Way of the Raven

Gulf Wars, Day 4 (Thursday, March 17th) - Part Three

2011-10-11T07:55:00.001-07:00

This day sucked. Had a fight (not the good kind) with Ysabel in the morning and it tainted the whole day. I did manage to buy some C&T armor that was really nice. Elbow and knee cops and a Fiore' helm. To be honest, I don't remember much else about this day. Moving on...

Inspiration

2011-09-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

I just got finished submitting a short story to the Writers of the Future contest. Oddly, another idea just popped into my head immediately after. I guess I'll see if I can finish something in time for the next quarter's contest. I need to be able to take a piece of writing from concept to finished product a bit faster than I have in the past. It takes practice, I suppose, and the only way to get better is to do it. So far, I have a rough concept, a title and the opening scene figured out. Still a long way to go before it all comes together. Inspiration is only the beginning.

Magic time!

2011-09-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

I'm going to take a break from the Gulf Wars posts for just a moment to get in touch with my inner geek. I know, like writing about running around with swords isn't geeky, right? Well, in this case, I just wanted to say that the new Magic the Gathering set, Innistrad, is freakin' amazing! Not in a "ridiculously powerful" sense, but in a "more fun than a barrel of goblins" sense. For those that are familiar with the game, I strongly suggest you check it out, if you haven't already. It harkens back to the days when Magic was about imagination and exploring cool new settings, rather than winning a tourney game on the third round. Not that it doesn't have some power. It does. But the feel of it is not typical of the more hardcore sets preceding it. And I like that.

Gulf Wars, Day 3 (Wednesday, March 16th) - Part Three

2011-09-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

After our victory at the Field Battle, we gathered our things and made our way to the Ravine. The Gulf Wars Ravine is just that, a tree-filled depression in the earth located at the five way crossroads near the center of the site. It's exact dimensions escape me at the moment, but suffice to say it is large enough to contain two opposing armies. It's steep slopes are treacherous and littered with obstacles, making for a dangerous ground on which to fight. The scenario involved is a "resurrection" battle. Meaning that if a fighter is "killed" he/she goes back to the "res point" on their end of the Ravine and can then return to the fight. This continues for 45 minutes as we strive for control of three flags placed across the center of the Ravine. It's grueling, sweaty work, to say the least.

This particular day, we had arrived a bit early and spent some time drinking (water) and eating a small lunch. It was also a good time to catch up with people we hadn't managed to talk to up to that point, as there is usually a large turn out of fighters for this battle. More and more kept filtering in until both ends of the Ravine were filled with eager swordsmen/women. It took some time for things to get organized, but once everything was in place, we found ourselves lined up at our res point ready to charge into the fray. Our job was to stabilize the area between the right and center flags, about halfway up the slope. Easy enough. We knew, of course, that there would ample opportunity for us to lay claim to one or the other flag if the forces holding them were to falter. Battle is, after all, fluid.

The marshals called "lay on" and we hurried out on the battlefield, quickly arriving at our position and engaging the enemy line. Things became a blur of fighting, killing, dying and walking back to the res point. Wash, rinse, repeat ad nauseum. The fighting went on and on as the right hand flag changed hands again and again. The sides were so evenly matched that it was a constant back and forth over about ten feet of ground. At one point, I found myself next to Ysabel at the extreme upper right side, at the very top of the slope. The flag was ours at the moment, but we were being pressed hard. An enemy fighter with a two-handed long sword had been giving our people grief there for several minutes and it was time for him to take a walk. With Ysabel keeping his friends off me, I stepped up to engage him. The length of his weapon made it difficult to get close enough for a kill shot, so I settled for targeting his hands. A longsword has an open hilt, which makes the hands fairly easy to hit. Sure enough, within moments, I had landed a solid shot to his off-hand. He cursed and switched to a one-handed grip on the longsword. Not really very optimal for him and he knew it. Before I could press my advantage, a hold was called and we kneeled down to wait. The issue (which I never found out the details of) was resolved and we rose to resume the fight. At this point, the longsword wielder, acting out of desperation, threw an excessively hard shot at my upper left arm. The blow struck with such force that my entire arm went numb. As he struggled to recover, my other blade snaked out and took him squarely in the remaining hand. "Well struck!" he said loud enough to be heard over the din of battle and faded from the line to go res. Being down an arm, and seeing that our side had control for the moment, I stepped "out of bounds" to effectively kill myself and went back to my own res point.

My left arm began to function again, though it hurt like the dickens. I spent some extra time at the res point getting water and letting the pain subside a bit. The bruise left by that shot ended up being pretty epic! Once I had rested sufficiently, it was time to gather up some fighters and head back up the right slope. By this point, everyone was starting to tire and move a little more slowly. Despite the lag, the fighting over our flag had only intensified as both sides realized that time was almost up. As the struggle to claim control of the flag grew to a fever pitch, there came a loud *snap* and the flagpole actually split in half! We had fought so hard and so valiantly that the structural integrity of the wooden pole was compomised. Fortunately, the battle was merely seconds from being over, so in the end it made little difference. Time was called and we all collapsed in an exhausted heap. Well, perhaps not that dramatically, but we were definitely worn out. After all that effort, no clear winner could be determined and the battle was declared a tie! Such are the twists and turns of war, I suppose.

The fighting done, we made plans to go into town for dinner at a mundane restaurant. Tristrim and Rayne were to be our companions. After the heat and exertion, we were all looking forward to some civilization. Little did we know that we were about to embark on a journey through a desolate land utterly devoid of comfort or pity. Not to mention food. A wrong turn (whose fault it was is irrelevant) led us astray and we ended up on a dirt trail barely fit for modern vehicles. Fortunately, we had all piled into Tristram's SUV, so we avoided getting stuck on the less than ideal track. A dirt "road", which we thought would take us to the rear gate of the camp, ended up going straight into the depths of the surrounding nature preserve (or whatever you call a seemingly endless expanse of tangled woods and treacherous bogs). By the time we had realized our mistake and turned around, Ysabel was starting to succumb to a bad case of hunger mixed with heat exhaustion. She had pushed herself too hard in the Ravine and the result was a screaming headache, nausea and dizziness. Not to mention irritability. Lots and lots of irritability. We did eventually find our way back to the camp and then, much later, to the local Red Lobster, but Ysabel, the poor dear, was too sick to eat anything but saltine crackers and water. I felt terrible eating in front of her, but I was famished and suffering a bit myself. Needless to say, it did not end up being a good evening out. Getting back to camp and collapsing into bed was a huge relief. For all its ups and downs, the day was finally over.

My Apologies

2011-09-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

I am deeply sorry for the lack of posts in the past few months. I will continue my Gulf Wars stories as soon as I find the time. This Summer has been a bit of a creative drought for me, but hopefully Autumn will see the return of my Muse.

Gulf Wars, Day 3 (Wednesday, March 16th) - Part Two

2011-04-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

Fresh from our first victory, the Meridian Rapier Militia regrouped and took up our assigned position for the next battle. This time, we were on the right side of the main line, but starting from the downward side, near the treeline. So, effectively, we were holding the same flank as before. To my surprise, the other side had done the same thing, leaving us facing the same units we had in the previous battle. They were the Gleann Abhann contingent and our numbers were fairly even. The Kingdom of Gleann Abhann has some good fighters (some damn good), but it looked like this year their forces had a disproportionate number of newer people. Not only that, but most of them were using a sword and a large "war buckler". In contrast, Meridies had fielded quite a large number of Captains and mid-level fighters. Also, most of us were using a case of swords. So, they were just the tiniest bit outgunned. That would explain a lot about how the first battle went and I was feeling pretty confident that this one would be no different. Nor was I wrong. Lay on was called and we began our advance. Our line stayed pretty solid as we approached mid-field, but, strangely, the other side had decided to use some bizarre staggered line as they engaged. That left the first ten or so of them trying to fight against more or less our full strength. Needless to say, the outcome was predictable. They hit us in small clumps that were easily dispatched. Once we'd cut them down, we moved on to slam into the next part the enemy line. We had an open flank in front of us and in no time had collapsed it in on itself. We pressed them mercilessly and victory seemed well in hand. It was then that I found myself once again standing in a pocket of calm. Mikolaj and I held back to survey the field, looking for where we could do the most good (or the most damage, rather). It was well that we did. Two enemy fighters had broken free of the press and were running for the open field behind our line. "Stop the rabbits!" someone yelled. Indeed, thought I. My body had already reacted and I found myself running to cut them off. Mikolaj was right behind me, but his presence barely registered, so focused was I on my target, the lead rabbit. I caught up to him and held his pace, legs churning, heart pounding, the thrill of pursuit driving away any hint of doubt or exhaustion. I was going to stop him, kill him if possible, and that was that. He turned slightly toward me, still running, and our blades came together. Once, twice and apart again as we maneuvered ourselves for best advantage, him trying to get away and me trying to bring him to a stop. Finally, he seemed to realize that he would have to fight me in earnest. It looked to me like he tried to stop and engage, but my reflexes kicked in an instant too soon. My left hand blade snaked out, a slivery blur in the sunlight, and took him in the ribs before he could react. Inertia took over as his attention was pulled from what his feet were doing and he went down with a yell. He rolled a couple of times to break the impact and wound up laying on his back, one hand over his ribs. I immediately called a hold, dropped my blades and kneeled down to see if he was all right. Marshals were quick on the scene and got his mask off. My opponent was none other than Don Crowley of Ansteorra. I apologized muchly, of course, and despite his obvious displeasure with the situation, he was as gracious about it as could be expected. The marshals determined that we were both at fault (swordplay while running is frowned on) and he retired from the field of his own accord to recover. The battle continued, but it was more or less over at that point, with just a few skirmishes here and there left to be resolved. Once again, our side emerged victorious. The War Point for the Field Battle was ours! Next up, the Ravine...

Gulf Wars, Day 3 (Wednesday, March 16th) - Part One

2011-04-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

Here it was at last, the day of reckoning. A day of steel and blood. A day for valor and great deeds. The day we took to the field against a mighty force bent on our defeat. We were fighting for the Trimarians, by Royal decree, and we would not fail our Kingdom or our allies. The first War Point battle was the Field Battle, a last-man-standing, best-two-out-of-three melee with over a hundred fighters on each side. That may not sound like much, but when you are out there in the middle of it, trust me, it feels a lot bigger. Blades everywhere, people "dying" all around you and the throbbing, insistent need to kill. No time to think or plan, just reflex and instinct molded by experience and shouted commands. We ate a quick breakfast, gathered our gear and once again headed for the field. As the appointed hour approached, we gathered up our fellow Meridians and Ysabel gave them a "pep talk". She's very good at inspiring the troops and this time she had brought along something special to help. Black and white hearts, made from felt and sewn by her own hand, with pins on the back so we could wear them proudly on our chests. We would fight with heart, defending the honor of Meridies, or at least give the Ansteorrans something to aim for, she said. By the time we lined up in formation, our blood was up and we were ready for anything. I found myself at the inner end of our line, the far end was anchoring the left flank at the top corner of the field, which slopes a bit from the road to the treeline. We had the high ground this time. Next to me on the right was a small gap and then the main force of one of our allies. I wasn't paying much attention to who they were at that point, only the tactical impact of their presence. Next to me on the left was Mikolaj, one of the best fighters in Meridies. Mikolaj is tall and can play sniper with the best of them, so I immediately formed a plan to use that to our advantage. It wasn't long before "lay on" was called and we started forward en masse to meet our fate. There was some initial confusion as to the speed of our advance, but we got it together before it caused a problem. We hit the enemy line like a tidal wave of black and white doom. I put my plan into action then, sweeping blades down and holding them at bay to give Mikolaj plenty of targets to choose from. I was playing my role well and so was he, taking out fighter after fighter. Soon there was an impressive gap in their line and it was starting to buckle. I braced myself to charge and decimate the open flank this presented, but someone was there ahead of me. The next thing I knew, Ysabel was darting in front of me, followed by what seemed like most of Meridies. They quite literally swept the exposed flank away from me. All that was left was a cluster of four or five stragglers that had been cut off from their main line by Ysabel's charge. They were in a bad position and they knew it, but there was little they could do. One by one, they went down as I moved to help finish them off. By the time I got there, only two were left and the press of our people around them was thick. That was when I made a small tactical error. I should have simply left them to the people already engaged with them, but I was eager for just one more kill. I got it, but not the way I wanted. As I moved into the press, my left arm got pinned and I couldn't defend or withdraw in time to stop a wild shot from taking me in the ribs. I was out, but, damn, it had been an amazing battle! I'll give the details of the next fight in a subsequent post. Wouldn't want to overwhelm you with too much awesomeness at once.

Gulf Wars, Day 2 (Tuesday, March 15th)

2011-04-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning the storms had blown through and we were looking forward to the rest of the week being warm and sunny. Ysabel had been talked into being the Rapier Marshal of the Day that day, so she had to be up and out fairly early. I, on the other hand, spent most of the morning in camp trying to clean up the soggy mess that was left after all the dripping that went on in our tent the night before. Constanza was nice enough to string a clothes line for me and I hung our blankets out to dry in the sun. After that, I checked our fighting gear that had been stowed outside the tent in (I had hoped) water-proof cases. The rapier cases had held up nicely, but the case with our Cut & Thrust armor had a fairly major puddle of water in it. I had to pull everything out and wipe it down. Still haven't gotten all the rust off of some of it. Damn it. Once I'd dealt with everything in camp that I could, I got in my fighting gear and headed for the field. Once again, I was hauling the cart behind me. To be honest, I don't remember much of the fighting that I did that day. It's all kind of a blur. The biggest thing that I remember was hearing about one of our Meridian fighters making an ass of himself the night before. The story of the drunken Meridian fencer was all over Gulf Wars by the time I got to the field. I won't go into detail about it, as it is not my place to spread such stories. Suffice it to say that we had some damage control to do. The day wore on, with some fighting, some political maneuvering, watching various tourneys that I had little interest in fighting in, etc. We retired to our camp that evening, ate a nice dinner, and put our tent back in order. Both of our most important battles had been scheduled on Wednesday, a couple of hours apart. It was going to be a long, gruelling day. I was intent on getting enough sleep to be ready for it, so we turned in reasonably early. Sleeping on a dry bed shouldn't be luxury, but it sure felt like it after the previous night's waterworks. I drifted off into the arms of Morpheus and dreamed of the glories that dawn would bring.

Gulf Wars, Day 1 (Monday, March 14th)

2011-04-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

We woke up remarkably well-rested after our first night of sleeping in a tent in quite some time. Breakfast was waiting for us and we took our time eating and getting used to the rythyms of camp life. But, before long, restlessness began to pull at us, so we donned our travelling clothes and set out to see the sights. We had shopping on our minds and plenty of funds to make it a happy experience, so we made a beeline for Merchant's Row. We had all morning to seek out treasures and trinkets, since the only fighting planned for the day was in the afternoon. We naturally ended up seeing dozens of people we knew. Stopping and talking took nearly as much of our morning as looking through the merchants' wares. We did make a point of stopping by one of our favorite vendors right off the bat, though. Darkwood Armories always ends up with a disporportionate share of our Gulf Wars budget and this year was no different. As soon as we walked in their tent, I saw it. A beautifully wrought main gauche dagger with curved quillions and an elegant pierced-plate guard. I simply had to have it. Ysabel found a similiarly gorgeous small sword that she couldn't pass up. So, new blades proudly in hand (along with two new pair of gloves that I desperately needed) we proceeded with the rest of our shopping spree. Many and wonderful were the other items we procured that morning, with even more on the "maybe" list for later. It was getting a bit late by the time we got back to camp, so we stashed our booty and ate a quick lunch before heading back out. We were camping in a more distant area than in previous years, so we'd invested in a small cart to haul our fighting gear to the field. Once we were loaded up, I got to play mule. So, heave ho and off we go! Ysabel was helping to run the first real rapier activity of the war, the Verona Street Brawl and, as such, I felt a bit obligated to fight in it. It was a melee scenario based upon the rivalry between the Capulets and the Montagues. The key wasn't to just kill the other side, but to score political "points" by making the other side look responsible for the slaughter. Baron Maximillian of the Midrealm was playing the part of the Governer of Verona. Once the aftermath of the brawls were discovered, we had a lot of fun trying to convince him of how we were merely victims of the other side's base treachery. The scenario played out very well and I had a lot of fun fighting and bs'ing my way out of being arrested by the Governer's men. Once it was over, I loaded everything up and waited for Ysabel to finish her "official duties". It was then that we were informed that a bad storm system was on its way and it would be a good idea to find shelter. Ysabel, however, had other plans. She had intended to take another cadet on the field after the scenario was over, a promising young man named Michael. We called all the high level fighters together and presented him with his cadet scarf under a sky that was rapidly darkening with storm clouds. Afterwards, I mentioned that perhaps we really should be getting back to camp, what with the weather and all, but Ysabel's sense of duty is stronger than steel sometimes. She still had a few things left to attend to before she could go. She told me to take the cart and Michael and start back for camp, she would catch up later. Fair enough, says I, with a nervous look at the brooding heavens. Sure enough, we were only halfway back when the storm struck. Its wrath was terrible to behold and we were instantly soaked. More importantly, so was all our gear. Steel blades do not appreciate being wet down like that. No, not at all. Michael and I had to split up to get to our respective camps and I promptly took a wrong turn. It was several long, wet, cold minutes before I realized my mistake and turned around. By the time I got back to camp, my mood had soured. There was no sign of Ysabel, which added worry to my list of negatives. I got our gear into the tent and wiped it all down with an old shirt as best I could. It was then that I noticed the next little detail that would plague us that night. The tent leaked. Badly. Right over our bed. The blankets, the pillows, my pajamas, the matress, all soaked. By the time Ysabel got back, I was in such a foul mood that all we could do was snap at each other as we tried to figure out how to deal with the mess. Fortunately, we didn't have to worry about dinner, since the good people we were camping with had arranged the evening meals for us for the entire war. Warm food helped, but was hardly enough to off-set the miserable evening. We spent a cold, wet night sleeping on a damp bed and being constantly dripped on. I swear, that tent is getting weather-proofed within an inch of its life before next year. To its credit, however, it didn't collapse on us under the meteorological assault that continued throughout the night. Others on site weren't so lucky. Fortunately, the next morning dawned quiet and clear. But that, dear reader, is another post.

Gulf Wars, the Arriving (Sunday, March 13th)

2011-03-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

So, we managed to get the van mostly packed up Saturday night, which allowed us to get up early on Sunday and hit the road. And by 'early' I mean 'too damn bloody early for Corbin to reasonably function as a human being'. I'm talking like 4am, if you aren't taking into account the 'Spring Forward' time change that occurred that night. Fortunately, my lovely wife is better at mornings than I am and was the one driving. We threw a few last sundry bits in the vehicle and headed across town to pick up Melisande. The young lady collected, it was time to procure sustenance at that fine merchant of morning meatitude, Hardee's. One loaded omelet biscuit (and a side of hash browns) later and I was feeling almost human again. The road stretched before us, mysterious, inviting and free. We drove in shifts through the lengthening day, napping, chatting, stopping occasionally to pick up a few last items that sprang to mind as we went. It was well into afternoon by the time we reached our destination. Others of our party had arrived at nearly the same time, which was a fortuitous happenstance. After a surprisingly short wait to troll in to site, we all made our way to the Meridian encampment and began setting up what would be our homes for the next week. Here is where we ran into some problems. The space we had to set our tent up in simply refused to accomodate it. No matter how we turned it, the guide ropes would end up in someone else's tent. Finally, the nice couple who had set up previous to us volunteered to move their tent over to better fit the boundries laid our for our group. This done, we finally had enough space and the tent went up nicely. It was dark by the time everything was unloaded, but that was a minor issue. Being exhausted from the day's adventures, we ate a quick supper and retired for the evening. Our first night sleeping in a tent in over two years. We fell asleep remarkably easily. Little did we know what awaited us the following day.

Another Gulf Wars is Over

2011-03-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

Gulf Wars is behind us and it was a blast! I'm just about recovered enough to post a run down of our experiences. Keep an eye on me blog, 'cause I gots some stories to tell!

War is Upon Us!

2011-03-11T09:20:00.001-08:00

It's been two years since our last involvement in the ongoing conflict between Trimaris and Ansteorra. We have learned much since then, but we've also had trials untold that have prevented us from honing our skills as much as we would like. This year, I am not the General of the Meridian Rapier Militia. I'm simply another fighter taking the field in search of glory. But none of that matters. There is no room in our hearts for fear or mercy. Whether we go to victory or to ruin, we go with honor and with pride. Our blades are sharp, our armor shines in the sun and our banners fly proudly on the Southern wind. In two days time, we ride to War!

Fighting Focus

2011-02-23T13:45:00.000-08:00

Last night's fighter practice held some interesting insights into my fighting. I was reminded of just how important the ability to focus really is. I find that if I don't maintain a solid focus, I tend to fight at a significantly lower level. If I'm just "playing around" I get sloppy. If I try too hard, same deal. There is a Zen state that must be reached to fight at one's best. A kind of sharp but diffuse awareness of your surroundings and opponent. You have to commit, but you also have to be loose and sort of "zoned out". It's an odd state to be in, but once your there, it's amazing. When I lose that state, I feel clumsy and out of control. And I lose fights. I realize that this is probably stating the obvious, but it was very much in the forefront of my thoughts last night.

About My Life

2011-02-17T08:31:00.000-08:00

Life continues apace here, but little of it has been noteworthy. It's difficult to know what others will find interesting about my rather bland existence. Sure, I have an unusual hobby, but I can only say "I stabbed people. Again." so many times before it becomes routine. I can say that I recently got a new fencing mask and a new drape to cover the back of my head and make the mask look a little prettier. They are much better then my old ones, which were getting all kinds of worn out. We also invested in new gorgets (steel neck armor) which allows me to use the spaulders (shoulder armor) I bought a long while ago and never could get to work. Along with the gorgets, my wife bought new spaulders, too. So, her Cut and Thrust kit is more or less done. I just need some steel knee cops and maybe a gambeson. With Gulf Wars coming up (big week long event) I should be able to find those there pretty easily. I do need to adjust my bracers and the padding in my helm, but I hope to get to that tonight or tomorrow.

See, that's the kind of thing that we do around here. Exciting, huh? I could go on for hours about learning a new sword trick or how delivering this or that cut is good against such and such defence, but reading about such things isn't nearly as interesting as *doing* them. Part of me is tempted to start telling stories about our events from the perspective of my persona. Make it a work of fiction loosely based on real events. But I really wanted this blog to be broader than that. Unfortunately, I find myself unwilling to write about the day to day minutiae of my mundane life. I would hate to bore people.

Little Things

2011-02-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how the smallest things can cause huge problems. Two spring to mind immediately. Germs, which have given my lovely wife a not-so-lovely chest cold and the ignition switch in my car, which locked up so badly that I had to get a locksmith to fix it. And by "fix it" I mean completely gut the little bastard so that you can now start the car with a screwdriver. Convenient, but not particularly secure. That's been the first half of the week. Can't wait to see what little things will kick my ass in the second half. Maybe I'll get mugged by a gang of freakin' midgets next.

Outside In

2011-02-02T08:33:00.001-08:00

On the outside I am inside looking out, but inside I am outside looking in, trapped by fears learned early on, alone inside my hardened skin. Twisted into something that I had no wish to be, kept at a cold distance by the me that others see.

Frozen

2011-01-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

The world is frozen. Snow and ice have locked down progress and movement for endless days. As outside, so inside. My mind, my spirit, down to my core, frozen solid. Locked in standby mode, hibernating, waiting for the thaw. Icy winds blow strong and fierce, stealing away the heat of creativity, of intellect, of will. A vast tundra of nothingness stretches away, flat, featureless and bleak. There is no hint of Springtime, no trace of warmth, no brave shoots of green growing things defying Winter's dominion. The light is a feeble and ineffective thing, weak and wavering, barely penetrating the crystalline mist that obscures my thoughts. My mind trudges on, weary and cold, to destinations seemingly unreachable, goals unrealized. The world is frozen.

Voices in the Darkness

2011-01-07T07:16:00.001-08:00

What are we, but pinpoints of light floating like stars in the firmament? Lonely voices ringing out, seeking connection across the void. It is when our primal cries are heard that we gain meaning. Even a Universe, total and complete, is as nothing if there are none cognizant of its grandeur.

Holiday Ups and Downs

2010-12-28T13:49:00.000-08:00

Things that suck:

I'm just now recovering from what is probably the worst cold/sinus infection I've had in a very long time. Still feeling rotten, but at least able to function now.

My daughter has been with her mother in North Carolina for the past week and a half and I sorta miss her.

It's been cold, wet and disgusting outside for days.

We ended up dropping $200 on fixing a couple of cracked window panes and I had to pay a cable bill that I thought we'd covered already.

Things that don't suck:

My daughter is coming home today!

We aren't completely broke.

I finished the rough draft of the prologue for my novel.

I got some writing done on a short story project.

I got some seriously cool swag for Xmas/Yule, including Fallout: New Vegas, Assassin's Creed 2, the last season of Avatar: the Last Airbender, the latest season of Doctor Who (on Blu-Ray), the entire Cowboy Bebop series and the feature length movie! I'm going to be busy on the tv for awhile. :)

I also got a pair of steel finger gauntlets for when we fight German Longsword.

My wife really liked everything I got for her. (Yay!)

Overall, the good outweighed the bad, I think. I hope y'all can say the same! Joyous Yule and Happy New Year!

Solstice Eclipsed

2010-12-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

There was a spectacular lunar eclipse that occurred last night. It just happens that today is the Winter Solstice, as well. But, I didn't wake up at 2:30am to look at the celestial show. It was overcast in my area, so there was no point. Also, I have a nasty cold and woke up this morning with the worst sore throat I've had in a while. Even without being sick, I had no plans to celebrate the Solstice in any proper fashion. Instead, I dragged my sick butt out of bed and went to work today. Oh, yeah, the magic of life has definitely ebbed. I feel almost completely bereft of the spark that used to drive me to seek beauty and wonder. The grim, cold, ugly world has won. How sad.

The Monday After

2010-11-29T07:02:00.001-08:00

There's nothing quite like going back to work after a four day weekend. My body always gets used to sleeping late and when it comes time to get up at 6am again, well, lets just say that I'm paying my dues right now. It doesn't help that I spent most of the weekend sitting on my butt watching tv or playing Fallout 3. Damned, bloody, addictive game. So, lack of physical activity plus my natural proclivity to sleeping through the morning equals a screaming headache, stabbing pain in my back, nausea and a deep desire to crawl under my desk to hide. Glorious. Oh, and I didn't even manage to work on my novel like I told myself I would. I'm such a slacker. On a brighter note, I did almost reach level 20 in Fallout. Go me.

Unabundant Profundity

2010-11-19T11:59:00.001-08:00

I feel like I should have something profound to say right now. In an age of Facebook and Twitter, there is pressure to always have something witty to post. Sadly, most days it simply requires too much effort to come up with something original and clever to amuse my hordes of fans. I don't want to post things that are inane or boring, so I end up not posting. Of course, this post is inane and boring, which is a paradox that may very well cause a logical infarction in the fabric of the Internet. Um... nevermind.

Regrets

2010-11-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

"Merciful Father, I have squandered my days with plans of many things. This was not among them. But at this moment, I beg only to live the next few minutes well. For all we ought to have thought, and have not thought; all we ought to have said, and have not said; all we ought to have done, and have not done; I pray thee God for forgiveness." - Ahmed Ibn Fadhlan, The 13th Warrior

An Outrage!

2010-11-08T11:07:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share this in as many places as I could. It should go viral so that everyone can properly express their outrage.

Rich Vail Fund Manager Hits Cyclist and Runs, Gets Off Because Charges Might "Jeopardize His Job"

This Week

2010-11-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

This week has been pretty slow. Ysabel has caught a sniffle, so we haven't been as active. Plus, our weekly DnD game got cancelled for the first time in a long time. I've been home in the evenings every day this week! Catching up on my rest, watching tv, messing around with stuff that I've been putting off at the house. It's been kind of a nice change of pace. I hate when my wife is sick, but the rest is doing us both a lot of good, I think. Of course, she still has grad work to do, which is a bit stressful and there are some other things I could be doing that are "productive", too. But I'm not going to worry about that right now. The pace is sure to pick up again, but in the meantime, I'll take the break.

The Struggle Continues

2010-10-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

I find myself disgusted with the world more often than not. I have trouble finding calm these days, it seems. My mind rages and gnashes its teeth when I allow myself to think of all the unpleasantness that surrounds us. Focus on the positive, I tell myself. It doesn't help. Pessimism is hard to escape. Everything seems covered in a lackluster patina, grey and faded, a pale shadow of the bright colors of youth. There are some moments of clarity, though. Here and there, the sun breaks through and light returns. A woman's smile, the laughter of children, a good meal, an exciting book or movie, a well-fought victory on the fighting field. These are all good things. But the power of good things seems to be growing weaker as the seasons change and the long bitter nights slowly seep into my soul. I know we will endure, possibly even thrive, but sometimes the struggle is all-consuming and hope is hard to come by. Sometimes I feel cold and hollow, eaten up with dread and devoid of comfort. It's good that I'm not alone when such a pall falls over me. I have people willing to pull me back from the edge of the void. I'm very grateful for that.

Withdrawn

2010-10-06T11:54:00.001-07:00

I've been having a hard time feeling any desire to connect with the rest of the world lately. My soul yearns for alien landscapes far removed from the mundane reality of my day-to-day existence. I crave the exotic, the esoteric. I am a wild spirit confined, a dreamer forced to wake up from a dream of golden possibility. I want to experience something fey and beautiful. I want to be lost in an enchanted wood. I want to soar on the wings of a dragon. I want to stand on top of a wizard's tower and command the raging tempest. But, no. Such is not my lot in life. It's hard to accept, sometimes, but what else can I do?

Geek Fail

2010-10-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

A serious error has occurred. Give-a-damn application has shut down. System is attempting a reboot. Please stand by.

No Idea

2010-09-24T11:32:00.000-07:00

It's interesting that with everything that has happened lately, I can't seem to think of anything to blog about. Maybe it's a mental block, a deep-seated reluctance to share my thoughts and feelings with others. Maybe I'm just so overwhelmed that choosing a topic is beyond my frazzled brain's ability. Well, since there is so much, let me sum up. We finally closed on refinancing our mortgage! Yay! What a hellish experience that turned out to be. But, it's done, our monthly payment is lower and we did fix some things on the house that needed fixing.

In other news, we've been going to SCA events practically every weekend for the past month. We have one more this weekend that our group is hosting (which means a lot of work, rather than play) and then we are done for a few weeks, I think. As much as I like the SCA, it will be nice to take a break and do some mundane things that we have been putting off. The event we went to last weekend, Tavern Brawl, was a blast. I ran the rapier fighting there, even though it wasn't our group's event. It went fairly smoothly and there were some hilarious antics that we will remember for quite some time.

Yesterday was Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox. It's a harvest festival in many Pagan traditions. Though I don't observe such holidays with rituals or anything, it still has an impact on me deep down where I keep my limited spiritual awareness. Autumn is here and the weather is about to turn. Cooler weather is forecast for this weekend and it's not likely to hit the mid-80's again for quite some time. This makes me sad, for I am a heat-loving creature. But, the Fall Season has it's own charms, I suppose. I'll just have to make the best of it.

There, I guess I did have some things to talk about, after all. I feel strangely better now. How odd.

International Literacy Day!

2010-09-08T12:36:00.000-07:00

Today is International Literacy Day! Books have been my life long friends ever since I read the Hobbit at the tender age of nine. They have taught me valuable lessons about life, kept me company when I felt utterly alone and taken me on grand adventures of the imagination. The ability to read is a precious gift that I'll never cease to treasure.

Late Summer Blues

2010-09-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

I can feel it coming. The weather is still warm, but my bones can sense the chill that will soon take over. Already, it feels a little strange to be wearing shorts outside. I know it's purely a mental thing, but in my head I'm already shivering. Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of things that I like about Fall. The trees changing colors, bedecking themselves in fiery hues of red, orange and gold. The harvest themes that spring up in peoples' yards and in the stores. The foods associated with the season. And let's not forget Halloween/Samhain, which is honestly my favorite holiday. But, despite all that, Fall is a season of death and decline, by its very nature. Life hunkers down and prepares to endure the unforgiving Winter. The nights grow darker and less friendly, like a jilted lover turning her back on the Sun. It is a season of endings, filled with reminders that all good things eventually turn to dust. As we pass from the lanquid, golden days of Summer, I feel betrayed by fickle Nature. Cast out from the warmth and light to endure once again the fell twilight of Autumn.

Captains Courageous

2010-08-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

Another Tourney of the Foxes has come and gone. For those who aren't familiar with it, Foxes is an event that is put on by the folks down in the Shire of Vulpine Reach (Chattanooga, TN) every year about this time. What makes it noteworthy (at least to me) is the team rapier tourney. In the past, this has consisted of three person teams, but this year, they changed it to five person. So, myself and my old teammates, Captains Ysabel and Feador, recruited two new members, Captains Thomas O'Toole and Mikolaj Pilypas (I hope I spelled that right). We dubbed the new team "Captains Courageous". Now, I'm happy to say that we chose very, very well. Everyone fought with great spirit and skill and we landed another victory in the melee tourney. After the official tourney, we got all the Captains together (except for Cap'n Grimm who was marshalling) and did a "Captains against the world" melee. Ended up being 9 of us vs. 15 of them. I died to a very sneaky shot from Jack Marvell (I may be instructing him a little too well), but in the end, we still had two Captains standing. The rest of the day was devoted to pick up fights and socializing (and chocolate fudge cheesecake!). It was a great day! They are few and far between, lately, but so, so awesome when they happen.

Oh, and special thanks to Ursus and Svana for putting us up Friday night. Y'all are the best!

Thing in the Woods

2010-08-02T10:55:00.001-07:00

Lessons learned (or reinforced) at Thing in the Woods:

1) Against a highly skilled opponent, even the smallest misstep will cost you the fight.
2) Against a less skilled opponent, in a tourney, do not play around. Kill them quickly and move on.
3) Torrential rain followed by blazing hot sun equals a truly disgusting environment in which to do much of anything.
4) The wanton display of pale, hairy man-belly can be forgiven in the event of #3, but only for short periods.
5) Sometimes, you do get recognized for the good things that you do.
6) When receiving accolades, don't try to be funny. Just keep your mouth shut and accept gracefully.
7) Women are fey and dangerous creatures (no, I will not elaborate).
8) Peach lemonade is among the most vile concoctions dreamed up by Man.
9) Having a screaming headache in the middle of a loud, crowded restaurant tends to make Corbin anti-social.
10) Everything hurts more on the second morning after.

The Mystery of Cuts

2010-07-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I've been fighting rapier in the SCA for some time now. I've developed a fair amount of skill at it or so I've been told. But now I'm trying something new. You see, SCA rapier very strongly forbids using percussive cuts. We can stab or pull the blade across the target, but never swing in for a "true" cut. Well, now there's this thing called Cut & Thrust, which adds in the element of percussive cuts and I'm having a devil of a time figuring out how to deal with them. According to the fencing masters I study, thrusts are superior to cuts and they go on to explain how that is so, however, something about the dynamics of blocking a series of aggressively thrown cuts eludes me. Painfully so, in fact. Very frustrating. I guess it's back to square one to train myself in this new form. Oh, bother.

Star Stuff

2010-06-24T10:42:00.001-07:00

A co-worker mentioned today that we are supposedly all made of dirt. I pointed out that we are technically made of carbon, water and heavy elements cooked up during the process of star formation. This got me thinking. It boggles my mind that the Universe is so wondrous. Think of the billions of years that have passed, all the complex interactions that have occurred, all the incredible physical processes that have led up, slowly, inexorably, to you and me. Our noble pedigree is assured by the very fact that we exist at all. That out of the intricate dance of cosmic chance, the beautiful, dissonant cacophony of Creation, we are the result. It also, then, makes me sad to know how many of us choose to occupy our existence. How we look to the petty, the hateful, the vulgar. I am just as guilty as anyone else, of course. I, too, find myself caught up in the dirty, trivial world we perceive with our limited senses. I admit that it is overwhelming and so very seductive. But, unlike many, I long to rise above it, if only in my mind, and find a sublime elegance, a nobility, that befits our celestial origin. We may be imperfect beings in an imperfect world, but we have the potential, here, now, in this life, to be worthy of our amazing heritage. For we are the stuff of stars...

Father's Day Weekend

2010-06-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty interesting Father's Day weekend. Not only was it Father's Day, but my step-son had his 14th birthday, too. Yes, same day. He decided to have some friends over on Friday night to celebrate a little early, though. They mostly played on the Xbox 360 all night. In other news, I finally got the check engine light in my car to go off. Had to replace the EGR valve. Not difficult, really, but the part cost over $100 dollars. Got the vacuum cleaner fixed last week, too. Now we only have a few dozen other issues outstanding. Whoo-hooo! Aside from that, I also got some of my rapier armor adjusted (some old, some new) thanks mostly to my lovely wife. She's awesome! Then I got to wear said armor to fight at a rapier demo on Sunday. There weren't a lot of fighters there, but we made the most of it and got in some great fights. After that it was off to dinner with friends at O'Charley's. I ate too much, but that's what dad's are supposed to do on Father's Day right? Once we got home I had orange creme cheesecake for dessert (NOM!) and got to play a bit on my new video game. It's an Old West themed game for the Xbox with lots of shootin' and 'splosions. Me likey! And now it's Monday (which also happens to be the Summer Solstice) and there's a ton of other stuff to take care of this week. It never ends, but sometimes, just sometimes, life is good!

Life, The Game of

2010-06-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, I understand that life happens and stuff, but does it all have to happen at the same time?? Too many bloody things breaking down around here right now. House issues, car issues, computer issues. Even freakin' vacuum cleaner issues! Enough already!

Family Values?

2010-05-11T09:21:00.001-07:00

I was driving to work this morning and wound up behind a pick up truck with a pair of those "truck testicles" hanging from the trailer hitch. Now, normally, I merely shrug at such displays and think "whatever, dude", but in this case, two things stood out. One, this particular set of automotive genitalia were colored a vibrant, eye-catching shade of blue. Two, the vehicle in question eventually turned into an *elemetary school parking lot*! I have to wonder exactly what message this "gentleman" was trying to convey and, perhaps more indicative of our society's screwed up "family values", why nobody seemed to have an issue with their innocent little darlin's being exposed to it. These are probably some of the same conservative "family values" voters who throw hissy fits about gay marriage or flashes of naked boobies on public television. But apparently, simulated scrotums hanging out in public school parking lots are just fine and dandy. Go figure.

Deep is My Unmotivation

2010-04-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

Is it a bad thing that I don't want to do anything right now? It seems like all I want to do is sleep. Getting up in the morning is a struggle. Work is a struggle. Practicing swordplay is a struggle. The daily grind is grinding me down to a nub. I should be looking forward to going to Crown List this weekend and fighting in the Queen's Prize tourney, but all I can think is what a royal pain it will be. Sorry about the pun. Even my sense of humor is lazy right now, I guess. Hate being in the doldrums.

There is too much...

2010-04-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

So much has happened since my last post. Not sure where to begin. I know I haven't posted in forever. For some reason my motivation just went away. We were all sick for a long time back in February. Almost a whole month. Some stupid viral thing that just wouldn't go away.

I was in a car accident back in the beginning of February, too. It was a four car pile up. Fortunately, I was the fourth car and only got grazed. Cracked the driver side door panel, took a chunk out of it and removed my driver side mirror. I've been driving it like that ever since. The insurance company of the driver that actually hit me finally made good, so hopefully that will get fixed in a week or so. The body shop is booked up for the next several days, sadly, but at least I have the money now.

We had a problem with our heating/cooling unit. Cost an arm and a leg to fix. Turned out to be a hole in a copper tube that caused all the freon to leak out. We went for a couple of weeks without any climate control in the house. Not fun, but fixed now. We also have started looking into getting our bathrooms remodeled. We have a small leak coming from the upstairs one and the downstairs is just... icky. Thought we had a bad mold problem, too, but it turned out to be a lot better than we suspected.

We've done some other remodeling on the house. New curtains, some fresh paint. Still in the process of painting the outside. The nasty browns just had to go. That's what we were dealing with when another bomb dropped (metaphorically speaking). My wife's ex, the father of my two step kids, died unexpectedly. I won't go into details (a lot of you already know about it), but it really tore the kids up. My wife, too. I mean, sure he ended up causing her no end of grief, but she was married to him for a long time before he left her. I totally understand how she feels. So, instead of us finishing the painting last week, we had to deal with the emotional fallout. Then I ended up going to the memorial service. That was awkward, but we didn't get the stink eye from as many people as I expected. At this point, we just have to deal with all the complications that will ensue now that he's gone, which may prove less than pleasant.

So, lots going on, including the SCA event season kicking up into high gear and my step-daughter graduating high school and preparing to go off to college. 2010 seems to be the year of big changes. I'll try a little harder to share them as they happen, but sometimes it gets pretty overwhelming and writing on my blog isn't exactly at the top of the priority list. I'm sure y'all understand.

Going to Hell

2010-01-11T08:34:00.000-08:00

Yep, as if there were any doubt before, it's pretty much a done deal now. I'm going to Hell.* Here's the story of my inevitable damnation. We had an SCA event this past weekend that was hosted by our Shire. We typically do a small, relatively laid back event for 12th Night about this time of year. In this instance, my wife was tapped to organize things and we ended up holding the event at her church. Well, it was far to cold outside to do any fighting, so mostly it's a lot of Arts & Sciences classes. For us fightin' types, who have little interest in making fruit men or learning to knit period socks (not that there's anything wrong with any of that), it means a lot of sitting around and talking. Well, I had planned for such a contingency by bringing along some dice and card games. Not necessarily period, but fun. I was actually eager to try out a dice game that Duke Seth had shown us recently at a mundane get-together. It's a type of gambling game, but we could just as easily use tokens rather than actually gambling for money. We ended up using Hershey's Kisses. The dice we were using are simulated "bone" dice and I thought to myself "if only we had a nice wooden dice cup to go with these". You know, to add to the ambiance. Well, it just so happened that the only merchant in attendance had a rather spiffy looking wooden goblet for sale, cheap. So, I buys it and we proceed to have a rollicking good time playing at dice for a couple of hours. Sometime afterward, the merchant comes up to me and informs me that the goblet in question was made of genuine olive wood. That's pretty neat, says I. Yes, he continues, it came all the way from the Holy Land. Hmmm...., thinks me, that's a good shtick ya got there, pal. No really, he continues (apparently seeing the disbelief on my face), someone brought it over from the Middle East. So, in effect, I had us all gambling (for chocolate, no less) in a church, using an item that came from the birthplace of the Abrahamic religions. Wow! Maybe it was the Holy Grail itself! It was certainly, as others pointed out later, grail-shaped. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna burn. But, you know, it's ok. Most of the interesting people are going to end up in Hell anyway.

*this is provided, of course, that I am not already in Hell. A cold, frozen Hell that I just can't seem to escape from.

Happenings

2009-12-23T08:04:00.000-08:00

So much has happened since I last posted. Let me explain... no, it is too much. Let me sum up. December has been a difficult month. We had not one, but two or three major crises at work over the course of a two week period. Mostly involving our incompetent hosting company taking our servers down. We simply can't go down, especially at this time of year. Too many of our clients run 24/7 and for us to go down during the holiday rush is unacceptable. There was much screaming and gnashing of teeth. The bad part was that I was the one on call during the first week that we started having these issues. It has been officially dubbed "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Fortunately, we have almost finalized moving to a new hosting company and things are now fairly calm. Plus, I'm no longer on call.

In other news, the corporate consumer machine continues unabated. We've nearly bankrupted ourselves trying to cover the family's Xmas wish lists. Personally, I prefer the more spiritually significant Winter Solstice of Pagan tradition than the overly garish, artificially promoted, modern Christmas. I have no issue with Christians' reason for celebrating, but in my eyes, the *Season* is the reason for the season. Still, we are programmed practically from birth to participate in the orgy of consumerism that marks the Winter holiday here in America. And I have to admit, I generally get some good swag for it. I'd rather not go into massive amounts of debt, but at this point, it's more or less expected.

Our gaming group has finished up our Serenity campaign (based on the Firefly television series by Joss Whedon). The final adventure involved a heist on a space liner (netting us 1.5 million credits), having our ship taken over by my character's sadistic brother and his para-military goons, and after taking out all twenty of his guys, me getting to have a "showdown at high noon" scene in which I (barely) out-drew my nemesis in a pistol duel, killing him and leaving my character gravely wounded. Good times. The next thing on the gaming horizon is a Dungeons and Dragons campaign using the Ebberon game setting. I'll be running that one to give our regular DM a break. Plus, I really love that particular world. It has a great "cinematic" tone that is reminiscent of the wild and woolly adventure serials of yesteryear. Think "King Solomon's Mines" and "Indiana Jones" meets "Lord of the Rings", with a little "James Bond" thrown in for good measure. If I know our game group, it should turn out to be a real hoot.

One last thing of note. As many of you know, Ysabel broke her finger a few weeks ago in a longsword tourney. I'm happy to report that it is healing nicely and she is starting the physical therapy phase of her recovery. She's out of her cast/splint and just has a couple of velcro straps holding her pinky to her ring finger now. She can even take them off to do her exercises. So, that's a positive note among all the upheaval and chaos.

It's been a rough month, like I said, but we are looking forward with hope to the coming year. Whether you observe the Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah or nothing at all, may you know peace, comfort and contentment this holiday season.

The Darkness of the Balance

2009-11-24T07:34:00.000-08:00

It is the belief of some that the Universe requires a balance between Dark and Light in order to function. You can't know good without evil, etc. Well, that may be true, but it kind of sucks for people that have to live on the wrong side of that equilibrium. Someone has to lose, I guess, in order for anyone to win, but how is it fair to the ones that play that losing role all the time? I know, I know, life isn't fair. I do tend to hope that somewhere, somehow, it balances out on a personal level, not just a cosmic one. It's nice to think that in the long term, everyone who suffers and is beaten down will end up on top in their turn. Somehow, I kind of doubt it, but it's a nice thought. Have to keep plodding after that carrot, after all. Otherwise, what's the point?

Anniversary Weekend

2009-10-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

The past weekend, my wife and I went out of town to Gatlinburg, TN for our anniversary. Now, I like a good tourist trap as much as the next guy, but when it comes to pure, unadulterated pandering to the American tourist ideal, nothing beats Gatlinburg. It's actually three towns all strung in a line leading from I-40 up to the Great Smoky Mountains. During the busy season (that would be right now) the traffic going in on Friday and leaving on Sunday is so bad that it can take two hours or more to go twenty miles. Most of the way, unsuspecting drivers are subject to tacky roadside attractions and glaring lights to rival the Vegas strip. The amusement park ambiance is given a slightly disturbing spin by Hillbilly chic that has to be seen to be believed. It's all in good fun, of course, but it can leave one wondering just exactly who it was that thought that this was in any way sublime or attractive to the eye.

We managed to get to our hotel after much grumbling and cursing at the traffic. I have to be honest, I expected the worst when we got to our room. Thankfully, I was wrong. The room was amazingly clean and not in the least run down. There was a gas fireplace, a jacuzzi tub and the whole thing was far classier than a chain hotel had any right to be. We settled in and then went back out to do some shopping and hunt down a meal. The traffic had thinned a bit, so it didn't take us as long to get around this time. Still, by the time we had eaten a nice supper (at Olive Garden) and made it back to the room, it was kind of late. Even so, we couldn't resist eating the dessert that we had brought back with us. The white chocolate raspberry cheesecake was heavenly. After that, we soaked in the tub for a while and then hit the sack, expecting a busy day on Saturday.

The weather Saturday morning was daunting, to say the least. Cold, rainy and miserable. Made it hard to get out of the nice soft, warm bed. But, we had plans, so off into the wet we went. We got to the main part of Gatlinburg (our hotel was one town over, in Pigeon Forge) early enough to get a decent place to park near the convention center and bummed around until the craft show that she wanted to go to opened. I'm not much for Southern country kitsch, but even I will admit that there were some very good artisans putting their wares up for sale at this show. We found her some nice mementos to take back home with us and then took a break to grab some food. Then it was walking up and down the main drag in the rain until we couldn't stand the crowds anymore. We picked up a few more items from the copious merchants that haunt downtown Gatlinburg and then headed out for the Tuckaleechee Caverns. I had seen an brochure for the cave on the way in and, having a fondness for the deep places of the world, convinced Ysabel to check it out. It was a long and winding road to get there, but the hour+ long tour was well worth it. The cavern was amazing! A lot of walking and stairs, but amazing, nonetheless.

We wound up sore, tired, cold and wet by the time we got back to the hotel. From then on, we were total bums, doing little but eating and sleeping until it was time to go home on Sunday. We stopped by a few more stores on the way out and then it was on to Knoxville to hang out with some of our rapier peeps at their local practice in the park. The weather was still chilly, but the company was good. They had a cookout after the fighting, so we mooched lunch off of them before we finally headed home.

All in all, one of the better weekend outings we've had. We are now very broke, of course, but we had a damn good time getting that way.

I'm tired

2009-10-05T08:22:00.001-07:00

Just thought I'd share with the world how bloody tired I am. I know, it's nothing new or even the slightest bit important. I know that I'm indulging in gratuitous public whining. I even know that I'm not in any way alone in having to get up out of a warm bed (repeatedly) in the middle of the night to deal with a crisis at work. Despite knowing all that, somewhere deep inside me is a little voice that rebels against the cold, hard nature of our lives. Who was it that decided that the world had to be this way? I certainly wasn't consulted, I know that much. I never got asked, "Hey, would you like to live in a universe where 75% of everything is a pain in the ass?" Nope. Missed that interview question, I guess. Didn't get the memo or something. So, I have to wonder if there exists anywhere out there, in the vast reaches of the infinite Multiverse, a place where only 25% of everything is so tedious and exhausting. If so, I'd like to sign up for a transfer, please. Barring that, I'd settle for a few more hours of sleep. Funny how we lower our expectations, huh?

Another Milestone

2009-09-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

As of Saturday, September 26th 2009, I have been alive for four decades. I've lived through some serious history on this chaotic dirtball of a planet and some really screwed up things that have happened to me personally. Turning forty is something that, in my youth, I couldn't have imagined. One never thinks about getting old when one is a teen or even a twenty-something. Now, I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, my body is definitely not what it used to be (which was never very good to begin with, really) and there is a sense that I have wasted my youth without much to show for it. On the other hand, I'm rather proud that I've managed to survive to this point and things could be (and have been) much, much worse. I know that there are still many good things to come, but there is also the fear of what could go so suddenly and catastrophically wrong. As I said, mixed feelings.

All that aside, I did have a pretty good day for my birthday. We started the day with some geeky fun at a "pre-release" tourney for the latest Magic the Gathering set (Zendikar). I love the way this set plays! The setting is awesome and the new rules click for me very well. I got some very good cards, won a couple of rounds before we dropped to go do other things and had a couple of very impressive plays. After that, we went home and picked up the kids to go meet people at Red Robin for dinner. The plan was to eat, hit a nearby bookstore (I love browsing the shelves in the sci-fi/fantasy section) and then head out to Dave and Busters for some evening entertainment. Unfortunately, it being a Saturday night, Dave and Busters was a little too popular. It was so crowded that we decided to forgo that plan in favor of a much less frequented bowling alley a few minutes from the mall. The place turned out to be nearly empty and most of the people that were there were old even compared to me. I was glad that there weren't very many witnesses to see how much I suck at bowling. I throw to the left so badly that nearly every throw was a gutterball. I did manage one strike, at the very end of the last game. I was starting to get the hang of it, I think. Of course, by then my wrist was aching and my back was twinging something fierce. Oh, yeah, I'm forty all right.

I got a couple of gift cards for various restaurants and Ysabel got me the entire Kung Fu series on dvd (the old 70's show with David Carradine), which was one of the main inspirations for me to get into martial arts when I was a kid. By the time we got home, it was too late for cake, but we made up for it Sunday night after we got home from rapier practice. I love me some cheesecake and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake is even better! So, overall, a good weekend, with only a few minor issues to speak of (which I won't). If I live another forty years, I'll be surprised, but what's important is that life now ain't half bad and I have hope that it will continue to stay that way.

Autumn's Grace

2009-09-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

Today is the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a time of balance between day and night, when Summer fades and we begin the slow slide toward the long, dark months of Winter. The modern Pagan Wheel of the Year calls today Mabon. It is the second of three harvest festivals that celebrate the bounty of the Earth Mother and the imminent death of the Sun God on Samhain (Oct. 31st). He is reborn on Yule (the Winter Solstice) when the Wheel turns and the days start growing longer again. As the leaves fall from the trees and the night air grows chill, I hope that everyone is able to enjoy this harvest season with warmth, comfort and good fellowship. Happy Mabon!

Weekend of Woe

2009-09-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

Holiday weekends are supposed to be fun and relaxing, right? This past one was anything but. Friday night consisted of everyone being in such a foul mood that we cancelled our plans to play cards. I'd been looking forward to trying out the new Magic variant, Planechase, but it was simply not to be. I was understandably disappointed.

On Saturday, we went to an SCA event and I wound up fighting worse than I have in a while. My heart just wasn't in it. Got hit in the same spot where I cracked a rib last Spring and also ended up straining a muscle above my left knee. Both still hurt more than they should right now. Thanks to my weakened leg, I learned an important lesson in balance and tempo when I tried to shift the weight off of it just as my opponent was launching a shot. With all my weight going forward onto my front leg, I couldn't back up to avoid the hit. It was nice to see everyone at the event, but by the time we went home I was not in the best of shape.

Sunday we did manage to sleep in a bit and get some rest. To be honest the first half of the day is kind of a blur. I know I finished off the book I've been reading (Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson), which was good. In the evening we finally got to play the new Planechase set. Played two games, lost two games. It was a preview of how Monday was going to go.

Monday (Labor Day) morning around 4:30am, my pager went off. There was an issue at work and since I was the on-call person until 7am that morning, I got to try and deal with it. Well, it turned out to be something I couldn't fix, but that didn't stop me from trying. For three hours. By the time 7:30 rolled around, I was at the end of my rope. I left messages for my bosses, telling them I had done everything I could and it was the next guy's turn. Then I went back to bed and dozed fitfully until about noon. Not exactly restful sleep. Then I got up and we got started putting together the step-son's new basketball goal. Little did I know that these new goals require a mechanical engineering degree to assemble. It took us close to four hours of sweating, cursing and the occasional bit of improvisation to get the stupid thing done. Then I had to run to the store for light bulbs, break out the ladder and replace all the bulbs in our stairwell ceiling fan. This generally requires leaning out over a long drop to get to all of them. Did I mention that tall ladders give me serious vertigo? I was shaking and sweating even more by the time that was done. But, no rest for the wicked! I barely had time to shower before we had to head out for Shakespeare in the Park. They were doing "The Complete Works of Shakespeare: Abridged". It was funny, I will admit. Under better circumstances, I might have enjoyed it more. As it was, it took me a while to relax and appreciate the humor.

This morning, I get to work and find out that the problem that had plagued me the previous morning had taken three people until 9pm last night to fix. The client had been down all day and was not happy. I kind of feel like it's my fault somehow, even though I know it's not. So much for being refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the week after a holiday weekend. And it doesn't look like things are going to calm down for the next several days.

Across the Multiverse!

2009-09-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I find this grimy, unforgiving world we live in to be just a tad on the oppressive side sometimes. It is, therefore, a good thing when an opportunity comes along to escape it for a while. Books and movies are, of course, the primary vehicle for such a journey these days, but they aren't the only ones. Games, too, have become a way for us to explore the realms of the imagination and, unlike the other media, which allow us only to observe, games can let us interact with these worlds in a more satisfying way. Case in point, Magic the Gathering (what, you thought I was talking about World of Warcraft?). This card game has taken me on quite a wild ride over the years. I started playing about a year after the game's inception and it has been an on again, off again companion ever since. Recently, the gaming wizards responsible for producing Magic have come up with a unique new idea for us to enjoy. You see, the gist of the game's concept is that each player is a "Planeswalker", a being who is born with a special 'spark' that allows them to navigate between different realities, gathering magical power as he/she/it goes. This is represented by the collection of cards one gathers over time. New sets with new abilities come out every so often to keep the game fresh. However, the worlds themselves, the "planes" of reality where this all takes place have never been integrated into the gameplay as actual cards. Now they have. As a variant to the basic game, you can now buy "planes cards" that you can use to "planeswalk" during the course of the game. Each world has an effect on the game rules, but to me that's secondary. What is primary is that you actually feel like you are battling a rival "planeswalker" across a Multiverse of unique worlds during the course of the game. And that is just Fantasy Gamer Nerd Heaven! :)

I don't mean to sound like an advertisement for the game maker, but the new cards come out today and I'm fairly excited about getting to play with them tonight. I know what you are thinking. I'm too old to be into this kind of thing, right? Well, maybe. But maybe imagination isn't something that should only be the province of youth. I'll take my "weird" hobbies over boring mundanity any day.

Desperately Seeking Inspiration

2009-09-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

So, I'm trying to come up with an entry for a monthly "Flash Fiction" contest on one of the SciFi/Fantasy sites that I frequent. The theme this month is "Super Powers" and I have to admit, this one has me stumped. It's going to be a real challenge to come up with something original in a genre that has been done to death. I have one idea that sounds good in theory, but the execution is proving to be a bit tricky. If I'm not careful, I'll have another flop on my hands. I tend to either do really well or completely flub it. There's rarely an in between with my stories. Well, nothing for it but to try and crank something out in the next little while, I suppose. Maybe if I just go with my gut and then polish it from there, it won't turn out too badly. Wish me luck!

Tourney of the Foxes Videos!

2009-08-31T08:09:00.000-07:00

First Round:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ETpObwLv5A

Second Round:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KStEN--7SMA

Third Round:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiNia8f9lLY

Fourth Round:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxcSNOr6ALQ

Fifth Round:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbAV31YRPZs

Sixth Round:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y1tLLZALdk

Seventh Round:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob_aekHUXB0

Eighth Round:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQrtXl1lpa8

Unfortunately, the batteries died before the final round, but it went well and we ended up going undefeated. The hardest fight we had was against Captain Thomas O'Toole, Pepper and Baron Thorgrimm of Atlantia in round eight.

P.S. Special thanks to my step-son, Daniel, for running the camera for us.

Return of the Living Blog

2009-08-31T07:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, I admit it. I haven't updated my blog in like forever. But I didn't mean to neglect this medium of self-expression. I was seduced by the Facebook side of the Force. It's so easy to lose yourself in the bells and whistles of social networking and forget about the basics. So, I'm going to try and make better use of this outlet of information. Starting with some links to videos of us fighting at Tourney of the Foxes, which I'll put in a new post as soon as time allows. Enjoy!

The Principles of Aquisition

2009-07-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to my musings regarding the power of material possessions, I just wanted to share some of the items that have mysteriously (not really) appeared in our home lately. Since my last post we have managed to purchase, through various means, a new sectional sofa complete with two recliners and a hide-a-bed, a 42" flat screen HDTV, a new entertainment center, an Xbox 360 (courtesy of my step-son), new landscaping for a problematic patio in front of the house and various and sundry smaller items such as new dvd's and games. We've also managed to pay off one of our more vexing credit cards. When life starts going this well, I get nervous. Surely something is going to go horribly wrong and put us even farther in debt than we've ever been before. Nothing comes without cost and I'm not just talking about money. I'm waiting for the bomb to drop and wipe out all of our gains. Paranoid? Maybe. But I've seen it happen too often to trust in fate. In the meantime, though, I'm more than happy to kick back in my recliner and play new video games in high definition on my new big screen tv. Oh, yeah, baby!!

The Power of Material Things

2009-06-19T07:19:00.001-07:00

It's amazing how much power physical possessions can have over us. We get into routines of need and want that are very hard to break sometimes. Our material existence is bound up with all kinds of strange devices that are supposed to bring us comfort and make our lives more satisfying. For the most part, having nice things is... well, nice, but if we dwell too much on the items that we want and, for lack of money or availability, can't get, then it can be a terribly frustrating ordeal. There is a large list of fairly expensive things that we have been wanting to purchase for quite some time. Some are things that I want and my wife doesn't really care about and, of course, there are some that she thinks are necessities that I find kind of pointless. But in the end, we usually manage to agree that we need/want x items in the near future. This has proven to be an ongoing battle with temptation. We already have a significant amount of debt that eats into our monthly budget. We don't want to incur more right now. However, that big screen lcd tv has been waiting for us to give it a home for a couple years now, our king size mattress is getting lumpy and uncomfortable, our downstairs sectional couch is falling apart, our fridge is getting on in years, it would be really nice to remodel the downstairs bathroom, etc., etc., ad nauseum. So we debate endlessly on how to go about spending our money and very little actually gets bought that isn't an immediate need. And so the frustration at our lack of progress builds. I don't blame my wife. She and I have both been burned before by over-extending our finances. I try to tell myself that it's only "stuff" and it's not that important. But we have been raised in a culture that places great value on possessions, however shallow that may be in the grand scheme of life. I should be above that nonsense, but part of me is vulnerable to it. It's difficult to admit to oneself that buying frivolous stuff makes one happy and fills a void of sorts. I think it has a lot to do with the sense of power that comes with finally getting something that has been out of reach for so long. My wife fusses at me for "beating a dead horse" every time I mention making certain large purchases that we have been putting off. I know it's irritating to her to hear me gripe about such things. I hope she can forgive that particular character flaw because, in the final tally of success in this life, her happiness means far more to me than all the gadgets and physical comforts in the world.

I Need Serenity...

2009-06-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

For those of you familiar with the Firefly series and it's big screen follow up, Serenity, you may want to check out the pen and paper RPG version. We are planning a role-playing campaign using that setting and rule set and it looks to be a hoot. The rule book is written with the same wry humor of the source material and it gives some very in-depth information about the game world. I've already got a character in mind, a big, burly security type. Pretty standard with a couple of twists (always got to have twists, after all). Haven't got all the wrinkles worked out just yet, but I'm already looking forward to playing. We are just tiny little bundles of hopes and fears floating through the Black, but with a good ship and solid crew, no power in the 'Verse can stop us! Shiny!

Malicious Microorganisms

2009-06-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have been assaulted by germy invaders that delight in tormenting me. A viral sinus infection, the doctor says. Nothing serious enough to be life threatening, of course. Not much the medical community can do about it. Just tough it out, sonny boy. Get lots of rest, drink lots of fluids. Purge you body, bolster you immune system, take over-the-counter drugs. Well, I knew to do all that already, so going to the doctor seems kind of pointness, after the fact. I can't just stop my day to day activities for the sake of getting "rest". I have responsibilities, after all. So, unless I'm completely debilitated, what I end up with is long stretches of low grade misery as I try to carry on with my normal routine. I'm tired of being subjected to the whims of non-sentient (supposedly) microcosmic forces that flare up whenever my immune system is the slightest bit stressed. I can only seek to focus on the positive right now. After all, had I lived even a hundred years ago, I would have probably died in early childhood. Now, I can at least look forward to old age, when the health problems will be much, much worse than merely annoying. That's a happy thought....

Notes from the Nerdscape

2009-05-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

Amazingly, we actually managed to see a couple of geekish-type movies the weekend they hit theaters in the past couple weeks. The Wolverine: Origins movie was awesome! The new Star Trek reboot was Freakin' Awesome! I was stunned by how well the material was handled, despite some "science issues" in both movies. Suspension of disbelief comes fairly easy for me (it's a movie, get over it!), but there are times when something happens that is illogical enough to be jarring. Fortunately, these problems were kept to a minimum and the quality of everything else was enough for me to be forgiving. Especially since the average movie-goer probably wouldn't have noticed them at all. For instance, in the Wolverine movie, Deadpool had sword blades extend from his wrists. These blades were long enough that, had they been one solid piece stored in his arms, he would not have been able to bend his elbows at all. A Star Trek example was the fact that they beamed Kirk and Capt. Pike off the enemy ship while the shields were (seemingly) still up. It is a well-known fact that this is not possible according to Star Trek physics. But, as I said, these are minor nit-picks. The well-written characters, snappy dialogue, amazing FX and other goodness more than makes up for them. We will be buying these movies on DVD when they come out, for sure. Also, it looks like both will be spawning sequels. Let us hope that the quality remains at a consistent level or perhaps even improves in subsequent productions.

Oh, one final note. It continues to irk me that while the super hero and science fiction genres both continue to shine on the big screen, we have yet to see a significant number of fantasy movies that reach the same pinnacle of quality. There is a plethora of amazing fantasy literature out there just ripe for the picking, if the studio execs would just get their collective heads out of their butts long enough to realize it. The few series that have managed to get the blockbuster treatment have been wildly successful (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Narnia series), but where is my big budget Dragonlance movie?! Or maybe a series based in the Forgotten Realms? I am encouraged by HBO's attempt to deliver a Game of Thrones series, but we are talking the tip of the iceberg here. Come on Hollywood, get over the "fantasy is for kiddie movies and b-movies" bullcrap and give us what we want, dammit!

Time is the Enemy

2009-05-07T07:26:00.001-07:00

Rather, not having enough time is the enemy of keeping up with a blog. Curse this linear timestream to which we are all captive. I must endeavor to slip my temporal bonds and resume the documentation of events that shape my reality. That will show Time who's boss, dang it!

Gulf Wars Summary

2009-04-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

Well, it's a bit late, but here it is. A synopsis of a summary of some of the highlights from my Gulf Wars 2009 experience. Enjoy.

We got there Sunday and managed to set up our tent right before the rain started. It didn't stop until Monday night. We spent all day Monday walking around in the wet, shopping with Her Majesty and one of her Ladies. I bought a new Cut and Thrust sword and a new buckler to go with it.

The weather turned really nice on Tuesday and we fought all day. Came damn close to winning the 6-man melee tourney. Won 3 out of 4 fights, just missing out on the finals.

Wednesday I got shot at with arrows in a Combat Archery Rapier battle. Then fought for the Queen in a tourney. Didn't win, though, sadly. That night we helped with the Meridian Party, which had a Goth theme this year. Hilarity ensued. I got a skull cane to go with my black outfit and it got dubbed "The Pimp Stick of Doom!". Respect the Stick!! I also facilitated the negotiations to hook up one of the North Shield Kingdom's better-looking Rapier people with one of Her Majesties Ladies. When he realized what was going on, he looked at me and said "You... are the Devil!". Well, duh!

Thursday we had our big Field Battle. We got stomped in the first two engagements due to lack of numbers on our side. We got some reinforcements for the friendship battle afterwards and Meridies went apesh*t crazy on the left flank. Tore it up reeeeeeal good. We won that one. Go figure.

Friday I was sick in the morning, but recovered in time to fight in another big battle. That one was a 45 minute long "resurrection" battle in the Ravine. We were heavily outnumbered (again), but Meridies charged bravely into the right flank over and over again and actually took it down a couple times. I was proud of our people even though we lost. Later that night we went shopping again and I got a leather cavalier hat and a new period long coat. Dashing, simply dashing!

Saturday we ran a charity tourney for the Sarah Cannon (Minnie Pearl) Cancer Foundation. Raised over $300 dollars. Very happy about that. Later we fought in the Fort battles. I got nailed in the ribs during the very first engagement hard enough to just about put me on the ground. Pretty sure I cracked a rib, but I fought the rest of the day anyway. C'est la guerre...

Sunday was relatively uneventful as we packed up and went home.

Overall, we worked our butts off, got the crap beat out of us and wound up bruised, sore, sunburnt and exhausted. It was awesome!

Still here

2009-03-31T07:44:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I haven't forgotten about my blog. I've just been slammed at work and at home, so haven't had time to post any of the most recent stuff that's been going on. I expect I'll put up a report on Gulf Wars as time permits. That is all.

Challenging Times

2009-03-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, so, I'm going to whine a bit here. Sue me. The past week has been rather challenging. It's funny how life decides to throw multiple issues at us at once. Funny "strange", not funny "ha ha". It's not amusing in the least, believe me. To start with, we are frantically getting things together for Gulf Wars, our big, week-long SCA event that starts in about a week. This includes several frustrating projects that have not been particularly cooperative. We've had to drop a lot more money than I'm comfortable with to accomplish our goals, as well. To top that off, I was on call with work all last week, which is always emotionally exhausting. Then, as if the above stresses weren't enough, the transmission in our van self-destructed in a fit of pique. So much for our recently paid off credit card balance. Sure, it is supposed to be fixed before we need it to go to Gulf Wars, but the price tag is enough to make us wince. Oh, and did I mention that Ysabel has bronchitis? Not fun. She had to miss out on going to the Northern Regional Practice on Saturday and was very unhappy about it. I managed to go by loading all of my (and Dougal's) gear into my piddly little car. It was not happy to have to haul that load all the way up to Crossville, TN. The practice itself demonstrated just how out of shape I am, too. I got to try out my new rapier helm, but the silly thing proved to be too heavy for my back and neck to support for very long. Between that and the complicated new dagger guards I'm trying to learn, I have a lovely knot in my back that feels like someone inserted an ice pick right next to my spine and left it there. I need to work on building up my "core" muscles, apparently.

On the good side, the camp bed is done and we have a memory foam pad on the way to use as a mattress. Our rapier students all got to come to the Regional and spent some time fighting each other. They seemed to have a blast and I got to work with Jack and Rayne some, which is always nice. Dougal got a couple more authorizations out of the way and I helped Piers, a new fighter from the Thor's Mtn. group, to authorize, as well. It was a productive day that was only marred by Ysabel's absence and the problem with my helm. I'm no longer on call at work, which is a huge weight off my shoulders. We seem to be on track to have everything ready for Gulf Wars. And last, but not least, I'm not completely broke.... yet. I guess you take the bad with the good, huh?

Meatless Monday

2009-03-02T10:46:00.000-08:00

I haven't eaten anything remotely resembling meat so far today. Not out of any moral objection to eating the flesh of tasty animals, but because I was in a hurry and forgot to pick up a lunch at the store this morning. Rather than going out to get fast food (which I am trying really hard to avoid), I just decided to eat more of the stuff I bought for breakfast and snacks. Breakfast consisted of a granola bar (with 5 grams of soy protein) and a cup of peach chunks. Lunch was another protein bar, a different granola bar left over from last week (mmmmm... fiber) and a handful of dried apricots. Unfortunately, my metabolism is that of a carnivore, so I'm feeling really weird right now. Too many complex sugars, not enough protein to soak up the resulting insulin rush. Reality is warping in unpleasant ways.

Sorry, PETA, but ingesting your furry little buddies is a necessity to my continued well-being. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't take their sacrifice for granted. I'm very grateful to them for giving up their earthly forms that I may live. That said, Meatless Monday is not destined to become a lasting tradition. In fact, I doubt I'll make it all the way though the day without feasting on one of your cute, cuddly barnyard pals. You know what they say, "Meat is murder. Yummy, yummy murder...".

Sleeping Arrangements

2009-02-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

We recently decided that, with Gulf Wars looming on the near horizon, we were tired of sleeping on uncomfortable (and seperate) cots while camping. So, we looked around for plans for a DIY camp bed. Having found a design that seemed simple enough for us to put together without a woodshop and major carpentry skills, we headed out to Home Depot to get the lumber. We fully expected to have to cut the boards to length ourselves with a hand saw, a process that I was not particularly looking forward to. Luckily, once we had picked out suitable pieces of former green growing things, we realized that the Home Depot people could cut them all for us in a matter of just a few minutes. I was overjoyed at the amount of strenuous labor that this saved us. We ordered the fastener hardware Monday and are hoping to have the whole thing sanded, varnished and ready to go on Saturday. It will be a huge improvement to our Gulf Wars experience. Who knows, maybe sleeping on a real bed will even keep me from feeling like I was beaten with a blunt object every morning when I wake up. Wouldn't that be something?

Feel the Hate

2009-02-13T07:18:00.000-08:00

How is it that I can fight rapier Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday with no ill effects except some residual stiffness, but I bend down to get something out of my closet yesterday morning and end up with a massive knot in my back that is still causing me a fair amount of pain today? Don't know if it's a pinched nerve or what, but it's going to make fighting tomorrow a real problem if it doesn't unkink by then. I'm utterly convinced that my body hates me and does this kind of thing just out of spite.

Ups and Downs

2009-02-04T07:39:00.000-08:00

Just when I think I'm getting pretty good at this rapier fighting thing, I have a practice that makes me question whether I should even bother. Consistancy seems to escape me, despite my continued dedication to improving my skills and physical condition. One day I'm unbeatable and the next I'm everyone's practice dummy. It's very frustrating, especially when people are counting on me to be at a certain level. Hopefully, now that things seem to be kicking into high gear with practices and events, the rollercoaster will stop and I won't have the peaks and valleys quite so much.

Midwinter A&S

2009-02-02T07:49:00.000-08:00

Midwinter A&S was a lot of fun. We got there around 10am Saturday, helped Cillian and Serona with their Historical Combat A&S entry, grabbed some quick lunch, then fought through the afternoon. Later, Her Majesty graciously allowed Ysabel and I to be part of her entourage at Court, as her Rapier Champions. We skipped out after Court, even though we probably could have stayed for Feast. By then, we were tired and sore and just wanted to go back to Ysabel's parents' place and crash. It's nice to have family in the Atlanta area for when we have events down there. It gives us a place to stay that's reasonably comfortable and gives her parents a chance to hang out with their grandkids more than they would have otherwise.

It was nice to get to fight, but I haven't done that much combat in a few months and I'm feeling it this morning. I fought Jean-Michel for the Iron Ring of Meridies (ie. The Precious). He made the challenge and we agreed to fight Cut and Thrust, rather than standard rapier. Best two out of three bouts, out of which he won two. I think if I had not been borrowing armor that made moving a bit awkward, I would have done better. The rest of the fighting I did was mostly teaching newer fighters standard rapier. I wasn't going all out against them most of the time, but it was enough for me to feel the burn. We have some work to do if we want to be in shape for Gulf Wars.

Face to Facebook, Part Deux

2009-01-27T07:29:00.000-08:00

I done did it. I joined Facebook. I am lost for all time.

Face to Facebook

2009-01-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

I'm under increasing pressure to join Facebook, if only to keep up with the times. Part of me dreads being that connected to people. Another part is afraid that I'll get on there and nobody will even notice or care. It's a strange dichotomy of emotion. We, as a culture, seem to thrive on attention. Our egos need to be fed with the positive regard of others. I see nothing wrong with this, in and of itself. However, some of us are also deeply private people who don't necessary want to share our everyday lives with a broad swath of the public (note the irony of my posting this sentiment on a blog). The tug-of-war between the need for social popularity and the fear of public disdain is a long standing struggle. Granted, most peoples' opinions of me are not a matter that I place a great deal of importance on these days. I'm long past my "insecure adolescent" phase and I'm happy to tell any critics to piss off and have a nice day. Still, sometimes if feels like the horror I endured in middle and high school (and it was horrible, believe me) is still lurking out there, barely restrained by a thin veneer of maturity and civility. When we open ourselves up to the scrutiny of others, we risk breaking through that most feeble of shields and being subjected to ridicule and humiliation. But I've come to realize that the rewards are worth the risk. Life without risk is empty and droll, after all. So, you can pretty much count on my joining the Collective fairly soon. After all, resistance if futile.

Big News

2009-01-22T07:45:00.000-08:00

I have some fairly big news. It happened at the SCA event last weekend, but I've been down with a recurrence of the plague for the past few days, so haven't felt much like posting anything. At Court, I was offered a Protege' belt by Dame Fianna, which I accepted. Within the SCA, this is a fairly important thing and I was deeply honored. I can only hope to live up to the expectations that come along with wearing a Yellow Belt. I imagine I'll do ok, provided I don't die of the plague first.

Brrrrrrrrrrr!

2009-01-15T12:57:00.001-08:00

It's bloody, freakin', stupidly cold outside. That is all.

I Has The Plague!

2009-01-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

I've been sick as a dog for the past five days, thanks to a nasty viral infection that has taken up residence in my ears, my sinuses and my lungs. I was out of work Monday and Tuesday, went to the doctor, got medicine that screws me up just about as bad as the virus, dragged my ailing carcass out of the house for a miserable day of work on Wednesday, and am feeling just the slightest bit better today.

On a slightly ironic note, while I was home, I watched a movie that dealt with a deadly virus that decimated Scotland in the near future. It was called "Doomsday" and was a mix between The Road Warrior, Escape from New York, Resident Evil and other such "dark future" kind of movies. They stuck them all in a blender and the resulting goo was actually not bad.

There have been a lot of end of the world (or at least, of humanity) type stories floating around lately. I'm also reading a series by Terry Brooks that deals with a near future where our race is on the verge of extinction. It's got pretty much every type of disaster possible bringing humanity low. Ecological collapse, biological warfare run amok, nuclear terror and for the final blow, an invasion by demons and a secret enclave of ancient elves that may hold the key to humanity's last hope for survival. I have to give snaps to Brooks ability as a writer on this one. He manages to not only make the whole thing believable, but highly engrossing. The characters are vivid and the setting is fascinating in its stark and dismal portrait of a world lost to chaos.

Seeing all these stories makes me realize that my troubles are fleeting and insignificant compared to how bad things could be. We really have it pretty good, even with the economy being what it is right now. Our lives are filled with small annoyances, but for the most part, we get to be pretty comfortable and safe. We don't have to worry about fighting for survival every second of every day. We don't have to be hard, tough, bad-ass survivors. We just have to come to work when we are sick as a dog, knowing that in 8 hours, it will be over and we can go home, eat a nice supper and collapse in front of the tv for the rest of the evening. At least, that's my plan. The Apocolypse can bloody well wait.

2008: the Aftermath

2009-01-05T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well, the holidays are over. Much has happened over the past couple weeks. Yule, Christmas, New Years, Megan visiting her mother in NC, us visiting with my sister and assorted friends, we all got some cool swag, my job moved offices, I came down with a minor bronchial infection. It's been a bit of a whirlwind to close out 2008 and usher in a brand spankin' new calendar year.

One of the highlights was finally getting a bookshelf for my paperbacks that have been languishing in the garage for the past three years. I am most happy for them to be on proper display again. I'm rather proud of my collection, although it has diminished in size a bit over the years due to moving and other hardships.

Some of the other nice things we picked up include a new camera, a much nicer computer chair and a book of poetry that used to belong to my deceased grandfather (thanks, Mom!). We also got some less grandiose items, like new clothes, some dvds, Wii games, etc. Materially speaking, a pretty good haul.

In other news, we went to Huntsville for Monica's birthday, which was fun. We also had a good time in Knoxville meeting a couple of our rapier students and some of the other rapier people for lunch when we dropped Megan off with her mother. Good times all around.

Unfortunately, the holidays put a serious damper on our rapier practices. I think I've gained five pounds from sitting around on my butt and eating all that yummy holiday food. I feel heavy, lethargic and bloated. Not at all like my normal, dangerous self. Something I suppose we will have to remedy with hard work and determination in the days to come. After all, Gulf Wars is coming up and I'll be damned if I am going to get the crap beat out of me just because I was too lazy to practice leading up to it.

So, that is where things are right now. Work is still chaotic, home slightly less so, but everything seems to be sorting itself out all right. We have plans in the works, both in the SCA and mundanely that I'm fairly excited about. Whatever 2009 brings, it certainly won't be boring.

Maybe Marx Was Right

2008-12-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

Where'd the bailout money go? Shhhh, it's a secret

Am I the only one that this pisses off?!? Bankers are evil! Workers of the world unite! Up the Revolution!

The Ascendancy of Light and Life

2008-12-19T15:09:00.000-08:00

The Winter Solstice is this weekend. The longest night of the year. Time for the rebirth of the Sun King when the daylight hours start to grow again, eventually bringing Summer back to us. It is ironic, then, that today it was nearly 70 degrees here and come Monday, after the Solstice, it will be down in the low 30's again. Strange are the ways of Mother Earth and Father Sky. I've come to expect no less.

Of course, Yule isn't the only holiday occurring in the next week or so. Many faiths celebrate this time of year. Our children are out of school now for their Winter break and will be spending both Yule and Christmas with their other parents. We have to take Megan to Knoxville, TN tomorrow to drop her off with her mother. I'm both sad, because I'll miss her terribly, and kind of looking forward to some adult time. The step-kids will be with their father, but Carmen is old enough to drive them over there this time. I find that I'll miss them, too. I have grown rather fond of the little terrors (who admittedly aren't so little anymore). Ysabel and I will be visiting with friends over the next week, I'm sure, starting with two of our rapier students and some others in Knoxville tomorrow, so we won't be too lonely. Still, I can't help but think about some of the people I used to know that I've lost touch with. I'm terrible at long distance communication. Maybe I just need to get on MySpace or Facebook and see if I can look up some old friends. Seems like the right time of year for it.

We'll also be stopping by and seeing my sister and brother-in-law on the way back home tomorrow. She tells me that she has aquired some relics of our past. Things that used to belong to our grandparents. Things I will recognize from my childhood. I will admit that I am bracing for some painful memories to surface. There is a reason I don't dwell too much on my past. But sometimes pain is necessary for healing, like the pain of getting a shot to cure a lingering sickness. Maybe now is the time to face such things and move past them. Or perhaps nothing will come of it at all. Either way, the acsendancy of light and life will prevail over the dark season and the dark season will wait its turn to come again. The cycle will continue despite the feelings and notions of mere mortals. I take some comfort in that right now.

Joyous Solstice to everyone! Whatever holiday you celebrate, may it be filled warmth, friendship and all that is good in life.

Screw you, OPEC!

2008-12-17T12:31:00.000-08:00

Ok, granted I'm no expert on economics, the commodities market or any such thing, but I do understand the basic concept of supply and demand. Which is why I'm vastly amused by the news article I read today about how OPEC drastically cut production of oil in an attempt to jack up prices and instead the price of oil dropped below $40 a barrel! I'm taking this as a sign that a majority of people feel the same way I do. I'm sick of the Oil Barons, be they Arab or not, holding the world hostage to their "black gold". It's time to move on. It's time to end their fossil fuel hegemony over our financial well-being. In short... SCREW YOU, OPEC!!

Vaguely Disappointing

2008-12-16T08:59:00.000-08:00

The weather here is kind of atrocious. But only sort of. I mean, sure it's cold and rainy and dismal. Apparently there was some freezing rain mixed in with the liquid precipitation, too. They even went so far as to cancel school where my wife works and delay school for our kids. But seriously, when I came to work, the roads were wet. Just wet. No snow, no real accumulation of ice. Just a lot of messy, damp ickiness. Now, I'm not saying that I actually want blizzard conditions or anything. Especially since I don't get a "get out of work free" card like the wife does (or school, for the kids). I have to brave whatever Mother Nature sends our way, which can be unpleasant at times. But this time, it just seems like there was a lot of hype over what was essentially a lot of rain. It's still raining, with the temperture hovering around 35 degrees. It's only quasi-evil. I'm underwhelmed.

Calling Boris Badenov!

2008-12-08T11:50:00.000-08:00

We appear to have a squirrel problem. A rather large grey squirrel has moved into the walls of our house through a hole in the siding that was created by a woodpecker a while back. We have tried filling in the hole, but the little bugger just undoes the fix and moves right back in. Next step is to fill it in and put a metal plate over it. If that doesn't work, I'm bloody calling in Boris and Natasha! I'm just glad our furry adversary hasn't invited any moose friends to come stay with him. It would be a real pain having to yank a moose out through that tiny little hole. The antlers would be a real issue. Not to mention that moose tend to bite. My sister was bitten by a moose once......

Cognitive Discordia

2008-12-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

Today I find myself caught up in a raging storm of rampant ponderings. There is no eye to the maelstrom, no calm center. Just the howling, directionless winds filled with a hodge-podge of mental debris. So much has happened, is happening, will happen soon that it's hard to keep up sometimes. I want to let the swirling chaos out. Make it external so that it has more space to vent it's fury. But though the medium for doing so is right in front of me, the words just won't flow from my mind to my fingers. The storm is too primal to be contained with mere words. The images and impressions too wild and raw. Strange that most of them are so very mundane in nature. Plans for this or that. Memories of a holiday trip. Lists of gifts that need to be bought. Nothing that, in solitude, would cause such a tempest. But the disparate parts coming together all at once form a powerful disarray that denies all notions of order. Such is my universe today. I'll weather it, of course. Sooner or later I'll find focus again or the dam will burst and I'll be able to pour it all out into a blog post (or three). Until then, anarchy rains.

Isn't It Ironic?

2008-11-21T11:44:00.000-08:00

It is one of the great ironies of life that despite the temperature outside being near freezing and despite my absolute loathing of being cold, I find myself craving a Strawberry Cheesequake Blizzard from Dairy Queen.

Known World Academy of Rapier - the Aftermath

2008-11-17T07:54:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry this didn't get posted last week, when the events of KWAR were still fresh in my mind, but when we got home from a great, fun and highly educational weekend, we walked into a huge mess. The fecal matter definitely impacted on the rotating air circulation device. I'm going to spare you the gory details of our current trials and tribulations, however, and just move on to more pleasant subjects.

KWAR was quite an experience. We learned a lot being around so many higher level fighters. I was especially happy to finally get to meet Tivar Moondragon, one of the pioneers of SCA rapier. Ysabel and I don't usually feel like newbs when we are in our own Kingdom, but talking to people that have been doing this activity for 30+ years sure had that effect on us. It's not a bad thing, of course, because it helps to motivate us to do better. It was also nice to take classes instead of teaching them. We got a lot of new ideas to apply to our own fighting and also to bring back and show our people here. Outside of the hobnobbing and classes, we also got in some decent fighting. A few people managed to kick my butt rather thoroughly, which I'm not really used to anymore. Don't get me wrong, I do lose my share of bouts, sometimes rather spectacularly, but generally, it's because I do something stupid, not because my opponent is genuinely that much better than me. I'd like to think I can hold my own pretty well, most days. But when you have several of the "best of the best" around, that isn't going to be the case. Even I can be outclassed and I'm not afraid to admit that. Some of those guys are just plain scary. So smooth, efficient and well practiced that they just don't make mistakes. I'm still at the "pretty good, but does boneheaded things occasionally" stage. But now I see where my fighting could go if I am dedicated enough. It's just a question of how bad do I want it?

In other KWAR news, I bought a really nice dagger from Darkwood. I may post up a pic of it later. It's got black, curved quillions that are just plain scary to look at. Even better, they like to parry and bind almost by themselves. Very sweet! For those that might want to look it up, it is a German "Dresden" style dagger. Also, I managed to win the "Precious" (also known as the Iron Ring of Meridies) from Tristram in a very hard fought series of bouts that left me feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. I had a hard time catching my breath for the rest of the day after that, which led several people to believe I have asthma issues. Which I don't. Ysabel is insisting that I get tested for it now, so I suppose I will, even though it's a complete waste of time. I refuse to have asthma, so getting tested is pointless, right?

After all the fighting and classes on Saturday, we got together with the other Meridians and went out to a nice Chinese place for supper. The lemon chicken was fantastic! The high point of the meal, however, was watching Ursus nearly fall out of his chair from laughing so hard. I don't recall what set him off, but the end result was hilarious! We were pretty rowdy for most of the meal, actually, and I'm really surprised none of the other diners complained. Still, I guess we are a fairly disreputable looking bunch, so maybe they were just intimidated into silence. We are a bunch of Meridian Gangstas, you know. Once dinner was over, we popped into the party that was going on in the main ballroom at the hotel. There was much drinking and merriment that went on well into the wee hours. At some point, a bunch of not particularly sober people decided to break out the life-sized wooden practice horses that had been used to demonstrate mounted techniques earlier in the day. Mental note to self, riding a large wooden horse into a hotel ballroom and forgetting to duck when coming through the doorway is bad for the rider, but freakin' hilarious for everyone else. Luckily, I was merely an observer for those particular hi jinks.

On Sunday, some of us got together and trekked to Louisville to go to the Frazier Arms Museum. They had an entire floor of swords, polearms and armor from the Renaissance. It was funny to see everyone's reactions. Most people go to such places for educational purposes or just for fun, but for us it's more like a shopping trip. All of us had at least one (usually more) moment where we saw something that we wanted for our kits. Rapiers, helms, breastplates, bucklers... :::drools::: Sorry, what was I saying? Oh, the museum trip, right. There was also a demo of Renaissance sword play that was surprisingly well done. It was obviously choreographed, but used fairly accurate techniques. We spoke with one of the museum swordsmen and he was very knowledgeable. I think he was impressed with the amount of knowledge we displayed, too. He commented that it was nice to perform for other sword geeks. They had to keep it fairly simple for the mundanes in the crowd, but the two swordsmen seemed amused by all the knowing smiles from the rest of us.

So, that was our KWAR, in a nutshell. Good times with good people. Can't ask for much more, really.

Known World Academy of Rapier

2008-11-06T14:18:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow we are heading out to the Known World Academy of Rapier (KWAR). I've never been to this particular event, but word has it that it is huge. Huge in attendance and significance. I'm a bit jittery about being around all those "best of the best" types, but I'm also eager to both learn from them and test my "mad skillz" against them. As an added bonus, the event takes place in a medieval-themed hotel. Should be quite a weekend. I'll post a follow up as soon as I recover from it.

In other news, Barack Obama won the US presidential race. Just in case you missed the announcement. ;)

Election Day Doldrums

2008-11-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

It's Election Day here in the US (as if you didn't know) and the future of our Country is hanging in the balance. Whether you are staunchly Republican or an avowed Democrat-4-Life, today is a momentous day that will be long remembered as a turning point in history, be it for better or worse. So, why is it that I feel so... disconnected from it all? Sure, there is some anxiety. Change is always scary, isn't it? But then, sometimes knowing that we are in for more of the same can be pretty scary, too. Either way, the fear is a weak and distant thing today. It just can't break through the weary numbness that has set in after so many months of hearing the same messages over and over again. "The Democrats are Socialists!" Who bloody cares. "The Republicans have destroyed our economy!" Well, duh! What did you expect from the "rich greedy bastards" party? Not that the Democrats are much better, but at least they let the poor people get in on the corruption, too. Why should the rich white guys be the only ones who can game the system?

You might say I'm being pretty cynical about the state of our government and society as a whole, but maybe I've just had it up to my ears with all the bull crap. Maybe I just want the world to be a little kinder, a little more honorable, a little more Utopian. We have the knowledge and resources to take care of the entire population at a comfortable standard of living, but nobody gives a crap about anybody else, so we just keep screwing each other over for the almighty dollar. Climb that ladder, pal, and don't worry about who you step on gettin' to the top! Do we really think that one little election is going to change that? I want to hope that maybe it can, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Hope makes for great campaign slogans, but in practice it too often proves to be a carrot on a stick, leading us on a fruitless and pain-filled trek that ultimately leads to bitter disappointment. I guess that's why I'm so ambivalent about this election. It won't change human nature, won't change the greed, apathy, bigotry or willful stupidity of our species. I'm not sure there's anything out there that can. Oh, well, at least I won't have to look at the Shrub's glassy-eyed monkey face for much longer. That's a plus.

Happy Halloween / Samhain!

2008-10-31T14:16:00.000-07:00

I've been having a hard time finding the motivation to post lately, but I did want to say something on this most important holiday. In ancient times, the Celts considered today to be Summer's End. It was the end of the light season and the beginning of the dark. It was the last harvest, when livestock were slaughtered (not sacrificed, despite popular misconception, but slaughtered for meat to eat through the Winter). It was also considered the time when the veil between the world of the living and the realm of spirits was at its thinnest. This was not a time of fear, but rather a time to honor your deceased loved ones, because they were likely to show up for a visit (so it was believed, anyway). Over the long centuries, many traditions have come together to form the modern, secular holiday of Halloween. I have fond memories (and a few bad ones, too) of going out trick-or-treating when I was a child. I loved dressing up and always got annoyed with my parents when they ruined my carefully constructed (read store-bought) costumes by making me wear a coat over them. It does get pretty cold in Michigan this time of year, I will admit. But the thing I remember most was how magical it was to walk along the tree-lined streets of the little towns, sometimes wading knee-deep in piles of leaves, seeing all the spooky houses, the moon shining down through the bare limbs of big oak trees that would creak and rustle in the sharp, biting wind of the late October night. It's something that is hard to capture now days. A sense of wonder that seems to be lost on today's tv educated, internet savvy, all too jaded youth. A pity, really. But, whether you celebrate secular Halloween or Pagan Samhain (or both), I hope you have a wonderous, magical and safe holiday.

I Has A Hoodie!

2008-10-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

We did some clothes shopping over the weekend, since colder weather is coming and most of my long pants are getting worn out. I hate clothes shopping, typically, but this time I did manage to find something I've been wanting for a while now. A black hoodie! It's something I can throw on at work, when my office feels like an icebox, which is most of the time. Can I help it if I am cold-blooded? I've been tempted to bring in a gigantic, flat-topped rock and a sun lamp so I can bask when my polar-bear-descended co-workers crank the AC up so much that I keep expecting to find the frozen carcass of a wooly mammoth in the breakroom. But, I think the hoodie is probably the more practical solution. It's even in my colors, since it has a white, insulated lining. I have a thing for black and white. It's the whole duality concept. Kind of like, without freezing your butt off, you can't truly appreciate slipping on a soft, comfortable hoodie and reveling in the sudden warmth. I am a virtual well-spring of philosophical ponderings. Especially when my fingers aren't frozen to the keyboard. Go hoodie!

Giant Carnivorous Armadillos!

2008-10-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

We drove down to Alabama last Saturday to help out at an SCA event. I wasn't in a particularly good mood that day for some reason and wasn't very good company. As a result, I tended to keep to myself and not say much to anyone, which made Ysabel kind of worried about me. I told her it would be ok and not to worry, that it was just a brain chemical thing and I'd get over it. One thing that she and everyone else should worry about, however, is the fact that on the way down there we saw several dead armadillos that had been rendered roadkill by the animal-lovin' Alabama locals. And by animal-lovin', I mean they love to feel the little buggers go squish under the extra-wide tires of their tricked out pick up trucks. But, concerns about animal cruelty aside, the fact that these critters are moving out of Texas and finding their way northward is, in itself, disturbing. Why, you ask? Well, I'll tell you the same thing I told my wife*. If modern day armadillos find themselves in an environment where 1) the climate is significantly colder and 2) humans are thoughtfully weeding out the stupid ones, then what we'll end up with after several generations of natural selection is significantly bigger, smarter, armor-plated monstrosities that could seriously challenge our place in the food chain. Think about it. Getting bigger is an adaption to a colder climate and getting smarter could be an adaption to the pressures we put on them. Do we really want our children's children's children's children's children to wind up as herd animals for these potential mutants? Unlikely, you say? Well, think about the rise of humanity from tree-dwelling lion-fodder to the dominate species on the planet. I bet somewhere, millions of years ago, some big cat saw a bunch of upright monkeys waving sticks around and thought "no way those things are ever going to be a threat to *me*". Sure, pal, you just keep thinking that until you're nothing more than a wired-together display in some natural history museum being gawked at by a bunch of third-graders on a school field trip. So, let us learn from the lessons of the past and for goodness sake BEWARE THE ARMADILLOS!!

*For the record, Ysabel thought I was nuts, too.

Dark Clouds and Silver Linings

2008-09-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

There wasn't much talking like a pirate around here on Talk Like a Pirate Day. I did cuss like a sailor a few times, though. Mostly at the people in line at one of the few gas stations that still had gas here. Ysabel nearly ran out on the way home from work, because there wasn't any gas to be found near her job. I had to leave work early and go get her. Fortunately, I still had 3/4 of a tank, otherwise we would have been screwed. We left the van sitting in a parking lot, bought one of the few remaining 5 gallon gas cans at Home Depot and while she made it to her chiropractors appointment, I left my car in the doctor's parking lot and walked across the street to fill up the gas can. There was a line of cars waiting that stretched out into the street and then some. It was pure ruthless insanity when I tried walking up to fill up my piddly little gas can ahead of people. Not surprisingly, the rudest and most selfish people were the young females. Total bitchery there. Fortunately, some of the older folks were calmer and more kind, so it only took me 20 minutes. Then I lugged my (really bloody heavy) 5 gallons of gas back to the car, picked up Ysabel and went back to get the van. More good fortune, the Shell near our house wasn't as hard hit and still had gas (and not as much of a line). We both filled up and made it home, despite the growing crisis.

Against my better judgment, we risked going to a nearby (about 45 minutes travel time) SCA event on Saturday. I was afraid that if we used up too much of our precious go-juice, we'd be stuck later in the week unable to get to work or get to the store for food. I'm glad to be proven wrong, as it looks like the shortage is going to be fairly temporary. Also, going to the event proved fortuitous. One of my students (Lord Jack Marvell, out of Thor's Mountain) got his first rapier award, I won the first rapier tourney and got chosen as one of the Queen's personal Champions (Ysabel was the first so chosen, I am the second) and Ysabel and I were both given a Grant of Arms, which is a fairly big deal . We are now the Honorable Lord Corbin de la Rue and the Honorable Lady Ysabel de Saincte-Croix. That last took us completely by surprise. Kind of like getting smacked in the forehead with a solid gold brick and then getting to keep it. His Majesty, while announcing our GoA's also said that from now on we are to be referred to as "Swish" and "Poke" (for those non-SCA persons out there, Rapier fighting is often referred to in the Society as "swishy-poke"). Much laughter ensued from the assembled populace.

Sunday wasn't nearly as much fun, since I had to work from home most of the afternoon. It's nice to be able to remote into a work computer, but it also means that there's little excuse to not get work done just because it's the weekend. Also, Jack texted me that he had broken down on the way home from the event and was stuck in Crossville, TN. It apparently wasn't as bad as it first sounded, though, since he said that he had "a place to stay and beer". Well, that makes it all better, then, doesn't it? :)

Ode to Meridian Silliness

2008-09-19T07:51:00.001-07:00

Several people have asked about the limerick I wrote for the Rapier Poetry Tourney at Coronation. First, the back story. I wasn't really planning on fighting in the tourney, since I was in charge of running it. However, with the unexpectedly low turnout, I didn't have much choice. Part of entering it was to have a poem about Meridies. Had I the time, I would have composed a moving and elaborate Epic to show off my literary prowess. Sadly, I had less than five minutes. Here is the result of my speedy composition:

"In Meridies there lived a young Squire,
Who was a notorious liar,
But one day a lance,
Ripped open his pants,
And displayed a small truth to his Shire!"

Meridian Fall Coronation

2008-09-19T07:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't post anything before now about the event last weekend. It was full of momentous happenings, but work has been kicking my tired butt and after work has been nearly as busy lately. At any rate, on with the show.

Sadly, the turn out for the rapier tourney at Coronation was disappointing. I suspect this had to do with the sudden, vicious gasoline shortages and price hikes that struck over the weekend due to Hurricane Ike. In all, we had five fighters enter the list, each with an eloquent and moving work of poetry about our fair Kingdom to secure the first of 5 potential points. The list consisted of myself, Ysabel, Hawk, Feodor and Dragonet. After the fighters fought through a gauntlet to "deliver" their poems to Her Majesty (each receiving two chances to do so) and the Queen and Her ladies had chosen their favorite works, the fighter with the best combination of wins and poetic prowess turned out to be.... Ysabel! Additionally, because two of the poems (Hawk's was the other one) were so moving to Her, the Queen ordered them read to the populace at Feast. For some reason, my limerick (written just minutes before the tourney on a 3x5 notecard with a black and white pen left over from RUM) was not so well received. Ah, well, ce la vie.

In other Coronation news, previous to the tourney, Ysabel was also selected by Her Majesty to serve as Her Premier Queen's Rapier Champion! For those who have not heard, the Queen has decided to choose Her rapier champion a bit differently this time around. She will pick one fighter of note at each event She attends to represent Her at the following event(s). Sometime prior to Gulf Wars, those gentles so chosen shall be invited to fight in a tournament to determine who gets the Honor of being Her official Champion at the War. It's a unique spin on the QRC selection that we hope will encourage fighters to come out and try to impress Her Majesty in order to be chosen.

The other significant bit of news is that we have a new member of the Merdian Order of the Blade! Lord Feodor Razin was inducted into the Order during the last court of Their Former Majesties, Caspar and Cecelia. Congratulations Feodor and welcome to the madness.

So, that was our weekend. The only real downside, apart from working ourselves to exhaustion helping run the event, was having to eat at Denny's on the way home. Not our choice, but we didn't want to be anti-social. Denny's is, for the most part, vile and unwholesome. Ah, the sacrifices we make for our Shire. But, the event was a success, the weekend was fun and good people got recognized. Can't ask for more than that.

The Politics of Lipstick

2008-09-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else think it's odd that with all the issues facing Americans (and the world) right now, the two parties vying for leadership of our country are quibbling like middle school children over a comment about lipstick? Things that make you go "hmmmm...". On a similar note, does Sarah Palin really want to be viewed as a pit bull wearing said lipstick? Not a particularly flattering image to me, but whatever makes her happy, I guess.

The Long, Dark Weekend of the Soul

2008-09-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

Feeling rather depressed right now. Not sure why. More on that later. We went out with friends Saturday. Mostly wandering around downtown Nashville looking at tacky souvenir shops and ducking into pubs so they could drink the occasional beer. It was mid-afternoon, so the bad elements hadn't put in an appearance yet. At least, not in great numbers. There were the usual panhandlers asking for spare change, but that's about it. I was amused by one of my friends responses to one such attempt. "Why don't you get a spare job." Indeed. I've been nearly as low as they are and I didn't resort to begging. But then, perhaps I was just lucky that it never came to that. Not quite. I will admit that I had a problem with alcohol once, a very long time ago. Spent a bad month living in my car when I was 20 or so. Not sure if it was the memory of that time in my life, or even more bitter memories of my biological father (which I do not care to elaborate on) that caused me to have a panic attack going into one of the drinking establishments late in our outing. Suddenly I simply couldn't take the noise, the crowds, the smell. I had to get out. I had to be somewhere else. It was rather embarrassing and I'm not really sure why I'm sharing the incident here, to be honest. Everyone was very understanding and we managed to salvage the rest of the evening with a nice dinner at The Spaghetti Factory, but the whole situation still bothers me more than a little. I hadn't been drinking, but I had been suffering from a lingering headache most of the day. Perhaps that had something to do with it.

On Sunday Ysabel was sick, which always sucks, but we went to rapier practice anyway. I wouldn't let her fight, though, which annoyed her. It was really hot and humid at the park, so our bouts were half-hearted at best. I came home light-headed, sore and feeling very old.

Today I went on call for work and even though I supposedly had the day off for Labor Day (which I always found ironic) I still ended up having to remote into my work computer to finish a project that was left over from last week. No rest for the weary, you know. After that, I helped Ysabel clean up some of the piles of assorted stuff that have been accumulating around our bedroom. It needed doing, as we had been putting it off, but something about going through all that stuff has made me strangely maudlin. Is this the totality of my life? The assorted mementos and possessions gathered over the long years of one's life tell a story, but sometimes that story isn't one that deserves retelling. Does mine? Is what I have become worth the struggles and hardships endured to reach this point? As I look at the stacks of clothing, books, photos and other odds and ends, I remember the me that existed when those things were aquired and I wonder. Who was I back then? How have I come to be the me I am now? Who will I be in ten years? What happened to the dreams of the person I was twenty years ago? Are the dreams and hopes I hold today going to vanish unrealized into the distant reaches of memory as well? I don't know. But writing this has helped me put my dark state of mind into some sort of perspective. I actually feel better for putting it into words. I hope you don't mind my taking up a bit of your time for some much needed cathartic self-examination. I guess that's part of what blogs, and friends, are for.

Tourney of the Foxes: the Aftermath

2008-08-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-08-19T11:11:00.001-07:00

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

Big surprise there...

Why So Serious?

2008-08-04T07:56:00.001-07:00

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....)

The Theory of Universal Malice

2008-07-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

It is my firm belief that the Universe hates me. Pessimistic of me perhaps, but there is ample proof. Oh, certainly it slips up occasionally and lets me have my moments of joy, but I'm pretty sure that's only because it's busy inflicting misery somewhere else. I admit that others suffer far more than I do. In war-torn Eastern European countries, in times of famine in Africa or even in the inner cities here in the States, the Universe doles out punishment far in excess of my own. But when it does spare a moment to remember that I exist and that I may be temporarily feeling pretty darn good about myself, look out! The past few days have been one of those times when the Forces-That-Be realize they've been too easy on me. So, I'm on call at work and getting woken up at 4am by my pager going off (and again at 5am, etc.), I'm sore from starting a new exercise plan, I was out of work Monday with a serious migraine and now I'm pretty sure I'm coming down with something. Yes, I realize I'm whining. My blog, my privilege. But, in the interest of not being too big of a twit, I'll leave it at that and move on.

I'll be the first to admit that the modern world kind of sucks in a lot of little ways (and several big ones, too), but the book I'm currently reading makes me kind of glad I'm living in a reasonably technologically advanced era. It's called "Dies the Fire" by S.M. Stirling and it tells the story of a global cataclysm that renders advanced technology useless. Electricity is no longer a slave to the whims of Man. Gunpowder and high explosives are rendered inert. Yes, the set up is a little hokey, but the brutal fight for survival that follows is graphic enough to make me look around at our comfortable, air-conditioned, food-rich, computer-driven world and sigh in relief. Ironically, some of the main characters in the book are former SCA people. It has been said that should society collapse and technology become scarce, that Scadians would have a field day. We already know how to fight with primitive weapons and many of us have skills that pre-date the onset of modern technology. We have blacksmiths, leather workers, horse trainers, bowyers, etc. But, for most of us, it's a hobby. Something we do in our spare time. Sure, we invest a lot in developing those skills, but it's still not a life or death thing. What if it was? Would we really be able to survive the brutal after-effects of a global breakdown of technology? Some of us would, I'm sure. There may even arise new nations based around strong Scadian warlords in such a setting. But it wouldn't be pretty. The grim reality of such a situation would be rife with famine, disease and human brutality. Many people would die in all kinds of horrific ways. I'd rather not find out if I would be one of them, thank you very much. Still, reading this book, I have to wonder if being thrown into a struggle like that would crush us into dust or bring out a hidden reserve of strength. I have no illusions about my current state of health or my ability to compete with people who are bigger, stronger, better trained and experienced in real combat. The reality of it would be deeply unpleasant for people like me. But the fantasy of somehow becoming a hardened survivor, a cunning, experienced, dangerous denizen of a grim post-apocalyptic wasteland, well, that is somehow darkly attractive. What would we do if our technological cradle were overturned and the thin veil of civilized behavior were torn away? It is an interesting question to ponder. Hopefully, such a thing will remain firmly in the realm of fiction and not something we ever really have to face. It would make our current woes seem petty indeed.

Why's the RUM gone?

2008-07-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

RUM (aka Royal University of Meridies) was this past weekend. It is an SCA event designed for teaching new skills and such to anyone who wants to learn. My group hosted it this year and while it was a big job, we still managed to have a lot of fun. I was (of course) in charge of the rapier classes and activities. The turn out wasn't as large as I had hoped, but we did get enough to make it worthwhile. There was class on German two-handed longsword, taught by my lady wife, Ysabel, a class on DiGrassi (a period master of defence) taught by Thomas O'Toole, and a melee tactics class that I taught. After a break for lunch, we fought a few pick ups in the blazing heat and the Queen's Ring changed hands a few times. I managed to get it from Hawk (barely) then defended it successfully from Leon and Ysabel. She decided to pony up the $5 to challenge me a second time and won it. Never trust a woman in a sword fight. They are damned sneaky.

The real news came after the fighting was done and we had cleaned up for Court and feast. Our group received many accolades from the Crown at this event. Thomas O'Toole was awarded the Argent Rapier (and it's about time). Waldryk got an Argent Comet for service. Ysabel and I (for reasons we have yet to figure out) were awarded the Argent Lily. Now, this is a rare honor, from what we were told. Each Crown can only give this award out once during Their reign, so the number of persons that have it is limited. It is supposed to be given to reward "courtliness, refinement, elegance and courtesy". I can totally understand Ysabel being recognized for those qualities. I, on the other hand... well, let's just say it's a bit of a stretch. However, I will not presume to question the wisdom of the Crown. We were deeply honored to be awarded the Argent Lily and even more honored that everyone seemed to think we genuinely deserved it.

There was one other award received by a member of our Shire that outshines even the Argent Lily. Sir Griffin O'Suaird was granted an Augmentation of Arms. This is, according to what I've been told, the highest, most esteemed award any Kingdom can give. It is reserved for the best of the best, the most dedicated, the most respected, the most (pardon the vulgarity) kick ASS members of the Society. Anything more that I could say would pale in the face of Sir Griffin's accomplishments, so I'll simply say "well deserved" and move on.

Now that the event is over, we can reflect on all that has happened and look forward to what's to come. RUM was an exhausting and exhilarating experience that will not be soon forgotten, but other things are coming up that we need to get ready for. We are planning on attending Beggar's Rebellion in a few weeks and Tourney of the Foxes a couple weeks after that. Our group has been tasked with running the next Coronation in September, also. Having to organize another large, Kingdom-level event so soon after RUM will be difficult, but I have faith in our Shire and I know we can pull it off. In between our SCA obligations, I'm hoping to get a chance to go see the new Batman movie and Hellboy 2. Both look to be pretty awesome. I missed my chance to see the Hulk, which irritates me, but I'm sure I'll see it on DVD when it comes out. Might even have that 50" flat screen tv by then... ok, probably not. Also, a new expansion set for Magic the Gathering comes out on Friday and from everything I've seen, it is going to rock. I'm hoping to get some people over that night for some card flopping fun.

So, all in all, good times have come and gone and will come again. Despite all the badness, life does seem to have its upside.

Speaking of the good life, I am still working on getting some pics up from our beach trip a couple weeks ago. So, I'm a slacker, but apparently I'm a courtly, refined, elegant and courteous slacker. So there! :op

I'm Alive!

2008-07-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

I swear, I'm still breathing. It's just that I've been on vacation and haven't had the opportunity to update my blog. I promise I'll post some neat pics and stuff from the trip, I'm just not sure when. I'm still pretty wiped out from it. I need a vacation from my vacation. More later.

R.I.P. George Carlin

2008-06-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, George Carlin is dead at 71 of sudden heart failure. The man was a counter-cultural icon. His biting social commentary will be sorely missed in the years to come. This is for you George:

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits

(highlight the space above to see the Seven Words You Can't Say on TV)

Major Achievement

2008-06-18T06:55:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and got out of bed. This, I feel, was a pretty significant achievement. Life seems to disagree, however. After the monumental effort of attaining verticality comes the Herculean task of taking a shower, getting dressed, eating breakfast and driving to work. You would think that that would be enough. That having gone to the trouble of actually going out into the world with clothes on and everything, I'd be spared any further obligation. Not so. Not only does my job actually expect me to produce something of tangible value while I'm here, but I also have committed to helping with a sword demo for my wife's school during my lunch hour today. Will the demands on me never end? Apparently not, because once I get off work I have people coming over to our house for a DnD game. The mental and physical energy required to get through my day is enormous. It would crush a mere mortal like a grape under the eco-unfriendly tires of a Hummer. But like the stoic Atlas, standing strong with the weight of the world on his shoulders, I will persevere. After all, it is in those little moments of triumph over adversity that we find our true character.

Muddled Mental Meanderings

2008-06-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

Pardon the alliteration in the title. I do that sometimes. Today seems to be a time of contemplation. I am working on something that I can more or less do on auto-pilot (html formatting), so my overactive brain has decided to wander down some odd paths. I read an article at lunch about the differences between polytheism, pantheism and something called panentheism. Fascinating stuff. For those unfamiliar with the words, polytheism is the belief in many Gods. This is a literal belief that such entities exist as separate beings with disparate personalities and control over different aspects of reality. Not really my thing, to be honest. I tend to see god figures as Man's attempt to personify the forces of nature in a way that our feeble intellects can comprehend. Pantheism is the belief that Deity exists in all things, that the Universe and everything in it are part of a Divine whole. Panentheism is the belief that Deity both permeates all aspects of reality and also extends into an unfathomable "otherness" that exists separate from and independent of our Universe. Interesting, huh? Personally, I don't think that we humans have even come close to grasping the truth behind why we exist and the underlying nature of that existence. I also think that while discovering such truths is a noble pursuit, we'd all be better off if we stopped getting our panties in a wad about who's supposition about such things is more "true" and started worrying about dragging our misbegotten race into a more enlightened and benevolent future. But I seem to be in the minority with that attitude.

In other parts of my mental landscape, I can't help but ponder what it all means. The whole "existence" thing. I'd be fairly disappointed to find out that it was all for nothing. You know, dying off and realizing that we just go "poof" and vanish. I'd rather some afterlife tour guide pop up and tell me that, yes, my life was a trial run for bigger and better things, or that it was a voluntary adventure designed to break the monotony of an eternally blissful (and kind of boring) spiritual paradise. Maybe we are all embryonic little Deities in our own right that have to go through several stages of development before taking over the family business with Universes of our own, thus ensuring new and interesting realities will continue to spawn ad infinitum. It amuses me to speculate about such things. Of course, I'm probably way off base. Even at the level of our fairly droll and predictable reality, nothing is ever so straightforward as it seems. Whatever the answer is, it will probably be something so novel and unexpected that we'll all just kind of gasp in shock at the preposterousness of it and then laugh ourselves silly until our sides hurt and we are all red-faced, teary-eyed and breathless. I mean, the Universe seems to laugh at us on a daily basis. Serves it right if we point and laugh back once we see it for what it really is.

In other news, the fight continues in California over the whole "gay marriage" thing. You have one side arguing for the right to marry who the hell ever they want, regardless of their respective genital configuration and the other side screaming about "unnatural and ungodly perversion" and our "hedonistic society". Well, as far as I can tell, Nature doesn't give a rat's hairy ass about the subject and since when does the State get to dictate who we love and how we express it, anyway? Besides, nobody is saying that they are going to institute gay marriage and outlaw heterosexual ones. Just giving gays the same options is not going to negate what's special and meaningful about my marriage. If Joe Bob and his gay lover, George*, want to sign a paper saying they are legally co-habitating and have an overdressed representative of their respective God figure give them a blessing, how does that do a damn thing to hurt anyone else? Hell, it might even help to bring a few more loving, caring relationships into the world. And we could certainly use more, not less, of those in this screwed up, violence-obsessed, hate-mongering world of ours. What it boils down to is the majority seeking to impose their (mostly religious) viewpoint on everyone else through governmental decree. Sound good to you? I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure mob rule is a "bad thing". So are theocracies, if the Middle East is any example. Something to think about.

*Disclaimer: Joe Bob and George are fictional gay men in a fictional gay marriage, which is sure to offend the fictional fundamentalist Christians living three houses down from them. It probably doesn't help that their fictional yard is much better landscaped then everyone else's on the block and since they don't have any fictional children, they have a lot more disposable income than the fictional Christian family with their five fictional kids to support. The author claims no responsibility for a fictional mob beating the crap out of the fictional gay couple in a fit of fictional homophobic violence. Additionally, the management wishes to apologize for the gratuitous overuse of the word "fictional" and assures the reader that the neurons in the author's brain responsible for it have been permanently reassigned to the Basic Motor Functions Department. Ths msasage is brouhgt to yoo by teh leter "D".