one.o.eight

March 13, 2008

le Dernier Poilu

"War is completely stupid." -- Lazare Ponticelli
(December 7, 1897 - March 12, 2008)
Requiescat in pace, poilu.

Posted by Tacitus at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)

March 09, 2008

Bye Gy

Introduced to D&D in 6th grade, my fate was sealed at an early age. That “first” Summer was magical. Gaming with Chris, Steve, and Michael on their parents' patio in Cali. The days were sunny and warm and the adventures epic and admittedly not very sophisticated. We were all between 11 and 14. How sophisticated could we be? But the time spent together we some of my happiest.

I played D&D much of life from then on. I'm not sure if the three of them did the same. When I was sent away to school after 8th grade, our lives went separate ways. Then my family moved out of state and I with them. Thus ended my California adventure.

I moved around a lot growing up. Somewhere along the way, I developed a strong case of shyness. Despite this, I was always really lucky in finding friends through gaming. And without a doubt I have had the great fortune to game with some of the most amazing people. Whether or not you know—or remember—who you are, each of you holds a special place in my heart.

Strange how we honour the dead by remembering—however tenuous—our connections to them. My connection to E. Gary Gygax is D&D. Millions are connected to him in the same way. In this I am not unique. He made the game. But my friends and I—and millions like us—made the game great. So the only genuine eulogy I can offer is this:

I never knew him. I only knew his games.

Requiescat in pace.
E. Gary Gygax
July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008

Thanks for the memories.

Posted by Tacitus at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2008

Requiem for The Dreamer

Requiescat in pace.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968

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September 11, 2007

Sexennial

Posted by Tacitus at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2007

Addio, Maestro

Requiescat in pace.
Luciano Pavarotti
October 12, 1935 - September 6, 2007

Posted by Tacitus at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2006

Quinquennial

Posted by Tacitus at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)

September 05, 2006

Goodbye, Mr. Irwin

Conservationist Steve Irwin died yesterday*; killed by a stingray's barb. Requiescat in Pace, Vir Crocodilus. You will be missed.

* Mr. Irwin died in Queensland, Australia, on September 4th, 11:00am local time (UTC+10), which was September 3rd, 9:00pm EST (UTC-4).

Posted by Tacitus at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

July 07, 2006

7/7

Two minutes of silence: for those who died; for those who survived.

Posted by Tacitus at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2006

What Price Space? (Soyuz 1)

Thirty-nine years ago (1967) on this day, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov perished when, in the final stage of return, his Soyuz 1 capsule's main chute failed to deploy, and its reserve chute became entangled in its drag chute; drawing to a grim conclusion a mission plagued with devastating problems from its intial orbital insertion some thirty hours earlier.

Soyuz 1 had a 3-crew capacity, and was to take part in a mission where two cosmonauts from Soyuz 2 (scheduled to launch the following day) would transfer to Soyuz 1 via space walk and return to Earth with Komarov.

Posted by Tacitus at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2006

What Price Space? (Columbia)

And just three years ago (2003) on this day, NASA's STS-107 mission crew, astronauts Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Ilan Ramon, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, and Laurel Salton Clark, perished when the shuttle Columbia burned up on re-entry after the heat shielding on leading edge of the port wing was breached during liftoff by a piece of insulating foam from the main fuel tank fifteen days earlier.

Posted by Tacitus at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2006

What Price Space? (Challenger)

Twenty years ago (1986) on this day, NASA'a STS-51-L mission crew, astronauts Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Christa McAuliffe and Gregory Jarvis, were lost when the space shuttle Challenger's right booster rocket broke free and collided with the main fuel tank causing the vehicle to explode seventy-three seconds after lift-off.

Posted by Tacitus at 05:49 PM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2006

What Price Space? (Apollo 1)

Thirty-nine years ago (1967) on this day, NASA's AS-204* mission crew, astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, perished when an electrical short sparked a flash fire inside the oxygen rich environment of their command module during a launch rehearsal. They were the first Americans to die in a spacecraft. NASA renamed the mission Apollo 1 to honor the crew.

*Apollo/Saturn 204

Posted by Tacitus at 05:32 PM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2005

Bands of Brothers

Five hundred ninety years ago on this day (1415 CE*) or there about (for 1563 was a rather short year) the Battle of Agincourt was fought in northern France between the armies of Henry V of England and Charles VI of France during the Hundred Year's War. Some 5000+ French fell defending their homeland to an outnumbered, invading English force; the effective use of the English longbow being credited with closing the gap in the disparate numbers.

Four hundred thirty-nine years later (1854 CE) at the Battle of Balaklava (Ukraine) during the Crimean War would those six hundred, the Light Brigade, ride into that "valley of Death" charging the Russian guns at its far end... only to retire back through the same hellish gauntlet of that valley to return to where they had started their attack; saved from total annihilation by intervention of the French 4th Chasseurs D'Afrique and the British 93rd (Highland) Regiment (the Thin Red Line).

And ninety years beyond that day (1944 CE) did the largest naval engagement in recorded history rage in the Leyte Gulf, Philippines. It would mark the first official day of operations for the Imperial Japanese Navy's Special Attack Force know to Allied forces as kamikaze.

Let us hope that October 25, 2005, is spared any historical footnotes of bloodshed or travesty. And Happy St. Crispin's Day to you.

* CE = Common Era (equiv. to AD)

[UPDATE: On this day in this year (2005 CE), the 2000th casualty in the US led war in Iraq fell.]

Posted by Tacitus at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2005

Quadrennial

Posted by Tacitus at 05:29 PM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2005

What Are You Doing?

Alexander (the Great) and his generals were surveying the recent slaughter of a town in ancient Persia that had refused to surrender itself to his dominion. His usual answer to such rejection was to unleash his forces upon the holdout, slay those who opposed him and enslave the survivors.

A woman of that town being marched off to slavery was passing by Alexander's entourage, her tunic wet with mother's milk and spattered in blood. As she passed, she reached down and snatched up a handful of mud and flung it at Alexander striking him.

His generals were quick to respond, and drew their weapons to cut her down for the slight.

But Alexander quickly stayed their hands with these words, "What are you doing? Can you not see she has just lost her child? Pitching stones at me is all she has left. Do not take that away from her."

Now I put to you that President Bush is no Alexander the Great, no more than Mrs. Sheehan is an enslaved woman of a defeated unnamed tribe of ancient Persia. But her grief is no less real.

To those who would accuse her of dishonouring her son's memory, or of undermining America's resolve or whatever, I ask you this: What are you doing? Can you not see she has just lost her child? Peaceful protest is all she has left. Do not take that away from her.

And, no, I am no Alexander the Great either.

Posted by Tacitus at 08:32 PM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2005

Bela Lugosi's Dead

I won't reiterate what's already been written about Bela Lugosi and his profound impact on the vampire genre and Count Dracula in particular -- a role that proved both a blessing and a curse for this actor from Transylvania. Google or Yahoo are far better regurgitative resources than I, but I think IMDb and Wikipedia provide passable summaries of Lugosi's career; the highs and the lows.

I will however indulge my dork side and bow to the lyrics of the Bauhaus song from which this post draws its title:

White on white translucent black capes
Back on the rack
Bela Lugosi's dead
The bats have left the bell tower
The victims have been bled
Red velvet lines the black box
Bela Lugosi's dead
Undead undead undead
The virginal brides file past his tomb
Strewn with time's dead flowers
Bereft in deathly bloom
Alone in a darkened room
The count
Bela Logosi's dead
Undead undead undead

Bela Lugosi remembered (October 20, 1882 - August 16, 1956).

Posted by Tacitus at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2005

On This Day in 1915

Today is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand, and while I am neither Australian nor New Zealander, I always find myself in a somber mood on this day, and thinking of those who fought and died (or survived) that most terrible chapter in human history: the First World War.

I shall not pontificate on the horrors of war, nor the unmitigated gall and stupidity of those who would lead people down such hellish paths for profit, pride or prejudice, nor assail you with the lyrics of Eric Bogle's "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (though I would encourage you to give it a listen -- here's a snippet of a Pogues cover). I will simply leave you this:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
-- last verse, Laurence Binyon's "For the Fallen"

Requiescat in pace, lads. Steady on.

Posted by Tacitus at 02:30 PM | Comments (2)

April 03, 2005

The Pontiff Has Passed

Requiescat in Pace
Pope John Paul II
1920-2005

Posted by Tacitus at 04:40 PM | Comments (0)