I'm back (finally)!!!

Yes, I can begin blog posts again. Because the manuscript for Rising Sun Falling Skies: The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II is DONE!!! Footnotes and all. So now I do not need to spend every waking hour going over torpedo specs, translating Dutch combat reports, discussing damage to the battleship HMS Prince of Wales (a story in itself), and trying to figure out if such-and-such is a picture of the destroyer USS Pope or not, all to make sure that my documentation and evidence is accurate and accurately presented. What many may find scary is that I actually enjoy doing that. A lot.

Writing a history book has been an incredible experience. It was nothing like I expected it to be, especially since I had the book written in my head years ago. Nothing like writing the "A Turn Too Far" article on which the book is partially based (and which is slightly changed in the book). A lot more work and effort than I expected it to be, but also a lot of fun. A dream come true. There is something to be said for translating Dutch combat accounts at a Taco Bell, being surrounded by dozens of open books on my couch as I cite check, or typing up a chapter at 3:00 am while listening to Candy Dulfer (appropriately a Dutch jazz saxophonist and a very good one at that), Gregg Karukas, Joyce Cooling, Marion Meadows, and Herb Alpert. To me, that is fun, but I can understand it's not for everyone.

There is still much work to be done -- more editing, getting the pictures and the maps right. But the big part is complete. Rising Sun Falling Skies is now scheduled fo a March 2014 release, so it should be available again for pre-order on Amazon and other outlets by the end of summer.

Thus I can get back to blogging on a regular basis. If you've been following me on Twitter (@JCCentCom) or Facebook you know that I haven't fully left the world of the non-World War II, even if my participation in it has been sporadic.

And I do have one other exciting announcement to make in a bit. Keep an eye here for it.

When advertising fails

Anybody need some bedbugs?

TBDSITL

Mmmmmm ... now to chow down on TBDSITL (The Best Damn Subs in the Land): Tommy's.

I'm not exactly in mourning

Communist, anti-American thug Hugo Chavez has died.

Aaron Swartz and Manipulation of Mental Illness

The tech and legal communities this week are debating the suicide of 26-year old computer genius (and that is not too strong of a word by any means) Aaron Swartz, who was found to have hanged himself last Friday in his Brooklyn apartment. The Wall Street Journal gives background on legal troubles Swartz, who was believed to be suffering from clinical depression, was facing:

A few years ago, Mr. Swartz caused a stir by downloading some 20 million pages of court documents from the fee-charging Pacer website by exploiting free access given to libraries. No charges were ever brought, and no crime was committed, his lawyer said. But his efforts to make online content available for free ultimately brought him into conflict with federal prosecutors.
He was arrested in 2011 and charged in a scheme in which he allegedly logged into the computer network at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and using it to download millions of academic journal articles from a database called JSTOR, owned by a nonprofit group.

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Sorry for the light posting ... again

Between my law practice and editing Rising Sun Falling Skies, I've had almost no time to blog. Will try to blog more often, but posts may, as you've seen, be sporadic for a bit.

On the bright side of life

The largely disastrous negotiations surrounding the so-called "Fiscal Cliff" at least gave us this, by far the best picture evah of House Speaker John Boehner: