Hiding and Sneaking in Bushes and in Barrels

It seems that Sean Spicer is trying to take a page out of the book of some video games, as he literally hid amongst bushes and behind a tall hedge to try to avoid reporters. Naturally, the internet has has a field day with this.

Here is a choice quote from the Washington Post article above: "White House press secretary Sean Spicer wrapped up his brief interview with Fox Business from the White House grounds late Tuesday night and then disappeared into the shadows, huddling with his staff near a clump of bushes and then behind a tall hedge. To get back to his office, Spicer would have to pass a swarm of reporters wanting to know why President Trump suddenly decided to fire the FBI director."

Her clearly did not play enough Zelda games as a child. Here is how to properly sneak past people while hiding in a barrel.

We continue to live in a Coen Brothers movie. It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion (from a seat on the train, unfortunately).

Update: I just noticed the following tweet.

Spicer on phone to WaPo: 😡

"I was not IN the bushes!

I was AMONG the bushes!"

Editor: 🙄

Social media manager: 😎 pic.twitter.com/o8TJUsEPRy

— Prof Dynarski (@dynarski) May 11, 2017

Update (5/11/17): And then there's this beauty.

found this photo of sean spicer hiding between the bushes pic.twitter.com/YZOMCOvHZC

— David Mack (@davidmackau) May 10, 2017

Update (5/12/17): This Garden Spicer is pretty damn funny. (Tip of the cap to Maria Satterwhite, though I believe she shared a different article about the same item.)

Pac-Man Suit

If you truly want to show that you have Pac-Man fever, then try this suit and tie on for size.

This is clearly a must-wear for formal hall in Somerville. (Possibly along with my belt inspired by Legend of Zelda, which I have previously worn to formal hall.)

(Tip of the cap to Mike Gettle.)

Olympic Gymnast Uses Music From Zelda

OK, this is awesome! Olympic gymnast Elsa Garcia Rodriguez Blancas of Mexico used a medley of Zelda during her Olympic performance. Now that rocks! [And, as the article discusses, this isn't the first time she's done that. That's my kind of woman. :) ] This is just awesome beyond belief!

(Tip of the cap to Louis Wang.)

Boba Fett + Zelda + New York City Subway Station = Big Win!

Imagine somebody dressed as Boba Fett playing a rendition of the Lost Woods theme from The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time in a New York City subway station.

Done imagining? Good. Now watch what you just imagined.

(Tip of the cap to Louis Wang.)

Zelda at Caltech

This "real life" version of the Legend of Zelda was filmed at Caltech a few years ago. I'm not sure if it was done for anything along the lines of a Lloyd Movie or if it was done only for the Hell of it.

(Tip of the cap to Gary Wu.)

Illness + Ping Pong + Zelda

I have had an awful sore throat all day and I'm feeling very fatigued right now. I will try to fight it, but people have been getting sick around here the last couple of weeks and I think I may have finally succumbed. (I started feeling a little bit bad physically a few weeks ago, but it was thankfully a false alarm, as I felt fine the next morning.) Sigh...

I played ping pong today because I needed to skip last week to go to the Alison Moyet concert (about which I'll blog at some point) and I didn't want to skip two weeks in a row. I actually played pretty well despite how crappy I felt, and I did well against challenging competitors. A couple of the people I played today are particularly good practice opponents for me because their style of play forces me not to get overaggressive (by trying to kill a shot instead of just applying pressure to get a better shot the next time). Hence, playing them helps me develop better playing habits in general. They also often hit the ball to my backhand, and I have noticed that I have been getting a bit more consistent with my backhand as a result of practicing against them. (Well, my opponents tend to hit to my backhand so that they don't have to face the wrath of my forehand loop, but today was doing a couple of reasonable backhand loops, which is something I need to practice. My backhand needs to be stronger simply so that I can get more forehand shots and kill people with those.)

I also almost beat Zelda: Twilight Princess last night. Unfortunately, I had some trouble with the final battle against Ganon/Ganondorf and I ultimately died. My eyes and hands were tired, so I didn't try a second time yesterday. I'll try again in a week or so---I think I will take a break from Zelda and play some Super Paper Mario in the intervening time---but I am finally almost done with the game. It's about time too, as a couple of my students now keep asking me every week where I am in the game (and have now started asking me if I've finished). I feel like I can't let them down and I don't want to disappoint them by letting this game linger even longer than I already have. (I'm also planning to do the game's "Cave of Ordeals" before I start focusing on other games, though I may need to wait until spring break to do that because I suspect it might take several hours of real time to go through the whole thing. I probably will not bother getting all the special fighting moves, though one of my students tells me that those will really come in handy for the Cave of Ordeals. If I fail without those, I might go ahead and get those. I'm not going to bother collecting all the poes and golden bugs because that just isn't a good use of my time. I have OCD in numerous aspects of my life, but for the most part it doesn't extend to video games. I just don't get much enjoyment out of collecting everything in a game for its own sake.)

See! The third dungeon in Zelda: Twilight Princess is really hard!

OK, I feel vindicated now!

As this recent article in The California Tech demonstrates, I am not the only person who found the 3rd dungeon (the water dungeon) in Zelda: Twilight Princess. Some of you reading this will remember that I got very frustrated by it and kept putting it down for long periods of time on multiple occasions.

Well, many of you have probably heard of the program WikiScanner, "which traces back anonymous edits of Wikipedia entries to corresponding IP addresses and organizations that they are associated with, allowing users to uncover cases of companies, businesses, politicians, and others editing their own entries in a way that benefits them."

And guess how this program came about? It was because its author couldn't beat the 3rd dungeon of Twilight Princess! Here is the evidence in his own words:

“I was playing Zelda and I got all the way to the third dungeon, the water dungeon, and it was very hard,” explained Griffith. “I got very frustrated at the puzzle, I still haven’t beat it, so I had to go do something else. And that’s the only reason that the WikiScanner exists, because that dungeon is too hard.”

Given my experience with that dungeon, I can't overstate how much that quote amused me!

In related news, I really was in the mood to play Zelda today. I hope my stuff from the US arrives soon, so I can set up my Wii again (buying an appropriate new tv, if necessary). I really want to play Twilight Princess right now, although I have been dealing with my gaming needs by playing Civ IV. (I'm well on my way to another cultural victory.) Video games cost roughly twice as much here as I'm used to paying, so my plans for the forseeable future include buying my games in the US (and for the Wii, I have a US version of the system anyway, so I have to buy them that way). Sadly, I found out last night that Super Smash Brothers Brawl got delayed yet again, so it looks like that particular brand of four-player goodness will have to wait a bit. I have requests from people to... um... come over and play with my Wii, and while I can have some fun with some Wii sports to show off the system, I really want to get Super Smash Bros. Brawl and play multiplayer games with that.

I saw the signs (and they opened up my mind)

Last night, my life had one positive sign and another non-negative one. (By the way, I simply love how I'm using the word "sign" with positivity and non-negativity here... Sometimes it's really awesome how mathematical jargon mixes with the normal English usage of words.)

The (very!) positive sign was that I was finally feeling a strong urge to organize Legends of Caltech IV. I have been planning to write a rough outline for this. I intended to produce it when the third book came out, but I wasn't really in the mood to deal with it. In addition to that sudden urge, I was also in the mood to start contacting people to write or flesh out (depending on the story) the various stories Autumn and I know that we want to include in Legends IV. I didn't actually do any of these things last night, but the fact that I now want to start spending some time doing them is absolutely excellent news as far as my mental outlook on life is concerned. In particular, it means that the massive pain (in the ass) associated with producing Legends III is now starting to fade away to the extent that I am ready to start working on the next book now. I don't plan to dive into it completely yet, but I do want to get started. Autumn and I are definitely not going to start the clock for a while (we'll see where we are in a year), but right now I would say that the ETA is either May 2010 or May 2011 (depending on how strenuously we end up working on it).

The non-negative sign is that I played some Zelda: Twilight Princess last night. I haven't been playing that game or Super Paper Mario very much even though I would like to (because I've been doing other things). I made some nice progress on the 4th dungeon in Zelda last night. (Yes, I am only on the 4th dungeon even though I bought the game in March. I have twice gone more than a month without touching the game. This is certainly not my usual practice when it comes to Zelda games.)

By the way, please excuse the Ace of Base...

Finished with the third dungeon in Zelda: Twilight Princess

I finally got past the third dungeon in Zelda: Twilight Princess. About fucking time!

It's a start.

Amazon just got a new shipment of Twilight Princess for the Wii, so I ordered it. Now I can stare longingly at the game while I wait for my chance to buy a Wii without having to pay a lot of money or get out of bed too early (or not go to bed at all). (Ironically, this time I'm staring longingly at something because I don't have a Wii.)

This does give me some hope that Amazon may get some new Wii systems soon, and I won't repeat the mistake of my job search making me get caught flat-footed when I have an opportunity for the truly important things in life (by which I mean pre-ordering a Wii).

Additionally, I still have enough Amazon gift certificates left to put a serious dent in the amount of money I'll be coughing up out of pocket.