Saving time one schedule at a time.

It has been a few days and I have once again fallen into disarray. I’ve stopped drawing for days and also have not been practicing programming. I have been spending too much time in the computer. I am unable to stop myself from losing myself. The internet has so much content that it simply sucks me in. If I don’t have a set plan it can eat away a lot of time. I have finally become aware and rolled out a recovery plan by using a schedule. The problem is I forget the proccess that I must now take and simply roam in instinct sleeping, watching television, and doing things that have no profit. If I want to graduate from college and have a better more organized life then I must start following a set of rules and simply not ponder and waste time by doing random stuff. That is where the schedule comes in. If many bussy men with a lot of work use the trusty schedule like in those movies where the rich man is having a lazy morning until his assistant rolls in bringing a digital scheduler and telling her that today he must have some dinner with a some company representatives and shortly after depart for a executive meeting where he would do a speech.

There are many activities that we simply do not have time to track but with a handy schedule we could take out time for everything. Time is as important as money is. It is very valuable and very useful. But as money it runs out. There are only 24 hours in a day after all and there are many basic activities that start draining that time counter. Sleeping, bathing, eating, etc. which are basic in every human being. 6am wake up and take a bath, 6:30 eat some breakfast, 7am getting ready, etc. But I currently don’t have a plan! That is why I need to act. I wake up drag myself to the bathroom and then sit on the toilet staring blankly at the roof and falling asleep. Then I jump into the shower to stay there like a idiot bathing for 30 minutes under the hot water. Its a waste of water and a waste of time. If time is properly used then life will truly be well used. We only have a limited amout of time to live after all. Once its gone we will die. That is why we must use time to its fullest.

That is why I will now seek to utilize time to its fullest or forget trying. Because actually not doing anything is the worst of my faults.

Inspiration from artists

This is a first in my posts of my diary as a beginner artist. I have been drawing all my life since I was on sixth grade with a dream that my drawings would become part of videogames. I am now 19 years old and my progress has been horrible. I have been very negative and have abandoned several times my drawings. But now I’ve found what I truly lack. Improvement. I have failed to improve my art by seeing other art and using it to improve my own. I thought that if I just kept drawing and drawing that I would naturally improve in my own. But I was wrong. You have to look around you in order to be able to draw accurately. You cannot draw what you have never seen. You cannot draw a man if you do not know how a man looks. You cannot draw a breast if you do not know how a breast behaves. Art is as much a science as math might be. It requires knowledge to truly be worth it. You could do a simple drawing from not knowing but it takes to know to draw incredible art.

I am taking a new spin to my drawings. I recently have been playing Little BIg PLanet a Ps3 game where you can create your own levels. I have been trying to make my own level but my ideas just don’t flow out. I look at the blank canvas and I don’t know what to draw. Its frustrating. You simply lock yourself up. Not only is it making it look nice but it behaving nice because its a game. Then I start to realize how to difficult it is to be a videogame designer. Then a friend invited me to see his level. When I went to his level I was shocked. The level looked like one packed with the game. How did my friend do this?! Is he a awesome creator or something? I thought he just had the incredible ability until I saw each level section. Each section of the puzzles on the platformer were a bit of a level in the actual game. Then I realized it. He had taken parts he liked from the game and built them into his level. The mechanics that he had found awesome he had recreated. Rolling balls of fire sliding through a curve, Jumping from rope to rope facing a pit of lava. Going underground and crossing through a tunnel made of glass. It was incredible. It wasn’t that he had a genius creativity. It was that he took what he had seen and made it his own changing it on his own way. Then I realized. This is it. This is what art is all about! This is the shortcut. Don’t reinvent the wheel! Use what is already there. Drawings can look like your favorite artist draws them but you like how another artist draws the eyes. You can take individual styles of drawing and mix them up to create a original style. Your style!

I have been so relentless to want to learn but I’m trying to improve. To the next day be able to draw better. Each day I hate how my art looks because I compare it with the best of art. They didn’t start out at the best. They opened their eyes and learned from the world until their style became what it is today. I shouldn’t be discouraged. I should accept my art as a pillar in my step by step journey to great art! That is why I’m going to try my best and document each of my steps on this long journey to understand art and embrace it. This is  the key to everything!

Metal Gear Online: Update 1.02

Oh brother. The first update was hell. Now a second update appears. I decided to give the game a try just for fun even though the start of the beta is tommorow at 24:00. I have found a nasty surprise. Another patch. This patch changes the way the game connects with the servers. Probably a solution they came up over the week so we can finally play the beta. The peer to peer update is at 0 because no one seems to notice the patch. A network error occurs when you try to download it via http. Really konami…I know you came out with a fix but what use is the patch if we can’t download it?

Stay tuned for more.

Edit : Seeds magically appeared now. The patch doesn’t appear to be that big so once some more seeds appear then it will be smooth sailing.

Stealth

The word has come up as something very important as metal gear online comes closer. I’ve been playing much more stealthier on Call of Duty 4. I have been hiding in a room holding my breath and kneeling as I wait my dog to pass. Then the instant he turns around I move from room to room and hide again. My dog looks confused and looks again to the room I was in. He decides I am gone and runs of to search for me. I quickly but silently step over the white tiles of my house and exit my house with victory as I completely stealthed my dog.

Perhaps you might call me crazy but metal gear has been adding a adverse effect to my activities. Perhaps I am just too excited for the game’s release just a month away and the online beta being tommorow. COD4 is what keeps me entertained til then. Cod4 always keeps me well entertained. But I’ve ran out of cod4 steam. Its just not the same anymore. After months of continous playing for hours it gets boring. That is why I need a new game at the house and no its not GTA4. I don’t like GTA4. I detest being the bad guy. I like being the guy in shining armor to come to the rescue of the princess.

I’ve finally finished this months college tests and one more month of classes remain. No summer vacation for me as I’ll take some summer classes to advance faster. I must finish college the fastest if I am to become a videogame designer. My plans to learn programming on my own and learn to create a game have been thwarted by college on its own and I’ve considered more important as a priority improving my art and writing skills. I hope I can start programming soon but there are just so many things I want to do. I want to draw. I want to write. I want to program. I want to 3d design. I want even to play music! I am completely out of my mind and greedy. I surely will have trouble obtaining even one to worry about a whole lot. They are just my ambitions in life more important than anything else. They might be my goals in life.

I am lazy. Yes I truly am lazy. I have been trying to draw but I just get in a foul mood that I can’t seem to get myself to draw. Because of it I spend days without drawing and that not only stops me from improving but also deteriorates my already learned skill. Practice makes perfect. Lack of practice makes mistakes.

I have some plans regarding my drawings as well. If all goes well and I manage to control myself and draw then by summer I will begin the comic of Soul Chronicles. It is based on the same story I am writing but with a different concept in mind. It is the same when you try making a play instead of writing a novel. The media will interact in different ways with the viewer so I might have to chance a few things to fit the manga. This is as well just a scrap comic made as just drawing practice so it shouldn’t be considered as serious material but as a student’s assignment. The scheduled chapter is chapter 1 which introduces the characters and the beginning of what starts as a small quest only to turn into something much more.

If all goes well during that time then I will begin my first flash animation on august. The flash animation will feature a short teaser featuring important parts from all 3 episodes as a effort to learn to use flash. I take great inspiration from my friend Uty-Bacalaito. She is an anime artist who has made some flash works and does digital work daily on deviantart.

I am of course writing on my story as well but have found the current written story inadequate and have started it from scratch. In order to not reveal many secrets about the main characters and let them uncover themselves to the reader I have cut off some parts from the original chapter and will now be featured as memories later on the story. I will soon be taking off the first chapter I had uploaded here so if you are reading this today(which I doubt) and want to look at a early version of my first chapter(which I doubt) then feel free to grab it before it becomes only a memory without existence. Excelryu out.

WordPress vs. Blogger

When I find blogs I always find two of many to be the most popularly used. These two blogs ferociously fight for the lead in functions and look. When you look at either of this blogs it looks so profesionally done. But when I visit the other blogs they just feel old and outdated. The look doesn’t feels right. WordPress and Blogger allow you to customize the layout and thus make it your own.

Aside from the look this two blogs allow you to use many features that others blog do not. Modern features only available on new blogs and new technologies. The simplicity to mange such blogs is oustanding and are both very popular. But now come the differences. WordPress is a “your own hosted blog” meanwhile blogger is a web blog. What is the difference? You have to host wordpress in your website. Blogger runs from their website and you manage it from their website. WordPress also has a website version but it is not as good since it lacks plugins. More about that later. Because of this difference wordpress can be a tedious task to use since it requires a web host having most recent technologies and a mysql database. http://www.freehostia.com offers free websites with mysql in different service packages. In blogger you need only register a account or log in with your google account and you’re set to blog.

Now for the differences. Since wordpress is hosted by you then you have full control over it and its features. This means you can upload plugins, themes, pictures, media and anything that your blog needs in order to work and function. Blogger is restricted to the content provided on the website and cannot expand as wordpress can. But what wins it for casual bloggers is its simplicity of use. WordPress is favored by many who have their own site because of the great tools it offers.

Now lets put some examples. Many people famous and not use blogger blogs as a easy method of establishing a blog. A community favorite on halo 3 who does machinima has a blogger blog where posts his latest news about his series. His blog is flooded daily with comments. WordPress is used most notably by the official sony playstation blog itself. You might not recognize it because it has such awesome plugins and theme that you would think they built it from scratch.

In the end its just a matter of your situation. You might be a casual blogger or a serious blogger who wants a evolved blog. Blogger is easy to setup. WordPress is a little more complex to set up. Blogger features great tools. WordPress once set up has infinite tools on your disposal if you can get to install them. Its as simple as dropping the plugin on a folder and configuring it.

My personal decision is of course for the one running this very blog. WordPress. For wordpress surpasses blogger in every way. What is your favorite blog system?

Metal Gear Online Character Customization

Check out the character customization in action for MGO.

It has been a day since the horrible experience of being minutes close to playing the beta only for the servers to crash from the stress of the huge army of MG fans. Konami also was caught in the surprise as it did not expected such numbers. Had they not done the beta they would have had a angry mob of Gamers up their company demanding to play.

Some were more fortunate than others like this guy on the video who managed to get as far as the character creation screen. After he finished creating his character the server had fallen and he was met with a error. In my taste it would be worst for me if I got that far. To be able to create my character and build a immense excitement only to have it crush the instant I click continue after selecting my character gear and face. Not only that. All his choices, voices and selected gear was lost since the game wasn’t able to send back the data to the servers. The poor sap will have to redo it this friday. If it gets fixed that is. Konami pointed out that its a scheduled time. Anything could go wrong. A certain Murphey’s law says “Anything that could go wrong will go wrong.” Well everything has already gone wrong so please let us play already.

The character creation is pretty expensive and the video wet my appetite. Please understand that this is a beta and only a small portion of the content is featured. There were many people annoyed in other sites from the lack of faces and equipment. They clearly do not understand that this is not the full game and only a test version to test stress on the servers(their test found out the servers were inadequate as you we experienced) Please give konami a break. You will have tons of options at the full game and even more in each expansion. For now, PS3 beta testers enjoy the game. I am very satisfied with the character customization and am already drawing character designs of what character I will use and with what equipment. I suck at drawing soldiers.

Metal Gear Online Beta to April 25

Problems just seem to be Metal Gear Online’s best friend. First printing errors, then id problems and now delays for server crashes. The beta has been delayed to april 25 this friday. What seemed like hours now has become days. It seems MGO is in some big trouble. I do hope they are able to recover because MGO looks like a fantastic game. I want to play it and go all sneaky on my enemies.

I’ve been reading the online manual found on the japanese website translated to english and have learned finally how is the gameplay. You can find the metal gear online manual here http://www.konami.jp/mgo/en/manual/index.html .It is a good manual since it explains controls, gameplay and the overall of what to expect of the game. I was very intrigued by how the game is made and what the options in gameplay are. You can equip yourself with skills which will enhance your abilities on the battlefield. One of the skills is the introduced in MGS3 known as CQC used by Naked Snake. The greatest thing about MGO that sets it apart from other shooters is the SOP system which allows you to synchronize data with your team using the nanomachines in their bodies.

Metal Gear Online Beta Delayed…

My waiting at night was for nothing. It seems my greatest fears were confirmed. If konami had trouble registering simple usernames for people then…How would they fare hosting a game server. Just as with the usernames the server became unstable because of the amount of people. I expected Konami to know with what kind of title they are dealing with in order to count their servers right. I guess they will do the same than with the site. Add more servers….Anyway info of the beta will be given tomorrow and the end date has been extended by 5 days. This is halo 3 beta all over again but with more errors.

Metal Gear Online Beta Issues Resolved

After a shaky week my problems are over. As I reported on my earlier blog post I had received a invalid code together with the metal gear dvd. I found around the internet that the issue had been because of a printing error. This was strike number one for konami. For a error to occur like this was not common but they responded pretty well and provided new keys for the affected. Well most of them. I heard there are still some left without a replied e-mail. Anyway after I inputted the code everything went smoothly. The code took me straight to the download and so I got it.

It seems this beta was really beta like since the problems did not end with the printing error. The second greatest obstacle on my quest of preparation for MGO was….the id registration website on konami. It seems using only our psn id didn’t benefit Konami and so they created not one but two more ids. The first id known as Konami ID is to manage all future game ids for konami games. Since mgo is the only current game from them then its your only option. This usernames might be useful later on on other games. Anyway the second id is the actual id for Metal Gear. But that is not the problem. Creating ids is easy. At least it should had been. The server was completely unstable and kept crashing or was too busy to handle requests. Konami responded quickly adding more servers. But then another error of appeared. After two days the issues were finally resolved and I became ready.

Now that everything has been taken care of and I am prepared for the beta then it is only a matter of waiting. As I speak the last hours go away as the online slowly comes to a expected beginning. Will there even be more problems with the beta aside from simply registering and download? Stay tuned because I will be giving you a hands on experience of the beta.

Metal Gear Online: 9 Unfortunate digits

Today many blogs reported on the availability of the PS3 beta known as Metal Gear online already available for download by following the instructions contained on the metal gear dvd. Many were able to download it and stare at the start screen as they wait for the beta to officially begin this monday 21. But bad luck struck some unfortunate people who only have 9 digits on their ps3 voucher key. All 9 digit voucher keys were useless in redeeming the download. We are missing 3 digits. I am one of the 9 digit cursed. I have sent an e-mail to Konami trying to resolve the issue as the days get even closer towards the beginning of the beta.

My friend was lucky and had a 12 digit voucher code and was able to download the beta and stare at the start screen. Sad. I wanted to stare at the start screen too and then look as it told me it couldn’t connect to server. It is a sad event but I will not give up so easily. I so eagerly waited for this moment to be struck by lightning. I will update my blog reflecting the events of my situation. I hope all goes well and the konami customer support doesn’t has the microsoft customer support curse. I have heard scary tales of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 customer support.