Thursday, February 23, 2006
Happy 20th Birthday!
That's right, the original Legend of Zelda is now twenty years old. Twenty years ago, on February 21, 1986, Japanese gamers first ventured into the Land of Hyrule.
Forget Lord of the Rings - this was the epic 80s childhood fantasy that is forever ingrained in the brains of my generation, where we proved our fell prowess in reuniting the eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom in all its 8-bit glory, to rescue the beautiful Princess Zelda from the sinister hands of Ganon, and restore peace to the Land of Hyrule:
And then, the few and the proud rose above the rabble and defeated him again in the Second Quest, and we wouldn't let octoroks nor Aquamentus stand in our way.
Remember: always keep your boomerang as default on button B and always swap back to it after you use the first serving of the healing potion.
Read 1up.com's retrospective on the series:
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3148112
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_Zelda_series
Labels: geek stuff
Saturday, February 18, 2006
How did I miss this?
My hometown in a prime-time drama? Yep.
Back in February of 1994, according the mythos of The X-Files, UFOs are spotted in where else but the non-incorporated community of Reagan*, Tennessee, on Highway 100, approximately 5-10 miles away from the house I grew up in.
What?
C.B. FEMALE CALLER: I seen three of them flying over Chester County.And why does Reagan look suspiciously like British Columbia?
C.B. MALE CALLER #2: Right, right, and six troopers were chasing them down 22! Whoa, I see one now! And he’s over the watertower!
Where was I when this happened? Probably playing Super Nintendo or watching TV (apparently not FOX, though). And then the next thing we know, Special Agents Mulder and Scully are questioning the truck driver at the police station of my very own hometown, Lexington, Tennessee, where we meet Lexington Police Chief Rivers, whoever that was (portrayed by Canadian actor Allan Lysell, who does a wonderful Georgian accent, unfortunately). I'm pretty sure I've never seen Chief Rivers' picture in the paper, and I've been in it at least twice. (And shouldn't the Sheriff, not the Police, have jurisdiction over Reagan?)
Anyway, this was from the first-season episode "E.B.E.", which incidentally was the first episode to feature The Lone Gunmen (who did not visit Lexington). You can read the transcript of the actual script at The X-Files Scripts Archive (scenes 3-5).
____________________
* pronounced RIG-un
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
A brief history. Singles' Awareness Day (SAD) has nothing to do with cheese, but is of course, a derogatory term for Valentine's Day, that dreadful commercialized holiday forced upon us by the greeting card companies. Couples are pressured into giving gifts one to another, and have been subconsciously indoctrinated with the belief that if they don't receive a present/card/flower from their significant other, then obviously that person doesn't love them. And the greeting card companies make quite a bit of money in this process. And then the single people sit around and wonder if there's wrong with them as they're left out of this whole ordeal. Ah, the wonders of psychological manipulation. But somehow I don't believe that Valentine's Day was quite AS big of a deal before the greeting card companies set their marketing vultures on the task, (incidentally, what is this "Sweetest Day" thing in October that they're trying to push on us now?) but where did this holiday come from? Well, legend has it that some guy named Valentine (who could be any one of three St. Valentines that were martyred) fell in love with his jailer's daughter (he was arrested for performing illegal marriages for soldiers who by the law of Claudius II weren't allowed to marry) and wrote her a letter. Woopty-doo. So we're celebrating some guy's criminal activity. That's really nice. The Catholic Church decided to make a big deal about so as it would compete with the pagan holiday Lupercalia on February 15, which was held to keep wolves away from the townsfolk and their crops. The bad part of Lupercalia involved the sacrifice of a goat and a dog to some pagan god. The fun part about Lupercalia involved (1) all the girls putting their names in a pot, and the guys drawing out a name to be special friends with for the next year, and (2) all the guys getting to run around the town with strips of goat skin with which they slapped the women and crops to ensure fertility. Nowadays, we're left to our own devices to find special friends AND we don't get to play any running/slapping games. Plus we have to buy stuff. What a rip-off. Bah humbug. :)
In other news, I just put some LaBella flatwound strings on my bass, and they're oh-so-nice.
:)
Labels: society
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Random Things.
Culled from my random picture folder that's been accumulating for a while.
How not to land an F-15.
How not to move a bomb.
Bread is people too.
These are not the cops you're looking for. Move along.
New Orleans flood victims, floating along with their beer and snacks.
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock... (for Calvinists)"
Snoopy Bass VI.
Jason finds a new major.
What?
Can't touch this.
We thank thee...
Turn to the Book of Kahless...
Tommy Seebach covers 'Apache', as only Finnish disco musicians can. To see his music video, click here, and prepare yourself for the worst dancing ever.
To watch some guys jump a VW van, click here.
Labels: geek stuff
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Hahahahahahahahahahaha
Yes, it's real. No, they're not serious. Well, at least not like you think. www.devoted1.com
Labels: geek stuff
