Standby

Our internet supposedly goes out today. So my blogging will be a little sparse for January, unless of course I find an open wireless network wherever we stay next...

EDIT: Ok, make that another day. All the business closed early today, and dad couldn't get there in time. Yay? Let the agony be prolonged!

Baranquilla

Looks like it's decision time. We are probably gonna move to Baranquilla, as things in this house just haven't worked out properly, and there isn't much left in terms of "good houses" in the area anyway...

Please keep us in your prayers, we could really use some guidance and stuff!

On a lighter note, I was able to order 2 Wii controllers from Newegg. If I ever get them, I don't know...but I ordered them! X-D

Camera

My camera finally came. It's a Canon Powershot SD600 Digital Elph. Check out the main site, or the Newegg page for images of it, as I'd feel like a complete geek taking pictures of my camera...with another camera...X-)

Mountainous

Yay, pics for you! We visit that Mesa Campestre (actually, a bunch of people were calling it 'Mesa de Los Santos', so I don't know) for a day. Here's some pics Fatty took during the climb:







Here's one of me, with my hair all nicely styled by the wind...



Here's some house my sister must've taken a picture of, I don't remember seeing it! :P



And here's the house we stayed at, which belongs to the neighbors in the back...



Huge front garden...



Here's a cave we visit up there...



And lastly, a picture of some docks where we hopped on a small boat for a ride around a lake (a lake in the mountains, crazy...)



Here's a video:


Hopefully I can find a picture of the neighbors that I'm allowed to use or something, so you can finally see them! :P

Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone! :D

December blew by so fast, I didn't even notice that Christmas was in a few days. I also didn't get to give out a birthday shout-out to that Mike and Shane guy, who both turn an old-but-not-as-old-as-me 17...;D I'm telling you, these arepas severely damaged whatever internal clock/calendar system I had...

Well, the people are looking for the gas leak. We are still here though. I'm not sure if we're going to Barranquilla anymore, but I heard my dad talking to the neighbor in the back about going somewhere...I think he said its called "Mesa Capestre".

And the Gold cup (in Super Excite mode) in Excite Truck is so frickin' hard...geez. I haven't gotten any S's yet! >_<

Trouble

Uh oh. We just got some very bad news today...

We had a gas inspector or something come and check out the house. Turns out, there's a leak somewhere. The people who sold the house were getting bills as if people were living here, before we even bought it, and the house was empty. It was as if 12 people were cooking 3 times a day with the stove and taking showers (both are run by gas here). So today, they had to shutdown the gas.

Now we are left with cold water, which isn't even like the cold water in the US ok, this is like water that you had in your refrigerator. Frickin' crazy cold. And we have no stove to heat up the water or to cook on...

And so, we have to make a decision, of whether we leave this house completely, or once again rent somewhere temporarily. Obviously me and Giselle opted for the latter as we are just starting to make new friends, but either way this really sucks. Keep us in your prayers. -.-

Neighborhood

Well, after some says of meeting the neighbors, one night they decided to bring just about everyone in the neighborhood (or rather, the neighborhood wanted to) meet us. :D

There were some...15-20 people there. 4/5 are girls. There's only one guy my age, the others are 13 and 15, if I remember correctly. Same goes for the girls, I think just about all of them are between 13-16. I'm slowly learning the names, but it's a little hard as a lot of girls here are named Maria, and a lot of guys named Juan. ;)

Well, that's about it. We ate some amazing steak yesterday. Mmm...

Neighbors

I suppose I should do my "every-other-day" post...

Well, it only took a whole month, but Giselle (specifically, you will see why) finally made some new friends. There was a neighborhood meeting the other day, and my mom and Giselle went. Me and my dad went to check out the Clubhouse in the back, as we had heard it was women only. Well, apparently it wasn't (though it was mostly a bunch of women :P), but either way, Giselle became good friends with the neighbors in the back. Like, literally, you look out the window in the back of the house, and you can see their window. Maria (14) and Cesar (15) are there names, and they go to a bilingual school. They are freakishly similar in likes and dislikes to me and Giselle. I met them 2 days ago too, but Giselle, being the one who went to the meeting, seems to have grown on them already. X-) What a fatty...

I mentioned to my sister she was lucky to have gone, as I wish I could be as friendly with them as well, but she made a good point. They are still young, and I forget I'm 18. Not that it's a "HUGE" difference, but obviously it's a lot easier to be friends with someone your age. I'm 18. I need to write that on the back of my hand or something. (I also forgot when I wrote that post about the age of girls here, and my theory has yet to fail so far. The 14 year old neighbor could've said she was 18 and I'd believe it. So it looks like a good overall summary is "A girl who looks your age...isn't.")

Turns out, that was the last level of Red Steel. I beat the sword master, only to have it finish as well. Guess I didn't miss much except a different ending cut-scene.

Also, I've unlocked 2 more cars (there are actually some 10 more than I thought, due to Super Excite mode) in Excite Truck!

Lastly, I'M RUNNING OUT OF PANTS!

Media

Some pics and vids for you! First off, the obligatory "me" picture.



And a funny plant on the "front lawn"...



And then our car!





And Wii gameplay footage!

Red Steel

All right, here's my Red Steel review:

The game is about this guy, an American named Scott, and his fiancee Miyu. You're gonna meet her dad, but she gets kidnapped. You meet up with him, turns out he's head of this huge clan and so you are fighting against this Japanese mafia, eventually finding their leader, Tokai and getting back the girl.

The story is all right, the dialog in game isn't the best, but you can stand it. It gets really annoying when you start a level with dialog, and then die a little after it, because then you have to listen to the same thing over and over.

The mouth movements and stuff aren't great either. The whole game is visually a little better than Halo 2. The mouth movements and stuff for instance, are just open and close the jaw. There are many levels with great lighting however, but the graphics overall are nothing "amazing", but good.ou

One thing I did like were some of the songs, or background music that plays when you get into fights. Some dramatic Japanese stuff, or some funky Japanese rock...very neat. They use a lot of the Wiimote's built-in speaker, which is cool and adds to the game's atmosphere.

The game can be a little difficult to control at first, but you get used to it quick. I did find myself spinning in circles because I wasn't pointing at the TV correctly quite a bit. You use the remote as your gun, or as a sword. You use the nunchuk for moving around and doing some moves like opening doors, reloading, or blocking sword attacks.

The sword fighting is okay. It seems to detect the motion of the swipe fine (e.g. you swing to the left or right) but doesn't angle it perfectly or anything. The sword fighting gets increasingly difficult throughout the game. In fact, in the second to last level you get into...some 15+ sword fights, it's crazy (with ninjas nonetheless!) and the last 3 fights are very hard.

Speaking of which, I beat the game, but I don't think I completed fully. I was suppose to protect a guy from dying, by sword fighting his attacker. I lost, and he killed the guy. And the guy who killed the guy died as well. A lot of dying. But I saved the fiancee! X-D So I'm gonna do that level again...

Again, I haven't been able to try multiplayer, but it'll be interesting to see because of the type of movement you must use with the controllers, to cram 4 people on one TV.

I wouldn't recommend the game unless you really want a first-person-shooter. It's a nice long game, but it's nothing super-awesome. I'd like to try Call of Duty 3 and see how that compares...

Blurbs

ZOMG! I'm on the second to last episode of Eureka Seven! Awesome...

I've noticed that novelty tee's don't exist here. That sucks. Apparently people are to cool for them or something, I really don't get it. I was at a restaurant and this little kid and his older brother seemed to have been staring at my shirt. That or they were laughing at my hair. ;) Either way, people seem to be to "old" for these silly shirts. Too bad for them.

Another thing I've noticed is that girls seem to be/look older here. :P In the U.S., I've always thought, a girl from 14-20 something can look like a 16/17 year old. Here, a girl from 14-20 something always seems to be 20 something! Ok, maybe not 14, but definitely a girl my age. She will always seem older than me. It's like puberty all over again. Snap.

I think I beat Red Steel, but not completely. The guy killed the other guy with the sword, I was suppose to protect him. Either way, I failed that little mission. LOL, gonna have to do that stage again! >_< (Review in a following post...later)

I should probably call some friends. I have plenty of minutes on my Gizmo account.

I bought a Canon SD600. My aunt will hopefully ship it to me. It's tiny.

Wiiviews

TADA! Time to post some more in-depth reviews of my games for my Wii!

First up, Wii Sports:

Wii Sports comes prepackaged with the Wii, as game to pretty much show off what the Wii is basically about. It gets all the sensitivity, gyroscoping, motion sensing stuff going, and ALSO shows what a fun, family/friend game should be like. Wii Sports comes with 5 games. Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf, and Boxing. All the games are very fun, though I personally seem to enjoy Bowling (and recently Golf) more, while my sister and dad love Boxing (dad also likes Bowling).

With Tennis, Baseball, and Golf, you can safely assume how they use the remote with it. It's as simple as swinging it around. Of course, in Golf, for instance, how hard you swing will determine the strength of your in-game swing. In Tennis and Baseball it's all about timing. With bowling, you hold down the back trigger on the remote, swing and release the button, to simulate actually throwing it. And for boxing, you get to whip out that nunchuck controller and get to the funny punching. You actually have to hold up the 2 controllers up in your face and punch! It can also detect (though it does get a little funky at times) your uppercuts or swipes.

I think Nintendo should release a sequel to Wii Sports, with more advanced gameplay. As it is now, Wii Sports is very simple, and I understand as it's the first game that anyone will experience for the Wii. It's very easy for parents to play, and that's the whole point. BUT, for those gamers who find it to simple, the advanced version could add a couple of things. For instance, in Tennis, all you get to do is swing. Your character moves back and forth by himself. Also, the power of your swing doesn't determine anything, it's just the timing of it. With the nunchuck controller, and advanced Tennis could use the analog stick for movement, and perhaps they could add the power-sensing on the remote. Or in golf, add a couple more clubs and options for a course creator or something. Baseball, perhaps they could let you play an actual 9 innings, and sense the power of your swing as well? Or even let you throw a curveball by turning the remote instead of just holding a button. Things like that!

All in all, the game is very fun, and has nice graphics and sounds as well. One of the coolest things though, is how you are able to create your own character for the Wii! They are called "Mii"'s and everyone in my family has their own. So far, the only other people we've made are Jose and Zarster (Danish friend). Eventually we'll probably fill it up with all our friends! :D

Secondly, Excite Truck:

This game's best comparison could probably be Burnout. However, it does focus more on the racing part instead of the crashing (though there are 3 minigames, one of which is a crashing arena). The game looks great, and the speed of it is quite exhilarating. The rock music adds a lot to the intense racing atmosphere, though some tracks seem to get repetitive. Speaking of tracks, there aren't that many of them. Despite you doing about 20 races in the first level (there are 2 levels, Excite and Super Excite) the 20 tracks are actually based off of a core 5 or 6 tracks. There's the Desert, Green Castle, Snowy, Island, and China tracks, and from there the other tracks just mess with that basic core (for instance, one Island tracks has a different path than the other, or could be backwards with some terrain differentiation).

There are about 15 cars or so, 3 of which you get on the start, the rest you must unlock. Most of the unlocks are pretty worthless though, atleast...I only use 2 of mine (one which has amazing air, the other great speed and turbo). The rest are just slightly better at something, and slightly worse at something else (each car has a vertain level of sped, turbo, air, and grip). You can also unlock a different paint job for each car, depending on how many times you've raced with it.

As mentioned earlier, there are 2 levels, Excite and Super Excite. As I've also mentioned in a previous post, each level has 4 cups, Bronze up to Platinum. Each cup has 4 tracks you race in. Each race will be graded, from D up to S grade, and by getting all S's in every track, in all the cups, you get to unlock Super Excite. Super Excite is an even FASTER paced version with an extra cup, Diamond. So far, i've only just unlocked Super Excite mode...

There are also 3 minigames (or Challenges, as they are called). One involves you driving through 2 pillars of light, through out the track (which gets harder as they narrow down the further you go). Another is about Rings. In the game, you can hit these switches throughout the track that change the terrain or add rings at the end of a ramp, and if you fly through all the rings, you get special bonuses. That's pretty much what that minigame is about. The last one puts you in a track, but an arena version of it, and is about smashing the other cars. I haven't played much of these, as I've been too busy racing! ;)

I'd definitely recommend buying Excite Truck, I'm sure on multiplayer it would be even better.

Phew! I'll write a review about Red Steel, a first person shooter game later. And perhaps get some pictures too...

Arepa

Mmm...another arepa for dinner! I tell ya, I've had more arepas in the 3 weeks we've been here than I've had in the past 3 years combined, no joke.

In other news, I got pants yesterday! AMAZING!!

Excite

Not much happening now, as we settle more into the house, I return to my indoors-only habits and so there's less stuff to blog about...at least, stuff that actually would be blog worthy...:P

What has happened...

I have left my laptop on for 2 days straight, so I could download 11.27GB worth of an anime series, called "Eureka Seven". It's pretty interesting (I'm 14 episodes in so far) and has a lot of mecha/drama in it. I also downloaded this movie called "Shaolin Soccer", what I could say is my new favorite movie. I laughed my head off when I saw it with Spanish subtitles...

Also, I finally got S's on all tracks in Excite Truck, so I've unlocked "Super Excite" mode. I've yet to actually try a track in that mode, more info later or something...

BLAAH!!

Nerdy

WARNING! WARNING! GEEK POST!

Anyway, so I've been playing my new Nintendo, especially Excite Truck. That game rocks. Anyway, you get ranked on every course, A-D (maybe F, but I never got one), but there is also S, which is better than an A. Ok, and so there are 4 cups, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Each, has 4 tracks. Now, if I complete all 4 tracks in a cup with an S grade, the cup turns into this star thing. I've unlocked some cars and such, and so I'm at the last cup (Platinum) with one track to finish, and another to get an S grade (I can't get past an A). ALL of this, is one the normal level "Excite". I suppose once I finish this, it'll unlock the "Super Excite" level, and I'll do it all over! :P

Also, I've been playing with my laptop quite a bit. I decided to install some IDEs and libraries, all in case I feel like programming something. In addition to that, I was just trying to compile DSLinux for my DS. Problem was, it failed...why? I ran out of space on my Linux partition (I have Windows and Ubuntu on my hard drive, I think Ubuntu has 9GB). So I shrank my Windows partition a bit, and in an attempt to resize my Linux partition, I ran into some problems...

First, I can't resize the partition backwards! I don't know why, and the programs I'm using (all based off of one called Parted) won't move the partition either! GAH! And when I tried to do some deletion and stuff, I apparently screwed up the numbering order of the partitions, and I had to reinstall GRUB (my boot loader). Now, I am currently backing up my Ubuntu install onto my portable drive, and getting ready to reinstall it.

I don't expect you to understand what I said...just smile and nod. :D

More

Ok, so the week and a half or so that we were gone. What happened? Well...

First off we moved into our new house. You can check out some pictures of it here, as usual.

It's crazy because it's so empty. Check out my bed!



I've been sleeping pretty much like that for...the past...well, since I disappeared. :P Actually, after that night I used a tiny little mattress that was inside the room, that's inside the wall. Here's a video so you know what I'm talking about.

Still no car, though dad has his license (which hasn't come yet, but he passed the test and stuff). Here's me eating chicken from Imix Parillla (that place rocks)...



Also, thanks to that crazy guy, Jose (you gotta love that dude!) I have been able to enjoy my new Nintendo Wii!







I'm like a little kid when I get new electronics...



That's about it for now, once I remember more stuff I'll blog some more! X-D

Darn

I was posting my blog thing when my browser crashed. I just wasted 20 or more minutes of typing. I don't feel like doing it again, so I'll post it tomorrow when I'm less mad. I almost kept my promise...:P I'll just leave you with this image...

Interweb

YES WE GOT IT BACK! I'll make a full post update thing later...promise! ;)