Neko Type-R
by Vince Tagle

Grade/Age level: Early Elementary(beginning typing) through adult.

Subject Area(s): English/Language Arts
      (spelling, writing, ect...)

Platform: Mac OS X

About Neko Type-R: 

"Run, kitty, run! *insert furious typing motions here* Neko Type-R is a small game I whipped up in 21 days for “Accelerated”, a racing themed contest that the fine folks over at iDevGames.com ran in January 2005. You must use your elite typing skills to race your cats to the finish line before the computer’s team does the same. Anyway, this game has been sitting on my hard drive for a while now and I’ve always wanted to go back and do more with it. However, I didn’t want to waste my time working on something that no one wasn’t going to enjoy. So I’m going to officially throw this release out into the public (after applying some updates to it so that it runs properly under 10.4) and see what kind of response I get. If you like this game and want me to work on it more, please e-mail me and let me know." -Vince Tagle

This is a simple and engaging educational game for learners of all ages. I have admittedly spent more time than I ever intended perfecting my 1337! typing skills...
Now if I can just get those darned cats out of my head...



Neko Type-R is available for free download from:
Apple - Downloads
Malarkey Software

pity this busy monster, manunkind,

not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victim (death and life safely beyond)

plays with the bigness of his littleness
--- electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange; lenses extend
unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
                         A world of made
is not a world of born --- pity poor flesh

and trees, poor stars and stones, but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical

ultraomnipotence. We doctors know

a hopeless case if --- listen: there's a hell
of a good universe next door; let's go.

 --E.E. Cummings

To cognizantly try and express the way one feels is an effort in futility. The very act of language and interpretation runs contrary to basic and fundamental human nature. Nature being the key word here. No matter what people try to convey to one another, it will never be received and experienced the way in which the person who was trying to do the conveying intended. Conveyance of ideas and feelings and beliefs cannot hope to be achieved by any person the way nature has built us. Turning chemical reactions and internal neuron firings into segmented, regimented vocal (sound wave) symbolisms for objective representation can never hope to fully convey the intended feeling. People are isolated, but are forced to try and communicate still.
This is why, when often confronted with writing as a means of necessary conveyance, we all will fall short. And it easily becomes a basis by which to understand much of human social behavior(s).
Seeking solace through written language is ultimately futile because it fails to appropriately explain human emotion or feeling or experience.
And it is at times like this that all efforts for spoken language seem irrelevant.

Yet, despite the shortcomings of expression, writing and art (as it is labeled), are the only concrete means by which to attempt inter-personal relation(s).

If this be so, then the power of written, not written, but say, concrete imagery becomes apparent; if it is the only means for true communication.

Some people can just inspire and inform you.

And how acknowledging and accepting what someone presents as concrete idea-forms, is what gives it power. Everyone's unique interpretation changes the amount of power concrete idea-forms can hold.

Man has long sought truth and meaning in the world around him. The constant human struggle is to find one's place in this world. Conditions of existence often seem to conspire against the pursuit of peace, happiness, and knowledge. The everyday trudge can take its toll and often times it is easy to lose track of who and what we are. We are carbon. We are air. We are water. We are the rocks and the trees. We are the rivers and the oceans. The mountains and the fields. We are all and nothing. You are me and I am you. There is nothing that cannot be taught, nothing that cannot be learned. We only need to be listening, for the silence within.