Oh poor mortals, after more than a month with no posting (I've been so busy, the Master courses finished and now I must to complete projects and literature for delivering them on the second week of the new year...), I've decided to write now, in this so important day...
I wish you, wth all my heart, a merry Day of the Sun God Mitra and... oops I'm sorry :P I wanted to write Christmas but the true myth rose from my fingers XD oh you know, the persian god of the sun:
Well, after the today lesson (mwaaahahaha), I only want to wish you, really, a merry christmass to everybody (mortal and no mortal), and I hope this night hawk guy had been benevolent with you :)
But, if you prefer the Three Kings of Orient... well, I hope the yankee army won't kill them in a iraqian check control and the gifts will arrive to your homes XD because, being honest... maybe the soldiers think that the gifts are provisions for the iraqian résistance :P
Bye bye poor mortals, I hope you won't die by shyness and see you next year 2008... because this will mean that I will neither die in middle of food and drinks :P
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Tuesday, December 25, 2007
I wish you a Merry Consumism!!! eeeehm... I mean, Merry Xmas!!
Friday, November 23, 2007
Concert: Dream Theater's Chaos in Motion World Tour 2007 (or the Night of Progression)
Two weeks have passed from the best concert of the year (and who don't think just like that, burn out in the hell, you heretic!!! you don't deserve having ears!! :P), I've found a little bit of time for talking about it... whoooooaaaaaaa what a concert!!!!!
I must admit that, since I'm a metal fan, I have always been in the middle of the crowd, jumping, screaming, singing and, of course, headbanging!!!! XD But with the progressive metal it's very different... I consider that it's a music that must be heard with all your attention, sat in a good chair and enjoying the incredible solos and instrumental variations of any eternal song.
So, I found a chair in the right side of the stadium (looking at the scenario), and my ears (and eyes :P) received an authentic musical show!!
* Part I: Symphony X, or how a bad sound technician can destroy a concert...
One hour and a half late, finally Symphony X made their appearance in the scenario, while the awesome intro of Paradise Lost, Oculus ex Inferni, the highly awaited 5-year-after new album, sounded by the speakers in a orchestral version (that means, without guitars nor drums... quite interesting, although the album version is great!! :P). And after that, the obvious beginning of the concert... the great song Set the World on Fire (The Lie of Lies): I love this song!!!!
Next, the band followed an album-logic song sequence: the five first songs of the concert were the five first songs of their last album!! :S:S So, after the two previously mentioned pieces, Symphony X performed Domination, Serpent's Kiss and the album-name-song ballad of the album: Paradise Lost. In my opinion, this is a bad election, because I don't want to hit what song will be performed in a concert... I prefer a surprise setlist :S
I have to talk about the sound quality... with this five songs, the sound was very bad: the bass and the drums were too high in volume, and Russel Allen, the voice of Symphony X, was not well-heard. Really pitiful, because I like Symphony X very much and I couldn't enjoy in the measure I wished... but the sound was improved for the sixth song of the setlist, one of their best songs, and it can be found on his previous album (The Odissey): I'm talking of Inferno (Unleash the Fire)... Oh my God!!! When the starting riff began, all the audience screamed a lot and the major headbangings started :P woooooooooooooooow...
The setlist finished with two more songs: Sea of Lies and Of Sins and Shadows (the second and first song, respectively, of their album The Divine Wings of Tragedy). And no more by this band... what a pity!! I hoped to hear Walls of Babylon from Paradise Lost, and obviously, a performance of their major songs, The Divine Wings of Tragedy (20:41 minutes!!) and The Odissey (24:24 minutes!!!) would had been really orgasmatic (at least for me :P).
Symphony X setlist (about 0:45:00):
* Part II: There are no words for describe this... simply Dream Theater
The semaphore was still in the red light... yes, there was a real semaphore in the top of the scenario XD Dream Theater were behind the scene, and people got nervous... and finally, the light turned on to yellow!!!!! In this moment, a symphonic intro without the band members sounded in the stadium... a piece of Psycho OST (the original OST, by Bernhard Herrmann). The people prepared themselves for a great experience, and then, the moment came: the light turned green!!! The show went on!!!!
The band began with another intro, a metal arrangement for the well-known piece Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, performed incredibly by Mike Portnoy and his awesome drums, Jordan Rudess in the keyboards and John Petrucci in the most versatile guitars in the planet :) And then, Constant Motion began, with the entrance of James LaBrie (I must say that I'm not a big fan of LaBrie ---in fact, I love Dream Theater because of Petrucci, Portnoy and Rudess, not necessarily in this order :P---, but he sang well during all the show).
I won't talk about every song they performed (if I do that, this post can be composed by hundreds of text lines :P); all the performances were absolutely perfect, the instrumental sections of the songs are in the line of the studio recordings (even greater than them sometimes!!!), and it's an interesting experience to notice a change in certain lyrics of the songs; for instance:
From one of their best albums, Metropolis Pt.2 (Scenes from a Memory), we were able to heard two songs: Strange Déjà Vú and the highly acclaimed ballad The Spirit Carries On (ok, guys, let's go with the candles!! XD), and from their other master album, Images and Words, a revision of the classic song Surrounded, rearranged and extended with the instrumental parts (for the sake of the god!!!! what arrangement!!!!! Petrucci is God!!!) and Take the Time.
And in terms of their last album, they did an splendid electrion for the tracks: apart from the already cited Constant Motion (although I prefer The Ministry of Souls, not performed... snif...), they offered us Forsaken, the flamant The Dark Eternal Night (great videoclip showed while the band was performing, with the band appearing in a paranoid animation film as the NADS ---North America Dream Squad--- simply amusing XD), and finally, the masterpiece of the album, subdivided in 2 parts in the original version, and here performed entirely and consequently!!!!
After that the band left the scenario, for returning in a few minutes with a 22-minute-encore-medley consisting in parts of some of their compositions, in a great arrangement and level of performance (and memorable the moment of reappearence of the band: Portnoy is wearing a Barça t-shirt!!!! XD incredible :P). After all, an authentic grand finale of splendid cues taken from famous pieces like Trail of Tears or Octavarium.
Really, an awesome orgasmatic experience of more than 2 hours!! Quite short, in terms of other Dream Theater shows (in the past, they were usually performing for 3 hours). But it doesn't matter, there was the first time I saw Dream Theater (and Symphony X) live, and I will repeat for years and years!!!!!!
Dream Theater setlist (about 2:15:00):
Trust me... memorable concert, and unforgettable performances!!!!! Dream Theater are the best progressive metal band in the world!!!!! I can't wait for their next tour!!!! arrrrrrgh...
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Wednesday, November 14, 2007
My new laptop is MACnificient!!!
Hello poor mortals!!! The moment finally has come!!
After 4 years plenty of capabilities of Alexandros, my first laptop, where I've been able to implement a lot of programs (from the GPS system for PROP ---Project of Programation--- subject, until the first versions of one of the pieces of the software of my Thesis Degree Project, through the entire test of the single-year coursing Industrial Engineering and the terrible Compilators practice using Linux Mandrake Community 10.1).
But, the time passes inexorably, and the hard disk space, the computational potence and the graphics card technology of Alexandros are archaic nowadays: well, it's true that a Intel Pentium M at 1.6Ghz with 1Gb of RAM isn't a bad laptop after 4 years, but I requires more capabilities, overcoats coursing a Master in Visualization and participating in a Project in Voice Generation. And finally I've decided to renovate my laptop, in midle of sadness (indeed, I won't abandon Alexandros, it will stay with me for the moment :P). So, I've bought a new laptop (are the logo that appears with these lines familiar to you? XD)
* Chapter 1. The election; tech specs of the laptop
After Microsoft released Windows Vista, I noticed that the PC world was going to bad places... God bless UNIX!!!! But the tyrant is too much strong and dominates all the world, like Roman Empire before the Middle Earth... all? Not all!! A little village in The Gaul, plenty of unsubdued gaulishs... oh my God, I was thinking in Asterix and Obelix!! XD I'm so sorry, but the two ideas are sooooo closing... :P because, oh!!! what a MACnificient laptop I've bought!!!! Yes, I wrote MACnificient for one reason :D:D:D
Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! This is my new laptop: a flamant MacBook Pro by Apple!!!! What a nice creature, isn't it? :) Manufactured in aluminium for a better conducting of heat dissipance, it's a 15.4-inch display but so small as a 14.1-inch laptop!!! Apple has created an splendid machine... and with these great technical specifications! :)
* Chapter 2. The photo report :P
Here you can view all the mounting process. First, you can see in the following figure two photograhps of the two sides (front and back) of the MacBook Pro box;
So, next, the second step: the box opened!!! :P what a nervous situation!!!!
And finally... now it would be great to hear a drumroll... XD my MacBook Pro off the box and put on my bed... woooooooooooow!!!
Beautiful, isn't it? So silver, and so potent... and so small for being a 15.4-inch laptop!! I'm really in love with Apple designs... :$ And the cold sensation when you touch it is incredible :P
Besides, you can notice the quite small measurements of the laptop seeing it in side of the carpet of the UPC, my university :P My laptop really enters in a carpet separator!!!!! (only a single inch of thickness!!!!! Or 2.59 cm, it's the same :P Believe me: Alexandros is one-inch-thick without counting the display!! XD and I'm not lying if I say that it's 0.4kg heavier than the Apple laptop).
And now, a singular capture of the two laptops turned on at the same time: Alexandros running WindowsXP (SP2) and the MacBook Pro running Leopard... two worlds on the same table!! XD
* Chapter 3. The name of the creature
As I said in a previous post, I named my computers in a demigod mithology based name system. But, I've decided to change this system with the Apple computers (yes, I wrote computers, in plural... more surprises are coming, poor mortals!!! mwaaahahahaha I'm not rich, I'm simply crazy XD you will see, I'm sure of this... :P).
Because of that, my MacBook Pro receives the name of Behemoth!!!! Maybe some of you will know this fallen angel with one of its alternative names, Bahamut (the arabic homonym creature), because it's used in Final Fantasy role playing games for one of the most strong summonings in the saga :) Really, Behemoth is a fallen angel mentioned in the Book of Job, 40:15-24. Its meaning is beast or large animal, so metaphorically, this name has evolved and has been used for any extremely large or powerful entity.
In some hebrew legends, with the Leviathan creature, the two both fought in the Dawn of Time, and God must defeat them before they'' be able to destroy the World. Another legends are maintaining the opposite: their battle will be placed in the Judgement Day. In the Middle Age, Behemoth was considered a demon. And is because of this last meaning, a demon (or a fallen angel in terms of judeochristian mythology), for my MacBook Pro has its name.
A fallen angel is an angel banished or exiled from Heaven because of its disobeying or rebelling against God. Lucifer, the best-known fallen angel, rebelled and was cast out of Heaven and fell to Earth for his offense. According to some traditions, fallen angels will roam the Earth until Judgment Day, when they will be banished to Hell.
And in the computer world... who is considered the God, and who is considered the rebels??? Well, the words are more than enough in this case, no? XD
Well, I maybe be too much pompous with this post, but I think the theme deserved this epic tone XD Welcome to Behemoth in the lair of Ignis Lacrima!!! This is probably the last post I write using Alexandros, but you won't be forgotten!!
Hail my dear fallen angels!!! Hail Apple!! Hail Mac!!!
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Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Sitges 2007: the aftermath; animation. (volume 3 of 4)
Oh my God, I almost forgot the Sitges Festival of Cinema!!!! I must admit that I've been a little busy this last month, but there are 2 volumes left for this year's festival :)
So, I restart the chronicles with the third volume, dedicated to the animation films. It's true that I love anime films (that is, japanese animation films), but this time, in this year, there has been a surprise: I also viewed a non-japanese animation film :D:D woooooooooooow, incredible!!!! XD
The animated film that has the honour of not being a japanese animation movie is a spanish production one (directed by two men, one of them is catalan :P) called Nocturna; however, the other 4 films are japanese mwaaaahahahaha
* Chapter 1. The occident flaires invade Japan.
Well, with this first chatpter I will aboard two japanese movies , very different one of each other, but (at least in my opinion, although I received disagrees XD), but each one with a certain occidental touch, concretely, an american touch (understanding american as the gentilice of United States, not the continental inhabitants).
The first one, Tekkonkinkreet (let's go: what person can pronounce correctly that film title at the first time? XD), a japanese production but directed by Michael Arias, who, although he is british, he has worked in Dreamworks' productions like The Prince of Egypt and Road to El Dorado. A great movie, an efficient and romantic vision of the ying/yang conflict. That is, the oriental philosophy based in the theory of dualism: the two opposite forces within everything: light and dark, life and death, sound and silence...
The story features two children, called Black and White (Kuro and Shiro in japanese), a clear reference of ying/yang, and two of both are orphans. As long as Shiro, the most little child, is a pure and innocent spirit, Kuro is more visceral, more conflictive and very violent, but always to defend Shiro. They two live in a city ironically called Treasure where corruption and violence and survival are the usual modus vivendi for the population. But with the appearence of Kiddy Kastle, a terrible yakuza clan, will start the apocalypsis of Treasure City.
In my humble opinion, a masterpice of animation, mixing the most modern 3D techniques for the scenarios with the most traditional animation for the characters, with a philosophical argument that motive the audience and don't disappoint anybody. A must-view, with no doubt.
The other film is Vexille, the last japanese experience with the most complex rendering techniques, achieving a level of quality equal, o even greater, than Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (because Vexille has more dynamic physics simulation instead of imaginative and surrealist kinetics on the SquareEnix production). With this superb visualization (although the inherent coldness of computer animation isn't avoided yet), the story that is presented is a cocktail of a lot of sci-fi previous cyberpunk films, like Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed, and even Matrix and Dune.
In the year 2077, the artificial intelligence has been banned from all the robothic technology by the UN because of its potential threat to humankind. However, Japan, the mundial leader vendor of robotic technology in the past, has been involved in an autarchy, and doesn't permit the entering to anybody. Besides, Japan is suspicious of illegal robothical activity and manufacturing, and a few troops of a special squadron have the mission of discovering what's happening in Japan. The starting point is interesting but loses interest as long as the movie goes... the final part, with similarities of Dune, seems to appear for showing the amazing computer animation instead of signing a good final for the movie; however, I don't think it's a bad film. Quite good one, I enjoy the film so much; I must thank Elia for talking me about the movie in the breakfast encounter hehehe :)
Here you can see the official third trailer of Vexille; here you can admire the perfect simulation, the bautiful computer animation, and the special effects including a handpainting-style for the characters (to simulate a traditional manufacturation):
But, where is the film connection ith the occident? So, it's in the music!!!! The original score is done by Paul Oakenfold, composer of electronic music and one of the most famous DJ's in the world, and has participated in the musical composition of movies like Operation Swordfish (co-authoring with Christopher Young), Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions. Great electronic music, really perfect for the scenes... good job!!!!
* Chapter 2. The Legacy of Miyazaki.
Hayao Miyazaki, the genius of anime, is considered a God in Japan; and I understand why: Princess Mononoke, Laputa a Castle in the SKy or Chihiro's Journey are authentic masterpieces of animation film genre, with the magical and typical drawing style of Studio Ghibli, and the incredible soundtracks of Joe Hisaishi over these images... wooooooooooow...
Because of that, it's inevitable taking as inspiration the romantic worlds of Miyazaki Sensei. And in this chapter, I will talk you about three films that have some Miyazaki inspirations, with more or less quality...
The first one is Gedo Senki, or better known as Tales of Earthsea, the Studio Ghibli film based in Ursula LeGuin's famous saga of books. Directed by Goro Miyazaki, the son of Hayao, is a quite rare movie. Only saying that the best factor on the movie is the incredible soundtrack composed by Tamiya Terashima (with Carlos Núñez performing amazingly the pipes and whistles!!!!), I think there's a clear impression of the strange atmosfear involving this animation film.
Goro Miyazaki is a novel director (it is his first movie!), and I understand it... so, I would accept the low rythm of the action, the strange argument line, and even the plane psychics of the main characters (although the two adult main characters are really really great!!)... but I cannot accept the style of the movie!!! It's a bad copy of Hayao art capabilities, there isn't a Goro firm, only a Hayao style with a lot of mistakes and shallow scenes. And I cannot be agree with this decision. If the film idea was that, why Hayao was kicked off of the project? I simply don't understand...
But let's go with more happy films!!! The Miyazaki effect has permitted the creation of good movies this last two years, and two goo examples are Nocturna, an actual spanish production, and Brave Story, a japanese animation film of 2006.
The first one, Nocturna, is a beauty spanish production about a parallel world that appears when the night falls over the real world, called Nocturna. In this dark environment, only lit by the stars and the streetlights, the fears of children and the humankind are summoned. The sotory begins when Tim, an orphan child living in an orphanage, discover that his star has disappeared. Then, he will gather all the courage he is capable and will begin a crusade through Nocturna to solve a terrible problem: all the stars are disappearing.
Tim, in his major adventure, will have the collaboration of misterious creatures (in example, the help of Murray, an i-don't-want-to-say-what's-it that does the same role as the Kodamas in Princess Mononoke), but he will also meet evil beings between the shadows. Maybe it's too much in children's fashion, but it's undeniable that the movie is good. if you have sons, or nephews, it's a good chance for going to the cinema with them :) Trust in me: it's a very pleasant movie :P
And the last one, but not less important, is Brave Story, a romantic (not in love meaning but in the beautiful one) and imaginative movie about a 10-year-old boy with a mom in a terrrible illness (besides, his dad leaved home), that discovers (with the help of a misterious new boy that arrived to the school in these days) a parallel world called Vision, where he begins the quest for the Goddess of Destiny that can concede his wish: heal his mother.
It's not a masterpiece of the genre, but it is a good movie in all the factors: style, action, music, characters, innocence... if you are a fan of Miyazaki, you will love this movie, but you won't be surprised with it, because it gathers almost of the Miyazaki worlds: fantastic beings, pureness of the spirit, a hidded and major dilemma than the main one. A good movie, you have to see it if you love Hayao Miyazaki movies :)
And well, that's all for now!! :) I've resumed all the animation films I saw in Sitges this year 2007. There only one volume left, the one about the experimental movies, like Takeshi Kitano's one or the new movie by Takashi Miike, the most geek director in Japan (even more than Kitano!!!)
See you poor mortals, and stay tuned on Ignis Lacrima!!!
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Tuesday, November 6, 2007
A CBox has been added to the blog!!
Hi poor mortals!!!
I've noticed that my posts maybe are about affairs of no usual domain for the major people... metal music, strange movies, computing... now, for those people they want to write something (although for offering me their words as a great detail :P) but don't know what to write, or even for the idea of fitting out a virtual guestbook, I've added a CBox to Ignis Lacrima.
You can see it (and use it, of course!! :P) under MCE (Metalli Canticum Essentia, the metal mp3 player of the blog), with a single welcome message by me (on November the 6th of 2007, at 1:31 am). There you can write free 200-letter messages... great eh? :)
And what's a CBox?? Well, as the own people that created the CBox: "it's a tagboard for your website or blog for letting your visitors leave you messages or chat with each other". I think it's a good idea, isn't it? :)
However, I won't pay the per-month contribution, so I've added the basic version of CBox. That means this message box will only store the last 100 messages written. The older messages will be automatically deleted as long as new messages will be entered (for the most geek persons: a FIFO message box XD).
For all those resonances from your most tribal thoughts and feelings, this CBox is the best way for expressing it :) Hail Resonances from Hell!!! And feel free for writing what you want, having always in mind that this message will probably disappear in the future, when other messages overlap the 100-message-storage :S
If you want to know more about CBox, or if you have a blog and you want to add a CBox onto it, visit the official homepage: http://www.cbox.ws; it's not the most useful thing but it can be a nice experiment, I think :)
That's all for now! See you in the lair of the resonances of the burning tears!!! Hail poor mortals!!!
ps: for those who are curious... FIFO is the acronym for "First In First Out" protocol; that is, a standard queue for buying something :P
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Monday, November 5, 2007
Happy Samhain to everybody!!
I know this post appears too late... but I've been so stressed!! This last week has been heavy, a lot of tests and puntuable marks for the Master in Graphics and even a public presentation based in an incredible paper... maybe in a few days I talk about it :)
It's very interesting, I promise that :P
Well, these days have received the famous Halloween festivity, or as the ancient pagan ritual have procclamed ever, the Samhain festivity, the celtic day for celebrating the end of the summer (indeed, Samhain means "end of summer" literally, and was the name received our month of November). Samhain was also considered the "New Year Day" in the celtic mythology: the beginning of the Autumn, the highly feared dark season.
Although this festivity had never been a Devil Adored day, nor an evil festivity, it's true that it was the most dangerous day in the celtic calendar. The beliefs of the people said that in this day, the door between the real world and the world of the dead was opened and the spirits was visiting their descendence, and at the same time, the mortals were able to travel to the another world because of withcraft. Everybody thought that in this day, devils, ghosts, witches, goblins and elfs walked through the fields of the Celtic Land...
However, the Samhain really means reaffirming the believe of the celtic life cicle, the Unity between all the Spirits, and the truth in the death is not the End. An interesting approach, I think... In fact, for maintaining the dead spirits in a happy mood, the mortals often put food out of their homes ---obviously a present for their ancestors---; this tradition evolutioned (evolutioned? maybe this isn't the best word for describe that...) in the actual tradition of the costumed children asking for sweets... Indeed, due to the conversion to the christianism, the christians considered that Samhain was a festivity to adore Satan (ehem...) and they decided that the best way for converting the celts into the believe in Christ was the adoption of Samhain to the christian traditions.
After that, Samhain was declarated the All Hallows' Day, name that evolutioned to the actual Halloween.
Well, I don't pretend to present you all a complete thesis about the degeneration of Samhain until the actual Halloween, thus you can become calmed XD I will only tell you, as a virtual druid (with all my heart, I adore the celtic mythology), that the druids were really the ceremony master of Samhain. They ask the villagers for burning a gigantic bonfire, to give it the sacrifices: animals, harvests, and even human beings.
All these things with an only aim: the purification for a nice beginning of the new year. Just like that, facing the new year (and the dark season!!) with reborn forces, the ashes were spred across the green fields.
Even the nowadays classic pumpkin is originally from the celtic mythology!!! The ancient tradition tells that mounts of candels were put into emptied turnips (subsequently into emptied pumpkins) surrounding homes to scare the bad spirits. This tradition, still life in Galice, has been morphed onto the happy pumpkins of Halloween...
And finally.. I know this last phrase will be totally out of place, but I have to say it... On Samhain, Helloween (the pumpkin spirit of meeeeetaaaaaaaal) have released their last album, Gambling with the Devil. And in a few days, I will review this splendid cd, a more than good sound continuity to their previous double-cd LP: Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy.
And now, to finishing this post, I think the best way is embedding this legendary metal song... of course, I'm talking of Halloween, by Helloween, the pumpkins of hell!!!! It's the 1987 videoclip ---so, don't laugh to much please :P--- of the edit version of the song (5:00 minutes instead the 13:30 complete track...), and with the legandary voice of Michael Kiske!!! Tobias Sammet makes Kiske come back to the Dark Side sporadically but it's pitiful that Kiske is now a renegate of metal... snif... :(
Come on, mortals, sing with me!!
in the streets on halloween there's something going on
no way to escape the power unknown...
in the streets on halloween the spirits will arise
make your choice, it's hell or paradiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiise!!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!! it's halloweeeeeeeen...
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!! it's halloweeeeeeeen...
oooooooooh... tonight!!!
Well, that's all for now!!! Stay tuned in Ignis Lacrima, poor mortals!! And beware of the bad spirits!!!! mwaaaahahahaha
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Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Gilgamesh has a new graphics card: an nVidia GeForce 7600GS
For those who don't know about my obsession for calling the computers I have with the names of demigods of the most various religions and mythologies, Gilgamesh is the name that received my desktop computer ---a PentiumIV at 3GHz with 1.5GB of RAM--- a few years ago. So, if you ant to know more about the great king of sumerian mythology, Gilgamesh, just visit the wikipedia, concretely this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgamesh.
Well, just changing the subject and aiming to the main theme of this post... I bought a new graphics card for my desktop computer!!!! Above of these lines you can see a photo of the real cover and card; quite little but with killing features, in terms of its (relative :P) low cost!!.
Because of the old age of Gilgamesh (more than 4 years, although I amplied its RAM to improve its performance), its graphics card was initially a nVidia GeForceFX 5200, very limited... after some time, my Degree Project (now morphed to Master Thesis :P) gived me a nVidia GeForce 5950 Ultra; that's the best graphics card of 5000's series, but now, coursing a Master in Graphics and Visualization, I will need more potence.
Nowadays, the AGP port has been diceased by the PCI-Express supremacy. However, the huge graphics accelerator cards vendors, ATI and nVidia have recently bet on the retired AGP port and and have released some good cards.
I must admit I don't know much about ATI cards, so I have gathered my energies and neurons for try the best card for me: I don't play any kind of videogame!! But I will work with computer graphics, and I need huge characteristics; that means, I don't want a monster card, but a little monster one XD In the follwing table you can see the specifications for my new GeForce 7600GS and other similar cards (also from nVidia, and both all working in AGP):
GPU 7300GS 7300GT 7600GS 7600GT Core clock (MHz) 550 350 400 560 Memory clock (MHz) 533 667 800 1400 Memory interface (bit) 64 128 128 128 Memory type DDR2 DDR2 DDR2 GDDR3 Pixels per clock 4 8 12 12 Vertex shaders 3 4 5 5
If you are experimented in this terms of technology, you will see that it's not a bad target :P Yes, there are better cards (the 7600GT model, or even the 8600GT, but the last one is too much expensive and it's not worthy for me...), but I only wanted a good graphics card supporing Shader Model 3.0 (because the old GeForce 5950 Ultra only supported until Shader Model 2.0). And now, I have it!! :) Even with the same RAM memory (256MB, engineered with faster technology: DDR2 instead of SDRAM :P).
I don't think there will be mounts of people commenting this post because of the strange theme... but I know there will be a little bit of visitors that, at least, can understand some lines of that :P And what the hell? I simply wanted to tell you this new :)
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Monday, October 22, 2007
God exists, and it's fan of Ferrari :)
Oh my Gooooood! I've seen Formula1 on TV for several years (I still remember Alain Prost or Damon Hill on the road... snif...), but there was no championship like this years'. Really, Formula1 has lived more off the circuits that in them, because of multiple affairs:
- McLaren's spy case of Ferrari's F2007 concept car;
- and of course, the divergent cardinality of Fernando Alonso's complaints in terms of mobbing from his own team McLaren and from the FIA (Formula1 International Association)
So, let's go to know who is the new Formula1 World Champion. After an amazing and incredible and (why not saying?) miraculous race (I will write about it later mwaaaahahaha), Kimi Räikkönen, twice runner-up (years 2003 and 2005), is finally acclaimed as World Champion of 2007!!!
During all the grand prizes of this 2007 championship, no pilot was the favourite candidate to get the World Champion qualification; who will write his name in the Formula1's History was a real mistery; indeed, until the finalization of the last GP, on Interlagos (Brazil), three men were candidates to achieve the World Champion qualification:
Qualification before the last GP (on Interlagos, Brazil):
- Lewis Hamilton (107 points)
- Fernando Alonso (103 points)
- Kimi Räikkönen (100 points)
But the miracle went on!!!! :) As a Ferrari fan, I wanted Räikkönen as the champion, but I cannot suffer Alonso (I'm a genuine anti-Alonso, in association with my Ferrari idolatration); thus, between the two McLaren pilots, I chose Hamilton as my candidate (because of, if Alonso win, after two consecutive won championships, and after being a martyr this year, he will be very very very insufferable ¬¬).
Well, let's go with the race description!!! At the beginning of the race, Felipe Massa had the pole position, with Hamilton on the second place; Räikkönen was the third one, and the last (well, actually the 4th :P) was Alonso.
When the GP started, Räikkönen and Alonso overtook Hamilton, and then, the british pilot got too much nervous and went off the road (losing six more positions, staying at the 8th!!!). A few curves later, the McLaren MP4/22 car had a software error (Lewis wasn't capable to shift gears), and after a system rest made by Hamilton himself, the car reacted but he was in the last positions!!
Later, Lewis Hamilton didn't want to give the championship to Alonso (althogh, if Räikkönen could overtake Massa, the finnish would be the champion!!), and began an desperate racing for achieving the first positions; finally he passed through the finnish line in the 7th position, incrementing in 2 his total points.
In other way, but, Alonso didn't change his position and finished in the 3rd position... but tadaaaaaaa!!!! With a brilliant strategy of Ferrari, consisting in a Massa boxes-stop 3 laps before the Räikkönen one; he had an important mission then: begin the fastest driving and delete the gap of 3 segonds separating the two Ferrari cars. And the mission was successful! Räikkönen entered pit-lane and, when he returned to the circuit, he was the first!!!The race finished finally with the finnish pilot in the first position, and Massa was the second (with Alonso in a 40-second gap in the third place). As I said before, Hamilton finished in the 7th place, and then, the championship qualification was just like that:
Qualification after the last GP (on Interlagos, Brazil):
- Kimi Räikkönen (110 points [+10])
- Lewis Hamilton (109 points [+02])
- Fernando Alonso (109 points [+06])
Just like that, in the following photograph you can see the three candidates to the championship qualification; from left to right: Fernando Alonso, Jean Todt (Ferrari's boss), Kimi Räikkonen and Lewis Hamilton).
I must admit that, in home, my dad and me uncorked a cava bottle (Codorniu Non-Plus-Ultra, bought for the non-Alonso-victory) and we drink in honour of the Räikkönen world championship (and also, Ferrari won the constructor championship!!!)!! :)
For finishing this post, I can only say: congratulations to Kimi!! And of course, congratulations to Ferrari team!!
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Thursday, October 18, 2007
More than 250 thanks and kisses to everyone!! My blog has more than 250 visits!!
Woooooow!!!!! A few moments ago I saw that Ignis Lacrima, my blog, has reached (in minus than one month!) the magic number of 250 in the visit counter!!! Thank you to anyone that visits my blog periodically, this number could'nt be possible without you :)
In addition, I have to say that this number is realistic: the counter increments in one if there's an IP entering to Ignis Lacrima (or any page depending of the blog), and it have passed more than 30 minutes since the IP's last web charge (of course, if the IP is new, also increments in one the counter :P); that means that the counter is realistic in terms of people, not in pages visited.
Now I only hope to reach the number of 250 comments, but at this moment I think it's impossible (there's only 19 comments... snif snif...); I admit my piece of fault, maybe my posts don't permit mounts and mounts of opinions or comments... but I know that there's people that are afraid of writing... please, don't be afraid!!! Ignis Lacrima doesn't beat :) It's a quite rare blog, I know, but not more strange than me, isn't it? ;)
I will try to write posts thinking of provoquing and motiving interventions... but I would like to receive comments about my posts :) feel free for write, you mortal!! In this lair your words will be always welcome!! :) As long as the humble priest devote of Hefestus ---the Ancient God of Fire and Metal--- would be surrounding this domains, the tears of fire will light the people's feelings and opinions... mwaaaahahahaha (ok, ok, freak mode turned off... ¬¬)
In resume... thank you again for yor visits, and I hope this rythm will be still maintained, or even incremented ;) Bye byeeeeee!!! And see you here, poor mortals! :)
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Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Concert: Kamelot's Ghost Opera World Tour 2007 (or the Rising Horns of the Hordes of Mephisto)
Well, because I think that the Sitges 2007 chronicles in 4 volumes have been turning on a little tidy (for me, but overcoats for you, readers :P), so go on; I will change the subject and I want to write a chronicle about the another important event in this month (at least for me :$): the concert within the Kamelot's Ghost Opera European Tour Part III that the norwegian-yankee band did in Sala Razzmatazz 2 on October Friday 5th of 2007. The entire concert was amazing, even the austrian rookie supporters Serenity, whose, with a unique album released, give us a splendid show; and Kamelot, of course, performed their setlist perfectly, with no errors, with all the energy, with Roy Khan plenty of splendor and very confident.
But let's go with the review of the concert; I hope don't be too much extense as long as I'm being with the Sitges chronicles :$ The title of this concert, as you can see in the post title, is "The Rising Horns of the Hordes of Mephisto" ; well, I wanted to be pompous, it's true :P but I think I'm not so exaggerated when I say that Kamelot will provoque an extasis to all the audience (and specially in the song March of Mephisto, clearly epic war-like song, already a Kamelot classic piece) that the headbanging and the horns were full of energy in large moments (the day after I was even neck-injured XD).
* Part I: the austrian supporters Serenity
With 15 minutes of lag, I entered to Razzmatazz 2. I ran inside for buying at the beginning the shirts (I'm a consumist, it's true :P): a t-shirt of Ghost Opera, and a longsleeve of Serenity; a total of 45 euros, it was not cheap but I'm happy for having them :)
Then, the audience was entering with no chaos, and after 30 minutes, a familiar song sounded by the huge speakers: from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl score by Klaus Badelt, the end credits piece, I'm a Pirate, the most famous theme in Pirates saga, surrounded us energycally. It was the signal for the beginnig of the event.
While the score was passing through our ears, the members of Serenity were featured over the scenario, and began with a middle-rythm song of his unique album, Words Untold & Dreams Unlived, called Forever; in my opinion it would had been better beginnig with Reduced to Nothingness, a fast power metal song, but the cited piece was the third one in their setlist, just like that, I was able to enjoy this song finally :)
Between these two songs, they performed the arabican Canopus 3, the opening song of the album. I apologize for not remember the entire setlist (nor the exact order of all the pieces), but with an only album, their show was too much short :( Although, my three favourite songs (the cited Reduced to Nothingness, Engraved Within and Thriven) were performed, and I began my particular headbanging brutally :P Overcoats, Engraved Within was the best song in terms of audience reaction dedicated to a not famous supporter band I had ever seen (well, with Firewind in the Angra concert the audience was even more tribal!! yiaaaah!). I never imagined that people liked Serenity so much, but I'm deeply glad for them.
Serenity are really a good band, and their compositions are powerful: melodic power metal mixed with progressive environments. And they demonstrated us their clear future performing a previously unreleased song , that will appear in their second album. An excellent song, indeed; in the same quality line of the first album; maybe even more mature.
Serenity setlist (about 1:00:00):
Pros: The connection of the band with the audience. Really incredible, both all enjoyed the show, the band and us. And of course, when Georg Neuhauser (the singer) show us the estelada he had in his keyring... wooooow brutal!!!
Cons: Maybe the sound; sometimes it was difficult to hear well the singer.
Best Track: Engraved Within; very well performed, and at the same time, the audience reacted brutally in the interludium; after the song, Serenity was acclaimed by all the people, as an entusiasthic response to band's efforts.
* Part II: Kamelot, King Khan and the Knights of the Metal Table
After one-hour show by Serenity, and 15 minutes for preparing the scenario for Kamelot spectacle, the band of Roy Khan started their performance. The lights turned off and a lady, emulating the Ghost Opera cover, appeared on the platform with their eyes bandaged and a violin; then, Solitaire started to sound. I recognize that this intro has a violin complex melody, and the lady obviously was nervous, but I noticed too much that she was doing playback XD but this was the only bad thing in the Kamelot concert hehehehe; when the violin solo finished, the entire band has already in the scenario, and they started the concert, of course, with Rule the World, the second song of Ghost Opera.
This middle-rythm was awesomely performed, with Khan singing perfectly; and then, the next song, a classic song included in Black Halo album: When the Lights Are Down. The audience exploited in horns arised and singing loudly (and, we must recognize it, so badly XD). Above these lines there's a video extracted of YouTube offereing this moment XD. In my own defense, I must say that the video is recorded from the left side of Razzmatazz , and I was in the third row of the right one; then, you cannot hear me singing :P
Later, a song also performed in their previous tour in 2005, Soul Society, that didn't turn off the people enjoyment; and then, a song of the new album: Mourning Star (but with no gregorian intro chants...). And, finishing the song, a surprise I awaited in the Black Halo tour: Descent of the Archangel (without the appearence Luca Turilli, of course :P), with a specially motived Roy Khan interpreting even the injured and fallen angel at the beginning of the song!! really nice :)
And after that, another previously unperformed song, the great ballad Abandoned, from Black Halo (I think for giving the instrumentalists a deserved resting); Khan was supported all the song by us, the audience, in one of the most beautiful songs of Kamelot.
The Human Stain, the most powerful song included in Ghost Opera, was the next song, and later, a break for Roy Khan: a great instrumental interlude that included a guitar solo by Thomas Youngblood, supported by the rest of the band, and for finishing this instrmental part, a drum solo by Casey Grillo (aka Son Goku XD what a freak hair style!!! XD).
Woooooow, the return of Roy Khan couldn't be better... two songs incredibly good in the Kamelot discography: Center of the Universe and the also previously unperformed live (and, I recognize it, I think they will never perform live!!!) Memento Mori!!! Oh my god, this moment was really orgasmatic!!!! These two songs are my favourite of all the Kamelot pieces!!!! When these two masterpieces were at their last, Oli Palotai offered us a keyboard solo, demonstrating his amazing technique (although, the solo is prepared, I think :S in the DVD Kamelot recorded the last year, On the Cold Winter Night, the Palotai solo is very similar...), for continue with another classic song: The Haunting , this time without Simone Simmons but with the appearence of the "violinist" that sang all the female parts of the songs (that is: the beginning of Descent of the Archangel, the interlude of Abandoned, and the chorus line with Khan on Love You To Death , one of the last concert songs). Sorry, I don't remember her name, but she sang very very very well! :$
And the final song of the first part of the concert was the classical song from Karma: the highly acclaimed Forever, which included, as in the performance in the Live DVD, a interlude part with all of us trying to follow the melodic lines of Roy Khan (he was singing first, and then we were trying to emulate him XD). I must to say that we sang rather well, except in the last part, where more than a half of the people screamed very badly XD but it was soooooo nice :) you even can see it, what else? :P
Finishing Forever, Kamelot made a farewell and went out from the scenario; a few minutes later, they came back and offered us three more songs: two of them new, Ghost Opera and the ballad Love You to Death (come on, raise up these lighters!!!! :P), and a classic one, the second and last song from Karma: the song with the same title as the album, Karma (one of their most complex songs, together with Memento Mori). We all were already ecstatic, but when the band went out from the scenario again, we claimed Kamelot for more songs, we wanted more soooooooooooongs!!! And our prayer was heared: Kamelot came back for one more song, the last one, and the song that provoques more extasis in the people: March of Mephisto!!!!!!
And with Khan enjoying us to rising up our horns as long as we were jumping and headbanging in a histeric mood, the confert arrived at the end. I think Kamelot had a good time in Barcelona, because Khan smiled and laughed several times with us while we chorused the band's name, or even the happy moment in the concert: in the final part of Forever, when we disturbed his final scream doing it us before him XD
Definitely, an excellent experience, and I can't wait for the next Kamelot tour!!! But well, in the next month Dream Theater (with Symphony X) and Sonata Arctica (together with Epica) will arrive at Barcelona and the headbangings and the horns of metal will be risen again!! mwaaaahahahahaha
Kamelot setlist (about 1:30:00):
Pros: All the setlist was awesome, all the songs are incredible, and even all of them are included in my kamelot's favourite songs list.
Cons: the absence of Nights of Arabia or the high acclaimed ballad Don't You Cry. Also, The Haunting and March of Mephisto in full length would be better... :S
Best Track: Memento Mori; the performance was incredible, and I only can give praises for that: this is the most complex song composed by Kamelot and its live performance isn't an easy task (in fact, on their previous tour they didn't perform the song; although, the instrumental interlude included parts of it)
I hope I have been transmitted my strong emotions about this concert, and had provoques similar feelings to you when will read this post :) see you in Ignis Lacrima, poor mortals!! And long live to metal!!!
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