Javito1986

Merry Christmas Lou. I hear tell that Minnesota is as snowed in as Madison right now... good time to stay in doors with the family and enjoy the holiday. A nice beverage of your choice certainly wouldn't go amiss, shame I'm out of eggnog

You certainly do have writing talent. I recommend you pick up two books: 'Your First Novel' by Ann Rittenburg and 'On Writing' by Stephen King. The first in particular contains absolutely invaluable information not just on writing an actual book but on the way the publishing industry functions, and Stephen King talks quite a bit about the discipline required by the craft which I found helpful (even though I don't actually like any of Stephen King's books). I'm actually a bit of a writer myself and descend from a family of writers that go back a ways in Hispanophone literature. Developing my own little novel on the side, though I admit I'm on a bit of a break. Letting it bake in the ol' oven while I finish up another semester at the university and play Baldur's Gate. Taking my last exam of the semester in 15 minutes actually.I'd like to get back to it by the end of January, this winter break I'll be working on two short stories I've outlined that I intend to use for my application to the 2011 Clarion Writer's Workshop (which requires two submissions). No joke, a lot of what you've already written here can be applied as an outline for a novel. God knows the world needs another book on the WW1 air war.

I knew an Argentine who flew bombing runs on the Brit task force back in the Falklands. He has a boatload of respect for the Harrier, and rightly so. Those Argentines are some damn fine pilots, every history on the Falklands I've read mentions how skilled their attack runs were. The Harriers saved so many British lives, it's practically treasonous to dishonor them this way. Boo!

Huh. That is an ominous name isn't it? Also I did some quick google research and read that if you don't pay the permit you're not supposed to be rescued if you get yourself in a tight spot, since you're not supposed to be there in the first place. That's just lovely! I see the appeal of standing at the highest point on earth and looking about, I do. I even somewhat understand risking your neck for that privilege. But paying tens of thousands of dollars to do it??? No. A thousand times no.

Right. And it costs $25,000 minimum to get a permit from Nepal to try to climb that mountain. Why in god's name would anyone pay that? What are you even paying for? To go up and add yourself to the graveyard? No thank you!

Women know when to fight their battles is all. They concede ground on one front only to gather resources to make a push on another. Crafty lot those females.

Well, Moltke supposedly reported to the Kaiser right after First Marne that they'd lost the war. Schlieffen Plan failing and all. So he at least knew that Germany couldn't hold out against all that economic advantage the Entente enjoyed, though I doubt he in that moment could forsee that they'd be able to hold off the Brits & French by building trenches. When I think about The Great War I always wonder two things: if, given the state of the French Army after the mutinies Germany could have broken through in '18 absent American intervention, and why they accepted a treaty as harsh as Versailles while still holding enemy territory.

Dammit old boy, once again the least deserving are footing the bill for this economic mess. What can one do but soldier on?

I could go for some of that Dairy Queen ice cream cake myself. Oh yes, and some P4 screens wouldn't go amiss!

The wife let slip that she's getting me a TrackIR 5 for Christmas so I stop getting blown away by the "hun in the sun". Marvelous news for me, I've been looking to get one since I first heard the name 'TrackIR' back when the BDG added TrackIR support to Rowan's Battle of Britain earlier this decade. This is going to make my OFF flying -so- much better and I'm ecstatic

It's not that you're looking for reminders of the war, it's just a fascination with history. I for one would -love- to visit the Western Front today, but I have the disadvantage of living on the other side of the big pond. Plus it might get rather morbid as I've read that, at least on the Somme and presumably on other former battlefields, they still uncover remains to this day. Still, it's important to remember that these things did happen once and there was a generation of people who were thrown into that mess with little choice in the matter, particularly now in our comparatively 'pampered' age. 'tis my philosophy at least.

Oh yea, this is one of the greats for sure. My buddy showed me this a few years ago, I showed it to my lady earlier this year and she loved it too. I don't even need to watch it again to remember my favorite line: "Oh you're Mr. Stevens???"

Merry Christmas! I must ask, is that an authentic holiday card mailed to German troops in WW1?

Welcome to the meat grinder. What planes have you been flying?

http://www.gog.com/e.../red_baron_pack Thought I'd give you guys a heads up that GoG's selling Red Baron and Red Baron 3D for only $2.50 today. OFF's spiritual successor, fun as hell game in its own right... I bought it even though I'm not entirely sure when I'll ever play it seeing as I'm knee deep in the middle of my OFF RFC campaign. Buuuuuut it's very nice to have and I gives me great memories

Aye, true enough. I wouldn't be here enjoying OFF today if I'd never played RB3D ten years ago.

Funny you should mention D&D games because I'm playing through Baldur's Gate right now (first ever playthrough, though I've played similar games before). I tend to agree with the consensus. When I play OFF I play it like you would a RPG, I live the life of my little RFC pilot just as much as I do when I travel the Forgotten Realms. CoD and Halo are a completely different kind of gaming. They're much more visceral, the gratification is immediate. They require a different frame of mind! Some years ago when Halo 3 was released I spent a few weeks playing its multiplayer with my friends. We were doing that demolition game where you have to run the bomb into the opponent's base and detonate it. It struck me that really it's no different than playing a sport. I felt that sense of competition, had fun ordering my teammates around, and it was quite satisfying to "score a goal" at the end of it. I get the same feeling from CoD multiplayer, particularly stuff like Domination/Sabotage/Headquarters. StarCraft 2 is likewise practically a sport, but a 1v1 kinda deal. They're all great in their own right and lots of fun. That said, they don't at all light up my imagination like OFF does. The battle of Arras is ongoing in my RFC game, and when I fly over the front, see the gas clouds, the big arty bombardments, the sky filled with flak, I'm always inspired to hit up the bookstore and buy a book about it all.

The original Red Baron has such a nice manual though. The game itself is very simple, so its 300 page manual is devoted entirely to a history of the WW1 air war, detailed biographies of several aces, aircraft schematics, and a lesson on powered flight. Lots of neat screenshots and quotes from pilots I haven't read before. Like Lanoe Hawker saying he felt bad for the Germans he's shot down, but that this is war and "they've been a troublesome lot lately". I love me the black humor. Those were the days when games had big thick manuals. Anyway, it's included as a PDF in the download, I had fun skimming through it this morning.

D'OH!

You wanna really make her mad? You should get that Obutto Gaming Cockpit (http://combatace.com/topic/59958-obutto-gaming-cockpit/page__pid__454958?do=findComment&comment=454958) while you're at it. Someday I'll get it myself. The wife can't really say anything against it, I specifically told her I would buy it the day I proposed. It was a romantic proposal indeed.

We just got our first big snowfall of the season here in Madison Wisconsin. Pretty outside, I'm going to go out very soon to clear the driveway & sidewalk. It tends to snow pretty heavily in this corner of the earth. My political sociology professor, who's traveled all over the world on various diplomatic activities, says that northern Wisconsin in the winter looks identical to Finland. Which I suppose makes sense since we're at about the same latitude as the Fins...

Sweet video. That makes me want to go see Lawrence too, haha. Waiting for it to come out on Blu-Ray though...

Thanks for translating for us non-German readers. Fascinating stuff! Where are you finding these if I may ask? I'd love to see more

I rather like Microsoft because they're so student friendly. They offer great student discounts on Office, and they're particularly helpful for student software developers. Visual Studio is an amazing program and I'm running the Professional 2010 version free of charge (and legally). Also they run XNA which is a really good deal for indie developers, and XBox Live Arcade is an even better deal for indies looking to step it up a notch. I'm thinking of upgrading my PC to Windows 7, I can get a good discount on it via my university account. Kinda worried about accidentally wiping out my hard drive though so I want to back up my files, but that takes time to do and I've been a busy little bee lately.

Late 1917 - 1918 you should probably be up on normal for ground gunnery. The exception is balloon busting, I put it on hard for those. Flak and ground fire are the biggest fear on balloon busting missions... gulp... In general on normal diff you'll be just fine 99.999% of the time doing subtle changes in your vector and altitude every 20 - 30 seconds while flak's shooting at you. If you fly perfectly level thinking you can ignore it you WILL get hit and blown to bits sooner or later!