Shiloh

Well we had a major change in our weather here in northwest Massachusetts. We are homeless for the time being but everyone is fine. Our home is dry for now and we hope for the best. At around 1pm we lost power then 15 minutes later we heard the police on their megaphones saying "evacuate immediately"! At first the houses next to the river were evacuated then they evacuated half the village shortly thereafter. A dam up-river from us broke and sent a mountain of water our way. The river just across from our house came up quick - about 20 feet above normal levels - and we packed everything we could, jumped in the Jeep and I was able to snap these pictures just before we left. Shortly after this the water overtook those 2 bridges but I understand the river level is currently going down so we hope for the best.

Thanks for checking in CaptSopwith. I'm in the hills of northwest Massachusetts and we're really just getting a ton of rain. Winds have been lower than expected and we still have power which is our biggest concern as many in Connecticut are currently without it.

That's some really fine artwork there Hauksbee and welcome to our cult - uhhh group. We all like our virtual drinks here but whatever you do don't drink the Kool-Aid.

Try this Hauksbee. Don't install the drivers, just plug the controller in and let Vista load it's own default drivers. From what I've read, others have had success using this approach.

So sorry to hear about the passing of your good friend Olham. You are not alone in your grief my friend - we are here for you.

You may have just hit on a new tagline Wayfarer: The Barmy OFFers Club - Demented, but proud!

You don't need help but I think you deserve a Barmy badge.

I only fly OFF.

I have just completed a video on the Battle of Gettysburg for my educational website. For now it is only posted on YouTube but will be posted to the site shortly. I can't figure out how to post a YouTube video here so you'll have to go to this link to check it out. Its intent is to draw a younger viewer in and perhaps they will read on and learn from about the American Civil War. Enjoy gentlemen.

I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to these things and I would like to see these battlefields as they appeared during the battle. I understand the need for monuments to pay tribute to certain regiments/individuals etc. but I thought they could have been done in a more subtle way. Perhaps if they did plaques so that when you come up on it, it can be viewed but when you scan the battlefield, they could not be seen. They could also do signage in an old look of the period, and make the roads gravel rather than paved so at least they are functional, and look closer to the way they appeared at the time. The number one thing that ruins my experience at historic sites, national parks, etc. is cars/trucks/buses - can't stand to see the blatantly modern mixed in with an earlier period. In essence, I want to see the battlefield in it's purest form with no hint of modern day but do understand that's nearly impossible.

Thanks John for your kind words and feedback. There is always something special in visiting places such as these and I have a trip planned to Gettysburg the second week of September. I am going alone as I want to "feel" the place and not be distracted from long moments of reflection. I would like to visit Wilson's Creek at some point as I do appreciate places that have been preserved. One goal I have is to visit all of the major Civil War battlefields and photograph each one to preserve their current states - you never know when Walmart might move in and these places are always in danger of being lost. They are doing a lot of work at Gettysburg right now to gain back land and restore the battlefield to the condition it was in at the time of the battle - no easy task - but invaluable in teaching people about the role geography played in these battles. I do hope to continue my work in teaching the next generation about a period of time that was so important in shaping our country so I'll keep up the site, and continue on with some videos that hopefully reach the younger crowd. And yes, my screen name is a tribute to the battle bearing that name. In Hebrew I believe it means "place of peace" which is a sad irony to this battle. Thanks again.

I would guess you could find most of these on amazon.com or ebay.com.

I used to edit video semi-professionally (on a Mac with Final Cut Pro) and did much research into a software that I could edit with on my PC that was relatively powerful, simple to use and affordable. Power Director is all of those things and I believe it only cost $90. when I purchased last year. Good luck my friend and let me know if you have any more questions.

No bother at all Widow. I'm using replays to capture all the video using Fraps. To get rid of the the junk, go to "user interface" in settings, and set everything to "never" dropdown. It leaves 2 things that I don't know how to get rid of; map and play/rewind,slo-mo, etc. I get rid of those in edit by using the crop video tool in Power Director, the software I use to edit my PC videos. Now I suspect there must be a way to remove these items in the preferences file perhaps? I did look but was not able to figure out how to remove those but maybe you could give it a look and see something that I'm not.

I'm sure you will do an outstanding job Widow - best of luck to you!

Yes Widow - the preference files are pretty much identical. Good luck!

Thank you Widow! Yes it's that mod found on twcenter.net. They are currently working on the same mod for NTW and that will be fantastic given the more stable engine and the fact that we'll get some random faces in there - hate the same face on all soldiers. The blood mod comes included and if you go into the preferences file, you can "debug" the camera view that will provided the flexibility for any angle. Here are instructions on how to do it. To debug camera in Shogun 2 or other TW games: 1) You will need to access preferences.script file 2) The file can be found at C:\Documents and Settings\(Administrator)\Appli­cation Data\The Creative Assembly\shogun2\scripts - (Administrator) is your specific computer name 3) Just replace shogun2 with Napoleon or Empire in step 2) depending on the game you're playing 4) Open preferences.script with notepad, and then look for a line entitled default_camera_type 5) The line should read: default_camera_type 2; # default_battle_camera <card32>, default battle camera: 0-totalwar 1-rts 2-debug # 6) Make sure the default_camera_type is set to 2 7) Once changed go to "save as" and save over the original preferences file 8) Launch game to play with debugged camera Thank you kindly Lou - your feedback is always greatly appreciated. As mentioned above the new mod the team will be coming out with will be even more fantastic (better graphics, effects, etc.) and I will surely build some new Civil War videos once that is complete.

This is a great documentary I found on WWI with incredible depth, excellent narration and fantastic footage. Enjoy. http://documentaryst...om/world-war-i/

Your most welcome vonOben - enjoy!

Thanks men.

I know exactly what you mean Lou. Sometimes I just get lost in my thoughts up there and I feel truly free from life's daily worries. As a full-time dad the kids really wear on me sometimes but when I sit down to fly, they know that it's "daddy's time" and typically give me wide berth. They know it's my time to relax and I always seem to feel much better when my flight is over - it's freeing in a way. Happy flights men.

Thanks Von Paulus. This could easily be 4 hours long but the 4+ minutes right now will just have to do.

Make sure you guys look me up when you get here as I would like to see those places too.

Enjoy your trip Olham and be safe. I too am heading out tomorrow but just for 3 days.

There is something about this shot that I really like.