X-Men 3 and shooting madness

Weekend. Reports and tests ahead, but that can wait a walk at a shopping mall...

There I found a group of friends who were going to watch "X-Men 3", and I decided to join them. Like "The DaVinci Code" movie, lines all the way... Maybe even more, although there were less people inside when the movie started.

Humm... I haven't been reading X-Men comics for the last... 8 years? I dunno events like those happened in the comics too, but it WAS an overturn with some key characters dying among other drastical changes. Sometimes you really ask yourself what's the "right" side in the conflict... And behind that all were those philosophical questions like the right to change what's different and all that...

But... First, there were too much information for a less than 2 hours long movie. Maybe it would do better as a series. So, events happened too fast, without time to really digest what was happening. Add to that some questions about the destiny of some characters.

Spoiler below. It'll be written in white.
For example, WHAT happened to Madrox??? And did he volunteer to "sacrifice" himself as decoy that simply?

After the movie, we met another group. And among them, one strong TC3 player: CID. So, the group decided to watch us play (we've never played together before). Before that, another player appears: LED. CID, LED and ITS... all together for the first time.

Some explanations: TC3, or Time Crisis 3 is a shooting game. And in Londrina, as far as I know, the 3 top players are CID, LED and ITS (me). The top records are ours. They play together in link mode, while I usually play alone, in solo or link mode.

I've played with LED once before... We did the high score in link mode, but a little after, CID and LED overcame that score (again... it's hard to achieve a better score than a good team alone in link mode). LED's play style is without many resources, taking few hits, almost not using special weapons and with a high accuracy.

With CID, things are completely different... and I understood why their partnership works. His play style is shooting wild and fast, killing as much and as fast as possible by any means necessary. As a result, he usually is hit many times, but his time and points are very good.

Me? I'm somewhere in between. Some kind of all-round player. I can play in either side (player 1 or 2) in a balanced way, although the other two are better in their characteristics. But I'm a little influenced by the style of the player I'm playing with.

So, playing with CID, we achieved top score (being hit more than my usual) of about 3009000 points in around 23' 30''. Yeah!

The DaVinci Code

This weekend I went with some friends to watch the movie "The DaVinci Code". I almost gave up, though... There were soooooo many people lined up to watch it. At least we managed to get good seats.

I've read the book before, and it's interesting. The author Dan Brown writes in a way that you can't stop reading, always anxious to know what happens next. The movie kept most of the storyline, but as any movie based on a book, some informations were given in a partial way or simply ommited. I remember that well in the most recent Harry Potter movie ("The Goblet of Fire", I think), when I asked myself if someone that has never read the book before could understand the movie... Although "The DaVinci Code" seems understandable, I still miss some explanations and situations.

But the stranger of all is the acting. Some situations just look... wrong. The way they speak some lines don't seem natural...

I can't say I wasted my time, but that's not a movie I'd go watch twice.

Then comes the question: why are some sectors of the Church were complaining about that movie (and the book) so much? Like when there was the polemic about violent games like GTA. In my opinion, that HELPED the sales of that game. The same situation might be occuring.

That also reminds me of another situation: those cartoons about Mohammed that enraged many muslims. I'm not the only one to associate the two cases...

Civil war??

I always got myself in some trouble when explaining about violence in Brazil when I has in Japan. Either to Japanese or foreigners, only those who live a similar reality, like Argentineans, seemed to really understand the whole picture.

It's a fact that each country has it's problems, but how I'm gonna explain this:

(Both articles from "The Washington Post")
Drug Gangs Bring Chaos To Streets Of Sao Paulo
Police Strike Back in Sao Paulo

And one site from "Folha Online" (in Portuguese)

The only thing I can say now is that it's not like the entire country was like that, and we were surprised by that, too... Things are likely to return to normality now...

Serial Buffer

Walking around uni, there was something unusual...



So, what's that? Some strange kind of corridor, was one answer when talking with friends about it.

And... what is that for? A little hard to imagine.

To create a line for something? ... Wrong.

To hold on people who go down running? ... Worng.

Just (another) useless construction? ...Close, maybe.

...

No more guesses?

...

The answer is "to block access to bicycles, motorcycles and alike".

Don't ask me...

So, using Engineering vocabulary, that is a serial data buffer!

How a prejudice is born

My inbox had one of those "half-spam" texts that exist on the net today. I remember I've recieved this one before, and is quite interesting. Worth posting.

----

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hangs a banana on a string and placed beneath it, a set of stairs.

Before long, a lone monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana . As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water .
After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm!

Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, and then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.

Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here.


"It is easier to desintegrate an atom than a prejudice"
- Albert Einstein

-----

Anyone beating without thinking?

Things one learns in Japan

Tuesday. Lunch. My mother cooked some noodles with soup (she calls "misoshiru", although it's not like the Japanese "miso"... her's is more like udon... perhaps). So, while eating, I hear from my sister:

"Don't slurp while eating. That's rude!"

Eh...?? Well, in Japan slurping while eating noodles, for example, is accepted. It's even said that some may get offended if you don't, like if the soup isn't hot enough (although I haven't noticed that while I was there...). Another point of view is that's necessary. I can't imagine another way of eating at the speed Japanese do using chopsticks.

But in Brazil (and some other wertern countries), that's considered rudeness in table manners. One should do no noises while eating. After almost one year in Japan, I got the Japanese habit of slurping when eating hot noodles... and I haven't got rid of it aven after returning. Guess I'll have to be a little more careful when eating soups or noodles for a while...

Birthday... not mine.

May 2nd was my sister's birthday, so a group decided to gather at "Taqueria" (or something like that). It's some sort of Mexican restaurant that some of my sister's friends would like to know (I have never been there before myself...).

After a sudden chance of mind, she almost cancels everything after a call from a friend that wouldn't go... then changed her mind again after a call from my other sister... Guess I'll never understand what happened...

Anyway, nice place, chatting and a chance to eat a burrito and watch my sister drink almost 3 tequila glasses (guess that she inherited the drinking capacity that I lack... not that I miss it much). As it was her birthday, my sister managed to borrow one of those Mexican hats (sombrero) and use it during the whole party. They're heavier than I thought!

The only problem was that I had a test the next day... That's life.

Where are you pointing at?