This whole Brood XIII has been something of a disappointment up through now, truth be told. To date, the only cicada I've seen...

...has been this poor example from ep7 of Lucky*Star.

I thought I heard one this evening, but it was only an air conditioner.

More updates from the Cicadageddon 2007 newsdesk as events warrant. Don't hold your breath.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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FOR MERITORIOUS SERVICE to The Pond, I hereby bestow upon Jeff Lawson of Hop Step Jump membership in The Order of the Honorary Duck, with all the rights and glory that brings unto him.

Jeff becomes the third member of the Order Of The Honorary Duck, joining only Pixy Misa of Ambient Irony and Don of The Kawaii Menace.

When I set out to create my first AMV, I sent him an e-mail, asking if he'd be willing to be my Technical Guru. He gladly accepted. Henceforth, he replied to every e-mail quickly and intelligently. He never seemed to grumble or complain, even though I'm sure some of my questions were stupid. When it came out that he was going to be moving AND changing jobs, it became even more amazing when I realized he had been doing all this at a rather stressful time of his life.

For all of these reasons, as well as being a Rocket Girl, Jeff Lawson richly deserves induction to the Order of the Honorary Duck.

Thanks, Jeff!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:00 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The day began normally, but the signs were there...
more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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John Cleese has been 'honored' by a small town in New Zealand. I can only imagine how little he cares... though I'd be willing to bet he'd like the sign.

*actually, these days the mind mp3s...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:32 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Still working on the AMV, filing off the rough edges. Also long hours at the Duck U. Bookstore. Sleep is for the weak. Will be back soon... why not go read Jeff Lawson (who's about to start a new job) or Brickmuppet? They're really good.

If you can't wait for the AMV to finish, here's something to whet your appetite:

UPDATE: Greatest. Commercial. EVER.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So 'Muppet found this and sent it to me (warning: not safe for sanity).

I couldn't resist:

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:08 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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(UPDATE: Hardly 'outraged', as Steven puts it. If you don't like the story, you don't like the story... it's a personal thing. I'm more amused by his relying on the same old tropes as reasons to dislike the strip... the biggest of which hasn't been valid for years. Read on and see!)

Steven's complaining about Megatoyko again, and rolling out all the old saws to boot: "It's too slow, all the characters look the same, it jumps around too much."

Each chapter of Megatokyo comprises a day of strip time. Chapter 8 took about 8 months to complete, running from 6/28/06 to 2/14/07 (Chapter 9 began earlier this month). That's roughly 90 pages of hand-drawn artwork, many with insane amounts of detail. Considering that Fred Gallagher, the man behind MT, also runs his own merchandising company and has his fifth book coming out in a few weeks, I'd say he's doing well to get one strip out every 3 days. If that's too slow, then so be it.

As far as 'jumping around too much' goes, I'm guessing that the story moves storyline threads every two weeks (six strips) or so on average. I don't think I've ever thought that Gallagher changes p.o.v. too quickly; the comic moves at it's own pace. Yes, we could just follow Piro or Kimiko around all day, but then you'd be missing the other character's stories.

The complaint that I read the most often is that there are TOO many characters, and that I won't disagree with. There are a bunch, and there's no offical guide to MT to help the beginner. Fortunately, there ARE a few fan guides (like this one, or this one) that are excellent.

Steven says "I have a hard time telling the girls apart. The only distinguishing feature is hair style, and even those aren't all that distinctive."
Indeed?

At one time this was a valid complaint. I don't think it is anymore.

A couple of things I'll agree with Steven about, though. It IS a soap opera with an otaku setting. Actually, Gallagher would probably say it's a comic strip with a dating-sim setting; same thing, really.

And nobody knows what's the story behind Miho. We have learned quite a lot, but it's still a mystery, probably the biggest one in MT.

Largo isn't the psychotic one, though. That'd be Dom.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:11 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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