Star Wars Year

Some time ago, probably last year, I said that I was not going to read a Star Wars novel. This was based on my bias on cheaply exploited franchises, even though I've played some games and had some comic books over the years. But books I thought it was too much.

In 2010 I played two Star Wars based games (Knights of the Old Republic I and II) which were very good, in particular the first one (being one of the best games I've ever played, so it's highly recommended). The timeline of these two games is 3000 years before the original story (movies). This gave the stories great independence without losing the Star Wars feeling. Now that I remember, I also played two space flight games based on Star Wars (X-Wing and Tie Fighter) in the 90's.

This situation changed, rather drastically, when in January I happened to watch a couple of episodes of the Cartoon Network "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" animated TV series. I really liked it and started to watch it from the beginning once I was back in Germany. After that I was hooked with the Star Wars universe. I went on an replayed the two videogames and then read books linked with the Old Republic time frame. Then I played another videogame in the Clone Wars time frame (Republic Commando), which led to read a whole series of the Republic Commando. A very nice series, a war drama dressed with the Star Wars universe elements, sadly the ending is not really a proper one. This totals 8 Star Wars based books during this year.

After all this, I was still hooked to this universe. A couple of years I played as a beta tester the massive multiplayer online game of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Since it's launch, I avoided getting near it knowing it would be a time sink-hole for me. But now I couldn't resist it and succumbed to the temptation and started playing. Interesting and gorgeous landscapes, although not as good as a game (storywise) than the Knights of the Old Republic.

Probably I'll continue to read some novels and play some games in the future, but still being rather selective on that and mostly steering away from content too close to the original movies, since I believe the expanded universe is much more mature and more "Star Wars"-like than the original stuff.

El año de los juegos de mesa

Este año ha sido uno donde he podido explorar varios juegos de mesa. Esto en línea com mi intención para este año de jugar. Partiendo en Chile a principios de año donde pude jugar:

• Quest for Middle Earth
• Puerto Rico
• Agricola
• Arkham Horror

Ejemplo de una sesión social de juegos.
Carcassonne edición invierno.

Luego en Alemania donde en particular, en los últimos meses, he podido jugar regularmente en distintos tipos de eventos (sociales, pequeños grupos de amistades y grandes grupos). Entre los juegos que he podido disfrutar se encuentran:

• Carcassonne
• Ticket to Ride (USA, Deutschland, Europa)
• Dominion
• Alhambra
• Kill Doctor Lucky
• Resistance (notable jugarlo entre 9 jugadores)
• Neuroshima Hex
• Flux
• Dixit
• Love Letter
• Kingdom Builder
• Pandemic
• Small World

y probablemente otros que no recuerdo sus nombres.

Espero poder continuar jugando durante el próximo año y descubrir más juegos interesantes y poder seguir compartiendo juegos con más gente. En particular me gustaría poder jugar nuevamente juegos de larga duración como Quest for Middle Earth o Arkham Horror.

He de agregar, que en varias ocaciones he jugado algunos juegos completamente en alemán (aunque en tales casos mi nivel de participación disminuye notoriamente como en el caso de Resistance). Esto es relativamente positivo ya que me sirve para practicar el idioma en un nuevo contexto.

Y si no juegan aún juegos, nunca es tarde para comenzar y compartir con gente ;).

Riverside - We Got Used to Us

Riverside - We Got Used to Us

When I scroll back through our recent days

I try to understand

How we could forget

We made a promise to one another

That nothing would ever break what we had

Now we never talk when we fall apart

We never talk when we fall apart

We pretend were ok

Surrounding ourselves with one-way friendships

And so-called friends

I know we got used to new us

And I dont want to be there

I dont want to be there

Where we are

I know we got used to new life

And I dont want to be there

No, I dont want to be there

Where we are

Silence fallen between

All the doors are locked

All the words unsaid

And were still afraid of time

Started to keep ourselves

At a distance that we could control

Not too close

Not too far

Now we never talk when we fall apart

We just never talk when we fall apart

We pretend were ok

By filling up our inner space

With little hates

And so-called love

I know we got used to new us

And I dont want to be there

I dont want to be there

Where we are

I know we got used to new life

And I dont want to be there

No, I dont want to be there

Where we are

So walk away with me

Sobre voto de los chilenos en el exterior

Hoy se celebra un día importante en aras de la independencia de Chile (primera junta de gobierno [es|en]) del dominio de la corona española. Por estos días, también se está nuevamente hablando sobre el voto de chilenos en el extranjero.

Hay argumentos a favor y en contra al respecto, algunas bastante legítimas, otras bastante mezquinas y otras que no se nombran explícitamente. Pero la situación actual es bien particular y personalmente no la he visto nombrada. Esta situación, es endémica a la sociedad chilena y su notoria desigualdad.

Si bien no existe el voto en el exterior, la ley no prohíbe a nadie con ciudadanía chilena en votar si es que en el día de las elecciones se encuentra en su distrito/circunscripción de votación. Esto independiente de donde haya estado residiendo anterior de forma (semi)permanente. Esto implica, que si uno tiene los recursos para viajar a Chile por el día (o medio día), puede perfecta y legalmente ejercer su derecho a votar.

Probablemente, para aquellos que vivan, en Mendoza y voten en Los Andes, esto no necesariamente implica en una inversión de tiempo y recursos sustanciales. Pero esto rápidamente deja de ser así para quienes se encuentren a mayores distancias.

Entonces resulta, que para votar en Chile, no hay que vivir en el territorio nacional, ni pagar impuestos, ni tener un genuino interés (aunque si uno está dispuesto a hacer el viaje supongo que implica tener interés). Simplemente basta con tener los recursos. Al final, se reduce a un problema de dinero. Y eso no tiene mucha justificación moral.

Si existe derecho a voto para los chilenos en el extranjero, pero para ejercerlo hay que pagar por el.

Book review: The Ringmaster's Gambit

As I said some time ago here, I was asked to write a review for an upcoming book. Since some weeks, it's posted on the Goodreads community and I'll copy it here. It is a short and simple review and without spoilers. Reading the other reviews, it seems that others share some of my opinions too.

I was in the lucky position to have read the first book in this series less than a month ago. Having said that, this book does not feel at all like a sequel but more like a completely new book in the same world. 

The book takes a more somber and serious tone, leaving aside almost all the fun and sarcasm of the storyteller. The story still has its fun moments, but as were the first book could be seen as a journey, this one is more like a big staging for something else.

It almost completely rescinds of the characters developed in the first part of the series. Thus a whole new set of characters are introduced comprised, mostly, by the magii and the forsaken races which were mentioned in the prequel. Unfortunately, I was not able to care about any of the new characters, but with the sporadic exception of the Ringmaster itself. 

Overall, it felt less confusing than the prequel, but it might be because I was more used. On the other hand it gets more complex as the factions playing the game are uncovered. It delivers a more intriguing plot, leaving the loose ends from the sequel almost untied and creating a whole bunch of new ones. That said, it also delivers an interesting account of some lore about the game and the players involved together with their intentions.

The whole saga is an ambitious project. I hope to be able to read the third part, sooner than later, and get closure on all the threads going on.

Technology in the aid of the writing process (Part II)

As promised, I'll describe my current writing framework. Please keep in mind that I came up to this only a few weeks ago, and can be highly improved/refined. It is centered on two main elements: plain text files and a wiki. For the most part, if not all, the tool used come from good practices in software development.

To start with, I ditched all fancy writing assisting software (described in the previous part) and returned to the basics with a text editor. There are many to choose from in different platforms, and I'm using Vim to do the job. In Windows a good alternative is Notepad++ but the old and simple Notepad will do. The reason behind this is to 1) be completely free of proprietary formats and lock-ins, 2) Focus on content leaving all issues regarding presentation and heavy formatting to a later step. Nevertheless, to introduce some basic formatting options while writing, I use Markdown syntax. Markdown is a simple markup language very easy to read and write which can be converted to valid HTML or other formats later.

Example of a markdown file.

Continuing with the workflow, since the files are simple text files they lend themselves to be easily tracked in versioning system/software. This allows to keep track of the changes the files suffer throughout the process and thus return to any previous point. Together with a service like github or bitbucket it can work as a backup solution. Bitbucket works particularly well since in the free tier it offers up to 5 private projects (or as called in the jargon "repositories") and is what I'm using.

The second principal element, the wiki system. I decided to use one to build some sort of database with characters, location, items, world building and so on. Each element can have an entry and I can link between them as I see fit. There should be some free wiki providers, among those are github and bitbucket. In most cases, wiki providers use one or another flavor of a markdown syntax to write on them, making an extra argument to write the content part also in markdown.

Since I touched on the topic of versioning and services offering it, I could also talk about other nifty tool provided by the software development world: tickets/issues. For now, I'm using them as reminders of details or decisions I have to make. Ends up being some sort of ToDo list or tasks. Also, I see them as a good tool when working with an editor to keep the corrections and commentaries in a coherent fashion. Probably a wiki could also be used in the same way. But again, a ticketing system (called in the jargon issues) is also provided by services like github/bitbucket.

An extra advantage of my workflow using bitbucket, is that I can work anywhere I want and in any platform. It is extremely portable and I'm sure it supports a lot of flexibility and improvements.

Technology in the aid of the writing process (Part I)

A while ago, I embarked in writing a novel. Since I'm relatively technologically savvy, I decided to look for good solutions (software) to help me in the writing process. The main conditions were that it has to be free, run in multiple platforms and preferably open source.

The first thing I started used was Storybook. Without much experience I considered it to work rather good, written in Java (I disliked that) meaning multiplatform and free with some paid features. Management of chapters, scenes, timelines, characters, location, items and more stuff. All that sounds rather handy together with the possibility to export to various formats. Sadly, in their newest version, the paid features took a bigger chunk of features including ALL the export functions! If I cannot take what I wrote out of the software, it's a useless software. And I don't have any problem with paid premium features, but that level of blackmail is too much for me to take.

Other alternative I found was yWriter. This software has basically the same set of features than Storybook without the annoyances of the paid restrictions. The files are even stored in a widely used format, so there is no lock in. The main downside of it is that it doesn't run anywhere but Windows, so after a while I stopped using it. But for a Windows based writer I fully recommend it.

Beside these two, I did not find any other straightforward solution. At some point a while ago, I found Booktype, but it's a bit more complicated and fully open source. Also, it seems to do more things at the level of publishing, like managing different electronic formats. I haven't tried it yet, but looks very worthy and surely I'll try it in the future.

Since I was not really satisfied with the two solutions I found, I decided another strategy based on plaintext and a wiki to keep track of characters, locations and so on. Maybe it's not as coherent and with nice displays as in Storybook or with the extensive set of features, but it's more flexible, works in any platform, allows straightforward versioning and avoids any lock-in. And if I want some fancy features, I could implement/program them.

In the second part I'll describe my current solution and workflow. Both, the solution and workflow are highly adaptable to others without needing a lot of knowledge regarding computers and technology.

Goodreads as a platform and on becoming a book reviewer

I'm member of a social (hate that word) network centered on books called Goodreads. Mostly to keep track of what I've read (and slightly brag about it), have some statistics and eventually discover new books to read. I don't really participate in the community by writing reviews and engaging with other people, but I do rate all the books I read. It was evident for me, that as a platform it can be an interesting one for writers to engage with a group of [their] hardcore readers (I doubt that the percentage of non hardcore reader in that network is high) for marketing purposes, beta-reading and reviewing.

About two weeks ago I was approached in in this network by an author. This author suggested, that because I read and rather liked a dystopian setup in a certain book (the rating was "I like it" 3 out of 5 stars), I could also enjoy his own new book. He continued by offering me a free electronic copy, no strings attached, to read which I clearly accepted and received... how to say no to a free book. Marketing operating.

Later, one week ago or so, I was again approached by another author after rating rather poorly (just two stars that later changed to three) his book and for the first time writing a very short review. The review was more like a few impressions/opinions about it. He thanked me on my honest opinion and informed me that he hoped to have taken care of those observations in the sequel. Making the story short, he offered me to do a review of the sequel which will be soon published. And of course I accepted and already started reading.

It feels a bit like in high school when I had some deadline to read a book and then, in a similar fashion, having to write something about it. I hope to do a good job and a honest review, and who knows, also to keep doing more reviews. And maybe, some day, I'll get to be a beta-reader for one book. Or maybe to use this community for my own review and marketing purposes when I manage to finish my own books some day in the future.

For now I can add one more thing to my list of accomplishments (actually when I finish it of course), be a proper reviewer.

Sponsored by Sweden

Besides Volvo, H&M and Ikea are probably the most famous brands from Sweden (maybe some would like to include their women, and others more musically inclined, could say Abba). Since I've been in Germany, I've been kindly "sponsored" by Sweden.

Throughout the last two years and a half, the share of my belonging have been increasingly from Sweden (although not necessarily made in Sweden). Nowadays, I would estimate that between furniture and clothing, over an 80% come from a Swedish company.

And this does not stop only in tangible objects, but also about my culture consumption in the form of books like the Millennium Series from Stieg Larsson, or music bands like Pain of Salvation, Opeth and Wolverine.

I don't know why it seems I have this subconscious preference and/or fascination with that country. It somehow started more than ten years ago still in high school, while doing a school project and ending researching about public expenditure in Sweden focused on public education.

Stockholm by night.

This year I had even the "chance" (it was more like "game myself the opportunity") to go to Stockholm, capital city of Sweden in mid winter. As can be seen above, the water around the many islands composing Stockholm was partially frozen. Hopefully I make it there again in some more hospitable season.

And who knows, maybe I end up living somewhere there in the future.

Little iPython notebook test

After wanting to experiment with the iPython Notebook for a while, I finally decided to do it to produce a step by step analytic calculation. This calculation involved some standard Gaussian integrals and I performed it half a year ago with the help of Mathematica (via their web interface) and some old good pen and paper.

So, as a proof of concept as a learning experience I sat down to replicate in a coherent way what I already had done. First started watching these three video tutorial performed at the SciPy Conference in Texas this year (part1, part2, part3) to get acquainted to magical notebook.

A screenshot of the iPython Notebook. And yes, it runs as a sort of web service!

To add support for symbolic mathematics (CAS) I used SymPy. The result of my little experiment can be seen live here. I have to say, that after some experience with other notebook like environments (particularly Maple 10 years ago), iPython notebook is awesome! I have to recognize that I had my doubts about the browser based environment, but it gives so much flexibility and annexed technologies to make use of (for example JavaScript and CSS).

I cannot recommend it enough to free yourself of Mathematica-like closed environments and to have a fully powered programming environment along. I will definitely continue using it, probably mostly to produce other interactive tutorial-like material in physics.

For more information and examples, this is an online renderer of notebooks and here a gallery of interesting notebooks curated by the people behind iPython.

Wil Wheaton - Why it's awesome to be a nerd

My transcription on the following answer by Wil Wheaton on the question "Why it's awesome to be a nerd?"

Hi Violet, my name is Wil Wheaton. It’s 2013 and you have just joined us recently on planet Earth, so welcome. I’m an actor, and I’m a writer, and I’m a dad, and your mother asked me to tell you why it’s awesome to be a nerd. And that’s an easy thing for me to do, because that’s who I am.

I don’t know how the world will be like by the time you understand this. I don’t know what’s going to meant to be a nerd when you’re a young grown woman. For me, when I was growing up, being a nerd meant that I liked things that were a little weird, that took a lot of effort to appreciate and understand. It meant that I loved science and I loved playing board games and reading books and really understanding what went on in the world instead of just kinda [riding] the planet through space. And when I was a little boy, people really teased us about that, and made us feel like there was something wrong about us for loving those things. Now that I’m an adult, I’m kind of a professional nerd, and the world has changed a lot, and I think a lot of us have realize that being a nerd, or being a geek is another word you’ll hear and I should use the words interchangeably. It’s not about what you love, it’s about how you love it.

So there’s gonna be a thing in your life that you love. And I don’t know what it’s gonna be. It might be sports, it might be science, it might be reading, it might be fashion design, it might be building things, it might be telling stories or getting pictures. It doesn’t matter what it is. The way you love that, and the way that you find other people who love it the way you do is what makes being a nerd awesome. The defining characteristic, of us, the people in this room, and I’m gonna ask your mom to turn this camera around in a minute. Go there go on. The defining characteristic that ties us all together is that we love things. And some of us love Firefly, and some of us love Game of Thrones, and some of us love this things you’ll be able to go to see in your history books. [] Star Trek, or Star Wars, or anime, or games, or fantasy, or science fiction. Some of us love completely different things, but we all love those things, so much, that we travel for thousands of miles, which is probably easier for you but it’s still [] for us. We’re still on fossil fuel, I don’t know what are you going to be []. And it’s difficult... we come from all over some cases all over the world so we can be around people who love the things that we love the way that we love them. And that’s why being a nerd is awesome. And don’t ever let anyone tell you that that thing that you love, is a thing that you can’t love. Don’t ever let anyone tell you “You can’t love that, that's for boys. You have to love this because you’re a girl.”. You find the things that you love, and you love them the most that you can.

And listen, this is really important. I want you to be honest, honorable, kind. I want you to work hard, because everything worth doing is hard. And I want you to be awesome. And I’m going to do my very best, to leave you a planet that you can still live on.

Como perderse con estilo

Hay maneras y maneras de perderse en una ciudad intentanto llegar de un punto a otro. En este caso particular, hoy intentaba llegar desde el punto A al punto C (ver mapa). La trayectoria es bastante directa si uno va por el camino simple.

Pero para hacer el trayecto más entretenido e interesante, decidí hacer parte del trayecto curzando a través del parque. Sin saber bien por donde iba, me adentré cada vez más con mi bicicleta por el parque hasta que terminé en el punto B detrás del estadio de Colonia.

Trayectoria aproximada Ver mapa más grande

He de decir que como andaba con tiempo de sobra a disposición, no me preocupé y disfruté del paisaje por el parque/bosque con árboles y lagunas. Al final no me quedó más alternativa que devolverme y reubicarme en la ciudad para utilizar el camino simple y poder llegar a destino.

Espero para la próxima cruzar por el parque pero no desviarme tanto de mi camino, en particular si efectivamente tengo que llegar a una hora determinada.

Germany the right place?

Many times I wonder whether I'm in the right place. Every now and then I have strong doubts about that. Although I know this is a good enough place.

For example, on the 30th of March, the first international tabletop gaming day (link) was organized by a Youtube channel Geek & Sundry. In the following pictures, a map of activities being held in USA and in Uk+Germany shows the lame amount of them in Germany.

Sure, the channel is English oriented as it's based in the USA, but even in the Netherlands with far less population they have a decent number of activities registered.

Just four lame events registered in Germany.

It just make me wonder...

Post Scriptum: I've been learning that Germany is nowadays not as great as everybody thinks. There are a lot of details that maybe some day I'll address here.

Riverside - I Believe

Riverside - I Believe

I learn to understand
Getting harder to pretend is ok with me

In this moment I believe
And I want it so much
In spite of everything

You make me so real
I don't have to shut myself in this cage of me
I see what I haven't seen
I wanna share my place to hide
My place to feel
With You

In this moment I believe
And I want it so much
In spite of everything

I learn to understand
If only I was worth waiting for...

Un pueblo llamado Colonia

© Raimond Spekking / CC-BY-SA-3.0

Cuando uno viene de una ciudad como Santiago, que según el último censo realizado el año 2012 cifra su población en casi 6.7 millones de personas, venir a una ciudad de 1 millón de habitantes la hace sentir en muchas instancis como un pueblo.

Una de las evidencias más grandes al respecto, es la tasa con la que me encuentro con gente visualmente familiar de forma aleatoria. Y no hablo de toparme con las mismas personas en lugares comunes, como lo sería en un bus, sino que en distintos puntos de la ciudad y en distintas instancias.

Hace poco me encontraba en la búsqueda de una nueva habitación para vivir. En un par de ocaciones me tocó ir a entrevistas grupales, donde varios de los que estábamos interesados en la habitación nos encontrábamos al mismo tiempo conversando con las personas que nos tocaría convivir. En una de estas instancias, había una mujer la cual nunca había visto antes. La razón porque individualizo a esta persona, es que ese mismo día la ví horas más tarde en el transporte público. Y eso no se detiene allí, pero en las últimas semanas la he visto caminando por la calle en el sector universitario. Eso no es tan extraño ya que probablemente es una estudiante, pero aún así es una persona que he reconocido entre la multitud anónima de una ciudad.

Este no es el único caso que he experimentado. Hay más similares, como por ejemplo reconocer a una persona que he visto previamente en algún concierto, pero este es uno que aún tengo fresco en mi memoria anecdótica.

Definitivamente Colonia es una ciudad la que para estándares alemanes es grande tanto en población como extensión, pero aún tiene ciertos elementos que la hacen sentir como un pueblo... y eso es interesante.

On the Fellowship

Almost 15 years ago or maybe more, I read the "Fellowship of the Ring" in the Spanish translation, still being and adolescent. Some years later I saw the movie which was as good as I expected it to be, but I never thought too much about the many differences between the book and the movie adaptation believing it was more or less a straightforward adaptation with some minor changes.

After reading a lot of other Middle-Earth related books and stories, I set to read the Lord of the Rings saga once again in its original language. This was something I wanted to do a long time ago, but it was partially promoted by the movie adaptation of "The Hobbit" where I realized many details int he story I did not realize when I read it back in 1998.

To my surprise, after finishing the Fellowship of the Ring I have to say that the movie is an awesome adaptation. Even more, I would even dare to say that it's a better work than book. A real derivative work.

One could argue that the movie is visually more appealing and stunning, that the rhythm is paced more accordingly to modern times, and that the actions scenes are much more vivid. And I don't deny all of that, but those are not the reasons I think the movie is better than the book.

I'll not detail every change or omission in the movie, because I don't remember every detail from it and it can be reliably read here. Noteworthy omission is Tom Bombadill, which I did not miss at all! 

There are two strong changes: one is the role of Arwen, and the second the Council and the subsequent formation of the Fellowship. These changes make the movie much better in my opinion.

Regarding Arwen, in the book she barely gets mentioned like two times and only the second exploring the tension/relation between her and Aragorn. In the movie this is made very explicit in many scenes in particular when they meet during the Council. This change could be motivated to make the story more appealing to a wider audience and as such maybe with a market reason behind. In any case, I think that this change makes the movie stronger and interesting and the book was very lacking in interpersonal relationships.

The whole Council scene is dramatically changed. Where in the book the fellowship is mostly decided by Elrond as he deemed fit, in the movie the different characters volunteered on their own will to be part of the fellowship. This free will decision, is a very important element turning the scene into a powerful and moving one for me, and I really missed it in the book.

Now I'm really looking forward to see once again the movies once I finish the rest of the saga, to keep comparing changes in emphasis and of course to enjoy the story once again in an extended version.

Adoro mi Kindle

Después de mucha deliberación, en noviembre finalmente decidí comprarme un eBook reader el cual fue un Kindle Paperwhite de Amazon (ver imagen a la derecha). Justo me decidí a comprarlo cuando lo lanzaron y sacaron de ciruclación el modelo anterior por el cual ya me había decidido. Este cambio no detuvo mis intenciones de compra aunque el precio era algo mayor.

Lamentablemente el Kindle no llegó sino que cerca de la segunda semana de diciembre debido a bajo stock, y para tal entonces yo me encontraba en Chile y tuve que esperar hasta volver para poder estrenarlo y probar que tal funcionaba. 

Para tales efectos ya tenía una "víctima" literaria, "Old Man's War" de J. Scalzi (el cual es un buen libro de ciencia ficción de fácil y rápida lectura), el cual había comprado por medio de un HumbleBundle de eBooks. La lectura resultó bien comoda y no sentí ninguna diferencia con respecto de leer un libro real, salvo por la diferencia en contacto. En el curso de un par de semanas de tenerlo en mis manos, ya he leído tres libros (eran bastante cortos) en el dispositivo. Creo que por alguna razón aún desconocida leo más rápido en el Kindle que en un formato convencional. 

La tecnología usada funciona perfectamente y no tengo ningún reparo con respecto al dispositivo. Funciona excelente para lo que está diseñado. Claramente no reemplaza a un libro en una repisa y poder olerlo y sentirlo, pero es una buena alternativa para quienes aún no están en un lugar definido o viajan y gustan de harta lectura. En mi opinión es completamente recomendado.

Post Scriptum: Gracias a Bruno por la insistencia e intensa recomendación sobre tener un Kindle.