Duckburg Gazette

Monday, April 06, 2026

April Fool's

This past Wednesday was April 1st, otherwise known as April Fool's Day! There used to be some great websites out there who did a lot of great pranks. I remember Blizzard Entertainment did a nerd gaming date site, Pokemon made some contest of catching all these Pokemon around the world in a day... and the best of the was ThinkGeek when they used to exist. Every year they did the best pranks with fake merchandise that people really wanted them that in most cases, they ended up actually making them! The best of them was the Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back Tauntaun sleeping bag because you only thought they smelled bad on the outside! But since that one (it was several years ago), there definitely has been a lack luster of online pranks or they were really obvious or just flat out dumb. But, a new one has emerged this year, Jamba Juice! Jamba Juice did one for some pickle inspired beverages! They did an email blast and put it up on their socials and now, people want it! Will Jamba eventually make it? We'll see but pickle beverages do exist out there now!

Weekly Update:
Baseball has started another season and will the LA Dodgers get a third championship? They have showed a strong showing so far but from the start to the end is a long way to go and a lot of games to play. In MLB history there has only been 4 teams to win three World Series in a row and the New York Yankees own that title for 3 of them! The last one was from 1998 to 2000. The only other team to have a 3-peat were the Oakland Athletics which was from 1972 to 1974 which they are now the Las Vegas Athletics or will be. So, if the LA Dodgers win this year, they will make history by being the 5th team but only 3rd different team to win a 3-peat and a first for the LA Dodger baseball club. Again, a long way to go but here's wishing them the best this season!

At the movies:
New at #1 with a huge box office is The Super Mario Galaxy Movie earning an outstanding 130.9 million for the weekend but a 5-day total of 190.1 mil! This is an huge number and should get to 200 mil by tomorrow. Above expectations and Easter Sunday is usually not a very busy weekend too. Drop down to #2 is Project Hail Mary with another 30.7 mil as it now passes the 200 mil cume mark. Still going strong and will continue to do well. New at #3 is The Drama with 14.4 mil and not a lot on this film, may do OK overall. Hanging on to #4 is Hoppers with 5.8 mil and it will continue to lose steam and be out soon. Rounding off the top 5 is Reminders of Him with an extra 2.2 mil and likely the last we see of this movie.

New movies that did not make the top 5:
Just one this week in at #6 is A Great Awakening with 2.1 mil. It opened on over 1200 screens so not a great number overall.

Quote of the week:
"Great mind discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Facts & Tips:
The average koala sleeps 22 hours each day.

"Devin, this is what happens when you do Minecraft instead of math! And neither of you should be eating Twinkies this close to dinner." - Ron G. as Brian in Just Swipe.

Monday, March 30, 2026

Mmmmmmm

A friend introduced me to a drink called Chi and it is pretty amazing. Great taste, refreshing and the best part, no sugars and calories! Now the calorie part doesn't bother me but the no sugar is very important to me and I could drink these all day. A LOT of the sparkling water drinks have zero flavor to me and usually it makes me even more thirsty or my mouth dry. But this, it has a lot of flavor without any after tastes you would get from artificial sweeteners and the flavors are really good. I would say the cans are small (11.16 fl. oz) compared to a regular can of soda (which is 12 fl. oz). I think with the cans being skinnier but slightly taller it feels much smaller than what we are used to but one can is still a good amount. The pack at Costco only has four flavors which are lychee, peach, pomelo and my favorite, strawberry but honestly all four flavors are good. I have seen pictures of a grape and orange which I would very much be interested in trying both but I don't see any where that sells the individually (yet), just in that four pack of flavors at Costco. Maybe those are two new flavors but I'll drink them all!

Weekly Update:
One of the tools I am using to try and declutter my stuff is eBay. I can't remember if I talked about this before but it warrants another mention. Now, I am trying to declutter for the past several years and been doing it through eBay for the most part. It's semi-easy but not quick because you never know when someone may be looking for something you have so you just have to keep reposting it. But at least reposting is a simple two click process and that makes it using it very attractive. I would say I probably sell about 10 to 12 things a year but they range from something the size of a ring or pin to a big board game sized item. It is very random and when it's something small, I don't even notice the impact it makes in redeeming space in my house. When it's something big, that is awesome and I see the small difference but the challenge with that is finding the right size box to ship things in. You don't want to oversize the box because then you have to find extra packing materials plus the bigger the box, the more expensive the shipping. The smaller the item, the easier the shipping (an inexpensive) but the impact of space it makes, negligible. But what is the overall impact is the money that I can earn and set aside, that is the best part and I'm not just throwing stuff away... my junk is someone else's treasure as they say.

At the movies:
No surprise holding ground at #1 is Project Hail Mary with another 54.5 million and that is an incredibly small drop of only 32% from week 1. It is at 164 mil cume and should hit 200 probably by mid-week at this pace. Also holding at #2 is Hoppers with 12.2 mil more and gradually slowing down. New at #3 is They Will Kill You with 5 mil and probably a quick burn out. Drop down to #4 is Dhurandha The Revenge with an extra 4.8 mil and will continue to fade out. Holding again at #5 is Reminders of Him with 4.7 mil which is surprising but should be out by next week.

New movies that did not make the top 5:
Just one this week at #10 is Forbidden Fruits with only 1.2 mil on a wide release and only doing less than $800 per screen.

Quote of the week:
"Where there is great love, there are always wishes." - Willa Cather.

Facts & Tips:
One brow wrinkle is the result of 200,000 frowns.

"Only a fool makes threats he's not prepared to carry out." - Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister in the series

Monday, March 23, 2026

Sprin... SUMMER is here!!

HOT HOT HOT!!

I went to the parks this past week getting some friends in and talk about a scorcher. Monday through Wednesday I would say the average was 95 degrees. Thursday and Friday were both in the low 90's and it didn't break till Saturday when it only hit 88. First day of Spring was this past Friday but I think we completely skipped it and went right to Summer! What does this mean for the Summer weather than? I hope we aren't for record breaking temperatures this year when we officially go into Summer. We already had record breakers for this past week in the start of Spring! Global warming and climate change are such a real thing. It is like if someone sees how green the grass is in front of them and say it isn't green simply because they prefer it to be any color but green. They end up saying I didn't see any green grass. They deny the truth to fit their own mindset and do nothing to correct or help the situation but simply make it worse and worse. People are stupid.

Weekly Update:
It is interesting how maps and map programs have changed over the past 20 to 25 years. Before it was all folded road maps or if you were lucky, a Thomas Guide which was detailed down to the street as long as no construction work had taken place. Then we evolved to things like MapQuest and other programs such as having a navigation system in your car. What was interesting about your car nav is it was only accurate up to the point of when you purchased your car and if you want a more accurate map, you had to get a new CD. Now, the apps for location are so accurate and car navs are connected to your own app or a global tracking system. They now knew traffic alerts or if a car is pulled over to the side that might cause some delays on the road. You can watch someone move blocks by just being connected to them and watching them walk down the street. Even games have mapping that can you help you get around like Pokémon Go! It uses probably Google Maps because I can see the roads and if it's a dead end street or not and my location on the map is so accurate! It is easy to know where anyone is now these days!

At the movies:
Big opening at #1 with Project Hail Mary earning a huge 80.6 million and very positive reviews. Should get to 100 mil in no time and continue it's way to a potentially quick 200 at the box office. Drop down to #2 is Hoppers with 18 mil extra and another 37% drop which is very good. Movie broke into the 100 mil category but 200 may be a stretch. New at #3 is Dhurandha The Revenge with 10 mil to open and this might be a quick burn. New at #4 is Ready or Not 2: Here I Come with 9.1 mil which isn't bad for this film. Rounding off the top 5 is Reminders of Him with another 8 mil and should fade out fast.

New movies that did not make the top 5:
Just one this week in wide-release is The Pout-Pout Fish with 1.5 mil and less than $1000 per screen, this one will be out of theatres fast.

Quote of the week:
"Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out." - Robert Collier

Facts & Tips:
The first vacuum was so large, it was brought to a house with horses.

"You can tell she's a good dancer by the way she drinks her soda pop." - Oscar Nunez as Ramone in The Proposal.

Monday, March 16, 2026

SUMMER!!!

It's about to get HOT!! Ok so this past week was warm (mid to high 80's) but it felt really warm because the lack of breezes. I slept most nights with my windows open and ceiling fan on and wasn't enough some times. But, this week we are about to go into will be a scorcher! Starting early week it will be 90 and then by mid-week it should mid-90's and higher! This is March, right? Where is our Winter we never got and the Spring we are supposed to be in? This is NOT normal at all! The East Coast is getting hammered with a blizzard, that seems normal. As well as parts of the Mid-West, also normal but here, what the heck!! Why are we so off than the rest of the country right now? I know as a country, we are so broken but feels like this side of it is off-kilter a bit. I just want some rain...

Weekly Update:
Recently Panera Bread came out with this new Dubai Chocolate Cookie and I had a thing for a free desert so thought I would try it. First off, it's very small, a little bit bigger than say a Chips Ahoy! brand cookie. It's also a very soft, chewy cookie which is fine but the size is disappointing. Then, there is very little of the pistachio filling inside that you don't even taste or notice it. It was more like a soft bake cookie with some pistachio on top that you could taste but the rest of it, doesn't take anything but chocolate and I really like that pistachio/cream and kataifi pastry filling. That is the key to this Dubai chocolate craze, I mean forget the chocolate just give me that filling please! But the Panera cookie for $4.99 is not worth it, not even if it's half that if they do that 50% offers. Get the better value for the Kitchen Sink cookie when it's 50% or free.

At the movies:
Holding at #1 for a 2nd week is Hoppers with another 28.5 million and only a 37% drop! Movie is close to 100 mil cume and should get there in another couple of days. New at #2 is Remindersof Him with 18.3 mil and could be a fast burn. Also new at #3 is Undertone with 9.3 mil and not much on this one so will likely drop fast. Drop down to #4 is Scream 7 with 8.4 mil extra as it passes the 100 mil mark but likely not go too much further. Rounding off the top is GOAT with 4.7 mil and closer to 100 mil, will get there but will take more time.

Quote of the week:
"Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within." - James Baldwin

Facts & Tips:
Lizards communicated by doing push-ups.

"Do you ever get the feeling that you were meant to do something extraordinary?" - Milo Ventimiglia as Peter Petrelli in the TV series Heroes.

Monday, March 09, 2026

What time is it??

It's that time of year again... Daylight Saving Time! But, the one I don't like where we lose that precious hour of sleep since it generally occurs just after midnight so 12AM is actually 1AM. What is funny is how Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe it... most of Arizona? How do you get most of a state and not all of it, that is odd to me. You know what is interesting, I learned last time we changed that other countries do it too! For example I know that Finland does it but not the same time we do and I thought that was pretty interesting to learn. I know they are more Northern hemisphere so I have to imagine it affects them a lot with longer hours of no sun maybe? But I'm glad to know that the US is not the only place that adopts the time change and honestly, I do not mind it. I'm not sure if it's because I've lived with it all my life, I'm just used to it. I know several people who hate it but why? The sun has already been changed due to the rotation of the planet but maybe they are flat Earthers and don't believe it's round and we just flipped to the other side of the coin? Now THAT is just silly.

Weekly Update:
Ok time for Summer to start? Wait what?? Last week wasn't bad, mid-70's to 80 during the day but the weekend ended in the high 80's and looking at the weather forecast for next week... in the 90's. I hope (and I've said it before) this isn't a pre-cursor to what our Summer will be like and will it start now, earlier than normal and will it last longer? What has happened to our weather because just 2-years ago we were having massive rain fall for months, up through most of May and then it switched to Summer and moderately warm but wasn't a complete scorcher. But then last year, barely any rain and just like this year so far, same. A day here, a day there maybe and only for a few hours instead of days. And the rise in temps so soon from what is usually 60's is now 80's, even at night! This is not normal people, you are all doing it wrong.

At the movies:
Hopping in to take the crown this weekend is Hoppers with a solid 46 million to open for a non-holiday time frame. Overall reviews are good so as we start spring break, hopefully it will hold into week 2. Big drop down to #2 is Scream 7 with 17.3 mil which is an above average 73% loss from week 1. It is only inches away from hitting 100 mil, likely will get that in a day or two but it will crawl after that. New at #3 is The Bride! with 7.3 mil and a very low opening as I'm sure they were expecting a lot more. Dropping down to #4 in week 4 is GOAT with 6.6 mil as it gets closer to 100 mil, may take a couple more weeks. Rounding off the top 5 is Wuthering Heights with an extra 3.8 mil as it may cap out below 100 mil but came close.

Quote of the week:
"Tomorrow is only found in the calendar of fools." - Og Mandino

Facts & Tips:
1/4 of the bones in your body are in your feet.

"Eric Bachman, this is your mom, and you, you are not my baby." - Jimmy O. Yang as Jian-Yang in the TV series Silicon Valley.