MERRY NAVIDAD

Finished Metroid Prime 3 at 95%, finished Phoenix Wright 3 as well, great stories in both games I must say. Had to e-mail Play-asia to ship me my 3 new Wii games again. So I guess I won't get them till next year. Oh well. "Ate ice-cream" for the first time with some friends. Never did like it, and with the few bites I took I'm still not impressed. Yogurt is better. Anyway, Feliz X-Mas! :D

CRAPTOID!

Aw man, I just finished playing Metroid for about 3 hours due to a GAME OVER. I am now at 67% which is actually LESS than what I should of reached (I got a message saying I unlocked a special ending because I reached 75%) but stupid me did not save and lost about an hour's worth of progress. Freaking crap...

I also finished the 3rd case in Phoenix Wright. On the fourth one, which is usually the second to last if I remember correctly. So, that would be 60% with that. Mmmm...Contra 4 is hard as heck and I've only been up to the 2nd level...

My other games have not arrived, and if they don't come this week, I'll have to wait about 3 more so I can e-mail Play-asia to send them. Again. Let's see if my other shipment (ordered ANOTHER game and cable separate from that other double game shipment) arrives on time NEXT week. I'll probably end up e-mailing them saying send me BOTH orders again. Geez Colombia sucks...

Web Design

Well, in the past few days I have been doing quite a bit of work on setting up various things on the interwebs. The week starts out innocently enough as I post my comic up and decide, "Hmm. You know what, I wonder how easy it is to update the site's look by swapping to another template." So, I opened up the layout tab, BACKUP the site's current configuration, just incase, and start looking through the templates. After a couple tweaks and what-nots, I decide that none of them are close enough to what I want, so I attempt to revert to the original state.

Nope. Blogger starts spitting out some errors, and in desperate attempts to copy-paste and tweak the page back to how it was, I completely destroyed the site's layout. -_- Colors are all different, boxes are where they shouldn't be, and my eyes were bleeding as I stared at my new ugly site. So, I had to do something.

Fortunately for me, I already had my real site designed and awaiting launch. I had a test page setup here, to see how it all looked. Designed in Photoshop, and hand coded by yours truly (with A LOT of help from Mr. Phillips, Justin) I decided that if I was gonna fix the site, I might as well go all out and make it look like it's suppose to.

Tuesday comes, and I'm about 50% with the restorations. After plenty of copy-paste the basic layout of my site is finished, and I had 3 main tasks to setup. My navigation bar, footer, and my Archives page. Navigation bar was already made on my site, but for some reason something was getting messed up. It was probably the heavy Javascript used in the table of links I made, so I had to look for an alternative. CSS is what everyone is using nowadays to make sites. It allows for your website to have a consistent and clean look throughout all your pages. It seemed that navigation bars are also recommended to be designed with CSS, but I wasn't completely sure how. However, after following some links I found a nice program called CSS Horizontal Menu Generator, which as the name implies, generates horizontal menus in CSS. :P

So cool, that's done, and now I have some added rollover effects and everything for my bar. Next came the footer. The footer (and the main post section of the blog) have a nice little Javascript that applies rounded corners to the box. Niftycube was the script, and my previous attempts with it worked out fairly well. Unfortunately, when I tried adding the rounded corners here, the footer was splitting up. I never know why that happens, but as it happened before, I knew what to do. I copy and pasted straight from the example page, and slowly tweaked that second footer into my main footer. Turns out, it was the Paypal button that was ripping open the footer (at least in Internet Explorer and Opera, Firefox looked fine). Oh well, took it out and put it up somewhere better.

Last came the nasty section under my comic, which contains my archives. Blogger has these widgets that you add to your blog. One of them, as you can see on the right of my blog here, is the Archive Widget, which has every year, and month in a neat drop down style menu. In addition to THAT, my comic blog has a small section with the Chapters individually split up as well (A simple list of links). My problem was trying to get these things OFF the main site and into their own page. Unfortunately it seems Blogger does not support widgets in your average post. So it was time to look for some more Javascript that would hopefully be able to hide the section, and toggle it on and off with my Archive button in the navigation bar.

Well, right now I have a working toggle button, unfortunately, the section is NOT hidden on page load, which kind of defies the purpose of the button. >_> Oh well, I'm sure I'll figure something out, but for now I am glad to see the page has come along quite nicely. Now, if only ComicCMS would come out with their new version so I can use my actual site for everything instead of depending on Blogger...;)

T-Minus 7 Weeks

7 Weeks till this year is over, and we are marked for 1 year of living here in Barranquilla. Time sure flies when you think you're gonna die. LOL...just kidding. ;)

Anyway, as usual I am overloading myself with a bunch of games I just can't finish. I've progressed some more in Phoenix Wright, I'm in my second case.

I also got Contra 4, a really cool side-scrolling shoot em up with this Rambo type dude. It's frustratingly hard, and I've failed all attempts to pass the first level, but it sure has me intrigued. :P

Haven't played Metroid in a bit, but I think I'm about 1/3 done with it. That's been without about a month of having the game. :P So I gotta do some major catch up and finish before year's end, as I got a copy of Battalion Wars 2 and Super Mario Galaxy heading over here! :D

College in January...-_-

Super Post

Oh boy, I've been postponing this post since I got back from the US...so excuse this extremely long post. :P

Ok, so...the United States was awesome. From what I remember the things I missed most were the foods, seeing as how my sweet tooth has not had it's share of stuff while being here. Donuts, sugar cookies, and gumdrops. God how I miss those delicious sweets! Gumdrops here suck, sugar cookies don't exist apparently, and I've only found ONE store here who sells IMPORTED donuts. What the heck...

What else. It was nice to see all my friends again, I've uploaded most of my photos (of the youth group) in Facebook. Interestingly enough, I only saw my friends 2 days out of the 2 weeks I was there. That kinda sucks...but then again it's not like it was an actual vacation. We were doing so many errands, it was pretty boring actually. Oh well, one day I will save up to visit by myself. I wonder though if I should visit FL for a week, or perhaps to do some semi-cross-country trip going state to state seeing friends from my tournament in real-life. HMMM. Thing is, I can't expect my Floridian friends to come and hang out everyday since they have lives. (A good thing ;P) Which kind of sucks since despite me being able to drive and everything over there, I believe that's the main reason I never saw many of them. :P OR I could totally be an anti-people person and not even know it.

All right, so on to my usual video game chatter. I am now in possession of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Also, while in Georgia, me and my dad bought Wii Play. That, and a nunchuck at Brandsmart so we are now at a complete 4 Wiimote+Nunchuck set for the Wii. I'm about 30% done with the game, it's really good. Graphics are slick, I'd say past Halo 2, gameplay is great with a lot of puzzle solving and shooting mixed up, and a great storyline too. Wii Play on the other hand sucks. Though it came with a Wiimote so it was like paying $10, which it just might be worth. My favorite game on their is a game where your Mii is racing with a cow made of some apparent woven material. Video here below:

On the DS side, I'm still stuck at Mega-man, and I have the new Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations to keep me busy, and also Call of Duty 4 if I feel like shooting stuff. Call of Duty 4 is not that great. So far the only good FPS I've seen has been Metroid. Oh well.

Last but not least, I'd like to share this cool podcast I've been listening to for a while now. The God Journey, which as the sites states:

facilitates a growing conversation among those who are thinking outside the box of organized religion. One listener tagged it as "two real brothers talking about life," and you can also view an introductory video that captures what The God journey is all about. By sharing their own journeys, searching the Scriptures, interacting with their listeners, and examining current events and cultural trends, they hope to encourage others on their own spiritual journey. Their purpose is not to attack people who see it differently, but to inspire those whose spiritual hungers cannot be met in the conventional expressions of Christianity and yet want to live more deeply in Jesus and be part of the church he is building.

Every Friday you can check out a new one, they are awesome! :)

USA #2

Uh...just more summarization. I don't seem to have enough time to type everything out right now! :P

Tuesday - Arrived, crap, stayed at Inn
Wednesday - Sent bad RAM, Publix and Steak & Shake, saw Michael and others
Thursday - Embassy stuff, got my Colombian ID now and went to Grandma's house.
Friday - Did some errands with dad, left ladies at mall all day, hooked up Wii again, went to see the Youth Group :)

Today will be a family reunion on my mom's side. Also, Giselle is also going to the mall with Jacqi (Smitty's mom) and BABY DAN. So...I gotta see the man Baby Dan again. Baby Dan. Baby Dan. Yea!

USA #1

Well. First day came and went (thank goodness), and it sucked. I will elaborate later on that. :P
Yesterday though was a lot better as we came to my aunt's house and I was able to hang out with my old buddies Michael and Justin. I guess I will elaborate more on that later too...>_> Today it seems I gotta go get ready to go to that embassy and get some of the "work" part of the trip done.

Descansar

Phew. Finally took a break from leaving the house today. Seeing as how I can't elaborate too much on the fact that I played a lot of Mario Strikers this morning/afternoon, I will roll through my day yesterday...:P

So let's see. Somewhere around 2:30 my parents and I went off to a hair salon for my mom. The salon we went to was actually around the block of the hotel we stayed at when we first arrived in this city.

Although the plan was at 3:30, my dad didn't waste the trip and dropped me off at the Sisters' house a half hour earlier. A bit embarrassed, I approached their house, which was getting a new roof installed. After talking to their mom a bit, and after the sisters took their showers (-_-) I did my usual "computer maintenance" work as we waited for Jose to arrive.

So after hanging out, talking, walking, and eating with them (Carolina, Adriana, and Jose), it was time to go. Jose had to go home, and Carolina had choir practice. Seeing as how there was a birthday party for Alfonso later that night, I went with Carolina to choir practice, where we met up a few more from the group and took a taxi to his house. That was the first time I ever took a bus. Later at his house was more of the same, a little bit of talking and eating (cake). I took 2 bites and left it, as the bread was apparently soaked in some liquid. Marcos apparently loved it though, so he ate his, mine, and some leftovers as well. :D

After we sand and prayed over him, everyone went home. I walked to my house, about 4 blocks away and got home around 10. Yay.

Triple Dose

Hurray, another post.

So, yesterday we went too Jose's house. Nothing to exciting happened, we just hung out and talked, played some Parchessi, some Wii, and talked. I felt bad leaving a little early (around 7:45) because he really wanted us to stay later, but I was getting HUNGRY. That and I need to pop up in my tournament at least once this week since I won't be there for the next 2. :P Oh well. Today we complete the triad of visits by going over the Sisters' house. So...

Sunday - My house, some other people from the group, Carolina and Jose
Monday - Again, but just Carolina and Jose
Tuesday - Jose's House, just me and Giselle since Carolina was occupied.
Today - Carolina's house, hopefully they remember to call Jose, since it planned last night. :P

What else...how about my checklist for the visit?

-Bring and Use my Gamestop giftcard
-Send RMA Request to Newegg before leaving, ship my bad memory ASAP.
-Order USB key off Newegg for Lisette.
-BUY JUNK FOOD. Need to buy bags of Gumdrops, box of sugar cookies, and Donuts.
-EAT MORE FOOD. Visit Cici's Pizza, Vocelli's, Steak and Shake, and Dairy Queen once again.
-Drive. I need to speed on 595 or down Flamingo again, haven't touched the wheel for almost a year now. o_o

...and of course, visit the Youth Group. Something I really regret is the fact I didn't take (or bother my sister) to take more pictures of everything. I mean, the group here is incredibly photogenic (in the sense that, they love to be in front of a camera) so I got plenty of shots to show my friends in the US of them. However, the same is not true the other way. I can't find any photos of my old youth group, or even of MYSELF. Then again, I'm pretty sure I can blame all that on Giselle, since she was the only one with a camera at the time and seeing as how she's the worst person to rely on to share the photos...>_>

*adds bring Camera to the list

Lastly, here's a video I promised of the group dancing to that crazy Rednex song, Cotton-Eye Joe:

Week to Departure

Goodness my posts are getting huge and frequent...

So yesterday, Jose, Carolina, and us (Giselle and me) met up at the mall right by our house, the Buenavista. We walked around, looked at some clothing, took some funny pictures (that are in Giselle's camera, so don't expect to see them anytime soon :P), and at the end I treated them to some ice cream.

We then walked over to my house (2 blocks away) and hung out there for an hour or 2, mainly playing my finally-arrived-OMG copy of Mario Strikers Charged. Here's the intro to the game:



In other news, I forgot to mention that on Thursday I finally signed up for college at the "Universidad del Norte" (University of the North). I will be studying Graphics Design sometime in January. I went to get a blood test before we went, which really sucked...

When we flew over here, I already had my blood taken at a little office where I got my passport picture. The lady took one of those tiny needles, pricked my finger, splattered some solutions into my blood, which was rubbed into 4 separate boxes. 20 minutes later, she tells me my blood type. HERE? Geez, they wrap my arm with a rubber string, stab me with your average sized needle into the veins where your "elbow-pit" is, and then have me wait an hour for the same results? Such crap. Worst part is, I had to get the test again because we couldn't find that paper from when we came, and of course after I got my blood test taken, my mom called up to say she found it. -_-

So anyway, I'm leaving to the US in a week. Yea.

Paths

Aww man, I need to write stuff on paper or in a document since I had about 2 huge posts worth of stuff to talk about...but I forgot all of it. :P Let me try and remember.

Well, first off here's a map of the city, and the path I took to go to the house:


After a little ruler measuring, looks like it was 1.5 miles to go, so 3+ total (since I got lost). Not bad eh? :D

What else. Well, I guess with mentioning the following 2 things, I will fil lthis post so:

Played 2 new games (Megaman is on hold). One, nice but short, Sonic Rush Adventures. This RPG tries to stay true to old school Sega Genesis style platforming. Problem is, there's about...7-9 islands with 2 levels each, and a boss. The game was quite easy, and I finish within 3-4 days. So...I don't recommend it, even though it has plenty of "side" missions I guess. But I like when those missions are PART of the game, and not some optional thing. I mean, it's not even like I'll get a super cool prize for it. At least for something like Metroid, if you DO get more items and faster times you get better glamor shots of Samus. :P

Second game is Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Awesome game. A sequel to Wind Waker, this game really takes every feature of the DS into use. I was never a Zelda fan, but this game looks great and has kept me hooked on it for days now. Lemme explain how far I've gone (WARNING. SPOILERS COMING!)

********

Ok. So, like I said this is a sequel to Wind Waker. Copy and pasting from the Wikipedia article...

At the start of the game, Link, Tetra and her pirates are at sea looking for the phantom ship rumored to ply the waters in that area, taking sailors and residents of the nearby islands. Tetra, convinced that the phantom ship is simply a bunch of trouble-making pirates, is determined to teach them that pirates have rules, too. When a mysterious ship appears in the middle of a dense fog, Tetra jumps aboard to explore. Almost immediately after, a shriek is heard. As the ship pulls away and begins to vanish with her on board, Link attempts to leap over and save her only to fall into the water himself.

After having a vision of Tetra being surrounded by darkness and calling for his help, Link is washed up on Mercay Island and meets a fairy named Ciela, whose appearance is similar to that of Navi from Ocarina of Time, even possessing the same voice. The fairy has lost her memory and decides to team up with Link. On Mercay Island, Link meets an old man named Oshus who provides him with a sword. Link travels to the far side of the island and rescues Captain Linebeck from the Temple of the Ocean King.[9] In doing so, Link secures the use of Linebeck's customizable steamship to travel throughout the overworld (initially restricted to a single quadrant, but expanded as he acquires more sea maps).

In the first half of the game, Link must rescue three colored spirit fairies: the red Spirit of Power, Leaf, from the Fire Temple; the blue Spirit of Wisdom, Neri, from the Wind Temple; and the yellow Spirit of Courage from the Temple of Courage. However, upon defeating the Courage Temple's keeper, a giant lobster known as Crayk, the rescued fairy is colorless and appears just like Ciela. Ciela wonders why this is, but cannot remember anything due to her amnesia. As Link and Linebeck are about to leave Molida Island, Oshus then arrives, using his magical walking stick to fuse Ciela with the colorless fairy to become a yellow fairy, revealing that she is the Fairy of Courage.



Linebeck and Link then set off to pursue the phantom ship. After rescuing four sisters from imprisonment onboard, it is revealed that they are in fact phantoms themselves. Defeating them, Link obtains the key to where Tetra is being held, but he discovers that Tetra has been turned to stone. The old man Oshus then arrives and reveals that he is in fact the Ocean King himself. According to him, a few years ago, an evil plant monster named Bellum appeared, hungry to eat life-force. He used this absorbed force to create powerful monsters, including the dungeon bosses and the phantoms in the Temple of the Ocean King, and used them to seal away the three fairies of Power, Wisdom, and Courage. Ciela, the Fairy of Courage, was able to split herself in two to flee, but in doing so, she also lost her memory. The Ocean King tried to fight Bellum but failed, using the last of his power to clone himself, born again as Oshus. He then created the Phantom Hourglass so that someone could use it to venture through the Temple of the Ocean King and defeat Bellum.

Oshus then reveals that the only way to defeat Bellum is by obtaining a weapon known as the Phantom Sword. Oshus asks Link to visit the smithy Zauz on his island. Zauz asks for three pure metals as necessary ingredients for the sword; the Crimsonine, Azurine, and Aquanine pure metals are on Goron Island, the Isle of Frost, and the Isle of the Dead, respectively.

Link sails to Goron Island where DaiGoron, the tribe's chief, asks him a quiz to admit him as one of the Gorons. Link defeats Bongorongo in the Goron's Temple and saves Gongoron, a child Goron that became Link's controllable sidekick throughout the temple, receiving the Crimsonine in return for his efforts. Link then sails to the Isle of Frost where he resolves an ancient bloodfeud among the Anouki and Yook. The two races lived peacefully on either side of the island for 100 years, until recently, a Yook invaded the Anouki's village and disguised itself as one of them. Link defeats the Gleeock in the Ice Temple and receives the Azurine.

So that's how far I am. One more pure metal to go. That's enough for now, I'm going bowling this afternoon, hopefully. ;)

Bike

Well. I'm pooped. This morning I rode my bike (haven't used one in a LONG time) and decided to ride around 2 miles to visit the Sisters' house. It was a nice trip, as most of it is going down hill, but I arrived very tired at their place. After fixing their computer stuff, eating, and waiting for the rain to pass, I rode back home.

OMG. I really pushed my body to the limits, I almost couldn't make it. I was dead tired by the time I was even in visual range of the mall (I live about 2 blocks from the biggest mall in the city, so if I see it I can find home.) The fact I got lost twice didn't exactly help with the much needed energy I was in need of. Interestingly enough, I took a break a few blocks from the mall, and actually saw the Sisters' dad walking down the sidewalk to catch a bus! :D Once I regained a little energy, I pedaled over this long curve, and was able to catch a break as I rode down a huge hill in front of this "Home Depot" (called Home Center here. :P) I was going fast...it felt so good. By the time I got home I was dripping in sweat, pink, and very thirsty. My legs feel fine right now, in fact, my hands hurt more which is odd. It's like as if I had been drawing hours upon hours consecutively.

Anyway, after a nap, I woke up to Giselle screaming, as she was stung by a bee (first time for her, never been bitten myself). After my nap, I had my second lunch (the lunch my mom made while I was gone) which was awesome, since I was able to eat it all. Then Miguel came over and we played on his modified Wii. He showed me Metroid Prime 3, which looks great, and we had a short game of Mario Party 8. We also played Need For Speed: Carbon, which didn't look that good, or play as well as I remember from the PC versions. His mom also cooked a HUGE plate of Spaghetti. In fact, with 7 people eating, we could only finish about half the plate/dish/tray thing. o_o

Overall, today was interesting. Definitely not my average Friday.

Socializing Spurt

Well, this past week or so has been fun. I've been over the sisters' house about 3 times now. First one, being the first time entering. :P Then another to fix their computer (which is dead), and yesterday once again to set up a new computer so that they can get their internet set up. The new computer is actually Giselle's old one. I had her switch computers, taking my old Dell (which has been replaced with my mega-awesome rig) and giving it to her, so that we could lend that old rig to someone who needs it.

Unfortunately, it appears there were situations this morning with the internet tech guy who went to install, and the computer. See, the graphics card is a little loose in that machine (crappy Dell PCI lever thingy) so...apparently it got loose and everyone was freaking out because the computer "isn't working". The card is simply loose and therefore isn't outputting to the monitor. But...despite personally telling that to the tech dude, and trying to get one of the sisters to do it herself, it seems their internet installation will be delayed yet again. >_>

Anyway, yesterday we went over Javid's house. It was cool, except we had soup for lunch. I was able to drink about half by dipping my small plate of rice in it, but I gave the other half to Palito, since I don't like soup. I'm sorry, but if I'm gonna eat food, I would like to CHEW IT, not drink it. Drinking is more sodas, juices, and water. You can see some more photos here.
I'll probably get a video somewhere soon, of a bunch of Colombians dancing to that Cotton-Eyed Joe song. Man...they repeated it like 5 times...I don't like it anymore. >_>

I'm still waiting more a non-humid/rainy weekend to play American Football with the group. This week is scratched off because we'll be having a little party for "El Dia de Amor y Amistad". It's pretty much the Colombian Valentine's Day. It was actually a week or 2 ago, we are kinda late celebrating it. ;P

Because of this, and a lot of other things (my sig request thread, commission work, etc.) I've gotten extremely behind in my comic duties. Not that it's super important...but I know how it feels when one of your regularly read webcomics isn't updated on time, so I don't want to do that to my few readers as well. :D And I still need to register for University, now that inscriptions are open...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this country sucks, as it "lost" my copy of Mario Strikers, that I had patiently awaited 5 weeks to arrive. I had to send an e-mail to Play-asia and it seems they've sent me another one, which should be here in 2 weeks. If this one gets "lost" again, I'm seriously screwed. It's almost like Colombia WANTS me to buy a mod chip, because doubling the prices for the FEW games that arrive here directly, taxing the imports to crap, and making it an insecure nightmare with their unorganized shipping methods, my choices are limited, and the Internet is there with its usual easy methods...:(

Drawing

Boy. I've been nothing but abusing my tablet for the past weeks! Since the beginning of August I've been doing some commission work, drawing animations, comics, and I'm doing sigs again and a few other commissions! I've made about $100 in the past 5 weeks (not including the job from my dad, which I've yet to hear about my payment) which is pretty cool. Especially since I needed it this holiday as a bunch of games I need to buy are coming out. Have I mentioned which? Let's see:

Battalion Wars (in Sept.)
Supreme Commander Expansion? (maybe. Also in Sept.)
Super Mario Galaxy (Nov.)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Dec.)
Frontlines: Fules of War (Jan. 08)
Mario Kart Wii (Jan. 08)

That's the list I have in my head, I'm sure there is something coming out on the DS as well. Either way, the holiday is gonna burn holes in my pocket. :D

ABA Games

Just put up some videos of me playing some awesome games from this dude.

Fotos Plz

Ok, so I uploaded a bunch of photos over on Facebook. There are a couple more on my Picasa albums that I shall link to now...

Seminario Pictures:


Youth Group Miscellaneous:



...and my copy of Mario Strikers still isn't here. I doubt I will ever order anything directly to Colombia again.

3 days.

I am gonna have one massive photo dump to put up after Wednesday. Not just from the seminary, where all of my network will be dressed up all fancy-office-like, but from a bunch of photos I got off Giselle's camera that she never shared. Geez, they go back to the first weeks we were in the youth group. I'll probably have to split it into 2 parts, I'll start ASAP.

Super

What the heck. My copy of Mario Strikers STILL hasn't arrived. My mom fears it has been sent to Bogotá (capital of Colombia) to go through its usual inspection. This country seriously sucks when it comes to shipment. I wanted to send my busted RAM to the US remember? $60 to send something incredibly light inside one of those bubble envelopes. Not only that, but they would tax the receiver. Incredibly stupid. With shipments heading INTO the country, this seems to be the same problem. In fact, there are few cities that you can even visit, without first taking a frickin' detour to Bogotá first. Geez this place sucks. Anyway, I'm estimating another week for the game to arrive, and if it doesn't, I'm gonna have to contact the companies or something. >_>

Anyway, on a happier note I beat that Excite Truck game on my Wii. I hadn't played it in a while, but I beat the 2 last tracks I had to unlock the final 2 trucks. Monster Truck and Super Monster Truck. They're pretty much your prize for winning the game perfectly, since the Super Monster Truck has the best stats in everything (minus the grip :P) and has the Power mod on all the time. That means I can run through trees and instantly smash cars by touching them. It's quite fun.

My monitor is still awesome.

And I was voted best potential Father by 2 people on Facebook it seems. Yay? o_O

22

Check the album for more. :)

So

All right, so here's another little update.

I've gotten a couple other suits in Megaman. One is some sort of phantom suit which I assume has some sort of special power, but I haven't figured it out yet. Even the radar on the lower screen doesn't seem to work. I also got a fire suit, which is pretty much two huge guns on both arms, that with some upgrades can be given some specific path (like, I can make it go forward one space, up one, and then turn again). I also figured out some special abilities with my previous suits. The flying suit has a special air-dash. The ice suit is great underwater, as he can float however he likes (instead of sinking, like the other suits). His spear also seems deadlier underwater, as he does a full circle instead of a slash.

Anyway, the story continues as I defeat a couple more bosses, and eventually have 2 guys board the Guardians (the group that is trying to stop the evil Slither Inc.) HQ airship. These 2 intruders were with the Slither Inc. boss, Serpent, earlier when Giro died. Anyway, I had to fight one of them (learning a few tricks, and noticing that I have to learn to use multiple Megaman suits while fighting) and got them off the ship. Eventually we find out that he was involved with something that Prairie's Sister (former leader of the Guardians) had made (the biometals, i.e. the Megaman suits). Also, turns out Prairie is actually a robot, who has been fighting for hundreds of years against the mavericks, ever since robots decided to fight with humans back in the day. So my quest continues as I look for more biometals to stop Serpent from activating some Model W, which apparently will give him some mega powers. These bosses get harder and harder I tell ya...

Anyway, my monitor should arrive Monday, as should my copy of Mario Strikers Charged (a.k.a Mario Soccer). This will be sweet! I just hope they actually deliver Monday, since it's technically a Colombian holiday type of day. But shipping companies don't pay attention to that...right? :P

Mind Dump

Boy...what is on my agenda? Let's see...

• Work
• Commission sigs
  
• #500 coming soon to my comics
• Website which probably won't be ready for #500
• Getting ahead in strips
• Seminary coming at the end of the month
• Sig requests thread
• Campaign starting
• Megaman ZX

And probably a bunch of crap I can't remember right now. Hmmm.

Anyway, my monitor finally shipped, and so has my order for Mario Strikers Charged (for my Wii) so next week will be awesome.

Choked

Here's a funny story:
Last night I had a dream. I can't remember the whole thing, but the important part was I walked up to a table that had some Hawaiian Bread. This bread doesn't exist in Colombia, and I miss it sooo much. The "butter breads" here are nice, but these are even sweeter. Anyway, I think in the dream, when I grabbed one I found a bunch of ants on it. Probably because this has happened multiple times in the old house, where the ants would find the breads and cereals in the kitchen, which was extremely annoying. Anyway, right after that, I shot up out of my bed, waking up because I began to choke. It was really weird because while coughing, I didn't feel any itches (like when you have a cold or something), so I got a glass of water, and went back to sleep. I woke up choking again a little after, but I can't remember what that dream was about, though it was probably related to the first incident...

Anyway, in the morning I told my mom about what happened, and then she said something that completely made sense:

I choked on my own spit. :D You know how that sometimes happens just randomly while you talk or something? Well, after thinking about it, here is my conclusion...

When I saw the bread in my dream, after missing it for so much my mouth automatically started salivating. The thing though, is that my actual body was apparently in that stage of sleep where they can communicate with each other, so I was actually drooling for real, while I was sleeping. Now, as everyone knows you don't swallow while you sleep. So, what most likely occurred was some excess saliva trickled down my throat and into my windpipe, where my body woke me up, gagged, and tried to cough up the offending object (my own drool) from entering my lungs. :P What I assume happened the second time was yet again, some left over saliva.

So yea. Great way to wake up.

Nourishment

After weeks, maybe months...after eating a small piece of some type of bread and a glass of Orange juice or water, for breakfast and dinner, since we've moved here and even earlier...I finally had some eggs. Yes!

They seemed to finally have finished the kitchen. At least, they have the essentials (stove and sink) installed, so my mom can start feeding me properly again. :P

Also, I forgot to mention that 2 weeks ago I had my first fast. It was extremely painful, and I'm not sure if anything resulted from it, but I hope God appreciated the effort. :P My network leader, Hugo, thought I was gonna pass out as he noticed I was going in and out (I think more from sleepiness, and the added hunger while we're praying made me nap while I was sitting), but overall I made it. However, the following days of that week were an extreme pain as I apparently caught some stomach virus (perhaps from a glass of water he offered me, could of been tap or something ;P). But...I think I'm better now, and this Saturday is the next fasting (I had to skip last week's since I knew my stomach wasn't up for it after all that). Wish me luck. :D

Also, I have work again. Supposedly. Ok bye.

Megaman ZX

So. After my DS failure, I was able to start over and clean out my DS from games I never play. The list was narrowed down to:

Advance Wars - Dual Strike (I didn't finish this game. Will have to start over -_-)
Mario Kart DS (Finished, but have to enable Cheat mode to access all my tracks and characters again)
Metroid Prime Hunters (Was half-way done, but got stuck. At least I can try and kill that guy with the red gun again, as I think I screwed something up anyway)
Clubhouse Games (Cheats enabled to unlock the games I already earned)
Planet Puzzle League (Simple game, one of those for when I'm bored)
Brothers in Arms (Will probably delete soon, but it was new)

Anyway, in addition to these games, I got a new one (which is in fact, an old game from '06 I believe) which is Megaman ZX.

Now, I never played one of the old Megaman games as a kid. I did watch the show though,(which looked cartoonier than this Youtube video from what I remember. Oh well) and have check some of the old games through emulators (mainly the SNES ones). So, why not try the DS game?

So I'll probably use that and some other games as an excuse to update my blog, as I post my progress. Anyway, here's what I've gone through in Megaman:

Vent, a transporter meets up with his boss Giro with a package. They are attacked by Mavericks, some evil robots who are apparently attacking the city and are responsible for the death of Vent's parents. They attack Giro and Vent, with Vent's motorcycle blowing up and Vent being thrown off a ledge with the package. The package opened up, and inside was this "Biometal" which possessed the power of the old Blue Megaman (Model X). Combined with the biometal, Vent is transformed into the main dude, Megaman.

Anyway, he eventually is able to deliver the biometal to this group who is trying to figure out what's happening with all the Maverick outbreaks in the City. He had apparently saved the leader of the group when he had fallen off the ledge, a girl named Prairie. After discussing things on the HQ airship, I believe another attacked occurred in the hometown of Vent, so he decides to take action, since he doesn't want more people to die. Giro goes off with him, as they are allowed to use the Biometal. Giro dies, and leaves behind the other biometal that he was using, Model Z. With Vent near death, the Model Z combines with the model X to unsurprisingly form, Megaman ZX :P

So that's the main story. I've completed about 3 missions already. The different stages are labeled via letters. A-1, A-2, B-1, B-2, etc. I'm currently on I-7 or something, and am stuck against this really hard boss. I've already defeated 2, and got the Model L and Model...something. An Ice and Air suit, that along with the ZX. So...there you go.

Busy Woodchuck

Ugh. My DS memory failed today. On that memory were 25+ game saves, all of which are lost. CRAP. On the bright side, most of the games were simple Pick-up and Play, OR a game I already beat. Some others though, like Big Brain Academy and Metroid Prime Hunters did have some important save info, so I'll have to start over. :( Oh well. I'll be making a script for the new memory so every time it's plugged in, it will automatically back itself somewhere. The old memory is completely screwed as Windows (and Linux) have too many problems detecting it, and I can't reformat the card at all. :\

Anyway, I've been fairly busy this week. Worked on 2 animations for a publicity announcement of a seminar that our Network will be presenting in a few weeks. I got 2 more to finish, and probably will help out with anything else.

Over in my tournament, we just finished Campaign 6. That means in a few weeks I'll start that sig request thread, the one where I draw some 30 images for some dudes to put in the forums. Looks like I'll also be Captain of my company (highest rank in company level) so that's pretty cool.

Uh...what else. I already posted about my LCD. Mmmm...today after church I hung out with some people from my Network, we ate lunch together, hung out at the mall, and then they dropped by my house to look at some photos (and drain our water supply ;P). Overall, very fun. :)

Oh yea, pics of the new house are on my Zooomr page. SO click on that icon over on the right sidebar, with the camera. :D

LCD

I just bought this. Pray that it will arrive safely and undefective. :P

Moved Again

All right, so I haven't posted in quite a bit, but let me try to recap what's happened in...apparently the last 21 days since my last post. :P

So, first off, I couldn't get into the college I was planning to go to, because they didn't accept the SATs. However, next semester I will be signing up for another (I think better) university that should accept it, although it's a little more expensive (though they seem to be more technologically advanced than the other colleges). Looks like I'll be going for Graphic Design right off the bat, instead of my original plan of studying a small technical career for a few years. If I'm gonna spend some years, it might as well be on a complete career and with something I really wanted to try, not just a course that I think I'd be good at. ;)

What else...I probably have a bunch of stuff on Facebook (where, I was recently able to find a lot of my old schoolmates from Elementary School! :D) that would talk about anything that's happened lately...except:

I saw Transformers Sunday. It was awesome. Robot action is awesome. Optimus Prime is awesome.

Lastly, we just moved in to the new apartment (a few blocks from the old townhouse) and so far we've only encountered these major problems:
AC Pains - The way AC works here, is you have the small AC box in a hole in a wall in each room. Unfortunately, the socket for my AC in my room blew up, my sister's wall opening for the AC was too small for her old AC, and my dad's NEW AC blew up too.
Entertainment Center - It didn't fit. We are on the 4th floor, and the elevator here is tiny, just enough to fit about 5 adults. The only other option is a small staircase that is about 2.5 feet wide, so to twist a 5 foot wide center up is impossible. For now, it sits in one of our 4 parking spaces. ;)
Internet - It seems our DSL is not set up yet, HOWEVER we are taking another Wimax trial (search my blog for Wimax for an explanation and story on what happened last time) but to summarize (and conclude, so I can get to bed), this is awesome. The speed is exactly what is advertised, I miss this type of speed.

Anyway, I'll get photos of the new place soon. Good night.

Red

Whoa. Haven't posted in almost a month. Oh well, I come back with PLENTY of photos to make up for it. Have a look HERE and HERE! :D

Let me sum up a little:

So we've been going to a youth group for almost 2 months now. It is a BIG youth group, I'm guessing around...100 or more. Anyway, it's big enough that there seems to be little "networks" over here, or what we attempted at one point with the "accountability groups" in REEL, except these groups (at least mine) has around 25 or more people. :P

Anyway, the first week we went to the youth group, we were greeted by some of the group members, some of which have become our closer friends. So, here we goes...



Here are a couple of the members. The 3 girls sitting down are sisters. From left to right are Adrianna, Lisette, and Karolina. Karolina and Adrianna were some of the first people I met at the group. The first 2 weeks, me and Giselle left pretty quickly after the youth service ended, but on the third one, Adrianna and Karolina caught us, and were able to talk to both of us (mainly Adrianna with Giselle, Karolina interrogating me). Anyway, these sisters have become some of our closer friends here.





As for my fellow males, I've also met 2 funny gringo-wannabes. Here, on the most right, is Cristian. He is a master butcher of the English language, and now greets us (and purposely annoys Giselle) with a loud "HALLO!" all the time. X-)

Another dude who was within the first group I met is Alex, a.k.a Palito (meaning "small stick"). Palito is even skinner than me, and also seems to like and dabble in some English. He likes to sing and dance, and he is very quick with making jokes out of the conversation. He also seems to be quite the ladies' man, but he probably has nothing on Michael. ;P You can see him above, the first one to the left of me.



Last but not least, the leader of our little network group, Hugo! Small in stature, but big in heart (kinda like Jose! :D), Hugo is a really cool dude, with a mysteriously unknown age, and a lot of youthful energy. Anyway, we've been hanging out more and more over the past weeks, and just last Sunday they all invaded my house, so you can go check out the small albums on my Facebook.

Hair-be-gone-salon-athon Store.

An hour ago:


Now ago:

Supcom Battle - 5/22/07

So, I'm gonna layout my battle this morning with some dude in Supreme Commander. Here is an overview of the map we played, Emerald Craters. I'm the red team on the North, and he's the Green on the South. A basic thing you should know about the game is that there are 2 resources. Energy, and Mass. Energy, is easy to get. You just build different generators. You have different levels of technology (3 of them) so you start out building level 1 generators. Eventually you upgrade one of your factories to build a level 2 engineer, which in turn can build a level 2 generator. Then again for level 3. There is also a special type of way to get energy, and that's through that yellow lightning bolt you see on the map, which you build a Hydrocarbon Plant on.

Mass, on the other hand, is a lot harder to get. All those green patches across the map are your mass deposits. You have to build a Mass Extractor on them to get any mass. Thing is, being a large map, my engineers can't get to all of them quick enough, so I mainly grab all the ones near my base, and upgrade those. An alternate method to receive mass, is through a fabricator. The fabricators (only level 1 and 3) use up a LOT of energy to make some extra mass. For every Lvl 1 Fabricator you should have 2 Lvl 1 Generators. Hopefully, you caught all that.



Here's my base a few minutes into the game. Already got a land and air factory up. I wish there was some indicator that let me knew when a factory finished, many times I losing valuables seconds/minutes because I didn't realize one was done. I could of started building something earlier...-_-



Here's an overview of my scouts (those 3 diamonds across the center) doing their recon work. Just to make sure they (the enemy's armies) aren't there. I should of built a small base on that eastern (right-side) mound, but didn't, and eventually lost it to my opponent. :P



Here's his base after 5-10 minutes in the game.



And here's my base. Not bad either, but maybe a little less organized.



Here is his little army, he set them up in a line in front of the base he started constructing near the center.



At his main, he built a LOT of fighter jets. :P Later to destroy all of mine, protecting his gunships.



Dundundun! I send my first wave to his little, yet quickly growing base down near the center.



Here is the closest I got to winning. Our first armies meet, but interestingly enough his Commander was out there in the open, ready to build something. however, he quickly retreated as my first wave gave attack. They were all destroyed as his little defense line was bigger than my attack was.



Here you can see our respective bases so far...



Here's about the best I was able to get my base to. Right now you see a Level 2 Shield being built in the top-right. I was able to get about 4 all around my base at the end. However, that whole section in the top-left was taken out by a surprise ground+air attack. He had sent about 20 gunships across the left of the map, and then attacked from the North, but even worse was the fact that he had loaded half of those Gunships with a tank underneath! So I had about 10 tanks eating away as a bunch of Gunships attacked from above. I lost a lot of my power plants and fabricators (they turn energy into mass) which I had to rebuild later on.



My problem: I did not have any of this at my main. After that attack I was left rebuilding what I already had, which was older level 2 technology. He already has level 3 shields, power generators, and fabricators running his main base.



Here is a final overview of the map. As you can see, I did a fair job on expanding, however, the key is inside the enemy's main base, down in the south. That's where all his power was coming from, and from there he was able to amass an army near the center.



Here is his final wave, the army that eventually destroyed me. Noticed how he strategically position a bunch of shield tanks throughout the formation, as to give maximum coverage to all his bots and tanks.



Here you can see his huge army eating away at the south of my base. I'm in trouble...



See that floating ship near the top? That was a transport. I tried to build it as fast as possible to fly my Commander out of my base, but they shot it down quick, so you can see my Commander (the robot on fire :P) running away...



but they caught him so...I died. :P

Blurbizitation

No, that word does not exist. Oh well. Here goes my random thoughts for the day (and throughout the past weeks :P)...

I really suck at the large maps on Supreme Commander. I've been playing this one, called Emerald Crater. A huge green map, with one big circle in the middle, and 4 smaller circles on each cardinal direction. Then there's also a nice chunk of land with some resources on each corner on the map. Anyway, I can't seem to expand fast enough, which leaves me with low resources, and with my enemy able to build his army ALL around me. I just finished a game, this time I did a lot better at expanding, but I hit another problem I have which is advancing my technology (level 1, 2, 3). So he had these HUGE power plants (Level 3) before I did (though I had quite a bit of Level 2), so he was able to build larger armies than I was able to counter with. I saved the replay to check out how he worked his stuff. I'll make a separate post showing our battle, since describing it is a lot harder, than staring at some of the beautiful screenshots I could be taking instead. :P

I've been finalizing some stuff with my website, and thanks to Justin's help, I've been able to get my layout completed! I'm testing out some stuff with the scripts and junk for my comic system, so that's what I'll be working on for a bit. I set up a test page here. here you can see my original mock-up for it, I got it pretty close eh? :D



School. It rears its' ugly head once again. I have a week to decide whether I'm gonna sign up for Graphics Design at "La Universidad del Norte" and start in June (or July) the classes. Ugh...I'm gonna have to pray hard for this one, because if I miss it, I'll be schooless for another year, which isn't necessarily bad but...you know. It would be better to get in school again...I guess. I wish God could send me an e-mail, to let me know what he wants...

We'll be visiting a youth group on Saturday, checking it out to see if we like it. We finally were able to check out the small youth service they had on Sunday, not a lot of people, maybe about the size of REEL, but with a couple more little kids. :P

I'm hungry.

If I didn't mention this already, we bought an apartment. After we move out (I think next month, or July) we will be staying at an apartment for a while (few years or so, unless we find a nice house or something :P).

Pixtures

Here you can see some of my huge base. There's my commander there with the name tag "mastastealth" on it.



Here is on of MY races' experimental units, the Fatboy. It's pretty much a mobile factory (which I used to build all those anti-air tanks next to it). You can see the wreckage of one of the enemies' experimental units, the Monkeylord, A huge spider bot, in the background.



One of my little Anti-air points. You can see the guns firing at some of those enemy green planes on the right.



Here comes one of the biggest, baddest experimental units in the game. I believe it's called the "Czar" and it's pretty much a UFO with super laser beam underneath.



And here you can see that UFO blown up. I had to send every fighter I had to take that punk out.



So that's Supreme Commander. Here's a picture I drew for a contest on Deviantart:



I'll get screenshots of my Linux desktop later.

Squito Chart

Call me obsessive, but I've added a little flash "chart" (right sidebar, on bottom) where I will keep track of my mosquito bites from now on. You can believe it or not, as you will see it's just an unreal amount of bites. The red ones are "officially" recorded bites. When I made the chart, I looked in a mirror and marked every bite I could still see. The dark red ones, are older ones I had scribbled on a pad, but only go back a month or 2. So there are still about 3+ months of bites worth that I'm not even showing! PLUS that doesn't include the small bites that might of disappeared fast enough that I forgot to record them that day.

Click on the pink face to show my face bites, click the face to make it disappear again. That "green zone" is where I hope I never get bit, and shouldn't, because I'm wearing pants you know? ;) So no bites from my waste to above my knees.

That is all. I still need to get some photos of something from some days ago right? Bleh....

Geeklog

Well, I'm gonna share some of my recent PC activities, which may be a nice change from my usual "I hate mosquito rants". Although, FYI, I got bit 12 times in the past few days, in odd patterns. It's a line of 3 bites each, going up both cheeks, a line down my neck, and then a line across the middle of my forehead, each one consisting of 3 bites. Really weird stuff. Anyway...

...

You know what? I think I forgot most of the stuff. :P You see, I wrote that above paragraph one day, and had to save it because I had to do something...and now, 3 days later, I try to finish this darn post (which I know was gonna be pretty big) and can't remember what the heck I was gonna say...darn it.

So, I'll start with:

I've been playing some more Supreme Commander lately. I bought that game a while ago, and had played a couple times, but now I play about every other day. It's really awesome (and works so beautifully on my new machine) and I've won a couple multiplayer battles. Although in the past few days I've been trying to finish the campaign (single-player) mode. I probably shoulda taken a screenshot...:P

I've also been doing some WINE work in Linux. WINE creates a type of translation layer to Linux, converting Windows functions and calls to use native Linux ones, so that it can run programs. The developers have done an amazing job at getting DirectX stuff into the code, and I've been able to get Battlefield 2, Total Annihilation, and Soldat to run in Linux quite well, though Supreme Commander gets an error during install for some reason...

I installed the new Ubuntu Feisty 4.07 on a spare 80GB I had, so it has plenty of room. I have it all nice and setup now with Beryl and everything. I should get a screenshot of that too...;)

I also am working on some art stuffs...but I will post all those pictures (and some more stuff on a recent trip we had) in another post...

Farm

We went to a farm Saturday. Check out my photos!



Other then that...I've won a couple games of Supreme Commander, but I'm still a noob at it. The game rocks though.

Face Feast

More bites...from this little punk:



Here you can see my ugliest bite, on my elbow, which is a few days old. You will also notice my eyes have bites (although my left eye could just be my chalazion :P) Also next to my eye, and next to my lip.


I also found this at the foot my bed, when I woke up to these bites.

Income

So...I haven't posted anything interesting lately about how I've personally been doing here. So, let me take some time now before I get bored of typing. ^_^

First off, to the all so common question of: "So how is it over there?"

The answer is, it sucks. To further detail that simple response...
Colombia (and when I say Colombia, I will mainly refer to the city I reside in currently, which is Barranquilla) looks kinda crappy. Not that I care much, but it makes the place look poor. The closest thing would be if you go visit Miami. Similarly, both places have there good and bad neighborhoods. And like any place, there are some sections where you can check out the mansions, and a lot of these Colombian mansions are gorgeous. I'm sure Giselle has pictures, whether they're online or not, I don't know, but if you want to see them, go nag her. ;)

Colombian food is great. I love eating the meats and chicken. It's not so different because my parents are Colombian, so the food I ate at home was mainly Colombian anyway. :P

The people...are people. I don't know what people mean by "how are the people there" since I don't really interact with strangers. :P I've already posted about the annoying beggars. Most people are friendly, but it's simply because they want your money! :P

What sucks? Well, if you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you should of come across a post about electronics, something which Colombia is incredibly crippled with. Import costs are sick, shipping costs are disgusting, taxes and prices on stuff here is way too high to justify and there is not much I can do about it. :(

There are no computer shops like Bestbuy over here. There are no famous brands from the computer industry like you can get off of Newegg.com, just a few, and so if I plan on buying anything electronic, I'm gonna have to buy some hefty shipping costs to get it from the US. If you know me, you know I'm a computer geek, and this really hurts.

Anyway, to explain the title of this post, I wanted to let some people know we are getting closer to getting some sort of income. I think my dad got some deal with his job or something, seems like it's getting more serious. Also, my parents are heavily considering starting an internet cafe, and so they have been researching on that quite a bit. Please keep us in your prayers as we've been burning through our savings for about 5 months now, and we need something to recuperate it. I hope God shows us why he brought us to this country soon. I still believe he did, and it's the only thing that I can use to not go haywire living here. :P

Feast

Well. I got bit again. A couple of times too. First off, both of my EYES were attacked 2 days ago, one on my right eyebrow, and the other smack on the left eyelid. This morning I wake up to:

2 bites on the edge of my right palm
1 bite on the edge of my left palm
1 bite on my left index finger
1 bite on my left ring finger
1 bite on my right ring finer
1 bite on my right elbow
1 BIG bite on my left elbow
1 bite on the back of my left leg
and lastly another bite under my right eye, near the top of the bridge of my nose.

Can you believe it? Probably not, but it's true. I have not gone ONE WEEK in this country (which I've lived in for almost 5 months) without being bitten by a mosquito.
Goodness gracious.

DOA?

One of my memory sticks is bad. I guess it was "Dead-on-Arrival", or rather, "critically wounded" since it worked for about a day. :P Either way, I'll need to spend about $36 on shipping, fortunately Newegg will replace and ship it (to my aunt's) for free. So I'm stuck with 1GB for now...>_>

Computer

Check my photo page for more!

GEEZ

I just got bit on my left foot 5 times by a mosquito, within the last half hour. How do they get me!? So stealthy...

65

That was the total weight of my comptuer parts...65 lbs. What did it cost to get here? $215. Ouch. Should be here around Saturday/Monday.

Custom Robo Arena is an awesome DS game.

Facebook is pretty neat. I don't know why more people don't use it. Myspace is ugly as crap and is limited. Facebook is so clean and has a lot of cool features, and feels so SAFE. No spam from a bunch of crazy people I don't even know. Great privacy features. I was also able to get it to import my blog posts, so now I don't have to manually type them into Facebook as separate posts. Now if I can figure out how to get Xanga to just mirror my actual blog...:P

I'm hungry. Feed me?

Mailtime

Well, my aunt will be shipping my PC to me soon, hopefully by tomorrow, but probably in the next few days, MEANING it should be here by the end of next week. Awesome.

I finished another campaign in my tournament. Our division won, like usual! ;) The last battle was intense, but it was awesome.

Anyway, not much else to say...or at least, I can't remember anything. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I "beat" Rocket Slime. There are still some things I can do, but technically I finished the game. ^_^

I also downloaded a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game for my DS, based off of the new movie coming out. It's not that great, I wouldn't buy it.

There are a couple of games coming out for the Wii (Cooking Mama, Medal of Honor Vanguard, and Super Paper Mario) that I can't afford right now, but would love to get! X-D

Amigos

First off, let me say, colloidal silver is the best frickin' medicine on Earth. I woke up with a nasty sore throat, and a weird one at that. Just in the back of my mouth, not exactly in the neck area like usual. Anyway, after eating breakfast and lunch, it gets a little better, but then my mom gives me a cup with a little colloidal silver, and MAAAAANNN...instant throat-cleanser. Of course, it's not a miracle healing liquid, and the soreness comes back after a while, but it's awesome because in the multiple cases I've used it, it provides an INSTANT relief and then also helps take the soreness away. Something about silver and how it kills bacteria. Anyway, I just love that stuff...

Anyway, the topic of friendship has popped up quite a bit in my head. Paula recently posted something about a couple of her friends, I recently talked to my cousin Victor and the topic came up. I mentioned something that he agreed with, and that was that there are not enough synonyms in English to describe the different levels of friendships.

You see, most people call anyone they know relatively well, a "friend". I've recently (as in the past years :P) have noticed this is an overly used word. You see, friends should be people you are close to. People you talk to quite a bit, hang out, stuff like that. I think it takes a certain level of bonding between 2 people to consider each other as friends. So here goes my list of levels:

Acquaintance: These are people you have met in this past few minutes. You know their name, maybe age, and another detail or two, but that's it.

Personal Acquaintance: This type of person, for instance, is one that needs a specific word for. I'll refer to them as a "Perquaint" for now. A perquaint was an acquaintance that you got to know. You know a little more than a name now, and you can talk to them about different things. You are probably just learning about their interests, and maybe what they plan on doing in the future/already working as. A perquaint can also be used to refer to a friend of your friend. Like, you don't really know them, but you can discuss things you saw on the news or whatever if your friend leaves the room, leaving you two alone. After a while it may get awkward (unless you really get along quickly) and you need to call your friend back.

Homies: Homies, for a lack of a better word, are probably a majority of what people consider "friends". For instance, I would consider half of my old youth group "homies". You can talk to any of them, maybe even about some personal stuff, but really your relationship is a bit shallow (not in a bad way, just, it's not a deep friendship). You probably don't call each other, only see them every once in a while (weekly through monthly) but you know quite a bit about them as well, and probably leave each other Myspace messages. You should also have an idea of what month their birthday is in.

Buddies: Buddies near the level of "Friend" but are not quite there yet. You probably hang out sometimes, chat up on instant messengers a bit, but private matters normally aren't revealed too much between each other. I would consider online friends right around the "buddy" level. For instance, I have a bunch of buddies from my tournament in 21CW. I talk to many of them almost everyday, we play online together, and we make jokes about each other without taking offense. Sometimes, we even learn some personal things, a little about their family or something, but it's usually not something you discuss to often. Anyway, I think "buddy" should replace friend as the common word. Why?

Friend: Friends...these are people you talk to all the time, have such a close bond you share secrets with each other, you got too many inside jokes, etc. The Bible has an example of friends, David and Jonathan. I believe it mentions something (if not there, then in Proverbs) that a good friend, can be closer than a BROTHER. Wow. Can you really use "friend" on as many people as you probably do? I can tell you right now, I've only had 2 real friends. Malcolm, who I use to go to School with from 2nd-4th grade, and Michael, who anyone in youth group (or Cornerstone ;D) should know. And yet, even though they were friends at one point, prolonged lack of contact can still lower them in the levels of friendship. I wouldn't consider it as a bad thing or anything, friendships aren't just any little thing. Right now I wouldn't consider Michael less than a buddy, and Malcolm, seeing as how it's been more than 5 years since I've even spoken to him, I'd consider a homie, both of which, with some time, could rise back to "friend" level quickly. Also, though probably dealt with different, a girl/boyfriend would hover around this level as well. Also, even if, for example, you had a girlfriend, you could still have another "friend" who is a girl as well. Being friends requires TIME, without that the bond is easily weakened. Either way, a "friend" is quite an important thing for someone, and I think that it should be used a lot less than it is. Finally:

Spouse: This about the ultimate level, which you can obviously only have one of. A spouse is your best friend in life. I mean, you're gonna be with this person for some 50+ years about everyday right? Of course, not every married couple has their level of friendship where it should be, but a good couple tops the list of "friendshipity".

Anyway, hope none of my buddies who somehow find this post get mad or anything. Especially now being in a different country, I doubt anyone would be able to consider me a friend. A buddy? Sure. Nothing wrong with that. Less? I don't mind. If we talk enough we can climb our way up to buddies as well. As for friends, I sure hope I can find some down here, but I'm sure it'll be a while. :P

Oh yea, and I finally finished coloring this.

Sync

Ooh boy! Here comes a round of updates, reviews, and random junk...

Check out the title: "Sync". With a funny misspelling that would be a cool name for some social network site right? "Keep in 'Sync' with your friends..."

On Saturday morning, I have successfully emptied my bank account by buying a brand new computer. Well, you know, a bunch of parts to make myself a new computer. I'd give you specs, but you probably don't know what they are or what it means. So let's just say it's awesome and cost a lot of money.

But I guess, incase you do know...
Intel Core 2 Duo e6600 (2.4Ghz dual-core)
eVGA 680i SLI motherboard (this and the above processor bundled gave me a free copy of Supreme Commander!)
2GB DDR2 PC2-8800 (Memory)
250GB Seagate Perpendicular SATA Drive (Harddrive)
320MB Geforce 8800GTS (out performed it's 640MB brother, a graphics card, comes with Call of Duty 2)
Creative Audigy X-fi Sound card (for sound)
Corsair 650W modular Power Supply (Yay, modular cables)
and I guess that's it. Case, DVD drive, and I'll use my current keyboard/mouse/monitor for now.

Speaking of which, one of my main catalysts in buying a new rig was my recently purchased copy of Supreme Commander...
The game, is just like Total Annihilation, except prettier. The graphics however do take a BIG toll on my machine, and so I'm buying a new one to get this game running silky smooth (which it probably won't, but it'll run way better than it does now, which is just acceptable). Although, I still need quite a bit of practice on multiplayer, as I've only won 2 games against really new guys, and 1 because my opponent disconnected from the game. Here's a screenshot (not from my machine, just from the game) so you can see how it looks like:



Another game which I just spent my weekend on is a DS game called "Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime". This must be one of the first RPGs I've ever come close to completing.

Rocket Slime is a strange little game , where you play as a blue slime, whose city "Boingburg" gets owned by a bunch a group of platypus called "the Plob". They kidnap just about everyone in the city and you have to go find all of them. Along the way, you find a hidden tank that you can summon with a flute, and you battle out other bosses' tanks with it. The game is very fun and some of the slimes are just awesome.

Laslty, I just registered an account on Facebook. So if you've finally gotten tired of the UGLY, spamtastic, ad-invaded Myspace, come over here.

YESSS!!

Patience

My aunt is coming on Wednesday for some dental work. And she is bringing my copy of Supreme Commander. I've been waiting since Feb. 22nd for that sucker. How I hope I get it in 2 days...-_-

Anniversary

My parents have been married for 22 years today. Wow...go them!

School'd

Weeeee...excuse my little rant here, just something I'd like to share.
Every time someone mentions something about college I get to wondering...what's the big deal? For instance, some people in my family have asked repeatedly what I think about doing about college now that I've moved over here. My answer, "I guess I'll go to college here." For those who don't know, I plan on studying Graphics Design. That or maybe something with animations, or as a last resort, some sort of computer technician course. That's if I go to college in the first place.

Suddenly, gasps are heard everywhere! "What you you mean IF you go?" Well, I'm not sure if I need to go or not. You see, I'm very laid back about this college situation, maybe too much, but I think I have logical reasons. First off is the obvious international transition that has just took place. if I were still over there I might have been applying already, but since we moved, I'll be delaying any of that junk until I know we are staying for good.

Secondly, I don't see the big deal. I know people who are entering and are stressed to their limits because of college, and I feel so sorry for them. I don't see why it's gotta be like that. What do people go to college for? To study something they'd like to have as a career in their life. Why do you want a career? Well, to have a good life, money, and get a nice piece of paper certifying you for that career. Uh...what? You see, some people, like my grandmas for instance, want their grandkids to get a career simply for bragging rights! That's absurd. Some people do it because their parents pressure them to. That sucks. Me? My parents have one priority in my life, and that is that I have a close personal relationship with God.

Nothing else matters. Am I saying "DON'T GO TO COLLEGE, ITZ WASTE YOUR LIFE!"? No, by all means, do whatever God leads you to do, not what family, friends, or society wants you to do. God probably could care less if you got a career or not, as long as you were doing it in his will. Maybe you were called to do something else besides waste a couple of years learning something you are not meant to do? Which leads me to another point:

I think colleges are really only good for "officializing" whatever it is you are studying. For example, I plan on learning graphics design right? No business would really take a look at my work unless I had a "degree" or some little special thing like that, even if I'm just as good, or BETTER, than some dude that does have one. That's lame, and I see that as a flaw in society. You know how much I've learned about computers over the past 10 years? Then I see these "Geek Squads" and crap like that come up, and hear the stories of how idiotic they diagnose problems. But does it matter? They probably have some certification, while I don't. Too bad for their customers. So pretty much, all I'm going there for is to spend months and months of mostly useless work, to get a paper saying, "Look at me, I can do this!". Seriously, most of what you learn will be on your own time, throughout your life. (unless of course, you get one of those "specialized" type of careers, like a doctor, who will spend years learning stuff) That's what I think, and have read. Programmers for instance, will learn more during their teenage years, hacking away at programs or making viruses (:P) than learning a bunch of junk at college that businesses won't even USE! It's also too generic sometimes. Jose has told me about his studies, and one day he's learning stuff in Flash, another day stuff in Maya (a 3D application). What the heck? if I want to learn Flash animation, I sure as heck don't need to learn about 3D modeling or animation. There's really no way to study a very specific thing...at least, it doesn't seem that way in any of my fields of interests.

BAH! What a waste it seems to me. That's why I'm wingin' it (I guess I'm wingin' life too :P). I have my plans, but if God decides something else, heck, I'd gladly change my plans to suit his. Not that it'd be any easier than going to college, but atleast this will get me some "eternal diplomas", if you will.

Business

Meh. Another week gone by without a fridge. We finally got one though, I believe one of my mom's friends is lending her one.

Anyway, not much has happened over the past few days, at least nothing news post worthy that I can remember! :P However, something interesting has bloomed over the weekend.

Talking with Miguel (remember? Mom's Classmate's Son) we have come up with a small little business of selling parts for the Nintendo DS. I'll be selling memory, cartridges, hopefully games and maybe other electronics as well depending on how things go. I also started another blog specifically for those people who want the latest in DS news, of course, in Spanish. O_O So we'll see how that goes...I've spent some $300+ on products and I need to sell them to get my money back! X-)