Tourney of the Foxes: the Aftermath

Another Tourney of the Foxes has come and gone. For those not familiar with it, Foxes is an SCA event that takes place in the Shire of Vulpine Reach every year about this time. The highlight, for us rapier fighters, is a three-man team melee tournament. I'm happy to say that the team consisting of myself, Ysabel and our friend Feodor has won this every year for the past 6 or so. We were a bit nervous going into it this time and it was hard fought all around, but we managed to pull off yet another win. When we were called up in Court to receive our prizes, His Majesty issued a challenge to all rapier fighters to break our winning streak next year. Nothing like a royal bullseye painted on you to motivate you to practice harder.

Winning was nice, but there were some bad moments. Our first bout ended in a double kill between the last two persons left alive (myself and Dragonet), so we had to refight it. After that, we seemed to get our focus back, though. The next few fights went all right and we managed to beat the team that I considered the worst threat (Jack Marvell, Tristram and Reynard of Thor's Mtn.). The final bout, however, was ugly. We were up against Cillian and two members of his Red Sword Company. Cillian is a good fight and he has a lot of reach, which can cause problems for his opponents. The other two fighters were also good enough to be a problem, if we didn't handle them right. My plan was to split Cillian off and go defensive until Feodor and Ysabel could dispose of the other two, then swarm him once he was alone. I was taking a bit of a risk, because if my two ended up being the one's killed, I would be the one swarmed. Still, I have a lot of confidence in my teammates, so it was a calculated risk. The plan worked beautifully, except for one thing. After a couple of exchanges with Cillian, he managed to place his blade on top of my mask and apply pressure with the tip. Now, here's where it gets ugly. It felt to me like he was pressing down with the flat of his blade, which isn't a valid kill. Due to the fact that his point was pushing directly on the cloth of my drape and angled in toward my head, he thought it was a good shot and I should be dead. Having had time to run it over in my mind, I tend to agree with him, but at the time, I said "not good" after I'd backed out of it. By this time, my two companions had finished their business and came charging over. Now it gets even more ugly. Since I felt a bit bad about the disagreement over the shot, I backed way off, more or less taking myself out of the fight. Cillian ran around and engaged Ysabel, who seemed fine with taking him on alone (Feodor had backed off, too, waiting to see if she needed help), but a few seconds after they started trading blows, Cillian let out a yell and dropped his blades. He conceded the fight because he threw his shoulder out with a hard overhand shot. While that allowed us victory in the tourney, winning in that fashion left a very bad taste in our mouths. At this point, what is done is done and all I can do is offer an apology to Cillian for the bad blow calling. I hope the way things turned out won't keep Red Sword Company from coming back and challenging us again next year. After all, we wouldn't want to disappoint His Majesty, now would we? :)

The Consumption Conundrum

I've been thinking a lot lately about my eating habits. I know they aren't particularly healthy, but like any ingrained behavior pattern, it's proving very difficult to change them. Let me share a rare glimpse of my past with you. I have, in my younger days, gone hungry. By younger days, I mean late teens, early twenties. Those were lean years and even into my mid-twenties, food wasn't plentiful. I did manage to eat at least once a day, after a certain point, but prior to that it wasn't uncommon to go a couple days between meals. No, I wasn't homeless, except for a month or so living in my car, but it wasn't a pleasant way to live, regardless. Needless to say, I've managed to do much better in later years and food has become a bit too available. When you are in a situation like I was back in those days, you end up living under certain rules where food is concerned. Rule #1 is "never pass up an opportunity to eat". Rule #2 is "when food is put in front of you, you eat it regardless of whether or not you like it". Rule #3, which is the most problematic right now, is "eat as much as you can in one sitting because you don't know when the next sitting will be". It's that last one, combined with the fact that I really do *like* to eat, that causes most of the problem. I'm not exactly overweight, but the weight I do have isn't distributed very well. I do work a sit down job, yes, but I also get a fair amount of exercise. Apparently, it's not enough, given my diet. I can't seem to avoid eating large amounts of junk, mostly because that's what is readily available and convenient. If I could reduce the portions of said junk, it might help, but my brain has been trained by bitter experience to "eat it all, eat it now and eat again as soon as possible". Good habits... if there is a wide-spread famine. Not so good in modern America's culture of culinary excess.

What (Magic: the Gathering) Color Am I?

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Big surprise there...

Why So Serious?

Well, I finally got to see the "The Dark Knight" and let me just say that it was freakin' amazing! I had a few nitpicky type complaints here and there, but overall it was one of the best movies I've seen in a very long time. Typically, I'm not one to gush about any particular actor, but Heath Ledger was simply the best Joker EVAR!!! I especially appreciated the "pencil trick". It completely captured the essence of the character (namely that he's utterly, irredeemably twisted and evil). There are many more moments throughout the movie that demonstrate the core identities of the main characters. Batman is thoroughly conflicted between his role as savior and the sometimes unsavory things he is forced to do to defeat his foes. Harvey Dent aka Two-Face is.... pretty much spot on. I've never been that big a fan of Two-Face as a villain. He always seemed a little shallow and contrived to me. The whole split personality angle has been done and redone in story after story and there's really not much more to explore there, I think. However, that said, the movie makers managed to give ol' Harvey some genuine depth and a very good rationale for his tragic fall into madness. The special effects for the mangled half of his face were top-notch as well. Truly disturbing to look at, just as it should be.

But, I have to come back to Heath Ledger as the stand out here. There's no way I can describe the stunning quality of his performance. You just need to go see it for yourself. Despite the ridiculous cost of going to movies these days, this one is well worth it. It's truly a shame that Mr. Ledger has passed on. After putting in the performance of a lifetime, to have him die so unexpectedly is like a sick joke on par with something the Joker himself might have cooked up. (cue the maniacal laughter and fade to black....)