I was perusing Monday’s (Apr. 14, 2008) edition of The Huntsville Times when I came across an article about a sophomore from Sparkman High School who went to New York City for Spring Break this year. You can read it here. I also embarked on an adventure to NYC in December 2006, so I thought I’d check it out. The article itself was okay, but one of Alicia’s photos caught my eye. Her snapshot of Times Square looks extremely similar to one I took. Of course, it’s not the same, but it’s got a few similarities.

Notice how you can see the same Sean John ad, as well as the news ticker. The only thing that bugs me is, why is the ad still the same? Did Mr. John really pay enough money to keep the ad there since December 2006? Is the ad really so everlasting that it reflects today’s marketing trends?

Either way, I think it’s pretty cool how two high school students in the city of Huntsville, who don’t know each other, took a picture of Times Square at about the same angle, from the same side of the street, of similar objects, only a couple streets apart. Small world.

Apparently, even Microsoft doesn’t care about the adventure-gaming genre anymore; at least, not enough to insert one lousy string into Dreamfall’s product page. This page is supposed to represent the game and sell itself to the customer! It doesn’t look like it’s taking full advantage of that opportunity…

This fall, I will start working on earning a degree in the field of Computer Engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. However, recent events have led me to second-guess this decision. It’s an excellent field with many exciting benefits, but sometimes people are destined for other things. Sometimes, people have a different purpose in life than what initially seems right. To ignore natural talent for the pursuit of knowledge somehow belies the nature of man.

How can anybody who swirls ice cream like this ignore that talent?

Having recently discovered suspended chords (e.g. Asus4), I’ve been having a lot of fun playing with the three basic open chords (E, A, D). I also messed around with the C chord a little bit and made a fun little song.

I also noticed that when strumming the A chord, if you lift your finger off the D string (4th string), it creates a more “open” sound. You can slide between that position, Asus4, and D pretty naturally. Try it out!

I love playing guitar. A euphoric feeling washes over me when I pick up my Walden and master a new chord sequence, or successfully strum a scale without screwing up. Every minute I spend playing guitar is worth it, even if it won’t make me money someday.

Lately, I’ve wanted to teach somebody how to play. I have a friend with a guitar who doesn’t use it, and I thought it would be a great idea to teach her. The reason why is unexplainable; I just really wanted to teach her. Unfortunately, her schedule didn’t allow for it, and for some reason I felt irrationally disappointed. I’m not a psycho misogynist, so I couldn’t place my finger on why I was so downtrodden.

I was reading a post over at CodingHorror.com that explained exactly why I felt the way I did: Happiness is only real when shared. So instead, it turns out I’m just selfish. Fair enough.

Have you ever rented a car, pulled into the gas station, and realized the gas cap is on the OPPOSITE side of the car? There’s a simple way to never have that happen again, so long as you rent a newer car: look for the arrow next to the gas symbol. This rule does not apply to my ‘97 Honda Civic and 2000 Mustang, but holds true for our 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

——-Jeep——————-Civic——-


You may have heard advice telling you to look at the handle of the gas symbol or which side of the gauge it’s on, but that’s bogus. If it doesn’t have an arrow, you will have to strain your neck to check. Or just memorize which side it’s on, if you have the mental capacity.

Last night, I purchased, played, and subsequently beat Mass Effect’s first round of downloadable content in about two hours. The ferocious alien shown above is a member of the Batarian species within Mass Effect’s world, and this DLC is the first time you encounter them. The first time you see this guy bare his teeth (pictured) is pretty phenomenal. Killing him is just as much fun, even though he’s just a grunt.

MTV Games’ Stephen Totilo has some reservations against Mass Effect’s side quests, and rightly so. Each side quest drops you on a barren world, devoid of trees and birds, prompts you to enter a facility that had the same architect as the rest of the galaxy, and kill everyone. A handful stray from this formula, but sadly, most follow those simple guidelines. Bioware points fingers at the development time of the game’s technology, leaving little time to actually flesh out comprehensive side quests. They are, after all side quests. Bioware promises they’ll make it up to us in Mass Effect 2, though.

So five bucks essentially bought me two hours of the best side-quest Mass Effect has to offer. Was it worth it? Rationally, I spend more money for the same amount of entertainment at the movie theater. Also rationally, Mass Effect cost me $60, and it has more than 12 side quests. Being a fan of Mass Effect’s universe, I would say the purchase made sense for me. The chance to interact with a new species and get more intel added to my in-game journal helps add even more depth to an already complex universe. Oh, and the chance to save millions of people from a 16km-wide asteroid crashing into a planet was pretty fun, too. That’s twice the size of the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, in case you didn’t already have that committed to memory.

I recently bought a cable to connect my guitar to my computer, and I thought I’d record something to test it. I wrote a simple song using nothing but the E, A, and D strings, so it’s pretty simple to play. It actually sounds familiar to me, and I might subconsciously be playing a song I heard when I was five or something. Anyway, give it a listen! If anyone likes it enough, I’ll tabulate it.

I was just playing around with my guitar today, and I noticed something funny. If you play around with holding/releasing the B string (2nd string) while playing various chords that use it (A, Am, D, C, Gadd5, Cadd9, etc) it gives the music a little more… voice. That’s the best word I can use to describe it.

Go ahead and try it! Just strum a simple DDUUDU (Down Down Up…) pattern, and play chords while releasing the B string before the first Up strum, then placing it back after the last Up strum. I made an MP3 with a sample and better explanation, so give it a listen!

I just got a letter in the mail today confirming that I’m getting a full ride to UAH(untsville)! What a relief!