"Cross of Iron": The Rise and Fall of the German War Machine: 1918-1945 Mosier, JohnLots of solid primary source research, though he still throws in the occasional fast and loose speculation without evidentiary support. I like it. In a nutshell, the Nazis just couldn't get it together. Their faith in racism, the great man, and individual craftsmanship (at the expense of mass industrialization) inevitably led to failure. After reading many other histories, I always wondered why no one called Germany out for its obvious inability to keep up with the Allies' production. Mosier does this and more in solid detail.
"Children of Men"Truth in fiction? With articles about decreased sperm count in men living in industrialized countries, hormone-laden food affecting our kids' development, and now inadvertent cocktails of every drug ever administered forming from human bodily waste that filters into our water supply... One figures that whatever eventually happens in reality will defy and exceed even the extreme speculation in movies like this one.
Really, really good movie. Nihilistic as hell (until the 'morrow at the end), but very accurate depictions of human reactions under stress.Whoa. I just got mugged over the phone.
Meet my executive director, and you’ll never call me a forceful personality again. :) ..And people say I talk a lot.
I just got a call where, in about 40 seconds, she asked me for short biographies on all our advisors, asked whether two names she had were Vietnamese, thanked me for getting some other arrangements made, and hung up.
They’re slim, elegant, lively, and possessed of a quicksilver temper. Everywhere they go, men eye them in speculation and envy. They can sing sweetly when handled well, and they’ll cut you deeply if you don’t give them the respect they deserve.
Gladly do I spend my savings on them!
An authoritative blade with less reach than a rapier, this sidesword style showed up circa 1520 as a civilian adoption of the knight’s arming sword of the 15th century:
Sidesword hiltwork
This rapier is typical of the weapons found throughout Europe starting around 1560 and continuing throughout the 1600s:
Rapier and dagger
Yes, their tips are all blunted (especially the dagger) in anticipation of mounting a rubber blunt for use in practice.
I can’t sleep. It’s like Christmas, and I know Santa’s stuck in the chimney — I can hear him.
I picked up some leatherworking supplies today. Nickel-plated ring, neatsfoot oil, side of cow, etc. I cut a strap for my future sword belt, and measured out the hanger. I think I’ll go Italian, since thus far that’s been my chosen mode of non-blooded sport.
Had some Leo and Pam’s excellent lasagna. Came home at 1 a.m., talked with Linh Thi for a bit.
..And I found a note saying I had a UPS package waiting at our mailbox location.
Wheeehahahaha! Woo hoo! and etc. for the next ten minutes.
What coincidence, that today I would begin work on the belt and receive notice that my swords were waiting for me? I’ve endured eight weeks rapierless.
Hee hee hee… >:)
Alrighty, then. Back to bed with me.
I am not an activist. Certain of my friends have variously lamented my apathy towards my fellow man, my callousness toward the environment, and my flippant disregard for our Future.
Mrs. Joseph Leonard happily announces the birth of Lucas Simon Haunsperger, a bouncing baby boy, to Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Haunsperger. Parents and child are resting comfortably at their home in Austin, TX.
The above statement represents quite possibly the greatest confluence of improbable events since the Italian victory over the Ottoman Turks at Lepanto, 1683.
What am I blithering about?
Item: One of my former roommates is happily married. Furthermore, he is a homeowner (or mortgagee at any rate) and a father.
Item: One of my old college friends is married to my friend from 5th grade.
I had this sudden sensation of being on the outside, looking into this warm, happy household containing all the Relationshipped people I know. I’ve had this feeling before, in years past. Never for reasons as solid as this, though.
But maybe it’s a sign of my … self-awareness, or personal growth, that this time I can look around at the surroundings of my extended metaphor. So there are married people in the metahouse. So I have yet to find my Metagirl™ (with whom I may romp barefoot and in slow motion through fields of dandelions and autumn leaves). So what?
Well, what indeed. I can’t shrug it off as no mickle matter. But there is a crowd of people — strangers and friends alike — mingling around me. Some I haven’t met, some I need to meet more often, and some I adore.
But the grass is also green on this side of the fence (to mix metaphors a bit), the sights are many and varied, and a beacon burns brightly further on down the road.
I’m not entirely sure what that flaming grail represents, but a quick glance through my previous entries turns up some likely suspects. :)
So for Father’s Day, we went out for dinner. This is a Big Deal for us — I think the last time we ate out was two years ago. The real purpose was to have a modest Asian dinner — 18 people in this case. There were some fellow doctors and friends of my father, and some of our relatives. Dinner was decent.
But nevermind that. My mother and sisters went grocery shopping at the Hong Kong 4 before dinner. My sister Linh Dan decided to splurge, and bought a jackfruit for the whole family. ..A 22-lb jackfruit to be precise. A delicious, $92 family-pack value. Hedgehogs immediately came to mind when I saw that thing on our kitchen counter. Big, green, sleepy hedgehogs. It’s difficult to imagine it growing on a tree…
“Ah! Look, Huy, what a refreshingly humid day in the tropics! I do so enjoy taking my morning constitutionals amidst these robust specimens of tropical flora.”
“Indeed, I am grateful to be living an idyllic life, far from the daily strife of city life. I’m getting hungry, though, and these delectably ripe fruit look as though they’re ready to fall off the trees. Don’t you think so, my friend Trung?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure you should stand so–”
Snap! Ker-splut!
“Great Buddha on the eternal wheel! Speak to me, Huy!”
Coming home from Leo’s place tonight, I turned onto Memorial Drive and found myself driving through a scattered ground mist steaming from the pavement. My headlights fleetingly caught wisps and trails of vapors as I drove home with the windows down. With the air so clear just after a storm, the darks loomed darker and the lights pooled more sharply. I smelled the damp 25°C breeze rippling past my outstretched hand, and the only sound was the hiss-splash of tires on wet streets.
I’m officially launched! :)
If you’re reading this now, then bump up a few levels to my home page.
It’s a heady thing, opening on Friday the 13th. Auspicious.
I drove to Austin yesterday for a friend who’d just bought a townhome. I briefly got lost in some quiet residential streets and had a lunch of pancakes at a local diner near the UT campus.
I showed up at the housewarming party / BBQ just as the groceries arrived — just in time to grill corn and prepare brisket. While the food contemplated its sins at 212°F…
I randomly found out that my friend’s neighbor plays capoeira. Much excitement ensued. We threw off our keys, cell phones, shoes, clothes, and … well, maybe not the clothes… and played for an hour.
We stopped when I discovered half-dollar-sized blisters on the balls of my feet. The food was ready, anyway. The rest of the night was spent in food, games, talk, and movies.
Then I crashed and left the house at 6-ish this morning. Twilight kicked in around 6:30, and it was creepy-gorgeous driving down 183 in pink light, alone on 6 lanes of concrete.
Phish’s mellow songs are really appropriate for lonely morning road trips.
I was driving through some no-name town when the sun rose, and I saw a sherriff parked at a coffee shop. Faded brick-and-steel buildings lined the dusty streets. At a stoplight, I looked around and felt like I had been cast back into 1970s small town America.
I came over this hill. On the other side, sunlight blazed everywhere. 290 stretched away like an arrowshot to the next hillcrest, and dark green trees flanked the road. Morning mist colored the trees blueish-white, and their ranks whitened with distance until they blended into the horizon at the end of the corridor of trees.
It’s no wonder so many people I know want a plot of land in the hill country.
Nothing to see here, move along.
