Malicious Microorganisms

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...".