March 18, 2018
We Want YOU For The League!
Back in 2014, friend Ben contacted me about beginning a fantasy baseball league. In short, he had never played and wanted a... mentor, I guess. Someone to ask for advice on how a league works, what it all means, etc etc etc. I actually had to think about it for a while. I had literally just quit a league I had been in for 25 years the day before because I hadn't really enjoyed myself for three years or more. Now I'm being asked to play again? Oh, and it was going to be full of rookies, too.
Of course I said yes. Unsurprisingly, I won that season pretty handily. At various points during Season Two, I believed I was going to finish first in all 10 categories (five batting, five pitching). I didn't, in fact, but it was a near thing. Season Three saw my team move into first place for good on my birthday... but I could see that some of the other players in the league had "got it." Season Four was not going to be the walkover I'd had the previous three. I was right. I finished in second, but only after having to fight tooth-and-glove for it. Now I'm looking for revenge.
And this is where YOU come in. We've lost a player and need to fill the slot... and get more owners, too! Rookies and experienced players, it's okay, we'll take anybody! It's not even a big time-sink... once you're used to the interface, you can manage your team in just five minutes per day more or less. It doesn't cost anything to play, all you have to do is listen to my bloviating during the season! What could be better? For those who have played before, it's a standard 5x5, AL-only, snake-draft league. If you haven't played before, general information can be found here. Most of that post applies, the part about the auction doesn't.
So whatddya say? C'mon, let's play! Leave me a comment here, then head over to Midnite Tease and leave a message there... Ben'll get back to you! It'll be fun! Really. It will.
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March 15, 2018
Figure Foto Test Too
That's better.
Not thrilled with the shadow on the backdrop, but other than that I'm not complaining. It probably helps that the figure isn't as colorful as the last one. Actually, this figure just tickles me... "Hey, we've got a character from Love Live Sunshine!, a show about idols. She's statuesque, mature in appearance and attitude... let's put her in a sweater and bluejeans. And a trenchcoat." Classic, just classic.
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March 14, 2018
Stephen Hawking 1942 - 2018
I need to dig out my copy of A Brief History Of Time, I think. For old times sake.
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March 12, 2018
I Will Never Understand My Brain
Saturday night, somewhere around midnight. I'm listening to a playlist I found somewhere, apparently just random music when a song pops up: Don't Fear The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult. Yes, yes, the "more cowbell" song, ha ha very clever skit. Every time you listen to the song unironically an angel gets a Stratocaster, so forget you ever saw the skit. Anyway. That sent me on a tour of BOC's catalogue. Classics like friend Ben's favorite tune, Godzilla, or their tribute to Cthulhu, The Old Gods Return, or even Cities Aflame With Rock And Roll. It was at that point that I really realized:
They were nerds.
I mean, look at some of their other song titles: ETI (Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), Black Blade, Flaming Telepaths, Veteran of the Psychic Wars, Shooting Shark (which has one of the most '80s music videos ever), Shadow Warrior, and on and on and on. TOTALLY nerds. Which is actually really cool if you think about it... and yet, it feels like they would be wallflowers at the Metal Party, the outcasts who were only there because... well, you had to invite them. Then nobody would miss them when they left to go play D&D in Sandy's basement. Considering that... well, I can relate, is all I'm saying.
So I'm sitting here in Pond Central, enjoying a rare jam-out with a band's surprisingly good music list, when a track I haven't heard in literally decades comes on. And after the first line or two, it all comes back to me and I'm singing along. What song?
Why I remembered every word to the lyrics of this song, I can't even begin to tell you. Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure I want to know what childhood trauma burned this into my confused and confusing brain. That it falls into my current vocal range and I actually sounded kinda good singing along just makes it all the weirder.
Oh well. Hey everybody, big shocking news: Wonderduck's a nerd.
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March 11, 2018
Figure Foto Test
I can't shake the feeling that there's still something... off... with the colors. Oh, they're all correct, but... well. Since the whole thing only took a minute or two, I'm thinking it isn't bad at all.
UPDATE: This picture was taken using my Sony A3000 in Auto mode, using the ambient light at my computer desk at mid-afternoon. Sunlight, but filtered through a less-than-thick curtain, in other words. No fill light to speak of... this very literally took me two or three minutes tops to shoot, and that includes moving the figure and unpacking the camera. The resulting picture was then run through GIMP and Paint.net... each of them can do some things the other can't.... to process brightness/contrast and make some minor adjustments therein. The upshot of all of this was that the skintone now better matches the figure.
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March 09, 2018
This Week... This Week Will NOT Be A Keeper
I went to sleep Sunday night, all set to meet the coming week head-on and full of ginger.
The week went to hell immediately thereafter. Monday morning, I woke up a just long enough before my alarm clock that I could plod to the bathroom, do what needed to be done, then go back to sleep for... 40 minutes. Ugh. Right on the midpoint between getting up to start the day or going back to bed. Either way, I needed to use the facilities so I levered myself up out of bed... and came very very close to faceplanting into the floor. Ugh. Guess I'm still a little asleep, my balance is off.
No it wasn't. Well, actually, yes, yes it was, but not because I was still a little asleep. I made it into the bathroom by strength of will only... and the fact that the hallway that leads to it is relatively narrow. I sat on the throne, trying to figure out what was going on, and shook my head side to side... and very nearly ended up in the sink. Holy crepe. Eventually I made it back to my bed, at which point I discovered that, if I kept my head very still, there was very little spinning. Otherwise? Massively dizzy. Fortunately, I have a pillow made of very cheap memory foam that doesn't so much cradle your head as take a casting suitable for a highly detailed representation of your face. Even when I'm NOT dizzy it's sometimes difficult to turn my head in that thing. Using that, I was able to not move for about an hour (after adjusting my alarm). Eventually though I was forced to reach for my phone to turn the alarm off.
Once I managed that incredible feat, I cradled it gently in my hands. I had a decision to make. Do I call in sick to work? Do I just lay there, wait it out, then go into work? It didn't take overly long to make a decision. I called in at 830a, and much to my surprise my boss actually answered her phone on a Monday morning when payroll needed to be completed. I explained what was going on, she pointed out that I sounded congested, somewhere along the way I had the presence of mind to make a joke: "I'm going to have to play it by inner ear. Get it? Inner ear? Ha ha." She told me to get better and keep in touch.
So I stayed there, immobile in bed, for the next hour or so. Or, really, mostly immobile. It's very hard to stay completely still in my bed, mostly because it's old and a little not comfortable when you're trying to stay in one position for long periods of time. I generally have to refit my fitted bedsheet every few days because the way I toss and turn during the night pulls it free on one side or the other. Fortunately there was only one "I've gotta roll over" moment, about 15 minutes after talking to the boss.
After that hour was up, I gingerly attempted to sit up in bed... nothing. No spins, no nausea, no feeling of falling out of an airliner, nothing. It was like it had never happened. Except it had, and it freaked me the heck out. What if it came back when I was driving? That wouldn't be very good at all... and forget about processing claims, when it happened I would have had problems not falling out of a chair, let alone do anything that required thought. I didn't do much that day, though I took two intentional naps and one unintentional (sitting in front of the computer... zzzzz....).
The rest of the week was better than that, but that was hardly a high bar to clear. The claims were awful on Tuesday, we ran out of claims on Wednesday, Thursday I discovered that my paycheck had been shorted by about 1/3rd. I wasn't the only one, there had been a glitch in the system that played hob with the payment rates for some of us. I wasn't worried about it... I knew I'd get what I was owed sooner or later and I had enough in my account to keep me functional until then... but it's still not a nice feeling.
And today? Today wasn't bad. One good day, four not so good. Nope, not gonna put this one in the ol' scrapbook.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention something. I mentioned in passing somewhere or another that I think Radio LeMans's back catalog of races is something wonderful for people like me (ooh! The 24 hours of Silverstone is this weekend!) who need something to listen to. Well, on Wednesday this week, I began to listen to a new race. Yep, I had picked a random LeMans race, and had chosen... the last race to have a driver fatality, 2013. Ugh. Still, it was fascinating to listen to. I had forgotten most of the details, and even that it had happened in 2013. I'll tell you though, the minute of "silence", really just racing noise, at the finish of the 12th hour was surprisingly emotional. So, yeah... surprise!
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March 05, 2018
CV-2 Found
Is there a bigger money sink than sunken warship hunting? Think about it... you're looking for something relatively small in a very very big ocean when you have only the most general of ideas where to find your quarry, it likely traveled some distance after it went under the waves, making an uncertain search area even larger... oh, and it's at the bottom of an ocean. A long, long way down. It often takes years of searching and lots of tenuous funding to find a ship, a discovery that will excite some historians, ex-crew members, and maybe some media outlets looking for something interesting to report on when there's a slow news day.
Which is why all of us historians of the Pacific War, amateur and pro alike, should stop for a moment and give thanks that Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and the 46th richest person in the world with a net worth of more than $21 billion, seems to be willing to burn his money to go sunken warship hunting. Back in 2015 I mentioned his success in finding the Mushashi. He's tallied a number of other finds since then, the USS Ward and USS Indianapolis primary among them. Until today, when he nailed a big one indeed.
The USS Lexington (CV-2) was technically the US Navy's second full-sized aircraft carrier, with her sister ship USS Saratoga (CV-3) being completed a month before her. She was commissioned in December of 1927, and along with the Saratoga and the USS Langley, she helped codify the way the US Navy's way of operating aircraft carriers. She served until May 8th, 1942, when she was sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Of course we don't have any pictures of the ship in its entirety... or even any of the hull as of yet... but it's still early days, those are assuredly coming. They've already found seven TBD Devastators there on the bottom of the ocean, floated off or blown off the flight deck once the carrier went down. Seven Devastators... and at least one Wildcat.
Considering how long this F4F-3 has been on the ocean bottom, it really isn't in that bad of condition. More pics from the find can be found at Allen's website. Awfully cool, this. There will almost certainly be a video tour of the carrier soon, by the way... hopefully at some time where I can stay up and watch it!
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Using Analogy For Descriptive Purposes
"Formula 1 is Olympic fencing...
...NASCAR is large men in heavy armor swinging big swords at each other...
...Stadium Super Trucks is kids jumped up on handfuls of sugar and gallons of Mountain Dew hitting each other with nerf sticks."
I love it when an analogy comes together.
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March 03, 2018
VR... Finally Something GOOD
VR computing hasn't, for the most part, impressed me overmuch. Nerd³ has played a sizable assortment of such games... I'm not sure if my reaction to the games is because of his comments while playing, or just the games themselves, but either way the VR game experience just doesn't seem... ready... yet. It can look cool, and the potential is there to be amazing (a truly well-done VR War Thunder anybody?) but on the whole it seems more entertaining to watch than to play. An exception to this seems to be the better racing games... with a full steering rig it seems bloody amazing. That's almost certainly because you and I and Bob down the hall know what driving feels like and can interpolate that into the game itself.
And then there's Beat Saber.
Because wielding a light saber isn't enough, you've got to use a pair of them as drumsticks. OF COURSE! My first reaction when I saw this teaser was "that's a darn good track". My second was "let me see someone playing it so I can believe this isn't just some animation.
Request answered.
Now that just looks darn fun. I'd be crap at it, but it'd be fun anyway.
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March 01, 2018
Sometimes, Humanity Shows It Still Has Hope
As I was getting dressed for work this morning, or more correctly, dawdling over getting dressed for work this morning, I spied a post over at that Reddit place asking why people like music or songs in languages they do not understand. Now, I've participated in a few threads like this in the past and have a stock answer: "You're wondering why people like this?" But as I looked through the thread, two comments leaped out at me. The first was a relative newby asking for music from anime... "I've seen FMA, and that had good music. Is there anything better?" A few moments later, I had posted God Knows..., which even if you're tired of the whole Haruhi thing, you've got to admit is a pretty darn good song, Undine which is a beautiful song that can still bring me to tears, and my latest OP obsession, Live for Life from Ben-To!. I felt smug. Not for any good reason, I just felt like I had dropped a bomb on this rookie's musical world. As it turns out, the responses have been quite positive.
But it was the other comment I saw that was really important. It was from someone who's a big fan of K-Pop. Now I know practically nothing about K-Pop in general; Gangam Style and some other tunes I may have stumbled across here or there, but there was one burning question I needed to ask... "Do you know anything about the band Rubber Duckie?" While he didn't, another comment soon appeared: their album is available on eBay Korea, but no English site that they could find had it. Which made me sad. And then came a small miracle: "I found that song on Youtube for you."
It's been a crappy couple of weeks at work. I'm still getting over that bastard of a virus. My left hip hurts. I'm rather unhappy with a lot of things. But this?
This made me happy.
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February 27, 2018
*Groan*
Yes, I know there's a ton of things I could be writing about. For example, many of the new Formula 1 cars have been rolled out for realsies, they've all got a new doohicky that we can hate yet will get used to by midseason, and on and on... just like every new season! There's a bunch of anime that I need to catch back up on... After The Rain, Violet Evergarden, Citrus... I even have a couple of features that I want to write!
And I just can't. I'm trying, I really am, but I get out of work, and instead of doing things that need doing, I just come home and sleep. Or I eat, then I sleep. Or I get home, fire up the computer, and I just watch thought-provoking yootoob videos for a while, then I sleep. I know this is disappointing... believe me, I know... yet I'll have to ask you to bear with me while I get over this... this... whatever it is.
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February 25, 2018
Warning To Pirates, Yarrrr!
A few days ago, I found that one of the private trackers I'm part of was firing up red all over my torrent program. Nothing from that place was responding, but the other trackers still seemed to be working. Oh crap, have they gone away? I quickly visited the site, expecting to get a message saying they'd gotten a C&D, or had been DDoS'd into oblivion. Imagine my surprise when everything seemed to be fine! I looked in the attached forum and found out what was going on.
I've been using µTorrent for a very long time, long enough that I can't remember if I've ever used anything else. While it's been updated a gazillion times, I've kept using version 2.2.1 over the years... I gather there's been some adware built into the newer versions? Anyway, µTorrent has served me very well and faithfully. And the tracker site, which I've been using for nearly as long as I've used µTorrent, had blacklisted all versions of it. Apparently there's been a rather unpleasant security flaw discovered in it, and Bittorrent Inc lollygagged on patching it... to the tune of more than 90 days. When the flaw was announced after three months, Bittorrent finally released a patch that for all intents and purposes, didn't work. Oh, it broke the exploit, to be sure... but in such a way that it didn't actually fix the flaw. I'm not a software guy so my understanding may be incorrect, but from what I've read the patch took the metaphorical keypad lock that the exploit used... and moved it six inches to the left. When the exploit went looking for the keypad lock, it wasn't where it was supposed to be. Tah-dah, all fixed!
For, like, an hour. Then the guy who discovered the flaw in the first place "moved" the exploit and voila, vulnerability still around. Because of this, and because the patch only "fixed" the newest versions of µTorrent, the private tracker blacklisted it. As it turns out, the situation is a little more nuanced than that... for example, version 2.2.1 is apparently missing the keypad lock entirely and thus may not be vulnerable. The recommendation from everybody involved that isn't Bittorrent and µTorrent appears to be "move to a different program." While there are dozens of torrent programs out there, after a hour or two of research, I've decided to move The Pond to qBittorrent. It's open source, there are no ads involved, the exploit doesn't exist on it, and it appears to operate in a manner that's very familiar to µTorrent users. While I'd rather continue to use what I'm used to using, oh well. If you too hoist the black flag, you may want to look into this matter as well.
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February 22, 2018
Ducks In Anime: Take A Duck Camping
-Yuru Camp, Ep08
This season's best series marches on relaxedly, heading for the Great Camping Finale. Fortunately for all of us, there's still another four or five episodes to come. I'll be quite melancholy once it's over... it's just that sort of show. A bit of Comfy Camp before bed is what my entire Thursday is geared towards.
I actually had very high hopes for the show to give us a Ducks In Anime entry, what with all the hot springs we've seen and all. Turns out my reasoning was 100% sound, the duck just had nothing to do with camping whatsoever. Well, that's perfectly fine too. Ducks Is Ducks, and Comfy Camp is way too comfy.
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February 21, 2018
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Just in case you ever needed to know how to pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, here you go:
...bringing you answers to the important questions: Wonderduck's Pond.
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February 20, 2018
Still Ill
Surprisingly enough, my fever going away does NOT mean that I'm tip-top 100% yet!
I went back to work on Monday, and once I completed the eight hours I came home and went right to sleep. I am about to do the same right now... just wanted to let y'all know I'm still alive, still coughing.
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February 17, 2018
World Of Warships: I Admit My Error
Back in November of 2016, I wrote a little bit about the newest Tier VI ship in my collection, the American Cleveland-class light cruiser. At the time, I said "it's a good ship, I just hate it." There were a lot of reasons for that; I had enjoyed the ship just before it on the tech tree, the Omaha, immensely. Most of my best games up to that point had been in the Omaha, and if there is a bigger change in playstyle from the older torpedo-cruiser to the newer ship, I have yet to find it. The Cleveland's guns apparently has to lob shells into the stratosphere to get any sort of range with them, to the point that you can easily have two broadsides and maybe three (?) in the air at once. This means that you have to perform quite a bit of witchcraft to hit anything at long range... like a battleship needs to do at 20km. Problem is, you're a light cruiser firing 6" guns at 14km and you don't get a spotting aircraft.
And while you're no delicate snowflake, maybe having the most armor of any cruiser at this tier not named Graf Spee, anything larger than a 20mm Oerlikion can penetrate you... I can't tell you how often I've been sailing along and then suddenly everything goes quiet and the hp bar gets very very red very very fast. Yet, for all of that, I have a confession to make.
I was wrong about the Cleveland. I very much enjoy playing it nowadays... there's a certain joy out of watching your shells disappear off the screen, only to reappear two minutes later and completely deluge a target you predicted would be at that very point, which was approximately 500 miles from where the target ship had been when you fired. Or getting a lovely broadside shot on an Aoba and racking up 11 hits with six citadels and a 'Devastating Strike' award. Nope, she requires some fortune-telling to play well, but it's rewarding as all hell if you can pull it off.
Oh, and if you haven't been playing the weekly 'scenarios', start doing so. They're a blast and you get some nice rewards for 'em to boot.
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February 16, 2018
Manliness Level: Over 9000
There comes a time for everybody who is honest with themselves where they must admit that they are not, and never will be, the absolute best at something. There is always someone better. Case in point: Ranveer Singh.
Not even in my wildest dreams could I hope to match the level of manliness shown in this song, Malhari, from the 2015 movie Bajirao Mastani. Just watching it made my beard grow four inches. My mustache, no feeble thing in its own right, began to sob. And all I could do is think that, yes, this could be shoehorned into West Side Story fairly easily. I mean... damn.
Now I hope Ph.Duck drops by The Pond soon...
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February 15, 2018
Alien Rammed Ovipositor Down My Throat?
No. Not big enough for that. I did just launch something about three inches long and about twice as wide as a pencil out of my mouth. It took close to 15 minutes of coughing to get it out of my lungs, and I was surprised to see it was roughly the color of vanilla pudding. I mean, I like vanilla pudding and all, but at no time have I given commands to my body saying "generate vanilla pudding".
Right, sorry, sorry. Ah. Now I want vanilla pudding. I could even justify it by saying it'll sooth my sore throat. Sadly, I've already had groceries delivered today... I was nearly out of food and, more importantly, liquids. And cough drops. And, much to my chagrin, honey. $100 later, I am no longer out of food, liquids, cough drops and honey. Only now, some eight hours after the delivery arrived, I realize I need some other things. And I'm definitely still sick enough to not want to do very much. Well, let's look at Amazon, shall we?
Pfeh. The only pudding they carry is the need-to-make packs (too much work) and that pudding cup that doesn't need to be refrigerated (terrifying). Well, while I'm here, I'll just pre-order those manga volumes that come out on Tuesday. And that, dear friends, is about all I'm good for now. I'm pretty sure the fever has flared up again, and I just want to go back to sleep. Which I may just do.
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February 14, 2018
Instructions Unclear, Lung Ejected At Escape Velocity
So while at work on Tuesday I swallowed a piece of crumbly coffee cake before I was quite ready to do so, and it made me cough. Eh, it happens. There was still a tickle in my throat a few minutes later, and a swig of Mountain Dew failed to make it go away. Oh well, whatever. Coff coff coff, no big deal. I was still coughing when I left work, but nothing too bad. Well, there's a cough burning its way through the office, I was like one of five or six people with one.
Once I got home I had something to eat, finished the Kizumonowhatsit post, then took a four-hour nap. Keep that in mind later. When I woke up, I hacked and hacked and coughed and groaned. Whoopsie, I may have a problem here. Oh, and a headache. Once I went back to bed, I discovered something rather unfortunate... I couldn't sleep. There wasn't a single position that allowed me to lie in place without coughing. Somewhere around six in the morning one was found, finally... and then I was kinda cold.
Which, considering Pond Central's furnace was kicking out enough heat to power a Colorado-class battleship, was a problem. Oh, and I was wrapped in two down comforters. By all rights, I should have been drenched with sweat. Instead, I was getting cold shivers down my back. I sorta shook and quivered for an hour or so until my alarm went off, at which point I realized the only real sleep I had gotten... was during that nap earlier. Oh boy. The shower was nice and warm, and the massage feature beat the hell out of my scalp, just what Momzerduck's little boy needed. Or, at least it got me out to the car. I was breathing a little heavy though, and my pulse was higher than normal. Well that's weird.
Got to work, was out of breath again by the time I made it to my desk (to be fair, it's roughly six miles from the parking lot to my desk). Got the computer booting up and began hacking and whooping again. Oh jeez... this'll be a fun day. Slammed down a gatorade (blue, the only type we have in the vending machine) and some tylenol and got crackin'.
Within two hours, I had an obvious fever, the coughs were just wracking my throat to no end, and my head was doing the whole "piledriver" thing. And still I soldiered on. I took an early lunch break which I stretched to 45 minutes.... hey, 15 minutes extra sleep... and went back to my desk, like a good little worker.
There at my desk, I was feeling cold again so I pulled on the fleece jacket I brought in for just that reason. Shivers from my feet to my scalp. This ain't good. I draped my heavy winter jacket over my shoulders, cloak-style. Nothing. You could have set me on fire and I wouldn't have stopped shivering.
After 5h 20m, I gave up. I knocked on the door to the acting boss' office (note: boss is currently in hospital for pneumonia) and said I had to go to the doctor. Her reply was "took you long enough. Let me know what they say." So away I went to the medical clinic near Pond Central. The Nurse Practitioner that saw me was cute as a button and looked like she was about 12. I suspect she was older than that. Anyway, after a few tests ("let me stick this cotton swab up your nose"), she gave me the news.
I don't have pneumonia, and I don't have the flu. What I do have is officially listed as "unspecified respiratory infection." More informally, she said there's a flu-like virus going around the area. If my virus goes the way of the others she's seen, tomorrow should be the end of the worst of it (which I'm currently in now), and it'll ramp down from there. I'm not allowed to return to work until I've been 24 hours without a fever though.
Until then? Fluids, tylenol, rest, and honey. Gonna be a long couple of days.
UPDATE: It's 2am Thursday. I laid down for a couple of hours... very little coughing, but very little sleep. I sat up in bed and... discovered that my cough has changed. Before, it was a sharp barking sound occasionally accompanied from strange gargling sound like I was throwing up as I coughed. I wasn't, by the way. NOW, though... now my cough is a moist walrus sound. There is phlegm involved. This is for the best, I know, but... ugh. Fever is still there, but it's responding well to tylenol... in that the headache that comes with it is reduced. How the f*ck can something as small as a stinkin' virus cause so many damn problems???
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February 13, 2018
Random Anime Pictures #145: Stadium
-Kizumonogatari III movie
I'm not much of a fan of the Monogatari series. Oh, I watched the first one, sure, but now that there's... what? Two dozen of them? I lost track of what was next in the order and didn't enjoy the first one enough to bother. After that, I didn't much care. Until the Kizumonogatari series of films which I watched recently, and therein lies a tale.
As you may or may not be aware of, I have a job that requires mental distraction lest I go completely insane. I started out listening to music, graduated to a weekly podcast or two, and then matriculated to audio books (which my mind still calls "books on tape"). Recently, I've begun listening to endurance races via Radio LeMans and their archived broadcasts. A 24 hour race lasts me a good three or four days, depending on how hard I hit it... but I digress. Back to books on tape audio books. At one point, I wondered if any of the Haruhi Suzumiya light novels were available on Audible, so I went a-searchin'.
While the answer was "nope", I did find something vaguely interesting... there was an audio version of the chronologically first, but released... what, 254th?... book of NisiOisiN's Monogatari series, entitled Kizumonogatari. Now, I would not call myself a fan of this franchise... I watched most of the first season, realized I was spending more time reading the show than watching it, and just sort of... let it peter away. I basically watched it until I didn't anymore. Eh, it happens. However, I was incredibly bored so I picked up the audio book. It's only nine or 10 hours long, so it took me two days to listen to it. Decent enough, read and performed by three voice actors that I'm pretty sure worked on the English dub of one or another of the silver platter releases.
When I remembered that there was a movie release of Kizu, I tracked it down, discovered it was in three parts and nearly four hours in length, and settled in to watch it. And... I dunno how I feel about the thing. It's awful durn purty at times, like most of the SHAFT adaptations of the franchise, but it's also... um... well... it made me feel kinda greasy.
It's bloody, it comes close to hentai, violence is common, and in-between all that are characters that are, essentially, unlikable. Having said all that, or perhaps more because of it, the thing is actually rather brilliant more times than not. But I couldn't shake the feeling that it's one of those things you like because you're supposed to like it because that's what people say you're supposed to do.
So what does all this mean in the end? Well, I won't be recommending it to anybody that isn't already a fan of the Monogatari franchise, that's for darn sure. It's an art film, really, with all that moniker entails and suggests. But as I've written this post, I've actually rewatched the whole thing twice and not just because I was choosing screenshots. It just kept me watching.
Take that for what it's worth.
Posted by: Wonderduck at
07:56 PM
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