lot of …

Goodnight Future Kings and Queens of Sevren – The Broken Tournament – Chapter 25

First of all, thank god this chapter is out of the way. If you want a primary explanation for why this book has taken so long to release, this chapter is it. You'll see what I mean later, and I'm still quite conflicted about it. Our story so far is that the group has decided …

The Final Solution – The Broken Tournament – Chapter 24

Oh no, the last one of these was posted in January! So sorry for being negligent towards this. Since the first draft is complete it feels already like a completed project - which is far from the case. We're quite a way into this book now, so I hope to get it out as quickly …

Did Kaiji Escape Part 2

I didn't think this would need a part two, but the level of thought gone into the newest chapters of the Kaiji manga make the story keep going, and make more theories plausible. The problem with the last story was that Kaiji couldn't ride a motorbike, yet the masked man rode a motorbike, so it …

Duolingo Review – It’s Pretty Great!

As you all know, I am avid anime watcher, and am generally quite interested in Japan, and the Japanese language. So naturally instead of using Duolingo for Japanese, I tried it with Chinese. Here are my thoughts. Duolingo is pretty great, because normally I would have given up by now, but I'm still at it. …

Vampire Knight First Impressions

I recently realised how rare it was for me to watch anime that is different from what I'm used too. Vampire knight is a Shoujo romance story and comes with the art style associated. Then the character designs, and the way they're posed together gives the impression that it's going to be nothing but fujoshi …

This is Not Tonegawa

There is an anime by the name of Tonegawa Middle Management Blues (TMMB) which is a spin off to Kaiji about Tonegawa, who has been a massive villain in the series and been the one in charge of most of the conflicts that Kaiji gets himself in. And though Tonegawa is drawn with the same …

Watch The IT Crowd!

You best put seat belts on your eyes reader, because I'm about to take them for the ride of their lives! The IT crowd is likely the TV show most catered to me imaginable. It's a comedy series about four (though mainly three) people working in an IT department and it's brilliant. My goal in …

The Wildhunt – Chapter 2

The old Koka was dead, and all knew the name "Ivette" yet the music stayed the same. I don't remember how it happened, or when it happened, but slowly over time. The music of Ivette was replaced, gradually and slowly, until all that was left was the remains of the old Koka, and nobody had …

The Wildhunt – Chapter 1 – The Old Koka

The lute is all that matters. Not the sickle, the rake, or the hammer. People live their lives, hoping to one day follow their dream. To me, there is no dream. Just life. My life is the dream. And if my dream dies, so does my life. I sat at the very back of the …

Did Kaiji Escape?

Spoilers for the manga of Kaiji, up to the most very recent chapter, which is chapter 312 of the Kaiji part 6. As of now Teiai have Kaiji cornered. He is trapped in his mums apartment complex, watched at all exits, with no possible way of escape. However something that I, and a couple of …

The Wildhunt – Prologue

Every bard is loved and sought after in their home town, but not me. And it's all my fault. Despite the rules, teachings, and social classes I couldn't fight the truth in my heart, that I loved her. And neither could she. She was the daughter of the Lord of Fainley. And I was the …

I Won Madoka Magica Playing Cards!

Today I did an anime quiz with the anime society at my university, where I performed brilliantly and won a prize! I came third, but considering the person who came second didn't know who Son Goku was, or recognise him from his picture I'm not so sure whether or not I should be celebrating. "How …

Liar Game: Reborn Review – Musical Chairs!

The perspective I'm reviewing this from is someone that has read the manga, found that the musical chairs arc was their favourite, and jumped ahead past halfway through season 2 just to watch this. This meant that I knew a lot of the twists and turns already. At the start of musical chairs everyone is …

Liar Game Korean Version – Thoughts on Episode 1

Read the manga, then read this. Yes we're starting down this route again! For those who where wondering what happened to the last series, where I reviewed the Japanese adaption of liar game, I literally just got bored and stopped watching. Here's hoping that this doesn't happen here! Unlike the Japanese liar game the Korean …