So now that the new semester is in full swing and things are slowing down a tad, we actually have time to relax a little bit.  Instead of running around at full speed from the moment we walk in to the moment we close the doors, we can now do things that are not exclusively work-related... like use the bathroom, or have lunch.

Earlier today, I stepped outside for some fresh air and to admire the beautiful Duck U campus (no sarcasm there, by the way... it really is gorgeous).  So imagine my surprise when I saw THIS sitting in the middle of the Quad:

^{Whiskey... Tango... Foxtrot?}

A... submarine?  First I had to make sure I wasn't seeing things... submarines just don't exactly appear in front of the Library at Duck U... or, in fact, in front of any of the U.'s buildings, not even the Arts Center, where weird things happen every day.

A pleasant stroll brought me closer to the thing, revealing the strangest markings for a submarine I'd ever seen:

Well, the name is appropriate, at least.  But who's ever heard of rocket pods on a submarine?  Or what appears to be a face on the side?  Before I could investigate further, however, a horde of kiwis approached, and I had to get back into the Bookstore.  By the time I got back outside, the submarine had vanished as mysteriously as it had appeared.

It is a puzzlement.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:27 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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One lone duck's revenge:

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From a statement by the Chicago Sun-Times Editor-in-Chief, Michael Cooke, regarding the resignation of the execrable Jay Mariotti from their sports section:

The Chicago Sun-Times had the best sports section in the city before Jay Mariotti came to town -- that's why he signed up with us -- and his departure does not change that.  We wish Jay well and will miss him -- not personally, of course -- but in the sense of noticing he is no longer here, at least for a few days.

Wee-owtchy-owtchy-ow-wow.  (via)

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:37 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Hello, little birdie!  You must be deaf, eh?

Um... climb faster, you feathered rodent!

AIEEEEEE!!!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:54 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The early days of aircraft carrier design saw a lot of different concepts that eventually went by the wayside.  Such "innovations" as multiple flight decks (so airplanes could launch directly from their hangars),  transverse-mounted catapults that launched planes perpendicular to the direction of travel (ditto), longitudinal arrestor wires, arrestor gear at both bow and stern (so if one end of the flight deck had a hole in it, the ship could steam in the other direction and launch planes from the undamaged end), carriers without islands, the list goes on and on.  All of these elements made sense, however, and one can see why an Admiralty could think they were good ideas at the time.

One design feature of some early carriers, however, has always struck me as being particularly pointless, with no redeeming features whatsoever: the flight deck round-down.

^{HMS Hermes}

As can be seen in the above picture, a round-down is a sharply sloping portion of the aft end of a flight deck, a location particularly unsuitable to topography of any sort.

^{IJN Akagi, circa 1927-'35.  Note the "fly-off" decks, right, round-down left.}

In the book Shattered Sword, it's mentioned that the Akagi's round-down is so pronounced that it, in effect, shortens her flight deck, as planes cannot be spotted there without having them roll off into the sea.

So why are they there at all?  Throughout all my readings through the years, the only reason I've seen is that they were thought to be aerodynamically helpful for landing planes, perhaps by creating an are of calm air behind the ship.

But even if that were so, doesn't it seem that it'd be a rather ill-positioned lee for an aircraft attempting to land, not to mention small?  Further, they also look like a fairly hostile place to try and land upon in the first place.  Imagine: you touch down on the round-down, crest the "hill", and then?  You're thrown back into the air, much like today's "ski-ramp" carrier decks would do.

Do any of you, my readers, have an idea?  I'm completely flummoxed here!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:12 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I'd like to relate to my readers something that happened to me earlier today, something that can only be described as confusing, perplexed and, ultimately, sad.

This morning, I went grocery shopping at a local store that has a fairly decent "international foods" section.  You know the type: Mexican staples, Indian chutneys and the like.  There's also a wide selection of Asian foodstuffs, including Japanese things like soba, 10 different types of soy sauce, some microwaveable beef bowls (awful), a couple of different flavors of Pocky, instant miso, sushi fixings, yadda yadda...

I was browsing through the section, trying to decide if I wanted to get a cheap packet of instant miso (I did, eventually) along with the Pocky and some hot sauce (good to add to chili) when an elderly man said to me "you shouldn't buy that (crap)."  I gave him a surprised look and asked, intelligently, "what?"

He repeated his assertion, adding "it's made by the Nips."

By now, my eyebrows had long left my forehead and headed for the stratosphere.  Like an idiot, though, I asked him what's wrong with getting Japanese food.  It's awfully tasty, after all.  He visibly became angry with me as he said (I'm paraphrasing here) "I fought them in the Philippines, they shot me and killed some of my friends, I hate those damn Japs and I will until the day I die."

I want you to imagine my state of mind at this moment: standing in front of me was a man I automatically honor, a WWII vet, and one who fought in the Pacific theatre no less, an area of history I'm fascinated in.  At the same time, though, he's trashing an entire race of people (including some that I'd call casual friends: Duck U has an exchange program with a Japanese college, so there's always around 5-10 students from there attending) for events that happened over sixty years ago, and a culture that I enjoy learning about to boot.

To say that I was confused and saddened just then would be accurate.  I would have loved to have spoken with him about his experiences if he would have let me, but at the same time his attitude (and don't get me wrong, I understand where it comes from: if you're not going to like someone or something, seeing your friends killed and being shot yourself is a pretty good reason) was distasteful at best.

Fortunately, he didn't recognize the baseball cap I was wearing (the Hanshin Tigers, brought back from Japan by a Duck U student for me).  After heaping some more abuse on "the Nips" and scorn on me, he stalked off (as best he could, using a cane and an old person's shuffle) muttering under his breath.

I'm still disturbed by the whole thing.  I think of Brickmuppet, who's touristing in Japan right now, and wonder if there's old members of the Imperial Japanese Army who might want to chew him out, or skewer him with a bayonet if they could get away with it, just for being American.  I think of my DVD rack, filled with anime, and my end-table, covered with pockyboxes... and one of my bookcases, stuffed with history books about the Pacific war. 

And I wonder which of us has the right of it: the elderly man who fought and bled for our country, who's attitudes are over a half-century out of date?  Or myself, who has the more modern attitudes, but who respects the actions of the other man.

In this multi-culti, politically correct world, are the experiences of the old soldier scornworthy?  I'm glad I don't feel the way he does, but is he wrong to feel that way?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:29 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Really, though, I kinda mean it.  On Saturday, the new students to Duck U move in to their dorm rooms.  Returning students come back on Tuesday, and the new school year begins on Wednesday.

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This is bigger than that Chinese gymnast being too young to compete... a lot bigger.

And has deeper ramifications for all of us.

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:05 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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...that Momzerduck and Ph.Duck were married, with young Wonderduck as the Best Man. 

Congrats, you two lovebirds, and here's to the next 20 years!

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As you may or may not be aware, The Brickmuppet is over in Japan (too many entries to link, just scroll and enjoy).  Last night (Pond time; it was closer to noon where he was) he sent me a picture with instructions to do with it what I will, as it would be "perfect for The Pond".

He was right, and here it is for your enjoyment:

Not quite as cool as the sailor-suited curry-seller, but still awfully great.  'Muppet tells me that it's a cell-phone drop box for recycling purposes... he thinks.  And a wholehearted thanks to him for letting me use it here at The Pond, too!

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Okay, here's the problem.  Chiyo-chan keeps popping the DVD drive open, and/or attempting to read the DVD in the drive, seemingly at random.  Even when there's NO disc in the drive, it tries to access it.

This makes trying to play games pointless, as it only takes a few minutes for the DVD to either eject or access at the wrong time, resulting in a program crash.

If I don't use the drive for a period of time (week to 10 days), the problem goes away.  Of course, if I try to play a CD, or burn something, that starts everything up again.

As I've typed this, I've done the "close drive, watch it open on its own" routine five or six times.

Anybody have this happen to them?  Anybody heard of this before? 

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:39 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Continuing with yesterday's impromptu weatherblogging, tonight is much more calm.  No thunder, no lightning, no cows being thrown past The Pond's balcony, nothing like that.  However, there is one thing that's the same: the humidity.

Hot + humid = a miserable Wonderduck.  I've had a rather offensive sinus headache since yesterday afternoon, but today was unbearable.  By 2pm I gave up on the day at work and came home, took my fourth and fifth tylenol, ate something, and went to bed hoping that when I woke up, my face wouldn't feel like it was either going to fall off or explode.

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There are reports of tornadoes on the ground in the vicinity of the north side of Chicago... more specifically, in the area of Wrigley Field.  The Cubs were playing the Houston Astros tonight at Wrigley, with a full house of around 41000 people in attendance. 

The storms in question came through the Duckford area, and here at The Pond, it was actually quite terrifying.  Nearly constant air-to-ground lightning strikes, and reportedly, the storm actually got stronger as it moved away to the east... towards Chicago.  The weather folks say there's about 30000 people without power in Duckford, trees down, yadda, you know the drill.  You can see the bow shape in the picture above, meaning that there's strong winds in there.

As I said, it was terrifying enough here at Pond Central... I can't imagine what it'd be like outside at Wrigley.  Let's hope everything's okay... as I typed that, the weather folks say there's reports of heavy cloud rotation near O'Hare Airport.

All is well here at The Pond, the power never even fluctuated.  Momzerduck and Ph.Duck report that they're okay, too.

UPDATE 840pm: A few minutes after I hit 'save' on this post, WGN radio, which has gone to continuous weather coverage, reported 80mph winds blowing on Michigan Avenue and heavy, heavy rain.  Still nothing heard from Wrigley, but considering that WGN (the flagship station of the Cubs radio network), isn't saying anything about it anymore, I'd say that a bullet has been dodged.  Holy crap, a weather reporter says that there were 100mph winds on the south side of Chicago, too.

UPDATE 850pm: "We've never seen anything like this at Wrigley Field before."  No tornado, thankfully, but Cory Probst, the play-by-play team's info guy, says that the rain was incredibly heavy, there's standing water on the warning track (and this after an off-season renovation of the field to improve drainage), and there's loads of debris.  Nobody's said anything about the game coming back on, and hopefully everybody at Wrigley is okay.  The worst of the weather has moved into Indiana and Lake Michigan, reportedly.  Neo couldn't have dodged the bullet any closer.

UPDATE 1025pm: The Cubs just retook the field after what must have been a miracle job by the groundscrew.  And there are still plenty of fans there, too!  The foul lines are pretty much gone, though, and I've never seen that before!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:31 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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THIS... this is just frickin' EVIL.  EVIL.  With a capital "EVIL."  Foul, nasty, dark, scummy, defiler of dreams, JC Pennys will never, EVER get my money again. 

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:19 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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It hasn't all been Wonderduck hiding under the covers recently.  On Saturday, I ventured forth to the BigBlueBox on a mission... a mission to upgrade Chiyo-chan.

Don't get me wrong, Chiyo-chan is still the smartest and fastest computer on the block, and with her new 19" LCD monitor, the prettiest too.  However, it's been two years since her last upgrade (420w PSU, 7600GT graphics card), and I've been meaning to do this particular upgrade since the day I got her. 

So now, Chiyo-chan has all her DIMM slots filled, and a total of 3gb of RAM.  She's a lot peppier than she was (and she was pretty zippy then), lemme tell ya.

Next step, a new external hard-drive...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:24 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Glad to see you're feeling better....or at least peppier. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at July 27, 2008 08:48 PM (V5zw/)

2 Missed your earlier post - hope things are looking brighter now.

There's never been a better time to buy disk drives - the value for money is amazing.  Even the top-end 1TB drives are cheap now.  I just bought two Western Digital 640GB drives myself, so I can backup my fansub collection.   (Do not want a repeat of the disaster I had last year!)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 28, 2008 10:13 PM (PiXy!)

3 I'm looking at a Western Digital 500gb external, m'self.  BigBlueBox is selling 'em for $99 right now... twenty cents a gigabyte?  Nine years ago, I got a 30gb drive, one of the first 7200rpm drives ever, installed in my nigh-on top of the line computer (PIII, 850mhz)... for $450.

It's a wonderful world.

Posted by: Wonderduck at July 28, 2008 11:12 PM (AW3EJ)

4

I just snagged one of Maxtor's 500GB externals for $99 at the BigBlueBox. It's nice except that you could use the front panel activity light as a spotlight in a midnight blizzard if you wanted. I may need to move it to the computer that isn't in the bedroom or I'll never get any sleep.

Posted by: Will at July 29, 2008 03:44 PM (WnBa/)

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I'm still in something of a dark place, but I couldn't not do this.  The good folks over at B3ta are currently running an image contest entitled "Abusive Ducks."  I took the liberty of stealing the best of them, so y'all could have a laugh.

^{Duck a la Orange, of course...}

Click "more" for... um... more.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:13 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1) Playing Clannad.
2) Dealing with a bout of depression.
3) There is no number 3.

I'll be back when I snap out of #2.

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So Thursday night's weather here at The Pond was... oh, let's call it exciting, shall we?  Around 6pm, it went from being bright and sunny in Pond Central's living room to dark and surly, like someone threw a switch on the sun.

I opened the door to the balcony, and got hit in the face with a bucket of water.  It was POURING out there, and the clouds were moving every which way... but just a few miles away, there was blue sky.  A very definite cloudline... and I was on the wrong side of it. 

Lots of lightning, both the traditional air-to-ground ZOT! (for a genuine Pond No-Prize, what comic strip used to use that descriptor?) type and the kind that makes it look like the Mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind is hiding behind the clouds.  Very neat, very cool...  and more than a little terrifying, to be honest.  Anyway, I've heard that some parts of Duckford got up to three inches of rain in a couple of hours... just what we need after the flooding of a couple of weeks ago.

Somewhere around 815pm, I noticed something weird... the light from outside seemed to be orange through the curtains.  I stepped outside, and saw that the stormline had just as neatly organized back to it as it did a front... the sun had been revealed!  Since it was almost time for it to set, though, it looked orange, and that color was being reflected off the clouds.  Very weird look to everything... and then I saw it.

A horizon-to-horizon, sharp-edged, DOUBLE RAINBOW!  I'd never seen such a thing before... and particularly not one that looked like it had been drawn with a marker!  I went out to The Pond's parking lot to get a better view of the whole thing...

...meanwhile, The Librarian was in Wal-Mart's parking lot, frantically calling my cellphone to tell me to look out my balcony to see the doublerainbowitsgreatandhugeandwow!

More importantly, though, she had the presence of mind to take a photograph of it with her cellphone's camera:

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:21 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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The type of blogging I'm doing is supposed to be fun.  It's light-hearted, humorous, and occasionally witty.  To be frank, it hasn't been very fun recently.  It's been a lot more like... work, and I do enough of that at the Duck U. Bookstore. 

So I'm going to take a few days off.  I've got other stuff I'm working on right now that's taking a lot of my free time... and you folks will get to be involved soon... and trying to blog coherently takes time I can't begrudge right now. 

So The Pond is going quiet until Monday, June 30th, unless something very important breaks loose between now and then.

Thank you.
-Wonderduck

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