I survived the end of the world. Again. But afterall it was a great 2012!

I admit I haven't been updating this for like 2 months, but I've been quite busy, and honestly not in the mood to write / draw. I realized anyway that it's past midnight and this is the last day of the year so I thought I might at least write a short last post for this 2012.

Let's start saying I've survived the end of the world, again, for like the second time? (First one was in the 2000).

I guess I am more resilient than a Cyanobacteria xP.

While I haven't been writing/drawing, I've been dedicating myself a lot more to programming and learning new technologies. Particularly, I've focused on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 (XAML / C#). They're interesting technologies and I hope they'll be widely adopted in the future.

Due to my engrossment into programming I've dedicated less time to gaming aswell, setting aside GW2 except for events like Halloween and Winter's day, but, taking advantage of Black Friday's sales, I got BattleField 3. I know I am not much of a FPS person, but it's fun to shoot and curse a bit everynow and then. Even so, I still am in touch with my gaming pals :)

Along the usual tv series (The Walking Dead, Misfits, Last Resort), I have started watching (and caught up) with some new and interesting series, some of which are well known: Game of Thrones (Fantasy middle age, bloody, some little dragon here and there), Breaking Bad (a chemistry high school teacher, almost Nobel prize, is diagnosed cancer and ends cooking methamphetamine), The Big Bang Theory (Geek & Nerd in every sauce).

The main point of this post is: The 2012 has been great. If I have to stop and look back, it's been an awesome year, ever since after my birthday a lot of good things kept happening, non-stop. I've had satisfactions from university, I've been awarded with prizes, I've been successful and recognized, I've had an happy romantic life and good friends that spent my happy time with me.

During the 2012 I've grown, I've learnt from my mistakes, I feel I got stronger inside, and I think I've become a better person under several aspects. I might wish myself that the 2013 will be blessed with the same happiness I've received from 2012, but prefer to look always a bit higher, and hope that the best has yet to come (and I have already planted a few seeds for a great 2013 :X ).

I'd like to end this post, and this year's blog, thanking all my friends that made for me this year so very special, and I am sure we will be rocking together also in the next one. Thanks! :)

See y'all in 2013 ;3

Almost ready to go!

Just a flash update this time, since I still have to finish preparing my suitcase for the plane.

The bird ( Hawk ? ) you can see at the start of the post, is the mascotte of our new app, I can't disclose more details right now because we're under NDA till the end of the Hackathon.

During the past days, we've received an interview from Wired and a live radio interview from EcoRadioDiretta.

We'll take our plane tomorrow in the morning (considering it's midnight, I should say *today*). We have an half free day to spend in Milan before the competition starts. We'll visit the city, eat at some ethnic restaurant (I hope we'll go for japanese \o/ ), meet with some friends we have there ( Kyon! and...others =P ).

Among everything else, our most important task tomorrow afternoon is to take part to... Gangnam Style's Flash Mob in Milan . I guess I don't need you guys to tell you about PSY, HyunA and Gangnam Style's since it's one of the most spread viral songs of the moment, with over 500 millions of visits on youtube and almost 4.5 millions of likes (#1 video in youtube's history).

I gotta go now.

Wish us luck! :)

See y'all soon! ;3

To Milan's Hackathon!!!

As I announced in the previous post, I restarted drawing, nothing big, I am still rusty.

What you can find here in the blog post is one of the stuffs I managed to get done.

I agree with Stephie that I should've made the hair longer in order to cover the eyes (Constructive criticism is always welcome!). Down on the post you will find the intermediate images and the step-by-step video.

But what's exactly the reason that made me restart drawing?

It's not that I needed a reason since I like it, but, with things being as busy as they are, it isn't certainly easy time to find the time to draw. So...why?

Me and my team (SmartDevs, with Vic and Enri) have been invited to the Hackathon in Milan (22th-23th October), since we are the actual winners of Naples edition. This time the sponsor will be not only Renault but also Siemens, and they took care of our lodging and food expenses. We also have our plane tickets booked already.

We will depart on sunday 21th and get back home on tuesday night, it's going to be a fun 3-days, and even if it's going to be hard to repeat the success of the previous edition, we hope we'll manage to do well.

I hope I'll find the time to give you guys some more info in the next days, for now...

See y'all soon! ;3

Back! Words from Tyria

My current PvP armor (Short Bow)

Uhuh this time it took even more than the previous one...like...the double? Oh whatever! xD

As I was announcing in the previous post (and as you can guess from the many pictures you can find in this post) I started playing GW2...well not just started.

Okay I got to lvl 80 in around 10 days, and I managed to get a full lvl 80 Exotic gear for PvE (Best stats in the game though not exactly the best for the looks, I'll transmute it at some point =_=), and then focused on PvP and tournments to reach a rank higher than 20 (ranks past 10 start to become painful!). As of lately, I am focusing on getting a 100% complete map, and when you do that, you realize just how huge Tyria's world is.

From the left: Mordicai (Giuli's piggie pet), Giuli, Me, the furry Enri, the lemonade Vic and the other Enrico

From the left: the handsome Kyon, me, Giuli.

From the left: Dissénsion, Vic, Kyon, the ninja-style me, Giuli.

I've been having a lot of fun in GW2, but a great part of it has been thanks to the people who have been playing with me, both those who started the adventure with me, and those we met for the first time ingame. But among them, it has been a pleasurable turn of events the fact that also Vic and Enri decided to play with us.

My pirate self in front of the Tower we managed to conquer in WvW's Eternal Battleground thanks to Neftiaf

Beside playing GW2, I've been learning and honing my skills regarding Html5, Css3, and jQuery reading the books I bought, checking online tutorials, and experimenting a lot with the code.

After experimenting with Windows8 RC/RTM, after I received my official copies from MSDNAA, I decided to take the last step and install once and for all the new OS on both my desktop (soon to be replaced since the GTX660Ti is finally out!) and on my laptop. So far it's working wonders, it's faster to boot, it takes less RAM, and it generally is faster (I managed to raise the graphic settings on GW2, but I get a few FPS more than before!). The only two issues I have are with my touchpad (the multitouch/gesture drivers for W8 are ready but not yet released by ELAN) and with my Razer Naga. The mouse works, but I am not able to bind the side-keys through Synaptic (the configuring software). Razer support told me they'll soon release a W8 compatible version, so all in all it's just a matter of time, but it was a pain to get used to a different key scheme in GW2 =_=.

Also my classes started. "Classes" is a big word, because this semester for a poor organization on the schedule, we've been assigned a single course of 2 hours twice per week. While on a side it's nice for once not to be busy all the week with classes, it would've been better to get a few others to finish also this step. Thanks to the extra free time, I've been able to keep jogging, unlike the other years, and I hope the weather won't be a jerk. :)

I added a new song: Musica by Fly Project

el amor me quema, la música suena
la noche de cristal es belleza y …
el amor me quema, la música suena
la noche de cristal es belleza y…

o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba

el amor me quema, la música suena
la noche de cristal es belleza y…
el amor me quema, la música suena
la noche de cristal es belleza y…

o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba

i have a reason to let you cry, let you cry
i can’t forget when you said goodbye, my, my, my!
i’m like a bird flying in the sky, in the sky,
i see you’re hot selling me a lie, my, my!

el amor me quema, la música suena
la noche de cristal es belleza y…
el amor me quema, la música suena
la noche de cristal es belleza y…

o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba

me gusta siempre tu amor, me gusta lo mejor!
me gusta siempre tu amor, me gusta lo mejor!
me gusta siempre tu amor, me gusta lo mejor!
me gusta siempre tu amor, me gusta lo mejor!

o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba
o malea simpalao matelame je samba

The song has a nice rhythm and the lyrics are in a few different languages (Spanish / Portuguese / English), it's been one of the most aired songs during the summer, and I liked it among the others.

My pvp armor (Pistol/Dagger)

As of today I decided to restart drawing in preparation of...something in the next future, but this, will me material for another blog post.

See y'all soon! :3

Summer here, Summer there

Okay Okay I know it. It's a lot I don't post. Almost 3 weeks.

There have also been people telling me "I kept checking your blog but no updates :( ".

I am sorry >:[

It's just that you know...it's summer! So I haven't exactly been much at home, and even when I were I had a ton of things to do (and even so, I couldn't do everything I wanted) and situations to decide/sort out with some people.
...and it also took a lot of time catching up with the many mangas I left on stand-by to read because I was at the CodeCamp and that kept piling up xD

When I got back from the CodeCamp I spent some time with my family, and it took a bit to tell them about the many things that happened to me in the previous weeks, supporting my narration with the pictures and videos we took.

Even after getting home I often talk with Giuseppe and Gianluca (btw he is in the USA right now, have a blast dude! :) ) on skype, I know it's not the same, but it's nice to hear them and have a good laugh together.

The News on the National Brodcaster...about us :)

Another really cool thing that happened in the previous days: I was on TV, on the National Broadcaster channel. Well I already sorta knew this was coming tho. They shooted some footage at the codecamp for the News; without us knowing, after lunch and after an intense table tennis match, while we were all sweaty and with a messy hair, we saw the cameras in the ExFadda. So the service was aired a few days ago, I posted part of the video on my FB. Journalists like to hype up things, so they called us... *shrugs* "Italian big brains" and *shrugs* "Italy's best super programmers".

Colosseum by night

I've also been in Rome for a few days to meet a certain person from my past. It was fun but it was also sooooo hot (for several reasons). But it was a good chance to meet this person, and visit the many wonderful places of Rome, even if, I have to admit, it wasn't exactly the best period to do so. Overall it was really fun, and I had a lot of little exquisite things to enjoy :)

The books I've ordered

Even if it was summer, I had to work with Enrico and Vic to our First Order Logic game. It works, it's playable, but we're still having a little trouble with the packaging. Once it's solved, I'll give out a demo and I can then hear your feedbacks on the gameplay :)

Beside the project we *had* to do, I am trying to learn about some other new technologies, so I started diving into HTML5 & CSS3 (I think those two will become really important and required skills in the next future), while practicing some more with jQuery and PHP RestFul Webservices (which I think can always come handy); I also bought a few new books about those subjects ( http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/8848127568/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00 & http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/8850331525/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i00 ) and they should be shipped tomorrow.

The weather here is hot, and according to the news it's going to get even hotter up to 43 °C, but even so, I am trying not to waste any day, and jogging in the evening before dinner.

Microsoft's future products

In the past days I've also been experimenting with Windows 8, Visual Studio 2012, Office 2013. It's still a little too early to give out a complete opinion about them, I was favorably impressed by the new TaskManager but the whole  Metro UI takes a while to get used to, anyway, I am a person open to changes so I'll try to get used to it. There are many integrated features like msn, maps, or the login to the OS with your Live account.

GW2 is officially gonna launch the 28th...but I am gonna start the 25th! :)

GW2 is launching in 5 days (Hoorray for the 3-days headstart!!! Even tho it's 9 am D= ) and we're getting everything ready (that's also the reason why I am studying so early in August). We're most likely going to roll on Crystal Desert as server and everyone is really excited. In the past weeks there have been several stress tests that allowed us to play a bit, and there have been several changes to the skills and the traits, so I am still figuring out what my final build is going to be.

If you want to have fun, come and Mumble with us! :P

Thanks to Adam, we've also got a Mumble Server, and since a week, we're like always on it. It's going to be our main communication channel for GW2, but it's becoming our meeting spot, and if my pc is turned on, I am on it. We're using it to chat and almost every night to play LOL together (with the little Giuli, Adam, Stephie, Tay, May, Enrico, Ronky, Daniel, Ibrahyn, Simo, etc.). If you want to come and (audio)chat with us, just ask me the details and let's have fun together!

I realize I still haven't posted a lot of pictures and the videos from the CodeCamp (they are really funny xD) and if I'll have enough time before GW2 launch I'll try doing a blog post with them.

See y'all soon! :3

Code Camp: Day #12-13

Me, Enrico, Vic & Gianluca

The last 2 days of the CodeCamp were really frenetic, we didn't have much time to sleep, let alone to post a blog update, so I am writing this from home, following some notes/pointers I managed to sketch here and there.

Code Camp: Day #12

The day in which we had to present the results of our work. The morning was spent finishing what was left of each group's tasks and then integrating them in order to make the project presentable to the press and to the audience. In the afternoon in fact there would've been a lot of people to assist to the presentation, journalists included, just as example there were RAI's Videocameras (RAI is the italian public service broadcaster), San Vito's major, The vide-president of Puglia's region, the president of the Conf-Commerce association.

Talking during the presentation...

Vittorio had to leave before the presentation started, and at that moment I started feeling melancholic, it was kind of like, when a vacation ends and you realize you have to say goodbye to the friends that shared that experience with you. A few hours before the presentation started, I took the chance to shot a lot of pictures to the ExFadda and to our apartment with Gianluca's photocamera, because I wanted to have a memory of all the places where our adventure took place. I took a shower, and then headed to the conference, where I was called on the stage to discuss about the project first (with diagrams projected on my back) and the human aspects of our CodeCamp then (with embarassing pictures projected on my back). I came up with an...evocative sentence (it was about the chunks & fragments) that sounded more or less like "Regroup! Join up! Be a single thing!" (the original was: "Raggruppatevi! Unitevi! Siate una cosa sola!") that stroke the audience (in more ways than one xD). The presentation was a success, many congratulated to us, and Puglia's Vice-President personally approached me to congratulate.

Cavitielli (a kind of pasta) with seafood

Finished the presentation we proceded to have (a late) dinner to a restaurant, in which we recollected together all the good moments, and we critically analyzed what should be improved for a CodeCamp 2.0 . After eating several appetizers and a seafood first dish, we toasted (many times) and we ate the Cake we bought to thank the staff & some sweets that Giuseppe's family gave us.

The cake we bought...

After the dinner the staff went home, while we proceded for a last round to the bar, where the house offered us Tequila, Cinnamon and Orange slices & Japan Ice / Long Island's cocktails.

Tequila...

When we got back, we sat on the sofa, laughing but with a sad face at the same time. We didn't want that night to end. Before we went to sleep Gianluca gave us some ceramic magnets with pictures of his city printed on them, as gifts.

It was an...hot night with hot goodbyes, but someone was sleepy. :P

Code Camp: Day #13

When we woke up Domenico had already left to Brindisi, while Gianluca was coming back after going to buy some croissant and local sweets to have a last breakfast with us. Gianluca's just...great. When the time came we had to depart (his fly was in the morning) it was really sad, we got a little emotive. While he was walking away, we shouted behind his back. I am sure, I really am, we'll meet again.

I then proceded to pack my stuffs. It was kind of a mess, since I had even more stuffs than when I arrived. Luckily someone helped me to fold my stuffs and fix them in the bag, adding that someone's special touch to my otherwise messed shirts. Our neighbours came to say goodbye to us, and once our luggage was ready we left the house and we went around S.Vito for one last time...During the past days when we walked around the streets or the plaza we would often be recognized since the CodeCamp was a big topic among the citizens and our shirts would help getting pinpointed.

We had one last meal together, took some more pictures, and promised to stay in touch.
Uccio drove us to Brindisi where we would take our bus, so Me and Enri started our trip back home...

I have a lot (and I mean A LOT) of pictures and videos still to post, and I plan on doing it in the next days :3

See y'all soon!

Code Camp: Day #11

Today wasn't a day with many things to tell. Since tomorrow we have the presentation of the status of our projects, we focused on finishing and polishing the tasks, after taking part to 3 seminaries. I worked on my task with Vittorio and we managed to finish it in the first part of the afternoon, so we had enough time to duel at table tennis for over 15 matches. 

The code session ended quite late and so we ate at 10.30 pm, at a restaurant called Broadway, which was near our apartment. After we finished eating we all went for a stroll in the main plaza, but since they were all tired and lacking sleep they prefered to head to bed. I wasn't sleepy yet (as usual) so I prefered to stay up to talk with someone...

Yesterday before going out I took a few pictures for the blog while I was waiting the others to get ready, but since I couldn't decide which ones to post...in the end I decided to post a bunch of them. :X

Also apparently Lala said it's better with no mustache xD
See y'all soon!