One of the best defenses of YouTube's continued existence is this channel: Memoirs of WWII. The channel is run by a guy who finds and interviews WWII veterans, asking for their stories and filling in the backstory with research.
For all of you who are stuck in quarantine, now is a great time to check out this channel.
Here is one example of a great video:
94 yr old WWII Veteran Shares His Story
Here is an interview with one of the Tuskegee Airmen:
Memories of a Tuskegee Pilot
And then, here's one of my favorites:
WW2 Veteran Leads a Platoon In Africa and Across Europe
So if you need something to do, check out these videos.
If you are one of my readers with a credit card or a PayPal, you might consider making a donation to the channel on Patreon to help them reach as many WWII veterans as possible to collect their stories.
Monday, April 20, 2020
Friday, April 10, 2020
The Coronavirus Has NOT Killed More Americans Than Six Wars Combined
Let me start this off by saying that, in this post, I'm not making any comment on the goodness or badness of quarantining. At least, not in this post. No, this is related more to the once-glorious profession of Edward R. Murrow: journalism.
I saw a headline from USA Today on Facebook a few days ago:
If you're like me, you read that headline and immediately thought, Which wars, exactly? Nearly 3,000 people died in 9/11. More than 2,000 Americans died at Pearl Harbor in ninety minutes. More than 2,000 American soldiers died at Omaha Beach--one of only five beaches in the D-Day landings--in one single day. That's only two wars and already 7,000 Americans. Exactly which wars are you talking about?
Even if you didn't think that, if 10,000 Americans died over six wars, that would mean an average of 1,667 Americans per war. If we have that many wars with fewer than 2,000 deaths in the entire war, how lucky are we! (And how realistic is that?)
This headline reads to me like scare-mongering. When you think of a war, you probably think immediately of WWI, WWII, and other high-fatality wars. War is bad--mass destruction, lots of death, horror, and many other images. You are clearly meant to think that when you read this headline. It's meant to be sensationalist.
But it's nonsense.
The Washington Examiner did a solid job skewering the logic of this article, but they didn't actually check the data. So I'm going to deal with the data today.
The source they use is from the VA (Veterans Affairs), which, for some reason, didn't include the Philippine-American War. I will use the same source for this post, but there are other sources that have different numbers for war fatalities. Furthermore, the VA only counts the deaths of actual servicemen and servicewomen, but anyone who has ever read about wars knows that civilians are killed in wars, too. If USA Today's point is that war is less deadly than a disease, they're skewering the data to prove their point.
Now, on to these wars: the six wars they mention are the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, the Indian Wars, and Operation Desert Storm.
Here are the fatalities of those six wars (of American soldiers only):
American Revolution: 4,435
The War of 1812: 2,260
The Mexican-American War: 13,283
The Indian Wars (1817-1898) 1,000
The Spanish-American War: 2,446
Desert Storm: 383
First off, according to the VA data, those are the six least costly wars in US history, in terms of loss of soldiers' lives. So a more honest heading would be, "Coronavirus more deadly than the four least costly wars in American history." The Washington Examiner touched on it, but I'm going to expand on this point: America has had a few comparatively low-cost wars in our history. After the Mexican-American War, the costliest war on that list, our next least-costly war was the Korean War, which had more than 36,000 deaths. That is a gap of 23,000 deaths in between our sixth and our seventh least costly wars (according to VA data, which is missing data on two wars less costly than the M-A War; so the actual distinction is between our eight and ninth least costly wars).
The Indian Wars accumulated only about 1,000 deaths over eighty-one years; the Spanish-American war had the Battle of Manila, in which only one American sailor died--from heatstroke, not from battle; and Desert Storm has such astonishingly low US combat deaths that I can't help but imagine it might actually be the lowest-casualty war in history (feel free to prove me wrong, though).
Secondly, many of you read my honest heading and said, "Wait a minute, it's six least costly wars, not four." Others of you probably read the list of casualties and thought, "Hang on--the Mexican-American war alone had more deaths than the coronavirus heading. Something's wrong."
Here's the problem:
"The data does not include other deaths related to the wars".
In other words, they're only counting the deaths of people who died in the middle of a battle, or of wounds sustained in battle. However, there are many other ways for soldiers to die in war than fighting in battle.
The Mexican-American War is the best example of this: of those 13,283 deaths, only 1,733 deaths were in battle. The extra 11,550 deaths were all due to other circumstances related to the war. The Spanish-American War numbers were also conflated: there were 2,061 non-battle deaths and only 385 battle deaths. They even did the same thing to Desert Storm: it was only 148 battle deaths. Add up all the numbers of only battle deaths, and you will definitely get a number lower than 10,000, but you'll be cutting the number of war fatalities, and the severity of war, in half.
But wait--there's more!
What did cause those 11,550 deaths in the Mexican-American War? And those 2,061 deaths in the Spanish-American War?
Diseases.
In the Mexican-American War, the diseases in question were measles and dysentery. William Osler, a doctor in the late 19th century, described dysentery as "more fatal than powder and shot", and approximately 1/8 of the US military in the Mexican-American War died from dysentery.
For the Spanish-American War, in addition to dysentery, there was also malaria and yellow fever. I remember in fifth or sixth grade reading one of those reading-comprehension stories about how one military doctor, Walter Reed, ran a test on volunteer soldiers, who were in Cuba because of the Spanish-American War, to see if yellow fever was spread by mosquitoes, and he proved conclusively that mosquitoes did spread yellow fever (and the comprehension questions were along the lines of, "Was it ethical for him to test on humans, even when they volunteered?").
The VA doesn't break up the numbers for the American Revolution, but the Revolution also had a major disease: smallpox. At one point, George Washington was concerned that smallpox would be a greater threat "than... the Sword of the Enemy".
The concern that diseases are deadlier than enemy fire doesn't just extend to our low-casualty-by-combat wars, either. In the Civil War, the Union (according to the VA) lost 140,414 soldiers in war and 224,097 soldiers to non-battle causes (the Confederates did have more combat fatalities than non-combat fatalities). I'm not sure how many of those non-combat deaths are related to the treatment of combat-sustained wounds (Civil War doctors were notorious for treating wounds by amputation), but the National Library of Medicine says that roughly 2/3 of the deaths in the Civil War, presumably on both sides, were caused by infectious diseases. That means only 1/3 was caused by deaths in combat. (The VA numbers don't support that as a possibility, but I suspect the two different sources are differing over whether someone died after battle, but as a result of a wound sustained in battle, counts as a combat death or not. It is also possible that some soldiers had both battle wounds and diseases, and the dispute arises over whether these deaths are due to the battle wound or to their disease.)
This is all to say that if USA Today's point was that diseases are more deadly than combat, they aren't necessarily wrong. Diseases are often one of the deadliest killers in war (or they used to be--much of what we know about public sanitation and clean food comes from the lessons learned from those wars, which leads me to suspect that the non-combat deaths in WWII had more to do with Japanese POW camps than diseases). But why not just say that? Why not just say, "We should be careful about the Coronavirus because new diseases have historically been deadlier than war"?
To paraphrase one of my friends, "Why would you compare deaths from a disease to deaths from war except by disease?"
One possibility is that the writer of the USA Today piece didn't know about these diseases. However, I don't think that's the case. The article openly said, "The data does not include other deaths related to the wars" (second screenshot). He deliberately left out data to make his headline work. He openly said so. Why? Perhaps because six wars sounds scarier than four wars.
To be fair to USA Today, they did update their headline to be accurate (but still pointless):
But another one of their headlines (different article, different writer) did not get the same update:
That one's actually worse than the original headline.
Then--as if that's not enough--this headline has been spreading!
The Collins dictionary defines scaremongering as "deliberately spreading worrying stories to try and frighten people". This headline surely seems to fit that definition, presumably to get more clicks (hence my screenshots and not links). If nothing else, it's certainly ridiculous sensationalism. And it is spreading.
No, the Coronavirus has not been deadlier than six wars. It has been deadlier than four wars, and those four wars are unusually low-death wars. A typical war is still deadlier than this Coronavirus, by far.
Do not panic.
And whenever you read headlines like this, be skeptical until you know where the numbers come from.
I saw a headline from USA Today on Facebook a few days ago:
If you're like me, you read that headline and immediately thought, Which wars, exactly? Nearly 3,000 people died in 9/11. More than 2,000 Americans died at Pearl Harbor in ninety minutes. More than 2,000 American soldiers died at Omaha Beach--one of only five beaches in the D-Day landings--in one single day. That's only two wars and already 7,000 Americans. Exactly which wars are you talking about?
Even if you didn't think that, if 10,000 Americans died over six wars, that would mean an average of 1,667 Americans per war. If we have that many wars with fewer than 2,000 deaths in the entire war, how lucky are we! (And how realistic is that?)
This headline reads to me like scare-mongering. When you think of a war, you probably think immediately of WWI, WWII, and other high-fatality wars. War is bad--mass destruction, lots of death, horror, and many other images. You are clearly meant to think that when you read this headline. It's meant to be sensationalist.
But it's nonsense.
The Washington Examiner did a solid job skewering the logic of this article, but they didn't actually check the data. So I'm going to deal with the data today.
The source they use is from the VA (Veterans Affairs), which, for some reason, didn't include the Philippine-American War. I will use the same source for this post, but there are other sources that have different numbers for war fatalities. Furthermore, the VA only counts the deaths of actual servicemen and servicewomen, but anyone who has ever read about wars knows that civilians are killed in wars, too. If USA Today's point is that war is less deadly than a disease, they're skewering the data to prove their point.
Now, on to these wars: the six wars they mention are the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, the Indian Wars, and Operation Desert Storm.
Here are the fatalities of those six wars (of American soldiers only):
American Revolution: 4,435
The War of 1812: 2,260
The Mexican-American War: 13,283
The Indian Wars (1817-1898) 1,000
The Spanish-American War: 2,446
Desert Storm: 383
First off, according to the VA data, those are the six least costly wars in US history, in terms of loss of soldiers' lives. So a more honest heading would be, "Coronavirus more deadly than the four least costly wars in American history." The Washington Examiner touched on it, but I'm going to expand on this point: America has had a few comparatively low-cost wars in our history. After the Mexican-American War, the costliest war on that list, our next least-costly war was the Korean War, which had more than 36,000 deaths. That is a gap of 23,000 deaths in between our sixth and our seventh least costly wars (according to VA data, which is missing data on two wars less costly than the M-A War; so the actual distinction is between our eight and ninth least costly wars).
The Indian Wars accumulated only about 1,000 deaths over eighty-one years; the Spanish-American war had the Battle of Manila, in which only one American sailor died--from heatstroke, not from battle; and Desert Storm has such astonishingly low US combat deaths that I can't help but imagine it might actually be the lowest-casualty war in history (feel free to prove me wrong, though).
Secondly, many of you read my honest heading and said, "Wait a minute, it's six least costly wars, not four." Others of you probably read the list of casualties and thought, "Hang on--the Mexican-American war alone had more deaths than the coronavirus heading. Something's wrong."
Here's the problem:
"The data does not include other deaths related to the wars".
In other words, they're only counting the deaths of people who died in the middle of a battle, or of wounds sustained in battle. However, there are many other ways for soldiers to die in war than fighting in battle.
The Mexican-American War is the best example of this: of those 13,283 deaths, only 1,733 deaths were in battle. The extra 11,550 deaths were all due to other circumstances related to the war. The Spanish-American War numbers were also conflated: there were 2,061 non-battle deaths and only 385 battle deaths. They even did the same thing to Desert Storm: it was only 148 battle deaths. Add up all the numbers of only battle deaths, and you will definitely get a number lower than 10,000, but you'll be cutting the number of war fatalities, and the severity of war, in half.
But wait--there's more!
What did cause those 11,550 deaths in the Mexican-American War? And those 2,061 deaths in the Spanish-American War?
Diseases.
In the Mexican-American War, the diseases in question were measles and dysentery. William Osler, a doctor in the late 19th century, described dysentery as "more fatal than powder and shot", and approximately 1/8 of the US military in the Mexican-American War died from dysentery.
For the Spanish-American War, in addition to dysentery, there was also malaria and yellow fever. I remember in fifth or sixth grade reading one of those reading-comprehension stories about how one military doctor, Walter Reed, ran a test on volunteer soldiers, who were in Cuba because of the Spanish-American War, to see if yellow fever was spread by mosquitoes, and he proved conclusively that mosquitoes did spread yellow fever (and the comprehension questions were along the lines of, "Was it ethical for him to test on humans, even when they volunteered?").
The VA doesn't break up the numbers for the American Revolution, but the Revolution also had a major disease: smallpox. At one point, George Washington was concerned that smallpox would be a greater threat "than... the Sword of the Enemy".
The concern that diseases are deadlier than enemy fire doesn't just extend to our low-casualty-by-combat wars, either. In the Civil War, the Union (according to the VA) lost 140,414 soldiers in war and 224,097 soldiers to non-battle causes (the Confederates did have more combat fatalities than non-combat fatalities). I'm not sure how many of those non-combat deaths are related to the treatment of combat-sustained wounds (Civil War doctors were notorious for treating wounds by amputation), but the National Library of Medicine says that roughly 2/3 of the deaths in the Civil War, presumably on both sides, were caused by infectious diseases. That means only 1/3 was caused by deaths in combat. (The VA numbers don't support that as a possibility, but I suspect the two different sources are differing over whether someone died after battle, but as a result of a wound sustained in battle, counts as a combat death or not. It is also possible that some soldiers had both battle wounds and diseases, and the dispute arises over whether these deaths are due to the battle wound or to their disease.)
This is all to say that if USA Today's point was that diseases are more deadly than combat, they aren't necessarily wrong. Diseases are often one of the deadliest killers in war (or they used to be--much of what we know about public sanitation and clean food comes from the lessons learned from those wars, which leads me to suspect that the non-combat deaths in WWII had more to do with Japanese POW camps than diseases). But why not just say that? Why not just say, "We should be careful about the Coronavirus because new diseases have historically been deadlier than war"?
To paraphrase one of my friends, "Why would you compare deaths from a disease to deaths from war except by disease?"
One possibility is that the writer of the USA Today piece didn't know about these diseases. However, I don't think that's the case. The article openly said, "The data does not include other deaths related to the wars" (second screenshot). He deliberately left out data to make his headline work. He openly said so. Why? Perhaps because six wars sounds scarier than four wars.
To be fair to USA Today, they did update their headline to be accurate (but still pointless):
Then--as if that's not enough--this headline has been spreading!
The Collins dictionary defines scaremongering as "deliberately spreading worrying stories to try and frighten people". This headline surely seems to fit that definition, presumably to get more clicks (hence my screenshots and not links). If nothing else, it's certainly ridiculous sensationalism. And it is spreading.
No, the Coronavirus has not been deadlier than six wars. It has been deadlier than four wars, and those four wars are unusually low-death wars. A typical war is still deadlier than this Coronavirus, by far.
Do not panic.
And whenever you read headlines like this, be skeptical until you know where the numbers come from.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
The Spring of 2020
You would think that with all this lockdown happening, I would have extra time to blog and write, yes? No. Online school work takes a lot more prep time than in-person prep time. I've been online schooling since February, and while I do enjoy it somewhat (especially the part where I get to "teach" in my springbok jersey and my author's sweatshirt), it was a serious adjustment.
Oh well!
I have been writing as much as I can. Book 4 is well underway, although, to be honest, I'm not particularly happy with it. I think it's going to go through some major revisions this summer and fall.
Oh, and what about that series I was planning last spring? The one with the most views on my entire blog? The #WhatMakesaGoodStory series?
Okay, there is a story there.
The first one I decided to try to tackle is, "What makes a good 'strong, independent female character?'"
Yeah. I should've started smaller. I spent like six weeks researching that one, and came up with so much that it ended up being nothing at all.
Then I tried for, "What makes a good 'sympathetic villain?'" Same problem.
I don't know. I need to think about it a bit more.
Anyway, to wrap up, here are some pictures from basically January-last week. I'll try to remember what day they were on.
The next pictures were all taken during the Chinese New Year holidays. These holidays are basically the Chinese version of Christmas; they get two weeks off and everybody goes home to see family--or, if your family is in a city like Shenyang, get your family together and go somewhere warm. The rest of the pictures are all in date order, oldest to most recent.
Oh well!
I have been writing as much as I can. Book 4 is well underway, although, to be honest, I'm not particularly happy with it. I think it's going to go through some major revisions this summer and fall.
Oh, and what about that series I was planning last spring? The one with the most views on my entire blog? The #WhatMakesaGoodStory series?
Okay, there is a story there.
The first one I decided to try to tackle is, "What makes a good 'strong, independent female character?'"
Yeah. I should've started smaller. I spent like six weeks researching that one, and came up with so much that it ended up being nothing at all.
Then I tried for, "What makes a good 'sympathetic villain?'" Same problem.
I don't know. I need to think about it a bit more.
Anyway, to wrap up, here are some pictures from basically January-last week. I'll try to remember what day they were on.
 |
| I wore this on the last day of work before Chinese New Year break. |
The next pictures were all taken during the Chinese New Year holidays. These holidays are basically the Chinese version of Christmas; they get two weeks off and everybody goes home to see family--or, if your family is in a city like Shenyang, get your family together and go somewhere warm. The rest of the pictures are all in date order, oldest to most recent.
 |
| I absolutely loved looking at the windows of all the apartments during Chinese New Year. |
 |
| This actually wasn't pollution, for once. |
 |
| The snow's all gone! |
 |
| And the snow's back! |
 |
| This was taken February 29. As you can see, the businesses are reopening. |
 |
| This is late at night, and I took this picture on the first day I noticed that we were allowed to dine-in at restaurants again! |
 |
| Sitting in my favorite restaurant! |
 |
| I spied this guy building a nest. :) |
Anyway--stay safe, everyone. Be careful around the people who are especially vulnerable. Also be careful around the "journalists" who prey on your concerns.
Friday, September 13, 2019
The Typhoons
Funny story. When I first went back to Seattle for the summer, I was a little salty about Shenyang because when I left, the weather had been so extreme, alternating between thunderstorms (which I didn't mind in the slightest) and sandstorms. Having said all that, I was fully expecting to get back to a boiling hot but calm Shenyang in August.
Oh wow, was I wrong.
Two giant typhoons, Lekima and Krosa, were cruising north up the coast of Asia in early August. We didn't get slammed by the wind (probably the only time I will ever say that about Shenyang), but wow, oh, wow did we get the rain. Essentially, we got all the moisture that got kicked out of the storm by the winds.
The rain from Lekima first hit on Saturday, August 10. I remember this very well, because I was on my way to visit Maggie, my friend who owns the tea shop. When I got into the DiDi (Chinese Uber), the sky was ominously dark but the roads were completely dry. About ten minutes in, a wall of rain hit. In the space of half an hour, it went from bone dry to water up to my knees. Fortunately, that cleared up quickly enough and let me get home, but it still took half an hour to get a DiDi home.
We had threatening, rainy weather for that week (so bad that they pushed the start of school back another day), but that was probably the worst of Lekima.
Krosa was worse.
On Friday, August 16, I was planning to go to French Corner, a place where we could practice speaking French, after the first day of school. First, I went back home to change out of my work shoes and get dinner. I went to my favorite Chinese place in my apartment complex, and right when I was about to get the bill, the rain hit again.
Same story - less than one hour, the rain went up to my knees.
 |
| This happened in about half an hour. |
This, however, was considerably worse because the rain did not stop. It being a Friday night, and Shenyang being a city that loves to have fun, everyone and their cousin was out doing something. Then the rain came, and the streets absolutely flooded. Half of the teachers were still at school, meeting with friends, or out getting pampered, and they were stuck. People sat in cars for something like five hours just trying to get home. I was probably the luckiest of the ones that went out.
That video is only my video, but it was far from the craziest one I've seen. The worst one was a video of water - rain water - washing over the hoods of cars. (But that was taken by my friend, and it's not really a good idea to share videos that aren't yours.)
You know the funniest part of all of this? I've lived in Seattle my whole life, except for college and China. Seattle is famous for raining all the time. And yet, I have never seen a flood before. (I was even caught in a typhoon before, but never a flood!)
Well, now I have.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Beautiful Shenyang Skies
When I left Shenyang, I was (more than) a little salty about the city because when I left, the weather was alternating between heavy thunderstorms and mini sandstorms. I did a lot of sweeping sand out of my windowsills (and I'm on the 33rd floor!).
But then I got back here, and after the two typhoons passed (oh yes), I had a chance to enjoy the beautiful Shenyang sky.
Shenyang, like Montana, doesn't have many trees but does have gorgeous views of the sunset and the wide open sky. Here are just a few of the pictures I've collected:
Overall, I enjoy living in Shenyang.
But then I got back here, and after the two typhoons passed (oh yes), I had a chance to enjoy the beautiful Shenyang sky.
Shenyang, like Montana, doesn't have many trees but does have gorgeous views of the sunset and the wide open sky. Here are just a few of the pictures I've collected:
 |
| This was in June, at approximately 4:30 in the morning. I woke up thinking it was 4:30 in the afternoon. |
 |
| Lovely thundercloud skies |
 |
| I love how there's sunlight on the ground but clouds in the air. |
 |
| This is from my apartment complex. |
 |
| Also from my apartment complex. |
 |
| From out and about - different night than the other one. |
Overall, I enjoy living in Shenyang.
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Awesome Things I've Seen Written Around Here
How have I only made one post about living in China before? It's not as though there isn't much to talk about...
Have you ever seen those memes about someone getting a Chinese tattoo on their arm, thinking it said something deeply profound, and someone else saying it means something like, "Chicken dinner"? I've seen enough of those to be scared of getting tattoos at all.
The thing is that Chinese people do the same thing with English words. Apparently, as long as the lettering is Roman lettering, it's cool. Here are some of my favorites.
First, I've seen one lady wearing a t-shirt that says: "SICK: New York". (Accurate.)
I've seen this bumper sticker around quite a few times:
Last weekend I saw a t-shirt that had the word "Fnvention." I assume that F was supposed to be an I.
Then, when I went fabric shopping, I saw this printed on some fabric:
This is definitely one of those things that people all over the world do - they see something in a foreign language, think it's cool, and show it off, when in reality is just commonplace writing. Oh,good times.
It makes me smile to see that people are essentially the same in America and China.
Have you ever seen those memes about someone getting a Chinese tattoo on their arm, thinking it said something deeply profound, and someone else saying it means something like, "Chicken dinner"? I've seen enough of those to be scared of getting tattoos at all.
The thing is that Chinese people do the same thing with English words. Apparently, as long as the lettering is Roman lettering, it's cool. Here are some of my favorites.
First, I've seen one lady wearing a t-shirt that says: "SICK: New York". (Accurate.)
I've seen this bumper sticker around quite a few times:
Then, when I went fabric shopping, I saw this printed on some fabric:
That's not very epic.
This is definitely one of those things that people all over the world do - they see something in a foreign language, think it's cool, and show it off, when in reality is just commonplace writing. Oh,good times.
It makes me smile to see that people are essentially the same in America and China.
Friday, August 23, 2019
My Summer Update!
I meant to get all kinds of posting done over the summer, but I have a very valid excuse for why that didn't happen.
Apparently, after you get LASIK, it really hurts to look at digital screens.
That's right, I got LASIK! I now have better that 20/20 vision, and the colors, oh the colors! I can turn around behind me and see Shenyang out the window, and there are colors I had no idea were in this city. Neither Shenyang (nor Seattle nor anywhere else, for that matter) quite compete with the mountains, however. Just the day after my LASIK surgery, my family all went up to a town called Leavenworth, which is basically a German tourist town in the Cascade Mountains. Being able to see all of that without my glasses... wow.
LASIK really is better than glasses. I've had glasses since I was 12-ish (don't remember the exact year...) but something about the last pair I had just dimmed the colors. I didn't even notice I was missing out on the colors until this summer. What a ride!
Anyway, other summer things included a lot of professional development online (working toward being that star teacher, after all) and brushing up on some aspects of history I forgot after not revisiting it much in the last three years.
I also was introduced to a symphonic metal band called Sabaton. They're a Swedish band that makes songs about historical battles in Europe. Most of them are modern history, so not really my cup of tea (and metallic music even less so), but I still have a lot of fun listening to them. Check them out!
My favorite of their songs, about the Battle of Itter Castle:
That's my favorite of their songs, but here's another video that gives me chills:
The reaction from the crowd is the part that sends chills up my arms.
And, because I'm sure my mom will be reading this, I've duly included her favorite:
Apparently, after you get LASIK, it really hurts to look at digital screens.
That's right, I got LASIK! I now have better that 20/20 vision, and the colors, oh the colors! I can turn around behind me and see Shenyang out the window, and there are colors I had no idea were in this city. Neither Shenyang (nor Seattle nor anywhere else, for that matter) quite compete with the mountains, however. Just the day after my LASIK surgery, my family all went up to a town called Leavenworth, which is basically a German tourist town in the Cascade Mountains. Being able to see all of that without my glasses... wow.
LASIK really is better than glasses. I've had glasses since I was 12-ish (don't remember the exact year...) but something about the last pair I had just dimmed the colors. I didn't even notice I was missing out on the colors until this summer. What a ride!
Anyway, other summer things included a lot of professional development online (working toward being that star teacher, after all) and brushing up on some aspects of history I forgot after not revisiting it much in the last three years.
I also was introduced to a symphonic metal band called Sabaton. They're a Swedish band that makes songs about historical battles in Europe. Most of them are modern history, so not really my cup of tea (and metallic music even less so), but I still have a lot of fun listening to them. Check them out!
My favorite of their songs, about the Battle of Itter Castle:
That's my favorite of their songs, but here's another video that gives me chills:
The reaction from the crowd is the part that sends chills up my arms.
And, because I'm sure my mom will be reading this, I've duly included her favorite:
So besides the new music, the family reunion, the surgery, and the PD, I also did a two other major things. First, I went to visit Wisconsin, and got to see a collection of college friends and professors. That was so nice! I've never been to Wisconsin in the summer, and it wasn't as terribly hot as I was expecting. While there, I went to a writing corner, visited a gaming pub (which I am definitely revisiting if I end up in Milwaukee again), and also met with another author by the name of Emma Selene Monroe - and in the future, make sure you check out for stories that we collaborated on!
The last major event of the summer was something that I wrote off as professional development, but it was also lots of fun. If you're in Washington (state), you've probably at least heard of Camlann Medieval Village, a living history museum out in Carnation. I've been there at least once every year, mostly to enjoy the magician, but sometimes to go to their feasts. It just so happened that my last weekend in Washington was their Saint James' feast, and as it turned out, they were short on volunteers. So I volunteered to help out for two days!
(You can probably tell my eyes are still bloodshot from the LASIK surgery, but they didn't hurt anymore.)
That was a very exciting experience, because I "knew" a lot of the people I got to work with. But this time I saw the effort that goes into preparing for a medieval feast firsthand. I'm debating having a day of this with my students in my Ancient World History class...
Anyway, that was my summer (or more accurately, my month of July).
Oh, and by the way, of course I got a lot of writing done!
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