I taught my final lab of the quarter today, though to be candid it was less of a class and more of a gluttonous smorgasbord with a few equations thrown in for good measure. You've done well when your students rejoice in being granted the privilege to bring you food. I still need to run a final exam review session and help grade the final, but overall my teaching task is nearly complete. I came strong out of the gate on homework this week too, so I should be able to start studying for my finals in the next few days. The first step will involve horrific abuse of my free printing rights.

Anyone giving serious thought to launching a lightning-based attack against me should reconsider due to certain acquisitions I may or may not have made. Just a fair warning.

One of my friends uses the "you got the thing!" sound effect from Zelda for his text message tone. Although I have many such tales, I will take a moment to spin the yarn concerning my favorite story whose main premise is Zelda-based sound effects, so gather 'round the crackling flame and listen now to the Legend of Kris. To call my high school Biology class extremely dull would take not a good Samaritan, but the greatest of Samaritans. Watching paint dry on CSPAN would have been more interesting, and the class was more somniferous than a flock of sheep counting each other on a warm, summer afternoon. Anyway, Kris turned to the handheld version of Link to the Past to alleviate these woes, and spent much of a few weeks playing through the excellent game. Just before a particularly soul-crushing lecture, he informed me that he would be facing down the final boss within minutes. Sure enough, towards the end of class, he had felled the beast. To notify me of his valiant feat he attempted to turn the volume on a tiny fraction but by some trick of fate and within the dead silence that only manifests itself during a lull in the most tragically stale of lectures, he accidently cranked the sound to its maximum limit and let blare this celebratory fanfare for all to hear. It was glorious.

Speaking of glory, multiplying matrices can be a truly magical experience, especially when the result is produced within the gaping maw of a mythical creature that was itself spawned from the hellfire of an erupting volcano (click to enlargify if you dare).

I will have more to say about Zelda and its musics when next I post, but I can't go much further without introducing its antagonist, the Great King of Evil, Ganondorf!

I told no lies about his awesome title, and Ganondorf easily lives up to it. The sworn foe of Link, this dark magician is always but a step away from dominating all of Hyrule, and his princess kidnapping powers are second in renown only to those of Bowser. His most famous incarnation is of course in immensely popular The Ocarina of Time (the awesome cinematic lasts until about 1:30, but you can check out the battle that follows if you want; note how all the Triforce holders are arrayed 50 seconds into the video!). For those keeping score at home, in that video Ganondorf not only played the organ in a malevolent manner (5 evil points) and swirled his cloak theatrically (5 evil points) but he also included the mark of a true villain: a booming and powerful laugh directed at the futility of the hero's struggles (15 evil points)! Note further that his lack of a fiendish mustache was easily countered by his blood-red, dagger-like eyebrows. I can also assure you that his menacing appearance has not diminished over time. Oh, and did I mention his propensity for transforming into giant monsters? Despite Link's best efforts, I suspect that Ganondorf will continue to be a thorn in the side of good for times long to come.