~ The Adventurer Chronicle 33 ~
"... so now that you are all seated I can tell you more about the secret arts."
Deep in this part of the woods, sun crystals grew, giving a bright light all around them, even if the sun could barely penetrate the thick foliage. Ghola sat near a tree lower than the others, on it's protuberant root escaping the earth. The tree was the only thing between him and the river, which made a nice sound, and reflected the light around, turning every leaf to a different color.
The children sat in different places, mostly near trees in front of him, but some decided that is was a good idea to seat on the branches of the tree, but everyone made sure they could listen to the scholar. There was a tree close to his left, where a particular group of five friends sat on the branches, boys on one, girls on the other, all quietly hearing his tale.
"There are many schools of magic." He paused. "As you all should know by now. Mostly they teach you about the ten most fundamental ones. That is because they are the most common, easy to use, day to day handy spells. I've already told you about the secret school, which has spells so rare and powerful, that only a few people ever master a spell. They are hard to perform and learn, and since their power is immense, few people get to practice them without disrupting lifestyles."
Ghola swept the ground in front of him, making a clear and even surface, where he used his staff to draw some symbols. "Basic magic, we use mana and casting to create a breach between this and the mana plane, in order to create a spell. That is how most schools work at least. This particular school has a peculiar difference. It does not create the magic from the mana plane through the ritual, it instead creates many small holes between the planes from where the mana flows, in chaotic patterns, creating a natural spell."
The kids followed with different levels of attention as he drew on the ground and explained. Some seemed confused, others eager to learn more. Considering this wasn't a class, they were greatly focused.
"You may have heard about it, it is known more popularly as cursing, jinxing and hexing." Most didn't seem to recall anything, only a handful gave a positive response, including one of the girls in the tree next to him. "They are different forms of the same school, they all use the same principle, but each work differently. This is how the school of entropy works. It changes the flow of mana, to affect the flow of events"
"Cursing is one of the most ancient magic arts, with records from before the rebirth, but like the whole school, it fell out of use, since it's power is purely destructive. Curses take long to cast, like a ritual, their effect is quite strong, but they activate on certain conditions, it may take years, centuries, or they may never go active."
"If it's not guaranteed to work, why use this kind of magic?" Asked a boy with blond hair sitting the highest on the ground.
"Well, there are many ways to make it work. Mostly curses serve to keep people from doing things you don't want, and so you warn them before the curse is activated. When a curse is used to harm, instead of prevent, then the caster usually uses the person's habits to trigger an eventual curse, using an event that is bound to happen."
"But of course this is not useful in combat" Ghola continued. "So we have hexes and jinxes. Both are extremely fast cast, low consuming, but also unpredictable. Hexes are mostly effects that leave you vulnerable, but contrary to other schools, they don't have a specific way of happening."
"Wait... what?" Interrupted a confused girl near his right. He took a moment to survey everyone's faces, making sure that they could follow his explanation, after all it was a weird information to give to 7 year old children. Then he began to draw again in the ground, this time using a prestidigitation spell to help the drawings move around as animated stick figures.
"Say your opponent is really fast, so you try to cast a hex to slow him down. With a time spell, some force, generated by the casting will reduce his speed for you, but with the hex something in the environment will do the job. It may be the roots of the bushes that stretch out to bind him, or maybe the ground explodes, sending a thick mud all over him, anything the world can do to make it happen. It would seem mostly like bad luck, and that is the whole principle of Entropy magic. It is not cast, leaves no traces, seems natural."
He dismissed the spell and the stick figures remained silent and static.
"Jinx is the most direct way to enact an Entropy spell. Jinxes, like hexes, make things go wrong for your opponent, but instead of applying vulnerabilities, it has short term effects that disrupt your enemy. Going from indirect damage, to fumbles, misses, slips and anything that might mean trouble to your opponent. Just don't expect anything specific, cause bending entropy to your will is much harder than making something happen, though the better you are, the easier it is to make the simple things go the way you want..."
One of the boys in the tree to his left laughed as bit. "Magic should be something you can rely on, it's a complex art that requires precision and timing, so why would anyone waste so much effort in something they are not sure they can count on?"
Ghola just grinned as he looked forward to the other kids. "No spell is 100% reliable, but Entropy
will try to make the effect happen, doesn't matter how, or why, just the outcome. Like this." He said snapping his fingers.
Both boys heard the distinct sound of wood shattering, they looked at each other, only one of them looked surprised as the branch beneath them broke and fell, taking the child down with it. The other, who until now remained silent, floated where the branch once was, ignoring the funny event and reclining once again against the tree.
..."
~ Taken from the Book of Origins ~
~ End of Part 33 ~

Blind Search
People don't believe me when I say that everyone has stats like any RPG in the world. The only difference is that we have a whole lot more special cases that can be considered that are often ignored.
The game treats two characters with the same strength as being able to life a stone with the same ability, regardless of their personal experience in lifting stones.
RPGs usually have two very confusing skills, that may seem to represent the same thing, but if one pays close attention they actually represent something very real.
Search and Spot, are usually mixed, and people often don't get the difference. Quite frankly I agree they seem to represent the same thing, someone trying to find something, but that is the pure definition of search. On the other hand spot is usually meant to represent people suddenly seeing something, without really searching for it.
These skills are associated with different status, intelligence for search, and wisdom for spot. Despite being another discussion whether we do have status like these ones, I agree with this association. When you are intelligent you use search patters to cover a better area more efficiently, of course, it's hard explain a link between wisdom and spot, but I believe wisdom reflects directly how you perceive the world.
Searching is usually going through a Where is Waldo? book and searching areas, rows, columns or any organized way. Spot is wandering your eyes aimlessly around and suddenly seeing Waldo behind the elephant. People are not aware how their lives are ruled buy skills and status they have and train.
It's very often to see people who have no ability whatsoever to search for things and people. The kind that wastes 5 minutes searching for the notebook that is on their lap, or searching for someone who is 5 meters straight in from of them. But these people when not paying attention they know where things are, it's just the difference between a really bad search skill and a good spot skill.
This is when you want someone to perceive something, you can only ask them if they have a good search. Imagine you want to make a joke, and ask for someone to tell you if they see anything wrong with something the see frequently, something you are sure they'll see the problem. But they try to find something they are not sure what is, and just ruin the whole search.
I've seen this happening many times, people each have different perceptions and not everything applies to everyone. The same goes about every status and skill.
I for one have a high spot, but a low search, not as low as my peers, I still can find a notebook one my lap.

Dearly Beloved
Time passed lazily as the sun began to hide behind the mountains.
People occupied the hills nearby, close to the forest, where the leaves displayed a spectacular variety of colors. They danced with the wind, waving goodbye to everyone who left.
Some leaves fell from time to time, only to be carried away through the hills, deftly dodging the small hands of the kids trying to catch them. Laughter filled the air, filling the silent afternoon, occasionally accompanied by the sounds of the whispering wind and rustling leaves.
Near a tree, on the highest hill around, a couple sat on a green silky sheet, far from other sounds. They were there for hours, they hadn't spoken a single word in three hours. They played with a ball she brought, they gave each other food, observed and touched the foliage and even did some tricks with it... all without a word.
He sat with his back to the sun, contemplating her. Admiring every smile, how her lips stretched to a thin pink symmetric shape. The sun reflected off her eyes, changing them to a lighter color which changed within minutes as the sun got closer to the horizon. He lied on his side, one hand holding his head, and the other caressing her left hand.
She leaned against the tree, and stared downhill towards the forest, uninterested in all human activity far from her, noticing every color of the leaves, the constantly changing color of the sun, and the wind in her hair. The wind played with her hair, parting it sideways around the tree, and it felt good on her skin.
For almost an hour they stayed like this, silent, just relaxing, smiling. He felt a muscle shift quickly in her hand, which brought his focus back to reality, his eyes scanned her face, the smile still there, her eyes still fixed on the horizon, but a single solitary tear escaped her right eye. He calmly set up, took the tear from her cheek with the free hand.
He then sat by her side, supported by the tree, and holding her hand, fingers intertwined. All she did was a soft comfortable blink, kept looking to the end of the valley, and tilted her head to rest upon his shoulder.
They waited like that until night fell, and silent filled the absence of others.

Between clouds and lights.
It had been a while since I took a plane. With this recent trip to Las Vegas I think I had enough plane for some time. But the first time as an adult I had some interesting sights while airborne.
Clouds do form the most interesting shapes, but it's not about the shapes... it's interesting when you wake up, the first part of the morning, and the sun light just brightens all the clouds. You peek outside the window, an endless ocean of puff of clouds each one like the next, all pure white. Some time latter the empty sky gave way to the endless ocean. I've seen many cloud formation very pretty while in the sky. Only when coming back home that the clouds just seemed like a continuous stream of smoke.
Most interesting was to travel by night close to the ground. There are just the mos amazing light formations in the cities.
When you notice that block with lights in patterns it is just amazing. There were blocks close to home that I didn't imagine had lights so symmetrical. Funny to see different cities the way their main lights are distributed. Forms like crosses, squares and arcs were pretty common.
Being someone who deals with computers a lot, I couldn't help noticing that far from above the lights reminded me of mother boards. It was funny to enjoy the lights.
I missed traveling a lot. I think I missed more the change of pace. Seeing another country, living a different life style for a few weeks. I'm glad to be back in many ways. And now I know there are some amazing sights right of the takeoff.

Tending to the neglected.
Well, its not the lack of inspiration, but the lack of time that keeps me from posting here.
I'm keeping here for the important events happening, but eventually, after all this commotion passes, I'll resume my normal life, and eventual posting here.
I honestly would love to be able to make my life out of writing here and my book, but I see no income down that road, so I have a normal job, which I like, but isn't as satisfying as it could be.
In the mean time I'll be taking my vacation now. I'm going to Las Vegas for two weeks with a couple of friends.
I hope my english is up to the challenge.
Maybe I'll put up some pictures here.

See ya on the other side.

Tattoo
Just to update here with something.
I made a tattoo this weekend. And with it I wish to set apart the past from the future, leaving behind many memories and griefs, and renew the hopes of a great future.
All in all, for anyone who cares, it does hurt, what would you expect from being pierced 100 times per second?! But it is not that bad, it takes some self control, and of course good company helps, but when you come to it, it will already be over. And it is really nice to a symbol of your own. If any of you wish to make a tattoo, do it, don't take too long, and most importantly do something that means a lot to you and will forever be a part of you.

Book 2
As the story of book 1 requires lots of attention, but my mind has led me to thinking of the story of the second book. I'm proud to present my site and the publishing of the first page of my new book.
Mission Earth
I'll put a link on the side bar for anyone interested in keeping track of the story through here, though I believe it would be easier to use the RSS in the other site.

Maelstron.

~ The Adventurer Chronicle 32 ~
"He was not shy, nor antisocial, but his nature led him to be one with the most individual attitude.
During recess he usually searched for a spot to be alone, but as kids social nature goes, it didn't take long for someone to find him and they go off do something more fun.
It was a sunny day, perhaps too sunny for him, so this time he went to a place where he could rest in a comforting shadow with a cool breeze.
On top of the main building there is a tree, or at least the leaves growing out of the roof. The huge tree cast a shadow in the morning over the training grounds, and in the afternoon at the play area.
At noon the light got very intense. Both areas got hot.
Too bright he thought. But at least in the shade of the tree, up high over the building there was a fresh wind, and all he had to do was to avoid being seen on the way up there. Very easy for him.
And so he sat on one branch, paying little attention to the kids down there.
Down in the play area kids went on their own business, playing, training, talking. Those were peaceful times, so most gossip went about who had a relationship with whom.
Groups gathered based on interests. Groups size varied on the friendliness of it's members.
One group was considerably larger than the rest, containing about 14 kids, 8 girls and 6 boys. They all chatted and laughed. Their topic was mostly the odd things their teachers did last week to teach them. One boy told the story was about Leinil, the water elemental teacher, who in attempt to teach them how to lower the temperature of the water snuck with the class to the pools, and froze it all over, but the interesting part was that Heralti had been sneaking around in the pools, practicing her invisibility spell, and when she entered she hid underwater invisible, so she was completely frozen by the teacher's spell. Took them about 2 minutes of class before they realized there was someone under there when the spell faded.
A girl, apparently one of the most friendly of the group, was just barely paying attention to the story. She heard every word, and commented when fit, but her gaze floated around the courtyard, she felt something carry her attention away, she scanned everyone, looking for something interesting. They all seemed to be having fun. She wanted to talk to them, but they were not what seemed so interesting.
Near the end of the story she noted a strange figure in the distance, under the shade of a tree. Barely perceptible.
Without saying anything she just got up and left running, crossing through the group. They all stared at her, a confused look in their faces. Boy finished the story despite her absence.
She had to get up there, but she could not be seen. Easier thought than done she thought.
Stealth was not her specialty, but she was fast and light enough to run without drawing too much attention. She sprinted quickly through the school, going up the 4 floors up to the roof. There the door was locked. How did he get past this door she wondered.
She didn't like doing this, but hey, it was fun. She charged up a little electricity in the lock of the door, causing tumblers to bound around until after sometime they fell into place and the lock turned. She got to the other side, not bothering to close the door, and walked calmly up to the boy resting in the tree.
She didn't need to ask, she understood why he was her, the place felt nice, and was really beautiful.
He didn't need to open his eyes, he knew she was there, but he opened his eyes to see who she was. Who was this person interested in coming all the way here, breaking some rules, just to talk to him, he imagined.
The girl was about his height, had a red hair, with black eyes. She had a really captivating smile.
- Nice place you got here. - she said.
He smiled.
- Come, have a seat and relax a bit, you could take a time off all that crowd.
She giggled.
- Nice to meet you, the name is..."
~ End of Part 32 ~

Cycle.
111...
Only 4 more years left... or more precisely, less than 5 years left.
I can only wish now that next year may prove to be better, though that would be quite easy considering this year was really terrible.
Unity project has began. Maybe next year I'll have a fun prototype. I plan to begin some interesting things next year.
Lets see how things play out. Currently the cards are not in my hand.

~ The Adventurer Chronicle 31 ~
"He casually entered her tent.
There she was, nearly naked, in front of the mirror, with a thin paint brush. She had a pallet with different colors and she was painting her own body.
- Don't you get tired of doing this every morning? - he asked.
- I got used after some time. I'd rather be prepared and lose some minutes than have to undergo massive healing in case of an ambush.Besides, don't you think it makes me look pretty?
- Well, it does, but you are beautiful anyway. Though you are quite unique with all that arcane painting.
She cast the enchantment, and the symbols around her shoulders and fore arms glowed gently.
The ink was brown mostly with some royal blue fillings. She had painted most of her body, much of her back, her legs shoulders and arms, her chest, and she was painting her face.
- Don't you complain about being unique, you're much more unique than any of us.
He sat on a bean bag on the left side near the entrance. The place was well lit, and she glanced from time to time through the mirror to look at him. He had inspected the marking on his friend when he entered, but now he kept his sight outside through the thin opening in the tent's door.
- Unique is good. - he said, and waited a few seconds for his focus to come back - How do you manage to paint so precisely in your own back?
- Well, when I don't have help I use some basic spells to keep a steady paintbrush behind me and to reflect my body into an invisible outline in front of me, so I know where I'm painting.
- You know you can ask for my help right?
- Yes, - she giggled - thanks, but I don't think you know much about creating rune spells.
- Indeed, I didn't dwell so much into spellcasting to know how to do that. So what spells do you pre-cast on your body?
* Translator note *
Spells usually take some time to cast, and something more, like some conjuration words, or a sequence of movements to tap into the mana source. With a lot of training in the art, one may cast some spells into their skin, in the form of a rune, or tattoo. This way, they may cast beforehand some spells, and in case they need it, they may cast it quickly, in case of emergencies.
* End of note *
She dressed the top of her outfit, and grabbed her staff near the dresser. She turned to look at him, still painting the rest of her face.
- Ahhh the basic spells for emergencies. Flight, Haste, Barrier, Shell, Mirror, Counter-Spell, Dispel Magic, Jump and just in case I need more fire power, Ice Nova.
- Hehehe, you seem more prepared than us for combat. Doesn't it take a huge amount of mana to cast them?
She finished her conjuration and the symbols in her face glowed pale green and vanished into her skin.
- And that is why I cast them before breakfast. - she said smiling."
~ End of Part 31 ~

Thank you... for... everything.

~ The Adventurer Chronicle 30 ~
"Mid-period recess. Every kid seems to be playing with something.
Of course, like most days groups tend to form according to personal interest. Every one does it, kids just don't realize it.
Mages had taken half the sports field, it has a great area to practice, the young ones look mesmerized the older mages practice some spells. Some of the kids try to imitate, mostly failing, and sometimes a spell back fires sending a kid a few steps back... but no harm done, the spells practiced are never too harmful to create a dangerous backfire. Its more flare and lights than raining meteors.
Athletes occupy the second half, playing with some balls, some gears, but it's generally kids chasing something after something or someone. Near the sidelines some youngsters practices varieties of sports, from basic weapon training with the dummies, to gymnastics and balance with friends trying to create a human pyramid.
Of course, no one goes unwatched. The supervisors have a good training to perceive dangers, and they keep an eye out for trouble.
Alchemists and scholars usually sit near the eating tables, but they are usually older, no kid would dare think of touching a book during recess.
Some girls form groups here and there, usually sitting on a table or in the grass, in the case of more relaxed girls, they usually talk, but from time to time one can be seen casting a spell, using a spiritual power, or even even practicing a weapon.
Rarely a teacher is seen in this part of the school. They usually can be found in the cafeteria on the other side of the main building or on each specific class room where they teach.
Elementalists have their fun, but they can't over do it, usage of elemental powers is restricted, any high concentration of energy would alert the supervisors. Older students can get permission to do specific things, like lowering the temperature on hot days, or creating a ball of light to illuminate everything. Usually more simple things are allowed, as long as any harmful power is avoided.
It was like any other day. Nothing special.
Though one could have paid attention to a group of children playing static tag.
They are around 5 each, about six kids. Two already got caught, and stand very still in the middle of the play area. The chaser is a red headed kid, with long black eyes, he seems to calmly take the time to strike. The other three ran as fast as they could, there were heading towards the lunch tables. The first kid on the left charged towards the closest table, and when in reach he took a sliding dive and passed under the table. This alarmed most people there eating and talking, bringing their attention to the group still running.
The chaser didn't bother, he had other target.
The kid most distant had black hair, with streaks of lighter hair, same as his eyes, he was thin, not much strong, but didn't seem like a weakling. The other kid, was a closer, but a bit to the right, he was fast enough to be in front, his green hair, with dark green eyes, he was focused in front, and did not look back. The chaser knew something was on but what? They were closing in on the sharp turn around the main building he thought it would be better to strike the closest one before he could turn.
The kid in front glanced back, seeing his pursuer ready the attack, he stepped forward turning his body in the process, and making a signal to his friend.
The boy with green hair jumped high to the roof over the cafeteria line. The other boy continued his steps to turn forward again, making sure to get out of the way of the attack. He did plan how to avoid the attack, but since he was too close to the turn, he didn't plan how to avoid the girl that appeared in his way, right behind him. There was no stepping out of the way, no time to jump, and she was clearly paying attention to the conversation with her two other friends, so she would not get out of the way. At his speed he would hurt her, no matter how though she was.
The split second changed many things to come. It was the oddest thing ever to the few people paying attention. The two girls flinched while widening their eyes from the fright of the eminent tackle. The girl startled was turning to see what her friends were reacting to. The boy chasing them was stopping and clearly surprised with this event. The boy had little choice, he did have some knack for reacting quickly, and quite some training playing with the shadows, and there is a technique that comes in handy when avoiding things, one he did like, and would become essential to him. With a lot of energy, very quick concentration, and unleashed his power.
The shadows swept through his body, leaving him translucent, and with a shadowy trail of his movements. This took away his concentration from his stepping, so he leaned back, toward the girl, and tried to put his feet to the ground before falling.
To much of everyone's surprise, the boy passed right through the girl, who felt this energy wave through her body, as for some brief moments they stood on the same place. Everyone gasped. He kept going backwards still trying to avoid falling, but could not keep up with his momentum, eventually when he was no longer in the same place as the girl, his power faded, and he tripped, knocking over some empty metal trays near the food line, which fell over him.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the noise. Those who could see something laughed at him. The supervisors giggled while paying attention to him.
He didn't mind the laughing, he deserved it, he would have laughed if he was in their place, he was just glad he did not hit the girl.
When he shook off the last of the trays he saw one of the few people around him not laughing. The girl, still a bit confused, was crouching in front of him, one hand on her knee for balance, and the other was offered as help, she smiled a bit from the situation.
He reached out for her hand and smiled shyly..."
~ Taken from the Book of Origins ~
~ End of Part 30 ~

Open you senses.
"Some people don't live completely on our world.
This was his case. Like many others he was not bound to the physical traits of our world.
His walk, unlike most did not step in stone. His body did not feel the wind others did. His eyes saw not the obstacles in the road, for closed they would gaze upon another plane.
He felt the waves of mana flowing around him, gently chilling the skin of his arms as they enveloped him.
He seemed to walk, but he passed through the energy flow as if he was swimming.
Concentrated strips of energy dodged him, as they followed the wind, wherever it might take them.
The grayish tone of the energy made the contrast with the generally blue highlight of the whole plane. His form had a more hot coloring, it was light green, though it had not a strict form, but rather it was a green blur shimmering with the energy ripples around it.
He walked calmly, he knew there was no one around for many kilometers.
But interestingly enough, if you were around, you would just see another man, but walking against the cold wind, with his eyes closed. At least the may have been what those in his way thought."

Silence
After so many events in life, after so much has happened, now my voice is silent.
I can't even imagine myself saying to someone the things I feel.
I have no one to lean on. Or at least no one I want to lean on.
It is odd. I feel like I want to jump into someone's arms, but I don't feel like I can jump into the arms of someone I know.

Shit.

By the way... my PC is down for the mean time.

The Map, the Key and he Compass
Each Zelda fan knows there are some basic components to completing a dungeon.
There is the Map, which gives you detailed room disposition from all floors.
The Compass which indicates where the treasures are and where the final boss lies.
And of course, the Big Key, which can open the bosses door, and some times all other doors.
This of course is part of the fun of completing a dungeon, and finding all the treasures in it.
But I'm not here to talk about this marvelous game. I'm here to use this game pattern to talk about life.

In many ways, life isn't much different from completing a dungeon, or even an epic adventure.
Unfortunately for us, we don't have (as far as we know) a map that can give is the disposition of everything to come in our life. So we have to do it the hard way.
We each start our lives with a blank map. One that we fill with every experience. Each experience leads to others, revealing doors as we go through them, sometimes closing others. Sometimes we may find it easy to open a door, maybe we were prepared with a key, but this of course is not always true. Sometimes we have to complete a most difficult puzzle to bypass the closed door, or to reach the lever that opens it. To some these puzzles may seem trivial, while to others it is quite a challenge.
But even going through these doors, we still have no idea of where to go when we start. Some people might help us sharing knowledge of what is behind some doors so that we may enter more prepared or avoid it if desired, and at all possible. But still, where are all the treasures? Where is the last grand battle with the final boss?
Once again life fails to share with us a magical item that can point to all this. And more, we begin with no clue whatsoever of what is we are looking for.
But since we are on the hard path, might as well find these informations along the way. In every experience we can find pieces that we can put together to build our own compass, and so know what sort of treasures are we after, and where are the boss fights we have to go through in other to find our happiness. Some find soon what they want, some stumble upon the boss battles and sometimes even win the fight, without even looking for it.
In the end, we seek out the key to open that final door. For the final challenge.
The key that is not physical, but might still be found in any way that might allow you to reach your final goal.

The curious thing is that neither item is useful without the others.
A lonely map can show you how to move, but not the good places to go.
With just a compass you may know where you can to go, but not how to reach there.
And there is no good in reaching the final boss if you can't cross the door because you have no key.

And so we wander, gathering the pieces as we go.
Sometimes a little piece of treasure may show to us the location of the true treasure we are seeking.
We might see have to trail a path in the opposite direction of our treasure to find the missing piece, but eventually we may be lucky enough to see were happiness lies, before the path closes.
Heck, the trouble of finding the keys to go back in a path may lead you even farther away.

So it is usually better to search carefully every room. You never know if you will be able to back to that room.

Clash of Styles
Life keeps pressing on. All the rush, all the pressures, no one can stop. At least not anymore.
You have to take the offensive. Try to create you path, find your place in society. You can embrace what life gives you, but it is frowned upon if you don't do anything with it.
Everyone demands much of others. Tries to control everything.
When did we become like this?
Or more importantly... why did we become like this?
I'm not like this.
I was born to observe, to be passive, to analyze and to foresee every movement, every outcome.
I was born to take a single action to make the ripples affect everyone in a carefully planned manner.
I find myself in this paradox, where I can't sit idle and let life go by, while it is not natural for me to take point in this world. Pushing, pressing, manipulating, climbing over people.
The future is there, written... but changing every instant. Actions, passive or not changing things.
Observe the glimpses and try to make the best path you can... in your own style.

Time Sink
I've now found a new time sink.
And with it my time has decreased drastically. In inverse reason to the number of new games I purchase.
Steam's weekend deal's are too good an offer to pass. And so I experiment new games, and buy those I think will be nice.
I try to keep a good balance of things, but this is not helping.
But at least it is fun.
Especially when you get to play with friends.

Well, will try to find good words to keep posting here.

First step is the worst.
As the week begins, all that I have planned seems to have fallen apart. At least concerning the plans for this monday.
With one more failure to go take the blood test, a day began, and I knew it was bad.
I tried to contact the doctor, and nothing. I tried to complain about my broken fridge and nothing.
And within the little time I had to complete my promise at work, suddenly all these paperwork appear for me to sign, I have to help others solve some problems, so I end up getting out of work late, hungry and a bit late to take my medicine.
But the best is for last right? I discover that the parking lot has lost my key, and I have to wait for 3 and a half hours til the locksmith comes, breaks the panel of the car to make a copy of the car key. And of course, I discover when I get home that the key does not lock the car, it only turns it on.
Seeing a monday like this really discourages the spirit for the rest of the week.
But of course, the worst seems to be over, so the week tends to get better. Or so the legend goes.
This is like most things in life.
Taking the first step, passing through the beginning is usually the most difficult part.
Guess in the end you just have to power through at the beginning and hope the rest is smooth sailing.

We can no longer assist you.
What would happen, in any great RPG, if suddenly, in the chamber before the final boss, your team members turned to you and said "Sorry, we can't help you anymore, you are on your own."
Guess it can't be worse than going all the way to the princess, fighting off lots of monsters to then discover that she is happily living with her kidnapper.
"She told me once, before I left. No matter how much you have to face, or how well you enjoy your day, what really counts is whether you have a reason to wake up in the morning, or to keep on fighting.
...
She was right"
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Braid
When you become a game programmer, there is this frequent question you try to figure out.
"What makes a good game?"
From time to time there appears a game that is so mind blowing that it breaks out of every convention in creating good games.
That sort of game has this unique way of connecting to people.
Some connect by gameplay, with a game that reacts to the way they want and allowing them to do what they want.
Some go by story, enjoying plausible and very deep narrative, with consequences to players actions.
Sometimes we get superb character development, and either identify with a character, or sympathizes with the characters reasons/decisions.
In some other cases we get this connection by feeling deeply immerse in the world, feeling as if it were real, not because of realism, but from because of what it proposes to be, and is.
Jonathan Blow is a remarkable game programmer. He alone created a puzzle game that has this feature.
You sympathize for the main character, you feel satisfaction from completing the oftenly difficult puzzles, the sound and world are what you expect from the gameplay, and the game brings new ways of playing, while keeping you thinking in ways to solves the tasks to complete the game.
It was cute at first sight, and difficult, which alone is enough for my interest. But it is very mysterious, drawing you deep into it each time you play. It is sweet and romantic, at the same time as insightful and analytic.
It is a great game and I recommend to anyone who likes a challenging puzzle.
It is available for xbox360 and for PC. You can see a demo on steam.
It is simple... but incredible in epic proportions.

I wish more games were like this.