Update on... stuff....

Some time ago I wrote about some things that I wanted to buy, unfortunately lady luck didn't smile to me and the price on the watch that I wanted never dropped again, still, it was cheaper than I was expecting to pay, on the other hand, my keyboard is on it's way already, so I'll get it by the time I go to Juárez, same with a new backpack that is a little bigger than the one I have right now, and hopefully this one is big enough for my laptop, the one I have can hold it... but outside the padding, so I feel like it's a little exposed and it's already tearing from the straps... although I can mend it, I already did it once.

I bought a gaming mouse pad too... although I don't really know if there is much difference over a normal surface... luckily it wasn't expensive, the only thing I feel like I'm missing to complete my laptop/gaming set up is a good pair of headphones and a desk so I don't have to play on my bed, and obviously a chair, I'll probably buy the desk and chair when I get back from Juárez if I find something good here.

When I get my keyboard I'll try to write about it, I want to see if it's worth the investment or not, and if I would recommend it... I'm excited, I feel like Christmas is coming early this year... although... I don't know if I will be able to stuff my face with home made tamales -_-

Savings...

A few weeks ago I wrote about the problems I had with my bank and why even after that I stayed with them... well, a few weeks ago I bought flight tickets to go to Juárez in November and here are the different prices they had.

The cheapest form of payment is through the bank I'm with... but it has to be payed online... and since I intend to go at least 3 or 4 times a year to Juárez and maybe do another trip somewhere else it can save me some money. If it wasn't for that I obviously would have changed banks...

And speaking of savings... Steam just made something great and terrible at the same time... they decided to charge in pesos for mexican purchases... it sucks because... not only are the prices clearer... but they charge less for games... for example a game that costs 50 bucks wont be the equivalent of that... most of them are considerably cheaper, others are just barely cheaper... and one or two that I have seen are ridiculously overpriced... so... why did I say that that sucks? Well... I have problems restraining myself when I see cheap games... although now I only buy them if I have them on my wishlist... DAMN YOU STEAM...

Those games I have listed there are the prime example of what I say, the first one is like 20 or 25 dollars and now it is 226 pesos... that's like... 16 dollars more or less. The second game is 40... or it was 40 dollars last time I checked... it is now 356 pesos, and the last one... I don't remember if it was 15 or 20, but it is now 200 pesos... in times like this I can only say... Father give me strength :P

Another one bites the dust...

This past weeks I have been training pretty hard, I'm training to run my first 21k... unfortunately since I'm still a little overweight my feet tend to suffer. Since I started exercising a few years ago I have lost some toe nails, the first time was because I didn't use the appropriate running shoes, second time was because I went hiking with inappropriate shoes too... and after that I have lost one or two due to long runs.

Although it sounds awful, it really didn't hurt... that much, lol. One thing is clear... my feet... or rather my toe nails are not that prepared for long runs, most of the times when I run long distances is the main reason I stop, well, not because of pain... I try to not hurt myself, and other than those toe nails and random cramps I get, every thing has been pretty good.

This past Tuesday  I ran 8km in intervals and I didn't die, I felt pretty good actually, so I feel like it's working out... except for a toe nail that I had to cut just a few minutes ago... and...it looks that another one might fall off too... in a few days... lol... it sucks... but it doesn't hurt... and no pictures because it looks gross :P

Out of luck...

So, every time I go to visit Juárez I try to buy things I cant buy here or that are way too expensive. This time I want to buy a watch (Garmin 310xt), it offers the best bang for your buck if you want to train for a triathlon, unless you invest a freaking lot more.

Last week it was listed for 150 dollars, although the regular price is around 180 (down from 300). The day I was going to buy it was the last day it was at 150... in the morning... I was going to buy it later since it was pretty cheap... but by the time I was going to do it... it's price had already gone back to 180...

Still cheaper than what I had on my budget... but I want to buy a keyboard too... and the one that I want is more expensive than it should be right now... unless I wait for it to be restocked... so I decided to give it a chance... it says that it will be shipped between October 29th and November 19th, but... knowing my luck I might not get it on time... I'll go to Juárez between November 14th and 17th... maybe Sergio's luck might help here :P

If the keyboard is delivered on time I'll buy the watch at the price it is right now... if the watch goes down to 160/150 again... I might buy the more expensive keyboard...

Or I might buy the keyboard with noisier switches...

I was thinking on getting another keyboard like this one, the Das Keyoard Model S, which looks quite nice too... but it doesn't have media keys and backlit keys... although I might change my mind... who knows...

/*Geek mode engaged*/ :P
The keyboard I want to buy is a mechanical keyboard... they are classified by the type of switch they use, the one I want uses Cherry MX switches (German engineering :P), there are many types of switches divided in 2 categories.

The 2 categories are the tactile (and/or clicky) and linear switches. The tactile/clicky ones offer a physical feedback click when the switch actuates, while the linear does not, they offer a smooth travel. And contrary to rubber dome keyboards, you don't have to press them all the way down for them to actuate. So in a way they are better for your fingers because you reduce the shock of hitting the key all the way down... which might sound like an exaggeration... but when you work all day with a keyboard or game on it, it can make a difference, less stress on your hands.

The other difference in each switch is the pressure you need to apply for the switch to actuate, Cherry MX differentiates their switches by a color code. For example the blues and browns are tactile, they offer feedback when it actuates, but they require different amount of force, and the other difference between these two is that browns are less noisy, but offer the feedback that the linear type don't. Linear (like the red) are the preferred by gamers, while tactile are preferred by typists.

/*Geek mode disingaged*/ :P

Game ports...

Yesterday Final Fantasy XIII was released for PC, a game that came a long time ago... I never played that one because I didn't have a last generation console, but being a fan of Final Fantasy since I was little I wanted to play it. Though... I suspected it wouldn't be a good port... for some reason Japanese games don't tend to have good ports... and according to what I have read it's because there isn't a market of PC gaming like in the rest of the world. It is completely dominated by console and mobile gaming.

Even though I suspected that it was going to be a bad port, I didn't care, Dark Souls was a complete mess when it came out too and thanks to modders it turned ok...

Yesterday at launch, Final Fantasy XIII had some problems that as of 2014 shouldn't exist, at least not for big publishers/developers... but still they exist.

The first of those problems is the game being locked at certain resolution... in this case it is locked at 720p, luckily it can go up to 60fps (Dark Souls was capped at 30fps), but it doesn't offer any kind of configuration... and I'm no talking of things like anisotropic filtering, antialiasing, depth of field or things like that... it offers nothing... it doesn't have mouse support... keys aren't configurable and the worst thing I found... the game closes completely when you press escape... and I read that if you press alt+f4 it will ask you if  you want to close the game...

The cool part is that it didn't take long for some of these problems to get sorted out... like an hour after the release of the game one guy (the same that made the mods for Dark Souls) was able to unlock the resolution and the game is playable at higher resolutions (I think that up to 4k), and some other are being addressed.

This is one of the main reasons why I prefer PC gaming over console :P

....and things like this... watch at your own risk :P

Fartlek 2.0...

Yesterday I ran my second fartlek... it was only 8km... and it was devastating... It felt like a Dalek fart... for the first time since I started running I had to walk to recuperate myself when I was on the low speed course... in the end my average speed was the same as my average speed when I run normally... (5:30min/km)... and that was kinda cool, even if I walked a few times my average speed wasn't that bad... but I don't know what I'll do when I have to run like 16 or more km... I'm kinda scared... so if I stop writing I probably died while running :P

Old School ARPG

This Saturday I decided to try a game that I have had in my Steam Library for a long time, It's an Action RPG but it looks like a PS1 game... with good resolution, I read good things about that game and that's why I bought it... a long time ago... and just yesterday I tried it...and it was cool. The name of the game is Ys Origin.

I don't remember any game like this one... but it reminds me of other games. It has a top-down perspective with on screen enemies (like A Link to the Past ), and fast paced combat (like Tales of Phantasia), it has cool music too. It feels old school, but at the same time it feels refreshing after so many realistic games. It has videos and conversation boxes very anime like... like most Japanese Action RPGs.

Just as a final note, even if it reminds me of other games, it does feel unique, I enjoyed the game a lot, and it has it's difficulty, the boss I defeat in the video took me at least 3 or 4 tries, although I'm playing on hard.

P2P...

Ever since I had access to fast Internet I became accustomed to download everything instead of having them on physical media. One particular technology that I love using is, the often associated with pirating, P2P.

Whenever anything gets released now a days, it will probably be a pain in the ass to try and download something if they host the files on the same server or don't use other ways distribute files. Since yesterday I have been trying to download the preview of Windows 10 and it has been slooooooooooow, and it has failed already a few times, so after this problem with the official site I decided to look on a certain torrenting site to see if someone already was sharing the ISO file, and... there it was... I downloaded it from there and there hasn't been any problem.

Some companies like Blizzard have the option to use P2P to download/patch/update their games, normally you can download from their servers, and the speed is fine, but on patch/update day it can get slow unless you enable P2P. Same with Ubuntu, I cant remember the last time I finished a download from their site.

Anyway... great technology, hope more companies try to use it. Let's see what does Windows 10 offers :P

Fartlek...

Yesterday I learned a new word... Fartlek... and contrary to what it sounds it doesn't have anything to do with farts... unless they boost your speed while running :|
So this week I started to train rather than just go out and run, I'm following a training plan for beginners and yesterdays training was called a "Fartlek" which is the Swedish word for speed play or something like that...

This type of training requires constant changes of speed, for example you start at a normal pace (as a warm up) for a few minutes, then you speed up for a few more minutes and then you speed down to a slower pace (rapid walking), and speed up again for a few more minutes. It feels weird, but according to what I read it helps to boost endurance.

It is easy... but it can put a lot of stress in a short amount of time... when I got home I felt like I was going to die, that my legs where... pudding... and it's not like I ran a lot more than I usually do, but running faster than you normally do is very tiring.