Zephyrus of the Anemoi

Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day.
Which was against the rule.
It made the children laugh and play
To see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out
But still it lingered near.
And waited patiently about
To kill the teacher here.

It waited for the bell to ring,
That half-demonic sheep.
And when the teacher stepped outside
Its vengeance she did reap.

It slit her throat from ear to ear.
It bit out her left eye.
Then Mary and the children came
To see dear teacher die.

The first few screamed and ran about.
A handful gasped and cried.
Mary’s wicked smile though
Was followed by a sigh.

And when the heathen sheep did roar
And spray red death around,
The children no more ran nor played
But wound up in the ground.

And Mary rode her demon sheep
Into the gates of Hell,
Where she did take the twisted crown
And forever wore it well.

…I remember the same words my Vietnam professor always suggested, “Welcome home, brother.” While not all vets are men, the sentiment has stayed with me. “Thank you,” just isn’t enough. The men and women that serve and have served this country deserve our respect regardless of when, why, and whom they fought. And once a year, they deserve to be reminded that it’s over and that we are glad they’re back.

Welcome home.

I posted a brief preview of the upcoming iPhone app Quick Draw a few days ago. Well, one of the other testers got a short video of the app in use and posted it on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Keep in mind that the app is in beta and will likely experience more changes before release (it has already had several changes since my preview was posted. Check out the video below.

Direct link here.

UPDATE: Corrected the fingering for Prelude of Light and added a link to the Hobbiton Theme from Lord of the Rings.

Anyone that has played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has wanted to learn to play the ocarina. Anyone. If you tell me you didn’t, I’ll tell you you’re lying. I’m looking at you, Jesse. The problem is that ocarinas cost money. Good ocarinas cost around $60-80. You can get cheaper ones, sure, but they don’t sound very nice. And even the $60-80 ones aren’t the highest quality. Plus, you drop it, and it’s probably gone. FOREVER.

Well, now you can get your very own ocarina for just $0.99. That’s right. Plus the $200 or $300 you spent on your iPhone. And your monthly AT&T bill. But, still just $0.99 for the ocarina.

My cousin Adam pointed out Smule’s Ocarina that was released today and allows you to play an ocarina by blowing into the microphone and touching the screen. I’m going to repeat that, because it’s fucking awesome. You blow into the microphone and touch the screen to denote pitch.

If you don’t realize how awesome this is, then please review below.

Direct link here.

Now, after seeing that, do you wish you had been the genius that came up with this? I know I do. But it gets better. Not only can you play a variety of awesome songs using your brand new digital ocarina, you can share your musical talent with the world. One of the features of the app is the ability to view a globe with little whitish-yellow “lights” on it. Each of those lights is another user of this app. While you view the globe, one of the lights will begin to send green rings and blue waves into the stratosphere. At this same moment, beautiful (and sometimes awful) music will emanate from your speakers. You’re listening to someone else play their copy of Ocarina.

As if that wasn’t already cool enough, Smule has posted a handy tool for you to create and share your own “sheet music” called the Online Score Generator. Adam pointed out an excellent song for your ocarina-ing pleasure: Song of Time from Ocarina of Time. I have been working on it since this afternoon and have much of it memorized. I’ve also taken it upon myself to find a large collection of ocarina fingerings that you can use with the Score Generator to make it easier to share with your friends and family, as well as bookmark for yourself.

So, here is one that I whipped up for you: Prelude of Light from Ocarina of Time.

And here is another: Hobbiton Theme from Lord of the Rings.

And here is a link to a plethora of fingerings to make your days brighter (WARNING: Some of these fingerings are not compatible without adjusting the key and even then they may not be accurate. You’ll have to experiment with them to figure it out).

I managed to get into the beta for the new Quick Draw game for iPhone. It’s an online Pictionary or Win-Lose-or-Draw sort of game. While not the first online game for the iPhone, it’s definitely one of the first to have a very compelling design. It’s incredibly simple. You launch the app, create a name to play under, and log in. You can change the name by quitting and reopening the app, but it remembers your last used name so you don’t have to put it in every time.

Once you get into the game, you can either play offline or join one of the “category rooms”. Playing offline is okay if you just want to have a couple people look over your shoulder to draw and pass the iPhone around after each guess. But the real money comes from playing online.

The online rooms are broken up into categories like Animals, Characters, Food and Drink, and Landmarks. Animals was pretty easy (except for goose) and Landmarks was hit or miss on difficulty (Statue of Liberty is no problem, but Easter Island required the artist to actually spell out the word). Near as I can tell, there is no penalty for simply writing out the word that you need people to guess, but it makes the game less fun, so I doubt it’ll happen very often. Although, the one time someone did spell it out for me, the game crashed, so maybe that’s their anti-cheat system.

The game is not unstable by any means, and played very, very well, even over EDGE. There was, however, some lag over EDGE that I didn’t experience on 3G or Wi-Fi, but that is to be expected from time to time. One of the nicest features of the game is the ability to choose multiple colors and even an eraser so that you can really get into making your artwork stand out. Color makes a big difference on how easy your drawing can be perceived, though sometimes even color can’t help you (as you’ll see in my gallery below).

All in all, I found this to be a very enjoyable game and one that will really stand out when it is finished. There are only about 40 words in the beta, but when the full game is released, expect a lot more with new words added via updates. To check out some images of the game, you can visit the game’s homepage, or just check out my gallery below.

UPDATE: One of the developers left me a comment to explain a couple of points above.

First of all, on the subject of cheating:

“When someone spells out a word, other play[er]s have the option to click the ‘whistle’ icon in on their screen to says [sic] the drawer is cheating. If enough people press that button, the round is ended, no scores are kept for the round, and the drawer is told off!”

And on the subject of new words (which I had hoped would be the case, but did not want to speak out of turn):

“Updates will not be required to add new words to the game, we have made it so all words are on our servers, so we can add new words and new categories at any time without changing the application!”

Thanks, Rich!

Via BarackObama.com:

Direct link here.

…when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. I will respond, probably withholding tears, “Son, I was in my living room the day that the world as I knew it was changed forever.”

While only projections at this moment, the chances of McCain leading a comeback at this point are nil. For the first time in many, many years, I am proud to say I’m an American without qualification. The next four years promise to be momentous ones. Please join me, regardless of whom you voted for, in recognizing this incredible moment in US history.

I’ve been watching Hulu today, now that I don’t have to bother with the voting anymore, and I’ve seen Obama ads everywhere. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the last-minute increase will make the difference. Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, and you still are undecided, please watch Obama’s acceptance speech, which is where I was convinced that I was backing the right horse. With luck, you’ll be able to make a decision and still have time to vote. Good luck!

…free donut.

…free Chik-fil’a sandwich.

…free ice cream.

…free coffee.

…free vibrator (New York and Seattle only)

…free beer.

If that’s not a good enough reason to vote, I don’t know what is. I didn’t even punch anyone that voted for the opposition. I’m proud of myself.

Remember, tomorrow may be the most significant and memorable vote in your lifetime, so be sure and get out there to vote. And if you still are undecided, take tonight to do some research and make an informed decision. It’s already obvious, I think, where my loyalties lie and I hope that those of you that disagree with them take some time to really think about Obama’s plans for this country and how they will benefit the majority of Americans, not just the privileged few. So if you’re middle class and  struggling to make ends meet or feel that it’s time to start bringing our troops home and fixing the problems in our own country before we start fixing the problems of the world, please vote for Obama and let’s make America the country we’ve claimed it is for so long.