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Alright, too much car talk, as was recently pointed out by a reader. Time for another edition of Le Linkage to move things in another direction! (Actually it was moving in another direction anyway, and there are another couple of car posts coming up. My sister’s car was just stolen, so I’m helping her find a car. Not that I’ll be discussing that, but I have a few more bits of info I think would be helpful for people looking to buy a used car. Now I’ll shut up and start this episode of Le Linkage.)

Searching for Free Music with Google: Using this page, look for any artist or any song and with the help of a special a Google search query, this site may well just find it for you. Heck, I even found stuff by Sun Yan Zi, which is almost impossible to come by in this side of the world.

Strangest grammatically correct English sentence: Really, if you’re into grammar and the weirdness of the English language then you’ll love this short article on the strangest grammatically correct sentence in English. After reading that, I thought of my own: “Dogs dogs dog dog dogs dogs dog,” which translates to “Dogs other dogs chase, chase dogs other dogs chase.” Can you come up with others?

Drivers! Glorious Windows Drivers!: There’s nothing I hate more about software than having to find drivers. The problem is especially bad if you’re using Windows, since the OS is pretty much useless unless you have the drivers needed for it to work properly with your computer. (In Linux this isn’t much of a problem.) Anyway, if you’re stuck for drivers, this site may just have what you need.

Hope, Despair and Memory: An essay by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel discusses why for him, hope without memory is like memory without hope. “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” This essay is especially powerful given recent world events.

Ubuntu System on a Memory Drive: The coolest thing about CD-based Linux distributions is the fact that you can have your Linux distro just about anywhere. The bad part is that with those distros, you really can’t save anything so you’re pretty much relegated to single session computing. Sure, you can set up printers, have programs load up at lightning speed, and even download stuff off the Web. But if you’re the type to tote your OS around on a CD for use in different places, you’re also probably the type that likes to customize his environment, and that’s where the problem is: one reboot and it’s all over. Well now, if you use Ubuntu, you can save your system settings (and other items) on a memory drive! Just plug this baby in and you have YOUR computer with YOUR stuff back, with just a CD and a memory card. How cool is that?!

Alan Watts MP3’s and Podcasts: If you enjoy eastern philosophy, but don’t have the time to read a bunch of texts, then the downloadable Alan Watts lessons are definitely for you. If you know who Watts is you’ll know the value of these recordings. If you’ve never heard of the guy, click on one of the links and find out a bit about him.

Online Game: Proximity: This game’s pretty simple: Place your pieces in such a way as to make most of the board yours. What gets complicated is the strategy involved in order to make it happen. Very addicting, fun game.

WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD, if you haven’t seen Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children yet.

I just finished watching (amazingly, for the first time) Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (AC).** Great movie, especially if you like CGI and action scenes. Much better than Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (TSW), but only if you know the Final Fantasy VII (FF7) storyline. (Otherwise, stick with TSW, where Sandra Bullock and Alec Baldwin lookalikes save the world from… itself. And ghosts.) Of course, like any other addiction, this one little taste of the amazing addicting FF7 storyline has spurred within me a hunger for more knowledge about the ever-expanding world of Cloud, Tifa, Aerith and the rest.

** Note: Since I wrote that I’ve seen the movie four more times, all within the span of about a week. It would’ve been more, but I’ve also spent time seeing all the extras, comentaries, and deleted footage. What can I say? I’m an extras junkie.

Anyway, I won’t get into explaining everything about the FF7 story world here, but if you (like me) neglected the world for almost a decade, here’s what’s been going on: a number of follow up backstories and after-the-event stories have been and will be released over the next couple of years. In fact, if you go to the FF7 Wikipedia page (which I recommend doing if you need a refresher), there are links there to all kinds of information about the new Compilation of Final Fantasy VII storilines:

Games: Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Snowboarding***, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, and Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode - Final Fantasy VII

***Note: The snowboarding game is based on the little snowboarding minigame within the game. It’s a simple game, so it’s been only released for mobile phones. Makes me wish they’d also release the Chocobo races (and raising) for mobile phones, as well as Final Fantasy X’s Blitzball game as a standalone.

Movies: Last Order: Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (Uhm… duh?)

Not Fan-Fiction Stories: On the Way to a Smile, and Maiden Who Travels the Planet.

Lots of stuff, I know. The cool thing about these is that you get to find out stuff like what happened between Cloud and Tifa in the years between FF7 and Advent Children (The Case of Denzel and The Case of Tifa, both of which make up On the Way to a Smile), and what Aerith found after she died (Maiden Who Travels the Planet). The downside is that it seems the FF7 writers couldn’t quite keep from altering their own histories a bit. (Nothing of massive significance, but enough to cheese more than a few diehards off.) Of course, after reading all of that, you may want to head to IGN and read the translation of the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega. Heck, you should probably head on out to the AdventChildren.net forums to read a full episode summary of Before Crisis, which has not yet been translated and may never be.

As I read all this, here are a couple of striking (at least to me) observations I made while reading all of this:

• When people die in this world, they go to the Lifestream, which is a bit like the Hades of Greek mythology. If you had a lot of regrets, then you were there in a prision of your own mind. If you lived a good, regret-free life, then you had a good afterlife. Eventually you sunk down into the lifestream and became one with the planet. Reminds me of the words of Milton: The human mind is a wonderful thing, for it can make a hell out of heaven and a heaven out of hell.
• What the heck is with the Zack guy?! He’s got to be the coolest character EVER! The dude gets his groove on with both Tifa and Aerith! Amazing. Even more amazing is that he’s such a frigg’n huge part of the story even though he’s a minor character (until Last Order, where he becomes a major character). Seriously, minor characters shouldn’t be allowed to be this cool.
  
• Turns out that Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy VII are related. Look to the Lifestream for answers on that one.

Anyway, what’s a bunch of info and spoilers without some video goodness, eh?

The following video is from FF7, and shows the last fight between Cloud and Sephiroth. (Features the Omnislash.)

By the way, to find out more about what exactly is going on, and why Cloud had to descend into the Lifestream to fight Sephiroth at the end of the game, you’ll have to read The Maiden Who Walks the Planet, which also explains why Aerith seems to keep popping up whenever Cloud’s in trouble or the plotline conveniently needs a loophole. Also explains more completely the backstory of Advent Children, and why it’s such a great story about forgiveness.

The following videos are from Kingdom Hearts, with Cloud and Sephiroth fighting, and a guest appearance by Tifa.

Of course, if you haven’t seen the movie, you can munch on this little bit, which, if nothing else, gives you a taste of the amazing (and fantastically unrealistic) fight scenes in through the movie. (Sorry, it’s in Japanese.) By the way, don’t miss the limit break at the end of the scene, a new version of the Omnislash.

Finally, what sudden fancy (and relapse into addiction) is complete without the “Which character are you?” quiz? According to Quizilla, turns out I’m one of the following, with only a one-answer difference:

Vincent was my first result. Do I agree with it? Actually… yes. But explaining that is another story entirely. (Read a few of my older articles, especially those on theology and philosophy, and you’ll begin to see why I say that.)

And that, as they say, is that.

One of my favorite games is the incredibly addicting Katamari Damacy. (I haven’t played any of the other ones, but it’s a safe bet I’ll like them, too.) From the start, one of my favorite things about this game has been the music, which with its lounge/jazz/rock feel not only matches the game’s wacky colors and animations incredibly well, but is also the kind of music that’ll make you feel good when you’re down, and when you’re not down, it’ll make you want to dance on the knee cap of a giant guitar-playing space king while cows, elephants, pandas, and animals sing a happy little Japanese song in a retro-70’s lounge style.

Now that I’ve weirded you out, check out the following links, where you can listen to some of this insanely fun music. Of course, if you’ve played the game, as you listen you’ll probably start smiling and thinking about that time you rolled up that football field, along with Godzilla and all those trees and sea monsters, or maybe about that other time, when you were in a race to roll up as many mice as possible because you liked the sound they made when they were rolled up into your katamari.

Katamari on the Swing

Que Sera Sera

Everlasting Love (from We ♥ Katamari, I think)

Katamari on the Rock - Main Theme to Katamari Damacy

That’s about what I found. If you like what you hear, you can purchase the sountrack over at places like Amazon.com or Animenation.com

Yes, it’s that time of the — well, whatever length of time between Le Linkage postings again. It’s time for another episode of Le Linkage, there. I’ve been trying to think of a good intro this time, but I can’t think of anything good, so just check out the links. At least those are good.

The World’s Biggest Diamond Mine: Originally, this was supposed to be the “world’s biggest hole”, but as it turns out there are a couple of man-made holes larger than this one. (Insert “I used to work for a bigger hole than that” joke here. And no gay jokes, please.) This set of pictures shows exactly how big this thing is: it’s so big, flying over it has been banned because it creates such a powerful and large vortex of air over it. (You can replace “it’s so big” with “your momma’s so fat…”) What’s even more interesting is that this hole — about a mile wide and half a mile deep — is found right in the middle of a town in Russia.

Let’s Complicate Some Issues: Don’t you hate it when some nutty left-winger comes up to you to tell you how wrong your conservative values are, and how obviously right they are because, let’s face it, it’s a simple issue? And what about when some nutty right-winger comes up to you to tell you how wrong your liberal values are, and how obviously right they are, because it’s a simple issues? In this essay, the author talks about the complexity of real life issues and why “the only way either liberals or conservatives can turn them into such exercises in obviousness is to omit big parts of the picture, [which] guarantees that we’re not seeing it accurately.”

Comic Book Foreign Policy (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3): I’ve been following this set of articles for a little while now, and they’re pretty interesting. The author talks about how the comic book industry is making comics a serious ground for political and ethical debate using today’s real-life issues. A must read for anyone who enjoys comics and politics, pro-war and anti-war alike. (As of this writing only three parts have been written. There’s still a fourth one to come.)

//Edit: Part 4 has been published.

Free Older Moves: The title says it all. Movies where the copyright has expired, which are now in the public domain, are made available here for download. (Bittorrent required.) Some greats and greatly bad are here, such as the infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space. I haven’t searched, but I don’t think Manos: The Hands of Fate has quite made it to this list. Yet.

English as a National Language: Does it Require Protection? “The problem isn’t just restricted to schools and papers. There are places in THE US of FREAKIN A that you can go and feel like a feel like you just crossed a border. Not only will English not be the residents first language, you’ll be lucky if it is spoken at all.” With the election-year politics dominating Washington, puff-my-patriotic-chest amendments such as the one making English the official national language of the United States are being brought up (again) by one side or the other in order to get the votes of single-issue voters. But does English really need protection as the National Language? (By the way, if the quote at the beginning sounded good, you’re in good company: it sounded good to all the people who agreed with you back when it was first written — in 1890.)

Chad Vader: What if instead of the Death Star, a dark lord of the Sith was in charge of your local supermarket? This hilarious Chanel101 Web series attempts to find out. Super hilarious!

Carbon Calculator: Interested in living a “Carbon Neutral” life? Let’s face it: unless you’re blinded by politics, you know that human activity is severely affecting the planet’s climate, making creating what’s been dubbed a “climate crisis”. While your government (local or national) may not be doing much to help protect the environment, you can find out how much you’re affecting the environment on a personal basis, and how much it would cost you to invest in technologies to help you be as “carbon neutral” as possible.

So, How Big is Earth Compared To…? If you’ve ever been in an astronomy class (or have ever been in an astronomy-themed conversation), you know that compared to Jupiter and the Sun, the earth is tiny. Do you realize exactly how tiny? The following images from 3D modeling software show how big Earth is compared to every planet from Mercury to Pluto (yes, I still count it as a planet) and the Sun, and how big the Sun is compared to other stars, such as Rigel, Aldelbaran, and Betelgeuse.

An Introduction to Buddhism: When first learning about Buddhism, it’s easy to get confused with terms like “rebirth”, “karma”, “eight-fold path”, “Skandhas”, “noble truths” — you get the drift. But if you’re interested in Buddhism, or just learning what it’s all about, this page offers a number of essays to help you get started. (I recommend starting with the Five Minute Introduction.)

For your viewing enjoyment. (I can almost guarantee you that these will end up decorating either one of my sites or some room in my house.)