December 01, 2007
What do you think?
Who needs Sharona?
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Well, the snow part has proven to be a bust. Oh, it did snow, but it wasn't more than a light dusting... now I think it's sleeting, and it has been for a few hours. The wind is steady around 20mph, with stronger gusts. Local media is warning that tree damage and power outages are possible.
This isn't pleasant, but it's really small potatoes in comparison to the winters The Pond experienced when it was in Minnesota. 200 inches of snow in a winter, -100 degree windchills, two weeks where the HIGH temperature was never above fahrenheit zero... now THAT's winter, my friends.
As is, I'm well stocked with supplies. On Friday, I discovered another source of Pocky and other Japanese treats (including two flavors of Ramune soda, which I was previously only able to get at a local sushi place... for $3.50/bottle!), so I'm set for a long winter's night.
To keep with the new tradition of the Sad Duck In Snow posts, here's my favorite photoshop:
UPDATE 705pm: Roads are reportedly quite ice-covered across Duckford, and the authorities have strongly discouraged travel except for emergency purposes. Lots of crashes on the highways in the Chicago area, with a 20-mile stretch on one closed completely. The trees around The Pond have become popsicles... it's quite pretty, honestly. The news says that temperatures are slowly rising, and the freezing rain should be stopping any time, changing to regular rain. Until then, though, cross your fingers.
UPDATE 958pm: I think the worst is past, though the wind is still blowing hard, so trees and powerlines are going to be at risk. One of the trees outside The Pond is audibly creaking (though I'm not sure which one). Fortunately, it's nowhere close. One of the local TV stations is off the air, which isn't surprising; it was on generator power back at 530pm. There's at least two known dead from the storm. About 12000 people are without power in Duckford. It's not just downed lines, but quite a few transformers have gone boom. In Iowa, a plane bound for O'Hare skidded off a runway, with no injuries. The lights flickered here around 830pm, but so far so good.
UPDATE 210am: All clear. Wind has died down, the rain is now just rain, and the tree is still up.
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November 30, 2007
Just remember, Steven, there are many others just like you out there. None is better known, however, than...
(thanks to Superdickery.com)
To thine self be true, Steven. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go preen my feathers.
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07:39 PM
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November 22, 2007
(From the best sitcom ever, the legendary WKRP In Cincinnati.)
UPDATE: I love WKRP. If I could only watch one series (american tv, that is), it'd be this one. Because of WKRP, I grew up wanting to work in radio... and I wanted it badly enough that eventually, I did. The studio looked very much like the one in the clip, actually.
So it is to my great sorrow that the recent DVD release of the series is unwatchable. See, WKRP was one of the first series to license contemporary rock hits for broadcast... it IS a radio station, after all. The Who, the Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Supertramp, and dozens of other groups and artists had their music in the show, and in fact, two episodes revolved around a Rolling Stones concert (and so had a lot of their music involved). Then there's the "Les has a date with Jennifer" episode, with Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" playing in the background...
Anyway, the music is a vital part of the show. Unfortunately, the original music license was only for 10 years... and the costs have gone WAAAAAAY up since then. So the DVD release has the original soundtrack removed, and generic (and perhaps royalty-free) music used in it's stead. Further, since the DJs often referenced the music and the groups they're playing, the producers had to edit the episodes by snipping out dialogue in many, many places.
Obviously, that's unacceptable. I have friends at all three tv stations here in town, I'm hoping one of them could find out if they have the syndicated versions (that did have the original music) in their vaults somewhere...
FURTHER UPDATE: Booger.
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November 21, 2007
Thank you.
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November 11, 2007
This US Army 1st Lieutenant's name was Chester. He was one of hundreds of thousands of men who fought for the Allies in WWII. Details surrounding this photo are sparse; I know it was taken sometime in 1942 or '43, and it's believed to be somewhere in California.
I don't know much about the man, either. I don't know anything about his personality, his likes or dislikes, his habits. I didn't even know he existed until half a year ago, to be honest.
Chester was my grand-uncle. He passed away many years ago. I never met him.
On this Veterans Day, I'm proud to say that I'm related to him.
And to finally get a chance to say Thank You.
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November 10, 2007
...is Marines."
Semper fi to the good guys!
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07:45 PM
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Once or twice a night, the modem'll just stop functioning. The "send" and "online" lights go out, and access just disappears. Usually a hard reset (unplugging the power cord) will rectify the problem, but at least half of the time, the signal will drop again a few minutes later. Another hard reset, combined with a reboot of Chiyo-chan, will fix the problem... until the next night.
Obviously, the modem still works... I'm posting, after all. It's just annoying as all get-out to have the connection just drop like that. When it IS working fine, I get some flat-out amazing (to me and my many years of dial-up only, your mileage may vary) d/l speeds: 175kbps is quite common, and I've seen it up around 200kbps when d/l'g something with a lot of seeds (I've switched to uTorrent, by the way).
There's a 25' run of coaxial from a splitter connecting the modem (which I'm considering naming "kamineko") to the wall, and a ethernet cable connecting the modem to Chiyo-chan.
This sound familiar to anybody out there? The tech from the company came by and left a note saying to "clean the teeth on the ethernet cable" with a q-tip and a drop of denatured alcohol, but to this ex-CowPuters employee, that sounds like a standard brush-off answer ("Take two aspirin and call me in the morning"). If any of my readers have experience with the SURFboard, I'd appreciate your advice.
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What'd you do for ponytails?November 06, 2007
Now he's apparently training cows for suicide missions.
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October 30, 2007
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October 27, 2007
However, I've got the weekend off for the first time in a month. I see a lot of anime in my future...the 3rd DVD of Haruhi is on my desk, and I see that there's 3rd episodes of and Minami-ke and Sketchbook available, too.
Not to mention the little surprise I'm working on for the F1 UPDATE! year in review post.
It's NICE to have an uninterrupted couple of days off.
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October 25, 2007
Imagine sprinting as fast as you can for a mile. At the end of it, your heart would probably still be beating slower than mine was.
It's called 'superventricular tachycardia', and it's actually fairly common. The doctors at the ER told me that they see "a couple of people" every day with much the same symptoms. In my case, however, my blood chemistry was completely screwed up. In particular, my potassium and magnesium levels had cratered. According to one nurse, and I have no idea what these numbers mean, a 4.0 reading is considered normal for these particular levels.
Mine were around 1.0. They kept me overnight, hooked me up to an IV tree and pumped bags of the stuff into me (the potassium burned). The next day, I had a prescription for a betablocker, which I'll probably be on for the rest of my life.
It must be working, because other than a 10-minute long episode back in September 2006 that wasn't half as bad as The Incident, I've been fine.
SVT is not life-threatening for the most part. Tony Blair, the recently retired Prime Minister of England, had an attack back in 2003. In his case, the doctors decided to perform a procedure called catheter ablation on him... roughly a year later. In his case, being the leader of a country and all, it made sense. In my case, since I'm a duck with no particular history in this sort of thing, they decided against it... but if it starts to occur frequently in the future, it's an option
Like last year, I'm going to end this post with a request. If something weird is going on with your heart, be it SVT, chest pains, tightness, or whatever, don't be tough. Call 9-1-1 immediately. You don't want to mess around with stuff like that, because, quite honestly, you can DIE if you wait.
And I don't want to lose any of my readers from something I can help prevent.
Now, lets put on party hats and break out the noisemakers!
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October 18, 2007
One of the best groups of the late '80s / early '90s... and, sadly, often forgotten.
Ladies and germs, I give you LIVING COLOUR, live on Arsenio in '89.
Vernon Reid is the man. Crank it up!
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October 14, 2007
Readers may have noticed a drop in quality posting here at The Pond in recent weeks. To tell the truth, I hardly have time to think these days, let alone blog.
The manager of the Duck U. Bookstore has been promoted to a much larger store. This leaves the store with one a grand total of one employee... me. As a result, of course, I'm working open-to-close Monday thru Friday, and since it's football season, every Saturday home game as well. Then there are the Forum Series events, where an interesting person comes to Duck U. and gives a speech/presentation/whatever to the students. Interesting people often have written books, so the store goes to those events to sell said books... adding another 3 or 4 hours to my day.
On one hand, it's great, because of all the overtime. On the other hand, it's really, really tough to work 12 hours/day alone, with only minimal chances to (say) go use the loo.
So if The Pond gets a little quiet for a while, that's why. Of course, I WILL make time for the Brazil GP... and sooner or later, I'll get back to posting about anime.
It's just that right now, things like 'sleep' are more important.
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October 12, 2007
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October 10, 2007
So you want a Wereduck? Okay, I can do that! Sorry about the quality of the picture, but you know, it's that whole "full moon, dark of night" thing.
He's a cuddly lycanduck, loveable one moment, and the next, he'll rip your head off and quack down your neck. And he's just one of the 185 ducks in my family.
Yes, 185. And that's a conservative estimate.
Fear the ducks.
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September 28, 2007
Go Cubs, Go / Go Cubs, Go / Hey Chicago, Whaddya Say? / The Cubs Are Gonna Win Today!
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September 23, 2007
He had just finished a race against Kenny Bernstein when Bernstein's car appeared to clip the final timing cone. The cone was launched into the side of Force's car, which then split apart. The back half, with Force in it, slammed into the wall when the braking chute was released. The front half snapped across the track and collected Bernstein's car, who escaped with only minor injuries.
Force broke his left ankle and wrist, and had a 'severe abrasion' on his right knee. I think it's safe to say that he's pretty lucky. Please note that the dramatic footage of the crash ISN'T where Force is. The camera follows the wrong part of the car... just keep an eye on the chute.
Of course, the cars are designed to split apart in case of an crash, so as to seperate the engine from the driver. But, and this is important to note, there wasn't a crash in this case UNTIL the car split apart. Very odd indeed.
Steven's favorite driver, Ashley Force, is fine... and you can take that any way you want, wink wink nudge nudge.
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September 20, 2007
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September 10, 2007
The answer is an unqualified YES.
I lived in Minnesota for two years, back when I was in grad school. A better place I cannot imagine. Oh, sure, the snow could be a little much (like the 27-1/2" we got in twelve hours... ON HALLOWEEN), and it can get a bit cold (like the week it never got above -10 F, and one night the windchills were -100 F and the police were on the radio stations saying "don't go outside, you will die."), but Minnesota is, above all else, normal.
It's a wonderful, laid-back state. When the register operator at the Hy-Vee on Riverfront asked "How are you", she was honestly wondering how you were.
A place where someone you knew only by sight would give you a scarf, because they saw you didn't have one.
A place where the strippers in Mettler's were friendly, and not because you had money.
It's the place that A Prairie Home Companion had to jazz up to be interesting.
It's the only place in the world where macaroni & cheese is considered "pasta" unironically.
Minnesota IS normalcy objectified. The Twin Cities, on the other hand, is about as sane as San Francisco. The only place in the world that they'd consider the Metrodome (if you don't know what the Metrodome looks like, imagine the Michelin Man's coffin as seen from the side) a suitable place for a ballpark. Minneapolis-St. Paul is where the 'weirdos' from the rest of the state go.
But yet, even they are relatively normal. Oh, the strangest people in the TCs would be strange anywhere, but most of the oddballs would be small-fry in Chicago, or Seattle, or New York, or (god help us) Los Angeles.
The only reason the stories Steven mentions are considered particularly odd is because they happened in Minneapolis. You think toe-sucking muggers aren't a dime a dozen in New York? Congresscritters proposition strangers in a bathroom every day in Washington!
No, it's only the low level of oddness in Minnesota that makes these events strange.
Minnesota: Where 'bland' is a flavor... and I love it.
UPDATE: They caught the toe-sucking mugger from Steve's post... and the Smoking Gun was there (NSF liquid refreshment in mouth). Seriously.
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