10 - 21 June

Hints for the Computer Game:  Garth Simmons™

produced by Codemasters copyright May 23rd 3047

10 - 11

Items can be gathered for you inventory which you can then use to solve puzzles at some later stage.  Usually when you find an item it will be used for "this level"... but sometimes items need to be hoarded to be used for "next level."   But if you hoard too many items then will weigh yourself down and you will be unable to ascend to "next level."  You will even end up weighing yourself down onto this level and even further down to the level you started at.  Meaning that you always stay at level one.

This "very long rope" that can be found in Chorlton Age Concern in April 2014 is a very good example of a useful item that might not be useful now... but then you don't know when you might need it in an emergency.

I would take a risk in not buying the "very long rope".  It is after all £20 which would eat severely into your financial high score... If you do encounter a small trapped boy in a well, you can always use your ever present "phone gadget" to call the emergency services... or if you really wanted to stack up all the reputation points for yourself... then you could always see if you can find a local blacksmith or fisherman... as these people tend to always have very long ropes somewhere in storage.  

Unlike the computer game, Monkey Island, which you can complete in a few days and in which your character has an infinite inventory... The game, Garth Simmons™, takes a few decades to complete... and your inventory is the size of your living accommodation and pockets.   This is why it is essential whilst playing Garth Simmons™ to buy lots of jackets as these are useful for storing items within that you might need to use to get Next Level.

12 - 14

During gameplay you will encounter a multitude of "Non Player Characters" or the more familiar acronym "NPCs."

These characters will sometimes give you quests, sometimes just be background noise of looping animation, sometimes they will cause you impediments but often they are very useful.  Garth Simmons™is a very well programmed game with the most amazing AI systems allowing NPCs to have  a wide range of feeling, emotion, depth and personal history.  These characters can provide you with friendship points which lift up your self esteem meter and which allow your protagonist to achieve "Next Level".

You must be careful though as unlike computer games such as The Sims, the NPCs in Garth Simmons™ are very close to being as complex as real life people.  Also your operating systems, and the NPCs operating systems, are always open to Trauma... which can cause you psychological impediments which will make it difficult to traverse towards Next Level.... although it is difficult to reach Next Level without interacting with people at least a few times within each weekly cycle.

15 - 16

You must be very careful when walking down the road not to step on cracks on the pavement, also, when walking on paving slabs, make sure you only step on an even number of paving slabs by the time you have reached the end of the road you are travelling on.  These are proven codes that you can enter into the Game which enable you to ascend to higher levels through accumulating "luck".  There are many other codes to be discovered within this game through the manipulation of lines and segments within the artificial reality.

BEWARE!

Unlike the game, Minesweeper, wherein numbers and codes are within a set logic and difficulties are easily traversed...  In Garth Simmons™, the coding of the universe is much less discernable... and it is impossible to really tell if you have discovered a luck code and the more coding practices you rely on the more likely you will eventually become mentally ill.  The danger of being obsessed with a coding strategy is that you will fall into a tried and tested routine and routines drag you down... like a heavy inventory, as stated previously, down to earlier levels.  Coding can cause you to regress and stop your ascension into Next Level... thus if you do not vary your codes and routines you will never reach Apotheosis.  

It is, however, safe to say, that not stepping on cracks in the pavement and making sure you always step on an even number of paving slabs are sure fire ways towards reaching next level... and these methods are nigh on crucial towards completion of Garth Simmons™.

17- 18

You will discover as you play Garth Simmons™ that eventually, from starting from very humble beginnings, your protagonist will grow and gather resources... but despite this nothing will ever become easy.  If anything things get more difficult.  The outside conditions to your interactive experience are often uncomfortable and unpredictable.   So it is important to use your resources wisely and plan ahead.... using strategy maps and lists.   

You will notice that NPCs when visiting your home will often say you should play the Hoover Mini Game more often... or the "going t' pub" mini game.... but this is sometimes counter productive if you have to attain pattern contracts with which to seed your next year cycle with blooms of freelance employment spheres.   So you must work hard and not indulge in the mini games (that are often more fun) offered by outside influences.

You must remember that Garth Simmons™, though on the surface a very sophisticated and cleverly woven gaming experience, is not much different to the game Tetris.   Every week cycle blocks accumulate at the top of your screen and you must arrange those block throughout the game so that they dissipate line by line as the years progress.  Each line that dissipates gives you points leading you towards Next Level... and if you reach the highest score then you will attain Apotheosis.   If you neglect your duties then you will end up like this:

A lady plugged herself into Garth Simmons™ once and came out of it visibly shaken... with lots of terrible mental health issues...  It was due to her not playing the game properly... in the game she ended up homeless and sick... full of all sorts of terrible coding habits like hitting her head against the wall.   What needs to be understood is the reality of Garth Simmons™ is a much more confusing and chaotic place than our actual reality.  This game needs to be taken very seriously.

19 -20

So I hope this has helped you do well and reach Next Level during your Garth Simmons™ experience.

If you feel like you are stuck feel free to call our Codemasters helpline on 0500 081 0923.  What is the most difficult aspect of the game is that whilst playing it you actually believe that you ARE Garth Simmons™...  such is the singular gravity of your immersion into the main character's ego and sense of self identity and use of self expression.  So it can be difficult to remember that you are not living the life of the legendary Garth Simmons but are actually within a very tediously overprogrammed version of his existence.

22.05 - - - - - - - - - 09.06

22-24

I went to an Austerity protest.  I am quite left winged in my politics, however, I do not understand why there has to be such a dichotomy between left and right and why there can't just be a humanist and constructive way forward.  I think the less I talk about politics the better... most of my political insights are at best gleaned from friends and at worst gleaned from science fiction.... or perhaps at worst they are gleaned from friends and at best gleaned from science fiction.  I will leave that to the person who is not (and never will be) reading this to decide.

This weekend was a culmination of sorts of a listlessness.  Despite the fact I like to make lists I still feel listless.  No matter how many lists you write there is still nowhere to keep them.  Something else occupies the space where the lists belong.  So the lists become command programming.  I become a busy organic component to my wife and best friend: "the organizational planner".

I didn't sleep much on Friday and woke up in a strange mode of sleep paralysis in which I was in a tunnel of perspex caskets all in the shape of human beings.  In each casket was a person encased in this perspex, they stretched on forever.  Perhaps this is a vision of The Future Plastic.  Wherein we are contained like mobile phone circuits in a nice smooth casing.  Our ability to move taken away.  I would make reference to The Matrix but that would just be embarrassing and adolescent.  Also we have real life issues to worry about now.  I can be reactionary towards real life issues rather than science fictional issues.

25-26

Sometimes I become tired of myself.  So I am unsure how other people could possibly be expected to deal with it.  They live with me in small doses whereas I live with me all the time.  The best friends are the people who you can develop a link with.  A mirror like connection with which you can make a transaction of both giving and receiving.  The reasons why friendships can go wrong is because the reflection you are expecting to see is suddenly different.  

So imagine how difficult it is to have an actual relationship.  

You probably don't need to imagine.  

No I don't. 

Everyone you meet is a potential way of understanding yourself.  It is a shame that they must always be so disappointing.  Just like me.

                                    27-28

I saw this Tarot card and it looked a bit like me.

I like to think about things like divination, the paranormal, different slices of reality, aliens, tarot cards, God, theology etc.  Not because I believe in any of them but because I am Anti-Rationalist.  Also I think it could be due to being obsessed with control and power and self fulfillment.  In order to construct a reality or sense of reality around me that I can control I need to rely on the intangible.  But becasue I am aware that it probably isn't real then perhaps that means I am using these things as inspiration in a very utilitarian way.

One event (of three) that has shaken me from the weekend was when I was at the protest there was a moment wherein they wanted a group photo of everyone holding their fists up in the air.  I had to get away.  I couldn't align myself with a group dynamic or belief.  I ran off to get a mocha before they took the photo.  I question why this is.  It's not like it was a response I could even control but some part of my survival instinct.

Perhaps my distrust/fear/hatred of the mob is what made me not want to be a part of it.  For a long time I have been seperated.  I am perhaps designed to be alone.  This is fine.  This perhaps makes me more powerful.  Great and beautiful and terrible things have been achieved through lonely design.

By this logic then the best thing for me is to be left alone.  This is difficult though as I enjoy spending time with people and in a way this is necessary in order for me to exist.

                                     29-31

Working two jobs involving LCD screens (my Siemens job in the day time and my creative work in the evening) has required me to go for an eye test.  I have been having difficulty looking into the middle distance.   At the eye test it turned out that I have just been overstraining myself and my optic nerve is perfect.  Which is good as it means I don't have to wear glasses.  Even though an element of me would like to.

I decided I wanted to get away (I did not feel free) so went to Doncaster for the weekend to see my family -------- ------ ----- ------- ------- ---------  ----------  ------- ------- ------- ---------

When I got back home I ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ ------- ------- ----- ----.

M ------- E

                                     01-02

Obviously I didn't get much done on either of these days.  This is because I suddenly have so much to do and not entirely down to social concerns.  Having a lot to do and being busy is likely good in the long run but hard work.

I feel that I am still in development.  That I have not become the product that I will eventually be. At some stage I will emerge fully formed onto the factory floor... all made out of hydraulic pistons and billowing steam and a new exciting haircut taken beyond all previous gravitational restraints.

                                     03-04

In order to complete my next project successfully I must transalte myself from this:

Through this:

And into this:

                                      05-07

Have been moderately successful in my floral pattern designs.  It's interesting that I've worked out ways of avoiding symmetry and obvious repetition in order to attempt to create more organic and fluid designs.  Transgressing the mirror effect (with any luck).  Here are a few examples:

                                    08-09

It's interesting to do floral work but what's strange about it is that it is so distorted away from my concept of self that I actually feel as if I have broken some form of self imposed aesthetic boundary. Flowers are just not my thing.  I am more about the terror of the organic's disposition that the colour and beauty of it.

New phases occur without invitation.  My sense of self false.  Perhaps nothing about me is real after all and I really am just in development.  I feel closer to the Final Me than I did 2 years ago.  2 years ago the Final Me was visualized as simply a Dead Me.