Ten Tentacles - So many arms, so little time.

I’ve come to the conclusion that of all the days I could have chosen to weigh myself regularly, Monday is the stupidest day ever. Seriously, I mean, we all know Monday is a stupid day anyway. I guess one day had to start the week so it’s not really Monday’s fault. Still, Monday is a stupid day; especially for weighing one’s self. Here’s why it doesn’t make any sense.

I spend all week, the weekdays, eating very reasonably and running every day. This is when most of my weigh loss occurs because on the weekends, at home, it’s much harder to eat reasonably and exercise. This is due to the fact that we’re usually out and about and there is neither time to exercise, or an abundance of decent things to eat in your average restaurant. I’ve accepted this and it hasn’t affected my weight loss (when I stick to eating right and exercising during the week). But, then I go and weigh myself only on Monday mornings, after I’ve been eating like crap and not exercising to burn off all the extra water and glycogen. Moron!

So, I’ve decided that I’m going to weigh myself on Wednesday mornings. This is right in the middle of my routine and gives me plenty of time to burn off the weekend’s excesses. See, now I’m thinking!

In other news I fixed a couple of things I hadn’t realized were broken with the site (because I use a browser that works), so users who visit here with Internet Explorer 6 should now be able to get to the Photos page as well as the new Library page. The new Library page is a listing of what I’m currently reading, what I’ve read recently, and what I’m planning to read soon. Yeah, HUGELY nerdy. I’m ok with that.

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I’m waiting for my lunch. It’s nearly 5pm and I’m waiting for my lunch. Yeah, it’s been a long day. At least there is fencing in an hour.

It’s been a while since my last fencing post (link provided so you know I’m not talking about barbed wire or something). A lot has been going on, especially with foil, but I’ve had difficulty putting it into words, hence the lack of any real updates. Towards the end of last month I realized I was hitting some kind of wall in both weapons. This wall took the form of some unknown, self defeating behavior whenever I took the lead in touches. I’d start off strong, scoring two, sometimes three touches right out of the gate and then the whole thing would fall apart and I would end up losing the bouts five to four or even five to three. Now, don’t get me wrong. I certainly don’t expect to win every bout; there are some fine fencers in our club and I have a lot yet to learn. You would think, though, that if I could score three good touches without getting touched myself, that I could finish and win out? For the life of me I couldn’t figure out what was happening to me.

At first I thought perhaps I was giving something away in those first few touches that gave my opponents and edge. I still do not discount this might have, at least, been partly to blame, but in questioning my opponents they didn’t seem to think so. Woody had told me a couple of times that it was like I gave up, but he too was baffled and I think a little bewildered as to how to coach me out of it. Not his fault, I’m just dense.

I spent a lot of time reflecting on this. I remembered reading, somewhere, before this started happening (or I started noticing it happening) that the first and third touches, statistically, are key. On average the fencer who scores these touches wins the bout. I have a deeply engrained animosity towards statistics. I think perhaps this was the slight push that started the snowball tumbling down the hill. It occurred to me that I was spending a lot of time keeping track of my touches in a bout; a cardinal sin. I resolved to only think of the next touch: where, how, and when to score it. I told myself to ignore the scoring box and block out the score as announced by the director. This, surprisingly, worked better than I ever expected it to.

I had some additional weird difficulties earlier this month, but those were easily attributed to me taking my work into the salle with me. Not a good idea. I have resolved to better hold to a quote I read a couple of months ago:

Fencing is like holy communion. You must come to it in a fit state of body and soul. If you break that supreme law, then punishment is bound to follow.

This quote can be found in The Fencing Master, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. I judge it not only to mean that you should leave all other concerns out of your head when you step onto the piste, but you should also think of nothing other than the motions of the body and the blade, or you will be sorely punished. I was, anyway. I am far from perfect, but I am not, now at least, plagued by inexplicable nonsense. Now the explicable nonsense must be dealt with.

I had my first solo coaching night just this past Friday. Oddly it was for epee and not foil, but it still came off very well, I think. Kathy was a great help in wrangling everyone. I planned a brief lesson, one that built on one I’d taught with Woody’s help the previous Monday, gave the lesson to what seemed like an attentive class, and got that little pang of satisfaction when I saw a couple of them use it in bouts later in the evening. I think I’m going to like this.

Coaches College is only two short weeks away. Let’s all hope I’m ready for the altitude and the pain.

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Shopping with the boy is fun! We always get icecream. Cold Stone Creamery rules.

Could it be? Has someone finally put these guys in a medium that will do them justice? Do my eyes deceive, or are there hints that someone may have finally gotten the characterizations right? Has someone finally taken this franchise someplace worthy? One can only hope. Check out the trailer, though, and judge for yourself. Oddly, I’m actually looking forward to it.

Ganked from darthshoes.

Like darthshoes, I am hardly surprised by my results or that I tied as Dracula and Lestat. Anyone who knows me should hardly be surprised either.

This is just plain funny, and also completely work safe. Thanks Cory. It’s moments like these that make me wish I had gobs of time to burn on silly movies. Gotta love that some people do!

EDIT: The links and embedded video should work now, for those that missed it yesterday.

Arguably the strangest safe sex (I think I’m accurately translating the text at the end) promotion I have ever seen. Definitely not work safe, but certainly worth seeing. Enjoy!

Stolen from darthshoes.

Seriously, though … does there even exist a universe where laser-gun-totin’ space pirates aren’t just the coolest damned thing ever? I think not.

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Today we took a drive up to the Jefferson National Forest. It’s nice enough in and of itself, but we were out for more than just trees. We parked and took a two mile hike up a very scenic trail along a river. At the top of the trail was a beautiful cascade.

This butterfly was one of a host at the mouth of the trail. They were gleaning water from the dew damp sand on the trail. I coaxed this one to sit still on my hand by getting it wet first (my hand, not the butterfly, duffus). He stayed long enough for me to get this shot.

We had a great time. It was a really beautiful day and the company was fantastic. I took lots of pictures and some of them were even of people! I’ll be posting more of those later. For now I go to nurse my broken toe and get ready for bed.