Totally random. I recently realized how similar in theme are Iron Maiden's Hallowed Be Thy Name and Metallica's Ride the Lightning. In both cases a condemned man is just about to die (in the gallows and in the electric chair) and both of the refuses to give up at first while finally they accept their fate. Anyway, both are great songs...

See ya guys!

Gaming industry has been gaining presence on the last years... maybe cause or maybe effect of this, games and gaming consoles as well have improved in every sense: graphics, gameplay (playability) and even storyline. Yet there comes a time when you feel some kind of nostalgia for the old games, the classics. No one can pretend to not miss at least one classic or the bunch of games they had for consoles like NES or Atari 2600 without lying, unless, indeed, they are too young to even know the existence of games with "crappy graphics". A lot of titles come to mind when speaking about this, but I won't cite any this time.

Furthermore, I consider a lack of interest in a very simple yet fun and competitive game: Minesweeper. The most known variant of this game was developed by Oberon Games and released as part of an entertainment pack for Microsoft Windows in 1990; ever since, it has been included in every Windows release. Included, yet mostly ignored...

The objective of the game is very clear: you have to clear a board of mines without getting killed by one. The board is full of "white" squares which you have to unveil to find out which of them are indeed mines. To do so, the "free" squares have a number written on them that show up when they are clicked. This number indicates the number of mines there are on the 8 squares around it. You must decide which of them are mines, flag them and open up the entire board to see the cool smiley

Good ol' Minesweeper... To make it a little bit more challenging, the game offers you three levels of difficulty and records scores for best time solving a board. Seems pretty easy, huh? It is, and that's the key for fun (I'm not trying to say new games are bad at all... indeed, complexity is also a compelling factor for casual and hardcore gamers). Why then is this little game relegated to moments of unfathomable boredom and not even taken as a "videogame"? That's a question for everyone to answer themselves... maybe is its lack of multiplayer and even of replayability (meaning, after gaining your own highscores).

But this game is still alive, even though Windows Vista version almost killed it (check out this for further details). There's a group of players that keep Minesweeper going on with tournaments, holding world records, etc. This has made the game even more competitive, instating the creation of the 3BV and 3BV/s measures of difficulty and "ability" (read this article for more information: 3BV). So why not consider getting just a bit more serious on this game and not only use it to kill boredom?

There are also cool variations of the game, just like Minesweeper 3D, which I will not take on consideration in this article.

All said, now it's up to you to remember those good days with old gaming and join them with the fun of this simple game to click once more on that pretty yellow smiley and start a new board...

So I was playing Diablo II, remembering good ol' times, and a friend came up with the idea of recording the bosses's dying animations. Thus I came with this new video... Hope you enjoy it!

See ya soon, hope to see your comments...

PD: sorry for the missing final letters, I don't know what happened...

First of all... WTF is a metapost? First of all we must consider the greek word μετά, or "meta". It means: "after", "beyond", "with", "adjacent", "self". Wikipedia says about the english prefix "meta-":

In epistemology, the prefix meta- is used to mean about (its own category). For example, metadata are data about data (who has produced them, when, what format the data are in and so on). Similarly, metamemory in psychology means an individual's knowledge about whether or not they would remember something if they concentrated on recalling it. Furthermore, metaemotion in psychology means an individual's emotion about his/her own basic emotion, or somebody else's basic emotion.

So, what's a metapost? A metapost is a post thath talks about itself... and that´s what I'm doing... talking about what I´m doing: writing what I'm writing.

Beyond this, this metapost is a metablog also, meaning it talks about my blog in general. This is where the part of the post's title "[please comment]" takes part on the whole of this thing: I've tried to have a blog where the posts would have titles apparently unrelated to them and have contents hopefully "experimental", so, pushing apart the fact that I post eventually (maybe now one of the reasons has been elucidated) and I have very few ones (maybe it's also time to read previous ones), what do you think of my blog? (try to be sincere lol)

Hope to see you soon guys and to read your comments...

Got a new emblem! It's really been a long time since I don´t get one...

Pretty emblem, ain´t it?

Anyway, last post I left a PD where I stated that my next post would be a metapost (or a metablog)... Since this unexpected event, I had to pospone that post for this one... promise next one will be the metapost! lol

See ya soon guys...

I think its been a long time since I posted about a level-up, and that's not 'cause I forgot or I realized too late that I had leveled-up... nope, this' because it's taking me a lot to do so... anyway, it's my fault because of my inactivity... Nevertheless, let's cheer up! I finally leveled-up to Sheng Long (I have no idea what itmeans, anybody?)! lol That's all I have to say for today... see you ASAP guys haha

PD: next post will be a metapost or metablog... wait for it! lol

It's been quite a bit of time since my last blog, say my birthday. So I've decided to post something, anything haha. So well I've been lost for a long time and also have I lost my Reader's Choice emblem... Yep, voted for a lot of categories yet I never got it. I waited patiently for this emblem, but as I realized that it was taking more time than necessary and later on that some people already had it, I started worrying about it. Then I discovered this thread where you could complain about it haha but it was already too late...

Well, hope to see you soon guys...

Merry Christmas and just wrote a new review (MCajwanr, that's what the title means lol). Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays guys! Well, there are at least 10 hours before Christmas in my case, anyway, let them be merry and joyful. And here's a present for you all: a brand new review for World of Goo. And your present to me will be reading and telling me your opinion about it... lol Just kidding!

See ya soon... enjoy in family!

Change of looks to begin a new year, all fresh. So yep, I changed my banner, user icon and blog header image. The thing is that I decided to have no theme this time, all images are random "abstract" images I made using the GIMP.

So tell me what ya think, and see you soon guys, hopefully on Christmas... lol

Just that, got leveled-up. Since yesterday I'm level 25: Defias Brotherhood, but God I'm going slow! lol.

Anyway, that's all for today... see ya soon, hope so...

PS: The title was supposed to be only "One", but entry titles are supposed to be 5 or more characters long, so it's kind of a "forced" title...

Military Service is obligatory in my country. Yet, anyone not willing to do it may do the voluntary Premilitary Service. Anyone in the third year of secondary (11th year), being less than 18 years old, and having approved the medical examination is appropriate for this one-year instruction.

It is indeed a one-year instruction, yet it ain't conscription. Instruction days are only saturdays (and mondays through saturdays during summer vacations) from 7 am to 4-6 pm. I'm enlisted in the Military Academy or "Colegio Militar", where we're divided into 7 seven companies, formed by 3 platoons (or sections) each, and these formed by 3 12-person squads each. The training began 4 weeks ago and will end on October 2009.

You learn a lot of things there (military order, firing guns, other stuff related to my country) and I think it is a very "useful" and "gaining" experience. What do ya think?

So, I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm leaving for five days...so first of all, I would like to say that, making use of this entry, I leveled up! Kinda... C'mon I'm level 23 99% right now, so practically I'm level 24, already; and I won't be able to see my progress tomorrow, so yes, I leveled up.

Well, getting back to the old theme, I'm leaving tomorrow on a trip across historical and natural places in my country with all my classmates. We're heading toward Uyuni's salt flat tomorrow morning, then to Potosi and finally Sucre (the capital city, characteristic wrongly attributed to La Paz, which is only the government site).

That's everything, gotta finish packing my stuff right now, so wish me the best of luck! Cya...in five days...

Changed my banner. I made it to go with what will be my profile-theme: Diablo III. Already have both my user icon and banner related to this game and only have the blog header image left to change...

Well guys, give your opinions on my new banner...lol Cya!

For all those who read my short story (the last blog entry) - and for those who hasn't, you can do it now and comment on it - tell you that I figured out a title. Yep, after more than a year since I first wrote it and posted it her on GS, i figured out a title...lol. I did it while making a translation of the story (more precisely, rewriting it) into Spanish. I think it would be kinda redundant to post the "translation" here, so I won't do it.

Anyway, I figured the title in Spanish first and it was "Replicación". Then it came to my mind that the same title could be used in English: "Replication", that's the title of my short story haha. Well, what do ya think, if you have any other ideas just say them, speak your minds...lol

That's all for now...Right now I'm on exams, but this is the last week so I'm kinda happy; besides, we're going on a trip across (to say it somehow, 'cause we ain't goin across all the country, just a bit of it lol) my country with my clasmates after the tests, so that's even better...Cya guys!

This is the revised version of a short story I posted about a year ago... I hope to read your thoughts and impressions this time guys...lol Cya!

The first lines were unclear; anyway, it was some cheap old piece of parchment I had bought in the city when had nothing else to do, at least nothing better... The quaint seller told me, and as I recall, he was quite nervous, that this scroll had written some "very important information" on it. And after giving it to me as rather a bargain, he ran away. I chased him a little bit, but quitted the persecution as soon as he faded in the horizon. I never knew from him again and I don't regret it.

It was long time ago when I first opened this mysterious scroll; the first lines were unclear as the ink had vanished due to time or destiny. The next began as follows:

"... groping toward the end, as I got close to it, I found in this deeply schemer cave a table and a shabby wooden chair. I sat. I was tired, though I could not sleep. Scarcely illuminated by the fire of my torch a drawer distinguished from the blackness through the blinking of its golden handle. Opened it, and found inside it a damp scroll. The fire started to smoke away as I opened it and before I could start reading it I suddenly fell asleep."

The next lines were also illegible; I started then to think that nothing useful would be found in this old fetid piece of paper. But something stronger than my own will pushed me to find myself immersed in this unconcluded work

"...in colors to make a bit more clear; it seems to me that some kind of freak, rather sick entity (I do not know if to verily consider the thing that wrote this... a human being) wrote what I was unwillingly reading. I could hear rain falling and I started to realize that I was running out of food and water. This situation turned out being loathing, hideous. Now, returning to the bizarre parchment: black will be for what it seems to me is –or was– the real person; red for his mean, cruel, evil, outrageous alter ego; and, finally blue, the good side of the being, the rather peaceful, benevolent and impartial third personality. This was a disgusting and odious task, but I felt I needed to transcribe this mysterious grotesque writing. That copy belonged to the unknown hidden cave; but the world needed to know about this…or so I felt…"

With no apparent reason, I stopped at this point; it was late, I was weary, but I was excited and wanted to read it, though the whole night if it seemed necessary. Nevertheless, I felt the call of my bed to my bittersweet dreams. I went through the darkened halls of my dwelling until the door and into slumber laying still on the soft surface of my mattress, surrounded by blankets.

Dreams invaded my sleep. It was cold, the night was cold and strange, did not know why. The image was blurry in my nightmare; I could only see shadows. A cavern, that's what I saw. Obscurity, a light at the end; went thither. The dream finished, that was all…

Dawn rushed into the nightly dimness and into my dreams to finish them, giving birth to day and wakening me up. I went to see through the windowpane in my gloomy chamber, dragging the drapes before it open. Day was clear and the parchment called me with a soft sweet whisper; I went to attend its call; nothing else mattered. I sat down and focused my attention to the handwriting. It followed:

"... so I started to copy it, following the color code I described before. I was getting more and more excited as I carried out my task; the repulsive story written in the paper in front of my tired eyes, lightened by the tenuous fire of the torch hanging on the nearest wall, on a little perfect hole I found randomly; this nasty, atrocious, writing I had to transcribe, make it more understandable and clear for others, had me immersed, deep into it like never before, like never before..."

Candlelight lighted the yellow scroll; sweat stains, as they seemed to me, made the next lines completely unclear, rather an ink stain. However, it continued:

"...and I finally finished my detestable work. I was starving and thirsty, thirsty, thirsty... I went out the cave; rain was not pouring down anymore and sunlight pierced my weakened eyes like a stream of liquid iron. I left my transcription, the first copy of the strangest narrative, in the place described in the map. I returned home then, crossing dark and unknown alleys in dense terrifying woods. Once there I had some food, some water; strength was coming back. I just needed a nap and then something more to appease my groaning hunger and my craving thirst…

"From this point on, since I finished copying the vile parchment I found in that smelly hideous cave, nightmares chased me every night. I couldn't and I cannot sleep anymore, hateful... So I decided to give this an end; the knife I hold with my trembling left hand will give an end to this torture with my own blood..."

The bloody stains confirmed the suicide of the poor man. On the other side of the paper I found the sketch that was meant to be a map. Something, anything horrible, told me to find the copy of the scroll. Curiosity, that was it, I thought... It was late again. I went to sleep, yet no nightmares this time. Next day, after the break of dawn, I started my enterprise.

Following the instructions described in the map I reached in about two hours the place where the scroll was supposed to have been left by the writer. In a trifle of time I found it. I sat atop a pale rock, stared at the mountains and then set my vision to the damn reading, focused on it. It was indeed horrible, nasty, loathing; and as the other man before me I felt I had to rewrite it, make a copy of it to endure eternity… I returned to my humble house and started working on it. Dusk and night were gone quickly before I finished what I started, yet I was happy for doing it…

Here began the strange things; made me wonder if somehow the stupid scroll was cursed. "No way, no..." I thought and I know now how naive I was .on thinking that way. No nightmares, no... No one indeed, just everything started to go suspiciously wrong. First of all; I got fired from my job, how could I then sustain myself? Strange illnesses came and go, having me laid in bed all day long, odious, odious... I started to go thinner and thinner; death seemed nigh but it never came; like something you really want but you can't reach it, even though you can see it, there, near you, sacred but unreachable; nasty...

With my last bit of energy I write this. I've also decide to let the sharp knife kill this sorrow and me with it. Now the endless chain of death can continue forever...

It seems that hitherto I've only been writing when I level up. And furthermore this blogs supports that. Sorry for this behaviour guys; been kinda lost lately (in school stuff as in many other things of life). But let's cheer up, level 23 right now! lol. But man it took a long a time to get here, I think it took even more than to go through the infamous level 20.

Anyway, I'm right now in vacations, so I hope you'll see me here more frequently...let's hope so...lol

Cya guys!