I, Fetus

Neeeeegh

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:50:33 GMT

Only have one class to go to this week and then its x-mas breaks! Hoorj! This semester has been a real pain in the ass and I think its mainly because I'm ready to just be done.

Want to run more Chronica Fuedalis.

Looks like plans to get up to Colorado this weekend are nixed. Fuckfuckfuck. Fighting has been pretty swell recently. The extra practices we've been doing has resulted in heavy fighting at least four times a week and sometimes even more. On days where neither fighter practice or regular amtgard is happening our regiment consists of a lot of first to tens and block strike drills. Seems to be paying off as Kaede and Firespitter came around this weekend and I felt I did better against both than I have ever done. This of course didn't stop certain people sluffing but just means I need to cleaner and meaner next time. My SKBC classes are up and I'm stoked to go. Looks like the vast majority of people already signed up for my single and S&B class are primarily California Dragonspiners.

Fnuuuuuuuh

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:25:52 GMT

School has been atrocious. I think Senior-itis is at maximum capacity and I really cannot wait to be done with this college shit.

In other news, got to spar the guy I think I talked about in some previous post. Classes kept getting canceled for whatever reason but we finally got to go at it last Friday. I have to admit I was pretty nervous going in as this dude had apparently lived at a dojo in Korea and his kicks are devastating. The advantage I have is being better with my hands but if I cant get past the range of his kicks he would definitely win. Well, I won both rounds resoundingly and was really surprised. His form was incredibly sloppy and he telegraphed almost every kick so I could easily find his timing and move in for the kill. I got off two Thai kicks and two mean right hooks. The hooks are what really surprised me and I realized not long after while I was in his guard I should have pressed my advantage and thrown more punches. It was probably the only match I had ever completely dominated in and I notice my aggression has suffered since im almost always on the defensive fighting people a lot better than me.

Amt-tard has also been pretty sweet lately. Having the younger boy-os finally out of high school means we get to fight outside of the park a lot more. The florentine is coming a long well and im having a lot more luck breaking out of the mind set that my right hand should be doing all the work.

Ruuuuuuuu

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:37:37 GMT

Gotta match this friday at practice with a former student. I've practiced escrima with him before but never sparred. Once, we sparred the same guy and both got knocked silly. He studied at a dojo in Korea for a few months and his kicks are much better than mine. My advantage is im better with my hands. It will be an interesting fight because i dont think he has kept up with his training which, although probably an overall better martial artist than me, might bring him closer to my level. I will have to get past the range and skill he will no doubt try and utilize with his kicks. Inside his guard, im way more confident in my abilities. Staying on the outside and trying to get him to close on me might be an alright strategy as well. Either way, should be a pretty fun time.

Ow. Fuck, Ow Vol.2

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:26:25 GMT

Yeah, so I hurt myself doing fighty stuff. Again. Basically, I kicked forward as hard as I could and my sparring partner blocked with his knee. Wouldn't have hurt as bad if I kicked correctly. He caught my toes and in-step right on the knee and the part of my foot that's not supposed to bend...well...bent. Thankfully, im pretty sure nothings broken, but gimping around is painful. I think this means no amtard which sucks, but, I would rather not fight now than not be able to at banner wars.

School has been okay, but mainly tedious due to an extreme case of senioritis. Getting to watch movies and talk about them is fun but it seems obligatory that some fifties-something-bored-ex-stay-at-home mom must be in my class and talk non stop about her horrible kids.

Flaaaaaa.

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:39:18 GMT

~~Blood Meridian~~
Lonesome Dove
~~World War Z~~
~~Grendel~~
~~Brownsville~~
Treason
The Sound and the Fury
~~Dune~~

Blood Meridian and Grendel down, started on Treason. I think I have failed in my quest though, as school started today and the other two on the list are pretty heavy reading. Unfortunately, I most likely wont be able to go through 'em till I graduate in May. Suck. Blood Meridian was probably one of the strangest and coolest books I've ever read. Definitely a unique ( and a little laboring) read.

All the talk of Gen Con and gamings has been inspiring so I've been stepping up the pace as far as Snitch! goes. I feel like the basic mechanics are there but the game lacks some individuality. Most of my ideas keep coming from other games, and while the inspiration is good I am having trouble discovering a new way to incorporate what I like and make it my own. I suspect this problem will be fixed with more play testing. Also, I keep getting ideas for other games I want to do but haven't run them through the all knowing filter of danohead to see if they have already been done.

I think school will be a cake walk this semester. I have 15 hours, two of which are online classes, and the other three consist of two English and one Art. I also have Fridays completely off. No work. No school. Three day weekend, chickenheads!

Fighting has been top notch recently as well. Jeff has been coming out to the park which is grand and in general the stuff I'm working on has been well... working. I need to, however, be a lot more disciplined with enforcing a training routine on myself. It helps a lot and doesn't take that long.

Making garbs has been fun too. I made Eric a tunic I was going to make him do, but realized I probably needed more practice myself. It came out decently for a beginner and I am now inspired to make more stuff. I have a shield cover I want to do with a more complex warlord phoenix grixamillion is designing for me with all his mighty pimp powers. And, I think I will make another simple tunic for some newbie at the park, just for a bit more practice.

Whuuuuuu.

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:53:12 GMT

Read Grendel. It was pretty good. Reading Blood Meridian now. McCarthy's stream of conciousness style is even more accentuated in this book. It's like reading some epic poem like the Illiad. Either way I dig it.

Summer school is almost over. It has been a fun class because we get to watch all sorts of weird movies. Most of them are good and the others are just bizarre. Some I would recommend:

Dr. Strangelove (Of course)
The Exterminating Angel
Vertigo
A Woman Under the Influence
Persona

Here are the majority of my UK pictures (I still have to finish off England but I'm very lazy):

s154.photobucket.com/albums/s263/Shere_Kahn/Ireland

Stufffffs.

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:53:06 GMT

I posted a while back about some books I wanted to read and I have read some.

Blood Meridian
Lonesome Dove
~~World War Z~~
Grendel
~~Brownsville~~
Treason
The Sound and the Fury
~~Dune~~

I also read the second book in the Gunslinger series, "A Drawing of Three", which was fun. And, Lewis Black's "Nothings Sacred", which is also fun.

Summer school starts today and I am taking some weirdo film class hosted by the English department. The class itself is only on Tuesdays and Thursdays and is something like 3 hours long. The professor professed we would spend most of that time watching movies and talking about them, which doesn't sound too horrible if we are going to be watching fun stuff. Mainly, the class is a good excuse to get out of the copy center on these long summer days of nothing to do.

Home.

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 04:38:36 GMT

Yup.

London.

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:33:26 GMT

This is where we are now. In between the time from my last post we were also in York. Both are fantastic.

Edinburgh.

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:19:45 GMT

I'm in it. Scotland is a lot cleaner than Ireland. Since my last post we stayed in two little towns called Braemer and Crail. Cool places, but happy to be back in a bigger city. Crail had a fantastic graveyard in the local church though, many of the graves dating back to the early 1600's. Driving through the country side has been both pleasurable and nauseating. Roads constantly allow for incredibly scenic viewing but are also twisty and winding.

We also visited Sterling castle today which was badass.

Portree.

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:21:59 GMT

We arrived on the Isle of Skye yesterday by ferry, which was cold and windy but beautiful. It was Dad's burfday yesterday as well, and we managed to get turned down from almost every restaurant in Portree on account of wanting dinner past 8:00pm. Dad also got something in his eye and in an attempt to remove the object Mom accidently poked him, irritating the eye so much so that at the place we finally found that would service us Dad had to go back to the B&B and lie down. HAPPY BURFDAY!!!!! It all ended well though, as we still surprised him with the cake we secretly sent to his room.

Today we drove around Skye and saw lots of ruins and sheep. It was grand. Tomorrow is Higg's burfday, the last in the three b-days we have celebrated here. I think we will be in some hovel town called Bramer. And after that, Edinburgh. We miss our dog and hope he is okay.

Inverary.

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:11:27 GMT

Arrived in Scotland today in a small town called Inverary. Scotland, much like Ireland, is stunning. Tomorrow we will make it out to the Isle of Skye for Dad's burfday. I have almost 250 pictures already and with the internet connections in seemingingly all of our b&bs still trying to grope the concept of wingdings font, I suspect I will have to wait till I'm home to post them.

Galway.

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:46:55 GMT

We left Dublin Saturday morning in our rented car and headed out for Kilkenny. On the way, we stopped at a wonderful set of ruins called Glendalough. It is absolutely stunning how picturesque this place is. I thought maybe the breath taking-ness of Ireland would be somewhat dulled since my last visit in '05. But gawddamn, this is just rediculous. Made it to Kilkenny which is home to more fantastic castles and ruins. And then, left the next day for Galway. Stopped at another ancient abbey for a quick picnic and got horribly lost in the small suburb right on the edge of Galway in which we are staying. There is a huge boating race festival thing here so the city is alive and thriving. Galway is much like i remembered it, and I think it may be my favorite city in Ireland. Small city feel in a big place.

Anyways, we are all doing great and the bed and breakfasts here are amazing. Think I might even lose some weight with all the walking we are doing. That is, if I can stay out the pubs we've been exploring every night so far.

Dublin.

Fri, 29 May 2009 08:12:30 GMT

After a grueling set of flights we are here. It's good to be back and Dublin has not changed much since 2005. We got in and checked into our small bed and breakfast, which is like two buildings connected precariously by some kind of bridge room that hovers about a story up from the street. Jenni and I immediately got going, heading down to Trinity college. We got a tour around the campus and checked out the Book of Kells as well as the "long room" library (bad ass!!!). We also made it over to the national gallery, but only made it so far before we started to crash due to the lack of sleep. We came back to the B&B and slept, waking up two hours later for a night in the Temple Bar district getting crunk and eating gellatos.

Terminator

Thu, 21 May 2009 08:47:23 GMT

Terminally sucked.

For the reads.

Wed, 06 May 2009 23:03:47 GMT

As an English major I read a shit ton of books pretty much all the time for lots of classes. This really interferes with any recreational readings I get to do. So, here is a list of books I want to read this summer. Please suggest as many additions as you like.

Lonesome Dove
World War Z (started and about half way through)
Grendel
Brownsville
Treason
The Sound and the Fury (Faulkner is one of my faves)
Dune (Again, halfway through it)

Feeeeh.

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:11:01 GMT

Coronation is this weekend at Caballo state camp grounds. Pretty excited, I remember being like 15 or so and getting to attend one of these when phargle was crowned for his 3rd reign. So, Saturday my reign comes to an end, and although there are a few things I wanted to still do, overall I am pleased with the condition I am handing the park over in. Attendance averaging between 35 and 40, lots of new kids excited to come out and play, and a general feeling of enthusiasm towards amtgard. I deifintely feel a lot more proud of this reign than my first.

This weekend we also had our warmaster, and I stomped through it. Single 1st, flo 1st, s&b 1st, open 1st, pole 5th (fuck pole!), two-man team 2nd. Almost got my 21 wins in a row even, got to 20 and my stupid (but awesome) page killed me. Doh!

School is also coming to an end very quickly, and if all goes according to plan I will graduate next May, hooray!

Fuckfuckfuckfuck.

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:01:10 GMT

So I am driving down Locust st. minding my own business and jamming hard core to the Best of David Bowie CD I stole from Jenni. Suddenly, the car in front of me comes to a dead stop, and screeeeeeeech boom. I ram into her after a burning rubber brake slide. Pull over to he side of the street and get out of my car. She does the same and I make sure she is okay before asking what happened. She is, and the reason she stopped so abruptly was to avoid plowing over some chiuahua. Cop shows up after we call him and turns out I get a citation because supposedly I should not have been driving so fucking close. Fucking fuck fuck fuckers. Whatever, I guess the cop has to do something and technically it was me who hit her, despite my sliding and screeching and not riding right on her ass like i am told by the cop I was. I will contest the report in court and hopefully something will be done so I dont get fucked on the right front light hanging by wires now, or the rest of the practically totalled front portion of my car.

TPK! TPK!

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:15:12 GMT

I did it! Last night's D&D game I managed a total party kill of the PCs! YES!

Well actually, not YES! But still, a small fist pump in celebratory success since I haven't done that in ages. Looking back on it, the encounter which proved to be the demise of our most unfortunate heroes probably should have been saved for after an extended rest or possibly later down the road since the PCs had just emerged victorious from a moderately challenging encounter. The encounter consisted of two 4th lvl Deathjump Spiders and 1 Ettercap Webspinner. In the end the PCs killed one of the spider and the Ettercap while also barely not bloodying the last Spider. This encounter was also more of an experiment on how far I could push PCs, and well, looks like I got my answer! I am having fun running the game so I will probably see if the peeps would like to continue, and maybe even see if the Glicklers or any other interested parties would be interested!

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:00:56 GMT

Burfday.

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:12:58 GMT

Party was fun. Carrie, Dano, and Jenni made the BEST. CAKE. EVAR. will post pics later. Lots of drinking and rockband. Dinner tonight with fam and Jenni at Pacific Rim, will get my sake and sushi on.

Spring War is a go.

Burrito Quest '09. Its begins.

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:28:07 GMT

More pics can be found here: http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s263/Shere_Kahn/Burrito%20Quest%2009/

Stuff

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:59:07 GMT

Been doing lots of running this week and generally trying to eat better. So far down 5lbs from Monday, ran two miles and rode my bicycle to and from work Tuesday. Feel overall better, and hopefully I can keep this up with some sort of regularity. I guess formulating some kind of routine would help greatly.

Amttard was okay yesterday but nothing real special. Attendance still has yet to drop below 35 and despite some times aggravating developments in fighting this fact is pretty uplifting. Mid-reign and weaponmaster are this Saturday. Have opted to reeve the tourney because a) I have won weaponmasters before, b) I have yet to reeve a kingdom level tourney and the opportunity would be I think helpful to my overall fighting exprience, and c) we need better reeves to yell at folks. Looked over the awards I am planning to give out at feast and am pretty excited the vast majority of them are going to a lot of new players. Need to make some garb, Jenni and I have plans for a unicorn tunic, and hopefully soon there will be a Dragonspine allstar prototype in the works . Decided to think more about the critique I recieved on my flo fighting and construct a goal set instead of trying to incorporate every criticism into this weeks ditches. Mainly just sword and boarded, which I havent done in awhile, and laid great amounts of waste. Its funny how after not using a style for a month or so you can pick up another and at the very least seem better than when you put it down.

School seems off to a good start. Had to drop zombie class because despite the potential awesomness, insturctor informed us juniors and seniors that for the first 3-4 weeks we would be covering only basic composition and rhetoric. Buh. Added Survey of American Lit. II . A class that, despite having no zombies, will actually further my major.

"Gotta keep on walking, on the road to Zion"

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:06:45 GMT

Starting back at school today, which means the schedule goes back to having to wake up at 7-7:30am. Buh. Honestly, I like getting up earlier because I have the whole day in front of me which is nice. But, this also means I must go to bed at a decent hour which is probably the hardest part. Anyways, here are the classes I am taking:

CH E 395G Brewing Science and Society
ENG 211G Zombies and Identity
ENG 328G Science Fiction & Fantasy
P E 154 Self Defense
ENG 409 Shakespeare II

This schedule is probably the best looking of my entire college career thus far. The Zombies class I dont even get any real credit for but looked like a lot of fun anyways. Besides, hopefully I can get a few A's this semester and bump my GPA to a 3.0 again. I predict getting an A in at least Zombie class and Science Fiction. Self Defense, unfortunately, is a PE class and so no letter grade there. And, despite loving both beer and Shakespeare, I tend to slack some during the semester which usually the higher level classes take the brunt of.

Last weekend we managed to break 40 again. Our attendance stopped trickling in somewhere around 2pm with 44 members. phargle and I reckoned it hasnt been this steady since the DS vs BL war. Its bizarre to say the least. Every Saturday I wake up and think, "okay, that was fun but today will be the day we go back to 25 people." Even now, I am hesitant to write this down in fear that I might offend or jinx whatever benevolent god decide to bless us nerds. The only real downside of our park right now is getting started later. Nowadays, the park really gets jumpin' around 1pm and even more so around 2pm. However, this might also be a reason more people are coming out. I guess some peeps wake up late and figure the park is already going strong and they have missed the good battle games and ditching. Not sure. Mid-reign at the end of this month should be good. The hall has been reserved and Dougie is on top of the food stuff. Think I will try and have a table decorating contest for the feast.

Have Jury Duty tomorrow at 10:30am which means I will probably be missing work and at least one of my classes. I am excited. Hopefully, evening video-gamings with danohead will round out a wonderful Thursday!

Vuuh.

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:23:31 GMT

Lessee....

Park has been pretty great. I had a realization that we have not dropped below 35 people each weekend of this reign. The only weekend I am not sure about is the one where myself, Tony, and Dougie went to High Oasis. Over all this reign feels far more successful than my previous one (which wasnt bad but messy and inexperienced). I think the biggest success is the feeling about amtgard I havent had since I was 14-15. There are lots of people playing and they are all having fun with no drama. Its wonderful.

Sagemas break was pretty great. Hung out with the Ice-Age quite a bit and speaking of nostalgia, in doing so, was reminded of our high school days. Good times.

Also saw Jacob which was great.

Fable II is pretty great.