The 9th Circle of Hell

Comeacrossness: Italian Singers

2011-05-16T10:13:00.011+02:00

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)

2011-03-29T16:15:00.011+02:00

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.

By the way, who could imagine Steve would know so many languages? Steve (for those who don't know him) is our English professor at University, a kinda cool guy who teaches us some history of English language and culture. Long story short, it happened that these friends of mine who study Japanese wrote something on the blackboard before the class (their names?) and then Steve came and revealed that he used to be a teacher of Japanese.

The following week, Rafa wrote 本日, which was immediately noticed and corrected by Steve. Sorry, Rafa, but it was funny to check how a Grammar Nazi can be a Hoygan in another language.

The other anecdote I want to tell is the adventure I lived last Monday. My friend Hyruleoflink (I'm not sure if he wants to reveal his name, so let's just call him "the Elf") started to look for Japanese restaurants in Castellón. We happened to find one - Sakura, in 4, Artana Street. We liked the food so much that we decided to look for more, this time with buffet so we could try every meal.

So, Hyruleoflink, his sister and I went to Valencia in search of good Japanese restaurants. We compared a few ones and chose Ao-Yama (3, Joaquin Costa Street).

It was the kind of buffet where you don't go get the food but recieve on your table what you ask for. We chose that in order to know the exact name of what we were eating. The service was great, although we noticed one of the two waitresses who served us was Chinese instead of Japanese. Not a big deal, as the cook seemed to be a purebred Japanese.

We were eating for almost two hours, and we tasted almost everything on the menu. I just can't recommend anything, because everything was delicious. Well, except for the veal with honey, which was tasteless. But everything else was superb.

I bet the following pictures will whet your appetite. I'm sorry I don't have pictures for everything we ate, but the food was so mouthwatering we completely forgot about taking photos!

Skewered chicken (yakitori)

Chicken in orange

Loin with teriyaki sauce

Veal with honey

Shakemaki (salmon maki) and tekamaki (tuna maki)

Next time we will try another restaurant, so we can compare. There are lots and lots of them in Valencia. If only there was one in my town...

Have a nice Magdalena holiday week! Sayonara!

Hammertime: Need a displacement here!

2011-02-19T12:43:00.094+01:00

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)

After Googling it up, I learnt that the cause was placing a displacement texture next to a skybox one, and the only solution was removing the displacement. But the fact is that I need that terrain where it is, so I finally decided to ignore the error. It can't be that harmful, anyway. The map runs without problems.

Despite that problem, working with displacements has been so much fun I couldn't just stop at giving the terrain its form. I had to paint them and clip them. I couldn't help. So, that part of the map is already done. Well, half the map, actually. The other half will be mirrored, so I'll do it when I'm sure I won't change anything.

Here are some pics of the current version of the map. I tried to take them from the same angles as the previous images.

> The outer wall: 1, 2. I decided to make high cliffs so the castle can't be seen from here, thus the framerate improves.
> Tunnels: 1, 2. Pretty much the same, because the biggest change here can't be seen: I changed the clipping so players won't get stuck on the rocks.
> The town: 1, 2. I like how this place is going, but the CP capping zone is not very well delimited - players won't know exactly where the capture zone starts. I'll have to do something with it.
> The front wall: 1. Since players won't be able to walk in this zone, I didn't clip it, although I detailed it because it will be seen in-game.
> Central CP: 1. The control point itself doesn't have displacements, but the exterior zone with the respawn rooms does.

There is an entrance from the second CP to the central zone made mostly with displacements, and I feel proud of it. It's a sloping gorge with an L-shape between a high cliff and the castle wall. Here, seen from the town. Here, an overhead view.

I say goodbye with an general overview of the map, from the same point than the last post (click to enlarge). See you soon!

Comeacrossness: Scrap crap dealer

2011-02-10T16:30:00.015+01:00

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

2011-01-25T16:47:00.034+01:00

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!

My current project consists on a Team Fortress 2 map. To be precise, a CP with 5 control points map type. The idea came to me in Summer 2009, while looking at a Parcheesi board. Therefore, I called the project "cp_parchis". Of course, that won't be the name of the final map, it's just a code name. My original idea was a map in which both teams would start the battle in a cave or dungeon under a mountain that would be in the center of the map, and then climb up the mountain until they met at the top, where the central control point would be. The mountain slopes would contain both teams' second point, and the final CPs would be at the mountain base, next to the respawn rooms. I drew a pair of detailed sketches, but I decided that I was too busy to start another project, so I just buried it with the other ones... until last Christmas.

The new medieval mode for TF2 gave me lots of ideas to improve my former design, and I decided to pick it up again. The main change was placing a castle on the top of the mountain. Then I went crazy and it occured to me that the castle would be FLOATING in the sky, like the city of Dalaran in World of Warcraft.

I'm still testing that last idea, but for the moment I like the result. The following images are from a very early version of the map, so they contain just basic geometry. I will be uploading more pics as I make important improvements in it.

> The outer wall. Here you can see the remainings of the external wall that protect BLU's last control point, and a bottomless chasm alongside.
> Tunnels. The are a series of narrow tunnels connecting first and second CP. The one which has a frame is the entrance to a spawn room.
> Town. I'll call it a town, but they're just two or three buildings sorrounding the second CP. The building with the flat top will be a spawn room. Another view of the town with the castle at the background.
> Front Wall. The castle as seen from the front. I think this can be a good spectating point, but players won't be allowed to walk in this zone. The spikes you see above the wall are palisades which hold respawn rooms.
> Central CP. Just in the middle of the entrance to the castle. There are two floors. The upper floor can be entered from the castle wall. Sorry for the lack of light.
> Castle. This room/corridor/hall connects the central CP with the town.
> Overview. Here you can see the entire map. As you see, BLU and RED zones are mirrored.

This is it for now. I'll update with more pictures soon. Bye now!

Exam Article: L4D Saga Review

2011-01-09T15:33:00.010+01:00

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

2010-11-29T14:58:00.008+01:00

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.

EYE! Me Bottle O' Scrumpy!

2010-08-27T15:20:00.002+02:00

Hello there!

Today a friend of mine and a regular follower of Then 9th Circe of Hell (should I say the most regular?) is having some surgery. I'm talking about Christian.

He's visiting the operating room, but not for a sex change (sorry, I just had to make the joke). He told me that from now on, he's not needing glasses anymore. I don't really know very much about these kind of operations, so I can only say "good luck" and put some slightly related video I found on youtube.

Hope everything goes well!

Butterflies in the Stomach

2010-07-30T10:25:00.177+02:00

When I see you, I feel... butterflies in the stomach.

Hello there! It's been a while, innit? This is the problem of Summertime: you have no time for blogging.

Anyway, I promised to devote a post to talk about butterflies. No, not those bright-colored-winged insects. The only interesting thing I know about those is that their tongue is called "proboscis".

I'm talking about butterfly knives, a.k.a. balisongs. Wikipedia says a balisong is "a folding pocket knife with two handles counter-rotating around the tang such that, when closed, the blade is concealed within grooves in the handles". This image may help understanding the description.

A butterfly knife IS actually a knife. It can be considered a weapon in all senses, although its primary use is just amusement. An experienced user can flip it quickly with relatively few danger, which usually astonishes other people.

I didn't know about these devices until a pair of years ago, when I started playing Team Fortress 2. The Spy character uses one (click for more info). Since then, I've fancied butterfly knives.

My first balisong. So pretty.

When I went to Madrid, my friend Bolty had a pair of them, and so I started practising. Then I almost bought one at the train station (See Comeacrossness: Madrid Edition, day 4). Then I actually bought one back in my town (See Comeacrossness: Madrid Edition, day 5).

Since then, I have practised a lot, and recently started to think about buying another one, or two, and start a collection. Well, I did it. Last week I bought another butterfly knife.

Shiny, shiny! O.O

As you can see on the picture above, this one is slightly smaller - actually, I think it's legal in Spain. Besides, it has a golden coat of paint (which would remind someone of the Golden Wrenches), and it seems to be made out of aluminum, which is better than the old one (iron).

In fact, if it wasn't for the material, I would still use the old one. I didn't want to replace it... but high temperatures (and maybe the constant falling to ground ) have broken my beloved first butterfly.

This is how she looks now. :-(

Well, life goes on. She was my first one, and I miss having her dancing beneath my fingers... but more will come on the future. You know what they say: "If you have butterflies in your stomach, invite them into your heart."

Maybe, in a near future, I will record myself showing some skills. Since then, see you!

OVERTIME: Mac Fortress 2

2010-06-12T11:47:00.031+02:00

Hello there!

You should try TF2 now. And I realise I say this every time there is a big TF2 update, but this time I have damn good reasons!

This weekend only, you can play TF2 for free, AND you can buy it (via Steam) with a 50% discount!

The reason is that TF2 is now available for Mac OS, and if you play TF2 from a Mac, you'll get a pair of (ingame) earbuds like these!

Wait, that's not the only reason. In this update, new functions have been implemented ingame, as a training mode and a step-by-step tutorial. Now you can't give that poor excuse, "this game has too many complicated features and is too difficult for me". No, it's not anymore, maggots!

The final touch: Watch this new promotional video. It's not a "Meet the", but it's fine as well.

Enough reasons for you? They would be for me, if I didn't have the game already. GO BUY IT NOW FOR THE SAKE OF SANDVICH!

Las Chancletas de Hermes

2010-05-31T15:31:00.020+02:00

Hello there!

I had been thinking about this for some time, but only now have I found the time to do it. I've just created another blog, this time in Spanish!

Its title is "Las Chancletas de Hermes" and the URL is www.laschancletasdehermes.blogspot.com.

It's going to be a brother-blog of The 9th Circle, but it will also contain new contents not included here. I recommend you to follow both so you can read all my raving.

This doesn't mean I'm done with The 9th Circle. I'll continue posting in here regularly, or so will I try!

See you!

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 5)

2010-05-24T21:23:00.111+02:00

DAY ONE - DAY TWO - DAY THREE - DAY FOUR

DAY FIVE

This was the last day of our adventure. Erik and I woke up early (but not too early)and had a quick brunch, so we could have time to visit the Caves. Their location is at the North-West of the town, and they are not far from my home, so we went on foot.

The accessing to the place has improved a lot in the last years. When I was a kid, you had to walk on the edge of a very dangerous road, but now there are sidewalks (pavements in BrE), signs showing the way to the place, and things like that: it is a true tourist enclave.

The problem is that, as any good tourist enclave, it has losts of tourists It is the longest navigable subterranean river in Europe, but that day, it seemed to have the longest line in Europe (again, "queue" if you are British). The reservation was full until closing time, so never could we enter the Caves that day. Indeed, it was a pity.

The next time we meet, I'll try to do a reservation, I promise.

So, Erik and I had to content ourselves just by seeing the paratge (the sorrounding area of the Caves) which is also a lovely place.

We were almost leaving when I had the sudden impulse of get in a souvenir shop. And then I met her. There she was: so beautiful, so dynamic, so... sharp. I didn't hesitate a second and I got her.

My butterfly knife.

Pretty, isn't she?

Well, I'll talk about her in the future - although most of you already know her. Anyway, Erik and I came back to my home by another way, so he could see another of Vall d'Uixó's prides: the Aqueduct. For those who don't know what an aqueduct is, it was an ancient method of transporting water through cities.

The Aqueduct of Vall d'Uixó.

This one is half-Roman, half-Moorish (Moorish arcs are more pointed) and doesn't carry water anymore. It's a symbol of our town, although not many tourists go since it's on a rather hidden spot.

We ate Chinese food from Bar Casamayor, which is a Spanish-like bar which specializes in Chinese food. Nothing else of interest happened during the rest of the day until we finally drove Erik to Castellón so he could get a train to Barcelona.

And that, folks, is the end of our tale.

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 4)

2010-05-17T15:41:00.072+02:00

DAY ONE - DAY TWO - DAY THREE - ...

DAY FOUR

Unlike the previous days, I had to be awaken on my last Madridean morning. It was almost midday when a loud knock on the door woke me up. It seems that I finally got used to sleeping in there.

After having a quick breakfast and making sure no-one left anything, we bid farewell to Habbit's home and rushed for the train station. On the way, Habbit's mother phoned him, saying that she was arriving back from the town. We were so freaking lucky! If we had left off just some minutes later, we would have been discovered.

Erik and I were to get a train to Valencia. Then he would change train to Barcelona and I would get a Cercanías. We said good-bye to Bolty and Habbit and promised that this wouldn't be our last journey together.

Erik and I took a look at the stores in the station - we ate in Burger King. I almost bought a butterfly knife in a gunsmith's shop, but I thought it wouldn't pass through the metal scanner when entering the train. I quite don't find the logic in this: why are guns and sharp weapons sold in a place so prone to terrorism? Anyway, when we got into the train, I noticed that there was no metal scanner! No-one registered our bags! Again I wondered if Madrideans have REALLY learnt the lesson.

During the travel funny things happened. First, Erik achieved the extraordinary goal of making angry someone you don't know, just by talking about clichés about Andalusians. I'll just say that "yes, we are indeed very happy", was the response of an angry couple on the front seats.

There was another hilarious incident with an automatic door which just couldn't stop opening and closing... See it by yourself.

Click here if you can't see the video.

But perhaps the most remarkable of the trip was that my mother called me to invite Erik to spend one more day at home - which he accepted. This changed all plans for the rest of the day and the following one. So, when we arrived at Valencia, Erik went to Vall d'Uixó with me. He had been all the week complaining about not seeing any orange trees. Well, he got fed up of seeing them across the Valencian countryside.

Back at home, I discovered that my room had been painted without my permission. I don't really mind anymore, I like the colour (bright black, I'll upload a photo someday), but I would have prefered to be told. about that.

We had a pizza for dinner (Erik marvelled at my old TV, which he considered to be a "cool relic") and then we connected to Steam to play some TF2. Habbit and Bolty were surprised because Erik was connected so early - he was supposed to arrive at Barcelona at midnight. I told them that I had kidnapped him.

We decided that the following day I'd take him see San José Caves, the pride of my town - although in the end it wasn't possible.

Stay tuned for the last chapter!

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 3)

2010-04-19T08:16:00.050+02:00

DAY ONE - DAY TWO - ...

DAY THREE

Unusually, I woke up early... again. After a while, I decided it was time to wake Erik up so he could turn on his laptop. I had been two days without looking at my mail, so it was about time. Team Focata's forum had gone a little wild without my administration. Ah, BTW, I forgot to say that, the day before, we made somre "staff clearance".

Anyway, that day we decided to order a pizza. We ordered a huge 50-centimeter-diametred monster which almost couldn't pass through the door. We couldn't decide between four cheese or meat, so we rolled the dice and tried out the combination "four cheese-bacon". It resulted to be a great mixture.

After eating, Bolty and Habbit began to plan some sort of tour around the city. They wanted us to go to Chueca District for some reason, but we managed to convince Habbit not including it within the tour. Phew.

Our Madridean Chuecaless adventure began at the underground, the most interesting place on Earth. You can get lost, you can lose your wallet, you can lose your life, you can even lose your balls!

At least someone lost a ball here. Children: if you go by Madrid's underground, grab firmly your balls and don't lose them.

The underground drove us to Puerta del Sol, where we took some photos like any other tourist. We also got conned in a bar like any other tourist.

I have a little anecdote about pictures there: during my previous visit to Madrid -years before with my parents- we took loads of pictures of the Bear and the Madroño Tree statue, and none of them was good. So, the first thing I did when we put foot on the square was looking for it. And here is the result.

This monument represents the superiority of mobile phone cameras over analogic ones. Or maybe it's just a tribute to Yogi Bear.

Other points we visited include Preciados Street (home of the largest Corte Inglés I've ever seen), Sabatini Gardens and a passage under the streets where some homeless were sleeping. In fact, we took that passage because we couldn't cross the street, as an Easter Week procession was taking place.

Fortunately, we didn't fall into the numerous holes there are in the city.

After the almost incident-free trip, we had dinner at Habbit's home -of course, with the prices we saw, entering a bar wouldn't have been a wise option. From the creator of "Lasagne-Which-Needs-More-Tomato" and "Insanely-Large-Pizza", we were presented "Big-Pink-Hot-Dogs-With-Loads-of-Mayonnaise-That-Make-Them-Seem-Cumming-Dicks". Despite their appearance, they were rather good. Maybe they just needed some more tomato sauce.

After some L4D2 and a session of Youtube -we learnt what happens when you cover a car with thermite-, we went to bed, for our last night in Madrid.

Stay tuned for day 4!

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 2)

2010-04-09T22:43:00.055+02:00

If you didn't read "Day One", go NOW!! If you did, welcome to day two.

DAY TWO

The first night I couldn't sleep more than three hours in a row. Yet I could find my own feet at the morning. I woke up (for once) at 9:00 and had a look around Habbit's room for an hour. Actually, I spent most of the time leafing through a book called "The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster". I'm still loling! It's fu**ing AWESOME!!!

At about 10:00 I decided to have a shower. I find it really weird to shower in someone else's bath. It's like disturbing their sanctuary. I don't like it.

Anyway, when I finished, Erik was already awake. He told me he had been arguing with the TV remote control. No questions. We played some Left4Dead 2 until Habbit finally woke up. Then we played some Portal. (I still recommend this game!) Bolty arrived with bad news: he wouldn't eat with us. Anyway, he helped us prepare the meal - lasagne. The lasagne resulted to be not so disastrous as I had expected... although being homemade. Actually, it was delicious, but we all agreed that it needed more tomato sauce.

NEEDS MOAR!!

After the lasagne, we celebrated Erik's birthday (did I mention it was his birthday?), we ate a cake - which resulted NOT to be a lie - and played some TF2. We also played Unreal Tournament, a game which I had never played before. It's ok, but I prefer TF2.

We had arranged a meeting with other members of Team Focata who also live in Madrid, but in the end they weren't able to come. Pity. I'm sure they were eager for meeting the real Tido, hehehe.

In the evening we went to eat to Kentucky Fried Chicken. There is nothing like that in my town, so I was quite intrigued about those enormous buckets full of battered chicken. I've always seen these things on movies - they're an icon of American culture - so I was rather surprised when I saw such a great number of KFC stands spread all around Madrid.

Later, we watched Saw 3 (I could say that we saw Saw, but it sounds... weird). I was the only one that had seen it before, so I had to be extremely careful with the spoilers. I really enjoyed seeing their faces each time I said something like "oh, I love this part" while making a sudden arm movement. Try it. It's really fun.

I don't know why, but films like "Saw" make me hungry. Fortunately we had popcorn.

That night I slept without interruptions, but still woke up early. The popcorn bowl was still on the desk, near my head. Thankfully its content didn't fall over me.

Stay tuned for the third day! While Jesus was resurrecting, we ate a pizza!

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 1)

2010-04-04T23:31:00.069+02:00

Hello there! Hope you're having nice Easter holidays.

As some of you know, I have spent Easter Week (Wordreference forums say that "Holy Week" is not correct) in Madrid with some friends from Team Focata. What, you didn't know? Then I'll tell you now: I spent Easter Week in Madrid with some friends from Team Focata.

In this post I'll put my best efforts in describing my adventures in the capital. I hope I don't miss anything.

DAY ONE

We had been preparing this for almost a month. It was quite risky because our hosts' parents didn't know we were coming. We were four in total: Bolty and Habbit, from Madrid itself; Erik, from Terrassa (Barcelona); and myself. Habbit's parents were at some town which I don't remember, so we would stay at his home. They could return any moment, so we froze with terror every time Habbit's mobile rang.

We had agreed to travel by car, because Habbit loves driving. Erik got a train to Valencia and I picked up a suburban (Cercanías). we all met in Valencia and ate in a McDonalds (originality and low prices FTW). My Valencian readers won't be surprised by this, but the city has one of the most awesome features I've ever come across:

TRAFFIC LIGHTS WITH TIMER!!! LOLOLOLOL!

The perfect trap for old people! Let them have a heart attack when the time approaches to zero! Image from another blog.

After eating and giving some money to a homeless, we hit the road on a 4-hour trip. We spent the journey making jokes (I can't remember any of them at the moment) and hearing music of all kind. (Was that Queen? It was!)

Also, Erik presented me an item which I would wear almost all the time the following days. A Fedora!! Like the one I wear in TF2! They said it fitted me. Maybe I should buy one...

When we arrived at Habbit's home, it was so late that we left our baggage and rushed for dinner. We had dinner in an interesting restaurant: "Brasa y Leña". It's a Brazilian restaurant, in which all kinds of meat were served skewered in a sword. And when I say all kinds I mean all kinds. And when I say swords I mean SWORDS. It's the kind of place where you wouldn't dare leaving without paying. You can take a look at its website for more info.

After dining we returned to Habbit's home, decided where would each one sleep (I got Habbit's bed, fortunately WITHOUT Habbit), and played TF2 until very late (or very early, decide yourself).

Stay tuned! Day 2 coming soon!

Comeacrossness: Què!

2010-03-24T11:04:00.134+01:00

This week in English class we learned some distinctions between English types of newspapers (tabloids and broadsheets), so I think this is an excellent occasion for talking about the most famous diary in the UJI: The free-distributed "Què!".

Què! is a tabloid disguised as a broadsheet, which pretends to have news of importance although it really talks twaddle. It's published in all Spain, but each region has its own version. Què! Castellón concentrates on local news and pay no regard to national or even international ones.

For instance, an article like "Roman ruins discovered near Castellón" would be in the front page, and something like "Obama's Health Plan Succeed" would deserve just a little column on page 15.

But it's still worth getting one or two numbers per day, especially if you are a Grammar Nazi, for it has an incredibly high percentage of spelling and grammar mistakes I've ever seen on a newspaper. A classmate and I like to play a little game: trying to locate every single error in the paper. It's really fun, you should try it.

This is a fake photoshopped front page. The real one can be even funnier. Click to enlarge. It will open on another window.

But Què! is not only silly news and bad spelling/grammar. The best part is the last page, in which you can find the following features:

Internet News! - The stupidest news with always have links to the Internerds.
Gossip News! - Need no explanation.
Today's Weather! - Well, it is the most useful part if the paper, but I don't read it since I still can look at the sky, lol.
Lottery! - I don't play, thanks.
Passtime! - It contains a sudoku and a crossword puzzle. Warning: They can be exactly the same ones as the day before. It happens more than I would like!
Horoscope! - This is my favorite part. Horoscopes are always funny; they predict a generic situation or something that never happens!

But Què!'s horoscope go a step further. When they aren't predicting absurd situations, they directly give what I call "mother's advices". Those are just advices which are applicable for everybody (just like "do not spend too much mney today). Yes, awesome.

The following are real examples which I have been collecting for some months. All of them are from Pisces' predictions, for I am supposed to be a Pisces.

Keep alert. You shouldn't do unnecesary expenses now.
Well, that's quite obvious! We are in the middle of a crisis!

If you want to invest, you should think a lot about it. Be cautious.
Yes, I got the idea: Don't waste money.

You find it difficult to go to work, and you will need to make a big effort. Come on!
No comments.

Be careful with excesses. Today is a day for general moderation.
I agree. But only today. Tomorrow excesses won't be that bad. Cool.

You need to hurry finishing a work so you can start better activities.
The funny fact about this is that I didn't have to finish a work, but THREE of them for that week. Bolonia... *sigh*

It would be a good idea if you got the adrenaline going. Try some exercise.
"Ok, mom. I'll do more exercise." Note that this advice is only for male Pisces.

Days of intuitive clarity (?). You will discover things are not what they seem.
True. I discovered that this horoscope is a piece of crap.

Try not to argue with the others and you'll have a magnificent day.
"Allright, mom. I won't fight other children."

Do not squander money. Remember you still have some bills outstanding.
Insisting again on the economic issue. "Yes, mom. I have enough money for the week."

You tend to spend too much, but you are OK in general. Control yourself.
"Mom, would you like to stop writing my horoscope?"

Your economy is improving gradually, and you will be able to start other things. I want to outline the use of the word "things" and its grammar in general. I'm pretty sure they replaced my mother with a grant holder. Or a chimpanzee. Or both.

Today digestions are slow, so avoid alcohol.
This is just awesome. I'm going to frame it. When I read it, I laughed so hard I think I got stomach cramps.

SHE: If you are going to have plastic surgery, don't choose the cheap one but the most safe.
This is not my horoscope, but it's so good I had to post it. Apart from the doubtful number of Sagittarian girls who were getting surgery that day, this prediction is just absurd! Allright, it's a good advice, but, wasn't there anything else to put on the horoscope? I don't know... "You'll find your true love.", "You will die in three days.", "Don't waste money.", "Stay with your wife.", anything you can imagine.

Well, my conclusion: Què! is an abysmal newspaper, but as a humour magazine, it's almost better than ElJueves. Maybe I'll talk about ElJueves another day.

Go get some Què! You'll have a good time! CU!

OVERTIME: Crappy Community Content

2010-03-21T11:04:00.031+01:00

Hello there! Welcome again to OVERTIME, and thank you for not closing the window at seeing the logo (that sounded like some English teacher I know, lol).

This week a new TF2 update has been released, as you will notice if you have the game. The contents of this update are somehow polemic: they have been created by TF2 community, instead of by Valve. That means that actual players have been responsible for the items which I am talking about today. Oh my.

First of all, there are nine new hats. Well, eight and a misc, to be precise. I don't have anything bad to say about them, so I'll show them quickly so we can move on.

Troublemaker's Tossle Cap (Scout)
Just a beanie.

Killer's Kabuto (Soldier)
Now the Soldier is a Samurai!

Triboniophorus Tyrannus (Pyro)
Futurama Brains Slugs FTW

Hustler's Hallmask (Demoman)
I prefer the Afro, but well.

The Hound Dog (Heavy)
Let's rock, everybody, let's rock.
Everybody in the whole cell block
was dancin' to the Sandvich rock.

Hotrod (Engineer)
Cool.

Procedure Mask (Medic)
This is the misc item. It can be worn with another Medic hat.

Shooter's Sola Topi (Sniper)
It goes very well with the Huntsman.

Magistrate's Mullet (Spy)
Nothing more to say, gentlemen.

This community update has also brought us three new weapons. I have some complaints about these.

From left to right: The Pain Train (Soldier & Demoman), the Dalokohs Bar (Heavy) and the Homewrecker (Pyro).

The Pain Train allows a Soldier or a Demoman to capture control points at double speed. Its drawback is that you take more damage when you equip it. It doesn't seem that bad at first sight, but it'll have to be deeply tested.

The Homewrecker is a melee weapon for the Pyro. It makes more damage to buildings but less damage to players. I find if completely useless, because you normally wouldn't sacrifice your powerful melee attack just for destroying a teleporter, which can be easily terminated by fire. In quantities.

The Dalokohs Bar... Well. It replaces the Sandvich. That is an excellent reason for not using it. The Bar gives you 50 extra health points for 30 seconds. 50 points are not very much in comparison with the actual 300 HP that Heavy has. Besides, you cannot throw it to help teammates, which you can do with the Sandvich. Even the name is lame; it means Chocolate in backwards Russian. /facepalm
My veredict: The Dalokohs Bar is useless. Focata FTW.

All in all, these new weapons seem to be quite crappy. Before ranting and raving about Valve, remember that they are product of the TF2 community. Now you should understand why I said "oh my" at the beginning of the post.

Anyway, time passes quickly, and the eagerly awaited Engineer Update is nearer and nearer. Oh, I am already nervous!

Mission ends in 3... 2... 1...
Community-made-overtime!

BTW, images by Jack_Wade from HL2spain.

The Aperture Science Periodically Updated Post Publication System

2010-03-12T12:37:00.022+01:00

Welcome to the Aperture Science Periodically Updated Post Publication System,
directed and written by F. Tido. At the end of the reading there will be cake. Post will begin in 5... 4... 3... *bzzzz*

I think that is what GLaDOS would say about this blog.

Hello there! You may be wondering what is this post about. This week I'm talking about a videogame I like. No, it's not TF2, although it's been created by Valve Software as well. I'm talking about a game like no other one you've seen: Portal.

Welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichement Center.

Portal is an FPS/puzzle game, which consist of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player's character and other simple objects using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (dubbed the "Portal Gun"), a unit that can create an inter-spatial portal between flat planes (Wikipedia). Basically, it's a new way of solving puzzles. A video example is worth more than nine thousand words, so...

As you see, after a while playing the game, you start thinking differently. Thinking with portals.

You may be wondering why I am talking about a game released in 2007. The answer is that last week VALVE ANNOUNCED THAT PORTAL 2 IS GOING TO BE RELEASED!

But the extraordinary thing about this is the way they have announced it. Valve are famous for letting players especulate before releasing something. They like to make us think. The point is that last week Portal was updated, after some years of inactivity. The only apparent change was that some radios were hided in the maps, and a new achievement consisted on getting those radios to secret spots where they would activate and emit messages in Morse code and SSTV code.

I don't know very much about these, but some Internet user do, and after decoding the message, they found that the mysterious transmissions were a couple of images, which you can see right here. The images held another mystery. They had numbers that resulted to be a Telnet BBS number. After entering, ASCII images. Images from Portal 2. You can see the images in this post from HL2spain.

But wait, there's more!

Some days afterwards, Valve officially announced Portal 2's development in GameInformer Magazine. The jpeg counterparts of the ASCII images were there.

AND best of all. Last Thursday Gabe Newell (Valve's Boss) recieved the Game Developers Choice Awards Pioneer Award. In the ceremony, this occured.

Newell: "That's what I get of working in Microsoft."

But that was not a common BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), but a modified one which you can see here. The error has been translated and it says "Suspended until E3". It seems we'll have to wait until then for more info.

Finishing with the post, I earnestly encourage you to play Portal. It's fun, it's smart and it's Valve Powered. If you still don't want to play it, at least watch some of these videos. Maybe then you'll change yor mind.

Portal Video-walkthrough

Thank you for participating in the Aperture Science Text Reading Comprehension Activity. The cake was actually a lie. We are sorry for having raised false expectations. We will stop enhancing the truth in 3... 2... *bzzzz*

Comeacrossness: Where is the UJI?

2010-03-04T17:59:00.008+01:00

Hello there!

Yes, I know. I've been almost a month without posting. That's the bad thing about studying: it takes most of your free time. And studying in the new and cool Bolonia Plan just finishes your agenda off. Yes, italics represent an irony.

But I really can't complain about Bolonia, because I myself got mixed up. Well, bad luck. Anyway, I won't talk about it in this post. This is Comeacrossness.

The other day I arrived at the University (University Town, according to this) as usual. The bus dropped me at the entrance of the UJI, and I walked towards the Faculty. Half way, a car stopped near me, and a woman asked me:

"Excuse me, how can I get to the University?"

I answered the first thing that came to my mind.

"We are in it."

And I peacefully continued walking, humming some song about zombies. Oh, wait. That's not what I did. That would have been rude. She asked me more specifically for the Humanities Faculty, and I gave her instructions to reach the Agora.

Yeah, I know it hasn't been my best Comeacrossness. But, what did you expect from a Bolonia Plan victim?

By the way, with this post my blog reaches 9000 words. I'd like to thank my readers (I think I have one or two). All I can say now is...

IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAND!!!!!!

Comeacrossness: The Map

2010-02-10T12:19:00.011+01:00

Hello there! It has been a while since I posted the latest Comeacrossness. That can mean two things: Either I'm becoming used to the City's weirdness, or there is no weirdness at all. I find both options bad, since it reduces dramatically the number of posts in this section of the blog. If it continues like this, I'll have to spark off weird situations myself!

Fortunately, this week I found something worth a post. I was around the cafeteria in my faculty (I was not having class because some English professor had broken her arm), and I found a tourism leaflet which included a map with pinpointed spots. I took it and I laughed my ass off when I read the names of the places.

This is the cover of the leaflet.

The map. Click to enlarge. If it doesn't work, click here: http://i354.photobucket.com/albums/r436/F_Tido/CSguideCompleto.jpg

I have to admit that I still don't know if the coloured lines are bus routes, train lines, tube lines or what. I presume it is a bus map, since it reaches the UJI (known in this map as "University Town"), but the lines seem to have a start and an end (like train ones).

Anyone who has some knowlegde of Translation and knows Spanish and English in general will find this map highly amusing. It has big translating-fuck-ups, like "Bou Brother's Avenue" (F2), "Enmedio Street" (D4), Train Station of Castellon" (D6), "Ribalta Central Park" (E5), and my favourite one: "Jaume's King Avenue" (D4).

I suppose this map is addressed to foreign visitors of the city. Well, if I were a tourist, I sure would get muddled up with this map. I mean, I can't undestand it even being from here! Man, people DOES really need translators. God bless the "University Town", where I'm studying just for not making this kind of stuff.

OVERTIME: Team Focata's First Anniversary and Erik Mat's Accident

2010-02-10T11:22:00.024+01:00

Hello there! I must start this post with an apology, for being out of the Internet this whole week. I had tones of work (and I still have).

So, I'm a bit late, but today I'm talking about the great Team Focata. Some of you already know it; some of you don't. So, a little explanation.

In all multiplayer games, it arrives a moment when a group of players get used to play together, and then someone decides to make a clan. Clans are groups of players who play together regularly as part of a group (TF2wiki). Obviously, being such an avid TF2 player as I am, I am in a clan. In fact, I am one of the founding members.

My clan's name is "Team Focata". I talked in a previous post about the word Focata as a translation of Sandvich, so it doesn't need more explanation.

I should bore you with lots of details about how great is TF, but, I'm not really in that mood. You can find all the info you need in our forum. If you are a TF2 player, you probably know us. If you are not, there's logically you can't become a member, but visitors are welcome in our forum. The URL is http://teamfocata.mejorforo.net/

The main reason about I'm talking about Team Focata now is that, last week, we celebrated our first year as a clan. To be precise, the 3rd of February, and we arranged a special party (in our game server).

Unfortunately, the same week we had some bad news. One of our members, Erik Mat, suffered an accident, so the party we celebrated was in his honor. Don't worry, he survived and now is recovering favorably. He was able to came to the party, but he remained as a spectator, since his arms hurted.

We also celebrated that we have a new game server, less unstable than the previous one, which crashed constantly. If you want to play with us, copy this IP in your favourites: 94.46.240.17:20225

Well, that's it. I should have posted this last week. As I said, I'm very sorry. All I have to say now is: Erik, all the Team is with you. Just eat lots of Sandviches so you'll recover your health points quickly.

OVERNOM!!!

First semester... finished!

2010-01-28T19:28:00.011+01:00

Hello there!

This week I'm not talking about TF2 (although a new and interesting patch has been released), because it's been a long time since I last talked about University. So here we go.

Exams are over for now, and we have started the second semester (or term if you are British). We have new subjects (if we can call "new" the version 2 of the ones we alrady had), and finished with some others (Screw TI0906!!).

For instance, German is now called "German II" (Reloaded), and we don't have a native German professor anymore. How pityful. Our current Lehrerin is Spanish, and their accent is sometimes confusing, because she doesn't pronounce 100% correctly. Fail.

English also has "changed" its name this semester. Now it's English II, and the only thing worth the mention is that our English blogs must have 8000 words. Oh, and we have to listen an audio-book.

Spanish and Catalan are more or less the same. No comments.

Our Linguistics teacher is now the same as the Spanish one. Double combo! Anyway, iy still is the same boring subject. The most interesting thing (in fact, the only interesting thing) that occured there was something I have already talked about.

We don't have Computing anymore, which is a GREAT relief. My classmates will understand me. Instead of that, we have Documentation. I'm not giving an opinion yet, because we have just started, and it may change (it probably will).

This semester we finally start translating in Translation B-A1. We'll see how we do.

Finishing with this post:

Balance of the first semester.
Exams: Not bad.
Work: Too much.
Teachers: Some excellent, some not-so-good.
Classmates: I don't know all
of them, but the ones I know seem to be really nice.
Environment: Cool,
nice. A bunch of translators, what more could you ask for?
Facilities: The
UJI is full of surprises. When you think you know your Faculty, you discover an
emergency exit which leads to a 5-floor tower. Awesome.

CU, bunch of translators!

OVERTIME: Translation Fortress (part 2)

2010-01-18T20:36:00.058+01:00

Note: This post continues where the previous one ended. If you haven't read Part 1, click here.

Heavy Weapons

Natascha is a minigun. Heavy affectionately dubs the standard minigun "Sascha". Natascha is the name he gives to his second minigun. Both are Russian female names (1, 2), and they weren't translated.

The Sandvich is a delicious and mouthwatering sandwich. The "v" in its name is a joke, meaning that it's pronounced with Russian accent. The joke needed to be translated into Spanish, and the translator did it very effectively. That is how El Focata was born. In next posts I'll talk about the emotional implications that the word Focata has to me. Some of you may already know, hehe.

Finishing with the Heavy weapons, there are the KGB. KGB is an acronym for Killing Gloves of Boxing, and they are a joke referring to the Soviet Security Agency. In Spanish they were translated as Los Kañeros Guantes de Boxeo, in order to keep the acronym joke. Personally, I'm not in complete agreement with using the word "kañero", since it seems to approve the use of incorrect spelling (see my posts about orthography).

Scout weapons

The Force-A-Nature is a double-barrelled hunting shotgun. Its name comes from a sentence which Scout says in the video "Meet the Scout" (which you can watch here). "I'm a Force of Nature", says the Scout. There is also much controversy with its translation. In the Spanish dubbed version of the video, Scout says "Soy el rey de las hostias", so the logical translation for the F-A-N should be "El Rey de las Hostias", or "La Reina de las Hostias" if you wanted it to be feminine. Inexplicably, the translator used another part of the video: "La hierba crece, los pájaros vuelan, el sol brilla, y yo... doy caña", and the F-A-N was translated as La Dispensadora de Caña. I just don't understand it.

Bonk! Atomic Punch. That is the complete name of the item players usually refer to as "Bonk", "Energy Drink" or "Useless Crap". It's not useless at all, but now I'm not talking about the weapons' usefulness. Bonk is a Drink that makes you invincible for a few seconds, with the drawback of not being able to shoot. Its name comes after the onomatopoeic sound Scout likes to say when he beats someone to death. It seems in Spanish "Bonk" is not a good onomatopoeia, because the translator decided to change it for ¡Plonk! La bebida salvavidas. Also, its utility is clearer in Spanish, which is... acceptable. Not great, but not bad either.

The Sandman is a wooden baseball bat. Its name is an interesting one. Sandman is a traditional character in Western folklore who sprinkles sand on the eyes of the children at night to bring on dreams and sleep (Wikipedia). In TF2, the special attack of the Sandman throws a baseball which stuns the enemies on hit. In Spanish folklore, the character of the Sandman doesn't exist (I'm not sure if there is an equivalent, I'll ask my grandma). The meaning of stun, daze, drowse still had to be in the Spanish version, so the Sandman was translated El Somnífero. It's not a very good equivalent, but it stills "makes you sleep".

Sniper weapons

The Sniper is an Australian character and his weapons are somehow related to Aborigines. The primary weapon, The Huntsman, is a wooden longbow. It was translated as El Cazador. An easy, unproblematic translation.

The Razorback is a hand-carved tribal shield with a car battery attached to it. It protects the user from backstabs. It receives its name from a villian in Spiderman comic series (see here and here). I have to admit that its translation is quite funny. Since the shield electrocutes Spies, it was named El Caparazumbador (Caparazón + Zumbar). Funny translation, as I said.

Jarate is the name of an ancient martial art consisting in throwing a glass jar full of urine (really!). Jarate has a lot of uses, but I'm not describing them now (if you still want to know, click on previous link). It also has a very funny translation: Fraskungfú (combination of Frasco + Kung-fu). Though Karate and Kung-fu have different meanings (1, 2), they seem to be interchangeable in this context, so it isn't a bad translation. In fact, it is a good example of hyponymy. The first time I read the word Fraskungfú I laughed for five minutes.

Spy weapons

The Ambassador is a huge, precise revolver. This weapon is a reference to the Dirty Harry movie series, but I'm not very keen on those, so I cannont give many details. The Spanish name is La Embajadora.

The Cloak and Dagger is an invisibility watch which allows the user to be invisible as long as he remains stationary. The name comes after the Spanish expression"novela de capa y espada", so I don't understand why the Hell the translator did such an awful job by naming it El Embozador. Embozar also means metaforically "hide or disguise with words" but it's so round-about... Anyway, I would have named it El Acechador, for example.

The Dead Ringer is another invisibility device. This one allows to feign your own death (I really enjoy using it, another day I'll explain it). A "dead ringer" is an expression which means "an exact duplicate" or "someone who is identical to another person". The TF2 Dead Ringer creates an exact duplicate of the user's corpse when attacked. In Spanish its name is El Duplicante. It's not a bad translation: it is a witty name and explains its function.

Engineer weapons

Hehe, there are no unlockable weapons for the Engineer yet. Players are waiting for an update within the next months. Since then, we just have three basic weapons... and the buildings. The Engineer can build a Sentry Gun (translated as Arma Centinela), a Dispenser (Dispensador) and a Teleporter (Teleportador). Those names have no puns, jokes or references, so their translations are correct.

So, this is the end of my weapon names' analysis. Nevertheless, TF2 translation is quite an interesting topic, and this was only the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned, my friends. Mission ends in five... four... three... two... one...

¡Tiempo extra!

OVERTIME: Translation Fortress (Part 1)

2010-01-18T17:13:00.039+01:00

Hello there! It's me again! No, please, don't close the window. This time I'm talking about something really interesting.

Some of my regular readers have complaint about not understanding a word when I talk about TF2. I usually try to explain it in a way that everyone can understand it, even without actually playing the game. Anyway, I'll try to be more clear. In this post, I'm attaching some links to TF2 wiki. Click them in case you find something you don't understand or want to increase your knowledge about the matter.

In this post (and maybe one or two more), I'll explain why I talk so much about a videogame in a blog about translation. This time I'm talking about the translation of Team Fortress 2. Sorry to my potential non-Spanish readers, because this post will have almost the same number of words in Spanish as in English.

Recently, I talked about the War Update (see previous chapters of Overtime). In this Update, new weapons and achievements for the game were released, but only in English. This week a translation was provided by the official translators of the game, so now we finally have these features in Spanish. In the following paragraphs, I'm giving my opinion about these translated names, as well as the names of other weapons.

I'll start with the Demoman Weapons.

The Chargin' Targe is a shield which gives the Demoman resistance to fire and explosions. In Spanish its name is El Targe de Carga. Awful translation, you say? Well, try to do a better one. A targe is a word to say "shield" in Old English, and have no equivalent in Spanish. Personally, I would have used the word "Rodela", for example as "Rodela de Carga". I bet the translator called it Targe de Carga because it rhymes (kind of). Judge yourself.

The Scottish Resistance is a modified sticky-bomb launcher, and was translated as La Resistencia Escocesa. Easy translation. No more comments.

The third weapon, The Eyelander, is a haunted longsword which resembles William Wallace's sword (Braveheart) and receives its name after the film Highlander. In Spanish, the film was called Los Inmortales. So, the Eyelander needed to be translated to keep this reference to the film. The "eye" particle refers to the missing eye of the Demoman. That is the reason why the translator decided to name the sword La Intuertal. I like this translation: it has a reference to the film and to the one-eyed character who wields the sword.

Soldier weapons

The Direct Hit is a very fast and precise rocket launcher. Its name in Spanish is El Impacto Directo. Another easy and nice translation.

The Buff Banner is a tattered battle standard mounted on a small backpack, which gives critical hits to nearby allies. Its been translated as El Estandarte de Ánimo. I don't really like how it sounds, but I suppose it's the most accurate translation.

The Equalizer is a pickaxe (effects described in TF2 wiki). Its translation is simple: El Ecualizador.

Medic weapons

The three Medic weapons have German names, because the character is German. That's why the names were not translated into Spanish. Just in case you were wonering, the names are The Blutsauger, the Kritzkrieg and the Übersaw.

Pyro Weapons

The Flare Gun was translated as La Pistola de bengalas. Another easy choice.

The Axtinguisher is a fireaxe with a funny name. It comes from Axe + Extinguisher (because it extinguishes burning enemies to death). "Hachtintor" would be a fine translation, but it is ind of difficult to pronounce. I suppose that's why the translator chose the word El Hacherminador (Hacha + Exterminar). It sounds much better, innit?

The Backburner is the reason why many players disdain Spanish translation. It's a flamethrower which causes more damage from behind (Back + Burn). You must be thinking that it's an easy translation (back=espalda + burn=quemar; Backburner=Quemaespaldas). Maybe that would be a fine choice, and nobody except the translator knows why they chose another name. My opinion is that he decided that "Quemalespaldas" sounded too much like a translation. In class we learnt that the best translation is the one that sounds spontaneous. I've been thinking day and night about it, but I can't find a better word. The translator named the weapon El Dragón, for its resemblance with a dragon head.

This post is beginnig to be too large. I'm continuing next week with the translated names of Heavy, Scout, Sniper and Spy weapons. CU!

Time has been added.

OVERTIME: War! A comic translation

2010-01-08T11:37:00.005+01:00

Hello there!

Don't worry too much about seeing the administrator's face again in this blog. Today I'm not reading another riot act about TF2. Today I want to tell all of you that I have finished translating the complete TF2 comic "War!" (as I started to say some weeks ago).

If you are a Spanish TF2 fan, you should download it NOW! Don't wait to finish reading the post. DOWNLOAD RIGHT NOW! Then come back to read the rest of the post.

If you are not a TF2 fan, but a translation student, a friend of mine, a geek, or the three options at the same time, you too should download it. Just to make someone happy. :)

Well, the link to download this translation is the following:

Come on! Stop idling and click this link!

This is my first professionalish translation (fansub? what fansub?). I may have some errors, but I hope you like it.

Friendship ends in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Overtime!

Avatar and Na'vi Language

2010-01-02T23:01:00.006+01:00

Hello there!

This is my first post of the new year, but it should have been my last post of the last year. I'm so lazy when I have to write in holidays...

Last week I went to the cinema to watch Avatar, the latest film by James Cameron. And I have to say that it is a great film. On the one hand, I agree that it's just a futuristic version of Disney's Pocahontas, with basically the same plot. On the other hand, I found the film quite amazing. The design of the background and the different species in Pandora is stunning (though I don't understand the biological strategy of shining at night. Isn't it easier to avoid predators when they cannot see you?). The plot is not bad, and the religion and philosophy of the Na'vi seem coherent to me. But the thing I liked most of the film was the language.

That's it. From the point of view of a translator, I enjoyed this film. One of the most nteresting details of the plot is that Jake Sulley (the main character) has to learn the Na'vi language and customs.

I liked how he had problems with sentences that have double meaning ("I see you", meaning that I can see inside your soul) and how a interpreter was needed at the end of the film for Jake's speech being understood by the Na'vi. There are not many films in which translation is an important part od the plot. Even in The Lord of the Rings almost everyone seems to understand elvish, though in the original book only a few non-elvish characters are able to speak Quenya.

Preparing this post I looked for some info about the Na'vi language, and, surprise! I found out that it is an actual language, created for the film by the linguist Paul Frommer, which is means it's not a random pack of sounds, but it has its whole vocabulary, grammar and syntax.

Now I know this fact, I like the film even more. This reminds me of another constructed languages, like Quenya, Esperanto, or Klingon (I have a friend who wants to learn Klingon, task in which I wish good luck to her). They are well-known, and lots of people learn and speak them around the world (yes, we are geeks). I can almost see "Do you speak Na'vi language?" as a new question in the Geek Test, and although I'll not try to learn it for now (I'm saturated with German, thanks) I'll support it. Go Na'vi!

And yes. The first time I heard the word Na'vi in the film I thought about this.

Kìyeváme! (which means "see you soon" in Na'vi).

The Ducklings and Bill Bryson

2009-12-24T22:58:00.023+01:00

Hello there!

Today is Christmas in my country (so I suppose to be in the rest of the world, lol), but I'm not really a religious person, so I'm not really celebrating it. The only thing I celebrate today is that Team Focata (my TF2 clan) has a new game server. If you play TF2, add this IP to your favourites: 85.234.148.41:27115

But today I don't want to talk about TF2 (the last two weeks have been exciting enough). Today I'm talking about University.

Exams have started for un poor students of T&I. The first we did was an English reading exam about one of these two books from Bill Bryson: Notes from a Big Country or Notes from a Small Island. I chose the latter.

This is the audio-book's cover, but I read the physical-book version.

I admit that it is quite a funny book. If I had read it for pleasure, without having to do an exam, I would really have enjoy it. But exams have the extraordinary ability of making the best novel into a tedious piece of crap. But, hey, now I'm finished with it, I think I liked it a bit. I recommend it, yes, why not. Anyway, the exam consisted just in writing an essay telling which places described on the book we'd like to visit the most, and a place that we wouldn't like to visit. You must be thinking you could answer it without actually reading the book. Well, I also think that.

Also, we did a linguistics exam. Everybody was terrified about this, I don't understand it. I almost didn't study, and I think I did it quite well. I think. Maybe I've got it all wrong, who knows. The syllabus, a big piece of boring crap. But, as I promised, I have to talk about one of the last lessons.

We were learning something about semantic roles (syntax), but that's not the important thing. The stars of the lesson were the examples. For the first semantic roles, the example was:

"The farmer killed the duckling."

Imagine how the class reacted to this sentence. Well, there was not a general reaction, but I bet everybody started to pay attention. Some people said "oh" and "ah". I would have liked to shout "Murderer!", but I just mumbled something about how sadistic university professors are.

Then, the next example outcame.

"The farmer feeded the duckling."

At this moment I thought "But the dickling didn't eat... because you killed it. Murderer!", and so I told my classmate Christian. I started to think that the professor has some kind of childhood trauma with ducks. The next example went as follows:

"The farmer saw the duckling."

At that point, I had the idea of murdered little ducks inside my mind, so I understood the word "saw" as "cut with a handsaw". "Oh, great", I said, "Now the ducklings had been shot and sawed. What will be next?"

"The farmer loves action movies."

That explains everything. That farmer is a heartless psycho who likes watching Chuck Norris films and killing ducklings with saws. Why the hell isn't he already in prison?

"The farmer gave grain to the ducklings."

Oh, I see. He has an alibi. He was giving grain to the ducklings when the crime occured. Yeah, nice. And then, what happened?

"The farmer gave the ducklings all the corn he could get."

But why? Is he trying to pretend that nothing happened? "The ducks won't eat that amount of corn. BECAUSE THEY ARE DEAD. Assume it. They are gone and you killed them. You are a killer. Now get rid of those duck corpses and leave the crime scene."

"The farmer got out from the barn."

"The farmer will go to the town."

And these were the last examples. After that class, nobody felt the same. We will always remember the poor duckling that was killed by the evil farmer. Requiescat In Pace.

Now, I could talk about other things that happened to me in this first term, but I am quite tired and tomorrow I have to eat out with other people who do celebrate Christmas. Poor folks.

See you! Have a happy consumerist craze disguised as religious holiday!

OVERTIME: The War Update, released!

2009-12-19T13:25:00.008+01:00

Hi everyone! This has been an exciting week for TF2 players. I commented and recommended to follow the War Update of TF2, even if you didn't play the game, because it has been simply amazing. I know you ignored my advice, so I'm going to summarize the whole week in this tiny itsy bitsy post. Click all the links for more info (preferibly opening them in another window/tab).

The War Update presented the end of the friendship between the Demoman and the Soldier. As every TF2 update, it presented three new weapons for both characters, plus a fourth special weapon for the one who won the war. During the week, literally millions of Demomen and Soldiers perished, winning the latters by just a matter of 25000 deaths.

The three new weapons for the Demoman were something extraordinary in a FPS game: A longsword and a shield, and a new sticky-launcher.

The Soldier, meanwhile, recieved a new rocket launcher with more accuracy and power, a pickaxe which does more harm when the bearer is at low-health, and some kind of set of trumpet and flag, which seems to motivate your allies (I haven't seen it in action yet). The fouth special item resulted to be a pair of iron boots, to make rocket-jumping without damaging yourself. I also haven't seen them, but the description is quite clear.

All these weapons were crowned by 76 new achievements to unlock, which you can check at the bottom of these pages.

But the most eagerly awaited feature of this update was the Crafting System, which means players now will be able to transform their extra copies of items into metal to build new weapons or hats they don't have. You can't imagine how I regret having deleted my extra copies...

The last day Valve presented two new maps, CP_Gorge and CTF_Doublecross. They're fine. Also, a photo of the Heavy kissing the Scout's mother when the war came to its end.

Amazingly, this update was combined with the release of the first official TF2 comic. A funny and interesting bunch of pages which explained some of the motivations of this update, including the origin of the friendship between the Demoman and the Soldier, and the beginning of the war. The comic has some "chapters": The Administrator, Saxton Hale, The Demoman and The Soldier. I decided to translate the whole comic into Spanish, but I only have the two first parts. I hope this weekend I'll be able to finish it. These are my translations:

The Administrator

Saxton Hale

The Demoman (coming soon)

The Soldier (coming soon)

When it's finished, I'm going to publish it as a whole with a nice front page and a big white-coloured title. Yay!

Talking about the weekend, last but not least, the news you have been waiting for. ONLY THIS WEEKEND (beginning last thursday, sorry for being late), Team Fortress 2 can be played FOR FREE! OMGWTFBBQ! And if you play it and like it, you can buy it at 50% the price! That is TF2 for just 7,49 €!!! What are you waiting for? Go now and download/buy it! You have only two days left! You don't have to move from your chair, you can buy it via Steam.

Well, now I'm leaving. If you need something from me, I'll be playing TF2. See you!

Mission ends in 3... 2... 1... Overtime!

OVERTIME: The Administrator and Demoman/Soldier Update

2009-12-11T16:49:00.024+01:00

Hello there! This week I decided to create a new section in this blog. I once talked about Team Fortress 2, one of my favourite videogames, and I promised to continue talking about it. Well, now I will for sure, since it's going to be a whole section, titled OVERTIME.

I updated the other post with this new logo. Consider it the first chapter of this new section.

First of all, the name is chosen because of a funny glitch the game has. Sometimes, when both teams run out of time in their mission, extra seconds are added to the countdown. The Announcer (the woman in the section logo) warns this by saying "Overtime". But, there used to be a bug, in which sometimes the sound looped itself, and it couldn't stop saying "Overtime". This was quite a funny effect which you can see in this video. In the video, the player plays as Spy and Sniper, my favourite classes (but I'm better than him, hehe). When the creators of the game corrected this bug, many people found it a disappointment, so the glitch was put in again as a server command. If you run a server, just open the console and type "tf_overtime_nag 1" to activate it.

Well, after this explanation of the logo, let's start the actual post.

TF2 is a game which updates frequently. But not only patches that fix bugs, but great updates with new weapons, new maps, new everything. Players recieve these updates as if they were godsent. Well, next week is going to happen one of these updates. Their contents will be revealed within the week. We only know that is going to have new items for Demoman and Soldier, and a secret special weapon that will be awarded to one of the two classes.

Yesterday, this comic was published (read it before continuing). The Announcer o Administrator discovers that the BLU Soldier and the RED Demoman have become friends, and that is unacceptable. So in this upcoming update they are going to fight each other (read the darn comic, Jeez!), so the winner will recieve the secret special weapon. More explanations can be found here in the Official Page, I'm not going to tell everything.

The main reason because I tell you this is that I decided to translate the comic (yes, the one that you should have read by now!) and I published it at Half-Life 2 Spain Website. This is my first serious and professional(ish) translation (though I made it for free). I recieved some praise by a more experienced translator who I know in the forum, so you can imagine how happy I am now. Yay!

You can download my translation here. Yes, it obviously is in Spanish.

Just a pair of things I have to say. First, if you are a TF2 player or fan, you should keep an eye or both on this update (you listenin', Chris?).

AND, if you are not a TF2 player but are interested, I have a great new. In every update, the game's price is lowered, so it's probably going to be very inexpensive! If you want to buy it, this could be your chance. Or maybe, Valve make us a gift and activates a "Free Weekend". That means you could play for free during the update weekend.

Stay tuned to TF2!

Mission ends in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Overtime.

Orthography on University posters

2009-12-06T15:23:00.013+01:00

Hello there!

First of all, I have to apologise for being so late with this week's post. I also have to apologise because I'm not talking about what I promised. The reason is that I expected our Linguistics Professor to upload last class' powerpoint, and he didn't. So, the ducklings will be ready another week. [Insert sad emoticon here]

Instead of that, this week I'll talk about posters! Posters in the UJI, to be precise.

As I said in another post, I'm kind of a Grammar Nazi. In fact, I should, if I want to be a translator. So I have the obsessive craze of correcting all spelling mistakes I see on posters, notices, signs, even teachers' posts in forums!

I also tend to take the posters where there are the biggest mistakes. You will remember the poster of the MEC grants.

I also found this other poster. It's about the opening of a new music club. The funny thing is that, the class before seeing this, we saw some common spelling mistakes that people make, and among those mistakes there was the misspelling of the word"Inauguración". I bet the designer of the poster wasn't in that class.

Some of my translation collegues and I tend to correct all these posters, as I said. This week we saw an interesting and amusing one. It's the following.

The image is quite disturbing, but that's not the main point of this. On the lower part it says: "¡¡Ahora con un 50% menos de faltas ortográficas!!", which means "Now with 50% less spelling mistakes!!" I find this extremely funny, but I don't really understand why. I like to think that it is a message for us Grammar Nazis, to keep correcting other people. Or maybe it's just on the contrary, and it means "Stop correcting me".

Anyway, I left my mark in another of these posters, correcting the spelling mistakes I saw (50% than usual), and below, where it says "Criticize here" I wrote the following words:

50% are still too many.

P.S. I hope next week I'll be able to write about the ducklings, as I promised!

Comeacrossness: The Transvestite Spartans on a Bike

2009-11-26T20:36:00.038+01:00

Hello there! I'm back with another strange anecdote, related with strange people (why do I always find these folks?) at this strange section which is Comeacrossness.

I suppose I'm not very keen on parties or celebrations. I'm just a geek with my computers, my translations, my forums and my other geek stuff. Maybe that's the reason because of I just don't understand what the Hell was going on today at the UJI.

As I knew later, today there was some kind of party arranged by the students of Music Teaching, in which they have played their instruments and sung at the Agora. Nothing strange, up until now.

Just a usual University celebration... Or is it?

Then I saw them. There were three guys wearing what seemed a Spartan home-made costume, with their cardboard helmets, shields and swords, and their red 100% cotton cloaks.

And plastic boobs.

Yes. You have read well: plastic boobs. Well, maybe they were made of rubber, but I didn't really want to check them, anyway. And what's more, while the other people were dancing and drinking and doing that kind of activities, two of these Spartan Transvestites were riding a bike around the campus. Both on the same bike, and the one at the back wleding his sword as if they were charging. Just epic. You should have seen them.

Fortunately, this time I have an image! (Rule #31: You must have pictures to prove your statements.) Though they aren't very good. Damn mobile phones! I'll have to bring a Reflex camera to the University if I continue coming across these kind of people. Anyway, this is the photo. Click here if you can't see the image. Besides, I have some witnesses, in case you thought I'm either lying or crazy (or both). Ask them.

The image is not excellent, but hey!, half a loaf is better than none. Click to enlarge.

I don't find this scary, but somehow disturbing. I mean, alright, Spartan costumes. Spartans are cool. Everybody has seen the film 300. Everybody would like to fight like them.

BUT WHY THE BOOBS?????

Don't misunderstand me. I'm a heterosexual man, I like tits, as everybody else, I suppose. But not on a man's body! That's sort of gross... As people say on the Internet, "Do not want."

If I wanted to disguise as a woman (though that is not among my immediate plans), I guess I would dress up as a real (or realistic) woman, not an androgyne Spartan Soldier with Spartan clothing and non-Spartan briests. I just don't understand what makes someone take the decision of a Spartan shemale fancy dress.

If you were one of those Spartan guys (or knew them) and read these lines, I would be glad if you explained this to me.

I'm leaving now. As people say on the Internet, "It's a trap." See you!

This Is the Last Day of my Life. *

2009-11-19T20:10:00.005+01:00

Tomorrow will be the last day of my life.

That's it. I can't stand anymore. All my teachers are sons of bitches, they have failed me on all my exams and I don't want to live like this, not anymore.

So tomorrow I'm going to finish with all. I'll get my father's hunting rifle and I'll kill them all. They will get what they deserve. Then I'll kill myself, because I don't wanna spend the rest of my life in prison.

So, that is all. See you in Hell, my beloved readers. Tomorrow you'll see me in the newspapers.

* * *

* If you were wondering, this is just a joke. It's a parody of a piece of news I have seen on the newspaper, involving a 13-year-old kid who wanted to kill his teachers (see more info here or here).

With this post I just wanted to criticize that boy, and comment that there are some really silly people in the world. This is just amazing: a kid who wants to kill thier teachers and warns about it in his blog, lol. Then he gets cold feet when he sees the police, double lol! And then he is found at a cyber cafe (probably writing about his failure in his blog), EPIC LOL, I should say! He sure hit the headlines, though not as he expected. Luckily.

Ok, now I'm repeating it again in case someone didn't catch it. Tomorrow I'm not killing anyone. So you can save your efforts on calling the police. Tomorrow I don't even have classes, so you won't see me there, not to mention I'm not bringing a rifle with me.

I think this compensates for my last week's lack of posts. In case you missed it, see the other post I wrote today here: "Comeacrossness: The Man who Walked Strangely."

Comeacrossness: The Man who Walked Strangely.

2009-11-19T12:23:00.025+01:00

Hello again! Last week I couldn't write anything because I had loads of work. But today I'm back with something I promised on my last post.

You may know this famous Monty Python's gag, the Ministry of Silly Walks (if you don't you can watch it on youtube here). Yeah, it's a very funny sketch, but we don't usually think that someone actually walks like that. I didn't think either... since a couple of weeks ago.

That day I was, as usual, walking from University to the bus station, when I saw a man who I could describe as "kinda weird". He was walking the dog, and both were heading the same direction I was. Even with my slow and unworried walk I eventually catchedup with him. The reason of this was that he was walking in a strange way.

Maybe this gag is based on real events.

Every 4 or 5 steps he stopped for a second and left one of his feet in the air, as if he was hopping. Then he landed the foot, walked a few steps more, and did it again. Of course I catched up with him in a matter of minutes.

As you can imagine I looked around in case there was a camera and they were filming some kind of commercial, but the street was almost empty. I even thought a hidden camera programme was taking place, so I continued walking as if I hadn't noticed the guy, but I couldn't help thinking about the way the dog looked at his owner.

I overtook the man in a few minutes, and didn't look behind, so I don't know if he continued walking like that or stopped. I don't know if I will come across him another day, but if I do and he walks the same way, I'll be sure of taking some photos of him, or even record a short video, with my mobile phone.

Well, that's the end of the story. I hope you liked it. Now I think I'll watch that Monty Python's gag again.

See you!

Comeacrossness: The Forgotten Shop

2009-11-07T12:24:00.018+01:00

Hi everybody!

I come from a small town (well, it's gradually getting bigger, but it is small compared with Castellón), so I find everything in Castellón extraordinarily big and complex. Almost everyday I come across something I hadn't seen before (specially weird people). That's why I've decided to start this new section, titled "Comeacrossness", where I'll explain these weird things that happen to me in the city.

In this first episode of Comeacrossness I want to tell a little anecdote. I was looking for a videogame store in Castellón, so I decided to search in Google Maps. I typed "tiendas de videojuegos Castellón" and took the first result. "Centro Email, Avda Rey Don Jaime 43". I memorized the adress and the next day I went to visit the shop.

This is me getting lost looking for a videogame store in Castellón.

After wandering for about half an hour, I finally reached the avenue. I started looking for anything that seemed a store. I found nothing. Then I decided to look at the house numbers. Thirty-five, thirty-seven, thirty-nine, oh, It's not far. [...] Ok, there it is. Now, to my left I can see number 41, and number 45 to my right. In front of me there is...

A deserted closed business.

Yes, I know what you are thinking. I got owned. Saint Google betrayed me, showing me a place which doesn't exist anymore.

But this story has a happy ending: I returned to Google Maps, looked at the next result, and found an excellent videogame store, in compensation for the epic failure I got.

Coming soon, a meeting with a man who walked strangely. Stay tuned with Comingacrossness!

OVERTIME: A brief introduction to Team Fortress 2

2009-10-29T11:58:00.042+01:00

I promised myself to write at least one post a week, but I just don't know what to say today. It has been quite a lame week.
So... I could talk about some of my hobbies/interests/crazeness.

Some of you may know a videogame titled "Team Fortress 2". If you don't, don't worry. You don't like first-person shooters. It's OK. I'll explain it briefly.

Team Fortress 2 is a team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. (From Wikipedia, see this for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_fortress_2.)

Screenshot showing gameplay. The player uses the Medic to heal a Soldier, while a Scout fights against an enemy Pyro.

TF2 is different from other FPS, because it has some touches of strategy. In the game, two teams (RED & BLU) fight each other for achieving goals, like capturing a briefcase with important documents or pushing a bomb cart right to the other team's base.

BLU and RED logos

When you have chosen a team, you choose among 9 different characters (from the speedy Scout to the stealthy Spy). Each one of these characters has their own abilities, which need to be combined in order to win the game, so gameplay depends above all on teamwork.

The nine classes (characters you can choose) are the following:

Attack classes:

Scout: The Scout is the fastest class. He can capture control points and push the bomb cart at double speed, and he can perform double-jumps. Very useful for hit-and-run attacks.

Soldier: Armed with a rocket launcher, the soldier is a basic attack unit. He can perform rocket-jumps, which allow him to reach very high places.

Pyro: The Pyro is perfect for ambushes. With his flamethrower, he can ignite enemies and hurt them even after the Pyro died. The flamethrower can also reflect rockets and other projectiles, and blow out allies that are in flames.

Defense classes:

Demoman: The Demoman is an expert on explosives. He can lay a group of bombs and detonate them when an enemy approaches. He can perform sticky-jumps, which allow him to reach even higher places than rocket-jumps.

Heavy: The Heavy Weapons Guy is the class who has the most health, but he is also the slowest. He uses a huge machinegun and is vey useful for defending narrow corridors or rooms.

Engineer: His principal aim is defending a zone. The Engineer can build sentry guns, which are mounted turrets which will shoot any enemy they detect. He can also build a dispenser of health and ammunition, and teleporters for reaching the battlefield faster.

Support classes:

Medic: The Medic is one of the most useful classes. As you can imagine, he can heal teammates, but not only that. He can deploy an Übercharge, that will make himself and an ally invincible for 8 seconds.

Sniper: The sniper is a support class. With his sniper rifle he can kill enemies with a single headshot, but he needs to charge his rifle in order to make considerable damage.

Spy: The Spy is the stealth class of TF2. He can turn himself invisible, he can disguise as an enemy, and he can kill enemies with a single backstab (but only if he is able to sneak behind his enemies).

Spy and Sniper are my favourite classes. Maybe another day I'll talk about them.

This is only an introductory post about TF2, just in case I decided to talk about the game, so you already know what it is about. Actually, I whink this will be the first of a long series of posts talking about TF2 (specially if I don't have anything else to talk about).

See you. Now I have to go, since our control point is being captured.

*Updated 2009/12/11 with the new section logo: "Overtime."

Orthography on the Internet.

2009-10-19T11:23:00.096+02:00

Hello there!

Today I want to talk about a topic about which everybody who frequently uses Internet concerns or has concerned. It's the phenomenon known in my country as "Hoygan".

Example of Hoygan

I have done an investigation but I haven't found the exact English word for referring to "Hoygans", but thanks to the priceless help of one of my English friends (many thanks, Becca) I have found out that an approximate equivalent of the word in English may be "lamespeaker". For those who doesn't know what a "Hoygan" or "lamespeaker" is, here you have some descriptions:

From Frikipedia (in Spanish): http://www.frikipedia.es/friki/Hoygan

From Urban Dictionary (in English): http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hoygan

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lamespeak

A "Hoygan" can be described as someone who has no respect or interest in linguistic correction; someone who speaks as if he had never gone to school (maybe they actually have never gone to school). We call them "Hoygan" in the Internet spanish forums. The origin of the word is a misspelling of "oigan", imperative of "oír" (to listen), which is the word they use to start their terrible posts.

As light exists because there is darkness, on the Internet exists the antithesis of the lamespeakers. These are called "Grammar nazis". Grammar nazis are those users who correct the others in their spelling, grammar or even punctuation. I have to admit that I am a Grammar nazi (at least in Spanish).

Example of Grammar nazi

Grammar nazis think that, because they have a good command of their language, it is their duty to correct every single mistake other users can make. Even the position of the littlest comma of a text. They don't usually try to be annoying, but they become a pain in he neck (or other parts of the body) after a few posts. Generally, they also know all the forumn rules, so if you break one, they are the first to tell the moderators, and of course, to warn the rule breaker about the risk of permanent ban, attaching always a nice link to the forum rules list.

Common signature used by Grammar nazis

Between these opposite extremes (lamespeakers and grammar nazis), there are many other types of forum users, but I won't explain them now.

Talking about lamespeakers is talking about orthography in general. Which reminds me some examples I have found in the recent days in my sorrounding (a.k.a. University). This is quite ironic, since University is supposed to be the highest degree of orthography. Well, you see it's not.

This is a film someone lent to me: It is read "CAMARON DE LA HISLA". I don't think you need to know a lot of Spanish to understand what is wrong.

This example seems just too absurd to be real, but it is real. I took the poster as a proof. In Spanish, an accent (´) is used to mark the stressed syllable. The word 'inglés' (English) is pronounced [in'gles]. The word "ingles" means "groins" and doesn't need an accent. By putting an accent, the writer is emphasizing that the word is read ['ingles], and besides, it is written wrong. That is why it is ironic: someone who arranges trips to English-speaking countries should know how to say 'English' properly.

Click to view the complete Poster: http://i354.photobucket.com/albums/r436/F_Tido/BecasMECnglesCompleto.jpg

Finally, the following link is ONLY for people who know how to speak spanish very well, and feel brave enough to face the worst Hoygan I've ever met. If you aren't, this post ends here for you.

http://www.hl2spain.com/foro/index.php?showtopic=35838
CAUTION: CLICK HERE AT YOUR OWN RISK

Well, that was all for now. If you find that I've written something wrong in this post, tell me.

You can call me lamespeaker if you want, and tell me to stop kicking the dictionary (I usually say that to hoygans).

See you, and Heil Spellcheck!

District 9

2009-10-03T21:18:00.019+02:00

Hello everybody!

Finally, after a boring week I have something interesting to say. Today I went to the cinema and watched a film titled "District 9". This film, directed by Neil Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson, is an interesting one, because it's about racism, xenophobia and Apartheid, though the aparted ones in District 9 are... aliens!

Twenty years ago an alien spaceship landed on our planet, over the city of Johannesburg (South Africa). Everybody expected an invasion or samples of advanced technologies, but the aliens were just refugees that were looking for a place to live. While deciding what to do with them, they were moved to District 9 and separated from human population.

Today, the military company MultiNational United (MNU) plans to relocate all the aliens to a concentration camp disguised as a new and better district (District 10). Wikus van der Merwe, responsible of notifying the aliens of this eviction, accidentally ingests a strange black liquid from an alien shack. That causes his DNA mutation into a half-alien half-human being. When the MNU tries to dissect him, Wikus escapes from the laboratories and looks for alien help.

Such an interesting plot is crowned by a "documentary-like" style, where we can see some interviews to Johannesburg citizens about the aliens and facts occured. I cannot tell more about the film because I don't want to spoil it. I only have to say "Go and see it".

Besides...
I have chosen this film for my English coursework (I have to analyze some films). I've just downloaded the same film in original version with subtitles (video piracy, mwahaha) and tomorrow - or maybe next week - I'm watching it again.

General conclusion: Very cool film. Excellent plot and a great background. Convincing portrayal and incredible advertisements. See more info in http://www.d-9.com/, the official film's website.

See you soon, humans.

New beginning

2009-09-28T15:36:00.003+02:00

Hello everyone!

I've been told to create a blog for my English class, so here I am. I will introduce myself, in case you have ended here by chance and doesn't even know me.

My name is Franck Tido, and I'm from Spain. I'm a Translation Student, but I have many other hobbies (that I probably will explain in other posts). One of the course homework is to create and mantain a blog, so "The 9th Circle of Hell" is the result of those instructions and some of my own mad ideas.

Why have I chosen this name? Well, if you have read Dante's Divine Comedy, you may know that Dante imagined the Hell divided in 9 levels. The builder of Babel's Tower suffers in the 9th level for causing the confusion of the world's languages. I took the idea of that legend. Besides, our professor told us that some grammar mistakes were kind of sins. That is the explanation of the subtitle.

Well, I think that was enough for a first/introducing/uninteresting post, so I will stop typing... for now.

I will try to update as often as possible. I had never thought about writing a blog, so I don't know exactly about what I will talk.

See you, and welcome to Hell (metaphorically).

The 9th Circle of Hell

Comeacrossness: Italian Singers

Nihon FTW (日本 フォ デ ウィン)

Hammertime: Need a displacement here!

Comeacrossness: Scrap crap dealer

HammerTime: The CP_Parchis Project

Exam Article: L4D Saga Review

Good Bye, Leslie

EYE! Me Bottle O' Scrumpy!

Butterflies in the Stomach

OVERTIME: Mac Fortress 2

Las Chancletas de Hermes

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 5)

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 4)

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 3)

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 2)

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 1)

Comeacrossness: Què!

OVERTIME: Crappy Community Content

The Aperture Science Periodically Updated Post Publication System

Comeacrossness: Where is the UJI?

Comeacrossness: The Map

OVERTIME: Team Focata's First Anniversary and Erik Mat's Accident

First semester... finished!

OVERTIME: Translation Fortress (part 2)

OVERTIME: Translation Fortress (Part 1)

OVERTIME: War! A comic translation

Avatar and Na'vi Language

The Ducklings and Bill Bryson

OVERTIME: The War Update, released!

OVERTIME: The Administrator and Demoman/Soldier Update

Orthography on University posters

Comeacrossness: The Transvestite Spartans on a Bike

This Is the Last Day of my Life. *

Comeacrossness: The Man who Walked Strangely.

Comeacrossness: The Forgotten Shop

OVERTIME: A brief introduction to Team Fortress 2

Orthography on the Internet.

District 9

New beginning

Nihon FTW (日本フォデウィン)