The Mystery of Cuts

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

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

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

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?

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

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...

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.