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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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’m currently listening to this Beatles playlist.

Despite how great it is, it has its faults. Sometimes a song you’ve had in your playlist for a while won’t work, and you’ll have to search for it again and choose a different source. Not a huge deal, but there’s no way to tell if the song is broken without watching the program skip the track; there’s no big red X saying the link is bad. This is a meager complaint, but one worth noting.

Seeqpod is useful if you want to listen to a full song without (legally) downloading it or going to YouTube. You can’t download the music, so hopefully it won’t come under legal scrutiny for a while. Oh, too late. Use it while you can!

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I’m not perfect at playing this (far from it), but I’m pretty good at it thanks to the guy’s explanation. It definitely takes some practice, but I’ve found I get measurably better each time I try it.

One thing I do differently from him, is after you play the first few notes (7, 5, 5, 5), he slides his ring finger over to the 6th fret to play the next note. I personally found it easier to just use my middle finger for that. It’s all up to what’s comfortable for you, though.

The site itself is pretty slim (you can read everything in a couple hours), and if you want more from the site, you have to pay. Before you scoff, he offers some free info, too; just ask for a free lesson, and he’ll help you out. I filled out the form and had a response in about a week. The email had links to three songs on the “HUGE” list he asked you for, each of which was just as detailed as the Wonderwall lesson.

He also included a golden nugget of practice info. He said, “…do D/Cadd9/Gadd5 with DDUUD strumming; don’t bother with any other chords. Just throw your fingers around these 3 while keeping the strumming going(be a plonker!) i.e. “plonk” your fingers on while not stopping the strumming. Use Gadd5 to Cadd9 as the very first attempt as gravity will help you!!” He has the most comprehensive and easily readable chord sheets I’ve seen right here.

If the dollar wasn’t so weak compared to the pound right now, I would definitely consider paying this guy for some more lessons, especially for Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees.” I just can’t figure out that song’s strumming pattern…

To play, you need a capo on the first fret. You can find a pretty good tab for it here. The strumming pattern is weird; I can’t quite figure it out. I noticed that strumming DUD/UDUDDU (Down Up Down, Pause, Up Down Up Down Down Up) while playing with a few chords like Cadd9, A7sus4, D, etc. actually sounds pretty decent. It won’t pass for the original under scrutiny, but if you’re playing for friends (or a special girl), then it’s just fine.