Tomorrow @ 8...

...is the Dream Theater concert!

I've been listening to the whole discography... I'll probably write a short review after the concert :)

I have a new cell phone!

When I wrote about the ringtones I did it on purpose, because I knew I was close on getting another cell phone. I got a Nokia 2600, and I think it's very good, and one of the reasons I bought it was that it has a ringtone composer. When I first started trying the phone (after buying it and at home) I couldn't find the composer, and begun to panic. I even desisted from trying to find it and I was a bit left down, but I guessed that the rest of the phone was good enough for me. Lucky me, while I was at Diego's house trying the phone, I found the best feature.... the composer!

I'll write a small comparison between the 2600 and the 3310. I'll only write about the stuff I care.

Things the 2600 has and the 3310 doesn't:

• Smaller and lighter (but not way too much).
• Polyphonic ringtones.
• Color display (only 4096 colors).
• The battery runs for longer periods of time.
• It has a memory of 200 phones apart from the SIM card memory.
• SMS counter. This way I can control myself.
  

Things that they have in common:

• Single button navigation (no SEND or END buttons).
  
• Ringtone composer (yeah!).
• Navigation very much alike.

Things I preferred from the 3310

• The buttons were separate and easier to use. On the 2600 they are too close from each other, thus easier to mistouch them.
  
• As with every color display, they can't be seen too well on the sun when lit up, and when they turn off, you can barely see the date and time that's displayed; most of the time you can't see anything.
• It had the best game ever. Snake 2. Actually I liked the first version more, but Snake still rules.
  

I'm sure there are other things (better and worse) that I will discover, but these are the basics from 2 day using it. A ringtone composer is almost all I need. I don't need GPRS, EDGE, data transfer, Internet, mp3 (but it would be nice to have an mp3 ringtone), digital camera... Just give me a basic phone with a ringtone composer, and not the shitty composer on some Motorola's, on which you 'create' a ringtone by combining different already made rythms and melodies.


My cell phone history is like this (I'm almost sure of the years):
Nokia 2110 (1999 - 2000), Nokia 5110 (2000 - 2002), Motorola Talkabout T2288 (piece of shit, I'm never buying a Motorola ever again) (2002 - 2003), Nokia 3310 (2003 - 2005), Nokia 2600 (just bought it). I was going to post a picture of it, but the sizes wouldn't be accurate next to each other.

Dream Theater Ringtones

As the date for the concert keeps coming closer and closer I get more anxious with every passing moment, so I'm posting some self made Dream Theater ringtones.

I own a Nokia 3310, and it has a ringtone composer (which is one of the reasons I bought the cellphone, being a musician and all) included. I created some nice tunes, not full songs because there's a limit of 50 notes, but they're good enough to make a catchy part of a song.

I have ringtones of different bands including Dream Theater, Pain Of Salvation, Transatlantic, Opeth and John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess. I'm gonna post the Dream Theater ones because I have a lot of those, and they're the best (In my opinion).

If you own a Nokia cell phone with a ringtone composer you should know what to press to obtain what I'm writing. If you don't know, then let me know and I'll add the keypresses. If you own a cellphone that's not Nokia let me know and I'll help if you need. Not that anyone will be reading this, but still, you never know.

1. The Dance Of Eternity (1)
16e3 16b2 16e2 16#d3 16g2 16e2 16- 16d3 16#c3 16e2 16c3 16b2 16e2 16#a2 16a2 16#f2 16g2 16#d2 16e2 16#f2 16g2 16b2 16#f3 16g3 16e3 16#a2 16e3 16#a2 16a2 16e3 16g2 16#f2 16e3 16b2 16e2 16#d3 16b2 16e2 16- 16d3 16#c3 16e2 16c3 16b2 16e2 16#a2 16g2 16#f2 8e2


2. The Dance Of Eternity (2)
16g1 16#g1 16#a1 16c2 16d2 16#d2 16d2 16c2 16d2 16g1 16b1 16d2 16f2 16g2 16g1 16d2 16f2 16g1 16#g1 16d2 16#d2 16f2 16#d2 16d2 16#d2 16g1 16#d2 16d2 16c2 16g1 16f1 16d1


3. The Dance Of Eternity (3)
8a1 16g1 16f1 8e1 16a1 8b1 16g1 8e1 16e1 16g1 16f1 16e1 8a1 16g1 16f1 8e1 16b1 8c2 16f1 8e1 16d2 16e2 16d2 16e2 8a1 16g1 16f1 8e1 16a1 8b1 16g1 8e1 16e1 16g1 16f1 16e1 16- 16a1 8b1 16f1 8e1 16d2 8e2 16f2 8e2


4. About To Crash
8#g1 8a1 8b1 4d2 8#c2 8b1 4a1 16b1 16#c2 2b1 8e1 8#f1 8#g1 4a1 4#g1 4#f1 8e1 2e1 8#g1 8a1 8b1 4d2 8e2 8#f2 4e2 16#c2 16a1 2b1 8e1 8#f1 8#g1 4a1 8d2 8#c2 8b1 8a1 8#g1 8#f1 8#g1 2e1


5. A Change Of Seasons
8b1 8#c2 8b1 8#f1 8d2 8#c2 8b1 8#f1 8#g1 8b1 8e2 8b1 8f1 8b1 8f2 8#c2 8b1 8#c2 8b1 8#f1 8d2 8#c2 8b1 8#f1 4#g1 4d2 4g1 4d2


6. Honor Thy Father
8#f1 8f1 8#d1 8#a1 8#d1 8f1 8#f1 8#g1 8#a1 32.#f1 32.#g1 32#f1 8f1 8#d1 8#f1 8f1 8#d1 8a1 8#d1 8f1 8#f1 8#g1 8#d1 8f1 8a1 8#g1 8#f1 8#c2 8#f1 8#g1 8a1 8b1 8#c2 32.a1 32.b1 32a1 8#g1 8#f1 8a1 8#g1 8#f1 8c2 8#f1 8#g1 8a1 8#g1 8a1 4#f1 4#d1

Perhaps I'll post the others some other time.

Domino

I went to play domino with my co-workers. Jon and I won 4 times and left unbeaten. In the first game we beat Wilson and Ronald, and the game was 93 - 37 to their favour at one point. In all the games we caught up in the score coming from behind, it was a great night. Funny thing is that Wilson was saying "I don't want any crying", but I guess he was referring to himself, because we didn't lose :)

It was a great night, and a lot of fun. I'm gonna search for some rules on dominoes to post them here. Or at least the rules of the game we play here in Venezuela using the dominoes.

Weekend in the middle of the week

I'm gonna cheat in this post and pretend I did it on Monday and then pretend that I updated it on Wednesday.

So I was working today just like I always do (playing Kung Fu Chess with my coworkers) and suddenly a turmoil starts to happen. Rumors that the Seniat (a sort of IRS over here) is closing the company for the next 48 hours started to come and go throughout the office. So I went to my boss and asked him what was happening, and finally after half an hour of finding out, I was told that I didn't have to come to work on Tuesday and Wednesday. So, I had a special weekend in the middle of the week!

That alone made my day in a selfish kind of way (it's bad for the company, but not bad for me). So I'm going to go and enjoy these days playing F.E.A.R., Kung Fu Chess and Sumo Volleyball, and of course, watching TV. And maybe a little Valheru here and there, I always like to go and talk to friends.

Update:

It's Wednesday, and my boss called me and said that we didn't have to work tomorrow. The Seniat added 24 hours because some people infringed the order and went to work (yeah I know, who would do that?). But well, I'm happy again for the same selfish reasons.

Home alone

Last Friday my parents went on vacation for a week. In fact, this update took me so long that my parents are already here, and I'm doing it in a different way. I planned to make a review of each day, but I'm starting to forget what I did some days, so I'll go with the highlights.

• Friday 14th: First day without my parents. I went to work, and afterwards went home. Cusi arrived with a couple of movies (The Cube 2 and another one that we didn't watch). The guys at the office had planned something for the night because one of our Colombian friends' (Carlos) contract with the company finished.
  We went to the San Ignacio Mall to a place called Gusanos & Ranas (Worms & Frogs). It was a group of about 20 people; we occupied like 5 tables and the place was full. The Indian friends from the office tried the Tequila and of course they liked it! I didn't drink a shot myself, and afterwards I was thankful I didn't: each shot cost Bs. 10.000, which is very expensive, trust me. That's the price of a full bottle of Rum. Aftwerwards we went home, and I drove like a maniac (I was almost pissing on my pants because the bathrooms at the mall were closed). Cusi stayed over for the whole week, so that was fun. Plus she cooked a few times and I took some food to work, so I didn't have to spend money on food.
  


• Saturday 15th: I planned to fix my left rear view mirror, cut my hair, go and get my graduation photos and wash my car. I did nothing. At night I got together with the guys and just drank beer and talked.


• All the other days (except for the last one) I went to work and then go home and wait for Cusi to watch TV... We're currently following Nip/Tuck season 2 and Prison Break. Very good TV. Still waiting for 24 season 5 and Lost season 2 to arrive over here (Venezuela), but my guess is that they will come some time in March.


• Friday 21st: We went to a party at the Cubo Negro (Black Cube). It was a party commemorating the 200 years of Johny Walker Red Label, it was really good, I'll see if I can post a link to some photos.


• Saturday 22nd: Last day. I did almost everything I intended to do last Saturday but getting a hair cut and washing my car. I also bought a mouse for Cusi's laptop and a fan cooler for my PC (it's on a closed space and it gets really hot when I play).
  Yogi came to help me change my rear view mirror... It was an Odissey. First we didn't have the necessary tool to get the screws off, so we went to buy one. One of the stores was closed and the other one didn't have any of the size needed. So we went to Yogi's place to see if he had one, which he didn't. So we decided to buy some beers and go home, but on the way back Yogi suggested we go to my grandmother's house (there's a workshop there) to see if we could find the tool. There was one that worked, but not too well, but we decided to take our chances. At the end almost everything went ok except for the last screw which we couldn't finish putting because the tool was being damaged by the head. But it was good enough... Better than nothing.
  Later that night I invited the guys over and Nanu, Diego, Yogi and me played Civilization the Board Game until 3:30 am. Very entertaining, we can't wait to play again!

That was it. On Sunday my parents arrived late at night, and I went to Francisco's house to play Risk: Lord of the Rings. Very good and different from Risk. Evil won this time (Francisco & Cusi), but we'll see next time what happens. Now there are two games I want to play again!

I think some of this post may feel uninspired, because I didn't have the fresh memories of the days... Oh well, until next time.

Updating soon

I've been busy this week, and haven't had the chance to update you with my life. Not like you care or anything.
I'm working on a post called home alone. I wasn't exactly alone this week, but my parents weren't there.

My sister in Belgium

She's been there since August. I really miss her, but lately we've been seeing each other through webcams, and a friend over there posts pictures frequently. So as a reminder of the site, I'll link through here, and you can check it out if you want.

http://helebelgique.skyblog.com/

Río Chico

Well, I had a nice weekend at the beach. On Friday after work I went out with my colleagues (I won't say where to avoid problems, I may erase this parenthesis later :P). We were all drinking whiskey, and I had to go to my girlfriend's (Cusi) sister (Maribel) house at 5 am. So we drank a Buchanan's 12 between 5 people, and I arrived home at 2:20 am. I put everything I was going to take into my suitcase, put the alarm clock at 4:40 am and went to sleep.

I woke up from a familiar sound, it was my cellphone ringing. I desperately get up and see that Cusi is calling me, and I check the time... It's 5:20 am... I had overslept. So I get the call and she asks me what happened, I tell her that I was sleeping and didn't know what happened to the alarm clock (I still don't know). So I woke up, get everything and go out, but before I brush my teeth, to disguise my firebreath from the night before.

The minute I arrive at Maribel's house the first thing Cusi tells me is: "You smell like drunk!". Yeah, it's impossible to disguise it. I felt bad... not for her, but because I was going with Cusi, Maribel and her husband (Francisco). Well, I just apologized for my stench and we left. It was no problem that I had overslept, because they had also. And we parted in Francisco's SUV.

So we arrived. I slept through the whole one and a half hours. We got to Francisco's uncle's apartment at Rio Chico - a beach town. It has one bedroom, air conditioner, and DirecTV. You could almost stay inside the whole day. Then we went to have a breakfast by the pool. We had some arepas and afterwards to the pool! Cusi and Maribel where sun tanning, and I went inside the pool. It was really great, a long time since I went inside one. And it's great to forget all about work.

Maribel and Francisco went to get some beers and after they arrived they came inside the pool. After we got bored (and the sun was too hot) we played Rummikub and drank some beers. And that was basically what we did every day. Eat chips and doritos, swim in the pool, play Rummikub and Citadel, watch TV, eat food and drink lots of beers.

The only bad thing is that I got sunburnt on my shoulders. But taking that aside it was a great trip. Yogi, I hope you get good grades on your oncoming tests, because if not, you could have come :P

That's all for now...

First personal post

Copying from my friend Yogi, I'm gonna write my first personal post. What I have been writing before are my interests, now I'm actually writing what has happened to me.

Yesterday was the 'end of the world' movies day. I saw in order: Armageddon, Independence Day, The Core and at night there was a film in a venezuelan channel called End Of The World, or something like that. It was really strange, it seemed like an Brit movie. It starts with a TV program about the end of the world, and then the credits appear and a clock turns to 7:00 and a guy wakes up... When he gets out of the building you can see the name of the movie going on outside a theater... Groundhog Day... So the thing is that this guy wakes up every day and the world is ending in different ways, the guy doesn't even notice and I got bored and went to sleep, so can't tell you how it ends.

Today is my girlfriend's birthday. I'll probably take her to eat somewhere and I'll buy some jewelry to her.

Happy Birthday Google

Picture taken from the Google front page.
Seven years now. Now everyone is watching them closely to see what innovation they bring next. Congratulations Google.

Dolphins are evil

As my friend Yogi said, Dolphins are evil, and imagine them with weapons!
The story found in Slashdot says 'Armed Dolphins Released into Gulf of Mexico'. To quote some of the article.

Military trained dolphins may have been released into the wild by the Hurricane's devastation. (...) Experts who have studied the U.S. navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns

Scary eh?

Amazing

Advent Children was amazing.
The animation is incredible, flawless. The characters move in a very real way, and the textures, lighting, and the rest of the effects are very well done.
The fight scenes are jawdropping, and very well directed as well.
The music is also great, I loved the part when Tifa fights, and the music starts... It's the one from Piano Collections CD! I play that same tune in piano! (well, part of it). And the rest of the music is very metal, so I loved it.
Oh, and I'm in love with Tifa!
Yeah, to wrap this up, you gotta check that movie out. It is mostly action, but the story is deep (you gotta have some background on the game to fully understand it). 100 minutes of great animation.

FFVII Advent Children

I just watched the first 6 minutes of the movie and it looks incredible! The animations are just superb! I'll watch it at Yogi or Guille's house with a big monitor (or TV). Can't wait guys!

Caracas on Google Earth

The quality on Google Earth is not very good (as I expected), but it was put online before than I thought. In the picture above you can see at the center a large green area. That's the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas, the biggest university in the country. It has also a pair of stadiums, one of baseball and one of football. North west from the university you can see a black area called Parque Central, or Central Park. These two buildings are the tallest buildings in South America since 1979, you can see a picture of one of them below.

That was the glorious past of the building. Last year there was a fire that lasted for more than 19 hours and destroyed a lot of the building. A sad view is left on Caracas. Watch for yourself.

GameFAQs Character Battle over

<sarcasm>
Wow, I'm in shock, Mario won...
</sarcasm>

I'm tired of all the Nintendo characters winning over at the GameFAQs character battles. Let's give an example on this year's competition. Kirby vs. Tidus. How the hell is that pink ball going to beat Tidus? Zelda vs. Vivi. Come on! Zelda is always being kidnapped! She can't do anything on her own, let alone kill Master Vivi! And finally Mario vs. Crono. Crono is one of the coolest characters ever in a videogame. He can definitely kick some plumber ass. Maybe I'm just more inclined at Squaresoft's chars...

Well, take a look at the bracket here, and see for yourself how Nintendo's characters impossibly win some fights.

To be fair, Mario hasn't won yet, but he will, trust me. Now let's hope that either Cloud or Sephiroth can kick Link and Mario's asses in the Champion's Bracket.

I have it!

Well, finally I have the ticket for the concert. Actually it's a voucher to collect the ticket later in December. But it's definitive!

The previous big concert (and the only one) was seeing Roger Waters live a few years ago, so I'm quite eager to see Dream Theater live. The only thing that won't be that good is listening to LaBrie's shrieks, but it's worth the pain.

Dream Theater in Venezuela

Well, a lot of you may already know this, but as the ticket sales start this week (on Thursday actually) it's worth noting.
A friend (Guille) will be there buying the ticket. Thanks man.
Although their latest album (Octavarium) wasn't as good (IMO) as the last three of them, it will be a great show without a doubt.
It will be the last date of their South American tour which will pass through Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Venezuela. They will play on December 13th at El Poliedro in Caracas.

Visit the Dream Theater official site. For more info on the concert go to the Profit Producciones site.

Edit: I added a counter at the sidebar for the concert, so I can be even more eager of time passing fast!

Cats versus dogs

I got this one from another blog. Credit to whoever wrote it. This one's for you Guille.

Cats versus dogs....

Dogs get the newspaper for you.
Cats look at you like you can't read.

Dogs are happy to see you when you come home.
Cats say "Where the hell you been?"

Dogs run to the food dish and eat whatever is there.
Cats look at you and say "You want me to eat THAT?"

Dogs get your slippers for you.
Cats sleep on your slippers.

Dogs rescue people from burning buildings.
Cats get stuck in trees.

Dogs can track people through the woods days after
they ran through.
Cats refuse to wear a leash.

Dogs can be trained to help blind people.
Cats refuse to help anybody.

Dogs can be used to sniff out drugs in airports, cars,
houses, etc.
Cats are good at smelling out things they want to EAT.

Dogs are man's best friend.
Cats MIGHT let you be their friend.

Dogs will protect your house from burglers.
Cats will watch the burgler... "Hey... you forgot the
jewlery, stupid..."

Dogs love you.
Cats love themselves.

Dogs come running when you call their name.
Cats look at you like... "You know... we need to talk
about this dumb name you gave me..."

Dogs are always there when you need them.
Cats are busy doing something more important.

Dogs are servants.
Cats are arrogant snobs.

So... which to I prefer?

Cats or dogs?

Cats, of course.

Why, you ask?

Cats poop in a box.

Leave your dog alone at home for a couple days,
sometime, pal....

Fucking spam

I hate spam.

And now spam comes here. Do you hear me spam? I'm not gonna let you!

I'm sorry if this is an inconvenience, but I'm going to use word verification, just in case the spam is not human.

Hijo e' puta

Muy buen chiste que encontré en ChevereCambur.org
Visiten la página, es excelente.

Estaba sentado en mi escritorio cuando efectué una llamada telefónica. Me contesto un tipo malhumorado diciendo: ¡Alo!, le dije: "Buenas, ¿podría hablar con Luís González?..." "No aquí no vive ese huevón". Y me colgó el teléfono de la manera más grosera. Resulta ser que había marcado un número incorrecto por lo que procedí a llamar al teléfono indicado. Después de colgar, observe el número de teléfono errado en mi escritorio; decidí llamar a ese número y contesto la misma persona que me tranco. Le dije: - "Eres un hijo e' puta". Y colgué.

Inmediatamente anote ese numero en mi agenda y le puse al lado la palabra HIJO E' PUTA. Cada semana, cuando tenía una arrechera llamaba a ese tipo y cuando contestaba le decía: "Eres un hijo e' puta". Esto me hacia sentir mucho mejor; pero al tiempo me entere del servicio CANTV de identificación de llamadas por lo cual me limite a dejar de llamar por unos días al hijo e' puta. Pues se me ocurrió lo siguiente: marque su numero telefónico y en lo que me contesto diciendo: ¿Alo? Le respondí: "- Buenas tardes, le llamo del Dpto. de ventas de CANTV Servicios para saber sí conoce el servicio de identificación de llamadas. El tipo contesto: "NO” y le dije: "Eso es porque eres un hijo e' puta".

Un día estaba en Makro esperando que saliera una señora para pararme en ese puesto de estacionamiento de carro. Pues, resulta que cuando la señora salió vino un tipo manejando un Camaro Negro y se metió; le toque corneta, pero nada, el tipo simplemente se bajo del carro y se fue para el centro comercial ignorándome por completo. Ante su actitud pensé "ese es un hijo e puta" y fue cuando note que en su carro había un letrero que decía: SE VENDE INTERESADOS FAVOR LLAMAR AL TELÉFONO 942.07.40. Después llame al tipo del Camaro: ¿Hablo, con el señor del Camaro negro que esta a la venta? - Sí, habla con el. ¿Podría decirme donde lo puedo ver? Sí, vivo en la carretera del Junquito con calle 34 Km.17, es una casa amarilla y el carro está parado frente a la casa. Mi nombre es Eduardo Pérez y me puede encontrar en la casa después de las 6 PM Okey, gracias. Le dije. ¿Le puedo decir algo Eduardo? Sí, como no. Eduardo, eres un Hijo e' puta. Y le colgué.

Bueno, a partir de ese día tenía a dos hijos e puta a quien llamar. Después de un tiempo llamando al par de hijo e' putas, la cosa se puso ladilla, por lo cual decidí hacerla más divertida y se me ocurrió lo siguiente: Llame al hijo e puta No. 1. Y el tipo grosero me contesto: ¿Sí? Y entonces le dije: "¿Eres el hijo e' puta?", pero no tranqué. El me dijo: ¿Estás ahí? a ver si dejas de llamarme. Yo le dije: -No. El tipo me pregunto con tono suave: ¿Cómo te llamas? Eduardo Pérez, le dije ¿Dónde vives?En la Carretera del Junquito con calle 34 Km.17, en una casa amarilla donde esta un Camaro negro al frente.¡En menos de una hora estoy allá a meterte unos coñazos, maldito! Yo le dije:- ¡Ay sí, estoy cagaoo! ¡Hijo e' puta!, ¡hijo eeeee putaaaAAAAA!, y le tranqué. Después de eso llame al hijo e puta No. 2, y cuando contesto le dije: Hola hijo e' puta. ¡Coño, sí te llego a encontrar, te voy a romper la cara y las piernas!, ¿Así es la vaina?, le dije, pues hoy es tu oportunidad porque en menos de una hora estoy en tu casa para volarte la jeta, hijo e' puta, a ver que me vas a hacer. Enseguida llame a la Policía Metropolitana y les dije que iba para la carretera del Junquito con calle 34 Km.17 a matar a mi novio marica porque lo encontré con otro hombre. Después llame a Globovision para reportar que la PM había encontrado un arsenal de armas de los Tupamaros. Enseguida me fui para la dirección antes descrita a ver el espectáculo: Unas 6 patrullas rodeando la casa, dos carajos dándose coñazos en plena calle, la policía tratando de separarlos y un consejero haciéndolos recapacitar y las cámaras de TV reportando una disputa pasional entre dos gays subversivos.

¿Qué les parece? Eso SI es ser un HIJO E' PUTA!!!

Saint Seiya Hades OVA continues!

I was talking to a co-worker yesterday and I found out that he liked anime, so it was natural that we started talking about it. Eventually we started talking about Saint Seiya and he told me his brother saw on a webpage that the Hades OVA will be continued (they were stopped after 13 episodes). So of course I was happy to hear that. This is where I saw it [spanish]
Ahh yes, I forgot to say it's due in December! Can hardly wait!

Google to destroy information it can't index

A year ago, Google offered to scan every book on the planet for its Google Print project. Now, they are promising to burn the rest.

The joke news site The Onion has the full article. Funny stuff.
If you didn't get it, it's a joke.

¿Concretada la compra de Digitel TIM?

Leyendo el blog de tecnología móvil 'Concafé', me enteré que en el semanario Quinto Día apareció una noticia diciendo que el nuevo dueño de la operadora es el Sr. Oswaldo Cisneros.
Las especulaciones de la compra han estado rodando por bastante tiempo ya, y a Concafé le encanta lanzar rumores (que a veces resultan ciertos). Veamos si es verdad, ya que la fuente de noticia no es Concafé, sino el semanario.

Secuestro Express

I saw this movie on thursday, and it's definitely a must see. The characters are a bit extreme (e.g. the woman works on a Free Hospital, but consumes insanely amounts of drugs), but it works out, and it could very well be true. Go see it if you have the chance.

*Yawn*

Yawning is a great mistery, and very interesting. And, as you may have noticed, it's contagious!
Try to read this page without yawning.

First post

Go away. I'm just testing. I'll post a real one later.