I'm on vacation!  My first extended period of time off since last Christmas, I've got the next week off.  It's a wonderful thing, and a wonderful time for it.

First and foremost, this is the last week of the F1 season, and both Championships are still to be decided... and the race is in Brazil, which puts the race weekend firmly in "live viewing" territory, with everything starting at 10 or 11 in the morning, more or less.

Then, of course, there's the backlog of anime to watch.  My last order to Bob, which coincidentally got me a mention in his weekly e-mail (much to my shock!), included the last dvd of Kanon '06 and the thinpack of Please Twins, which I once described as a secret shame.  I'd like to change that description: there's no reason to be ashamed of the show.  It's awfully good.

There's also my tradition of the "vacation book".  This time around, it's The Barrier and the Javelin, by HP Willmott, a well-regarded history of the strategic levels of the Pacific War from February to June, 1942.  I've wanted to read it for quite some time, but have never found it in a store... until last week.  It's also one of the last really important books on the Battle of Midway that I haven't yet read.  In that same vein, let me recommend to anybody interested in WWII air combat in the Pacific, the book The First Team, by John Lundstrom.  It's an exhaustive look at the operations of US carrier fighter squadrons up to Midway.  If you've read Fire in the Sky by Eric Bergerud (a fine book in its own right, and will Professor Bergerud ever write what I've come to think of as "Fire at Sea", the third of his books on the Pacific War around the time of Guadalcanal?), think of that title as the unofficial sequel to The First Team.  In some ways, it's as important a book to understanding carrier operations as Shattered Sword, praises to which I have sung repeatedly. 

I also intend on writing a post on what shows I'm watching this anime season... I think, now that we're about four weeks into it, that I've weeded out the weak shows and locked into the ones that I'll be sticking with.

Finally, this week will let me work on the two music projects I've had on the back burners for a while.  In fact, one of them has been percolating for almost seven months, and may be an all-time first: a full, well-thought-out music video for F1.  Oh, there are plenty of F1 videos set to music (mostly of crashes), but they're all just clips thrown together with no real rhyme or reason with a music track behind it.  With the GP of Singapore run, I had everything I needed to match the song, but I wanted to have the rest of the season, too.  So, I don't know exactly when it'll be done, but it WILL be done... my brain won't let me NOT work on it now.

So... Wonderduck's on vacation!  Relaxation awaits!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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