...but it's kinda funny anyway.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooo!!!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:07 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Heh, happy #100! May all your leglocks be figure-fours.

Posted by: flotsky at November 29, 2005 08:44 PM (6T2ID)

2 Thanks kindly, Flotsky... and may they never be reversed!

Posted by: Wonderduck at November 30, 2005 03:27 PM (M7kiy)

3 Heh, you've just reminded me of one of the great simple angles of all time. Ronnie Garvin vs Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. Valentine was using a figure four as his finisher at the time, so Garvin came up with the "Hammer Jammer", a bit of plastic he strapped to his leg, that made it pointless applying the hold. Great stuff

Posted by: flotsky at November 30, 2005 08:22 PM (6T2ID)

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...little kids are exhausting. I dunno how parents do it.

Just as a FYI, this is post #99 on the new blog.

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It's off to gnaw on some bird! Everybody who celebrates, enjoy and don't eat too much. To those who don't, excuse us while we signifigantly lower the population of turkey in the world.

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Flotsky, some of your countrymen have got some SERIOUS 'splaining to do.

Why? Because somebody over there has gotten the 'smart' idea to remake... remake...

...I can't even bring myself to say it!

To remake THIS! What in Sam Hill is goin' on over there, anyway? Remaking the best SpecFic TV show ever?

Rover: kill!

(thanks to Banana Oil! via Chizumatic)

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:31 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 You don't know the half of it. If the BBC were going to remake it, it would still be a bad idea, but they would have a good go at it. It is SKY TV who are doing it (Rupert Murdoch's British Wing). They genuinely cannot make good tv to save their lives. They are fairly good at buying US tv, but when it comes to their own programmes, their finest achievement is a soap opera about soccer. I use the word finest advisedly...

Posted by: flotsky at November 23, 2005 01:16 PM (vpJ8N)

2 Oh, lovely. Go ahead, keep telling me the good news, Flotsky.

So not only is the remake NOT going to have anything to do with the original series, it's going to be made by a crappy producer. Spiffing, just spiffing... two down, thirteen to go.

Posted by: Wonderduck at November 23, 2005 04:50 PM (ywZa8)

3 You should try and bittorrent an episode of Dream Team, just to get an idea of exactly how bad they can be

Posted by: flotsky at November 23, 2005 08:17 PM (6T2ID)

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Wow, hotel blogging... who'd'a thunk it? I'm currently sitting in the Doubletree Hotel (Oak Brook, IL)'s "Business Center", and let me tell you... if you're coming to the Western Suburbs of Chicago, and you need a top-class hotel, this is truly the one for you.

The evening Guest Care Specialist, Eric, managed to solve a major problem for seven of us managers by driving the lot of us to the place we were eating, Buca di Beppo's. If you're lookin' for Italian food served 'family style,' i.e. lots and lots of different foods (and a drop-dead tiramisu... no, not THAT one, Pixy... though I'd pay a lot more to have Hayashiabara-chan as a dinner partner!), it's a sweet deal.

Well, some of us are meeting down in the sports-bar, so I'd best finish this up... I'll be back in Pond Central Thursday night!

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The following was taken from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

MINNEAPOLIS (Nov. 13) - World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Eduardo Gory Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room Sunday morning in Minneapolis, where he was scheduled to appear that evening in a WWE Supershow.

When Guerrero, 38, didn't respond to a wake-up call, hotel security at Minneapolis Marriott City Center and Guerrero's nephew and fellow WWE wrestler, Chavo Guerrero, forced entry into the room shortly after 7 a.m., police said.

The 5-feet-8, 220-pound wrestler was found on the floor. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. There were no apparent signs of foul play or suicide, police said. An autopsy was planned at the Hennepin County medical examiner's office.

He was a featured star on the UPN series "WWE Smackdown!" and son of Mexican wrestler Gory Guerrero. He is survived by his wife, Vickie, and daughters Shaul, 14; Sherilyn, 9; and Kaylie Marie, 3, according to WWE Web site.

"This is a huge loss," said WWE chairman Vince McMahon. "Eddie was a wonderful, fun-loving human being. Eddie was a consummate performer."

Chavo Guerrero and McMahon said Guerrero was open about his past drug and alcohol abuse but they said he'd been sober for four years.

Guerrero was in the Twin Cities with 60 to 80 other wrestlers to film "Friday Night Smackdown" at the Target Center. "I know Eddie would want the show to go on," Chavo Guerrero said.

In February 2004, Guerrero became the second wrestler of Hispanic heritage to be WWE champion when he defeated Brock Lesnar, a former University of Minnesota wrestling standout. Guerrero lost the title four months later.

In May 2004, UPN aired the special "Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story." The one-hour program chronicled his childhood and his struggle with drug addiction that almost cost him his job, family and life before his recovery and eventual capture of the WWE championship.

Guerrero grew up in El Paso, Texas. He and his three older brothers were all wrestlers.

This is a horrible, horrible loss. Eddie was one of my wrestling favorites, because he was human-sized. He wasn't one of those 'roid rangers like HHH or Brock Lesnar (for example), he wasn't 7'-0" like the Undertaker... he was muscular, sure, but that's because that's what his job was. He was also very open about his history of drug abuse, and in THIS case (and maybe this case only), I'm able to believe Vince McMahon when he says that Eddie was clean. I doubt that Eddie was on steroids... he wasn't cut enough (though it wouldn't surprise me to hear that he had used them in the past).

He was an amazing character in the ring, with a ton of personality and a style honed both in lucha libre and puroresu... and one of my favorite highlights of Wrestlemania XX came just after Chris Benoit won his championship match. Guerrero, holding HIS championship belt as well, came out and embraced Benoit... a fine bit of history showing itself (they'd wrestled together in WCW, ECW and Japan [Black Tiger II], and came over together to the WWE).

There were times that I hated the role he was playing (Chyna, anybody?), but was always impressed by his matches in the ring. He was believeable, which should be the main goal of any pro wrestler. Like many others, I thought he was destined for greatness a lot earlier than he got there.

The image of his elbow, shattered after one of his patented 'frog splashes' (and who can forget the first night he and the rest of the Radicalz showed up in the WWE... backstage, they met up with some of their old friends, and there was a quick exchange heard between Eddie and Rob Van Dam: "Hey, nice move." "You too!" heh), makes me wince to this day. Without that, he might have been a title holder a year earlier.

Bloody damn shame. I just hope the autopsy doesn't reveal that he was back on drugs. *sigh*

This might sound trite, but Via Con Dios, Eddie.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:06 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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The Center for Disease Control has released a list of symptoms of bird flu.
If you experience any of the following, please seek medical treatment
immediately:

1. High fever
2. Congestion
3. Nausea
4. Fatigue
5. Aching in the joints
6. An irresistible urge to crap on someone's windshield

(hat tip, Dave)

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It's over. God help us Cubs fans.

No, that's not powerful enough...

YAAAARRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

(pounding head against desk)

Well, crepe. Nice way to end it, though... Jose (Update: oops! Not him, but Juan ) Uribe went into the stands to catch a foul ball, and then makes a bang-bang play for the third out.

Congrats, White Sox. Dammit.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:01 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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So there I was, at work on Tuesday, shuffling paper from one stack to another stack. It's 10am.

By 1030am, I was in an ambulance, oxygen mask on my face, a siren screaming in the background, four paramedics talking medicalese over my stretcher-bound body, my heart going about as fast as one of last year's F1 V10s, yet them not being able to get either a pulse or a blood pressure... and the words 'heart attack' being thrown around.

By 11am, I'm in the ER, and everything is almost normal again, but there's a lot of concerned looks from the medical staff anyway.

By 12noon, they're x-raying my chest, and pumping bag after bag of potassium and magnesium into me.

By 3pm, I'm overnighting.

By 12midnight, I've been stuck for blood tests and IVs 10 times (the final total would be 15).

At 6am this morning, they were echocardiogram (ultrasound, basically)'ing my heart.

At 12noon, I was discharged with a prescription for a betablocker and informed that I have a congenital heart defect that's actually quite common (1 out of 100 people have it as well). What does it cause? Pounding heart, beating ~200bpm.

Guess what I DIDN'T have? A heart attack. Guess what my symptoms were? Heart attack. If I had waited, if it WAS a heart attack, I'd be dead. Because I didn't wait, I got out of it alive, and my heart undamaged.

But it could have killed me if I had waited just as sure as a... well, a heart attack. The heart is a muscle, and like any muscle, if you overstress it, you can "pull" it. Imagine pulling a hamstring, but it's your heart... think that might kill you?

Instead, I'm alive and able to blog about it.

Here's your lesson for the day: IF YOUR HEART IS DOING SOMETHING ODD, CALL YOUR LOCAL EMERGENCY NUMBER IMMEDIATELY.

Don't drive yourself to the hospital. Don't have someone drive you. Let the ambulance do it. Let the EMTs work on you while you're there. Because otherwise, you WILL DIE.

And I don't have enough readers to lose one for something like THAT.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:36 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Oh, hi. Wonderduck here. I've been quiet for the past few days because I've been on vacation. Yes, just taking it easy for the first time in almost 2 years... and just in time, too.

See, the Duck U. Bookstore's manager is going on maternity leave in a couple of weeks, and I'll be in charge whilst she's gone. So I needed this break, and really, REALLY wish it was another week longer.

But all good things come to an end, or so they say. Coming soon, the F1 Update! End-of-the-Year Awards Show!

And you guys, thanks for reading!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 04:25 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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One thing they never tell you about in Blogger School: comment spam.

The Pond just got hit by 25 different spambots. I wound up going in, deleting the spamcomments, then banning the IP addresses.

If by some coincidence one of my real readers suddenly discovers themselves banned, please please please let me know! I'll unban your IP immediately... but I have to know about it to do so.

You can find my e-mail address over there on the right-hand column.

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So I take this "What kind of cute animal are you?" test. Answer about 30 questions, not knowing what kind of animals are available (except for Pixy Misa being a bear cub), press the button to find out what I am...

...and this pops up:

You Are A: Duck!

Found in many lakes and ponds, ducks are a common site the world over. Known for their famous quack, ducks tend to congregate in flocks or go off on their own in pairs. As a duck, you may seem friendly at times but will not hesitate to bite if someone is bothering you. Your ability to swim and your your short temper are some reasons why you are a duck.

You were almost a: Bear Cub or a
Duckling
You are least like a: Mouse or a ChipmunkCute Animals Quiz

As I say, how come I'm not surprised?
Quack.

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Hopefully Fernando Alonso (either one of them, if you read that particular post) had fun the past week, because yours truly (as opposed to Jarno Trulli) has had a miserable one.

First, the teeth were pulled Monday afternoon. Thanks to the Momduck for taking care of me while I was doped to the gills, by the way! I know I was goofy (okay, goofier) there for a while.

Tuesday, I come home... but stop by BlueBoxStore on the way and pick up a new monitor for my 'puter. I'd been using an 10-year old CRT from work for the past year and I realized that a) the upper-right quarter of the screen was blurry, and b) everything had a yellowish hue to it. So, new monitor for me, and it's a doozy... a 19" CRT for under $100 (that's 77.42 nurburgrings for my British reades). So I get home, turn on the computer, and discover that my graphics card had just coughed up a lung and died. Visible scan lines on the screen, everything having a "drop shadow" that extended horizontally as far as the screen would go, and most ominously, a quiet buzzing noise from the computer case... all of which is why I haven't posted much this week, except for really brief things from work: it was hard to look at my computer!

Wednesday, I actually went back to work, and boy, was THAT a mistake. I spent the day high as a kite from vicodin... luckily, I didn't have to do anything that required precision, like count money. Or walk and chew gum at the same time.

Thursday, we had inventory at the Duck U. bookstore. The less said about that, the better.

And this weekend? Homecoming for Duck U... and the Return of Alumni. Of course, I worked today (saturday), and will be working Sunday as well. Weekend? What's that?

So, yeah, I suppose it's not as bad as, say, having my home washed away by a hurricane, but it hasn't been a good week. Hopefully, I'll post more as we get closer to Suzuka!

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Both teef, out of my head. My jaw feels like I just went a round with Mitchell "Slappy" Schumacher, but those bad teef are GONE.

And not one nurse wondered why I had a rubber duckie on my chest, neither!

(late update @ 141am: Vic Odin is really, really powerful at painkilling, but he makes typing really really hard. But it goes better if I close my eyes and just type. Over at Ambient Irony, I just left a comment that'll be embarrassing in the morning.)

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Why get a PlayStation 3? Try THIS.

Merciful heavens...

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I've noticed that recently I've been appearing on Steven DenBeste's Chizumatic more than I've been appearing here, on my own blog talking about anime.

I'm going to do something about that. I was originally going to post something interesting and witty about today's televised practice session for the Brazilian Grand Prix, but just couldn't pull something out of my hat... there just wasn't much interesting happening!

Oh, sure, Mitchell Schumacher was looking pretty sporty when he wasn't cooking himself some Bridgestones for lunch, or sending himself spinning, but we all know this isn't Ferrari's year; he could be turning fast lap after fast lap today, and he still won't be on the podium come Sunday. Although... it's supposed to rain on Sunday. If that happens, throw everything into a cocked hat, it's anybody's race.

The McLarens were quick, Renault was fast, Sauber (the hell?) was fast... I fully expect that Kimi or Juan Pablo will win, but Alonso will clinch the Drivers Championship, probably finishing third.

As far as ANIME goes, I'm working on a post entitled "Why Anime?" It'll explain why I enjoy watching Japanese cartoons, and why it should be even MORE popular than it is already. Hopefully, I'll have it up before The Dreaded Visit to the Oral Surgeon on Monday.

Until then, enjoy Saturday's Quals; I'll be back afterwards with a rundown.

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Okay, to begin with, everybody go HERE and wish Mr. Pixy Misa a happy birthday! He's the guy what invited me to join Munuvia, and he also likes anime... which he probably wants me to write more about.

Second, OWWWWW! Never let ANYBODY tell you ducks don't have teeth. I've got two getting extracted on Monday, but one of 'em is gonna make my life hell until then.

Third, Monday was International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Yarrrrrrrr!

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I was wondering what I was going to write about tonight, when I went by Brian's blog.

I've specifically tried to avoid politics or too much coverage of "negative events" here in The Pond; quite honestly, there's millions of other places out there where you can read about that, and many of them are better written. The Pond is a specialty site, dealing with Anime and Formula One... and whatever else I deem humorous enough to write about. I want it to stay someplace that you, the readers, and myself, The Duck, can come to and read about things that are fairly trivial, all things considered. The big things are everywhere, and sometimes covering the teeny-tiny things is a good way to escape, even if just for a minute or two.

All that being said, I want you to read THIS.

Why do I love this country? It's things like that. They are the living version of what I want this blog to be.

Okay. Now, will someone help me get this soapbox out of the Pond?

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I wanted to mention this in my preceding post, but it slipped my feathered mind. I actually was going to watch today's ChampCar race, as it was coming from the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, home of the Canadian Grand Prix and I wanted to do a comparison between the two styles of racing. Also, ChampCar seems to be a closer analogue than F1 for the new A1 Grand Prix series, so watching them go at it on a course I'm familiar with might give me some insight on that, as well.

Except it didn't happen. Or, actually, it did, kinda. Everything was conspiring against it, really, including Duck Apathy... I just don't LIKE ChampCar or the IRL very much since The Great Split (and, to be honest, there's a lack of 'star power' out there, too. I mean, c'mon! Timo Glock is a star in ChampCar, for cryin' out loud!).

Plus, it was was Ryne Sandberg Day at Wrigley Field. The closest thing I ever had to a 'Hero' was Ryno, so I needed to catch at least part of that. And then Momduck & Philipduck wanted to take me out to lunch (Red Lobster! MMM-mmm!)!

In all the hubbub and stuff, I forgot about the race.

I listened to the pre-game ceremonies for Ryno on the drive to RedLob and sat down for lunch with the folks. Whilst dining on the National Meal for Flotsky's homeland, Fish 'n' Chips, I happened to glance up... and there, from across the entire place, was a TV... and what was on that screen at the exact moment I looked up?

"Bienvienu du Quebec."

The Wall of Champions.

Okay, sure... it was all the way across two crowded rooms, but I was still able to see it, at least. Not well enough to make any judgements on the racing, mind, but it was still there.

So I did all three things! Ryno, Lunch, and Racing. Sometimes, life is good.

(thanks to the Cyberpeasant, by the way, for showing that picture... he has an interesting photo-essay of the Canadian GP up, right here. How interesting? His sister dates one of the Ferrari pit crew. Yeah, that's pretty interesting... go take a look!)

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:18 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 First off, all my best wishes to First Reader Mallory, hope she is okay and not too affected by the hurricane (PWT mentioned it a couple of times).

Secondly and far less importantly, really looking forwards to A1GP, going to be my winter saviour I hope.

Posted by: flotsky at August 29, 2005 09:03 PM (6T2ID)

2 First Reader Mallory is having problems posting, Flotsky, but she's gotten your message and is fine and dandy and thanks you for your wishes!

"It was very windy last night, but not much rain. Katrina was a landbound tropical storm when it got to us. It was bad enough as it was, thank you very much!"
-FRMallory

Posted by: Wonderduck at August 30, 2005 04:35 PM (ywZa8)

3 Very glad to hear that

Posted by: flotsky at August 30, 2005 10:34 PM (6T2ID)

4 Finally able to post...

Thanks for your good wishes, Flotsky. :-) All is well...our experience with Katrina was a minor inconvenience compared to other parts of the country.

Posted by: Mallory at August 31, 2005 01:32 PM (M7kiy)

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Okay, so that didn't work out exactly as planned. I was going to have a big writeup on the anime Noir and do a couple of other things I've wanted to do on here. Instead, I done did bupkis.

I'm going to throw myself on the mercy of the court. I'm guilty as sin, but with a good reason: it's Christmas.

"Right," I hear you say, "the Duck's gone completely mad. It's August, not December; ain't no fat man sliding down the chimney tonight."

(how does Santa get into homes with no chimney and central air?)

I agree; it's not December. Remember, I work at Duck U.'s bookstore... and classes started last Wednesday. We did aboot $125,000 in sales the last five days, roughly. Keep in mind that Duck U. is a small school; the bookstore will only do around $500,000 in sales the entire year.

Yes, we did about a quarter of our annual sales in one week. And you wonder why I say it's Christmas?

So, thats why the Duck hasn't gotten done what he's wanted to do. I've been resting this weekend. Tomorrow should be busy, as the MBA classes meet nights MWTh and didn't meet at all last week, but then we'll be through the roughest patch.

...until spring semester starts, but that's next year (literally; spring semester begins in January).

So. This week, I'll hit the Pond hard. I promise new posts every day, culminating, of course, in the F1 Update! for Monza on Sunday. Mmmm... Monza.

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