Comeacrossness: Italian Singers

Greetings, people!

When I have class until late, I usually have dinner at the Pizzería Agora, in the UJI. It's a good place to eat, with Asturian Veal as the main ingredient for its dishes. But today I'm not talking about the food: today I'm talking about some people I saw there last Thursday.

Chris and I entered the pizzeria as usual ad we got shocked by the unusual people we saw there. There were around 30 people dressed in an old-fashioned way: The men wore flat caps, shepherd vests and little skirts over thick hose, whereas women were dressed in long white dresses with white hoods, similar in appearance to a nun's clothes. They all seemed to have traveled in time from the 18th Century.

Besides, I could hear them talking in a language I didn't understand at first, so they really seemed lost time travelers. After a while, I began to recognize some words: it was Italian. I could confirm it when I heard one of the men shouting to a girl "te quiero, guapa" with a distinctive accent. They were Italian, no doubt.

When they finished eating, they stood up and started to go out of the pizzeria. Then I could briefly see a badge around one of the men's neck in which I read "Cerdenya". Then, suddenly, they stopped at the door and talked to each other. Unexpectedly, they started to sing! Quickly, I took my mobile phone out and pressed the "record" key. And this is what they sang.

Nihon FTW (日本 フォ デ ウィン)

Greetings! I don't know what's happening but, on the recent weeks I had more contact with the Japanese culture than I've had within the last two years.

Maybe It's because of the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear plant, three disasters occured in the Land of the Rising Sun a couple of weeks ago.

Maybe it's because of the new TF2 stuff (Japanese weapons and hats have been added to the game, as well as some exclusive items which you can purchase to help the victims of the tsunami).

Maybe it's because some friends have started studying Japanese, a language that attracts me and could be my fifth language... if I had enough patience - which I don't.

Hammertime: Need a displacement here!

Hello there!

One of the most fun steps in the creation of a map in Hammer is creating terrains, aka displacements. It is also the one that causes most errors, at least in my maps.

CP_Parchis (remember it's just a codename) includes a castle on the top of a mountain, so terrains are essential. Since it is a floating castle, those mountains collide with the edge of the map - the skybox. This usually causes lots of errors. I've been trying to put up with the following problem:

Finding displacement neighbors...
Warning: invalid neighbor connection on displacement near (4.84 3584.00 0.00)
Warning: invalid neighbor connection on displacement near (-64.00 4096.00 0.00)
Warning: invalid neighbor connection on displacement near (2.96 4111.19 143.51)

Comeacrossness: Scrap crap dealer

Hello there! So much time since I posted some Comeacrossness: it seems that weird people are scarce in Castellón these days. Nevertheless, yesterday I saw a strange man.

He was pulling a shopping cart along the street or, to be more precise, along the road. Not the sidewalk, but the road, where cars drive. If that wasn't strange enough (and indeed very dangerous), the cart was filled with a big pile of scrap metal.

You'll say, "well, it's not so strange. Some folks deal with scrap metal to get some money. We're in a crisis, after all. Yes, I don't doubt it. But the weird thing would be the source of that scrap. It didn't seem like something you would throw to the garbage. It wasn't old electrical appliances or random rubbish. It seemed to me like these metal trusses they use in high voltage pylons, although bended and rusty. It shocked me that they formed a pile which was much larger than the man and the cart itself. That would be quite heavy! And that man was pulling them around on a dangerous, car-filled road!

I don't want to turn my blog into a tangle of complaints about economy, so I won't continue on this topic, but after seeing that man, it seems to me that the current situation is delicate, if not critical.

HammerTime: The CP_Parchis Project

Greetings!

In this new section, Hammer Time, I'm going to talk about my first steps at mapping with Hammer. Hammer, in case you are wondering, is a map editor for the Source Engine (HL2, TF2, CSS, etc), also known as VHE (Valve Hammer Editor). I already had some experience with this tool, although none of my first works is good enough to show it here. I suppose my current project won't be succesful either, but I just want to write about it. So, here we go!

Exam Article: L4D Saga Review

Hello there! It's been a while since my last post in this blog. Sadly, I don't have so much time nor ideas, and when I write something, I tend to write in Las Chancletas de Hermes (you know, my other blog). But now I have something in English I wanted to show you - although I know no one will read it.

Recently I made a preparation test for the Advanced Cambridge Exam. One of the exercises in the Writing part consisted on writing an article of 180-220 words, comparing two videogames: their graphics, pros and cons and prices. Piece of cake.

This has been one of the best writing exercises I've made ever - my score was 18/20. So I decided to publish it (the corrected version the teacher gave me back).

L4D SAGA: REVIEW

Zombies! Guns! More zombies! That's what you can find if you play either of the two games of the Lef4Dead Saga. Developed by Valve Software, Left4Dead and Left4Dead2 tell the story of a group of survivors who try to escape a mortal virus that turns its victims into zombies.

Built in the Source Graphic Engine, the games' visuals are very realistic. Left4Dead occurs mainly at night, while Left4Dead2 drives you through open environments in daylight.

You can choose one of the four playable characters and play alone or with friends in the co-operative campaign mode. There are also some differences between the two games:

• Characters: Louis, Francis, Zoey or Bill in L4D or Coach, Ellis, Rochelle and Nick in L4D2. Your choice!
• Special Infected: L4D2 presents a wider range ofmitand Infected, with special abilities, whereas L4D's Infected are harder to beat.
• Weapons: You can choose lots of weapons to fight the undead. Besides which, L4D has mounted guns and L4D2 has melee weapons.
• Price: L4D2 costs only $15, and L4D is even cheaper. Besides this, all downloadable contents are included in the price. What's more, if you still can't choose one or another, there is a pack which contains both games for around $25!

Whether you choose one game or the other (or both), L4D will provide you with hours of fun and zombie slaughter.

Good Bye, Leslie

There goes one of the best comedians ever.



Why couldn't have died the other one?

NOTE: I'm at a University computer and I don't have headsets. I have the intention of updating this post within the next 24 hours with a video or two showing Leslie Nielsen's magnificent acting abilities and talent. So, keep an eye on this post.

EDIT:



Requiescat in Pace.