The Walking Dead (Comic Book)

The Walking Dead is a graphic novel (comic) by Robert Kirkman, it’s about an apocalyptical world were the dead doesn’t stay dead, so they come back as zombies to kill anything that comes between their pass. The story circles around Rick Grimes, a former policeman, his family and the people they encounter among the way.

It was released by Image Comic in October of 2003, since then it has been published on a monthly rate; until this day 154 issues have been printed in a form of 6 episodes per volume.

I started following this comic on the year 2010 by coincidence; I’ve always liked the whole zombie subject, but until that year it was through movies or manga, in fact, on 2009 it was released in Japan I am a Hero and it was overwhelming, amazing, it left me speechless, so I began to look for other zombie like stories on the web and I found The Walking Dead, since then I’ve follow the comic everywhere.

So now my opinion and thoughts about The Walking Dead: Like I have said before, I love it, it is very well thought, written, and the art design is really good, after reading every chapter you end up imagining how you would have perform in the same situation.

Robert Kirkman and his team have really put time and effort on this story; it’s not easy to put yourself in that kind of situation, it must be very exhausting because we live in a society already established, with rules, laws, politics, technology and others; so just the idea of losing it, can make some people lose their minds as well.

 

On the other hand, it can be kind of reliving to put an end to everything and start from scratch, having to survive, see your true self, what are you really made of; but you cannot put aside that all your loved ones might or will die no matter what you do, so it’s not easy to want or prepare to anything like it.

This is just an introduction to The Walking Dead, later I will do a more complex post and also make one about the TV series. If you liked my post leave a comment.

By the way I wrote everything listening to Stratovarius, Dream Theater, Sonata Arctica and others.

Luis Colmenares.

References:

http://walkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/Issue_70

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(comic_book)

Chicken Wings: 3 Different Recipes

A couple of days before I saw a video if this person making different chicken wings recipes, so I decided to try them out to see if it was that easy. The result was not as expected, but I think the next time it will be better. 

So let’s see the ingredients and the recipe.

Ingredients:

-Chicken wings (about 1 pound)

-Salt (at taste)

-Pepper (at taste)

-2 Cups of Bread

-1tbsp of Brown sugar

-2tbsp of Honey

-1tbsp of Butter

-Oil

-1/2Cup of Soy sauce

-1/2 Cup of Hot sauce

-1/2 Cup of Bittersweet sauce.

-Sesame seeds

Preparation:

Mix well the bread with the salt and the pepper in a bowl. Put the chicken wings in the bowl and make sure they get full covered in the mixture, then fry them until they are golden crispy. Once you are done with the chicken wings is time for the next step.

 

Tip: usually when I am frying chicken tend to do it at 3 different temperatures, first with really hot oil, so it instantly seals the cover, then I slowly drop the temperature to medium to get the chicken fully cooked and to finish it, I just get the temperature back to high so the it gets crispier and the oil becomes ready for the next round.

Let’s do the teriyaki chicken wings first, put the soy sauce in a mixing bowl, and then add the brown sugar, 1tbsp of honey and some sesame seeds mix well and put in a pan at medium heat. When this mixture starts to boil (be careful, stir with a wooden pallet so it doesn’t burn) throw in some chicken wings and move them so the mixture fully covers them. You’ll be able to see that the chicken wings are ready when the sauce covers them and it has a caramelize touch.

For the second recipe we will do the bittersweet chicken wings; it is as simple as the teriyaki ones, the only difference is that this one’s don’t have brown sugar. So it goes like this, mix the bittersweet sauce with 1tbs of honey, then put in a pan until it starts to boil and add the chicken wings.

Last but not least, my favorite ones, the spicy chicken wings (or buffalo wings) is almost the same procedure, just mix in a pan at medium heat the hot sauce with the butter until it all blends well, and then add the chicken wings until they get completely covered with the mixture.

Tip: Use as much hot sauce as you can handle (I used a mild one, with a milk base). For extra spicy taste add hot peppers cut in strings.

When you are done with all the procedure comes the decisive part of each recipe; the tasting part, in my case I liked the result, but I could have done a better job, so the next time I decide to make them it’s going to be a whole different story.

This is my first time posting a recipe, so let me know if I need to explain myself in a different way.

Luis Colmenares.

Internet Connection

For the past 2 days the internet connection in my area has been down, the company report is that they are working to get it back on line in 72 hours (not counting the 48 hours from the past 2 days…). So that’s how things are done in my country, bad system, problems everywhere and no customer support (I must say that when you call the internet provider no one answers, they have a recording message), but the worst thing is that you can’t even complain because the largest company that provides internet in my country is an state company, so no complains allowed.

This post is me trying to blow some steam and also apologizing to my readers and clients. I am sending this post from a cyber, I’ll try to come to this cyber until the problem is solved and I really hope this problem doesn’t take too long.

My deepest apologies for everyone,

Luis Colmenares

Let’s talk about music

I want to share with you my personal likes and dislikes about music. I know is a tender spot, but I will do my best not to be too harsh when talking about dislikes.

My first musical revelation came 16 years ago with Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park, it shocked me so hard I practically forgot everything that I had heard before (note: my musical repertoire was very limited at that time). With this amazing musical proposal Linkin Park open my eyes to a whole new world, songs like In the End, Crawling, Paper Cut or One Step Closer marked me. I have to admit that until this day Hybrid Theory is at the very top of my favorite albums of all time.

Then 3 years later they came up with Meteora, another hit, this album had songs like Somewhere I Belong, Numb, Breaking the Habit among others that had the power to lift you up and transport you to another place. But then it happen something I could not have imagined, they released Minutes to Midnight; to be honest it felt like betrayal, they changed so much that I couldn’t recognized them, I stopped following them like before. Although, I will be forever grateful for Hybrid Theory and Meteora.

Right after my eyes opened to the wonders of music I started listening to everything I could, from country to extreme power metal, passing through hip hop, R&B, heavy metal and many other styles. This journey took me to great bands and artists that gave shape to my personal musical preferences. Bands like Nirvana, Green Day (before American Idiot), Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet Revolver, Metallica, Pearl Jam and many others walked me through my teenage stage and basically gave me the musical taste that I am so proud of.

Then out of nowhere a friend sent me a link of a song he just heard and liked it; he did not knew that he was introducing me to my second musical revelation, Tu Ausencia from the album ¿Dónde está la luz? by WarCry, an Spaniard heavy metal band, it sound was like a new beginning, like I could have a new personal favorite band. So as soon as the song ended I started looking for everything I could find about them and discovered that they already had 4 recorded albums and ¿Dónde está la luz? was their 3^rd. Gladly listen to every song they had and been listening to every released material up until now.

WarCry guided me through university; their music really helped me with big problems at that time. They also introduced me to a lot of bands from all over the world, like, Saratoga, Dream Theater, Apocalyptica, Sonata Arctica, Rata Blanca and so many more.

Until now my musical repertoire has increased a lot and I hope that it keeps getting bigger and better, music is one of my passions, it transports me to places that I’ve never been, it relaxes me and gives me peace of mind when I need it.

I am making a list of some of my personal favorite bands and artist, share if you find some of your favorites among them:

Linkin Park, Nirvana, WarCry, Sonata Arctica, Papa Roach, Metallica, Dream Theater, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rata Blanca, Velvet Revolver, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Eric Clapton, Ozzy Osbourne, Blink 182, Jake Shimabukuro, Mr. Big, The Verve, Mumford & Sons, Oasis, No Doubt, Tracy Chapman, Foo Fighters, Mägo de Oz, Matchbox 20, Janis Joplin, Soda Stereo, 311, Audioslave, Black Label Society, Cream, Elton John, Limp Bizkit, Korn, 3 Doors Down, Dio, Disturbed, Sound Garden and The Offspring.

This is all I could think off right now, I hope we have some affinities. Don’t forget to leave a comment.

Luis Colmenares.

Calisthenics or Street Workout

I started to do this kind of training almost a year ago and it has made me very happy, because of the fast results and the improvement of your body. You will find yourself doing medium and advance exercises in no time if you put enough effort into it.

The definition we find in Wikipedia is, “The word calisthenics comes from the ancient Greek words kálos (κάλλος), which means "beauty", and sthénos (σθένος), meaning "strength". It is the art of using one's body weight and qualities of inertia as a means to develop one's physique.”

It is amazing, so one can say from its definition that is the beauty of the strength, basically is bodyweight training but you can add additional weight if you feel strong enough or if you want to get to a particular point in your training.

The basic exercises are really simple and well known by everyone that has gone at least once to a gym, but, in calisthenics it is not just about doing an exercise, it is about taking it to the next level by doing it with the right formula for your body, so you can train specific muscle groups to do even more types of exercises and take advantage of every movement you make.

The basic movements are pull ups, chin ups, pushups, squats, sit ups, crunches and dips, by doing this sets of exercises with the right formula for your body, you will be able to gain strength, agility, definition and the ability to do more types of exercises.

From my experience I’ve came from being 65kg (143.3 pounds) and 169cm tall (66, 5 inches) to being a 65kg and 169cm tall guy, yes, no changes in my weight or height, but it’s amazing how you can reorganize your body weight by doing the right workout. At first I couldn’t do a single pull up, now I can do 4 sets of 10 reps, without losing so much breath and not just that, I am doing some exercise progressions so in a few moths I will be able to do a full planche, front lever and back lever, which are exercises out of this world.

I almost forgot the most astonishing part, is free! You can do it any time, anywhere, no excuses; you only need your body and the will to workout, just like that, very simple.

I’ll leave you a few links so you can see for yourself what I am talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ProBarras

https://www.youtube.com/user/RedDeltaproject

https://www.youtube.com/user/Calisthenicmovement

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVhg3dfXkEZSBbMLch3hasw

www.ngstreetworkout.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calisthenics

Luis Colmenares

Freelancing

Ten days ago I started this journey; working as a Freelancer, is a new term that describes people who work from their houses or from anywhere but a regular office inside a company through the internet. It’s been fun and encouraging, but also very frustrating. It’s not easy to wait for a reply or to custom a cover letter for each potential client, although it prepares you to face every possible outcome.

In this ten days I have subscribe into at least 10 different freelancing websites, I’ve sent approximately 100 job proposals, create like 15 different gigs and just been able to get 1 job as a translator from German to Spanish for a finance company in Austria. It is not as easy as it seems, trust me, if anyone tells you that in a week you will be making thousands of dollars, just walk the other way, it takes time and effort, but since I am not an easy quitter, I will keep sending job proposals, creating gigs and improving my skills and profile to get more jobs.

I hope that in a few weeks I’ll be able to write about my success as a Freelancer and give some tips of how to get a job, but until then this is the end for this entry.

I will leave a few websites in case you want to give it a try:

• www.guru.com
• www.freelancer.com
• www.fiverr.com
• www.upwork.com
• www.mediabistro.com
• www.peopleperhour.com
• www.project4hour.com
• www.microworkers.com
• www.nubelo.com
• www.workana.com

Luis Colmenares