Rainy Days

This is our first blog post that we've made on a rainy day. I feel that it's worth documenting. ANYWAYS...

Finishing up the last week of my sopohmore year of college, throwing together all my projects, assignments, essays, and whatever it may be that I am forgetting... Free time is about to be a major part of my life. Besides having a job, there isn't much you can do in the city, so you must think of other things to do. From what I've noticed over the past year, these are the most popular past-times done by people my age.

• Complain about the weather
• Go to the harbor
• Eat Sushi
• Look for apartments
• Look for jobs
• Get drunk

I have highlighted one's I religiously follow, more so by force of habit rather than actual desire.

The only thing that I have been able to really get a jump on has been our gaming community. Where there is a campus, there are nerds. Where there are nerds, there are ones who are obsessed by video games. And where there are nerds that are obsessed by video games, there are LAN parties. Brooks and I have hosted a few LAN parties back in the country, but due to the lack of population, it is hard to generate a constant group. I have started gathering a group of people I have met who would like to participate in one of these wonderfully wonderful experiences.

If anybody has any recommendations on games that would be fun to play with a large group of people on seperate computers, let us know and we may record this for you!

Go frolic in the rain

- John

Fun Day

Today is our day to go out and have a good time. And by that we mean laser tag. It is definitely one of the most fun things you can do around here, being in the middle of nowhere and all.

Today's post is more so a check in with everyone, but we are still accepting ideas about what to have on our Minecraft server. If you don't know what I'm talking about check out the older post and it'll answer some questions! Anyways, that's all for now, so have a nice day! Ta-ta!

- John

Video Games and Life

Brooks and I are very much fans of the Battlefield series. We both have Battlefield 3 on the Xbox360 while I have it on my PC too. My first encounter with this excellent franchise was way back when I was younger and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat was out. I had this game on my PS2, the slim one with the Ethernet plug in the back. I didn't have my own TV at the time and our broadband router was way to far away to run a cable from it to the TV. So I had found a small portable DVD set, the ones that you put in the back of a car to keep the kids quiet. It was a mess of cables and wires, but I had it set up right next to the broadband router and for many, many months I would sit on the floor with the 8 inch screen in my lap and tear it up on multiplayer. This was most likely the catalyst that turned me into the hardcore mutliplayer fan I am now. Brooks and I also both tried out Battlefield 2142 on our MacBooks... That didn't work so well. Those computers just couldn't handle those graphics quite yet and we were getting close to 10 FPS constantly. I then picked up the classic Battlefield 2 at some yard sale and threw that on my PC, played it for a while, then bought Battlefield 3 Premium.

I've had so many good memories playing this game, met some cool people in the process, and also exposed myself to the competitive side in me. Now I'm in college, and this competitive edge I have helps me succeed in my classes, work harder to show off my classmates, and all around set myself up for a good job. I can easily say that video games have helped me prepare myself for the future.

*so cliche ;)

Have a good day guys!

- John

Minecraft Server?

Once again, good morning! Today I was rethinking opening up a Minecraft server and I know it has been something Brooks and I wanted to do. We were thinking of creating a specialized sort of server, maybe one dedicated to the Invasion Mod. If you don't know what that is here is a link that will describe it better than I can.

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/780480-151forge-invasion-mod-v0116-so-you-think-your-base-is-tough-do-you/

If anybody else knows mods similar to this or game mode they would like to see incorporated into a server, let us know! We are up for a challenge. I personally want to have friendly server with a very strong community, no matter the size.

For those of you who are avid Minecrafters who are online look for Brooks and I.

John: almostcertain
Brooks: bammer1244

Recently we've been on the Shotbow Server, a server with an assortment of game modes, including one that is similar to Super Smash Bros. Another popular one is the MineZ game mode, a very good representation of the DayZ Mod in Arma 2.

I'll have more information regarding servers we play on later! Until then, have a good day!

- John

Expand!

Good morning everybody! Today I really want to make everybody aware of our other social media accounts. Now, I know this seems so cliche and all, but in reality it is the only way you can get your name out there. Anyone who has tried to start an organization from the ground up knows about it. "Shameless Promotion" as some call it. We also know that we don't have the largest amount of entertaining content yet, but this is really so we can get a group of people behind us and sort of root us on, letting us know that there are real people out there beyond the limits of our everyday lives. So, if you are someone who has gone what we are trying to do, or if you are someone who just wants to give out a lending hand, contact us in some way saying something that you would like to see in the future. This means the world to us.

https://www.facebook.com/BelliavisStudios
https://twitter.com/BelliAvis

And our email is belliavis@gmail.com

Once again, thank you!

John Greene

Finally...

We FINALLY have out we hosting back! After days of unprecedented delays, our ability to edit our website is back! Yet as some of you know, building a website takes a little time and with my semester coming to a close, I am bombarded with assignments and other websites to design. So I think around the start of May you will all see an up and running site. Now, our content is still limited, but with summer on it's way both our schedules open up a bit more and room is made for a project we have conceived. I plan on focusing on the let's plays and bringing you all some funnier, better edited videos. Brooks has been writing a script for a larger project, but when we know more information we shall be able to disclose that. On that note, have a wonderful day!

- John 

PC Lyfe

I have been a long time Macintosh user, and by that I mean I'm still using my 5.5 year old white MacBook. It has been a trooper for me, withstanding multiple drops and years of wear and tear. Along with my admiration of the physical MacBook itself, I have also become fond of its operation system. I started on Leopard and stuck with it for the majority of my time on the laptop, but once an update of Minecraft came out that made compatability for the laptop to run the game on the current OS, I had to upgrade to Snow Leopard. Turned out that I didn't have to even do that because it was simply a bug.

Once I became bored of console gaming (Xbox 360) I decided that I would give PC gaming a try. Brooks had purchased a beast of a rig that he put together all at once. Mine is a stock HP but after a couple paychecks I had beefed up the GPU, cooling system, and filled up all of my RAM slots. I'll get Brooks to post his tech specs sometime this week :P

Ever since I had installed Minecraft on this PC it has been very hard for me to turn on my Xbox for anything more than Netflix. Everything from how the game looks to how it sounds has just skyrocketed in quality.

Enjoy your day :D

Plant a tree. It's Earth Day.

John

Projects in the works

It's been awhile since we have produced any real content whether it would be a video, animation, or anything  for that matter. Things are in the works though, and we are developing a couple different ideas and scripts. For anyone who has ever written anything, they understand what it takes to be genuinely original. A good script is never written, it is rewritten. Several times. As far as writing goes I personally have never been fantastic at getting my ideas and thoughts down on paper or typed up. But it is important to have a script or even just an outline to get every and all ideas down. Ideas have a tendency to leave me when I don't record them as I have been noticing more and more. It also helps to read ideas written down out loud. It really takes form when you hear it for yourself. Hopefully in the very short future we will be producing some more content.
-Brooks

A New Generation

Most gamers have heard about the release of the Playstation 4. It is bound to make it's appearence by "Holiday 2013", and anyone who has ever anticipated the release of any new technology knows this means mid-November. We see that Sony embraces the creation of a social infrastructure, meaning the implementation of Facebook and Twitter or even their own social network. Now as I see it, an independent social media developed by Sony is a failure waiting to happen. Not only does the competition provide a big enough struggle for success, Sony has had one too many bad swings when it comes to designing something... innovative. Let it be the Memory Stick, UMD's, or for all we know, the Compact Disk. Sony just doesn't have it.

But the PS4 does look promising. It has been said that it will have 8 gigs of unified RAM and come with an X86 CPU. Along with an assortment of other upgrades,this means that the PS4 will be faster, stronger, and have the potential to render higher quality graphics. At least we know that we will be getting something different and less of the same. *cough*CallofDuty*cough* Nothing against the game itself, because it is one of the best arcade FPS I've played. It is just how they continue to release game after game after game with only mild innovations in gameplay while only really changing the campaign. And as a multiplayer junkie it is sad that I can notice a change in campaign while being unable to see a reasonable change in online multiplayer.

Anywho, from what I've heard about the Xbox 720, people seem to be displeased about it. The main topic of concern has been the required online connection. I just don't understand the benefit of it from Microsoft's point of view. Most people who own an Xbox 360 now have purchased their gold membership for Live access. If this required connectivity is supposed to be some sort of money-making ploy, I clearly don't understand economics well enough.

People are generally easier to criticize something rather than to praise it. I say we just wait it out and stop speculating. It just as easily could be as successful as the current consoles. And either way, what else are our options?

Enjoy your day :D

John From Belliavis

We are the Waiting

As the sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean, Belliavis Studios still does not have access to their website. The 72 hour mark is about to pass and if we still can't reach our web host, I will have to take matters into my own hands and make a few calls. It's a bit frustrating but I am sure once it starts to work correctly it will be a blast.

I'm currently working on a website for a small aromatic business, and I must say it is looking pretty nice. Once I have it finished I will make sure to link you guys to it so ya'll can check it out. It's a quick project, but it will certainly get the job done for our client's needs. Brooks and I are both also anticipating another web project from a wood working client. We will be in charge of Facebook promotions, re-vamping his current website, and hopefully anything else that he claims needs to be fixed. 

A busy start to our spring of 2013!

Enjoy your day!

John :D

We could also use some followers on Twitter! We will follow back ;)
https://twitter.com/BelliAvis

Arrgh

We are still waiting on our website to be editable... I made a minor mistake when purchasing it and picked a Linux version for the web hosting. Once I realized the mistake I made and I had to change it over to Windows and it is still pending the transaction. If you were view Belliavis.com right now (I recommend that you don't), you will see this simple red box and a lame picture in the background. Nevertheless, I am still excited to get it up and running! whenever that may be...

We also want to know what you people want to see, let it be videos, short films, Let's Plays, or podcasts, we would just like to get a understanding of what our viewers would like to see from us.

If there are any other blogs out there that are viewing our blog feel free to let us know about yours and we will gladly mention you in an upcoming post to help promote fellow blogs.

On that note, and after a long day, enjoy the rest of your night!

Sincerely

John from B.A.

Typefaces!

Good Morning Internet!

I am now typing in a new font, a much better one than the horrific default typeface. I have recently been learning about typefaces and how different ones are used for different situations. Here is a simple lesson:

Serif: This typeface has little curves and details at the end of most letters. Popular for long paragraphs of text due to the flowing nature of the curves.

Sans-Serif: A typeface that has straight lines that create a cleaner text that stands out. This typeface is used mostly on computers due to use of pixels and how the text fits perfectly in them.

Monospace: A very popular typeface for those coding because of the highly structured style of the letters. Each letter has a specific height and most heights are similar, at least among lower cased letters and upper cased ones. There is much more space between the letters (so if you are typing up a research paper, see if you can use this type of font, your paper will fill up those ten pages much more quickly (: ).

I am in love with the Arial typeface, mainly because it resembles my actual hand writing the most. When I am writing I don't produce those fancy stroke marks at the end of my letters, I create very distinguishable letters that are consistently the same size. I'm sure most people are the same way too, especially women and their large bubbly letters. I also think that this Sans-Serif typeface has mainly existed due to the creation of screens. It seems that people of my generation write very differently from our parents. Maybe this could be the cause of so much exposure to Sans-Serif typefaces, or it could simply be an age thing.

Brooks and I are still waiting for our web hosting to be activated so we can get working on that website! We are very excited and we have big plans ahead. My college semester is coming to a close, meaning that I will have all summer to work on these projects. This will be a fun. productive summer.

--------------------------
John from Belliavis

Taking Another Step

Today we have just purchased our first domain, Belliavis.com. We are waiting for a few processes to go through and then we will be throwing HTML, CSS, and Flash all over the place. We have worked with website development before but for myself (John), this is something completely different and something very exciting. After just viewing the management tools for our domain I was a bit overwhelmed by all the information and acronyms. But we are determined to learn and fully understand everything there is to know about web hosting and website development. If anybody has websites that could give us some extra help, or if anybody has some personal information that they would like to give to us directly, we would be more than happy to hear what you have to say!

Enjoy your day after Tax Day,
The Guys at Belliavis (John)

P.S.
 Here is my (John's) first single player lets play :P It was my first time doing this sort of thing but let me know how it looks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwKOoR-9WPc