July 29, 2007

Well, that just sucks!

Oops.

I'm just wondering how it hit THREE cars. One I could understand, but THREE? That truck driver's got some 'splainin' to do...

UPDATE: I just noticed two things, completely unrelated to this story.
1) This is post number 600, and
2) I missed the two-year anniversary of The Pond @ .mu.nu!

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July 25, 2007

Ph34r t3h 5p01L3r!

I feel sympathetic to him now...

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July 16, 2007

125 Years In The Making...

This past weekend, the Philadelphia Phillies became the first professional sports team in any league anywhere to lose 10,000 games.

That's quite the achievement. Think about it: they have gone out and lost an average of 80 games a season for the past 125 years. These days, that's not so horrible, what with the season being 162 games long. But for a long, LONG time, 154 games or fewer was the norm.

Still, one has to tip the cap to the Phils. You don't get to lose that many games without doing something right! So, in honor of their record, I present them with this:

Ow.  Ow ow ow.  Owtch.  Ow.  Oof.

Why, yes, I AM a Cubs fan, why do you ask?

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July 07, 2007

Rah, rah, R.A.H.!!!*

Today, July 7th, would have been Robert A. Heinlein's 100th birthday.

Starship Troopers was the first sci-fi book I ever read, and got me hooked on the genre for life. I'm proud to have a complete collection of his books on my shelves.

The man invented waldos, the waterbed, helped with the creation of the spacesuit, and was the first to use the word "moonbat".

I can't stand Stranger In A Strange Land, which I think is a pretentious pile of steaming dingo kidneys, and some of his later books show signs of having been affected by his TIA, blocked carotid artery, and 2-year bout with peritonitis, but even the worst Heinlein novels (except for Farnham's Freehold, which is his weakest book ever) are better than 75% of all books ever (in my opinion, of course; your mileage may vary).

His juveniles, while now dated (having been written over 50 years ago), still hold up well, just as ripping yarns... I suspect kids would still get a kick out of them.

His attitude towards sexuality, race, religion, and individualism inspired and educated my own.

It may not be hyperbole for me to say that nobody influenced me more (save Momzerduck, of course) growing up than Robert Heinlein. I don't, and didn't, agree with everything he proposed, but he, more than any other author, made me think.

For that, if nothing else, I can only say 'thank you, Robert Heinlein.'

And happy birthday!

Oh, and for the record? My favorite of his books are, in order, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Job: A Comedy of Justice, and Double Star.

*with apologies to Spider Robinson's tribute with the same title.

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July 05, 2007

Blogblock

This will be a very recursive post: I'm blogging about not being able to blog.

I'm having a crisis of writing. I can't seem to make myself write anything interesting, clever, or informative (I leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out if I ever did).

Perhaps worse, I don't seem to particularly care that I'm not being "interesting, clever or informative." I KNOW I'm just blogging by the numbers, particularly on the one thing I consider the flagship of The Pond: the F1 UPDATE!s.

Of course, this would have to be a race weekend, wouldn't it? And at Silverstone, my favorite F1 track to boot. The way it's going, I'll trot out all the usual tropes: "Becketts, Copse and Maggots blah blah blah," "cars changing direction like slotcars natter natter natter," "Lewis Hamilton's first F1 race on his home track yadda yadda yadda."

Is that interesting to anybody?

Then there's anime. I'm still watching Hayate The Combat Butler and Lucky Star, and even Hidamari Sketch (when there's a new episode online), but I'm not exactly excited about it. The shows are fine, funny in the right places, melodramatic at times, but they aren't like, say, Haruhi or Kanon... the gripping show that grabs me by the pinfeathers and forces me to watch four or five or six episodes at a sitting.

I want to write something about the finale of Rocket Girls, but in my current blogblocked state, I know I'd just pee it down my leg.

Heck, go back and look at my post about Fred Saberhagen's death... is that well-written, clever, or interesting? I suggest the answer would be 'no'.

So welcome to the mind of The Duck: blocked tighter than someone who swallowed a bottle of Imodium.

I have a desire to make another AMV (using Kanon again, because I don't want to get into DVD ripping quite yet), but the idea just isn't there. I want to feel like I'm being creative, like I did during the making of "...Angel"... that felt really, really good, but nothing's jumping off the screen at me.

Anybody have any suggestions on what a struggling duck could do to unplug himself? Because I'm fresh out...

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July 03, 2007

Damn Berserkers...

...always killing the people who don't deserve it.

Fred Saberhagen has passed away at the age of 77. I've always been in awe of the... human-ness of his Berserker stories, even though they're about sentient killing machines out to destroy all life (and the people who deal with them).

I think my favorite was called 'The Jester' (I might have that title wrong), where a berserker captures an exiled (for political reasons) comedian, who convinces the world-killing machine to head to the planet that kicked him out.

Along the way, he prepares his greatest joke, and in the climax of the story...
(SPOILER: CLICK BELOW FOR THE RESULT) more...

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