Namowal

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Posts posted by Namowal


  1. rocky-dives

    Just wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE your blog. You're so talented!



    Hey, thanks. It's been pretty dull in Ducksville thanks to my career laying an egg. I don't think I even linked to my latest post when I published it because I was a bit embarrassed as to how things turned out, but hear it is, if anyone's curious as to why I fell off the radar:

    Now What?

    I still have my equipment and am doing tunnel practice to keep in shape, so I will jump again, dangnabit, but maybe not as soon as I'd like.
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  2. Quote

    He told the press, his muppet fans/students, and anyone else who asked that the video was not him and it was his competitors on the west coast lying and trying to bring him down. Then he filed a copyright claim for the video. Classy, Dell.



    Looks like he still might be in a bit of trouble.

    This paragraph in particular caught my attention.
    Quote

    Attempts by a Salt Lake Tribune reporter to ask Schanze about the video on Monday resulted in hang-ups. Fox 13 reported that when it tried to contact Schanze about the video, he told them over the phone, "What in the world are you talking about? Don’t try and blame anything on me, or I’ll sue you."



    The belligerence reminds me of an anecdote where a suspect was accused of attacking someone, and replied, angrily, "I wasn't even there! I should have blown his head off."
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  3. Quote


    And, yes, if he focuses this much on harassing the birds (who know the air WAY better than he does), he will eventually plant himself. [:/]



    Or he'll harass the wrong hawk/owl and learn how powerful those beaks and talons can be.
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  4. Quote

    I'm pretty sure the point was to use a symbol that would be sensitive to the students in that particular classroom; and most if not all of those kids in the class were probably Christians. That's what made the Jesus symbolism a relevant teaching tool. Had it been a classroom of mostly Jewish students an item of Jewish symbolism would have been the relevant teaching tool.



    I can understand the lesson being used to teach symbolism, but I don't understand why the kid got in trouble because he didn't want to step on the paper. Isn't that sort of the point of a symbolism lesson? That if something is symbolic of something sacred to someone that they'll treat it with more reverence?
    Either the teacher is a complete ass or we're not getting the full story.
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  5. Quote

    Good to hear you are on the mend. i'm sure a multi skilled duck will be able to find a way to generate an income.....good luck.



    Thanks. B|
    Not long ago I was considering my options and "the problem is I'm stupid when it comes to clerical skills, math, or anything useful. I'm the kind of person who solves puzzles and comes up with ideas."
    Then I thought,
    "You come up with ideas? Good. How about coming up with some ideas about what you're going to do next?"
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  6. Quote

    I love your cartoon!!!!!!
    I'm sending it on to a friend that has nicknamed me "ducks" and was shocked that I would agree to do a few tandems lol lol


    Thanks, promise5 B|
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  7. Quote

    Sucks to hear about the job situation keeping you from jumping but dont worry youll be bqck in the air soon enough!

    And thanks for another great installment of the duck. Which has become one of my all time fav reads. :)



    Thanks, mutumbo! :)
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  8. Quote

    be on the ground for longer than I like (thanks to lack of work).



    So what picture got your team the Academy Awards?


    "Life of Pi" (Best visual effects). That's Bill Westenhofer (the Visual Effects Supervisor, to the left) and Erik-Jan de Boer (the Animation Director, to the right) They were the Big Kahunas. I was one of many Little Kahunas.
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

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    Years ago a guy told me they plugged holes in rays and sold the meat as scallops.



    An episode of This American Life recently looked into the (unsubstantiated) possibility that deep fried calamari was somehow, somewhere, being replaced with...
    ...well, it wasn't calamari.:o


    Yeh but it was deep fried. Hell, it was cooked.


    True. The experimental batch they whipped up seemed to go over well. B|
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  • Quote

    Years ago a guy told me they plugged holes in rays and sold the meat as scallops.



    An episode of This American Life recently looked into the (unsubstantiated) possibility that deep fried calamari was somehow, somewhere, being replaced with...
    ...well, it wasn't calamari.:o
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  • Also I've noticed different cultures seem to have different boundaries as to how friendly and formal you're expected to be with others: eye contact, personal space, how direct (or indirect) you're expected to be, etc.. Thus people from some cultures seem aloof, while others seem "in your face."
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

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    I goofed on IKEA and the IKEA Effect a few years ago, before my "Skydiving Duck" days.



    "I'm the kind of guy..."

    Huh!:o

    So who is using the Duck's account?


    The schtick was I'd pose as a "guest blogger" who'd complain about his/her predicament. Some other examples: A vicious bully complaining he was being persecuted, a dog complaining about the mailman, the Sun complaining that nobody cared, a bigot insisting he wasn't a bigot, and so on.
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  • I wrote this elsewhere, years ago, but it more or less explains my opinion on most (if not all) supernatural stuff:
    Quote


    In the late 80's I moved in to a "haunted" apartment. One morning I awoke to see a bluish figure standing by my bed. As he(?) faded, I noticed a strange noise- the wall heater -which I'd never touched- was running.
    Other weird things happened when I lived there. Once I opened the door and found a plastic bottle rattling by itself. A tabloid sitting on a dresser would be turned to different pages when I returned to the room, once to a page that read "Amazing proof of life after death!" A phone would ring by itself even when it was disconnected. During a visit with my upstairs neighbor, the front door drifted open. Someone made a joke about the ghost, and it slammed shut!

    Before someone calls the ghostbusters, lets look at this a bit closer

    Waking up to someone/something standing by my bed?
    People sometimes see (or hear, or feel) weird or wacky things during sleep paralysis which, simplified, is when you're dreaming with your eyes open, perceiving both real life details and stuff from your dream. The supernatural traditions of ones culture determines how these dreams are interpreted. A medieval person might think they were being visited by a witch, demon or incubus. A 21st century person might think they were seeing ghosts or aliens. Keep in mind that, while these are technically dreams, they seem very real, and the fact that they're infused with real life details (the time on your clock radio, for example).

    The heater that turned on by itself?

    I'd moved in during late summer, and the heater incident happened in the fall. While it's true I'd never touched the thing, the previous tenants obviously had set it to turn on when the temperature dropped. That morning was probably cold enough to set it off.


    The tabloid that turned pages by itself?
    The apartment was very drafty, and opening and closing my bedroom door sent a mild gust that affected anything left on the dresser. Any tabloid or magazine I sat there would have its pages turned in the breeze. Yes, one time it did happen to turn to "Amazing Proof of life after death", but pages with stupid adds like "Lose weight! Cure baldness! Get rich!" were just as common. (Either that or the ghost thought I was fat, bald and cheap).

    The phone that rang when unplugged?
    This freaked me out until I realized what was going on. It was a very cheap model with a wimpy, squeaky sputter of a ring. One moonlit night I unplugged it and within minutes it was squeak-ringing again and again. I stuffed it in my sock drawer (this was before you could auction your haunted crap on e-Bay), returned to bed, and the squeak-rings continued.... except they seemed to come from the corner of my room... it was my freaking parakeet imitating the phone!

    The door opening and slamming shut?

    The windows were open, and changing drafts could easily nudge an almost closed door open or shut. Had the doorknob turned on its own and the door swung wide, I'd have been more impressed.


    While my story doesn't disprove ghosts (or aliens), it shows how everyday oddness can be misinterpreted to as paranormal. If I met a ghost/alien/fairy/monster in person, while fully awake (including no sleep deprivation), with witnesses, I'd be much more inclined to think it was real, compared to the 'phenomena' I experienced in the haunted apartment


    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  • This sounds cynical, but it wouldn't surprise me if cases like this are about as easy to predict and control as the weather. I don't think it's a matter of "If only his parents (or society) did X."
    Also, while I believe kids are over-medicated for behavior problems, I don't think this the meds are turning them into destructive monsters. (Even if their defense attorney says otherwise) If every kid (or even one percent of every kid) on meds went went on killing sprees, this would be happening every day.
    Also, the list of killer-kids-on-meds sounds scary, but its possible that they had serious behavior problems to begin with, which in turn prompted the adults in their lives to seek treatment. Maybe the only "bad" thing about the medicine is that it didn't work.
    Just my two cents.
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  • Quote

    I'm sure yours are more exciting than mine. I plan on staying away from the crazies after midnight. :$:)

    Let us know! :)



    Me? No plans. I'll probably curl up with a good book and go to sleep with earplugs so any midnight festivities won't wake me up.:)
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  • Quote

    I was disappointed to see...

    Skydiving Duck
    A comic series... the final installment

    ... in the January 2013 issue of Parachutist.

    I mean, great installment, but the last one? :(



    Parachutist wanted to run the series as my journey from Tandem noob to A licence holder. It seemed reasonable to me- I figured my continuing schtick of duck-is-nervous-on-the-plane, duck-is-a-klutz, duck-slowly-makes-progress might be growing old (even if it was what how it happened).
    You can still see my continuing adventures on my blog- has gone semi-dark since I've been grounded (till spring) thanks to my ridiculous accident.
    Still, it's nice to know I'll be missed. Thanks!:)
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  • Quote

    Been on the list as long as I can recall. Everyone should be.



    Same here. Better to donate a few parts to someone else, since the alternative is donating them to "lunch" for bugs and microbes.:P
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  • Quote

    Get an AFFI to jump with you, a really good one, one that "airs" reliability and you're going to jump like nothing happened because there's someone really trustworthy next to you to help you just in case. And this means you won't need any help B| That's what I did, heh heh.




    Good idea. I'm pretty sure there's USPA rules that will make me attend a refresher course and do a supervised AFF jump before they let me loose in the sky.

    Hope all is well with you. :)
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.

  • Quote

    [
    I feel really jelous to older generations - you guys had all the best music in the world and you had it live. And all we got crappy...



    As someone old enough to remember the 1970s, let me assure you that for every beloved classic rock song in the era, we had to endure dozens of songs that are so awful that you almost never hear them today. Sylvia's Mother, The Night Chicago Died, Seasons In the Sun etc...

    The line from Smoke on the Water:

    "They burned down the gambling house/it died with an awful sound."

    Makes me suspicious an American top 40 am radio station broadcast somehow made it to the Geneva shoreline that night...;)
    My blog with the skydiving duck cartoons.