Dead Duck?

Still high off of an improbable Seahawks victory this weekend, I am now getting geared up for yet another huge contest for the Pacific Northwest, Oregon v Auburn for the National Champion of the free universe.

I began thinking of how long it has been since the Ducks have last played. I tried to think of how long the insufferable radio and television coverage leading up the event has been. I get it, Oregon is fast, Cam Newton in the MVP, and neither team is remotely prepared for what the other team is going to give them tonight. There are only so many ways that you can slice and disect this thing and quite frankly, I am tired of it all. Get these kids on the field and lets be done with it!

So when thinking about the long layoff, I did not think of its effects on...

1) Cam Newton
2) LaMichael James
3) Darren Thomas

Nope, the first thought that came into my head?

...dead duck.

You see, while the 30+ day layoff may or may not affect the timing or flow of either teams offenses, I have the most concern about the mascot of the Oregon Ducks....whatever the hell his/her name is.

You see, one of the things you will see tonight is that every time Oregon scores, the Duck with do that many pushups....except it is progressive. So the duck will do seven pushups, then fourteen, then 21, so on so forth. Problem is, Oregon puts up about a bajillion points a game, so the Duck was a python by the end of the season.

Until the layoff. The holidays, the food, the candy, cookies, the sloth....

So pray for the Oregon Duck tonight to make it out alive. Perhaps a low-scoring game is the best solution. Save a Duck.

How the Wild Code was broken...

As a mentioned yesterday, the 2010 JD's Wildcode has finally been broken!




Samuel, of "The Daily Dimwit" sent me the image of Leonardo de Vinci, the answer to the final clue, yesterday afternoon. After the bells and whistles stopped sounding, and the confetti was finished falling from the sky, I informed Sam that he had won the entire contents of my 2010 Topps Chrome box, plus he has chosen the Alex Rodriguez Dave Hobrecht personally signed Chicle card, plus I am going to do some searching for something special in the card pile.



I asked Sam to write an explanation of how he solved the code. Reviewing his work, it is apparent that he utilized technology to get the job done. Though the code is certainly solvable without heavy computer work (though very useful for the trivia section), there is definitely no reason not to use any resource you can!



I want to clarify one section of the puzzle, as Sam was able to interpret the PDF section of the puzzle, thus skipping the step before it! The email with the PDF included a code that explained what to do with the PDF. In order to solve that code, you needed to have each card from the trivia questions. There was no need to reorder them in any way, but to simply line them up, and using the names, start counting letters. Once you decipher them correctly you will read



"TRAVEL TO MUDVILLE! FIND FAMOUS POEM. START AT THE SNEER. SOME THINGS DO NOT BELONG…"



Thus you pull up the PDF, start at "the sneer" which is the 2nd to last stanza, and cross out every word up to the end of the poem!



ANYWAYS, congratulation to Sam! If you have any questions about the code, feel free to leave a comment and I will answer all!

The Wild Code has been broken!

More to come!

Status of the Wild Code

Unsolved! Call Robert Stack.






Seriously though, it's time to get this pony moving right along and solve this code! Now I can tell you that there are THREE of you that have reached the second to last step in the process. It took some doing, but if you look back to how you got there, it should have been pretty straight forward.





The area that you are stuck is also straight forward. I by no means created advanced algebraic algorhythms to trip you up. If you look at what is presented to you, there is only so much data you can pull from it. Think about what you see...or read. These connect somehow, and when you see it, it will be incredibly obvious.





I am open to questions below.





Keep pluggin!

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Something to be excited about!

I am definitely not above doing a free plug for TBS and Conan O'Brien! After a ridiculous ordeal with the goons at the Tonight Show, Conan has been cleared for launch on his new network. It's going to be great to see him on the air again.

What else am I excited about? You'll see tomorrow!

A set that continues to impress

Way back when, I opened up a single box of 2008 Allen and Ginter. This box was opened after I had already experienced the 2007 and 2009 sets, and after seeing the cards in the box and the wide variety of subjects and spot-on artwork, I really felt that the 2008 set was the heyday for Allen and Ginter.

Nowadays I am focusing on collecting a massive vortex binder of minis, and through occasional trades I continue to stumble upon subsets from the 2008 Allen and Ginter set. These are like little windows that continue to open on yet more cards to pursue.

Here are a couple new subsets that I knew nothing about...


2008 Allen and Ginter King Arthur...in itself a pretty raging card, though I had no idea that it was not a base mini...

Nice! The Worlds Icons! Check out this list of cards in the set. Confucius, The Sphinx, Quetzalcoatl....HERCULES?!?! NICE. This is definitely a set worth pursuing.

Here is another card sent to me in trade earlier this month (or last?)...the Aerodrome.

This card belongs to the Pioneers of Aviation, which I believe is a secret subset, along with the shark set. I have never even seen any of these other cards, but I imagine that they look pretty fantastic.

I am putting the call out there. If any of you might happen to have any of these subsets, or any other random minis that you have no idea what to do with, shoot me a comment or note and we'll see if we can strike up a brown envelope exchange!