Tank Farm 2016

26th Cavalry (PS) and Rider

And so after the rained out event from last year, I managed to attend, rather briefly I might add, this year’s ‘Open House’ event at the Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles. I’m still suffering from the lingering after-effects of the bronchitis I contracted the past week, and no doubt my boss would’ve preferred if I stayed at home drinking tea. As I mentioned earlier, 2015’s event was cancelled due to the heavy rains that turned the grounds into soft, mushy ground and the demonstration site into what can be best said as a ‘bog’, this year the weather was actually cooperating, with a cool overcast sky and a light breeze, but no rain.

I came initially only to take pictures of two completely restored tanks, the Renault M1917 Light Tank, and the 3-inch Gun Motor Carriage M10 “Wolverine”. What greeted me was the living historian/reenactment group I’m sorta a part of (I’ve not fully joined in reenacting) was due to give a demonstration soon, and what was meant to be a quick trip became a little longer. I of course met up with some regulars, including Rich Eisner of tankvideos.com, and a few others of the reenactors.

But I guess what needs to be shown is the few pictures and video I took of today.

Video of the US 26th Cavalry Philippine Scouts (Living Historian group) demonstrating movement to contact and cavalry tactics.

 

Tank Farm 2016 Gallery

26th Cavalry (PS) on M3 Scout Car

26th Cavalry (PS) and Rider

26th Cavalry (PS) on M3 Scout Car

M10 GMC (Pic 1)

M10 GMC (Pic 2)

M10 GMC (Pic 3)

M10 GMC (Pic 4)

M36 GMC (Pic 1)

M36 GMC (Pic 2)

M36 GMC (Pic 3)

Me next to an East German T-72

Unrestored Churchill

Unrestored Israeli Sherman

Renault M1917

Renault M1917 Front

Me next to the Renault M1917

Interior of the Renault M1917

Brickmania USS Missouri (BB-63)

Surrender Ceremony on the Brickmania USS Missouri

Me next to a Universal Carrier

Status Changes and Fall 2016

Reisen on a Computer, drawn by itsutsuki on pixiv.

I think I should write something. I know not many people would expect such a post from such an infrequent blogger such as myself. Not when others write enough to sate their reading audience. Regardless, what happened to me, what I’m currently doing, and what I might give some blog time to this upcoming season.

Spectacular Airshow: Catching Up On Macross Delta (Part 2):

 

View post on imgur.com

And so with Macross Delta’s last episode looming ever so slowly in the horizon, I thought it was best if I get down to the next set of epsiodes as quickly as possible if I wanted to get this series of blog post to go out in time for the next season where my viewing schedule picked back up.

Thus Passes Another Year

Yet another year, yet another reaffirmation of ‘never again’. The politics of the event is hard to ignore, as everyone has an opinion. So I honored the dead and the sacrifices of those who went in selflessly to rescue who they could and how many they can. And I promptly shut it off when I got home from work today.

Many have forgotten, many are still angry, yet some treat it as an non-event, or not one worth remembering. Because of some reason or another. Some I can respect (the expansion of Federal powers to spy on its own citizens in the name of security), but others, I cannot give time and date to. Some lurkers might speak out, knowing what gets in my craw, but I cannot get bogged down in splitting hairs with such people. Some might think this is disrespectful to the dead and those making great sacrifices, but to me it isn’t. I remember the event, I remember where and what I was doing when news came, and saw the 2nd plane hit.

So today, I lived my life as much as I can. I raised a beer to those killed and maimed by this event and ate some sisig for lunch. Took a nap and caught up on Alderamin on the Sky, then wrote this. A big change from my post last year, but what else can I say? Fifteen years later, and what I said last year still stands.

Americans, in a sense, are very much like children with ADD. They see their attention span going from place to place to place to place. I noted to work colleagues that the average American’s attention span works in 10 year cycles, and that nothing is ever kept at the forefront of people’s thoughts until something brings it up. Like today.

Americans are so coddled, more worried about Trigger Warnings and Asterisks and the newest, in-vogue item or gossip or celebrity drama. I think it’s mostly immigrants, speaking from personal experience, who remember. It’s mostly those fly over people, who remember. And it’s the people who planned this, and celebrate this, who remember.

For a lot of people now, the attacks of September 11 was some time ago. When they were five or six or three years old. For me I was a middle schooler, already more in-tune with the world through my thirst for current events and military hardware. I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

But there will be a vast majority of Americans who box this memory up, not because it is a pain. But because it is an inconvenience. Their long lines at the airport inconvenience. Their ‘oh God the neighbor has so many flags’ inconvenience. It isn’t gonna get them what they want when they want it. So it’ll stay in the depths of their memories until it is time for them to display it to the rest of the people who forget to show they haven’t forgotten.

Art by トモダチ on Pixiv [link]

In other news, the next post for Spectacular Airshow, ending that with episode 11 of Macross Delta, is slowly being written. As I made mention to Infinite Zenith on the Bookfaces, my free time likes being torpedoed by other commitments, the main one being work. In order to increase spending money, I’ve taken to working other people’s shifts. All because of something I will probably talk about closer to the event. That and a friend of mine has introduced me to the plastic addiction, and I eagerly await my first preordered figure (a 1/7 scale model of Zuikaku’s 2nd Remodel from Kantai Collection) from Japan at the time of this writing.

Dragon Awards: the Aftermath and Beyond

I’ve been busy. Will work on a blog post, later, but the life as a cog in the machine has kept me from really doing much, basically doing work and getting paid, and the free time taken by Battlefield 1’s open beta and sleep. That and I’ve already dropped Qualidea Code and Alderamin on the Sky, just accumulating the episodes to watch on the plane ride from KIAD to RJAA.

Oh, that’s right. I haven’t really talked about that, I’ll explain later.

Now, on to the reason of this reblogging. I think it’s fair to say that after the second year in which “No Award” was handed out by the Hugo committee rather than have ‘undesirables’ win an award, folks who buy books because we enjoy them got fed up and we flocked over to the much more democratic and open Dragon Awards. And it shows, and the salt. The salt is enough to brine a crocodile and leave it falling from the bone as if it was really well done chicken.

The Liberty Zone

I was going to ridicule Lena Dunham today, but screw her! The Dragon Awards have been announced, and they’re fantastic!!!

First, let me explain. DragonCon took place this weekend in Atlanta, where the very first awards for science fiction and fantasy were presented. The awards were completely fan-driven. You registered. You received a ballot. You voted for your favorites. Your vote was recorded. The winners were announced today! That easy.

Like the Dragon, our recipients are extraordinary and unique. Fueled by the passion for their art, they have spread their wings and soared above us all. Their inner fire, the burning in their hearts and souls, cannot be restrained. Once set free, their work, their fire, has influenced and inspired countless others, burned into our hearts and minds forever.

In the spirit of the Dragon and with infinite admiration, we created The Dragon Award as a token of their individuality…

View original post 1,249 more words

Quick Thought: Under the Dog

The result of a crowd-funded campaign, Under the Dog was originally envisioned as a 26 episode series with an animation style hearkening back to shows like Ghost in the Shell. The plot follows an UN-sanctioned assassination group called Flowers, made up of young teenage girls who have special abilities formed after a massive terrorist attack occurred during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Failure of a mission means death for the agent, as well as family and close friends through the use of implanted bombs.

 

Three Episode Rule: Alderamin on the Sky & Qualidea Code

Of the few series I’m watching this season, I decided to devote a Three Episode Rule post on two series that I think has caught my interest for now. Alderamin looks and promises something akin to Madan no Ou to Vanadis, while Qualidea Code reminds me of Tamaidou Gakuen 35 Shiken Shoutai. So I guess I should just get on with eh?

Resurrecting an Old Thing

A month or so ago, stuck in the recurring doldrums that seems to plague me, a stiff breeze named boredom happened along. My muse, tired and burnt out from incessant demands to produce tepid blog posts of lackluster quality and editing, latched onto it and I decided to finally let a doodle go on.

 

This particular doodle was around the height of when I was on forum roleplaying and I was just one idiot in a place full of em. Well, to be fair, I still am, and this thing is proof I never really grew out of it.

 

What didn’t help was folks like Sumeragi and others on Skype let me run away with it and suddenly there’s this monstrosity. To call it a kitbash is to insult the term, and there have been times where I looked at the keyboard as I write this thing and realized I wasted 3 pages of a legal pad in just notes.

 

Welp, I’m somewhat content at what this turned out to be and to offset political stupidity on my Facebook, I shall add this actual stupidity. /o/

 

TL;DR: Jusu got bored one day and resurrected some RP thingy.

Spectacular Airshow: Catching Up On Macross Delta (Part 1)

There were folks who were a bit surprised when I said Macross Delta wasn’t a show I was religiously following last season. Instead I watched a bit of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, blogged High School Fleet, and went gaga over Flying Witch. The episodes of Macross Delta merely gathered dust (figuratively) in my ‘Unsorted Episodes’ folder until now.

I thought about doing one big overarching ‘Quick Thought’ when I’ve finally caught up, but thought I’d break it down.

Quick Thought: Flying Witch

While I was enamored with the plotbash that was High School Fleet, a series I was following in two or three episodes at a time managed to make my days off a little brighter. Flying Witch fulfils this year’s Mikakunin de Shinkoukei for me. Though rather than food porn, we are greeted with the utterly delectable scenery porn of Aomori prefecture.