KD^3C^3 - 20250727 Looks like a snake to me
I’ve been trying to think of what to write about all week and haven’t really come up with anything. So here’s some bits and bobs.
After watching an episode of the latest season of Taskmaster with Jason Mantzoukas, I decided to purchase a lock pick set. I did some research and found a reasonable priced one, then waited until it was on sale to save. a few extra bucks. The kit I bought came with a practice padlock which a clear plastic body so you can see what you’re doing. After a few weeks of practice I can reliably pick or rake open the practice lock, but haven’t ventured into trying other locks yet. It’s mostly a fun little fidget to have at my desk.
I was thinking about the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya because someone reminded me of Endless Eight, which is one of the funniest pranks pulled on a TV audience. The show Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is an anime based on some books that originally aired from 2006-2009. It’s about a group of high schoolers who find themselves dealing with unusual pehnomena, think aliens and ESP and time travelers. The first seasons was kind of weird in that it aired episodes deliberately our of order, which meant viewers were always in the process of figuring out exactly what was happening when. But the real weirdness happened in 2009. The show was going to be rebroadcast, this time in chronological order, but with new episodes intermixed between the old ones. People were excited. The first 11 episodes went by and with only one new episode, people were expecting that the new episodes would all be in the back half, effectively making this season 2. Which is sort of correct. But by episode 13 something even more unexpected was happening. Episodes 12 & 13 were the same episode. Not exactly, but the same events happened in the same order. The episodes were different, and had been animated wholly from scratch, but fans thought it was weird that it happened again. By the end of the episode it is explained to the audience that the characters are in a time loop. So that’s kind of neat. Show the same events twice across 2 episodes t really hit home the time-loop of it all. But it wasn’t just two episodes. The next episode showed the same events again. Animated fresh, with a new performance from the voice actors. Then they did it again. They did this eight times. Eight episodes of the exact same events happening with slight variations. It was glorious. Some of the fans loved it and some of them were absolutely livid. I consider it one of the greatest feats in televisual animation. After eight episodes of this, viewers were given five more episodes of new content, and then the show ended for good. This week I finally got around to picking up the complete series on blu ray, something I should have done a while ago, but there are always more to buy. The episodes on the blu rays are in the order of the 2009 rebroadcast, but I think I’ll watch them in the order of the original broadcast, because that’s funnier.
This week’s Heathcliff comics have been on an interesting arc (as much as a single panel comic where the titular character never speaks can have an arc) with the introduction of Jimmy Cool. Jimmy is a frog, who has been well loved by many in he comic (and has plenty of fans in the real world too, I cont myself among them). But this week Jimmy has undergone a rebrand, now called Jimmy Cool. Jimmy Cool is Jimmy the frog, but wearing sunglasses. People in the world of Heathcliff have not responded particularly well to Jimmy Cool. Personally, I feel bad for the frog, I think he’s trying new things and not getting embraced like he usually is probably feels bad. Personally, I hope Jimmy Cool finds his place in the world and people for to accept him as he is. You can read the whole week’s worth of strips starting here: https://www.gocomics.com/heathcliff/2025/07/21
After watching an episode of the latest season of Taskmaster with Jason Mantzoukas, I decided to purchase a lock pick set. I did some research and found a reasonable priced one, then waited until it was on sale to save. a few extra bucks. The kit I bought came with a practice padlock which a clear plastic body so you can see what you’re doing. After a few weeks of practice I can reliably pick or rake open the practice lock, but haven’t ventured into trying other locks yet. It’s mostly a fun little fidget to have at my desk.
I was thinking about the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya because someone reminded me of Endless Eight, which is one of the funniest pranks pulled on a TV audience. The show Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is an anime based on some books that originally aired from 2006-2009. It’s about a group of high schoolers who find themselves dealing with unusual pehnomena, think aliens and ESP and time travelers. The first seasons was kind of weird in that it aired episodes deliberately our of order, which meant viewers were always in the process of figuring out exactly what was happening when. But the real weirdness happened in 2009. The show was going to be rebroadcast, this time in chronological order, but with new episodes intermixed between the old ones. People were excited. The first 11 episodes went by and with only one new episode, people were expecting that the new episodes would all be in the back half, effectively making this season 2. Which is sort of correct. But by episode 13 something even more unexpected was happening. Episodes 12 & 13 were the same episode. Not exactly, but the same events happened in the same order. The episodes were different, and had been animated wholly from scratch, but fans thought it was weird that it happened again. By the end of the episode it is explained to the audience that the characters are in a time loop. So that’s kind of neat. Show the same events twice across 2 episodes t really hit home the time-loop of it all. But it wasn’t just two episodes. The next episode showed the same events again. Animated fresh, with a new performance from the voice actors. Then they did it again. They did this eight times. Eight episodes of the exact same events happening with slight variations. It was glorious. Some of the fans loved it and some of them were absolutely livid. I consider it one of the greatest feats in televisual animation. After eight episodes of this, viewers were given five more episodes of new content, and then the show ended for good. This week I finally got around to picking up the complete series on blu ray, something I should have done a while ago, but there are always more to buy. The episodes on the blu rays are in the order of the 2009 rebroadcast, but I think I’ll watch them in the order of the original broadcast, because that’s funnier.
This week’s Heathcliff comics have been on an interesting arc (as much as a single panel comic where the titular character never speaks can have an arc) with the introduction of Jimmy Cool. Jimmy is a frog, who has been well loved by many in he comic (and has plenty of fans in the real world too, I cont myself among them). But this week Jimmy has undergone a rebrand, now called Jimmy Cool. Jimmy Cool is Jimmy the frog, but wearing sunglasses. People in the world of Heathcliff have not responded particularly well to Jimmy Cool. Personally, I feel bad for the frog, I think he’s trying new things and not getting embraced like he usually is probably feels bad. Personally, I hope Jimmy Cool finds his place in the world and people for to accept him as he is. You can read the whole week’s worth of strips starting here: https://www.gocomics.com/heathcliff/2025/07/21