Links and Stuff
This week it’s iron boots, happy birthdays, and Cumberbunnies! But first, a program note. As you are aware by now, the 2016 April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge is nearly upon us. This means that for the month of April, all regular posts (including this one) will be suspended, except for the Sunday School Notes. Normal programming will resume in May, with a slight change. I’m moving the Who Reviews to Tuesday, and Links and Stuff to Wednesday. During a regular Doctor Who season, my Who Reviews would normally be on a Tuesday, so I figured why not do the same for the Classic reviews? Anyway, just letting you know.
Legend of Zelda Update
For this week’s “Wind Waker” session, I did some prep work for the fourth temple (“The Wind Temple”). Since I used up two fairies last week (which saved me from death), I dropped in on a fairy fountain and replenished my stock. I also stocked up on joy pendants by battling some Bokoblins. With those pendants, I obtained a Hero’s Charm which lets me see an enemy’s health as I fight him. Cool! 🙂
SecondBorn then had me visit Ice Ring Isle, and traverse the ice and snow to retrieve a pair of iron boots. The challenge with this is that you have to melt the ice to get onto the island, and you only have five minutes to complete the task before it refreezes. I failed in my first attempt because I slipped off the ice, fell in a pool, and couldn’t find my way back up. Once I finally managed to get the boots, it was on to Gale Isle. I used the boots to walk across the island (it’s very windy, as the name suggests), and find the entrance to the Wind Temple, where I discovered that I need a friend to help me, and not just any friend. The person I needed lives in Forest Haven, one of the first places I visited in the game. To cut a long story short, I got my friend, Makar, and traveled back to Gale Isle with him. And there I stopped for the week, ready for the Wind Temple…
Other Stuff
It seems the Birthday Song–the one that everyone sings, but restaurants and movies can’t use because it’s still under copyright–may be going into the Public Domain at last. My blog lawyer friend, Dena Pawling linked to some articles discussing the case that is currently with a federal judge in California. It seems a law librarian uncovered a hitherto unknown book of songs from 1929 that contained this very tune (along with the words). Up to this point, it was thought the song originated from 1935, not quite old enough to be public property. If the judge rules that the song is actually old enough to be considered Public Domain, this could be a major blow to the Warner Music Group which has been collecting royalties on it for years. They will have to repay much of that revenue to the tune of many millions of dollars. See Dena’s article for details.
Easter’s just around the corner, and though the celebration of the Resurrection is, for me, not about chocolate bunnies, nevertheless, many in our culture go choco-wacko this time of year. A chocolatier in Brighton, England has taken the cocoa obsession one step further this year, and has made a chocolate bunny in the shape of her favorite actor, Benedict Cumberbatch. You can see a picture of her “Cumberbunny” at the Huffington Post article. Personally, I think it looks a bit creepy, but I’m sure there are plenty of Cumberbatch fans that will be drooling over that wee beastie!
CNN reported this week that Ray Tomlinson, the man who invented email, passed away at the age of 74. It seems he came up with the idea as a way to leave messages on other computers, back in the days when computers took up rooms, and were too expensive for anyone but governments, colleges, businesses, and research labs. Even the use of the “@” to designate the location of the addressee was Ray’s brainwave. He chose it because “it’s the only preposition on the keyboard.” It’s amazing to think that something so culturally pervasive was not the invention of the U.S. government, or IBM, or some other big business, but rather a guy in a Boston tech company trying to solve a problem.
Finally, did you see what’s number one on the Publishers Weekly Bestseller list? The Doctor Who Coloring Book! I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your notice that coloring books for adults are quite popular at the moment. Well, it seems my favorite Time Lord has joined in the fun, and is doing rather well for himself!
That’s all from me. Anything you want to share from the last week?
