Flying W Things

My Favorite Duck

One of the business units I'm affiliated with at work is Walt Disney* Television Animation. It's a tenuous connection at best, but they recently celebrated their 20th anniversary by giving current employees a piece of original artwork from their files.

It was apparently a random draw as to what showed up in the large padded envelope. Some folks' artwork featured well-known movie characters like Simba and Ariel, but I ended up with a fairly obscure minor star from the Disney galaxy. That said, I was thrilled when I opened the envelope. How could they know that I love Ludwig von Drake?

See, when I was a kid we had a Ludwig von Drake record that we played the hell out of, sometimes listening to it back-to-back-to-back. I still remember most of the songs. ("Red-yellow-green-red-blue-blue-blue-red-purple-green-yellow-orange-red") It drove my mom absolutely nuts. To this day if you say "Ludwig von Drake" in her presence I swear she starts to twitch.

* yeah, okay, the cat's out of the bag. I know that I haven't mentioned it in this space, but if you hadn't already figured it out, I work for The Walt Disney Company.

Greatest. Bandages. Evar.

These are great! Ok, back to work.

Best. Dilbert. Evar.

There's nothing I can add to that.

I'm Not Teaching You That

Recently, Cameron came into our bedroom while Katy was in the process of getting dressed.

He pointed to Katy's bra and asked "When can I learn how to undo one of those?"

Katy, without missing a beat, said "Not for a long time. And I'm not teaching you."

Noise Noise Noise

This Sunday we went to Descanso Gardens, a really nice garden that's not too far from home. There's pretty much always something blooming and it's usually a nice quiet place to spend an afternoon.

Well. Usually.

Turns out this weekend they were having a calliope festival. It was unbelievable - you couldn't get away from them. It seemed like they were set up every twenty feet or so. The whole thing reminded me of one of my favorite Far Side cartoons: "Welcome to hell, here's your accordion."

Why don't you watch (and listen to) this and see what I'm talking about (1.3 Mb .wmv file)

Phew.

I Hold Geek Air Supremacy

Here I am, sometime in mid-70's, sitting in the cockpit of a P-51 Mustang. This picture was taken just before I went for a flight with the owner of the plane.

Before you start in with your "but the P-51 was a single seater" retorts, much of the WWII radio gear had been removed to make room for a small back seat. It was quite small - as a stringy kid I barely fit back there.

Yes, you are jealous.

Weird Marketing

Today I stumbled across one of the weirder bits of marketing I've seen in a while:

Hitachi Hard Drive (requires Flash)

I'm not sure what to make of it. Bemusing.

Is He Not the Kwisatch Haderach?

Ok, quick diversion into science fiction.

I just re-read Dune. Near the end, much is made of Feyd-Rautha's plan to poison Paul in combat.

But is he not the Kwisatch Haderach? Can he not control every molecule in his body? Did he not convert the Water of Life?

I don't think this is really a threat to Paul. If Feyd-Rautha scratched him with it, wouldn't he just reassemble the poison into Dr. Pepper and pop back up refreshed, yelling "Die Harkonnen Scum!" as he buried his crysknife in Feyd's smirking gut?

Discuss.

You Should Check Your Messages

I was out of town last weekend. We got home late Monday.

On Tuesday morning I checked my answering machine, which had several messages.

One of the messages went something like this:

"Hey Brad, I've got an extra U2 ticket for Tuesday night. Do you want to go?"

My pulse quickened.

Then a couple messages later there was one that went something like this:

"Hmmpfh. If you can't be troubled to call me back then I'm taking my wife."

Sigh. You should check your messages when you're out of town.