I've been an anime fan for a long time. The first shows I ever made a deliberate attempt to watch were, in order, Ranma 1/2, Oh! My Goddess, the original OAV version, and All-Purpose Catgirl Nuku-Nuku.

I was introduced to these shows, and others, by Mike, a fellow worker at the local hobby shop. He knew them all, nearly HAD them all, and wasn't afraid to tell you about them at the drop of a hat (coincidentally, just what does that mean? Is there some odd place where hat-dropping is considered a common signal?).

But even before those heady days of the early-to-mid-1990s anime scene, there was anime... and I was exposed to it quite early.

No, not Astro Boy. That would have been too easy. No, sometime around 1972 or '73, I was exposed to a show entitled PRINCE PLANET.

I honestly don't remember much about the show -- it WAS 30-some-odd-years ago, remember, and I was but a wee duckling -- but I remember "the medallion on his chest." (click that for the intro song!) I remember the color changing from black to white as his energy supply drained, I remember that it had the letter "P" on it, and I def'n'ly remember his war cry: "Peeeeeeeeeeee-KAPOW!"

But I never knew where it had come from. I didn't remember the name of the show, so I could never really look it up (or, more correctly, I didn't know that I needed to look it up). Today, however, I was googling something else at the Duck U. Bookstore, and there it was.

And, amazingly, when I loaded up the "theme song" link... I REMEMBERED THE SONG! Within a line or two, I was singing along and grinning like a goofball. 30 years or more have gone by since I last heard it, but no problem at all.

What really surprises me is that there are episodes on YouTube! I think I know what I'm doing during my lunchbreak tomorrow...

(UPDATE: Yeesh! It's a wonder I ever watched cartoons again!!!)

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:06 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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On Monday, Labor Day, I got to experience what a hurricane is like... at least for 45 minutes or so.

A heavy thunderstorm rolled in, spawned a funnel cloud about 2 miles from Pond Central (though it thankfully didn't touch down), and dumped up to 10 inches of rain. In 45 minutes. Throw in sustained winds of 45 mph (972,451 kilohertz per hour for my Overseas readers), with occasional gusts of 70-75 mph (2,387,563 - 4,522,895.391 kiloergs per shake), and it was, at some moments, exactly like a low-level hurricane.

To say that The Pond was choppy would be an understatement. There was a lot of flooding around here. A few of the major streets were flooded (the town of Duckford is built on rolling terrain), and there was pretty impressive video footage of cars up to their windshields in water at a couple of local mall parking lots.

Duck U., despite the flooding all around it, seemed to have escaped even minor damage... until this morning. The local flood abatement zone sits just to the north of the U., and as the water drained into it from all around, the level rose to record levels. Reports reached me at the Duck U. Bookstore that it was 'lapping overtop of the dam'.

Now, I've lived in Duckford for 30 years. That just didn't seem possible to me... and then the power went out. And stayed out. The Duck U. Physical Plant left a message on the campus phone system (which only about 40% of the phones was able to get, due to they way they're connected; fortunately the Bookstore's phone was one of the lucky 40%) first saying "the power could be restored by noon." It was 930am.

The local power company people must have disabused them of that notion, for around 1015am, the word came down: Duck U. is closed for the day. "They have no idea when the power'll be back on."

So... I get another day added to my Labor Day weekend! Whee!

I've lived in The Pond for six years, and I've NEVER seen a rain like that. There was water hitting the front door, which doesn't sound like much of a much, but considering that it's down a covered hallway, about 30 feet from the portal to nature? THAT's impressive, and it's never happened before.

We even made the Today show. Al Roker talked about the flooding Duckburg suffered! We's famous!

I mean, still famous, since a well-known and influential guitar-rock band is from here. *heh* Which one? I'm not tellin', but Bun E. knows...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:03 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Actually, I'm on a mini-vacation. It's Labor Day Weekend here in the States, where we get to celebrate the working stiff by... taking the day off.

Works for me.

So I've been doing a hefty amount of nuthin' the past few days. The Librarian came over on Friday night, and we (finally!) finished Firefly. My opinion of the show remains unchanged (i.e. 'If you haven't seen it, why are you still reading this? Go watch it now!'), though I think the episode 'Heart of Gold', which is on DVD4, is a clunker.

One not-so-good episode out of 13. I'll take that, thank you very much, and that one 'ehhh' episode has THIS exchange in it:

Cap'n: ...this is strictly volunteer.
Jayne: Not interested. Don't know 'em, don't wanna know 'em.
Cap'n: They're whores.
Jayne: (quickly) I'm in.

It's much funnier on the show.
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News has just come across my desk here at The Pond: Steve "Crocodile Annoyer" Irwin is dead. Stabbed in the chest by a stingray during filming of a tv special ironically entitled "World's Deadliest."

I only rarely saw the show, and that only when I was at my folks' place, for my mother liked it. My usual reactions were 'Steve, prozac is a miracle drug for many people' and 'Go crocs.' In other words, the end of his TV show is no loss for me. I hear tell, however, that he was something of a national hero to our 'Strine friends (of which there is at least one reader of The Pond). He also leaves behind a wife and a baby (remember? He dangled it in front of a croc a couple o' years back).

Crikey.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:00 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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