F1 On SPEED!: Australia 2012

It's been a long time since we last met back in November of 2011.  We were in Brazil back then, watching Seb Vettel take home his second consecutive Driver's Championship at the end of long and, let's face it, kinda dull season.  However, Formula 1, being what it is, always begins anew.  You know that things are starting up again when the teams drag themselves into Melbourne, their cars crated and palletized.

And such it is today as the 2012 season cranks into life!  It's back, baby!  Let's take a look at the trackmap for the traditional first race on the calendar, the Australian Grand Prix!

There's not a lot that I can say about the Melbourne circuit that I've not mentioned in the past.  While it's technically a street circuit, being run on the public roads and parking lots that go through Albert Park just south of the center of the city, it races much more like a standard road circuit.  Or, to put it another way, it's less like Singapore and more like Silverstone.  This is a good thing.  Drivers universally praise the circuit, believing it to be easy to get used to, but not so easy as to be boring.  There's a distinct sense of "going someplace" when you race in Melbourne, courtesy of the splendid scenery provided by... well, Albert Park isn't called a "park" because you leave your car there while you go to work.

Unfortunately, there's a vocal (and loudly so) group of politicians and residents that want Melbourne to dump the race altogether.  Too loud, too eco-unfriendly, too expensive, you name it, they've yodeled about it.  Bernie "The Troll" Ecclestone, with his wonderful sense of history and style, agrees with them and thinks the race should go away.  We should enjoy this wonderful spectacle while we can, methinks.

Other than the usual bits about the circuit having not so much runoff area, fencing ridiculously near the track, and lots of painted lines on the racing surface that can play hob with grip, the big news for this year is that there'll be two DRS zones, as opposed to the last year's one.  Undoubtedly one will be on the front straight.  The location of the second is anybody's guess... I'm thinking the run from Turn 2 to Turn 3.  There really isn't any other place for it, unless you put it on the "straight" from Turn 10 to 11, which is actually a curve that needs the traction provided by the rear wing.  Then again, nothing like multi-million dollar cars careening through a catchfence and ending up in the lake to make the race go away, am I right?

It's all moot for this year, however... there WILL be a race, and the good cobbers at SPEED will be bringing us all the coverage with their usual aplomb and bonhomie.  Here's the schedule, which begins on Thursday:

Thursday: 830p - 10p  P1 streaming
Friday: 1230a - 210a  P2 live
            10p - 11p  P3 streaming
Saturday: 1a - 230a  Quals plausibly live
Sunday: 1230a - 3a  Grand Prix of Australia live
              1p - 330p GP of Australia replay

Now for a bit of Wonderduck scheduling.  There's pretty much no way I'll be able to provide coverage of P2, as there's an event at Duck U Friday night.  I'll be there from 815a to approximately 10p, give or take a half hour.  By the time I get back to Pond Central, it'll be 1030p and I'll be staring Quals dead in the face.  The good news is that I'll be trying to liveblog P1 right here at The Pond... nothing like starting the season off right, right?

F1's back, folks... let's see if we can't make it a good'un... and yes, I said "we."  I welcome, nay, nigh on require, all your questions and comments, educated or neophyte.  It makes it a lot easier if y'all participate!  Fair dinkum?  Fosters for everybody and I'll throw a few pounds of prawns on the barbie... mind the wallabies and the sugar gliders!

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High School Of The Dead Ep01

There are times when I greatly enjoy blogging.  Where the intellectual stimulation it provides makes the sky blue, the birdies sing, my toes tingle and puts a big cheesy grin upon my face.  And then there are the times when I spend days banging my head against any convenient sturdy surface while trying to figure out how to deal with a topic.  Can you guess which one of these two options I've been experiencing as I've watched and rewatched the first episode of High School Of The Dead?  Don't get me wrong, I really like this show, but writing about an action series can be frustrating in the extreme.  But enough about my problems, let's get on with why you're really here... the zombie apocalypse!

"I stayed up late the night before the world came to an end" says the unnamed narrator.  Of course, he's a high school student... chances are he stays up late every night.  I did when I was a high schooler, even though I didn't have any reason to... I was a good little student.  Still, the drama is higher with the world ending than, say, "I stayed up late the night before one of my socks disappeared." 

Suddenly, zombies!  The walking dead!  Draugr!  Oh, and three allegedly non-zombie kids running across the roof of a school, armed with a baseball bat, a pointed stick, and a bloody bandage.  Wait, what?

A brief skirmish points out that the only way to kill the Shambling Deceased is to hit 'em in the head, and they that appear to be unstoppable otherwise.  Slow, but unstoppable.  Our heroes gain the heights of the Observatory Platform, and after saying that, I would like to point out that schools in Japan get all the cool stuff... an observatory?  Really?  I mean, yeah sure, my high school had a radio station, but I hand-wound the transmitter's antenna for pete's sake.  It had a range of about 100 yards!  We didn't have no frickin' observatory.  We did have ducks though, and that makes up for a lot.  If we DID have an observatory, I think there's a fair chance I wouldn't be sitting here, hammering on my keyboard on a weekend, but I digress.  The uninjured fellow takes one look at the Waddling Cadavers and yells to the heavens "What the hell is going on?!?!"   

High School Of The Dead, that's what's going on... and you're right in the middle of it, buster!
more...

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Tank Witch

Over at Steven's place, a discussion about the new Strike Witches movie is going on.  Over there, I mentioned that I'd kill to see some Tank Witches involved.  Reader Siergen wonders what a Tank Witch would look like, since they've not been animated, and Steven says their legs look like the lower half of Robby The Robot.  Still, that doesn't really clear anything up.  Fortunately, I can do a little better than that!

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce Elizabeth, a Britannia M4A1 (Early) Sherman Tank Witch!  She normally sits on top of my computer, guarding the external hard drives.  She ended up at Pond Central thanks to the good graces of Avatar, who sent her my way last year.  According to the light novels, since they don't have to fly, a Tank Witch can use more of her magic ability for her shields, much like a tank is more heavily protected than a fighter plane.  They're obviously slower, however, so there are tradeoffs.  Still no pants, though.

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Saturday Night Tunage XIII : Friday Night Fish Fry!

Saturday Night Tunage, starring DJ Wonderduck, has returned!  "But DJ Wonderduck," I hear you saying, "it's not Saturday.  How can it be time for Saturday Night Tunage?"  Well, there's an interesting story behind that... originally, this series was to be on Friday, and be called "The Friday Night Fish Fry, with DJ Wonderduck."  Kinda like the title of this post, actually.

Okay, it wasn't that interesting of a story.  But it was a story, no way you can deny that!  Anyway!  You don't come to Saturday Night Tunage The Friday Night Fish Fry to hear stories, you come for the music... so let's get right to it!  And we've got a theme, to boot... Wonderduck goes to Minnesota!  And I swear that it's all true to the best of my memories.  The coincidences are firmly entrenched in my brain.

more...

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The Best Laid Plans Of Ducks And Men...

Well, I had planned to do intensive work on the first installment of HSOTD: The Episodic Review, but I got sidetracked.  Bad Wonderduck... and I've just realized that I can add words to Firefoxy's dictionary, so now I don't get the evil red squiggle under "Wonderduck" anymore.  That just made the night worthwhile.

Yes, it's that easy to make nights worthwhile here at Pond Central. 
more...

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F1 Mini-MegaPr0n: The Little Sisters Of The Poor

Preseason testing is over.  Twelve days of (essentially) unlimited running is complete.  We're now less than two weeks away from the first race of the new F1 season... and the worst two teams on the grid, HRT and Marussia (the team formerly known as Virgin, or TTFKAV), have finally debuted their 2012 runners.  Just in time to pack 'em up and ship 'em out to Melbourne.  No testing, no practice time, no nothing... but hey, the cars are ready.  I guess.  Maybe.  Meh.  Both HRT and TTFKAV failed mandatory crash tests, keeping them off the track.  Not a good sign, but they're ready now.

Y'know, say what you want about the team, and lord knows I will, but HRT has a good sense of what livery colors look good.  I mean, last year there was the "begging livery", which pretty much captured the essence of every kid's idea of how a racecar should look.  This time, it's a bit of a cap-tip to Force India's first two paintjobs.  Appropriate, considering that Tata Motors is a major sponsor.  Oh, the car?  Well, the F112's nose seems weird.  Maybe it's the paint, with the gold outlining the underside, but it sure looks like it's higher than other teams'.  The platypus seems to be less pronounced, as well.  From there back, though, it kinda looks like the team put last year's chassis in an oven and let it get all melty.

Otherwise, it looks quite a bit like other team's cars... which is a good thing for HRT.  Means they are getting closer to the rest of the pack, design-wise... and with two season's worth of data under their belts, they should start getting results.  In theory, at least.

Now, onto the team that's been the worst on the grid for their entire life: TTFKAV!

If you had told me that Marussia/Virgin/TTFKAV would be the only other team to use McLaren's styling for the platypus, I would have laughed at you.  Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes couldn't/didn't, but Marussia did?  Pshaaaaah, right.  Except for the whole "technical partnership" between the two teams that I forgot about, but still, c'mon.

According to the team, the MR01 has very little in common with last year's VR-02.  That's undoubtedly a good thing, but it could also be a case of "starting over from scratch."  We'll find out soon enough.  I'm still stunned by the nose.  No shelf, no drop... just like the McLaren.  The rest of the chassis looks pretty conventional, at least by the 2012 definition of "conventional."  Just like HRT, they'll begin the season on the wrong foot, with no testing and no idea what problems are waiting to bite them in the butt.  A team like one of the big four?  They could maybe get away with no testing, but you know they'd hate it and they'd probably wind up flushing the season early.  If Marussia or HRT are smart, they'll be using this season as nothing more than a really long testing session for 2013.

It's almost back. 

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:32 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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The Polls Are Now Closed

The votes are in.  The Pond Scum has spoken.  The next series that I'll be doing an episodic recap for is High School Of The Dead.

Considering that it was my favorite show in 2010, this will hardly be a chore.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the best anime series of 2010, just the one I enjoyed the most, the one I most looked forward to watching.  Considering that Season 3 of Hidamari Sketch ran that year, as did Amagami SS, Sora no Woto, Strike Witches S2 and Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor, all of which I greatly enjoyed, that's really saying something.  Heck, I'm even reading the manga for HSotD as well, and I don't read all that much manga.

However, I will say that this wasn't the show I hoped would win.  If I hadn't of opened the choice up to voting, I probably would have done Blood-C.  There's a lot more train-wreckage in that one, though it did all make sense... eventually.  I may even still do it sometime down the road.  Alas, only DiGiKerot and David voted for it.  I'll admit that I threw Library Wars into the mix because I actually enjoyed the show; yes, that's right, I was one of the few. 

Which brings me to Black Lagoon.  It's outstanding.  It's one of the best anime series I've ever seen.  It's also grimmer than the Warhammer 40K universe.  It takes a lot to make the Zombie Apocalypse seem light and fluffy, but in comparison to Black Lagoon, pretty much anything is cotton candy and unicorns farting rainbows.  Having said all that, it might have been interesting to recap, but all in all I think I'm glad it didn't win.  Though, it is a shame I won't get to say anything officially about this scene:

...because it's an Elco 80' PT boat firing two Mk8 torpedoes at a Mi-24 "Hind" helicopter, and you just don't get much of a chance to say things like that very often.

So the final counts were:
High School of the Dead - 9 votes
Black Lagoon - 5 votes
Blood C - 2 vote
Library Wars - just watching.

Stay tuned for the first recap of HSotD, coming awfully soon.

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Voting Is Now Open

That's right, you read that correctly.  I have an urge.  I have a need.  I have an itch, which the doctor gave me an ointment for but never mind that now.  I have... a hunger.  I must do my annual episodic series recap.  Two years ago, it was Ga-Rei Zero.  Last year, Rio Rainbow Gate! was both my muse and my bane.  And now, it is time for me to strike whimper suck recap again... and I'm going to let YOU, my endearing readers that I lovingly call The Pond Scum, vote on what series I'll do.  Here are the candidates:

High School Of The Dead

Zombie Apocalypse meets Japanese High Schoolers in a fight to the death... undeath... whatever.  Great action, hideously top-heavy female character designs, comedy... what's not to like?

Toshokan Sensou (Library Wars)

In the not-too-distant future (next Sunday A.D.), the Government cracks down on books and magazines it deems offensive.  Naturally, the nation's librarians take up arms against the oppressors.  Or something like that.  Not terrible art, some fun times, action, romance... what's not to like?

Black Lagoon

The times are grim.  The times are dark.  Nuns and maids are heavily armed.  And everybody has a toothache.  Violence, awfully black humor, good art, and you see a helicopter shot down by a torpedo.  For what it's worth, the seiyuu for Revy, Megumi Toyoguchi, has a voice like liquid sex... not that you'll be able to hear it on here.

Blood-C

Schoolgirl is a little klutzy, a little dim, quite friendly, and able to kill everybody within a 50m radius using her sword without breaking a sweat.  Fortunately, she's just a demon hunter.  Or is she?  Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!  The most recent show of the four, it's got the best art and the worst hairstyle I've ever seen (see above).  Also: grim, dark, toothache.  Or is it?

So those are your choices.  Consider them wisely, for your mind may be at stake.  Mine is already forfeit.  Balloting is open until 1159pm Sunday, March 4th.  One vote per reader (unless you're from Chicago).  Leave your choice in the comments.  No write-ins.  The top rung is not to be used as a step.  Huh, will you look at that: "breach hull, all die."  I even had it underlined.  Make your picks, place your bets!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:27 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
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Crowdsourcing

There are terms in this world that I really am not fond of.  For example, "drilling down" is one of them.  It's not good enough that we're discovering the sources of something, heavens no.  We have to drill down instead.  Corporate-speak in all its myriad forms is annoying to me to be honest, but "drilling down" just happened to be on my mind just now.  "Downsizing" and its more offensive derivative "rightsizing" are horrid enough to make my skin crawl.

Another of these cutesy fauxspeak words that's slowly crawled into the modern lexicon is "crowdsourcing".  Take any problem and send it out to the invisible masses on the far side of their computer monitors.  These masses will come back with possible solutions, perhaps quite ingenious ones.  Katawa Shoujo could sorta be considered a crowdsourced project, in a way.  The Oxford English Dictionary was, from the very start, crowdsourced.  I really don't like the term, but there you are. 

I recently stumbled over a great example of crowdsourcing, one that just couldn't occur at any time before now.

more...

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Happy Leap Day!

In case you're wondering, the title of the post and the content don't, in point of fact, have anything to do with each other.  Why do you ask?

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That Was The Weirdest Thing I've Ever Seen On A Racetrack

On Lap 157 of tonight's Daytona 500, David Stremme blew an engine, bringing out the yellow flag.  Debris from the engine covered the track near the entry to Turn 3, and a "JetDry" truck was called out to blow the garbage out of the turn.  A JetDry truck is a pickup truck towing a helicopter jet engine behind it.  It's usually used to, well, dry the asphalt after it rains.  It carries around 200 gallons of jet fuel.

On Lap 160, still under the yellow flag, former F1 driver Juan Pablo (aka The Pope) Montoya came off of pit lane and brought himself up to speed to catch up with the rest of the field.  As he approached Turn 3, something visibly broke on his car.  Sparks spilled out from underneath, he got sideways, and he skidded directly into the back and side of the JetDry truck.

There was a sudden fireball, presumably from the #42 car as it had its front end completely destroyed, and both vehicles came to a halt.  The JetDry truck was at the top of the banking, Montoya's car was burning merrily in the infield.  Montoya quickly got out of his car and walked away.  Meanwhile, a track worker ran up the banking to help the driver of the truck... and then we noticed the liquid pouring out the back of the truck.  The track worker got the driver out of the truck, and they walked away from the truck.  Then the inevitable occurred.

200 gallons of jet fuel and an oversized tank of diesel went up.  The fire stretched all the way down the 31° banking.  The emergency crews began to use fire extinguishers to try and contain the blaze, but they sure didn't do much.  The explosion that followed threw up a fireball that was dramatic but pretty localized.  Then the heavy equipment showed up, both on the infield and outside the catch fence.

That finally got the fire under control and extinguished.  Montoya has been checked at the infield care center and released.  The driver of the truck is at the local hospital for observation, but he's resting comfortably and is reportedly okay.  Probably needs to change his shorts, though.  There appears to be some damage to the asphalt on the circuit, but NASCAR is saying they'll be restarting the race eventually.  As is, the 500 has been under a red flag for an hour or so as they try to get everything cleared up.  A video can be seen here. 

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:04 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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My Lexington Story

A couple of weeks ago, I'm walking up the hill from the main parking lot to the Duck U Bookstore trying to avoid the worst of the slippery spots, when a late-model Chrysler sedan pulled into one of the handicapped spots by the door.  The driver, an elderly woman, began to get out of the car as I changed course to help her if need be.  I glanced at the license plate, noticed the car's color, and began to laugh long and hard.

The woman shot me a nasty look, and I realized she probably thought I was laughing at her, not what I had just noticed.  Unable to speak from laughing so hard, I did what I could: I pointed at the license plate, then waved my hand vaguely towards the rest of the car.  Then she realized that I got the joke... and smiled, saying "Most people don't understand." 

Chuckling, I offered her my arm, which she took gratefully.  Walking into the school building the Bookstore is located in, I inquired when her husband had been in the Navy.  "1944; I didn't meet him until 1950, when I was 20."  Her husband passed away a couple of years ago, but she still kept the license plate the way he wanted it.  After we got into the building, I bid her good day... and she thanked me for both my help and for remembering my history.  "He would have talked your ear off, you know.  He could do that," she said with a gleam in her eye.  I replied with "I've got two," which made her laugh.

What made me laugh so much to begin with?  The license plate read "CV 16 USN".  The car was painted dark blue.

CV-16 was better known as USS Lexington, one of the multitude of Essex-class carriers that joined the fleet in the second half of the Pacific War.  She was the only fleet carrier never to have pattern-disrupting camouflage applied to it, wearing instead Measure 21 ("Navy Blue" hull and deck overall) for the entire war.  This paint scheme led the Japanese to give her the nickname "The Blue Ghost."

They also claimed to have sunk her four times.  While she did take some damage during the war, it was never particularly serious.  Post-war, she continued to serve until 1991, the last of the Essex-class carriers to be retired.  She's now a museum ship in Corpus Christie, Texas.

CXT figured out the mystery ship, so he gets another post...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:48 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Name This Mystery Ship XIII

Here we go again!  One neat thing about this ship is that I've got a personal story to tell about it...

As usual, no imagesearch or anything like that.  I may not be able to prevent you from doing it, but you're less of a human being for doing so.  As is usual, the first to accurately name the ship will get a post on a topic of their choice, as long as it doesn't involve religion, politics or pr0n.

I'll tell the story when an accurate ID is made.  Good luck!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:36 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Happy Fun Time!

As you may remember, the next step in my quest to become the Manager of the Duck U Bookstore was to have been an interview with my Regional Manager on Wednesday.  As one would expect, I was busy vacuuming the store Tuesday afternoon in preparation for his visit, not to mention obsessing over whether or not everything looked okay... "do I need to refold those t-shirts?  They aren't all positioned exactly in line with each other, though you'd likely need a laser micrometer to detect the variance..." and trying to figure out if I needed to purchase a new dress shirt for the interview when the RM walked in.

I believe I am rightfully proud that I did not, in fact, pee myself in surprise and fright.  My high-pitched keen of terror did cause every dog within a five-mile radius to come charging to the Duck U Bookstore, however.  Either oblivious to my state of wide-eyed shock and horror or too polite to notice (or enjoying it too much), he greeted me by saying "Okay, it's time for your interview."

I suddenly realized a number of things... first and foremost was that my socks were slightly askew on my feet.  I had a very minor headache.  The t-shirt I had under my polo was clinging to my torso a bit too much for comfort.  My mouth was dry.  I had left my glasses on the cash register so everything over eight feet away from my face was slightly out of focus.  Most importantly, I desperately wanted a cigarette, perhaps more than I ever had before in my life.  And then he said...

"Do you want the job?"

Still somewhat off-balance from his surprise appearance, I replied with "Um... yes?"

"Congratulations, you're the new Store Manager of the Duck U. Bookstore."

The more observant amongst you will realize that while this conversation took place on Tuesday, I'm telling you about it on what is Friday night as I type this.  You see, in the great world of biznez, nothing is official until there's much signing of paper.  Even for something as seemingly simple as hiring a store manager, whole rainforests must be denuded of trees, simply to make those who love nothing more than the act of filing happy.  As the RM had to be in Minnesota bright and early Wednesday morning, he could not stay to get the paperwork rolling, leaving it instead to the Home Office's HR department... normally a good decision, as they're all ace-nifty.  Unfortunately, the HR rep that interviewed me Monday morning did not get in touch with me before Duck U was closed for the day due to a water main break.  A big one.  That was next to a gas line.

So I didn't get to fax in the letter of acceptance until this morning.  But now I'm a Bookstore Manager again.  It didn't really sink in until I closed this evening...  standing there in the dark, the empty bookshelves looming over me: it's all mine.  For the past five years, I've told the various managers that "you're the boss, but this is my store."  And it's true, I really did feel that way.  Now I can honestly say that I'M the boss, and it really is my store.  I'm not currently in charge of anybody, since as of 2pm this afternoon I am the entire staff of the Duck U Bookstore, but that's a minor detail.

I couldn't be happier.  I already feel more relaxed than I have in months.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:16 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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2/23/45

The single most famous picture from WWII was taken some 67 years ago today.  The sad thing is that most people today don't realize that this wasn't the end of the fighting... oh no.  Two of the men in the picture were dead a week later.  A third was killed a few weeks after the first two.  The island of Iwo Jima was declared secure over a month after Joe Rosenthal took the picture.

27 Medals of Honor were earned at Iwo Jima, 13 posthumously.  22 of the Medals were issued to US Marines, nearly 30% of all Medals of Honor earned by Marines in WWII.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Shelf

The top of the bookcase is devoted to either paperbacks (for example, "Zero!" by Martin Caidin, though my edition is substantially older than the one linked to, or "Climax at Midway" by Thaddeus Tuleja, in fact the very edition shown, for which I need to thank Uncle JoeDuck) or quick reference books from Salamander.  Those titles, and the others like it from B&N Press, are what I term bathroom reference books, because... well, that should be obvious, shouldn't it?  They aren't for in-depth research, but they often provide a good starting point for things that end up on The Pond.  Indeed, my post on HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney, The Misfit Battleships, had its genesis exactly that way.

The bottom shelf is full of Tom Clancy, both fiction and non-fiction.  They make a good solid weight for the rest of the bookcase.  Also down there are two editions of Norman Polmar's "Ships and Aircraft of the US Fleet" (the 14th and 15th, in case you're curious).  While I'd kill to have some Jane's Fighting Ships in here, they're just too expensive (though this one is reasonable... which makes me wonder why). 

In between the top and bottom is the heart and soul of The Pond's Military History category.  I haven't quite figured out how I intend to organize them yet... do I alphabetize by author?  Arrange by category (with Midway books on top)?  By size?  By spine color?  The world wonders.  If you want to take a closer look at The Collection, click on the picture for a much larger version, one where you can actually read the spines. 

Having it all in one place for the first time ever is... wow, quite daunting, actually. 

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:54 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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F1 Pr0n: Mercedes W03

The last of the heavy hitters is late to the party, but at least they've finally showed up.  Ladies and Gentlemen, might I introduce the Mercedes W03!

Apparently, Merc is kinda cheating just a little bit on the platypus.  Only the outside edges of the bump are at the legal height... which fits the letter of the law, if perhaps not the spirit.  Since this is F1, it's already been declared legal. 

Small sidepods, small radiator intakes, not much of an undercut, a pair of extra intakes just behind the airbox... and oh my gawd the platypus looks completely hideous on the W03.  Ross Brawn hisownself came out and said that the nose design "is certainly an acquired taste."  So is the barrel of a shotgun.

The team says that there's 4500 parts to the W03, up 200 from last year's car.  They say that like it's a good thing, but isn't that 200 more things that can go wrong?  I dunno; Merc is saying that they're going to make a run at the championship this year, and more power to them.  But I just don't see it happening.  They've been 4th the past two years, and while I'd love to see them jump Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull, it seems like a stretch.

But then, they were once known as Brawn GP... and we all know what happened there.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:14 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Now It Can Be Told

You may remember that, a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that things had gotten a little exciting at the Duck U Bookstore.  You may have noticed that, at the time, I didn't exactly go into much detail as to what was going on.  I'll put it this way: I've applied for an open store manager position. ("Oh, that's nice.")

At the Duck U Bookstore.

I had my first interview for the manager job today.  Since I didn't obviously pee it down my leg, I gather the second interview will be Wednesday. 

I suspect some of you are scratching your head, wondering just what's going on... and believe me, I understand.  The position was open in July, why didn't I apply then?  Well, that's an easy question to answer: I have the self-confidence of a spavined flea (and "spavin" is a word that just isn't used enough these days).  It wasn't until I successfully ran the store through Fall Rush, the busiest time of the school year, that I realized that I could actually do the job... and maybe even do it well, to boot.  Of course, by that time the open position had been filled.  Well, when it opened up again, I immediately got my application in... and here we are.  MUSIC BREAK!
Not only was Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse Of Reason an underappreciated album, but the live tour associated with it has what I consider the ultimate in concert lighting design.  The circle, surrounded by all those computer-controlled lights, is an absolutely brilliant concept, best shown by its use during the song One Of These Days.  When I was actively designing for the theatre and I hit a mental snag, I'd pull out the concert video and just watch the circle's antics.  It always got me unsnagged.

So back to the story.  I've been open-to-close ever since everything went down two weeks ago, because I'm the only person in the store with keys.  Or an alarm code.  Or access to the safe.  And the server.  And the ability to do payroll, receiving, shipping, you name it, I'm pretty much it.  So, yeah, a little worn out... but with the opportunity to become store manager of the Duck U Bookstore.  More news as it breaks.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:47 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Saturday Night Tunage XII

On the border of music and madness, it's DJ Wonderduck back again to spin you the infamous Saturday Night Tunage!  It's been a few months since the last time we did this, so lets get right to it, shall we?  No theme this time around, just the music that's the backing track to the miniseries that is our lives. 

Wow, that wasunexpectedly kinda deep.  Wait, no, not deep... it was shallow, masquerading as deep, kinda like what passes for music these days.  Pop music and pop philosophy here on Saturday Night Tunage!  Next up, the latest hit by Kierkegaard and the Existentialists!

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:31 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Broadband Problems BAD!

I have spotty broadband coverage today, something about my signal strength being bad.  Hopefully it'll be fixed ASAP, but I may be not around for a day or two.  Don't Panic.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:17 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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