Well,
I hope everyone had a good Xmas with family and friend and got cool stuff or
did things that were fun. I was stuck
away from home for Xmas this year (this is not the first, nor will it probably
be the last time either.) So I got to
celebrate Xmas earlier this month with my family, but I just did not post up
anything about it until now. There was a snow storm in the middle of my time off at home, but it really was not that bad. Hopefully for all of you out there, you didn't get stuck in any bad weather.
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| Always be prepared to drive in the snow or be willing to help those that don't |
First
off, what I did during my time home:
Besides
hanging out with family and friends, I worked on cleaning out my gaming area in
the basement (I can walk around my gaming tables again!) and sorting through my
15mm WW2 stuff it keep or sell (a list will be coming out soon.) As part of the cleaning out, I bought two
more 2’x4’ tables and now have them set up to have a gaming area of 4’x8’. I don’t plan to use that much of an area,
many 4’x4’ or 4’x6’ depending on the game.
The remaining unused area will be for drinks, rules, minis not on the
board, etc. Other than that, I saw two
movies. One was “The Hobbit 2”, which I
really enjoy. I was bored during the Lord
of the Rings movies, but both of the Hobbit movies have kept me entertained and
never bored. The other movie was “The
Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, which I saw on Xmas day. I enjoyed it, but it was really different
than both the short story or the original movie in terms of Walter Mitty’s
daydreams cycle (i.e., in the story and the original movie, they happen
regularly throughout the story, where this one has them regularly at the
beginning and then they taper off to none before the end of the movie.)
Now,
on to the Xmas haul:
Generally,
over the past several years, I just ask for gift cards, especially now that I
have a Kindle for the last couple of years.
I rather have electronic versions of books, music, and movies instead of
physical copies for a bunch of reasons.
This year I got few physical copies of things, but mostly gift cards like
I asked.
Physical
copies:
Book
The
Armored Fist: The 712th Tank Battalion in the Second World War by
Aaron Elson. This is a book about the
tank battalion that was assigned to my grandfather’s division through most of
the war in 1944-45.
DVDs
“Bond
50: The Complete 23 Film Collection”, Blu-Ray – I love James Bond movies. Some were real dogs, but overall, still one
of my favorite series.
“Casino
Royale” (1967), Blu-Ray – This along with “Never Say Never Again” are the two
non-Eon James Bond movies that are not part of the complete film collection
from above. Now, I only need to pick up
“Never Say Never Again” in Blu-Ray.
“She-Wolf
of London: The Complete Series” – I have this series already on DVD’s from my
recording it back when it was on the Sci-Fi Channel back in the 1990’s, but
they have commercials and etc. So, I am
glad to get this set.
With
my gift cards, I picked up the following electronic copies of books:
War of the
White Death, by Bair Irincheev: a
book about the Winter War of 1939-40, which should make a nice companion to Frozen
Hell, by William Trotter, which I am just about 50% done with now.
The Soviet
Invasion of Finland 1939-40 (Soviet Military Experience), by Carl
Van Dyke: another book on the Winter War that is more about the Soviet failure
and how they responded to that from Russian documents instead of Western
documents, so this will hopefully give me a better understanding of things from the Soviet
side of the war. This will probably be
my last of the Winter War books on the ground combat, unless I find a first hand, personal account
in English.
The Little Rock Arsenal Crisis: On
the Precipice of the American Civil War,
by David Sesser: this is a short book
about the events leading up to, and after, the surrender of the Little Rock
Arsenal in Arkansas in February, 1861, by federal troops to the
pro-secessionists forces. Had Captain
(later, Brigadier General) James Totten had received orders to hold, the
shelling of Fort Sumter would just have been a forgotten footnote in history.
Company I, "Governors Greys" 1st Iowa Volunteer Infantry (3 months) in dress uniform
The Lyon Campaign In Missouri In
1861, Being A History Of The First Iowa Infantry, by Eugene Fitch Ware:
This is the personal accounts and general history from of one of the soldiers
that served in the 1st Iowa Infantry (3 months). It covers the 90+ days that regiment served
in Missouri under General Lyon, including the Battle of Wilson Creek.
Special Forces Pilot: A Flying
Memoir of the Falkland War, by Colonel
Richard Hutchings DSC: this is an account of a Sea King helicopter pilot from
the 846 Naval Air Squadron during the Falklands War. It covers his part of the SAS/SBS insertion
operations, the Pebble Island raid, and the failed SAS raid into Argentina,
including his escape into Chile. I am
still hoping that the Pebble Island book by Cooksey will become available in
electronic format soon.
Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City,
a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure, by Christopher S. Stewart: this is about the 1940
expedition in Honduras by Theodore Morde, who would claim to have found
the “Lost City of the Monkey God”.
Besides being an Indiana Jones like story, the “Lost City of the Monkey
God” is supposedly not too far from where I was stationed in some very small
villages in Honduras while I was in the army.
It is a shame that I did not know about this back then, otherwise, I
would have been asking the locals about it.
Riot: A Behind-The-Barricades Tour
of Mobs, Riot Cops, and the Chaos of Crowd Violence, by Loren W. Christensen: this is a balance look of riots,
why they happen, the conditions needed for them to start and to continue,
methods of suppressing them, and personal accounts from all sides. I have always been interested in riots ever
since back in the days in my riot control training. It will be an interesting read.
The Bear Went Over the Mountain:
Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan,
by Lester W. Grau: this is a replacement for a hardcopy that I have to help cut
back some of the books that I own. This
is the first book of a trilogy about the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979-89.
The Other Side of the Mountain:
Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War,
by Lester W. Grau and Ali Ahmad Jalali:
this is another replacment of a hardcopy of book that I own. It is second book of the trilogy about the
Soviet-Afghan war. The final book, The Soviet-Afghan War: How a Superpower Fought and
Lost, is still not available in
an electronic format, but I am hoping that it will some day.
The Last Invasion of Canada: The
Fenian Raids, 1866 – 1870, by Hereward
Senior: this is yet another replacement of a hardcopy. It is a short, but good account of the Irish Fenian
raids into Canada. I am still hoping
that Ridgeway by Peter Vronsky comes out in electronic format as it is
the definite account to read about the Battle of Ridgeway, the largest of all
of the Fenian raids.
Sapper
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