Oh, you mechanical symphony
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Ian's LiveJournal:
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| Monday, November 16th, 2009 | | 12:36 pm |
Practice time with the knight this weekend
Before the bulk of the guests showed up for Richard's housewarming, a couple of us went out into his front yard, and taunted the other fighters by waving sticks around. Predictably, the other fighters showed up pretty rapidly. We had a useful discussion on the details of using footwork and balance distribution to smooth the use of "motion with action" in our attacking and defending technique. Richard talked about using a pivot in place on the balls of the feet, a "volta" in the medieval Fiore manual. We also got some work in on the idea of using movement as pressure in a fight. I have been really focused on other foundation lessons, specifically returns and using the body to drive my defensive positions, so a change of pace was both useful and a little frustrating. Overall, more stick time is reminding me of the simply joy I get (and lost for a time) from fighting. This is a good thing, for reasons of passion, and more regular exercise. Steve's long time friend Geoff also showed up for the weekend. The rabid glee of a guy in his first year of SCA fighting is contagious, and a good lesson. He's just happy to come play, without any politics, without any personal expectations, and with no grudges. Needless to say, that example was a good thing to think about on the three hour drive home. | | Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 | | 9:17 pm |
Practice notes
Tonight Steve, Marco, Geoff and I went out in the backyard for some slow work and basics drills. Part way through a set of passes with Marco, we had a moment where a bit of aggression occurred between us, yet both of us were smiling. I haven't felt this kind of simple joy in fighting for months. I've missed it. | | Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 | | 3:50 pm |
| | Friday, August 28th, 2009 | | 10:04 am |
I hit a particular weight loss plateau three times over the last few months, and finally got past it this morning. I still have a long way to go, but even before I got on the scale I had that light, strong feeling. What a pleasant way to start the weekend. | | Thursday, August 13th, 2009 | | 11:03 am |
The cutting work this last sunday reminded me of what I was missing in not attending martial study. With that under my skin, I've been working more in the backyard this week, and last night, I went over to Leohtulf's place to do some slow work with my new shield. I didn't have the endurance I wanted, but that is a problem I know how to solve. I got a good shield diagnosis from Leohtulf, and another in the assorted replies from my muscles afterwards. In short, I need more knee bend, and larger hip motions. I've moved the overuse of back muscles from the L inside and just below my shoulders downward, but not far enough yet. I don't have any ache in my wrists, upper arms, or the front/top of my shoulders, which is good. The biggest shield failure right now is not consistently landing in right foot forward stance. There is a small pivot on the feet to pick up most of the wraps if I am in right foot forward. If I am in left, its a much larger body motion that opens more the right side of my body to a following blow. This oval makes so much more sense than the heater I was working with the last few years. I can tell where it is, and understand why motions did or didn't produce a desired block. What a pleasant change... | | Sunday, August 9th, 2009 | | 5:47 pm |
Cutting day
Today we had another cutting day at our house. We had about ten students from a couple schools, and about sixteen blades. We went through three sizes of rolled mats, some with small sticks of bamboo in the center. Most of it got captured on video. We were mostly using relatively new blades. We have been practicing alot with "whistler" bokken, like the ones e-bogu.com sells. It seemed to pay off... we didnt bend or break any weapons in the afternoon's practice. This, and a couple other realizations this last week are slowly pushing or leading me back to armored SCA fighting. We will see how needed gear comes together, though. | | Friday, July 31st, 2009 | | 11:57 pm |
| | Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 | | 1:13 am |
On a point of inspiration offered
senseless
to try to write Radiant
maybe in drunkenness,
maybe in loss
In your eyes,
every time
hoping
against reaching
against reason
being too far out
rationalize
please let me be that
again
file away the extremes,
rasps,
databases
those far lands
passion
oh westward shore,
boats waiting story
oh eastward prophecy,
clinging
Radiance sparked
in the unattainable
last time,
that time,
oh please not again
let it slide
let yourself grasp
straws
and loves
and hopes
everything a man needs
to build
and really,
isn't that the path
to the Light? | | Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 | | 11:09 pm |
Poem - A meeting
take the road for what you're worth northward, always to the city-sea soaked in beauty, the world waits the sky boils over half moon bay heat-death lurks smiling at the edge of bar-side swirl streets, but wait there are actually women walking here still, all is undone, wide-eyed smile a child, young in staring perfection drenched in beauty, we simply become | | Friday, July 17th, 2009 | | 2:06 pm |
A couple years ago I poked some fun at some of my younger friends with language games. One of them was a rant about why the word "ruth" wasn't obviously understandable in meaning as a root of the word ruthlessness. Yeah, it was about the time I was writing encoded Lj entries. I was feeling difficult. This last weekend I read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sir Nigel". Imagine my grand amusement upon finding "ruth" liberally sprinkled through the last third of the book. | | 1:47 pm |
My new shield blank showed up from Windrose today. After receiving a bunch of advice from Havec and Uther about changing my shield to match the way I use my sword, I decided to give an oval or kite a shot. I got this one with the idea that it will show me how to alter it or get another to get the shape and size that I want to go forward with. Happy fighter. | | Thursday, July 16th, 2009 | | 12:18 am |
| | Monday, July 13th, 2009 | | 11:40 am |
I'd experimented with five hour energy drinks on single days before last week and had been reasonably impressed. Last week I did a test of no caffeineated soda (and almost no soda at all), in return for 1 5 hour a day. Unfortunately, its a 15-16 hour energy drink for me. I was up and unable to sleep until 2 am or later every night last week. Back to the drawing board. | | Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | | 4:58 pm |
When web ordering fails
When your site refers to a color as "mallard", you've just made it that much less likely that I'll trust the picture of the piece of clothing in question and buy it. | | Friday, July 3rd, 2009 | | 1:51 am |
A memory
There was a night when I was maybe twenty four, in Sacramento, that haunts me on nights like this. I was loading trucks in the summertime, gone nocturnal for all the right reasons. I was making more money, I was out among the bright and the pretty on the weekends, and I wasn’t putting up with the amusement that is being a big guy in hundred and ten degree days. I’d awakened as the sun was setting, huddling in a one bedroom apartment I was sharing with five other people. We all chipped in a bit to rent and there was a daily communal ramen pot to augment a steady stream of dollar Whoppers from the Burger King across the street. I’d driven to work in the cooling evening, still sweating. There was that tight pinch at the base of my neck, that tension across the shoulders that you hope will be unlocked by sex. That’s about when daydreams started their struggle for attention with the stark physical joy of loading trucks full of returned computer monitors. Against all hope, I came out of the truck, my second or third packed tight, maybe two am. I look up the long warehouse, and feel the shift in the air. It was a good thing it was time for a break, because I simply had to walk two hundred feet or so down to the center of L shaped warehouse, where the massive rollup door lead out into the truck yard. Against any reason or hope, it was raining. I stood there disbelieving, face up in it, feeling more alive that I had in a long time. I sang, I think. My mind went back into hiding, and something else poured out poetry that I had no chance of writing down before I forgot. I stood out there, innocent, until they called the next wave of freight being unloaded. Going in felt like a little blasphemy, but I was close enough to the power of it, close enough to lightning, close enough to pure, close enough to enough. I can’t tell you anything else about the rest of that night, but, what I have of it is more than a night like this can contain. | | Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 | | 5:05 pm |
| | 2:31 pm |
Paint splatter on the wall
The fever dream that hit monday night was, to date, the most intense. I dont think the fever was any higher... I just finally got out of the dreams about recoding my immune system, into a nice apocalyptic dream. I spent about five hours waking up over and over, not sure what was sleeping and what was awake, sure I was feeling groups of people around the world being lifted up to be preserved from whatever massive event was occuring. Distantly, I was aware of a massive presence guiding the whole thing, full of sorrow and intent, severe purpose and a desire for mercy. Last night, I had a dream about being thin, looking over my undressed body, noting every change as something I'd worked for. I've been reading "Our Lady of Largest Heart" by Betty De Shong Meador, about Sumerian life, worship, and the first recorded poetry, works done by a priestess named Enheduanna for Inanna. Its doing odd, but pleasant things to my daydreaming. I've been daydreaming of two potential, novel length stories. I havent been able to put together an outline for them any more than I've been able to lay down a coherent short. Still, on the edge of creativity only lasts so long... sooner or later the dam will break. I've been daydreaming with my hands, to fill this void of no fighting. Its shieldwork and returns, blows and returns, shieldwork and hip motion, variation, repetition, fragments so close to knitting, so far from integration. Tonight we should get another session in the back yard, another test to see if this process is yielding real results. | | Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | | 2:30 pm |
My roommate came back from June Crown with a swollen hand. He had taken one of those one in a hundred thousand shots that went past him and got turned to strike with the back edge on the palm of his weapon hand. He reported some soreness, and when the swelling didn't go down the next morning, he dutifully went to the doc to get an xray. The xray revealed several breaks in the bones of the hand. Three of them were old enough to be partially healed, while another batch were clearly from the previous weekend. Like several other SCA fighter jokes, he honestly had no idea when he took the earlier damage. The thing that surprises me is that he's been hammering out components for gauntlets this last week with a broken hand and didn't notice. | | Friday, June 19th, 2009 | | 9:00 pm |
| | Sunday, June 14th, 2009 | | 11:37 pm |
Poem
Went down to the crossroads Lost the blues in freeweights, In the endless dayjob churn, In stability, sanity and thought In typical tiny unshakable focus Went on down to find madness Somehow, the devil wasn’t there Wherever roads meet, beginnings Spool out to all the hopeful places I can only guess at on my map Went on down to the crossroads And what I found was a smile |
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