Operation Overlord

Write to live, live to write.

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Sunday, July 26, 2009

I didn't get into the VJC interview.

>>Forgotten by02:45

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Monday, July 20, 2009

Half blood, half marks
Firstly, to address the queries of my curious friends, I shall tell you what the Half Blood Prince was like.
Spoilers ahead, so I would look away if I didn't like spoilers. (I do like spoilers, anyway, so I won't look away.)
NOTE: This is not in chronological order. I can't remember the order. I just remember what happened.
1. Harry doesn't get collected by Dumbledore from Uncle Vernon's house, he gets collected by a train station. Already there's a hint (in the form of Harry asking a girl out) of the romance to come.
2. They go to Slughorn's village. Charming little place. Good effects, the way the place was demolished. Nice bit of blood here and there.
3. When they go the Burrow, Dumbledore doesn't draw Harry into a broomshed for a bit of a talk. He's simply not there anymore and Harry lands in a particularly watery swamp like thinggum (that will be important later).
4. They visit Fred and George's WWW. They follow Malfoy to Borgin and Burke, and they see the Vanishing Cabinet ALREADY (which kinda spoils everything). But they don't know what it's for.
5. Back to school, some random Quidditch stuff, they win their first match, Won-Won and Lav-Lav share their first kiss. Bleh. Harry finds his potions book, 'sectumsempra's Malfoy. But Snape doesn't come after him and the book.
6. From here on in there's a dreadful lot of kissing. Ginny and Harry share their one second kiss in the Room of Requirement while trying to hide the Half Blood Prince's book. Right next to the other vanishing cabinet.
7. My memory's a bit fuzzy but I'll try to remember. There's a bit of Dumbledore's memories, blah blah blah. Tom Riddle as a kid is really creepy. Harry drinks Felix and goes really crazy and gets Slughorn's memory. (Slughorn reminds me of a little kid who knows he's done wrong.)
8. An attack on Katie Bell! Touches the opal necklace. Plenty of screaming. Scream. Scream. Edvard Munch would have been proud.
9. An attack on Ron! Ron eats the lovey dovey potion and blah blah blah. Then he drinks the poisoned mead. Not a good day for Ron.
10. An attack on the Burrow! Bellatrix Lestrange and Fenrir Greyback run around in circles around Harry, Ginny, Lupin and Tonks. And then, suddenly, very strangely, they turn around and set the Burrow on fire. VOOM. Burrow gone.
11. Back to school. Lav-Lav's dumped Ron at this point, methinks. Anyway, Harry goes with Dumbledore to the Cave. Dumbledore dies. Yay! The Astronomy tower scene (aka Dumbledore death scene) is quite different from the book.
12. The end.

Yeah, my order's a bit confused, but that's basically the gist. I think they overdid the love part but that's just my opinion. Overall it was okay. I guess.

Anyway. Happy 40th Anniversary of the First Men on the Moon! Happy 65th anniversary of the Claus von Stauffenberg attempt to blow Hitler to hell! Happy birthday, dad!

~Today in History~
You've got to be kidding. I've just told you.

~Quote(s) of the Day~
"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
-The most famous thing ever said on the moon, spoken by Neil Armstrong. Then again, not a lot of things were said on the moon, were they?
"Contact light! OK; engine stop."
-The lesser known, first words on the moon, spoken by Buzz Aldrin. I personally find it's quite obvious why nobody wants to quote this.
"Long live our Glorious Germany!"
What Claus von Stauffenberg shouted before he was shot for his part in Hitler's assassination attempt. It could have been a Glorious Germany. Pity Hitler made sure it couldn't.

>>Forgotten by01:39

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Friday, July 17, 2009

POSTDAM
Two days ago, the Postdam Conference began.
It lasted from the 16th of July to the 2nd of August. The main participants were Josef Stalin, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill, but Churchill lost the General election of 1945 in late July and was replaced by Clement Attlee. (But Churchill was still better!)
Anyway. I shall bore you with the results of the Conference.
* Germany:

o Issuance of a statement of aims of the occupation of Germany by the Allies: demilitarization, denazification, democratization, decentralization and decartelization.
o Division of Germany and Austria respectively into four occupation zones (earlier agreed in principle at Yalta), and the similar division of each's capital, Berlin and Vienna, into four zones.
o Agreement on the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.
o Reversion of all German annexations in Europe, including Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine, Austria and the westernmost parts of Poland
o Germany's eastern border was to be shifted westwards to the Oder-Neisse line, effectively reducing Germany in size by approximately 25% compared to its 1937 borders. The territories east of the new border comprised East Prussia, Silesia, West Prussia, and two thirds of Pomerania. These areas were mainly agricultural, with the exception of Upper Silesia which was the second largest centre of German heavy industry.
o Expulsion of the German populations remaining beyond the new eastern borders of Germany.
o Agreement on war reparations to the Soviet Union from their zone of occupation in Germany. It was also agreed that 10% of the industrial capacity of the western zones unnecessary for the German peace economy should be transferred to the Soviet Union within 2 years. Stalin proposed and it was accepted that Poland was to be excluded from division of German compensation to be later granted 15% of compensation given to Soviet Union.
o Ensuring that German standards of living did not exceed the European average. The types and amounts of industry to dismantle to achieve this was to be determined later.
o Destruction of German industrial war-potential through the destruction or control of all industry with military potential. To this end, all civilian shipyards and aircraft factories were to be dismantled or otherwise destroyed. All production capacity associated with war-potential, such as metals, chemical, machinery etc were to be reduced to a minimum level which was later determined by the Allied Control Commission. Manufacturing capacity thus made "surplus" was to be dismantled as reparations or otherwise destroyed. All research and international trade was to be controlled. The economy was to be decentralized (decartelization). The economy was also to be reorganized with primary emphasis on agriculture and peaceful domestic industries. In early 1946 agreement was reached on the details of the latter: Germany was to be converted into an agricultural and light industry economy. German exports were to be coal, beer, toys, textiles, etc — to take the place of the heavy industrial products which formed most of Germany's pre-war exports.

* Poland:

o A Provisional Government of National Unity recognized by all three powers should be created (known as the Lublin Poles). Recognition of the Soviet controlled government by the Western Powers effectively meant end of recognition for the existing Polish government in Exile (known as the London Poles).
o Poles who were serving in the British Army should be free to return to Poland, with no security upon their return to the communist country guaranteed.
o The provisional western border should be the Oder-Neisse line, defined by the Oder and Neisse rivers. Parts of East Prussia and the former Free City of Danzig should be under Polish administration. However the final delimitation of the western frontier of Poland should await the peace settlement (which would take place at the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in 1990)
o The Soviet Union declared it will settle the reparation claims of Poland from its own share of reparations.

Bored yet?
We're going to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at 1600hrs. To prepare for it I began reading the book this morning and finished it the same morning. Impressive, eh? I was supposed to be studying ting xie then. Whoops.
Our cousins from Beijing have come back and they're due to leave on Monday. We're watching the movie with one of my cousins. Monday is the day Col. von Stauffenberg tried to blow Hitler up and failed (in 1944), when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon (in 1969) and when a guy called Eng Wee Hua was born in 1955.
I love my family's birthdays.

~Today in History~
1925: Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf (My Struggle).

~Quote of the Day~
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
-FDR (won't tell you what the initials stand for because if you know me you ought to know what they stand for). Of course, he doesn't mean that you should tie a knot around your neck.

>>Forgotten by22:59

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Monday, July 13, 2009

Happy Belated Operation Husky Day!
I haven't come online for a long time, I realise.
I also realise that this is my 200th post. Aren't you guys proud of me? Let's give a whoop and a cheer! Clap clap clap. Now that celebrations are over, let's get on with it.
The 10th of July 1944 was D-Day for the Invasion of Sicily. It was something like a miniature D-Day, really - before the invasion, the body of a man dressed as a Major - identity Major Martin - was found floating off the coast of Spain and the Spanish took it to the Germans. Inside the briefcase was plans for the invasion of Greece. And so the Germans went and rushed all their troops there.
But Major Martin was actually a thirty four year old man who had died of chemically induced pneumonia, a civilian who never was in the Army. The whole thing was a fake, under the name of Operation Mincemeat, to make sure the German defences were not where they were supposed to be. Rather like Operation Fortitude, don't you think?
The man's name has remained a mystery to this day - he's known as "the man who never was".
First came the Airborne landings - the 505th PIR, 82nd Airborne making their first combat jump. There were winds of up to 72km/h and they blew the planes all over the place, so much so that Jumpin' Jim Gavin, commander of the 505th, thought he'd landed on mainland Italy instead. The next day the 504th PIR plus the seaborne armada came in - and the 504th lost more men to friendly fire - their own ships shooting at them - than to the Germans. Idiots.
Rather like D-Day, don't you think? Anyway. Today Science was bloody hilarious. We were starting on reflection, and our science teacher tried to cross-breed X-Men with Star Trek - a picture of Cyclops and a caption "beam me up, Scotty". Barack Obama was going on and on about how this was a sin and a culture shock. And then there was the killing of Medusa, and the defeat of Cyclops - Cyclops zaps this beam at this (in Cap'n Obvious's words) "guy in a nun costume" and the "guy in a nun costume" holds up this oval labeled "mirror". The beam bounces off and kills Cyclops. And the "guy in a nun costume" goes, "Ha ha ha! The day is saved, thanks to the mirror!" If that's not corny I don't know what is.
Guess who the 'guy in a nun costume' was?
Our Science Teacher.
I think we didn't stop laughing for two minutes.
And I've mastered pretty much everybody on the list. Obama, Joe Biden, Bill and Hillary, George W. and H.W. Bush, Al Gore, Dick Cheney. I daren't tell you what exactly I've mastered because the Feds could come and arrest me. And God knows we don't want that to happen.

~Today in History~
1941: Montenegrins start popular uprising against the Axis Powers.

~Quote of the Day~
Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.
-Winston Churchill. Of course, when you do get shot, that's a different story.

>>Forgotten by02:55

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Monday, July 6, 2009

A little orange note and a wedding
Well, I don't want to talk much about the orange note. Let's just say that Clarissa thought that she needed to spice the lesson up a bit and wrote me a rather amusing note, signed as somebody else. Firstly, she signed it in an alias that only four people know. Secondly, out of that four people, her writing (Found from the class mobile phone contact list thinggum) was most similar to that of the note. Thirdly, Ros was pointing at her mouthing "She did it". Extremely subtle. It was a miracle I understood the message.

On Saturday I attended the wedding of my ex-neighbour and math tuition teacher, dressed in the exact same thing as the last wedding I went to - a shirt, a tie, and pants. The food was...well, I was never a fan of wedding food unless they include fish and chips or, you know, things I would like to eat. The only thing I enjoyed was the pan-fried cod.

On Sunday Le Yan came over and we spent a nerve-wracking three hours doing the front and back page of the history book. GEESH (my new favourite expression, a combination of "geez" and "sheesh"). We complained quite a bit, I can tell you that. Unfortunately what I can't tell you was what we complained about, or what we actually said.

Have to go now. My parents are dying to get us to exercise. And I haven't even read the papers today.

~Today in History~
1942: Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the "Secret Annexe" above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.

~Quote of the Day~
What hurts me the most, personally, is that I still promoted him to field marshal. I wanted to give him this final satisfaction ... a man like that besmirches the heroism of so many others at the last moment. He could have freed himself from all sorrow and ascended into eternity and national immortality, but he prefers to go to Moscow.
-Adolf Hitler. Private joke, really.

>>Forgotten by02:31