It amazes me to think that it was five years ago that I suffered The Cardiac Incident.  For those who are new to The Pond, yours truly had an attack of Superventricular Tachycardia at work, ended up with a pulserate somewhere in the vicinity of 250bpm with a blood pressure near 300/200. 

I'm one of those lucky individuals who have heard an EMT say "I can't get a pulse" when they were referring to them!  My heart was going so fast that he just couldn't count individual beats; it just felt like one continuous throb.  It never hurt, but it was stressful... particularly when they had to actually stop my heart to give it a chance to reboot. 

It's an odd feeling.  We're in the back of the ambulance, sirens wailing, and the EMT is calmly telling me that he's about to give me a drug that'll make my heart cease activity for a moment.  "It might feel like there's a brick on your chest, but it won't hurt!"  And lo, he was right.  Too bad the first dose didn't do the trick.  The second shot felt like there were two bricks on my chest, lot of pressure, and then...

...things were fine again.  Oh, my pulse was still high, around 120bpm, but that's heaven in comparison to four beats a second.  I was kept at the hospital overnight and released with a prescription for a drug to control the possibility of it happening again.

SVT by itself isn't usually fatal, but if it keeps going for an extended period of time, the possibility of bad things occurring begins to grow... like a stroke from the high blood pressure, or an arterial failure, or dozens of other very-not-good outcomes.  The ER nurses told me that calling 911 was the smartest thing I could have done.

So I'm here to tell you, my readers, that if you ever feel something weird happening to your heart, or any other of your internals for that matter, call 911 (or whatever your local emergency number is).  Don't tough it out, don't think that it's not a big deal because it isn't a heart attack, don't be a bloody idiot.  Call 911 and stay alive.

Because the alternative?  Bad.  Very bad.

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It's Alumni Weekend at Duck U., with the attendant football game.  This, though, was a special Alumni Weekend for me, because it's for classes ending in "0"... 2000, 1990, 1980, etc etc etc.  If it wasn't for me being overly efficient at the juco I attended before I transferred to Duck U, I would have graduated in 1990.  Instead, there weren't enough theatre credits available for me to take in four semesters, so I had to stretch it out to five.  Oh well.

But, for the first time in the nearly seven years I've worked Alumni Weekend at the Duck U Bookstore, someone I knew from the Theatre Department back then came in!  At this moment, I'd like to give a big duck welcome to Merek, whom I hadn't seen in 20 years... I've missed ya, lass, and you'd best shoot me an e-mail!

Oh, and even though they had the assistance of the Football Duckie, the good guys lost 44-0.  Yeesh.

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This afternoon, Wanderduck and I paid a visit to Duckford's Memorial Hall, as I was to be selling copies of a book written by three of Duck U's professors, while they were giving a speech.  It had been many a year since I was last there, and I left wishing I could have stayed a lot longer.    Reportedly, they have an actual WWI Chauchat LMG on display, and if only for curiosity value I wanted to see it: a less suitable weapon for trench warfare than the Chauchat would have to shoot the operator intentionally.  Alas, I was on the clock and so couldn't tarry.

However, on the way out Wanderduck insisted I take his picture... and the results are as you see above.

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I find myself with an armload of thoughts, none of which on their own is enough to merit a post of their own.  However, throw them all in one place and they might just pass as something interesting.

I've discovered that having a real honest-to-god satellite TV system is a very scary thing.  Until two weeks ago, Pond Central's apartment complex had an in-house system, maybe 40 channels, of middlin' quality.  Still, it had SciFi, and that was all I needed when I first moved in nigh on a decade ago... after all, that's where MST3K was shown, and what else would I ever need?  Later, I discovered the wonders of SPEED and the glory that is Formula 1, but that was so far in the future as to be laughable in retrospect.  As mentioned, a couple of weeks ago the complex dumped their own satellite system for DISH Network.  Of course, SPEED is on their second tier of programming, meaning that with the DVR reciever, I'm paying a silly amount of money per month.  I grumbled about "a la carte" and the like, but signed up anyway... gotta have F1.  It was only when I really looked at the second tier that I noticed a few hidden gems.  Gems like the NFL Network, for example.  Or the Documentary Channel.  Or BBC America.  Which shows Top Gear.  Oh my, very yes indeed.  And then there's the Sirius/XM music channels.  Or, in my case, channel.

I've pretty much locked in the station known as "1st Wave" (that's on channel 6022, if you've got Dish), to the point where it's replaced my old transistor radio which hasn't moved off of a Chicago sports-talk station in months.  1st Wave plays "70s and 80s Alternative" music, a term that doesn't mean anything, as the term "alternative" as referring to music didn't exist until the 90s.  Besides, this is what I listened to back then, how could it be alternative?  Simple Minds, Squeeze, The Fixx, Bowie, the Ramones, Roxy Music and/or Bryan Ferry, Joe Jackson, Erasure, the Smithereens, Madness (Night Boat to Cairo, no less), Thomas Dolby, the PsychoFurs, Depeche Mode, The Smiths and on and on and on.  Yes, please throw me in that briar patch.

I'm surprised at how hooked on Black Lagoon I became.  Based on some of the comments in the "recommend a show for a n00b" thread, and nigh-constant prodding by Brickmuppet in e-mails, I finally gave it a look.  Great googly moogly, why did I wait so long?  Yes, it's violent, the humor is dark at best (and deep, deep black at worst), but the characters are outstanding... though almost all of them are morally twisted.  Or psychopaths.  Or morally twisted psychopaths.  To say it's not for everyone is not taking it far enough.  But for those who do venture into the back alleys of Roanapur, it's worth the trip.  Muppet tells me that the English dub is first-rate, and that may very well be true, but I will never, ever hear it... because I have heard Revy speak in the Japanese track.  She's the main female character, and she's voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi.  She was the voice of Winry in FMA, Sylvia in Princess Lover, Parfet Balblair in Vandread, and Kirino in Bamboo Blade, amongst many many others.  But there's something about Revy's voice that... well, the description I've used is "liquid sex."  Doesn't matter that Revy is an amoral, murderous lunatic who'd be more than happy to blow your head off because you sneezed within three miles of her, that voice... It goes without saying that none of the other roles she's played sounds anything like Revy, of course.

One of the summer shows I was most excited about was Amagami SS, and I'm still enjoying the show immensely, but the recently ended Sae arc stretched my levels of disbelief a little thin.  How so?

more...

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1 "Some comments" instead of "Pete's impeccable guidance" is what I get. But yes, Ken knows his stuff.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at October 06, 2010 10:56 PM (9KseV)

2 I didn't realise at the time you hadn't seen Black Lagoon, or I would have prodded you a bit too.   It's hands-down the best action anime series of recent years, and one of my top ten overall for the past decade.

I need to catch up on Amagami though; I've only seen the first arc.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 06, 2010 11:51 PM (PiXy!)

3 One of my favorite scenes from Black Lagoon is an argument at a cafe between Rock and Revy (and as usual for.Roanapur, it ends in gunfire).    It's a situation I've seen other shows try, but Lagoon actually pulls it off - it feels believable to me that those two characters would have that fight.

Speaking of your recent interests, they aren't cutting into your research time too much, are they? 

Posted by: Siergen at October 07, 2010 01:06 PM (Xh3Fu)

4 Black Lagoon S2, the Vampire Twins arc, is a swift kick in the 'nads. It's not that it's different in any way... except it's a hell of a lot more brutal.  And weird. And psychopathic. Yet the writer still pulls it off (Ok, I have to complain about the loli with the chaingun-from-no-where. But that's all.)   The ending of that arc re-calibrated my Nihilism-o-Meter(tm)

Posted by: ubu at October 10, 2010 11:59 AM (GfCSm)

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For the past three nights now, my broadband connection has slowed to a crawl.  I can hear you asking, "Wonderduck, just how slow is your connection?"  Well, earlier this afternoon I was getting a steady and solid 170kB/s on uTorrent.  Now?  Less than 4kB/s, and I gather that's been the pattern since Thursday.  Webpages, even simple ones like Google's front page, take minutes to load.  I'd probably be getting better results from a dialup connection. 

I'm not even sure this post will update correctly, but on the off-chance that it does, here's a frightened Sae.

-Amagami SS ep11

Cross wingtips and knock wood, the Pond'll be back up to full speed before Monday, so I can do the F1 on SPEED! report for the Japanese GP, and before I start to suffer internet withdrawl. 

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...please stand by.

(broadband problems, not computer related)

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The story behind this duckie just takes my breath away.  The father of one of my old high school flock (Marty Suspenders) stopped into the Duck U Bookstore a couple of weeks ago.  I was surprised, as I hadn't seen him in years, but he just stopped in to chat.  Very cool catching up with him, but when he mentioned he was going to Germany, I asked him to beg, steal or borrow a duckie from that European country.  Now, I ask anybody who's going overseas (heck, a trip of any duration) to look for rubber duckies from their destination, but only once has there ever been a result.  In my dreams, right?  I've gotten the distinct impression that rubber duckies just aren't all that common in most countries of the world.

Anyway, Suspenders the Elder walked back into the store on Monday with the above duckie and a world of smiles.  He and the friends he was visiting were on the Metro, on their way to go dancing in Berlin (for some reason, I never picture people in Berlin dancing), when at a stop he saw this kiosk selling, amongst other fripperies and geegaws, the Berlin duckie!  Of course he picked it up for lil' ol' me, and off they went with Mr S trying to explain about the weird friend of his son...

What he didn't realize, he told me, is that the duckie had already fallen out of his jacket pocket and gotten lost in the crowd, which must have been sheer torture for the Berlin duckie.  Imagine being told you're going to America to hang out with 400+ rubber duckies, and then have that dream taken away from you... yeesh!  But, surprisingly enough, Mr S found the duckie in the Metro station on the way back.  Dramatic tale of duckie rescue!  Then it made the long flight back to Duckford and into my wings and a happy introduction to the rest of the flock here at Pond Central.

That's it, that's the whole story.  Pretty darn cool, huh?

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A couple of years ago, I was at the Duck U Bookstore when one of our history professors came in.  At the time, we had a small area set aside on the counter for "Staff Picks", books that those of us who worked at the Bookstore had read and recommended.  My two picks that month were World War Z, which I had just finished reading, and Shattered Sword, the 2005 book that turned a lot of what was known about the Battle of Midway on its collective head.

Knowing that the professor in question taught a class on WWII, I suggested Shattered Sword to him, and thus began a close to 45 minute dialogue on Midway and the Pacific War in general (it was summertime, during a stretch where we might go the entire day and see maybe three customers).  When we were finished and the prof had purchased both of my "Staff Picks", one of my co-workers looked at me with something akin to stunned disbelief.  "He's a history professor, how were you able to to talk to him like that about his specialty?", for indeed, his specialty was the Pacific War and Korea (where he himself served). 

I thought for a second and replied "I read a lot."  Her reaction, again, was stunned disbelief.  "History books?  You read history books for fun?"

Well, yeah.  I do.

I'd like to write a little bit about some of the books on Midway that I've in my collection, if I may indulge myself a bit... and, seeing how it's my blog, I think I can.

more...

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One year ago today, the woman readers of The Pond knew as Momzerduck, and I knew as Mom, passed away.  I'd love to say something deep and meaningful right now, but find that I'm just... numb.  It's taken me close to a hour just to type this short statement.

I guess I'm coping with her loss.  I can't remember the last time I broke down, and I no longer run away whenever I smell hand sanitizer.  I no longer expect my cellphone to ring at 7pm. 

I miss her so very much.

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Today was the first home game of the season for the Duck U Ducks, and we had a great turnout!

Unfortunately, the good guys lost to the bad guys, 31-21, but from all reports it was a lot closer than the score indicates. 

But I was there way before anybody showed up, so as to get Duck U Bookstore signs up, so people knew we were going to be open.  It's amazing just how different a football field feels when there's nobody around and the weather is... marginal.

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1 That ducky sure has a flat bottom.  Definitely not a tight-end...

Posted by: Siergen at September 11, 2010 08:16 PM (jNqwY)

2 Wide receiver then?

Posted by: Tony von Krag at September 11, 2010 09:14 PM (VGXAE)

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Anybody out there ever have a hernia repaired?  Someone I know has a bad one, and is going to have a surgery scheduled soon.  I'd like to know more about the procedure, but not the usual wiki stuff...

Thanks in advance!

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It's been a while since I last did a re-install of Windows, and I was noticing some slowdown in the Chiyo-chan for whatever reason; it wasn't from any virus or spyware that I could detect.  I suspect it might have been because of the whole problem with the external hard drive a month or two ago.  Whatever, it's not like I had anything to do tonight, and with a NASCAR race on, I could watch that while I reinstalled Windows.  Pure genius!  I'd be done before the race was over!

Yeah, not so much.  The race lasted four hours.  By the time Tony Stewart won, I was still downloading updates... the last two times I did this sort of thing, it only took three hours total to have everything done.  As I post this, I've still got a few apps to install, and it's almost seven hours later.  Ugh.

We'll return to regular blogginationing on Monday.

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While I am working on the post that Siergen won for identifying the HMS Unicorn last time around... he selected a topic I know next to nothing about... here's another possibility for someone to win their very own post on a topic of their choosing!  Name this ship:

Winner gets a post on a topic of their own choosing... hopefully not one as difficult as Siergen's, but pretty much anything is free game!

I'm hoping this one is difficult... if it's not, you guys are even more obsessive than I am!

UPDATE: Okay, maybe it was still "easy."  Only took about four hours for Pete Z to come up with the Wakamiya, a seaplane carrier of the IJN.

She's best known as the ship that launched the world's first naval-launched air raids (against German targets in Tsingtao) on September 5th, 1914... 96 years ago today.  In a way, this humble 8000 ton vessel with its four seaplanes and canvas-and-metal hangars is the direct predecessor of today's 104000 ton, 85 plane Nimitz-class carriers.

Funny how these things happen, isn't it?

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1 I think I found it, but since you're still slaving over my last topic  , I won't post a guess in this contest unless no one gets it by Tuesday night.

Posted by: Siergen at September 04, 2010 09:29 PM (WLKpA)

2 Wakamiya.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at September 04, 2010 09:56 PM (9KseV)

3 My guess may have been derived from the same set of blueprints (it was laid down a few years after this ship), but yours looks like an exact match, while mine had several differences.

Posted by: Siergen at September 04, 2010 10:36 PM (WLKpA)

4 Pete wins... name your topic, Pete!

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 05, 2010 12:29 AM (blg68)

5 My guess derives from typing "seaplane carrier" into Google and then looking at pictures. It only took 10 minutes, but only after I wasted hours trying to match hull design to various IDs and even AKs. I thought it was one of the conversions, I forgot what they were called.

Please post the wrap-up of Rocket Girls that you teased a bit over 3 years ago (thought about asking Oh Edo Rocket, but I doubt you watched that).

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at September 05, 2010 08:35 AM (9KseV)

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Well, the bad tooth has been removed, and this one was a different experience altogether.  The nitrous didn't make me feel sick to my stomach this time, which was a pleasant bonus.  The tooth didn't come out quite as readily as the last one, which wasn't nice.  Turns out that it had two roots, where the first one (the mirror image tooth of today's) only had one... and one of the roots off broke when the Doc did the deed.  No fault on him, he's very good.  Heck, my dentist sends his children to him for oral surgery.  Eat where the truck drivers eat, go to the oral surgeon your dentist uses.

And hey, he's got this print hanging in the extraction room:

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There are two things that I know that most of my readers will like: ukulele music or hawt anime chix0rz.  "But Wonderduck," I hear you cry, "why ukuleles?"  Why, indeed?  Well, sez I, it's my blog and this is what I want to post tonight.

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As you may remember, a couple weeks back I had a tooth pulled.  I'm pleased to report that it has healed very well, and other than a bit of soreness for the first couple of days the extraction site has troubled me not at all. 

A week ago, I woke up with an intense pain in my mouth... on the side of my jaw opposite the extracted tooth.  A visit to the dentist and a X-ray later, a massive cavity was discovered.  Turns out this one went in from between two teeth, which explains why it didn't bother me until it hurt like the dickens.  Dr Tooth gave me two options: a $4000 root canal that didn't have the greatest chances of succeeding, or another extraction.

I get the tooth out on Friday.  Sunuvabeechmartin.

At least it doesn't hurt all the time.  Just when, y'know, something hot or cold hits it.  I should be able to make it that long.

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1 These prices are pure robbery. I had extraction and implant done in $3500 (including site preparation with a bone graft, cost of making the implant itself, and all the work).

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 31, 2010 01:48 AM (9KseV)

2 I love a grinning duck I know what ya mean. I gotta go to the dentist next week to get two fillings fixed. Ugh.

Posted by: Digicolleen at August 31, 2010 07:56 PM (y3twI)

3 Heck, Colleen, I'm pretty sure you gave Dentalduck to me!

Posted by: Wonderduck at August 31, 2010 08:23 PM (blg68)

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Again, no clues, no hints.  Winner gets a post of their very own!

C'mon folks, let's not let flatdarkmars have all the fun!

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