We should all learn from our past......

Most of you that know me know there are few things on this earth i will not discuss in public forum, those being Religion and Politics, for exactly the same reason. That being said, I'm a student of history, and I love reading about the past, and, sometimes when doing so, I come across something that resonates strongly with me. Many will think this is a post about politics, but it is not. It is about our American way of life. But I'll let the man speak for himself. Some of the incidents referenced may seem a little dated, but they were written by a man who, while he himself always denied the title of "Hero", knew what heroism was. And, like many of the generation that fought WWII, he spoke his mind and saw things as they were. When I read the following, written 34 years ago, it scared me how much is exactly the same today. From the epilogue to his 1979 book: "Experience has taught me that people don't like to think about bad things happening. They do not hear a small voice howling in the wind. Even though I am a small voice, I advocate that action is not started by "outside agitators". People will make changes if they know the problems. Today, our people are not only not getting the facts, they are being convinced that wrong is right. I am stubborn enough to say that human nature does not change and all this do-good, forgive-and-take-care-of-everybody philosophy goes against every known, sensible thing that history teaches. Give somebody something and he has no respect for it. Make him earn it and he will take care of it. I do not want to preach but since you stayed with me through this whole thing, you must understand that our nation is in grave peril. 'Power to the people'. The deluded zealots that go around yelling that don't even know what it means.Nowhere on earth do people have more power than we do here in the good old U.S.A. We can vote. We are lazy and misguided and we complain, but we have the power if we just get together and say we want no more of what we have been getting. On this earth, only one person in four has the kind of freedom that we have. On September 6, 1941 I was commissioned and office and a gentleman and I swore to defend my country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I am not now in military service but I intend to keep that oath. I have fought the foreign ones. I have seen how they learned. They now know that we are hard to whip if we are given half a chance. The logical approach, which they have taken, is to weaken us and take us from within. Our domestic enemies today are in league with our foreign enemies and that makes them extremely more dangerous. No one knows better than i that I am not smart enough to understand all that is going on. All I know is I do not like what I see, and I am compelled to say so. I do not put much stock in editorials or most of the things we are told. I never even consider polls, because it is very simple to get any answer you want to pay for. They6 have been so obviously wrong so many times. They are also obviously slanted. The idea is that if you read something enough times you begin to believe it. You do -- unless you think for yourself. Let's just look at some of the things I am referring to. I did not think these things up, but I have observed them. We let some of our nitwit senators stay in office and babble like idiots. We abandoned our effort to produce an S.S.T. That advance was coming. It did come, but ours was infinitely better than the one that was produced. The scare tactic used was that it was impractical and that it would destroy the ozone layer. Baloney! There are more aircraft up there on any given day than those planes would have numbered in years. These environmental fanatics have only very small points, and not many at that. A total clean up of our environment is a romantic illusion. It would result in our being in a beautiful world -- cold, hungry, and unemployed. Pessimism, negative evaluation of technological advance, is not news. It was once predicted that steam locomotives would result in the death of birds; it would frighten cows and hens causing a decline in milk and egg production, the sparks from the funnel were expected to set houses on fire, and that at speeds over 30 miles an hour the air supply of passenger compartments would be cut off and passengers die of asphyxiation. There are many things that history and fact could teach us, but no one pays any attention. All this foolishness did was deprive us of building a real first-class SST, and it helped our decline in the field of aviation. Our elected representatives criticize our aircraft industry and our intelligence people for dealing throughout the world. The industry is dying and the intelligence people are out in the dark. Our nation is as good as dead without eyes and ears. The people who want to take our country from us cannot want it destroyed. They want to control us. Why do we encourage and help these people? We have known since before the end of World War II what their intentions are and they have never once given us a reason to trust them nor have they lived up to a single thing that they have agreed to. I just saw where we are now sending equipment and tools to a nation that hates us. How stupid can we get? We should elect people who would put a stop to this sort of thing, and fast. Government is supposed to protect its people, not expose them to this kind of obvious danger. Our whole system needs to be brought back to its original concepts under the Constitution. A Congressman is supposed to represent his constituents and uphold the Constitution. He is not supposed to dictate or turn all authority and responsibility over to unelected bureaucrats. Write your Congressman and ask him a question. He will not answer you directly. If he does not refer your problem to a bureaucrat he will send you a computer answer that has already been furnished him by a bureaucrat. The whole thing would be funny if it were not so serious and dangerous. We elect candidates. They get into office and turn right around and say that the people who elected them do not know what is good for them. They will vote as they see fit. To Hell with the country and the people who are responsible enough to work and pay taxes. This must stop, AND SOON. What is the real reason these elected and misguided people want all of our guns? If you think it is because we would be safer or that this would slow crime down one fraction, you are not looking at the facts. You know all the statements about how guns are killing so many people, but at the risk of being repetitious, I'll restate a basic fact. People kill people, not guns. It can be done with anything and has been down through the ages. The reason the governing bodies want to control and/or eliminate personal arms is not for the good of the people. It is necessary if they are to maintain and strengthen the hold government has and wants over its people. No one wants to spend money on defense. Why is it not better to spend billions on a nuclear carrier than to give that money out to welfare and relief people who are perfectly capable of helping build that carrier? Our enemies are far ahead of us in this and that is extremely serious and dangerous. Just look at each thing our government is doing now in the light of whether it is good for our safety. Not one thing is being, or has been done, that does not make us more vulnerable. Think about it." -- the preceding was all written by Navy Lieutenant George H. Gay, the lone survivor of the TBD-1 Devastators from Torpedo Squadron 8 at the Battle of Midway. For my two cents, I am distressed at how little has changed since he wrote these words in NINETEEN SEVENTY NINE. If anything, people have gotten less able to think for themselves as a whole, and the situation has gotten much worse. People will believe anything the news, internet, or TV tell them with no fact-checking, just blind obedience, and expect everything to be handed to them. The idiotic gun control argument still flares up. There is no work ethic, very little free thought, and negligible advancement in technology, especially the aviation he was speaking of. Hell, our military is a few steps behind the Chinese now, as our "State of the Art" fighters, the F-22 and F-35, are using technology that wasn't new in the 80s. Stealth started in the 40s with the Horten Go-229. Vectored thrust has been around forever, as the Germans played with it in WWII on their V-2s. There were supersonic V/STOL fighters in the 60s, like the Mirage IIIV and P.1154. The 1970s F-15 can do more mission profiles than the current F-22, significantly more if you talk about the F-15E. Maybe reading this has struck a chord with you all, as well. Maybe some of you are annoyed by it. Maybe some of you are pissed off at me for posting it. As long as you are thinking, that's all I ask. Stepping off soapbox, dropping mic.

Never Meet your Heroes

They say that you should never meet your heroes, because they will only let you down. Besides my dad, I can honestly say I've never really had any heroes, and my dad has never let me down. But I did have one major influence on my life outside of my family (of which my friends count). There was one man who, from the time I read his first novel in 1984, inspired a drive in me, made me want to be, if not on his level, at least in his constellation. That man wrote the novels that helped to shape the youths of many of my friends, and millions across the globe. Sadly, he passed away last night at the age of 66, quite young for someone with such a large impact. I was among the lucky that got to meet mr Tom Clancy back in 2001, after the unpleasantness of the 9-11 attacks. If you've ever read any of my writing, you'll know just how much the world this man created has meant to me. Rest in Peace, Mr Clancy, you will certainly be missed. Your physical form may have passed on, but your work makes you immortal.

SuperCharged Saturday Nights

Couple shots from the local auto show tonight. Enjoy ;) Full set HERE

Headed home

I've been blogging less and less over the past couple of years as I, basically, couldn't care less. However, since I am leaving to go to Europe this weekend, for the better part of two weeks, expect that all to change when, or if, I return. Till then.....

Things become Classics for a Reason.....

There's something about World War I that has always interested and fascinated me, especially the air war portion, what with the Escadrille Lafayette, Flying Circus, Udet, Rickenbacker, Richthofen, Voss, Brown, ect.  And the Aircraft, oh, the aircraft....there is a grace and a style in those 19-teens warbirds that you can't find in the newer stuff.

See what I mean? The Fokker D.VIII Razor is just gorgeous.

Today, Fantasy of Flight hosted a WWI Symposium, and they put their WWI Warbirds all together in the south hangar.
As a friend of the museum, I was waved in about half an hour before the crowds were allowed through the door, so I got to shoot all the girls without interruption.

 Moraine-Saulnier A-1

 Pair of Sopwith Pups

Thomas Morse Scout

Standard E-1

 Sopwith Snipe

As always, there were warbirds in the air, and, as befitting the theme today, Kermit took up the Fokker Dr.I and the Albatros D.Va

First up, the Dr.I

Then the Albatros, possibly the sexiest looking fighter of all time, took to the air.

Yes he's back, back back...back again...

Hey gang, your eyes are not deceiving you, it's really me, and, yes, after a...er...carry the one...six and a half month hiatus I'm BACK in the blogosphere.  I know some of you missed me like a crackwhore misses Jerry Springer, and for those two or three of you.....the restraining order is still in effect.
Sooo.....a few things have changed since August, but nothing life-altering.
However, THIS year I've got a few things on the burner that I'm excited to be doing, and, as always, it's the season for air and car shows, which means....I get to break out the ol' camera!!
Since I work wed-sat every week, I will be mostly doing weekend events on sundays....but I'm trying to slot a couple 3-day events in there too ;)

Might be taking a few people along to some events this year, might not, we shall see. If you are in my neck of the woods for any event, and think you want to say hi.....click the link for more info ON said events!

But, to the chase, we shall cut.

This weekend, I'm headed down to FT Myers to see my favorite baseball team, the Red Sox, take on their arch-rival New York Yankees with the best person a guy can catch a game with, my dad.

March road trip to the National Naval Aviation Museum  (with Paladin)
March 24 St Petersburg Grand Prix

April 1-2 Collings Foundation Wings of Freedom Tour (Me-262 in FLIGHT!!)
  if above, then March 31 Cold War Museum
April 7th Festivals of Speed St Petersburg
April 7th MacDill Air Fest (F-22 Raptor Demo) (Probably off sue to Sequestration)
April 13 Mustang Meet at Fantasy of Flight
April 9-14 Sun N Fun Fly In
May 9 Festivals of Speed Mission Inn 


June 1-14 Germany.  Don't expect to hear a lot from me those weeks, and, if I manage a minor miracle, don't expect me to come back. lol.

And, of course, as always, almost any free day I have I might ride over to Fantasy of Flight or the Florida Air Museum.  Hey, it's me ;)
I may have to add things as I learn about them, like a Lightning game or a Magic one ;)

A Long Time Ago....

A Long Time Ago

In a Galaxy far Far Away...

Or, to be honest, In the Milky Way

in the great United States of America, 

At the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum,

in Colorado, a new fan event was created in the year of 1999.

It was called:

STAR WARS CELEBRATION

This weekend, the VI iteration of the event (That's SIXTH for those of you that suck at Roman Numerals) was held in Orlando, the second consecutive time that city, and the Orange County Convention Center, have hosted the event.

Once again, I was working at the event, but, due to having just started a new job, was only able to be there on the last day of the Convention, yesterday. (For a refresher on my adventures at CV in 2010 click)

I was working for Official Pix once again, and this time around, I got to spend my morning with Christopher Malcolm, whom Star Wars fans and fanatics will remember as Zev Senesca, Rogue Two, from "The Empire Strikes Back", and his wife.  Just an amazing guy to sit there and talk with.  

In the autograph hall, he was sandwiched in between Jake Lloyd (Little Anakin) and Daniel Logan (Little Boba), so the morning was not without excitement, since Warwick Davis came over on his Segway to photobomb Logon on one occasion, and Luke himself, Red Five, Mark Hamill, came over to talk to Chris for a few minutes.  And wherever Mark goes, the crowd follows.

Which begs a question of the Con organizers and the official photo company, Froggy's Photos.  Since you had Mark, Christopher, Garrick Hagon (Biggs Darklighter in Star Wars), and John Morton (Dack Ralter in ESB), all there, wouldn't you think it would make sense to do a Rogue Squadron Photo Op?  I'd steal Geoff's helmet and pay good money to be in that shot!

SPEAKING of Geoff, he was a large part of CVI for me, even though he wasn't able to be there, most of my twitter feed was filled with the exploits of his mini-doppelganger, TS-5180.

A bit of back story here.  Geoff and I have been friends since we were in HS, and he is a member of the 501st who has been known to troop in Snowtrooper  armor (such as below, at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Nebraska.  (Credit to Dan Naber for the photo)

Unfortunately, he was not able to attend this year's Celebration, although he had been planning on it for the last 2 years.  So, being a Star Wars fan and collector myself, and having a Snowtrooper action figure, I brought that along to represent the real-life TS-5180, and photographed him around the con as well, giving him, basically, the run of my twitter coverage during the event.   While there, mini-TS-5180 managed to meet a little celebrity of his own, Lego Slave Leia, who has become something of an internet icon due to her owner taking her on exploits all over the country and photographing her there.

Admittedly, I borrowed the idea from that for the day, but it's ok, Lego Leia is owned by my friend Carie, and it didn't seem to annoy her too much.
Although I enjoyed my time at CVI, I'm not sure if holding it in the same place two times in a row was the best idea, as a few things seemed to be stale to me.  For instance, most of the large sets and props were the same as for CV in 2010, like this AT-AT you may remember from those photos.  THIS shot is from yesterday, but the big guy was in the exact spot as two years ago.

 As was the Death Star

 The Endor Bunker and Speeder Bike were in a different location from last time, but were exactly the same ones.

Same story for both Jabba's Throne Room and the Snowspeeder
 
Also, for me, there didn't seem to be as many people dressing up this time around, and, for the most part, the ones that were weren't of nearly as good a quality as I've seen before.  So much so that I didn't bother taking too many shots of costumed people (I mean, I saw too many Slave LEONs (guys dressed in metal bikinis) A chubby Tomb Raider, countless Indiana Joneses, and even a couple Anime and My Little Pony people..shudder), with the exception of this Aurra-esque Bounty Hunter (sue me, I liked looking at her)

 Chef Vader, who WAS there in 2010 but I never got a chance to run into him

 this Chewbacca (there was only one other, and I think he had the Wal-Mart of Wookie suits) with Boushh

and, of course, the official 501st Stormtroopers. (One of whom was practicing his poses, then had Carie let him kiss her in a shot you've all seen on Dune Sea Times, Facebook, or Twitter, where DST AND the 501st have posted it.  So I won't :P...Unless Carie tells me to, lol

He saw me sneak around to his left to take some photos and decided to shoot ME!!

Gotta love those 501st guys!

Part of the lack of costumes might well be attributable to a combination of factors.  One, I was only there Sunday this year, last time I was there the whole event and got to see more.  Two, Florida is in the middle of our hurricane season (not the football team, dimwit), and fear of a storm named Isaac was keeping a few more people at home than the last time, I would imagine.

Now, that's not to say there weren't parts of it I LOVED.  Hell, I loved just being there, let's get that out of the way at the start. I love the kinds of people I work with and run into there, whether it be Kent, Matt, and Terry from Official Pix at CV (and back again for CVI as well), costumers like the 501st boys and girls, many of the guests of the event (I've got a short list of the ones I didn't like), to the comic book, poster, tattoo, and book artists there, as well as those robot racing geeks from the Builder's Club.  I also run into friends from before there (Like Carie, for instance, wearing both her Geek and Reporter hats at the event) and meet new ones as well.

Also this year, they had a Fan Cars section, where I finally came face to face with the H-Wing, ObiShawn's Del Sol that I've been reading about since around 2003 or so, as well as her replacement, his newer Nissan 350Z. 

This little toy would have been useful on Tatooine....

Like trucks?  Here's a Ford F-150 Raptor SVT Empire Edition

The original H-Wing

The NEW H-Wing.  I think he might be calling this the N-Wing 9Hionda Del Sol was H-Wing, Nissan Z350 N-Wing...makes sense to me.)

An other thing that was done well were the new set pieces, like this Hoth Medical Center, complete with walk-in Bacta tank and med droids.

 

The 501st brought back a lot of the same display suits, but had some new ones, like IG-88

 and this Han in Carbonite

 Roxy the Rancor made her debut this year, and the line around her was always huge

 The 501st room again, with the Mos Eisley Dewback setup

 So, all in all, if you are to ever go to a Celebration event, take my advice....go for more than just a day, and just enjoy yourself.  While I loved my Sunday, everything seemed to be too rushed to see everything, and most of the fun panels had been done the days prior.

That being said, let's not forget about what this whole Star Wars Celebration is all about.

No, not being geeks in an acceptable forum.

Ok, maybe that too.

But what I mean is that, Star Wars Celebrations isn't about the movies, the TV shows, or all the merchandising. 

It's about the people.

More than that, it's about a massive number of people that have been inspired, in one way or another, by a vision of a Heroic Journey.

Star Wars, to those that truly get it, is more than just a movie.  Or a Trilogy. (and we'll debate the prequels till the sun burns out, it's what people that are passionate about something do).  It's about the way you see the world and how friendship, love, and adventure can be a part of everyone's life, if they let it.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, Ewoks, Wookies, Jedi and Sith (And you too, Princess), is my two cents.

May The Force Be With You.......Always.