Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Battle of the Aleutian Islands, June 1942 - August 1943
For North America, the Pacific War started when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Then they captured Wake Island. Then they attacked Midway and later lost a naval battle there. Right around that same time, they invaded and occupied parts of Alaska.

Oh, you didn't know that Japan controlled United States territory in World War II? Yeah, that bit tends to get overshadowed by the other bigger battles around that time . . . . .

Some people called it a diversionary attack to take attention away from the Battle of Midway, though others disagree. In any case, the fact stands that on June 3rd, 1942, the Japanese military bombed Dutch Harbor, though bad weather meant only about half the bombs hit their targets. Three days later they landed ground troops on the Aleutian Island of Kiska, and the next day on Attu. There was minimal resistance being that the only defenders of these tiny, tiny islands were the resident Aleuts who could were unable to evacuate to the mainland - 42 Aleuts were captured as prisoners and sent to Japan, where 16 later died.

Again, let me stress some points. These are two of the Aleutian Islands furthest away from continental Alaska; they are tiny specs in the Bering Sea; they are in the middle of nowhere. Save for blocking a possible pathway for America to approach Japan, the islands realistically serve very little strategic value.

But you know what? They were still United States territories, and no one had attacked those since 1812 . . . even if the Japanese never built an airbase or started launching heavy bombers from those islands, there was still a very real pride base to eject the 8500 Japanese soldiers occupying those two islands . . .

In August of that year, The United States built an airbase on Adak Island (another Aleutian Island halfway between Kiska and the continent) and began bombing the heck out of Kiska for pretty much the rest of the year.

In March of 1943, the US navy managed to cut down supplies to the Japanese positions, who from that point on could only rely on submarines for resupply.

On May 11th, the US started its plan to recapture Attu (the island further out), which they believed to be more lightly defended that Kiska (perhaps about 500 defenders, though it later turned out to be more like 3000 or more). So with 11,000 men from the US 7th Division, they stormed the beaches of Attu. And they didn't have enough landing craft to land everyone at once. And the beaches were not kind to those landing. And equipment didn't work in the harsh climate. And there was not nearly enough winter gear to pass around to all the soldiers (they figured they'd have the island recaptured in three days or so, so even without enough winter coats it'd be okay). Oh yeah, and the Japanese held the high ground in prepared positions . . . . .

For 18 days, the US army fought a vicious, violent uphill battle against both the opposing army and the elements. Frostbite and disease claimed more American lives than the actual fighting, and equipment had to be dragged by hand since vehicles refused to work in the harsh tundra. Nevertheless, The 7th pushed on and began taking back the island . . .

. . . in the middle of the night, on the 28th, the Japanese launched one of the largest Banzai charges of the war - for those of you who don't know, a banzai charge is essentially a suicide charge. A thousand or more screaming soldiers, led by the commanding officer himself, charging through the night to bayonet-point took the American positions completely by surprise, leading to a long, bloody, and extremely costly melee until the Japanese were almost dead to the last man.

On Attu alone, from a strength of about 11,000 men, the US forces suffered 529 men killed in action, 1148 more wounded, 1200 had frostbite, 614 died of disease, and 318 more died to booby traps or friendly fire. In contrast, there were 2,351 confirmed Japanese dead after the fighting was over.

The plan to retake Kiska was give more gravity; if that's what Attu cost, what could Kiska cost? 34,000 odd troops including 5,300 Canadians stormed Kiska on August 7th after a week of air strikes on the Japanese positions . . . . . and they learned that the Japanese had all evacuated over a week prior - they decided it was time to give up their pointless position. Oh, despite there being no Japanese on the island, the Allies still suffered 313 assorted casualties, again from booby traps, friendly fire, or the elements.


So here we have a clear victory over the Axis. It took over a year, took over ten times the manpower of the opposing force (144,000 Allied men versus 8,500 Japanese), and still wreaked some pretty brutal casualty numbers. But then of course no one remembers it because it happened the same time that the US Marines were fighting at Guadalcanal.

The Japanese invaded and captured parts of North America and held it - they held it very well, in fact. And we had to pay very dearly to get those two little islands back. I think that's somewhat noteworthy . . . how about you?


(US soldiers hauling equipment by hand through the snow at Attu)
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Tuesday, November 7, 2006

The Battle of Messines, 1917
(An addendum to my Battle of Gallipoli post and following questions:)

I learn about these battles from all over. In class, on tv, in movies, in books . . . sometimes they just come up as sidenotes to other things I'm looking up at one point or another . . . then for these, I do some quick internet research, try to summarise, and then put it out in this way.

It's hard to say that the casualties were for nothing, or that neither side gained anything. While the loss of life was incredible and ultimately no final exchange of land occured, there's a lot that did happen. After the Anglo-French forces retreated from Gallipoli, the Turkish army - who weren't "really" considered a dangerous force in the scheme of things by people like the Russians - were now an undisputed fighting force. Further, this battle gave way for Mustafa Kemal, the Turkish commander at Gallipoli, to gain some real power and in 1934 he became president of the Turkish Republic.

As for the British, their reputation had been smashed up. A lot of officers were punished or resigned (including one younger Winston Churchill). WW1 was the beginning of the end for a lot of Empires, and the British one was no exception; Gallipoli was just another nail in the coffin.

That said . . . who knows how long it would have been before Australia and New Zealand became their own independant countries had this moment not occured? I'm sure it probably would have happened eventually anyway, but y'know, this moment really did solidify their resolve as their own nations - at least in the minds of people who think in these sorts of terms.

--------------------------------------------------


As I've mentioned in my other posts about WWI, oftentimes battles came down to poor execution of poor plans. Massive loss of life for all sides, very little or no gain, and a real sense to the futility of it all. Now, the battle I'm about to tell you is a slightly different kind of beast. This had extensive planning, swift execution, and relatively less loss of life for the attackers. Does this make it a better battle than the others? That depends on how you consider these things.

The Battle of Messines in Belgium, a precursor of sorts to the much larger and more vast Battle of Passchendaele, more or less began when German forces captured Messines Ridge in the First Battle of Ypres, a high strategic point near the village of the same name. This ridge was easy to defend, acted as a natural strongpoint, and jutted out into the allied battle line as a salient surrounded on three sides by the British. As the war continued, Allied Generals - Douglas Haig in particular - started planning for an eventual battle what would drive a hole through the German lines and capture their submarine bases along the Belgian coast. First off, they had to get past the ridge with all the guns on it . . .

General Plumer of the British 2nd Army began plans to make an attack possible at the beginning of 1916. His plan: to dig mines underneath the German positions on the ridge, pack the mines with as much explosives as possible, and then when the time came, set off the mines and charge up the hill afterwards. Seems like a pretty obvious plan, right? Well . . . the tunnelling of 22 separate mine shafts into the ridge took over a year.

It was meticulous. British and German engineers were digging mines through Messines Ridge, and stories of opposing men digging into each other and fighting underneath the trenches was not unheard of. Nevertheless, after digging twenty-two mines - 8 kilometers of tunnels - for over a year (although one mine was discovered by the Germans and destroyed) and packing them with 450 tonnes of Ammonal and then, the British were set.

On May 21st, 1917, the British commenced heavy bombardment of the ridge; over 2000 artillery guns shelled the German trenches for over two weeks until they stopped in the early morning of June 7th. Now generally, after you shell a position like that, an infantry advance is usually the next step. Anticipating this, the Germans all rushed back to their positions in their trenches, manning their machine guns and mortars, waiting for the expected rush of men to attack . . .

The British blew up the mines.

I don't have anything to compare it with, but most accounts call it the biggest manmade explosion ever recorded for the time. The sky lit up like "a pillar of fire"; the sound of the explosion could be heard as far away as Dublin, Ireland; in Switzerland the explosions registered as an earthquake. In context of the battle itself, the entire crest of the ridge was blown clean off, and about 10,000 German soldiers were killed.

The Allies immediately took the ridge and held it despite German counterattacks for the following week. It was the first time on the western front that an attacking force suffered fewer casualties than the defending one - 17,000 allied casualties compared to 25,000 German ones. Allied morale was obviously boosted after this, and the path to the following Battle of Passchendaele was open.

As a final follow-up, two of the twenty-one mines did not detonate that day. A thunderbolt set off one of the mines almost 40 years later, leaving a crater in the farmland and one dead cow; the second one has apparently been located, but plans to disarm it have not been made.


So now we look at it. One of the "successful" battles of WWI. Tens of thousands of casualties still came out on both sides during it, but substantially less so for the Allies. Likewise, what can we say about the immediate deaths of ten thousand German soldiers? We can always easily condemn the huge losses of civilian lives throughout the wars, but in this case all losses in this bombing were strictly military, no way around it. I find this battle leads to very mixed feelings. It was both life-saving and death-dealing; it saved thousands of allied lives at the cost of immediately taking ten thousand enemies. I really can't put my feelings or sympathies for one or another. I can only really say that it happened, and it was something incredible, whether it be for good or bad.

Somethin' to think about, in any case.


(Battle of Messines Ridge, 1917)


(Craters from the mine explosions today)
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Monday, November 6, 2006

The Battle of Gallipoli, February 1915 - January 1916
This is the first of six entries I am writing as we come closer to November 11th, known as Remembrance Day, Veteran's Day or Armistice Day depending on where you live. Today we look at a stretch of land practically revered by two countries while essentially ignored in the textbooks of others. Many countries tend to have a sort of sentimental connection with particular battles, historical and legendary, that "made their countries," so to speak. Britons have Badon Hill, Americans have Bunker Hill (among many others), Canadians have Vimy Ridge, and Russians have Stalingrad. Way down under, on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean, Australians and New Zealanders have Gallipoli.

Also called "The First D-Day", The British-French invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey was an operation aimed at capturing the Ottoman capital of Istanbul and effectively knocking out one of the big powers in the Central Powers. As would again be the case in the Second World War, Russia was in trouble and was demanding help sooner than later; they were having supply troubles and the Allies wanted to form another battlefront (the west had already bogged into trench stalemate by this point).

Now being a full year of fighting, I'm gonna try to break it down in the simplest, briefest way I can. In February, the Anglo-French naval fleet tried to take the strait between the Aegean Sea and Black Sea; after a month of trying, they simply got bottled up, hit a ton of mines in the water, and well . . . they weren't going to be taking the strait that way.

While this was going on, Australian and New Zealand volunteer soldiers were training in Egypt and were about to be shipped off to the Western Front in France. Well, with this new "closer" battle to fight, they were instead sent to Turkey as they Australian and New Zealand Army Corps: ANZAC.

The attack on the peninsula was two-pronged: The British would make the main assault on the southern tip of the peninsula while ANZAC would land on a western coast of it further north. They landed with varying degrees of difficulty . . . and immediately they got to start fighting.

The terrain of Gallipoli was not good for attacking by sea. Essentially, you had the water, then a beach, then a large hill or cliff in front of you that's covered with machine guns and artillery guns raining down on you. Like a lot of battles in WW1, the original plan for a swift advance ground into stalemate, where neither side could really take ground against the other. In a lot of cases for the Allies, there was confusion all around: misplaced landings, inability to define objectives, complicated attack plans with not enough planning, there was plenty of trouble all around.

For half a year, the Ottomans and the Allies fought each other to a total standstill. Any advance in either direction tended to fail: British or ANZAC forces could never capture the high ground from the Turks for long, and the Turks could never drive their enemies back into the sea. All of this occured with major loss of life in hot, unhealthy terrain conditions. On May 19th, a force of 42,000 Turks attacked 10,000 Australians and New Zealanders, hoping to surprise them; they didn't, and retreated with about 10,000 casualties compared to the 600 or so suffered by ANZAC.

The Ottomans gave just as well as they received, though. In particular, they gave it very well at the Battles of Chunuk Bair and The Nek in August. Soldiers from New Zealand were supposed to sweep the height of Chunuk Bair one day, and then from that position support the Australians in their own assault on The Nek (another peak). The New Zealanders were unable to take the peak until the next day, and by then were unable to help the Australians in the other battle . . .


The Battle of The Nek, an 80 meter wide natural bottleneck in the hills, is perhaps the signature fight for how Australians tend to remember Gallipoli. The trench lines between the Australians and the Turks were 27 meters apart. The plan was for naval bombardment to clear out the Turkish lines, followed by four waves of charges, 150 men in each, until the Turks were pushed back.

Gravely unfortunate, the ground forces and sea forces failed to synchronise their watches. By the time the naval bombardment had ended, there was a seven minute delay before the first infantry wave went over the top - seven minutes that gave the Turks plenty of time to return to their machine guns . . . . . despite the obvious futility of the situation, the whistle blew, 150 young Australians went over the top, and all were essentially cut down. Two minutes later, another 150 were torn apart my machine guns. An official order to stop the attack did not occur until after the third wave also went over the top and to their demise.

By the end of the year, the Allied forces pulled out of Gallipoli. 131,000 men died on both sides during the battle, with a further 260,000 wounded. The Ottomans gained a newfound sense of strength, while the Australians and New Zealanders felt their first real sense of dissatisfaction with the British Empire. After three more years of fighting on the Western Front, those two nations would really begin to forge their own ways forward.

As already mentioned, this battle has taken on almost mythic proportions down under in Australia and New Zealand. Over here in North America, the best we'll ever learn about Gallipoli is through the 1981 movie with the same name starring Mel Gibson. It's not a horrible movie in any respect, and it does play up the horror at the Battle of the Nek . . . . . but y'know, movies'll only get you so far. And this is the kind of story that really needs to get out further . . .


(Anzac, The Landing 1915 by George Lambert)
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Sunday, November 5, 2006

One week to go . . .
Well, I really really need to sleep more, but I doubt I'll do it tonight . . . again. 'Tis silly, I know. Umm, other than that news, my FMA watch may be dying on me. It ticks slow or the hands stick or something, but with a fresh battery it's still not keeping up with real time. This is a shame, I shall have to get it fixed or something . . . 'cause I like that watch . . .



Anyways, November 11th is getting closer and closer; incidentally, I've already lost a poppy and shall have to get a new one for my jacket soon. For those who've been here a couple years, you'll be used to what's coming up . . . essentially, I'm gonna be reformatting my page a little bit. Its tone is gonna get a little somber and a little more serious, and I won't be blogging about daily life.

Instead, I'll be looking back at things that've happened in our histories, things that really give a sense of what we as a people have gained, lost, and died for through war. The phrase "lest we forget" has gotten kinda popular since September 11th, and there's nothing wrong with that . . . well, aside from selling comemorative coins minted with silver "from ground zero" for $30 a pop "so you'll never forget this moment" again . . . . . silly . . . . .

For the record, I'm not gonna spend a week writing about September 11th. For one thing, that didn't happen during war time exactly (you could make the argument, but yeah). For another . . . everyone still remembers it.


Who remembers the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, though? How about the Battle of the Aleutian Islands? I'm sure some of you have heard about the bombing of Dresden by now? These might not have been as glamourous or memorable as Pearl Harbour, but hey.

Let's look even further . . . who's heard of the Battle of Messines in the First World War? It was pretty famous. So was the Battle of Gallipoli, there was even a Mel Gibson movie about it. Any raised hands yet?


Those of you still with your hands down, I promise, I'll fill you in as best I can unless I've already talked about it before (in which case I'll give you a link). But yeah, sometimes we have some momentous points in time where we all stop and remember where I was when I heard that so and so happened. There's nothing wrong with that, there's a reason why these moments were so important to us. But y'know, those moments are in hard order of ever being forgotten that easily . . . it's the other ones I'm more concerned about.

As a Chinese-Canadian, the day I learned about what happened in Nanjing during the war scared the hell out of me. I mean, my grandparents were in China during this time (not there specifically, but you know what I mean)! I think I only learned about it about three or four years ago, if even. That's a lot of years - a lot of history classes - to go through before learning about how an entire city and surrounding area of half a million men, women and children were raped for six weeks straight. It should not have taken that long.


I don't know how long it's taken for any of you . . . but if I can help it, I'm gonna cut down that time for as much as I can in the time I have. Yeah, the coming week is gonna be full of very long posts, and I know a lot of you have issues with that.

Y'know, for the most part I don't care if you don't care . . . . . not this time, though. I'm asking you - honestly and sincerely - to read these ones as they come. This is the only time in the whole year I'll ever ask you to read something I write at this blog, the only time I'll ask you to tell others to come by and read. If you read fast, it'll take two or maybe three minutes tops to get through a post. This is important to me, and it's something I really want to spread around to others . . .

The saying says "lest we forget" . . . I say it's time we learn in the first place.
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Friday, November 3, 2006

6am-3pm work shift. Eep.
All I wanna do is watch "The Dead Zone" (fell in love with that show) and play "Final Fantasy XII".

And maybe get a haircut.
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Wednesday, November 1, 2006

   Yeah, I did the ninja hiding in the bushes thing again.

On the plus side, this time since I had two pumpkins I got to carve two last night! I think I can take pride in knowing that one boy actually ran past my house because "the pumpkin's scary" (I was originally gonna make it the angry anime sideways Vs eyes, but then it messed up so I made a Venom from Spider-Man one with the sharp teeth things). The other was a more conservative, "ticked off" pumpkin, but I went on to jam a metal plate into its head like a forehead protector. I was hoping that'd foreshadow what would come next.

Anyways, I didn't become quite as "famous" as I did last year, but there were some good moments. I scared more kids this year, for one (the older ones still got the worst of it, the younger ones more so just because I was there). Heh, really funny, there were a couple kids at different times . . . they saw me, jumped back a bit, grinned anxiously . . . I asked them, "what are you here for?" or "what do you want?"

Their answer: "...nothing."
I look at their bag of candy: "I see that thing, are you sure you don't want anything?"
Their answer: "...yup..."

They still got candy. But still, funny funny. If I was tired of hiding in the bushes and there weren't kids around, I walked out in front of my house with my brand new bullwhip and cracked it around a bit. It made about the same sound as the firecrackers going off in the distance, but I was able to get multiple pops off in rapid succession! Take THAT, punk-ass teenagers! So yeah, bullwhips are fun . . .


Graveyard shift afterwards and through the night was alright too. But now I have Superstore dust in my hair. It's 5:46am, and now it's time to shower, maybe watch a DVD or two while my hair dries, and go to bed in time for the sunrise. Have a good November, now!


(One last thing: for a certain butterfly . . . know that everything I've been telling you to do, I probably wouldn't do it myself either. So keep that in mind while you wonder why I'm being so persistent with my words, okay?)
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Tuesday, October 31, 2006

   Happy Halloween!
I know right now a lot of us have more important things to think about than Halloween right now . . . but hey, this post'll be around long after we're done thinking about that other stuff. As for myself, I'm still trying to figure out what to do for Halloween. Probably give out candy for the first bit of the evening (though how I'm not sure . . . return of the Ninja of New Westminster, maybe . . .), and then at 10pm I go do a graveyard shift at work (fitting enough, I guess). We'll see what happens . . .

Anyways, I have something to share with you all. If you don't like to read, then turn away now because you're just gonna groan later . . . but the following is the short story I wrote for theOtaku's Halloween contest. Now granted, Adam asked for "about 1 page long" and I extended that by multiples higher than 2, and thusly it was probably disqualified immediately. But if not, we'll see how I do . . . however that pans out, though, I'm posting it here for anyone interested to take a read.

Oh, and let it be known that this is officially the very first fanfiction I have ever written. It's a Cowboy Bebop thing. Hooray for me, I guess.



-------------------------------------------------



"Jack-o'-lantern Jump-Jive"
(By SomeGuy)


“Trick or treat!” Edward shouted enthusiastically, wearing a yellow shower curtain around her shoulders and a carved jack-o’-lantern over her head. With Ein playfully tailing behind her, she pushed the old, open pillowcase towards the sitting Faye. “Gimme somethin’ good to eat!”
“You can eat the same crud as the rest of us!” Faye answered back, swatting Ed away with one hand while forking another helping of boiled pumpkin into her mouth with the other.
“Ooh, Faye-Faye wants a trick…” Ed commented while wiggling her fingers at the older woman and making ghost noises before lurking off to the others.

Like usual, dinner in the living area of the Bebop was not an elaborate affair, and Jet was only able to acquire marked-down pumpkins as food for the next week; also like usual, some members of the crew were more open to the situation than others.
“Alright, how about this one…” Jet began, leaning forward in his chair, “…I heard a story about shumai dumplings made from human flesh…”
“Oh come on, Jet,” Spike said passively from his stretched-out position on the couch, “this story’s even older than you are…” As he finished, he then proceeded to hold back Ed’s advances for treats with the bottom of his raised foot.
“Spike wants a trick too! Oooh…” Ed ran another quick lap around the couch, shower curtain flapping and pumpkin bobbing from side to side, before stopping in front of Jet. “Trick or treat!”

“In a second,” Jet answered, “I’m in the middle of a story…” Ed cocked her jack-o’-lantern to one side dejected.
“Give Ed the haunted shumai!” she said, her wide smile hidden behind the large pumpkin on her head.
“They’re not haunted,” Spike said, “they’re just stuck to the box lid.” Spike ate another mouthful of boiled pumpkin and closed his eyes as Jet protested the spoiling of his story.
“Fail fail fail, Jet gets the axe!” Ed changed before running off down the corridor with Ein happily following. “He gets a trick too…”

“Why can’t you just get into the spirit of the season?” Jet asked Spike once Edward was out of the room.
“We’re all adults here, Jet,” Spire replied. “Eating pumpkin is where I draw the line…” Faye could only nod absently in agreement. “Besides, I think they’ve gone bad…”
“Alright then,” Jet said, “I promise you’ve never heard this one before and it’s gonna scare the crap from your pants…”

Before Jet could being his next ghost story, Ein frantically charged back up the corridor and into the living area. He hopped across the coffee table (rattling Spike’s plate of boiled pumpkin in the process) and leapt into Jet’s lap – he was whining and visibly uncomfortable.
“What’s wrong, boy?” Jet asked him, holding his own plate up and out of the small corgi’s way; Jet did not have to wait long for an answer. Already, Ein was growling and barking at the corridor.
“Oh Ein, it’s just Edward!”

Standing in the corridor, Ed was no longer wearing the shower curtain or jack-o’-lantern. Instead, she wore but a ragged, greasy tunic and a heavy miner’s mask that still hid her entire head. Ein continued to bark.
“Heh, funny puppy…” Ed said before walking towards the still-eating adults. Spike perked up upon hearing Ed speak – it was as if she were masking her voice as well as her face now.

Again, she made her way to Faye. “Gimme eat, gimme eat!”
Didn’t we just go over this?” Faye asked, annoyed. “I told you, I…hey!” Faye pulled back fiercely as Ed pawed at her jacket. “You’re filthy! Where the hell have you been?!” Ed let out a high pitched growl before shoving Faye’s arm one last time and slamming a palm into the last of her boiled pumpkin.

Below the din of Faye’s cursing and Ein’s barking, Jet smirked.
“Actually, this reminds me of another story I’ve heard of,” he said. “A story about a girl… no, a boy… born on a ship not unlike our own and left for dead by a mother too poor to raise him…” Faye only half-listened, still upset about her ruined dinner. Spike, meanwhile, had begun playing keep-away with the soiled child, gracefully gliding his plate of boiled pumpkin around on his hand while grabbed at it.
“Gimme eat!” Ed repeated, an angry tone forming in her deepened voice.
“You had yours, this is mine,” Spike said as he sat up on the couch and swung his plate back.

“So this boy,” Jet continued, “he spent his whole life on that ship, scavenging what he could, raiding supplies or eating all manner of vermin he could get his hands on…” Ed, frustrated, gave up on Spike but not before slamming her whole body into him violently, sending the plate upwards. Spike scrambled as best he could, catching some chunks of his falling dinner with a free hand or his teeth; ultimately, his dinner too was on the floor and done.

Spike lay back down on the couch grumbling about his stomach as Jet went on.
“Once the rats and bugs ran out, though… he would finally reveal himself to the crew of the ship…” With a trail of ruined pumpkin in her wake, the masked Ed finally came to Jet – Ein growled and barked again.
“Gimme eat…” she snarled, her voice deepening further. Jet smiled, reached into his breast pocket and retrieved a handful of assorted candies.
“I was going to wait after the story to share these with everyone, but how can I refuse the mysterious scavenger boy of…” Jet did not have a chance to finish before the candies were snatched from his hand and the dirty, masked figure was running away down a different corridor – Ein stopped barking but continued to whine.

“Oh well, no harm done,” Jet said to the chagrin of the other two who never got to finish eating. The older man’s face turned serious and he leaned forward. “You know what happens if you refuse the boy, right?” Spike just pretended to listen while Faye cocked an eyebrow skeptically. Jet took a deep breath.

“The child…….plucks out your eyes while you sleep and eats them!”

No reaction. Spike kept his eyes closed while Faye kept staring back with her raised eyebrow.
“Jet…” Spike said with a sigh, “…that was really weak even for you…”
“Well at least I tried,” Jet retorted. “Let’s see you tell a really good scary story with such little time to tell it.” The younger bounty hunter only smirked and shook his head. Ein, meanwhile, jumped out from Jet’s lap suddenly and looked onwards down the corridor, panting happily and wagging his rear.

A sharp, steady hiss and wave of heat twisted Faye’s body and attention behind herself; Ed jumped up, screaming.
“Clippity-clop! Lookin’ for a head to chop!” she cried out as she pounced onto the back of Faye’s chair. The yellow shower curtain and jack-o’-lantern were illuminated by a small handheld blowtorch in Ed’s left hand; a whirling hatchet filled her right.

Nothing could have prepared Faye for the cackling girl on her chair; she fell instantly to the floor with a shriek.
“Damn it Edward, what the hell is wrong with you?!” Faye screamed as she chased the little girl (and her dog) around the living area. Jet only chuckled at the current chaos on his ship.
“That’s what you get for not giving in to her demands for treats, my dear,” he said warmly. “Right, Ed?” Edward stopped in her tracks, ducked under Faye once more, and pulled the jack-o’-lantern off her head.

“Nya?” she said with a puzzled look. “Jet gave Edward treats?” Faye swatted at the girl once again.
“Don’t even pretend to forget you greedy little…” Faye was at a loss of words. Ed continued to avoid Faye’s swiping arms but kept a confused look upon her face.
“Ed didn’t get any candy,” she stated plainly. “Ed was in the hangar looking for things to trick Faye-Faye and Spike with.”

As the adults paused and perked up, Ein immediately began whining sourly once more. Faye did a double-take, looking back and forth from Ed wrapped in her yellow shower curtain and her own jacket soiled by the greasy fingers from earlier.
“So that wasn’t you who came in here with the breathing mask?” Jet asked, completely at attention.
“Nuh uh!” Edward replied. “That’s Kimkim! He’s super-super funny fun!” Spike, Faye and Jet froze on their spots completely dumbstruck by what they were hearing, but could not say anything before Edward continued. “Kimkim played with the rats in the storage room… he asked them nicely for food… then he bit their heads off, even the ones who talked back nice-like!”

Ed flashed a wide smile as she giggled at the end of her speech. Faye just sank down to her knees, still dumbstruck and looking somewhat ill; Jet tried to find word amongst the torrent of thoughts in his mind to get some answers; Spike merely stood up and started walking away, down the corridor.

“Ed!” Jet started, “How long have… where did… hey, Spike! Where ya goin’, I might need you if…”
“I’m outta here…” Spike interrupted.
“We could have a dangerous stowaway onboard! Where could you possibly go that’s more important right now?!”
“How about the can?” Spike answered, never once looking back. “Y’know, to stick my finger down my throat… those were definitely bad pumpkins, Jet…”


"Trick or Treat, Space Cowboy..."


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Happy Halloween again!
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Sunday, October 29, 2006

   Quick recap of Hong Kong
Man, it's funny. It really seems like I'm mission-critical at work these days. The past two weeks was changeover at work (we're shifting into Christmas mode) and I wasn't there to help out . . . neither was "Boromir", who has been on vacation as well. Heh, the whole of New Westminster has been screwing over that store! But yeah, even before I landed back in Vancouver my supervisor called my house to see if I was back yet and ready to work . . . which I wasn't . . . . . and since Friday I've been working long hours since. Funny, huh?

I guess this is what happens when "Boromir" tends to be less picky about the employees he hires . . . yeah, that's right Boromir, I'm talkin' to you if you're reading this. You hired a few good humps, dude.


Let's not worry about that now, though. Let's talk about Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a freakin' cool city and I'm sad I didn't get more time to play around there. Just as the Indian-Canadian comic says, they ALL know English over there which made a lot of times much easier than they might have been otherwise. Lotsa English on the signs, all PA announcements are bi-lingual, and escalators go your direction on the left . . . well, that's just something that kept messing me up, no biggie.

But yeah, got there with my dad, we ate some more dim sum (we did that a lot this trip), met up with my sifu and another guy from the club . . . it was good. Heh, afore-mentioned guy from the club was apparently very much looking forward to my arrival since he'd have someone to chill with.

And chill we did! We walked around some shopping districts, had a drink at the "foreign people district", rode the tram back and forth a lot (the tram rules! Ride for as long as you need to for just $2hkd!), and saw a bunch of posters for "Gedo Senki". Another day we went up to "The Peak" with my dad, saw some amazing sights from the top of Hong Kong Island, had a picture taken with a wax statue of Jackie Chan . . .

Oh yeah! The Avenue of Stars! Think Hong Kong version of Hollywood Walk of Fame that also includes handprints that's along the waterfront. Cool stuff . . . heh, a ton of actors and actresses I'd never heard of before, but eventually they got a little more contemporary. So for me, I took pictures of the stars of (including my foot):
Raymond Chow, Bruce Lee (no handprints for obvious reasons), Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, John Woo, Yuen Wo Ping, Tsui Hark, Chow Yun Fat (no handprints yet), Andy Lau, Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui (also no handprints, same reason as Bruce Lee), Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh, and Stephen Chow (two pictures because I needed to get a v-sign hand in there with it . . . he needs to get his ass down here to put his hands in the cement too!). There's also a statue of Bruce Lee doing a fighting pose. I took a picture with it in the same pose (among other things) . . . definitely a cool place to be; it also has little info kiosks that tell you about different eras of Hong Kong (or Chinese) cinema and stuff. I didn't read enough of 'em, sadly . . .

Oh yeah, up on The Peak they also have a "Bubba Gump Shrimp Company" restaurant. Yeah, THAT Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. We didn't eat there, but I bet it would've been fun . . . . . I did buy a shot glass and a ping-pong racket for my brother, though (got a picture on the Forrest Gump bench, too).

So yeah, Hong Kong's a cool place. Lots of history for such a relatively newer place compared to mainland China, but with clearer skies, "Do not smoke" signs, brilliantly delicious tea with milk, and pineapple buns with butter inside them (boloyao is unhealthy love). I'd love to go back again some time . . . who's coming with me?


In other news, I have my photo album from Zhengzhou, China up on my photobucket (it's the city that hosted the kung-fu competition). A quick guide: white jacket = Canada, blue = America, yellow/green = Australia. Enjoy the pics, the Silent Hill fog, the monks, the martial artists pretending to be monks, the martial artists, the Engrish(!!!), and the insanity of it all:

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/emonkataren/Zhengzhou%202006/


In local news, I bought "Justice League Heroes" which doesn't seem too bad, I'm working this afternoon, and I sent in a Halloween story to theO for that contest though it'l probably get axed for being too long (I'll post it here if that's the case).

I'm done now. Cheers! More of the trip later!
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Thursday, October 26, 2006

   Jet lag . . . boo
A'ight, so I didn't say anything when I was in Hong Kong because the hotel wanted 30HKD an hour for internet. I'll just say this: Hong Kong is freakin' awesome.

Anyways, I'm back home. I'll talk more seriously later. I'm going to bed now.

Here, have a photo of Canadians pretending to be Chinese people . . .

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Saturday, October 21, 2006

   Short-assed post in light of crappy internet connection
It seems internet traffic is crappy here. So I'll be to the point . . .

Where I am: Shenzhen.
How did I get there: train from Guangzhou.
How long I'll be here: two nights
Where I'll go after that: Hong Kong and then home on the 25th.

Extra bits answering comments: in last post's comments.

Enjoying Shenzhen: it's alright here. Blue skies for once.
Enjoying people here: not so much. They're jerks who try to steal your money (I've seen a couple ways so far and have heard of more).
Looking forward to leaving for Hong Kong in another day or so: hell yeah.

Thinking about what to do for Halloween: more and more.
Thinking about writing story for theO Halloween contest: also more and more.
Thinking about making quiz for theO: again, more and more.


Looking forward to coming home in a few more days:

. . . . . heh, yeah. I'm just about set to come back home. Really, I can't afford to wait around and possibly pick up more stuff to bring home. I miss easy-access internet . . . . . I miss clean clothes . . . . . I probably miss my home and family . . .

. . . . . still having tons of fun, though. I'm just not gonna be sad when the fun needs to end, is all. Heh, maybe if I knew a myOer in China, eh?
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