Revisions, Projects and Deadlines

It's one week to go before classes are finally over, and exactly one week before my Normandy paper is due to class. The amount of work that I've done on it since receiving the edits? Minimal. I didn't even start my english paper until about 12 hours before it was due, although that came together really quickly. My work ethic is sucking this week, I think senioritis kicked in becauseohgodintwoweeksi'mgoingtograduateandi'llbedonewithschoolfortheforseeablefuture. Gah. Part of me is very happy about this. The part isn't, because I genuinely enjoy learning and this sort of thing. I'm still thinking and planning on attending graduate school at some point, with the intention to teach or research history somewhere, because this is what I like doing. In the meantime, I have to actually find a job and you know, a place to live.I'm currently editing a paper for another member of my NU History Seminar, on the US Militia System and our school's founder, Alden Partridge. It's an interesting read, and we're hearing three more presentations later today. I need to type up a critique for this paper, and I think I've found some good things to discuss. After being rejected from Abnaki this year, I've started concentrating on full time jobs for the time being. I've applied to another book store with the intent on working there and Walden Books and getting some hours between them, which would be nice. I like Bear Pond Books, and have shopped there all my life. It's one of the independant bookstores in Montpelier, and has a very cool atmosphere to it. I've also gotten a called from the Green Mountain Club for an interview with them, which would be very, very cool. My outlook on the summer has improved dramatically. I've also learned that a new airline is about to start operating, something similar to Ryanair (a UK carrier), that has prices that are literally as low as they can get. On a good day, a round trip flight to Ohio will cost me under $40. Hopefully, this will help me and Sarah get together more often, as it's quite expensive and time consuming to drive from here to there. Also, Drive was cancelled yesterday. Once again, Fox torched a show because of lackluster ratings, although this one was probably cancelled for more reason than Firefly was. (Tim Minear was a producer for Firefly, and the creator of Drive). Poor Nathan Fillion can't get a break with his shows. Drive did have potential, but nowhere near Firefly's. It had an interesting premise, some interesting characters, but a very limited premise - While it would have been an interesting thing to see play out, but some of the characters were really irritating. Fox was behind this show, unlike with Firefly. There was a ton of ads for it, and really early ads for it - Fox wanted this to work - unfortunently, the viewers just weren't there - The show got about a 2.5/6 rating for the first episodes and was dragging 24, one of Fox's most popular shows, down. It's a pity, this year there were a bunch of cool shows that were cancelled. Andy Barker PI, Smith, Drive, Studio 60 (most likely), Black Donnellys, Daybreak, The Nine, among others. Hopefully, there'll be some of the good shows, such as Heroes, Raines, LOST, Supernatural and Veronica Mars, that will get another couple of seasons. Right, back to my editing...

Toy Soldiers Hope For Better Years

So, I turned in my paper last week, the last draft, for review, and had my first presentation in front of the class on the topic. It went over well, aside from the fact that I went over my time by 20 minutes. People seemed to like it, a couple of my classmates told me that it was very interesting, and hopefully, I got good marks from them on my presentation.
Earlier today, I had a meeting with my professor on my draft - he's been spending the last couple of days working them all over (Fortunently, there's only eight of us) and he gave mine back, covered in red ink. It wasn't as bad as I thought that it might be, mostly mechanical stuff and citations, which I really need to redo. But he liked the paper, thought that I did good research, and I have two weeks to finish working that up. I'm going through it now, getting all the easier things to correct. So, it's going along a lot easier than I thought that it would.

Now that a bulk of the work is done, I can resume normal school work, stuff that I've kind of pushed aside for a while - back math homework and an english paper that I have to get done. I'd rather just avoid it.

Picked up a couple of books, the first called Miles from Nowhere, from the Northfield Bookstore, and J.R.R. Tolkien's latest, Children of Hurin, which is really good, but I need to really concentrate reading it, because otherwise, I end up missing tons of things. That was a complete impulse buy, last night at work, mainly because it was 40% off, more than my employee discount, and mainly because it's so shiny.

I also helped out at school with Jr. Ring, which in my four years at Norwich, I've never actually been to, (Celebration 3, London and the girl being out of state all reasons why I've never bothered to go), setting up the stage for the band that came in, and tearing it down again after the show. Band was Armor For Sleep, some emo-rock group that wasn't that good. They did sound a whole lot less whiny in person, but they're nobody that I'd ever recommend to anyone. I only caught the last twenty or so minutes of their set. The stage was more interesting.

Now, I'm going to procrastinate further by watching Long Way Round or reading Hurin. Hm...

Living History

My presentation for my Norwich D-Day Project is today. In 30 minutes, to be precise, and I just finished checking over my slides and information for the last time. I had to add a lot of information in in a couple places, because I found that there's still a surviving member from the invasion of Normandy - Mr. Arthur Harrington, who was happy to talk with me about his experiences in World War II. We spent about 40 minutes on the telephone this morning, and he gave me some fairly detailed information about what he was up to prior to, during and after the invasion. He was part of the 5th Special Engineering Brigade, and later, the 294 Join Assault Signal Company, supplying communication between the 1st and 29th infantry divisions on the invasion day, June 6th, on Omaha beach. He wasn't aware of any other Norwich people at the invasion, and was interested to learn that several of his classmates were also there, in divisions around him (1st and 29th Infantry). It was a very, very interesting talk, and I'm glad that I caught his name. I'll be sending him a paper once it's finished.
Presentation in 20 minutes. Presentaion Burned to CD, e-mailed to myself and on thumb drive. Let's hope that I don't mess this up.

Alive! And Angry. And Busy

So, still very annoyed about Camp and everything - Furious really, but I have my Normandy Project to distract me for the time being. Couple of recent developments:

- One of the alumni on my list is still alive. And I have a phone number for him. Thus, I am all but bouncing around at this news.

- Finished getting pictures of everyone scanned, and once I isolate the pictures, I'll include them in my presentation tomorrow.

- I'm presenting tomorrow and oh god, I'm not done with my presentation I've got people I still need to include in my paper and gaah.

- Just got the rest of my stuff for the Normandy trip. My flights from NH to London and back is now booked. My hostel in London is booked. Flights to and from London to Paris is now booked. Arrangements to meet people and staying with them have been made. And it's less than a month before the trip.

- Raines, the TV show, is awesome. As is The Zimmers, a band of 90 + year old English people, singing the Who's My Generation, seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY

Apollo 13

So last night, I put in Apollo 13, because I haven't seen it in a very long time. Turns out, that was a bit of a coincidence, because 37 years ago today, a faulty coil caused a spark in the oxygen tanks, causing a small explosion that crippled the ship.
I can't imagine what it must have been like to sit there and watch, how the entire world watched as they returned home. It's a shame there isn't anything like that today to unite the world. Maybe we do need to go back to the moon.

This is so cool

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LsMoUtBlDk]

Done! Sort of...

I'm done with my paper! Well, I'm done with the penultimate draft anyway. Topped out at 25 or so pages, without the appendixes (probably 3) and the bibliography. Those will probably add on about five pages or so. I'm not entirely thrilled with the end product, because I don't have all of my research done, and while finishing up, I found a couple of other guys to add to my list, and need to look into their backstories a bit more. Might need to do some more detail work throughout the Normandy campaign, and include some details on the various reunions that Norwich students had in France, which we have quite a bit of details about.
My history class just got back from a trip to Norwich Vermont (Norwich University is located in Northfield, but was originally the American Scientific, Literary and Military acadamy, located at Norwich), which was amusing and interesting, mainly because that class rocks.
In the meantime, I'm going to actually rest for a bit, catch up on my sleep. I just found a cover of Bittersweet Symphony by Coldplay, and I have pizza for dinner. That just about makes up for the foot of snow that fell this morning. And my busted tire that I got on Tuesday night. Blarg.

Typing, typing, typing...

That's about what my day amounted today, and will most likely be tomorrow and the day after. Instead of my paper being due in two weeks, like I'd thought, the next-to-last draft is due this Thursday. Which actually has me less frazzled than I thought it would leave me, because the paper's coming together really well. Current page count is 20 pages, with the first three or so sections done:

• Introduction / Preperation / Planning for D-Day
• Day 1: D-Day
• Days 2-4: D-Day 1-3
• Days 5-10: D-Day 4-9

The first two sections were really long, the last two were shorter, mainly because there was only one Norwich alum landing each day. The next section, starting with June 11th, will be longer, because not only was there two large units, the 2nd Armored Division and the 39th Infantry arriving, they've got almost ten people between the two of them from Norwich, some of those guys who were fairly important (General Brooks and Col. Flint), but I also have found a lot of information on them.
Still trying to find information on some of the other units, like the 18th Field Artillery, which doesn't seem to exist at times, among others, and I've also uncovered a couple of other alumni who are in the Norwich Record, but somehow didn't make it onto my list, bringing my count up to 28 confirmed alumni, 34 possible. It's quite a number of people. Three sections to do, mainly with the remaining days, a look at what happened after the invasion and the buildup in Normandy occured and the breakout, a mention that there's some more people (like Phil Brackett, an army dentist), who was awarded the Normandy ribbon, but I can't figure out when he was at Normandy. Same goes for a doctor and a couple of people who the Record says was at Normandy, but because I don't know their units, I can't figure out when or what they were doing.
With my files, map-that-doesn't-exist-yet and source list, I think this is going to be somewhere in the 30-40 page ballpark. If people are interested, I'll serialize it once it's finalized, and stick it up here.

Overseas Again...

I learned this the other day, and didn't want to say anything until I was sure, but the big news of the week is:

I'm going overseas again, this time to France, and most likely, London.

Basically, a spot opened up on the Normandy trip here at Norwich, and I got the e-mail earlier this week, and was told by President Schnider that I could go with them, cost free, save the flight over there. This is because I'm working on the Norwich Students & Invasion of Normandy paper that will be giving them a lot of information and putting a Norwich face on the battle. Thus, the invite.
I'm rather excited about this, as it's only about 40 or so days away, about a week after graduation.

What's also really got me excited is that this means that there's a very, very good chance that I'll be able to visit London for a couple days. I looked up flights from New York to Paris, and found them to be fairly prohibitive, running into the thousands of dollars. New York to London, on the other hand, is much cheaper, about half of that, along with the flight or train ride from London to Paris. The chance to see London again is fantastic, because I know people there, and will be able to revisit places again, a year after I left, also, when it will be really nice out. Basically, I've been bouncing around since I've heard the news. What's also cool is that when I went up to tell Mom about my thoughts about travelling through London and how it's cheaper, she suggested it to me first.

Don't get me wrong, going to France and to the Normandy beaches also has me very, very excited, because it was one of those places that I had really wanted to visit while I was overseas last time, but never got the oppertunity to really do. Plus, you know, I've been studying D-Day for the entire semester and did a lot of reading beforehand, and to actually see it would be amazing. I guess this means that my paper has to be really good. I'll be starting my writing on the second part either this afternoon or tomorrow. It's two weeks before the last draft is due, which means that I have three more sections to do, and to do fast. I think I'm on top of it though. If people are interested, I'll reprint it here, serialized, once it's finished.

I can't wait.

Colby Symposium - Day 2

I was up at 7 again this morning to volunteer for the second and final day of the Colby Military Writer's Symposium. This was the big day - the panel discussion that the conference is centered around, and this year's theme, as I mentioned yesterday, Civilians in the Path of War.
However, earlier, there were two other events, one at 8 am, which was a breakfast presentation in Milano Ballroom. It featured John Nagl and Anne Nivat and was focused on journalism in combat zones, from Chechnya to Iraq and Afghanistan. Nagl is a Lt. Colonel in the US Army, and Nivat is a freelance journalist who's been to a number of combat zones, and both talked about the need to tell the public what is going on in places, as well as it's important to get a full story from every side.
I did some driving after that, shuttling authors from place to place by golf cart, which was fun, Gerhard L. Weinberg in the morning, and Mark Grimsley and Clifford J. Rogers later in the afternoon, after Roger's talk about soldiers in the Middle Ages, which proved to be an utterly facinating talk on the changing mentality of soldiers as war has evolved. He was a highly animated and interesting speaker, and I really want to pick up his book on the middle ages at some point.
At 2, there was the main panel, Civilians in the Path of War, and a number of topics were discussed, from the fire bombings of Japan by the American forces, to POW casualties as a result of that, civilians in current conflicts, and the big question asked was: Is it okay to target civilians who collaborate with enemy forces, and what, if there is one, is the line between combatant/insurgent/terrorist? It's a troubling topic, and I don't think that there's any clear answer, and there really wasn't one given. The power went out twice on us, which was problematic, because they were doing a live broadcast. I left after the second outage, because I wasn't all that interested in the student questions. Besides, I had a student to tutor.
Later in the evening, I dressed in better clothes and went to the Meet the Authors Dinner, a formal event in which people with good GPAs, important ranks, or volunteers for the conference were invited, along with teachers, guests and of course, the authors. Mark Grimsley was at my table, and we talked about England and Europe, and the effect of the internet (paticularly blogging, wikipedia and Youtube on mass media these days), which was interesting. A lot of my friends were there, which was fun, to chat with various people about things. Plus, there was an open bar.
Two books were awarded the Colby Award for excellence in military writing. I believe that the only criteria is that they have to be military related writing, political or something similar, and an author's first work in the field. The two books were Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945 by John A. Glusman and Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the American Navy by Ian W. Toll. Both books look absolutely facinating, and I'm adding Six Frigates to my 'To Buy At Some Point When I Have Income List'. I have one of the previous winners, Franklin and Winston, by Jon Meacham, which won two years ago - the books that they pick for the award are outstanding.

I didn't get a chance to talk with either author to any extent, although I was in a converstation with Mr. Toll earlier today with a couple of other people - interesting guy. The dinner was outstanding, with really good food - Sodexo's chefs read each of the books and tailor meals based on the countries that they're based out of. I had an Iraqi chicken dish with rice - really good, with Pinot Noir Red Wine - Also really good.

That's it for the conference. I said goodbye to some of the authors I'd met, and headed home. It was an enlightening couple of days, to say the least.

The Colby Symposium - Day 1

Every year, Norwich University hosts the Colby Military Writer's Symposium, a gathering of various figures in the military history and literature world, and holds a number of panels, talks and presentations to the public and student body. Seeing that Norwich is a military institution with a strong Social Sciences department, this is quite a big event here. Today was mostly talks and presentations to various classes around the school.
I'm volunteering for the event - I was assigned to 'Colby Central' basically a quite place for the authors to sit down and relax or prepare for their talks, away from the public. I didn't really do anything, except answer a couple questions for the authors, and basically standing by in case anyone needed anything. Tomorrow, I'll be driving a golf cart around the school, shuttling people from place to place, which should prove to be interesting.
For the first time, I was able to attend a couple of the talks - one on the Goals of the eight major leaders involved with World War II, basically, an analysis and results of their long term goals for their countries, by one of the leading military historians in the country, Gerhard L. Weinberg, who has written one of the definitive books on World War II, A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II, which I have yet to read, but it certainly looks interesting, and he has recently written Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders, which is essentially what his talk was about.
The second talk was entitled Blogging them Back to the Stone Age, by Mark Grimsley, who's co-edited the book from which this year's conference takes it's theme, Civilians in the Path of War, which also looks very interesting. His talk was mainly on the influence of blogging against mainstream media, as well as the appeal of blogging to a major audience. I've come across much of what he talked about, but it was still a facinating subject, as it's still a relatively new thing to hit the internet. In the room of about 20 people, only myself and another person maintained a blog, when he asked.
Tomorrow should be interesting, as it's the main panel event, which the entire Corps of Cadets attends, and where they'll be talking (All the authors) about Civilians in warfare, which should be enlightening.
Now, if only I'll start feeling better. Cough is slowly going away, nose is plugged, sore and/or bleeding. Ugh.

We Used to Drive this Blue Ridge Laughing...

So, Carbon Leaf played in Vermont again last night. They must really like coming up here, because it's the fifth time in two years that they've made the trip, and I've gone to each of their concerts. Last night's set completely rocked, and really surprised me - They played more of their older stuff than from their newest album.

Set list:

-The Crane Wife 3 (Song on the speakers, guys came on and played along with it while warming up for a minute)
- Changeless
- Blue Ridge Laughing
- What About Everything?
- Torn to Tattered
- I'm On Fire (Bruce Springsteen Cover)
- Life Less Ordinary
- Desperation Song
- Love Loss Hope Repeat
- American Tale
- Grey Sky Eyes
- Under the Wire
- This Is My Song
- Texas Stars
- Raise the Roof
- The Boxer
- Encore
- Learn to Fly
- Let Your Troubles Roll By
- Bron-Y-Aur Stomp (Led Zepplin Cover)

This was a fantastic set list, and more older stuff than they usually play, which was really really cool. I've never heard American Tale or Blue Ridge Laughing live, and they sounded fantastic. I went with my friend Sam and his fiancee, Miranda, who are also big fans of the group, for their first concert with them. They also loved it. The speakers were playing the Decemberists's newer song The Crane Wife 3, and to warm up, the band members came on stage and played along for a minute or two, before launching right into Changeless.
The band sounded like they got off to a bit of a rocky start, but they hit their sound early on and really went off. Carter had some fantastic guitar solos throughout, and I think they knocked over three mike stands. Blue Ridge Laughing, I'm On Fire, Desperation Song, What About Everything, This Is My Song, Texas Stars, The Boxer, all fantastic songs. I was hoping that they'd play Comfort, but still - good set list.
One of the coolest things though, was that for their encore song, Learn to Fly, Barry, Terry and Carter grabbed their guitars and jumped into the crowd and went to the middle - TEN - TEN FEET FROM ME - and played Learn to Fly without mikes. Sounded incredible, and they got the entire crowd singing along. That was really cool, and I've never seen them do that before. My friend Eric from school was also there, and literally standing in front of them. Lucky him.

Really fun night.

Rest of the pictures are here: http://flickr.com/photos/jeditrilobite/

On Travel Literature

Something that I've discovered over the past couple of years is that I love to travel. Since I've gotten into college, I've done a small share of it; New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, England, Scotland, Greece, Germany, Ohio, Indiana and a lot of places in each of those locations.
Along the way, I've found that I also love to read about travel. Granted, movement from location to location is inevitable in any book or story, but there are some truly extraordinary reads out there about various locations and trips that people have taken. America alone has hundreds of locations and a wealth of tales across the nation. The world is big, to put it simply.
One of the first real travel books that I read was John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley. Steinbeck, along with his dog, (Charley) decided to take a trip across the United States, to reacquaint himself with a nation that he felt that he'd lost touch with. Starting from New York, he made his way up to Maine, across New England, New York, across the Great Lakes, the west, down the western coast line and back through the southwest and the South before returning home. Along the way, he mentions his dislike for maps, the diversity of American culture and a general assimilation of the culture as time went on.
Another favored author of mine, Hampton Sides, (Who I credit with getting me interested in the field of history with his book Ghost Soldiers) compiled a number of his essays from magazines together into a book called Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier. The front quote on the cover describes it perfectly:

"This may be the best road trip you'll ever take- full of strange visions, hilarious detours and sudden beauty in unlikely places."
- Burkland Bilger, staff writer at The New Yorker

This book isn't so much about travelling from place to place, but like Travels with Charley, it focuses on the sheer richness and differences across the nation, through a series of essays on things like Tony Hawk, Gordon Liddy, the Grand Canyon & Colorado River, Harley Davidson bikers, bike messengers, soldiers from Bataan, living in New Mexico and the first Marine soldier to die in the current war in Iraq. It's a complex painting of our culture, and in a sense, that's what travel writing aims to uncover. Similarly, Sebastian Junger, (Perfect Storm) also wrote an anthology of essays, similar to Americana, called Fire. Like Side's book, it's got a variety of subjects in between the covers, ranging from Smoke Jumpers, Kosovo, and Whale Hunters. I think think that essay anthologies can function the best as travel literature, given their lack of restraint towards subject matter and ability to cover many things.
However, there are a number of books out there on specific trips that people have taken, which are just as interesting and can cover an impressive amount of topics. One of the best examples that I can think of is the book (and BBC miniseries) Long Way Round, written by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, who, along with a film crew and cameras, took two motorcycles and went around the world, starting from London, travelling through Europe to Russia, Mongolia, Canada, the United States and back to London, over the period of several months. They saw incredible things, from country to country in Europe and Asia, meeting a number of interesting people along the way. They've got another project in the works, called the Long Way Down, going from Scotland to Europe to Africa, which also looks to be fascinating.
As far as travel writing goes, Bill Bryson is one of the best writers out there. He's written a number of books on the subject, I'm A Stranger Here Myself, about quirks of American culture for a UK newspaper, after he moved back to the US after 20 years. The Lost Continent is one that I'm currently reading, as he drives around the United States, looking at small town America, which is proving to be fascinating. For Walk in the Woods, he goes to a different type of travel, examining the Appalachian Trail system by hiking a good chunk of it. In each of his books, he goes to it with an astonishing brand of humour that makes it awkward to read any of his books in public, given that I'm giggling to myself every couple pages.

All of these books have something in common - the need and desire to understand culture, whether it's of a different country, environment or just ourselves in general. Travel, in my mind is not to go see something, at least, not entirely. Likewise, travel literature is not just for telling the reader about a new place. While seeing and being shown something new are the apparent reasons for why we travel in the first place (and it is a fantastic reason to do so) - I maintain that the primary reason that we travel is to find ourselves, to see who we (either as people or a culture) really are. Each time that I read something about travel, I'm constantly surprised; at the diversity and differences, how things change, for good and bad, and just how complex everything is. Same goes for whenever I'm going somewhere new - I've learned quite a bit, and yet so little about about the United States, and myself at the same time. The one thing that I've learned, is that we are amazing, terrible, interesting, complex, brave, frightened, bigoted, wonderful, indifferent and most of all, different, everywhere we go.

Randomness

I'm on spring break now - it really seemed to come quickly! Hopefully, I'll be getting a little work done with my D-Day project, at least with the background research and reading for the opening sections. After I get back, I'll have quite a bit to do with individual unit histories and things like that.

Other random things:

• The USPS will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Wars by putting out a number of mailboxes that look like R2-D2. Looks fun, I'm sure that some of those will vanish to collectors. Theforce.net has some pictures.
  
• Kieth R.A. DaCandido, the hack who was assigned to the Serenity novelization is set to help degrade another favored fandom of mine, this time, the show Supernatural, which airs on the CW. I think that I'll be passing that when it hits shelves. the Serenity novelization was poorly written as it was, and I've got plenty of other things to read.
  
• My reading list for break: Finish Children of Men, Tempest, Good Omens, The Gunslinger, Iron Sunrise.
• Apparently, my current math teacher also taught my Uncle Kevin and Aunt Mary when they were in middle school in Bristol. Small world...

Edit: And UPS just arrived with a box of books for me, from Simon & Schulster, all hardcovers, all free. w00t!

2007 Movies that I Want to See (And Why)

This year's been a pretty slow start for films. Over on the TFN boards, I wrote up a list of every movie coming out this year, according to the Internet Movie Database, based on date, which is pretty long. There are some really good things coming out this year, and this is what I'm planning on making it out to the theaters to see:

March 2nd
Zodiac - Movie based on the infamous Zodiac killer out in California. I remember seeing a really cool history channel feature on this, and from the looks of the trailer, it's a pretty solid looking movie with a good cast, and it looks like they got a lot of the details right. I'll probably end up catching this on DVD. Trailer

March 9th
300 - One of my favorite classes from High School was 3Ds, or 3 Democracies, about Greek history. One of the big topics that we covered were some of the battles, and we talked about the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans held off an army of thousands, and preserving the institution of democracy, according to historians. Now, imagine the battle, but from the comic book perspective of Frank Miller of Sin City fame. I'm definently seeing this. It looks absolutely fantastic in a gory/comic book/ over the top fashion. Trailer

April 6th
Grindhouse - Tarantino is known for his off-beat movies, and this one's likely to be the same over the top pulpness that's always fun to watch. This'll come in the form of two films, one by Tarantino and Rodriguez, who was also responsible for Sin City as well. This one's got zombies from outerspace, a death proof car, girl with prostethic leg in the form of an M-16 and something that'll fall entirely into a 'B' movie catagory. Question is, will it really be a B movie if it does well at the box office? Trailer

April 13th
Hot Fuzz (Limited) - As the trailer proclaims: FROM THE GUYS WHO WATCHED EVERY ACTION MOVIE EVER MADE, AND THEN MADE SHAUN OF THE DEAD. That's all the reasons right there. Shaun of the Dead was a brilliant spoof on zombie films, and from the looks of this, this'll be the same sort of thing with Cop Movies. Throw in a couple of references to Shaun of the Dead, and general humor that characterised SotD, and we're off to another brilliant movie. Whenever this hits theaters over here, I'll be there. Trailer

April 20th
The Kingdom - This looks to be about the same caliber as Kiefer Sutherland's last movie, The Sentinel. It's got a decent cast, with Jennifer Gardner, Jamie Foxx, Jason Bateman and Christopher Cooper, all part of an FBI team to investigate the bombing of a US embassy in Saudi Arabia. Looks to have an interesting plot, some action and generally, a mindless, but fun movie. Trailer

May 4th
Spider-Man 3 - I'm not sure that I really need to explain why this is a must-see. Spiderman 1 was fun, Spiderman 2 was a leap above, and this one's looking to be even better, provided it can get out from underneath the huge weight of the 3 or 4 main villians in it, this one's looking to be absolutely stunning from the trailers that've been released thus far. Spiderman is my favorite comic book character anyway, and this franchise remains the best of the comic book movies. I have little doubt that this'll just continue that. Trailer

May 25th
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Okay, the first one was a lot of fun, and the second one was a good example of couple writers who could actually pay attention to the original and tie it in, and that worked nicely. Unfortunently, Dead Man's Chest wasn't as good as the original, and while it wasn't bad, this is still going to be a fun movie. Plus, Kieth Richards is Jack's dad.

June 8th
Ocean's 13 - First one was fun, the second one wasn't nearly as good, and they're back for #3. I'm a sucker for heist movies, and by all looks of it, this one will be returning to it's roots by pulling a heist in Las Vegas, and they've added Al Pacino to the cast, which is absolutely brilliant casting, and it looks like this'll be another fun romp with the gang. Trailer

July 27th
Stardust - I haven't read the book yet. Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite writers, after reading some of his shorter works, and after reading American Gods, and this is based off of one of his better known works. Thus far, it's got a really good cast, and while there isn't a trailer yet, I've heard some great things about the book (Which I am intending to read soon). Plus, it's being directed by Matthew Vaughn, who did the brilliant Layer Cake. This'll be a good one.

August 3rd
The Bourne Ultimatum - When it comes to spy movies, Bourne is my favorite. He's effective, and completely down to earth, with some of the best action scenes and car chases and camera work that I've seen in an action movie. A lot of people complained about the shakey camera in Supremacy, but I think that it works brilliantly. I can't wait to see this third one after Identity and Supremacy were amazing.

August 17th
Fanboys - I was annoyed that this was delayed until August, because this is a real geek movie. It's got storm troopers and a road trip to steal a copy of Episode 1 from Skywalker Ranch. Plus, it's got stabs at Star Trek fans, and William Shatner makes a cameo that had me splitting my sides. This'll be a must see. Trailer

December 7th
His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass - First there was Lord of the Rings, then Harry Potter, and now another big fantasty book series is being adapted. It's also one of my very favorite books of all time. I've even met Philip Pullman and visited Oxford, so I'm looking forwards that aspect. The series is one of the best fantasty trilogies out there, much better than the Harry Potter books. Good cast, good director and what looks like good production values. I can't wait to see some aspects of the film, like the armored Polar Bears, Lyra, Oxford, and a bunch of other things. Hopefully this'll do well in the box office so that we'll see the Subtle Knife and Amber Spyglass.

December 15th
Sunshine - This was another one that I'm a little annoyed that they pushed back to December. This looks like a good SciFi film, a solid trip into space, by the same guy who did Trainspotting and 28 Days Later. While the plot looks like something similar to a disaster film, but given his prior movies, this'll be a good one. Trailer

Norwich + Normandy

So, graduation headaches aside, I'm working on my final project with a seminar class, Norwich University History. It's an interesting class, and I've had the professor before in other classes. In addition to learning about the school (and American Higher Education in general) we're required to do an intensive project on some aspect of the school's history. I selected one that Prof. Lord suggested, an examination of Norwich alumni who participated in the Invasion of Normandy in 1944 towards the end of World War II. Thus far, it's been an interesting project. Apparently, Norwich is sending a number of alumni to the battlefields this summer for a fundraising thing, and they wanted a companion history to go along with it. So, I've had a meeting with the president of the university, who was able to give me some connections that'll help.
So far, the project has been going well, and I've outlined it into three phases. The first phase is tracking down the names and units of Norwich alumni who were in the battle. So far, I've gotten a lot of hits for people in the area at the same time, but there's 23 that I've found thus far who were in the battle - 11 or so more than previously known about. (All they had before was a list of people who were in the battle and died afterwards) So far, my list stands at about 121, of people who I have the units and names, ranks, etc, but no word on whether they were actually in the battle or not. I send my list off to my contact earlier today, and hopefully, I'll get a better view on who was there, based on their unit histories.
The second phase will be research into each unit that was at D-Day that had a Norwich student in it. I'm hoping to get a map and plot their locations on it. Combined with various accounts that I've uncovered, and a couple of sources that I'm going to track down, hopefully, I'll get a good picture on what the Norwich alumni were up to.
The last phase is the report itself, which hopefully shouldn't take too long, after all the research has been done. It's an interesting project, and I'm very happy to be doing this sort of work - I've really been enjoying the process and looking things up. THIS is the sort of history that I've been wanting to do for a while now, and I'm thinking that it's what I want to be doing in the future.

The Oscars

So, the Oscars. Some decent films got some good awards, there were some 'upsets' and some well deserved wins. Martin Scorsese finally got his win for the Departed, which also won Best Picture. (I was rooting for the Queen). Pan's Labyrinth got three of the five that it was nominated for, which was excellent, although Children of Men was completely snubbed for Best Screenplay and Cinematography. All around though, no major sweeps like Lord of the Rings a couple years ago, everything seemed to get a good amount of recognition. Not entirely sure if that's a good thing or a bad one. I do need to see the Departed though, as well as the Queen.

Cool...

I was looking around IMDB for some information about the upcoming movie, The Golden Compass, based off of the book by the same name, and found this picture:

I've been there. Walked down that very pathway, with Barbara, Will and Fran, and again later when I went with the Marymount students and on my own during my time in Oxford. I figured I'd recognize some locations from Oxford, but I never really figured that I would have been in some of the areas where they did some filming.
I'm really awaiting this movie - aside from the fact that I've been in Oxford, it's one of my personal favorite books, and one of the best fantasy novels out there. On top of that, I've met Philip Pullman, the author of the trilogy, while in Oxford, which was one of the most memorable experiences while I was out there. Man, I can't wait to see this on the big screen. Hopefully, it'll turn out to be true to the book.

Stan Lee is my Hero

And he's going to be on Heroes this week. w00t! Who're they going to get next?

New Currency

Found this article during the morning news scan: We're getting another $1 coin, starting next week. Interesting, because I hadn't heard a thing about it until now. Like the 50 quarter program, the US mint will be running through all the presidents, four per year.

The coin looks cool - and overall, coins make a lot more sense than dollar bills, mainly, because they last something like 30 times longer. Bills become tattered and torn, while coins just wear down a bit. England doesn't have a £1 note - they've got the pound, a thick coin about the size of a quarter. I loved that coin and still have a couple kicking around. Coins like thse also make a lot of sense for a lot of the automated things that we frequently use, such as vending machines, laundry, bus tickets, everything like that. I was a little disapointed that the previous dollar coin didn't pan out - I liked that one as well. The way that this is being approached though, might pull in more people to collect or use them. I guess we'll see.