distance

Distance is a numerical description of how far apart objects are at any given moment in time. In physics or everyday discussion, distance may refer to a physical length, a period of time, or an estimation based on other criteria (e.g. "two counties over"). In mathematics, distance must meet more rigorous criteria.

Math is hard: 11253km is rigorous indeed.

Then again, navegar é preciso; viver não é preciso.

back

Interesting. Looks like no one really went to the other blog I created. Even for a market as small as 7 readers, the brand appears to make a difference.

Alright then guys, you win. I'll keep posting here for now. I'm still using Windows Live Writer - which integrates surprisingly well (ok, maybe not that surprisingly) with Blogger. I guess to ask to transfer the posts from one blog to another would be a bit too much. Alright. Cool. The dude abides.

Stay tuned. Upcoming: the new Zune, my life with a plant and more of the same usual random s*it.

Crappy movies

First, Beowulf. What a disappointment. I'm going to let Gaiman off the hook for this one, and assume he had diarrhea or something when he spewed out this piece of crap. It's hard to believe the same guy who wrote Sandman would come up with such crappy dialog (yeah, I know this is based on the book, but it diverges enough, and the crappiest dialog is exactly at those points). And, also, please can the "entire movie in 3d idea" for another five years, when you (hopefully) might have decent skeletal animations. At least it had some moments bad enough for people to laugh at (like the Austinpowerism on the nude scenes). Well, I didn't have too high expectations for this one. I went to the theater knowing I was wasting 10 bucks.

Then we come to "No Country for Old Men". Overrated, overhyped, overacted crawling-pace piece of shit. Typical Oscar movie, with characters whose sole purpose is to show off how oscar-worthy the actor is, entire scenes that are completely pointless except to show "crazy face #12", or "sad face #17". Dialog that, in an effort to pass naturality, just sounds like something noone would ever say in real life. Stereotypes and cliches abound (just because they're dramatic cliches, doesn't mean they're any better than action movie cliches). I sat through this one until the end, just because I didn't walk out of Mystic River, and I really couldn't decide which one is worse. If you're gonna do Oscar-whoring, have some dignity and at least do a good movie. Darjeeling Limited does its fair share of statuet prostitution, but in the end is still a fairly watchable (perhaps good) movie. "No Country For Old Men" just made me go home with $10 less on my account, and 2 hours less on my life.

yet another internet experiment

I decided to ride the new live services wave that is giving away @live.com accounts and created one account for me. It comes with a bunch of stuff, including a blog. So I created a new personal blog to experiment with. Check out Thiago's space.

This is what video games are all about

I'm not going to link anything on this post. If you want to know what I'm talking about, do yourself a favor and just play the games.

First, a post that is a few years late. Katamari is simply great. Graphics are for suckers, you don't need anything more than a few polygons and brick-like objects to make a great game -- just raw creativity, and the balls to release a game that's "just fun" in an age of "ultra-graphic epic adventures with twisting storylines". Somehow, Katamari brings back the early 80's arcade philosophy of concept games -- you come up with some innovative game mechanics, and develop your game around it. Everything -- graphics, storyline, controls, objectives -- is simplistic and fun. Slap on some completely insane dialog, a J-pop soundtrack that's as weird as possible, and you get the most innovative game since the first videogame crisis...

UNTIL NOW. Which leads us to...

Forget about the other games on the Orange Box. Portal alone is worth your 60 bucks. There will be cake at the end. It is quite similar to Katamari -- it's a concept game, simplistic, fun, and has a completely insane character giving you missions. But... the concept in which it's based is much more filled with possibility. By playing the game, you're really "thinking in portals". The physics engine is perfect, gives you almost absolute freedom, and every experiment you do with portals and gravity comes out as a whole new way to beat the levels. The physics insanity comes packed with dialog (or rather monologue) insanity. Your only interaction during the game is with an increasingly insane passive-aggressive UI. Imagine 343 Guilty Spark + HAL9000, and add lots and lots of passive-aggressiveness, and you're getting close to it. Four hours of increasing insanity, physics-bending action and humor, and then, at the end, the cake: the credits song. Best credits song ever. All in all, this game is the best at everything it does: the physics engine is fantastic, the gameplay is fun, every line of monologue is comedy gold, and you get cake at the end.

I really hope these two gems are a sign of a new golden age of video games. I love the visuals on Gears of War, the action in Halo, or the art in Bioshock -- but it's nice to see new life in an area that was almost forgotten -- Pure unadulterated FUN.

Oh, did I mention the cake?