A few items that may be of some interest:
Through the internet, I've just learned about a fascinating easter egg. There is a simple little song that shows up in a good number of games created by Nintendo, spanning at least 14 years. What the games all have in common is that their music was composed by a man named Kazumi Totaka. Hence, the song has been nicknamed Totaka's Song.
What's interesting about Totaka's Song is that it isn't a motif, a theme that worms its way into the games's soundtracks. Rather, the song is hidden in the games, generally in its original 8-bit form. Finding it could mean clicking somewhere where you're not supposed to click, or going to a certain screen and waiting for 3-5 minutes until the song starts playing. The song has been found in nearly every game that Totaka has worked on (and people are still searching for it in the games that he has worked on where it hasn't been uncovered yet).
I learned about the song through the blog Powet.tv, where they've made three videos now setting explaining the song's history and demonstrating it in various games. The first video can be found here and follow-up videos can be found here and here. The latest piece of the puzzle is that Totaka did the music for Wii Sports, the Wii's pack-in game in America. I'm now struggling to restrain myself from loading it up and sitting on all the various menu screens for 5 minutes at a time in the hopes of hearing it. Though, really, that would be a somewhat passive activity. I could probably do it while studying. Hmmmmm....
This morning I woke up with a strong urge to eat a tomatillo. Fortunately, I have some tomatillos on my windowsill in the kitchen, so I ate one. It was like eating a slightly-sour, green plum with no pit, and without the hardness of flesh one associates with a sour plum.
For those who are fans of 2D platformers, and especially those who are fans of 2D platformers that can be played on their computers, free of charge, using the arrow keys, Nintendo has created a winter-themed platformer called Mission in Snowdriftlad. You play a snowman in a bellhop hat making his way through a platformer world, avoiding the usual gamut of strange, cartoony creatures who don't like you for some reason. It's also a sort of advent calendar, with a new level being added every day through Christmas Eve. It's quite well made for a free on-line game, and you win various wallpapers, MP3s, and other such for finishing levels. Also, ads for Nintendo games appear in a side-window, so that's the corporate angle to the game. Still, fun, free, and computerized if that's your thing.
