Javito1986

I've been looking for more World War 1 related media and thought I'd turn to the ol' grogs at the forum for some advice. I've recently finished reading Goshawk Squadron. Great book! It's about the second or third time I've read it over the years, and I'd like to find something new to read about the air war. As far as movies go, I just this morning watched All Quiet on the Western Front, the 1979 version. It's been years and years since I saw it, the last time was some ten years ago in grammar school. I stopped watching it after a while out of a sense of youthful elitism, since I discovered the classic original 1930 version and decided the 1979 one "sucked horribly" in comparison. Now that I'm an old man I can say that while the original is better, no doubt about it, the '79 is extremely well done also. They kinda go well together I think. The 1930 one focuses more on the book's characters, we see a lot more of them together, whereas the '79 one lays them by the wayside (except Kat) and focuses exclusively on Baumer and his narration. They're both faithful adaptations me thinks. Did you know they're making a new one in 2012 starring Daniel Radcliff? I think he's a good pick. Certainly no stranger than Lew Ayres or Richard Thomas. There aren't really very many war movies I enjoy to be honest with you, but it makes me sad how badly World War 1 is forgotten these days and it's hardly ever depicted in film. The WW1 bookshelves are lacking as well. Few days ago I read through The Somme at Borders (yay speedreading) and WW1 books accounted for two rows at the top of the shelf, the rest of which was filled with WW2 books. And then the next four shelves were for WW2 books! This is in the United States, mind you. Maybe in European countries WW1 has left a great footprint on the public conscious? Over here people straight up forget, probably because the U.S. was only in it such a brief time comparatively. On 11/11 one news anchor mentioned that Veteran's Day commemorates the end of World War 1 and his fellow anchorwoman said "Really? I didn't know that" and I wanted to be like *Judo-chop!*

How goes chaps?

Of course Olham, I appreciate the corrections. When I wrote that I had a feeling I was writing something wrong and figured you'd correct me anyway . Language learning is hard work, but every correction and mistake brings your brain closer to "getting it" because your brain understands "Ah that didn't work, ok, let's try it this way next time..." I went through this process when I was learning Spanish between 2007 and 2009. The nice thing for me is being finally able to read German literature. Although, again, it's hard for me to "create" my own language constructions perfectly (but I get my intention across), I can read quite well and am working on comprehending more dialects (standard German is easy for me to comprehend, other accents are harder). I went on Amazon.de a few months ago and purchased a copy of Kafka's Gesammelte Werke and a schoolbook for advanced students (B2 - C1 on the CEF, which is where I'm at), have been working on those in my leisure time. Half my ancestry came from Germany in the 19th century and some of them even served in German-speaking units in Grant's army in the Civil War here, but America's unfortunate anti-German hysteria in the WW1 era knocked it out of basically everyone. They used to teach German in schools in my home-state Wisconsin, but outlawed that 100 years ago. Now the USA has many citizens with German ancestry, but the only thing that distinguishes them are "funny" names like Eisenhower. Point is, I quite love the language and especially the literature. But there's no one to speak and practice with here! I've been reading about this a fair amount, but what you say about Gutenberg setting the language "in concrete" is new and very interesting information for me. I'll be researching this further as time goes on, it's a fascinating subject. I do wonder what was different about Anglo-Saxon England that their language and, therefore, culture were "assimilated" in such a way, whereas many other (but obviously not all) "conquered peoples" kept both, even after hundreds of years of occupation. That's a big quandary for me, but I haven't had time yet to really delve into it as much as I'd like. The right books on the subject can be hard to come by, though I'm sure they've been written!

Thanks for the grammar corrections Olham! I do theoretically "know" the dative case (I even read Der Dative ist dem Genitiv sein Tod a few months ago), but as you can see, it's hard to apply the fundaments of grammar on the fly without a lot of practice. And practice is what I lack — believe it or not, the German speaking community in Los Angeles is rather small! The relationship between English and German is indeed fascinating. I've lost many hours studying that rabbit hole, going as far to have purchased an Old English grammar book that I've yet to truly delve into (one language at a time). As far as my writing, I'm creating marketing copy for various clients and have been fortunate enough to make it work for me. The long-term viability is, of course, questionable (clients come and go, seasons have highs and lows, income changes one month to another), but I'm unmarried and I don't have children and I have minimal expenses. I've also been working on creative fiction for publication, but that's a slow process and there isn't much income to be made until publication actually happens — and most of the time even after . But that's what the day job is for, and I would do it even if there were never any money to be made. Recently I began submitting to various contests, residencies, and (soon) short story publications to try and make something happen there. I am, to my eternal misfortune, one of those cursed with a writing gremlin in the brain that stabs me if I don't do its bidding.

Ahaha. What's up guys. Yea I'm living in Los Angeles right now. Working as a writer, actually making a comfortable living doing it which is a blessing considering how most people who "work as a writer" have to struggle. I'm not here permanently or anything, fully intending to move home to WI and be Louvert's neighbor again, but for the time being here I am. I haven't flown much WOFF in a while. I'd sure like to, but I don't have to tell you guys how busy things get once you're out and trying to do something with yourself in the "real world," especially when you're 29 and juuuuust starting your "prime working years." My PC Moya burned down in March. She literally burned, it was interesting. I did preserve backups of everything, including WOFF, but I haven't tried to reinstall it since then in order to make sure I truly do have all the requisite files to run it. Might have to repurchase some things, which wouldn't bother me considering I <3 OBD. Other than that, I've done a lot of work as a "ghost" writer in the last year, but I'm finally getting close to publishing some stuff under my own name. Shocking I know. More on that when it's appropriate! I'll be sure to visit more often even if I don't have much directly WOFF related topics to discuss. I saw Sopwith and Lou were here recently. If and when you guys see this thread, hello boys! Oh and Olham, ich habe Deutsch gelernt in das letzte Jahr. Der Grammatik (die?) fehlt mir noch, aber jeden Tag studiere ich ein bisschen mehr

Oh it's completely soulless. I gave that place an honest go when WOFF released, but it's like losing your job and moving into your in-laws basement over there. I don't think I'll visit SimHQ anymore. I'll come here though! I haven't been flying much at all lately, but I like keeping tabs with BOC.

Great to hear from all of you! I do not drop in as often as I should, but you know how real life goes. My email is xavito1986@gmail.com if you ever want to reach me or remind me to come back here when you do these reunion posts.

Hello! I've been grounded from WOFF these past few months owing to technical issues, but I anticipate receiving some equipment this afternoon that will put an end to that and allow me to fly once more. Providing my joysticks and TrackIR still work correctly, I'd like to get back into the air this week. Thing is, I've only EVER flown for either the British or Americans. Since I first played OFF in 2009! This year I've been teaching myself to speak German as a third language (Native English speaker, fluent Spanish). So I'd like to fly for Olham's team for a change. Thinking about starting a career in summer 1918 flying DR VIIs. Now, I know that's going to be chaos, but I don't mind diving right into the deep end. Anyhoo, I have a whole slew of knowledge about flying Allies. What color our flak is, how to best pop balloons, which German squadrons are easy pickings and which I need to run the hell away from, etc. But about all I know about flying for Germany is that I'll be spending 90% of my time on my side of the line, which sounds FANTASTIC to be honest because I hate offensive patrols with a passion. So... tips and tricks I should know of from forum vets?

Nothing really wrong with my girl persay, just that the 770 card was having difficulties and had to be replaced. Everything is in tip top shape at the time of this writing however!

Sounds good to me. I've just completed a migration of my operating system to a new hard drive, so I'll need to upgrade WOFF over in the next week. Have to do a complete reinstall of everything, so I'm temporarily grounded. But I'll be back in the air soon.

Well, that settles that then. Congrats :)

Good golly miss Molly, had no idea they used anything like this. I watched the whole thing, terrifying. They also found some amazing artifacts though. The body was depressing, I can't imagine how many others are buried out there right now as we speak. It's a massive cemetery really.

Have fun guys, it's a fantastic sim. Be sure you keep us updated on your campaigns over in the Reports from the Front thread!

I actually enjoyed CFS2 quite a bit. I remember staring at the box cover pictures of the planes and marveling at how lifelike they were. Course I was in Middle School, tastes were hardly refined yet.

Stellar job as always Lou, thanks for all that you're doing.

My most recent pilot career had been going great. I had 2 confirmed kills, another claim pending and it was only my first week with the squadron. These guys I shot down were two Triplanes and one Pfalz. I'd also been fighting Albatros planes to great success, though hadn't brought one down. The pilots were from mediocre to poor squadrons and it showed. I could sneak right up on some of them without their ever looking behind them and knock them out of the sky. But I'm dead now. Because I thought I was a little badass that could outfly and outfight anyone in WOFF. So when my squadron ran into red painted Triplanes, I didn't think twice about engaging them the same way I did the other guys. Nah. This triplane flew circles around me, cut inside my turn and filled me full of holes. I was out of the fight before you could blink. Then he strafed and killed me after I made a forced landing, as if shooting my engine out and making me land in No Man's Land wasn't insult enough. I SHOULD HAVE considered the situation more before jumping right in. Should've looked at that scary paint job and treated it like a big neon "DANGER" sign. Should have realized that while a well flown Sopwith Camel can outfly a Dr. I flown by someone straight out of the Kaiser's flying school, it isn't going to work out against an expertly flown Dr. I. So I became breakfast and victory #Whatever for that jerk. Let that be a lesson: Think first!

Yes, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself being hit by archie and not dying immediately... still rather terrifying, I'm afraid.

Since Lothar's presumably too busy with his new job to make us a version of OFFbase for WOFF, I wonder if anyone has a copy of Bletchey's 3P pdf? The old write ups for the various aircraft that used to be in the Survival in the Air section would also be lovely. I'd like to get back to doing a proper squadron campaign with some role playing.

That's it exactly, Bletchley, thank you!

Thanks Dej! Didn't see that link there. I found the pilot primers for various aircraft and downloaded them to my iPad. I read through the Sopwith Camel primer, it's still quite valid and I assume that's true for the others as well. It could perhaps use a little updating to mention the new rotary engine mechanics in WOFF but that's about it. However, I'm afraid I'm still missing the old 3P pilot profile pdfs. The links seem to have been removed from those forum posts.

This is just astounding, and looks wonderful. Downloaded and will make good use of it on the second monitor, my latest patrols have ventured into this area quite often. Thanks Lou!

You're right, I haven't done that, and that does sound like a great time. What sim are you talking about where that goes on?

The forum's never the same without you, Olham. Fly safe, check in if you can and enjoy the trip!

Merry Christmas Typhoon, hope things are well

Amen. Beautiful as always, Lou.