The Wallstadt Review

Oda al campesino.

Si fuese un campesino
la tierra fuera mi madre
el viento mi amigo
el sol mi padre
el cielo mi testigo

Si fuese un campesino
la luna fuera mi novia
el trigo mi gloria
el maiz mi delicia
el frijol mi victoria

Si fuese campesino
la hoz fuera el sacrificio
el azadon el honor
el hacha el oficio
el machete el valor

Si fuese campesino
sudor llenaria mis manos
dolor mis pies
sabor mi boca
color mi tez

Si fuese campesino
no habria camino ni destino
no codicia ni desatino
no razon ni conclusion
no peros ni condicion

Sin embargo no soy campesino
soy un tipo bravo y vivo
me conecto y me afino
a esta vida de tiovivo

Today a guy from the lab and I were in charge of some programming tutorials at the university. Since I cannot speak the language of the natives very well, I had some trouble explaining the basics to the students. Now there was this one female student who seemed rather lost with the tasks. Other students and I tried to help her, and she managed to do one part of the exercise. Then she asked me if she would have time for finishing the exercise. I said that we would stay for another 15 minutes or so; she decided that that wasn't enough time, and she started to wrap up her work. Then the other guy in charge asked her if she was finished, and she said no, and then she started crying ... and gosh, I felt kind of bad.

I mean, when she asked me if she would have more time, perhaps she was trying to ask me if I was going to stay there to help her. And I said no (well, not exactly, but saying that we would stay only for another 15 mins pretty much amounts to that.). Now there are two reasons why I declined (albeit indirectly) to help her: first, my language problems, and second my social skills problem. The first one is clear, but the second one is a worrying problem that I realized only until recently. I think the main cause for the latter is my lack of practice, especially during the entire past year. In the lab, where I spent most of my time, I talk to no one within a social context. Just a kind greeting in the morning as well as in the evening. But besides that, nothing; nada. At some point I started talking to myself; I then started also worrying about becoming a schizo at such a young age, LOL! Outside the lab I know almost no one. To be honest, relinquishing social interaction has benefits, but also drawbacks. I don't want to delve into these two aspects, but I suspect that Man was not supposed to be alone. In any case, I have realized over the past weeks that my social skills have deteriorated (due to a myriad of reasons), and this is not beneficial for me or for those poor people with whom I interact. I certainly have to address this (serious?) problem; the question that remains is how??

In any case, I again digress. The bottom line is: this day shall pass to posterity as the first day I made a young woman cry: I am very sorry, I really am; it was not my intention, at all! Sorry!

So I purchased Total War: Rome some time ago. The game is simply excellent. After playing the offline campaign (which is quite entertaining) I wanted to on-line, and duke it out with the Internet folks. However, to play online, you need a valid cd-key. No problem, I thought, just type in the cd-key from the CD. But lo and behold, it didnt work. No matter how I typed it in (caps, no caps, hyphens, no hyphens) it wouldnt work. Eventually I gave up. Until a couple of months ago, when I wanted to give it another try. I started reading some internet forums, and apparently, some of those who purchased the European version of Total Rome War: Gold Edition (which includes the expansion pack) had problems with their cd-key. The solution, as proposed by the forum folks, was to contact Sega support and ask for a new key. At first, I didn't want to go through the hassle of registering. Then I saw some videos on YouTube of some online tournament for Rome, and I said, enough is enough, I am contacting Sega. I explained them my situation and gave them the details of my cd, so that they knew that I indeed had a legal copy of the game. This was done on a Saturday. The next Monday, first thing in the morning, I got an email with my new key. So after coming back from work, I went, fired up my TW:Rome, typed in the key, and voila! in no time I was playing my first online battle. FYI, it was a 3 2-man team match: 1)Germans/Scythia, 2) Carthaginians /Brits 3) Julii/Greeks (me). We defeated the Carthaginians/Brits using my hoplites as a wall, while the Romans charged them mercilessly. We did have some trouble with the elephants, but a some point they went nuts, and we prevailed. However, our forces were thinned out after the encounter, while the German/Scythia forces were intact (since they just watched our battle without intervening). I suppose I don't have to tell the rest of the story. In sum, we defeated one team, while we were defeated by another team. On the positive side, I had the second most kills (ca. 900), and this was achieved without even using spartans (because I thought it wouldn't be fair to use them nor historically accurate; but then I realized most of the other players were using elite units with total disregard to any historical consistency; oh well, I am a noob).


But I digress. The bottom-line of my post: Sega support rocks, and the world should know this.

Labels: TW:Rome

Dear Readers,

after a long hiatus, your humble servant is back. At this juncture, I still don't know how to continue with this blog. Certainly it is a nice record of the past three years, yet I feel a lot of animosity in my previous posts that I feel compelled to delete them. I do not want to read them because all those feelings start to embrace me again, yet at the same time I would like to keep them in the record, lest we forget! I may perhaps selectively delete some of them (not that many of you care, do you?) Sometimes it's best to forget ....

All the best,
W.

The following is not news, but it is my moral duty to make an observation in this direction.

Lately, I have noticed that Yahoo has hit a moral low. The fact that Yahoo's "Featured" displayed the headline: "Emmys best dressed" makes me ponder on their desperate position in the fight for web-search supremacy. Likewise, their OMG features as well as their the9 internet TV channel are other examples of their despicable strategy to attract more users. Such a strategy, namely appealing to the base desires of the populace, is simply shameful, as it induces the mobs to indulge in such banalities.

Gone are the times when Yahoo used to be a respectable website serving one purpose: an index of other websites. But then again, what is Yahoo if not a brute that represents the vices of man?

Ave Google!

So I just created a LiveJournal account, we'll see how that goes...jumping on the bandwagon

Hello attentive readers,

it's been quite a while since I posted something on this blog of mine. The Academy can indeed be demanding, but I suppose that is the price I have to pay if I am to attain something better. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, but I face it with nothing less that optimism and perseverance.

Nonetheless, despite my best efforts, some mathematical problems remain elusive to me. The Langrangian basis polynomials problems...cannot see it, cannot grasp what the solution is. A brute-force approach did not get me any further in my quest, so I am indeed waiting for a miracle, not doctrine, but a miracle.

In another note, I have noticed the two following things: (1)I can't play my guitar as well as I used to; (2) I am having problems spelling some words. These two types of behaviour are simply unacceptable for the following reasons: (1) albeit I never considered myself as a superb guitarist, I think I could play much better than I do now; (2) I used to win spelling contests at my school, so I cannot fathom the possibility of making an ortographic mistake (ortographic reminds me of orthonormal bases). I really do not know the root for these two problems, which seem related to my cognitive powers. A futher condition is the fact that my vision is getting worse, my left arm and hand feel "wuzzy"...probably I should get checked or so, but then again, I must admit I am bit of a hypochondriac (see, I mispelled that word).

Seems a bit surreal to me all this situation.

Sorry for posting a definitely personal thing here, but I don't really have many people with whom I could talk about such things.

Cheers,