Four days ago, on Tuesday, Mario Kart DS came out. It’s a brand new game for the Nintendo DS. It’s the latest entry in the Mario Kart series. It’s the reason I bought my DS, and I’m so glad I did. I absolutely love it. It’s in my bag, back pocket, or hand everywhere I go.

I don’t want to write a full review of the game. Those of you who might be convinced to buy the system and/or the game will know where to look to find more information about it, so I don’t need to be redundant. I just want to mention one thing about it: wireless. This is the first Nintendo DS game that is able to use a common wireless router (the kind you find in many homes and most businesses) to communicate with other DS systems all over the world. If I want to find someone to race against right now, I can do that without even standing up and leaving my couch. No matter what time it is. It’s a blast! Due to the way the game is written, the races are always exciting, with an anything-can-happen vibe to them. The person currently in last place is almost as likely to win as the person currently in first. It even has an automatic feature that matches you with people who are approximately at your skill level. It’s worked pretty well for me so far.

If you prefer to race with people you actually know, the game has a special “friends-only” search mode. Each copy of the game has a unique 12-digit “friend code” that identifies you. Giving it to your friends allows them to find you online and race you more easily. And of course, if you’re all sitting around a table together, there’s a short-range wireless function too, so you can play without needing a wireless access point. I’ve just gotten to know a few other DS owners at Apple, and yesterday we got together and played Kart during lunch in the lobby of Infinite Loop 1. It was easily the most fun I’ve had with my DS ever. It’s awesome to see everyone get hit with a lightning bolt at the same time, and hear “Awwwwww!!!” simultaneously from four different people. Or hear people gasp as a person in the back hits their stride, gets a great item, and bashes their way to first place.

Today, I even considered taking it with me to the bathroom and playing in a stall with the sound turned down. I mean, I knew I was going to be in there for a little while, so why not, right? Then I realized that people in the stalls around me would occasionally hear me making frustrated little sounds. “Aw!”, “Ooo!” or “Crap!” To which the clever person in the stall next to me would probably respond, “Well, what did you expect?” I thought of this while sitting there in the bathroom (without the game, as my better judgement dictated) and I began to laugh out loud. So I can’t imagine that what actually happened sounded any better or more normal than what I was thinking could happen. Oh well.

If you’ve got a DS, or you’re a gamer of any kind, please consider getting this game. I guarantee you’ll love it. And if you already have it…

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Prepare yourself.

I’ve had Bob Dylan’s music recommended to me countless times, from many people I really respect. But up until now, I’ve never owned any of his stuff. I’ve decided that’s going to change this week, and I’d like your help.

For those of you who are more familiar with Dylan’s music, what’s a good “starter” album to get into Dylan?

A friend of mine introduced me to two new songs that I’ve really fallen in love with. One is light and fun, and the other is mysterious and beautiful.

The first is called "Future". You don’t have to think about it too deeply. You’re just free to enjoy it. The bass line and harmonies really take off about a minute and a half in. It makes me want to shuffle around and bob my head. Be warned: I have yet to resist its appeal!

The second song is titled "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois". Apparently it’s from an album that musically chronicles the history of Illinois. Its author, Sufjan Stevens, has already done an album for Michigan. Which state will he do next?!? Tell me! Also, please tell me the history of the name of Sufjan.

Check out these lyrics:

When the revenant came down
We couldn’t imagine what it was
In the spirit of three stars
The alien thing that took its form
Then to Lebanon
Oh, God
The flashing at night, the sirens grow and grow
Oh, history involved itself
Mysterious shade that took its form
Or what it was, incarnation
Three stars
Delivering signs and dusting from their eyes

I’m just amazed at the beauty of this song. I really love it. It’s thick. Please give it a listen. I honestly don’t know how anything could be bad when it comes from an album with a track titled "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!" I may have to just buy the whole album.

When I first heard that my favorite artist Beck was playing in Los Angeles, I snatched up tickets immediately, not knowing whether he would play anywhere closer to me. He eventually did schedule two shows nearer to me (Santa Cruz and San Jose), but Steph and I decided to make a weekend of it, and we drove down to Universal City (quite near Glendale, actually) to see him play on July 23rd. Of course we took the Hyundai. How could we not? This was the last show for this leg of the tour.

The concert was really great. I really appreciated the fact that almost none of the songs he did sounded like the album versions. They were reworked quite a bit, pieces were added or removed, and in many instances, several songs were smashed together into one big song. I guess I could call that a medley, if I were so inclined.

As far as visuals go, they had a live “video DJ” on the stage mixing visual images to go with the music (“scratchin’ DVDs” as Beck put it). It was really unique, and added a good bit to the music since it always went with the feel of the song quite well. They didn’t allow cameras, but I felt like breakin’ the law, so I snapped a horrible shot on my cameraphone. I know! It’s almost like you were there! There… and wearing fuzzy goggles, and squinting, and shaking. That’s the look of contraband, ladies and gentlemen. (Luckily I can count on a random Flickr user to bail me out. Those are from the show I saw.) I wish someone had caught him using some of his random stage props, like the construction helmet and megaphone, or the gigantic scissors, with which he feigned an impromptu haircut at the beginning of “Hotwax.”

On top of the visuals, Beck had five or six other guys with him on stage. One of these peeps was Ryan, the “world’s greatest dancer.” I seriously loved watching this guy dance. He danced like he was directing traffic and all the drivers were blind. You’ve just gotta see it to believe it. Lots of arm waving and jutting, lots of jumping, lots of punching and running and rolling. Hysterical and wonderful. The guy is skinny for a reason.

The sound this group was able to put out was massive and raw. E-PRO had me jumping up and down in Row U. I mean, I felt stupid, but I couldn’t help it. The jam worked all the way back to Row U. You’d regularly hear a sound and think, “What the heck is that?”, but just as soon, it would be replaced by another sound which was just as strange, and just as Beck. Personally, I could’ve used a pinch more vocoder, but I’m a sucker for vocoder.

My favorite part of the show may have been the acoustic section, where all the other band members sat at a table on stage and ate and drank (with Ryan as their waiter in a skinny black tie, white shirt, black pants, and white sneakers) while Beck just played his guitar and sang solo. It was a clear reminder that while, yes, Beck can go crazy and jam with the best of the Rock legends, he’s a folk artist at heart, and has a beautiful voice, too. The audience sang along passionately with “Lost Cause,” and guffawed with his partially-improvised rendition of “Deborah.” I think the line about the Hyundai was actually the climax of that version. Really nice.

I was surprised when he pulled out “Loser” after the band joined him again. I had thought he might be one of those artists who tries to forget their past, but he was apparently not ashamed, and that’s good. I just wish he had done “Mighty Good Leader.”

Well, that’ll have to do for now. I’ve gotta sleep. I encourage you all to see the show if you enjoy his stuff. If you don’t, then don’t. Especially if TV Sheriff is opening.

I’ve been playing with the “Translation” widget in Tiger’s Dashboard, which uses SYSTRAN technology to translate between a number of different languages.

One of the most interesting things about the widget is that it has a button which can reverse the direction of the translation at any given moment. In other words, if I type an English phrase in and convert it to Japanese, with a single click of the button, I can convert that Japanese phrase back to English.

This is probably most useful when you’re having a conversation with someone and you need to use this widget as a translator, but as anyone who witnessed the All Your Base phenomenon knows, mistranslation can be really fun, and re-translating text can be fertile ground for some really funny mental images.

So I decided to throw a phrase at the widget and run it through the translator a few times to see what came out. I started simple with, “When I wake up in the morning, I drink Pepsi.” (That’s true, by the way.) The translation went through Japanese and came back “When I awake during morning, I drink Pepsi-Cola.” Okay, pretty close. I ran it through a few more times and got these:

• When I become aware between morning, I drink the Pepsi-Cola cola
• When I become aware in Asama, I drink the cola of the Pepsi-Cola cola
• When I become aware with Asama, I drink the cola of the cola of the Pepsi-Cola cola

At this point it started to sound like a camp song, sung by enthusiastic teenagers who are exited to be up past 11pm, sitting around a fire pit in the woods. Eventually it became, “When the cola of the cola of the cola of the cola of Asama was drunk, at the point where cola I of the cola of the cola of the cola of my Pepsi-Cola cola becomes aware the point.” I think somewhere in there the cola became sentient, which is pretty exciting. Perhaps this is why Japan is so far ahead of us in robotics! Let’s not even ask why I’m waking up with Asama. I hardly even know Asama! And as if that’s not bad enough, Asama is apparently inebriated.

So for you Tiger users, I’d like you to pick a phrase and a “filter language” (the true mistranslation lovers will always choose Japanese, but you’re free to do as you like) and run your phrase through a few times. Let’s see your progressions in the comments!

I just love it when Penny Arcade totally understands me.

I’ve just discovered, via the magic of the Interweb, a set of astoundingly high-quality covers of the music from Super Mario World on Archive.org. But it’s not what you’re probably thinking. You’ve heard covers of this music before, and they’re usually just a bunch of stupid samples from the original game cut together with some crappy techno music.

These recordings, on the other hand, must have been done by a group of professional musicians (or, as it turns out, one multi-talented individual). I urge you, if you’ve heard the Super Mario World music even once, download these tunes immediately. This man, Jason Cox, has translated the entire thing into something totally new. It’s all being done with real instruments. Acoustic guitars, banjos, harmonicas, mandolins, electric guitars, bass guitars, keyboards, percussion of all sorts. I am so incredibly pleased with the outcome that I’m actually getting tears in my eyes just listening to it.

Go! Download it now! If you don’t know which link to click on, just click here. That’ll get you high-quality versions of all the songs.

My favorite is track 13, presumably called “Star Road.” Wow.