The Battle of Midway, 70 Years Later

Today is the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway, the greatest of all US Naval victories.  While I intend to have a larger post on this subject later this evening, until then I leave you with the two classic movies from John Ford on the topic.
The Battle of Midway
Much of The Battle of Midway was filmed on Midway Atoll as the attack occurred.  Ford himself was wounded during the fighting.  The movie won an Academy Award for best documentary in 1942.
Torpedo Squadron 8
After the Battle and most of VT-8 was dead, Ford and his crew put together this tribute movie to them.  Most of the footage was shot shortly before Midway.  Only 30 copies were distributed, all to the family members of those squadron members flying from Hornet that day.  It was never intended for public viewing.

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High School Of The Dead Ep09

Some of you may remember that, last episode, everybody was about to die when the fire brigade arrived, led by Saya's mother.  The Fellowship was saved, hurray!  Except for Saeko and Takashi. 

Them, they got separated in one final suicidal attempt to distract the zombie horde from their friends, which failed miserably, then when the Cavalry came riding over the metaphorical hill, they couldn't be rescued.  Way to go, heroes!  Now they've got to make their way across zombie-filled territory without supplies or assistance, all in an attempt to make it to Saya's house.  Still, they're the two best melee fighters in The Fellowship, they should have a decent chance if they're careful.

...and then they jump off a railing.  Takashi lands wrong, sprains an ankle, and is eaten a few moments later when he can't outrun a zombie.  Saeko, having no idea where she needs to go now that her "native guide" is dead, gets lost and is trapped in a dead-end alleyway.  Her corpse later reanimates and is casually shot in the face by Hirano, who doesn't even realize who it once was.  So she's got that going for her.  Which is nice.

Still... nimble little minx, isn't she?

more...

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T-Bird Saturday

So I'm sitting around Pond Central, pointedly not accomplishing anything, when I hear a haunting moan from outside.  I immediately grabbed my camera and dashed to the balcony, for this is Duckford AirFest weekend, and that moan was the sound of the six F-16C (block 52) Fighting Falcons of the USAF Thunderbirds.  Minutes went by, and I realized that this was probably not going to be a good day for them to overfly Pond Central: the wind was all wrong.  My guess turned out to be correct; the route they took to clear the airfield wound up being to the south, instead of directly overhead.  Which didn't mean that they didn't surprise me once.  See, one of the problems with jet fighters is that from the front, they're actually quite quiet.  They don't get loud until they're heading away from you and those big honkin' engines (F-110-PW-229, in this case) are staring you in the face.  So when the Diamond blew past Pond Central just east of me, I didn't expect it... and then they curved around to the south at high speed, passing by a gap in the trees in about a millionth of a second (or so it felt).  I raised my camera and pressed the shutter button... and hoped I got the shot.

Sometimes you get lucky.  Here's what the full picture looked like:

Click on the pic to see it in full 3968x2232 resolution... and see just how lucky I got.  The forecast for tomorrow isn't swell... though if it gets better, I might just head out, see what I can snap.

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"You're Old!" Milestone #2 Reached

Milestone #1: turning 40.  Did that four years ago.

Milestone #2: bifocals. 

Or, in my case, progressive lenses.  Three distinct zones: far away, not far away, and reading.  Computer screen falls into the "not far away" category, but only barely.  It's like looking at the world through a fishbowl.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.  My last eye checkup was over six years ago, and I've noticed a distinct amount of fuzziness around objects for the past half-year or so.  So I hied myself over to LensCrafters on Wednesday for a trip to the OptyDoc.  She said "your left eye hasn't gotten any worse.  The astigmatism in your right eye has, however."  Just how much worse?  One full diopter's worse.  The technicians told me that I now have four times as much vision correction in that lens as I did.  However, I was right on the edge of needing bifocals.  My vanity, of course, said "nope, no bifocals for me!"  And out the door I went with my new glasses.

...and immediately realized two things.  1) everything seemed farther away, and B) everything was sharper and clearer.  Neat!  And then I misjudged the distance to a curb and sprained my ankle when I stepped off a stride earlier than I expected.  I went through all of Thursday with the glasses, and noticed that I was having problems seeing mid-range things... like computer screens, or the dashboard of the DuckMobile.  I figured it was just a case of my eyes adjusting.

This morning, I realized it wasn't an adjustment thing, I needed something bigger than that.  So back I went to LensCrafters this afternoon, where they took more of my money and gave me back a new set of progressive lenses... and boy, is it gonna take time to get used to these.  On the way home, I stopped at Walgreens and realized that I was... nodding... as I'm looking at the shampoo, trying to figure out what part of my lenses I needed to look through to not be blurry.  And walking through the aisles.  And being rung up.  And in my car.  I feel like one of those drinking birds.

But at least I can see, right?

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