Pirate?

This extra entry from today came about when I was writting the earlier post. I mentioned something about pirated DVDs and just kept rambling about it, long enough for its on post, so...

Last NIght I watched Dan in real life, its a good movie, I mean is not hte best, but if you like The Office's Steve Carrell I bet you will like his acting in this movie a lot, I did and I think is worth going to the movies to see it, or rent it, jsut see it but not in a pirated way.

Even though I live next to the theater my girlfriend insisted in taking the car since it was rainy nigh, so I was worried we wont find parking and we would have to park almost the same distance or further than my house's walking distance to the theater. I was amazed, we found parking and, the line to buy the tickers was actaully empty along the theater hall, only like 20 people the most, including staff.
When we got to the room, it was empty except for a couple sitting in the middle, I was surprised it was opening night for this movie, I thought more people would come in to watch the movie, no one else did. So it was a good/weird experience. Many elements can contribute to this... a bad movie? bad weather? bad promotion... or getting a pirate version of the movie and watch it on the computer. Actually an ad ran talking about pirated movies, and it showcased a cliche dramatic sequence of how a parent gave bad example of buying a prated DVD... its lame but so true.. even though they over acted.

Fuck pirated DVDs and CDs, if you want a DVD or CD, buy it. People say is not stealing, riiight. Let me put it this way, if you steal a DVD or CD from a store, the artist don't get the respective royalty from that product (unless they have another distribution method), so if you rip a DVD or CD, yeah you might say you rather copy it than stealing...BUT yo uare not buying it, you get to enjoy the product without never buying it, meaning that the original product remains on the store shelf. You might think, oh well if I don't buy it, doesnt matter its only less than $20 they don't earn, but...BUT if hundreds, or thousands, or millions of people do the same... do the math... that is how much the original artist never earns... on his or her's hard worked CD or movie. It applys the same thing with video games, on my earlier blogs I talked about emulation (a program that palys ROM versions of the original game) and how I restric that emulation in only HARD TO FIND OR RARE consoles that are OBVIOUSLY OVER PRICED by rip off Ebay sellers (most of them dont even work they are sell AS IS) for the rest I rather buy it, and guess what I even enjoy it more, beacuse I earned it, I appreciate it. So, next time if you are on a store, and you think a DVD is over priced (cause yeah I agree they are), come back another day for a special or something, or look on the internet for better offers (because you can find better offers) but dont just copy it, that is being fucking cheap (unless is something so stupid that is not even worth buying, then again why you want something like that). By the way, people might say "OH how contradictory aa so called pirate talking agaisnt pirated products..." I'll say even pirates had a code of honor. So Fuck you, cheap bastard. ;)

Reviving the Nostalgia element!

This last couple of days I've done couple interesting things that haven't mentioned.

1- Beowulf = fucking great movie. If in high school you got the opportunity to read the Beowulf story, well this is it, only 18385% better. I read Dave Jaffe's (God of War original game director) blog and he is right, the movie uses elements of games such as God of War and Shadow of the Colossus. As a matter of fact that same weekend I watched the movie, I did fought against a boss in Shadow of the Colossus taht was a dragon look alike. The sequence was very similar, and the attack sequence something straight out of God of War. Its funny, games took inspiration form movies, now is backwards. If you have palyed this games before and you get to watch the movies...you will be surprised how similiar it is, for the rest of the public, you will think its groundbreaking, still good 3D, more interesting in story telling but not groundbreaking. Watch it in theaters, fuck pirated DVDs (this pirate theme motivated me to write an extra entry today).

2- Recorded vocals for La Virgen del Pozo (thrash band)= I recorded vovals for 3 songs of the band. It went pretty smooth there was like 10 people on the studio so it was kind of distracting and at a not so concentrated situation but it worked out. I liked the dynamic how everyone contributed and were into it, now I have 3 more songs left..I just need to write the lyrics.... again.

3- Item farming in Castlevania: Symphony of the night = Many people have played this game and just finished it, guess what?, I did that same thing months ago too. But thanks to my friend Jolge, I did enjoy the game 200% more. Why? He taught me the art of hunting for items all over the castle. It takes time, but the rewards is rather fun, actually I had more fun hunting for items than progressing into the game. Last night I finished the game without any efforts, since I had these amazing weapons that made the last boss Dracula a piece of cake. Now I can replay the game as 2 other characters or just continue using Alucard and keep hunting for more items, that will be interesting.

4- Back to Skate = Jolge had this urge to buy a skateboard, so I wnt with him to a store to help him get the right one, and he bought it. I think this is just amazing since I was gettig back into it too, but was losing hope in it recently, until now. I will get a skateboard preferably old school and start rip and shredding along wtih Jolge on the streets...of a neighborhood. Actually I was so motivated that when Jolge and I were talking in Messenger we did skateboarding art work, here was my best piece:


It shows me skate jumping into an abyss with a two hand Chaos Hammer about to Mortal Strike a Demon straight out of the gates of hell who kidnapped my girlfriend.... Beat that trick noob.

That is why this post is entitled Reviving the nostalgia element, I feel like I am back to middle school all over again, with a band, video games and skating, of course watching epic movies too. I love it, cause I am reliving one of the things I love in my life along with responsabilities as an "adult".

Well I guess thats pretty much it, besides an earthquake that happen yesterday and a reunion in Leo Burnett (which is an agency I sent a hateful email months ago). Keep posing.

Where we all were?

I need to be honest I used to hate facebook, in fact I don't totally agree with the website, because I think it puts a social pressure and addiction to some people who really need real friends outside the computer... but.. BUT... In my case and as many people too, it helped get in touch with people form the past. I graduated in 1999, and by that time only a couple of the people in my class had internet, not everyone, now years later we got the tools to easily get in touch with others, it is actually really interesting. This last couple days, I got in touch with many class mates from elmental, high school and college. Talking about high school, I wasnt that social thou, I was more of an outsider but yet everyone knew me and I knew everyone and I could talk to any of them without any trouble, I was like a person that didnt stick to a specific group of friends so in school that helped me to interact with every group of friends..but at the same time stay outside even though I was called a freak sometimes..yeah I am a punk. I know too complicated. But now, we are all getting in touch again and treating each other as a sole group. We all matured now..(well what mature really means?) well, now that we have more responsabilities we tend to appreciate the past, and remember those people that we went to school with. I mean damn, I spent easily 10 years of my life with many of them. But havent seen them in the last 8 years. A lot can happen in 8 years, a life time can happen in 8 years... short one but still. Many of us area proud parents which is cool and career wise, I dont know of it, I told them what I do on a group they formed in the networking website, but I'll see when I get to talk to them. I think a reaunion will be different, we all will look different, we all lived through many stuff that I think it wont be even worth it talking about. Just see each other, remember the past laugh about it and keep going on living our lives.

So, yeah I am using a website that I used to hate, at least Ill leave it that way just to find old classmates, old bandmates...old friends.

Gonna keep palying Castlevania Symphony of the Nights on the PSP... great game... got the runesword last night...after 2 hours of looking for it...now is PWONAGE time.
Noob.

Not Enough time.

Its been couple days since I have not put and entry here, maybe because I don't have enough time sometimes. Some people after work when they get to their houses they relax, some have other duties to do, but they relax later on. I get anxious. Why? Because there are so many things I need to do that when I get the opportunity to do them..they .. how can I explain it, I jsut cannot do them all at the same time (of course) but for an example, I need to finnish like 3 freelance, when I get off work I don not want to sit on my computer again and work, I rather play video games resting on my bed, or do exercise, or go to Borders, or go to hte movies, talk to my uncle about scary movies, watch some of my isolated Dvds, read, spend time with my girlfriend and so on. Maybe Ill get some time available cause I will be probably move in with my girlfriend, so she lives like 10 minutes closer where I work and Ill get a room for all my stuff. I dont know, I just dont have anough time, right now I am doing 3 things at the same time, lifting weights, playing Shadow of the Colossus and writting this, (I take turns while the game is paused). Actually I woke up today at 6am because there was something uncomfortable on my bed and it was the Playstation 2 controller, it happens that I fell asleep while trying to find a giant in the Shadow of the Colossus game, I hate when that happens. Christmas is almost over us, so that means I have vacations at the end of Decemeber, I need to talk to my boss JUST TO MAKE SURE those days are still on agenda. I am sure I wil get them I was suposed to take those vacations months ago, as in summer. Anyways gonna go to work. Mars Matrix is a cool game, I jsut keep playing it to get more scores for power ups, anywas fuck it.

I decorated the office

Well, I decorated the office without help on the first hour, and for the last couple minutes I got help of 2 co-workers who worked on the strings of the snow mans to hang. Here is some half assed pics.






Its funny how people are. When I was working on it I was ignored only to be told negative comments of how I might mess it up, or how I should be careful with my boots cause I was standing on the desks. After I finished it was oh it looks so pretty. Yeah, no thanks to you.

I wanna go home now. At least I will eat sushi tonight.

Why do I collect?

Why do I collect? It’s a question I ask myself when I found myself spending money on something that can be either found somewhere else digitally instead of its original condition. The answer is right there, “its original condition”. I only collect certain items from the following categories: video game consoles, video games, vinyl records and old toys. People might think that I collect any video game, or any console, but I already have a wanted list on my mind, even thou like I said earlier, nowadays you can find everything digitally on the internet, you can find music, games, emulators, well except toys since that is a physical thing, but still most of the things are immortalized on the computer, but still for me is not enough.

Vinyl records

I remember I did a writing about why I prefer Vinyl records over the other music like over a year ago, but I will review it again. First of all I am not dismissing the new technology and its advantages because in some ways it makes things easier, but those same advantages in a way are killing an aesthetic essence of the music taking away a important part of it.

I love Vinyl records because they are a work of art, is not the same downloading a digital album or just selected songs from it, than having the actual album in your hands were you can see all the artwork, its something physical you can see it, have it, feel it and even smell it. In a way, you learn to appreciate the album even more, if is digital you just listen to it (only certain songs) and that’s it.

I remember those days when I used to do mix tapes, I took songs from vinyl, radio and cd (those days CD-R didn’t exist) and made my perfect mix to take everywhere. That same mix tape would deteriorate through the years, making it have a personality like a living thing that aged with you, trust me I appreciate more mix tapes than a folder on my computer with mixed mp3s. It is interesting, when I started recording mix Cds, it was easier to make than mix tapes, but still I didn’t appreciate them as much, but just for couple years later people started getting the IPod or Mp3 Players and everything changed. Like I said, you can buy albums on the internet, and not even that, people sometimes just download couple songs or just the main songs and that’s it. There will be a point were artist won’t bother on making extra music for an album because people think of them as fillers; “if it wasn’t a hit or doesn’t have a video it sucks” they might say. An album is not just songs, it’s a whole piece of artwork that involves planning a theme for it, photo shoot, graphic design, lyrics layout, packaging everything. People are overlooking that now, and a generation is growing up not really appreciating it.

That is why I collect vinyl, every time I put a record I enjoy it, knowing that I had to browse for it from the box, take it out, look at the artwork, carefully slide the record out, put it on the turntable, let it roll then putting the needle on top of it, and hear the audio noise that sound like Rice Krispies, until the music starts… and yes it’s true it sounds better than digital stuff.
Of course I don’t collect any vinyl just because it is vinyl, I mainly collect Hardcore, Punk, Thrash, Crust, extreme music in other words. People might think that vinyl is only for old bands, but most of the vinyl I have comes from current bands that they rather prefer release their material on vinyl instead of CDs. But yes I do some gems likes the Danzig I and II original pressings, along with the 3 SAMHAIN albums original pressings, I know if I sold those records in a bundle I might get couple hundred dollars. Getting vinyl records like that is not easy, sometimes is necessary to invest on the bidding to get what you want, even thou the same music is a download way, is not the same. Actually one of the SAMHAIN records got the guitars redone so is not original, the only original mix was found on the record I managed to get on Ebay, so that is good I guess.

Video games and consoles

Yes, I know the existence of emulators but still…; I say that because that’s the response I give when I tell someone I am trying to get an specific game from a certain console from the past and they just say “Why do that if you can download it?”.

Well again, yes I know I can download emulators and I’ve done it but emulation is not a perfect technology. The pros of playing games using an emulator on the computer for me is: The possibility of Net play, the option of saving game positions, the easy access of most of the games from different consoles, and that you can take it anywhere that there is a computer. The cons for me are the same as the Pros. For an example, saving the game position is an advantage, but takes away the challenge of the game, taking away the use of lives, because if you lose instead of losing a life you just load the saved position and start it again, which makes it easy to beat. Also the graphics, sound might not be the same in many cases. Trust me I do use emulators to this day but I only use 3 of them for the following reasons:
1- MAME because it’s the emulator for arcade games and getting the real arcade card and cabinet is really expensive and needs work too, so is out of the question.
2- Magic Engine (Pc Engine emulator aka Turbo Duo) Most of the actual consoles are over hundred dollars and are from Japan and I usually don’t trust the shipping and the time it takes, also the games for it tend to be very expensive for the short play they have. The only reason that got me close to get one was for the Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, I managed to get a real copy of the game from a friend, (which I played it with the emulator), but since the game was released in the Castlevania Dracula X chronicles wasn’t necessary, also considering the game was almost $300.
3- Neo geo emulator, same as the Pc Engine, but the games are worth it since they are arcade quality. But then again, high price and import from Japan to get the best shipping possible you will need to invest in $70 extra, unless I am rich or a real hardcore collector yeah, but not yet.


For the rest of the video games and its systems I rather get the original stuff, get the console and then hunt for the game, it is actually a fun thing to do. Everything started when I remembered one of the things that motivated me years ago to do extreme inline skating, and that game was Skitchin, then that game triggered many more memories, then I downloaded a Genesis Emulator and the game itself but didn’t work properly so I thought how hard it would be to find the real thing, so I happen to encounter in Ebay a Sega Genesis Bundle that had the console and couple games and among the games was Skitchin and one of my all time favorites Streets of Rage 2 and everything for less than $40, so it was a great deal. After that I started searching for many video game consoles that I always wanted but never had the opportunity to have when I was a kid. Many people will disagree with me saying that still is the same as playing an emulator, but other differences can be pointed like the control pad are designed uniquely for each system, some games can’t be emulated at all so you have to get the real thing, also I spend most of my day working on a computer, and the last thing I want is to get home and entertain myself with my computer, with a TV, at least I can lay on bed and the screen is bigger and less harmful to my eyes and the game resolution and colors are how it meant to be. Again is the same reason in comparing an MP3 with a vinyl record, you are missing the whole experience, and you learn to appreciate the game even more when you know all the hassle you went thru to get it.

Currently this were I spend of my most collecting time into, browsing good deals on Ebay, constantly checking the Play n Trade store for any new/old arrivals to get for the cheapest price possible, its cool because were I live many gamers don’t know the real value of some games, and they just give them away for trade in stores without knowing they could’ve sell that game in Ebay for like hundreds. Sometimes still is hard for me to get some games. Right now I have around 10 video game systems most of them from the last generations (even thou the PS2 and PSP are considered current gen): a Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Atari Jaguar, Panasonic 3D0, Gameboy SP, PS2 and PSP. Most of the games I won on each system are sought by collectors and are rare to find, some day I’ll make lots of money when I happen to sell them. Collecting is addictive indeed, like stripping.

Toys

Well my toy collection is rather poor, but I am concentrating on getting toys from the 80’s and early 90’s I think the most entertaining toys are from that era, I just collecting for nostalgic purposes and use them as decoration. Some people buy paintings or pictures, other sculptures, and other people use modeled figures of characters, I use old toys. My favorite is Captain Power, I liked the show and its action figures resemble the essence of the show. My most precious toy is Steve Irwin Crocodile hunter still brand new on the box. Some day I will start collecting more toys..actually I think I will start now.

Video game hunting: Search and Acquire

Since thrusday I've done lot of things like I said I will do on my earlier post, I did went to a Mima show, she is like this Fionna Apple singer that mixes also some reggae stuff into her charismatic music. I am not a fan but still, respect what she does. Besides that, on friday I was finishing some divorce stuff, everything went smooth, I mean I'll do a post about it, because it was all a postive experience, no one is mad at each other it was just a mutual decision, that happens when you realize in the long run that you married to a predon totally different than you, and then both people realize it and decide to keep goin on with the lives. After all each of us have already different partners. ANYWAYS during the weekend I did some other stuff and others I couldn't but one of them wasn't on my plans, it just happend; I got to do some console and video game investment again.

ON my way on the highway to the country house with my family I got a call from the Play n Trade video game store, telling me that they got a Sega Dreamcast for $40 (of course I had to detour, I deceived them taking them to Marshalls); I mean the Dreamcast is not that old, but is hard to find, I know I've seen it in new conditions on a pharmacy like 2 hours away from here, but the price is well over $260, so I am like ...well I won't buy it. So, I told the store that whenever a Dreamcast arrives to call me, actually I was the third on the list but since I know the guy on the counter Randy, he called me fiert so in less than 30 minutes I was there ready to buy it. The thing is, right now I am collecting video game consoles, not current ones, but former ones, right now I have a: PS2 (I still play psone titles on it), Gamecube, Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Atari Jaguar, 3DO (still need to fix it all right), Sega Saturn and well besides my Gameboy SP and PSP that is pretty much it. People say I could play many of those console games on Emulators, but still is not the same experience, I am even so serious about it that I did a 2 part story on the newspaper talking about it. Here is the links to the web version of the story which is in spansih:

Part 1: Emulando tu Diversion

Part 2: Emulando tu diversion 2

Maybe one day I'll do an english version of it, becuase I do talk about some interesting issues like were the line draws regarding collecting and emulating.
Anyways, going back to the Play n Trade store where I got the Dreamcast, I also found 2 other jewels by accident. Saturn Bomberman and Mars Matrix for Dreamcast. I've been looking for Saturns Bomberman for quite sometime now, this version of Bomberman is classified as the best yet and its over 10 years old. Its a game sought by many video game collectors as I. The game in Ebay is around $50 (THE CHEAPEST) and that doesn't include shipping and handling that some sellers put like $10 extra or even more! Actually I jsut looked and there is a cheaper one around $25 plus shipping, but it is from Japan so is not that trust worthy. That means, to get that game you need to invest time and money to get it, so for me it was shocking, going to Play n Trade looking for the Dreamcast I was promised when suddenly I saw on the display a pack of Sega Saturn Games and there it was... Saturn Bomberman as new, I had to interrupt the guy and said.. HOw much is it?.. he said $2.99. ..... I can't even explain... I jsut love this store and ignorance from the person that gave it to the store. If that person sold that game on Ebay he could've gotten over $30 easily but instead, I got it for $3 plus tax. So right now I have a collectors game actually sitting on my bed cause I was reading the date to write it on the blog. And it is like new. Anyways, the other copy I got like I said earlier was Mars Matrix, this is one the ost entertaining Shoot em Ups I ever played. I did played the game on MAME but is not as fun on a console where you get limited credits plus other features to enhance the gameplay durability, like using your score points to go to an ingame shop and buy, lives, credits, speed, levels, graphics etc. The game is really fun, actually I was playing it and now it is on the menu screen as I write this. The price for this game was the same one as Ebay minus the shipping, so I think it is all right, it is worh it.

I love this old ivdeo game consoles they work as checkpoints of my past, even thou I didnt even owned any of them (All I had back then was a Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Playstation) they were on the magazines I read, and I did wanted them at the time but didn't have the money. Now I do, So I am getting many of them when I can. Still, I put prices for the consoles that I am looking for, as an example I wouldn't pay more than $100 for a Dreamcast (luckily I found mine for way less than that), or I wouldnt pay more than $40 for a original Nintendo, so I just wait (still waiting actually), until I find the right price and then I acquire it. Now, things will get tigher on my budget so Ill be more cautious when collecting the video games. But still I have over 100 titles here to play in the mean time. Some day Ill write a blog more in deph regarding the video game collecting, since there are some real HARDCORE video game collectors in the world. Well thats it for now..fuck I am late for work.

BUSY AS HELL

I am writting this on the go... since I dont know when I am going to have access again to a compute..maybe tuesday. But his will be a pretty busy weekend let's put it all in keywords (Starting from today): Mima the singer, Ficus Cafe, Divorce, passport, afternoon friend's wedding, (ironic), more stuff to do, friend's birthday', Sabana Grande, visit my son, fix car ac, band practice, oh well more stuff to come..or probably not at all who knows. Tomorrow I won't go to work... so that will be interesting, cause I usually feel bad wehn I am not working and that is bad, I hope they do ok without me. Yeah they will. If any of you work mates read this tomorrow, SEE YA IN THA PIT. KABOOM.

FAVORITE VIDEO GAME BOSS ENCOUNTERS

Boss fights on a video game is the crucial moment were you are putting all your game skills to the test, you know that after you defeat that boss you will complete the level or even finish the game, leaving you the best feeling of accomplishment in the moment.. But while in the boss fight, you will get a feeling of you against the world, you against all odds, since all the bosses tend to be bigger, meaner and more powerful, like David and Goliath.

I played many video games and I have encountered over hundreds of boss fights, from different games, and different levels; some of them were graphically impressive, others the difficulty was over the top or inhuman, and in others it involved lots of action, but some how, this following 5 boss fights are among my favorites.

In no particular order:


Boss name: Shaft

Game: Dracula X: Rondo of Blood

System: PC-ENGINE

See the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT5i0vKHImQ

Description: You finally fight Shaft the one responsible of Dracula's resurrection. When you reach the boss stage, the door closes after a pause he launches you a fireball and blocks the door way, later on he goes off screen while a pentagram spawns different bosses from the original Castlevania.

Why I liked it?: I always liked  the Castlevania series, an eternal fight between good and evil, but in this case evil has most of the odds of winning, so its you (the Belmont) against all the forces of hell. This boss fight is an excellent example of that. Having that idea in mind, combine it with the best boss soundtrack ever, even after 20 years of hearing it for the first time in the original Castlevania, the track titled Poison Mind starts playing once you are inside the room. The first boss that spawns is the Bat; the first time I heard Poison Mind track was when I encountered the Bat boss in the first Castlevania game, so this was an instant nostalgic experience, then the Medusa, the mummy, and Frankenstein all from the same classic game (obviously with redone sprites) come forward to fight you with different attack patterns that make it a really varied boss fight. Finally Shaft comes down and fight you, in a way it feels like an anime scene with all the elements in.

Boss name:  Barbon

Game: Streets of Rage 2

System: Sega Genesis

See the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTYJI9oVk_A

Description: After an interesting fight on the city streets you enter a bar where you fight couple more thugs, but you notice the bartender runs away. Later on when you leave the bar thru the back door you encounter just the sound of the rain with the bartender and his posse waiting for you for a brawl, and that is when the awesome boss soundtrack kicks in.
Why I liked it?: Well it's a combination of good storyboarding, illustration and excellent soundtrack. It actually felt like watching a movie using video game sprites. When you get into that back alley there was clearly no way out, and having just the falling rain sound effect makes it more dramatic and with suspense, it is almost symbolic in a way. When the soundtrack finally starts it gives you a sense of danger and adrenaline, it just makes you fight harder. Game play wise, the fight is not difficult at all, (it's the first stage boss after all), but gives you an idea of what you will be up against later in the game. And for Barbon, his fighting style looks cool, and his sprite intimidates. Oh yeah, when he flexes, his shirt rips out.

Boss name:  Minotaur

Game: God of war

System: Playstation 2

See the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ1uBbfGK54

Description: The boss of The Challenge of Hades. You walk and are trapped in this room surrounded by lava falls, then something big is banging a locked up door in front of you, when suddenly it breaks open and you see this gigantic minotaur with an armor. The fight consist of stunning him so you can run to the back of the room to shoot some speared logs at the minotaur.

Why I liked it?: The setting and sound track is awesome, its like watching a movie, even better than that cause you are playing it. This sense of fighting enemies bigger than the odds of winning is a great feeling to contradict it at the end eventually. This fight had me really tense at the edge of my seat, I still remember it was a Saturday night and the room was dark and I cranked up the stereo, and the fight took me a couple minutes to get it over with, which it even had me sweating. It was fucking intense you could feel each hit and each scream of pain. When I finally killed the beast and saw how that log pierced it against the door it was one of the greatest feelings of accomplishments I had on a game. I was amazed, mouth open looking at the corpse of the beast. I paused the game and went outside to rethink my life.

Boss / stage name:  Metempsychosis

Game: Ikaruga

System: Gamecube

See the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGNSdcy-apU

Description: You finally encounter the final boss after a phase of mini bosses. The evil clown like satellite boss starts firing patterns of dark and white bullets that you could either avoid or absorb depending on your color. After some intense counter firing sequence that just gets faster by the second you destroy the boss. Afterwards you realize the boss had a final phase of extreme bullet curtain all over the screen, the only thing to do is avoid the bullets because firing is not an option. After surviving the mayhem the ship sacrifices itself to destroy the enemy.

Why I liked it?: This is one of the most intense and dramatic boss stage I've seen on a video game. It takes fast reflexes and concentration to beat this final boss, even blinking can cause losing a life. When you see this boss in front of you already know that a hell of bullets will be unleashed, and yes indeed you will find your self avoiding and absorbing bullets all over the place, until the boss fires you with missiles that you need to absorb and fight back, and so on, absorb, fire, absorb, fire, absorb fire… it gets to a point that its inhuman, you fall on a state of extreme concentration, where your soul, mind and ship are one, I can't even explain it, its just fast and intense. If you do drugs, fuck drugs, play Ikaruga. The thing is like in the description after you destroy that phase of the boss, there is this new phase were you cant shoot but absorb all the bullets. If you want a real challenge, this is a part you need to play. I was standing up the whole boss fight and in this phase I was actually face to face with the tv screen piloting my ship around all the bullets. Having in mind that you just went through an intense fight you hear some messages of your ship, and for the tone of it you know is not good, this is when you unleash fire against the remaining boss and destroy yourself before the boss is destroyed too, then the screen cuts to a white background…and top this with a classical musical score on the background that actually is well credited by many gamers. At the moment when I finished the game I didn't know if I wanted to cry, or what,…I just clapped, and said "this is a fucking great game".



Boss name:  Bowser

Game: Super Mario World

System: Super Nintendo

See the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkofJRfNJgE

Description: After going through different routes from the last castle, you get to the tower where you confront Bowser himself, this time with an aerial artifact used as cover and weapon. All this action takes place on a dark mood scenario.

Why I liked it?: I am not a fan of  Mario, but I did loved his 8bit – 16bit era platformers, after that I play occasionally Mario 64 just for the sake of doing it. But of all the Super Mario games I played, I think this boss battle is the most obscure and fun at the same time, actually thinking about it, the final Boss in Super Mario Bros 1 (who was Bowser of course) had a pretty dark theme too, but wasn't that fun. What I liked from this boss battle is the setting, the pitch black background that is accompanied with thunder flashes along with the rumbling sound that sound really hard. The music is the darkest from the Super Mario games I think, at least the ones I played, it doesn't sound to anything previous in the game, it is hard, fast, and dark. Having that setting already in mind, the boss fight is a fun one, it aint difficult at all, but you can't lower your guard. On a technical note, this is the first time I saw sprite scaling on a video game, now people will think it is stupid, but at that time it was something non-common. Every time I think of this boss fight I get transported back in time to the summer of 1992 were life was good, zero responsibilities and no worries. I still remember that (weird fact), I liked playing that boss stage and finishing it every day during that summer.

Runners up:
Other games that had memorable boss fights:
Gunstar Heroes - against Green. (Genesis and GBA version)
Resident Evil 4 – the water monster (Gamecube)

Super Contra 3 – the giant turtle, it is a classic (Super Nintendo)

Black Manta – the giant brawler, all over the screen boss. (Nintendo)
Castlevania - almost all the series had interesting boss fights (many systems)

I NINJA

hahahhahHAHHAHAHhhahahaha whoa, That was funnny. Gian Franco, the guy that works with the video camera and editing here was showing me some chuck norris jokes (spoken by Chuck Norris himself) from his laptop on the editing room. He is kind of swamped with work that are due thursday, but still he manages to take time for some fun, anyways, her boss knocked on the door and came in, it happens the door was blcking my way out and against the wall, so she couldn't see me at all. I thought probably she will say something quick and walk away, but no... she jsut kept giving him orders, and I was like..ok I htink I been here long enough to tell her I was here all the time, making it a very uncomfortable situation, specially when we both inter changed words during the morning. Here is what happend: I told her that the newspaper cover played with words to deceive people making them understand that Al Pacino came to visit and that his dog was stolen and killed, but waht really happend is taht the dog came from brazil with his owner, and the owner's truck was stoeln along with the dog, and when they found the truck the dog was dead inside, the dogs happens to be named Al Pacino. The news ppl here since they need attention paly with words everytime to get ppl's attention. Anywyas she got mad about it and told me I can't read, I mean I am not the best writer in the world but fuck yeah I can read, so I said..ok at least I am happy and have someone to make love to. I said that since she is single, I htink a Nun had more sexual fun than her. Whe nI said that... she got hurt, sorry to hurt your feelings. Not. I dont care, I get along with everyone, but if someone attacks, fuck, Í'll counter attack them with all I have I dont care if its a permanent damage... well it depends. Anyways back to hte editing room, I was hiding there for like 5 minutes already, then she came into the room and I was holding the door, until she lefty enough space for me to squeeze out, and thats waht I did I pushed her a little bit and ran away, Gian Franco told her that it was him picking up something or I dont know.. I just ran then came back like if nothing..and started writing this blog. Interesting isnt? Not. I spend most of the day counting votes and emails for a contest of PANTENE... if you wanan see what I am talking about: I worked with that http://www.primerahora.com/pantene

The contest is over, but I designed that and made all the mechanic. Well Time to go. And yes, I think I could be a ninja or a assassin in better words, instead of running away form the editing room I could've just jump real high and land on her back and jump maniacally sadistic on her back until she was a lump of shit that never had sex...ever.

Prom all over again.

Yes, it is prom all over again. You remember proms? You can see many of them in teen movies, Nickelodeon, stupid real life Mtv crapisodes and so on. Cable. Or, you might had the sad opportunity to lived one already. I hate proms in a way. I still remember my prom, it wasn't that classy, it was on a fellow student's house (he was rich) and after the graduation we all went there and my band at the moment P.S.T.H. (hardcore ska punk) played. Actually it was never a prom. Why? Beacuse I 've been in other proms outside my senior class and its a depressing matter to many. See, in proms you need to get a date, and it is all like a contest of who has the best dress, who eventually hooked up, look at that hair, blah blah shit and crap. I've seen girls cry and get depressed about proms. I went to 3 promsafter I graduated from high school; the first one was my first ex-girlfriend, she was all hyped about it, becasue its a show off night, anyways she ended up crying cause she wanted to dance salsa, and I sucked so, we didnt dance. By the way now a days I do, poorly. The second prom I went was with a girl friend of mine in Florida, and I got to live an all american Prom, with the jocks, the cheerleaders, the goths, the hip hops, the drama, the break ups, the alcohol. It was mayhem. etc. But I got to see how much a prom means specially to girls, its like a wedding day in highschool years. Now, my third "prom" was last night, you might think, p e d o p h i l e, but no, my girlfriend is the same age as I and we went to the 10th anniversary of my work place that took place on a classy restaurant. Why is that a prom? Well, yeah you are right, is not a Prom, but it had all the elements to make it a prom. Specially the element of the girls buying dresses, talking about it the whole week at work, who they gonna take, who might go with who, how you gonna fix your hair, blah blah blah. It was annoying, and something I thought I lived already and left it in the past I just re-lived it this week. Is not that it is bad, but behind all that, deep beneath, its like a message "do we reallly grow up?", some people might say, even me, that when people get all excited on a prom is just a teen phase, but now I think it ain't, we never grow out of that phase its just takes place on a different scenario. Like I said before the girls acted the same, and also, the guys in pre-print and photo digital were like the jocks, talking loud mmaking noises and screaming, and yes THERE WAS A SPORTS EVENT TOO, boxing, Cotto vs Mosley, so they were all ("jocks") screaming (I did too but to piss ppl off). Also, I could see the girls on the side of the dance floor probably gossiping stuff propbably like "So...they are together.." "oh look that is her boyfriend?" you know stuff like that. THe point is, things we lived in highschool or when we were kids, we usaullly live them again with the same emotions is just that since we are grown ups we tried to hide it a little bit. History repeats itself. Well need to go to buy a birthday gift, going to a birthday party, well actually its a "dinner".

SEE YA.

Teaching, Design, magic interlude and latex gloves...

The title pretty much breaks my day in scenes, because that is all I did. Besides accidentally deleteing over one minute of an interview of a girl co-worker, she got real mad, I apoligized but fuck it man, it wasn't on purpose and actually I was helping her with it. She cooled down later on...she better.
This morning I took my time to go to work, I just slept couple more hours while being alert if my uncle needed anything, didn't want to leave him completely unattended. Most of the day I worked with a print/web concept for a promo contest of some stupid apartment.. wanna see the art? here:

What I like/hate of my job is that sometimes they leave everything to me, as in I am the Creative Director/Graphic designer/multimedia developer/editor/maintence guy in a project, its cool when I have the time. So what you see in the picture is my concept; a guy with a check list of all the benefits from that place and pictures of the things in the list on his other hand. By the way thats Che a co-worker, I took the picture (add photographer too) in the hallway then took a provided picture of the nice place and did a montage. I did the polaroids and check list in photoshop and had him originally hold 2 pieces of blank paper, then wallah. I kind of like it cause its too vivid, and I usually do morbid.

Oh yeah, design wise, I did a concept cover for a band called PSYCHO TALES I kind of like the music, they are on My Space the music is psychobilly, and the girl's voice reminds me of the wackiness of Bad Brains with some 5,6,7,8's. Look for it, I lost the link. Maybe I'll end up doing their cd layout, I'll do it probono... I like doing cd layouts and desings and its been a long time.

MAGIC INTERLUDE
Like around 6 pm I did a magic interlude to my boss and other ppl on my department, they like my tricks involving the 3 cups and the balls that pass thru them and the best number, the secret card you eventually pick..its complicated magic trick were the person tells me the card and after some stages you end up picking the card magically from a random set...its really cool, (thanks to my girlfriend who taught me the trick, fuck yeah).

LATEX GLOVES
I went to the bathroom and found the janitor's (who is my friday student ) cart that had a box of latex gloves, I grabbed a pair and started hanging out with them around the work place, its funny for some reason when ppl see them thinks is something bad and terrible...they are just gloves. Specially, If I do a turn around movement with my finger they freak out. I still have them here, oh yeah here is a pic:



yep, they freaked out.

TEACHING
I added teaching and said previously the janitor is my friday student, well yes, I teach multimedia design to Jonathan who is hte janitor here, but also is in college getting a computer programming degree. Jonathan is a fast learner, and hopefully he will be the one to cover me on vacations.

Whoa its 8:34 pm and my girl wants me to take her to see a movie in fine arts cafe..so I guess I better go now. Ill bring the latex gloves to see what happens.

Tomorrow is a work related party..its a big deal its the 10 year anniversary..so ppl will be all dressed up and shit. I'll comment about it.

AMEN

Sexual Harrassment meeting

At 12:00pm today I went to a sexual harrassment meeting. It was interesting, I guess there is a lot of sexual harrassment in my work place because a lot of people brought interesing examples, that sounded very convincing as in "dude sorry but you are being harrassed". It was fun. Sexual harrassment its an interesting issue, because you usually think it comes mostly from a dominant male in a higher position (one was fired from here couple months ago), but I realized I see it more from fellow female employees who dont know the difference of what is a friend andwhat is a boy sexual toy. Its like what hell is wrong with them, why they need to keep constantly touching another employee, I dont care what they say but there needs to be some boundaries. Those people need to give themselves some respect. Its like promoting "Hey, I am a sophisticated whore". Its just stupid.

Last night was cool got to see 30 DAYS OF NIGHT with my girlfriend and uncle, he haven't been on the theaters since 1978, so it was a great experience for him, the next movie for him will be Alien vs Predator 2.

And about games....
Yeah its been a week or 2 since I've been playing Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles, I am like 67%. Ill keep playing. Well I'll leave it here, I guess I'll play some ROAD RASH from PSONE tonight and hopefully fix my 3DO cd tray. And yes, The Office at 9pm.

No more continues (life is not a video game)

I know the title might sound cliche but I really mean it. I started playing video games since as far I can remember. Now that I think about it (very interesting fact thou, at least for me) the fisrt video game I ever played on a console was the racing game “Pole Position” of my brother’s Atari, then afterwards I started playing more games on my older brother’s computer such as Asteroids and a really old SHMUP of a robot that transforms into a spaceship. Since they were into Dungeon and Dragons and all that cool geek stuff they were into video games too; and I am thankful for that cause I got to play video games at an early age, not common in the early 1980’s. Since I was a kid and using these new controllers and keyboards for me at an early age I really sucked, I didn’t have good coordination, but still every time I got killed by an enemy or did something stupid in the game I always got the opportunity to try it all over again. Whether be lives or continues I always got an extra opportunity to avoid the enemies and make it right to eventually complete the level. It’s like traveling in time, you do a mistake and fail, then somehow you get these special opportunity to go back couple seconds before the turning point and make it good.

See, I grew up with video games (except an era of late 1999 and early 2001 where I somehow stopped playing them, I call it the dark years.) and I got used to the term of doing it all over again, having second chances, without even knowing that you failed the first time. Having that term of extra lives or continues in my head (and my theory of traveling in time couple seconds before the turning point) I did very dangerous stuff (never drugs cause that is really stupid) like racing a truck down a hill with my inline skates (in front of the truck, a fall meant instant death, of course I thought I had extra life for some reason), daring and threatening cops, married women (didn’t know, but still), fights against people bigger than me (I always got out unharmed ask Jolge he saw one of them at an Archenemy show in Florida), lots of stuff, stuff that if I ever failed at them or got caught would’ve change my life forever in a negative way, or even a certain death.

Now that I am a little more mature, well actually, now that I am older and have more responsibilities and bills to pay I had an epiphany; my grandma died. Now things at home are different, ‘cause my uncle who needs to be taken care of moved in with us, after more than fifty years living on a little apartment in Philadelphia. It is great and awesome he is with us, makes the house more familiar having him, but it made me realize things change, and there is nothing we can do to bring my grandmother back and make things how they used to be. I always thought no matter what happened things in life will always be there and you always got a second opportunity, but no, people die (duh! unless you are a vampire, actually you are technically dead, but still can die by a Belmont...fuck you) and yeah life must go on, but it ain’t the same, you lost something and it will never be replaced. I have been married, and bought a house and had step children and one of my own too, all that at an early age, I don’t regret anything, made me who I am, but yeah some of those things happened not at the right moment but still these are things that can’t be changed once it happens you can’t go back. That’s when I realized I was taking a lot of stuff for granted in life, things as we know them will change the least we expect it, and there won’t be an option to go back an re-live it again. And guess what EVEN video games themselves change or die, the hardware gets old, it has a life span like us, that means the idea of extra lives and continues dies with it, making you have a reality check (oh yeah my epiphany was also inspired by a 3DO and some Sega Genesis cartridges not working anymore...and a troubled Super Nintendo and malfunctioning Nintendos on the collectors market.. and so on).

The thing is, I still play video games, more than ever actually, I am even collecting consoles and games and sometimes paying for them more than it supposed to.
But every time I play them and lose a life I am like whoa that ain’t that realistic, how many shots I can get before I die, (unless you are playing a classic SHMUP, were a single shot destroys your ship, its annoying but challenging) and when I eventually run out of lives I get a continue (insert my time traveling theory here) and start that part all over again. We all know life is not like that, all the things we love once lost they don’t come back, since I don’t have extra lives or continues I will enjoy my life now more than ever, on a non reckless way of course. Actually if I ever get the opportunity of reliving things again with extra lives or continues, I would not take it; that’s the special thing in life, every moment it’s unique, fucking live it.


Reckless things I did or still do in video games that would’ve been stupid in a real scenario (meaning no extra lives, spawn time or continues). Most of them involve Warcraft, even thou I stopped playing it almost 2 years ago.

1- World of Warcraft PVP
Charging head on crossing the bridge in the north alliance base in Alterac Valley while the rest of the Horde staring at my daring stupidity on the other side of the bridge. I was an undead warrior named Unbroken with all my armor set for damage, zero defense whatsoever and little less than 3900 hp, and yes of course, Fury, dual wield with Recklessness on and tapping the hell out of Intercept while rushing towards the enemy.

2- World of Warcraft instances
I used to take lowbies to low level instances for couple gold. I told them “wait here at the entrance I’ll yell when I am near.” I would go and aggro the whole instance and fight all the mobs on an open space, without any healing whatsoever so the healers of the party would not take the aggro away from me. It was awesome… actually I spent more gold on repairs afterwards, but it was worth the adrenaline rush.

3- Castlevania 1
Getting to the Reaper boss with only 4 bars left and no hearts (Thanks to the axe armors and medusa’s heads). Seriously I never seen such a sadist boss design besides this one.

4- Contra
Being a member of the Contra team. It would be an honor, but would be masochism at the same time.

5- World of Warcraft PVP
Riding with my mount to the heart of Stormwind (alliance territory), and of course flagged already. And note no heartstone. Yep, it was fun while it lasted. Fucking skull elites.

6- World of Warcraft PVP flag carrier
2/2 each facton. Finally getting the alliance flag and stopping mid field to fight. I got floods of insults in the chat window. Its just a game man.

7- World of Warcraft instances
Soloing UBRS as a warrior with no significant tier shit on me. I managed the first mob kind of well, but those freaking patrols..

8- GRADIUS any of ‘em
Fighting a boss with no upgrades of weapons, but only on speed.

9- Ikaruga
Being on the dark color mode and denying to switch back against a fleet of incoming white enemies and a curtain of white bullets all over the screen. Its amazing when I actually make it.. some day.

10- Road Rash on PSONE
Rushing full speed ahead, with no money for hospital or repairs against incoming traffic. All for top positioning and glory. People can fly, temporarily.11- Chaos FieldHaving my ship being on the chaos field all the time. Let the bullets come baby, (pause) game over.12- Many more games with reckless decisions all about against all odds.